New Year Resolutions.

I have to be frank; I make promises and I keep them. The promises I can't keep would be related to relationships because, well, shit happens.

But in the world, we have friends who do their resolutions, and sometimes, it's great to think that they set their resolutions and all, and would attempt to achieve it.

I don't set resolutions; because I hate living life by the lines.

But here's a list of achievements for this year:

• Got the iPad
• Got the iPhone 4
• Got the mini-rig that consists of a BOSS DS-1, BD-2, DD-3, Jim Dunlop BG-95 and the Roland Cube 30X
• Got a guitar that I've somewhat dreamed for 6 years - two years prior to the time I started playing the guitar.
• Managed to collect figures that feeds my inspirations (If you noticed, the Takara Masterpiece MP-01B, and Sneaking Suit version of Big Boss)
• Managed to consistently catch up with studies, and work.

Then again:

• Failed 2 subjects on the first semester, and 1 subject on the second semester (results pending as I got a supplementary paper for it)
• Killed my entire leisure time due to studies, and work.
• Failed to meet my savings for this Malaysia trip.
• Uncertainty in financial stability.
• Uncertainty in future job security.

So, pros and cons.

I think this will be a good lead for me to place my goals for next year.










And the first step's always in getting a job.

.. But what about a career?

BetterTouchTool

Here's another review of something that I installed to customise the hidden potential of the Magic Mouse (and if you have one), the Magic Trackpad.

One thing that I mistook the Magic Mouse to have, would be the pinch-to-zoom ability that you get on the standard trackpads that comes with Macs.

Boy, was I wrong. I think I nearly sprained my wrist due to its odd gesture.

So I did a quick search on Google and I found this - BetterTouchTool.

Better known as BTT, It allows you to add custom gestures to your devices (regardless of the trackpad or the mouse .. and normal mouse too!), and you'll be able to customise everything from head to toe, inclusive of the gestures.

As ironic as it may get, I wanted to customise the "pinch-to-zoom" feature, but ended up pretty buggy.

.. So, I downloaded BTT because of pinch-to-zoom, but ended up not using the feature.

But then again, with shortcuts, my mouse extended its capability. And I'm pretty amazed at the Magic Mouse. I always wanted to understand how was it.. "magical".

You can't consider technology .. as magic or sorcery. It's physics, engineering and science. So, how did they actually manipulate the damned thing?

I'll figure it out when I have the time, and when I stop being impressed by such.. performances.

Here are some screenshots of what you can do with BTT (and my custom settings too)


The above menu is to show the available gestures that you can pull off - along with modifier keys.
These are the available commands / shortcuts you are able to assign the gesture to.
Live view - where you'll be able to check out your gestures and the assigned shortcuts.
That's three random fingers on the Magic Mouse. Cool, eh?
Customisable settings.





I find these things interesting.










On another note; my MacBook Pro is running on an Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.4GHz, and I just found out that with full respect, the i5 processors mounted on the Dell Inspiron n4020 is at .. 2.4GHz.

Please, Microsoft. You have definitely got to do something about it. Your GUI interfaces is getting way out of hand with insane resource requirements, and you're allowing manufacturers like these to provide shitty hardware to support your Mac-wannabe graphics. You all should've used Windows XP as a benchmark, and improved there.

As long Steve Jobs is around, you all are screwed. Not that I'm being extremely biased to Apple; but if there were to be a Google OS, I'd happily give that a go. It's just that the OSes that Microsoft provides is a bloody risk for me, and I quit taking risks when I have my dreams to achieve.

Too bad. You may say that I'm a biased bastard towards Apple, but face the fact - you'd want to own one as well.

myPhoneDesktop

Here is an app that spoils me in my iPhone.

I always wished that it would be easier to somewhat sync my data from my computer, to my iOS devices. Sadly, I can't do much about it. I can send myself emails, but if someone hacks into my account, they'd think I'm pretty dead lifeless.

I was surfing through TUAW.com, and I saw this list of apps you should have for your devices for this year. And the reviews of it are promising!

