A Day in Queens Botanical Garden

Nikon D70, Nikkor MF 35~105, Nikkor AF 17~80. The flowers macro shots were shot using the manual focusing lens, with manual exposure, set on a tripod. The people shots were done by the auto focus lens with camera set at continuous dynamic focusing.

Jeurgen Teller

Juergen Teller and Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York.
Top: Cindy Sherman, left with Mr. Teller.
Bottom: Victoria Beckham as photographed by Mr. Teller for an ad campaign for Marc Jacobs. Images from nytimes.com.

Once again, Mr. Teller proves that you don't need a $10,000 rig to shoot a multi-million dollar ad campaign for the purveyors of high fashion and styles. He shoots with a Contax G2, the little camera that can. He shoots fashion and celebrities all right but to say that he is just a fashion photographer is akin to declare a fashion collection very wearable, which inadvertently and unmistakably reduces fashion to an utility, not a high praise indeed. Mr. Teller's works are more recognized as art works than mere fashion shots. His style runs much in the same vein as that of Terry Richardson, and to a lesser degree pants-optional Don Charney and a boat load of other photographers shooting for downtown fashion/lifestyles magazines like Nylon and such. The images are usually offbeat, irreverent, and not overly polished at all; in short, images much rely on the photographer's seeing and the visceral response to the subjects as opposed to elaborate lighting and Photoshop techniques. So you can easily end up with photographers who shun overly polished techniques but truly know what they are doing artistically, and those who have no techniques and also don't know what they are doing.

Source: When Is a Fashion Ad Not a Fashion Ad? by Cathy Horyn of the New York Times.

China's Latest Exports

This Is Lead Free?
“Bloodline: The Big Family No. 3.” by Zhang Xiaogang. Photo: Sotheby's. Saved from the nytimes.com

In addition to lead laden painted toys, poisonous tooth paste, substandard medicines and a myriad of other deadly daily supplies, China also exports hot contemporary arts by Chinese artists in their 40s and 50s. The above oil on canvas was sold more than 6 million to a Taiwanese-born collector in the US, almost doubling the original estimate. China is ranked 3rd in the auction world, ahead of the French and behind US and Britain. As far as hotness meter goes, Zhang is ahead of Jeff Koons but hehind Damien Hirst, a guy who specializes in dead animals in formaldehyde. What's the point of this post, really nothing, there is no point. Perhaps I am just happy to see China is able to export something high quality and high priced. Let the French do the mass produced luxury, and we will hit the world with million dollar paintings.

Source: The New York Times.

Olympics Related News

Since you've asked ... I will not attend the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, nor will I run the Olympics torch relay.

(And yes, who the fuck cares?)

Finally Some Better iPhone Reviews

Finally it takes a sassy Singaporean girl who is secured enough to give us the ultimate iPhone review on video.



Now for the readers who aren't so crazy about YouTube video but prefer cartoon, animation and white text on black background 1990's style pre-blog web page, I have good news for you. This is by far the most objective review, bar none.

Nothing Better To Post

TV doctor turned movie star turned director George So Suave Clooney's latest vanity project "Leatherheads" got trumped by "21" in the box office.

The House Behind A Weeping Cherry

"The House Behind A Weeping Cherry," written by Ha Jin, an award winning Chinese immigrant writer, and published by The New Yorker on April 7, is yet another immigrant experience story, set in Flushing, Queens, one of the outer boroughs that has nothing to do with Sex And The City, in fact it's the opposite of Sex And The City, where nothing is glamorous and nobody is self-consciously reflective. The story takes place in a whore house in Flushing and centers on a young man who ultimately falls in love with one of the three prostitutes in the house. In the end, the couple only survives the City by running away from it. It's not one of my favorites, but it does put Flushing in The New Yorker, so it is special, at least to me, a long time Flushing resident.

Queens Botanical Garden

All pictures shot using an aging Nikon D70, jpeg, aperture priority f-stop set at f5.6, ISO 200. This is like my way of shooting, painless. I don't do any post processing, unless when I am shooting on assignment for National Geographic, which has never happened and has yet to happen. Usually I find pictures come out better from Canon makes, but I find my D70 holding up pretty well, or I just have alarmingly low standard.
The garden is still under renovation, almost deserted, part of it was because of the cold weather. I hope to see some flowers soon, maybe next week or the week after next week.

hp Compaq 6910p

Is it an hp or is it a Compaq? Does it even matter? hp perhaps is really into this hard plastic kind of thing. On the upper right hand on the display, it says Compaq 6910p. But it's an hp. Can they just do a bit better on branding? Is it too much to ask?

I have an aging IBM Thinkpad r51, the display is still bright enough if I want it to. On the other hand, this hp never seems to give me the kind of brightness I want, no matter if I am running it on tethered power or battery. I want it to be so bright that I need to wear sunglasses. Alas, the screen is kind of lame. I like it to be my decision whether to have brightness or long battery life. UPDATE: I suppose I did cajole some brightness by pressing the fn-f11 key. Unfortunately, this combination also toggles Firefox's full-screen, it can get a bit confusing. The lack of visual clue while adjusting brightness and contrast doesn't help.

And this notebook is definitely not a laptop. It has a few vents right underneath on the bottom. So it's not really a good idea to put it on your lap. But I do it anyway. It's winter time and I can use some heat on my lap. I am going to use it in bed right on the comforter sort of to block all the vents, even the ones on the side, see if it will blow up.

So far Windows Vista is just what I've expected. Some minor annoyances, here and there, but nothing really major.

UPDATE:
Try hold down fn key and press f10 or actually f11, it brightens up the display.

UPDATE 5/1/2009:
It's been like this for the past few months. The battery, or could it be something else, even at 100%, but the LCD would just quickly goes black no warning or anything, maybe in 10 or 15 minutes after unplugged from power. It's just horrible. I won't recommend people buying this at all, if you get it for free then sure. Otherwise forget about it.

UPDATE 7/2/09:
The e key on the keyboard fell off, put it back, it doesn't quite respond like the rest. Very annoying.

 UPDATE 3/2010
The thing was smoking, literally.  I unplugged the machine and hoped it didn't explode.  Got somebody to change the motherboard all together.  Now it has bee running fine for a month or so.

