Category: My Good Life

Categories
I See I Write Photography

Peranakan Museum – A Trendy And Happening Boutique Museum In Singapore

Picture this with me.  Across the road, you have found the entrance to a museum.  It is your first visit.  Outside the museum, there are stalls crowded with curious shoppers, genuine shoppers of all ages.  Stepping inside, the high ceiling hall is brightly lit filled with youngsters dressed in trendy clothing socializing with one another, all appear to be having a good time.  But that is not the first thing you notice.  In the center of the hall, at the reception area, a band is performing for the visitors.  Lively music moves your feet.  And you wonder: Is this a museum?  Some watch the band’s performance.  A line of human traffic constantly moving up and down the stairs on either side of the main hall that leads to different exhibition halls.  And if loud music raises your eyebrows, once you walk into one of the exhibition halls, such as the special exhibition “Ramayana Revisited”, the volume of the live music fades away.  Soon, the things that capture your senses are the artifacts and their descriptions.  Old people, young people, not-to-old people, families, friends, and couples – all having a good time.  And soon you conclude: What a lovely way to spend an evening at the Peranakan Museum.

Cynthia and I were invited for the museum’s open house event.  We have been to a few events organized by the Singapore museums and this must be the liveliest of all.  Before we got a chance to make our own bags (see photos below), we were greeted by Ms Barbara Fras, the Assistance Director of the Programmes Department who took the time to introduce the museum to the bloggers.  Peranakan Museum may seem small but it has attracted 200,000 visitors a year, of which majority are from within Singapore.  The museum does have an interesting cross-cultural collection of artifacts (part of the museum’s collection is now being exhibited in Paris) as well as a good line-up of fun events that prompt visitors to return.  I think the make-a-bag session is a great idea.  We get to keep the bags as souvenirs.  What a lovely to keep a piece of our memory at home in a tangible way.

Peranakan Museum’s website can be found in here.  The museum is located at 39 Armenian Street.  You can check out the upcoming events at their website.  To enjoy the discounted admission charges, you may wish to visit on Fridays between 7pm to 9pm (S$3 for adults).  Below are some of the photos we have taken during the event.

Categories
My YouTube

I Sing A Spanish Song: Caricias En Tu Espalda

If my band members are to know that I have recorded a cover song and shared the video with you here, they would flip.  Because I don’t usually do covers.  But in the spirit of learning Spanish, it is indeed fun to learn a Spanish song.  I am still not 100% sure on what the lyrics mean.  And I am still not 100% sure how the singer of the band Despistaos manages to pronounce some of the words in such a different way.  Since I have no idea how that works, I did my own interpretation instead.  Hope that doesn’t turn out too bad.

The title of the song is “Caricias En Tu Espalda”, which means “Caressing Your Back”.  The story evolves around what happened this morning.  There was a girl, a window, a ray of sunlight, a bed, a pillow, and her bare chest.  I think it is a beautiful song.

My interpretation of the lyrics goes something like this (Spanish version of the lyrics can be found in our Spanish class’s website):

This morning, a ray of sunshine has cast through your window, which is the window of my room.  It has appeared and caught me taking your hand.  This morning, it was really warm.

I left my forgotten shame at the bottom of a glass in the last bar.  The lost glance, the rusty voice, awake in your bed and it gets me to sing …

“Give me the time you don’t need and I promise to spend it to caress your back.  Give me the time you don’t need and I promise to spend it to caress your back.”

This morning, I remember I was better.  A pillow, your bare chest in the face.  You are gone and you have left me pretty worn out.  This morning, the heat was killing me.

I left my forgotten shame at the bottom of a glass in the last bar.  The lost glance, the rusty voice, awake in your bed and it gets me to sing …

“Give me the time you don’t need and I promise to spend it to caress your back.  Give me the time you don’t need and I promise to spend it to caress your back.”

Categories
Linguistic Photography Reflection

How I Met My Mother (At A Dumpster She Said)

In one Spanish class, our teacher Alejandra posed a question: How did you meet that someone important in your life? For those who have kids at home, you must have been bombarded by soul searching questions like this.  What a way to relive your childhood.  As for me, attending a Spanish class is as close to reflecting on my childhood education as I can get.

