Geek in Heels - Page 213

Mar 14, 2008 • In Gadgets, Geek, Personal

Meet My New Baby

…my new MacBook Pro!

I constantly have memory-intensive programs such as Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and Quark all running at the same time….with music playing and Firefox and Safari opened to 12 different pages. As a result my old PowerBook G4 (which is now almost 4 years old) has been suffering a bit in the past year.

I knew I needed to get a replacement laptop since the fall of 2007, but I also knew that updates to the MacBook Pro line were imminent with the annual MacWorld conference coming up in January.

MacWorld came and went with the announcement of the MacBook Air, but not even a whisper about the MacBook Pro. I troweled all the Mac fan message boards and rumor sites to find that a small update was being predicted for February.

Never underestimate the knowledge and fanbase of Mac geeks. As predicted, Apple quietly announced the update to the MacBook and MacBook Pro lines on February 26th.

And I got my spankin-new MacBook Pro last night. 😀

The new Penryn-powered processors aren’t too big of a jump from the previous generation, but it sure is a big difference from my old 1.5 ghz PowerPC G4. My new baby came standard with 2 gb RAM, but I immediately ordered another 2 gb worth from Newegg to max it out at 4 gb. Everything runs so smoothly and lightening-fast, even outperforming the Power Mac I use at work.

Of course, no new large tech purchase is complete without unboxing pictures:

I love how Apple enforces their design aesthetics on all their products, even the packaging.

The first peek inside the box…

There’s my new baby!

I still remember when a friend told me her hometown is Cupertino and I immediately asked if I could visit her…and stay.

About to rip this sticker…

My hands were shaking at this point.

I had to make sure my mouth was closed so I don’t drool all over it.

Every Apple computer comes with these Apple stickers. I’ve read that the old ones (the colored stripe ones) can go for quite a penny on eBay.

Now, for some comparison pictures with my old baby:

The MacBook Pro is considerably thinner than the PowerBook.

A side-by-side comparison. Notice that the trackpad is larger on the MacBook Pro.

The MacBook Pro also has a rubberized cover over the hinge.

My old baby’s melted space bar. Long story. Suffice it to say, I’m a klutz.

The webcam! Now I have no excuse not to webcam-chat…

The infrared receiver for the remote.

Gosh, I love new toys…..

Book Review: Love Story

When I first met R, I thought he was a typical womanizer and wouldn’t give him the time of day. He tried his best to win me over and when he finally succeeded in taking me out on a date, I gave him the third degree. One of the first questions I asked was, “What is your favorite book?”

“Love Story,” he replied without hesitation.

I laughed him off for two reasons: (1) I knew Love Story well, because it was one of my favorite movies…and I had never come across any reference of it being a book also; and (2) I thought he was blowing smoke up my ass in an effort to get into my pants.

The next time I saw him, he handed me a dog-eared paperback. It was clear it had been read many times over, and it actually seemed to fit perfectly into his hands.

I began reading that night and didn’t stop until I finished.

I later discovered that the book was based on the screenplay for the movie – Paramount had pre-released the book to promote the movie. The book became an immediate success, quickly becoming the best selling fiction in the U.S. in 1970.

The plot itself isn’t particularly creative: boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, boy marries girl despite objections from his family, boy and girl struggle then finally make it to the top…but at what should be the happiest moment of their lives, the girl gets cancer and dies.

Rather, it is Erich Segal’s writing that draws the reader in:

What can you say about a twenty-five year old girl who died? That she was beautiful and brilliant. That she loved Mozart and Bach. The Beatles. And me.

Those first lines of the novel summarizes the book while captivating and preparing the reader, in my opinion, one of the best stories of real, imperfect love that is just so damn achingly beautiful.

I have always been a bookworm. I begged my parents to teach me to read at the age of three and have constantly had my nose in a book since. I own hundreds of books and read thousands in my lifetime.

That being said, Love Story still remains one of my all-time favorite books.

Heineken Beertender

When I first read about the Heineken Beertender on Geekologie back in January, I almost fell out of my chair. Because not only do I love beers, Heineken is my favorite common beer. And Krups is one of my favorite kitchen gadget brands. Put the two together and…wow I think I just had a mild orgasm.

Today, Gizmodo announced the official release date of the Beertender.

TOMORROW.

Anyone have an extra $299 they want to donate to the “Help Keep the Geek Hydrated and Happy” cause?

The Mona Lisa Smile

You may find it surprising that I was in a sorority in college. I was not only a member of this sorority, but I was very involved, having held three VP positions, a pledge mom one semester, and chapter president for two consecutive semesters. I can go on and on about my sorority days, but I’ll save that for another day.

One of the many things that the general public knows about the greek system is that when a member stars pledging, he/she is given a nickname. This nickname may be based on the pledge’s personality, looks, hobbies…almost anything!

