Welcome Back, Smack!

Someone ever said that, "You never know how precious something/someone is until you lose it/him/her'. That's exactly what I felt over these three weeks. Losing your 'powerful weapon' as in the walking stick for the blind one is more than agitating. Trust me.

my full of wound "Smack"** after two-week 'surgery' in S'pore #sobbing

**Oh, btw "Smack" is my 11.6" MBA's name. It means 'heroine'. Ha! Cool name, eh =p?

So, yeah...I've been abandoning this blog because Smack was being intensively cured abroad. Errr...alrite...alrite...that's quite a lame excuse. I actually have a back-up laptop. I was just too 'lazy' to use it. Imagine you have the most reliable-portable-fast laptop on earth (*did I sound like an A*ple fangirl #tongue?) and for a reason you must change it into the 'ordinary' laptop-everybody-has XD. Hahaha~ #alesanlagi 

5 (10?) Cool USB Flash Drive Uses

I...am...impressed! Although CNET only mentioned "five" on the video, they managed to elaborate USB flash drive usage to 10 points. Check out this link if you're as excited as I am #geek. Btw, I'm kind of intrigued to try point no. 8. Hmmm...let's see whether I have extra time to spare to mess around with my MacBook Air XD.

The Samsung Wave Family

Finally the Wave family hits Indonesia, today. Thanks to my unstoppable gadgets curiosity, now i know that Samsung is getting even more confident in releasing its Bada OS-based handsets. Despite this platform's novice status compare to its fast-growing competitors namely iPhone's iOS and Google's Android, Samsung is dare to stand out for the sake of providing the sufficient development of its rich apps (Samsung Bada OS Presentation, 2009). Unlike a year ago, when 80% of Samsung's smartphones are Windows Mobile-based and only 20% of them are operated by Symbian OS, now this Korean mobile company is ready for its new-and-personal mobile platform and software market, basically the same as RIM, Apple and Palm. A tough path, for sure.

[Source : http://b4tea.com/information/gadgets/3-samsung-wave-phones-wave525-533-and-575-with-bada-os-launched]

For me, i'm not ready yet for this "ocean" -Bada (바다) is the Korean word for "ocean"-. That's why i'm still stick to my Android-driven Samsung's handset. I think most smartphone users think as stupidly simple as i did. Why choose the obscure newbie if the well-thriving one is abide?  Altogether, will Bada really bring in competition for Android and iPhone? Just like OnlyGizmos stated, "unlikely". Will Bada be able to steal the smartphone lovers' hearts? My answer would be "possibly". Aside from its futuristic concept in terms of its multitouch support, which i'm sure will be loved by the gadget freaks, the assistance from the developers to enrich the OS's apps still can be expected to grab the triumph. Let's wait and see.

The Precious One

I love being organized, in everything. At home, i always be the one who responsible for the spick-and-span thingy. When i went home, i'm glad after found my sister, Citra, already replaced me for that home duty (*errr...kind of =p). Related to preserving memories, i always documenting everything as well, mostly doing scrap booking and picture taking. When the era changed, i realized that i'm no longer an avid scrapper. Pictures are the only visual representation of objects i've photographed in order to stop a moment from running away.

Addressing about picture taking, it can't be separated from the device to take it, the camera. My very first personal camera was Pentax ESPIO AF Zoom. I remember my cousin bought it for me from Bundesrepublik Deutschland as a birthday present (Hmmm...i guess she found it at the flohmarkt in Berlin or Frankfurt). The Espio is still somewhere at home. 

[Source : http://www.flickr.com/photos/93694546@N00/4380199683/]

Honestly, i'm not really that into technical photography stuff, considering i merely taking pictures as records. But of course, i have my own taste in the objects i'm targeting. Well, since i got The Espio, i'm getting more devoted in archiving my life's milestone through my camera lens. 

In connection with this post, the precious one that i implied is this picture :

I'm completely in love with this old days picture of mine. I hang this picture in my room and always giggles every time i look at it. The picture was taken when my brother was still 6 months old and i was three years old back then. It was in Jakarta, at Tante's house. My face looked very tense because we were sat on the wall. It was very high, i recalled. I was holding my blue balloon on my left hand while my father was tightly holding my brother on his stomach. The funny thing is, even though in the picture my brother's face seemed fine, he was scared to death. Thus, he was grabbing my skirt until my pants was disclosed [censored-unseen]. Haghaghag...such a scaredy-cat.

Sadly, after i'm leaving for Taiwan, this picture's frame glass was broken and the fungus was successfully invaded in. Hence, it became moldy. I was devastated after found it severely damaged :((. Moreover, I never have its negative film. I've tried to bring it to the photo studio to get it fixed, but after came to 5 different places, all of them said it couldn't be fixed. *Sigh. Luckily, my father took a snapshot of this picture before it was damaged. Well, despite the fact that he only took it with his cellphone's camera, at least i can still see it. This occurrence made me even more cautious in preserving my treasure.

Video News Podcasts

I've been relying on podcasts to get updated with news from all over the world for almost two years. I prefer video over audio; visual description can draw my attention better than merely an audio.
 

I found this non-streamed webcast to be the easiest way to catch up the news. But because it is non-streamed, i need to be patient in order to wait for the newest podcast to be uploaded by the distributors.

