Tired of FFXI? You might want to try this.
All Posts by ‘George Chen’
Swenden.se
Site of the Day. The site was pointed out to me by June in one of our internal work mailing list. Really really lovely site!
Happy Birthday – Tres
My best friend turned 30 on the past Sat. It was great to see him – we haven’t got a chance to hang-out for a couple of months now… We had cake at his house and went out for a few Jack and Coke (just like the old days).
It’s pretty funny too since I got him this design razorblade holder from Hong Kong while Gareeth got him some razorblade for his birthday- Gareeth and I didn’t plan on the matching gifts in advance.
Tres, now you can’t give me shit about my age. We’re in the same boat now.
Nokia N-GAGE QD
So I received my Nokia N-GAGE QD from EB last night. First I pop in my Cingular SIM card and tested out the sound of the phone by calling Alison. She was sleepy so we didn’t talk much. Ha-ha, good… more time for me to geek-out with my new phone.
Since QD is an “unlocked” GSM phone, so you can use it with you existing SIM from Cingular, AT&T, or T-Mobile. BTW, the phone sounds pretty clear – better than my SE T-630.
The second thing I did was try to synch it with my Mac via Bluetooth. That also went well. The only challenge was at first, both devices were having trouble finding each other. Then I went through the process of pairing the 2 devices via Apple’s Bluetooth Setup Assistance, after that, synching was not an issue at all.
As a side note, Mac.com’s respond rate was really bad last night. I had a hard time getting my appointments and data download from Mac.com.
Some quick pros and cons of the Nokia QD:
Pros: Rather compact device with game, GSM phone, Calendar, To Do, Address Book, WAP browser, IMAP e-mail all packed into one. The retro 80s’ software UI is kinda cool.
They fixed the “Side Talk” issue so you won’t look like a dork when you are talking on the phone.
Cons: Dual band GSM only. Weird placement of the power button – on the rubber plastic rim. Non-gamer will find the user-interface “non-standard” (both the hardware/software). Should have come with a wider screen instead of vertical screen.
They fixed the “Side Talk” so you can’t look like a dork when you are talking on the phone.
With shipping and tax, this “game phone” will run you about $200 US…. “Cheap thrill” till the release of Sony PSP.
Now I need games. Suggestions?
Hit lvl 60 last night.
It’s interesting to see I hit lvl 50 on May 26th, and it took me another month-and-a-half to hit 60 – another mile stone in this game if you will. Not sure if I will go “all the way” to lvl 75…. maybe be for another year or something? I don’t know. ..
With the full AF and the ‘Pimp Hat’, I am a real “Red Mage” in the game. One might consider I have wasted close to 47 full days (over 1000 hrs.) in this game, but through the game, I’ve met some interesting folks (maybe I will write about in the near future), and I had experience the ‘nature high’ of Limit 2 Quest, the pure joy of getting the AF done, or even heart pounding terror by chasing after by a lvl 65+ Yag…
Might be off topic a bit… but some might brush it off as “just a game” and refuse to take a second and objective look…. but I urge you to try out some good MMORPG yourself and see what it’s really like… At times, it could be pretty magical.
Pawned – word of the day.
The word pwn is a result of the internet gaming subculture. In the effort to increase their typing speeds, online gamers often accidentally typed “pwned” instead the desired “owned”, a term meaning to defeat and a celebration of victory. The idea was to say a phrase such as “I owned you”, but often the result would be “I pwned you” due to the proximity of the keys on a standard qwerty keyboard. More about the word can be found here.
Fun with stock price.
Well, I guess the designers over at Apple are having fun with their new dashboard app screenshots…
Check out the actual stock price. That’s pretty bias don’t you think? So glad YHOO is not on their “watch list”. The turth is, we all do goofy things in our design… It’s just a matter if you can catch it. 😉
Apple’s new displays…
Well, all the rumors are true… They sure are sexy. To quote my friend Joe, “The cheapest display apple sells is now $1,300. I guess Apple decided to stop selling displays to normal people.” lol…
What the hell???
Don’t worry, look closer at the right and you will see the Hollywood film crew. This stealth navy jet is apparentlya prop in an up coming 2005 action movie with Jessica Biel as the female Navy Stealth jet pilot. I guess this will be similar to Clint Eastwood’s Firefox maybe? I have to say, the jet looks pretty cool since it’s on a real aircraft carrier.
iPod (and Saab) UI
One of the coolest thing about the iPod is the twist-and-press software interface that allows you to navigate through a hierarchical menu system. What’s surprising, is that, iPod is not the first place we see this kind of interface. Saab’s automotive SID (System Information Display) had been doing that for at least 5 years to my knowledge. Take a look at the pic below. The “twist nob” you see can control the “scrolling” of the menu items. Press the “twist nob” result in a selection state. The only missing thing (in iPod’s term) is the slick “side sliding effect” you see.
George Chen DOT COM 
You must be logged in to post a comment.