019 Computer Comfort

2009-03-18T22:27:00.005+08:00

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

2009-01-25T00:44:00.003+08:00

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

2008-12-02T00:37:00.001+08:00

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

2008-09-26T15:48:00.009+08:00

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??

2008-09-18T14:45:00.006+08:00

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

2008-09-03T11:14:00.017+08:00

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!

2008-08-27T10:51:00.000+08:00

You know you wanna watch it!

Fast & Furious

Beijing 2008 Recap

2008-08-25T23:15:00.016+08:00

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

Questionable Content

2008-08-21T16:42:00.003+08:00

It's awesome. Read it.

Olympics!!!

2008-08-21T16:24:00.005+08:00

Olympic fever has struck. This past week and a half have been so fun watching the Olympics. Basically just getting home from work and leaving the TV on watching coverage. Although I am a little pissed off at the China's shitty coverage, it's still great to be able to watch and be in the same country that it is held in. It's always interesting how when the Olympics come around, people in general watch a lot of sports they would never have thought of watching or just never follow in general. I just try to watch as much of it as possible. Of course, basketball is what I'm keeping up with the most with Team USA dominating so far. Let's hope they keep it up. I have to say that they are looking very very good and can't really see them losing to anyone.

Had actual live Olympics experience on Tuesday by going to the soccer semifinals between Nigeria and Belgium. Nigeria totally obliterated Belgium from the start. I like watching soccer on TV (most people don't) but this was my first time watching it live and I have to say that it really is a lot more exciting. Thanks to Steve for having tickets to go! Our seats were at the corner but very close to the action. A lot of fun to watch.

Kick ass seats!

Next stop is Beijing! I'll be heading up to Beijing tonight to get some up close and personal view of the games. I'm so excited! It'll be just Steve and I going since everyone else went last week already but Weibin and Charles are there as well and Art will hopefully make it. Hoping that the typhoon doesn't hit HK too hard when he leaves so he can be there tomorrow. So far, I'll be going to men's volleyball semis and to track tomorrow. Should be a lot of fun. I'll be sure to bring my camera this time ;)

Blueant Z9i

2008-08-12T13:35:00.006+08:00

I had the chance to try out the Blueant Z9i during my trip to the U.S. This was the headset that I really wanted to try because it looked good and had received some good reviews on the forums. Art also had a Z9 which he liked and said it was a good headset. I asked my bro to buy it so that I could have it in hand as soon as I got to his place and it arrived the day before I did. Great timing!

First impressions were very good. The unit looks very slick and is very light. It literally weighs nothing which is a good thing because you barely feel it when you have it on. It is extremely comfortable, another benefit of the light weight. I was particularly impressed at how easy it was to put on for a headset with a ear hook. My 8010 is pretty much a pain to put on, so this was a welcomed benefit. The ear hook is very flexible and wraps around the ear really well. I had no problem with the way the ear piece was sitting in my ear. It did not sit so far in that I could take the ear hook off. The buttons for volume up and down were a little hard to press but that might be a good thing since it would make accidental pushes of those keys impossible. The multi-function button (MFB) lights up in blue and will blink every once in a while to let you know that it is still on. I found that pretty annoying and was thankfully able to turn it off by pressing the volume up and down keys for 3 seconds. The MFB will light up in red when battery is low and when charging as well.

Functions
Using the Z9i was pretty straightforward. A single push of the MFB will answer and hang up a call (a nice upgrade from the Z9 where you had to push the MFB for 3 seconds to hang up), pushing the MFB for 1 second while on a call will change the Voice Isolation level (normal vs. max), pusshing the volume up button for 3 seconds will redial the last number. Those are pretty much the most commonly used functions and they were easy to find. The only one I had to look up was the redial function. A nice touch was the fact that when Voice Isolation level was changed, a voice would tell you what level you have it set at. It can be annoying when in the middle of a conversation since it makes it hard to hear what the other person said but it is a good way to make sure you're on the right level. An added function of the headset that I loved was the fact that it could be clipped to my shirt when not in use. I have always found it hard to keep a headset in my pocket because that would basically be like having my phone with me. Some people like to keep their headset on their ear all the time but that just looks stupid. Being able to just clip my headset to my shirt made it much easier to take out when needed.

Incoming Sound
The sound from the headset was good. I would say it was a little louder than the 8010 but that might be due to the fact that the ear piece is further in my ear. I didn't have a problem hearing people talk to me on the busy streets of NYC. When using the headset indoors, the sound was more than adequate but not so loud that I needed to turn the volume down (volume was on max the whole time.

