Sitex 2007 Gadgets and Gizmos

My favourite quarter of the year when I get to hear about the new gadgets and gizmos. How sad that my finances doesn’t support my passion of technology advances.  *frowns* It’s already started today 29 Nov 2007 til the 2 Dec 2007 SITEX 2007. I won’t be able to make it there due to exams from 1-2 Dec so I am totally disappointed but I ain’t losing out because I really don’t have any money in my bank account or in my savings account. I think that is more depressing to acknowledge that I am seriously broke and I need to bloody finish my studies and get a REAL job.

Like always hardwarezone and cnet asia have been really really good web sites to see some of the few products before going down to the show. (It’s in EXPO Singapore and not Suntec if you are planning to head down). Check out Zachary Chan’s comments from Hardwarezone to see the things he has introduced on this page: http://www.hardwarezone.com/articles/view.php?cid=18&id=2427. The most eye catching one for me this year would have to go to Packard Bell. I am a fan of convenience especially when I am one of those people who end up saying “I am carrying light” and I become Mary Poppins but somehow my bag(s) never seem to be able to carry as much as Mary Poppins.

ANYWAYS back to my original point, Packard Bell Easynote XS20-009, looks amazingly convenient!! It’s sufficient for basic things really and it’s small… 7 inches and then you got people say, “It’s so small… how are you going to see the screen?” Then I would be like, “Yah … so small that is why PDAs are even smaller and you can’t see nothing but people still use them!”. (Yes readers, sarcasm was intended there). It’s about 1 kilogram but the thing is… there isn’t any media to put your DVDs and CDs but if you have a 2 GB thumbdrive with mp3s you can still play music.

Cnet asia has their own product reviews at: http://asia.cnet.com/sitex/07/starbuys.htm. Cnet asia introduces the ASUS Eee PC 701 costing at… wait for it… $600 SING for a lap top! It’s a star buy as well! Although the internal specs (ie the storage space) is way lesser than the Packard Bell… but PB is about $1.4k, 50% more than ASUS.

 Anyway if you have been wanting to get stuff, I can’t think of a better place to go and take a look. The camera product reviews are very empty… only has Samsung… but if I ain’t wrong, Canon and Sony are having their own promotions and roadshows so no point in travelling there to see if you can a good price if you just looking for a basic camera like I am. But I guess the worse thing that could happen are the crowds.

Running a Different Route

I ran a different route than I usually jog in the late mornings and early afternoons. Yes I must be crazy to run when the sun is shining at the brightest but the feeling of me sweating continuously (doesn’t help sex appeal) but makes me feel good. Although I did lose sex appeal when I gained 30 kilos more than my ideal weight. There was however lots of traffic and I wasn’t too enthusiastic in the first part of the run but in the later half it was more secluded. Less people at the bus stops. Although I do think the trail from the Jurong Canal to Jurong Bird Park is a route I want to try one day… just that after that incident of walking home from Lakeside MRT to that rented place a few years back totally has me spooked out when I saw a figure in the trees waving at me… The thought of me having to run past those trees again just doesn’t seem to appeal me. One day…

Is It Over Reacting?

I don’t deny there are times when I get overly influenced by stereotypes. Coming back to Singapore and reading some of the local websites and reading about the locals complaints or their comments about their adventures and actually seeing it for myself when I was in public, I can’t help but wonder if I am really over reacting.

I do speak really loud… I do feel like I am an embarrassment especially when I sing out loud when I am on public transport but I still do it anyway. Sometimes seeing an old lady coming down the HDB stairs with a baby inside and another grand child standing below the stairs watching as her grandma struggles, my instinct is to stop and help but I get the looks. Is it because I love to have my hair multicolored rather than black? But I do get the looks especially from aunties when I go jogging in the late afternoon. I tell my mom about the looks (how childish of me doing the tattle tale stories) but she just shuts me off by saying, “Aiyar auntie maybe like because you always dye auntie favourite colors.” Which I am totally convinced by her argument because my mom’s hair and her friends from CC all have 3 lighter shades than my base color hair.

I just read the story from STOMP about Michelle Quek’s unfortunate encounter or copy paste this website (http://singaporeseen.stomp.com.sg/viewPost6646.aspx). There are pictures and even a video posted up about the situation if you click on the link. If you can’t see it here are the youtube links part 1.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0ug2cBISwg

The guy trying to run away looks a bit like Frasier (an old series I use to love watching on tv when I was doing late night studying). To me it was a place where there are a lot of people (Toa Payoh hub) and the bag accidentally hitting someone by mistake is normal or maybe that is just me? There were a lot of mixed comments made by the public and how it was only one side of the story. It’s true though… every story has 2 sides… but if there is a public out roar not letting a particular person leave the scene because of what they saw, I only can think something could have possibly gone wrong.

