What SUN is up to

The attached video shows what SUN OS R&D is thinking about.

Please note that this is not about OS war or comparing how great one OS over the other. Or whether one OS copied another.

Do note that this SUN OS experiment was done well before Mac OS X had its public beta and long before Microsoft “Longhorn” (aka. Windows Vista) was even a project.

My personal preference and computing tool of choice is Mac OS and had been for the past 21.5 years.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXv8VlpoK_g]

Microsoft’s Propaganda

As many of you may have heard, MTV had partnered with Microsoft to create yet another online music store called “Urge”.

This online store is based on Microsoft’s proprietary DRM software built into the Windows Media Player.

In the FAQ for Urge, there is a question:

Does URGE work with the iPod?

and the reply to the question is:

Music you download or purchase from URGE is in Windows Media Audio (WMA) format and protected by the Windows Digital Rights Management (DRM) software which is not compatible with the iPod. Apple has currently only made the iPod compatible with another format called AAC.

What a bunch of typical Microsoft marketing gibberish.

First of all they do not explain that Windows Digital Rights Management (DRM) software is made by Microsoft and hence is a Microsoft technology that Microsoft decides not to develop for the Macintosh OS platform. Calling it “not compatible” is not telling the readers the full story. Particularly for layman. This is yet another typical Microsoft marketing tactics to mislead the reader.

The other incorrect statement is about Apple’s technology.

The Apple iPod MP3 players uses Apple’s DRM technology called “FairPlay”. Both Windows DRM and Apple’s DRM (aka “FairPlay”) are proprietary technology from respective manufactures.

As for “AAC (Advanced Audio Coding)” is the audio encoding format that music purchased from Apple’s iTunes Music Store (iTMS) is encoded in. The AAC format is part of the open (“standard body accepted”) format that is part of MPEG-2 Part 7 specification. The AAC format is also adapted by many other MP3 player manufactures (Sony for example) as the preferred format, and is an accepted international standard by the MPEG group.

Contrary to what Microsoft uses, its WMA (Windows Media Audio) format is a proprietary compressed audio file format developed by Microsoft.

The fact that the music purchased from the Apple’s iTMS is encoded in AAC format does not mean that it is incompatible with any other MP3 players other than iPod. The thing that makes these music not playable on other MP3 players except for the Apple iPod is the “FairPlay” DRM that Apple use to protect these purchased music.

So, please be an educated reader. Do not believe totally what you read; including this article. Look into what the author say and make your own decision when you have all the information.

As usual I have provided independent references here in my article to assist you in understanding what I have wrote.

Movie Review: The Da Vinci Code

Poster

My Rating: 4Stars

This evening I went to see the movie The Da Vinci Code at JP Theater, Causeway Bay.

Another great performance by Tom Hanks. I had always liked movies staring Tom Hanks. That was one of the reason that this movie was on my Must See Movies list.

I had not read the book of the same name by Dan Brown., but after seeing the movie I can understand why the book was so popular.

This movie had a lot of deep concepts and one must really pay attention to keep up with what’s going on in the plot. This is especially true; as I was told, when one is reading the Chinese subtitles, as the translation is a bit complicated.

The only reason I gave this movie a penguin short of a perfect score, is the complexity of the terminologies used in the movie to keep the audiences’ attention and interest.

For those who do not mind reading the book before seeing the movie, I would recommend doing so. Especially, at the moment when most theaters in Hong Kong require two days advance booking if you want to purchase a seat that is not two rows from the screen.

Rating Legend:
5Stars Not to be missed
4Stars Wait for the DVD
3Stars Buy from iTunes Store
2Stars Rent it on iTunes
1Stars Waste your time elsewhere

Controversy

Recently, my entries in my weblog had stirred up some controversy among my readers. Some of which are friends and others are just frequent visitors to my site.

I believe that I had finally achieved what I had been trying to do for the past 3 years while writing this weblog, and that is to invoke discussions and comments about thoughts I have.