The Cradle of Aviation Museum, Long Island

Jade Asian Restaurant

We haven't gone to this place for a long time. I can't even remember when was the last we went there. But I decided to give it a try. The place had changed hands a few times for the past few years and now it's called Jade Asian Restaurant.
Jin and I went on a Friday morning and the place wasn't crowded at all. The service was good except when we left the manager didn't even bother to say bye or thank you. As a manager, meet and greet, saying thank you and goodbye to your customers is really part of the job. I think it's just common courtesy to acknowledge patronage.
All the dim sum I tried were good. The wait staff were attentive.
Tea, 60 cents per person, all dim sums are selling $2 each, tax included, I suppose it's some sort of weekday discount, just don't expect the price stays the same during weekends or holidays. We used to go to East on Kissena and Laburnum but I don't like their practice, charging kids for tea, and putting 15% service charge even on the sales tax, so we have been staying away from East.
Tea @0.6 x 2= $1.2 + dishes @2 x 5 = $11.20 , the lowest bill I've ever got for a long time.
We will go back.

The gothamist's review.

Junior's cheesecake and pineapple carrot juice

Freshly juiced pineapple and carrot juice. Junior's cheese cake. My hard plastic 6910p comes with bluetooth and now I can tooth my nokia 6682 pictures right to my harddrive sans cable. Wireless connection is the pinnacle of human achievement.

hp notebook and sushi

My new HP (hard plastic) notebook. This little puppy runs Vista Business. So far I have experienced some minor annoyances. My good old Canon G3 doesn't have a driver for Vista. Windows sometimes doesn't wake up nicely, the screen stays off until the third time I press the power button. I want it to wake up the first time I press the power button not turning it off and back on, a total of three times hitting the power button. I notice there is sometimes left over Windows element on the screen. It didn't happen until a couple days ago, about two or three weeks into my usage. Maybe doing a power down would clear it. I don't normally turn off a notebook.

This was from a midtown sushi joint. I didn't order this, my friend from work did. It's a lunch special sushi set. The eel sushi was just unbelievably oversize, maybe that's what made it a special. I think Chiyoda is one of the better sushi joints I ever have, especially for a lunch and take-out restaurant. From the lunch menu, $9.50 for regular sushi set, and $12 for a bento box (mackerel, sashimi, california roll, salad). And I think they have the best chirashi, both in presentation and in quality.

Dith Pran Dies At 65

From The Gothamist and The New York Times.

Taekwondo

Mom, this is especially for you.

(The video is about 1:27 minute long, the audio is kind of loud I think, maybe because I am using a pair of earphones to edit ....)

Just whipped up this short video using Windows Movie Maker. The original was shot using a Canon G3. I can't suck the video out using Vista as there is no driver for my old G3. Ubuntu is my friend, so it sucked out the AVI video OKAY. But unfortunately kino can't edit the AVI. So I just have to move the AVI back to my VISTA notebook over my wifi by dancing some samba and did some quick and dirty video editing on my notebook. The Windows Media Maker wasn't all that bad for what I tried to do, until I tried to render or what Windows call publish the video. I just clicked publish and the notebook started thinking ... then I went to take a shower. When I was done showering like 10 minutes later, it was still thinking and then I noticed the title bar says not responding. Good thing I saved the project first before publishing. The second time I tried to publish, it went okay but the only format I can publish to was WMV. I was like where is my mpeg? Anyway, Google is okay with wmv. So wmv it is. Enjoy.

MacBook Air Hacked

Again, I am reporting on other's reporting. MacBook Air was hacked. I was reading something about this hacking contest yesterday and back then none of the OS, Linux, Vista and OS X was hacked, and today when I was wandering online at 9to5, MacBook Air was hacked.

The hacker Charlie Miller was a former No Such Agency employee and a researcher. No wonder.

As reported here on Macworld and RoughlyDrafted.

Yet another MacBook Air story.

Subprime Debacle: Same Old Story

The subprime mortgage is just same old Wall Street story. You have greedy executives who want big fat bonus and will do anything to shore up the financial statements. You have the accountants and auditors who don't quite have the backbones are just too willing to go along with the management. The SOX is just a joke, it burdens the average rank and file type but it doesn't do anything, I mean anything good to curtail this kind of corporate recklessness or outright fraud. The SOX is simply designed so the accounting firms can get more billings for doing bullshit consulting jobs and makes sure the average cubicle office drone will do all these compliance bullshit works 12 hours a day non stop devoid of any life at all.

It's just revolting.

Inquiry Assails Accountants in Lender's Fall.

#7 Line Is The Second Cleanest

I take the number 7 train twice a day every work day of the week. Do I care about its cleanliness? Yes to a certain extent. What I care most is the frequency and reliability of the ride. The line just finished a month's worth of repair and maintenance, and hopefully things will even get better. Downtown Flushing is still expanding and I wonder if the #7 train has the capacity to handle this ever expanding immigrant town.

Shmutz Survery 2007.

Miscellaneous

Just got a Wii component cable from monoprice. Their service is good so I am a returned customer. I plugged the cable in and the screen does look better but not by a big margin.

Just came back from another office. Took a yellow cab to 53rd and 8th Ave. I normally don't take any yellow cab so this deserves a blog entry. The fare was 7.30, from Madison and 41st St. So it was $20 round trip. I am not exactly a people person but it's nice to have some face time with people I talk over the phone but never met. People are generally nice.

The weather is nice, it's almost 60.

I need to help out a friend in getting wifi using a notebook bought from Taiwan later in the day. UPDATE: I got it to work. I was asking where is the wifi, the box, the router, what's the name as in ESSID, those questions were met with a blank stare. Something I just take for granted. Plus it's Vista in Chinese. So I had a difficult time figuring what's going on. To make a long story short, I was there for an hour, make the wifi a little bit secured and let the notebook connect via wifi.

Ubuntu 8.04 Is Coming

Ubuntu 8.04 is coming to a computer near you.

Hillary Pants On Fire

Hillary Clinton gave an exciting but mendacious account of what happened to her when she traveled to Bosnia as First Lady in 2006. This is rather silly of her, why o why did she have to exaggerate the truth by saying that she had to dodge snipers' bullets while disembarking from the plane? You are no G.I. Jane? Now she has to grudgingly admit that she "misspoke." Hillary, I expect better from you.

