Computer Comfort

I've always been pretty comfortable around computers and getting things done with them.  I know my way around Windows and Mac OS pretty well, allowing me to troubleshoot pretty easily.  One of my biggest pet peeve has been the use of shortcuts.  I use them a lot to get around programs, from opening new tabs in Chrome, closing windows/tabs/programs, switching application focus, moving from tab to tab, etc and never understood why people don't use them.  When I watch people use their computers and click their way around the screen, it feels like an eternity before anything gets done.  When I use other people's computers, I still have this habit of using all my shortcuts which is usually not a problem.

The biggest problem I encountered happened so far happened recently when I was at a friend's place helping him out on some computer stuff.  I've been using Launchy for over 6 months now and the shortcut to it has become ingrained in my muscle memory for everything I do.  Launchy has become such a huge part of how I open programs that I have completely gotten rid of my Start button to make my taskbar even cleaner.  Naturally when I was using my friend's computer, my first instinct was to press alt-space to invoke Launchy and open the program I wanted.  Obviously that did not do anything and I had to go into the Start menu --> All Programs and then find the program I was looking for.  What a chore!  It's unbelieveable how slow this seemed compared to Launchy!  The weirdest part was that I had not realized that Launchy had become so important to my daily computer use.  It's amazing how little things like that can make a computer easier to use.  This makes me wonder how much something like Quicksilver would completely change the way I would use my computer.  To anyone who has not had a chance to try Launchy, I definitely cannot stop recommending it enough.  Get it here --> Launchy

Welcome to 2009

It's been quite a while since my last update and a lot has happened since.  First, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone, then Happy Birthday to myself :D  2008 has been a great year.  I've made some great friends, worked a lot (sort of), moved out to my own place, went back to the states, started playing ball more regularly, started going to the gym...  Although maybe not the most productive of years, it definitely was fun.  Of course it sucks that the year had to end with getting laid off...  

Yes, I have been victim to yet another downsizing...  Maybe I'm just unlucky or maybe it just means that this was not the job for me.  I don't know.  All in all, working at KSA was a good experience and I think it will open many doors to new opportunities.  The problem is finding them.  I've been spending the past month or so really actively looking at jobs with no luck.  I'm losing faith in the online job searching.  They just don't cut it.  Hopefully applying through company websites will have better results.  We'll see what happens.

Now it's time for Chinese New Year and it should be good.  My brother is here from the states for a couple weeks and we realized that the last time we got to spend Chinese New Year as a family was 10 years ago, before I graduated from High School... 10 years... That's crazy.  This should definitely be a fun Chinese New Year.  

Anyhow....  Here's to wishing for another great year!  Hopefully with more updates....

Nike Zoom BB Low

After wearing the Zoom Brave 2 and having such a good experience with a lower cut shoe, I figured it might be a good time to give low tops a try.  I loved the Zoom BB ever since it came out and finally found a pair on sale in the colorway I wanted.  I wish I could get a pair of the mid tops but I have never seen the colorway I wanted here.  The looks of the Zoom BB is very plain and simple, which I like.  

This shoe is a true low top and is therefore much lower than the Zoom Brave 2.  They go down below my ankles.  It gives your ankle a lot of freedom but also lacks the traditional ankle support that most basketball players have become accustomed to.  As with the midtop Zoom BB's, the low tops are extremely comfortable out of the box.  The Zoom cushioning is noticeable when just walking around.  The first obvious difference that I noticed (other than the height of the shoe) was that the Zoom BB is a much narrower shoe than the Zoom Brave 2.  This might be an issue for those with wide feet.

The first 10 minutes or so of playing in the Zoom BB Low were definitely the hardest.  I lacked confidence in the shoe and had a very hard time making myself do anything in it apart from just running.  Once I got over the whole low top feel and things went much better.  I started gaining confidence in the extended plate that Nike placed on the outside of the heel to give lateral stability and was able to start cutting with more confidence.  It is incredible how much lateral support this shoe has for a low cut and can only imagine how much better the midtop might feel.  This combine with the out-trigger in the forefoot and there is plenty to keep your foot stable during cutting motions.  This is quite a different feel that the Zoom Brave 2 gives with its wider forefoot but works wonders, although I would have to give the Zoom Brave 2 the nod.  

