Bernie’s Blog

The new United Airlines advertisement shown during the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony. I love it!

I’ve been trying to figure out why the hell my iPhone doesn’t get all the changes I made to my calendar on iCal, and just today I realized one little setting under the iPhone system preferences - if you scroll down to the bottom there is an option called “sync”, and you can decide whether to sync all events or not. I had my settings as sync up to one month ago. Really not sure why that is set as a default, but when I reset it to All Events, Calendar started working as it should.

I decided to register for a 60 day trial of MobileMe. I’m a Google user, and I love using Gmail and Google Calendar, but unfortunately I don’t have a way to make use of the cool Apple apps that come with my Mac, like Address Book, and iCal. So maybe with MobileMe I can do just that - if everything can work seamlessly, I don’t mind paying $99 a year, though it would be better if the price point was like $69 instead.

So first I go to http://www.me.com, and registered. Apple requires a credit card on record so they can bill you automatically after your 60-day trial, but you can cancel at any time. That’s the easy part. After confirming that you have successfully signed up for MobileMe, I was presented with a set of instructions on how to set up MobileMe on all my devices. Here’s the link.

On my Powerbook, when I clicked on .Mac in System Preferences, the software update for MobileMe popped up, and I had to install the Mac OS X Update for MobileMe, version 1.1. After the update, there will be new options for Push functionality within the tabs. There is quite a list of items you can sync with MobileMe other than Contacts and Calendars, and includes, Dashboard Widgets, Keychains, Safari Bookmarks, Mail Accounts, and even Dock Items! After selecting the items I want to sync and deciding if I want to sync automatically or manually, my Mac is configured with MobileMe.

On my iPhone, I added my new MobileMe account under “Settings”. Make sure you have the latest version of your data in “the cloud” as your iPhone will proceed to erase your local data, and sync from “the cloud”. Now your Mac, iPhone and MobileMe are all synced up.

I guess that’s it! I will keep you guys updated on my feedback to this service.

My iPhone had been missing for more than 2 weeks. I just couldn’t remember where I’d last placed it. I was just about to give up all hope of finding it, and then, when I stuck my hand into one of my bags, there it was - my iPhone. All I could do is heave a sigh of relief.

I’m not sure if this guy’s an employee of Nintendo, or just an extreme fanboy, but his (or her) car has Mario on the sides of it, with a Nintendo logo on the hood. It does look pretty good.

I’ve also seen a yellow car made to look like cheese, complete with mice.

We watched Kung Fu Panda last Friday, on opening night. What a hilarious movie! I’m a fan of Jack Black, so hearing his voice and weird sense of humor come out of a large, fuzzy panda - priceless. And did you know that Angelina Jolie’s in this movie too? She’s the voice of the Tigress.

I’m not sure how many times I wanted to post since I came back, but this had been such a hectic month that I always end up pushing it off. So much has happened in the last 30 days since touchdown to Singapore, you can even believe. So now I’m going to recap the happenings …

We relocated back about a month ago, together with a total of 7 pieces of checked luggage, and 11 carry-on, it was crazy. My arms ache just thinking about it. I had my PS3, my Specialized road bike, Rebecca’s trike, all the clothes, some books, my rollerblades, and a pair of shoes.

The minute we landed, we were faced with the challenge of getting all the pieces of luggage home. My sister-in-law only drove a small hatchback car, but it was amazing what could fit in there once the back seats were folded down - all of the luggage were brought back in just two trips. We proceeded to have our late lunch, and then I had to go visit Charlotte and Cayenne at the Quarantine Station. They were doing pretty well, so I felt better.

I had to start work the very next day, which seemed fine in theory, but in reality, it wasn’t something I’d advise someone to do. But since I’d already delayed my flight by a week, I didn’t want to delay my start date any further.

I’ll try to “recall” the happenings in the last 30 days. So much, too much. Stay tuned.

It seems like the obligatory toy for a toddler is a trike or bicycle. So that’s what we did - last weekend we got a trike for her. There’s a handle attached for an adult to push, and what’s good about it is the pedals don’t move when pushed, but only when she pedals.

When she first got on the trike, not sure whether it was because she had seen people cycling, but she immediately placed both feet on the pedals. What a natural!

Clover bit me harder than usual just now, while I was trying to take him to the bathroom for a bath. I think it was because he’s mad at me for taking him into some sterile place (the vet’s) where he was being grabbed and squeezed by a giant bad person (the vet tech), and being prodded and “violated”) by another giant bad person (the vet). He even got his beautiful wings clipped. *huff*

Ok, he was there for his annual exam. And in addition, he now has a fine shiny metal thing on his leg (leg band).

