Man-made waterfalls

Recently I have been driving through chinatown a bit more, especially toward the east river side. There has been many improvements made. There is the walking, jogging and biking path build or make. It looks really nice and welcoming. Last week, I noticed a waterfall near the east river area. I really shouldn't be looking too much while driving, but I have confirmed while looking out the window from my mother-in-laws place. I thought it was really cool and whoever came up with the idea must be bored. Here is a picture of it. I may not be a architect or somebody who is artistic, but I don't see the full purposed of this waterfall. It does spark curiousity and 30 minutes of stare and wow-ing over it. Obviously I had to take a photo of the waterfall just because it looks pretty awesome. That's it. Unfortunately one stare was more than enough. What do you think?

Cooking tips #1

The last note I wrote on this is not to be afraid to cook. How bad can it be? Right? I want point some minor items to think about when you cook cantonese food. One, it's always better to marinated over night, but if you are short on time, 15 minutes for meals is good given that you have to marinate with your hand (obviously wash them first). Two, for home cooking, stir fry is the quickest way to get meals on the table; remember to preheat first, then turn to medium flame after oil is added. You don't want too much splatter over your stove, been there, done that. That's all for this two tips. Stay tuned for the next.

Transitional Lense, Is it worth it?

I was talking to a friend today and she works in a eye glasses store. I asked her if it's worth to purchase transitional lens for it's flexibilities to turn into sunglasses under UV sunlight. I read some of the marketing material on transitional lens. Generally the marketing gears toward how much it can protect your eyes and the fact that it's 100% UV protection, so on and so forth. Is it really worth getting the transitional lens? I am still not too sure. Another question I posed to her is how does the transitional lens work meaning how long will it take to transition from dark to light? She said about 6 minutes or so. Hmmm....6 minutes is a bit long? Don't you think?

I work for a professional IT support environment. Imagined having you eye glasses transition from light to dark when you need to visit a user. It is really inconvenient to wait 6 minutes for the lens to transition back to clear. I can understand how cool it is to get into your car and "Bam", you got sunglasses. Well, to keep it brief, I got a decent clip that costed about $30 and it's lasted me for a while. Spending over $300 to get some cool lenses and convenient, what a price tag. Don't forget if your eye prescriptions need to change each year which means you have to get another transitional lens. Please feel free to put in your two cents. Love to hear your take on this.

Is Driving a Privilege?

Driving has always been a privileged and not a right. At least that's what your Dad will tell you, but when you are in your youth, like 30's; it really doesn't matter it's a privilege or right, I got my license so Back Off!

Recently, I have noticed lots and LOTS of accidents on the highway and unfortunately the truth states that most of the accidents are the younger folks and not the elderly. Why is that? Is it the excitement of going at 90 mph on the highway? Oh, how I know how that feels like, blood rush and sweaty palms. The phrase 'young and stupid' seems to come across my mind. What's the rush is the question I asked whenever I see an accident where the front of someones car glue to another car's back bumper. So dramatic and yet it must be really painful, physical and financial.

I am in my mid 30's also and I really don't get it. I thank God each and every day that I don't get into the types of accident I see each week. Slow down please, what's the rush? Is not your life worth it? Do you expect pity from other drivers? Heck No! First, you slow down traffic by getting everyone into rubbernecking; secondly, you damaged another person's card, and thirdly, you just "jack" your insurance up.

One life to lived (literally), don't wasted on a bad car accident. Final thought, driving is a privilege and not a right. Slow down Please!

The Diamond 4 C's

Most of us are familiar with Diamonds. Mainly they cost an arm and a leg. I wouldn't buy them as a collectors item to be lock up in a beautiful crafted box. What's the big deal about diamonds anywhere, to us guys, it's the price and to the ladies the bigger the better.

Diamond are the hardest natural mineral known today, it can cut other minerals with no issues. It has a hardness of 10 and can only be cut by other diamonds. That's all the technicals I like to share about the diamonds.