My mother often said: I found you in a dumpster. Looking back, that must be one of the most profound things I have come across at that very young age of mine.  A simple statement that encapsulates so many concepts.  I found you in a dumpster creates a disassociation, a resignation, and a diversion to the million possible emotions that went through my mother’s head when I was hopelessly naughty, when life seemed unbearable.  Often, I saw my mother silently staring out of the window in tears for hours.  And all I could say was I am sorry.  I guess back then it was hard for my mother to explain to her son how disappointed she was, how heartbroken she was.  Hence, I found you in a dumpster is a good proxy to sum up all her emotions.

Besides, I as a small kid would probably understand that statement better than her trying to tell me what she was going through.  Looking back, I guess it was also her way to teach me the notion of a two-way love.  Not just from her to me, but also I to her.  When I first conceptualized I found you in a dumpster, I thought it was a cool thing.  Monkey God (from a Chinese legend) came from a piece of worthless stone.  And I, from a dumpster.  But thinking deeper, I realized that the conveyed message was: You are not like me and hence you are not my son. Even as a very small kid, that blew.

I cannot recall how exactly my thinking process went.  I suppose my optimism has imbued in me since young.  All of a sudden, I have a mission in life.  I vowed to prove to my mother that I am indeed her son and I am going to make her proud.  What a long journey that became.  Over the years, my mother has subtly taught me that love is a two-way highway.  I too have to reach out to her.

Now that I am older and a little bit wiser, I am more and more convinced that she could well be saying I found you in a dumpster to herself, especially when the going got rough.  A reminder of how close she was to lose me in a hospital when the doctors and nurses informed her that my chance of survival was slim.  And that it turned out to be a blessing for her even if she has to accept me in whatever condition I was, so long as I live.  In another word, I was indeed lost and found, not in the most glamorous way.

I am not as articulated in Spanish.  The Spanish version of the story is as follows.  Thanks to Alejandra who corrected my grammar.  I think the Spanish tenses are intense.

La persona más importante en mi vida es mi madre.  Sin ella, yo no existo.  Sé que parece una tontería.  Cuando era joven, mi madre me decía de dónde venía, sobre todo cuando estaba enfadada conmigo.  Ella me decía que me encontró en el contenedor de la basura.   Cada vez que era travieso, me contaba la misma historia.   En el fondo, sé que ella me ama.  La metáfora de que me encontró en un contenedor de basura puede ser cruda.  Pero es un recuerdo constante del dolor que perdura para hacerme lo que soy hoy.

This entry has prompted me to work on a set of photos taken in my 2009 trip to Hong Kong.  My parents, Cynthia, and I have visited this garden.  If I remember correctly, the fossil stones and trees come from China.  My dad used to visit the garden often and he knows where the good spots are for photo taking.  Unfortunately, my photography skill was inadequate (I just bought my dSLR).  And I wish I had the white balancing card with me.  Nevertheless, for memory’s sake, below is a set of photos of the garden.

And another set for my family.

Categories
Diary I See I Write

David Archuleta, And The N8 Launch Event By SingTel And Nokia

Looking back, I think it was the little disagreements that glued Cynthia and I to American Idol.  Cynthia supported Elliott Yamin and I, Katharine McPhee.  We would debate for days that (a) I was not staring at McPhee’s boobs and mesmerized by her look and (b) I thought McPhee really sang well and sang really well.  But who would have thought that Hicks would beat those two?  Have you checked out the latest Christmas album by McPhee?  Even Cynthia agreed with me that she has a good voice, finally.  Season 6, I supported Jordin Sparks and Cynthia, Blake Lewis.  It was a dull season.  Nevertheless, you know how that season turned out.  In the following season, we have David versus David.  I think Cook rocked and Cynthia was in love with Archuleta.  Again, it was my shoulder that Cynthia cried on.  And then something happened in season 8.  Both of us supported Adam Lambert wholeheartedly.  And our hearts were shattered into millions of pieces.  Really?  The idol of the idol did not win?  We have boycotted American Idol since then.  The morale of the story?  I think I have a better chance to pick a better singer than Cynthia.

Ha!