I’m sorry, little guy.

I think most screen capture utilities suck.

Ok that’s a little bit harsh. Skitch is pretty good (and fun!). But the one I want to tell you about is not even an app. It’s a Firefox extension called Screengrab! and it can do something that other apps can’t - capture the WHOLE web page! When you install it, it’ll just sits on the bottom of Firefox as a teeny icon, unobtrusive, waiting for you to suddenly have the need to make a screengrab. All you need to do is click on the icon, choose “Save As -> Complete Page/Frame”, and voila! You have an image file of the web page. It just works.

Having my iPhone for a month now, I must say, I’m absolutely in love with it. I’ll admit, I was one of those who was cynical about it when it first came out. One of the reasons why I “hated” it was the inability to easily replace the battery. But now that I have it, the fun features it has makes its shortcomings a little more bearable.

Here’s what I like:
Speakers!
What sets this “iPod” apart from the others is the ability to play music and not having the need to use headphones! Although the sound quality from those speakers leave much to be desired, it still is more convenient, especially when playing those kiddy videos for my two year old daughter Rebecca, who is not allowed to listen through headphones till she’s a little older. Why can’t Apple put speakers on all iPods?

Google Maps
With EDGE and Wifi, I feel a little safer when I’m driving. It helps a little when I get lost on the road, but I still believe it doesn’t replace the functions provided by a real GPS system.

Photos and Camera
I take a lot of photos, and I mean, a lot. Most of them are of my daughter. Though not a real fan of the picture quality of the tiny iPhone lens, it sure is much more convenient when I just want to snap a picture and email to whoever. It does it so much better than other phones. And I know the sync feature with iPhoto is not new, but the UI and screen size on the iPhone is much better. Only complaint is not being able to take video, but unless they improve the lens, the video output quality wouldn’t be that great either to matter.

Web Browsing
By far the BEST web browsing experience on a phone, especially those optimized for mobile viewing. Although you can still pinch or zoom the screen, it can be frustrating to view large wordy sites and having to constantly scroll left and right just to read one sentence.

Clock
I’m very amazed at how often I use this app. I check time zones a lot since I have friends and family in Singapore, and I love the Alarm feature. On my previous phones you can only set one alarm at a time, this one you can set multiple alarms, and for each one you specify which days you want it to occur. So now I have two main alarms, one for weekdays, and one for weekends. Pretty cool.

iTunes Store
It’s so great to be able to listen to 30 second samples of songs when I’m just trying to kill time.

I’m not much of an apps person, so what Apple offers so far is good enough for me, but I’d definitely like to see what the developers can come up with if and when the iPhone SDK comes out. Right now accessing apps via Safari is not doing much for me. I prefer lightweight apps that I can access locally without being connected to the Internet.

I love this gal!

Doug drove us to the airport Friday afternoon for our plane ride home to the the US. Since he could only leave a week later, it was just Rebecca and I. After a little snack at the Toast Box cafe, we made our way to the departure hall.

The journey was pretty smooth I must say. For the first part of it there was a nice girl who sat by the window next to us. Rebecca sat the aisle seat, and I in the middle. But after the stopover in Hong Kong the flight wasn’t full, so she moved to a row by herself. This allowed Rebecca to sleep more comfortably on the 14 hour flight home. She slept most of the time, which was good, but I didn’t really get much sleep because I had the fear of her rolling off the seat. So I was dozing in and out of sleep the whole time.

K was there to pick us up at the airport, and we drove home. I cooke for Rebecca dinner, and I was so tired that I fell asleep while feeding her. After dinner we headed off to bed.

I’m glad I came back on a Friday, so I could have two whole days to rest before work starts.

Time for some more sleep.

Didn’t do much today. I’m trying to get mentally prepared for the end of our vacation, and going back to the U.S., so today we spent the day at my parents’ house, watching TV, and going downstairs for a little snack. The good thing about Singapore is there are food stalls virtually everywhere you turn, and some are even open 24 hours, so you can literally walk down and grab something to eat any time of the day.

Cool huh?

We took a fun train ride today with Rebecca. Another first for the little one. First we took the MRT, the bigger of the two trains, to the LRT station, then switched to the LRT, made a loop around, then got back on the MRT. It was my first time taking the LRT as well.

One innovative feature of the LRT train is the side windows. They are made of special glass with proximity sensors that switches from opaque to transparent depending on where the train travels. At areas where the train goes apartment buildings, the windows turn opaque to keep the privacy for the residents, and back to transparent at the stations. Pretty cool in my opinion.