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Dear All,

All Future Posts of Jerry's Alter Ego will be found HERE, thanks for your support!

JerryWho

JerryWho's Blog Version 2.0

It's been a while since I first made my Web presense in 1999 with Geocities. Those days, we had to learn HTML and do our own coding with Notepad. Now, entering the Blog Era, life is much simpler.

Since April this year, I became slightly more active online and took on JerryWho as my handle, during my In.Tech days, I have been lurking around the Web with the nick Ammut, the name I used when we played networked games in the office (I initially called myself "Jesus", and as I get killed, the noticeboard screamed "Love* Fragged Jesus", which prompted an outcry to change that biblical nick of mine).


Anyway, as I spent more time blogging, my Blogger accounts grew, and I thought now would be the best time to move on to my own server.

So, Here You GO!

I Present To You, Jerry's Alter Ego V2.0

*Love is Wee Chun Chuan's nick

My Cluttered Desktop

Today, is the Festival of Lights for some, but for me, it's a day of pure boredom, I have no where to go, nothing to do, except sitting in front of my computer monitors.

Of course, in oder to make things more interesting, I moved my PowerBook from the bedroom to the living room, then back to the bedroom and then into the video editing room... all the while doing the same thing: writing my script and checking emails.

This series of uneventful events prompted me to get out of the house. And I went to Ikano Power Centre's Popular Bookstore.

Last week, while in Singapore, I managed to resist the temptation to buy the book iCon. This time, a book with a MacHead* on its cover caught my eyes.

It was expansive, but I had a discount card.

People used to say a person's work desk determines what kind of a person he is. I have 3 work desks, the one pictured above is one that I used most at night.

*The Cult Of Mac, by Leander Kahney -- It will share the same shelf space of my collection of Mac Design books.

A Cousin's Wedding > Freedom!

Her's is a story of a classic over-achiever.

She gets straight A's in school, gets her ABRSM Grade 8 in Piano, goes through the University with not much of an effort, found herself jobs and flew all over the world.

She braved the colds on a god-forsaken island in Russia (off the coast of Hokkaido, Japan). She spent time in Europe, and the UK. And in general stay out of the country most part of her life.

It puzzles me all the time, as she does not look the adventurous type, and my guess is, she was running away so she can enjoy more freedom.

Smart minds loved to have the space to roam, to soar without the confines of rules and regulations, or fear the consequences of breaking unwritten rules of the house. We come from a big family with a lot of traditional baggage; her family house is always quiet, except, of course, when I visited them and introduced noise.

So, she has gotten married yesterday, I was the self-appointed photo-documentor for the family, so I brought my camera along and took some pictures (300 in total) of her and my extended family from my mother's side.

She was blissful, he wasn't (and I am not referring to her husband) as they walked down the aisle.

This post is to commemorate her blissful attainment of such freedom. Double-clicking the picture on the right will download a copy of my photo essay of this happy event.

Congrats! May God Bless You with 5 Children, and enjoy life to the fullest!

Yes, I Was There.

I spent a day in Esplanade, Singapore's version of Sydney Opera House, admiring the public installations put together by a group of young Singaporean artists.
What really surprises me was the fact that they allowed Breakdancing and Rollerblading at the Basement of Esplanade.

Try doing this in KLCC's Symphonic hall, and you'll end up in the lockup, awaiting bail. Such is the difference between the people living on either ends of the causeway.

But it was indeed a pleasant afternoon. And I took the above picture (with me in it) as a proof of my existence.

Rosa Parks: Think Different

Let us all observe a moment of silence for the passing of a Hero.

Here's something about her [taken from Apple Computer website]:

Born Rosa Louise McCauley on February 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama, Parks was the first child of James and Leona Edwards McCauley; her brother Sylvester was born in 1915. The family later moved to Pine Level, Alabama, where Rosa grew up attending rural schools.

When Rosa completed her education at Pine Level at age 11, her mother enrolled her in Montgomery Industrial School for Girls. From there Rosa went on the Alabama State Teacher's College High School, although her grandmother's illness and subsequent death prevented her from graduating with the rest of her class.

Rosa married Raymond Parks in 1932. Raymond supported Rosa's desire to complete her formal education, and she went on to receive her high school diploma in 1934. The couple worked together in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) programs. Rosa became a secretary and later a youth leader of the local branch of the NAACP; she was preparing for a major youth conference at the time of her arrest.

The incident in Montgomery transformed Rosa Parks into a national figure and a major role model as well. She went on to work for U.S. Rep. John Conyers of Michigan. After Raymond's death, she co-founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development. She also co-authored four books "X'Rosa Parks: My Story" (with Jim Haskins), "Quiet Strength" (with Gregory J. Reed), "Dear Mrs. Parks: A Dialogue with Today"s Youth" (with Gregory J. Reed), and "I Am Rosa Parks" (with Jim Haskins).

Hundreds of American institutions paid tribute to this remarkable woman during her lifetime: Mrs. Parks received a number of honorary doctoral degrees, countless plaques, awards and citations, and keys to several cities. Among her honors were the NAACP's Springarn Medal, the UAW's Social Justice Award, the Martin Luther King Jr. Non-Violent Peace Prize, the Roger Joseph Prize from Hebrew Union College, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

My Mobile Phones > Past and Present

Yes, my mobile communication past began with a Motorola StarTac (this is the 10th anniversary of the phone's existence). That was back in the mid Nineties, it was a black coloured clamshell blocky phone that has a horrendously huge battery charger cum docking station where you can charge 2 batteries at the same time.

Yes, those were the days when you HAVE TO take extra batteries with you if you plan on spending the day out.

Later, I was given a StarTac 8400 International mobile phone, that was a pretty good flip phone with very nice and "big" display. Those days, that was state-of-the-arts.

Then I bought an Audiovox mobile phone, which I upgraded to a Kenwood branded Nortel mobile (they are so rare I can's find photographs of them on the Web).

