3 New Gadgets

PC Show is over, but the shopping isn't. After the LCD monitor purchase, I went on to grab 3 more new gadgets for the past 7 days. So allow me to narrate my 'exciting' shopping adventure.

Last Tue, I decided to buy a pen tablet for photo-editing. I had enough using the mouse to do photo touch-ups and was convinced that a pen tablet gives me better control after borrowing one from a colleague. Instead of the costly Wacom brand that is undoubtedly an excellent tablet - for professional graphic illustrators - I settled for the cheap Taiwan-brand Genius G-Pen 450. I managed to find the cheapest at Mediapro at the Sim Lim Square 5th floor, selling for $62. There was only one piece left, so I took it.

When I got home, I found that the stylus pen's battery leaked badly. Even after switching the corroded battery, it failed to work. I thought to myself: what an idiot. Seeing only one piece is an obvious indication that it's probably been on the shelves for such a long time.

The next day, I went back with a colleague and was hoping they would refund on the basis that they had no replacement stock. But they said no and would order from the supplier and I had to come back again to collect it when the stocks arrived. I grudgingly left, but not before noticing a media backup device. So a while later, I brought my colleague back to the shop to show him that device, but then he caught his eyes on another device:



This generic-brand device is the size of a 2.5" HDD casing and plays media files straight from the device to TV or VGA. At $62, it sounded like a good deal. I thought: since it's the same price, why don't I exchange for this device and buy the pen tablet at another shop so I don't have to come back to Sim Lim again. So my colleague and I both bought it.

As for the Pen Tablet, I miraculously found another shop a few units away selling for $4 cheaper. And it's a clean set. How lucky I could get, I thought.

Anyway, my colleague agreed to pass his 40GB HDD to me, so I left the multimedia HDD player in the office since I can't test at home. That evening, my colleague SMSed me saying that his HDD player didn't work. Next day, we tried in the office using the VGA-out port via the office PC, and it worked. So we wondered what could be the problem. At the same time, he passed me his HDD and I quickly went to install in the HDD casing, but found the HDD corrupted with gibberish files and folders. I brought the HDD back to my colleague and he too tried to re-format it, but the HDD refused to complete the format.

All these problems led us to think:
1. Is the AV-out port faulty?
2. Is the HDD player's interface faulty causing it to corrupt the HDD content?

Not taking chances, my colleague went to Sim Lim that same day lunch to exchange for another item, while I decided to monitor the situation. I left my HDD with my colleague who went home to try to re-format again.

Next day, he told me that he still could not get the player to work with his TV. I prepared for the worst. I went home, plugged in the TV, and true enough, the display flickers. Then I looked at the remote, spotted the TV/VGA button, pressed it, and PRESTO! Clear image. Tried the video playback - works. Tried the MP3 files - works.

After 3 days and $62, I got a device that totally works.

Over the weekend, we watched Bee Movie with it. And I have a dozen more DivX-encoded movies waiting to watch. If not for this player, I would have to convert them into DVD formats so that I could play on the TV screen (my wife dislikes watching on my PC screen). I also didn't have to purchase a HDD recorder that will set me back by $600 - although with that I could also schedule and record TV shows. But I will come to that in a moment.

Throughout the above ordeal, my colleague mentioned to me about this multimedia storage viewer called Vosonic VP8860. The selling point is the ability to view camera RAW images. I had been contemplating getting a simple electronic image viewer, not unlike the currently-popular digital photo frame, so that I could show Mayenne's photos we took regularly to parents - rather than printing them out. The other advantage is that I can backup CF cards on the go during assignments, so no more out-of-memory situations. The other less-compelling reason is the media player functions like music, video, something that I won't do on the go because I'm not really a TV buff.
There was a feature which left me thinking: AV-input. In photography, there is a term called tether, which means you hook up your digital camera to a computer and you can practically control the camera on your computer, as well as providing instant download of shot images to the computer for instant review and scrutiny. Although VP8860 cannot do instant download, it can allow viewing of playback images on the digital camera. In other words, if the art director for the photoshoot wanted a shot-to-shot review, he could do that by simply hooking up the VP8860 to the digital camera, and it will mirror all the information displayed on the camera's LCD screen. That could be a simple solution for image review.

