2007-04-26

Dinner at Noodle Bowl, Dubai



My first restaurant meal in Dubai for 2007!

Very expensive meal for a Malaysian!

This is like a super HIGH CLASS "Chap Fan"







Would you pay 25 Malaysian Ringgit for a plate of rice topped with stir fried vegetables and chicken slices?

Well it is DHS 25 here!

2007-04-25

DEAL !



Visit to Dubai World Trade Centre for the

DUBAI ENTERTAINMENT, AMUSEMENT & LEISURE SHOW



2007-04-24

Skype Connections in Dubai

By some strange luck, the internet connection was working again in the apartment in the International City.

My friend also tried to use SKYPE to call Malaysian mobile number, and the 15 minutes of porridge boiling only cost him ONE US DOLLAR (3.65 Dirhams!)

Well, not to waste the 2 Mb bandwidth, more pictures have been uploaded to the FLICKR site, and also an update of this blog! More freebies were also downloaded from the iTunes Music Store (yay!)

Also got glimpses of the Pirelli 2007 calendar with Naomi Watts, Hilary Swank, Lou Doillon, Penelope Cruz and Sofia Loren (huh!?) Do subscribe to the free membership to download loads of swanky clips from the site!

All in avant-garde Black & White.


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Blogged with Flock

2007-04-20

Windoze Vista Home Premium in Dubai

Somehow, this Windoze thingy, gives u the jitters, especially when a new OS version comes out.

Finally figured out how to SHARE the internet line coming in from an ethernet port into an LG notebook, and share out via WIFI!

So, now I am connecting the 2 Mb broadband via Wifi.

Darn weather is still very hot today. 36 deg C!

Meanwhile, check out more new photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ian_cheong

Satellite photos of Dragon Mart also.

2007-04-15

My first Malaysian Dinner in Dubai


Finally, I get to relish the after-work traffic jams in Dubai, having driven from Za'abeel Park to Al Ghurair City through the Makhtoum bridge.
Went to park at Level 3 Main carpark, over Spinneys, and trundled over to Block 3 to have a sumptious dinner.

Had Bakuteh, Assam Prawns and kangkung belacan!

Unfortunately, the city area's broadband prohibits SKYPE connetion!

2007-04-14

Dubai Festival City

Finally I get to drive down the highway,

crossing the Business Bay area,

and turned up at the Dubai Festival City, totally based on instincts,

totally based on instincts, and an outdated map!


IKEA is fantastic and so are its tenants!

2007-04-13

Dubai 2007

Arrived in April 2007

Staying at International City, China Block. Next to Dragon Mart.

Got the company car, 2006, Honda Civic 1.8 Auto.

2007-03-21

20070321: Major burglary in my home

Major theft disaster!

Full report here at the MyMUG forum

2006-11-30

QUOTES

All books are either dreams or swords. You can cut, or you can drug, with words.

An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field.

Anyone who believes you can't change history has never tried to write his memoirs.

Be as beneficent as the sun or the sea, but if your rights as a rational being are trenched on, die on the first inch of your territory.

Books are the carriers of civilisation. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill.

Faith is not belief. Belief is passive. Faith is active.

For years, governments have been promising more than they can deliver, and delivering more than they can afford.

Governments exist to protect the rights of minorities. The loved and the rich need no protection: they have many friends and few enemies.

History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.

History is the only laboratory we have in which to test the consequences of thought.

If we get a government that reflects more of what this country is really about, we can turn the century and the economy around.

Individual commitment to a group effort - that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.

It is easy when we are in prosperity to give advice to the afflicted.

It's pretty hard to tell what does bring happiness. Poverty and wealth have both failed.

It is surprising what a man can do when he has to, and how little most men will do when they don't have to.

Life begets life. Energy becomes energy. It is by spending oneself that one becomes rich.

Nothing is easier than self-deceit. For what each man wishes, that he also believes to be true.

Only do what your heart tells you.

Our major obligation is not to mistake slogans for solutions.

People who like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they like.

States are not moral agents, people are, and can impose moral standards on powerful institutions.

The only way to make sure people you agree with can speak is to support the rights of people you don't agree with.

The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.

There are two motives for reading a book; one, that you enjoy it; the other, that you can boast about it.

