Sony Vaio SZ120P/B

So after debating with myself for the last two months or so, I finally purchased the Sony Vaio SZ120P/B from an online store called vanns.com. I did, however, plan to get the laptop from Bestbuy because they seemed to be the only dog in town holding this precious sweetie. Fry's has Vaio too but with a different model SZ140 which is a bit pricier than this one. A quick note here, before we start talking about this laptop. I would never, ordinarily, considering making such
purchase at Bestbuy. But they had this most wanted laptop on sale, and they were the only store within 20 miles radius had the one I wanted in stock. I will, however, never considering buy anything from Bestbuy again.

I should be a dream customer: I walk into the store, I know exactly what I want, I don't ask stupid questions. Bang, easy commission right there. After 15 minutes pleading for attention from a saleman and being ignored for another 15 minutes, even after explicitly commented that I knew what I wanted and I was ready to buy it here, I was finally handed the item and passed off to three other people. Lucky me, that one wasn't the correct model that I demanded. And the model I needed turned out to be out of stock! In short, you shouldn't have to beg a company the privilege of giving them a few thousand bucks!

So, to hell with Bestbuy. On to the goods:

I ordinarily wouldn't buy a Sony laptop, since the cool Sony "Vaio" logo seems to add an automatic $300 - $400 onto the cost of the machine. But what I need is very specific, so whichever company could provide me with everything I need, would win. I need a laptop which is closed to "super-portable" status as I could get, while still maintains a monster status under the hood. I wanted it weighed under 5 lbs, has small but wide screen, has dedicated graphic card so I can play games on it too because it's not only a laptop for development work but a desktop replacement as well. Most of the rigs I saw in this price range had a few, but not all, of the ingredients I need. The SZ120P/B provides anything I could ask for. The run down:

- 1.83 Ghz Centrino Core Duo
- 1 GB Ram
- 100 GB SATA Hard drive
- 13.3" LCD with XBRITE technology
- Dual layer DVD Writer
- Hybrid graphic card, check it out: this laptop has a dedicated card from Nvidia with 256 MB for graphical intensive programs, switchable to an onboard Intel graphics chip for a regular computing task.
This means power when you need it battery life when you don't!
- Built-in biometric fingerprint scanning security system
- Integrated camera and mic

All of this packed into a less-than-an-inch thick machine, weighed about 4.3 lbs.
The battery lasts about 6 hours with normal tasks running, using the Intel's integrated video chipset.

I spent days getting things ready on this laptop: transferring my old backups here, copying music over... Couldn't be happier. One thing I don't like is SZ120 doesn't support Linux very well. I columned get my previous installation of Ubuntu to work. And not even after I installed a fresh version of Ubuntu into a separate partition. Probably because the hardware is too new and
has not yet be supported. In the meantime, I wouldn't hesitate recommending this laptop to anyone.

Rare And Unique Events

I just notice that 1AM this morning we will encounter a unique event that only occurs again in the year 3006!

If you pay attention to the hour after mid night tonight it would be 01:02:03 in military time and the date would be 04-05-06. Very cool. Of course you can have 02:03:04 05-06-07 for next year, but it doesn't start from 01.

Some other unique events that I has seen in my life are:

1. The presidental election in 2000: closet election ever in the U.S history
2. U.S's mainland received major attack in 2001 : September 11th socking the nation and the world
3. The largest evacuation in the U.S history in 2005 when hurricane Rita landed in Texas.
   
4. Fourth most powerful earth quake underneath the Indian Ocean in 2004 causing a huge tsunami killing more than 220,000 people.
   
5. This is personal: I put my first step in America on August 31st and became its citizen on August 31st several years later.
   

If you know any other unique events, please post a comment to share with us.

"There is no greater sorrow
Than to be mindful of the happy time
In misery."
Dante's Inferno (Canto 5, line 121)

Chris' Birthday Party

Location: Kenyon Japanese Bar

This restaurant is not as good as many reviews on the internet state so. The food is ok but service stinks. We arrived there on a Friday night around 9:00. Not so crowded but I only had my ice tea refill twice. And any closed friend of mine would know how many ice tea glasses I would consume in a meal!
Beside their tatami room, I don't see anything quite distinguishable from this bar. Maybe the casual atmosphere attracts more people coming here instead of its food and service. One of the dishes I like is Odon (or Udon) noodle, the one that looks similar to the Japanese instant noodle I bet you can find at any Asian food market. I do hope that they don't use a bag of that and a microwave to make my dinner!

Speaking of eating sushi, I did a little research and found an article about sushi etiquette. In short, I love the part that says " Feel free to use your fingers as utensils" because I always pick sushi by my hand. And I know it irritates some of my "comrades". Can't blame me now heh? It's one of the etiquette.

