Things That Get Me Excited

Summer’s definitely over - sternly reminded by that raging thunderstorm that hit Parañaque last night. It’s been only 6 days since I arrived and it feels like I’ve never quite recovered my strength yet. Now, I’ve found some quiet time at the computer and gave this entry a brief thought after surfing the net. Here are some things I found that put a smile on my face and got my nerves tingly. So, after an exhaustive business trip outside the country, its good to sit back, relax, and try to find a dash of excitement to rev up for the days ahead.

Finances > Asian Monetary Integration > Think ACEs

When the Asian Financial Crisis struck, I was a third year college. Everyday, I would look at the newspaper, find the Business Section, and see our Peso fair against the Dollar… and the Thai Baht. I remember that the Peso and the Baht began almost on equal footing when the crisis started. But sadly, the Peso was left behind, or rather, harder to fall, than the Baht. That’s when i got interested in financial markets – but my interest was limited to the stock exchange figures and the currency exchange.

I never quite got a hold of how the details of the market index worked, and only theslightest idea of what influences the exchange rates and how it will affect us, but then the next big thing to happen came at the turn of the century – the formation of the European Union and the emergence of the Euro. As a (forced) traveller, you will really appreciate the ease to consumers the single European currency provides.

This post from Patrick’s blog points to an article about the possibility of a financial and monetary integration here in Asia. Imagine having just one currency, going to Hong Kong or Singapore, and buying there hassle-free. No need to worry about commission fees or low exchange rates. There are many pros and cons to this, but I do hope to see it in my lifetime. A currency at par with the mighty Euro and Dollar.

AMU? ACU? Just as I commented, I prefer ACEs. Check out this brief wiki regarding the subject.

There will be a lot of prerequisites for this to happen. And if it does, a lot more for us to qualify for it (think of the would-be (I think they are already) EU states of Romania, Bulgaria, or even Turkey and the demands for them to meet priior to integration within the EU – including market conditions for the Euro).

Technology > Microsoft Surfaces > The Days of Star Trek Has Arrived!

Image from Microsoft Surface website: www.micrsoft.com/surface

If you’re a trekkie (or trekker, like I am – and yes, there is a difference!) remember the ‘pool table’ on the Engineering Deck of the Starship Enterprise-D of Capt. jean-Luc Picard? Yes, Geordi’s toy table. Well, thanks to Top Dog’s post, view that same technlogy today on Microsoft’s site! 

Image from Microsoft Surface website: www.microsoft.com/surface

Enter the Microsoft Surface. Utilizing technology first popularized by Steve Jobs’ introduction of the Apple iPhone, MS Surface uses multi-touch technology to bring a richer user interface experience. This will be a revolution. Draw. Paint. Expand. Digital Jukebox. Share. Send. Wow!

The days of the ubiquitous computers has arrived…

Gaming > Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword Expansion > Expansion? More Like Civ 4.5!

For those Civ fanatics out there. you’re probably counting the days when this expansion will finally hit the market. If you’re not a Civ fan yet, then perhaps the details to this expansion on this CivFanatics.com post!

Box art from 2K Games
Aside from 10 new civilizations, more additional leaders, there’s a lot of new concepts injected into the game – corporations, spies, random events and many more! Better read the Info Center to get into the details.

What I’m looking forward to are the Scenarios! I’ll definitely want to try the Final Frontier scenario – a space-type Civ game (Star Trek, anyone?). And there are Historical Scenarios to whet my appetite such as Charlemagne’s Conquests and World War II.

With the release of Beyond the Sword, it will change how expansion packs are developed. Civ IV has proved to be a very modable game and the modders community has been given the ample recognition by the inclusion of not 1, but 2 full game mods in the pack. It’s halfway to the next level of Civilization – and it’s becoming more ‘real’ than ever.

This is A MUST for strategy gamers.

Scrapbooking > Nina’s New Layouts > WOW!

I’m a die-hard fan of my wife. And with these fantastic layouts, should there be any questions why? Combining her layouting skills and wisdom for words, her layouts are truly magnificent works of art!

I just love how she combines all the colors and details with the pictures and personalizes it with her journaling. Do check out her works and more in her blog.

The Future > A Car and a House > …Wishin’ and Hopin’

It’s hard to save up, but yes, I do hope that one day my family will have our own car and house. This is what wakes me up every weekday and brave the drudgery of work. I hope to take a step forward in at least one of these 2 dreams by year end.