There are two ways to slide easily through life: to believe everything or to doubt everything; both ways save us from thinking.

Trust only movement. Life happens at the level of events, not of words. trust movement.

To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.

To repeat what others have said, requires education, to challenge it, requires brains.

To value his own good opinion, a child has to feel that he is a worthwhile person. He has to have confidence in himself as an individual.

Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.

What we call the secret of happiness is no more a secret than our willingness to choose life.

When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.

When large sums of money are concerned, it is advisable to trust nobody.

When people keep telling you that you can't do a thing, you kind of like to try it.

Whoever said anybody has a right to give up?

You cannot make yourself feel something you do not feel, but you can make yourself do right in spite of your feelings.

You are not obligated to win. You're obligated to keep trying to do the best you can every day.

2003-12-19

iMovie version 3 tips

Just to share some tips.
Version 3
Can now import Quicktime files & MPEG video with the .mpg suffix. Previous versions can only handle DV format.

Use QuickTime Pro to compress iMovie projects
When your final masterpiece has been completed in iMovie and you wish to compress it for posting, do not use iMovie to do this, use QuickTime Pro instead. For some reason, QuickTime Pro does a much better compression job. Do this by exporting your final-edit movie using the Custom selection, and choose the DV Stream codec. This is good for two reasons. First, it exports quickly because it is the native format of iMovie. Second, it is a great way to back up your movie in case your iMovie file becomes corrupt.

Now take this new DV Stream movie and open it in Quicktime Pro, export and choose your codec and size output.

Hardware & gadgets

Things that are in my wishlist.

UPDATED: Wacom's New Volito 2 Tablet @ 50 Euros

The VOLITO (2003) launched in UK
(old link: http://www.my-volito.com/uk/index.html invalid)

Apparently only sold in Europe, thus the UK link.
May not be supported in OS X, but workaround is found here .
Retails at 59 Euros (* 4.57 approx RM 270)
Not a bad deal for a 1000dpi tablet + cordless mouse combo! Considering the current Graphire range is in the same price range.

Sony Ericsson S 700 phone with 1.3 MP camera!


Sony Ericsson K 700 phone with everything!

Sony Clié TH-55 with Bluetooth & WLAN for <>




Hitachi's 400Gb HARD Disk (Both S-ATA & Ultra- ATA) @ 7200 rpm


Lexar 8 Gb CompactFlash
(more expensive than GOLD!)
US 3,000 or about RM 11,400 (@ 3.80)
Weight about 12 grams (or US 250/g)
Current price of gold is about US 400 /oz (1 oz = 28.35g)
Thus, after the conversion, gold is now about US 14 / g making this about 18x more expensive than gold!

Poh Kong should be selling this instead!

Lexar 1 Gb Secure Digital Card
US 500 or about RM 1,900 (@ 3.80)



PocketDock

Something which Apple should have bundle FOC with their 3G iPods. Costs US 19! (About RM 80)


Nokia 9500
Launched at 3GSM Conference in Cannes on 23 Feb 2004
More Pictures: Here,and here.

SPECS:
-Weight 222g (9210i was 244g)
-integrated VGA camera
-triband
-GPRS, EDGE, WLAN
-Bluetooth, IrDa
-80MB internal memory
-available Q4/04

Nokia Digital Pen More info here.
Price , cheaper than a Mont Blanc Meîsterstück


KONICA MINOLTA Dynax 7 Digital


New stuff released at CES Jan 2004

Samsung Bluetooth HT-DB390 wireless Home Theater System

Info here

naviPlay - a Bluetooth wireless adaptor that allows third-generation iPod owners to ditch their earphone cords. Its transmitter plugs into the iPod while its adaptor can connect with any type of headphones or speakers.
The naviPlay will debut in the US in the spring. There's no price for the adaptor yet. From TEN TECHNOLOGIES.

Aiwa HZ-WS2000 (NB: Aiwa is a wholly owned subsidiary of SONY)
2Gb credit card size MP3 player (Smaller than iPod Mini but more expensive).
Has a chunky remote with LCD.
Review in: English | French | Hungarian | Korean
-----


Burton AMP Pack BUY Details

Bluetooth GPS: EMTAC works with Mac OS X.