So anyway, I wasn't quite ready to purchase it because of the price-tag of $599 (250GB HDD). But all that changed when I so happen to find a seller letting go of it at 20% off the retail price. $500 for a 2-week old VP8860 which he bought at the PC Show.

And so I bought it, and instantly loved it.

RAW image viewing is fast, clear, and sharp. CF backup on Sandisk Extreme IV is 9 minutes for a 4GB card (Transcend 120X 4GB took 18 minutes, however). AV-input via D300 works. I can record Cable TV programmes, set record schedule and the device wakes up at an instant. I can listen to MP3 and radio, which really is not the main purpose since my mobile phone does the same job at a fraction of its size.

So the main selling points to me are the RAW and JPG viewer, and memory card backup. The secondary fun-factor points are AV-input live view and recording, video and music playback.

There you have it. 3 new gadgets over the past 7 days.

Photo Assignment: Emilia.S

2 weeks ago, I received a request to do a photoshoot for an experienced runway model wanting to venture into print assignments. She wanted a natural and soft look, not heavy made-up or glamorous kind.

Sounds like my kind of style.

Here are the results of the shoot.








At 176cm, Emilia is the tallest model that I have ever worked with. She is taller than me. Good thing my job as a photographer doesn't require me standing side-by-side next to her: she's either seated or standing at a distance away.

It's been a very long time since I shot a model (my assignments are mostly on non-model clients), and I almost forgot how easy it was to photograph one who knows how to pose. I enjoy shooting people who are confident in themselves and comfortable in front of the camera, because the confidence and ease show on their faces and they give impact to the photos I take.

Neil Humphreys - The angmoh who was here

Father's Day was just another day, which is perfectly fine. We had lunch with my family with guest appearance by Angie's mum at Peach Garden at OCBC Centre. After a usually-delicious meal with a mouth-opening view, Angie and I went to catch the movie, Kungfu Panda. It is totally entertaining, more so because of the China Kungfu theme. Dreamworks has captured the essence of the Chinese culture with this animation, and infused child-like humour that is their trademark.



We had some time to spare before the movie screened, so we hanged in Popular bookstore. I walked past the local books section and a book caught my eye. "Final Notes from a Great Island" by Neil Humphreys. A quick read of the prologue got me hooked. I proceed to finish about 3 chapters before it's time to enter the cinema.

Neil's sense of humour is the selling point for the book. The way he describes the things around Singapore enlightens even us locals to see things in a different way. It's been years since I touched a novel and Neil caught my attention. I'll be looking around for the omnibus edition and maybe read it during my next vacation.

Snakes at Punggol Beach

I was doing a photoshoot today at Punggol beach with Lara. Halfway through the shoot, we headed back to the car to change. I was leading the way and was already walking up the concrete stairs when I heard a hissing sound to the left of the stairs. And I saw this:


Instinctively, I backed off slowly. Lara, who was behind me, was unaware and wondered why I was going backwards. Then when I showed her, she startled. There was a guy standing at the top of the stairs talking on the phone and he too was shocked.

The black cobra "challenged" us for a good 3 minutes, giving me time to grab some shots. I fitted on my 80-200mm to get up close.


After a moment, it slithered away back into its underground nest.


This encounter was a very good lesson for me. When shooting in the wild, you never know what's around you. In fact, when we went to our 2nd 'wild location' stop, a regular passer-by pointed to us of a hornets nest up on a tree. He warned that if those bugs get provoked, there is no escape.

Which makes me wonder: should I inform the authorities of these dangerous creatures? Then a question comes to mind: who are the intruders?

