Handy Bluetooth

I like bluetooth headsets, even more if it's Plantronics. The newest addition is the Marque 2, M165. It comes with voice activation, prompts, battery life indicator on the iPhone and a car charger. Nice.

The older Jabra that I had doesn't seem very compatible with iOS7 onwards because it takes quite a long while to connect to the phone. For Plantronics, it's quite instantaneous.

Now in white too.

Nikon replacment

The venerable D80 finally broke after the 1st repair. Deciding not to send for repair again, I search around for a 2nd-hand alternative as I mainly use the Oly EM5 nowadays.

Found a D7000 on Clubsnap for $630. Immediately arranged for deal.



Hope to use it for fireworks on National Day.

Downsized

In the spirit of minimalism, I had already gone from a 3-monitor to a 2-monitor setup. To take things further, I decided to consolidate all into one. SO today I went down to Sim Lim and got myself this:

Philips 278C4QHSN/69
1920 x 1280 resolution
7 ms , 250cd/m2
3 x HDMI, 1 x VGA
Price: $425



Previously, it was



Nice :)

Nerd Look for us?

Yesterday, DC brought me to a spectacle shop at a shopping mall near our place and I spent sometime looking at the thick black-framed glasses, while he looked at the sunglasses.

I took some photos there.

Today, we went photo studio to select photos and I remembered one of A's photos had this nerdy specs on him. :)

Some months back, B's baby sitter sent me this photo they took of B:

I love how we look in nerdy specs!

What about daddy? Hmm, he's nerdy enough without the specs, haha.... just kidding. He's already wearing his every day! :)


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Find my iPhone

I kept dropping my phone nowadays!

Last week, I thought I dropped my phone in the market. Fortunately I found it on the car seat!

Today, when we went to collect A's passport, I dropped it again! Again, I found it on the side of the car!

DC installed an app on my iPhone. It was called "Find my iPhone" or something like that. It helps the owner locate their lost phone and can track  I like that! This app is definitely for me! :P


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Hidden Messages

I did this invitation card recently for A's 3rd birthday celebration... and hid a secret message in the image! Can you find the hidden message?

If you noticed, at the right corner of the image was a square shaped code. This, is the QR code or the Quick Response code. The QR code originates from Japan and is commonly found in magazines, posters, web pages, T-shirts and anywhere in Japan.

QR codes can contain information such as url links, geo coordinates, and text and may bring you to watch a video, view a slideshow, find a location, access a business info, URL which directs you to an online discussion or give coupon for use in a local outlet. :) The possibilities are endless!

I'm quite fascinated by this technology and being the inquisitive woman that I am, I feel like going around to hunt down every QR codes in sight!

Oh yes, the most important question: How do you encode the message?

Simple. If you are holding a smartphone, just go to the app store (or equivalent) and look for the keyword QR scanner or reader. There are quite a few of them. You could download a few to try them out. The contents would be deciphered in no time!

You're welcome to try reading the message in the above image! :)


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Drawsome

I'm in love with the iPhone app "DrawSomething" as it provides me with a platform to draw and create my art anytime, with anyone anywhere. :) (Think: Win, Lose or Draw & Hangman)

It was a sheer coincidence that the tv (yes, I watched a lot of tv nowadays!) is showing a program called "综艺大哥大－叫我毕加索" which is similar to the game, only that it was in chinese. The program caught my interest and since them, I wanted to get my hands in doodling! However, I find it stupid to have myself create the topic and draw to myself. You need someone to play the guessing game with you!


It was just timely that I know of this app from the fb where some of my friends were addicted to it. A good reason for me to satisfy my drawing craving and I don't need to trouble anyone to play it with me! The game allows you to choose a random player! :)

Here're some samples of my doodles. It's interesting to note that when I just started, I was conservatively using black as my main source of colour and how I advanced to use more colours now. :) Now, I can't wait to get more points so that I could "buy" more palettes of colours!

From Black:


To Colours:



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It's all about Remote Control

Toshiba DVD recorder is not working ... actually it's the remote control. Without it, I cannot select channels, modify recordings and copy to DVDs. A small little rectangular bar, that remote control but it is the commander behind almost all electronics devices nowadays. Called Toshiba but they don't manufacture or keep spares of the remote control unit. Thank you very much, Toshiba. I will most certainly not buy any of your products in future!

With no choice, I settle for a new DVD recorder, LG RH387DW. Well, the price is certainly cheaper at $288, compared with the $600 that I paid previously. There isn't a lot of choice out there, it seems no one records TV shows anymore. Maybe they are all using the Starhub hubstation, which can do recording as well, only not to external DVDs.



Ok, now I can record those TV shows for my parents :)

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Energy Savers - Solar-powered keyboard and marathon mouse

Cool inventions, a Logitech solar-powered wireless keyboard and a mouse that is able to run up to 3 years on one set of batteries. Nice because I don't need to worry about changing batteries now.

The keyboard is really thin and silent. It's the nicest keyboard I have come across so far, even better than my prized Apple keyboard. Price: $129.



Let's face it, Apple mice are real bad for the hands. I only go for Logitech nowadays. The two Logitech MX518 mice I used at home and at work were great, with the "Back" and "Forward" buttons for easy web navigation. However, I wished I could do with less cables around the computer. All wireless mice that I used need a battery change every 2 to 3 months. So it's real cool that Logitech has a mouse now that supposedly last up to 3 yrs!

So comes the M705 mouse. I would have love it to be bigger to fit my palm though. The battery compartment feels a bit flimsy but if it can really last for up to 3 yrs, or even 1 yr on one set of batteries, I would be very satisfied. Price: $79.



