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.