Tunnel Vision

Just the other day, I was on a bus coming home from a dinner with friends and the bus took a new route. I was rather surprised that this new route was in operation so soon. This new route runs closest to one of our museums, where our beloved Central Library use to stand. This was the first library in established in our country, so not only do I remember it, my folks remember it clearly too.

What did they do to this library? Well, let me just digress a little here. Remember the movie or novel The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. Well, the aliens called Vogons approached the Earth and announced that Earth was in their way of building one of their inter-galactic hyperspace bypass and had to be destroyed to make way for it. Well, that's exactly what happened to our library, not on such a grand scale, but yes, the library was destroyed to make way for a 500 metre (only 500 metres!!) tunnel through the hill behind it, so that it will ease traffic congestion in that area.

There were heaps of protest in the forum section the newspaper that the library belongs to our culture and heritage and destroying it will be like destroying part of our culture and heritage. Well, the government probably said, to hell with culture and heritage, bye bye library. BUT, a few streets away, they decided to 'relocate' the library to a gi-normously (think too big) redundant seven storey glass building. To me, it was like trying to appease the public outcry to stop the demolition of the library. So, to make things short for all the young children reading this blog out there: Destroying a culture and heritage building is okay, so long as it's relocated to a bigger building and everyone's happy. Can anyone see what's wrong here?

I've travelled to many parts of the world, but Europe has impressed me with the large number of age-old buildings and castles that have survived the test of time, some buildings over hundreds of years while really old ones, over thousands of years! (think Roman Empire at least!) My friends in Vienna can point out to me and tell me that so and so building standing there was actually a Palais or palace of one of their princes over 100 years ago. Bridges and buildings have withstood the test of time, war and weather to be left in place and remembered, not only for their beauty or what they stood for, but also for their testament to good architecture that allowed the building to stand for so long. In other words, there's a history behind everything that's worth saving and worth remembering forever. Fathers can tell their sons what the building stood for and in turn, their sons can tell their son's son, and so on. But over here, I think my dad can only tell me and bring me to that library when I was young, I don't think I can tell my son what was there anymore, it's gone.

Well, no matter how pissed off I got at what they did, what's done is done, there's no point looking back and saying that used to be the library, but it's a tunnel now. However, as the bus I was taking went around the new route, around the outside of the tunnel, I saw where the tunnel came out and I was laughing so hard I was in stitches and almost pee-ed in my pants a little.

There, at the end of the tunnel was a huge traffic congestion, why, because vehicles exiting the tunnel were merging with traffic that circumvented the tunnel (traffic coming from another direction that couldn't use this new tunnel) and all the buses and cars were trying to get from the extreme right lane to the extreme left lane and vice versa, causing another huge build-up of traffic.

Did the tunnel solve the traffic congestion problem, yes, for less than 500 metres. After that, it was back to square one. An expensive solution that probably didn't work, but the government will say it's a success and that the tax payer's money were justified. Translation: It probably was a stupid idea to begin with, but the Central Library is gone and we can't rebuild it, however, heads will roll.

The new solution? Well, maybe they should dig a new tunnel underground (into hell), perhaps then, everything will be solved!

Newsflash!

I only wish this were true. Sadly, it is not. His telecast address to the nation should have included his letter of resignation to the American people. But he wouldn't do that, he has to bear the responsibilities (ridicule) of his mistakes.

His new war plan to send 21,500 more troops into Iraq is just crazy. Although he did take blame for the failure of the war, there was no mention of a withdrawal date, which means that down the road, he might just decide to send more troops again. It's a never-ending war, a repeat of the Vietnam War, why can't he see that? I'm guessing that he's dragging the whole war through his term in office so that he will end it leaving the next President to clean up his mess for him.

With all his partners in crime jumping ship, like rats deserting a sinking ship, leaving him only Rice, I really wonder how much longer both of them can hold out.

Bring them home President Bush! Bring them all home! Before it's too late...

Apple's Revolutionary iPhone

When I first saw the iPhone, like all Apple products, in my mind, I told myself, I had to have it! Just like I got myself the iPod and other Apple stuff that they're producing. Somehow, when you look at Apple products, they have class, a great sense of style and it suits the consumer's needs, it's also user-friendly and blends in many facets of your daily life into a little machine (that might become surgically grafted to my palm).

After the initial wave of excitement subsided. The next few thoughts crossed my mind, and believe me, this is the part where I start poking holes in my own perfect little bubble of thoughts. Firstly, if they're going to produce a phone like this and make it a camera, a web browser, a music player (a built-in iPod), a photo viewer and other stuff, why not make it a PDA too? For the price of this iPhone, I could get myself a PDA phone like O2's or Dopod's or Dell's or Hewlett Packard's. Why would I spend so much money on the iPhone when it can't seem to function like a PDA? Where does the SIM card fit into? How long is the battery life going to be? Apple isn't exactly know for it's endurance when it comes to battery life, think about their iPods. And it runs on Apple OS, so that means you get to sync it with everything you have on your Apple computer, in other words, you have to be an exclusive Apple fanatic to use it, relatively speaking.