Starblogger or non starblogger, she is human after all. If given the situation I wouldn’t have taken it calmly and probably caused a scene with verbal questionings at the lady’s actions. One thing is for sure though… it’s a good thing that people who saw something that was not right stopped and tried to help rather than stand around and watch and do nothing.

Water Can Cause Blindness

I  read the following at the website from asiaone Health at: http://health.asiaone.com/Health/News/Story/A1Story20071126-38394.html

I didn’t know one can be blind from excessive drinking of water. Isn’t H20 good for us? But I guess what they say is true… too much of anything isn’t too good. Don’t you think that is bizarre though? Take a read below… and drink water wisely… I am such a lamer… pftttt I blame it on stress.

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Woman loses sight after drinking too much water

She drank 7 litres of water a day to ‘detoxify and reduce her blood pressure’.

Mon, Nov 26, 2007
The New Paper

(Nov 22) SHE drank 7 litres of water a day to ‘detoxify and reduce her blood pressure’.

Thinking that the more water she drank, the better it would be, she continued her habit and this went on for three months.

But last month, this 26-year-old Taiwanese woman suddenly fainted at home. When she regained consciousness a few days later, she was blind, reported Apple Daily Taiwan.

Doctors had said that the woman’s condition is known as ‘chronic water intoxication’.

The amount of water she drank daily is more than three times the recommended daily consumption for sedentary adults.

Dr Jiang Shou Shan, who treated her, told Apple Daily Taiwan that his patient had no psychological illness nor any other health problems, except that her blood pressure was ‘on the high side’.

She was not named in the report.

Dr Jiang said: ‘She mistakenly believes that the more water she drinks, the more she can decrease her blood pressure.

‘Hence, for three months, she made herself drink 7 litres of water a day.’

Dr Jiang added that initially, the woman would keep running to the toilet. But after some time, it led to water intoxication.

Too much water consumed causes hyponatremia, a condition where there is insufficient sodium in the blood.

SWELLING IN BRAIN CELLS

As a result, the excess water had to be absorbed by her body cells. Her brain cells swelled after taking in the water, which led to increased pressure in her brain.

Dr Jiang explained that the pressure caused bleeding in her occipital lobe. It is the visual processing centre of the brain which contains most of the visual cortex.

Said Dr Jiang: ‘The sodium in our blood maintains our cell metabolism rate. But once you drink too much water, the sodium ions will decrease, causing the brain cells to swell.

‘This will cause pressure and lead to bleeding.’

Shin Min Daily News quoted a doctor as saying that drinking too much water can be fatal.

The doctor, from Raffles Hospital, said that our body is constantly losing water through sweat, urination, defecation or exhaled breath, among others.

‘Replacing this ‘lost water’ is essential, but rehydration can be overdone, leading to fatal water overdose,’ said the doctor.

According to doctors, the symptoms of water intoxication include headache, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, frequent urination and mental disorientation.

 

Color Me …

What color would you choose if you could color yourself a color?

Ok that didn’t quite make any sense… Imagine if you were a cartoon character and you could choose to have colors associated to you, what color(s) would you choose? Maybe I would really turn out to look like Emily The Strange.

It’s so much easier to do all the things that you are not suppose to do than what one should be doing. Why is that? It’s so much easier to point fingers than to admit one’s own problems. Why is that? It’s so annoying to answer a question with a question than answer with some truth to the matter. Why is that?

I like the boundary that sets me and you apart. I like the feeling that I am living in a multiple dimension that things are like deja vu. I like the feeling of being lost sometimes feeling the world skips a few beats or slows down where the time just drags.

If only the skies were always cloudy and the wind was not so hot…

The Loss of 5 in Cambodia during the Festival

http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest+News/Singapore/STIStory_180047.html

The news headlines of the 5 missing Singaporeans out of the total 22 Dragon Boat rowers in a race in Cambodia on Friday were missing. The story below attached is from The Strait Times on the Nov 24 2007. It’s scary that nature can be so unpredictable and so dangerous. It’s like a freak accident where 17 escaped minor injuries. It’s like one of those stories my father tells me why I shouldn’t go out on certain days because it’s an auspicious day. I don’t believe it but when it happens you wonder if it was a coincidence or it just is real.