OK.  Jokes aside.  One fine day, a media invite arrived at my mailbox.  It was on a Sunday.  Normally I would think twice because of this work-blog-life balance of mine.  Weekend is a time to do something very personal, may or may not be blog-able.  Before I hit that tentative reply button to that media invite, Cynthia exclaimed, “Can I come?!” and I went, “Erm … your were in love with Archie like 2 years ago.  Are you still a fan?”  I guess her undying love to Archuleta is as strong as mine to McPhee.

The event was organized by SingTel and Nokia for the launch of the Nokia N8 mobile phone.  Our hosts were Muttons (hilarious Singapore DJs) and David Archuleta was there to sing us 5 songs in an acoustic setting.  He does have a great voice, especially on stage.  Cynthia was in high spirit and so were the ecstatic fans in Zouk.  His new album “The Other Side Of Down” was released very recently and the fans already know all the lyrics!

We had Japanese food near Zouk and made it home in time for the final race of F1.  What an eventful weekend.  Here are a few photos to share.

Categories
Diary

10th Wedding Anniversary, Festival Of Lights, And A Grueling Drive To Fraser’s Hill

Friday morning, I woke up feeling woozy.  Cynthia has been having this bad cough at night lately.  When we reached the bridge that connects Singapore to Malaysia, on a Friday late morning, I was not able to comprehend what the signboard said.  It said: A back-flow of traffic from [I can’t recall the village name].  What does back-flow means?  Have they reversed the flow of traffic?

Clearing the Singapore Customs was a breeze.  As we drove through the 2nd link from Tuas (the 1st being the one in Woodland), our spirit was high.  We love road trips.  For our 10th Wedding Anniversary, Cynthia has suggested to stay over at Fraser’s Hill – our favorite location to relax in Malaysia.  And then, we saw it!  I was hyperventilating.  I wanted to pee!  If someone from Singapore Customs was to stare westward, he or she would see a massive built-up of traffic flowing from Malaysia to Singapore.  That explains “back-flow”, probably.

Friday was a public holiday.  It was Deepavali.  The story is rather romantic.  And I shared it with Cynthia as we crawled through the three-soon-to-be-expanded-into-four lanes of traffic.  A story I heard from my Indian colleague.  It goes something like this.  Once upon a time, there was a titan.  A good titan who ruled over the world (or the Indian part of the world).  When the titan was given the power by the gods, he started to abuse his people, making them suffered.  The only person who could stop this titan was his mother – the goddess of mother earth.  When the titan was finally struck down by the goddess, before his death, he asked his people to celebrate his death in a festival of lights (hence Deepavali).  Legend says that the good titan was corrupted by power.  And with power, he lost his humanity.  I love this story.  It causes us to reflect on what the wielding of power can do to us.  After I finished my story, we were still stuck in a massive traffic jam.

I did a timing.  At worst part of the jam, it took us 40 minutes to move 500 meters.  The jam was 4 to 5 km long.  You can do the maths.  That was why I panicked.  We had no water and food in the car.  And I wanted to pee.  I read somewhere (or was it in a movie?) that someone was holding his pee for too long and his bladder exploded.  He died painfully of course.  What a horrible way to end one’s life!  Throughout the FOUR AND A HALF HOURS traffic congestion, I saw one driver opened the car door and emptied a plastic container of fluid onto the road.  I did not want to know what that was.  I also saw one kid holding out a plastic bag of fluid.  I also did not want to know what that was.  Some left the cars or buses and have decided to walk to the Malaysia Customs.  One Malaysian BMW broke down.  Engine overheated or out of petrol, I have no clue.  I felt for the young couple.  There was little chance that a tow truck could reach that Bimmer before dawn.  Every inch of the road was utilized by vehicles.  We saw one Malaysian driver alternated between pushing his car and driving it.  That was critical fuel saving mode!

By the time we got through the Customs, it was late.  Some cars raced pass us in some ungodly speed.  Maybe there was some real emergency trying to reach the toilets not too far ahead.  Before we could see the petrol station, we saw another jam.  There were some police labeled cones and there was a road block.  Since all of us have suffered through a 4.5 hours jam, I feel that it was really cruel for the police to set up a speed trap right after the Customs.  Who wouldn’t speed?  Fortunately, I have mind over bladder.  I stayed at 110 km per hour for that few minutes of short drive from the Customs to the roadblock.