The 4 C's is what I want to talk about here. What is the 4 C's?? What's the big deal? Well, the 4 C's are Cut, Clarity, Colour, and Carat. These are the standards for looking at a diamond. Cut refers to the shape of the diamond, such as round, oval, princess. Clarity are measured in I, SI or VVS; these grading defines how brilliant a diamonds shine. Colour, hmm..generally diamonds are colorless which is probably the best one; they do have colour distortion to some level so assumed. Carats..how many do you like?

Which car is more fuel efficient?

As gas rises, most of us get real concern about gas and when is the next jump on the prices. Many company offer employees to work from home once a week which is great. It definitely help out the wallet alot. The average gas price these day range $3.75 - $4.00 dependently on where you lived. The gas price around my area is about $3.85 and if you pay cash, it's $3.75. Yes, you can persummed I am just referring to regular and not the premium, I feel sorry for the ones who required premium gas. I fill out my 14 gallon tank and it cost me $56. That's crazy.

The point leads to this, I need a more fuel efficient car that gives me more milege on the highway. I compared three smaller engine car and they are pretty fuel efficient: Honda Fit, Toyota Yaris, and the Nissan Versa. The following is the specs of each car for year 2008 with the sports model:

-----------Honda Fit: ---------------Toyota Yaris:--------------------- Nissian Versa:

HP --------1.5L I-4 109 --------------1.5L I-4 106--------------------- 1.8L I-4 122

Trans-----5-spd man w/OD (Std) ----5-spd man w/OD (Std)---------- 6-spd man w/OD (Std)

Milege------- 28 City/34 Hwy -------------29 City/ 36 Hwy -------------26 City/ 31 Hwy

ABS -----------Available ----------------Available -------------------------Available

Tank -----------10.8 gal.----------------- 11.1 gal. --------------------------13.2 gal.

Price ------------$15,270 (MSRP)-------- $13,225 (MSRP)--------------- $12,980 (MSRP)

Based on the short list comparion ,there is definitely a gas saving opportunity. I thinks these three looks pretty nice and I am sure you have seen them on the road. These car price in compare to the Hybrids is much less. I think if you are looking for a car that gets you from A to B and vice versa, these small cars are great.

Firewire vs. USB

Someone at one point ask me of this question on these peripheral devices, mainly what's the differences and which one should I get. Let me give the highlights to similarities and differences so you can decide what is best for yourself.

In general, most of us utilized USB 2.0 devices which is the successor of USB 1.1. USB stands for Universal Serial Bus which in my opinion is much more common than Firewire. Perhaps the marketing for the firewire is less agressive or the general public are less familiar with Firewire. Firewire are for geeks anyway, not the normal public users.

Alright, let me explain the similarities, both USB and Firewire connects to your motherboard either build in or through serial bus. Secondly, USB and Firewall supports hot swap meaning you can unplug and plug in devices without having to restart your computer. Thirdly, they are backward compatible devices with previous version. As I mentioned earlier, USB is at version 2.0 and Firewire is at 800; translation, USB 2.0 can hand 480Mbps versus the 800Mbps (predecessor is 400).

The differences, Firewire kicks the USB butt when working on a single device, it can sustain transfer speed of at least 41MBps. Just like I mentioned, if working on single devices, but if multiple devices hangs on, speed will go down for Firewire. The USB on the other hand is build with a Master & Slave concept, which means that it is capable of managing data priorities as needed. Second difference is that USB can host up to 127 devices if you joined a couple of USB hubs together (max @ 5 hub level) and the Firewire is limited at 63 devices. Third differences is the distance between the two, USB can go as far as 80 ft versus the Firewire (Firewire 800 only) can go as far as 1000ft with a repeater. If you are thinking why can you use a repeater for USB, well the technology is not there for USB.

I would recommend to use Firewire for high speed data transfer and video, for the rest, go with USB. Hope this note helps.

Asta La Windows Vista, baby?

Technology is really a great creation. Constant improvement of technologies is the greatest of creation. The human mind, where will it end? I recently read a couples of articles regarding Windows Vista and it replacement to be, Windows 7. It really seems like yesterday Windows Vista was released and barely warm the shelf of consumer stores, like Staples, Best Buy or any where that sells. I can almost feel their pain knowing the future of Vista will be replaced.