Another event also occurred while photo-shooting at the beach. While doing our 1st attire change, a crow-culling van drove in. The bird-shooter waved at us that he's going to shoot at the crows so warned us of the loud sounds. Without missing a beat, he got down to work. He fired about 8 shots, managed to hit 6 crows. Lara was appalled at why the crows are being culled, and I briefly explained to her that it was to control the crow population and prevent them from polluting the environment through the droppings and to some extent bird-flu. She was not aware how crows are a menace in housing estates, often loitering around carparks or void decks, fighting for food and sometimes even attack passers-by.

The lesson here is that: every living thing is part of Earth's ecology. But sadly, it is the human species, the only species, that is destroying the balance. And you cannot blame all other ecological entities from trying to re-balance from the human activities. Some 're-balancing' activities include: becoming more aggressive to find food for survival (e.g. wild monkeys in Nature Reserves), changes in climate.

Again, my message here is not to say who's right or wrong, but to realise that every action has its consequences that we all have to accept, rather than pushing the blame on some other (in fact, any other) species for which they have no way to argue back. Animal attorney, anyone?

2008 PC Show Down

I went down to the PC Show at Suntec Convention Centre with a few colleagues during lunchtime. After a quick lunch, we took a cab and arrived at 12.30pm. Barely opened for 30 minutes, the place is already packed with human traffic.

I had a list of things to purchase, but ended up buying only one item, the 22-inch ViewSonic VA2226w LCD monitor at $349. This is the third ViewSonic that I bought over the years: I have the 19-inch VA912b which was the primary display until my new purchase, and the aging VG900. The new VA2226w I bought is to replace the VG900 which now sits on my office desk. While 19-inches looked small at home, it looked big at the office because of the closer proximity to the monitor in the office. Actually, I was so relieved that the VG900's 1280x1024 resolution gives me so much more extra room to display more Excel tables than the company's 15" 1024x768.

But I wonder how long the VG900 will last. I'm encountering some problems with the display, which occasionally the pixels seem to flicker and discolour on certain tonal shades. Initially I thought it was a faulty VGA cable or graphics card, but after testing in the office for a few days, the same problem occurs, thus concluding that the monitor is at fault, and a good excuse for me to buy a new monitor.

Currently in the market, most LCD monitors come with widescreen format because of Windows Vista. So, a 3:2 widescreen 19-inch would look shorter and wider compared to the old 4:3 format. Plus, running at 1680x1050 against the old 1280x1024 will make the new monitor display look smaller even though it's commercially the same size category.

But when I purchase the 22-inch VA2226w, the display size is quite proportionate when placed next to the VA912b. In case you are wondering, I am running on dual monitor configuration, something that I've enjoyed for almost 2 years. You cannot imagine the kind of efficiency you get with dual monitors: at a combined screen space of 2960x1024, you can put so much things on the screen without having to toggle among windows. Right now, I am composing this post from my right-side monitor while editing my photos on the left side. Or I could open up the audio multi-track applications and span it across 2 screens. In fact, I was feeling handicapped at home for the past few days when I brought the VG900 to office for testing. It's not the same as having an extremely large monitor at high resolution. Let me explain why:


1. If you squeeze more pixels in a same size, you only get smaller images or fonts at the same magnification. A 19" 1280x1024 will present items on the screen at a larger size than a 19" 1680x1050. While you gain 400 pixels on the wide side, your screen items will look smaller. That defeats the purpose of getting a larger monitor.

2. With dual monitors, you can maximise an application on just one monitor, leaving the other monitor for another application to be maximised, effectively viewing 2 applications at the same time. To do that on a single monitor, you need to tile 2 applications, but then each application would only have half the monitor to display the content. Also, if you toggle to a third application window, it could obstruct the view of your existing 2 applications.

3. It will be more expensive to get one large LCD monitor than 2 smaller monitors. And 2 small monitors give you more pixels to display than a single monitor.

But having said that, not everyone needs dual monitors. If your sole purpose is to enjoy a single application in a large screen, e.g. watching movies, then get a large monitor. But if you always multi-task, then you will benefit with dual monitor.

So in my case, I bought a 22-inch VA2226w at a higher resolution to match my current 19-inch VA912b resolution. But why choose ViewSonic? Firstly, the price. Secondly, to match my existing monitor in terms of calibration. And from what I see, it's extremely value for money, and I'm totally satisfied with the purchase.

