Tuesday, December 25, 2012
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Happy Holidays!
Happy holiday peeps!
Going away on holiday from 21st to 26th Dec!
Family outing to genting and malacca…! Hmm if i aint too lazy i'll update with some photos when I'm back :P
CloudOn: Microsoft Office on the iPhone, Right Now | TIME.com
CloudOn: Microsoft Office on the iPhone, Right Now | TIME.com
Now this is interesting! Downloading the app now! You should try it too... after all, its free so why not? ;)
Now this is interesting! Downloading the app now! You should try it too... after all, its free so why not? ;)
Google Music’s Free Scan and Match Feature Comes to the U.S. | TIME.com
Google Music’s Free Scan and Match Feature Comes to the U.S. | TIME.com
Tsk tsk tsk... so google music is in the US... when will it come to Singapore? f3
Urban dictionary defines f3 as such (look at the 3rd definition), but that's not quite the way it is in MSEA… f3 is more like… 'diaoz' or 'dotzz'… like giving ppl the WTH look… which is a bit different from 'troubled' look IMO… sarcastic yes definitely. But troubled? No!
Saturday, December 15, 2012
With iTunes 11.01 Update, Apple Fixes Several Serious Issues | TIME.com
With iTunes 11.01 Update, Apple Fixes Several Serious Issues | TIME.com
i don't a big, or even a moderately big library... but i WAS noticing lags while searching in the search bar... not too much, but still very noticeable lags... just updated to the new version and the search is definitely a lot much better now :)
i don't a big, or even a moderately big library... but i WAS noticing lags while searching in the search bar... not too much, but still very noticeable lags... just updated to the new version and the search is definitely a lot much better now :)
Friday, December 14, 2012
Problem Resolved: Google Maps for iPhone Is Here, Looks Good | TIME.com
Problem Resolved: Google Maps for iPhone Is Here, Looks Good | TIME.com
haha... so those holding back on updating their iOS (if there's still any?) because of the maps can finally update it in peace now :P
haha... so those holding back on updating their iOS (if there's still any?) because of the maps can finally update it in peace now :P
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Microsoft’s Surface: Coming Soon to a Best Buy and Staples Near You | TIME.com
Microsoft’s Surface: Coming Soon to a Best Buy and Staples Near You | TIME.com
yay, does this mean i'll soon get to see a surface tablet in sg stores too? I'd really like to try my hands on the tablet, esp the keyboards XD
yay, does this mean i'll soon get to see a surface tablet in sg stores too? I'd really like to try my hands on the tablet, esp the keyboards XD
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Friday, December 07, 2012
Casio G-Shock: The Smartwatch Craze’s Less-Crazy Cousin | TIME.com
Casio G-Shock: The Smartwatch Craze’s Less-Crazy Cousin | TIME.com
for a self confessed techie like me, i think wearable computing is a very exciting future... cant wait to see more of these smart watches come out... and of cos their price is always an issue :P
for a self confessed techie like me, i think wearable computing is a very exciting future... cant wait to see more of these smart watches come out... and of cos their price is always an issue :P
Thursday, December 06, 2012
Wednesday, December 05, 2012
Three Things Apple Didn’t Get Right in iTunes 11 | TIME.com
Three Things Apple Didn’t Get Right in iTunes 11 | TIME.com
Interesting. Some stuff that i definitely wont notice. Since i've not bought a single track from iTunes yet for one... and i don't have 25 thousand songs... nor do i bother about putting in my album art. The album art thing is quite stupid though i must say...
Interesting. Some stuff that i definitely wont notice. Since i've not bought a single track from iTunes yet for one... and i don't have 25 thousand songs... nor do i bother about putting in my album art. The album art thing is quite stupid though i must say...
Tuesday, December 04, 2012
iTunes 11
So iTunes 11 finally came out last week...
I've tried it out for a couple of days already, and as shocked as i was about the missing side bars right after i updated it, i got used to the new interface in a jiffy.
One thing that took me a while to find was the new shuffle and loop button. It used to be in a small dingy little corner in the bottom left… now its moved up into the main centre piece. I found it a little… cluttered at first… but got used to it real quickly. I guess its because I'm already used to that layout on my iPhone… that's what a huge part of this update is about. changing the iTunes store to look similar on the iDevices and the mac. Less confusion for users is always a welcome.
the app store exists as a tab in the iTunes store and i must say the new app store looks very pretty
well its pretty much the same concept with the rest of the iTunes store. Sleek and clean. Apart from the app store i don't use the rest of the iTunes store much though, if at all...
A huge thing that apple seems to be really proud of is the new album look. I, on the other hand, really hates looking at my songs through albums.
