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  • To Make Steve Rich Again Or Not… That is the Question!

    In around September 2008, I got an iPhone. It was a spur of the moment kind of thing, really. I wasn’t a Mac user back then, so the idea of using something close to Mac OS X (yup, iPhone is powered by a “lower-end” version of the big boy OS himself), was quite appealing. It was as if I could have a piece of the Apple with me, and take a bite from it whenever I wanted to.

    Well… not quite so. Because then I discovered the annoying limitations of the darned thing. What I had effectively done, was downgrade from a far more capable Nokia N73, to something that seemed to come from the Stone Age of Technology. It couldn’t run more than one app at the same time. It couldn’t forward SMS. It didn’t have MMS. It ate up my airtime.

    It sucked.

    But then, low and behold, two years later, along comes the Apple Media Event for iPhone OS 4.0, and it seems like the iPhone has once again wooed me… and the scary thing is that it just might be working. I’m starting to like this device again now. Apple’s really refined the OS, they’ve added those “lacking” features, and those darned software developers are writing some really cool apps for the thing (and leaving us faithful Nokia users out in the cold, too!).

    The biggest “win” factor for me from today’s address by El Jobso (alias Steve Jobs) was the announcement of multitasking. Finally, Apple! Welcome to 2010 — how was it back there in the Stone Age of Tech?

    As usual, the fruity company from Cuppertino has managed to make this feature pretty stylish, too. Couple this with the addition of a social network for gamers, and I think my next mobile may just be an iPhone.

    Wait. I can’t believe I actually wrote that.

    Okay, seriously speaking, I’m starting to re-consider and re-think my opinion of the iPhone; perhaps if Apple included a slide-out keyboard, then we’re talking! I’m a “traditional” tech guy; I like the feel of an actual keyboard when I’m typing on the phone. However, I’m not banking on this happening any time soon; I know OS 4 has the option of using a Bluetooth keyboard, but what if I’m out and about somewhere? I don’t care much for typing on a virtual keyboard, no matter how damn cool it looks. Because functionality does matter, right? We can only find out for sure, though, come World Wide Developers Conference 2010, where Apple usually unveils these new iThings.

    I guess the real question is, though, whether to make Steve rich again… or not.

  • The Moleskine: A Writer’s Best Friend

    As my writing career finally begins to take-off, I’ve realised that there really is only one way to remember the hundreds of ideas flying through my head on a daily basis: keeping a notebook.

    Because I write so frequently, it can be difficult to recall ideas for a particular article I’m writing. Thus, enter the Moleskine: I bought my first Moleskine about three years ago, after meeting one of my favourite authors of all time, Anthony Horowitz, at a book signing in Exclusive Books (my all-time favourite bookstore).

    At the time of buying it, I was so inspired by Horowitz’s advice to aspiring writers to “keep a notebook, and write as often as you possibly can” that perhaps this “pushed” me into buying my own Moleskine.

    However, I never quite seemed to use it as frequently as I’d anticipated.

    The other day, I read an article on GigaOM by one of my favourite bloggers, Om Malik, who said that he swore by his own Moleskine to jot down ideas for his posts.

    This got me thinking — I could finally put my own Moleskine notebook, which was otherwise used less-frequently to jot down random thoughts and ideas, to better use as an organizer for the many blog posts I seem to always have lined up. I still plan on using it as a repository for my thoughts and ideas; I find it wonderful to have what I deem an “extension of my mind” between the faux-leather covers of my little notebook.

    Until now, I’d use tacky Post-Its stuck all over my wall at my desk to remind me of what posts I’ve got lined up. Mind you, these notes were stuck in a jumbled fashion, with untidy scrawlings strewn one on top of the other.

    But as of late, when I’ve realised that my writing has “ramped-up” significantly , I need a place to actually write full-on ideas, paragraphs (sometimes even full posts, which I’ll end up editing significantly when I later type them up), and, of course, research notes.

    And the Moleskine certainly delivers.

    Once  used by the titans of the creative crafts — the great writers and artists such as Pablo Picasso, Hemingway and Bruce Chatwin (who, co-incidentally, inspired the commercialization of the Moleskine range of notebooks), my little notebook carries with it a sense of inspiration — that I’m writing in something that legends once used. It’s a thrilling thought.

    In an age when typing has taken over the craft of writing, it’s a refreshing change to be able to sit down, take my Parker in hand, open up my notebook, and put pen to paper.

    It carries with it a sense of liberating freedom of thoughts when writing long-hand. As the man who inspired me to use a notebook, Anthony Horowitz, once said in a video interview, “ink should flow through us like blood”.

  • Blogging: It’s an Art, Actually

    A recent watching of an old interview by one of my favorite bloggers, Om Malik, got me thinking about the actual practice of blogging.

    I’ve been involved in this trade for close onto three years now, after launching my first personal site at Blogger, then moving onto WordPress.com with the old Life in Pixels, and finally here, to my very own “proper” home on the web. Interspersed through my blogging adventures were my various attempts at creating a “commercial” blog, and naturally, being the tech enthusiast that I am, these ventures focussed on something to do with technology.

