Wala Lang

Pepper's Smile

2006-08-20T15:38:00.000+08:00

Love her smile.

And the eyes... makes you wonder what those eyes would reveal when she looks at you.

Impish or innocent? :-)

Having nothing better to do (actually there's a few but the T1 line went down) I trawled for a few hours.

Chanced upon Charo's blog and met Pepper.

Great artwork by Stanley Lau.

There goes my dream machine (for this year) :D

2006-08-18T11:19:00.000+08:00

AppleInsider | Merom's thermal specs fail to impress

I've been waiting for the release of the Merom-powered MacBook Pro for several months (that's why I haven't replaced my PB G4 yet), but news like this waters down my enthusiasm.

Guess I won't be the first one to fall in line when it is announced, will probably wait for the reviews of other eager beavers before deciding to get one. :-)

I'm Flocked

2006-07-13T12:17:00.000+08:00

So I've uninstalled it, installed it, uninstalled it again and then re-installed it once more.

Yeah, I know it sounds crazy, but that's my litmus test if I'm a little too confused on my like/dislike of an application. I learn its features, use it for a while and then junk it for a couple of days. If it turns out that I can live without it then I go on with my life, if not then I reinstall the application and use it forever. However, if I'm still confused, I do the install-uninstall cycle all over again. Crazy.

hehe.

It just feels so weird having 4 (Four!!!) browsers in my Mac. Sure, I do compatibility tests to ensure my web applications behave as intended in various browsers, both Firefox and Flock however use the same engine so there's really no need to test on both. But... I still end up using Flock.

I tried using plugins that provide the same (additional) functionality that Flock provides. They're... "ok". Sage gives me my news feeds, FlickrFox allows me to browse photostreams in a sidebar, Performancing helps me blog (and it even has more features than Flock's blogging tool) yet there's something about using Flock that makes it different. hmm, I think that's it - User Experience.

That little orange button that tells me when a Flickr contact has published a new photo (like this one and this one) satisfies my need to know what my friends are doing and at the same time saves me time by not having directly go to the site just to check it out. And in my busy schedule it somewhat helps in reminding me too that, yes, I do have friends. :-) Same orange button applies to the News feeds that I subscribe to, this one reminds me that the world continually revolves outside my office walls. ;-)

The layout and the way things are presented is also very appealing. Take for instance the photostream topbar, compare it with FlickrFox's layout and you'd see the elegance behind Flock's design. News feeds too - a simple enhancement of adding favico's beside the site name improved its readability.

What can I say? I think the Flock guys got it right - specially after version 0.7.1 when Flock gave users the option to install FireFox plugins that were not tested in Flock yet. So now my browser provides me with a great user experience plus I get to use those cool Google plugins like Google Toolbar, Google Notebook and Web Comments.

Cool!

Now if only they'd integrate more with Google as opposed to Yahoo....

Blogged with Flock

Goodbye Flock?

2006-06-20T10:26:00.000+08:00

As I blogged less than 2 days ago, I discovered Flock and found it to be useful. However, as I experimented with it more and more, I found out its usefulness for me is limited to writing and uploading blogs. I have thought that the image upload feature would be useful but, alas, I can't use it in Multiply (though it's not Flock's fault) and FlickrExport is quite good. So I started asking myself, why would I need a new blogging enabled web browser if there's already an extension for Firefox - I was pretty sure there's a blogging tool extension for Firefox out there somewhere.

So I went and googled for such an extension.

Tadaa! I'm using it now. Its from Performancing and it looks spiffy. I'll try it for a couple more days and see how this measures up with Flock's tool. I've seen blogs though that praise this tool.

We'll see.

Flock

2006-06-18T12:05:00.000+08:00

Yet another browser in the market??

That was my first reaction when I heard of Flock. hmmm... I thought, If I download this, this is going to be my 3rd browser. First one is Safari, which I have kept as my Mac's default browser, next is Firefox which is what I always use (alltime favorite :) ), then there's Opera (I like it's clean interface and the way it caches the most recent webpages that you've been reading) and here comes another one... Flock.

What's that? I didn't mention IE? Forget it! It's buggy, I don't want to use it.

So why create a new browser? What's the need? Why do I need another browser to browse?

Well, apparently, it's not just for browsing!!!

Oooooh.....

The other day I was looking for a tool that I could use to easily upload pictures in Multiply and Flickr. I found a few including one that nicely integrates iPhoto with Flickr (FlickrExport) and then I started pondering about how do I easily manage all the content that I maintain in the internet (even if I haven't published anything for the last 2 years except for some mailing list posts).

