For all man are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall -1Peter 1:24

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Apple Airport Express


Bought an Air Port Express. My home setup is now wireless.
This is another beautiful mac product. The primary function is a wireless router/base station, we can then plug in an USB printer as a shared network printer. Lastly (what I like most) it has an audio port to wirelessly stream sounds from the MacBook to connected speakers.

Monday, September 22, 2008

Tips - Nice & Simple

SOURCE: Taken from a forwarded email. Looks useful

Take 2 minutes and read through this; you will be amazed at what you can learn!

Bed Sheets
After drying sheets, put both sheets and one pillowcase in the other pillow case. Fold neatly in a square. Next time you change sheets, you just take the one pillow case and all the sheets and pillow case are inside. No need to look for matches.

Reheat Pizza
Heat up leftover pizza in a non-stick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to med-low and heat till warm. This keeps the crust crispy. No soggy micro pizza. I saw this on the cooking channel and it really works.

Reheating refrigerated bread
To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in a microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it reheat faster.

Broken Glass
Use a dry cotton ball to pick up little broken pieces of glass - the fibers catch ones you can't see!

Easier thank you's
When you throw a bridal/baby shower, buy a pack of thank you cards for the guest of honor. During the party, pass out the envelopes and have everyone put their address on one. When the bride/new mother sends the thank you's, they're all addressed!

Name tag

If you purchase a new bike for your child, place their picture inside the handle bar before placing the grips on. If the bike is stolen and later recovered, remove the grip and there is your proof who owns the bike.

Flexible vacuum
To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge add an empty paper towel roll or empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get in narrow openings.

Reducing Static Cling

Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip and you will not have a clingy skirt or dress. Same thing works with slacks that cling when wearing panty hose. Place pin in seam of slacks and -- voila -- static is gone.

Measuring Cups
Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill it with hot water. Dump out the hot water, but don't dry the cup. Next, add your ingredient, such as peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes right out.

Foggy Windshield?
Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car. When the windows fog, rub with the eraser!
Works better than a cloth!

Reopening envelope
If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include something inside, just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour or two. Voila! It unseals easily.

Conditioner
Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It's a lot cheaper than shaving cream and leaves your legs really smooth. It's also a great way to use up the conditioner you bought but didn't like when you tried it in your hair...

Good-bye Fruit Flies
To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass fill it 1/2 with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dishwashing liquid, mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever!

Get Rid of Ants
Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it 'home,' & can't digest it so it kills them. It may take a week or so, esp. if it rains, but it works & you don't have the worry about pets or small children being harmed!

Take baby powder to the beach
Keep a small bottle of baby powder in your beach bag. When you're ready to leave the beach sprinkle yourself and kids with the powder and the sand will slide right off your skin.

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Before today, the only Apples I had were from the supermarket

visions of blue skies and green grass underfoot

So I bought a Macbook. Yes, an Apple computer. The folks were shocked. No one could believe that the greatest anti-mac critic has joined the Apple camp. I was the traitor, I was what Cain was to Abel...
===================================================================
Do not blame them. For they will not understand. For the 'Truth' is only for the chosen few. Perhaps someday some of them would be selected too, and I'll look forward to welcoming Them. To become one of Us.
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The Bundle
Now the elegant simplicity of the Apple family really gets to you, right from the start.
Apple laptops came in 3 categories > MacBook Air, MacBook, and MacBook Pro.
It doesn't take a scientist to figure out from a quick glance at the specs that Air is the light ultra portable series while Pro is the high end performance range.

MacBook is the intermediate and most common option. I got myself one of these with some rather high end specs for the current series.

13-inch: White
2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo.
4 GB memory
160GB hard drive1
Double-layer SuperDrive