Whatever it may be though, it was a sad moment for many people. I send my condolences to the families and friends that may have lost their loved ones over the weekend. According to Today online’s story below written Nov 25 2007 all rowers have been found:

http://www.todayonline.com/articles/223966.asp 

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Nov 24, 2007
Search for missing S’poreans ongoing
Cambodian rescue divers prepare to search for the 5 missing Singaporeans who are presumed drowned after a sudden wave caused their boat to capsize. — PHOTO: REUTERS THE search and rescue operations for the missing Singaporeans whose boat capsized in a river in Cambodia are ongoing and the search circumference has been widened.The families of the five missing Singaporeans have also been contacted, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said in a statement on Saturday. The MFA said it is assisting with arrangements for family members to travel to Cambodia. ‘The 17 Singaporeans who were rescued were treated for minor injuries, discharged and are now resting in their hotel rooms,’ it said. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said he was ’saddened’ to learn of the boating accident and of the five missing team members, the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement on Saturday. ‘I share the deep concerns of the families of the five Singaporeans. The Singapore Government will do all it can to provide the necessary assistance,’ Mr Lee said. ‘The SAF will be deploying a team to help in the search and rescue efforts. Some members of the families will be departing for Phnom Penh this afternoon, where they will be given an update on the situation.’ ‘I would also like to express my sincere appreciation to the Cambodian authorities for the help they have rendered in rescuing the 17 Singaporeans and in the ongoing search and rescue operations,’ he said. The 22 Singaporean rowers were taking part in the traditional dragon boat race in Phnom Penh. The New Paper reported that as the boat reached the docking pier, the rowers asked that the towing boat be untied to let them row for leisure. The boat subsequently hit a pot of swirling current in the Tonle Sap river and capsized. The accident occurred on the first day of races, which draw millions of spectators to the capital Phnom Penh.

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Singaporeans found dead after Cambodia boat accident: police

Weekend • November 25, 2007

Rescue workers have recovered the bodies of five Singaporean men who were killed in a dragon boat accident during Cambodia’s annual water festival, police said Sunday.

The boat carrying 22 men capsized late Friday as it tried to dock on Phnom Penh’s Tonle Sap river after competing in a race during the festival.

More than 200 Cambodian navy sailors and fishermen, joined by seven divers and a medic from Singapore, scoured the river over the weekend searching for the five.

“All the missing Singaporeans were found, and now the mission has ended,” police chief Touch Naruth told reporters on Sunday.

Seventeen Singaporeans were also injured in the accident, which happened on the first day of races. Millions of spectators, holiday-makers and participants flock to the capital Phnom Penh to watch the event.

Nhim Vanda, from Cambodia’s National Committee for Disaster Management, said the tragedy occurred because of currents in the river.

“There was a very strong whirlpool around the port area they were returning to, and it hit the boat,” he said, adding that the men were not wearing life jackets.

Singapore’s foreign ministry said in a statement that Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen had written to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to convey his “shock and sadness.”

Relatives of the dead visited the site of the accident late Saturday, with most unable to hold the tears back as they silently surveyed the river where their loved ones had been swept away.

More than 440 boats, including a number of foreign crews, entered this year’s races, which end Sunday evening. Ten nations in Southeast Asia have boats competing in the colourful event.

Accidents are common during the boat races, which involve long, thin “dragon boats” crewed by as many as 70 rowers, which compete against each other in the sometimes choppy waters in front of Phnom Penh’s royal palace. — AFP

When Documentation Becomes a 200 Page Screen Shot

I hate writing a manual especially to an application program that I designed yet the programming prototype looks like nothing I had imagined it to be. The worse thing is because I was so desperate to get it to work I totally compromised my ideas into getting at least something workable but nothing close to my ideas. Mind you ASP.NET for these past 3 weeks has still got me lost at the introduction. Okay maybe I learned a few flashy things in Visual Studio 2005 but anybody could learn it by following Microsoft’s step by step guide… or you could have been like me and read a few paragraphs and tried to skip a few other paragraphs to the end to get the same output product. Even through I have made compromises of how my application flows, I still ended up with a 200 page report that I printed, binded and handed in having 75% of the report being screen shots of installation and documentation of how the program works. One can’t assume that the user will understand even though the writer may have thought it was logical sense. My brain is fried… how does one unfry it?

When Depression Cannot Be Seen

This has been saved for so long that I forgot to post it up… Here you go…

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There are people in this world that live behind a mask, in a closet, or just live life as if they don’t care and rarely do people realise the chip on their shoulder. I read in the news headline today about Charmaine Dragun described as funny, courageous, popular, beautiful smile, has a good sense of humour, inner strength and she looks really pretty and the article saying of how her secret wedding was being planned for next year but her battle with depression didn’t seem to work out for her.

She looked like she had it all and so the saying goes, “Looks can be deceiving” and it makes me wonder how dark this sickness is. At first seems like nothing and when it strikes, you just want to curl away and hide. Comes and goes as it pleases like a virus that eats away at our strengths, livelihoods, mental and physical powers. Is that how this is? And mind you the article states that this was an ongoing battle for Miss Dragun for years. So how about all the other people out there? There is bound to be many people that are in her shoes battling the same kind of sickness… disorder.