Imagine a sales guy said to you two years back, OK, maybe a year and half ago, raving on the how cool; how secure; how fast Vista may be and shortly after two year, it is possible that next year, it will be replaced. I don't know about you guys, I installed for a month, play with it and quickly revert back to Windows XP. I can assure you that I am really into technologies, but when it takes more to get my job done, maybe this technology is not for me.

If you watched the many commercials from Mac where the Mac vs Vista competes. I thought those were the most precise commercial ever done between two competitors. Windows has pushed too quickly on Vista where lot more test needed to done from the enterprise level. Some articles mentioned that much success came out of Vista, but my guess there is far more failures and complains which probably outweighs the success.

Final thought, lets hope whenever Windows 7 going to be release, please take their time. There is really no rush. I think most of us are still trying to recuperate from the Windows Vista pain. 2009 is the plan year, but lets hope this will not be the case. So far, no preview of the product yet; it's a good sign.

Revamping Route 1

I live close to Route 1 and over the years, traffic is pretty congested all the time. I am guessing the reasoning is that Route 1 runs through many of mall strips. Two of large malls are there, Menlo park mall and Woodbridge mall, not to mention Best buy is opposite of the Woodbridge mall. In the past year, more and more chain restaurants are coming up, like Bone Fish, Famous Daves, Olive Garden, Cheesecake Factory and recently they put a Betting racetrack. It seems like there is no end to the congestion.

Today, things are looking up. As I drive down route 1 to Pennsylvania, I noticed lots of activities going on. They expanding the roads for extra lanes and redirecting the routes to make access easier. They also improved some of the u-turn routes which is great. So far, I am loving it; a little painful right now with the constructions, but it's all good. I can see the end of congestion with these great improvements. Oh, I am told they put in cameras on some of the lights; not sure why if traffic moves pretty slow these days. I am guessing it's not for speed trap but for safety.

With the improvements of these Route 1, I just hope it's enough. Another observation I noticed is the attractions of more dealerships, Like Honda which I didn't noticed before, it's not like Honda is a big deal, but it is just interesting how Route 1 is evolving more and more city like.

Glasses versus Contact lens

I am basically glasses for life. I remember I started wearing glasses at my latter part of my high school year. At the time, it seems like the coolest thing; I guess it makes you look smart or geeky, however you want to put it. I was fine with wearing glasses for the first year, then I realize it's a pain in the neck. Whenever I play sports, especially basketball, I always seem to break a pair. Luckily then they started to have the hard 'heavy' plastic frame one for sports. For many years, I hated wearing glasses; anyone remember the real big round type. They were Ugly and heavy. Now they have the feather weight type and designer frames.

Ah..the age of the contacts came about. I have never wear them myself, I could not get over the idea of poking items into my eye. I have friends wearing them and they constantly have to keep their contacts moist with drops. What a hassle, I thought. When I saw them play sports with them, it was great. Then the thought comes about the what if someone knocks me in the eye, will the contact break and damage your eye. I guessing probably not, but the thought was enough to say no to contacts.

There is probably convenient to both, but I think you'll agree that you get more selection from glasses than contact lens.

Cooking 101

I find that the hard part about cooking is unwilling to try new ideas. Cooking is an art or possible a science. When you think about it, your initial step is to consider what to eat; usually that is the hardest part of the process. Obviously you don't want just anything, otherwise you'll go take out. After you make your selection on the type of food and no matter what you pick out, it will pleasant to the eye, the Art. Then comes the ingredients. There are so many ingredients out there, just look at your own collections of ingredient. I am sure it's not a small collection. This will be your Science; combining the different ingredients will produce different flavor and results. Also, the amount of each ingredients combined will also make a difference.

If you have watch the movie from Disney, Ratatouille. There is a section where Remy and his brother got struck by lightening. The combined of the two ingredients and the comment from Remy was "WOW". It is just like that, great food and cooking comes from a trials and errors process. Don't be Afraid!

Day out with kids continues . . .