BLUE Radon W310 – A User’s Review (Part 1 of 2)

Finally, I now have the time to buckle down and start my user’s review for Gizmo, my first ever laptop. I must agree that a laptop is a big investment, and one has to be sure about whether they are getting their money’s worth. Needless to say I poured a lot of time doing research about the subject and scouting on what available brands/units/specs are out there in the Philippine market.

In the end, I took home a 13.3″ Core Duo notebook in shiny silver Al-Mg alloy casing, with enhanced video power from its ATI X1300 Mobility Radeon chip. It’s from BLUE, a Filipino brand from Axis Global, Inc., though further research on the notebook PC revealed it’s original manufacturer to be Arima Corp. of Taiwan (who produced laptops for one of the bigger Amaerican brands). Its model name is Radon [W310], and I have christened it MyToy Gizmo (well, if you’ve read this article, it originally was named as ‘MyToy’ – this will give you the reason why I renamed it to Gizmo).

Gizmo on a laptop riser I bought from Octagon. If you look hard enough and recognize it – it’s the intro sequence of Rome:Total War

A quick rundown of Gizmo’s specs:

• 13.3″ WXGA Display 1280 x 800
• Intel Core Duo T2400 1.83 GHz processor
• 1 GB DDR2 RAM
• ATI X1300 Video Card with HyperMemory (256 MB max.)
• 60 GB SATA Hitachi Harddisk
• Built-n Intel Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0
• SD / MC / MMC Card reader
• PCI-E Mini slot
• DVD +/- RW

It runs WindowsXP SP2, but is fully Vista-capable. I won’t be upgrading to the new Windows OS yet unitl I get confident that it will run all games I’d like to load up in it.

Oh, and I’d like to calrify that this review is from a user’s perspective. I’m a typical engineering worker in need of a mobile computing device which the office has not given out yet. So I decided to get one. I’m a newbie techie now engrossed in the world of computers since one of my passions is all about computers and graphics and performance – no, not software programming – gaming! hehehe… I’m a PC gamer since my Mom sent me an IBM PS2 when I was in highschool. I’ve had one more PC to use before I bought a desktop in 2005. It has always been my dream to have a laptop and, thank God for the graces, now that I have one, I’d like to share my experience with it to those who would want to have it for themselves as well. <As a disclaimer, I don’t work for the company who sells this PC nor do I intend to sell this kind of laptop. I’m just a user.>

Size Does Matter

As a gamer, I wanted a bigscreen laptop – the bigger the better! so when I checked out the available stuff @ www.laptopking.com.ph, I filtered out all the small stuff. I thought I’d go for the ASUS S96J Whitebook – since it’s a 15.4″ Core Duo wonder with an ATI X1600 Mobility Radeon chip that’s just perfect for the highend games of today (and half of tomorrow).

When I got to see how big it really was, I couldn’t imagine myself lugging it around to meetings. It’s just too big! <sigh>. I browsed over to the otehr 14.1″ laptops available at the store. But I still found the size too big. Finally, they showed me the Radon, and I knew it was the perfect size.

The 13.3″ WXGA latchless screen is just perfect – a bit smaller than a regular 14.1″ and not too small as a 12.1″. It gives you the right resolution and clarity for work-related activities, or for gaming. It’s maximum resolution is 1280 x 800 pixels. For games, widescreen support is growing these days although there are still those that gives a setting of 1280 x 768, instead of x 800, which, when selected makes no difference.

To give an illustration about its size, the laptop is as big as an 8 1/2″ x 11″ paper, and a little less than an inch thick. It’s lightweight and very portable.

Pentium M or Dual Core?

When I bought it last December, Intel has just introduced their Core 2 Duo processor. I knew it was time to buy me a dual core processor. But the proces for the Pentium M laptops are still attractive and it may be enough for me. But realizing the benefits of a Core Duo system, especially during multiple applications operations, I went with teh Core Duo. My office PC is now choking whenever I use it for work coz of all the apps I run on it simultaneously.

And the Radon just had that. As far as I know, it doesn’t come with any options. So that’s another check on my list.

One side effect of having a dual core processor for gaming is this – the AI gets smarter. Honest! Aside from quicker loading times, I feel the difference on how the AI reacts to my gameplay when I’m using the desktop and when i’m using Gizmo.

First Impressions

When I examined the design of the laptop, I thought it to be logical and well-thought-of. It has 2 USB ports on the left, adequately spaced for those fatter-thatn-usual flash disks, and one on the right side. The USB on the right is usually used for the mouse.

LH Side – shown here with a USB DirectLink cable I use to hookup my desktop and Gizmo

RH Side shows the optical mouse and the power cord plugged

The exhaust vent is on the left, while the optical drive is on the right. I find this logical since it’s easier to operate the optical drive with my right hand (being the right-handed guy that I am). The left side has the Card readers, Mini PCI-E Card Slot, the Firewire port, and the S-Video Out. On the right, aside form the drive and USB port, the jacks for the headphones and mike are located forward of the drive, and the power socket at the far end.

