Day: 4 October 2008

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Smartone-Vodafone’s Stubbornness

Over the past year I had been trying to convince my current mobile carrier that their silly task bar; designed for WAP sites, on old generation mobile phones, is useless to me and should not be appearing on my phone, especially when I am using an iPhone.

They insist that this task bar is there to “enhance my surfing experience”, which I consider to be wasting valuable screen real estate for content of the web pages I visit. I told them that I did not signup to their service knowing that this task bar will be obscuring my surfing experience, and I believe that I should have the rights to remove this task bar from the web pages that I visit through their network (EDGE, HSDPA, etc.).

Continue reading “Smartone-Vodafone’s Stubbornness”

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I Can Afford It

 

It is clear that there are many people who simply don’t care about any social rules; or in this case local laws.

I was walking by Causeway Bay in a very busy area where I see a vehicle with 4 parking tickets on the windshield.

As you can see from the first photo, it is parked along the part of the street that had double yellow lines, plus it is about 5 feet from the traffic light.

I was told by an parking enforcer that as long as there are no parking meter all streets in Hong Kong are no parking, and sections of the road with double yellow lines means no stopping 24 hours a day.

In most cities that I know, 3 is the limit that any parking enforcers will ticket a car, after that either the car is booted or a toll truck would be called to remove the car in question.

When I was a police officer in Canada, after two tickets we would check to see if the car was stolen or worst.

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Battle of the DSLRs



Last week in Hong Kong Nikon released their new DSLR, the Nikon D90 to much fanfare. You can checkout dpReview’s Nikon D90 “preview” report for a detailed look at the camera’s functions and capabilities.

Canon did not let Nikon steal all the fanfare by “arguably” one-upping Nikon to announce the successor to its 5D, the Canon EOS 5D Mark II. The significant differences being:

  • Still image size: Canon’s 21 Megapixels –> Nikon’s 12.9 Megapixels
  • Video Resolution: Canon’s 1080p 30fps –> Nikon’s 720p 24fps
  • ISO Range: Canon’s ISO 100 – 6400 range (50 – 25600 expended) –> Nikon’s IS0 200-3200 range (100-6400 expanded)

Note: yes, both DSLR are capable of capturing videos like most point-and-shoot. Of course with way better quality and flexibilities.



Vincent Laforet was lucky enough to be able to obtain a prototype Canon 5D Mark II for 72 hours to test, and his results were stunning. You can download the short movie he made called, Reverie. [Update: currently hosted at Canon and the demand was too great.] from his blog. You can check out the quality of the video and the 5D Mark II’s amazing low light capabilities from clips of the making-of video hosted at Smugmug.

Again you can checkout dpReview’s Canon EOS 5D Mark II “preview” report for details of what this Canon marvel can do.



Of course the other up-and-coming big shot in the DSLR market did not stand still and let the veteran steal all the lime lights. Sony, the company who made the chip that goes inside the Nikon D3, also announced a new DSLR of their own, the Sony Alpha A900. You can read dpReview’s Sony Alpha A900 “preview” report for details and sample images.

With brand new MacBook Pros just around the corner, it is really tough being a guy. I guess it is similar to some women and Manolo Blahnik.