busy girl thoughts

I watched it 5 times. It never failed to make me lawl.

Mac vs. PC vs. Linux — South Park Style | Compiler from Wired.com

I had post here when I was searching for a good case that is aesthetically pleasing but not take the spotlight from iPhone’s stunning design. I settled with cheap iPod socks.

Now, 7 months have passed, how did iPod socks fare? How does my iPhone look?

I honesty don’t think iPod socks provide much protection. Most importantly, iPhone doesn’t need any protection.

I will still continue to use the sock. Not only does it look so cute, it provides nice friction when I hold the phone. I only dropped the phone without the sock on, because it gets slippery.

It’s such a great fashion statement. In company meetings, I see many girls with impeccable blow-dried hair, subtle yet beautiful makeup, well-tailored suits, and the cutest heels. As soon as they put their iPhones on the table with bulky masculine black leather cases… the record scratch sound goes off, music stops.

From Mahalo daily, for those of you who don’t have time to watch the whole thing. It’s pretty fun! Mahalo Daily » Blog Archive » MD038 - The Steve Jobs 90 Minute Keynote (in 60 Seconds)

Today I downloaded a command “class-dump“, but had no frig’n idea how to “install” it. What I did was I downloaded the file, expanded it and double clicked on the executable Terminal file, and a Terminal window popped up showing the usage of the command, and automatically logs out.

I tried executing the command in Terminal, and I got the error message “-bash: command not found”. I moved the directory to where ‘class-dump’ is located, and tried to execute there, and it failed for the same reason.

I googled “install shell command” “install unix command” and tons of other terms, but nobody included a dumbed-down, step-by-step instruction on how to do it.

So here’s how I finally did it-
go to Finder, menu bar “Go to Folder”,

and type in /usr/bin.

Here you’ll see all other commands. Then just copy and paste the file in here. It may tell you that you do not have permission to modify bin, and if that happens, click “authenticate”, and type in the administrator’s (my, in my case) password. Then go back to Terminal. You’ll be able to execute the command from any directory. It’s that simple.

Crazy Apple Rumors Site » Blog Archive » CARS Announces New Books! This is too funny. I personally am sick and tired of people wanting get a piece of Apple pie, which is understandable, but at least have some decency to make up better reasons for it. Not be able to change the phone battery? Not be able to brick the phone? iPod is too loud? Give me a Br….

Take Control of Being A Whiny-Assed Apple Customer The Missing Manual for Dummies will show you, the whiny-assed Apple customer how to leverage your inherent ability to bitch, bitch, bitch. Whaaaah! The iPod’s battery runs out after five years! Whaaaah! Apple bricked my iPhone after I took a soldering iron to it and installed a bunch of crap I downloaded from a Nigerian web site! Sure, you already sound like fingernails on a blackboard to anyone within earshot, but how can you weasel your way up to annoying bloggers, members of the press and even Apple executives? Read the book!

This is too hilarious to pass up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRKIDdIaFyE

YouTube20-20zunePhone20ad

AppleInsider | Apple stirs controversy with iMovie’s ‘08 overhaul

Apparently the reason I was so impressed with the iMovie is that I’m not an advanced user. More experienced users are complaining that the new iMovie is lacking in features that the previous iMovieHD had, and that Apple should call this new program “iTube”. As a result, Apple offers free download of iMovieHD for those in need.

Note that installing iLife 08 doesn’t override the previous version of iMovieHD. It’ll replace it on the dock, but iMovieHD is still in your application folder.

Well, the new iMovie pleases users like me who just want to do youTube. I still have high hopes for it though. It shouldn’t be too hard for Apple to integrate the advanced features into iMovie, should it?

The new iMovie in iLife 08 completely blew me away. The previous version of iMovie was clunky at best. It took me 2 hours to create a 30-second video card for my mom with photos, video clips and background music. Voice-over was doable but not for the faint of heart. I had to first extract the original sound from the clip, and carefully align the voice-over on the timeline. The new iMovie (see demo) pretty much materializes our mental process when editing a movie. We can now easily skim video clips, arrange music and voice-over much the same way as editing photos. It’s worth checking it out.

After I activated my iPhone, my next issue is to find a good case or pouch to protect my iPhone from all the things I carry in my purse. Although PCWorld proved that iPhone screen is unscratchable, I don’t want the medal back to be scratched up by the keys. Most of the cases offered are targeted for male business users. Lots of black or brown leather with irremovable belt clips. A few vendors offer female-friendly designs by painting them over with hot pink. What is it with hot pinks? Do they have any female designers > 15 yrs old on board?

