Some of my friends recently got interested in Twitter, so I decide to do this post to get them started.
What's Twitter for?
Twitter is a platform where users post messages called "tweets", and followers receive these tweets.
Why do that?
Twitter allows you to
- talk about what happens to your life in 140 characters (microblog), not unlike Facebook.
- share information that is happening right now (e.g. a traffic jam at a road)
What if I have nothing to share, or if I value my privacy?
You can still use Twitter to follow other users so that you ("follower") can receive tweets in your account. You can also set your Twitter to private so that only followers you approve can see you tweets. But remember, that does not stop your followers from forwarding (retweeting) your tweets, so I always tell my friends who set their Twitter accounts to private that it doesn't mean your tweets are safe. The only way to guarantee privacy is not to even mention it on any social media.
Why should I follow Twitter users?
By following these users, you will receive tweets that they post. Note that many organisations or news agencies or interest groups use Twitter to share useful information like news, promotions, tips.
What's so interesting to search in Twitter?
You can search for the most recent tweets that users posted at http://search.twitter.com/ . For instance, during the recent floods around Singapore, I use Twitter to search and find who, what, where, when and how the floods occur. Some users even post photos. You can't find this news anywhere outside Twitter, until it's officially reported on the news sites. That is the wonder of Twitter, and this is made possible because of users like you who wants to contribute such information by tweeting.
So, the next time something interesting happens, you might want to tweet it so that people will find out (provided your tweets are public and you do not set your account to private).
How do I interpret and use the symbols on the tweets?
The "@" sign before a name (e.g. @musicdiary) refers to the Twitter User ID. When you use that, the tweet would be visible to the user. This is useful when you are mentioning something in the tweet about other users and you want them to be aware of the tweet too. If you don't do that, then the user would not know that you are mentioning him/her and would have no idea of your tweets, even if the user is following you. That's because the user may overlook your tweet among the dozens or hundreds of tweets he/she receives.
The "#" sign is a hash tag. It's basically like a tag or keyword that you often do on articles. It's useful if there is a popular (trending) topic that the Twitter community is heavily discussing or searching, so you can insert the hash tag to include your tweet to be part of the topic, e.g. #ndp2010. This feature is not really important, so don't use it if you don't know how to use it. I rarely use it, and I treat it like a short form (e.g. National Day Parade 2010) and many people must also use the hash tag in order to make it work. If only you is using it (e.g. #ilovendp) then the hash tag is meaningless.
Use "RT" to denote that you are retweeting (like email forwarding) a tweet from another user. In 2009, Twitter enhanced the "RT" feature to allow you to retweet in its entirety without having to include the tweeter's user ID in the tweet. This allows the original tweet to be passed around without having the retweeter to try to shorten the tweet in order to fit the entire tweet due to the possible list of previous retweeters' user IDs. The result is that the retweeter cannot edit the tweets, which might be rather handicapped as sometimes you want to include your comments before retweeting. This "primitive" method may still be allowed depending on the Twitter applications you use. So, if you want to do a complete retweet, just look for the "retweet" button and click it, which means no editing. If you want to edit before posting, look for an option to say "edit and retweet" (or something to that effect).
OK that's all. Leave me a comment if you have anything to ask or share. Cheers!
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Friday, June 25, 2010
Never Trust Food Reviews. Here's Why
Yesterday, my colleagues drove me to this well-known prawn noodle at MacPherson, called Ho Nam (River South).
And boy, I admit I loved the soup, it's so rich and delicious! The ribs are tender. The prawns, well, it's not the freshest, but pretty decent size and servings.
So that evening, after I visited my sis who gave birth to Baby Ethan, I drove my wife back there for dinner (this is the first time I actually ate the same food at the same stall).
When my wife took the first sip at the soup, she asked me, "You sure this is what you tasted earlier for lunch?" I took my sip and gave her a look.
It's rather bland!
So, anyone who visited the stall at night would give bad reviews, and those who had it during lunch would be raving about it.
Who's right? Well, that's the thing about food. It can never be consistent. So an unbiased food review should be one who has tried the same food a few times.