Anyway, I quickly upgraded to the Panasonic GD90, which was stolen when I was waiting to board a 170 SBS Bus at the bus stop outside the train station in Johore Bahru. On the same day I lost the phone, I replaced it with a Motorola StarTac V (in my humble opinion those days, Motorola is a phone maker, as Omega is a watch maker).

That phone stayed with me for approximately 6 months, and was stolen in my office in Tampines.

Then, I jumped onto the Nokia bandwagon and bought the most expansive of the lot, the Nokia 8850.

That phone became my main mobile communicator and remained by my side for almost 3 years, till Bluetooth became essential. I bought a Tungsten, and paired it with a Ericsson T39m. It worked like a charm until I caught the PDA phone bug, and bought an O2 phone.

That was the worst phone I ever owned. I ditched it and bought the black Sony Ericsson T630.

And then, that was stolen again.

Jumping back to the Nokia 8850 for help, the screen died on me, and I bought a really cheap Nokia 8250 as a temp mobile.

So, last week, I bought the phone I am using now: a Sony Ericsson Walkman phone, the W550i.

It does everything I need it to do except 3G. Since real 3G applications and contents are not out there in the wild yet, I guess I can wait for the W900 to surface.

To date, I have lost 3 mobile phones that cost in total RM7,000.

GOSH! Have I spent so much on mobile phones alone?

My 15 Minutes of Fame

We launched the Asia Pacific YoYo Championship 2005 in Sunway Pyramid last week. With a turn out of about 15 members of the press, we made the announcement that the event will be the largest of its kind in the world, in terms of number of participants.Since I am going to produce a documentary about the YoYo Community of the Asia Pacific, the event gives me great insights into the minds of these people who lives by the thread that clings on to a tiny piece of spinning discs.

I followed the entourage onto the Hills (Genting Highlands) where they performed to a small crowd, and was impressed by the routine they did.

If you can find the time, drop by Genting Highlands on December 9, entry is free.

20% More... PIXELS!

I was busy trying out some broadcast software when my alarm clock reminded me that the special event at Apple was over. As if possessed, my fingers instinctively type the URL and the new PowerBooks were staring squarely at me, on my "old" PowerBook's screen.

20% More Pixels.
Optical Digital Audio Output
Faster System Bus
Dual Layer DVD 8x Writer
2x more Video RAM
Dual Link DVI

Same CPU Clock Speed.
Same Price.

Hmmm... I will wait for the next upgrade.

But if you need a PowerBook, now is the time. The end of the PowerPC Era is near.

Yamaha Presents: teroni-on

Yes, it is now official: the Tamagochi Generation has grown up.

This oversize Tamagochi is not your RM45 plastic toy that yearns for your tender loving care.

It's a musical instrument!

Question is, will you give up 10 years of your piano or violin training to play this monophonic instrument?

I am feeling the 5G iPod Gravitational Pull...

i woke up to the alarm clock reminding me to find out what on Earth is Steve's "One More Thing..."

and as expected. it was the video iPod. and the moment i read the news, my first reaction was: "Thank Goodness I did not buy the Nano!"

I have 9,000 songs on my 3G iPod (now playing happily) and I need space to put the rest of my library into the player. 60GB is great news, and video!!!?? that's fantastic news!

Now I won't need to lug a folder of DVDs when I travel. Yippie!

submission: the housemate

Me, over 15 years ago.

After previewing to friends and foes around me, I have made all necessary edits to make the final cut of my short film more logical till the wee hours of the night last night.

So, this morning, I had to go get my passport size pictures and photocopies of my NRIC... but it started raining cats and dogs later in the afternoon and I was feeling lazy, to go to the photo service centres to have my pictures taken... that was when an idea struck: why don't I make my own pictures?

Digging through my pile of things, I found a stack of 4x6 HP photo paper and printed a picture of mine on it.

After cutting the pictures to size, the pictures looked convincing.

By 4:30pm, I was already on my way to Astro with the package in my bag.

1 day before deadline: I have submitted my entry.

Wish Me Luck.

Happy 20th Anniversary!

Life was a lot simpler back then. I woke up early, skipped breakfast and drove 2 hours to work.

Yeah, 2 hours is on a normal day, back then, Samy hasn't gotten the highway done up yet, but even now, the place is still jammed packed -- Samy still hasn't gotten it right yet.

I drove along Old Klang Road, hitting the old town junction, and drove along Jalan Gasing to work.

Life as a technology journalist wasn't that bad. We attended seminars and learned new things everyday, bitched about people and competition, and played a game or two if you were hustled to be a victim, and had coffee at the coffee place near our office.

It was a simple life.

Good to see that all are happy and well.

Happy 20th Anniversary, in�Etech!

Completion! for now...

After three whole days of moving, rearranging and carrying super heavy stuffs without breaking my back, my place finally took shape.

The new Final Cut Pro studio is finally tied-in to my MIDI system along with all the audio gadgets. And I have finally gotten the video camera in the vocal booth working so I can monitor the voice talent from my studio upstairs.

The next few days will be spent tuning the acoustics of the room and generally finding ways to keep sound from straying out of my place. I am probably the noisiest house in the whole area, so keeping the dBm low is key to peaceful living in my neighbourhood.

Anyhow, the above picture shows a small part of the room, here you'll see my PowerBook, the PowerMac G4 Cube, a Juno 60 keyboard controller, the Akai sampler, loads of sound modules and the classic Roland R8 drum machine, along with my Joemeek tube microphone pre-amp.

Call me hardcore, but this set up is modest among professional musicians.

....................................................................

Today I finally put GarageBand to a test in a real world scenario: while working on 7's audio project, I decided to give the software instruments a try. With the latest drivers installed, GarageBand detected my Tascam 224 as a 2 in/2 out MIDI interface, so, I gave it a go with the music arrangement.

Though I prefer my Akai Grand Piano samples over GrageBand's built-in offerings, the voicing was respectable. Tones and timbres are rich and I could get away with simpler arrangements without using pads to cover up sample flaws.