    My first attempt was Tech|Zone. This was a resounding success, and it’s reached over 40 000 pageviews (not bad for a first attempt, eh?)

    I moved from Tech|Zone to a more sophisticated blog called Byte Lounge, where my focus become more clear, in providing “definitive insights into the tech scene”. Also, having Byte Lounge hosted on Blogger allowed for me to implement advertising programmes on the site, as a way of getting a small “reward” for my efforts.

    But the one thing that I discovered, that’s really left an indent in my blogging experiences, was that blogging is not just a pastime, or a monetization opportunity — it’s an art.

    As Om said in the interview, blogging allows him to interact on a level unheard of before with his readers. If someone says they don’t like what he said in his post, he can learn from his mistakes and thus better his writing.

    The same goes for me, and it goes even further than the interaction with readers: blogging allows one to express themselves on a faster, intelligent level that can reach thousands in an incredibly short space of time. It improves writing skills, and allows writers to develop a more concise approach to communication.

    As I near the 100th post on Byte Lounge — a remarkable achievement for me, as it represents my growth as a blogger — I’ve begun reflecting on what it means to blog; what it means to express your opinions on a platform that allows others to see and collaborate on.

    While I haven’t yet got the definitive answer to my philosophical question (I’ve been known to be quite philosophical) the joys that blogging has brought me is something that I’d never for a million bucks exchange.

    There’s something about writing a great post — knowing you’ve written it well — and clicking “Publish”, and that feeling of knowing that others out there, perhaps who you’ve never met in your entire life, reading and providing their feedback, that makes those hours slaving over a hot keyboard worth it.

  • Getting Into the Writing Mood Again…

    Term 1 is slowly but surely creeping to a close; a monstrous, tiresome and yet rewarding school term where a few of my goals for 2010 were realised.

    I now serve on the school’s Representative Council, and I aim to take that a step higher by contributing in a grander way to the place that I’ve known for nearly 12 years now.

    But with the end of term looming, I am excited to return to the novel I began writing in July last year (and then stopped, and began from scratch with an entirely new plot line in November). I am already over 12 000 words in (though I need about 70 000 for it to be called a “novel”), and hope to make some good progress within the two weeks of down-time that I have.

    Writing, as you’ll have realised from my blog, is something I enjoy a lot. But when I’m faced with a mammoth task such as this, the writing of an entire novel — and a science fiction one at that — it can be daunting.

    So, I’ve been following a great blog set up by the writer of another of my favourite blogs, Zen Habits, called WriteToDone. There are some great articles there on how to keep focussed with your writing, how to make writing sessions more effective, and how to get the most out of writing in your life. I highly recommend all aspiring writers to visit.

    And with that, I hope to write again in the future of more progress with this mammoth project. In the meantime, don’t forget to follow me on Twitter to get the latest.

  • As Mad as a Hatter: Alice in Wonderland thoughts

    I went to see Alice in Wonderland last night with my friends. It’s one of those movies that I was looking forward to watching for months on end, and I was really excited come Friday 5th March to see what it’d be like.

    Plus, there was that formidable partnership of Johnny Depp and Tim Burton. It’s an offer even the most discerning of film buffs can’t refuse.

    So, we settled in to our comfy cinema seats, glasses on (we saw the 3D version), and tilted our necks up to see the silver screen (unfortunately we only got seats in the very front row, although we were so desperate to see the movie as soon as possible that we didn’t actually mind –  hey, if you’re a Depp/Burton fan like me, you’ve gotta sacrifice some things sometime).

    From the moment the Walt Disney logo came on, with that sweeping cinematic music that can only accompany the greatest of cinema, I knew this was going to be good. Really good.

    And that unfortunately, was the biggest problem with Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland. There was way too much high expectation of it. And for me, it was not all “that”, once I walked out of the cinema after two hours of visual overload.

    The graphics were amazing. This movie, like Avatar, is a showcase of the most expensive technology in the biz coming together to create the most beautiful-looking frames.

    But we all know that a really good movie actually relies on two distinct things: the storyline, and the acting.

    Burton’s Alice has a compelling storyline. It’s a fresh take on one of the most celebrated tales in our literature history. It has that perfect Disney combination: wit, moral value, family entertainment, and inspiring dialogue.

    But it was the acting that I was really looking forward to. As I mentioned earlier, I am a huge fan of Johnny Depp, and I’ve been enthralled with his performances in Sweeney Todd, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Public Enemies. But in Alice, there seemed to be something… missing in his performance. He was very bland, to put it bluntly. I felt he could’ve portrayed the eccentric character of the Mad Hatter in a far more exciting way.

    Sure, his performance from a technical standpoint was excellent. There was the right balance of emotion, gesture, and method-acting focus that we’ve come to expect from such a high calibre actor, but Depp didn’t play out the Hatter to its full extent; he didn’t push his character to its limits.

    But overall, I enjoyed this film, as a good cinematic escape. It took me to a new world, captured my imagination, and inspired me to believe that “nothing is impossible.” And so, after all, it was the story that won me over. I’d recommend you definitely see this film, as it is a benchmark in the progress of modern cinema. But be cautioned: don’t go in with the high expectations I had.