Cushioning in the Zoom BB is awesome.  The Zoom bags both are the forefoot and the heel are incredibly responsive and comfortable.  The forefoot feels like it is a thicker unit that the one found in the Zoom Brave 2, which might explain why the Zoom BB doesn't feel as low to the ground.  In any case, you are still rewarded with a very good feel for the court.

The shoe provides good traction on the dirty courts of Shanghai.  I never had a problem with slipping but there is nothing too spectacular about it either.  There sole does simply does its job well.

The big bonus of using a low cut shoe such as this is that it is very very light.  Running around in these was effortless, even at the end of a long game.  Once I got passed the whole low cut feel, it was really easy to just play my game without thinking about my feet.  There is virtually no fatigue thanks the the light weight of the shoe.

Overall, this was a very good experience.  I finally got my chance at playing in the Zoom BB albeit not the model I think I would have preferred.  Regardless, I was pleasantly surprised that the lack of physical ankle support was not a deterrent to playing ball and that the shoe was plenty stable for me.  It goes to strenghten further my belief that physical ankle support is just a mind block and that most players would be fine playing in a low cut shoe.  I really cannot see the midtop version of the Zoom BB being any worse than this and it would surely ease a lot of people's minds of ankle support as well.  As such, the Zoom BB is definetely a highly recommended shoe from me. 

Launchy

I've been a huge fan of Quicksilver for a long time and was always wished there was a similar program for PC's. After searching around, I came upon Launchy and tried it out. Unfortunately I had a pretty bad experience with it at the time. It was slow to load up when I would invoke it, the typing response was slow, and it took a while for it to actually launch the application I wanted. Needless to say I got rid of it pretty quickly. I have been reading about the new version of Launchy coming out and after hearing so many people say that they loved it, I thought it might be worth another shot.

Right upon firing Launchy up, I was pleasantly surprised. The command box popped up quickly when the hokeys (default to alt-space) were pressed and when I typed a program in, there was very little lag between me pressing enter and the program launching. Good so far. I played with it a little bit more and it seemed to do a pretty good job. The big difference with it and Quicksilver is the ability to perform functions in programs. I can't, for example, be in Chrome and use Launchy to quit iTunes. I found a cool plugin called iTuny that allows me to controls iTunes (play, pause, skip song, etc) using Launchy, which gave me some of that functionality. Another thing that I found somewhat annoying was that if I use Launchy to type a program name, it would launch a new window of the program rather than being used as a task switcher. This means that if I type Chrome in, it will simply open a new Chrome window. I was hoping that it would allow me to focus on the program I wanted to if it was already open. Another disappointment but nothing major.

After playing around with the options in Launchy, I found it actually very pleasant. The default skin feels very childish and the skins provided gave Launchy a very "PC" feel. I dug around and found a skin that I liked (Sleek WMP), which made the experience so much better. It also matches well with my desktop theme as to keep things slick ;) Next step was to add My Documents to the index list and it gave me easy access to every single file I would actually use. The folder browser is also a great way to navigate but I wish I could make xplorer2 the default application instead of explorer. After that, I added quick searches and bookmarks I use. This basically transform Launchy into an internet search bar and makes it really easy to start an internet search without pulling Chrome up first. The last thing I needed was a quick way to put a few more controls to Launchy. I took a some shortcuts that I previously had from using Rocket Dock for putting my computer on standy, restart, and emptying the recycle bin. I tried keeping Rocket Dock around but the more I used Launchy, the less I felt like I needed to keep Rocket Dock around. Launchy gave me access to all my programs without added clutter. Same thing goes for Windows' Quick Launch bar.

Now I have a very clean desktop with a task bar that shows my open applications and select icons in my notifications area. I can't believe it took me this long to actually took me this long to use Launchy as it really is an incredible program for those that love to use the keyboard like I do. I was recently reformatting a computer for my dad and even though I've only been using Launchy for a couple weeks, I couldn't help but always press alt-space to invoke Launchy. It's such a habit that I can't imagine using a computer without it. I only wish I could use it as a task switcher and that it could be a little bit smarter.  Regardles, it's defintely a must-try for everyone.  The best part?  It only takes about 20-30 mb of memory.