On the project, I recorded multiple tracks of vocals and I attempted to comp them into one nice track, this, I find an extremely difficult task to complete in GarageBand: compared to other software such as MOTU Figital Performer or Digidesign ProTools, both of whith I've used extensively.

For an entry level software, it's a pleasant surprise when I noticed the inclusion of pitch corrections. To have this feature in ProTools, you'll need to buy a plug-in, but the feature is a built-in function, so, it'll be super easy for you to create the Cher trademarked "Believe" effect in GarageBand.

Just make sure you sing as well as she does.


But then again, God is fair, isn't it?

Major, Major Makeover

I have that 3-month itch again: to re-decorate my house.

I have been doing this since my secondary school days -- I will move things around, and basically change the position of everything in the room every now and then.

Two days ago, while looking for my missing passport, I felt that itch again, so...

I am still at it, the house is in a mess... but I managed to put some of my Macintosh collections on display...

In one of the cubicles, is Apple's Newton 2000 PDA.

Also, you'll see the ColorClassic, the Macintosh SE, and the PowerMacintosh G4 Cube.

Scattered around are some old Sony Walkman and MD Walkman...

This is still work in progress, and I am dead tired.

Sigh... I am getting old...

14 Days: No More, No Less.

Fourteen days after I sent in my iPod, I have decided to give our friendly AppleCare people a call, since they did not call me to tell me if JerryPod is back in order (and they promised to call).

Since they didn't call, I assumed the stock hasn't arrived yet.

After waiting on the line for a short while, the guy picked up the phone and told me the impossible: the stock has arrived.

But why didn't he call me?

I had to pay him and say think you while he made me wait? what if I didn't take the initiative to call him?

Bloody hell.

God needs to punish people like these.

As for the mode of punishment, I suggest lightning strike.

And hence, I went home with the new JerryPod and retracted my car's radio antennae as I am back to listening to Podcasts in my car.

Speaking of radio, as I was iPod-less for a few months, I have been listening to a local radio station with programming that are not meant for the intellectually challenged, although some of the callers are close to being idiotic, I applaud the station's intent to bring the so-called alternative voice to the public.

Well, the station will officially be closed down on the 15th of October 2005.

Although the station was ordered to close down on August 31, opposing voices made the authority retracted the off-air order. This time around, it's the license holder who is willingly closing down the station.

Do I smell something fishy here, but then again, I might just be imagining things.

So, the public has started a campaign to try to save the station, as follows is an open letter:

..........................................................................

To: Dato Seri Dr Lim Kheng Yaik, Minister of Energy, Water and Telecommunication, Malaysia
To:
1. Dato Seri Dr. Lim Kheng Yaik, Minister of Energy, Water and Telecommunications
2. Media Prima Bhd
3. Natseven Sdn Bhd

We, the undersigned, would like to express our views on Natseven Sdn Bhd decision to make WAFM off air temporarily starting from 15 October 2005:

I. WA FM is a very popular radio station which produces high quality programmes and therefore we feel that making it off air even temporarily would not only amount to great loss to the general public but also detrimental in maintaining competitiveness of the station.
II. We feel that with the established and continuing support from the audiences, WA FM should not have too much problem generating profits for her parent companies though we do not deny there is room for improvement.
III. We also feel that any rebranding and debt restructuring exercises can be and should be performed without disrupting the normal broadcasting function of WA FM

Therefore, we, the undersigned,strongly urge the relevant parties to:

1. Work towards reviewing the decision to temporarily cease WA FM broadcast starting from 15 October 2005.
2. Clarify misperception that WA FM is responsible for the entire debt of Synchrosound Studio Sdn Bhd.
3. Set up and maintain a strong marketing team so as to realize the vast advertising income potential of WA FM.

Sincerely,



..........................................................................
Although I think this is going to ba a futile mission, give them a hand if you think freedom of speech in the public is something really important.

Personally, I think the station's DJ speaks bad Mandarin, and has horrible musical tastes, but it is rather entertaining listening to the so-called experts who called in.

The station is known as Wa FM (in hokkien, "wa" means "mine"), so, you tell me, what's in a name?

Follow this Link to Support Them.

housemate frenzy

Housemate (2005)
Producer: JerryWho
Duration: 11'44"
Language: Mandarin with English subtitle

Finally, I have found the time to shoot a shortfilm to compete in this year's Astro Chinese Short Film Awards. Since I see myself as an expert ghost storyteller, I figured I might as well put together a screenplay based on some of my experiences.

And for people who know me, some of my encounters range from scary to very scary. In order not to cause widespread panic and thus my chances of winning anything at all, I have decided to pick some really mild stories and piece them together into this short piece of work.

This is one project that has taken over 3 years to realize. It began with a bunch of friends from cyberland who are more virtual than reality; we had loads of discussions, and things seemed to be moving forward but suddenly stalled. That was my first taste of people who talk but not walk.

A year later, Astro organised the competion with Canon on the second year, being busy, I was certain I didn't have the time to do it that year, with or without friends. But I kept on working on my screenplay.

Finally, 2 weeks before the September 30th deadline of the contest for the third year, I told myself I better do it, or I will be no different from those people.

So, last Monday, with the help from 7 and MM, we shot the entire principal photography in 4 hours on location borrowed from MM's friend.

Weird things happened as we went along - I had an entire scene missing from footage.

But I finally finished cutting the short on the day after shoot, and did music and effects on the following day. Sound effects work was a long and painful process - scary films call for scary sounds, and I have a lot of those lying around.

I spent the rest of the third day working on the music, I composed, arranged and recorded a new track for the end credit run. It was a good experience as I had to practise my guitar playing and generally reconnect with the musical side of me.

MM recorded two nursery tunes that were transformed into some scary stuffs.

Total time taken to work on the project, excluding dreaming up the story: 4 days.

Pre-production was about 25-minutes, the time taken for me to drive from Cheras to my house in PH - the storyline was formalised as I drove home one night 2 weeks ago.

Anyway, the end result was okay, the short has an eerie feel to it, which I guess should be fine.

Wish me luck.

