Oct 14, 2008  •  In Apple, Gadgets, Geek
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Big Apple Tuesday

In case you live in a cave, I am happy to tell you that Apple made some big announcements today.

(I followed the live blog at Engadget, which seemed to have some good pictures of the event. As such, the following pictures come courtesy of Mr. Topolsky at Engadget, unless otherwise noted.)

The new MacBook Pros and MacBooks are cut from solid blocks of aluminum like the MacBook Air:

That chunk of aluminum in the picture above is cut with (frickin) laser beams to form this:

In my opinion, the biggest announcement of the day came when Steve Jobs spoke of the integration of the new NVIDIA GeForce 9400M chip with the laptop lineup:

It is a chipset and GPU in one! It is capable of delivering up to 6x faster performance, which is music to the ears of any graphics designer, or, as demonstrated in this graph, gamer:

The new glass trackpad is “eh.” Cool, yes, but superfluous in my opinion.

As for the newly designed MacBook Pros and MacBooks:

(images courtesy of Apple)

…They are kinda fugly, no?

Admittedly, they are not horrible-looking, but I prefer the old designs. I know that Apple was trying to mimic the design of the MacBook Air, but they seem to be venturing into the Sony Vaio and HP product design territory here.

As the presentation came to a close and transition to the Q&A session, Steve Jobs made this quip: “We can’t answer questions about the quarter ending, and secondly…110/70…this is Steve’s blood pressure.”

LOVE it!!!

…What did you think of today’s Apple event?

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Oct 14, 2008  •  In Comang, Personal
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Dog-Sitting

Both J and I love, love dogs. However, we have decided to wait to get a dog because we feel that it wouldn’t be fair to the animal as we are at work most of the day.

In the meantime, we show our appreciation and love for dogs via dog-sitting for friends and family.

Tomorrow, a friend (our pastor’s wife) will be giving birth via c-section. Since she will be in the hospital for at least a week recovering from the surgery and they will both be undoubtedly busy with the new baby, we volunteered to watch their shih tzu for a few weeks.

We’ve had him for 3 days now, and I can’t help but be attached already.

When I sit with my legs straight in front of me and place him on my legs, he goes into a trance-mode:

I love how small dogs lie on the ground with their hind legs spread out behind them:

Our pastor and his wife warned us that he can be very bad sometimes, but he’s been an angel so far. Or maybe it’s because J and I are so used to bad dogs that “normal” dogs seem very good in comparison.

I’ll be very sad to say good-bye when he leaves in two weeks. I can’t wait until we have more time in our lives to be able to get our own dog(s)!

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Oct 11, 2008  •  In Personal
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Cooking Saturday

We are having a bunch of people over tonight for dinner and video games. I am preparing my famous 갈비찜 (galbijjim, or Korean style braised short ribs). I bought about 18 lbs (!) of short ribs and am currently draining the blood:

I will post “after” pictures later!

(My 갈비찜 takes at least four hours to prepare, so I will be gone all day cooking. Have a great Saturday!)

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Oct 10, 2008  •  In Thursday Geek-isms
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Thursday Geek-isms

I had a pretty rough day today. So as soon as I came home, I slapped on my yellow rubber gloves and went Mr. Clean on the bathrooms. Perhaps I overdid the scrubbing, because my arms feel like spaghetti.

  1. Looking at Post-Boom NYC, Gothamist. According to Joel Kotkin, NYC is the ultimate trickle-down economy, with only a small percentage of the population driving the economy. It needs to model itself after other cities such as San Francisco or Chicago in order to save its middle class. Do you agree?
  2. Nerd library to end all nerd libraries, Boing Boing. I remember reading this in the latest issue of Wired and thinking, “Wow, I must blog about this.” Unfortunately, I was on the john when this epiphany hit me and hence it immediately proceeded to leave my mind once I flushed the toilet.
  3. On the Typography of “Mad Men”, mental_floss. Font nerds and fans of the fabulous show Mad Men unite!
  4. Scientists Find Gene That Makes You Good at Halo Also Makes You a Premature Ejaculator, Gizmodo. At the risk of sharing TMI (well I’m already guilty of that – see #2 above), I beg to differ.
  5. 5 Ways To Visualize The U.S. Elections, ReadWriteWeb. Charts, graphs, and colors galore! I’m too predictable.
  6. Why Don’t Economics Textbooks Focus on Financial Crises? Freakonomics. Economics was never my forte. To be more precise, I suck at economics…I remember pulling all-nighters for my Intro to Macro- and Microeconomics classes to only manage dismal Cs. After reading this article, I thought back to this painful period in my life and realized…he’s right! I can’t recall learning about previous financial crises even in my higher-level economics classes. If history is doomed to repeat itself, why do the most popular economics textbooks fail to mention such important events?
  7. Yep, We’re Screwed: National Debt Clock Runs Out of Numbers, Gizmodo. You’ve most likely heard this already, but I felt that it warrants a mention on this blog as well. Well isn’t that the pickle on the giant crap sandwich that has been this financial crisis!
  8. “Muji To Go” lands at JFK, Core77. Those darn Japanese! Isn’t there anything they can’t do better? Muji has always been a great source of inspiration and eye candy, and an entire store devoted to their travel products is just…well it’s a good thing it’s located all the way out in Jamaica, Queens! Just be warned that the next time you’re at JFK, you may see an Asian girl throwing a “Me! Want! NOW!” tantrum at the Muji store.
  9. Eli Manning’s Apartment, Curbed. There’s just something about a simple guy who chooses to reside in Hoboken when he can easily afford a penthouse in Manhattan. One who marries his college sweetheart. Oh, and it certainly doesn’t hurt that he is a Superbowl MVP. Who knew that he was such a techie too?
  10. Apple Co-Founder Wozniak: The iPod Will Fail, Wired Gadget Lab. I like Woz, because he tells it like it is!
  11. Google Spreadsheets Get a Real Menu, Mashable! When I excitedly shared this news with J, he said, “Oh, I almost forgot the public didn’t have that. I’ve been using it for a while. Pretty sweet, huh?” Fine! I’ve been playing with a…super secret…thingamajig in my spare time so there!
  12. Nikon D90 unboxing and hands-on, Engadget. Sigh. You will be mine. Oh yes, you will be mine.
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Oct 9, 2008  •  In NYC, Personal
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Would You Sacrifice Space for Location?