What OS??

I've read a lot of articles regarding Google Chrome and one thing that gets mentioned all the time is the fact that Chrome is Google's attempt at driving people away from their desktop, more particularly Windows, thanks to the way it is built. With each tab being a process, it is like running a bunch of small programs and the web app integration would mean that these can be actual applications you use on a daily basis. People have gone as far to say that the OS they use doesn't matter to them since they always use the same programs that are available cross platform + their favorite browsers and it is a very valid point.

Nowadays most people use their computers to do check email, surf the net, chat, and use Microsoft Office. Obviously this is something that can be done from any computer, yet most people prefer to use Windows. Part of that is due to the fact that they are used to it or perception of other OS' (Mac's are for graphics, Linux for Computer Science nerds, etc) but it's obvious that Windows is slowly starting to lose grounds. Once people (*cough Tiff*) get passed what others say and actually try another OS, like the Mac OS, they realize that they can still do the same things they used to do and possibly on a friendlier OS. Even a hardcore PC guy can make the switch to another OS and realize what they've been missing. It's nice to see people finally accepting Macs. I was brought up on Macs and have always used them until I went to college, where I was required to get a PC, and have been using them ever since. I've been itching to go back to Macs for a few years now but it just doesn't make sense since I only use my work computer anyways.

I look at the way I work and all the programs that I use on my PC are available on a Mac so the switch would be an easy one. The only thing holding me back is the fact that I already have a work computer that I use at home, so don't see the point of getting another computer. For anyone that's interested, the list of programs would go something like this:
Digsby --> Adium
uTorrent --> Transmission
Launchy --> Quicksilver
Chrome --> Firefox
Picasa --> iPhoto

Those would really be the only ones that change. MS Office would remain the same, Photoshop too, Dropbox as well, etc. I guess the only program I would really miss would be Samurize but that's can be easily taken care of with widgets.

So really the question becomes, which OS do you feel is "coolest" or best for you? I'd be curious to see how many people would pick a Mac over a PC if you could guarantee they could do the exact same things with no issue whatsoever.

Google Chrome

So Google Chrome came out today. Even though I only read about it yesterday, I have been super excited to try it out. If you're interested, read through the comic introducing it. Definitely worth the read.

http://www.google.com/googlebooks/chrome/

Granted, I've only had exposure to Chrome for less than a day but I just need to put up first impressions. They are very good :) It has a very minimalistic interface that certainly does NOT remind you of a web browser. It basically looks like a regular window with web content.

I like the very simple placement of the navigation and url bar (known as the Omnibar) but that may also be because I have Firefox configured the same way. Basically a very clean window but that also made it a little weird for me to maximize it. It just feels... empty with not menu bar at the top. The thing that makes the biggest difference is the lack of a title bar at the top, giving the impression that the top is very bare. At first I thought Google Chrome had a lot more screen space but upon checking again, it only gives about 10 pixels more of space at the top.

It has to be said also that the Omnibar takes things one step further than the Awesome bar and will actually load the main webpage rather than a whole link. So if you type "ama" then a list of amazon pages will show up but if you press enter, it will not go to the first page. Rather it will go to amazon.com. A nice touch. Yes, it also works as a search bar but that's not new.

The first thing that I really noticed was that it basically felt like Firefox. Just about all the shortcuts I use have stayed the same (ctrl-t for new tab, ctrl-shift-t to recall closed tab, ctrl-l to focus on url bar, etc). The star feature is still there, although slightly less well implemented because the popup menu comes up if you click (can't just click to bookmark), the Omnibar works just as well as the Awesome bar (so far), the tabs can still be moved... Everything is just very familiar. I do have to say that the way the tabs move and slide around when you try to move them is a lot better than the way Firefox does it.

Thanks to its minimalistic interface, one thing people might notice is that there is no status bar on Google Chrome. This has been replaced by a popup on the bottom left corner of the window that will give you all the status information you need. If you hover over a link, the popup will show you where the link points to. When you load a web page, it will tell you what is loading. This is a very unobtrusive way of having a status notifier without taking up the whole bottom space of your window. Why didn't anyone think of this before?