Outgoing Sound
This is the area where I was most curious about. The Z9i uses Voice Isolation Technology to reduce background noises as well as 2 separate microphones to better differentiate between a person's voice and the background noise. When using the headset indoors, there was no issue. I sounded very clear but the person on the other line could still hear things like the TV or other people talking in the background. On the busy streets of NYC, however, things were different. With Voice Isolation on normal, it was hard for people to hear me clearly. The background noise was still very present and while my voice did come through, it could have been better. I had to switch the headset to max Voice Isolation in order to be heard better. This made it much easier for people to not only hear me but drown out background noise. It was a good improvement over the normal Voice Isolation although not perfect. I was told that my voice was more muffled and there was still noise that could be heard in the background so it was not perfect. Basically, people could hear me much better with less background noise when I was using just my phone.

Overall, I was pretty disappointed with the Z9i. I had expected so much out of it (maybe too much) that it did not come close to my expectations. The only things I really liked about it was the fact that I could clip it to my shirt and that it was comfortable to use. The outgoing sound was just not good enough. I have used my 8010 on the streets in Shanghai before and never had a problem with people not hearing me. Even with the Z9i on max Voice Isolation, people would sometimes have a hard time understanding what I was saying. The fact that I had to go back to using my phone to be heard better was a deal breaker for me. Bye bye Z9i.

Back To The US!!!

2008-08-10T19:17:00.013+08:00

Wow! The past couple weeks have been pretty crazy... I finally got the chance to go back to the states and I gotta say that it was definitely awesome. There's so much that I miss about the states. Glad I got a chance to go back, see friends, have good American food, and drive.

First week was for company orientation in Atlanta. It was a good experience meet people from all our different offices. Other than that, there was a lot of classes packed in a pretty tight schedule. Although I've been to Atlanta before, I've never had a chance to really see the city. Luckily we had a little time to check out the CNN center and the World of Coca Cola. Definitely good places to visit. Jet lag was killer however and I didn't get over it until Thursday so the previous days were pretty rough.

Inside CNN Center

The World of Coke

After orientation, I got a chance to go back to Blacksburg. I had not seen my college buddies for almost 3 years so it was great to see them again. Seems the years have gotten to everyone as everyone seemed more responsible and not as crazy. Not a bad thing though. Tech has definitely undergone some changes with new buildings everywhere. Seems real estate in Blacksburg is really booming with new shopping destinations and new residence areas. What a difference 3 years makes... The basement of Eric's house got even crazier with mini stadium seating, a better 1080p projector, a real 100" screen, speakers, the whole works. With a setup like that, there's really no more need to go to movie theaters. Blu-ray movies look incredible on it. Let's not even mention playing GT5 prologue on it :D Great stuff.

Big screen!

Next stop after Blacksburg was Philly. Finally got to see where my bro's place. Housing in Philly kinda sucks, haha. Well a little outside Philly. The best part, however was seeing my 240. Got to drive her and she just put a huge smile on my face, even with all-seasons on. So much fun. The torque is still there along with the handling. Only thing is it could use 50 or so more hp. Brake pads need to be replaced and she will need a new clutch soon but she is so much fun to drive. I wish I could've taken her to an autocross...

Random pic of Hello Kitty and rabbit crying in NYC

I also got a chance to go to NYC to see Steve and Bobby. I mean.... Dr. Bobby. Haha. It's funny how things don't really change even though we haven't seem each other for like 6-7 years. Still get along the same as if nothing had change. Jen is the same I remember her, only with shorter hair. I never got a chance to talk to her much before so this was a good chance to get to know her more. I'm really happy for the both of them. Steve also hasn't changed, save for having a job haha. Although if was only a 1 day hurried trip, it was definitely worth it. The steak we had for dinner was so goood! Not as good as Capital Grille with Weibin but good nonetheless.

BBN in scrubs with his lovely wifey

Last but not least, the timing of the trip was great. It seems like so much could have gone wrong with buses, trains, and planes schedules but not once did I have a problem making my connection, especially in Philly and NYC. The rush to make my bus back to Philly was as close as you could make it (stupid NYC subway being slow). Same thing with quickly finishing up at the mall to make it back to the house for Iping's surprise bday party. Everything seems to work pretty well. It was awesome that the timing of the trip coincided with my brother's birthday.

Birthday boy

Overall it was a great trip. I got to eat everything I wanted, although I almost missed Chipotle (thank god for Qdoba in the Atlanta airport!) I wish I had another day or 2 to take my car on a good drive and to have a little more relaxed shopping. My last day was pretty much spent running around KOP mall looking for all I needed to buy. Missed a couple items but oh well, not a big deal. All in all, it's good to be back home :) Just in time for the Olympics too!

PS: This post was written throughout the trip using my iPhone. Go iPhone!