The LAN and modem connections are at the back, as well as the VGA output socket.

It’s cool design features include:

• Latchless
• Touch-sensitive keys

The touch-sensitive keys are located at the upper left part of the keyboard area:

It’s for turning on the bluetooth and wi-fi, instant Internet Explorer launch, and instant E-mail launch.

There is a down side to he Radon’s overall design. It’s how it handles the heat. The left side of the touchpad gets really hot, especially if you’re running some graphics heavy stuff. That’s where the processor and hardrive is. But even with this flaw, the Radon’s design copes with it aptly – it’s on the left side. Most right-handed persons would use their right hand navigating via touchpad and the adverse heat will not affect them that much. That’s how I’ve been using it and the heat on that part of the notebook PC is not a problem.

Back from Nowhere, Happy Thoughts, and more on ‘Gizmo’

Back from Nowhere

Whew! made it back in time for a Special Occasion…

My company sent me to attend a meeting somwhere-out-there. It’s jsut a 2-day meeting but since I’m on an interline ticket, I’m the last priority on every airline I have a ticket on. So, I had to leave way early just to be sure I’m at the site during the days I need to be there. So I left Sunday on a Dutch airline, connecting via Amsterdam to Frankfurt.

In Frankfurt, I learned that my pick-up was not there and so I had to spend a night at a hotel there where I wasn’t booked. The travel to Nowhere began the day after. And from then on, I can’t wait to be home. It’s hard on Nina everytime I leave since she takes care of young Matt all by herself…

Happy Thoughts

I should’ve posted this earlier, but hecic preparations for my trip didn’t give me much time to blog.

CONGRATULATIONS, HON! My wife’s scrapbook layout got entered into a US gallery Basic Grey. Basic Grey is a line of papers and other scrapbooking stuff that my wife loves to use and is in line with her style – a combination of bold, intricate patterns and subdued color tones that bring emphsis to the picture and theme of the layout.

Here it is:

Here’s the link to her page on the Basic Grey gallery. You’ll love the journaling as well.

‘Gizmo’

Here’s a PR for ‘Gizmo’ at hardwarezone.com.ph. You’ll also find a link to this article at BLUE’s website. I have people having interest on the BLUE Radon W310 based on my blog entry and my post at TipidPC.com. I don’t know if that’s a good thing. I know of at least 2 people who have bought the same machine – an officemate and a brother from TtipidPC.com. Hope they don’t kill me if this machine has other problems I haven’t yet discovered…

It’s 4 months of worry-free ‘Gizmo’ usage and counting.

Yes, i know, the review… (I’ve run the 3dMark05 on it though… AND have the results already…)

Expensive Lights; Downloads, Downloads; and New Pages!

Light Expo 2007 

Remember my post last Chinese New Year? Well, we did plan to visit and enter the 2007 Light Expo… But we were a bit disappointed at the price. To enter the light exhibit, you’ve gotta shellout P300.00 per adult and P200.00 per child! And what do you get inside? Just the exhibit – no rides or anything. No wonder there aren’t that much visitors to the event. For your average Filipino, P300 can go a long way. I wish it was cheaper… but Nina and I thought that they do have to pay for the electricity.

If you have extra cash, you may want to visit. But I hope they lower the entrance fee to a more ‘acceptable’ level.

Downloading…

Nina and I haven’t unleashed the full potential of having a DSL yet, but now, I’m trying to do more than just browse and tinker with my blog…. I’m actually downloading stuff! No illegal stuff, just some programs to test. Here are some of my (ongoing) downloads:

• 3dMark06 (basic, limited), 579 MB - for my review of Gizmo (check out my last post)
• Europa Universalis 3 Game Demo, 126 MB – a game where you get to tinker with history from the Age of Discovery to the Early Modern Era (Yes, I’m a history freak!)

My average download speed now is at 50 kbps for both runiing parallel. I know that’s a bit slow. But, it’s way way better than dial-up!

New Pages

Wow! This is what I like about WordPress – you get to create pages! I’ve recently formed the backbone of some of the pages I plan to populate with my stuff.

Checkout the NavBar just below the header (the Buster Eagle Zoids picture) or “Coherent Visions” in the sidebar to the right.

Oh, and I changed themes too.