Startup page

Another pretty cool thing that is the startup page. For those who have been using Opera, this is very reminiscent of the speed dial page. Google Chrome will basically have links and thumbnails of your 9 most visited sites so that you can access them easily. I wish there was a keyboard shortcut to access those pages though (maybe there is and I haven't found it yet). If you do not have your bookmarks bar open, it will show up above the most visited pages. For a nifty little trick, press ctrl-b on the new tab page. Nice little animation of the bookmarks bar moving in and out of the web page. The nice thing about the bookmarks bar is that there is also a folder that contains the rest of your bookmarks, which makes sense since there are no menus in the browser. The startup page is definitely well populated with the addition of your most used search engines and recent bookmarks. Very cool. Thanks to the fact that this startup page basically loads instantly, bye-bye goes the blank tab I've always used.

Another interesting Google Chrome feature is the download manager. Since there is no status bar, there is nowhere for the downloads to integrate into (like Firefox 3). Google Chrome will put a bar at the bottom of the screen showing your downloads with information, similar to the Download Status Bar plugin for Firefox. Although the bar is a little big, I thought it was pretty neat that it would only appear on the page you are downloading from. In other words, if you move to another tab, the bar will not be there.

Of course, being based on Webkit, Google Chrome is incredibly fast. From the moment I started using it, I was blown away by the speed. Simply awesome. On top of that, the memory footprint is a lot smaller than that of Firefox 3. That's always a good thing.

Now for the bad parts... No plugins... That is the biggest thing I really miss from Firefox. I love my Firefox plugins... Of course, Google Chrome is still in beta and they do plan on having plugins so there is still hope :) I'm also not a big fan of the whole blue window thing... Wish it was silver or something but again, this is probably something that will be fixed in the future. I also wish the font was a little smaller. I think too much space is wasted with the Omnibar's huge font. I haven't used the bookmarks bar in Firefox for years, instead adopting the side bar for bookmarks thanks to widescreen displays, so not having that in Google Chrome was a little weird. I might get used to just typing everything in the Omnibar but it is nice to have visual reminders of your bookmarks but it gives the browser a more bare appearance. I also miss the smooth scrolling from Firefox but this is yet another issue that might be resolved with future updates. Not a huge issue either. Other small issues are the zoom (even though I don't really use it), which only makes the text bigger rather than everything, and the seemingly lack of drag and drop support. I was trying to move pics around in this very post and was not able to do so.

All in all, I really like Google Chrome and recommend everyone to try it out. The only thing I really miss are my Firefox plugins but we'll see how well I can cope without them. If I had to put it simply, is basically Firefox + Safari + a little bit of Opera all into one small, minimalistic package. And damn does it work well....

Update 09/07/08: Just noticed another thing missing that could be annoying. There is no RSS subscribe link in the Omnibar. Usually sites that have an RSS feed you can subscribe to will show an RSS link in the URL bar so that you can subscribe with 1 click. Just a little annoyance that will probably get solved.

I've now used Chrome for almost a week now and I have noticed that my computer tends to run hotter than it did before. This is probably attributed to Chrome's architecture, where each tab runs as a separate process. Something I'm willing to put up with for the speed of the browser.

I've also been reading some reviews and find it interesting that these "tech" reviewers can't seem to find their way around the Options menu. The typical complaint I read about is the fact that Chrome doesn't restore your previous sessions and only remembers your last tab. Although Chrome will not warn you that you are closing multiple windows, it WILL allow you to restore your previous windows is you set it. It is the first thing you can choose if you open the Options menu for the first time, under the Basic tab... It must be hard to go through the very sparse and basic options menu provided.

Most reviews mention that Chrome uses more memory than Firefox and isn't necessarily faster. I personally have found that Chrome uses less memory if I leave both open for a long time (Firefox gets bloated up to 350mb for me, Chrome will hover around 250mb depending on how many tabs are open). The speed with which pages load is HUGE though. I wonder if maybe China's slower internet connection makes this speed more apparent. I know I'm not the only one because all my friends that use Chrome here have had the same speed boost. It could be possible that faster internet will make this speed boost less noticeable because the internet speeds when I was in the US were incredible.

Fast and Furious!

You know you wanna watch it!