Its not hard to see why really…
Scroll a little down and the situation is slightly better… but as a matter of fact, most of my album art is missing, many of the songs have no album metadata added, some of the album names are wrong/nonsense, other are purposely designated as such by me… (like the Popcorn exclude album there holds all the songs from their singles that are already in my phone, i just don't have enough space on my phone!)
Plus… i mostly just have like… one or two songs from the whole album (with the exception of arashi of course)… so in short, my list of albums is in a terrible, terrible mess. I always only look at my song list (and i like to arrange it by date added…. i am strange? LOL)
In any case, click on the album and you can ask iTunes to play or shuffle the list of songs in the album… Click on the 'In the Store' button on the top right and this is what you get (assuming 1) the album is named properly and 2) its in the iTunes store… as we all know, arashi isn't)
Yup, it shows you other songs from the album, other albums by the artist etc… from there you can play the song preview and even purchase the song. Very convenient indeed :)
Click on the Playlist tab though, and a side bar appears so that you can pick which playlist to view. Simple and clean.
The sidebar is present in Genres and Radio too… but i don't ever look at Genres because i don't add the metadata on my songs properly… plus there too much irritating small things that i really wish i didn’t have to bother about. Just look at the 1st two genre in the picture. See any difference? Yup, one space. -.-'''
It also irritates me when i find a new song, put in in my iTunes and my iPhone… and then i forget the title and go look up the artist in my phone list later on (since i can't arrange by date on my phone, would love to be able to!)… and then i can't find the song! Turns out that there was an extra 'The' or some random crap added to the name so iTunes created a new artist for me and i couldn’t find my song… -.-''' Really wish they'll come up with a solution for stuff like this :(
Similarly, you can access the iTunes store from the artist - they'll automatically pull out the songs and albums of that artist in question for you… provided they sell their songs on the iTunes of course. Seems like they are reminding people to use iTunes left right and centre...
The iDevice page looks a little different too… i guess its mostly the whiter background, and full screen effect. Full screen as in… no sidebars. And so the % use bar below is really huge, and you can see how little space i have left in my phone -.-'''
The "On This iDevice" tab lets you easily check out what songs/books/tv shows/movies you have on your iDevice… you can't seem to delete the songs and other title directly from that page though? So for music you still have to fumble around with all the albums and artist names… which is pretty stupid IMO.
Back to playing songs...
Oh you can select whether you want to view your songs, or your apps etc from the left top drop down menu...
You can see a list of all your apps… i don't remember seeing this last time…? or maybe i just never looked.
Something that got me really excited in the update is the ability to see what songs are coming up next, and change it...
You can look up a song in the list and ask iTunes to play it next.
The mini player looks pretty cool...
One click and you can see what's up next in the mini player.
The search is fast and convenient, so you can pick what to play next with ease.
One thing that really please me as well is that the new update didn’t break my application hotkeys in alfred XD
hmm…. that's about all about the new iTunes…
Overall? I think it looks very bright and clean. Very fresh looking. The best change for me would be the ability to see what songs are coming up next, or add songs to play next as i please… yup. It’s a nice update :)
The past and the future of famous logos | StockLogos.com
The past and the future of famous logos | StockLogos.com
very hilarious!
Nokia logo just disappearing... and the MS office logo was indeed pretty similar to what they eventually came up with...
the meteorite hitting the earth in the firefox logo was a nice little touch :P
Monday, November 12, 2012
iStat Pro widget
So… iStat Pro used to be THE widget for macs. Sadly the devs have completely abandoned it. They have iStat Menus but… my menu bar is OVERFLOWING already. Plus, at 16 bucks its priced rather steep… biggest issue for me is that i want a widget, not yet another menu bar item…
Well its not like there's major problems with the widget once you update to Mountain Lion. The only thing that broke for me is the processes not showing anymore… while trying to install that thing on my dad's machine i found guys in macrumor forums with fixes and all, and so i edit my widget… and bingo! Everything works for me now!
I uploaded the updated widget in the forum and on my MF account. Credits to the original creators bjango and all the guys at macforums for providing the fixes.
No more blank processes bar, hurrah!
Edit: my MF account got closed so I've re-uploaded the file to Mega. Went back to check the thread, someone' uploaded a version of iStat Nano with all the stuff fixed too. Really surprised by all the replies to my post, didn’t think I'd see so many people thanking me for uploading the 'fixed' widget.
Friday, November 09, 2012
You know its time when...
You know its time to sharpen the knife when the knife slips when you try and cut eggplants, lands on your finger with a HUGE force, and all you got was a barely noticeable nick…
i didn’t even notice the 'cut' till hours later o.o
Recently… i've taken a liking to buying lip balm. Somehow have a really soft spot for all the nice and weird flavours...
Without even realising it i've gotten so many tubes of lip balm already :X bleah :X
Here's some random photos since i had a pretty background to take pics with...
