Back to sleep…Sweet dream?

DSLR sound is too loud even during focusing…so I stop shooting and let him went to sleep again…

Many have been praising Adobe Lightroom so much, so I guess I won’t go wrong with that…and today, finally I have forced myself to learn some basic things on Lightroom. I didn’t even know how to “SAVE AS” photos from Lightroom to desktop and then upload to my blog!

Yeah…finally I can share some photos on my blog…

Some random shots that I took…

Emmanuel Koh

Megumi breakfasting…

Lydia…(she said finally my D3s purchase is worthwhile…)

Ok, more to learn and share later…

Of course, Lydia is the guardian for Megumi homeworking…since she is smarter than I (I am sure she is going to read this later…)

Always happy on the start…

Very energetic…

Start to feel the challenge…

Need some assistance from mum…

Mum’s lips start longering already…

Now Megumi’s mouth longering…

Megumi:”hh..h…”

Finally…as usual-lah…

(All photo above are taken with Nikon AFS 28-70mm F2/8 Lens + D3s, except the last photo with a AF 28-100m lens… )

The shot was taken on a D3s + Nikkor AF 24mm F/2.8D lens.

1/30s, f/2.8, ISO 1250

A full frame view

Very sharp and clean image even at 100% view. No color shift and all detail retains. The above is original shot without any editing or sharpening.

A bit of processing and you will have an attractive color, contrast and sharpness.

More shots in the same series…(Sorry for the yellowish downlight)

Going to try with WB correction later.

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I have been wearing my last pair of shoe for quite a few years. I can’t remember for how long already…but my wife and mum said definitely more than 2 years old…and they said I should have changed one for a long time already…as the shoe really looks old and O.L.D…

Not that I don’t want to change, but I just didn’t found one to my liking. I have thought about Clark shoe…as I think I like the design of Clark…but there is no one nearby me to shop. Jusco is the only place where I shop for shoe…and the choices are limited.

Few days ago I saw one that caught my eyesight.

Interesting rainbow light band, and no string type (I don’t like to sit down to tie the string…). I like the leather colour too (slight greenish). The sales girl said got ONE YEAR warranty…haha…first time I heard shoe also got warranty. Of course, that comes with a price…RM419 before discount (20%), and final price is RM335.20. I should have bought it on the night I saw the shoe, then I would have gotten an extra 5% discount in Jusco voucher (didn’t know that). But of course, I was with my Megumi and mum shopping late at night, so was in a rush and not in mood to try out shoe.

I came back to Jusco the next day to buy the shoe. Valentino Rudy.

(my mother said is ugly…my wife just smile…Megumi said the other black shinning one is better…I guess we all have different taste… )

Megumi is seeking for permission from mother to blow the candle. Lydia:”There you blow!”

Happy blowing!

Smoky!

Time to cut the cake…

Lydia:”Let me try…”

“Yummy!”…is Secret Recipe Black Forest cake.

Happy birthday to me! I am happy when my family are happy.

My mother came from Miri, Sarawak, to Johor to help taking care of my wife and Emmanuel, and also Megumi.

Yeah, she is busy cooking for my wife. We Chinese believe that women after labor should rest and eat properly for at least 30 days.

Visiting wife at the “hospital”…private clinic actually.

This is Emmanuel at home…9 Days Old…

Emmanuel:”Hi…”

We were quite surprised actually, as we didn’t expect her to be so daring to sleep by her own. She seems to love to have her own room, and enjoying the warm yellow light in her room.

My wife felt empty without Megumi sleeping by the side.

Megumi has really grown up…

The picture on the left was drawn by my wife, while the love shape people were drawn by Megumi.

Just want to share my thought on the monitor in case somebody else are interested in knowing. I have read quite a number of reviews online prior to the purchase. Most are positive feedback, so I thought I should share the negative side that I felt on the monitor.

What do I think about the monitor?

Way too big for a small desk! My desk is only 55 cm in depth. The monitor took1/3rd of it, so left 2/3rd for my keyboard and hands.

30″ is too wide! Yes, I really feel that it is too wide to be used comfortably. Bigger is not always better.

Native Resolution 2560 x 1600. Higher resolution might not be a good thing here. The font size is so small, making reading and typing a eye straining job. Have to resize the font manually in order to read / type comfortably.

The monitor is TOO BRIGHT and TOO HIGH CONTRAST! Again very straining on the eyes. I have to lower the brightness and contrast in order to view long hour on the monitor. Watching movie at high contrast is fine though.