Breaking: Ma Won Taiwan's Election

Pragmatic politics, not boneheaded nationalism, echo with the people in Taiwan. KMT's Hong Kong born, Harvard educated Ma Ying-jeou won the island's presidential election. The affable Ma is expected to form closer ties with the PRC than his DPP archrivals.

The 57-year old Ma will be inaugurated into office on May 20, ending DPP's Chen Shui-bian 8-year's rule on the island.

Lunch With The Greek

Just came back from lunch at Kellari. That was pretty heavy for lunch. The place is nice, big dining area serving authentic Greek or Hellenic cuisine. Well at least the wait staff speak Greek, so that's authentic to me. The food was good, but I won't say excellent. Three people for $175, so $210 after tips.... Oh well, after too much Hop Won and Japanese fast food, a change of venue is merited.

Shots From Sid Sweet

My friend has better things to do, so I do this for him. Pictures shot on location in Hong Kong.

Dow Ups 420.41

In response to Fed's 75-point rate cut, the Dow is having yet another Viagra moment, closing the day up 420.41. In the short-term this is definitely good news, but in the longer term is it going to work? I am no pundit in rescuing the economy. Basically, the US financial system collapsed in 2007 and we just found out in early 2008 and experiencing the pain now. Is the rate cut, like Bloomberg had said earlier to Bush's tax credit, akin to giving a drink to an alcoholic? The answer is yes I am afraid.

MacBook Air: To Dive For

Charlie Rose, TV interviewer and gadget freak would rather dive on the street than subject his beloved MacBook Air to any harm. Well done, Charlie.

Yet another wacky MacBook Air story.

As reported by Engadget and TechCrunch.

NYC Is Falling Apart

New York City is falling apart ....

Buildings are collapsing, the financial market is in a tailspin and the dollar is not the dollar it used to be. Seems like the good time is over and the end is near. With no time to waste, I am going to get myself a Wii and a Nikon D3 with the Nikkor 28~70. Or not.

But we still have St. Patrick's Day, a day the Irish and the rest of us celebrate and get drunk.

Happy St. Patrick's Day.

UPDATE
I was pretty happy with St. Patrick's Day until I needed to cross 5th Avenue. I waited in line for some 15 minutes just to cross the Avenue. No New Yorkers like to wait. The parade was just testing my patience.

Breaking: Bear Sold For $2 A Share

JP Morgan Chase snapped up Bear Stearns at bargain basement price: a shocking $2 a share. The subprime mortgage fallout is so bad that it isn't funny anymore.

Weekend

Last week I got myself a hp 6910p with Windows vista business. Now I can live dangerously. Windows Vista is not the monster I envisioned.

Went to a Korean BBQ place near Murray Hill LIRR station. First time we went to a restaurant there. I didn't even know that area that well at all. The place seems authentic with a mostly Korean clientele. We ordered a couple of ribs $24.50 each and some tofu dish $11. Good thing we didn't order three portions of the ribs like the waitress suggested because it would definitely be too much for us.

I am heading to IHOP now.

Weekend Fodder

Eliot Spitzer, guilty of male perfidy and sanctimony, resigned from the post of New York Governor.

Tibetans just got a crazy spokeperson. Emboldened by berserk Icelandic singer Bjork's battle cry, Tibetans are taking it to the streets to demand independence from China. Not to be outdone by Bjork, American gigolo turned Buddhist Richard Gere threatens to boycott the Beijing Olympics if China mishandles.

Tang Wei of Lust Caution fame just got banned in the Chinese media. Apparently her no hold bar performance is too hot for the old men to handle. Unilever which hires Tang as a spokeperson for its Pond's brand stands to lose some money, like in the neighborhood of $800,000. Good job muddling international business.

Another week, another sub-prime mortgage crisis. Bear Stearns is on life support.

The gloves are off. Cathy Horyn vs. Giorgio Armani and Michael Reichmann vs. Ken Rockwell.

Speakeasy says I am connected at 3021kbps and 487kbps, at least in the mornings, some of the time. But most of the time, the downstream is more like less than 1000mbps.

You know you are cheaper than a call girl if you make less than $800 an hour. Another reason to feel depressed. The seven diamonds ones make like $5000 an hour. Kristen is in the $1000 an hour range. I heard Client #9 hardly needed an hour but then they don't prorate.

Hong Kong is now just 12 hours ahead of New York City.

Dpreview On D300

Finally, D300 review is up where it belongs. The long anticipated D300 review is up here and is written by none other than founder Phil Askey. The D3 review is still presumably being worked on. And we will just have to wait. I have a feeling that it would be out soon.

Breaking: Spitzer ...

Resigning
Resigns

According to the NY Times, aides of the governor say the governor will resign this morning.

Look like Spitzer is no Bill, couldn't pull off a Hillary: staying in office and salvage his marriage, at least not the former. A New York tragedy.

David A Patterson, Lt. Governor, will be sworn in, becoming the first black and legally blind governor of New York State.

UPDATE: 11:54AM 3/12/2008
With his wife of 21 years, Silda, on his side, Spitzer announces his resignation citing personal failings. What a remarkable woman.

Tang Wei Is Blacklisted

I heard Tang Wei is being blacklisted and for what? I don't fucking know.

And why I blog this? Because I just fucking can.

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MacBook Air Belongs To The Garbage

Steven Levy's wife puts the MacBook Air where it belongs: the garbage. As reported via 9to5, Newsweek reporter Steven Levy's wife might have thrown away his husband's MacBook Air inadvertently (or subconsciously so) together with his coffee table clutter like old stacks of The New York Times. Levy says the MacBook Air was on loan from Apple for review and Newsweek is going to pick up the $1,800 tab, chump change.

Best MacBook Air story though.

Dow Ups 416.66

In a nod to a rejuvenated economy, (like some governor is paying $5,500 an hour for some high-priced call girl) the Dow is getting a hard-on today, closing up more than 400 points.

Or is it because the Fed says it's going to inject some $200 billions into the subprime infected financial markets? Like if you screw up really really bad the Fed is coming in to save your ass. That's what happened.

Or Wall Street is simply celebrating the downfall of its archenemy Eliot Spitzer?

Spitzer Expected To Resign

It all began inauspiciously in a rather mundane Monday afternoon when The New York Times broke the news that New York governor Eliot Spitzer is involved in an online prostitution ring.

Then everything goes downhill.