Now I'm waiting for my 7-year old CRT 29-inch Sony television to spoil, then I can buy a new LCD television.

Hardware Shopping

Tech-savvy readers to this post would call me crazy, but I just went to Sim Lim Square today lunch to grab some stuffs for my PC: a Western Digital 750GB SATA2 Harddisk and the Vantec NexStar Hard Drive Dock.

Why not wait for next week's PC Show from 12 June? Because I believe the price will not drop much. Granted, it'll be up to $10 cheaper, but the price difference is negligible compared to the benefits I get if I purchase now and housekeep my PC.

You see, I have done so many photo projects for the last 3 weeks that I have accumulated almost 100GB of new data. And I can't archive it because they are still open projects requiring me to work on. I current run on 2x250GB harddisk, and I intend to replace one of the 250GB with this new 750GB. The removed 250GB shall be my backup HDD that sits on the external HDD casing.

Speaking of the HDD casing, it's not just the normal external casing. It's actually a plug-and-play HDD dock like the MP3 player. It supports both 2.5" and 3.5" size HDD, plus support USB and eSATA interface. The latter allows you to access the external HDD at the same speed as if the drive is inside the PC, unlike USB. Therefore, the performance will be on par. This is beneficial for speed-intensive applications, allowing you to read this external HDD as if it's inside the PC, yet you don't have to install the HDD inside the PC.

This is the HDD dock that I bought.

Within 15 minutes, I got everything hooked up and now I'm transferring files from the old drive to the new one.

Next week at the PC Show, I'll be hoping to get a new CF card for my DSLR. With so many projects, I must make sure I have enough memory cards on assignment. I am also contemplating upgrading my LCD monitor. Computer peripherals are so cheap now that it's close to worthless. 1000GB HDD costs less than $300 (same price as 300GB 2 years ago), 19" LCD monitor below $300 (that's the price of a 15" 2 years back), a normal 16GB CF card is less than $100 (for that price, you get only 1GB 2 years ago).

White Dog Cafe and Henderson Waves

After a photoshoot yesterday, I met me wifey for dinner at Vivocity. Not knowing what to eat, we wandered and chanced upon White Dog Cafe. I had craving for western food and admittedly the menu photos are tantalizing. But we left and looked around further and saw Earle Swensen's. After reviewing the menu, finding the price a little higher and the food photos rather clinical, we headed back to White Dog Cafe.

We shared the clam chowder, I ordered the Tenderloin Steak and she took the Lamb Chop. Soup came with steam but I was surprised it was lukewarm. Microwaved, I believe. But the taste was good, with generous servings of clam and 2 shells.

The main course came moments later. For once, I finished the side dishes - salad, corn and whipped potato. They're good, especially the potato, nicely concocted. The steak isn't as juicy as expected, but was tender enough. The lamb chop has lots of fats, but otherwise tastier than the steak.

We decided to have dessert. I ordered the Bailey's Coffee while she order the crème brûlée.
The coffee's alchoholic content kicked in making my face red. The brulee was too sweet for my liking but removing the top-layer sugar made is slightly better.

Total bill: $80.

I'll be going back again someday to try their chef's recommendation: beef stew, and the warm chocolate cake dessert.

As I was driving back, I suddenly remembered about the park connectors at the Mount Faber vicinity that was recently built. We then detoured to the Telok Blangah Hill, parked there, and walked to the Henderson Waves, one of the highest pedestrian bridges in Singapore.





At 69.59 metres above sea level, the feeling is one of calm and isolation, a feeling that you could only get if you stay in high-rise apartments. There isn't any spectacular viewpoints there, just another place that you can go to seek solace and hopefully some sea breeze.

25 Truths About Time - just another guru's view

Just for your read. Gurus always verbalise common senses, but they do it so effortlessly that it makes these words of wisdom so enlightening.

http://kentblumberg.typepad.com/kent_blumberg/2007/10/26-truths-about.html