Radio Headphones

I don't know if you can remember back in the 70's FM portable radios comes in the form of a pair of huge headphones. These were quite popular for those on-the-move - great if you want to go skating or jogging.

Years later, with the digital revolution, an MP3 player cum FM radio was released. Evergreen (Japan) released two models in its newest MP3 player line, dubbed the EG-HPM, on September 22nd. The audio player is a neckband headphone type of player, which from appearances looks like it wraps around your neck and the headphone part rests comfortably on one��s ears.

The EG-HPM will come in 256MB (�D12,800 about MYR430) and 512MB (�D14,800 about MYR500). The player will be initially available on Evergreen��s website, and will also be available at stores throughout Japan.

Frankly, I was attracted by this gadget... fortunately the player is only available in Japan, and I won't be going there in the near future (or is it... ?)

Does iPhoto 5 Cut It?

I am not a huge fan of Apple's iLife suite: I prefer Final Cut Pro over iMovie, Soundtrack Pro and Digital Performer over Garange Band, DVD Studio Pro over iDVD and iView Media Pro over iPhoto.

My main problem with iPhoto, is the way it forces my files to be saved in a way I am not happy with, and the speed of the software displaying pictures are not as smooth as iVuew Media Pro. As I am writing this entry, I am finally giving iPhoto another chance - I am importing pictures into iPhoto and see how version 5.01 handles files and refresh rates.

I really hope it surprises me.

.................................................................................

I have imported 650 photographs, the refresh rate of thumbnails has improved, but I don't know if this has anything to do with my 1.25GB of RAM. But the speed has improved dramatically.

My gripe remains, however, is the way it saves files, I am now checking out the ways to keep my files organised in a way that I can find the files easily.

It should organise files the way iTunes does the files, now, it's impossibly difficult to find image files... maybe I need to get used to this...

It copied everything into the iPhoto library, instead of moving the files over. So it duplicated the 1.7GB worth of files on my hard disk, for the newbies, they will probably panic because their hard disk was eaten up in an alarming rate.

.................................................................................

You might want to know my verdict: I will stick to iView Media Pro - moments after I imported the photographs, iPhoto stopped responding.

Photoshop users should stick to the file browser and Adobe Bridge, professionals don't have the time to restart applications and try to fix them.

I guess Apple needs to relook at this.

Low Tech Theatre

The local Chinese theatre scene is a proliferate one; they try their best to come up with some performance on a regular basis.

Their shows are presented in small theatres that can cramp about 50 odd people with a stage that is barely large enough for a class of students.

The sound system is mono, which means sound only comes from one direction.

The lights are hung from rails that look like they will fall from the ceiling any time.

The seats, are plastic chairs you normally find at most Mamak Stalls.

But that didn't stop people from coming. The performers hard at work, and the audience, seemingly fascinated.

I am a difficult lad to please, as I was pampered by high tech stuffs... smokes and mirrors are the bare minimum, stereo multi speakers systems with sub woofers are the bare basics.

So, when I attend these drama performances, I suffer greatly from my high tech background; the low tech approach of the local Chinese theatre angers me because there are ways to make the drama more dramatic with the help of simple low tech innovations.

I blame the people's lack of drive to learn, their inability to embrace technology and the refusal to learn angers me.

But, that's just me.

If you are one of the people involved in Chinese theatre and are reading this (which means you read English), leave me a message.

Let's see what we can do.

14: Apple Malaysia Repair Turnaround Time

FOURTEEN FREAKING DAYS!

Even if you have MARNEE to pay them.

By now, everyone who knows me, and some who don't, know that I have accidentally dropped my iPod (his name is JerryPod) and it is now in Apple custody for replacement.

And to think we are three-and-a-half freaking hours drive away from Singapore we should be okay right?

The lorry drivers who zoom along the North-South Highway can do 150km/h with their eyes closed right?

So, when Apple tells you, "we will get you a replacement unit in 7 days" is an underpromise-over-deliver strategy, right?

NOOOOO MANNN!!

I called 7 days after I was sure JerryPod has reached the hands of the people at the AppleCare Centre and 10 days after I handed it to a friendly guy at the AppleCentre (who took two days to hand the unit over to the service centre), and the answer was: "Sorry, Mr Who, I have checked the status of the iPod and found out that is out of stock!"

BLOODY HELL!

Out of Stock then keep quiet quiet, also never call me to make me feel better, wait till I call then go check!

This is not good! so I asked the fellow how long more must I wait.

"They said next shipment coming," he said, voice shivering, I was sure.

"Next shipment coming when?" I demanded.

"Dunno... maybe 1 week?" he lied, because I know this: no one knows, not even god himself (I meant Steve Jobs), knows, unless he called Singapore, where the phones were often left to ring on the hook until the voice activated system takes over.

"You sure? One Week?" I asked, "for the record?"

Unknowingly, my journalistic tone leaked and I was sure that freaked him out.

"They said next shipment coming, I'll call you when it arrives, maybe one week," he said, this time not so confidently.

MAYBE ONE WEEK?

So, by now, September 23, JerryPod has been in Apple for over 10 days, and counting.

Our Taiwanese friends takes about 14 days to get their parts and stocks, I wonder if I need to wait longer than them.

And TAIWAN IS FOUR HOURS FLIGHT FROM SINGAPORE!!!!!!

And to remind you, they are just replacing the iPod, not REPAIRING it! how difficult is that?

Take one unit from the shelf and pass it to me and then say "THANK YOU" as I paid them?

Man In Mask

No, I wasn't wearing a white ski mask to match the colour of the iPod and iBook to show support.

But if everyone uses a picture like this on their NRIC, we will all look alike and peace will be on Earth, right?

Then no one will be unique and thus everyone can be anyone? *shudders* this is bad.

But, such is the current status of cosmetic technology: Facial on Demand.

The FoD technology has made every self-respecting Metrolsexual Men (or those who wouldn't admit it) to have their face whitened at home.

At least you know you'll be using some non-animal tested cream that will not make your nose drop like one particular King of Pop we know.