After browsing iLounge, macForum and tons of blogs, I narrowed down to iQase.com. I like the Side,  (watch YouTube) because it’s the easiest to remove. Ritz is good too cuz it doubles as a card holder, but because of the wrap-around, it’ll be hard to remove the phone as well. If I don’t remove the phone from the case when calls come in while I’m browsing, I’ll have to use the headset as the proximity sensor on iPhone is blocked by the case. Flip seems like the best compromise, but it’s out of stock.

While I was debating which ones to get, my boyfriend told me that tight skins or cases are not recommended for iPhone for fear of overheating. At this point, I thought maybe I don’t really like anything that’ll cover up the beautifully designed iPhone. After all, I just need something to separate the junks in my purse from the iPhone.

What about iPod socks? I thought. It’d be perfect. It’s cute, it comes in 6 different colors for under 30 bucks, and because iPhone is so slippery, I can easily squeeze it out of the sock for incoming calls. It turned out to be a nice solution. And I figured out if I put the iPhone in head down, I can easily access the home button and the slider easily by squeezing out the iPhone just a little bit. This way I don’t have to remove the phone completely in order to answer a call. Another good thing about the sock is that it’s so soft, I can feel the side and top button to adjust the volume, turn it on and off, and switch to vibrate mode without removing the phone as well.

After I found a good pouch for my iPhone, my coworker told me that he drops his cells all the time and need something to protect against that. The image of my scratched up old cell is conjured up immediately, and I just realize I’m a cell dropper myself. A few solutions I found online. There are clear rubber, silicone and arclic cases. But I don’t like hard cases as they are too bulky, and I don’t want silicone ones for fear of overheating. After some more research, I think I’ll get invisiSHIELD. Check out the stress test on youtubes: stress test, installation. It’s just 2 pieces of transparent film, one for the front and one for the back. It doesn’t cover up the beauty and yet provides superb protection from scratches and dropping. Mind you I haven’t got it yet, but I’ll post my review after I try it out. Oh by the way, don’t get inCase sports as it affect the screen sensitivity. See this test.

Today I learned how to create javascripts in the Shell environment. Mike Chamber’s webpage is really helpful. In this article he mentioned this file”.bash_profile”, which I couldn’t find in my OS X terminal. After some researching I realized this is something we create: create a “.bash_profile” file under the root directory (for OS it’s User/YOUR USERNAME/), and whenever you open a terminal window, it’ll automatically execute the commands in the file. At first I used the text editor to write Mike Chamber’s modified .bash_profile, but I had to use the “Vi” editor in Shell to clean up some random symbols created by my texteditor. And voila, it worked!

From now on, I can directly execute javascript commands in my terminal. Here’s mozilla’s resource page on Rhino.

Steve Jobs said in the town hall meeting the day before the iPhone launch day, that we shall forever remember this historic moment and tell our grandkids all about it. On June 29, 2007, I arrived at the Valley Fair mall in Santa Clara and joined the line an hour and half before the store open time at 6pm. The real reason that I wanted to go was I heard Steve Woz was the first in line. Allegedly he arrived at 4am that day on his segway scooter, wearing the iPhone T-shirt that says "the line starts here". He helped keep order by passing out number cards to early arrivals. That was just too funny and I had to leave work early and go check him out. Besides, it was free gelato day from noon to 4pm to celebrate the iPhone launch, so most of my coworkers were nowhere to be found after noon. So I got there, saw Steve Woz, clad in that white T-shirt, obviously unshaven (he never had the clean look anyway). There were 4 segway scooters neatly aligned by the door (probaby his buddies’). I was gonna go home but my boyfriend begged me to wait in line so he could lay his hands on the phone that night. There weren’t as many people as I thought. I thought there’d be about 1000 but there were only 500. I wasn’t too concerned about waiting for 2 hours to get in (with my PSP, 2 hours would feel like 20 minutes), but I didn’t know how long it’d take them to process orders for 500 people. 3 -4 hours right? Most people in line were in their 20s and 30s, in T-shirts, faded jeans, pale and unshaven, with macbook or macbook pro on their laps. Quite a few of them were high school kids. I couldn’t help but wondering if they saved up months for this, or their parents spoil them rotten, or they waited in line for other people on commission. I didn’t see that many girls my age. The guy in front of me called his friend and said "I thought I got here early!" I almost laughed out loud. Later his girlfriend showed up for moral support. I complained to them that I didn’t know why my boyfriend couldn’t wait for 2 days, before I realized I was complaining to the wrong audience. The guy said, "what’s your point!" and everyone laughed. His girlfriend gave me a sympathetic look. After the store opened, I went back in (the line was so long we looped outside of the mall) to check out the store. I saw a guy walking out holding his iphone bags up high, and everyone cheered and clapped. At first I thought he was somebody but couldn’t recognize him at all. Later I realized that the crowd did that to everyone. There was a large crowd outside the store not interested in buying the phones, but just wanted to watch the geeks in line. They really had nothing better to do I guess, but I suppose we did look like a bunch of idiots waiting in such a long line, when we could’ve easily ordered on line. The line moved rather quickly, to my surprise, and in less than an hour we were in the store. While we were still outside the mall, his little sister went to Jamba Juice, and I was joking that we’d probably get our orders at the same time. And it turned out we did. She came back a couple of minutes before we finalized the orders. The way they sped things up was that the employees had cordless credit card processors, so they scanned your credit cards as soon as you step into the store, and they would send receipts to your email address (to save paper they said). My boyfriend shopped there before so they had his email add on file. It happened so quickly I didn’t even know when he was done. BTW, no employee discount on iphones, but accessories are ok. When we walked out, the store clerks lining up by the door applauded and cheered. I didn’t know if I was supposed to smile and showed that I was a proud iPhone owner, even though I’m not? But if I don’t smile i’d feel bad for the clerks. Anyway, although unnecessary, I’m glad I joined the party. It was fun to chat with fellow Apple fan boys in line, and the store order arrangement was really impressive. I won’t do any review for the iPhone, since my boyfriend won’t depart with it the whole weekend. I can tell you this, he absolutely loves it!

