Random photo taken in Sai Kung last weekend

Unfortunately, nothing much to talk about since my return from Toronto/NYC. It was nice seeing most of m friends again (I was only able to make it to Toronto for 3 weekdays, so unfortunately, I didn’t get to see many people, especially those that live a good 4+ hours drive from Toronto (yes, I know Google maps says 2.5 hours, but unless road conditions improved drastically from 4 years ago, that is a complete LIE). Since I’ll be taking DP this fall, I’ll practice by writing my blog post in point form (because apparently that’s what I’m supposed to do on my exam… ).

• My good friend Benny moved to Seoul for work so that kinda sucks. At least I’ll have more incentive to go skiing in Korea. He left behind alot of booze.
• Heading off to Japan Mid-September for a very short vacation (aka. Get away from Hong Kong for a weekend so I can study). I haven’t been back since I climbed Mt.Fuji in 2006, so this should be fun. I’ll be heading to a small town “City” called Saku in Nagano Perfecture. Aside from Mt. Fuji, I’ve never really spent any time outside big cities in Japan, so this should definitely be interesting (and if it turn out to be boring, I can always study… right!?).
• I’ve had my Samsung Galaxy SII for about 6 weeks now. So far so good. I’m an app whore, so as much as I love HTC (it’s the only manufacturer that I have actually purchased 2 phones from!) they just don’t want to put more memory on their phones!! So, yes, I’ve gone with Samsung instead and I’m loving the huge Super AMOLED Plus screen, all the extra storage, and especially how unimaginably light and thin the whole phone is. Battery life went from “absolute crap” to “manageable” after I rooted it (I’m currently on Villain Rom)
• Google+ … uhh I don’t know, my stream is so flooded that I’m having trouble keeping up with posts. I need to sort things out better. I love the concept though and I do have a similar set-up on facebook using lists to keep separate groups of people from seeing certain things, but its much easier/lower maintenance on G+. For now, anything “public” is usually posted on Facebook/Twitter (or this blog!) and things that are more.. private… I’ll post to specific circles on G+. That’s a fairly good compromise for now.
• Sometimes I feel like my blog posts don’t contribute to the world. But that’s ok, because there are people like Zach Weinersmith who is currently summarizing Calculus: Early Transcendentals . Sad to say, I actually liked this textbook so much that I still have it.
• Going to watch Captain America’s Hong Kong premier tomorrow. Still haven’t watched the last Harry Potter yet. I’ll do that soon.

From left to right:

iPod Nano 4th Gen
Acquired : April 2009
Retired : Aug 2010
Reason : Was in pocket during freak thunderstorm

iPod Nano 5th Gen
Acquired : Aug 2010
Retired : June 2011
Reason : Fought my washing machine and lost

iPod Nano 6th Gen
Acquired : June 2011
Retired : June 2011
Reason : “Shake to shuffle” overkill. Seriously, I’m having too much fun with this feature.

Also, please let my new Nano live more than a year >.<

Specs after the jump.

Processor : Intel Core i5-750
Motherboard : MSI P55-GD65 LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX || $160
Memory : 8GB RAM (4x Kingston 2GB DDR3 1333 MHZ)

Primary drive : Intel X25-M 80GB
Secondary drives :
2x 1TB WD Caviar Black 7200 RPM 32MB (onboard Raid 1)
1x 1TB Seagate Barracuda 7200 RPM 32MB

Video card : MSI Radeon HD 5750 1GB

Optical and media:
LG GBC-H20L Blu-ray/DVD RW combo drive
All in one USB reader

PSU: Delta 550W

Case: Coolermaster Centurion 5 II

I decided to only run Windows 7 (64-bit) on this instead of my original plans of dualbooting Windows 7 and XP. The XP was only needed for work since my workplace only supports Cisco VPN client 4.x and its complete crap. It doesn’t work on 64 bit systems, hell, it doesn’t even work on Windows 7, 32 bit systems. What the hell man.

I’ve since discovered ShrewSoft VPN, its working perfectly so far.

By the way, the X25M (along with 8GB ram) is absolutely amazing. I can pop open Photoshop CS3 in under 2.5 seconds~ And what’s with the mid range graphics card you ask? I don’t game on my PC right now, by the time I start, it’ll probably be time to pick up a better video card (or buy a second 5750 and crosswire them, depends on needs and cost when Diablo III is finally released~).

Oh and 8GB of ram also lets you do this:

owen_s : what AIR Beta 2 means for the rest of you (those who use TweetDeck) is that it takes up less RAM, which is all you need to know. so… yeah.
cokematic: @owen_s adobe air’s got nothing on me and my 8gb of ram.
owen_s: @cokematic –SHUT UP I KNEW YOU’D SAY THAT S T F U
cokematic: @owen_s ilu too
owen_s: @cokematic whatever, you’re just a deranged bisexual lolicon

Google buzz isn’t a Facebook replacement; It’s also not a Twitter replacement. It is a much improved version of Google Reader Shared Items (GRSI), with a better comment system and a whole lot less buggy (Don’t even get me started on how much I actually hated GRSI). Yeah, I actually like Google Buzz.

