So how did our naming went? We zoomed in for a certain theme first. Fruits? Solar system? Actors? Mathematicians (ewww)?

We settled for the Greek mythos.

My Mac is Zeus. The god of gods.
Pen’s laptop is Nyx – “Goddess of darkness/night. She is also the only being from which Zeus turned from when her son Hypnos, who had angered Zeus, hid behind her.”

Our iPhones are twins so we have Apollo and Artemis.
My 40gb hdd is Achilles cause is slowly dying on me now (have to remember to back up the files!). My 512mb thumdrive is Borus – a mortal, manipulated by the gods (Zeus and Nyx). My 2gb thumdrive is Creon while Pen’s 2gb thumbdrive is Electra. Pen’s 320gb HDD is Dia while my 500gb is Hektor. And finally, the youngest of them all, my 320gb HDD is Kratos (the main character in God of War).

Our PSPs on the other hand being a gaming console, we settled for the Norse gods. We named them Loki and Freyja.

It’s a Pro. Pen pushed me very hard to buy the pro. I’m loving it!

It took a lot of guts and cross computations if we could afford it. Well, we could not afford it with a one-time-big-time payment so we settled to stretch it out for 12 months.

Now I’m in the process of transferring my files to the new machine and of course configuring it.

So happy.

Thanks a lot Pen!

It’s mostly an electronics shop with all the merch I can look and handle all day. Today I hovered over PSP games, DVDs, CDs, earphones, headphones, desktops and laptops.

PSP games
I had no intention of buying anything in this shop, especially NOT PSP games. Ridiculous prices at 80 dollars a title!!!??? With 5 titles I can already get an ASUS EEE (more on this later). But anyways, I found some titles I heard talked about in The Totally Rad Show (podcast that Ajay got me watching since last year) and some that I thought were interstng. There’s Prince of Persia, SIMS pets, Need for speed, Shinobi-something (not Shinobi, this one I can’t remember the title of has a lady protagonist) and Loco Roco. I was tempted to buy Loco Roco coz it was on sale for 30 dollars. But damn that, I can probably get it someplace else…

Other consoles
Holy crap, I didn’t know the DS Lite was so much more cheaper than the PSP! I never bothered to compare prices. (Long overdue thank you to AJ for the gift!) Anyway, I must say, there are sooo much more DS merch in Sydney. Come on people… seriously? Isn’t the graphics sucky in the DS? Oh well, I guess the games are fun. You gotta admit, playing on the Wii is really fun, and those graphics aren’t as fancy either. But come on.. really? Games on Sony consoles look so much prettier.

DVDs
The DVDs here were plenty, but not as comprehensive as the shop in Singapore (what was it called AJ?). What they did have that was impressive was a classics section. I gotta get one of those Rodgers and Hammerstein DVD boxes!

Audio/CDs
They had Beatles records! And I mean the old phonograph records! So awesome. They were having a sale of old CDs too, but none were really interesting. I looked at the new titles, sure enough Coldplay and Radiohead are in the recommended titles. I held them in my hands for a while to have a feel. It’s really different to actually see the album covers printed. I purchased In Rainbows online (hey, that I can afford coz they didnt put a price on it: guess how much?) as I’m sure a lot of others did (even AJ). Was cool to see it there in the store. While the new Coldplay album I have yet to hear, I loved the Radiohead album.

Computers
The desktops are quite cheap, but I don’t really need a new machine. But it was interesting to check the specs. The desktops are pushing 4GB RAM with quadcores now. The laptops are a minimum 1GB. I hovered for a while in the Apple section (as I always do, coz they’re so pretty). I hear a lot of reverence and obsession on Macs most espcially when the Air came out. Well, I’ve had my share of using Macs in Canberra, and I don’t really see what the hullaballoo is about. I’ve had a desktop crash on me many times. Yeah it’s sleek and Unix-based. I would love to own one (when I get to afford one). But at the moment, while I admit I am green with envy to Mac-owners coz of the prettiness factor, it’s not something I gotta have. In fact, I was more interested with the ASUS EEE. The updated notebook is now 12GB in HDD memory, and expandable to 2GB (I think, I forget if it was 1GB) RAM. It doesnt have an optical drive like the MacAir, but it has a webcam and an ethernet card (both missing from the MacAir). And the best part is that it is small and light at less than a kg. Sure, the Air is pretty, but the A$500 price beats the A$2500+ for the Air. From what I understand the EEE is built on Xandros Linux, but is also compatible with WinXP.

Etc
I looked at different earphones coz the ones I have are wearing out (and seeing how white gets dirty so quickly, I am often the one sporting the shabbiest earphones). But I didnt buy any, coz all they had were fancy ones of Sennheiser, Panasonic and Sony. The cheap China ones are really crap (sorry to offend anyone, but they are, I’ve tried and they sound awful). I just wanted a standard symmetric kind which I couldnt find. Looks like it’s time to give those ipod earphones a break-in.

Been playing two straight nights before I go to bed.

These are my screenshots. Notice Patapon and Puzzle Quest in the background

Kratos!

Funny thing, I used to play this type of game with Pen reading the walkthru out loud for me. She’d tell me where to go next and how to do it. Now that I play alone, I find it hard when nobody is coaching me. I tried not to read a walkthru, but there is one part that I have no idea where to go next. I caved in and searched for a game guide. Now I rely to the document whenever I am lost.

Gonna play more of Kratos later.

After a long conversation with Pen while I was browsing DSLRs at Courts Megastore, I went home with a big smile on my face.