The exercise made me wish digicams were on iCloud though. I took out and put in the memory card like 5 times in an hour lol…!
Google - Background images are going away on November 16, 2012
Background images are going away on November 16, 2012
Thank you for using background images. As we build a more streamlined Google Search page for everyone, we’ll no longer be able to support customization with background images. So you will no longer be able to see your background pictures starting November 16, 2012.
Click Remove to stop using a background image now. Your current background image and Picasa web albums will still be available to you.
Sigh. Just when i was thinking of changing the background image that i put together sometime back…
i was still debating whether to put the kagi heya enomoto pic that i've been trying to put somewhere in my comp ><
Oh wells… in other news… my desktop picture needs a change too...
Its currently a nice patterned background… BUT with a huge list of the 20 amino acids stuck in it for quick reference during my FYP (which is long over).
Yeah… a very cluttered desktop that I'm not done with clearing yet… and i've not gotten around to look into the issue of the missing weather pic with the geek tools widget too… *goes off to re-arrange some files so that the date and time is not blocked.*
Me thinks the iTunes geek tool widget thingy has stopped working too… its been showing eyes with delight since like forever even though i've been listening to other songs… bleah :( The upgrade to ML broke quite a lot of things… I'm still wondering if its possible to change my dock like i could last time… pfttttt!
Thursday, November 08, 2012
My favourite pencil...
So I got bored and tried doing some drawing...
Not too shabby i guess?
Do you have a favourite (mechanical) pencil?
I do… and its this rather old pilot shaker.
Been using it since… Was it sec sch or JC? Either way I'm sure i've been using it for at least 5 or 6 years. So it was of no surprise when i dug it out today to find the metal clip getting rusty :(. After all its 1) old. 2) been neglected for quite a long time (since I'm using my comp like all the time and not writing ANYTHING).
What do you do with a rusty metal clip? You varnish it. and it just so happened that i have this bottle of pink nail polish with plenty of glitter in it that I bought like a year ago for some art project that i never got started on… so...
Tada! glittery metal clip. Lousy finish (shows my inexperience with applying fingernail polish) but it still beats that rusted medal feel any day...
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
'Cos you have a bad day...
Yeah. Bad day indeed. Or maybe, bad days.
First up on Sunday night my dad's macbook pro kernel panic-ed. No idea what happened. I googled and realised it could be cos of the thunderbolt update error in June/July… and since my dad hasn’t used his comp in quite a while it could be due to that update…. but after two days of attempting to fix it to no avail. Plus the comp seems to be running OS X 10.8.2. Which should have that thunderbolt driver update problem. So something else???
I tried using disk utility to verify and repair the disk, but it just tells me that it can't repair the disk. Tried to make an image with disk utility to back up the files… didn’t work! Tried to use terminal to copy the files to an external hard disk, but seems like the instructions given by others doesn’t work… as with the instructions on how to back up stuff in the single user mode. Man. I know i suck at using terminal and at linux commands (more like i have close to zero knowledge) but really…?
So i gave up and tried to do a reinstall of the OS… tried it from recovery HD. And it tells me that it "Could not find installation information for this machine. Contact AppleCare."
Just great.
So i took a million years to re-dl Mountain Lion from the app store, and created a bootable start up USB stick… and tried again from there (disk utility still doesn’t work…). This time i could go past the user license agreement… but either the Macintosh HD was missing from the list of drives to install the OS in… OR the Macintosh HD was locked. Like WTF is happening man!
And i thought reinstalling the OS should be as easy as pie!
I can't delete the whole drive cos while my dad doesn’t have anything really important there… he uses his mac for saving all his photos so yeah… i wanted to save a copy of his photo library!
So i decided to take a drastic step and try installing the OS on the external hard disk and using that to boot up the comp. Turns out that the 2TB external hard disk was in the wrong format or something and i can't install the OS on it… so i had to use the 500 GB hard disk my dad got for me… thank goodness i reformatted that for specific use with my mac (though it caused a lot of problems cos when i was on xp and desperately needed SPACE, i couldn’t copy anything to that hard disk cos of the format!). So yeah… i wasn’t sure if installing the OS on the disk will affect the data in it… so i decided to play it safe and back up all the data in that small disk into the bigger one… and that took ridiculously long… (all my arashi stuff were in the hard disk, and those were my ONLY copy…) When that was finally done, i installed the OS in the small hard disk and that took quite a while… it worked though… and via some disk changing using the recovery HD, i finally got my dad's comp to boot up from my hard disk. Problem was that i still could not fix the internal hard disk zzz. Cannot repair the hard disk, cannot reinstall OS cos it still says its locked. DLed and tried to reinstall the thunderbolt driver but it said the program was for OS 10.7.4 only and the OS i installed on the ext disk was 10.8.2 so it wouldn’t run. Goshhhhhhh! Tried to 'unlock' the mac HD but to no avail either. I'm really out of ideas now… At least with the ext hard disk OS boot up though, i could finally copy over my dad's photo library. Phew. After so long, could finally back up that thing.