I truly believe that constructive discussions can lead to great things for all parties concern.

Given that I am very busy in recent days, with operating my online store and other ventures, I have less and less time to speak to others (friends or acquaintances) about various topics I may have on my mind. So my weblog is the only channel I have to express these thoughts publicly (per se).

I hope that my readers (particularly those that do not know me in person) do not get offended by my words. I do realize that my recent entries in my weblog had some strong words and opinions, my purpose was to invoke comments to them and not to get any particular group upset.

Freedom of speech is a great thing, we in Hong Kong and most places in the world are lucky to have it. We need to exercise it more otherwise some people may think we take it for granted. So all comments and feedbacks are welcome; except those that are consider spam or offensive to others.

Apple’s New MacBook

Apple

Apple finally released the highly anticipated iBook replacement, the MacBook.

With this new (comparatively) lower end series of the MacBook line Apple has completed its Intel transition for the entire Macintosh portable line up. The only series left is the PowerMac G5 towers and the XServers.

The introduction of this new models has also see the elimination of the MacBook Pro 1.83GHz model. Apple also lowered the prices of the remaining MacBook Pro after the introduction of the MacBook Pro 17″, plus made the 2.16GHz version of the MacBook Pro a standard model, that used to be a Made-to-Order-Model.

This new MacBook also comes in a Black version that we are now accustom to with the introduction of the iPod nanos and 5G iPods last year.

There was one more rumor that we have yet to see a conclusion for, and that is the rumor of a “red MacBook” and “red iPod”. This red dual is suppose to be in support of U2’s Bono’s Product Red charity, benefiting African AIDS victims. There is one more press event this coming Thursday (Eastern Standard Time) when Apple introduces its new flag ship store in the GM Tower, 767 Fifth Avenue at 59th Street, New York City. So I guess we will have to see.

Apple’s New MacBook

Apple

Apple finally released the highly anticipated iBook replacement, the MacBook.

With this new (comparatively) lower end series of the MacBook line Apple has completed its Intel transition for the entire Macintosh portable line up. The only series left is the PowerMac G5 towers and the XServers.

The introduction of this new models has also see the elimination of the MacBook Pro 1.83GHz model. Apple also lowered the prices of the remaining MacBook Pro after the introduction of the MacBook Pro 17″, plus made the 2.16GHz version of the MacBook Pro a standard model, that used to be a Made-to-Order-Model.

This new MacBook also comes in a Black version that we are now accustom to with the introduction of the iPod nanos and 5G iPods last year.

There was one more rumor that we have yet to see a conclusion for, and that is the rumor of a “red MacBook” and “red iPod”. This red dual is suppose to be in support of U2’s Bono’s Product Red charity, benefiting African AIDS victims. There is one more press event this coming Thursday (Eastern Standard Time) when Apple introduces its new flag ship store in the GM Tower, 767 Fifth Avenue at 59th Street, New York City. So I guess we will have to see.

Hong Kong English

HKSAR

Many of you may already know there is a term called “Singlish” or “Singaporean English” (English spoken by Singapore people). Have you heard of “Hongkish”? Well you shouldn’t since this is a term created by me. I do not want this term to be popular or well known. Please allow me to explain why.

Unfortunately, there appear to be a form or style of English that is only understood by people who live in Hong Kong and in most cases who speaks Cantonese. I am coining the term “Hongkish” to refer to this style of the English language.

Hongkish is definitely not proper English and it should not be promoted or encouraged for its use, especially for the younger generations of Hongkees (a popular term to refer to Hong Kong people).

An example of Hongkish is:

Use dipped lights

Can you guess where I see this phrase? Or what this phrase mean? The proper phrase should be “Please use low beam”.

Another example would be:

Live life to the full

What does this mean? The phrase that I know is:

Live life to the fullest

I had never heard of “Live life to the full”. This was created by an international brand as dialog in one of its TVC.