Enter Flock.

It's still in Beta 1 but according to the Definitive Flock 1 Beta Review it is already very stable.

Hence, I gave in, downloaded it and I'm now using Flock to write this entry. It looks good!

For those who are curious, you can use Flock to post in most blogsites (as I'm doing right now), upload and maintain files in Flickr, integrate with del.ico.us, and it's got a new style in doing web searches from the browser.

Best of all, it is built on top of Firefox.

Check it out!

Blogged with Flock

2004-08-23T23:17:00.000+08:00

Just like floating in a sea of clouds.

2004-08-23T23:07:00.000+08:00

Hay... nakabili na rin ng mga pasalubong.

2004-08-23T23:05:00.000+08:00

Wanna see the plaque? :D

2004-08-23T23:04:00.000+08:00

Here's the group while waiting for the bus that will take everyone (four busloads I think) to that very very expensive place for the awarding and dinner. :-)

2004-08-23T23:02:00.000+08:00

Tablemates during the awarding night.

2004-08-23T22:59:00.000+08:00

This is a veeerrrryy tall building. Can you count the floors?

2004-08-23T22:57:00.000+08:00

Breakfast at the Shang. Yummy!

2004-08-23T22:56:00.000+08:00

The Petronas tower at night.

2004-08-23T22:54:00.000+08:00

Congratulations!!! You deserve it. :-)

2004-08-23T22:53:00.000+08:00

The Petronas tower at day.

2004-08-23T22:52:00.000+08:00

From the other side of KLCC, other mall entrance that is. Do you see the Shang behind me? Well it's there, just keep on looking. That's where we stayed.

2004-08-23T22:51:00.000+08:00

This is taken from KL international, they have trees inside the terminal! hehehe. Very very nice airport, unlike ours - bulok. hehe.

2004-08-23T22:48:00.000+08:00

This is from the Kota Kinabalu airport, pretty small but nice airport. I like the fact that you can see the sea from the terminal, nice view.

2004-08-23T22:47:00.000+08:00

Of course, the trip wouldn't be complete without stopping by one of the Starbucks branches. :-D

2004-08-23T22:45:00.000+08:00

Tall Mocha Frap and Ice Tea please!

2004-08-23T22:44:00.000+08:00

Another view of the KLCC park. From the mall entrance this time.

2004-08-23T22:42:00.000+08:00

KLCC - Nice mall. But I still like Greenbelt 3 better. :-)

2004-08-23T22:41:00.000+08:00

Look, Ma! I'm on top of the... err... fence?

2004-08-23T22:40:00.000+08:00

Everybody smile!!!

2004-08-23T22:38:00.001+08:00

And the SE of the Year, Sun Asia South, goes to....

2004-08-23T22:38:00.000+08:00

Nice Clouds

2004-08-23T22:35:00.000+08:00

The Big Shots of Asia: KP, Dan Viray, Lionel Lim, Cynthia Mamon and of course the biggest shot of them all - the SE of the Year, Digs. hehehehe! :-)

2004-08-23T22:33:00.000+08:00

Delayed flight... wait... wait... wait... and wait some more.

KL Night Life

2004-08-23T18:14:00.000+08:00

Short trip, long flight and too many pasalubongs to buy :-) suffice to say we didn't get to go around at night. So there I was, midnight, staring at the window and wondering what the people are drinking at the bar across the street (as if I'd have anything other than a light beer if I were there).

Then I remembered - hey, didn't we just buy a camera for this trip? Let's see what this Ixus 500 can do. Yeah! it can take night shots. I took several shots including that of a lighted Petronas tower but this is one of my favorites.

Street lights.

KL Trip

2004-08-23T17:26:00.000+08:00

Had a grand time visiting KL with Digs. Thanks to Sun Microsystems, we got a free trip for two. Digs won the SE of the year award for Sout Asia, hence the free trip. Galing-galing ni Digs! Two nights and three days seemed a bit short though, considering we even had to have a stopover at Kota Kinabalu. Man, that doubled the time to get to KL. Only consolation we had is that we were able to take a picture of Mt Kinabalu (see the picture below?)... hmm, looks like a nice mountain to climb... and we were served dinner twice! It's still plane food but I'm not complaining, the whole trip is free anyway (except for my breakfast).

See, that's how much of a cheapskate I am. :-) Next time though I'll try to remember to go to Petronas tower early so we wouldn't run out of tickets.

Mt Kinabalu from a Boeing 737