The hard charging steamroller held a news conference later that afternoon with his wife of 21 years on his side. He characterized it rather arrogantly as a private matter and apologized to his family and the public.

Later we learned that he maybe paying for sex in the range of $800 to $1,000 an hour or even $5,500 an hour, or whatever. The point is he is having some designer expensive fuck that not any John, Dick or Harry can afford. Not only were they expensive, they are going to be costly: his career and his marriage. One also wonders what a hooker has to do to earn that kind of money. According to reports and government affidavit, Spitzer is one of those "difficult" clients, though Kristen, the one he booked on Feb 13 to travel from New York all the way to Washington thought otherwise. Upon learning the news, all the hookers in the Washington D.C. area are pretty disappointed and feel slighted by the (soon to the ex) governor of New York. On the other hand, New York call girls are thrilled to know that the governor practices the "I LOVE NEW YORK" mantra on the road. Meanwhile, environmental group Greenpeace weighs in and vehemently objects the carbon footprint of the governor's perfidy.

Political foes and the Wall Street are unsympathetic to the governor's fall.

The governor is expected to resign or face impeachment.

Untitled

iPhone Goes Enterprise

"Ummm, this feeeeels good."

Hug it out. The rule of engagement: with ass sticking out and no touching of other's crotch.

Paul Sakuma/Associated Press, picture taken from nytimes.com

Just as expected, iPhone is getting into your enterprise. Your backoffice is going to support your iPhone in June if they so choose.

Meanwhile, Apple's stock price is still hovering around $120. Wall Street is not too excited.

Youtube Wednesday.

This is a non video video with Cantonese dialog. The audio is not worksafe if you work in a Cantonese speaking environment. Good sound quality. Good for training purposes. Must listen for telemarketers.

A lively cordial if you minus the curse words exchange between a telemarketer and his prospect. The prospect has some strong opinion on his present telco. It's all fun.

Everybody Talks About It, But Nobody Is Doing It

According to Durex, America's State of Sexual Well Being is weak. Only 53% of the respondents are having sex weekly, which actually puts us way ahead of Japan's 34%. The horniest nation award goes to Greece.

Breaking: McCain Wins GOP Nomination

No country for old men? Not true. Senator McCain wins the GOP nomination. Huckabee acknowledges defeat and is delivering his long winded concession speech.

CNN projection as at 9.34PM Eastern Time:-
Clinton wins in Rhode Island.

Leap Year

I cannot just let this day go by without talking about it. So I got this extra day, and I really made good use of it by working extra hard. That obviously was a lie. It was just another day.

I am doing better with the straight razor, but I still cut myself. You just need to concentrate, much more so than using the other razors. If you like to live dangerously, like me, use a straight razor. Anything else is just so pussy.

My Ebay Seller Keeps Me Entertained

Somewhere in America, a front door swings open, and the following conversation takes place:

"Hey...what're you doing here? I thought I told you we were through! I thought I told you to get out and never come back!!"

"Baby, listen. I know what you said, about how I'm unfaithful and scared of commitment and I don't brush my hair. But I've been doing some real thinking lately, and I realized...well, I know now...you're the only one for me! I love you so much, baby, and I know we can make this work if we'll just..."

"Hold on! Stop right there!"

"What? What is it?"

"Is that a pin striped 3 pc. suit?"

"Um...yeah."

"Let's make out."

Apple Updated MacBook And MacBook Pro

They are not major upgrades like a new casing or such. But if you are in for a new notebook from Apple you are in luck. As the price stays the same and you got a bump in the specs. So it's still a good thing.

AppleInsider gives a concise briefing on the upgrade. Meanwhile, Apple stock still languishing in the 120 mark. People, buy more iPods, iPhones, MacBooks ....

UPDATE:
You now have to pay $19 for the remote that previously shipped with the MacBook and MacBook Pro. And for the MacBook line, the L2 cache is now 3MB, instead of the 4MB that came with the previous models.

Edison Chen Gave Unreserved Apology

The shitstorm that is called Photogate reached another new crest when accidental porn star Edison Chen returned Hong Kong and held a news conference on February 21, mainly to apologize and to ask for forgiveness. The press conference has the potential to salvage his flattering image, or further plummet his career to the point of no return. Through out the press event, Edison Chen was in his best behavior, delivering his career best on-screen performance (hmmm, I didn't see his porn performance, so I don't know), that's worthy of an Oscar nomination in either the documentary or drama category depending on what you want to believe.

The following transcript is cut-and-pasted from a post by 14K Guy here:-

Today I have come back to Hong Kong to stand before you and account for myself. I have never escaped from my responsibility. During the past few weeks, I have been with my mother and my family and my loved ones to show support and care and at the same time to have them support and care for me.

I admit that most of the photos being circulated on the Internet were taken by me. But these photos are very private and have not been shown to people and are never intended to be shown to anyone. These photos were stolen from me illegally and distributed without my consent.

There is no doubt whoever obtained these photos have them uploaded on the Internet with malicious and deliberate intent. This matter has deteriorated to the extent that society as a whole has been affected by this. In this regard, I am deeply saddened. I would like now to apologize to all the people for all the suffering that has been caused and the problems that have arisen from this. I would like to apologize to all the ladies and to all their families for any harm or hurt that they have been feeling. I am sorry.

I would like to also apologize to my mother and my father for the pain and suffering I have caused them during the past few weeks. Most importantly, I would like to say sorry to all the people of Hong Kong. I give my apology sincerely to you all, unreservedly and with my heart.

I know young people in Hong Kong look up to many figures in our society. And in this regard, I have failed. I failed as a role model. However, I wish this matter will teach everyone a lesson. To all the young people in our community, let this be a lesson for you all. This is not an example to be set for you.

During my time away, I have made an important decision. I will whole-heartedly fulfill all commitments that I have to date. But after that, I decided to step away from the Hong Kong entertainment industry. I have decided to do this to give myself an opportunity to heal myself and to search my soul. I will dedicate my time to charity and community work within the next few months. I will be away from Hong Kong entertainment industry indefinitely. There is no time frame.

I have been assisting the police since the first day the photos were published and I will continue to assist them. After this press con., I have obligation to help them with their investigation and hope that this case can end soon as everyone I think has the same wish.

