General – Page 199

Asus Eee

By Jay Lagare on Saturday, January 12, 2008

Yesterday, as I was heading out for lunch, I encountered Tessa at the elevator lobby. She was carrying this small black neoprene case that almost without a doubt contained an electronic gadget. From the dimensions, I concluded that it was an Asus Eee which I’ve heard and read quite a bit about. But to be sure, I asked her and she confirmed that it is indeed an Eee. We talked about it a bit but since lunch was waiting, I scheduled a visit with her for later in the afternoon. As soon as I got some free time, I went up to her office and played around with the Eee.

The Eee is a diminutive device. It is around an inch thick and about the size of A5 paper and quite light. But it seems well-built and quite robust. The screen is small but quite usable especially when applications are in full screen mode. The keyboard is also small but still quite usable. The 900MHz processor is not too powerful and the 512MB RAM not too big but the response of applications is quite snappy. The storage is a (surprise!) small at 4GB, but quite fast since it is solid state (i.e. flash-based). If you need more, you’ll need to use external storage via up to three USB ports. But then again, most everything are stored online these days. Speaking of online it has both wired and wireless network interfaces.

But here’s the killer: It’s Linux-based! I know what you’re thinking. That it would be a complex beast. But no, it is actually seems quite easy to use. It has two mode: simple mode and full mode. In simple mode you’re presented with a very simple tabbed menu with large icons that even a grandma would like. Full mode, on the other hand, is the traditional Linux GUI with access to the applications you expect including my favorite: ssh. Oh yeah!

Do I like it? Hell yeah! But being new to the market, it’s still a bit expensive for my liking. But if someone were to gift me one, I wouldn’t say no. The black one please!

General

Hapy New Year!

By Jay Lagare on Tuesday, January 1, 2008

I haven’t had a New Year resolution since forever. But this year, at Cez‘s suggestion, I have these:

Reach French level B1 by the end of year. This means I actually have to study!
Read more books. Specifically literary classics but maybe I’ll throw in a contemporary book. Maybe also one in French.
Take cooking or dance classes.
Take advanced photography classes.
Watch F1 in Singapore on September 26 to 28. Shanghai would probably be nice but I heard it will be way crowded. Singapore will hopefully be less so. Besides, I like F1 more than most Olympic sports.
Go on a road trip. Maybe Pagudpud. You’ll probably be driving more than you actually staying there but in this is a road trip. It is really about the journey! Question is who shares this philosophy? :))
Go surfing in Zambales or La Union.
Go hiking and camping in one trip.
Resume wargaming whether via paintball or airsoft.
Be less patient with people. You read that right :D

Plans more than resolutions :P

General

Department Christmas Party

By Jay Lagare on Saturday, December 22, 2007

Yesterday, we had our Department Christmas party. We first went to Global Gutz for paintball. It was tough going there because of the horrific traffic. But we all eventually got there and Sir Sonny himself briefed us. We then played 2 rounds of capture the flag and 2 rounds of speedball. It was tiring but fun especially since I racked up 3 or 4 kills. It helped that everyone else were newbies >:)

After playing, we went to Marina, a nearby restaurant where we had a late dinner, an exchange of gifts, and a raffle. I got a 7-piece pitcher and glass set in the gift exchange but didn’t win anything in the raffle :P

After dinner, we proceeded to Malate. It’s my first time at Malate and I hated it. It’s like SM malls on a 3-day sale weekend except instead of shopping, the people were out to dance and drink. Maybe to eat too though there certainly are better places with better food to eat in. Maybe also to be seen but I can’t figure out how you could be seen in that crowd or why you would like to be associated with them.

I’ve decided not to drink and without the benefit of an alcohol-induced haze, I came to the conclusion that the whole damn thing is mindless. At one point, people started cheering when they heard the first few bars of Teriyaki Boyz’s Tokyo Drift. It’s actually something they always do before they start bouncing around to any overly-played bouncy song. Mindless.

Without anything better to do, I went off to sulk at a corner table and drank coffee till it was time to go.

I’m so not fun. Haha.

General

x25by8 Get Together

By Jay Lagare on Saturday, December 15, 2007

Got together with former officemates from 25by8 for our annual Christmas get together yesterday at Jay-j’s, Ortigas HomeDepot. It was one of the bigger gatherings. As usual the girls gravitated towards each other and started talking about marriage, babies, and other such girlie things. And as usual the boys gravitated towards each other and started talking about computer games and programming languages and other such geeky things. Haha. 25by8 people sure are a swell bunch. Wish I could replicate that in my current company.

General

Tissot Le Locle

By Jay Lagare on Wednesday, December 12, 2007

I’ve been looking for a dress watch to complement my outdoors watch, a Suunto Observer. My requirements were standard dress watch: round, simple white or silver dial, and black leather strap. And it has to have good bang for the buck. I started by researching on the net and gradually narrowed down my choice to the Tissot Le Locle. It took a failed online order with Amazon and trips to The Podium, SM Mall of Asia, Rockwell Power Plant, Trinoma, and finally Shangri-La before I finally found it.

The Le Locle uses the ETA 2824-2 movement. It is a tried and tested automatic movement with manual wind and quick date set. Both features are useful for when you haven’t worn the watch for long and it dies. With manual wind, there no need to swing the watch around (and maybe bang it on something) to get the movement started. Quick set allows you to set the date directly without having to spin the hands through the 24 hour cycle. Less stress for you and the movement.

The 40mm case is round and made of stainless steel. The sides are vertically brushed while the lugs, bezel, and caseback are mirror polished. The face, of course, is sapphire. The caseback has engravings and a two-panel sapphire window where you can view the movement in action: the gears, the gold-plated rotor, the incabloc, etc. The view is a little cramped since instead of a one-piece, it has a two-piece sapphire window. The crown is a non-nonsense crown signed with a “T”. Simple and elegant.

The dial is silver with a crosshatch pattern (guilloche I think it’s called) Roman numeral hour markings. It has several other markings. On the upper part there’s the brand “TISSOT” and just below it “1853”. On the lower part, there’s the model “Le Locle” in script and just below it “AUTOMATIC”. Also at the lower part, near the edge of the dial is “SWISS MADE” just in case you forget it is. The three hands are black with a classic design.

The strap is black leather with a polished stainless steel deployment clasp. When closed, the only visible part of the clasp is a small strip with a “T” sign. It’s great, but I still think a standard buckle assembly is better.

The overall look and feel of the watch is that of a timeless classic. Exactly as I wanted.

More comprehensive reviews here and here.

Rating: 5/5