I know that this post is rather late. In fact, it is 35 days late. But who cares? Cause I have sorted out what I want to do for the year, or roughly I guess…

First, starting off from where I am now…

Currently, I have insanely huge amount of commitments. Yes, my bad habit is starting to appear again. I guess I would resign to it, unless I seek professional help over this.

That been said, I probably would have to set a modest target point to reach. Otherwise, I would be killing myself needlessly over this.

P.S. Some of the posts will be backdated. So if the posts appears out of nowhere. Don’t be surprised.

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On Tuesday, I was invited to Dell’s product launch of its XPS 14z. It was held at Chef Daniel’s Kitchen, Iluma level 7. As I passed the floors, I realised that most of the stores are closed, if not, emptied. Iluma has turned into a ghost town. Even the Coffee Bean was not spared.

Anyway, back to Dell XPS 14z. My image of XPS was a bulky one, which comes from being accustomed to my project teammate’s XPS. However, the 14z was a surprise. Not only that it is slim, it packs a punch for its form factor. Although it weighs at approximately 2kg, it can be considered light for its class. Not only that, the lcd screen now occupies more real estate as well. Furthermore, what I like is the way the keyboard is designed. The keyboard is now back-lit, a feature that is getting common and also, I am able to reach all the keys with one hand. This means that I can truly grip the laptop with my left hand while typing with my right or leaving one of my hands free to work on other stuff, or leave my left hand limping. xD

However, I do have some gripes with the laptop. With only 2 USB ports, I am sure that it would not be enough for me. With my wireless mouse’s dongle plugged in, I am left with only one usable port. Furthermore, most of the ports are located at the back of the laptop. It makes it difficult or rather, irritating to reach to the back to plug in my devices or cables. Also, the location of the ports also meant that I may not be able to use narrow tables, which is quite common at cafes and in school. One more thing to note is the lack of VGA port. Although the support for VGA will be dropped by 2015, there still are many devices that use VGA ports, such as projectors. It is advisable to get HDMI to VGA converter or Mini Display-port to VGA converter (the ones used by Mac users) if you use the 14z for presentations.

Dell XPS 14z now retails at SGD 1,499 (SGD 1,449 if bought online). Attached is the press kit (XPS_14z_release_SG (FINAL).pdf) with the laptop’s specifications.

“Spent an evening with Dell while they launch their new Dell XPS 14z.”

From Early Christmas With Dell, posted by Robert Sim on 11/17/2011 (13 items)

Generated by Facebook Photo Fetcher

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Don’t you always have this moment of clarity of what you should do and what should have been done, and then it is gone in the next moment?  I do. And I think I just got one, moments ago…

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I can not remember when I actually did ACES Day workout. Probably when I was in primary school. It is an attempt by the Government to encourage young children to have an active exercise regime. The some of the steps I could remember from then were given memorable names like “flush flush, sit on toilet bowl, and yeah!” Though it is lame (and yes, I did think of it that way at that time), it was a simple way to get everyone in school to remember the workout.

This year, apparently, ACES Day has turned hip for at least one school.

What I cannot fathom is the choice of the movement. The running man itself is a move that not everyone can pull off. Don’t let me go on to the fast pace of the music as well. Frankly, in my opinion, this does not really help in getting the weaker ones to enjoy exercising. Instead, it would kill the motivation of those who cannot catch up.

Those who can, they sure it enjoy it.

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Take no offense. Steve Jobs is a great man. Personally, I owned three different iPods: the 1st generation iPod Shuffle, the 3rd generation iPod nano and the 2nd generation iPod Touch. I have dabbled in Mac OS X (via a Hackintosh I tried to run on VirtualBox), helped to configure Mac Books, iPhones and iPads belonging to friends. My next laptop is probably a Mac Book Pro as well (after I graduate though). Steve Jobs has many points we can learn from; and he is a model that almost every professors and adjunct lecturers in SMU use, regardless of the diversity of the topics covered.

Still the thought of writing a post solely on this great persona did not occur to me until I played the devil’s advocate in my friend’s picture post:

One die, Thousands cry
Thousands die, no one cry

Now, anyone would be inflamed by this line, given that Steve Jobs has just died. However, he did raise a point: Steve Jobs is dead, now what?

After a lengthy discussion online, he came up a personal eulogy, one which I share sentiments with:

Death eventually comes to all humans. I do feel the loss when I heard of steve jobs death. He was indeed a visionary man and have changed the world. His death had generated tons of news about him, newspapers rang frontpages of Steve Jobs history and about the world he had changed. Companies and social media went into a heightened frenzy, creating pages and events to commemorate his life.