This is not just a blog now, it’s my Webpage! Now i wonder what else I can do with it…

MyToy -> Gizmo, PLDT myDSL

I admit that I could not muster the courage to call my laptop (a Blue Radon W310) MyToy in public. As my wife commented, it’s too obscene. So, I’m giving him the nickname of ‘Gizmo’… yes, as in that furry Gremlin. I’ve been referring to it as Gizmo already, in lieu of, ahem, MyToy.

I’m late in  giving a user’s review of Gizmo. As always, I promise to do it soon….

Especially no that we’re powered by PLDT myDSL! They just installed it this afternoon. I’m still swept away by the speed (coming from a 37 kbps connection and now to a 200++ kbps this afternoon and 400++ kbps tonight!!!)

I’ll now have more reasons to update and play with my blog.

********

Here’s our Speedtest results: 

Mother Console meets MyToy

You’re probably baffled…. What the….? What the hell’s that title all about?

It’s the newly-dubbed names of our desktop and laptop. I kinda felt influenced by several blogs that gave their new lappies names. That’s when I was still researching on what laptop to buy and was looking around for people who were owners of Blue brand laptops.

“Mother Console” was coined by Nina, when I asked her what name she wanted to give this black beauty. Why “Mother Console”? Well, it consoles the mother whenever she needs to go online and do some escaping. Hehe. This computer has aided Nina to produce her vluable and wonderful scrapbooking masterpieces, as well as her digital art (check oput her blog!)

Here are her specs:

• AMD Athlon64 2800+ Processor 1.81GHz
• Kingston 512MB PC400 DDR Memory
• Foxconn NF4K8AB-RS Motherboard with Integrated LAN, 4 USB ports
• Gainward GeForce 6600 256MB
• Maxtor 40GB Diamondmax 7200 rpm  Hard Disk Drive
• 17″ Compaq Black CRT Monitor
• Altec Lansing Speakers (no sub-woofer)
• Genius Optical Mouse and Keyboard
• Asus 52x CD Rom
• Modem

“MyToy” was what I named my Blue Radon W310 13.3″ silver gizmo. Simply put, it’s going to be my toy when I’m away on official business. It’s now fully-loaded with games such as Civilization IV and Rome:Total War and Homeworld! His specs are written on a separate  blog entry and I’m still anxious on giving it a review.

(Come to think of it, I should give Mother Console her own review… she’s been through a lot already).

What the heck – just for comparison, I’ll be putting MyToy’s specs:

• Intel Core Duo T2400 1.83GHz
• 1024 MB DDR2 Memory
• Intel 945GM Motherboard, with Integrated LAN and WiFi 3945 a/b/g
• ATI Mobility Radeon X1300 256MB (Dedicated + Shared)
• Hitachi SATA 60GB Hard Disk Drive 
• Realtek Built-in Speakers
• 3 USB ports
• 1 Firewire port
• PCI Express Mini Card Slot
• MMC / MS / MS Pro / SD Card Reader
• DVD +/- RW Optical Drive

The two are connected via a USB Link Cable that we also got from Octagon, worth around P750 (the cheapest). This was the last resort, after trying hard to connect both computers via network cross cable. Now I can transfer files from one console to another. They also share a printer, an Epson CX 3700, which I manually disconnect from one and reconnect on another.

Mother Console was bought last November 2005 and will soon experience an upgrade (memory and optical drive) when the resources will be made available. I hope that the technology is still supported.

Windows Vista @ Mall of Asia, a Keyboard, a Mouse, and a Laptop Riser

Just got home from a short trip to Mall of Asia. It was on the way home from a binyag at QC which we had to attend. It turned out to be a binyag and a birthday party, the baby’s first birthday. Elijah, the celebrant, was the son of my brother-in-laws friend who happened to load up my desktop when i first bought it more than a year ago.

Nina also had to do her work at Star and we had to stay until about 4pm. Then, it was off to MOA, which just so happens to be the venue for Microsoft’s Vista launch here in the Philippines. Matt was sooo tired at playing with the confetti at the party that by the time we were half-way to MOA from port area, he fell asleep. Poor kid. had to wake him up early for the trip to QC.

 Hirap kasi ng nasa probinsya… hehehe…

The first signs that the Vista party was happening there was when we saw unusual balloon arches at the entrance of some computer shops at the second floor. The next signs were people running around with flimsy cloth bags that sport the Windows logo. And of course, once we got to see the main lobby from the second floor, blaring music and a small crowd was down there midst the Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007 stands, poking around the available laptop displays. Even with the loud music, our son was way out there in snooze land and wasn’t even bothered.