Nike Zoom Brave 2

2008-07-20T23:01:00.007+08:00

With the new SIBL season starting, I thought it was about time to get a pair of new shoes. The plan was to actually get the Air Jordan XX3 in white/red but those have yet to be available in China. I still go check the Jordan store every week to make sure I can get them! When looking around the Nike Basketball store, I saw the Zoom Brave 2 in a special colorway with patent leather. I'll be the first to admit they're not the hottest looking shoe and that the colorway could be better but once I tried them on, it was really hard for me to not get them. I was really close to getting original Zoom Brave when I saw them at an outlet a couple years ago but they just didn't feel as comfortable to ball in as my Stutter Steps. Fast forward to 2008 and I'm looking at the Zoom Brave 2 on sale. After trying them on, I knew I had to get them. Although not as super comfortable as the Zoom BB right out of the box, they did feel really solid but more on that later.

The Zoom Brave 2 were worn by Jason Kidd last year but are mostly a Japanese market shoe (JDM!). The regular colorways tend have the whole upper a single color. This special colorway on these has the front half in white and the back half in a navy patent leather. The most pronounced feature on the Zoom Brave 2 are the little stubs on the forefoot. This design feature stems back from the Zoom Flight V that Jason Kidd wore back in the day and has been carried over from the original Zoom Brave as well. In fact the whole outsole seems to be the exact same as the one from the Zoom Brave with the herringbone pattern taking up half of the inside half of the forefoot to the whole heel of the shoe and the other half of the forefoot having the stubs along with concentric circles. This combination gives incredible traction that I have never felt before. Even on the shitty dust-ridden gyms we play in, I had absolute confidence that the shoe would hook up and let me cut in the direction I needed to. Although the shoe is lacking an outtrigger like those found on most basketball shoes, the forefoot is amazingly stable. This is due to the wider forefoot and the "finger" like portion of the outsole that run up onto the midsole, much like those found on Air Jordan XIV's. The lateral stability of the Zoom Brave 2 really blew me away and coupled with the incredible traction, I did not have to worry at all about rolling my ankle.
The confidence that the stability of the shoe brings is an absolute must due to the fact that it is not a mid-top. The ankle area is not low enough to be a low-top but not high enough to be a mid-top. The lacing system of the Zoom Brave 2 is a lot more normal compared to that found on the previous iteration of the shoe. I remember the Zoom Brave being a weird shoe to lace up how far back the lace holes went when you got up to the upper holes. It did bring a great fit, however. The more traditional lacing system in the Zoom Brave 2 also does a great job at keeping the foot locked in. I had no problem with any slip at all.

Although the rear section of the shoe is not as perforated as the original Zoom Brave, the tradition is still carried on at the heel with some additional perforations found along the inner section of the forefoot. This kept my foot dry throughout the whole time I was balling. An interesting design note is that of the solid heel counter, which is basically placed at the perforated sections of the heel. That section is embossed with the Zoom Brave logo, giving the shoe a little "street" feel to it. A nice touch by Nike. This is also similar to the design found on the original Zoom Brave.

I have had a good 4 hard balling sessions in these shoes and I must say that I absolutely love them. Although they are a tad bit heavier than my Stutter Steps, they are still light enough that I completely did not notice them at the end of games when fatigue starts to kick in. The Zoom unit in the heel is very cushy and the expected Zoom Air bounce can be felt when stepping. The forefoot Zoom unit is a lot thinner than the one in the Stutter Step and less noticeable. Although the bounce isn't as pronounced, it does help the shoe feel a lot closer to the ground. I haven't felt this connected to the hardwood ever. Even with this great court feel, I had no issues with the cushioning bottoming out when landing. The cushioning as a whole doesn't feel mushy at all. It is incredibly solid and gives great confidence on the court.

I really have nothing but good things to say about this shoes. Some people might want more ankle support but I have always felt that ankle support was overrated. A stable shoe is a lot more important than actual ankle support since you can always add ankle support via ankle braces or taping. The incredible stability of the Zoom Brave 2 made it really easy to not worry about my ankles while the traction and great cushioning made it a joy to ball in. I absolutely recommend this shoe to any guard that loves running and can get over the fact that this is a lower cut shoe.

HK Trip

2008-06-23T16:49:00.004+08:00

I went to HK last weekend to meet up with a bunch of High School friends. Some I haven't seen for almost 10 years! It's incredible how even though you haven't met someone for a long time, things still feel the same and you can still be comfortable around them. Weird how that works... Also good to see that everyone looks pretty much the same as they did 9 years ago, haha. I guess we all age pretty well. Then again, we haven't hit 30 yet....

HK is such a great place to just go chill and shop for the weekend. I love just walking around and seeing all the familiar places we used to go to back in HS. Everything feels so familiar. I don't think I'd want to live there but just going for a while is great.

Finally got to actually enjoy the night life of HK. In all my years going to HK, I had never had a chance to go out. I kept hearing so much about LKF and it seemed like it wouldn't be too bad. I have to say that it was nothing like what I had imagined. All the bars tend to be really small and packed. Seems like it's kinda hard to find a table if you have a lot of people due to the lack of space. The club we went to, Prive, wasn't too bad but still a little disappointing. Not really sure why. It was still a good times with plenty of alcohol consumed. The greatest thing is the lack of hangover the next day! I can't remember one time when I did not suffer the next morning... I guess HK night life has that going for it, haha. Definitely still a lot of fun though!