Thankfully that comp is still under warranty till 25th of next month. I'm gonna give a last try tmr i guess… and if it doesn’t work i'll bring it down for repairs. Really at my wits end already.
And earlier tonight…
The printer 'broke down' on me!
Gosh…
My sister's A lvld are coming extremely close, so she's studying really hard and all… and also printing out quite a lot of stuff… all the answer sheets and all… so she was as usual going to print her stuff just now… when she complained about the black ink running out. So naturally, i refilled it for her. Then the trouble began. The printer kept complaining that the black cartridge was not installed. Even after i took out and put in the thing a million times! And got my hands black all over in the process...
My sis gave up and went to sleep after emailing me the files… while i tried everything i knew… soft switch off, hard switch off (literally just pulling the cable), even googled and found out how to enter the 'maintenance mode' which although cool, didn’t help at all. I even tore open a brand new cartridge to try but it just kept saying the black ink wasn’t installed. FINALLY i came across a website that said "With the full ink installed you might try plugging in power while you hold the stop key, sometimes the error is just locked and not cleared until you power up this way. "
Yup. So that was the whole bloody problem. The error message just got stuck and despite yanking out the cable and plugging it back, it didn’t clear up. Dang. All that mess just cos of this. Its been ages since i last got my hands dirty refilling the printer ink so boy am i pissed.
And my fingertips are still smarting from yanking and putting back the ink cartridge so many times. Sheesh! All cos the stupid error message was stuck in the system… Oh wells. At least that got fixed. Still… it took me over an hour to print out that few pages of stuff. Somehow sending the data to the printer took a million years. I have absolutely no idea what was wrong. The printer, or my computer? Or was it cos i was over working my computer or anything? I really had no idea. Sighz. At least my sis has her math answers now...
Oh wells. I still have my dad's mac to settle. I'll probably give it a last try before sending it down for repairs… its still under warranty so might as well...
Okays… time to sleep! Night night!
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Photo Special - North Eastern Riverine Loop
Well… I have a confession to make. When I say photo special, it actually just means that i either 1) have nothing better to say so i'll just spam you with photos, 2) I'm too lazy to type anything or 3) a combination of the above two.
So here goes…!
Well i'll try and type a little more in this one...
1st… we went on a weekday. And it wasn’t a school holiday. So the loop was quite nice and empty :)
we reached there around… 8+? total distance cycled was like 22km or so… quite short only lah. Also, the place was really well done, very scenic and a lot of photo spots - so my dad happily took a bunch of photos with his new fujiflim X10. Was a VERY relaxed cycle. We cycled super slowly… we only finished at like… 12+pm. Well brunch included in between but still… a very slow cycle with plenty of photo stops.
Superb weather that day too… at 9+am it was still so breezy you'd think it was still 6am. In fact it was only at ard 11:30 that it started getting hot…
we did go across the bridge to the lorong halus wetland place… but there's not much to see there on bikes… not unless you plan to ride the small rocky footpath… which i believe is meant for walking and not for bikes. In any case we didn’t and left the place pretty quickly. Oh there ARE toilets there tho so if you need a toilet break...
pretty pretty
This place is where you can choose to go to the punggol waterway park or continue on the loop to the punggol point park. I've been to the punggol point park before previously… and it was super cooling that day when we visited. Mainly cos it was on the verge of raining i guess? But the wind was so cooling it felt like we're in genting…
So we headed straight on the loop to punggol point...
till we came to this. red rocky path ahead…. and we decided to turn back. my dad's colleague reports having a great time racing along that path… and THEN having a hell of a time cleaning all the bike chains of the little red rocks later on. So yeah… 3 bikes… wiping down my own bike was bad enough for me already…
later on my sis said they rode that path during the night cycling thing before but her bike was okay… but then they were barely hitting 7 or 8km/hr so… i guess it really depends on how fast you ride… we were riding quite slowly that day tho.
but riding the punggol waterway was a great choice IMO. very beautiful. we wouldn’t have time to ride both places at the speed we went that day so… I'm glad we picked the waterway.
pity this pic was blur… but well i took it while riding so… :X
same, taken on a moving bike… can only do this when its bright enough...
no idea what this is… seems like its to open some gate… water gates? o.o
the 3 bikes… (sis was in sch). dad used the old folding bike this time
Yup… that's all the pics i took. We stopped for breakfast at macs at sengkang sports and recreation centre on the way back...
All in all… it was a very nice trip :)
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