Flashhopper
- fastest USB thumbdrive in its class

GPS: (colour screen)
Garmin 2610 . Alternate link here .
Streetpilot 3 Alternate link here .

Graphics

Links to graphic sites

Best Flash Animation sites

The OLD site: http://www.flashforward2003.com/ is no longer valid!

2003-12-05

External Firewire/USB 2 Case & 250Gb Hard disk [STOLEN]

Large formats for your Christmas & PENDING Chinese New Year Videos

Western Digital Caviar Series
120 Gb - RM 900
250 Gb - RM 1,200

price includes drive and external COMBO enclosure.

Tried and tested on Mac OS 9 up to Panther 10.3.1

Note: 120 Gb formats to 111 Gb and 250 Gb formats to 232.89 Gb

1 year warranty.

Screen shot below taken from Disk Utility in Panther. (10.3)
232 GB HD.pdf


Guaranteed cheaper than others: Check latest Low Yat price list at:
http://my.hardwarezone.com/priceguide/priceguide.php?id=250

Maxtor's Combo 250Gb is RM 1788, save 688. Can use for Ang Pows in a fortnight!

VERY LIMITED STOCKS (About 5 remaining)

2003-11-29

Apple Store @ Ginza, Japan

Cool pictures of the latest 5 storey Apple Store in the world (2003).
Links to great portfolios:

Location 1 , Location 2 and here.

Write up here.

Old link: http://www.apple.com/retail/jp/ginza/gallery1.html is not active anymore

Panther - The search for 150 new items continues

Have you actually found all the 150 new features yet? If you have discovered something not in my list, please contact me & I will append the list below.

150 new features found in Panther (Mac OS 10.3.2)

Panther new features


GUI

001 Finder Windows with brushed alum view
002 RESTORED: LABELS
003 Drives pane permanent on all sidebars. Eject mounted volumes from sidebar
004 Resizable window columns now independent
005 Coloured Drive name on desktop
006 Exposé
007 Built in Faxing
008 IPv6 Network support
009 Dynamic search in window
010 Windows statistics moved to bottom of windows
011 Appearance - dynamic switch

012 Return of folder actions
013 Safari 1.1- mouse over scroll arrows - auto scroll
014 Updated PREVIEW 2.1.0 - text tools
015 Updated Address Book (3.1) web links highlighted & phone prefixes bracketed, Send update from email field, backup DB, Distribution List
016 Sys Pref: ACCOUNTS: Login items moved to Accounts as Startup items
017 Sys Pref: Network with Status lights
018 NEW Connect to server window
019 Insert Characters Palette from Finder
020 iDisk support in Finder
021 MAIL: Exchange support
022 NEW Font Book & palette
023 Secure Empty Trash
024 Updated: Internet Connect 3.1
025 DATE & TIME: Time announcement
026 Updated TEXTEDIT: Styles & Spacing menu
027 Updated CALCULATOR: GUI
028 Updated DVD Player 4.0
029 Updated Stickies 3.0 - Creation date on mouse over title bar
030 Updated Disk Utility 10.4 - Enable Journalling, Fix OS 9 permissions
031 Updated QuickTime Player 6.4 - can open VCD DAT files
032 Windows Printing
033 FINDER: Archive files as zip
034 RESTORED: Drag windows from any edge
035 UTILITIES: Activity Monitor replace CPU monitor
036 APPLE-TAB switching
037 Updated ADDRESS BOOK: Picture can now be drag & drop in a window - link with iChat AV
038 Updated Image Capture - can link to web cam for time delay capture
039

149 Filevault
150 Xcode


TESTED APPS:
Apple
Address Book
Appleworks 6.2.9
Final Cut Express 1.0.1
iChat AV
iTunes 4.0.1
Mail
Keynote 1.1 (to update to 1.1.1)
Preview
Safari 1.0


3rd party
Adobe Acrobat Pro 6.0
Dragthing 4.6
FileMaker Pro 6.0.1
Foottrack 1.0
Graphic Converter 4.4
Lotus Notes 6.5
Mahjong Solitaire
Microsoft Office vX
Norton Utilities (to update)
Palm Desktop 4
Toast Titanium 5.2 / 6.0
Virex 7.2



Crashed
Daylite
Codetek Virtual Desktop (to update to 2.3.18)