My user experience? Pulling a straight face - yes, I kept that expression on - for 15 minutes and no talking can be a pain in the A$$.

So here's a checklist:

But do I feel prettier? -- Not really,

My face feels cleaner? -- Not really,

Am I whitened? -- Not really,

Sigh... what does this thing really do?

Steve, In Person

A couple of years ago, I was invited by the fruity company to attend one of the last Macworlds supported by the computer company in New York. That was also my last outing as a technology journalist even though I wasn't there on assignment.

The year they launched the first iBook.

After the keynote address, we were herded into a packed room with reporters from all over the tech world. I found myself a nice seat in front of a group of Japanese journalists. While most of us have upgraded to the PowerBook G3, the Japanese were still obsessed with the miniscule PowerBook 2400; almost all the Japanese journalists were using that little wonder.

We waited for a while before the whole group of management team from the company took the stage.

That was the second time I met him, the first was six months before where I visited Cupertino.

The journalists shot questions about the new machines and Steve was talking about the successful launch of the products.

That was when I raised my hand and asked: "Steve... what happened to Mac OS X Server? did it sell well?"

Bwahahaa... I was dead sure I was sucked into Steve's alternate reality force field for a while as I cannot remember his answer. or if he had given me an answer at all.

Anyway, I took pictures of the group on stage. On the Left, is Jonathan Ive, the Aston Martin guy who had a hand in most of the company's product designs.

I had a great time that year, in New York, and I wonder if Malaysia's Status of the Macintosh reporting has improved since the days when we were making headways in tech journalism.

It's a pity the local papers are more interested in AFP or other syndicated news sources nowadays.

A Series Of Unfortunate Events Of JerryWho

Dear Reader,

If I were you, I would immediately turn your computer off rather than view any of the dreadful images, read any of the wretched information, laugh at any of the unnerving jokes or examine the unpleasant toys presented within this post.

You, the unwary computer user, are only a click away from learning more about A Series Of Unfortunate Events, a terrible collection of happenings that spoiled my otherwise happy and uneventful day of my life.

It began like any other day, when I woke up to the noise coming from downstairs: the TV, I told myself... but I was alone in the house... then my logical mind told me it must be my parents, because they are the ones who have the keys to my house.

Freshened, I went downstairs to find my mum making breakfast, and my dad having Nasi Lemak in the living room.

"We bought your share," Mum announced.

"Where is the Road Tax certificate?" my Dad asked.

"Err... I will pick it up from the insurance guy later," I told him.

"Eat your Nasi Lemak!" Mum ordered.

Dropping my work on hand, I took a fork and dug through the packet of rice.

"Here, have your red bean soup!" Mum shoved a huge Korean bowl of sweetened red bean soup in my face.

"Okay..." I poured the contents into my mouth and went back to work...

Then, an SMS message from HUE: "hey do u have summons to pay? i think tomorow 's the lst day."

He reminded me that if we don't pay up by tomorrow, we'll miss the 50% discount our friendly Royal Police Force offered those who ran the red lights and broken a rule or two.

"i think we have to go to MV to pay b4 4pmlah... i have one. :( i think its RM50," he added.

Since I have 2 fines to settle, I told him I'll be there.

On the way out, I dropped by the Insurance Agent, who was unfortunately missing in action.

A Malay lady came out from the back of his dubious-looking office and told me to call the numbers that were printed on the namecards stacked neatly on the table in the office.

Following instructions, I called.

"Yes! I am Mr Ng ah... You want to do road tax? what car you have?" he asked, in a friendly tone.

So, I explained what I needed him to help, telling him that my car will be unfit for the road in 5 days.

"Don't worry... we have a lot of time... I have a dinner appointment, can we meet in the morning?" he said confidently.

"Okay, I guess..." I muttered.

"Don't worry... I meet you tomorrow!" very reassuring, I thought.

So I hopped into my car and drove towards Mid Valley, Asia's Largest Shopping Mall, or so it claims...

The drive towards the Mall wasn't that bad, no traffic jams and all.

HUE called me on the phone to see if I was on my way, and since I was just leaving the carpark, I said I was, and would be meeting him in 20 minutes.

Parking, I SMS'ed HUE and found that he was just parking too.

I surfaced from the basement carpark and found the Pondok Polis (Police Hut, literally) on the ground floor situated next to the bank.

I walked passed the Pondok and found a handwritten notice that says "Bayar Saman, Trafik, TQ"

Puzzled, I went to the bank to deposit a cheque before I came back out to find out more about the notice.

Unfortunately, I am out of luck: "You have to go to Bukit Aman to pay the fines," one friendly Malaysian Polis told me.

Bukit Aman? that's very far away, and out of the way!

"I think we found the wrong police station," I called HUE, "looks like we have to go to a traffic police station."

"Yeah..."

But it was alread 4PM and it was too late to go anywhere.

"Lets get some lunch!" I offered.

"Okay..." HUE agreed, and we walked to the food court for lunch.

While standing inline for my Kakak's Special Curry Laksa, an ugly man cut my queue and called me "uncle".

Unfortunately I was too hungry to make any noise.

Finishing lunch... I gotten a call from MM, and decided to head home.

It was raining heavily and the unfortunate thing to happen was: I was running out of petrol and I missed a turn and had to make an unfortunaly huge detour to get home.

Home, MM and I went out to get some more food and decided we go watch a movie at Summit.

Land Of The Dead's zombies were not as unfortunate as me: as we were leaving the THX theatre, I realised my pocket was empty: I have lost my mobile phone!

My black Sony Ericsson T630!

We searched the theatre and I quickly rushed to the box office to seek help, hoping that the nice people at the box office could try to call my number to see if anyone would pick up the call.

Unfortunately, the guys at the box office were not so nice, and didn't help at all, so, I hurried to the nearest public phone booth to make a call.

Unfortunately, the phone was already switched off: the unfortunate tell-tale sign of your phone being stolen.

Not knowing the Maxis number to call to report my unfortunate story, I had to rush home to get the number.