Firefox 3

2008-06-19T10:17:00.018+08:00

For those of you that were unaware, yesterday was Firefox 3 download day. According to SpreadFirefox.com, Firefox 3 was downloaded over 9 million times! Crazy... We'll get official result from the Guiness World Book of Records in about a week's time. After a day's use of Firefox 3, I found that there were a lot of great little improvements made to my favorite browser. Enough to make me wanna share with everyone. Of course, there's the vaunted speed upgrade of the browser which is definitely great but there are a lot more subtle features that most people will not be notice or take advantage of. You can also find some good tips to improve your browsing experience at Lifehacker's power user guide.

One of the first thing that I notice was the new navigation buttons. I usually keep my navigation icons small so I didn't have to deal with the big Back button. So apart for the size, the biggest thing is that the navigation buttons are gray-ed out. Once you can use them, the whole button will change color to show you which way you can go (forward or backward). Before, just the arrow would change color. Although the buttons don't look bad, I found the whole button changing color a little distracting. Maybe it's just me...

In Firefox 2, I used an add-on called Download Statusbar. This add-on will basically put a little bar at the bottom of your screen so that you can see how your downloads are going, what speed they are downloading, etc. I used it because I wasn't a big fan of the Download Manager being open in a separate window. I had read about Firefox 3's upgraded Download Manager and didn't think anything of it since it would still be another window. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised when I found out that Mozilla had made it possible to track your download without the Download Manager open! I've disabled Download Statusbar to see if this will be good enough for me. So far so good.

A new feature I really enjoy in Firefox 3 is the new bookmarking system. There is a little star on the left side of the address bar which you can simply click to bookmark a page. This will place the website under the "Unsorted Bookmarks" folder and you can access it anytime. It reminds me a lot of Google's Starring system so it does add a little familiarity. The only thing that I wish you could do was use a shortcut to star a page. You can still use ctrl-D to bookmark pages but you have to select where you want to place the bookmark. Regardless, I found this feature really handy especially when you just want to keep a page temporarily so you can share it with friends or just need to get back to it quickly. Of course the smart bookmarks also make it handy for you to keep track of your bookmarks.
If you decide that you want to keep or delete the bookmark, you can simply click the star again. This brings up a menu to edit the bookmark with all options available. Very cool. A feature I have yet to use is the tags. This seems like a very promising features, meaning that you won't even need to place your bookmarks in folders anymore. It seems everything is taking a page from Gmail's book where you tag items and use the search feature to bring up what you need. Which brings me to my last point.

The location bar, now called the "Awesome Bar", is smarter than ever. I really appreciate this feature the most. By simply typing into it, Firefox will bring up possible results of sites you are trying to access. Not only that but if you have your bookmarks tagged, it will also bring up your tagged items as well. Definitely a feature I will be exploiting more and more since I love navigating with the keyboard. If you see the site you are trying to get to, you can use the arrow or tab buttons to select the site you want.
The way the bar populates and the words you type get highlighted reminds me a lot of how Quicksilver works, which is a good thing. As great as this sounds... There is more! I'm a huge fan of quick searches. I have my own little list of quick searches setup for sites I search on the most. It's so simple and easy, gives me more space on my menu bar since I don't need to have a search box up there anymore. I was very pleased to see that the location bar has been upgraded even more. If you simply type something in the location bar, Firefox will use search for it using Google (maybe another search engine as well if you have another set as you default search engine) and bring up the results. Basically a quick search. Unfortunately, it doesn't run as fast as a quick search because Firefox has to think about what to do first. The greatest part, however, isn't the searching. The greatest part is that it will basically emulate the "I'm feeling lucky" feature on Google. This means you can type "nba" in the location bar and it will take you straight to nba.com, bypassing the search results page. I found that really nifty.

All in all, Firefox 3 has been really great so far. There are a lot more features I haven't mentioned which you can read about from Firefox's features page. I just felt it would be a good idea to point out some things I really liked about it. Now the only thing that remains is for developers to update their add-on's to work with Firefox 3.... There are too many that I miss...

Update 06/24/08: One of the features that didn't work and that I really missed was the restore sessions feature. This basically allows you to close your browser at any point in time and when you restart it, the same windows will be reloaded. This feature was also available in Firefox 2 but I was using Tab Mix Plus as well. Tab Mix Plus is basically gives you a lot more options for your tabs, including changing the color of text depending on tab status, tab size, etc. I also used its sessions saving option, which disabled the native one. When I upgraded to Firefox 3, there was no updated version of Tab Mix Plus and my native sessions restore was disabled. This was really annoying because I love being able to close my browser without having to worry about losing window content. Same problem with undo-ing closed tabs. Tab Mix Plus used to take care of that. I tried a few times enabling it but had no luck until today. On a whim, I decided to check in the about:config to see if I could find the option and it was indeed disabled. Changed the value of sessions to true and ta-da! Everything working like a charm! Now I have to decide if I will need Tab Mix Plus... I got too used to pressing ctrl-F12 to restore closed tabs and I just found out there's a Firefox 3 version of Tab Mix Plus...