I would like to use this opportunity to thank the police for their hard work on this case. Thank you. I believe everyone's priority now (and) my priority now is to stop the suffering and pain, for not letting this...we do not want to let this situation become more out of control. We need to protect all the innocents and all the young from matters like this. In this regard, I have instructed my lawyers to do everything possible within the law to protect all the innocents, victims of this case. I believe that a press statement is being issued as we speak on what my lawyers have advised me to do.

Lastly, I would like to thank everyone for coming here today and listening to what I have to say. I would like to also apologize once again to all the ladies and their families, my family and to everyone in Hong Kong and everyone in our society. I am deeply saddened by this. And I apologize to everyone (who) has to go through this. I would like to also thank you for giving me this opportunity to say what I have wanted to say all along in my heart.

I hope, after today, I can have your forgiveness. With regard to this case, with everything, everything that has happened, I am deeply sorry. I hope you all accept my apology and give me a chance.
Thank you.

In the entire conference, he felt "saddened" twice, "sorry" three times, and most importantly "apologize"d or offered his "apology" unreservedly a whopping seven times. Chen also says he "will be away from Hong Kong entertainment industry indefinitely. There is no time frame." This has been translated by some Chinese media as quitting show business forever. I think "away indefinitely" is purposely vague and still leaves room for his return. Judging from his news conference performance, a Mingpao poll, and the Golden reaction (read mob reaction), I think he does stand a chance of coming back. As for now, his fans can only hope for his Batman cameo not ending up on the cutting room floor.(Wow, what's with this Batman thing now that I think about it. Heath Ledger died and Edison is on a career ending trajectory.) As to his news conference attire, I think he was a tad under dressed. I would like to see him in full armor: dark colored two buttoned suit, white shirt and solid colored tie. Nothing fancy or chic. The hair was appropriate though.

Meanwhile for meaningful coverage of this event, please stay away from any local print coverage or my blog.

UPDATE:
Whatever public sympathy and understanding Chen earned from his press conference, the cops blew away. The department mobilized an unprecedented number of policemen to cordon off Chen's ride from the press corps after the news conference. Once again proving or giving the impression that the rich and famous are just not like you and me.

Personal Ad

This is a personal ad for my friend Obama (not his real name).

I have known Obama for many years. I met him at a school when I was in Hong Kong. Obama, I and another friend, McCain (not his real name) lived in a small flat the second and last year we were at school together. So I say I am qualified to write this ad for him.

Obama was the most athletic among my friends. He was fit, outdoorsy and could run and surprisingly even after all these years, he is still fit, outdoorsy and can outrun most kids, like me in a Marathon. By my rather snobbish standard, I think Obama is an intellectual by nature. When I first met him, I honestly was put off or rather jealous of his depth and breath of knowledge in things in general. And he still continues to surpass and enlighten me. Obama has a very decent job in an American concern that routines pay out record breaking year end bonus to its employees.

Obama is at his prime and resides in Hong Kong. If you are interested to get to know Obama better, please email the pimp, at laichungleung@gmail.com.

PS: post inspired by Greenspun's personal ad for Clarissa.

Kickys Restaurant Take Two

The last time I went to Kickys was November 2007. Back then it was an American French slash Japanese restaurant with a lot of promise. Shortly after the New Year, Kickys dropped the French beret and put on the Pan-Asian hat, offering mostly Japanese and Thai dishes, probably as a response to the general clientèle in the area.

So I decided to visit Kickys and see what restaurateur Po is up to. The first time I stepped in Kickys I was really wowed by the interior design, the glass housed dining table in the center of the dining area, the circular booths, the giant projection screen. After three months, I am still fascinated by its stylish decor, I mean you don't see those things too often, do you? I know I don't.

This time, our table ordered some traditional Thai and Japanese staples from the menu, like Pad Thai, Sushi, Shrimp Tempura, Chicken Teriyaki. And I ordered the Chicken with Thai Spicy Mango Sauce. I can tell the ingredients were fresh and the dishes were pretty well prepared. Of all the dishes, I like the Sushi and Chicken Teriyaki the best. The Sushi were fresh and tasteful and the chicken was grilled and had the unmistakable smoky flavor that I like. As to the Thai Spicy Mango Sauce dish, I like it all right, but I think the chef can use a bit more spice and more heat. For me, Thai means spice and heat, the more the merrier.

Kickys has been kicking some serious butt in the Aberdeen area ever since it debuted late last year. After some initial hiccup with the menu, I am happy to see that they are settling down with an all Asian menu. Kickys is still a diamond in the rough, like the staff seems a bit inexperienced or simply a bit short staffed. But what they lack in experience, they more than make up in their youthful enthusiasm and courtesy. I am still very much excited by the whole Kickys experience and will definitely go back to try out some of their other dishes.

Kickys First Review

HD-DVD Dead

Toshiba is rumored to announce as early as next week that it will halt product production and development for it's HD-DVD format. Now, counterfeiters around the world can finally kick back and relax. Just concentrate on Blu-ray and promise consumers an impeccable copy. I have absolute faith in them. My mole wp2008 will duly report back on the progress on Blu-ray.

Deep News Analysis Not For The Faint Of Heart

This is the only news analysis regarding the recent Photogate that's worth reading. On the backlash of being good looking and articulate in English (in a mostly Cantonese speaking metropolitan society), my commenter Vincent has this to say:

I just learned that Mr Chen has some Portugese blood. His grandfather or great grandfather was Portugese. His success with women had prompted me to study this case as a social phenomenom (sic). In the immediate future, I think there will be a backlash against all those English speaking, tall good-looking guys with a touch of Western blood. Middle-aged, balding, full-blooded Cantonese guys like vl, wp and sk are going to enjoy a rebound.

Vincent

You know a comment this good deserves a separate post in the baddest blog.

Let there be hope. May the middle-aged-shit-faced balding guy be the new Casanova. As long as there are still silly and naive girls out there, there are hopes.

Happy Valentine's Day

Have a happy Valentine's Day everyone.

From Salacious Images to Free-Speeches

The New York Times, the "all the news that's fit to print" newspaper has Photogate on C3, the World Business section, above the fold featuring a 7.5 x 5 inch picture of the Photogate news conference held by Gillian Chung and another picture showing a handsome Edison Chen beaming, apparently promoting his Hollywood movie Grudge 2 from a happier day.

The story has nothing to add to the discussion. However if you can't get enough of the story or simply just want to see how coverage of the story from a NY paper, feel free to check out the article written by Keith Bradsher with additional reporting by Hilda Wang.

