London Paris 2009

[Update @ 2009-11-18T00:27-8:00] The entire photo collection is at http://www.flickr.com/photos/gadgetdude/sets/72157622332008897/.

We are finally back from our 10-day vacation to London and Paris. I wanted to summarize our experiences quickly before memory starts to fade, so photos will have to wait are still being uploaded.

London (September 7 to September 11)

Day 0 (September 8 )

We flew via KLM airline to London, transiting at Amsterdam. We then took the Heathrow Express train to Paddington Station, which is already in the city. The busy 4:30pm commuters made sure I didn’t want to take Tube to my hotel, so I took a cab instead.

 

Day 1 (September 9)

Buckingham Palace

The parade changing ceremony was scheduled for every other day in Autumn, and unfortunately for us, the next ceremony was not on the day of our visit. We didn’t pay for the interior tour, so we stuck around outside to take some photos. Nothing too special.

Transformers 2: Trying Too Hard

I loved the first Transformers movie, so we went to watch the sequel in theater today. I wasn’t expecting much going in as I had read tons of negative reviews, but I was still hoping for a pleasant surprise. Unfortunately the critics were correct, Transformers 2 was just a summer action movie and nothing more.

Some of my thoughts:

• The story was so-so at best.
• The jokes were crude and forced.
• More robots meant zilch. None was outstanding.
• Devastator was a disappointment.
• Why must Transformers act like humans? Why must Jetfire have a “beard”?
• Why must there be Transformer clowns? Why oh why must there be Jar Jar Transformers?! Why oh why did we get a Transformers “chihuahua”?!
• Didn’t know the transformation technology could imitate organic matters like human skin.
• Where can I get that cool Decepticons hood ornament?

Palm Pre impressions

I played with a Palm Pre today in a Sprint store. It was actually my second trip to the store this weekend – the first time I simply drove past after seeing the 10+ people lining near the door. Anyhoo, here are my initial thoughts:

• The Pre is small compared to iPhone.
• The screen was sharp and clear, though the size seemed too small as I am used to my iPhone.
• The touch sensor seemed a bit off, but that could be because of the ‘ripple’ feedback which was lacking altogether on the iPhone.
• Chinese character set, and I preassume Unicode, is supported in the browser out-of-box.
• The keyboard keys are small even for me, but I was still able to type without mispellings in my tests.
• WebOS didn’t feel as responsive as the iPhone. I occasionally double tapped because of this.

Terminator Salvation thoughts

I watched Terminator Salvation today. Some thoughts:

• Noticed Skynet’s computer lab for humans. Same question as others had asked: why?!
• In the original Terminator movie, every one was shooting lasers. In Terminator Salvation, people and machines were all using bullets. It’s not like the time lines are that far apart either, I mean, the T800 already started showing up in Salvation.
• Terminator Salvation was a forgettable movie. There was no attachment throughout, and I began to forget the details the moment I stepped out of the theater.
• How can a helicopter outrun a nuclear explosion? Could it be that the nuclear fuel cells weren’t so nuclear?

I preferred Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles.

Windows 7 beta

Yesterday I installed Windows 7 beta on my home laptop overwriting the old Vista.  The new  Windows 7 task bar is nice, but other than that, I don’t perceive much ground breaking improvements over Vista.  Perhaps deep down it consumes less resources, maybe.

One thing that annoyed me was the slow file open time.  It was particularly vexing when I tried to play random mp3 songs in MediaPlayer by double clicking files in Explorer.  Something that was instantenous now took a few seconds.

Second iPhone App Store purchase: BeejiveIM

A few days ago I bought my first iPhone application.  While it was only $0.99, I was concerned that it would be the start of a downward purchasing spiral.  My worry was well founded – today I made my second purchase, an IM software called BeejiveIM.  The price was $9.99, down from $15.99, part of Black Friday sale this year.

I had actually thought about buying BeejiveIM for a while now, but I hesitated because I am not a IM junkie and don’t truly need it.  In the meantime, I tried all the free IM apps out there for iPhone.  They included Palringo, Fring, Nimbuzz, MobileLinked, and IM+ Lite.  None was satisfactory.  On the other hand, BeejiveIM’s reviews were overwhelmingly positive, other than on the price of course.

With the Black Friday sale almost over, I finally bit the bullet and bought BeejiveIM.  I was imediately impressed when I fired up the app for the first time.  The load time was almost nil!  After adding my IM accounts, the positive impressions continued to pour on.  The UI was fluid, there was little to no lag time, and push notifications (via push email) worked smoothly.  I won’t list all the features here because one can find many reviews out on the web (including on YouTube), but everything positive I read about BeejiveIM is true.

The downside?  There is no Facebook or Skype support, but I don’t actively use those anyway.  And when Apple finally releases that push notification support, I hope and believe Beejive will jump on it ASAP.

Wireless Sports – bad, really bad

I bought the Wireless Sports TV game during the Black Friday sale today. It’s a 5-in-1 wireless game comprised of bowling, tennis, boxing, baseball, and golf. I paid $20, down from $40.

After putting in all 8 of my own AA batteries – 4 in the main unit and 2 in each controller set – and turning on the system, I was stunned by the superbly low resolution. Maybe the game is not intended for 50-inch televisions, but I felt blinded by the huge pixels, each the size of a brick.

I tried bowling, tennis, and boxing before giving up completely. Wireless Sports’s controllers may looks like Wii’s, but its motion sensor is binary at best – the system seems to register only the existence of motion and nothing else. In bowling, I had to use the directional pad to set the spin and direction prior to releasing the bowling ball; my swing only released the ball. In tennis, I was swinging in vain to control the returns, but the best I could do is hit the ball at all. In boxing, the controller and nunchaku threw the same left and right punches regardless of my physical swings. After these experiences, I just didn’t bother trying golf and baseball.

This game is going back to the store. You get what you pay for, but in this case, I think $20 is still too much.

Partitioned Wind

Our MSI Wind netbook arrived on Thursday. It worked as advertised. One notable thing I’d like to mention is that the MSI Wind came with pre-partitioned hard disk, C:\ for OS and D:\ for data. Nice.

California Shuttle Bus impressions

Cheaper than Flying

Last weekend I used the service offered by California Shuttle Bus to travel to and from Los Angeles (moblog entries one, two, and three). I paid $45 for each 6-hour ride during the Labor Day long weekend, for a total of $90, which was very good considering that the cheapest plane tickets at the time of booking was around $200. I booked the bus tickets directly through the company’s web site just like I would normally for airline tickets. The site provided me prices based on dates, and no human interactions was ever required.

Infiniti G35 thoughts

I’d like to reflect on my Infiniti G35 after 2.5 months of ownership. Might as well, since today I just completed two ownership surveys from independent parties. (J.D. Powers even included a $1 bill in the survey forms!)

Aside: Why didn’t I get any such surveys when I bought my two Hondas? Do marketing firms only care about luxury car owners?