Microsoft Surface

If this one gets hold in the market, Microsoft can at last stand up to a real giant of personal computing by marketing their own original innovation. Microsoft describes surface computing "as significant as moving from DOS to GUI".

The innovation is Microsoft Surface. It is a computer that interact with users solely through its one single plain surface, the 30" display in this current version.



It is not a hoax, nor a parody to the Minority Report. It is real and has been opened to public (for a few hours) in premium locations, namely the lobby of Sharaton Centre Toronto Hotel and the Sharaton New York Hotel and Towers.

More information about Surface can be found here.

Squash buddies

I should be flying back to Boston next week. Today is probably the last time in a while to play squash with my buddies. I did play longer than usual, because an old friend was here. I have known him for 15 years, all the way back to the first year in college. He has turned from a young man jumping all around to the father of a five-year-old boy. It was the game that binds all of us together throughout the years.

Tonight I ended up terribly tired.. my lower back is complaining.


Ramy Ashour vs Thierry Lincou in Wind City Open 2007. A fantastic rally ends unfortunately with a slip of Ramy's.

Da Bino + Golden Hall

We had our farewell dinner for me and Don tonight. It had been planned for a coupled of weeks and we had it in Da Bino (大邊爐) in Kowloon City for hotpot. Their beef were really good. Thick enough to be juicy but tender. The famous fried bean curd skin was good, but not as good as people described. I was only getting sleepy toward the end of the meal.

We had desert in Golden Hall Desert (金滿堂) across the street after the meal. I had been there once a couple of months ago. Two steps into the store you would smell the durans. Man... their duran pancakes were awesome, a lot better than the famous Honeymoon Desert (滿記甜品). Their fruit juice + Yakult drinks were terrific too. I had Kiwi Yakult drink last time, and I tried blueberry Yakult tonight. It was good.

Judy's New Toy

Judy wanted to buy a compact digital camera and I showed her the Canon G7 on the web. She said she had a very bad experience with a pro-sumer camera before. I asked which brand was that. She said "Panasonic". Then I had to remind her that I had told her long time ago only buy camera from a proper camera maker.

So she loves the G7 just by looking at its info on the web. On the same day, which was last Friday, I skipped my squash games and went to Shatin to buy the camera with her. Since the G9 is soon be selling, there were only a couple of stores still selling G7, and at a fairly good price. Anyway.. Judy bought one.

Judy took it out to shoot on Saturday. She loved the camera so much that she sent me a SMS that evening and thanked me for showing her about this camera.

Today Judy brought the big toy back to work and showed me some of the pictures she took with the G7 over the weekend, as well as showing off a few cool functions of the camera. We were playing with it for a long, and these are pictures of mine she took when she was trying out the "Focus Bracketing". The pictures are a bit grainy because they were taken at ISO800.

Thank you again, President Bush. Today I learn the words "gaffe" and "goof" because of you. From the ABC of Australia:

Bush backs 'Austrian troops' at 'OPEC'

Posted Sat Sep 8, 2007 7:25am AEST
Updated Sat Sep 8, 2007 8:32am AEST

Bushisms: US President George W Bush addresses the business summit at the Sydney Opera House (APEC 2007 Taskforce)

• Map: Sydney 2000
• Related Link: Full coverage of APEC 2007

Gaffe-prone US President George W Bush confused APEC with OPEC and transformed Australian troops into Austrians in a series of blunders in Sydney on Friday.

Mr Bush's tongue started slipping almost as soon as he started talking at a business forum on the eve of the APEC leaders summit.

"Mr Prime Minister, thank you for your introduction," he said. "Thank you for being such a fine host for the OPEC summit."

As the audience of several hundred people erupted in laughter, Bush corrected himself and joked, "He invited me to the OPEC summit next year."

Australia has never been a member of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

Later in his speech, Mr Bush recounted how Prime Minister John Howard had gone to visit "Austrian troops" last year in Iraq.

Mr Howard was visiting Australian troops. There are no Austrian troops in Iraq.