Yesterday, the NYTimes had an interesting article about families to opt to stay in cramped quarters in Manhattan, rather than move to the suburbs (or even just outside the island) where they can afford bigger homes.

There’s the family of four who squeeze a queen sized bed, a crib, and a toddler bed into one bedroom.

Or the couple who gave up the only bedroom to their two kids, taking the walk-in closet for themselves.

I couldn’t help but cringe as I read the stories of these families. Sure, Manhattan has its charms. But it’s damn expensive as well.

Is it really worth it?

J and I chose to live just outside the city (just across the Hudson River) for the extra space. We always joke that we will move out of NJ before having kids, lest our kids become “New Joi-sians.” However, seeing as a decent two-bedroom apartment in Manhattan costs at least $1.2 million (with the average being $1.5 million), we’re highly doubtful that we will be able to save the minimum $240,000 down payment in time.

We hope to be able to afford a nice two-bedroom in Brooklyn or Hoboken in a few years. But even if our plans don’t pan out, our current 1,067 sqft condo with two bedrooms and two bathrooms allows us plenty of space for a little one.

I can’t imagine how full families choose to live in spaces half the size of our condo.

What about you? Would you sacrifice space for location?

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Oct 9, 2008  •  In NYC, Personal
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Good News & Bad News

I have good news and bad news.

Which do you want first?

Well, you have no choice because I’m writing. Ha!

The Good News:

Remember when I wrote of the “Lincoln Lunatic”? Well, he has been caught!

The Bad News:

I’m sorry to say that I missed the full-sized missile replica with the words “Viva Viagra” emblazoned on its side driving through Manhattan last month.


(image via the New York Post)

Apparently, Pfizer sued Jet Angel for the stunt and courts today ruled in favor of Pfizer.

Wait for the bad news.

Wait…

According to testimony, officials at the Lincoln Tunnel never checked to see if the missile was real or not.

Police at the Midtown Tunnel only laughed at the stunt.

They stop all traffic for 2+ hours for a couple of bottles, but never check to see if a realistic, life-sized missile is real or fake?

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Oct 9, 2008  •  In Personal
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Protected Post

*Protected Post*

If you want to view the post, please leave a comment, your email, and a desired username (or you can send me information through the Contact page). I will then create an account for you where you can log in to view the protected portion of my blog.

I will be updating the protected portion of my blog frequently in the future. The account will allow you to access this protected section anytime.

Thanks!

***ETA***

Okay, I’m an r-tard. I didn’t realize that I can set it so that new registrants can automatically be set to access the private posts.

Yet another great thing about Squarespace (yay!).

If you want access to my private posts, just register for a Geek in Heels account (ha it feels weird saying that) by clicking on the “Register” link under the “Navigation” portion of the sidebar. Once you log in, you will see a new link under “Navigation” called “Private Posts” – that’s where all my private posts will reside.

You can also sign up for automatic updates once you are registered. I know most people use RSS these days, but some people still prefer email!

No, I’m not only doing this to drive traffic to my site, as some people have suggested (ahem). I often find that I want to write about things that I don’t want published to anyone and everyone. This way, I can still write about private things and not feel quite as exposed.

(Sorry to those who had contacted me already. If you don’t like the usernames I made up for you, let me know and I’ll make the changes!)

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Oct 7, 2008  •  In Books, Gadgets
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Would You Dump Books to Go Digital?

Sony announced a new Reader Digital Book last week. What sets the PRS-700 from the popular Amazon Kindle is that it has a touchscreen (for easy highlighting and annotating) and the ability to read in landscape mode.


(images from the PRS-700 press release)

 

The very next day, pictures of the Amazon Kindle 2 made its way to The Boy Genius Report. (What impeccible timing! Did Amazon “accidentally” release the photos?)

Me rikey the new design!

As much as analysts tout e-readers as “the next generation of books,” I’m still not sold. Don’t get me wrong – I love technology and new gadgets. I’ve seen the Kindle live, in action, and think it’s pretty dope.

However, nothing can replace the tactile feel of a book. The dry rustling pages between your fingers. The rich texture of leather-bound copies. The smell of newly inked books. The smell of old, musty books. The sharp pain across your fingertips as you mishandle a book and receive a paper cut (sorry, I had to throw that in there because I’m such a klutz).

What do you think? Will books soon become obsolete in your life?

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