And my wife said she would want to go back to Ho Nam again some day for lunch.
And boy, I admit I loved the soup, it's so rich and delicious! The ribs are tender. The prawns, well, it's not the freshest, but pretty decent size and servings.
So that evening, after I visited my sis who gave birth to Baby Ethan, I drove my wife back there for dinner (this is the first time I actually ate the same food at the same stall).
When my wife took the first sip at the soup, she asked me, "You sure this is what you tasted earlier for lunch?" I took my sip and gave her a look.
It's rather bland!
So, anyone who visited the stall at night would give bad reviews, and those who had it during lunch would be raving about it.
Who's right? Well, that's the thing about food. It can never be consistent. So an unbiased food review should be one who has tried the same food a few times.
And my wife said she would want to go back to Ho Nam again some day for lunch.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
A RIM of Hope Amidst War Between iPhone and Android
Let me recall my history of mobile phone purchases and why I chose them.
My first mobile phone was not by choice. SingTel launched the PCN (GSM1800) in 1996 and offered really cheap prices for the mobile package, so my dad bought a Nortel-brand mobile phone (I still have it, but the battery no longer works).
As I got savvier, I bought my own mobile phone. The Motorola StarTac X supports GSM1800 and is freaking slim, plus a cool clamshell form factor, it's amazed how revolutionary the design is.
After I graduated from school, I worked in a mobile-phone related industry, and that really got my tech interest kicked in. I bat no eyelid to buy the Nokia 8210 on the first day of launch, spending $888 without contract. it's another beauty that is yet to be surpassed by any models today (The Nokia 8850 is of course more beautiful, and I had the luck of winning it in a lucky draw 4 years later when it became an obsolete model. Still kept it in pristine condition.)
I liked Nokia phones then for its ability to customise the operator logo. I found ways to design my own logo and became very popular at work where I happily sent these unique logos to colleagues and friends. I moved on to purchase Nokia 6210 in 2000 (not to be mistaken with the 6210 in recent years) which has a larger form factor. In fact, I bought the Europe set because it has a very nice silver mic-plate. Other reasons for choosing this phone is the ability to create larger operator logo and the support for mobile Internet (a.k.a. WAP).
The tech-heart in me went on to upgrade my phone to Ericsson T39, the first commercial GPRS phone in Singapore. I proceeded to purchase the Ericsson T68, the first colour-screen phone with infrared and bluetooth and open-source file management. It was so revolutionary that I create websites to evangelise the greatness of this phone. The Sony Ericsson T610 continued the flagship T-series with fantastic design. I also sank my money on the first Sony Ericsson touch-screen smartphone, the P800. I then upgraded to P910, then P990i. My last Sony Ericsson phone is the G900i, a normal keypad candy-bar phone with touchscreen. The one thing that killed my interest on Sony Ericsson is the laggy interface that was inherrent since the early days. When my colleague introduced me the Nokia E71, I was sold. By moving back to the non-touchscreen devices like E71, I realised I can operate the phone much faster. Hardware buttons also mean the input responses are much speedier. The size of E71 is just nice: it's not too broad like Blackberry, and has a landscape display that is web-friendlier than the portrait modes.
Having had years of usage experience with touchscreen phones, I found that touchscreen technology has yet to mature (It was also the same period where Tablet PC failed). Touchscreen implementation resulted in the interface lag, and is still present in many of today's devices.
Until Apple iPhone comes along.
Looking at touchscreen technology alone, iPhone would certainly interest me. But from the feature and form factor point-of-view, iPhone fails to intrigue me. It's too big and the specs are flawed.
Another challenge I had is the on-screen keyboard. When I had the LG Viewty Smart, I had problems typing and I thought it was the phone's problem. But when I tried on the iPhone and later the HTC Android phones, I had the same problems too. I therefore concluded that I am unable to use touchscreen phones efficiently.
While I am very happy with my Nokia E72, I understand the wonders of the iPhone or the Android devices. Even the Blackberry is catching up as a popular youth phone with its myraid of social networking apps.