revised 10/9/07 

I wrote a macro to copy values from named ranges into arrays. In my first try I used a For..Next loop to read and copy values into arrays, and later I found out that I could just directly copy them from ranges into arrays. The only catch is that, when copying values from ranges, the values will be stored in 2-dimension arrays, even if your values are in a single-column (or single-row, multiple columns) range. Say if you have values from cell A1 - A10, values will be stored in arrays "ARRAY[1][1]" to "ARRAY[10][1]". Since I don’t know the number of values just yet, I declared dynamic arrays (Dim ARRAY as Variant, rather than Dim ARRAY[a][b] as Integer). Here’s the code (green fonts are comments, red are not in the actual code, but footnotes explained below):

Option Base 1
Option Explicit (Note 1)
Private NumArray1 As Variant, NumArray2 As Variant

Sub populateArray()
Dim myRange As Range, my2ndRange As Range

Set myRange = Range("NamedRange") ‘fixed range (Note 2)
Set my2ndRange = Range(Cells(2, 3), Cells(2, 3).End(xlDown)) ‘range size depends on user input (Note 3, 4)

‘Here we go, start populating data.  It’s [destination array] = [source array].value

NumArray1 = myRange.Value (Note 5)
NumArray2 = my2ndRange.Value

‘test the results 

Debug.Print "NumArray1[1,1] is " & NumArray1(1, 1) & ", & NumArray1[9,1] is " & NumArray1(94, 1)

Debug.Print "NumArray2[1,0] is " & NumArray2(1, 1) & ", & NumArray2[9,1] is " & NumArray2(9, 1)

End Sub 

Note 1: option base 1 makes all arrays start with 1, rather than 0.  Without specification, your first array will be stored in Array(0,0). In my example, my first value is in Array(1,1), 5th value is in Array(5,1), so on.

Note 2: one way to define a range is to use named ranges.  This is good if the cells are pre-populated and won’t change.  If the number of data cells will change, it’s better to use the next selection method.

Note 3: Range(A,B) selects all cells between cell A and cell B. Assume we don’t know the number of data cells, Range(Cells(r,c), Cells(r,c).End(xlDown)) is a good method.  This is just like click on Cells(r,c), and then press Control + Shift + down arrow.

Note 4 One thing about Cells(). It’s Cells (row, column), so Cell C2 is Cells(2,3), not Cells(3,2)

Note 5 I see in many web forums and how-to sites that implements for..next or other fancy loops to populate arrays.  It took me a while to figure out it can be as simple as this!

Designers Rachel Wingfield and Mathias Gmachi incorporated programmable light-emitting materials in everyday linen. The result is wallpaper that illuminate different patterns corresponding to change of environment, and duvet cover that naturally wakes you up with gradual lights. http:\\www.loop.ph

I found this great social website for bookwarms. I was just talking to a friend today about how I’ve become such a bookwarm and mouse potato that I don’t have time to talk to my friends or socialize anymore.

LibraryThing.com is a free website for you to maintain lists of books you’ve read. You can review, rate, add tags to the books you’ve read, and you can see other users who share the same books as you do and see other people’s comments as well. If you have too much time you can record details about when you bought the book, started and finished reading.