"I am sorry to hear that, sir," the guy at the other end of the line said politely, and I could tell from his tone of voice, he wasn't sorry at all, "you can pick up your new sim card at any Maxis Centre, but you have to pay 60 ringgit."

Huh? I am the victim here, I just lost a 1500 ringgit mobile phone and I am being punished for it?

How more unfortunate can your life be?

AND TO THE GUY WHO STOLE MY PHONE: KNNBCCB, I wish even more unfortunate things will happen to you... YES! I curse you in the name of the cyberGODs ...nabeh! may you die of some unfortunate illness that makes you suffer 5 years that begins with you losing your dick before you lose all your hair!

... so now, here I am, dear reader, in this unfortunate crossroad of deciding between a 3G mobile phone or the Sony Ericsson W800i, and unfortunately, I am still undecided.

sigh...

I have made a solemn vow to present this information to the general public, but there is no reason why you should follow any of my stories to begin the perilous journey into A Series Of Unfortunate Events.

With all due respect,

JerryWho

More Canon XL H1 Details

I copied this from the DV Magazine, it details the specs of the Canon XL H1.

My observations should follow shortly.


Last but not least? The Canon XL H1 enters the HDV camera market at $8,999, which includes the price of the removable lens.

Canon Announces HDV Camera
by Kimberly Reed

Canon entered the HDV camera fray by announcing the XL H1. The new camera looks like a black version of the XL1 or XL2 with a few extra buttons and features. It's built around three 1/3-inch native 16:9 CCDs with a resolution of 1440 x 1080.

The XL H1 shoots 60i and two Frame modes of 30f and 24f. The Frame mode is similar to early Canon digital camcorders--it's not technically a progressive frame because the CCDs aren't progressive, but fields are interpolated and reinterlaced in Canon's proprietary method to allow the "f" frames to behave just like "p" frames during postproduction. Canon representatives said their method would work much better than other manufacturers' attempts at 24p-like HDV (read Sony).

The hefty camcorder comes with an interchangeable 20 X HD video zoom lens with Optical Image Stabilization. Representatives weren't stating lens resolution figures as of press time, but f-stop ranges from f/1.6 to f/3.5. Focusing distance at wide angle is just 20 mm. It will be interesting to compare the quality of this lens with the Fujinon lens that comes with the JVC HD100 HDV camcorder, the closest competitor to the XL H1 in features and price. Stay tuned for more on that comparison in a future issue of DV.

Although it sounds like an option, Canon's "professional jackpack" is built into every XL H1 and provides some of the most unique features of the camera. It enables uncompressed digital HD-SDI 60i output, Genlock, and SMPTE timecode in and out. The combination of these three features will interest broadcasters who haven't considered Canon cameras before, potentially opening up a new market segment for Canon.

The XL H1 is the first camera to use Canon's proprietary Digic DV II image processor for HD, SD, and still photo processing. It records to HDV or miniDV tapes.

Building on a trend started with the XL2, Canon lets this camera's users customize recording parameters such as color matrix, cine gamma, color gain, hue, master color, knee, black stretch, horizontal detail, sharpness, and noise reduction. For $599 extra, Canon is also releasing Console image control software, which remotely controls camera settings and provides on-set image analysis tools in the same vein as Serious Magic DV Rack. Camera profiles can be stored to flash disk and used to set up other cameras.

The camera can also serve as a still camera in two different modes. Pictures can be snapped while the camera is running, sending 1920 x 1080 dpi 2.1-megapixel images with recording info metadata to standard Secure Digital (SD) or MMC media cards. If the camera is switched into photo-only mode, it can capture up to 5 frames per second, and EOS flash units can even be used.

The XL H1 camcorder with the 20 X HD lens will be available in November 2005 for an estimated selling price of $8,999.

Kimberly Reed is editor-in-chief of DV.

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It started some 10 years ago, when I met these bunch of kids in church.

SP is the blur toad who never fails to not catch our jokes, BC is the one who makes sure we have some food, and HUEY and LS are always looking for alternative entertainments.

So, I used to drive them around in my car, and even though people at the church made loads of noise about us being indecent, we didn't care.


Fast forward to 10 years later, we had HUEY's favourite BBQ party at the apartment where he shares with LS, SP is married with a girl, and another one coming, and BC was harping about his.

And most importantly, we are still together, in a way at least, we still meet up every now and then, though BC is the glue to make sure we come back together for a drink, or tea. Soon the little ones will be running around and I think that is going to be fun. One day!

Happy Mid Autumn Festival! One and All.

rm780 "only"

I know, I know, people have been telling me it's a bitch to fix the iPod. And even if you have extended warranty, the HDD is not covered. And since it's not covered, and I figured the HDD is the first thing to create problem in a HDD-based playback system, I didn't take up the iPod AppleCare offer.

So, the story continues as I took out my now defunct iPod and removed the clear plastic screen protector I bought in Akiba, and put the iPod into a nice velvet sleeve and headed towards the friendly fruit stall.

Sun the guy at the stall lifted up the iPod as I took it out of the sleeve and admired at the "newness" of the iPod.

"Whoa! still so shinny!" he said, and seemingly looking for something... "where's the dent?" he looked puzzled.

Dent? my iPod? dented? I realised he was looking for a smoking gun.

"No dent! of course, i think it cannot take 1 Hertz shocks," I said.

"1 Hertz?" he asked.

"Ya, it fell face down, in a very expansive leather pouch and dropped on the floor, 1 pop, didn't bounced, 1 Hertz, technically," I explained to him, in a clam, polite tone.

"Okay..." he said, still looking confused, "I will write you a repair note and send it in."

"Okay," I said, "just let me know if it'll cost me an arm and a leg."

"Sure!" he heartily agreed.

Days later, a call from him told me Apple doesn't repair faulty HDD, but they can sell me a new unit while taking back the old as a "trade-in".

"780 bucks," he said, after an exhaustive explanation of my plight.

"I'll think about it," I said.

