iMAME

Multiple Arcade Machine Emulation ;)

I wonder what classic games are available - am installing iMame into my iPhone 4 as I blog away here.

Here are some screenshots. Enjoy

Parrot Air Drone

An augmented reality video game with live action Air Drone?
Check out their official site

My printer saga. HP Officejet 6500 Wireless

I was about to print some customize wrapping paper to wrap a birthday present only to realise that my PC couldn't print the design to my HP Officejet 6500 printer.

I thought it may be due to the unstable wireless communications. I even tried to reinstall the PC drivers. But ended up with errors.

Then I found out that the printer couldn't even print locally a status report. To make matter worse, I accidentally touch a film strip and it came off from the left side. Took me 30 mins trying to hook it back. Almost gave up. Later I found that ire strip is called the encoder strip that helps the printer cartridges align themselves.

After hooking back the strip, I looks at all the places for jammed paper, but there was nothing. However, by doing that, the printer's error moved from the cryptic code of 0x6100004c to yet another cryptic code.

One of the solutions offered on google search, was to plug the power source directly to the wall. So I removed my power line LAN connection for my router/TV combo. Still not working.

I removed all the print cartridges and r-seated them back but still no go.

I finally took out the print head assembly and clean the print head with some water. Wala. It worked. I haven't turn back on the power line LAN yet.

However, now my drivers on my windows7 x64 are not working and reinstalling them seems to get error at the last step (trying to configure printer). The printer can print and scan now. Just couldn't fax - I don't see the fax driver on control panel any more.

So I guess I'll figure this out later this evening.

Beef Hor Fun

geylang lor 9 beef Kway Teow九港牛河.

Man cannot live on binary numbers alone. So here is some all beef goodness to boost our energy levels.

Samsung wins legal appeal

Samsung can start selling it's Galaxy 10.1 tablet in Australia. The temporary ban is lifted, and Samsung can now jolly well sell it's tablets over the Jingling Xmas season. Surely, this will give a boost to Samsung's stock price.

But perhaps many Australians have already bought the iPad from Apple, and may not be in the market for another tablet.  We will have to wait to see how well received is the Galaxy 10.1  ;)

Meanwhile, I'm waiting for Galaxy Note to become more mainstream - a hybrid size between a phone and a tablet. Can it satisfy both types of usage pattern simultaneously ?

Ultrabooks

I saw a list of notebooks published at this Ultrabooknews site. It lists the "True Ultrabooks" and "Ultrabooks Alternatives" lists.

The definition of what an Ultrabook is :

• Sizing that enables ease of portability. 11.1″-13″ being the main target screen sizes. 1-1.5KG being the target weight.
• SSD Storage
• Fast boot, long standby, fast resume.
• Not a Netbook

My favourite would be Asus & Lenovo at the current time.  Samsung is also looking more attractive as time goes by.  What is your favourite Ultrabook?

Stock market on Black Friday

What a day on Singapore's Stock market. With the STI index down 23.5 points (2652) are the time of writing this block.

Germany just came online not long ago and is at +15. The only green line on the board.

The quest for publication

Blogs are fine for rumblings and adhoc "tweet"-ing of stuffs we like on our blogs.  But blogs do not have the feeling that magazines usually invoke.  Something to do with the feeling of the flipping of the paper in your hand.

With the introduction of tables and mobile eReaders today, e-Magazines are starting to flood through to everyday consumers.  With the digital age, creating a magazine is no longer the sole proprietary rights of the professionals.  You and I can also create our very own e-Magazines for relatively low cost thanks to digital tools and services that are available today.

I've been just toying with the idea of creating such a "magazine" just for the fun of it.  My research showed that I may need the follow software tools to fulfill my desire :

1.  Photoshop - for manipulating images for the publication
2.  InDesign  -  for creating the eMagazine by exporting to ePub format or PDF.  The newer version 5.5 can even publish to iPad or mobile devices. Cool

3.  A repository to put my publications and to deploy to my fans and followers.  I have just started to look at Scribd and Issuu.

My research stopped here for now... I would like to poll to see what is everyone else doing out there... Are there better or cheaper tools ?  Leave a comment please.

Google Chrome

Move aside Internet Explorer and Firefox. Google Chrome's popularity is growing rapidly. It's speed at which it renders and execute flash games on Facebook such as FarmVille or Cityville is an order of magnitude faster than IE or Mozilla.

Even if you are not into Facebook games, the web store where you can download and run various productivity and creative apps (not just extension) is an interesting proposition.

One such Chrome app is called devianArt. Kind of a doodling tool. Way cool for something that's free to use.

Bangkok Floods affecting prices of HDD

The severe floods that plague Thailand had affected many businesses/manufacturing there. Companies with less outsourcing that is based in Thailand are ripping the benefits of competitors who are affected gaining more business - selling goods at higher prices since there is now a shortage.

For the Hard disk drive business, precision parts within the HDD from various HDD manufacturers may come from the upstream suppliers who are affected by the floods.

 In Singapore, we are noticing that internal SATA HDDs are selling at the shops for double the price compared to pre-flood prices.  So building a system right now will be more expensive thanks to more costly HDDs.

Best Archival Utility for Windows

I used to use Arc, Lzh, then pkzip and eventually Winzip came along.
Then came PowerArchiver...

They are all great, but they all became commercial.

However, now there is something free and relatively easy/powerful to use for everyone, and it is free. It's called IZArc - visit their website at http://www.izarc.org/

Give it a try - we would love to hear your comments about what you think about this free tool.

Yet another browser?

Just came across yet another browser. Chrome Plus. It seems to be a fork of the Chromium project and added some gestures features as well as some IE compatibility.

Anyone to give it a try ?? Let us know what do you think of it?

http://www.chromeplus.org/

LCD - LED Backlid Monitors

There are so many manufacturers of LCD/LED-backlit monitors these days. But few of them actually have IPS-panels offerings. Even fewer have 27" models that spots a higher color depth and higher resolution models (2560x1440 compared to 1920x1080).

So far only Apple produces the Apple Cinema Display that is both IPS and also 2560x1440. Dell's Ultrasharp monitor is not yet offering LED-backlight, and hence spots a thicker physical profile.

NEC, HP and possibly EIZO probably has some offering, but is too expensive to consider. Samsung hasnt move on to IPS panels yet.

However, LG seems to start pushing it's new IPS series of monitors as shown on their website http://www.ipslcd.com/en/
They currently offers a 23" model which looks fairly attractive. Let's wait a little while to see if they will eventually offer a 27" model.

Investing(Early Adopter) in OSX Lion

Apple has released its flag-ship OSX Lion together with some refresh of their MacMinis and Cinema Displays featuring Thunderbolt I/O.

Serveral early reports seems to reflect compatibility problems with Network Attached Storage. So if you guys are using NAS, you might want to steer clear of Lion until the storage companies can supply new firmwares to rectify the issue.

For myself, I'm waiting to get my hands on a monitor that is 2560x1440 capable (IPS panel).. but they are all pretty steep in prices. The newer Samsung 1920x1080 3D monitors are going cheaper.. so kinda hard to make a decision there. Any suggestions? Hopefully Thunderbolt will pickup on the monitor front.

As an insurance, I have to keep waiting for the new tech to mature.. but by the time are are mature and affordable, the next new thing is out.. sigh.. I hate to be a spec chaser..

Power hungry iphones/ipads/ipods meets portable power

With Duracell and Energizer both offering portable rechargeable battery packs for the iphones/ipads/ipods.. there is no excuse for running out of power. They are also affordable...

Will go source for one in Singapore and see if there are just as affordable here as compared to US. Sometimes these imported stuff are sold for much more here...