Fast & Furious

Beijing 2008 Recap

The whole Olympic experience has been unreal. Beijing was so different during the Olympics with the help of a bazillion volunteers to help anyone and everyone, clean air thanks to regulations and limited cars allowed in the city, and the opening up of subway lines. China has done an incredible job of making Beijing a great place to be during the Olympics and I was very impressed. If only Beijing could be this nice all the time... The sky was blue, the air clean, the people very nice and helpful (especially to foreigners that needed to find their way around, thanks to the bazillion volunteers all over the streets), traffic was good and not jammed up... I think Beijing has left a very good impression on the people that came solely for the Olympics.

The first event Steve and I went to was men's volleyball semifinals. We had no idea who was going to compete until we actually got inside and we found out it would be the United States facing off against Russia. It was an incredibly entertaining game that literally lasted until the last point. With this being my first time going to a live volleyball game, it definitely was pretty exciting.

Olympic tickets in hand!

After volleyball, we headed over to the Olympic Green to just hang out. Turns out it takes fucking FOREVER to get there with the bus... We got there in a measly 2 hours.... Regardless, we made it a good 2 hours before the track events started so we had a chance to walk around and explore. First impressions are that the Water Cube and Bird's Nest are amazing! It's something to see them on TV but you never really get a sense of how incredible these structures are until you get to see them for yourself.

Front view of the Bird's Nest

The Bird's Nest looks very very impressive. I thought that it might look like a jumble of steel beams but I was pleasantly surprised at how "clean" everything looks. Like any stadium it is huge but the fact that there is literally nothing around makes it look even better. There's not really any way to put how nice it looks. You just have to go see for yourself.

Side view with the Olympics Torch in sight

Pictures will never do the Water Cube justice. It always looks interesting in the way it is built but seeing it in person is incredible. It literally looks like a million bubbles sticking out, much like the way you would see in a bubble bath. The material used on the walls just completely reflect the design ideas and is amazing. I just wish I could have gone inside the building. Like the Bird's Nest, it is one of those things you have to see to appreciate.

Water Cube

The one thing that really sucked about the Olympic Green was the lack of food... I thought queuing up and fighting through the crowd at any Chinese McDonald's was bad but damn.... This was worse. Beijing had (still has?) the world's largest McDonald's and it only puts a teeny little one in an area where a potential 90,000 people can be? That's just ridiculous and typical Chinese thoughtlessness. Maybe there's some rule I'm not aware of or whatever but it just made no sense to me. When we saw the line had like 300 people, we had to go get some crappy instant rice dinner from the food stands on the Green.

Line up please!

Our seats in the stadium were AWESOME. Row 20, right in the middle. Could've been closer to the finish line but this actually gave us a good view of where Usain Bolt would be running (although we didn't know it at the time). Entering the stadium was jaw-dropping. I've never been in a stadium this big so it definitely was quite an experience to see all the seats available. The quality of the screens on the side also really amazed me since they were so damn big and clear.

Sweet seats again!

We saw a lot of finals during the 4 hours we were there, including women's long jump, men's pole vault, women's 5000m, women's 4x100m relay, decathlon's last events, and of course men's 4x100m relay. It was great to see everyone cheering for the long jumpers and pole vaulters when they were doing their thing, especially at the end of the pole vault when the crowd literally willed Steve Hooker (hooker!) to beat the Olympic record of 5.95m. Simply incredible. The main event, and the one event where everyone was in their seats for, was of course the men's 4x100m relay. Usain Bolt was running 3rd so would be rounding the last corner with Asaffa Powell running last. Our seats were great in that they would let us see both guys run near us. Once the run started, Jamaica were slowly making ground but man.... As soon as Bolt got the baton he just took off and was gone. Most amazing thing ever! I saw the race on TV and the noise you hear simply doesn't even come close to how loud the stadium was. The electricity when everyone saw him leave everyone in the dust was amazing. This race alone was worth the whole trip! Just no other way to put it.

Insane Usain with the Jamaica crew!

In the end, I was so glad that I decided to go to Beijing. It was an awesome experience and you could really feel the whole Olympic spirit in the city. A very impressive showing by China winning the Gold medal count and in preparing the city for such an event. I had my doubts whether China could pull it off and I'm happy to say that they did a fantastic job. London 2012 anyone? Haha.

Night view of the Bird's Nest

I rule

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