The best thing is, both the keyboard and mouse share the same usb receiver. Nice.


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Network Attached Once More - COMEX

Actually I wanted to buy SD cards ... I happened to chance across this booth selling Synology NAS. Ohh la la, Synology is the mother of all consumer NAS! I was always put off by their high prices. However, after the not so happy experience with Buffalo's products, I think it's time to invest in a good one. Despite the purported support for Time Machine, the Buffalo Linkstation doesn't work well with Mac at all.

I didn't need a lot of convincing to take out cash of $380 for the 2-bay DS211j model (harddisks not included). Although if the Apple Time Machine compatibility remains an unknown, Synology's products had a lot of good reviews and support many models of IP surveillance cameras. Let's hope it doesn't disappoint :)


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Free mini-hifi from The Straits Times

Free with a 24 mth subscription. It will be going into our bedroom. 10% off for the 1st 6 mths if you pay by Mastercard. Sweet!

Philips MCM103/98 Cube Micro Music System




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More Storage and Baby A Helps Out Too

Added in a 2TB harddisk to my PC today. There are 7 harddisks in it total, old and new. Couldn't bear to throw out the old ones so it's quite a mess of cables inside. With the 2TB NAS that I bought recently, the total harddisk storage is now 5.5TB. Nice for doing multiple backups. Those photos of Baby A are priceless :)

Here is Baby A not wanting to sleep but trying to give me a hand at installing the new harddisk :)








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Windows 7 64-bit - IT Show 2011

I had enough with a 32-bit Windows XP. It's time for a 64-bit OS. Since my MAC OS install failed, I decided to switch to WIndows 7 - 64-bit. With the IT Show just next door, getting it is easy enough.




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Finally purchased a network attached storage (NAS) for data backup - Buffalo LinkStation Pro Duo (LS-WV2). 2 x 1TB of storage! All for $299 only!



What I like:
1. Support for Apple Time Machine
2. RAID 1/0 or JBOD support.
3. Easy swap of the internal harddisks.
4. Support for Windows SMB
5. Media Streaming
6. BitTorrent support

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Mac OS, Google Chrome, Safari and Windows

Today, I switched back to using Safari on Windows XP ... Chrome was taking more than 1GB of memory ... Will miss typing my searches in the address bar. Safari feels SLOW ...

Does this mean I have one more reason to change to a iMac at home ...? Mac OS memory management is definitely better than Windows. Not sure how Windows 7 matched up. Mac OS is after all Unix-based and I am convinced Unix has better memory management than WIndows.

Now, I didn't face this memory hog issue on my Macbook. So what gives?

Well, Windows sucks, Chrome on Windows sucks BIG time! Safari on Windows sucks too ...

Now I got to find that space for the Mac ...

Sipping KOI for 4 consecutive days!

Our new-found love - The KOI cafe! :)

We've been having it for the past 4 days since Sunday!

Always long queue! We've seen queues everywhere - AMK, Bishan and Bugis! That prompted us to try...






Happy me with my KOI. I love my milk tea with pearls (and quarter suger)! :)


In the queue with Baby on another occasion!


What's nice about it? It's the hype now! There is actually not much difference from the rest except that the pearls are smaller but more, less ice and not too sweet (well, we get to choose the sugar level)! Just the way we like it! :)

[Edited on 17 Nov 2010: Well, it seems that bubble tea has revived (after 10 years)! Someone recommended Gong Chai to us... hmm sounds yummy too! Looks like we've got to do a search for the most convenient outlet and try Gong Chai out! I love bubble teas! :) ]


Related Tweets:
Sun 7 Nov 2010, 11:45 PM, DC: WTH ... I am hooked on KOI.
Mon 8 Nov 2010, 7:09 PM, DC: Slurping Koi again.


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New Family Member - Panny 20mm

After some months with the Olympus EPL-1, I decided I wanted a faster lens. After much consideration and looking at some reviews, I decided on the Panasonic 20mm F1.7. I am very pleased with the lens performance. Indeed, it gave me many more sharp and clear pictures of Baby A. Both CP and I were extremely pleased.

At 40mm equivalent of full frame, it isn't wide angle but still, I don't need to move really far back to capture Baby A most of the time.

Sample image taken right at the shop.


At $550 for the lens, it's really money well-spent. Since I bought it on 21-Sep, CP and I have already chalked up many keepers!





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Colour Canon Arrives

Finally, the long awaited colour laser AIO printer has arrived at our home.





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That's right, we decided we need a colour laser AIO printer. It had to be a Canon too. Here's our buy at COMEX 2010.



After a bad experience with Brother, let's hope Canon will be better with its tried and test user interface. Due to arrive after 13-Sep.

Cost: $859 with delivery. 2 yrs on-site warranty.

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Airport Extreme

My boss is letting go of his Airport Extreme. Well, he already has 2 Apple Time Capsules so the Extreme was just lying around. I grab the chance immediately.

Connecting to the Airport Extreme from Windows wasn't so straightforward. You had to install the Airport Utility software. After the installation, it gave an error that the dnssd.dll file was missing. It appeared that you had to install iTunes as well ...

However, using the Airport utility from Windows was quite frustrating. It hanged frequently. I weren't sure if it's just my PC but I didn't bother to find out. I used my Macbook to configure the Extreme and subsequently the Airport Express. Seamless! I uninstalled the Airport Utility in the end as I suspect it kept seizing up Windows. After that, things seem to chug along fine ... I hope.

In any case, Apple products were really made for each other. Love the designs as well!

Some pictures of the Apple Airport Extreme:



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