The most famous people in the world fell into some kind of depression (ie Van Gogh). You can tell can’t you by his paintings like my favourite is the one where the person is screaming. The torture one goes through is something I cannot imagine since I can hardly stand myself when I have major mood swings and the lack of standard sleeping habits that I have adopted. Past few weeks have been hell and a blessing. The time drilled into my assignments and the time I need to put in for my revision till my finals on Dec 1 and 2 will all be worth it right? My last 3 papers… I need all the luck I can get. This is one hurdle I ain’t slowing down for anymore. I need a few more shots of caffeine please. 

Mika

His voice is addictive.
His songs are pop feeling.
His music will get you moving like you ain’t realising you are.

(Be warned and listen at your own risk when in public… it can cause public dancing which may or may not cause embarassing moments)

English performer, musician, producer, orchestrator and song writer but his background has set him in many places in the world. He already has unleased his debut album and if you want to know more about him go see his Official website at Mika Official.

W was nice to send me the song that she found on youTube called Happy Ending (sad song). Click on the first music video to check it out. The other youTube song is called Big Girl (You are Beautiful). Determine yourself whether you should get his album… I am definitely lining up to get his soon.

Happy Ending

Big Girl (You are Beautiful)

Knox… What is She Hiding?

Do you believe that dead people speak? Some of us have the gift of speaking to the dead… but the ones that try to find clues of what the dying were trying to say are the forensic people who see the crime scene first hand the mess that they have to clean up.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=321584 (see below for the story taken from ninemsn written on Sat 10 Nov 2007).

The above link is the latest update of the Knox case. 20 year old student where initially the story was about a “sexual motivated crime” yet as the story seems to unfold, there seems to none of that and more of murder.

It’s like one episode of CSI trying to dig up the evidence finding who did what. There was no rape… And who is the real killer? The 38 year old guy who had a crush on the victim or was it 20 year Knox? If only the dead could speak…

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Judge’s report paints lurid picture of Briton’s murder

Saturday Nov 10 14:40 AEDT

All three suspects in the murder of a British student in Italy were remanded in custody Friday by an investigating magistrate whose order, leaked to the media, painted a lurid picture of debauchery and depredation.

The American flatmate of Briton Meredith Kercher is thought to have arranged a tryst with a barman that ended in her murder, according to a scenario contained in Claudia Metteini’s order.

Enough evidence exists against the barman, Congolese immigrant Lumumba Diya, the flatmate Amanda Knox and her boyfriend, Italian Raffaele Sollecito to justify their continued detention, Metteini ruled.

When the three appeared before Metteini on Thursday, Diya and Solleciti offered alibis while Knox claimed her right to remain silent.

The three face charges of aggravated homicide and sexual assault in the death of 21-year-old Kercher, who was found with her throat slit on November 2 after what police called a “sexually motivated” attack.

Press reports said Metteini’s order contained a reconstruction of the events leading up to the murder, starting with Knox, 20, and Sollecito, 24, spending the afternoon smoking hashish together.

She received a text message from Diya, 38, confirming a rendezvous that evening. She replied saying that she would set up an encounter with Kercher, with whom Diya was in love.

Knox and Sollecito met up with Diya in the town and together headed to the flat Knox shared with Kercher and two Italian women.

Investigators surmise that Kercher and Diya went into her bedroom and sometime later “something went wrong,” according to the leaked court order, which was detailed by the Italian news agency ANSA.

Probably Sollecito — described as bored and hungry for “strong emotions” — entered the room and the two men asked something of Kercher that she refused.

Then her throat was slit with the flick knife that Sollecito always had on him, investigators surmise.

Lawyers for the three suspects had not reacted to the document by the end of the business day on Friday.

Diya, whom Knox accused of the murder, claimed that he was at his bar, Le Chic, at the time, with witnesses and cash register records to prove it, press reports said.

A text message from Kercher to Diya on the evening of November 1 reading “see you later” was not to be taken literally, he told the judge.

Knox, of Seattle, Washington, had given police varying accounts of what transpired but on Thursday defended her right to remain silent.

For his part, Sollecito claimed to have been at home surfing the Internet at the time of the murder. He also said he called his father in southern Bari that evening, but police reportedly have no record of such a call.

An imprint of a sports shoe in Kercher’s blood matches the size and design of shoes police seized from 24-year-old Sollecito, reports said.

Police said Kercher’s assailants “apparently had a sexual motive” though initial autopsy results showed the Briton from south London had not been raped.

They have also said that the depth of the wound in Kercher’s throat indicated that it was inflicted by a man, and that the bruises on her head suggested that she was restrained by one person while another beat her.

The case has prompted lurid headlines in the Italian and British press as well as in Knox’s hometown of Seattle.

Sollecito’s lawyer Tiziano Tedeschi on Thursday lashed out at the press for carrying out what he called “a media lynching” in the case.

The Perugia state prosecutor opened an investigation into leaks to the media, which she said “violated the most elementary principles of civility and respect for others’ feelings, fueling deplorable, morbid sensationalism.”