For this little note, I'll be the salesman for the aquarium. This view is taken from the opposite end. It is gorgeous, color and architect. I am really surprise about the other area of NJ. I guess it's like NY or any other states, if you have not been there; you don't know what you are missing. Although I have to post a bit of info that is not true to the pictures. You have be warned. If you have been to NY aquarium, it's lot like that; I would be a bit on the nervous side if walking around the area by myself.

O-kay, back to the salesman side. The aquarium area is pretty scenic. Lot like NY city hall area except less people. Very easy and accessible park lot right across aquarium, it's $9 for parking if you are interest. The price for the aquarium is approx. $19 for adults and $15 for kids 2 and up, obviously Free for 2 and under.

Here is a great view of the clock tower. Almost prison like, I guess that is reason I took this shot. I will be posting a bit more pictures of the area and, of course the aquarium. Oh, in case I fail to mention, you can bring your own food. There is a cafeteria inside and it's "mucho" expensive. If I only knew, I could have save $30 on 2 kids meal and philly cheesesteak. I know what you are thinking, $30???? Next, was it a good Philly Cheesesteak you may asked. Absolutely... how can I put this nicely, NO! It was terrible. Brings back memory of high school cafeteria food. The mini nuggets was too bad, I had to snatch a couple of pieces from my kids. I was really desperate after a bad cheesesteak. I needed the pick me up nuggets. Smiled.

Look at that fish, Joseph said. Sarah can attest that is a nice looking fish. Paul on the hand, thinking what fish? I could bearly reach.

If my memory don't escape, it some sort of tropical silver fish. Anyways, let's move on. Shall we.

Almost my favorite part of the whole trip. I have alway been a "chicken" at touching these sea

animals. This time, I have to show my kids I am the tough man on campus and after much assurance from the person stating that these little sharks do not bit. I quickly grab one by the tail, swing it around and toss it back to the water...Nah...just to see you are still with me. We are only allow to touch it with two fingers on any part of the body. Take a wild guess which part I quickly touch...I know you would would think the tail, right? C'mon give me some credit here..acutally I did touch middle of the body close to the tail. So it's not the tail. Oh, ye of little faith.

I cannot resist this one. It speaks for itself. I was a bit disappointed that I didn't catch anyone getting a dosage of the warning. Although I did see a lady standing there for 3 minutes. Yes, I was counting, but there was no bird there.

I finally had to do it, feed one of my kid to the shark, although Joseph may be a bit like the mini chicken nuggets I ate during lunch in comparison to JAWS. Joseph was actually pretty brave on this one, he is the only one willing to step up and take this picture for me. The other two were a mile away, I am guessing having this photo moment right outside the Shark tank didn't really help. I was at least proud for one kid, I guess 1 out of 3 kid enjoyed all the features of the aquarium is not a bad odd.

Oh, how can I leave out the finishing touch of a family photo. The following shot was taken by a professional at the aquarium, I guess that is why she make the funny face after the shot. She looks like she wants a do over. Hmm...wasn't exactly scenic enough where the kids wants stay for a do over.

My first crack at taking a panorama shot. The Fuji S1000fd has the ability of taking 3 shots and combining them into one. I am thinking what better place to try this feature out than at the aquarium. What do you think?

What kind of PC do I need?

I had this question ask of me many times. I am buying a computer, what should I buy? My reply is what are you using it for? By answering this simple question, you can get a good idea what will be in your description for your computer. If you are just surfing the web, then CPU and Memory is probably not a important factor. If you are looking for gaming and are willing to spend a little bit more, a decent graphic card is what you'll want to put the bucks to.

If you are using your pc for photography or number cranking, then you'll want to spend a bit on memory and processor speed. Hard drive in general is not big deal, but since the development of the solid state drive, which I am quite impressed. For general user, a 100 Gb drive is sufficient, but if you are a MP3 geek; I would recommend getting one of those small handheld size hard drive like Western Digital or Toshiba, they are at least 320Gb in size these days.

What type of CPU you may ask? Intel or AMD? Well, I am a big fan of both. I have had both brand and I noticed Intel to be more stable than AMD. Intel have been the "universal" standard, therefore most application will play well with the chip. AMD is not a bad processor either, although not universal, but it's been picking up waves and making a name for themself. Benchmark to faster for AMD.