Fraser’s Hill is about 500 km away from Singapore.  In a normal day, it takes between 6 hours to 7 hours and 20 minutes to reach.  The last 7 km was called The Gap.  The road is so narrow that it can only be a one-way traffic.  So odd hours to go up, even hours to come down.  The gate closes at the 40th minute so as to make sure that the last car enters is able to cover the 7 km (in worst scenario, one may need to wait for 1 hour and 20 minutes for the gate to open).  By the time we left the highway, it was pitch dark.  The road was wet due to raining.  Occasionally from afar, we saw the fireworks.  A celebration of Deepavali by the villagers.  It was a pretty scene.  Fireworks on our 10th anniversary!  That momentarily suppressed our supreme hunger and worries (did you know that petrol stations such as Petronas that do not have a higher quality fuel selection are not allowed to sell petrol to Singaporean cars because standard petrol is subsidized by the govenment?) and I muscled the car through the hilly and windy, wet and slippery roads.  I could hardly see what lied ahead but there was no time to waste.  Time to switch the car to sport mode (there is really such a mode, and not figurative speaking) keeping the accelerator floored.  When we reached The Gap, it was so late that it was free for all.  As we drove up, we had encountered 5 cars coming down.  That was the reason why we needed to press on and cover The Gap asap.  We reached Smokehouse before 10 pm.

On Sunday, when we came down via The Gap, it was a totally different scene.  Fraser’s Hill is now so commercialized that there is a huge tourist bus taking tourists up and down the highland.  It took the bus half an hour to cover the 7 km distance.  Emerged from The Gap, we were stuck behind a train of traffic.  It was real exciting to go wheel-to-wheel with the cars in front during our overtaking maneuvers through the non-existence straight lines and some really tight corners.  Some were more defensive than others.  Nonetheless, we were very determined to hit the Malaysia Customs asap.  Because I have a F1 race to watch on TV at midnight today.

We love to stay at the Smokehouse.  Cynthia said that it is her 2nd home.  As for me, I count Hong Kong as my 2nd home, Bandung as my 3rd, so Smokehouse has to be my 4th.  Over the years, Fraser’s Hill has become more and more commercialized.  Now, according to Henry, the man-in-charge (OK, he is not the boss but he is in charge when the boss is not around), there are budget hotels being built and new F&B areas being built.  In a way, Fraser’s Hill has lost a bit of the charm we initially fell in love with.  There were so many tourists visiting the Smokehouse for breakfast and tea.  Some only wanted to stop by and take photos of the unique British cottages.  We miss the serenity.  Perhaps we shall visit Fraser’s Hill on a non-peak period.

So what do we normally do in Smokehouse?  We love to read books in the garden, sitting on the swing.  We love to play Scrabble in the living room.  The tea and scone served between 3 to 6pm is divine.  We love the British bed-and-breakfast feel.  If they were to serve steak and kidney pie (the one at Cameron Highland does I think), that would be perfect.  Henry (and his team I believe) comes from Myanmar.  It is such a joy chatting with him even though he always remembers us as somebody else.  Four months ago, he had a bad motorcycle accident.  Lost a few teeth, has quite a few stitches all over his face.  But he survived.  That is good news.

We played the Spanish Scrabble this time.  Boy, it was hard!  As you can see in the snapshots above, both of us were referring to the dictionaries all the time.  We have learned a few new words.  I hope in time to come, this will become much easier.  In fact, it reminds me of the time when I first played English Scrabble.  I struggled no less.

Categories
Photography Travel Blog

Gorges Du Verdon Is Gorgeous

Gorges du Verdon is located in the South of France, around 100 km away from Nice.  For those who wonder what a gorge is (like I do), a gorge is a deep ravine craved out by a river over a long time.  To experience the gorges is best by car.  The scenic route we took on day 9 of our trip got us as close as being next to the river and as high as 250m directly above it.  The scenery is breathtaking.  The road is windy and squeezing out that extra bit of performance from a tiny 1.4 liter rented car can be fun, in a challenging way.

Our holidays often involve a bit of museum crawling, a bit of city touring.  Nature exploration is one of our trip’s highlights and we often plan it to be the last of the itinerary.  So much control is placed upon us and yet the unknown is thrilling.  Road trips like this can be mentally tiring.  I don’t think we can do this on everyday of our holiday.  Then again, we don’t need many.  A few good day trips are good enough for memory’s sake.  Gorges du Verdon is a memorable trip.  So is the time we spent in Corsica, which I will share with you later.