Internet Sex Video Case Stirs Free-Speech Issues in Hong Kong

UPDATE:
This event has been officially declared international already, that is by me. Now both sides of the Atlantic carry this news. The Guardian is putting it under News>World News>China (not as crazy as the New York Times which has it filed under World Business), and according to the web edition, it's the 4th most read article, just a notch above Danish papers reprint Muhammed cartoons. Sex still trumps cartoons.

UPDATE (2/15/08):
Not to be outdone by all the news that fits to print, the WSJ is latching on the Photogate scandal that has been rocking the Chinese speaking societies for weeks. Again, the original pictures are too hot for WSJ to handle and the article doesn't add anything that hasn't been discussed before except to the extent that WSJ does include parodies of the incident in the supplementary slide show.

Pimped Out

MSNBC little known anchor, Shuster, that's until now, got suspended for remarking that former first daughter Chelsea being "pimped out" by the Clinton Presidential campaign. That really makes me think, at least some what. No parents would like to be accused of that. To be fair, I pimp out myself too.

D3 Review From Dpreview

I am wondering when the D3 review will be up on dpreview.com. As an armchair photographer, I just can't wait to see what Mr Phil Askey has to say about the latest and greatest from Nikon, even though I could hardly afford one, let alone all the good lenses one is supposed to use with it. Maybe the review will coincide with the Amazon's D3 availability? I don't think so. Right now, Amazon is selling the D3 via third party vendors. But judging from some of the reviews, Amazon did at some point had the D3 in stock and sold at list price, unlike some third party vendors which are selling above list price.

Miscellaneous

Faded and Ripped

Photo via nytimes.com: Tony Cenicola/The New York Times (middle); Duffy-Marie Arnoult/WireImage.com (right)
Shredded white jeans, $495 at Maison Martin Margiela; (212) 989-7612. Vintage Levi’s, $148 to $198 at What Comes Around Goes Around; (212) 343-9303. Byrdie Bell with an unidentified male on the right.
I can dress like myself again, and the rest of the world is catching on, that is like a bum. Put away your creased dark raw denim, faded ripped blue jeans are returning in full force. At least that is what the NYTIMES.COM is telling me.

Male Physique

Sascha Kooienga, left, and Artem Emelianov

Photo: Eric Johnson for the New York Times.

You can never be too thin. The ideal male physique on the runway is like 6' and weighs less than 150 lbs. The trend probably began with designer Hedi Slimane who essentially took the men out of men's fashion and replaced men with street urchins.


Thom Browne's Fall 2008 collection.

Siamese Twins.
Photo by Marcio Madeira via men.style.com.

Big Bird.
Photo by Don Ashby via men.style.com

Batman.
Photo by Marcio Madeira via men.style.com.

Polaroid

Polaroid is shutting down its operation. For Gentlemen who like to take Polaroid, it's time to stock up the goods if you can still find them. I wonder how this piece of news would affect Elsa Dorfman and her 20x24 Polaroid camera.

Happy New Year Mom Part III

Happy New Year Mom Part II

51 seconds long.

This is fresh off the camcorder, my 8-year-old JVC GR-DVM70. Video captured and rendered using Kino. We will probably hit Chinatown tomorrow. The weather is unseasonably warm.

Yes, that's me in the beginning of the clip. Oh, goodness, I pimped out my kids and myself too just to be fair, for an audience of like 5 or something.

Happy New Year Mom

Yahoo For Sale

Bill Gates maybe retiring but Microsoft is hardly slowing down. MSFT is offering to buy Yahoo in cash and stock for $44.6 billion. The technology industry is at anytime consolidating. Even technology giant like Yahoo is subject to buyout or takeover.

Source.

Fashion Week Tomorrow

In less than a day, Byrant Park will be taken over by wild fashionistas. For the latest, please get the f out of this blog because this blog blows.

The official site seems to be running better than it was last year. Let's see what happens when the event is in full swing tomorrow.

Other usual suspects as recommended by The Gothamist are The Daily and Fashionista.

Australia Open Updates

Federer got ousted by Djokovic
Tennis great Federer got ousted by tennis clown prince Djokovic in the Australia semi. Djokovic won in straight sets.

Both players wear blue on black. Both Addidas and Nike think alike. And I thought blue and black don't mix. Oh well.

So, it's all Addidas in the men's final. Addidas owns both Djokovic and Tsonga.

Maria Sharapova, woman champion of the 2008 Australia Open
Maria Sharapova, the femme fatale of women's tennis proves once again she is indeed championship material. Nike got their money worth. Her red undergarment probably brought her good luck too ....

New York Times Endorses Clinton and McCain

Breaking: NYT endorses Clinton and McCain. That's not surprising. What's rather unusual is the NYT's searing remark on NY Mayor Giuliani, and I quote

The real Mr. Giuliani, whom many New Yorkers came to know and mistrust, is a narrow, obsessively secretive, vindictive man who saw no need to limit police power. Racial polarization was as much a legacy of his tenure as the rebirth of Times Square.

Mr. Giuliani’s arrogance and bad judgment are breathtaking. When he claims fiscal prudence, we remember how he ran through surpluses without a thought to the inevitable downturn and bequeathed huge deficits to his successor. He fired Police Commissioner William Bratton, the architect of the drop in crime, because he couldn’t share the limelight. He later gave the job to Bernard Kerik, who has now been indicted on fraud and corruption charges.

The Rudolph Giuliani of 2008 first shamelessly turned the horror of 9/11 into a lucrative business, with a secret client list, then exploited his city’s and the country’s nightmare to promote his presidential campaign.

Tsonga Shocked Nadal And Rest of Us

Another French man got my attention.

I am watching the Australia's men's semi using my time machine otherwise known as DVR, short for digital video recorder. Wow, 22-year old Frenchman Tsonga is really dictating the game. The guy is 6 foot 2 and he can come to the net and win the point; and he serves like a cannon. The match was a 3-set victorious dream for Tsonga, a total nightmare for Nadal.

That's going to be a very interesting final.

What the heck happened to American tennis? The Europeans are dominating the game on the men's side, while the Russians and Serbians are ruling the women's game.

Gates Wants "Creative capitalism"

More headlines streaming in.

Barings introduced "creative trading" to the world and now Societe Generale best it with a $7 billion loss.