How much memory? Well, this is a tough question. There are so many brands and type and speed. This is usally not a choice if you buy your PC from Dell or HP. You will get to select the size, 4 Gb of memory is not expensive these days. If you can afford, pick a faster speed one, it does make a difference.

Day with the kids

It is the most exciting part of being a Dad. A time that is precious and cherish when you can spend a day with your kids. It really does not matter where you go or what you do. Your kids will appreciate the fact you are there and taken them somewhere.

I had the pleasure of taking my kids to the aquarium in NJ. It my first time going to Adventure Aquarium. It's a a pretty large facility if you have not been there before. There are many interesting animals and weird fishes to look at. Some are quite amazing, especially in the way they blend themselves in with the environment. There is a shark touching (smaller one) section which is pretty cool. Although my kids freaks out even looking at them.

There is a stadium-like viewing looking at a giant fish tank, very impressive. The boys love it, they get a see a couple huge sting-rays, and many other large fish. Yes, there is a impressive shark tank which I didn't get to see. My little princess got all freak out and ran the other way, it was hilarious, maybe next time.

Overall a very nice place to take the kids for a day trip. Did I mentioned it's very scenic around the area? Bring your camera.

3G or No 3G?

Consider this piece a follow up on the iPhone, part 2. There are lots of neat feature to the phone and price for the phone is much lower than the previous. Apple make it that way so you can own an Apple hardware? The idea of the taking the first bite and you are hook forever. Well, I guess it is possible. The iPhone does look sleek, slick and titanium looking; you can serve the web faster, view your photos in a more crisp display.

For the business, you a built in cisco VPN (woo.hoo) and build custom apps to integrate into the iPhone,oh boy, I hope someone bring back the game Centipede. :-) WiFi capable and GPS available for a service fee. What's not to like? Check out the price plan below.

UNLIMITED Data (Email and Web Browsing), Visual Voicemail iPhone 3G requires qualified voice and data plans.	Monthly Cost
Data Plan for iPhone When using iPhone for access to personal email, web browsing, or consumer applications such as games.	$30
Enterprise Data Plan for iPhone When using iPhone to access corporate email, company intranet sites, and/or other business solutions/applications.	$45
Unlimited Text Messages	$20
1500 Text Messages	$15
200 Text Messages	$5
"Pay Per Use" Text Messages	$0.20 (per text if no plan selected)

Data pooled plans are not available for iPhone.

By the way, there is an upgrade plan also. So, if you already own one, chances are you can get the upgrade.

My new camera

FujiFilm S1000fd

Simply amazing quality pictures under $200. It's a 10.0 megapixel camera, 12x optical zoom, SDHC/XD, palm size lightweight, 2.5 screen display and the list goes on. This one has a panorama feature which is pretty darn kool if you want to combine shots. What can I say, I am loving it so far, can't stop snapping pictures around the house. I posted a super-macro picture of my wife's mini garden flower. Quality is terrific and at 10 megapixel, very very nice.
My previous camera is also a Fuji which is pretty good also. It a decent quality camera with 6.2 megapixel which is no comparison to the S1000fd. I have not had bad experience with Fuji camera yet. The biggest sales point for me was the fact the shutter speed on these camera are good. I play with Kodak, Nikon, Canon and there seems to be a bit of lag in the shutter speed. The worst is probably Kodak; seems to amaze me coming from a photo company. Obviously there are other qualities in a camera needs to be mentioned, such as the Lens. Its not Leica lens, but I am not paying Leica prices either. It Fuji's finnon lens, not too sure on the exact detail about fuji len. Overall, not too bad on the color output, don't you think?