What I can do, is that I can use a shortcut key (command + C + C) and it pushes the highlighted item into the app I have in my phone (MPD)

It's a pretty smart app. And if I were to be at home, I can just stop the hassle of keying in my key code for my iPhone (it's a keyboard thing that you can on iOS 4.0 onwards on the iPhone 4/iPad) .. And I use it to push it to my phone!

If push notifications are off, you can manually access MPD, and it performs a data pull instead.





The contacts are not the contacts in my iPhone, but it was sync'd via MobileMe, so I was able to load my list from my MacBook Pro's Address Book.. Which is pretty neat!











The downfall of this app, on the other hand, is that you need to access most of it through MPD (except for copy-paste texts - where it will be in your clipboard for the iPhone for you to paste).











I LOVE this app!

Having one eye bigger than the other.

In relation to the title, I have no idea what to say.

But one thing's for sure, I just found out about this thing called BTT - BetterTouchTool - To solve all stupid issues and questions that I raised for the Magic Mouse that I have for this MacBook Pro - pinching to zoom, and all that.

And I'm pretty surprised at the technology of the Magic Mouse, by the way. I didn't know it detects pressure sensitivity.

How DOES Apple do this anyway?


And as you can see, I made my mouse into a whore. A mouse that controls my Spaces windows, volume and brightness control, and all

I'm still trying to make a shortcut for it to shut my laptop down for the heck of it.

Life's good.

I think.










I don't know.

Bah.

Merry Christmas.

It's been a while.

Just a quick update, I've been here since December 15th 2010, but I've been dead busy meeting up with several mates from Kuala Lumpur - ranging from friends to ex-colleagues.

It's all good and awesome, really.

And I'm writing this from my new MacBook Pro that my family (specifically my mum) got me due to the frustration on my netbook, and it's horrid.

Well, what to do.

Finally, I converted to a Mac user.











I'll use my Windows for all the risky downloads. Heh heh!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, all of you. Speak to you all soon.

The best way is to perform, is to..

.. Take a step back.

I remembered that the first time that I messed around with my iPhone, it made me realize that; I'm more sane and in focus with my objectives when it's off and not functioning.

Every single detail distracts me, and its time to eliminate all sort of relate thoughts and 3rd parties regardless of what they are.

And after 40 days of work, (officially since 29th October 2010 to be fair) tomorrow is my first day off until Saturday where I will be working until I fly back to Malaysia.

This should be interesting.

Hope all goes well.

Till then, I'm going to nail this stupid supplementary paper.

Virgil Donati in Hobart

Been quite a while since I felt like this. I'm actually looking forward to this!!

Oh yeah!



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Some Say..

That she was Vin Diesel's girlfriend in Fast and Furious 1.

And some say, she blasted heads of zombies in Resident Evil 1

Some also said, she was the bad ass pilot in James Cameron's Avatar.

And out of randomness, some say, I managed to get two pictures with her.

She is the closest I could get to Hollywood stars, and her name is, Michelle Rodriguez!

(I forgot to let her be the first to sign my guitar's plate though. Crap. It'd be the coolest thing ever)

Hope you have a safe trip back to the States, and thanks for dropping by Hobart with a kind intentions of saving the whales!

More of her story can be found at her blog, mainly stating what are her true intentions of her being in Hobart - which really makes me respect her as she is using whatever in her willpower to help nature - like how I would love to contribute to Heroes 4 Kids (through photography) making the lives of disabled kids being just as special as we are as an individual.

Her blog: http://www.michelle-rodriguez.com/blog/?p=47#more-47

I Can't Believe iTunes.

I just realized that my search ended for Neil Zaza's album.

They're all featured on iTunes. Definitely worth the buy.

Problem is, 16.90 x 8. I'll need to work more to earn that money first. That's Nearly a day's pay we're talking about here. Lol


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Grand Turismo 5

Here comes the game that all car-racing enthusiasts been waiting for.

I was rather blown away of the graphics on the game that requires a massif 8GB installation onto the PS3's HDD.

To fully utilize my GT5 experience, here's what I have. A table, a chair and a Logitech Driving Force GT steering wheel.




But here are the in-game shots I managed to pull off with the game's long time feature (and upgraded too), the Photo Travel.


















































Sadly, not all the shots of cars were able to be taken as they were split into 2 categories - standard and premium.