So what am I looking for in my next phone?
1. Hardware keyboard buttons like E72 oriented at the portrait (not landscape like Nokia N97 or Motorola Milestone, because it's too spread up and I cannot type with one hand).
2. Nifty interface like iPhone or Android OS
When I heard Nokia released an upgrade of E72 with E5, my heart sank. The latest phone has less hardware buttons for reasons unknown to me, it doesn't have a secondary camera, and runs on similar processor.
But I knew hope is in the horizon when RIM (Blackberry) announced that they will be designing new phones with touchscreen and a slide-out keyboard.
Makers must understand that throwing in features alone is not good enough. The features must be designed to be human-friendly. Motorola Milestone running on Android has a keyboard, but the layout isn't quite user friendly. Blackberry form factor is very friendly for simple reasons. Apple is smart to release only features in the phones that the OS can properly handle, so in iPhone 4, they choose not to allow video calls over 3G.
When all the phones are running the same OS, what differentiates them would be the design. And I'm not talking about just the colour or the styling. Look at Motorola, its Backflip design is unique (although I'm not sure about the practical part). Or the Milestone with keyboard. These are differentiating features that people would choose over the HTC range (Legend, Desire, whatever) where they all look generally the same but I have no idea what's the major differences except for maybe processor difference.
To sum up my desire, if the iPhone 5 has a slide-out keyboard, I WILL BUY.
My first mobile phone was not by choice. SingTel launched the PCN (GSM1800) in 1996 and offered really cheap prices for the mobile package, so my dad bought a Nortel-brand mobile phone (I still have it, but the battery no longer works).
As I got savvier, I bought my own mobile phone. The Motorola StarTac X supports GSM1800 and is freaking slim, plus a cool clamshell form factor, it's amazed how revolutionary the design is.
After I graduated from school, I worked in a mobile-phone related industry, and that really got my tech interest kicked in. I bat no eyelid to buy the Nokia 8210 on the first day of launch, spending $888 without contract. it's another beauty that is yet to be surpassed by any models today (The Nokia 8850 is of course more beautiful, and I had the luck of winning it in a lucky draw 4 years later when it became an obsolete model. Still kept it in pristine condition.)
I liked Nokia phones then for its ability to customise the operator logo. I found ways to design my own logo and became very popular at work where I happily sent these unique logos to colleagues and friends. I moved on to purchase Nokia 6210 in 2000 (not to be mistaken with the 6210 in recent years) which has a larger form factor. In fact, I bought the Europe set because it has a very nice silver mic-plate. Other reasons for choosing this phone is the ability to create larger operator logo and the support for mobile Internet (a.k.a. WAP).
The tech-heart in me went on to upgrade my phone to Ericsson T39, the first commercial GPRS phone in Singapore. I proceeded to purchase the Ericsson T68, the first colour-screen phone with infrared and bluetooth and open-source file management. It was so revolutionary that I create websites to evangelise the greatness of this phone. The Sony Ericsson T610 continued the flagship T-series with fantastic design. I also sank my money on the first Sony Ericsson touch-screen smartphone, the P800. I then upgraded to P910, then P990i. My last Sony Ericsson phone is the G900i, a normal keypad candy-bar phone with touchscreen. The one thing that killed my interest on Sony Ericsson is the laggy interface that was inherrent since the early days. When my colleague introduced me the Nokia E71, I was sold. By moving back to the non-touchscreen devices like E71, I realised I can operate the phone much faster. Hardware buttons also mean the input responses are much speedier. The size of E71 is just nice: it's not too broad like Blackberry, and has a landscape display that is web-friendlier than the portrait modes.
Having had years of usage experience with touchscreen phones, I found that touchscreen technology has yet to mature (It was also the same period where Tablet PC failed). Touchscreen implementation resulted in the interface lag, and is still present in many of today's devices.
Until Apple iPhone comes along.
Looking at touchscreen technology alone, iPhone would certainly interest me. But from the feature and form factor point-of-view, iPhone fails to intrigue me. It's too big and the specs are flawed.