Oh, the software that came with the camera is not too bad either. Easy to install and use, almost dummy proof. Did I mentioned it's under $200? I can't get over it price and performance combination.

iPhone 3G Specs

Features:

• World mobile phone with UMTS/HSDPA (850, 1900, • 2100 MHz) and GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)
  Built-in Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g) and Bluetooth® 2.0 + EDR
• •Visual Voicemail
• •Rich HTML email client with support for viewing Microsoft
• • Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, JPEG, and iWork email attachments
  Push email, calendar and contacts through support of Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync
  Support for IMAP and POP3 mail servers
• Mass delete and move of email messages
• Safari web browser with support for Web 2.0 standards
• Maps with GPS
• •App Store
• •Intelligent QWERTY soft keyboard
• Chat-style SMS text messaging
• Integrated 2.0 megapixel camera
• Widescreen iPod with touch controls
• 3.5-inch widescreen multi-touch display
• Built-in VPN client supporting Cisco IPSec, L2TP/IPsec, & PPTP protocols
  WPA2 Enterprise wireless networking with 802.1x authentication

Power and Battery*:

• Built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery

• Charging via USB to computer system or power adapter

• Talk time: Up to 5 hours on 3G, up to 10 hours on 2G

• Standby time: Up to 300 hours

• Internet use: Up to 5 hours on 3G, up to 6 hours on Wi-Fi

• Video playback: Up to 7 hours • Audio playback: Up to 24 hours

I Couldn't Resist

Bill Gates of Heaven or Hell SCREEN SAVER?

Well, Bill," said God, "I'm really confused on this one. I'm not sure whether to send you to Heaven or Hell! After all, you helped society enormously by putting a computer in almost every home in the world and yet you created that ghastly Windows. I'm going to do something I've never done before. I'm going to let you decide where you want to go!"
Mr. Gates replied, "Well, thanks, Lord. What's the difference between the two?" God said, "You can take a peek at both places briefly if it will help you decide. Shall we look at Hell first?" "Sure!" said Bill.
"Let's go!" Bill was amazed! He saw a clean, white sandy beach with clear waters. There were thousands of beautiful women running around,playing in the water, laughing and frolicking about. The sun was shining and the temperature was just perfect!
Bill said, "This is great! If this is Hell, I can't wait to see Heaven!" To which God replied, "Let's go!" and off they went. Bill saw puffy white clouds in a beautiful blue sky with angels drifting about playing harps and singing. It was nice, but surely not as enticing as Hell.
Mr. Gates thought for only a brief moment and rendered his decision. "God, I do believe I would like to go to Hell." As you desire," said God. Two weeks later, God decided to check up on the late billionaire to see how things were going. He found Bill shackled to a wall, screaming among the hot flames in a dark cave. He was being burned and tortured by demons.
"How ya doin', Bill?" asked God. Bill responded with anguish and despair. "This is awful! This is not what I expected at all! What happened to the beach and the beautiful women playing in the water?"
"Oh, THAT!" said God. "That was the screen saver".

The Garden

After this morning horrific traffic. I feel a need to make a note on the GSP traffic pattern. For those who do not take the GSP, there are 5 lanes for the most part. You would expect no traffic issues. I mean the GSP should be free flowing at 80mph, how is it that each morning I am going between 40 to 65mph. What is the deal?? Oh, yes; the peak hour you may say. That is just "crap", peak or non-peak; 5 lanes is more than enough to move along and not cause traffic slow down.

So difficult to understand this. I am assuming some Engineer has done their homework when building the GSP since they are getting pay top dollars. I would completely understand if trucks were involved, but no. No slow moving vehicle. So, what's the deal??

I am not sure about others drivers, but I am constantly annoyed with the traffic pattern and so much time is wasted sitting in the car. I can wasted my time doing other things, like cutting my grass.

Stop with the tomatoes

This is my first attempt at blogging. I thought what is the best way to talk about the Salmonalle in tomatoes issue, Blogging! Since the whole "big bang" with salmonalle, more and more claims are coming around the corner claiming issues, like Salsa. Last year, we have spinach. This is so typical, anything to make the public get concern about the food they eat. Folks, eventually we'll just starved since everything we put in our mouth is poisoned. Stop the nonsense and cook those tomatoes. Just think, what will they come up next? Will my diet coke be next? That will be an all time upset.

Look at them tomatoes. What person is in their right mind can denied these delicious and gorgeous red ones.