- Reuters

_______________________________

I read in the news that George W Bush is planning to give talks after he steps down, just like other presidents did. It seems he has finally reckoned he's got a lot of talent for stand-up comedy.

Kids letters to God

From Alberta from 300' again.

Watch for what you eat before attending the National Anthem

It has been a while since I last visited the blog Alberta from 300'. Obviously I have almost missed some evil laughters. Here is one from our endless source of jokes, President Bush:

What do you get when you cross the National Anthem with too many onions on that hot dog for lunch?

_____________________________

Thank you, President Bush. I can't help laughing every time I read the title and look at this photo... hahahaha...

Odd News from Sydney

I figured a week ago that Yahoo! News has a section named "Odd News". They are real news but some can make you crack down.

On Aug 23, there came a news saying "Authorities in Australia will give about 200 prisoners a weekend off in September to clear out jail cells (in Sydney) in case they are needed during an upcoming summit of Asia-Pacific leaders".

That makes a lot of sense, especially when there is a serious demand of jail cells during the APEC summit.

暗語 - 5

雜志一通：

井單 = 簡單
放屁 = 放棄
睡罩 = 睡覺
盟唔盟 = 明唔明
傷唔傷 = 香唔香
皇家馬爹利 = 皇家馬德里
曼魚 = 曼聯
no A = no way
_______________________

今晚食飯食剩三隻雞翼，細佬剛好返到，我指住D雞翼，示意細佬食埋佢。

細佬：我食左飯咯喎
阿哥：咁你有冇食雞翼呀？
細佬：食左雞扒
阿哥：即係冇食雞翼啦
細佬：傻仔

細佬即行入房，而我就食晒D雞翼。

Google Earth Hidden Flight Simulator

This latest version of Google Earth 4.2 allows you to look up into the sky, look closely at the constellations and nebulae through the pictures acquired by the Hubble Space Telescope.



I was reading CNET.com today and stumbled into a post that reveals a very cool function of the Google Earth 4.2: a hidden flight simulator. Just go to any location and hit Ctrl+Alt A. This will bring up a window that ask you whether to start flying in either one of 2 airport, or right at the spot you have just selected. Although you can only choose from two type of planes, and the ground features are not as detailed as other commercial flight simulators, the global coverage of Google Earth lets you fly over your own home! I tried that briefly today, and I actually crashed the plane a few miles away my own home in Ipswich! Haha...

For your information, hit Ctrl+H to bring up the keyboard key manual to control the plane.

Squash

I like playing squash. It is not merely a game that requires power and swift movements, it also takes a lot of mental and overall fitness to play well. You need to stay focused and do all but play safe and use patience to expose your opponent's mistakes, and exploit them to win a point. That requires intensive and split-second calculations and judgments.

Since you play within the boundary of 4 walls, you don't just see the ball but hear it as it hits the wall and zooms about. Of course, you also need to keep track of your opponent all the time so as to decide where to put the ball.

Playing squash is like doing duels: you will learn your opponent's strength and weakness through exchanging sharp attacks. Even you don't know your opponent before the game, you feel like old friends when you walk out of the court, because he/she shows so much respect to your skills and endurance by keep doing his/her best to retrieve great shots of yours, and delivering great shots in return.

Below is a rally between Amr Shabana (Egypt; a lefty and ranks world no. 1 since April 2006) and James Willstrop (Britain; current world ranking no. 4) in the Windy City Open 2007 in Chicago. The rally lasted one whole minute. Shabana won the point by seizing the chance when Willstrop made a bad return that allowed Shabana to have more than enough time to prepare for killing shot near the middle line. Willstrop had lost his balance to the right and Shabana only needed to make a sharp and short shot to the left of Willstrop to win the point, as he did. I saw them played separately in the US Open in Boston in 2006 in person.

In addition to their shots, pay attention to how they approach the ball. Good footwork is essential to play proper squash, next to the safety of the players.

Shabana vs Willstrop - A Deadly Delay Shot