Nina and I decided to roam around the second floor to check out some of the stores we rarely visit (the E-X-P-E-N-S-I-V-E stores), just to check out if they have that perfect laptop bag for my new Blue Radon W310. But alas, my heart is still bent on getting the Parker Bag at the National Bookstore - a cool black, sqaurish messenger-cum-backpack that’s supprisingly non-descript and roomy enough for a laptop and a few articles of clothing. Costs around P3,000. Why choose a bag that’s roomy? Well, I leave for official business often and it’s important to reduce my handcarry to a minimum of one bag. Then, of course the bag has to be decent enough to carry to a company meeting….

So we ended up buying a new keyboard and mouse for the Desktop. The old cheap keyboard we had back home had some letters turning stubborn, and the mouse had to be dragged a looooong way out for it to go to a part of the screen (plus, it’s also the old mechanical ball thingy). We’ve decided to buy relatively ’stable’ components. So we chose a Genius keyboard and optical mouse. Now that I’m using it, it’s turning out to be a worthy buy Hope it lasts!

Oh, and I bought a nifty laptop riser – that’s what I call the thingy that lets my laptop rise 15 degrees at an angle so that when I type, my hands are not flat down. The brand is Aidata. It’s relatively cheap at around P400. All the computer stuff were bought from Octagon. That store’s turning out to be our one-stop-shop for all our computer needs.

After that, I tried my hands on the Windows Vista at the main lobby. There were only a few onlookers now that the main event shifted to the theater area at the back of MOA. Here’s my humble take on it hands-on:

• Cool visuals and effects – there’s no doubt that it will definitely sweep you off your feet in terms of eye candy
• Preview of what the application window looks when mousing over the application’s minimized bar in the taskbar is really a great help
• Lotsa bundled programs that I never got to explore (Windows This, Windows That, Windows Thing… whatever those things were called)
• Expensive (at the moment) at P 13k for the basic package! (Office 2007 is at 15 – 20k!)

Hmmm…. I’ll just wait around 2 years before I upgrade. That’s when the prices go down (hopefully)!

To top it all off, Me and Matt got a picture with the Windows Vista ball outside MOA, before we went to the nearby fountain for Matt to throw his coins in (which is one of our habits… at least the coins will end up with Pondo ng Pinoy of Cardinal Gaudencio Rosale).

I wonder what wishes the little kid has already made with all our trips to MOA and to that fountain…

My New Toy — Blue Radon W310

Here’s what I got as a Christmas present for myself….

It’s a Blue (brand, not the color) Notebook PC – here are the specs:

13.3″ WXGA Display 1280 x 800
Intel Core Duo T2400 1.83 GHz processor
1 GB DDR2 RAM
ATI X1300 256 MB Video Card with HyperMemory
60 GB SATA Harddisk
Built-n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
SD / MC / MMC Card reader
PCI-E Mini slot
DVD +/- RW

The Blue brand of laptops is fairly new. It’s a Filipino reseller’s brand and they package some pretty cool spec of notebooks. I was bent on purchasing a branded laptop, with all the research I did online and by rummaging through all techie mags I can find. But when I first saw this sleek gadget from a flyer at Greenbelt 1, I instantly said ‘this is the perfect laptop for me!’.

Who knew it will ever come true?

I asked my dad to accompany me when I purchase a laptop since he has a car and, after all,  a laptop is something you do take good care of because it’s a hefty investment. I’ve already asked permission from Nina to spend on this since it’s going to be a great help for two things: 1)  act as a back-up when the desktop konks out (which did happen – twice! – good thing it was still on warranty), and 2) helping me with my work when I’m sent out for Official Business. (By the way, this year’s Christmas Season was a blessed one, that’s why I was able to afford it too!).

When Papa and I got to the computer store, I looked around at the sample units they had running. I was firm on buying a 15.4″ screen, but when I saw how big it really was, it turned me off. I wouldn’t want to carry around that big and heavy thing, especially when I’m out of the country. I asked Bas, the salesman who accomodated us, to recommend one that’s relatively small and with a decent videocard (a true gamer like me need one!). He gladly pointed out to me the 13.3″ silver gizmo which, I now am a proud owner of.

I’ll save the review of this gadget for another posting.

Here’s what I’ve done with it so far…

• brought it to Tagaytaty and watched Mr. Bean VCDs during New Year’s Eve (requested by Matt-Matt)
• Tested it with a projector at the office, during a meeting
• Installed Civilization IV, and now Rome: Total War – very happy at how it handles these graphics intensive games

Oh, and I didn’t have to shell out 100k… not even 80k… or 60k for this great gadget… It was the best money-for-spec around in its size range.

Talk about portability.

Blue Radon W310 – User’s Review (Part 1 of 2)

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