Courts Megastore

My Canon EOS 350D.

I’ve always wanted to buy one for us (Pen and me) ever since we rode the digital camera bandwagon. Now the dream has materialized. I never imagined to have it this early though. I mean, I’m only 2 months here in Singapore and seems like I’m buying a-plenty. It’s just that the deal is too good to be true.

Included in the deal was a camera bag, 20pcs of DVD+R, 1GB CF card, 2GB CF card, a tripod, extra battery. The 55-200mm lens I bought separately on a discounted price.

They also threw in a Canon coffee table book (to inspire me to take photos I guess…)

On top of that, it’s on a 12month 0% payment. I could have taken the 24, 36 or 48 months to pay but Pen enlightened me that it’s a torture to hang on to a credit for 4 years if I can pay it off in a year or half a year. So I opted the 12 month installment plan.

Now all I need is a subject to photograph.

My first gadget bought here in Singapore.

A Maxtor 320gb External HDD!

Actually, this is not the first one. Last time I was here, I bought Pen a 2GB Creative Zen MP3 player. But this Maxtor is the first one for me.

Special thanks to Cia for sharing me her Dad’s membership number so I get the Member’s price and not the usual price. If not for her, I would have paid additional S$20 for the hard disk.

I felt that I badly needed to buy one as my hard drive space in my office issued laptop is slowly filling up. Now that we have broadband access in the condo, I can resume to get my fix (downloading what else?!). On top of that, my office mates are sharing their own divx movies and animes. Last week, I copied Books 1 & 2 of Avatar. I’m watching it and so far enjoying the story.

And surprise, surprise. My housemate got a free LG dvd component for his cable subscription. The good thing is, the component supports divx formats and has it’s own usb slot! Imagine the smile on my face when I saw that. We now have our own movie server at home and a video on demand service! Hahaha.

I made a quick reformat on the 320gb hdd though. The LG component usb slot only supports FAT16 and FAT32 formatting. Small price to pay for the happiness it will bring.

Panasonic 32″ TV + LG USB Component with DivX support + 320gb HDD. What else will you ask for?

Thanks again to Jie for assisting me in buying my new toy.

I just bought a silver edition Sony PSP this morning at EYO store in Greenhills. I could have waited to buy one in Singapore but I have to update the firmware here so that I can play iso games running in the memory stick (which I don’t know if I could do that in Singapore).

I’m excited as hell to play games in this gadget. I just wish God of War will have a version in this console. I loaded three games so far in my mem stick: NFS: Carbon, NBA Live 07 and Marvel Ultimate Alliance. Acquiring games is not a problem anymore. Aside from Jie, three of my officemates have PSP and copying games from them will not be an issue. The whole package deal is a bit pricey but I’m not complaining. I just want to have a portable console before I fly out.

Now all I have to do is copy games from the generous people and gaming anytime is now a possibility.

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Want to check out Philadelphia assisted living facilities?

Computer-game console contributes to science

If reading this article doesn’t really tickle your fancy, just have a quick look at my tiny commentary. If you’re still not interested, please just have a look at the closing part of the article…

It’s nice to hear that Sony is volunteering a piece for the medical research pie. Seeing that computer gaming consoles are all about computing SPEED and the simulation of physical processes, this is exactly what quantitative biology research is all about.

The gyst is essentially this: Computing power is VERY much needed in studying biosciences now. Especially in the research about protein folding. Just how important is studying protein folding? Let me put it this way: It can uncover the very mysteries of life itself. But ok enough of the off and overshoots.

The biggest thing that can be achieved that would be a really BIG impact in the near future is understanding diseases like Alzheimer’s and ALS (Amyotrphic Lateral Sclerosis) that remain to elude early diagnosis. Treatment so far only are meant for improving quality of life…

So how about that article ending. Let me share that here:

“What of other games consoles such as Xbox 360? Anderson says he’s talked to Microsoft. “But that conversation didn’t go anywhere,” he says.”

Mura lang yung binili ko sa JB’s Toy Shop sa may Park Square 1. On sale pa, 270 pesos. 360 pesos regular price. May FM radio yung isa pang model pero since may mp3 player naman ako, yung basic lang ang binili ko.

Yung tinignan ko sa Toby’s sa may Glorietta, ang mamahal! Buti na lang at tinuro ako ni Noims sa JB’s at nandun yung murang model.

Ngayon, kailangan ko na lang maka-10,000 steps a day.

This must be a dream come true for all tech freaks out there. Imagine a very sleek iPod audio/video with great cellphone interface and true internet access at your fingertips.


Steve Jobs at the MacWorld 2007 Expo. Here he is introducing their new product.

“Well today, we’re introducing THREE revolutionary new products. The first one is a widescreen ipod with touch controls. The second is a revolutinoary new mobile phone. And the third is a breakthrough internet communications device. An iPod, a phone, an internet mobile communicator. An iPod, a phone, an internet mobile communicator…. these are NOT three separate devices!”

It’s like having a MacBook Pro in your pocket. With it’s Apple patented appearance, this iPhone will be a killer in the market.

The Apple logo as expected shown in the back of the iPhone.

Internet surfing is said to be a breeze using the iPhone. Shown here is a GoogleMap I think.

Jobs said that it will be available in the US market on June this year while Asia release will have to wait until 2008.

Price tag for this sweet piece of hardware is said to be on $499 – $599 range.

*Photos are courtesy of Gizmodo and Engadget sites.