My nickname was Mona Lisa. I will not divulge the exact meaning behind this name on the world wide web, but if you really want to know, ask and I’ll tell you. 😉

Although I have studied art history extensively and is an avid art lover, I have never really liked da Vinci’s masterpiece. When I visited the Louvre in Paris, I found the painting underwhelming and could not understand why it was so popular. However, after gaining this new nickname, I naturally became more interested in the lady with the mysterious smile.

I knew that art historians and critics have varying, sometimes outrageous theories on the portrait and its model but the one thing that everyone seemed to focus on was her smile. Why is the Mona Lisa‘s smile so intriguing?

And today, I discovered that there may be a scientific explanation: because da Vinci painted her in colors that play tricks on the eye.

Margaret S. Livingstone is a professor of neurobiology at Harvard who studies how cells in the visual system process information: form, color, depth, and movement. She explains that the Mona Lisa‘s smile is almost entirely in low spatial frequencies, and so is best seen by your peripheral vision.

The three images above show the Mona Lisa‘s face filtered to show selectively lowest (left) low (middle) and high (right) spatial frequencies.

So what does this mean? When you look at the Mona Lisa‘s eyes or the background, you will associate the painting with a smile like the left or middle panels and think she is smiling. However, if you look directly at her smile, you will see the smile depicted in the right panel, where her smile has vanished.

In other words, she always seems to be smiling but doesn’t when you look directly at her. All due to an optical illusion.

How awesome is that?!?

Via Collision Detection.

Design and the Elastic Mind

Yesterday, New York’s MoMA began an exhibition called Design and the Elastic Mind, which, according to their website, “focuses on designers’ ability to grasp momentous changes in technology, science, and social mores, changes that will demand or reflect major adjustments in human behavior, and convert them into objects and systems that people understand and use.”

In other words, geek art. Right up my alley.

Here are three works from the online gallery that particularly caught my eyes:

“Attracted to Light,” from the Long Exposure series, by Geoffrey Mann

“Attracted to Light narrates the erratic behavior of a moth upon the stimulus of light,” explains the designer. The trajectory is captured through cinematic technology and the echo of the path, materialized through rapid prototyping, forms a delicately poetic hanging lamp. The Long Exposure series, which features the trace of a bird in flight and the echo of another taking off and landing, captures the transient beauty of time and motion.

I usually cannot stand moths, but this piece is so fluid and beautiful. I love the fact that it resembles a high-end designer lamp, because the piece itself is centered around light: the moth swirling around a light source, and imagining the scene as captured through a long exposure camera.

“Newton Virus,” Troika

The Newton Virus applies the laws of gravity to computer interfaces, causing desktop icons to fall down as if subject to the earth’s gravitational pull. Troika is developing other computing viruses as “an under-exploited art form,” using them for poetic purposes far from their traditional destructive and obstructive goals. The designers invite anyone with programming skills and imagination to participate in this challenge through their Web site.

Totally geekalicious. Need I say more?

“Lily Impeller,” Jayden D. Harman

The Lily Impeller is a mixer “designed using the elegant and effective geometries found in natural fluid flow,” explains its designer. Its shape, based on the logarithmic curve known as the Fibonacci spiral found in nautilus shells and whirlpools, accommodates a centripetal flow of liquid with a little friction. As a result the device is capable of circulating millions of gallons of water with a minimal amount of energy. Used in municipal reservoir tanks, the mixer prevents drinking water from stagnating, reducing the need for disinfectant additives.

I’ve been fascinated with the Fibonacci spiral ever since reading about it in a textbook back in elementary school. And to use the spiral to streamline and make better a simple process, using crude metals nonetheless…genius!

Design and the Elastic Mind will run through May 12, 2008. Go check it out!

Starship Kimchi

An article in today’s NYTimes caught my eye:

Starship Kimchi: A Bold Taste Goes Where It Has Never Gone Before

Ko San, the first Korean astronaut, blasts off into space onto the ISS on April 8, and he will be bringing a hefty supply of kimchi.

While bringing a cherished food on a long journey might seem like a simple act, taking kimchi into space required millions of dollars in research and years of work.

“The key was how to make a bacteria-free kimchi while retaining its unique taste, color and texture,” said Lee Ju-woon at the Korean Atomic Energy Research Institute, who began working on the project in 2003 with samples of kimchi provided by his mother.

Ordinary kimchi is teeming with microbes, like lactic acid bacteria, which help fermentation. On Earth they are harmless, but scientists feared they could turn dangerous in space if cosmic rays and other radiation cause them to mutate.

Another problem was that kimchi has a short shelf life, especially when temperatures fluctuate rapidly, as they sometimes do in space.

“Imagine if a bag of kimchi starts fermenting and bubbling out of control and bursts all over the sensitive equipment of the spaceship,” Mr. Lee said.

He said his team found a way to kill the bacteria with radiation while retaining most of the original taste.

Kim Sung-soo, a Korea Food Research Institute scientist who also worked on “space kimchi,” said another challenge was reducing the strong smell, which can cause non-Koreans to blanch. He said researchers were able to reduce the smell by “one-third or by half,” according to tests conducted by local food companies.