Likes:
Gmail integration
Comment notification (yeah I know alot of people whine about it, but you can easily set up a filter to have it bypass the inbox)
Realtime updates
Comments show up on GRSI for those who refuse to make the leap to Buzz

Dislikes:
I wish they would use the “compact” mode like how shared items show up in GRSI, that way I can scan though all these buzzes quickly.
How a buzz that has been recently commented get bumped to the top again. This should be optional/disabled (how the hell will I ever get through all these Buzzes. Are they even called Buzzes? Argh)
A “re-buzz” option would be nice too.
The sharing dilemma*
It would be nice if in the event that two (or more) people I follow posting the same thing on Buzz, it should be stacked and not show up as separate buzzes. (Not sure how well that would work out, actually…)

The Sharing Dilemma:
Prior to Google Buzz, anything I though worth sharing would be posted to Facebook and GRSI. If it was funny enough, then it would be posted to Twitter too.

After Google Buzz, well things got complicated. Witch such a large overlap,the decision is not as straightforward. I think I’ll go with posting things on Buzz and see how that works (although if its really good I guess I can still repost to FB and Twitter. I Kinda feel sorry for the people who are in the centre of the Venn Diagram though)

ps. It just occurred to me that Buzz would make a great metablogging platform. I hope this will reduce the amount of Twitter ranting I see (You know who you are! I mean there’s a 140 character limit on Twitter for a damn reason!!!)

1. Sign in to Google Webmaster Tools
2. Add your site and complete the verification process
3. In  Google Buzz, your site should now appear in the “connected sites”, share it and you are done!

So over the last few hours I’ve been working out some prelim specs (this is already my second revision, I originally had a Intel Core i7 with 6GB triple channel DDR3 in there and a much larder solid state primary drive – I had to remove them due to budget constraints):

Processor : Intel Core i5-750 || $200
Motherboard : MSI P55-GD65 LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX || $160
Memory : A-DATA 4GB DDR3 1600 MHZ or 2 x A-DATA 4GB DDR3 1600 MHZ || $100 or $200

Primary drive : Intel X25-M 80GB || $300
Secondary drive(s) :
1TB WD Caviar Black 7200 RPM 32MB | make use of ghosting program || $100 OR
2x 500GB WD RE3 7200 RPM 16MB | in RAID 1 for 500GB of storage || $180 OR
4x WD 250GB RE3 7200 RPM 16MB | in RAID 5 for 750GB of storage || $260

Video card :
HIS Radeon HD 5750 1GB || $150 OR
SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 5850 1GB || $300

Optical and media:
LG CH08LS10 Blu-ray/DVD combo drive || $90
All in one USB reader (any brand) || $13

PSU & case || $180

The two biggest question marks right now are the secondary drive and video card. I’m pretty much set on the 4GB RAM (I really don’t need 8GB yet). While the 1TB does provide the most storage per dollar, the RAID set-up is better for preventing data loss. Originally I was trying to choose between a 1TB and 500GB RAID 1 …

8c: I’d still set up an automated periodic back-up program instead – raid 1 wears down the drives equally.
me: Uhh actually I just wanted to set up a RAID for fun… there really isn’t much logic behind it :<
8c: Aha. Well, that’s a legitimate reason for anything. Carry on.

Later on, Kevin suggested I go RAID 5 instead. Seems like he isn’t a huge fan of the RAID 1 either. But maybe he’s on the right track, because on a cost per GB of storage basis:

1TB, no RAID (or RAID 0), cost per GB = 0.10*
500GB, RAID 1, cost/GB = 0.360
250GB, RAID 5, cost/GB = 0.347
*note that it is a little higher than 0.1 since room will be required on the 1TB drive for ghosting

Yes, on a cost per GB, the RAID 5 actually beats out the RAID 1! Combined with lower probability of data loss and higher useable size ratio RAID5 is looking pretty good. Problem is that RAID 5 takes up 4 SATA drives, meaning higher power consumption and more 3.5” bays the case. I already have a primary SSD, and will require two external 3.5” bays (one for optical drive and one for universal card reader). If I go raid 5, I’ll need a total of seven 3.5” bays. That’s huge (and considering the fact that I may not have much real-estate to work with, this actually is a pretty big factor).

As for the video-card, I haven’t had too much time to look into that yet. The problem is that I currently don’t game alot on my PC, so as long as it has HD output I’m happy. Of course in the future, I plan to at least pick up Diablo III. I could go for the cheaper 5750 no, and upgrade at a later date, or just go for the 5850 now.  I haven’t even looked at benchmark tests yet for these two cards so I’ll look into that this weekend.

Overall, it looks like my PC will be somewhere around the $1500 +/- $200 depending on what I end up getting. Of course, these prices are from Newegg, and doesn’t really reflect the retail prices here in HK, but I think they are comparable, especially since I can probably cut a deal if I buy parts from the same store.

One last thing is the OS.