To read more on our day trip to Gorges du Verdon, here are the options.

Categories
Diary

An Unexpected Turn of Events That Led To Sulfur Delivery And Super Scrabble

After the act, our good buddy TK asked: Are you going to take a picture of this and share it on Facebook?  Staring at the yellow powder, my immediate response was: No way!

My Sunday was not meant to be like this.  I was halfway through collating my travel journal and was about to pen down the captions for the shortlisted photos.  Then something happened.  Something so messed up that none of our parents knew exactly what to do.  Something so messed up that I am not going to write about that here.  I shared this domestic crisis with our good buddy TK on a Sunday evening over Google Talk.  Not only did he manage to procure a heap of yellow sulfur, he drove all the way from the east to deliver it to our home.  Gosh! When I heard that he had not had dinner, I said, “Please stay.  Cynthia is going to cook us some of her legendary bee hoon.”

Besides, I have been itching to try out my newly imported Super Scrabble from US.  Super Scrabble is a super-sized Scrabble.  There are 200 letters.  The board is bigger.  The reward is more (up to x4 letter and word score).  And the game was painfully long (click onto the picture above to zoom in).  The three of us started the game while Cynthia multi-tasked between preparing for our late dinner and forming words when her turn came.  We watched “How I Met Your Mother” on TV when we were having our dinner.  We resumed the game after our meal and 2012 was playing on TV.  We were still struggling with the game when Underworld was playing on TV.  By the time we were done, we felt this big relief.  A huge big relief.  Yes we did it, with a combined score of 1,111 after a grueling 82 turns (27 rounds).  Super Scrabble is not for the faint-hearted.  If you are a big fan of Scrabble, you would love Super Scrabble.  Best played in a very comfortable setting (read: not on the floor).

I hope we can put behind our domestic crisis.  At some point, I could picture the three of us staring in “Bones” or “CSI”.  Lesson learned.  Time to move on.

Categories
For the Geeks

Time To Choose A Powerful Security Suite – Norton Internet Security 2011

After installing the new Norton Internet Security 2011 into one of my computers at home, I opened up my web browser to rearrange my toolbars.  The moment I stacked one of the toolbars onto the Google toolbar, I have received a notification from Norton saying that the downloaded file is likely to be safe.  But wait.  I did not download a file, did I? It turns out that Google toolbar has behind the scene downloaded an executable.  If not for Norton, I would not have known.  Another time, I was downloading a video driver from a trusted source.  After the download is completed, I have received a warning message from Norton saying that the file may not be safe.  Very few people have downloaded and used the file, it said.  That was strange.  I went ahead and started the installation.  True enough, the file was corrupted and could not be used.  Norton knew it before I did.

You may be able to relate to this.  Every now and then, one of my friends would pop me an instant message with some suspicious links, and then go offline.  Or those emails I have received from my friends with dubious subjects.  These are the signs of accounts being hacked.  I would, of course, contact my friends by phone and ask them to do something about it.

I suppose what I am trying to share is that the threats are real and there are many things that happen behind the scene when we are connected to the Internet.  Through casual chats with my friends as well as a survey hosted in my website, I learn that all of us have had negative online experience one form or another.  And one of the greatest fear is to have our online identify stolen.  When asked how then to prevent ourselves from being the victims of the cyber-criminals, some think that having a firewall is good enough.  Or when a padlock icon that indicates a secured website is shown, it is safe (it is certainly not so, please remember that).  One told me that by avoiding to connect to the Internet unless absolutely needs to, the risk is mitigated (which is not, because the operating system and applications need to be updated regularly).  Some feel that they can judge whether or not a website is safe to open (well, even reputed websites can be hijacked).  And etc.

My question back to some of you would be: Why go through so much hassle trying to be safe?  Why not get the best protection out there to safeguard your online identity and personal digital assets?

The Facts and Data

With so many products in the market today, which one should you have?  I would recommend Norton Internet Security.  But don’t just take my word for it.  Have a look at the Passmark Consumer Antivirus Performance Benchmark (2011) dated 30 Sep 2010 and decide for yourself.

