Most Days are fine, Some Days are tired.

look, i think our local publishers have really got to take a serious look at our local book scene.

first of all, i'm long-winded, this is a topic that i have blogged about before...

secondly, the number of Singaporeans, PRs, etc using a smartphone has really exploded...just consider iPhone and those Windows Mobile.

i just bought the book "Impression of the Goh Chok Tong Years in Singapore", and while it is not like MM Lee's two huge memoirs, it is still a heavy book to carry around!

so, to our local publishers, you really have to take a good look at ebooks.

i was having late lunch with colleagues at MacD yesterday.

then this group of students, wearing posters showing that 8:22 initiative, and asked us to join in saying the pledge.

my first thought was, it's not 8:22 and it's not National Day, where's the meaning of doing it earlier?

my second thought was, these people are not saying the pledge for the reason of honouring the pledge but just to maybe reach some numbers or ...

my third thought was, are their actions making a mockery and demeaning the national pledge?

in truth, i have not really read much about this 8:22 stuff, heck, my project requires my immediate attention!

in truth, go and do something more meaningful then going around asking people to join in and say the pledge! Is there a meaning to recite the pledge at a fast food outlet!? furthermore, i don't get it, 8:22pm is the stated time, then, why are we doing it in advanced?!

and this is what i got from ChannelNewsAsia:

"The Pledge Moment will arrive on August 9 at exactly 8.22pm, when Singaporeans are invited to spend 30 seconds reciting the pledge."

So, please, it's more meaningful to recite at that stated date and time, then to do it so randomly...it did not say to go and record everyone reciting the pledge before the National Day!! by doing so randomly and not at the stated time, it erodes the intended meaning of "The Pledge Moment"! 

recently, i updated the iPhone OS to 3.0.1, and then i tried the sync...and i realised the sync was not successful.

then i saw this usage bar on the iTunes, 10GB Others and i began to wonder this 10GB stuff were?

i uncheck the options not to sync anything, but the 10GB still there.

i called Singtel, but the support guy told me it's what it's required for the iPhone to work properly.

huh?

i don't think i really understood what he meant (and vice versa), and i asked him if there's any activation issue if i have gone ahead to restore the iPhone. he didn't answer directly, but i confirmed it would bring the iPhone back to the original state and of course, he told me to backup.

so, came home at night (after i went to make a new pair of spectacles as my son stepped on the swissflex and broke it), and proceeded to erase all content and data on the iPhone.

i can't recall when i started but the message said it would take about 2 hours. once it's ready it prompted whether i would want to restore from my last backup. i thought about and was afraid that if i selected the backup, that 10GB would return, and so, i took the risk and selected start from scratch!

so, now, i only have the stuff that i really want, and there's 10GB free now...the rest of the stuff, i'll sync them to the iPod Touch...

Ihatethis

and it is not because it is FREE!! 

The Baby Grand finally came!
It's Korean brand and cost around S$7000+ (the original price was over S$11K), and we got back S$400 for the trade-in of the old straight-back piano (which we bought for about S$1K).

this is about what i could recall about my dream...

that me and a group of ppl came to this house, and i set up 2 laptops, and then we went out...

when i returned - don't know what happened to the "we" - i realised ppl are moving stuff away from the house, of course including my 2 laptops ... and somehow i managed to stop the ppl, especially those who were holding my laptops.

the owner of the house owed ppl money or something, and these ppl are taking whatever valuables from the house as repayment, and i had to stopped them...so i started inspecting one by one and those not holding my stuff, i told them to go, and it also became quite a mess, and when all the ppl were gone, i realised my laptops were still missing...

i ran after them, and ... i woke up! 

first, i noticed after the 3.0 update, it takes a bit longer to open up SMS, Settings, and even games take longer to start...i compared mine to a colleague who's still on 2.0, and my colleagues who witnessed the trial have observed the slowness as well.

then i wrote to Singtel about tethering in iPhone...using the iPhone as a modem, connect to my laptop and surf the Internet...they replied not an issue, and i had tried it a few times but could not get the bluetooth to work (could be Windows 7 RC1 problem), would have to use the USB cable. I have 30GB data usage plan for my iPhone, should be quite sufficient.

which brings me to the third stuff...i went to the web site to check my data usage, and realised that the usage appears not to be reset! again, i wrote to Singtel to enquire, which so far has not got back to me - and i had submitted this earlier than the tethering question!

i bought a Seagate FreeAgent Go USB.

i'm already using a Seagate FreeAgent Pro desktop version, and when i plugged the Go, Windows 7 RC 1 somehow could not assign a drive letter!

i tried it on a Vista laptop and a XP netbook and both are able to detect and assign a driver letter!

so, it should be a compatibility issue with Windows 7...

initially, i was thinking, well, looks like i may have to revert to Windows Vista ... then, i remember my wife bought a 500GB portable disk which W7RC1 detects; so i swap with her...

i've just updated a Fujitsu driver, not sure if it would work, but if W7RC1 still could not assign a drive letter, i'll just stick to another portable disk ...

FAGo

and it looks like the updated driver has got nothing to do with the FreeAgent Go...

The computer and W7RC1 appears to have detected the device, but just not assiging the driver letter... :(

i came across the article from SuperSite, and the most important news is the following:

"Yes. You can perform a clean install of Windows 7 with the Upgrade media, as you could with Windows Vista."

...

This is good news for me, but do i need to prove that i have a genuine Windows XP or Vista?

i was on my way to work, on the mass rapid transit when i saw this SMS ...

"Michael Jackson just passed away".

But when i googled on the iPhone, i came across another news which was Farrah Fawcett had passed away the day before. i'd asked and most of my younger colleagues have no idea who she was, until i mentioned Charlie's Angels ... anyway ...

it was recently that the newspaper reported of MJ preparing for his tour ...

i did not start liking his songs from the beginning, and i could not recall when, i went out and bought his Off The Wall album, and his subsequent albums. i'm not a concert-goer, hence, i'll never understand what i had missed by not going to his concert; nevertheless, i do get moved by his songs ...

i took the quiz "Which Michael Jackson hit song are You?" on facebook:

You are "Stranger In Moscow" - Michael Jackson's song about feeling lonely in a different city, in a different culture and within yourself. You are a poetic soul. You are very sensitive. You prefer a book to a film. If you choose a film, it's a film which will make you think. Small things can bring lots of joy and lots of pain into your life. Sometimes you like walking alone in the rain. You like the feeling on the raindrops on your face. You wish the rain could take away all your bad thoughts. You are a good person. Try to enjoy little good things more than the bad things.

the world always seems cruel to a talented entertainer like MJ, but the world was his stage and the rest of us mere spectators ...

may you rest in peace.