Boston Celtics: NBA Champions

2008-06-18T18:54:00.004+08:00

Celtics Win!

The end to a great season of NBA basketball. It's been a while since I got so excited during a basketball season. I don't think there was any doubt in a lot of people's minds that the Celtics would win it all. Although the Lakers looked great throughout the playoffs, they have been more than disappointing in the Finals. I thought they would give the Celtics a good run. This was definitely fun to watch, although I wish the Lakers had played more to their game than having Kobe try to take over all the time. So much to say about how bad the Lakers defense was... Anyways... Great Finals, great playoffs, great season. Let's hope for another one next year! Can't wait to see Joe Alexander play! Probably the only person to attend ISB that will ever make it to the NBA, haha. Actually, excited to see where he gets drafted first.

Busy days

2008-06-18T16:43:00.006+08:00

Wow... It's been a long time since my last post... Work has been pretty hectic with thing picking up on the new project. Been learning quite a bit with regards to fibers and fabric types since I've had to do a lot of data cleaning up. It sucks when you have to go through over 30,000 rows of excel data one by one day in and day out. My eyes have been going nuts because I keep seeing endless rows of data... Regardless, I guess learning things is always good. Have had to do a lot of research on sourcing as well.

The move to the new place has been decent but a little rocky. Seems constant small issues keep popping up. First it was the drain in my bathroom being clogged. The sink and washing machine share the same pipe to the drain and it got really clogged after the first time I washed my clothes... Wasn't too bad, so I cleaned it up and proceeded to get some good ol' Drano to clear it. Didn't help. It got to the point where I couldn't shave in my sink since using my sink for more than 2 mins would fill it up and water would come back out from the washing machine side... Then, my hot water pipe that goes into the water heater busted right as I was done taking a shower. That got my whole kitchen wet and left me with no hot water... Thankfully, my landlord came over to fix the pipe and attempt to unclog the drain. Pipe fixed, drain still clogged. After the pipe was fixed, I had one of my light bulbs blow out which took out one of the breakers. This left me with no ceiling lights to my whole place (kitchen, bathroom, room) as well as no power to water heater. Had to call some guy to take care of that and he took a look at my drain while he was at it. 15 minutes later, he pulled out a huge clump of what looked like hair. Drain fixed, lights fixed. Now everything is good... *knock on wood*

Couple other quick notes... Bought a bunch of stuff for the apartment. It's crazy how expensive moving to a new place can be... I guess these are things that will last me a while anyways, so that's not too bad. Guandi opening last weekend! Good times. 10 mins walk from my place. That might spell trouble, haha. And finally... Need to get back in shape... Basketball season starts soon and I feel fat....

Furnished Up!

2008-05-27T13:42:00.004+08:00

So the furniture came in last Wednesday and was all assembled by Thursday. Was so exciting to see the furnished room, nice and clean. I actually moved in last Friday by bringing sheets and some clothes. That was followed by just about the rest of my clothes on Saturday and we're pretty much set! Now I'm just in the process of listing out little things I need (pots and pans, iron, etc) and will probably go get it sometime this week. I gotta say that living without Internet is hard! I'm so used to having the internet readily available that it's just weird going through the weekend without it. Need to get that setup....

The Big Move

2008-05-20T15:15:00.007+08:00

After 2 and a half years of being in Shanghai, I am finally going to move out. I have been wanting to have my own place for a while but things never quite happened, haha. With my being super lazy and thinking about buying a place, I just kept procrastinating. Thanks to being on the beach at work and Ed's help, I have found a place that is really close to work and that is reasonably priced. Lease has been signed and will be moving in sometime this week.

The thing that kinda made me go for this place was the fact that not only is it close to work but I also got to pick out the furniture. At least this way I knew I would be more satisfied with it. The previous renter had his own furniture so the landlord never had to buy furniture. We went to Ikea last Sunday to pick out everything and I have to say that I really am satisfied with what I got to pick out. Landlord Gan (gan!!!) pretty much let me pick whatever I want, never even looking at price, and was more than happy to accommodate my needs. Once furniture is in, I can start moving in.

Pics of the place below with more to come once furniture is in! So excited to finally have a place of my own!

Bluetooth Headsets & Noise Cancellation

2008-05-15T15:01:00.015+08:00

I've been using my Jabra BT8010 for almost 6 months now and I really love using it. I've never liked using my phone manually and have always preferred the use of a wired headset, so getting a Bluetooth seemed like a natural progression forward. I've always wanted to get a Bluetooth but could never justify the cost. Luckily I found a pretty good deal on the 8010 and had to give it a shot.