Next, all I ever wanted in a phone was a revolutionary way to chat with my friends, be it locally or internationally, think businessman. The excellent text messaging SMS QWERTY keypad and touchscreen everything on this iPhone allows me to do just that. OK, I'll admit, a little music won't kill me, so the integrated iPod is a bonus. And oh yeah, the camera (2 Megapixel only?) too, just in case friends or movie star comes along and sits next to you and you need prove that he/she was there. But, to add in an integrated web browser? Why? As it is, existing mobile phones have some form of web browsers and believe me when I tell you it's tough just trying to get it to work, let alone type. The thought of slow download of information rates is already headache enough, let alone trying to find a hotspot to surf the web from. Granted, sooner or later, every other bookshop or coffee shop or bus stop or train station will have or become a Internet surfspot with Wifi and other Bluetoothie availability for everyone to be connected internationally, but is this really necessary now?

The disadvantages of being the first company to introduce technology into the world or market, is that someone out there, think competition like Microsoft, Creative Technologies, Sony, Samsung etc etc etc. will definitely find a way to miniaturise, customise, re-revoluntionarise your product. In other words, copy it wholesale and call it their own, which includes slapping new patents on it and calling it theirs. Then you'll have to reinvent everything all over again and we're back to square one aren't we?

However, this does give competition to the iPhone. The late release dates for the iPhone in Europe (by the 4th quarter of 2007) and in Asia (by 2008) will likely mean that, given the time frame, Sony might come out with something smaller, or Microsoft with go into a joint-venture with Creative Technologies (not that they already aren't) for a phone and MP3 player together. Although products are patented, it doesn't stop anyone from buying the iPhone, tearing it apart into it's component parts and reverse-engineering the stuff and call it their technology. The frustrating thing about this is that you'll be tied up in lawsuits over who owns what technology, that by the time the product comes and goes, the lawsuit will no longer have any meaning anymore.

Having said all that, I do think that Apple is one step ahead of everyone (consumers) and they think like and know what their consumers want and know how to give them what they want. I give them absolute credit for trying and putting technology out on the market to compete and revolutionarise everything.

I was getting sick of the competition between Nokia, Sony, Samsung etc with all their new models of mobile phones. Technology can only progress so far, another competitor needs to find something that breaks through all this stagnation and I think that, ladies and gentlemen, Apple has done just that today! Bravo!

Below is the article press release and specifications of the iPhone lifted directly from www.gizmodo.com

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MACWORLD SAN FRANCISCO—January 9, 2007—Apple® today introduced iPhone, combining three products—a revolutionary mobile phone, a widescreen iPod® with touch controls, and a breakthrough Internet communications device with desktop-class email, web browsing, searching and maps—into one small and lightweight handheld device. iPhone introduces an entirely new user interface based on a large multi-touch display and pioneering new software, letting users control iPhone with just their fingers. iPhone also ushers in an era of software power and sophistication never before seen in a mobile device, which completely redefines what users can do on their mobile phones.

“iPhone is a revolutionary and magical product that is literally five years ahead of any other mobile phone,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We are all born with the ultimate pointing device—our fingers—and iPhone uses them to create the most revolutionary user interface since the mouse.”

iPhone is a Revolutionary Mobile Phone

iPhone is a revolutionary new mobile phone that allows users to make calls by simply pointing at a name or number. iPhone syncs all of your contacts from your PC, Mac® or Internet service such as Yahoo!, so that you always have your full list of up-to-date contacts with you. In addition, you can easily construct a favorites list for your most frequently made calls, and easily merge calls together to create conference calls.

iPhone’s pioneering Visual Voicemail, an industry first, lets users look at a listing of their voicemails, decide which messages to listen to, then go directly to those messages without listening to the prior messages. Just like email, iPhone’s Visual Voicemail enables users to immediately randomly access those messages that interest them most.

iPhone includes an SMS application with a full QWERTY soft keyboard to easily send and receive SMS messages in multiple sessions. When users need to type, iPhone presents them with an elegant touch keyboard which is predictive to prevent and correct mistakes, making it much easier and more efficient to use than the small plastic keyboards on many smartphones. iPhone also includes a calendar application that allows calendars to be automatically synced with your PC or Mac.

iPhone features a 2 megapixel camera and a photo management application that is far beyond anything on a phone today. Users can browse their photo library, which can be easily synced from their PC or Mac, with just a flick of a finger and easily choose a photo for their wallpaper or to include in an email.

iPhone is a quad-band GSM phone which also features EDGE and Wi-Fi wireless technologies for data networking. Apple has chosen Cingular, the best and most popular carrier in the US with over 58 million subscribers, to be Apple’s exclusive carrier partner for iPhone in the US.

