Eric Suen (孫耀威) Live

Wow, he's still alive... LOL I used to listen to his songs a lot, even have quite a bit of his albums. Even one of my friends became his 'fanboy.' Listening him singing those 90's Chinese/Canto-pop songs really brings back memories.

Calpico Hello Kitty

Calpico Hello Kitty, originally uploaded by pata2k1.

Original flavor, and Miffy!

Calpico Hello Kitty

Calpico Hello Kitty, originally uploaded by pata2k1.

Peach flavor

3G iPod nano update

More comparison pictures.



Update on Cover Flow:
-Even though my compilation albums are listed by artists, hence multiple entries in cover flow, when I select the album, the iPod shows the whole track list of the album (regardless of the artist listed in Cover Flow), in the correct order. So I guess it worked half-right on compilation albums. All Apple needs to do is to group compilation albums under "Various Artists."

Software update 1.0.1:
-So far the only fix I see is the battery charging icon. Before, when I connect the nano to my Macbook, there is no indication whether the battery is charging or not (no flashing thunder). Now there is the thunder icon. Note that after the update, it reset the menu items, so I have to re-configure the menu.

3G iPod nano Product RED

Well, I'm going to give my previous nano to one of my relatives. She's happy with her 30GB iPod + winamp, but want something smaller for on-the-go. :D Time for a new toy for me while waiting for the Touch.




A quick video overview:


There are quite a bit of reviews out there already, so I'm just going to be brief.

Annoying things:
-Hold slider is too small, and at the bottom to boot! Docking the nano will prevent access to that slider
-I still don't understand the point of the headphone jack being at the bottom.
-Cover flow is flawed! It listed the albums by artists, and it doesn't recognize compilation albums. So I have repetitive listings on my albums in cover flaw (as you can see in the video). Hopefully Apple is going to fix this. Fixed in firmware 1.02.
-Click wheel touch area is kinda narrow. I have big fingers, so sometime I miss a "sweep" when scrolling on the click wheel. I guess this is the reason why I felt the menu UI to be "laggier."
-Chrome back full of smudges! :( I wish Apple used the whole aluminum design like the 2G.
-Small screen is not really meaningful for movie playback
-As usual, minimal packaging. Only comes with earbud, USB cable, quick start guide, dock adapter, and stickers.
-When the screen dims during playback, instead of showing the "Now Playing" screen, it goes into a "screensaver" mode, showing only the time, battery status, and a play icon. I can't find any option to turn this off.

What I like:
-Larger screen than previous nano: Album art and photos are more meaningful now. Plus the higher res screen allow better font sizes.
-Video playback is great for video podcasts
-Now you can access shuffle option directly on the "Now Playing" screen. On previous iPods, you are forced to go to the setting menu.
-Menu UI is not as laggy as I though (see big finger comment above)
-Gapless playback
-Unicode
-Unbelievably thin!

Not a must buy for previous nano owners unless you need video playback. I rank gapless playback and unicode feature higher than anything, so to me the 3G nano is an obvious choice. For my use, I rate it 92%.

The competitors: The Creative ZEN is definitely the main competitor, having larger screen, drag-n-drop, compatible with iTMS DRM free AAC, and divx support. Problem is video support is limited to 320x240 (so regardless of divx support, most videos will have to be transcoded anyway), no gapless, and no iTunes like experience.

I wish Apple would release a flash version of the iPod classic. Now I just have to wait for the Touch. :)

Super Stardust HD

I was itching to play an arcade shooting game, the ones that have a Japanese shooting game feel like Raiden. Well, I stumbled by Super Stardust HD on the Playstation store. It's a downloadable game for the PS3. Stunning HD graphic, smooth frame rate, slick music, and tons of shooting action that you're going to feel that your hands are going numb. Instead of a vertical/horizontal scrolling shooter, your ship is placed on a sphere (planet), and that's your arena. Meteorites and enemies will start falling down to the surface, and it's your job to mow them down. Kinda like the classic ATARI game Asteroid for the 21st century. Ever had the excitement when playing games like Raiden, where there are tons of enemies and bullets on the screen that it almost seems impossible to even move your ship? Well, that excitement is exactly what I felt when playing Super Stardust HD. It took me quite a while to even finish level one, but unlike some other games, I don't feel that frustrated at all because of the fun factor.

Really nice and fun game. Recommended for any PS3 owners, considering there are not many good PS3 games in the first place. There is no story whatsoever. Just make sure you rest your hands occasionally, and maybe prepare to buy a new controller. :)

Switching to Mac: Handling .cue + WAV images

I've been backing up my AudioCDs as 1 big WAV image file with a cuesheet file containing the track marks and title/artist info. I use this method in windows because one, I have many gapless CD mixes and this method preserve the gapless tracks, and secondly in Windows with the help of Daemon's Tools, I can simply mount the .cue file and Windows will think it's the actual AudioCD, allowing any CD-ripping programs to rip the tracks without any extra steps.