This world has 6.97 billion lives, and yet the world seems to revolve around 1 man. I would dare say that my local newspaper find it more profiting to run a story that people would read than to raise awareness for the poor auntie I see living below my hdb, or even running full page cover story on the malnourished and dying children in africa. I would dare say that even though hundreds of children are dying by the minutes in differet parts of the world, they would still remain under wraps as the world seem more fascinated in profitable news.

I mourn Steve Jobs as I speak, but this world still revolves and will never stop spinning. It is time to move on and to care for the less previliged people around you. They may not have created the iPhone nor changed the world, but they would have made a difference in someone else’s life, and their lives are of no less value than Steve Job himself.

Friends, the last chapter of someone’s life has been written and cast in stone. Now, let us be involved in shaping the story of someone less privileged and may he be the next Steve Jobs of his generation.

“No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.”
- Steve Jobs, from his commencement address at Stanford University, 2005 

Image: screenshot from http://www.facebook.com/ccp.chinleng/posts/258116934223677

Eulogy written by Ong Chin Leng, a friend suffering slogging together in SMU. Note: minor edits done to rectify language use.

Transcript taken from here. Steve Job’s commencement speech can be viewed on YouTube.

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The following text is a random piece I have thought up within 20 minutes in school before chasing for the last bus. It is nothing fanciful, nothing spectacular, but just an expression of my current thoughts, feelings and mood.

I shall not sleep,
I shall not rest,
I shall not falter,
Till I end these right.

I shall not hope,
I shall not insist,
I shall not long,
Till I get this right.

I shall not hue,
I shall not cry,
I shall not moan,
For this is my want.

I should chase,
I should dream,
I should persist,
For this is my wish.

I will endure,
I will last,
I will stand,
For this is my trial.

There is no rest,
There is no peace,
There is only eternity,
For the weary.

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Frankly, I would not care much as sometimes the materials I upload is indeed copyright infringement. But hey, that is to share! Anyway, those are in the minority. However, I have received one DMCA notice on Facebook:

Hello,

We have removed or disabled access to the following content that you have posted on Facebook because we received a notice from a third party that the content infringes their copyright(s):

Group: LTB

Now, I would not mind if they take down the content, but at least do let me see what is the content that is being taken down first. Be like YouTube where at least a screen grab of the offending video with the title is shown to the user. In this case, they took down the entire group, a closed group to boot with at the most 6 other users have access to it? Hell, it is a school project group. Who would be interested in taking down the content from there? And in the first place, other than my groupmates, who would have the access to the content? And also, they did not tell me who or which organisation stake the claim on my group. If it is my group title, there are plenty of groups with the same title.

Out of curiosity and for a want of explanation, I tried looking for a reply-to email (which was unfortunately, not supplied with the notification email) for an explanation. After clicking numerously through their Help site, I landed on the counter-claims page. And file it, I did. You would too if you are lost and wondering if there is a direct line of communication for you to seek explanation.

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No. My laptop is not ice-cold. It is just that the screen begins to freeze up by itself. This despite me doing the following:

• Updating the driver to the latest working one, which just came out a few days ago.
• Shutting off the PCI Power Management thing as recommended by several people on forums.
• Render a balanced 3D output through the nVidia Control Panel.

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Previously in one of my screenshots, my iPod Touch was connected to a network names robertsky. At the point in time, I was in school and I do not have a router with me. Neither do I have phone which is smart enough to be an access point. Instead, I was running that network off my laptop. I forgotten to switch it off at that point in time.

Windows has the capabilities to do so. However, it can be quite troublesome. And I do not have the time to manually set up a hotspot for my laptop. Instead, I turn to Connectify.

Connectify is a software that enables you to share your internet connection via wifi, thus becoming a hotspot of its own. It can also turn your laptop or computer (as long as there is a wifi card on it) into a repeater, thus extending the range of your network. It makes everything fuss-free by automating the hotstop set-up.

I have been using this software since June and it has helped me to mainly connect my devices to the internet. However, do note that using this software may violate the network’s AUP. A negative scenario can be: Connectify User (CU) decides to share his office network, which somehow spills over into the neighbouring cafe, with external parties such as visiting friends and business partners. By using Connectify, the network is shared. However, what is unknown to CU is that one of the connected device has a hidden payload waiting to be activated… OK. Enough of the negative stuff. I doubt it will happen anyway. It is a great tool and when used responsibly.

Connectify comes in two flavours: free and paid. The free version is sufficient for daily usage, while the paid one… Till now I have no idea how much of the paid features I will be using. Download the free version and give it a twirl. But please, do not kill the airwaves with too many new connectify networks.

Disclaimer: Other than using Connectify for my personal use, I do not have any connections with the firm/group behind this software. I don’t mind a free license key to the latest version though. Heh.

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