Another challenge I had is the on-screen keyboard. When I had the LG Viewty Smart, I had problems typing and I thought it was the phone's problem. But when I tried on the iPhone and later the HTC Android phones, I had the same problems too. I therefore concluded that I am unable to use touchscreen phones efficiently.
While I am very happy with my Nokia E72, I understand the wonders of the iPhone or the Android devices. Even the Blackberry is catching up as a popular youth phone with its myraid of social networking apps.
So what am I looking for in my next phone?
1. Hardware keyboard buttons like E72 oriented at the portrait (not landscape like Nokia N97 or Motorola Milestone, because it's too spread up and I cannot type with one hand).
2. Nifty interface like iPhone or Android OS
When I heard Nokia released an upgrade of E72 with E5, my heart sank. The latest phone has less hardware buttons for reasons unknown to me, it doesn't have a secondary camera, and runs on similar processor.
But I knew hope is in the horizon when RIM (Blackberry) announced that they will be designing new phones with touchscreen and a slide-out keyboard.
Makers must understand that throwing in features alone is not good enough. The features must be designed to be human-friendly. Motorola Milestone running on Android has a keyboard, but the layout isn't quite user friendly. Blackberry form factor is very friendly for simple reasons. Apple is smart to release only features in the phones that the OS can properly handle, so in iPhone 4, they choose not to allow video calls over 3G.
When all the phones are running the same OS, what differentiates them would be the design. And I'm not talking about just the colour or the styling. Look at Motorola, its Backflip design is unique (although I'm not sure about the practical part). Or the Milestone with keyboard. These are differentiating features that people would choose over the HTC range (Legend, Desire, whatever) where they all look generally the same but I have no idea what's the major differences except for maybe processor difference.
To sum up my desire, if the iPhone 5 has a slide-out keyboard, I WILL BUY.
Mirrorless Interchangeable Lens Camera System
Last Saturday, I was invited by Samsung to conduct a workshop at Courts Megastore (Tampines).Over the next few weeks, I will publish excerpts of the workshop materials in this blog.
Mirrorless Interchangeable Lens Camera System: Do We Really Need Another New Format?
Photography, as we know decades ago, requires expensive and specialised optical devices called the camera, that only the trained can operate and afford. Single Reflex Lens (SLR) camera systems are the most portable imaging system that offers the best quality and versatility. Till today, digital SLR is the choice for professional imaging.
Featues of the DSLR:
Decades ago, compact film cameras began to popularise photography, thanks to its lightweight and ease-of-use. Naturally, the compact format evolves into the digital form and today, almost everyone carries an imaging device. While the compact camera can never replace the DSLR on the image quality, there are other features that consumers are willing to trade-off for.
Features of the Point-and-Shoot Compact Camera:
Now, where does this new hybrid camera come into place?
The mirrorless interchangeable lens camera has the best of both worlds!
Compact
Thanks to the mirrorless design, the hybrid camera can be smaller yet contains the same image sensor as a DSLR.
Easy to Operate
The hybrid camera comes with user interface that is as easy to use as a compact camera. It also has shooting modes to help the user capture the images automatically, and plenty of hardware buttons to allow advanced users to control the settings quickly.
Live View Display
Just like compact camera, the hybrid camera's live view display shows what you are about to capture. The NX10 also comes with the electronic view finder (EVF) to mimic the DSLR. On-screen display shows important shooting information. The screen sharpness is important for the user to do manual focus. Good thing NX10 uses 3" AMOLED screen.
Interchangeable Lens
Nothing more to say about the ability to interchange lens. This has got to be the most important feature to the consumers. Previously, compact cam users do not worry about the lens attributes. Maybe they would be concerned about the no. of times of zoom factor. Now with hybrid cameras, users need to understand the 2 important attributes: focal length and aperture. I will explain these 2 attributes in future.
Fast Shooting Performance
Indeed, one major drawback of a compact camera is laggy shooting performance, and it's not just the shutter lag. With the hybrid camera, the start-up speed is very fast, the focus speed is zippy, and the shot-to-shot is also speedy. Now, in no way will hybrid camera be as fast as DSLR, but I dare say no compact camera comes close.