Only premiums are available to be used for shots.

And to race too. Heh

But my word, the graphics is intense. my testicles nearly blew itself up when I saw the shots for the Audi R8; it looked so.. Real!

!

Yeah, the "!" that comes from soldiers when you're discovered in Metal Gear Solid games. Heh..

But besides playing Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, my headphones arrived! Not another Sennheiser (Although I was planning to get another one), but..

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mglacius/sets/72157625415231740/

Go check it yo!

My Skype headphones. HAHAHAHAHA

Ah.

I always waited for my Fender Standard Ash Stratocaster to arrive in Australia, but it never got assembled (or bothered to be looked at) in the first place by Fender USA. Due to several reasons that I am truly disappointed about, I will not state it here, as I've already mentioned some of it in my Facebook.

But nevertheless, I spoke to my dealer and I understood their situation, hence I switched from a Fender Standard Ash Stratocaster to a Fender American Deluxe Stratocaster. Degrading from an ash body to an alder body. They had a few of these in stock - only available in amber or olympic pearl.

And since my JEM JR is already white, and the pickguard looked weird on a white surface, I went for amber.

And boy, does it look ebtter than I expected!









I gave it a test run with and without my effects, and I enjoy the tone of this guitar with AND without my effects!

I'm really satisfied. Now I need a better amp and a few more pedals to make my quest for tone complete.

Oh boy.











I am really happy.

This is my first guitar that I fully paid for.

Working 8 Days A Week.

Well, imagine if you had 7 days, and you had 7 shifts in a day average, thats considered as working 7 days a week.

But what if you started off early and then you work two shifts in different places? That would be 8 days a week then.

Then again, it could be worse. Like your normal plans being cancelled and then you have to step in, and yeah, you get more shifts in less days.

Last week, I think I did 9 shifts, I think. So that's 9 days.

What scares me is that starting next week, I think I might do double shifts nearly everyday.

Oops.

Well, till the time comes anyway. I cant be bothered right now.

Then again, I've got to shoot for an event this 13th of November, 20th of November, 5th of December and some time around that period because of this non-profit organization I'm associated with (as a photographer!) called Heroes 4 Kids. Great bunch of mates, and they get to run around in costumes and suits that have a high benchmark in getting yourself in the group.

As for me, my heroes might not fit them. Heroes like at The Stig, Big Boss and plenty of others as well anyway. Plus, since my brother usually asks me to shoot for him, I might as well use that knowledge and skill to shoot for them instead.

Plus with the new SB900 in my hands for a temporary basis, I think I'm going to further out whatever I stopped in learning about photography.

Just that I still have the manual to read about its settings and all that. Then again, that comes into the question of .. Having an extra day in the week to read about something.

Bloody fatigue. I hate and love you at the same time.

The iPhone 4

Now that I've got a clear mind, I'd like to write a little bit about the phone that I bought a few months back:

The iPhone 4.

Costing at AUD$859 for the 16GB, and $999 for the 32GB, which made it $20 and $60 cheaper compared to the previous model, the iPhone 3GS, which costed $879 or $1049 for the 16Gb or 32GB model respectively.

They announced the iPhone 4 being available in both black, and white. But the problem recently, they ripped off the white iPhone off the online Apple Store. Some say that it will be available in Spring 2011 (US time, so that's Autumn here in Australia; somewhere in April). But by the rate that it is going, they should not have announced it at all.

Now, basic specs of this phone:

960*640 resolution
Apple's very own Retina Display (at 326 pixels crammed into an inch)
Flash storage of 16gb
Apple's very own A4 processor (where if you scrape the A4 and black wrappings, you'll see "SAMSUNG" on it.)
Front and rear camera where front is 0.3 (VGA), and rear is 5mp camera with built in LED-flash.
Full glass body with a matte-finish stainless steel band.
512MBs RAM.

Those are the things that really captures that my attention. Another annoying fact that captures my attention is:

Uses micro-sim card.

For a smart phone, it is pretty dead slim. I never thought a slim phone would make a serious difference in pockets and putting them on surfaces. That compared to my Nokia 6151, boy, it makes my jeans look really bad.