Like all my purchases, I tend to do a lot of research before I take the plunge. In this case, I had been following the 8010 closely, along with the Plantronics Voyager 855 and the Aliph Jawbone. At the time, my preference was towards getting a stereo headset so that I could use it to listen to music through my cellphone and answer calls. Seemed like a good idea at the time... In actuality, this isn't a very good solution. While it may be cool for a while, the headset just doesn't provide great sound compared to an actual wired set of earphones. My other preference was in getting a caller ID feature since I was hoping to be able to simply use my headset to answer calls without taking my phone out of my pocket. As nice as this feature is, it might not have been worth it because it makes the headset larger. Goes to show you that experience is better than research ;)

Another thing I really wanted was a good noise cancellation system. The Jawbone is king in that domain but comfort issues made me shy away from it. The 8010 received a lot of great reviews regarding the sound cancellation that made me sway towards it. I can only say that I was sorely disappointed in that respect. I honestly can't notice any noise canceling properties. If anything, the mic just amplifies any sound that is around which can make it really annoying for the other person when I am talking in the subway especially. Every noise seems to be really piercing and the crowd of people around me is never diminished. It is actually better for me simply talk using the phone than using the 8010. In relatively quiet environment, there are no issues at all. Discussing this with Art, who has tried more Bluetooth headsets than I have, we came to the conclusion that just about all headsets are probably the same (noise cancellation wise) and the only thing that really matters are looks, comfort, and battery life. Out of all the headsets he has tried, the noise cancellation never really made a huge difference. According to reviews I've read, however, there are 2 exceptions to the noise cancellation issue and they are the Jawbone and the Invisio Q7 (or whatever it will be once Motorola releases it).

This leads me to the new Aliph Jawbone. This thing doesn't look half bad and seems to take care of the main problems from the original Jawbone which are:

Size of the headset
Comfort
Talking in windy conditions

The size was an issue because it made the headset heavy and therefore wouldn't stay on the ear as well. Comfort was due to the ear hoop which was uncomfortable. Those were the major complaints about the headset. From what I've seen, the new one can be use without ear hoop which is a major plus in the convenience factor. Now whether it will still be just as effective as the old one remains to be seen... I hope that the new Jawbone will still be just as effective as the old one in regards to noise cancellation. I've been wanting to try a new headset and a fan of the original Jawbone, so maybe this will be worth a try. Only thing that brings it down is the 4 hours battery life. Seems really short but maybe it's not so bad since most phones' battery life is around the same. Waiting for more reviews... :)

Finding a RSS Reader (Part 4)

2008-05-12T16:32:00.007+08:00

After playing around with FeedDemon for over 2 weeks, I've gotten quite used to using it. It's a great program that actually got me in the habit of going through my feeds much faster than I used to. Part of it is because it got me used to flagging the articles I thought were interesting but were too long to read on the spot and reading them later. I also loved how everything loaded so quickly once the images had been prefetched. I didn't have to wait to start going through all my news items and could scroll down as fast as I wanted without worrying about any delays.

I mentioned previously that I had some issues with the flagging of items. It seems that there is no remedying that. There is nothing more frustrating than flagging interesting articles, then coming back to them an hour later and finding that they were unflagged for some reason... This kept on happening and it has become a huge annoyance. As this kept happening, I started to star the same articles in my Google Reader to make sure I would still have them available in case they were unflagged by FeedDemon. This actually proved very useful and I started switching between expanded view and list view very easily (thanks to the great shortcuts that I did not use). The starred items folder is still messy but seeing it in list view does make mention of where the article came from, so this made it a little more bearable.

There has been no way to fix the issue with some feeds having to be manually refreshed but this hasn't been that big of a deal. Knowing the shortcut to refresh feed makes it that much easier and less of a hassle. I didn't even bother to play with sharing feature because it doesn't really impact me too much.

Another feature that I forgot to mention is the ability of read feeds on-the-go. Once in a while, I'll want to read some feeds when I'm on the subway or waiting for someone. Google Reader has a great interface for the iPhone and I was curious to see how FeedDemon would fare. Unfortunatly, it failed miserably... With EDGE being really slow around here, it made going on to the NewsGator site miserably slow. Loading up news items was terrifyingly slow as well and the interface was just too large for the iPhone's resolution. Maybe they will make an iPhone version of their mobile news readers but for now, it's not so great for iPhone users.

All in all, FeedDemon is great... but I just couldn't deal with it... I have now officially gone back to Google Reader. The great thing about this whole experience was that FeedDemon helped me develop better reading habits and I do go through my news items faster than before. I have a better routine when it comes to going through articles. I liked to manually mark my items as read after I was done with them but now have them automatically marked as read after they are selected. If anything looks interesting, I will either read it or star it so I can get back to it later. I found this has worked pretty well for me so far. I love my Google Reader and the small complaints I have about it are simply not enough to make me ditch it.