I have always enjoy attending Norton’s blogger events, hearing all the juicy stories and the behind-the-scene actions as Norton battles with the works of the cyber-criminals.  David Hall, the regional product and marketing manager from Norton was present in the event.  And I have always admired his enthusiasm and he being able to talk for hours and hours in the topic of cyber-protection.  This time, he brought along a briefcase full of credit cards acquired in one of the illegal underground circles in Europe.  You will be amazed by how easy and cheap to buy a credit cards of stolen identities, he said to us with a huge grin.  In Singapore, the top 5 cyber-crimes are: computer viruses or malware, online scams, phishing, social network profile hacking, and online credit card fraud.  71% of Singaporeans do not expect cyber-criminals to be brought to justice.  It takes an average of 24 days to resolve a cyber-crime and the costs on overage is S$1,660.  It is up to us to change this.  Get ourselves protected is one.  Report to authority is another.

Norton Internet Security 2011

If you are an active subscriber for the 2010 version, all you need to do is to right click onto the Norton icon on your system track, and select “Check for New Version”.  You should be able to update to the new 2011 version free.

So, what are the differences between the 2010 and 2011 version?  To be totally honest with you, I have computers that run on different editions of Internet Security, 360, and Gaming Edition so much so that I got a little bit disoriented on the subtle differences.  The 2011 version still progressively scans my computer when I am away from keyboard, still receives pulse updates constantly behind the scene, and checks the files against a reputation mechanism built by the Norton community (see below).  It still consumes very little computing power and when I run my games, Norton enters into silence mode.

What I do find therapeutic to look at is the new world map that blinks (see below for a cropped screenshot).  When I click onto a region in the map, a ticker appears underneath to show live data on the number of threats blocked by Norton.  I can also switch the ticker into the detail mode and look at those strangely named viruses and malwares.  This world map is so wonderful that next time when I get to meet David Hall, I would suggest to have it expanded into a full screen to see all the actions in glory.  They should have Norton TV too, as part of the awareness program.

Additional Useful FREE Tools

OK.  If you have read this far, you deserve to have some rewards.  During the blogger event, David Hall has shared with us some of the free tools out there for the online community.  And here they are for sharing.

  1. Norton Power Eraser – If you think that you (or one of your friends) have become a victim of a cyber-crime and the security suite of your choice is not able to remove it, you can download the Norton Power Eraser from here.  It will help you to solve the problem.  This is a reactive measure.  I still recommend you to have a good protection all the time.
  2. Norton Safe Web (for Facebook) – If you are a Facebook user, it is worthwhile to install this application.  What it does is to scan all the links posted by your friends on your wall and news feed and protect you from accidentally clicking onto any unsafe sites.  You can enable auto-scan too.  I do just that.  You can search for this application within Facebook.
  3. Norton DNS – If you wish to protect your home network at the router level, you may consider using the Norton DNS.  Although I have two computers at home, I have a lot more home devices that are connected to the Internet.  What Norton DNS does is to protect all the home devices.  You may download the tool from here.  There is a FAQ section to answer your queries.

As always, drop me a comment here if you have any question.  I am happy to help.

Categories
For the Geeks I See I Write

Nokia N8 – A Promising First Look

Some of you have asked if I have had the opportunity to touch and feel the upcoming Noka N8.  I would have, had I not missed the last few Nokia blogger events.  Some personal commitments still take priority.  And thanks to your inquiries, I have gathered enough courage to give Text100 a ring to see if a demo can be arranged with the Nokia team.  This post is a brief write-up based on my hands on experience with a Nokia N8.  There will be a follow-up article after I have received the review unit, within this week or so.

Before you continue reading this post, I would like to share a stop-motion animation video with you, shot on a Nokia N8 by Sumo Science at Aardman.  I was skeptical initially because there are many mobile or handheld recording devices that claim to produce amazing video quality.  But this one is special.  On top of that, it is an entertaining short clip.  Watch it on HD if you can.