As a Korean I’m all for the proliferation of kimchi. Kimchi should be served at all restaurants. In fact, one of my favorite pizza toppings is kimchi (I’m 100% serious here – the next time you’re having a plain cheese pizza, slap some kimchi on top of that bad boy. It’s an epicurean delight.)

However, spending millions and dedicating years of research? I’m not so sure about that. Couldn’t the time and resources be spent elsewhere?

Wishlist: Pantone Calendar

If you are at all familiar with design, printing, and/or publications, you should be aware of Pantone and its Pantone Matching System (PMS). (Pantone touts itself as the “global authority on color” and its PMS is the professional standard for design industries.)

And, as we all know, I’m a color freak.

So imagine my delight when I saw the 2008 Pantone Calendar featured in Black*Eiffel. Created by Swiss designer Moritz Zwimpfer, this desktop calendar features a different PMS color every day, with plenty of space below for appointments, notes, or doodles.

I also love that the pages are spiral-bound, which makes for easier writing.

The Pantone Calendar is available on Amazon for $28.

Wonderland

Yeondoo Jung, a Korean photographer, has a fantastic photo series called Wonderland (2005) where she translates children’s drawings to real-life recreations. I love it!

키다리 꽃
Giant Flowers
c-print
2004

가수가 되고 싶어요.
I Want to Be a Singer.
c-print
2004

고래가 꽃으로 변해요
The Magician Turned the Whale into a Flower.
c-print
2004

Miss Sparkle Sprinkles the Magic
c-print
2005

Via Neatorama.

The White Folks’ Guide to the NYC Subway System

Today’s Gothamist featured this hilarious mock-up of the NYC subway system:

I love how the only stop north of 86th St (and in the Bronx) is Yankee Stadium. 😀

My Latest Gadget Fix

When Steve (THE Steve….Steve Jobs) announced the Apple iPhone during his MacWorld 2007 keynote, geeks everywhere spasmed in joy and set off a maddening ecstasy comparable only to the legendary feeding frenzies of great white sharks.

I admit – I was one of the said geeks. I played the keynote over and over, drooling over Apple’s latest innovation.

However, when the iPhone was finally released after months of anticipation, I did not purchase one. Don’t get me wrong – I love the product. But the lack of 3G on a device touted as the ultimate phone-slash-data retrieval gadget was disheartening.

In addition, I couldn’t forget the cardinal rule of all frugal geeks: never purchase a first-generation gadget. No matter how well-designed and well-tested a device is, a first-generation gadget is guaranteed to have flaws and bugs. The second and subsequent generations will most likely have those flaws fixed, with better and newer features.

As the months flew by, my SE M600i had really started to bug me. I still loved its design and UI, but I just couldn’t get over T-Mobile’s crappy service and slow data transfers. In addition, as I filled the phone with more and more information, the Symbian OS really started to suffer and lag.

What I wouldn’t give to have access to Asia’s cell phone technology, which has already started to migrate to the 4G networks! Alas, moving to Korea was out of the question and I needed to deal with the U.S.’ outdated systems. So after years and years with T-Mobile, I decided to switch to Verizon. After all, Verizon’s EV-DO service is probably the closest thing we have to a full 3G network here in the states.

Plus, Verizon had just released the new LG Voyager.

The reviews were in, and they were mostly good. Some even called the Voyager “the iPhone killer.” In fact, many speculated that one of the main reasons Verizon had refused to carry the iPhone (and give into Apple’s restricting demands) was because they had the Voyager in works.

I was still not 100% sold, and did a lot more research. LG or Apple? Voyager or iPhone?

I think this article probably swayed me the most.

Plus, I gotta support the mother country. 😉

I freakin LOVE this phone!!!

For one, I had never used Verizon before, but the clarity in calls and the reception area is far superior to T-Mobile and AT&T.

I love the Voyager’s tactile touch-screen, the QWERTY keyboard, and fast (well, for the U.S.) data transfer speeds.

I especially love the built-in navigation system.

Although the Voyager is GPS-enabled, Verizon does not have a full GPS system. Rather, they triangulate your position based on their cell phone towers and work with third-party GPS companies to send you the information you need.

After reading this, I was a bit skeptical, but then I took it for a test run. I put it through the mother lode of tests, by using it on the GW Bridge. For those of you who are not familiar, as soon as you exit the bridge you are met with about 10 different options for exits, merges, and transfers to various streets, highways, and thruways.

The Voyager performed beautifully, even discerning lane changes and exits/entrances that were mere 50ft apart.

I immediately texted all my geeky friends and said, “my phone talks to me!”

So yes, I’m very happy with my new toy. I highly recommend the LG Voyager.

Meet My New Baby

You may also like:

Book Review: Love Story

You may also like:

Heineken Beertender

You may also like:

The Mona Lisa Smile

You may also like:

Design and the Elastic Mind

You may also like:

Starship Kimchi

You may also like:

Wishlist: Pantone Calendar

You may also like:

Wonderland

You may also like:

The White Folks’ Guide to the NYC Subway System

You may also like:

My Latest Gadget Fix

You may also like:

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