1 thing I found out in Mac OS X, there is no way to mount cuesheet associated with WAV files. I gave up and use my Windows PC to rip/encode MP3s. Then I stumble to this freeware called XLD. It doesn't mount cuesheets like Daemon Tools, but it recognized the content of the cuesheet, the associated WAV file, and the track marks info, and allow you to rip them into MP3s! Prefect! Even better, it uses Lame MP3, the best MP3 encoder out there. Ripping the tracks is very straightforward. Set the encoder (Lame, AAC, OGG, etc), set the folder path, open up the .cue file, click Decode, and let it go.

To complete my MP3 rips, I also found MacMP3gain, the Mac GUI for MP3gain. It's not as intuitive as the Windows version of MP3gain, but does the job.

Great! :) Now all I need is the equivalent of EAC for Mac OS X, and I probably won't need windows anymore. Can't wait to get the new iMac with Leopard.

Calpico Hello Kitty set

Calpico Hello Kitty set, originally uploaded by pika2000.

Let me know if there's more

Calpico Hello Kitty

Calpico Hello Kitty, originally uploaded by pika2000.

Calpico Hello Kitty

Sony New Walkmen lineup

Well, it's been the news on many blog sites. Sony released new Walkmen lineup with support of Windows Media play-for-sure, ditching their propietary Atrac and Connect music store.

Now I'm really excited about these new DAPs!!!!! Guess what Sony used to based the software on.... LINUX! YEAH, OPEN SOURCE! AND you can check the source codes too (although I have no understanding of the content!).

When I tried finding the manuals for the NWZ-A81x series, I stumbled a GPL license at Sony support. I thought WTF? GPL? Then voila, check this list of Sony products that use Linux, and the links to the source code! Update: Well, apparently it's just the source codes of the tools used to build the firmware, not the firmware itself.

So yeah, maybe some productive people will be able to do some interesting stuff. Hey, maybe I'll buy one of these just because. :D Good job Sony, but maybe you should be more upfront about it.

Quicktime + Firefox problem update

Windows: I still couldn't find any resolution other than disabling acceleration and have quicktime use safe mode.

Mac: I ran a check and fix file permissions just for the heck of it. It did find some problems. After everything is fixed, Firefox and Quicktime seem to behave better now. Quicktime videos running in Firefox (like the iLife 08 guided tour) run okay now, although they still seem to be sluggish and hog the CPU.

Quicktime major problems

I was going to watch the new iLife 08 guided tour from Apple's website. I have the latest quicktime version, latest updates on all software.

Windows:
Firefox 1.5: The quicktime video will crash firefox, or firefox will say that the quicktime plugin did an illegal operation. If it doesn't, it flickers and sometimes the video is completely garbled.
IE7: Same thing, dll crash.

I tried uninstalling and reinstalling quicktime, no difference.

Mac OS:
Firefox 2.0: The quicktime video will flicker like crazy, and the system becomes sluggish (as if firefox/quicktime hogging CPU cycles).
Safari 2.0: surprise surprise, no video problem. The quicktime video runs just fine.

Gee, wonder what's going on. Does Apple do something specific on those videos so they only play nice with safari? The only workaround in windows is to set quicktime to safe mode (GDI). I haven't found any workaround for the flickering videos and sluggishness in the Mac firefox yet, other than to use Safari.

Dell Dimension 4600 power supply

Do a search online, and you'll find plenty of power supply problems on Dell Dimension 4600 model. I've been lucky to have my Dell running fine for 3 and 1/2 years, but finally the power supply bit the dust last week. I was hoping that I can wait for the new iMac to come out, but I really want Leopard so I bought a refurbished power supply from Dell. The old one was revision A00 made in Thailand. The refurbished one is revision A05 made in China.

Mediamaster

Mediamaster
They are basically an online music locker. You upload your MP3s, and you'll be able to stream your music via their flash-based web-player on any internet connected PC. They also provide a widget, like the one I put on the side. You cannot "save" your MP3s back, obviously to prevent "piracy," or more likely to save the creators from lawsuits.

Anybody can play your music tracks fully via the widget through playlists. People can browse your library on the mediamaster's website, but tracks are limited to the first 30 second clip. Aside from the widget, the site also provide a .pls/.asx link so you can treat your playlist like an internet radio channel. As for uploading, you can upload by tracks, or drag-n-drop folders on the java based advance uploader. Note that there is an iTunes button in the advance uploader. Pressing this button will upload your whole iTunes library, so be careful.

Neat idea, although I wonder how long this will last. I can see Mediamaster being compared to services like live365. They can be considered as internet radio, and then come the licensing issues. We'll see how long this will last/be free.

K550i test

K550i test, originally uploaded by pika2000.