Aniconic Mar » Tech

Start over or never change?

Mar — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 13:02:43 +0000

Is it harder starting over than never to have change?

Words sang by Chester on Linkin Park’s newest track ‘Blackbirds’ from their upcoming album 8-bit Rebellion. (Link to youtube audio+lyrics above)

Woohoo, more Emo-Electronic-Rock-Nu-Metal-Hip-Hop from Linkin Park, but mostly emo though. Not necessarily genre moving stuffs, but if it’s something new from the boys, it’s gotta be fresh materials. I like!

Well in any case, if he’s referring to upgrading or putting out a fresh install (or clean install) of Windows 7, then that first sentence above isn’t necessariy true.

It’s so much easier to use Windows 7, comparing to Windows XP, where even reformatting of hard disks are less painful than before — note that I mention less painful instead of not painful, because the pain of waiting and configuring is still there!

Looking at the bigger picture, Windows 7 has turned out to be really well done (stable) and simple to use (user-friendly) and has captured a major part of my faith in computer systems, even if initially I presented doubt in adopting Windows 7 for the workplace.

Yeah, there’s a new (ours!) printing establishment in Ubi Techlink people~ Great looking prints and prompt services for everyone!

Oh, back to the Operating Systems, or OS debacle, don’t worry Mac OS X, you’re still number 1. Always has and always will be.

Dear Windows 7, you still have major steps to climb onto before it’s anywhere near OS X goodness but, a bit of good news here, you’re getting closer than ever to mimicking OS X! Kudos!

Am I in love with OS X? How many times have I mentioned it now? Twice? Maybe. Anyways..

Go ahead all you IT people, go ahead and use Windows 7 for the office, cos I give it the thumbs up (like it really matters eh?).

So why the sudden change in attitude towards Windows 7 from me?

Well I guess that it’s easier starting over than never to have changed.

Now, if only relationships could be given a ‘fresh install’ too.

The forbidden fruits, or Lovemarks — I couldn’t resist the iPhone.

Mar — Thu, 27 May 2010 23:57:50 +0000

It’s certified, I’m a full fledged Apple fanboy these days as I failed to curb the enthusiasm of owning its product, especially the iPhone, which have turned out to be a revelation indeed.

But first, a quick point out on how Apple’s products have never ever changed, not applicable to cosmetics and applications of its products, but in terms of usability design over the years.

It is this very deeply intricated grasp of what makes a good design truly makes it stand out as one of the greatest love brands in the world, in this era, of which hasn’t been an accident either.

Yes, a love brand, or a lovemark, and I’m not talking about hickies.

Is it too much to have to call its products, the forbidden fruits?

Certainly not.

Anyway, I knew the iPhone is truly an excellent toy, yes I referred to it as a toy back then, and I wasn’t that interested in getting myself one of these toys, simply for the sake of having it.

I’d rather get something that’s functional, practical, works-as-its-meant-to and, especially so, fuss-free plus easy maintenance.

Getting the Macbook Pro was a no-brainer and despite its immense pricetag, which was really hard for me to swallow, it was a pill I swallowed nonetheless and I’m glad I coughed up that little bit more.

In return, the MBP proved to be an astounding workhorse that I simply couldn’t push to its limit any more than I could, say, for a Dell or Asus laptop.

Website development, surfing the net, FA creations, blogging, entertainment, office productivity, photo management and even something as simple as file management, have been one helluva blast, an experience which I doubt the Dell or Asus could have ever emulated.

Oh, no more viruses and spywares to worry about as well.

Where 99% of forbidden fruits are overrated, Apple and its products, make up the 1% that overwhelms, overperforms and overachieves.

The iPhone has since ceased to appear a toy to me. It is a serious tool and you better believe it.

It came to me by chance to me, when the M1 sales personnel slow-talked me into upgrading my phone plans, and it has usurped its way as, not one of the best phones I’ve had to experience, but THE best phone I’ve had.