Here’s a link to my catalog. Only a few books there now since I just started building. It’s by no means the total number of books i’ve read all my life!

Google RSS Reader rolls out by ZDNet’s Dan Farber — At the Web 2.0 conference Google took the wraps off its RSS reader–Google Reader. Like other Google products, the RSS reader has a simple interface, makes good use of AJAX and shows how the company is scoping out all the kinds of applications and services that Web users will want to have. It’s beta and […]

I read yesterday that Google might provide free city-wide WiFi services for San Francisco. Google officials say San Francisco residents (and visitors) will enjoy a free 300 kilobits per second, always on connection anywhere in the city. As part of its proposal, the company says it will be offering wholesale access to other service providers, who will offer higher throughput connections to their customers. Google says it plans to use its own authentication services. (That explains the Google WiFi VPN client to some extent). The company is going to use San Diego-based WFI, a cellular network builder company to build out the WiFi network. Here’s more details.

What are google and City of SF’s motives of such a great public service?

I remember seeing free WiFi posters throughout Philly downtown a couple months ago while I was traveling, so I dug up old news stories related to that. It turned out to be a long and painful process.

Apparently Mayor Street announced the plan in Sep 2004, and since then, it aroused heated debate and nationwide interests. At that time a specific budget wasn’t set, and it hadn’t been determined if the service would be for free or low-cost. A recent update from Ms. Neff, CIO for the city, indicated that it’ll cost about 15-20 million for the 135 square feet area. It won’t be FREE though. I think now the pilot programs in Philly are free, meaning there are quite a few hot spots throughout downtown philly. But eventually when the city-wide network is built, the city will charge the service for $20 a month, or $10 for low-income households. It costs about $60-70 for the device. This would especially benefit neighborhoods where the existing infrastructure is not capable of supporting broadband service.

Everything sounds wonderful, but the city is facing powerful skeptics. First of all Verison was pissed. Verizon lobbied the Pennsylvania legislature and had a law passed and signed that would “prohibit a government or any entity it creates from offering broadband for a fee.” [Philadelphia Faces Wi-Fi Woes PC World 11/23/04]. Comcast had somethig to say as well. “Because of numerous financial and technological questions about the city’s plans, and the substantial risk to Philadelphia’s taxpayers, we have not endorsed the city’s efforts,” David L. Cohen, Comcast’s executive vice president, wrote in an e-mail message. “Investment in a competitive, challenging and risky business like broadband is something better left to private companies.”

Ms. Neff’s defense against critics is that, it’s estimated by the third year, Philly will be saving $2 million a year on their $150 million IT budget by not having to pay Verizon for Internet access at their 24,000-employee city offices.

No that’s not good enough. Heartland Institute issued a paper on Why Muni Wi-Fi Is a False Hope (02/01/05). This largely argues that because prior attempts at wired networks failed and that gosh, it’s going to cost $75-150 to set up so they can’t afford it anyhow (never mind how much more it would cost to set up and buy broadband access from Verizon or Comcast), it shouldn’t be done. Cato institute (funded by telecom giants) conducted a study to attack municipal wireless services.

GIVE ME A BREAK.

Municipal WiFi was first started in Spokane, Washington. It’s only free for government employees but paid access is also offered. Many other cities have since followed.

Australia has turned all of Sydney into a high-speed hot-spot, and users get much faster broadband service than we do - for less.

I guess we should thank telecom giants for protecting the public from… um.. socialism invasion (free for all!)? Capitalism is the foundation of this country and let’s all pay wireless phone companies $79.99 a month for wireless connection. The poor telecom giants, after all, having been waking up in the middle of a night covered with cold sweats with the mere notion of cheap municiapl WiFi services.

I wish city of San Francisco the best luck.

I used to think about getting Dell stock since it appears to be cheap, until I came across this article on business week, here’s the excerpt:

It didn’t seem as if he was asking for much. When the CD drive on Peter Ulyatt’s Dell desktop computer failed this summer, he called the support crew at Dell (DELL ), where he’d bought the $1,600 machine nine months prior. Armed with an extended warranty that cost him an extra $300, the Pasadena (Calif.) retiree got on the phone and waited. After sitting on hold for 45 minutes, a technician whom Ulyatt could barely understand came on the line and diagnosed a “software problem.” Ulyatt’s call, transferred to the software technician, was dropped. Calling back, Ulyatt waited on hold another 45 minutes, asked for the software desk, and waited a half-hour more before hanging up. “At the moment, I’m not high on Dell’s service,” says Ulyatt, who plans to buy two new PCs in a year or so. “When I buy again, I will look at others beyond Dell.”

