From time to time, when I try to pretend to be a noob user, I find myself having to complain about Linux. The user experience, in my opinion, is just not there yet. Over a decade ago, when I was interviewed about whether Linux was ready for prime time, my answer was that it wasn’t, but but that it was getting there. Every other year or so, when I ask myself again this question, my answer has invariably been the…

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It’s almost like Samsung is officially leaking out ROMs when the date of the next leak can be so accurately forecasted on the XDA forums. I’m not complaining, of course. The previous LP6 ROM was pretty good, mostly working, just some show stoppers for me. I was expecting that LPB would work out pretty well. So when the links to the LPB download started showing up, I quickly got my hands on the files and flashed into my SGS2 in…

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ROMs of the latest Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) have been leaking for the Samsung Galaxy S II (SGS2) for some time. The leaks started coming back in December. I’ve been tempted to try the ROMs, but some usability problems were reported, so I held back. I wanted a ROM that was mostly workable for daily use. The leaks continued to come, and right now, the latest available is LP6, released 17th January. Going by reports on XDA, it…

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How do you evaluate sound quality in headphones? What do you look out for? How do you compare between headphones? Well, we’ve finally arrived at this topic in this part of my series on Ultimate Listening – In Search of the Best Headphones. Earlier parts of the series have introduced the different types of headphones, technical details, and a special focus on in-ear headphones. Sound quality is not less important than any of those. In fact, for many people, the ultimate choice of headphones…

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We have three kids! Most people are quite surprised to hear we have three children. We are certainly doing much more than the national average of 1.20 (or 1.08 amongst Chinese). I am, myself, also quite amazed that we’ve come to have three beautiful children, especially when I look at them enjoying each other’s company. Sure, Vanessa and Ian fight from time to time, and little Isaac is stil oblivious to everything, but looking at a photo like this, I…

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We just celebrated Isaac’s full month last evening. It’s actually a few days late, but we figured it would be a lot more convenient for everyone to have the celebration on a weekend rather than on the actual day of the full calendar month which would have fallen on a weekday. We split the party into overlapping sessions, with relatives coming earlier at 4:30pm while friends later at 6:30pm. It’s the best compromise between squeezing in everyone together at the…

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This photo of Vanessa and Ian with Ronald McDonalds (yah, the statue) was taken maybe a month ago. It seems pretty ordinary. Most children love McDonalds right? And Ronald McDonalds is the symbol of McDonalds and their Happy Meals. But for some strange reason, Vanessa was terrified of Ronald McDonalds. Ian, because his sister was terrified, somehow also acquired the fear too. It just seems so strange that they would be so terrified of Ronald McDonalds? So after years of…

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The of the Water Dragon comes around tomorrow. It’s the 4709th Lunar New Year. Every Chinese family is probably now busy one way or other preparing for the new year. In fact, for many of them, various sorts of celebrations would already have started. I just had my first lao yu sheng and reunion meal at lunch, and will have another one at dinner tonight. This is the customary gathering of family and relatives to reunite and celebrate the new…

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Do you love ice cold MILO? I do, and I think many people do too! Wherever the MILO van goes to distribute free MILO, you’ll surely see a long queue of people. It’s not just because it is free, it’s also because many people really love the ice cold MILO, so refreshing particularly on a hot humid day. Nestle has launched a new product, MILO Easy Cool, which as its name suggests, is all about making it easy to prepare…

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I’m quite flattered that Google search for “scrap car value in Singapore” currently leads right to my site. It’s the first hit in the search results. The hit, however, leads to outdated information that I wrote probably in around 2002. Since many netizens are obviously going to want to know updated information, I’ve decided to provide a public service by writing this post providing updated information. There is also an online query that tells you exactly the de-registration value of…

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I haven’t really gotten onto the Twitter bandwagon. Sure, I have a Twitter account, just like about almost everyone else that exist on any social network. But I’ve found that in my circles, Facebook seems to be the overwhelmingly most frequently used social networking tool. I didn’t think Twitter really mattered anymore. Besides, there were just too many clumsy quirks due to various technical limitations of their technology. Is Twitter still very relevant now? I’m wondering about it, because, at…

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We have not had such intense firefighting excitement at work in recent times. As IT folks, firefighting usually refers to emergency management of IT issues. This time, the firefighting literally included an element of real fire in the big picture. We’re not firemen, so no, of course, we weren’t directly involved with fighting that real fire. Furthermore, although the fire had not happened inside our premises, our IT operations was severely impacted by fire, and we would be spending significant…

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