SMSes don’t feel like SMSes anymore — it’s now chatting or conversations, and it’s become personalised and deeply, and easily, manageable.

The iPhone is also an entertainment outlet (youtube and videos, ipod, photos, camera, thousands of games), an informational outlet (safari, maps, weather, clock) and a personal management inlet (calendar, notes, contacts, voicemail, sms) as well.

Though I may seem to be listing its basic features here, where almost every other smart phones seem to possess, but that’s where the similarities end.

Apple’s designs make it stand out from the rat race, and it encapsulates the gist of what a good design should be — functional, aestheticised and just damn fun.

Like the forbidden fruit, they (Apple’ products) appear tempting, lustful and one that you simply have to see and use to believe.

The ease of use that comes with Apple’s products isn’t purely coincidental, but a well researched and executed process, and it’s turned out to be a model that almost every other company have been scrambling to emulate.

That’s what lovebrands or lovemarks do, they inspire through design and make lives easier and, in a way, fun, usable and productive.

Sadly, most companies are in a race to create a product, where no doubt it’s fun, that takes a turn for the worse in usability, and then sales take a decline.

They should have focused in creating products in the mould of the forbidden fruits, which sell themselves really.

Companies can save a lot this way right?

Less ads, less marketing, less promotion and I mean less, not zero, although in Apple’s case, it does seem to be non-existent.

Like seriously, when was the last time you saw an advertisement poster or banner for Apple’s products hanging along walkways, perched on railings or plastered onto walls?

5 minutes, think about it, so when was the last time you saw one?

Fruits for thoughts?

Periodic Table ebook for Apple iPad – visually stunning.

Mar — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 10:31:31 +0000

You may think that I’m an Apple Fanboy with the amount of Apple related stuffs going on within these pages.

Well I guess I am.

With that vid of the ebook, quite a visually compelling reason, imho, to ditch Kindles over iPads.

And with that, who’s to say electronic inks on the kindle will rule the ebooks world?

Not that I’ll get myself an iPad anyway.

Yet.

Finally there is bookmark snycing for Google Chrome on OS X!

Mar — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 00:20:55 +0000

I don’t know about the IEs, Operas, Firefoxes, Safaris and other browsers but Chrome’s bookmark sync feature has definitely been a huge welcome and tilting point in deciding which browser to use.

Opera wowed me back before Chrome appeared, and back then she was simply adorable, with her gestures and sleek movements, but mainly due to gestures.

But mainly it was because of her gestures. You know, tiny little things do mean a lot.

And then Google Chrome walked into the room and joined the party, and I’ve never looked back since.

Fans of Firefox tout it’s security and speed but I’ve never personally experienced them as being better than IE, so FF to me is like that hot gal at the counter, whom everyone talks about and admires, but just not my type I guess.

And IE, well it’s beyond imagination why she’s still at the cocktail party — does anyone really uses IE these days?

When Chrome first arrived, she was an enigma, an unknown entity and it intrigued me in wanting to know her better.

She’s that good.

Everytime I set up a new computer or after a reformat, instinctively I’ll dial her number and ensure that she stays around for good, at the same time showing IE the door.

Earlier this year Chrome wasn’t even available for systems utilising OS X, and then slowly but surely she gained traction.

As each day passes, Chrome brings about tiny packets of joy as she reveals bits and pieces of herself.

Bits of pieces that you’ve been told that you’d probably not enjoy when she first came around to OS X, simply because the guys up there hasn’t implemented such features.

It’s the thing that I enjoy most being in the company of a low-profile entity and discovering little treats along the way, but most importantly it’s the manner of how these treats come about that’s encapsulating.

Silently without much fanfare, inevitably without much expectations and wholesomely good without much glitches and bugs.

Google Chrome has come a long way since she first arrived and I’m glad to have shared the experiences of her development, the way that modern softwares should be.

So finally, there’s bookmarks syncing for OS X with Chrome, and now I can stay sane without trying to build up my bookmarks list from all the different comps that I work with.