N8 comes with a new design.  Slimmer, as you can see.  The casing is made of high quality aluminium.  During the demo, the Nokia product manager took out his keys and made some insane scratches onto the phone.  My heart sank as I saw the scratch marks.  And then he used his hand to rub them off.  The phone was good as new.  I probably would not try that on my phones.  But I think the point is made.  Onto the glass surface, I am told that N8 uses gorilla glass – something of a higher spec.  Fortunately, he did not smash the phone in order to show me how durable it is.  Nothing that dramatic.  I am willing to take his words for it.

The crown jewel of the N8, perhaps is the high quality camera, the vibrant screen display, and the HD capability.  The lens is Carl Zeiss Tessar optics with a xenon flash.  The sensor is 12 megapixels.  Video capturing up to HD 720p.  I have seen some of the scenic photos on the Nokia product manager’s personal phone and the details look promising, even when zoomed in.  I love the new and slick photo browser.  I was tempted to ask him to show me photos of those girls he took in a party but I resisted.  Not too professional eh?  Back to the phone, image quality does come with a trade-off on the overall design.  The lens mounting area at the back does not appear to flow with the overall slim design of the phone as the package requires a certain minimal thickness.  However, if the phone does capture images as good as those I have seen (and videos like the one showcased above), I can happily live with that.

New to the Nokia suite of phones is the USB on the go.  It is one nifty functionality.  There is a dongle provided to connect the N8 to a USB thumb drive, even to another phone for data transfer.  Taking about connectivity, there is another dongle that connects the N8 to a flat panel TV via HDMI cable for HD video playback of a good range of formats.  The N8 plays Web TV too.  Installed with the phone are some of the more popular channels such as CNN, National Geography, and E! Entertainment.  There are local channels like Channel News Asia.  If Cynthia gets to read this, she would likely to further monopolize our home TV to watch YouTube and web TV online via the phone on our TV.  Nightmare!

Nokia N8 is powered by the new Symbian^3 operating system.  The phone supports the popular “pinch-to-zoom” function like other mobile and laptop devices these days.  There are three home screens, each comes with 6 widgets.  The capacitive touch (by heat) seems OK in terms of responsiveness.  Probably need a bit of getting used to.  It is precise enough to recognize the Chinese character input by strokes.  Rotating the phone seems responsive in switching between landscape and portrait modes.  There is auto-switching between a full size virtual keyboard and a virtual traditional phone pad depending on orientation.  Nokia N8 comes with the free OVI Maps too.  I have always enjoy using their free navigation service.  Note that Nokia N8’s battery is now concealed by the casing.  Whether this is a wise move or not, perhaps too early to say (so long as I don’t need to pull out the battery to switch off the phone should it hangs due to unstable apps that I install, I am OK with that because batteries these days last).  5 colors are available here in Singapore.  They are dark grey, silver white, green, blue, and orange.

Nokia N8 is now available for pre-order in Singapore. If you have queries, write to me or drop me a comment here.  To pre-order, you can visit the SingTel site at www.singtel.com/n8 or the Nokia pre-order site at www.nokia.com.sg/n8 and click on the “pre-order” tab.

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Photography Travel Blog

A Productive Day At St-Tropez, St-Paul-de-Vence, And More

Although I do enjoy writing travel journals, as the chapter draws towards the end, it often gets more tedious.  Historically, Cynthia and I become more productive towards the end of a holiday.  Perhaps we are more used to the holiday rhythm.  Or perhaps since we often cover the cultural aspect of the trip before the scenic aspect, I end up having more photos to work on in the later part of the journey.  I do not make a lot of micro adjustments to the photos, mainly to apply digital filters if necessary.  White balancing is taken care of by the grey card we use in almost every composition, fortunately.  The most time consuming activity is the addition of captions to each and every photo that I have selected for the album of the day.  I have to cross reference my notes with the printed materials I have as well as the information available online.  Also, as the days go by, the camera sensor and lens begin to get dirtier.  And it takes time to zoom into each and every photo and to comb through the image (the sky especially) and remove those spots.  Not that I am complaining.  The end result is worth it, to the two of us that is.

Day 8, we have visited St-Tropez, a town by the sea.  Ramatuelle. an ancient town with strange life size figures everywhere (see photo above).  Cannes, another town by the sea and no, we did not manage to meet any celebrity.  And St-Paul-de-Vence, another ancient town that has a very special personal memory: Never ever try to drive into an ancient town again.

As always, below are the options to read more.