Ulyatt’s ordeal is not an isolated case. All tech companies have some unhappy customers, of course, but recent surveys suggest the ranks of frustrated Dell Inc. owners are growing. Complaints to the Better Business Bureau rose 23% in 2004 from the year before, and they’re up another 5% this year. … “We’ve never seen a drop like this,” says professor Claes Fornell, who ran the survey.

Plenty of people are going public with complaints. … Web sites such as ihatedell.net have popped up. …

Could such sentiment lead to trouble for the world’s largest PC company? Over the past decade, Dell’s dependable support, combined with competitive prices and build-to-order convenience, made it the default choice for millions of consumers. Its market share continues to rise overall, and it holds 28.8% of the U.S. consumer market,…. However, a sagging reputation could slow sales, … In the most recent quarter, Dell missed its sales target, one reason its stock has dropped 18%, to $34, since the start of the year.

….Other key PC makers are increasing the pressure on Dell. Apple, which consistently ranks high in customer surveys like Michigan’s, recently decided to start using chips from Intel Corp. (INTC ), making it a more direct competitor to Dell. And Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ ), Dell’s biggest competitor, seems intent on distinguishing itself with customer service.

Over the past year, HP has launched several initiatives to build loyalty. One lets HP employees key in information on product glitches they hear about from customers, who then are supposed to receive a call from a rep within 48 hours. Another is a diagnostic tool HP developed to help consumers figure out what kind of problem they have, even if it doesn’t involve HP gear. Dell won’t help customers with non-Dell problems unless they pay extra. “Given today’s digital lifestyle, it’s vital,” says Diana L. Bell, HP’s senior vice-president of total customer experience. “We have to do more than say, ‘here’s the product, and catch me if you can.”

Somebody ran an iPod Nano stress test. http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/nano.ars/3

Apparently the reason they ran the test is that many critics commented that iPod Nano won’t do well because it’s so small and fragile, that it can be easily broken if you accidentally sit on it. I thought it’s pretty funny that the only attack they can come up with is that ‘oh, it’s too small. I couldn’t find it, and what if i sat on it?’

Check out the link yourself, it’s pretty hilarious. If you’re lazy to read the full post, they basically came up with the following plan to break the Nano:

To simulate everyday accidents that could result in a broken iPod, we came up with a few situations that we felt would ultimately leave the nano lifeless:

1. Sitting on the iPod nano
2. Dropping it while jogging (4-6mph),
3. Dropping at various speeds: 8-10mph (slow bicycle), 15-20mph (fast bicycle), 30mph (slow car), and 50mph (fast car)
4. Dropping the nano from various heights.

After the above steps, they FAILED to break it and Nano, although scratched up, was still playing the music. They were astonished and determined to figure out a way to destroy Nano. What did they come up with? They decided to run it over with a car.

The heart was still beating.

So they ran it over again. (not the most creative bunch).

Nano was still breathing and humming songs.

Finally,

In a final act of desperation, we decided to expose the iPod to a catastrophic event that would certainly destroy it. Lacking a really high place to drop the nano from, we decided the throw the nano as high as we could, say 40 feet into the air, and let it land—hard—on the concrete. Alas, the iPod nano finally gave up the ghost. In addition to the display showing nothing and the backlight being perpetually stuck on, the music finally subsided. The nano had journeyed to the Land Where Consumer Electronics Are Eternally Blessed.

Steve Job did a great job presenting Nano, especially at the moment when he took it out from the inner pocket of his jeans. Watch the webcast here.

I’ve been using various blog sites on and off, but I never found one I really liked. At least that’s the excuse I gave to myself not to continue blogging (which is a shame because I’ve been to so many exciting NY restaurants and done lots of travels).

Today thanks to Bunny’s Test Space blog, I found this current blog site. It has a lot more features than blogger.com since it’s WordPress powered. The only drawback is it doesn’t have a lot of technical help. The only support blogsome.com offers are links to other resource pages. I actually enjoy it because I love digging up answers myself, and probably most of you paperclip⁽¹⁾ haters out there agree with me. I spent time learning WordPress and CCS style, and i’m refreshing my memory on basic HTML language. It’s fun, and I know i’ll be wasting numerous days ahead of me to tweak my pages.

MSN My Space is very user-friendly. I almost would’ve gone for it if weren’t for the following reasons: 1. It doesn’t let you assign multiple categories to a posting, and it doesn’t support sub-categories. 2. It doesn’t support blog-rolling. 3. Too limited in custom settings.
MSN My Space is excellent for beginners or people who care less about customization.