High power consumption! No, you can’t see it, but you can actually FEEL it! I can actually feel the heat generated from the screen surface. The good thing is…I now turn off my computer more often when I am not using it, rather than just letting it goes into sleep mode. Save power.

Am I regret buying the monitor? Hmm…maybe, maybe no. I shall get a bigger working table, rearrange my working space, then shall re-evaluate again the monitor.

Bigger is NOT always better. A 24″ Samsung monitor that I use in my office is more comfortable in my opinion…

Few weeks ago, my wife bought me a new blender. Full glass type, which is better than the old plastic blender that we have. Since it is being used daily, so the purchase is worthwhile spending (RM3xx). Thank you my dear!

Let her decides on the colour herself, and amazing colours in the final.

It is good to see a children mind full of colours.

There is no short-cut, and thanks to my wife who spend time with Megumi daily to guides and teach her “impatiently”…hahaa…

加油！Megumi!

My in law family visited us, Megumi has been looking forward for the visit as she loves to play with her two cousins. We bought a big cake as a surprised to my mother in law, and yes I think everybody is happy.

Can you see the YOU sound from their mouth?

Now me in the photo, with our kakak (indonesian maid) triggering the shutter.

Noticed the large wall photo at the back? Yes, I just went to develop the photo, from our Australia trip. A third 24×36″ size photo in our house, making photography worthwhile! (no point keeping all photos in the computer HDD)

Cost of printing? Less than RM200 including framing.

I look here and there for a place to set it up, and finally found a suitable space next to my TV at the living room cabinet.

Yes, just as small aquarium, but it is nice. I added a water pump to it, two live plants and some prawns. So it is quite fully occupied now. (All the fishes inside are from my father in law…kinda mixed up…and the poor gold fish is being bullied by the others smaller but more aggressive fish).

I have long experience and history of breeding fish as my hobby…since I was a kid. My father loves to buy lots of fishes at home…I shall not get a bigger aquarium for my own home now…haha…

Yamato TaQbin is a Japanese company. They are the largest delivery service company in Japan, and have set up their foot in Malaysia for a long time (commercial transportation service). Yamato TaQbin approaches us few months back to introduce their home delivery service – TaQbin, and we are very excited about it!

Today is the first day of operation of Yamato TaQbin. The whole team of Yamato TaQbin Johor branch visited us, and we are proud to be their first customer in parcel collect business in Johor.

I must say that I am excited with their service, and I am looking forward to be able to serve ShaShinKi customers better with Yamato TaQbin!

I gave myself a few days cool off time before deciding. Of course, I have to let my wallet cool off as well, since the MBA has already burnt a whole…and my credit card bill hasn’t arrived. It will be too heart burdening seeing the bill later…

I love researching on the internet on the information of the ACD and Dell U3011. Below are some findings that I would like to share:

Apple Cinema Display 27″ Thunderbolt

Pro: Easy connectivity with just one cable to the thunderbolt port of the MBA. It provides power supply to the MBA as well, so it saves the trouble of external socket power to the MBA when running! Slightly cheaper than Dell U3011 (RM3.1k).

Cons:

It is 27″ with 2560 x 1440 resolution. Dell U3011 is 30″ with 2560 x 1600 resolution. This means the Dell is going to show fonts and picture bigger, hence easier to read.

Only one year warranty. Dell offers 3 years.

No zero dead pixel guarantee. Dell does.

Using Thunderbolt display is good, but that is only for Apple product. No other product in the market that support thunderbolt connection at the moment. It means the display is STUCK to Apple. No good in case if I want to change to Windows again.

Glossy screen. Hmm…definitely not for the room that I am working now. Reflection is way too strong and I can see myself on the screen constantly! Dell is matted.

Dell U3011 30″ Ultrasharp Monitor

This is the best monitor from Dell. I remember such huge monitor was at a very prohibited price few years back. The old Dell U3007 was selling at over RM6k when first introduced. This U3011 is the latest year 2011 model, and Dell is now having a promotion with RM1k off, making the price RM3.5k. This is quite an attractive deal, since a monitor can be used for long, and Dell offers 3 years warranty for it, meaning that I can at least use it for 3 years with a peaceful mind.

Dell is more expensive, but at RM3k price range for a monitor, a few hundred difference does not make much different now. What’s more important is to make the right decision so that the RM3k or RM3.5k spent is worthwhile and no regret.

Comparison

The above is actually already the comparison. After lots of reading, youtube watching, specs comparison…my preference is more towards Dell U3011. However, there is a very critical problem that needs to be solved. How am I going to connect my MBA to the Dell monitor? The Dell U3011 does provides DVI port, Displayport (NOT Mini Displayport), HDMI…etc. Apple does not sell or provide mini displayport/thunderbolt to displayport solution.