Then my brain went overdrive doing maths: the Nano: 1,280, 4GB, my 3G: 780 to replace, 40GB. My iTunes library size to date: 45GB.

The decision was easy to make, I called him again that I'll take the deal.

"It'll take 7 days for this to be processed," he said.

"Can I upgrade?" I tried.

"Nope, that's the deal," he said sternly.

A Deal is A Deal, I guess... and Sun is a nice guy...

"Oh well... I am the one who dropped the iPod!" I lamented.

Sigh... let's hope the "new" unit is as shinny as my old unit.

Mine Looked Like NEW, remember?

Finally! A Canon I want to own!

People who know me know I am a Nikon guy. I have a collection of Nikon lenses and bodies and I have grown accustomed to the way the camera maker designs cameras. In other words, I don't need to see to know which button I pushed or what function I have selected.

They will also know that I am a Sony guy when it came to video cameras, I have the PC110, PC115 as well as the DVX2000, all very nice cameras that gave great results.

People know know me know I am not too much of a Canon person because I don't quite like the "soft focus" pictures the XL series rendered.

But recently, I have been looking at the HDV cameras the various makers have to offer, and there aren't many, to begin with, considering my small budget.

I have tried the JVC HDV cameras, as well as the Sony HDV cameras, both have their merits but haven't gotten my nod of approval... but this new toy from Canon might just be the first Canon I want to buy.

Best of all, the camera comes in BLACK colour!! The Canon XL H1 has an improved 3 1.67-mega-pixel-CCD and an interchangeable lens system that can be connected to the Canon XL universe of gadgets... let's hope this fellow is affordable in my part of the world.

One thing I really don't understand is why must Canon stick to the odd shaped chasis design of the XL series; it doesn't make sense at all, the camera is front heavy unless you load up the back with the options. Anyway, there are people who like the design and I am not saying they are wrong...

Let me go bug my friends at the shop and let you know what my findings are later...

Going to HK to buy the nano, anyone?

I was checking out the prices of iPod products between Asian countries and had a shocking find: the nano is cheaper by almost RM300 in Hong Kong!

Looks like a trip to the Smallest Disney in the World is imminent.

Cause and Effect

What brews Domestic Terrorism?

Poverty? Constant Opression?

Anyone?

help.Mac.to

I have been following this thread for a while.

Mac users of the world, shouldn't we give our brothers a helping hand?

Where Were You? When It Happened?

It was 9:40PM some four years ago.

I was about to sit down to eat my Teowchew Mui (Teow Chew Porridge) with my parents who have just returned from Shanghai in USJ Taipan when the first hint of trouble came from Hong Kong: "a plane crashed into the Twin Towers" a friend told me in an SMS text message sent from the former British Colony.

"You must be joking" I replied.

"No! I am watching CNN now!" he wrote, "go ask you journalist friends for details!"

Dropping the spoon, I quickly called a friend in Singapore who is watching Fox News and confirmed the story.

"Terrorist?" I sent him a message.

"Maybe," he replied, "but this is just like the Hollywood movies!"

I then told my parents to quickly finish supper and head home.

My television was left switched on for the next 2 weeks.

And in that two weeks, we were given a new definition of the word "Terrorism": it is now defined as the anti-American-way-of-life.

I chuckled when I heard the POTUS said that, try saying that in a straight face and act like you mean what you said yourself, and you'll know why I laughed.

While I detest the way 6,000 lives were taken away, I applaud the way the British responded when they were bombed in London. Instead of starting another war thousands of miles away, they did what they should do: they fought the "war" in the battleground where the fight should have been - AT HOME.

Sometimes, your greatest enemy is none other than yourself.

The world is not the same anymore.

But where were you? when it happened? The day the POTUS changed the rule of the game and changed the world?

Twinkie's Tales

Dear Sarah,

It's bad enough going through a disaster, let alone going through the process of being displaced to a totally different environment and hoping to go back to normalcy even though you know deep inside that the "normal life" you had will never be the same again.

However, one thing remains, and will always be comforting: that human nature is most of the time good and kind.

I am sure you will find your new life better and I hope you hold the belief that you will always be better today than yesterday, then, you will never ever need to look back at the bad things that had happened (the disaster included) and move on.

God Bless You.

I think I can represent people in my part of the world to wish you well.

Jerry
_________________________________________________

I stumbled across this blog as I was wasting my life away clicking on the "next blog" button on the top left hand corner of the page, and felt compelled to leave a comment.

It dawn upon me that, despite the shortcomings of the current POTUS, there are real people with real problem like the rest of us in the so-called "Third World Countries", and had to remind myself how lucky we are, living in countries that are not prone to disasters like typhoons, earthguake, hurricane etc etc.

Hang in there, human-shortcomings are short-lived (they won't last longer than 8 years), but the good in human spirit is forever.

The Radio Thing

I've been listening to a lot of radio lately.

Is this a good thing? or is this a bad thing?

Truth be told, this is because my iPod isn't working and I need some noise in the car when I drive.

My favourite radio boradcasts have always been Commercial Radio 881 of Hong Kong; the DJs are intelligent, witty, responsive, and speak no nonsense.

They do their homework, and preached what they believed; what they practiced is not something I can verify.

And I have been off loading recordings through the Internet onto my iPod so I can listen to the broadcast while driving. This drives some people nuts because they think they are in the wrong country.

But when you are surrounded by voices of reason, you feel better.

At least, that's how I feel.

If you have RealPlayer, listen here. (oh, if you are in the office, please don't hog the network, audio streaming takes up loads of bandwidth!)

The Right Thing

I was listening to the radio today, debating whether is our exPM qualified to keynote address the participants at a Human Rights event held here in Malaysia.

The funny thing was, when human rights groups in Malaysia protested against his presence at the event, our exPM asked if his rights was obstructed.

He is a smart man, the doctor.

He has the right to do that all right, Freedom of Speech is one right we cherished. Moreover, he is more than qualified to speak there, being qualified means you have studied, or learn something about a subject and excelled in it, the Man is more than qualified.