Including a free sleeve, the bundled price came up to SGD 2,455 - quite a hefty sum.
=================================================================but its alright because its an Apple.
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Hardware Installation
Installation was a breeze, if there was even an installation to speak of. Just like what the sales pitch described, just plug anything in and they will work, automatically. The portable hard disk was detected instantly, and Printer model recognized once connected.
=================================================================
Software
I hooked up the ethernet cable and came online. No setup needed. And then the system offered to update all the drivers and installed software. These were carried out faithfully with no fuss. I didn't even have to reboot once.
=================================================================
Functionality
Needless to mention, the MacBook was aesthetically pleasing, with all the ports conveniently located on the left hand side. The Mac power plug links to the MacBook magnetically, a creative marvel by itself. (I continued to be surprised at every step.)
The keyboard too, with its large and well spaced keys was a joy to type on. (This blog entry was written on the MacBook, can picture myself doing this in future at Bottles & Bottles, with a glass besides the MacBook)
=================================================================
Overall Perception
All in all, I get the impression that Apple genuinely cares about the customer's experience. Everything was so well taken care of. Compared to OS X, the Windows Platform look hopelessly outclassed.
=================================================================
The only thing left to do now is to fetch some fuel and torch those worthless PC components.
=================================================================

- Fanaticism is a sign of repressed doubt

Friday, September 19, 2008

Resentment, betrayal and heartbreak

Technology should have freed man from the burdens of life.
Instead, it imprisoned him.

Another system failure, another inconvenience. This time is was the Mainboard. The onboard audio to be specific. Two visits to the service center and problem NOT solved. It was really frustrating to learn that the "1st year 1-for-1 replacement" refers to refurbished sets of questionable quality. Imagine a pool of RMA circuit boards: "Here just throw yours back into the pile. We'll (randomly) pick another piece for you. If you're lucky it won't have the same problem. If you ain't satisfied, we can try again."

This is the final straw, have made up my mind to make that costly technology leap. To go ahead with the Migration Plan 2 years sooner than I intended.

The last decade spent with DIY systems has been an interesting ride full of thrills and spills. But that stage is over. 长痛不如短痛 Its time to move on.

FUN:
- Shopping trip in Sim Lim Center for components
- Watching your new system boot up sucessfully
- Savings from assembling your own desktop
- 'Arms race' with buddies to see who has the most powerful machines
- Overclocking to bring out more 'bang for buck'
- Learning from each mistake
- Troubleshooting and solving the problem

NOT FUN:
- Accepting for a fact that system may fail anytime.
- Windows blue screen of death that occurs ever so often
- Snifting carefully and praying not to detect the smell of burnt plastic everytime the computer crashes.
- Another tiresome trip to XYZ repair center.
- Machines that never boot properly*
- Forking out money every now and then for replacements.
- Cheap brands that turns out to be incompatible.
- Reliable (more expensive) brands that still fail.
- Troubleshooting and unable to solve the problem.
- Not knowing when any of the above will happen again.

Have done my homework and decided to invest in a Macbook. Reviews (online and personal) were good and consistent. It seems an Apple machine fits well with my criteria**

*I once had a setup that will only boot if I reached into the casing and wiggle the videocard at a certain angle, 2 seconds after I hear the first beep.

**easy servicing, low failure rate, portability, good battery life.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

One King to rule them all

It all begun with a lack of resources to cast “resurrect hero”. The king resorted to necromancy, For a while “raise dead” worked, mighty heroes of old returned, bonded to our King’s will, completely obedient, uncompromising, and emotionless. They were unstoppable, at least for as long as the price was paid.

But the ways of the dark side was above comprehension, above any mortal. Even above a King who believed he could outwit the very forces who has now made him just another pawn.

Seduced by power, our young king finally embraces “dark contract” the most forbidden summoning spell.
Of the eternal damnation of himself and the entire kingdom, the King accepted, reluctantly at first and then welcomed with open arms, as he rapidly approaches the last stages of degeneration.

In the scheme within schemes, the first temptation was always only a beginning. A foothold to a path that may change in a million ways, but the result was always the same. The most noble intentions eventually twisting into complete enslavement to the whims of the dark side.

- The millions who fell didn't make a dfference

Friday, September 5, 2008

Planners Gathering - My Place

Mother is out of town and I had the team over for an ad-hoc party. This was hastily planned and We had simple fare - Chicken wings, Hor Fun and noodles from the nearby food court. The beer dispensor came into play once again, but the main highlight was the 3 bottles of red wine.

Drinking games ensued. The party ended at 11pm drawing a closure to yet another week.

有惊无险又过一周
Can see the tell-tale effects of alcohol on the ladie's complexion.


Mother will have the fits if she sees the refrigerator stocked full of beer like that.
Beer was under consumed leaving 2 dozen cans to be (secretly) stashed inside the bar counter storage area.