Some times I wonder if this is the difference between North American culture (what I am used to) and British culture (what much of Hong Kong is influenced by). So I validated my suspicions by asking others about these phrases and they agree that they also do not know what these phrases mean. Of course I checked with Hongkees who grew up in Hong Kong, British and Australian people who grew up in the respective regions.

Aside from creating phrases that are difficult to understand, some times due to the direct translation from Cantonese these Hongkish phrases often have a rule connotation.

For example, a sign I saw in the street car reads “Do not with driver speak while the tram motion during” in Chinese, which in Chinese is quite polite and is in a form of a strong suggestion to ridders. The English version of this sign reads “Do not speak to driver when tram is running”. One would agree that the English version of the sign is not the best, but since it is a poor, direct translation of the Chinese sign, hence the result. If I were to create the English version of this sign it would read:

Please do not speak to the driver while the tram is in motion

For some reason the appearance of Hongkish was not relevant; at least to me, until after 1997, when the control of Hong Kong is returned back to China. I am sure this conclusion must be a mistake. Since I cannot imagine that proper English spoken and written by Hongkees can turn bad over night.

For the sake of the future of Hongkees I hope that the government would make an effort to correct these public signage as soon as possible. Especially when they already have a campaign to encourage more Hongkees to learn proper English.

Movie Review: Mission Impossible III

Poster

My Rating: 5Stars

This evening I went to see the movie “ Mission Impossible III” at Broadway Cinema, IFC II. Another one from my Must See Movies list.

Simply… “Well Done!”.

Like most sequels I go to, I tried not to have any expectations. One thing I did do, as I normally do for movies I definitely want to see, is to avoid all trailers. In the past, the Mission Impossible series with Tom Cruise usually showed most of the most exciting parts of the movie in the various trailers they air. Hence, I made a point not to watch any of these trailers.

Not even knowing who was in the movie or the general plot was, helped add to the freshness and surprise of seeing the movie as the director laid it out. I actually had a feeling of excitement sitting in the theatre waiting for the movie to start, which is something I had not had in a long time for movies I am about to watch. I am happy to say that I was not disappointed.

There were the typical cheesy dialogs and the typical Tom Cruise trademark smiles through out the movie, but the plot had many twists and turns and the action were ample. They added more of the traditional Mission Impossible trickery compared to the previous two episodes of the series.

The sexy Maggie Q was okay in this movie, her Cantonese dialogs were horrible. They did not match the English translation nor were they typical phrases one would say. She did had a very sexy dress and car.

As usual I purposely did not describe the plot of this movie here, as there are many professional reviews of this movie already published. If you are a Mission Impossible fan; no matter you’re the Tom Cruise series or the original TV show, I would suggest you try my method of approaching this movie if you can. Avoiding the barrage of advertisements for this movie and just go into the movie with the pure intention to just enjoy.

Oh… you may want to make sure you visit the washroom prior to the movie, as it is a long one.

Rating Legend:
5Stars Not to be missed
4Stars Wait for the DVD
3Stars Buy from iTunes Store
2Stars Rent it on iTunes
1Stars Waste your time elsewhere

Are You a “Kidult”?

There is now a new term being coined and it is “Kidult”.

If you are in your 30s, young at heart and enjoys the activities that a child normally would then you are a “Kidult”.

These activities include collecting and playing with matchbox cars, collecting cartoon characters like Gundam and playing war games.

I admit I am a “Kidult”. Unfortunately, I have not indulge in my hobbies for over two years now.

All I can say is don’t do what I did and be a proud Kidult and enjoy life.

Window Dressing

DSC00062 DSC00061

It is about time that Hong Kong advertiser; or to be more exact window dressers, come up with some original ideas.

It is rare that any retail stores in Hong Kong takes the time to create a window display that is original, attractive and able to draw the passer-by into the store or at least stop and look.

This particular retailer used the pictured window display to set up two XBox game station for visitors to try a racing game that contains ads of the products that the store carries.