Image Sensor
Again, no compact camera's image sensor comes close to a hybrid camera. With a large image sensor means hybrid cameras are capable of producing professional quality images. The high ISO images are also cleaner than any compact cameras in the market.
Video Recording
Video recording on a hybrid camera presents more filming controls than most compact cameras, and matching only the top-end DSLRs with video capability. On a hybrid camera, you can certainly zoom around with a zoom lens, perform manual focusing. Some models like NX10 also allows manual exposure override and aperture setting.
Final Word
Mirrorless Interchangeable Lens Camera is a long-awaited next generation imaging solution, offering the compactness and easy of use of a compact camera as well as the image versatility and quality of a digital SLR. I'd say that any consumer who is intending to getting a low-end DSLR should seriously consider the hybrid camera, because it is smaller and its operation is closer to a compact camera. Price is very competitive, and you will be spoilt for choice below $1200.
Mirrorless Interchangeable Lens Camera System: Do We Really Need Another New Format?
Photography, as we know decades ago, requires expensive and specialised optical devices called the camera, that only the trained can operate and afford. Single Reflex Lens (SLR) camera systems are the most portable imaging system that offers the best quality and versatility. Till today, digital SLR is the choice for professional imaging.
Featues of the DSLR:
- Interchangeable lenses
- Fast shooting performance
- Large image sensor
- Professional image quality
- Clean high-ISO images
Decades ago, compact film cameras began to popularise photography, thanks to its lightweight and ease-of-use. Naturally, the compact format evolves into the digital form and today, almost everyone carries an imaging device. While the compact camera can never replace the DSLR on the image quality, there are other features that consumers are willing to trade-off for.
Features of the Point-and-Shoot Compact Camera:
- Compact
- Easy to Operate
- Live View Display
- Video Recording
Now, where does this new hybrid camera come into place?
The mirrorless interchangeable lens camera has the best of both worlds!
Compact
Thanks to the mirrorless design, the hybrid camera can be smaller yet contains the same image sensor as a DSLR.
Easy to Operate
The hybrid camera comes with user interface that is as easy to use as a compact camera. It also has shooting modes to help the user capture the images automatically, and plenty of hardware buttons to allow advanced users to control the settings quickly.
Live View Display
Just like compact camera, the hybrid camera's live view display shows what you are about to capture. The NX10 also comes with the electronic view finder (EVF) to mimic the DSLR. On-screen display shows important shooting information. The screen sharpness is important for the user to do manual focus. Good thing NX10 uses 3" AMOLED screen.
Interchangeable Lens
Nothing more to say about the ability to interchange lens. This has got to be the most important feature to the consumers. Previously, compact cam users do not worry about the lens attributes. Maybe they would be concerned about the no. of times of zoom factor. Now with hybrid cameras, users need to understand the 2 important attributes: focal length and aperture. I will explain these 2 attributes in future.
Fast Shooting Performance
Indeed, one major drawback of a compact camera is laggy shooting performance, and it's not just the shutter lag. With the hybrid camera, the start-up speed is very fast, the focus speed is zippy, and the shot-to-shot is also speedy. Now, in no way will hybrid camera be as fast as DSLR, but I dare say no compact camera comes close.
Image Sensor
Again, no compact camera's image sensor comes close to a hybrid camera. With a large image sensor means hybrid cameras are capable of producing professional quality images. The high ISO images are also cleaner than any compact cameras in the market.
Video Recording
Video recording on a hybrid camera presents more filming controls than most compact cameras, and matching only the top-end DSLRs with video capability. On a hybrid camera, you can certainly zoom around with a zoom lens, perform manual focusing. Some models like NX10 also allows manual exposure override and aperture setting.