For dorks addicted to sushi and want to bring them to the office, please go here:
http://dynamism.com/sushidisk/main.shtml

Restaurant rating: 6/10

Umm... Cookie Cheung, Loser Koo, Anything Lau and Lie Ming

Look how happy this bastard is!

April Fool

Google just posted this service they claim to be in beta mode right now.
The service allows users to upload their personal profiles and then search for matches using Google searching algorithm. In other word, it's the Google approach to online romance and dating like match.com.

http://www.google.com/romance/

Be careful as I think it is just a trick Google is planning on April Fool!!!

Happy Fooling everybody.

Software Development Process

Well, GP team knows that we need to convert the current (old) UFO to the so-called new look-and-feel UFO. I personally think the new look-and-feel sucks big time. It is confused, complicated and filled with superfluous configuration. Yeah, one of the statements got repeated time after time at the company is "configurable". True, it's only configurable after *you* spending weeks on writing codes for the damned configurations which is mostly in XML format.

I made an estimate of 6 to 8 weeks for the conversion. And remember at the same time, we all have to take the new release development cycle into consideration. Also we have to take into account that the new UFO will "contribute" a tons of pleasingly surprise sweet bugs!!! We encounter about 2 - 4 so far during the trial period.

This reminds me of one of the most basic principle in software development: new features or enhancements must be backward compatible with the old codes. If you cannot make it compatible with the old codes then please don't coin it with the same name as the old framework, only different by the version number.

Should I quote one of the famous quote of software development principle in its parody:
"Human brain should be open for extension but close for modification"

If all fail, this is what depicts the reason of that failure:

News Flash: Whitney Houston is a Real Damned Mess

The National Enquirer recently reports that the pop diva/crack addict Whitney Houston has made a surprising turn for the worse. On Bobby Brown's sister account, Houston spends weeks at a time holed up in her crack dens and is living in utter squalor. She claims that Houston spends days locked in her bed room smoking rock amid piles of festering garbage while mumbling about "evil apparitions" and "demon".

What makes me surprises is the guy who turned Houston into this mess. Think about how superhuman Bobby Brown's dark force must be, to take one of our generation's greatest singers and turn her to a babbling, slobbering mess. I am not talking without concrete evidence. Take a look at the photos below:

Pre Bobby

Post Bobby

Whitney, I am sure that your transformation from a beautiful, sweet-voiced, fresh-face little thing wearing foiled hat and living in gauzy pinky room to a matted-fur wearing chikenhead, clutching a pack of smoke with a random dude from in a deli would have happened all on its own.

You've Got to Find What You Love

I recently ran across the transcript of Steve Jobs' speech at a commencement in Stanford last summer. Steve Jobs is currently Apple's CEO. The speech is very inspiring. Jobs mentioned three stories reflecting his life. I specially like the last one when he talked about death.

In short, his idea is that life is short so don't waste your time living somebody else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most importantly, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition for they already know what you truly want to be. Everything else is just secondary.

I think I should do what he's been doing when he has to make a tough decision. He always looks in the mirror in the morning before going to work and asks himself "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And if the answers are "No" several days in a row, then he knows he needs to change something.

Could I add that if today were the last day of my life, what would I want to do. 24 hours is not enough to do a lot of things.

First, I would call my parents (they live so far away now) to say thank you. Thank you for raising me up and make me the man I am today. And tell them I am so proud to have them as my parents.
Then I'll meet as many friends of mine as I can. Specially the dorks here at PROS :-). It's been a privilege working with you guys.

That's all I could think of right now. That sucks. Probably today is not my last day then.

And I think I should enjoy all the food made by Toris too. Thank you for making such a great dinner tonight. We really love them.


A samurai once asked Zen Master Hakuin where he would go after he died. Hakuin answered 'How am I supposed to know?' 'How do you know? You're a Zen master!' exclaimed the samurai. 'Yes, but not a dead one,' Hakuin answered."

~Zen mondo

So what would you do if you knew today were your last day?

Framing Your Photos

I took several photos to illustrate the concept of framing in photography.
The use of frame can turn an otherwise plain photo into a pleasing one. Objects for frame are usually foreground elements such as tree branches, a window frame, a door, arches, a fence or rows of trees, etc...

For example, those photos are taken from a park.


In this one, the frames are: the bottom row of flowers and the middle one as a dividend for the photo. The branches of trees serve as a frame above. In addition, frame is used here to isolate the main subject, which is the metal sculpture in the middle, and create an interesting composition.

When composing a shot, keep your eyes open to foreground objects to be used as a natural frame. If necessary, you may need to back up or kneel down a bit, or zoom in to include your main subject within your chosen frame.

here are some more example

Hope you enjoy next time you take a picture of nature!