Some said the people who were oppressed are more qualified, but what makes a man who sat in jail more qualified than the man who put them in jail in the very first place?

Yes, he is smart, and he is indeed qualified.

Perhaps, the radio show asked the wrong question: While he is qualified, and had the right to voice his mind, is it the Right Thing to do? Putting him on a platform that addresses the human rights issue of the country?

I'll let you be the judge of that.

This is what the good Doctor told the press.

This is what Kit has to say in his blog.

____________________________________________________

Malaysian Human Rights Day 2005 Conference: Human Rights and Globalisation
Date: 9 Sep 2005
Venue: Le Meridien, Kuala Lumpur
Group/Division: General

Objective:
To analyse the impact of globalisation on human rights in Malaysia in order to:

i) Promote understanding of the positive and negative consequences of globalisation;

ii) Seek appropriate responses to globalisation.

More

My Christmas Wishlist

Dear Santa,

I'll be a good boy this instant and stay a good boy till Christmas. If you find it hard to get me the iPod Nano due to stocks shortage, I'll settle for the Sony PSP.

I promise you I will not try to hack the system, or download porn UMDs so I can share it with my equally crooked friends.

Trust me, they will be good boys too, if you get them a PSP this Christmas. And they certainly won't download porn UMDs just to share with me, as I won't do the same for them.

As you know, my iPod has been in sick bay for months now, and knowing that the PSP can play a small part of my 40GB iTunes library (if you throw in some 2GB Memory Sticks, I'll be eternally grateful) makes it really helpful. And not forgetting its widescreen format display that can play movies from Japan.

Just to make sure you won't get the wrong toy, the pictures are posted here... and as you can see in the picture, this guy has a lot of buttons... and you know how much I love buttons...

So what do you say? I can declare tomorrow Christmas if you are willing to drop down the chute (I don't have a chimney, so the rubbish chute should suffice) and put one of these black beauties on my bed. Heck, I won't even mind if you woke me up in the process, just make sure you don't dirty my carpet as you climb out of the chute.

So... Merry Christmas in advance!

Thank you Santa, in fact, if you stay a good boy till Christmas, I am sure you'd want one of these too!


JerryWho

Greed Knows No Bounds, I Know - But I Still Want THIS!

The iPod nano??

I WANT I WANT I WANT!

The guy at Apple Malaysia said it's already on it's way here, so we will get it real soon...

But, frankly, do you really want to get the toy in Malaysia?

Apple products are typically cheaper in Singapore, Jarkata or Thailand, go do your own research! The iPods are much much cheaper in Singapore than in Malaysia... the MYR1890 "special offer" Mac Mini is only SGD 600+ you do your maths.

So, local warranty notwithstanding, I will go down South to get my Apple-logo toys anytime. Trust me, I do this often enough: I own 5 PowerBooks, some iMacs, some PowerMacs a Cube, a Newton, the SE and the iPod, most of which are purchased somewhere else other than Malaysia, and they ARE cheaper else where.

I don't know if the powers that be know this, but this is the Internet Age, it's far too easy to compare price.

You can find out for yourself at Apple Store Singapore, sometimes I wonder if these people actually know it's easy enough to find out information by ourselves.

And they dare tell you they serve you better, so you should buy locally.

What do you think?

60 Years - is the War over?

The last two days have been busy for people who work in the media as the world rises to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the ending of the WWII.

Needless to say, there will be those who looked angry, and there are those who are really angry.

It's hard to understand why some of these people cannot let the anger go, and learn to learn from history, War is no good... and if these people are really angry, why aren't they making much efforts other than just lip service to prevent wars that are happening NOW?

we will never learn. will we?

Weapons Of Mass Distruption

Call me an unwilling secondhand smoker; smokers who like to blow the choking fumes at people finally get a taste of their evil deeds; walk into the open, and you'll know what I mean.

Who needs to develop high-tech weapons when they can just burn the forest and let nature do its job... I opened the door to the outside and almost choke to death at the first breath.

Antrax? Nuclear? Bio-tech? how about plain old CO2? if the wind direction is just right, just find a big bush and create lots of smokes by burning them.

And if your friendly neighbours offer their help to put the fire out, you deny them. Sigh...

In some countries (and we KNOW who they are), they go to war by mere speculations. With so many children in clinics and more homebound, should we declare war on the guys who burn the forest?

Of course those people will tell you, it's nature's fault. But this weapon of mass disruption had affected our Malaysian way of life: Mamak, Stroll by the beach, enjoy the clear view of KLCC...

so... is this an act of terror? do we need a monkey to tell us this?

******
Sure enough, the following was announced by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Acting Director of National Operations Centre:

In view of the current haze situation in Kuala Selangor and Port Klang that has now reached the API level of 500 and above, I now declare a state of emergency for the whole area of Kuala Selangor and Port Klang with immediate effect indefinitely.

The haze emergency declaration will not involve the enforcement of curfew nor a change in the current Selangor administration.

However, the Royal Malaysian Police and the Malaysian Armed Forces are required to arrange and take measures to guarantee continued peace and security.

A guideline on the actions to be taken under the emergency is outlined in Appendix A. All parties are required to carry out their respective duties and responsibilities based on the guideline.

The guideline reads:

When the Haze Emergency has been declared, the State Management and Disaster Committee must take the following actions:

a) Issue an order for the closure of all government and private offices and other work places including factories, plantations, construction and quarries.
The closure order does not apply to:
i) shops that sell food stuff, drinks, markets and supermarkets;
ii) clinics, pharmacies and medicine shops; and
iii) essential services
b) Ensure that earthwork and earth movement are stopped
c) Advise the reduction of the use of private vehicles
d) Ensure the closure of all schools
e) Ensure the frequent dissemination of information of the pollution index to print and electronic media
f) Get the media to advise the public to remain at home and steps that needed to be taken by the people
g) Information Ministry must ensure that information are disseminate directly
h) Ensure strict enforcement against open burning
i) Ensure that this emergency declaration does not include declaration of curfew (except for certain situations as provided for under the appropriate laws.

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