Arthur Anderson might not be the pioneer of "creative accounting" but certainly made accounting bad ass by orchestrating the most spectacular collapse that's called Enron.

And now Gates wants "creative capitalism."

Botox Is Bad For You and You

U.S. group seeks Botox warning after 16 death reports. Somebody got to tell Nicole Kidman.

French Responsible For Global Market Meltdown?

This a developing story. 31- year old junior trader Jerome Kerviel from Societe Generale is allegedly causing the global market meltdown that began on Jan 21, and hence the discount rate cut by our Uncle Ben here and George Bush Tax refund, to shore up the economy. So it's not the sub-prime mortgage market? It's totally the French guy. Anyway, I will take the $1,800 tax refund, thank you.

Sharapova vs. Jankovic

Sharapova is steamrolling Jankovic in the Australian women's semi final. Jankovic finally took off the pink head band that only a two-year old should be wearing and managed to get two games. Meanwhile Sharapova is keeping her bird droppings decorarated or Louis Vuitton look alike Nike visor.

Looks like the pink baby head band had been holding Jankovic back.


UPDATE:
Sharapova 5
Jankovic 3

Dow Continues The Path of Least Resistance

Dow decided to fall to 0. The end of the world is near. Let's repent or party. Look like shit is hitting the fan.

Uncle Ben called an emergency meeting and cut rates to whatever percentage he deems appropriate, which is usually considered not enough or too late by the Wall Street type. Later on the day, Dow recuperated some early loss and ended the Bloody Monday at [fill in]. What a shitty trading day.

Wall Street darling Apple is going to announce its last quarter results after the bell, let's see if Steve can save the market by selling more pretty up cellphones and mp3 players. If he does, may be Uncle Ben may let Uncle Steve run the Fed.

UPDATE: Apple did well selling mp3 players to the fashionable and gullible but falls short on next quarter's forecast leading to afterhour sell off. Price dropped $17.15 to $138.49. Ouch. With impending iPhone2 and Asia's official launch, Apple should have something to spin in the coming quarter. But with Google fast closing in on the cell market, look like there is going to be some serious battle for Apple. I don't know what I am talking about.

Movies I Like

Superbad

Knocked Up

Juno

At least they have something to say. And they said it.

Crazy

This is not Cloverfield. This is better. Original footage shot using a JVC GR-DVM70 U. Video captured via FireWire in Ubuntu 7.10. The FireWire combo card is listed a few posts below. I downloaded Kino and barely understand how things work. I rendered this video in mpeg2. And uploaded to blogger. The original mpeg2 is 720x480 30 frames per second, 42.6MB in size.

There is this good post detailing how to get FireWire, Kino, and essentially video capture going in Ubuntu 7.10. The poster uses a different or better FireWire card while your truly uses a cheapo combo card as told in my post below. Let me get the permalink ....

New York City

Hollywood has a penchant to destroy the most hated/loved city in the world, New York City.

Right on the heels of "I am Legend," New York City is once again messed up, this time by some mysterious monster or whatever.

"Cloverfield" generally received lackluster reviews from the press. It runs less than 90 minutes, which for the attention impaired is good news. If recent movies are of any indication, the art of editing is just gone, the movies are getting longer and longer, not that they have more things to say, just that they can't say things in a concise way. I personally prefer movies that are no longer than two hours.

Read what a real critic has to say about Cloverfield (Ed: the permalink generated from NYT doesn't work at this time, they screwed up).

UPDATE:
CLOVERFIELD is a piece of shit. There is no if or but. It's the biggest nauseating piece of crap from beginning to end. If you enjoy it, you probably can enjoy a piece of shit.

For The Ballerina In You

Prada Fall 2008. Photo Marcio Madeira from men.style.com

Straight Edge

Due to habitual nonchalance and lassitude, I don't shave every day. If I do, I prefer a close razor shave to an electrical one. But if one hasn't shaved for days or weeks, a regular Gillette just won't cut it. I always think a straight edge razor is the ultimate tool to a clean shave. And my old Shanghai barbers have proven just that.

Last evening, out of the blue, sort of I guess, I went to a "beauty" supply shop in seedy Flushing and asked if they carry straight edge razor. And they do. The guy led me to his locked glass cabinet and showed me his wares. He showed me the cheap ones and hinted the $60 one piece solid steel ones are too expensive, like for me? And I ended up taking his hint and bought a cheap one that uses a separate razor. He demonstrated how to split a double edge razor in half and installed one half of the razor to the cheapo straight edge. I never would have thought a razor could be split in the middle and got mounted on a straight edge blade. And the way the inner cut pattern of a safety razor is designed just serves that mounting purpose. Some genius design there.

Around 12 midnight, I tried it. I shaved part of my right cheek and barely not cut myself. My left cheek, not so lucky. I made three bad cuts. Long before I was old enough to shave, I played with my Dad's razor and I shaved a piece of my chin off. Maybe deep down, I wanted to have this bad cut again ....

Crappy PC Hardware That Works in Ubuntu 7.10

If you were like me, who don't know dick about HW or SW, and are desperate to find out whether this or that $6.99 PCI sound card works in your crappy Ubuntu box, you are in luck. Most manufacturers and vendors don't bother to put up anything remotely resemble "Linux compatible" for some obvious (can't test every linux kernel combination?) and not so obvious reason (too busy sucking MS's dick).

To make a short story long, I am going to continue to list what works in my punny crappy Ubuntu box.

PCI USB 2 and Firewire combo card. Two in one card with plenty of ports for your PC's ass.

Today, I bring you the mighty PCI card that's manufactured by my fellow Chinese men somewhere in China or Taiwan. As far as USB 2.0 goes, I have been living under a rock for the past five years or so. I have never experienced the blazing 480 mbps speed until now.

Without much ado, I introduce you the SYBA PCI USB 2.0 & FireWire/1394a combo card Model SD-COMBO-02. The chips as read from the card directly are VIA VT6214L (USB2) and VT6307 (FireWire).