And that’s a timesaver.

Best of all, there’s more to come from her, but not that I’m expecting anything of course.

You know, you should get to know her too. You’ll like her. ; )

Marsedit – Trial By Fire

Mar — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:57:16 +0000

I’m just testing this out to see how far this desktop client can take me — or is it how far I can take it?

Either way, it’s something that I stumbled across while browsing for FREE OS X softwares. Yes, I’m that cheap. Bite me.

So Marsedit V2.4 is a desktop client blogging software that’s exclusively made for Mac, so if you’re looking for a Windows port, you’re better off with Windows Live Writer / Ecto / etc etc.

So here’s how it looks like at work. Actually I’m at home when I did this, but it’s just to show how Marsedit’s interface and working area really looks like.

Really, there’s only this HTML panel (bottom right), where you type your stuffs and as you type, it previews (bottom left area) real time, and I really like it — if only its because I’ve always prefered the ‘organic’ coding interface kind.

It is functional, clean, sleek, uncluttered and straight to the point, the no nonsense kind.

It’s the 90s, BBedit and PowerComputing revisited all over again. Nostalgic, at least for me.

Although I’m not too sure if it might appeal to a blogger who cannot differentiate between HTML and CSS, but for anyone with basic grasps of these languages, I think Marsedit will be a pleasant break from having to go online to make a post.

Example, if 31 days from now and your whole HDB area is caught on fire and there’s not a single working modem left, just what are you going to do!?

Well, you’ll be thankful that Marsedit is around, cos you don’t need to go online to write a post, provided you’ve purchased the application after its 30 days trial period.

Actually one could easily write within any text-editor and then copy/paste later on, but hey, Marsedit has real-time preview pane, and cool looking buttons which your word processor hasn’t!

Then again, your word processor is free.

But if you had the $$$ and looking for a Mac OS X desktop blogging client, I’d personally recommend Marsedit.

I’m loving it already.

How To Solve Freehand Not Working Issue – Mac OS X 10.6.2

Mar — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:04:14 +0000

In an FA artist’s world of vector graphics and layout editing, you either belong within the Illustrator/Indesign camp, the Coreldraw camp, the Freehand camp, or the ‘I-did-it-in-excel/word/powerpoint’ camp.

And of course there are some who belong into the ‘Here’s a piece of paper with my pencil layout so go ahead and print’ camp, which really shouldn’t be a camp at all in the first place.

Instead of a camp it could be a museum exhibition, because these people are certainly destined for extinction.

All these in an FA artist’s make believe world of course.

Personally, I’m an Illustrator converted into Freehand camp, and I’ve stayed there religiously ever since, as what’s not to love about a vector app that handles images fluidly, works bezier curves like a charm, and operates inobtrusively and responsibly with its ‘clipping mask’ ability.

FreehandMX is beautiful.

They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but you could probably imagine my devastation as it failed on me time and time again, whenever I installed FreehandMx onto my Mac and tried launching it.

It’s similar to the frustration of a pensioned Singapore man going to Geylang and his not-so-younger brother just won’t ’sedia^1′.

My beloved FreehandMX failed to launch repeatedly, no matter how many clean installs of it I made, and it didn’t hit me to search Google for a solution, until today that is.

FreeFreehand’s wordpress blog was top searched and it managed to solve my Freehand issues within a few minutes.

A tiny ZIP file download, a short extraction and pretty soon after, Freehand launched for the very first time, on my Mac.

It’s similar to the satisfaction of a pensioned Singapore man g…. oh, nevermind.

Bottomline is, FreehandMX worked like a charm, and if any Mac users are facing similar issues after a reboot of Mac OS X 10.6.2, aren’t you glad that I have your solution here?

———-

¹Sedia: ‘Sedia’ is a military command, in the Malay language, which simply calls for recruits to stand in attention, still and firm.

How One Tiny Fella Took 11yrs To Create An iPhone App.