Then again, they boast about it being the slimmest smartphone. We'll have to see about that when Windows kick back into the phone category, and when Android updates their OSes and related phones.

Now, there is a really huge difference after using the iPhone 4. The display is astonishing. It is as uncanny as waking up to a fine morning right beside to Cameron Diaz. After using this phone for months, I am able to see pixels. I have a 64GB Wi-Fi iPad, and..I'm seeing pixels on it. I also see pixels on my brother's iPhone 3GS, and we never really bothered to take all this into detail.

The processor is really snappy. I was convinced by the iPad's A4 performance, and on the iPhone, it worked nearly as well as the iPad.

Don't get me wrong. They're both iOS devices, with nearly the same specs (except for resolution and.. obviously, screen size), but the iPhone 4 tends to lag a bit in between of applications.

Maybe because it is a smart phone. Or it's because of iOS 4.1. You never know. Eventually, the Apple iOS developer team is going to scout around for blogs like these that provides an indirect feedback, and have an update on "performance improvement", so that issue should be eliminated soon.

I just found out that the camera is smart. But what would make it smarter is that instead of giving it HDR and the ability to switch the flash on or off, is the ability to choose the ISO setting and allow the camera to adapt to the settings depending on the shot being taken. I flipped open my ACDSee (after months of not uploading pictures through my laptop - all were uploaded directly via my iPhone), I noticed that the iPhone has ISO settings of 80, 500 and 1000.

And the shots at 1000 ISO does not look that bad at all, actually.

The HD Video Recording feature is acceptable. At 720p, I definitely won't complain much. There is a link that I posted on YouTube in giving one of its app, iMovie, a shot. A short compilation of my Takara Masterpiece MP-01B .. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IvMzDsKoAc

But that's all I used it for, anyway.

The front camera.. works. No comments on it. It's a VGA, so what else can I say?

FaceTime, Apple's very own monopolising (what else is new) video-calling for iOS devices (now, the iPod Touch has it as well), and FaceTime Beta is out for Macs. This works in two ways; either you FaceTime with an iPhone-based number, or from an iTunes account to another iTunes account, where the iTunes account is under your email address. Smart.

One good thing is that FaceTime is free.

One bad thing is that FaceTime works only over Wi-Fi. I'd give Apple 5 years for them to allow FaceTime to be done over 3G (Like how long it took them to approve viewing Flash over Macs).

I think I've mentioned this before, but although they made it slimmer, it feels like that the battery took a diet as well. They stuffed in a bigger battery, only to catch up with the amount of pixels and colours being generated over a 3.5 inch screen.

I find that an engineering genius, really. It could have been worse; like they would have not bothered to show up with a better battery solution. Or not do anything at all.

But battery is the main issue with all of these smartphones, anyway. My housemate's running on some Android-based OS. It was a Samsung Omnia or something like that, and it doesn't last long either.

But the display on Android devices are pretty good actually.

And they don't have a 960*640 resolution either.

Sound quality on calls on the iPhone 4 is clear, and good. I am running on three phones at the moment; my Nokia 6151, Nokia E71 and this iPhone 4. Obviously, it is not fair to compare and contrast these phones as they're from different leagues, but the iPhone really does provide an odd experience.

Now, some people will mention that Apple is dumb for introducing a 2nd microphone on top of the phone, right beside the headset jack.

But for people like us who are involved in sound engineering, that is a very very smart idea. The 2nd mic is placed on top of the phone, the opposite direction of our mouth, so it picks up anything - like noise, and filters it out, to allow the caller to hear us better.

And the stainless steel band. The genius of the antenna, and the beginning to a neverending criticism of the well known antennagate, or death grip, or whatever they would call it.

I never had issues with calls being dropped so far. But my Nokia 6151 is on roaming, and it's under Telstra. My Nokia E71 is under Optus, and same goes for my iPhone 4.

When I head into my kitchen, my Nokia 6151 gets maximum signal, the Nokia E71 varies from 2 - full somtimes. And the iPhone only stays as.. 1 and below.