WINNER:

How Would You Like Them Done? Nike ID & Nike Basketball

2008-05-02T19:49:00.013+08:00

The first Nike ID store has been opened in China! I finally got a chance to check it out today and it was much better than I expected. The store itself was impressive and the staff actually pretty good at helping people design their shoes and explaining the Nike ID concept to people. The store looks small at first but there is actually another floor below that is basically a regular Nike store, albeit a lot nicer. There was also a remarkably large selection of shoes, especially shoes that have not been available in China. Check out the pics below.

Welcome to Nike ID!

iMacs setup with Nike ID software

Zoom Kobe 2 & Zoom Brave 2

Jumpman Team Elite, Air Max 97, Air Force 25, Zoom Kobe 2

Nike Free 5.0, Zoom BB 2, Jumpman Team Elite

Nike ID Studio downstairs

More Nike ID shoes on display in the Nike ID Studio

The huge store downstairs

After that, headed upstairs to the Nike Basketball store. This has got to be the greatest Nike shoe store in Shanghai. There are tons of PE shoes as well as styles that cannot be found anywhere else. This is the only store I have seen the Flight Windmills, Zoom Flight 95's and 96's. Enjoy the pics!

Welcome to Nike Basketball!

Gotta love the sheer number of shoes that are on display (for a store in China)

Zoom Flight 95 & 96, Zoom BB PE, Air Flight School

Sharkley PE, Flight Windmill PE

Flight Windmill PE

Huarache '08 PE, Flight Windmill PE

Huarache 2k4 PE Laser

Finding a RSS Reader (Part 3)

2008-04-30T16:17:00.007+08:00

I figured I should probably put a little something about Google Reader so that there is something to base my reviews off of. I wandered into the world of RSS a couple years ago when I was reading about how useful they were. Since I was an avid reader of several sites, I figured it might be a good way to read everything in one place. I tried using Firefox's Live Bookmarks but it only showed me links. Didn't help at all. Google Reader came as a natural pick since I didn't need to setup an account for it. Just sign in to the Google Reader page using your Gmail ID and you're ready to roll.

Google Reader is pretty straightforward. It can display all your news items as a list (à la Gmail with snippets) or expanded view (shows full article). In typical Google fashion, the keyboard shortcuts make navigating feeds really easy. I have gotten so used to the way the shortcuts are setup that I use a similar setup for FeedDemon. Google Reader makes it really easy to share you news items with others. Simply click "Share" and all shared items will appear on its own dedicated web page that you can send to friends. To make sharing even easier, Google Reader will show you a list of your friends that use Google Reader and have shared items. Very simple. Another very useful feature is the fact that you can search through ALL the news items you have using Google's search engine. Not only does this make it easier to find older items but since all items are stored online, you can actually browse through every single news items you've ever read and then some. The typical desktop-based reader will be limited to what you have stored on your computer.

Of course, Google Reader is not without its faults. The starring system is great to keep track of feeds you want to read but makes it hard to find news items. You can only view all starred items at once. I personally would like the starred items to remain available from the individual feeds. Sure, you can set Google Reader to the list view to see where the feed came from but you would have to switch back to expanded view when viewing the other feeds. Another annoying thing is that every image loads only when you select the feed you read. Not a huge issue but it can get annoying if trying to skim quickly. Often the pics would slow things down and I would have to wait for the rest of the items to load.

So there you go. A quick review of Google Reader. It is definitely a great place to start for those interested in RSS readers as there is no messy installation and is really easy to use.

Running On Clouds: Asics Kayano 13

2008-04-27T23:27:00.009+08:00

I've taken a liking to wearing running/low cut shoes now because of the fact that they are less bulky and tend to breathe much better than basketball shoes. After having worn my Air Max 360's for almost 2 years, the air in them has popped. They are by no means unwearable but it gave me a good reason to buy a new pair of running shoes :P

When talking about running shoes, one brand that always comes up: Asics. I tried their shoes after reading about them about a year ago and they were incredible. I fell in love with the Kayano 13 as soon as I put my foot in. I couldn't justify spending the money on them at the time but now that the Kayano 14's came out, the 13's were on sale and it was a pretty easy decision. I actually tried a couple others like the 2130 but they just didn't feel as nice. People that know me know that I love my white/navy shoes! I wanted to get the white/navy Kayano 13's but unfortunately they were out. Not wanting to lose out on the sale price (40% off!) I "settled" for the white/orange/black colorway. They are surprising good looking and I just can't stop looking at them (they are actually sitting on my desk, hehe).