Mar — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 11:45:47 +0000

I wish I could dabble and dazzle being an iphone app developer, but last I checked, my hoard of programming books were still fully covered in dust, and no way am I going to go anywhere near it.

But here’s a fella who took 11 years to create his first iPhone app, but wait let me readjust and rephrase that sentence a little bit, so that it makes more sense, considering the iphone was born only a few years back.

Here’s an 11year old fella who created his first iPhone app, selling it for 99cents, and if you think that being 11years young makes it amazing, digest this:
The majority of the money from sales of the iPhone app goes towards a hospital where he was treated, after suffering from a benign tumour — nothing cancerous though, but enough to cause 9 months of concern from friends and family as he stayed home, recuperating.

How benevolent is that? Where earlier I mentioned about what you would do when you’re gifted with a $1000 monetary, here is a tiny fella (BUT with a big heart) who decides that he’ll give away a portion of whatever he earns, before he even earned it.

And here’s the best part: He wants to create more apps, so that he can donate more to hospitals.

So, Cameron Cohen, well done lad. You know, you’re gonna be big, um.. pun intended, someday.

English Premiereship in Real 3D

Mar — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 18:08:29 +0000

You’ve seen Avatar in Real3D (and shame if you haven’t), and did you enjoyed it as much as I did?

Well apart from getting dizzy from the ‘man-made’ 3 dimensional visual perceptions, I think it’s a great entertainment tool for the future.

It won’t be cheap, and I certainly won’t be able to afford it, but just the thought of revisiting Pandora nightly before you sleep, it’s simply out of this world.

Um, pun intended.

Anyway for a football fanatic, like I am, it doesn’t get any bigger, ahem, than watching your English Premiereship stars in Real3D, as reported here by Marketsaw.

It will be as if you’re right there running and jumping beside them.

So what if there aren’t any flying banshees or lean and tall blue humanoids on the screen, but instead 22 (23, if you count the referee) sweaty, athletic men chasing a single white ball around a grass pitch.

It will still be awesome-tastic!

But too bad I won’t be catching my idol, Steven Gerrard, or Torres in Real3D anytime soon.

English Premiereship in Real3D not yet available here. T.T

Long Time Coming

Mar — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 07:58:29 +0000

No thanks to a hectic week of exhibitions and the usual changes of adverts, I’d like to visit Hell for a little bit of R&R now.

And have I shared my BBQ pics yet? Of course not.

But I’m sharing these gems:

As if punching the keys on a 17inch Macbook Pro isn’t enough, I’d like that 32inch monster please.

Actually, for about a little bit more than an iPhone, you’re getting more than twice the processing power, about quadruple the screen estate, and an endless barrage of jealous onlookers, because they cannot swipe their netbooks and laptop while browsing websites/photos, while you can.

Okay, so the iPad can’t make calls or take photos, but it’s essentially an iPod touch on steriods.

And it’s thinner and lighter than your netbook.

It lasts longer than your netbook.

It loads and shutsdown faster than your netbook.

And best of all, to all those complaining it can’t run conventional OS and apps, it doesn’t have viruses and malware like your netbooks.

Period. (No puns intended.)

My A geek’s dream come true.

January 26

Mar — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 05:50:09 +0000

This date is not just my birthday, but also the probable launch of Apple’s much rumoured tablet PC, wait, does apple conforms as a PC these days, especially with its Intel chip?

Nevermind that, and anyway, PCWorld buzzes that on January 26 I will receive hoards of gifts, like a beaver stuff toy, from my legion of fans, which is about 3 people at most the iSlate will be born into this world.

Now I am no Apple fanboy (yeah, all fanboys keep denying they’re not right? But really, I’m not. So…) but I am thrilled at the various images of the iSlate, the name that tech industry insiders (people who are inside the tech industry) have bestowed to the mythical tablet.

Cool.

Cooler.

Slick.

Slicker

Coolest and slickest!

And of course, what would the world be without my vision (Probably the same)?

My version…

Beaver not included.