Here is what I got from lspci after booting up

00:0f.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 61) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
Subsystem: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 11
I/O ports at cc00 [size=32]
Capabilities:

00:0f.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 61) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
Subsystem: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 5
I/O ports at d000 [size=32]
Capabilities:

00:0f.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 63) (prog-if 20 [EHCI])
Subsystem: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 11
Memory at cfffde00 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
Capabilities:

00:0f.3 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. IEEE 1394 Host Controller (rev 80) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
Subsystem: VIA Technologies, Inc. IEEE 1394 Host Controller
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 11
Memory at cfffd000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=2K]
I/O ports at d400 [size=128]
Capabilities:


With this comforting lspci output, even without any exhaustive testing as if I know any, I am quite confident that this piece, this fine piece of crappy PC HW will work perfectly with my crappy box.


Display
HP w2207. This is a nice display with some big footprint. The base is so big that it's almost like having a CRT monitor. I wonder if one could accidentally knock it over. The native resolution 1680 x 1050 is unattainable here. With no skill whatsoever, I only manage to configure it to 1600 x 1000 and make it stick. So 400 pixels are missing in action. The text is a bit fuzzy which I think it's the OS' fault. It has a couple of USB 2 ports and a pair of puny speakers which I never tested.

If one knows how to make that 400 pixels appear or how to make text sharp or both, let me know. Thank you.

UPDATE on 5/16/08: I got all my pixels back, just use the VGA port, and under Hardy Heron or Ubuntu 8.04, all my pixels are back.

UPDATE: To make Firewire, video capture work in Ubuntu 7.10, please see here. I got mine work following the howto post.

There's something in the air

Usually I take it an an ominous sign, like somebody just farted within 5 feet while you are riding the subway.

This is indeed the latest Macworld tag line. The show is just hours away. And technology messiah Steve Jobs is going to reveal what's really in the air. Is it some ground breaking paradigm shitting pernicious hardware or software or it it just some cock sucking innocuous marketing BS? Dow is responding to the pre-show by dropping more that 150 points and Apple just shredded 1.63 from yesterday's close. So much so for yesterday's rally led by IBM.

UPDATE:
So, how does the Street respond to Steve's keynote? Give it a thumb down. The stock is down almost 9 freaking dollars. I guess it's all because of Citigroup (Steve can't do no wrong). Citigroup blows. How can those morons have a write-down of $18 billion and a quarterly loss close to $10 billion? And it seems the write down number is getting bigger every day.

We Are In A Recession

We are officially heading into a recession in 2008 because Goldman says so. We are all screwed (except the average GS employee who is positioned to earn $600K bonus). Judging from the recent Dow diarrhea and unemployment numbers, we should be afraid, very afraid.

Now back to our regular program ....

Clinton, skirt please.

I demand to see Clinton in some nice skirts. I get tired of seeing her in pant suits. What's wrong with a nice skirt and a jacket?

What's Happening in Hampshire

After her defeat in Iowa, Clinton made an emotional teary eyed plea with the voters, which the pundits are split on what that would do for her. Does that humanize her or does that make her a cry baby? Or we shouldn't even read too much into it? Yours truly is scanning CNN on TV and according to the Wolf, only 10% of the votes are coming in and so far Clinton is leading by 38% with Obama trailing a close second at 36%, Edwards is third with some 17% of the votes ....

Stay tuned for more ....

UPDATE 10:52pm
McCain is declared the clear Republican winner of the NH primary. It does give all senior citizens some hope.
As of 10:52 ET, Reuters has declared Clinton the NH Democratic primary winner, The New York Times is still too cautious to make the call. Look like the teary speech helped. Okay, it's "official", The New York Times headlines "Clinton beats Obama in a Comeback." Hey, when did she go away? Clinton, speaks from your heart.

The Week In Review

Dow crash landed the first week of the New Year with a thud; shredded some 256 points on Friday and ended the week at 12,800.18. That's pretty messed up.

PC Hardware That Works in Ubuntu 7.10

If you were like me who basically takes a cookbook approach to Ubuntu, then this may help you somewhat. I have this old beige box which is the opposite of sexy that lies around in the basement. And I decided to give it a second life. I did some research on some ubuntu forums but they are mostly for whiners and moaners like myself. I was more into looking at what works but instead they are posts for what doesn't work. Like my sound card has no sound or my wifi doesn't work. I did my homework and with some blind faith I just ordered what I think would work.

Here I can tell you what actually works, or at least what works somewhat. I got my goodies from newegg. Notice that they aren't the latest and greatest. These are parts for the budget minded. My motherboard (the almost 5~6 year old K7S5A, which you can still find at eBay) is an old one that won't even accept the newish parts even I want to. If you are looking for a souped up machine, look elsewhere.

Video card:
EVGA 128-A8-N319-LX GeForce FX 5500 128MB 64-bit DDR AGP 4X/8X Video card.
Ubuntu has something called restricted driver and it works. I don't play games so this card works for me. Plus I am still using my very humble 17" Dell CRT monitor.
UPDATE: 4/28/08
I got myself a whopping 22" hp w2207 monitor with 1680x1050 resoluton. Sadly I can only cajole it to a resolution of 1600x1000, so I got short changed of 400 pixels. This has happened in both 7.10 and now 8.04. I did some research I suspect it's the DVI connection that limits the resolution. I read that if connected through the vga, I might be able to get it. Even I read about it many months ago, I never bothered to try it. Maybe I should. The thread mentioned this was referring to the fx 5200 card, I guess it's close enough.

RAM
pqi POWER Series 1GB (2 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR266 (PC 2100) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model MD641GUOE-X2
The ram works and is recognized by the system. Not much to write about.

to be continued....
DVD
LITE-ON Black 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 20X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 8X DVD-R DL 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM IDE Burner with LightScribe Technology.
I just used it to play my DVD and audio CD so I don't know if its other features work or not. I guess they will, somewhat.

Sound Card
Creative Sound Blaster SB0570 Audigy SE 7.1 Channels 24-bit 96KHz PCI Interface Sound Card.
I guess this is the piece that sort of gives me the most trouble. I have a pair of speakers from my 7~8 years PC. They work. The sound capture doesn't seem to work. I did some digging online and it seems to be a GNOME problem as opposed to the sound card problem. In the end I was able to make it work from the command line environment. But the Gnome still bitches if I dare to sound capture. I don't see myself using the mic often but I just feel like to make it work. The command I used is from the alsa project.

% arecord -vv -fdat foo.wav

Ctrl-c to stop the recording from the terminal.

And % aplay foo.wav

does play back the sound.

D3 Review

Bjorn gave everyone a New Year present, the D3 review. It's up here.