There is Mini Displayport to DVI adapter from Apple, but that can only support upto maximum 1900 x 1200 resolution, definitely not for the Dell U3011 monitor (2560 x 1600). Apple does offer Mini Displayport to Dual Link DVI (support 2560 x 1600), but that adapter is costing over RM300. That’s quite a lot for an adapter, and performance is NOT guaranteed! Changing signal from Mini Displayport to DVI can be unpredictable and causing flickering or screen blackout.

The better connection would be a mini Displayport to Displayport adapter, so to connect to the Displayport socket on the Dell U3011. Apple does not offer this…and again thanks to the internet (macrumors, apple forum…etc.), I found monoprice.com that offer the cable at quite a low price (less than RM30), but shipping is over RM100. Still, no choice and that should be the best solution to connect the MBA to the Dell U3011.

Summary

Dell U3011 is my choice, for a better peace of mind. I shall write again when I have the monitor in front of me. (I guess I will need a new working desk for the monitor…

Ok…not playing…working actually…

Here’s some photos of the unwrapping of my toy…

(to be update later…)

Screen / Display

My first impression…not that impressive. It is not ISP display, so colour and contrast shifted when you view at different angle. this is quite annoying especially when you are doing photo editing. Since I am quite a lot into photography, so the screen actually disappointed me.

MBA is using glossy screen on the display. While the colour is really rich and shinny, it is actually very poor for actual production work, especially when you have light at your back or nearly a window.

The good thing about this glossy display is that you can use it as a mirror if you want to see how handsome or beautiful you are…Just adjust your eyes to focus on different plan on the display…

Continue writing as of 14th August 2011…

Price? I paid RM3.8k for the 13″ 2011 MBA. Not really cheap for a notebook (you can get Dell notebook at RM2k nowadays), but not very expensive as well (Sony high end notebook can cost more than RM5k, or an Apple MBP can cost you over RM4k easily). My initial budget was just RM3k, and I was actually targeting the 11″ MBA at RM2.9k, but then after reading reviews and discussions on forums, and most importantly my wife’s speaking “Get the 13″, since you always like bigger monitor”, so the 13″ that’s it. No regret, and I really like bigger screen. The MBA is not just for internet browsing, so a bigger monitor does helps.

Weight and Size

The MBA isn’t really that light. Yes, it is lighter than most other notebook in the market, but don’t get fooled by the marketing advertisement that MBA is as light as feather. My 13″ MBA isn’t exactly that small too, as at 13″, it is like holding a F4 folder.

What I like the MBA is the cool one piece aluminum cast out body (two pieces, one for monitor, one for body). Really elegant!

Performance

In terms of performance, MBA is really fast! I can start using my computer in 5 seconds after starting it. Yes, it is that fast! Shutting down takes less than 3 seconds. That should be mainly due to the new Intel i5 sandy bridge design and SSD hardisk.

Running Adobe Lightroom is fast on MBA too. It reads and displays photos smoothly on the screen. However, I am not going to use my MBA for photo processing or storage, as I only have 128GB SSD hardisk on my MBA. It is already less than 80GB space now. To keep my photos in the MBA, it will run out of space in no time.

There is another nice feature of the MBA, which is the backlight keyboard. I prefer to OFF it during daytime, and will only ON it when needed, to save battery.

Cables / Connections

Apple is really a frustrated company as they use different connection for different notebooks. My old Macbook white 2006 uses the standard displayport, while this new MBA uses mini displayport. I bought the mini displayport to VGA adapter together with my MBA, that’s essential as I need to connect the MBA to LCD projector in meeting presentation. I tend to lost things…don’t like to bring extra items with me but there is no other option as mini displayport is not a commonly support connection on any LCD projector that I have seen.

I tried connecting my 21.5″ Viewsonic LCD monitor to my MBA via the mini displayport to VGA adapter, and I must say that the colour is DULL. I am not sure if it is because of the poor monitor or the poor quality signal transmission using VGA cable. My PC connecting to the same monitor using DVI cable is able to produce a much vibrant colour.

MBA is capable of connecting to an external monitor and still able to deliver upto maximum 2560 x 1600 px resolution! That’s the largest resolution that you can find in the market now for a 30″ monitor. It is quite a joy connecting to an external monitor and using the MBA as like an CPU. I am going to get an external monitor for it!