Final Word
Mirrorless Interchangeable Lens Camera is a long-awaited next generation imaging solution, offering the compactness and easy of use of a compact camera as well as the image versatility and quality of a digital SLR. I'd say that any consumer who is intending to getting a low-end DSLR should seriously consider the hybrid camera, because it is smaller and its operation is closer to a compact camera. Price is very competitive, and you will be spoilt for choice below $1200.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Bedridden for a Week
Last Saturday was my Grandpa's 7th death anniversary. We brought a Reverend to do some rituals. Many people came back, including my 15-month niece, Xiyuan. Here are some of their intimate moments.
In the same evening, I attended Zoe's 21st birthday party with Melody.
The next day, I started to get throat irritation and runny nose, and by afternoon, I felt I needed to rest and took some painkillers. Alas, the virus has begun their assault.
Monday, I tweeted:
In the same evening, I attended Zoe's 21st birthday party with Melody.
The next day, I started to get throat irritation and runny nose, and by afternoon, I felt I needed to rest and took some painkillers. Alas, the virus has begun their assault.
Monday, I tweeted:
I'm very sick since ytd. The usual throat-nose-bodyache symptons. Last nite was terrible, just waiting for dawn so i can see doc. #fb
This time round the first sympton was headache on sat, which was unusual cus i usually have sore throat first.
That's why i didn't think much abt the headache, thot i was tired or something. Then sun morning the usual symptons started appearing liao.
Tried self medication since this is kindda "normal" symptons. But last nite was excruciating! Tried to sleep thru e nite so i cld see doc.
http://twitpic.com/1unbfs - Is this how i looked like when i'm bedridden?
My fever went up, so now going for second opinion.
Doc says, suck it up! Ok basically it's respiratory infection and as long as conscious level is up, it's ok.
Could incense have triggered such infection? Perhaps it's my grandpa's way of telling me to take a break.
Fever taking me on a roller coaster ride. Still bedridden. I've never felt so ill in my life. 2 days sleeping non-stop.
Looking forward to my next medication so that i will feel better. Meds work, but seemingly only for a few hours.
Why can't they make meds that consume every 3hrs? Can't wait for mealtime so that i can wallop the pills.
Clinic for 3rd opinion. Throat got worse thou fever subsided (@ Mount Alvernia Hospital) http://4sq.com/7BihVL
Doc diagnosed tonsilitis, gave me 3day MC. Never been ill for a whole week in my entire life. #fb
Doc gave me a jab, hopefully that would speed up the recovery. Fever went back up, i'm back on bed now.
For the first time in 3 days, I am FEELING hungry. #fb
After sleeping non-stop like an invalid for 4 days, it feels good to be useful again. #fb
My fever's gone, but the World Cup fever's just started! #fb
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Sony NEX-3 and NEX-5 camera bundle prices out for Asia Market
| Package | Price |
| Sony NEX-5 with 16mm pancake lens | S$1,199 |
| Sony NEX-5 with 18-55mm kit lens | S$1,199 |
| Sony NEX-5 with 16mm and 18-55mm lens | S$1,299 |
| Sony NEX-3 with 18-55mm kit lens | S$999 |
| Sony NEX-3 with 16mm and 18-55mm kit lens | S$1,099 |
The price is comparative to competitive brands.
One thing that attracts me to the Sony's offering is the 16mm f2.8 pancake lens that translates to 24mm field of view in full-frame.
But as a long-time reviewer, I do not simply buy the stuff by gut feel.
To make things trickier, all the competitive products have their own plus points and issues.
So it's not a matter of "which one would I want to buy?", but rather, "which one do I get to own?"
I currently use a Samsung ST550 compact camera. It's such a fun camera and I get my daughter's attention to get that shot. Though I'd prefer Canon S90 for its overall image performance, I won't go and buy one because I already have a compact camera.
I am also contemplating getting an underwater camera. It would be a fun gadget for my daughter. Afterall, it's waterproof, shockproof, weatherproof. So I can let her have fun without fear of bruising or dirtying it. A couple of models are out there, and I'm narrowing my choice to the Sony TX-5 and the Lumix FT-2. I like the Sony for its design and touchscreen, but prefer Lumix for the features.
Oops, I'm digressing. Bottomline: I'll cover more about the NEX cameras if I ever get my hands on one.
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