Comfort-wise, they are amazing. I have never felt such comfort upon wearing a shoes. I had to try to them to make sure that my first impressions from last year were not just making me hype up the shoe and I was not disappointed. There is such an amazing feeling of your foot being snuggly fitted and supported by a cloud. The cushioning of the shoes is nice and soft, while the Duomax part of the midsole gives great support to my arches. I have been waiting to get a really cushy shoe like this for a long time. My Nike Free 5.0 are comfy but just do not have the support or cushioning. Compared to the 360's, these are much softer and much more supportive. The cushy ride comes from the combination of the Solyte midsole, the huge Gel insert in the heel, and the Solyte 55 footbed. It just simply blows me away. I have not run in them so I cannot comment on that yet but this review will be updated once I get a couple runs in. Pics below for your viewing pleasure.

Finding a RSS Reader (Part 2)

2008-04-24T21:38:00.015+08:00

The other RSS Reader I wanted to try was NewsGator FeedDemon. This is also an offering from NewsGator and I have heard a lot of great things about it. The first thing to do when you install FeedDemon (actually this goes for NewsGator as well) is create an account with NewsGator. The account will sync your feed with NewsGator Online so that you can not only access your feeds online but also sync all your computers together. This means you can run FeedDemon or any other NewsGator RSS Reader on any number of computers (for example, one at work and one at home) and still keep all your news in sync. However, since I only use my laptop anyways, this is not a particular benefit.

The main reason I wanted to try a desktop-based reader was for the speed and the ability to read feeds offline. I have been very pleased with the fact that the feeds just pop up really quickly. This is thanks to the prefetch feature of FeedDemon, which allows it to download images before you actually read the news bits. I tend to use images as a quick way to give me an idea of what the article is about, so this is was great when using offline. One of my gripe with the Google Reader + Google Gears combo was that the images wouldn't be downloaded when reading offline. Another advantage that FeedDemon has over Google Reader is the fact that offline reading does not need to be planned. I can simply open up FeedDemon at any time and it will show me all the feeds that have been downloaded thus far. With Google Reader, however, I had to click the offline button first so that the latest 2000 posts were downloaded before I could do some offline reading. It is unfortunate that you have to basically plan before going offline but it does also make sense since everything is stored online.

A couple things I really like about FeedDemon so far are the flagging and the display flexibility it offers. Sure you can star your items in Google Reader but all that does is put all your starred items in 1 big pile. When you flag an item in FeedDemon, the news item is stays in the same folder it was and is marked as flagged. I prefer this over having a big pile of starred items that I have to go through since it makes it easier to find what I want.

The obvious advantage of a desktop-based reader is that you can customize the way your feeds are displayed. There are a couple of templates you can choose from which caters to whatever style you want. I have mine setup so I can see the title, a snippet and a thumbnail. This has really decreased the time it takes me to go read all my feeds since I can just skim through very quickly. Google Reader forced me to go through every single item and press the next key every single time. I could use the list view in Google Reader but like I mentioned before, I like having pictures to look at.

So far I have run into a few small issues that might or might not be deal breakers. First, there is no easy way to share the feeds. Yes, you can make a clippings folder that you share, which I have tried, but there are issues with it. I wasn't able to add the feed to my Google Reader. I have also run into a couple bugs where all my flagged items from a feed would disappear when I mark a feed as read. Very annoying but let's hope that it doesn't continue. Last issue is that some feeds don't seem to update well. I've noticed this happening particularly on Engadget and Lifehacker. The feeds would simply not push through when select update all feeds, so I have to manually click on the feed and select update feed. Not quite sure what the issue is and I haven't really looked into it yet.

FeedDemon is a very capable reader and I really love using it so far. We'll have to see how if I can deal with the problems I've had so far, but being able to read my feeds faster is an extremely great plus. Maybe the pros will outweigh the cons...

Finding a RSS Reader (Part 1)

2008-04-24T10:44:00.011+08:00

I've been using Google Reader as my feed reader for a couple years now and I love it. No huge complaints about it, it's a great RSS reader. However I've been reading more and more about desktop-based readers and was intrigued. With NewsGator recently making their RSS readers available for free, I've taken the plunge to try out both FeedDemon and NewsGator Inbox. First up, NewsGator Inbox. Since I have to use Outlook for work anyways, I figured it could be nice to have all my feeds come in through it.

NewsGator Inbox basically makes all the feeds come through as email messages that you can go through one by one. Sounds nice in theory until you realize that you have to go through over 100 news articles a day. After using it for a couple of days, I got rid of it. It simply isn't convenient to browse through all my feeds quickly. Since they all show up as emails, you basically get flooded with "emails" and have to click through every single one of them. I like to be able to read a snippet and view the picture associated with that bit of news to get an idea of what it's about and whether I want to read it through. Unfortunately, it's thumbs down for NewsGator Inbox.

Blogspot!

2008-04-22T17:28:00.001+08:00

With Xanga still being blocked by the China Firewall, I've found a new place to blog. Here! Duh... Maybe I will take the time to migrate all my stuff from Xanga to Blogspot if I can be bothered, but probably not, haha. So yes... Let the blogging begin anew!