I'm not sure if it's a false reading, or just a bad reception from the iPhone 4. My guess is that it produces less frequencies to send and receive. Another issue is the stainless steel band itself.

Doesn't steel act as one of those conductors for frequencies, anyway?











Overall, I won't complain much about the iPhone 4. It works perfectly the way it is. And sometimes it works better whenever I shut my iPhone off. Maybe because I get distracted less by it.











That's about it. Nothing much about the iPhone 4. Now, I'll go continue reading rumours about the iPhone 5.

Post-Exam Period.

Here comes the long-awaited summer break for degree students in Australia.

I was always envious of having a 3-month break thing going on, and I finally had the chance to really experience it!

And boy, it feels weird on the first day of the long-awaited freedom. I actually tried to find ways to bore myself when I don't have work, and I needed a break from.. work.

It's just crazy to be stressed out by the amount of stuff we have to do.. So, yeah.

Anyways, besides work, toys, uni (what's left of it), and more.. collectibles, here's something you should be aware of before I officially declare myself bankrupt.

That was the most recent order update I got from amiami, and boy, this isn't the updated list yet. This shows 7 figures; four from Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, and 3 more from Halo: Reach.

.. Until I decided to get all available figures that's released by Play Arts (Kai) from Square Enix. So I've got an updated list of 9 figures coming in this year, and 3 more coming in next year by Halo: Reach.

All shipped by EMS, so it's going to cost quite.. a bit.

*Heart aches.*

Don't ask me when I became a collector, or am I patronising Square Enix's division in making PVC collectibles. You should see the other available figures; they look like crap.

And here's my latest addition after my Takara Masterpiece MP-08: Grimlock.. A limited edition Halo 3 San Diego Comic Con.. thing!








Besides it being limited edition, the shipping for this thing costs 2x more than it how much the figure costed. One interesting bit about this is that the left hand is detachable, and is supported by a magnet for it to clip onto the body. Also, it weighs at about 2kg.

And yes, I'm using it as a paperweight to my Virgil Donati drum clinic ticket for this coming 2nd December 2011!

I just cleared up my table and it looks great. Less messier than it's supposed to be, but because of my odd netbook setup (with the wireless keyboard and mouse combo, and a fuckload of USB cables), it looks like.. shit.

Nevertheless, my figures (and upcoming ones), should have a reasonable amount of space to hang about.

So, I was off today, and I was dropping by my other work place to pass my supervisor a HDD I got for his WD Digital TV box thingamawig, and I just had to stop for this:



A xylophone arranger's wet dreams. This whole team of kids were led by one man with a classical guitar. And what he was doing is to rhythmically play in the key of Am, and ..

.. Well, the kids did the rest of the melody runs.

It was pretty interesting, and there were quite a bit of supporters. These are just the audience from the field area. .from miles away, you'll be able to see them listening and enjoying what this guy did.

It was an interesthing thing. A guitar, and a shitload of xylophones..

And.. I actually felt calm while listening to all this..

Also, two days ago, I see what's the difference between a practice amp (regardless of its power and size) against a proper cabinet with a preamp head. I tried an Orange Dual Terror with an Orange cabinet .. 4x12 cabinet..

And my word.. It sounded so .. warm. The preamp was bloody amazing. And because of it being a high-end Orange preamp, it's a tube preamp. I know they provide better tone, but they also require a shitload of maintenance as well..

And .. I don't think I'm financially stable to maintain all that; nor do I have a clue if I'm staying here in Tasmania .. long term!

Oh boy.

I have to admit that I've been having the worst of days for the past couple of weeks.. Hopefully all will pick up well; if not, I'd be moping over my stupid finals results.












Oh well! That's about it.

Just wanted to clear up some random updates.

Oh. Yes, I do not feel guilty while playing the guitar on my free time now.

:)

(Hopefully I'm able to find more time to play more guitar without annoying anybody in the house..which is far from possible..)

I Just Had To..

I know December is when Santa Claus comes.

This year, he's coming earlier.

But too bad, he's not fat and red.

He looks more like Virgil Donati.



I will see if he's any good like Virgil Donati. And take a couple of pictures too.

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