iPhone is a Widescreen iPod

iPhone is a widescreen iPod with touch controls that lets music lovers “touch” their music by easily scrolling through entire lists of songs, artists, albums and playlists with just a flick of a finger. Album artwork is stunningly presented on iPhone’s large and vibrant display.

iPhone also features Cover Flow, Apple’s amazing way to browse your music library by album cover artwork, for the first time on an iPod. When navigating your music library on iPhone, you are automatically switched into Cover Flow by simply rotating iPhone into its landscape position.

iPhone’s stunning 3.5-inch widescreen display offers the ultimate way to watch TV shows and movies on a pocketable device, with touch controls for play-pause, chapter forward-backward and volume. iPhone plays the same videos purchased from the online iTunes® Store that users enjoy watching on their computers and iPods, and will soon enjoy watching on their widescreen televisions using the new Apple TV™. The iTunes Store now offers over 350 television shows, over 250 feature films and over 5,000 music videos.

iPhone lets users enjoy all their iPod content, including music, audiobooks, audio podcasts, video podcasts, music videos, television shows and movies. iPhone syncs content from a user’s iTunes library on their PC or Mac, and can play any music or video content they have purchased from the online iTunes store.

iPhone is a Breakthrough Internet Communications Device

iPhone features a rich HTML email client which fetches your email in the background from most POP3 or IMAP mail services and displays photos and graphics right along with the text. iPhone is fully multi-tasking, so you can be reading a web page while downloading your email in the background.

Yahoo! Mail, the world’s largest email service with over 250 million users, is offering a new free “push” IMAP email service to all iPhone users that automatically pushes new email to a user’s iPhone, and can be set up by simply entering your Yahoo! name and password. iPhone will also work with most industry standard IMAP and POP based email services, such as Microsoft Exchange, Apple .Mac Mail, AOL Mail, Google Gmail and most ISP mail services.

iPhone also features the most advanced and fun-to-use web browser on a portable device with a version of its award-winning Safari™ web browser for iPhone. Users can see any web page the way it was designed to be seen, and then easily zoom in to expand any section by simply tapping on iPhone’s multi-touch display with their finger. Users can surf the web from just about anywhere over Wi-Fi or EDGE, and can automatically sync their bookmarks from their PC or Mac. iPhone’s Safari web browser also includes built-in Google Search and Yahoo! Search so users can instantly search for information on their iPhone just like they do on their computer.

iPhone also includes Google Maps, featuring Google’s groundbreaking maps service and iPhone’s amazing maps application, offering the best maps experience by far on any pocket device. Users can view maps, satellite images, traffic information and get directions, all from iPhone’s remarkable and easy-to-use touch interface.

iPhone’s Advanced Sensors

iPhone employs advanced built-in sensors—an accelerometer, a proximity sensor and an ambient light sensor—that automatically enhance the user experience and extend battery life. iPhone’s built-in accelerometer detects when the user has rotated the device from portrait to landscape, then automatically changes the contents of the display accordingly, with users immediately seeing the entire width of a web page, or a photo in its proper landscape aspect ratio.

iPhone’s built-in proximity sensor detects when you lift iPhone to your ear and immediately turns off the display to save power and prevent inadvertent touches until iPhone is moved away. iPhone’s built-in ambient light sensor automatically adjusts the display’s brightness to the appropriate level for the current ambient light, thereby enhancing the user experience and saving power at the same time.

Pricing & Availability

iPhone will be available in the US in June 2007, Europe in late 2007, and Asia in 2008, in a 4GB model for $499 (US) and an 8GB model for $599 (US), and will work with either a PC or Mac. iPhone will be sold in the US through Apple’s retail and online stores, and through Cingular’s retail and online stores. Several iPhone accessories will also be available in June, including Apple’s new remarkably compact Bluetooth headset.

iPhone's Full Specs

Screen size: 3.5 inches Screen resolution: 320 by 480 at 160 ppi Input method: Multi-touch Operating system: OS X Storage: 4GB or 8GB GSM: Quad-band (MHz: 850, 900, 1800, 1900) Wireless data: Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) + EDGE + Bluetooth 2.0 Camera: 2.0 megapixels Battery: Up to 5 hours Talk / Video / Browsing, Up to 16 hours Audio playback Dimensions: 4.5 x 2.4 x 0.46 inches Weight: 4.8 ounces / 135 grams.

Dark Spiderman

Like Dark Phoenix and Dark Cerebro and everything else dark from Marvel. This Spiderman, from the trailers, is seen to be corrupted and by the "black oil". For us, Spiderman fans, we know this to be his black alien suit from the Secret Wars series of comics, which he later abandoned and it joined with his nemesis and turned into Venom.

Spiderman 3 also features Venom, something to look out for in May 2007 when it comes out!

Oh I really can't wait, does anyone have a spare time machine I could borrow to watch the movie first?

Happy New Year 2007

Dearest family and friends, may the year 2007 bring love,

joy, peace, fortune and happiness to everyone.
Happy New Year 2007!!!