My ever-subscribed video news podcasts are :

1. ABC World News with Diane Sawyer

This one is the most updated podcast along with CBS Evening News With Katie Couric. For the HighDef video lover, this podcast is a great deal. But for me, its HighDef becomes its weakness because it's quite time consuming when it comes to the downloading time. Besides, i don't really need the HighDef video considering i only watch it on my iPOD.

2. CNN Video Podcasts (CNN Daily, CNN In Case You Missed It and CNN Anderson Cooper 360 Daily Podcast)

These three video podcasts from CNN are less updated than others. CNN Daily is 9-10 minutes in duration and has the same concept as the regular news. CNN In Case You Missed It is a 2-3-minute-news highlighting the round-up news. Whereas CNN Anderson Cooper 360 Daily Podcast is a 30-minute-news report with one or two most emerging news that dissected by Mr. Cooper. I'm still subscribing to CNN Daily and CNN In Case You Missed it.

3. Al-Jazeera Listening Post 
I don't have much to say when it comes to Al-Jazeera. This Qatar-based television network has been my favorite ever since its first broadcast i've watched. Not only because its contextual objectivity, but also because its "quality" as in the trustworthy information broadcasted. When the US, UK or European media are trying to play twisty  games in the news they're broadcasting, Al-Jazeera always stands up tall even with the most controversial issues. In the Listening Post, there is "Global Village Voices", a special session showed in this podcast to give a chance to the audience to speak out their mind over the emerging issues. Moreover, Richard Gizbert is such an eye-candy. Hahhahh...*becanda =p*

4. NBC Nightly News

Another regular content yet long duration news. I'd stopped my subscription to this podcast after only a few round :D.

5. CBS Evening News With Katie Couric

As i mentioned earlier, this podcast is very updated. As for image quality, it's not as HighDef as no.1 podcast, but the duration is longer (with just about the same contents), thus the downloading time of these two podcasts are about the same. But, hey, i love Diane Sawyer than Katie Couric [*sorry, Katie =p]. That's why i stopped subscribing to this podcast since a long time ago.

For a little cash and a lot of glory...:))

Call me crazy, but i've submitted my "application" to Steve Jobs's fave gadget web, Gizmodo, which currently seek for New Comment Intern :)) :)) :)). Heck, nothing to lose, though. Why bother?! :p

XOXO,

Bunga P.M [*who found Gizmodo to be a very refreshing weblog after read the whole lost iPhone 4G saga ^^]

ThumbTacks + Classic 120 Gb = Perfect Match

I need a recorder. Hehehe. All this time, i never have a real recorder because i've been relying on my oldie mp3 player which has a recording feature. This what i called oldie is now getting "fragile". xixixi. That's why i need to find its successor ;p. While googling, i found this amusing video on Youtube. Call me nerd, but i never knew that my iPod can be a recorder as well, although it needs something to attach to.

So, what kinda gadget needs to be attached to my Classic 120 gigs? Googling again, and i got this. Cool, eh? But i'm kinda anxious to buy this small-tiny-microphone (*its even called micro-microphone on the ads *whew*), considering this careless me who easily get my stuff lost, fell, gone mysteriously, stolen..you name it. Moreover, the ads mentioned that the thumb tack-identical microphone is (only) compatible with iPod Nano 4G and iPod Touch 2G. What about my Classic? *disappointed*. But then, after reviewing back Youtube video i've linked above, my hunch said that it will definitely compatible with my Classic. Kinda risky, but it worth to try ;p. I don't want to pass up the good deal, though. As a result, i ended up purchasing the phenomenal ThumbTacks on my way to Kaohsiung Masjeed (*hahahahaa...i'm not good at holding back something i've been craving). And...it is...A PERFECT MATCH *hurray!!!* No need to install the third party apps either. Awesome, eh? *smiled victoriously*

Here's my new micro-mic (it costs NT$450) :

Instructions :

Simply plug in your ThumbTacks to the jack whenever you want to do the recording and voila...the Voice Memo menu will appear in your interface and you can record anything you want ^^V.

Podcasting-Postcard (???)

Poor "Bunga no iPOD"! It's only used by its owner to play J-Pop, K-Pop, R&B and 90's Pop songs. Oh yeah, and also to watch what's the owner called "scientific videos" (namely : Super Junior Exploring Human Body, how cells can go apoptosis, immunoblotting, metastasis, etc ^^).

But today (yes...T.O.D.A.Y! :p), i start to "peek" on and scroll around "Bunga no iPOD" another "ability". Yes, PODCASTING. That word sounds familiar to my ear. Yet, i never do the podcasting stuff. As a result, i end up googling and found some Postcasting Tidbits, start from its history, what is it, how it works, and also some podcasting directories (1, 2, 3). YEAY (^o^)! I have a new "thing" to play with, start from today.

Wow, FINALLY, after almost two months, Sunett's Edinburgh postcard was arrived (*thanks a bunch, Sun^^. Yes, Edinburgh is BEAUTIFUL:)). But...it was mistakenly sent to room no. 2302 (*the room next door). Ehehehe, Pak Satpam, later on please remember that i live in room no. 2303, OK ;)?!