Battery Performance

Apple claims 7 hours run, while I didn’t really count…but I do have more than 5 hours of battery power on my MBA without problem. That is impressive I must say. Good enough for a whole day use without having to bring a power supply all the time.  If I can sit inside Starbuck for a day, I won’t have to worry about running out of power as well. If you are on your computer for over 7 hours a day…you should probably go get rest instead of powering your notebook up and continue working…or surfing…

Conclusion

After a week of using my MBA, I must say that I like it quite a lot! It is sleek, cool, fast, thin, light and a really great product to easily bring around and use! It is ashamed why other company can’t make similar cool product like Apple and sell at similar price range. Mac OS X Lion is cool too! Better than the 10.4 version that I have on my Macbook (white 2006). I am still forcing myself to learn and like Mac OS, and am still learning. I try not to return to Windows for my daily work, hopefully I can get along well with the Apple system.

If you are a PC guy…be prepared to spend lots of time to get yourself familiar with Mac OS X. On the physical and design part, you will not regret.

(This is the first time I am doing self-video myself. Haha…hope not too bad ya…as long as the message got delivered correctly…)

So, I have decided to just close the comment feature at my blog. That shall keep my blog clean, but sorry to those genuine poster who want to comment about the post.

Initially I got attracted to the 11.6″ model, but after reading some comments and discussions online, I think a 13″ suits me more, since I am always a WANT BIGGER SCREEN guy. The higher resolution screen of the 13″ is also a welcome (1400 x 900), similar to a 15″ screen resolution actually.

Apple really makes appealing products. Their iPhone revolutionize the phone industry, where smartphone with touchscreen panel is now dominating the market.

Their computers have changed what people think about computer design. Mac Mini is just amazing in size…and the MacBook Air is another breakthrough in size!

The initial few generations of Macbook Air isn’t really that appealing. Besides the size, there are too many compromise in it. Not a fast or serious computer to work with.

I have a Macbook (white), and my wife asked if I really want another Apple computer, as she can see me not using the macbook often, and often complaint about it. Yeah, I must say that I don’t really like the macbook, as the screen is not great (poorer than my Dell Latitude by miles), and it is not easy to get used to the Apple OS X (10.1). That’s the reason why it took me several days and tons of reading to finally commit to the MBA.

To make the purchase more convincing and regret-less…I told myself that I can just install Windows 7 into the MBA if I really hate the LION later. However, I am putting high hope on the LION this time…after seeing so many praises on it and some of its features online.

At the price I am paying, I could have gotten a Macbook Pro, but that defeat the purpose of owning another notebook in my case. I have a hardisk failure in my Macbook before, causing all my UK photos gone. I don’t trust those spinning HDD anymore, and I really like the idea of SSD to replace the conventional HDD. iPad is a great example of how one can use, torture, drop…etc. without causing failure to the SSD. 256GB is very expensive (RM1k extra), so I just opt for the 128GB version. Even that is already costing me near to RM4k. Quite expensive by today’s standard as notebook has already gone down to the price of sub RM2k range commonly available.

Apple Keyboard? Hmm…I hate it actually…can’t get used to the COMMAND key replacing the Control key of PC. Anyhow…let’s see if I can get used to it later. This new 2001 MBA comes with backlight keyboard…should be beautiful at night…and especially useful for people like me who often get confused with PC keyboard and Apple keyboard.

It is amazing that how Apple can cramp so much into such a thin body. I like the elegant one piece solid metal of the MBA design. Ok, make it two pieces.

Nice hur? Yeah…will see how great it is soon when I received mine…

Now…waiting patiently for it to reach my doorway…I shall be very excited or disappointed tomorrow!

Handsome or not?

I love my home…my wife loves to wake up early on Saturday morning…for we have a lovely garden and place to enjoy our morning breakfast…

Megumi loves the corner too!

Why should I go out? Home is the best place…

Hmm…something wrong with the key?

Let me mark it down…

Let’s try again…

Good…

(Megumi actually tried to copy her mother to write something on the song book when pianoing…she just pretend…)

She likes to play cooking in the garden recently, with her “kakak”.

Took this a few weeks back at my backyard…

It is a Yamaha. I kinda like and trust Yamaha…though I can’t play piano…but I like to have one for my wife and my daughter.

It is not a brand new Piano, but a reconditioned unit from Japan. More than 20 years according to the seller, X series. What is the damaged? RM9500 nett. Sound is rich and great, and I have a near perfect (would have been perfect if I have a wall power plug there) for the piano.

It is a good piano, I hope Megumi can learn to play nice song when she grows up.

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