My problem is this: I have Windows 7 RC installed on my laptop. I had ordered the retail version off MSDNAA and its on its way. Originally, this was meant for the laptop. I am curious, can I install using the same windows key on both my laptop and PC? Or will I have to purchase a separate license? Depending on the answer (and I’m pretty sure I know what the answer is), I may just install the Win7 on my PC and get Ubuntu for the laptop (at least until Chrome OS is out!! hehe). Xau and Shance have suggested a few ideas, I’ll probably look into it a little more this weekend.

Oh I’m also looking for a 26”+’ monitor. It really depends on how much I have left over but the requirements are (in order of priority):

screen size : 26″+
response time : 2 – 4 ms
can swivel and tilt
2x HDMI connectors

Honestly, there aren’t a lot of monitors that can fit all the above. The swivel is important since I’ll be putting this in my room, and watching TV/movies on the screen from my bed and form my desk (this would of been great for my The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother marathon, but I digress). On newegg, the only swivel I can find that matches all of the above is this HP 2709m (27″ 3ms HDMI, 1080P, 16:9). While it says in the product specs that it has 2 HDMI inputs, there have been complaints in the comments that there is actually only 1 HDMI input. So, not sure about this one. That and at $400, the monitor is a little more than what I want to pay for a 27″, but it can swivel!!!

Any suggestions are welcome (either via the comments section below, twitter, or Facebook comments).

click to enlarge

The first thing I noticed was how not intuitive the this was. Maybe there’s a bigger leraning curve than I expected (honestly I was expectiong a flat learning curve here), but things were difficult to find and confusing. Then again maybe reading some tutorials would help (but that’s not my thing).

Something else I noticed (all too quickly), was how sluggish it was in FireFox. Switching to Chome was a major improvement, but I’d really wish they wouldn’t force people to jump to Chrome. Aside from being slower in FireFox, some of the larger, media intense waves crashed my FireFox (like that “tell a story using pictures” waves that have 100+ blips on it. Its slow even in Chrome, and unstable at best in FireFox).

Editing other people’s blips is sloppy and confusing. On the top of the blip it will show each “contributor” but won’t really show who contributed what. So I have a few blips with 5-6 different people editing and I can’t tell who’s editing what (note the “playback” feature DOES show who edits what, but I honestly dont feel like wasting 10 minutes trying ot figure out who edited what).

Don’t get me wrong, Google Wave is still fun to use, but there’s alot of room for improvement. Oh I’m looking forward to better Twitter integration like they showed at the demo…. can’t wait to see what Google will do with this.

by the way feel free to add me at : dywong[at]googlewave[dot]com

All you have to do is add #t=XmYs to the end of the link!
(X is the time in minutes and Y is seconds)

For example if I wanted to link someone to the 1minute 27second mark of the video, i simply add the #t=1m27s tag at the end:

Someone sent me this link, where Christopher describes how Google Latitude gets your location (when not using GPS). Generally speaking, there  are two methods to updating your location:
1) GPS
2) Cell-id Loactaion

GPS (from what I’ve read) the more accurate of the two. Of course, it also drains more battery which is why Google disables GPS updating if you leave latitude running in the background (ie if you close latitude on your phone and select “continue updating my location after exit” or something). If you are using the background updater you will, by defualt be using the Cell-id Locaiton.

The Cell-id Location automatically detects your location using Google’s cell tower database and the accuracy can be as good as a few hundred meters but as poor as 32 km (mostly in suburban areas and rural zones). The known range of the particular network base station is usually what affects the accuracy. WHen running in background mode, it seems like it only updates every 20-30 minutes (I havent tested this). While Latitude is running in the foreground, it seems to like to update itself every minute or so.

I currently don’t have GPS enabled on my Touch Pro since I installed a custom rom. I’ll probably re-install and test it out this weekend to see if I get better results with Latitude. I’m pretty sure the huge skyscrapers and pollution here in Hong Kong isn’t helping in getting a more accurate location using the Cell-id method when I’m in the city.

To add me on latitude, you can use dywong [at] gmail <dot> com on your mobile phone or via iGoogle (on your computer).

additional reading

Aside from OS, Google has their hand in anything and everything. My top three favourites are GMail (how many years has it been in beta?), iGoogle and Google Reader. Recently, I discovered Google Latitude, which broadcasts you and your friends’ location in realtime, allowing you to see where your coworkers, friends and family are (assuming you have added them and they accepted your invitation). Great for stalking  people. I’m not joking.

Google Latitude on my HTC Touch Pro.
Compatible with most devices running Google Android, BlackBerry OS, Windows Mobile, or Symbian s60. Compatibility with iPhone, and iPod Touch devices is also planned

My only gripe with Latitude is:
1) On mobile phones, its not accurate enough to act as a GPS system. I went around Hong Kong on the weekend with Google Latitude running on my cellphone, and noticed most of the time  was at least 1 city block off from where it said I was. Of course to be safe, they use this giant “you are within 1km of this location” circle. They don’t try to push it as a replacement for the GPS, but we all know they are all thinking it.

2) Google latitude is accurate on an internet connection, however, on a computer, you need to use iGoogle for latitude to work. I don’t really ahve a problem with that since I always have my iGoogle open. However, alot of people won’t bite on the iGoogle which means they aren’t really on google latitude when they are home. Not really a huge deal I guess.

So I guess for now, we are safe from event like this: