Google Earth - now works with KL!

Over the past week, we've gone Google Earth-mad at the office, spending hours marking our houses, favourite restaurants and random places in KL/PJ on the surprisingly-sharp satellite images (Click here for more info). Here are a few examples:

That's my house! (marked 'CR')




Two melodramatic Indian restaurants in PJ.




Bangsar - once the place to hang out if you had some sort of night life. Now just a place to go to if Hartamas is too crowded.




Hartamas - the Bangsar of the 21st century, I think... The funny thing about this place is that - in addition to the Mat Sallehs and rich kids with modified Japanese hatchbacks (mostly paid for by their dads) - even the low-life scum from Bangsar have migrated here. You know, the ones dressed like vagrants who just sit on the pavement, staring/whistling at girls, racing their motorcycles around the block and basically filling up the country's quota of sampah masyarakat.





Jalan P. Ramlee - the heart of KL's night life. This is where all the best clubs are, I think... That's where we had Alex's stag night.





And just a short distance away from Jalan P. Ramlee, is Luna Bar - possibly the coolest pub in town. It's located on the roof of a hotel, with an open-air area in the middle (with a pool!) and these cool bay windows that let you look out at the KL skyline. Plus, there's an awesome view of the KL tower from here.





Palace of the Golden Horses - an extravagant hotel located in the worst part of KL - miles away from the city centre with a perpetual traffic jam right outside its doorstep. Plus, I think that any hotel that calls itself a 'palace' is pushing it a bit...

Am I blessed, or am I being foolish?

One of the wonderful things about life is that it's uncertain - especially once you've finished your studies.

From the day I entered primary school to my final exam in university, my life really only had one path. Plus, it's had the same goal for about 16 years - to do well in my exams.

For as long as I can remember, my mum has always told me that 'Education is protection' (My grandad told her that as well). That as long as you've got good grades, doors will open to you.

The best part of all this, of course, is that nobody ever tells you what happens after you graduate.

I have a degree in Software Engineering (a masters, on top of that) and had bright dreams of joining the games industry while studying in the UK. In fact, I actively scanned through all job vacancies in games companies - published in a mailing list, as well as in respected gaming mags such as Edge.

In fact, there was even a games company right next to my department - Infogrammes, Sheffield House (They used to be called Gremlin - the guys who did the excellent Lotus Turbo Challenge for the Amiga). They even had a couple of talks about how to enter the games industry.

Unfortunately, as it turns out, my university didn't do much to prepare us for life as a game developer. The main problem was that they focused on Java programming when the only 'real' programming language used in the industry was C/C++. Even worse, the modules and lectures on game development and 3D graphics had too much theory, and not much practical work (Plus, it didn't cover enough material).

Even worse, the requirements for entry into the games industry are bloody high - every company wants someone with at least 3 years experience in another gaming company, fluency in C++/DirectX/OpenGL/PlaystationYAROZE programming and familiarity with tools like Metrowerks Codewarrior and Microsoft Visual C++ - none of which my university offered.

So yes, it's really hard for a fresh grad to break into the industry, especially if you're not the top of your class. Plus, it costs a lot of money to actually get hold of these tools and even more time to learn everything on your own - Something which I wasn't willing to do, unfortunately.

In the end, I graduated, came back to Malaysia, and saw my ambitions slipping far away as I tried (unsuccessfully) to program a 2D pinball game for my Mac with OpenGL. Part of the problem, i guess, was that I knew that I was making a game with ZERO commercial potential and - since I was doing it alone - was probably going to take forever.

Then, I stumbled into The Star and became a journalist - with my degree in Software Engineering calmly collecting dust on my bookshelf (At least, I think it's there...).

But as it turns out, it's a great job! I get to voice my opinions, meet people and play with loads of cool gadgets. But most of all, it allows me to express myself - to unleash my creativity within the limitations of ink and paper (in about a thousand words or less, of course).

Part of the reason for my wanting to become a game developer stems from the fact that I want to entertain. I like to make people happy. If I made a game and at least ONE person thought it was the best thing he ever played, it would've been worth it.

I guess the same could apply to tech journalism. Of course, nobody reviews your articles in a magazine and puts a score on it, so it's hard to see if what you write is really being appreciated by your readers, or whether it's just filling up space in the paper.

We rarely hear from readers or get words of praise, such as "Hey, that was a great story you did" or "Thanks a lot for the article, I found it very informative". But when it does come, I treasure it.

Dearly.

For at the end of the day, newspapers are a form of entertainment, and that makes me an entertainer.

The audience may have changed, but the effect is the same. So yes, I enjoy my job.

But here lies the problem. I've got a wonderful job as far as I'm concerned - there's less office politics, it's more laid back and far more fulfilling than most other desk jobs (After all, you're not just adding numbers or writing code).

However, i'll never make big bucks doing something I like. Because journalists (in Malaysia, at least) will never earn as much money as any other profession. All the big bucks go to either the guys in nice suits telling people how to do their jobs, or to the engineers, lawyers and accountants who are good enough to land a job in a high-profile company.

And that's the irony of it all. I have an Hons. 2nd class 1st division MEng in Software Engineering from the University of Sheffield - I could've easily applied for a job as a consultant or tried out to be a programmer in some upstart software company. I could climb the $@#&ing corporate ladder.

But I didn't, because I was chasing my dreams (and bumped into another one - journalism - by complete accident). Because I can never imagine myself stuck in a job where the only satisfaction is from getting the job done.

I'm driven by the need to express myself and for that, I thank God that I've found a job that I love - I go to the office and write articles everyday, but I've not worked a single day for the past two years :)

I'm blessed.

Or perhaps, I'm just being foolish.

---------------------------
BTW, I still haven't given up my dreams of becoming a game developer. Now, I'm toying around with PocketPC programming - it's fun.

Formula 1 - getting too friendly

I was browsing around and bumped into this:

BUDDIES (LEFT TO RIGHT): David Coulthard, Michael Schumacher, Bernie Ecclestone (the commercial rights owner of Formula 1), Mika Hakkinen and Rubens Barichello.

This is a really old pic, but it's no wonder that Ferrari keeps getting great deals and preferential treatment from the FIA and Formula 1 administration.

Amber Chia massages breasts in public!

Yesterday, The Star had a short report about a Breast Cancer-awareness campaign by the National Cancer Society of Malaysia in Taylor's College Subang Jaya.

They're teaching women how to self-examine, which is a good thing - better start when you're young cause you'll never know when (or if) you'll get breast cancer.

However, I found the accompanying photo pretty funny:



I dunno about you, but there's something fundamentally wrong about printing a picture of a someone massaging some fake tits in your local newspaper. A little naughty, if you ask me... :)

(Yes, yes. I know it's a serious issue, but if you were sipping coffee in the morning while reading the paper, wouldn't this make you go "Eh, what the... Oh!")

The ultimate guide to keeping fish

Ah, yes... My birthday has just passed (last Saturday), which also means that I've been keeping fish as a hobby for exactly one year.

In all this time, I've learnt a few important things about preventing fish from dying:

1. Don't get an air pump - They're useless.
just in case you don't already know, fish actually need oxygen to breath - not just water. What you may not realise is that the exchange of carbon dioxide(from the water to the air) and oxygen(from the air) only happens on the surface of the water.

Unless you plan on keeping aquatic plants (which is a far more complicated matter), you'll need to agitate the water surface (i.e. make ripples) to encourage the exchange of gases, so that the fish can breathe.

While you can use an air pump to do this, it's noisy - and the surface-agitation can be done by a water pump / filter anyway.

2. Get a filter - it is essential
Throughout the course of the day, your fish will eat, sleep, shit and urinate - just like us, actually. The difference, though, is that they have to swim through it 24/7. We, on the other hand, can always walk to the next room.

This waste is toxic, and can slowly kill your fish if you're not careful. So, you'll need a filter to get this waste away from your fish and to break it down into components which aren't harmful to your fish (through bacterial filtration or something like that).

That's why you'll also need to cycle your tank with special bacteria. You can buy it in a bottle (I use Nutrafin Cycle) from most pet shops - simply add a capful every time you do a water change. Eventually, your filter's elements (most likely a sponge) will house these bacteria and perform both chemical and physical filtration.

There are many different types of filters out there, but the best (for small tanks) are the outside-hanging filters (that work like a mini mechanical waterfall) or a completely submerged filter. I've recently switched to the latter after my old hanging filter started to leak. However, it is a little freaky having an 240v electric motor submerged in the same water as your beloved fish.

Apparently, they're pretty safe...


3. Do regular water changes
No matter how good your filter is, it will never keep the water in your tank clean forever - so some fresh water is always good for your fish.

It's simple, really... Just scoop out about a quarter of the water once a week, and replace it with fresh water (treated with anti-chlorine, of course). Try not to do a complete water change unless you're absolutely sure of what you're doing (or if you have to). Sudden changes in water temperature, carbon dioxide levels and other mineral levels can cause your fish to die of shock.

The filter needs to be cleaned as well, but about once every two weeks.

The thing about cleaning filters, is that you don't want it to be too clean. If you scrub it until it looks brand new again, you've probably killed off most of the helpful bacteria too. Just give it a quick rinse to get rid of larger waste particles.

4. Don't overcrowd your tank
Unless you're a pro, you should always keep the population of fish in your tank as low as possible. Fishes need personal space too - some are social fish, but some may prefer to be alone.

Also, a higher number of fish per litre of water also means greater chemical changes in the water for every little thing you do. For example, your fish may end up poisoning themselves if your filter isn't able to break down the their waste products quickly enough.

Similarly, if there's a power failure, a big tank with fewer smaller fish can survive for days. In a smaller tank with bigger/more fish, it'll be a matter of hours before your fish go belly up.

--------------------------------------

Well, that's all I can think of for now. In the meantime, here's a brief look at what my aquarium looked like a year ago and what it looks like now.

The original tank (bowl, actually):
This was my first fish bowl - barely 2 litres of water, an air-pump, no filtration at all and 5 fishes (three guppies and two upside-down catfish). The red arrow points to one of my catfish, 'Whiskers', who's still alive today! He's a hardy fish, and has been to hell and back under my care... Oh, and the red guppy in the photo died the next day - it jumped out of the tank. Other than Whiskers, the rest of the fish perished within a month.


My current tank:
Yes, I realise it looks empty... but that's because I've got a collection of weird fish. Basically, they're all bottom-dwellers and shy away from bright light whenever possible. So yes, I've got five fish in there (2 algae-eaters, 2 clown loaches and Whiskers, the upside-down catfish) and it still looks empty...

Inhabitant no. 1
That's Whiskers inside the fake bell. When I first got him, he was about an inch long. Now, he's about 4 inches long.

An interesting bit of trivia: he's the longest-lived pet I've ever had (Yes, I'm completely shit at keeping pets alive).

The cool thing about upside-down catfishes is that they swim upside down - sometimes. Whiskers swims belly-up at the surface of the water during feeding time and, if you time it properly, you can even get him to do roller coaster-style loops around the tank. Plus, he often leans on rocks (upright, with his tail facing downwards and his head facing the sky), which is a rather odd for a fish.


Inhabitant no. 2 & 3
That's one of my clown loaches. I got them because they look kinda like marine clown fish - but also because of their black and orange racing stripes (like an Ah-beng modified car). Plus, they've also got a very peculiar habit which I wasn't aware of until I got them: clown loaches like to lie on their sides at the bottom of the tank (sometimes, even upside down). Plus, they keep very still. This caused many heart-stopping moments during the first couple of weeks of owning them. Basically, I thought they'd died and reached in to scoop them out - only to have them dart behind the water filter...


Inhabitant no. 4 & 5
This is one of the algae-eaters. I'm not sure if that's what they're really called, but I got the pair of them to sort out a huge problem with my tank: it was completely covered in algae, which looked disgusting.

And about a week after I got the algae eaters, my tank was completely spotless. It's quite fun to watch them go about their cleaning, especially if you've got tank decorations with a thick layer of algae on them. As they suck on the surface of the decorations / glass, they leave clean algae-free trail behind them - kinda like watching someone mowing the lawn.



This is just another shot of the lot of them. I'm currently evaluating the possibility of adding more fish. Although I'm thinking of getting something that doesn't go into hiding every time I enter the room, I'll probably end up with more bottom-dwellers.

Why? Well, they all look cooler. They're wider rather than taller, which gives them a lower centre of gravity - good for making high-speed corners (just like Michael Schumacher's F2005 race car). Ok, maybe not.

More advice on keeping fish
I'm no expert at keeping fish, and most of what I've learnt is from trial and error. If you're planning on keeping some more exotic fish, I highly recommend seeking the help of an expert instead of going at it alone.

Apparently, my cousin Kien Chung is an expert at this sort of thing (especially when it comes to maintenance-free tanks with plants). He hasn't got a website, but he's got a business card and an e-mail address (kienchung@hotmail.com).

If anything, he can probably point you to some useful websites on keeping fish.

In this past year, I've really come to like this hobby. It feels good knowing that you're caring for some form of life other than yourself. Kinda like playing God, but without violent tendencies...

No, we're not gay...

After reading through the previous post, it suddenly occurred to me that we all look kinda gay (you know - whole bunch of guys clubbing together, getting comfy on the same bed, George Michael lookalike...)

Just to put the record straight: No, we're not gay...


Ok, I'm sure that didn't help. *doh!*

The stag night!

At last!

After about 5 days, I've finally gotten the pix from Alex' stag night into my Mac.

You see, the main problem is that I took the pictures with my Motorola V878 camera phone, which doesn't sync with Macs. Not only that, it's not plug-n-play with Windows either - I had to hunt for the syncing software in the box in which my phone came (it's been a year - Mel bought it for my birthday last year).

Long story short, finally installed the software on my Windows laptop, got the pictures online.

You actually have to drag each file at a time on this thing


-------------------------------------
Ok, back to the stag night...

Basically, the guys - Jun Kit, Hanif, Adrian, Ghana (still not sure how to spell his name after all these years), MK, myself and Alex (of course) headed to the nightspots round Jln P. Ramlee / Jln Sultan Ismail.

We went to some posh looking place first (can't remember what it's called... 'Passion'?) got a bottle, found it boring and went off to some other place near what used to be called 'Atmosphere'. Wait is it still called Atmosphere?

I think the place is called Bar Flam or some shit like that... Honestly, I don't go clubbing very often and I still can't remember the name of the bloody club next to my office at the foot of Eastin Hotel, PJ. Colors? Rush? Yessss... the place with all the Ah-Bengs and their 'modified' hatchbacks parked outside.

Anyway, this is what it looked like:

No, it wasn't much clearer in real life


We got happy with the drinks and all, but the highlight was probably one of the bar girls dancing on the, erm... bar. For some reason, all the guys in the place just stopped whatever it is that they were doing and stared at the girl as her backside swayed from left to right to the rhythm of something vaguely resembling music.

Maybe they expected her to drop her top or something. Probably...


That's the groom to be


That's Jun Kit and me



Look!!! It's Juan Pablo Montoya!!! Wait, or is that George Michael...?


Back at the hotel room, which we were at before we hit the clubs - to load up with our own (cheaper) booze, of course. That's Alex on the bed.

Surprisingly, not a single one of us puked that night. At least I didn't. Can't really remember...


TOP TO BOTTOM: Ghana, Adrian and Alex going to bed/already asleep. There's something fundamentally wrong about this picture...


And that's it. No strippers, no lap-dancing and, well... no girls, actually. Just booze. Apparently, one of us (no names mentioned) did try to get some girls to flash her headlamps at Alex but they were either 'Fully booked' or 'Too expensive'.

Just booze - good, clean, innocent fun. :)

Fastest VISA application ever...!

I'm quite impressed with the Japanese Embassy in Kuala Lumpur (at Persiaran Stonor, off Jalan Tun Razak).

I arrived there about 3:45pm (they close at 4:30pm), parked my car right outside the building, walked up to the guard house (to hand over my IC and get a pass), walked right into the VISA application office, handed over my passport (plus the application form and other relevant documents), got it all stamped and got a receipt telling me to come back in a couple of days time to collect my VISA.

And all this took less than 5 minutes. How efficient is that?



Now what really made my day was - as I departed the embassy and walked to my car - I could see the American Embassy from across the street, which had a huge queue of people waiting under the hot sun to get in. Most of whom had to park their cars about 100m away in the nearby empty plot of land.

Which is silly, of course.

If you've applied for a US visa before, you're probably aware of the amount of waiting you have to do just to collect the damn thing. Not only that, you also need to provide proof of employment, bank statements and go through some interview just to prove that you're not running off to their country to gain employment (or to blow stuff up).

All this is fine if you really want to visit that God forsaken country. But for the rest of us who are forced to go there because of business, it's a really annoying hassle.

Especially the condescending way in which the interviews are carried out. One particular bastard actually asked me a trick question to see if I would try to bullshit my way out of it.

Of course, I didn't know it was a bullshit question at first - and started to panic.

Aww, screw it... NIPPON EMBASSY BANZAI!!!

iPod nano officially launched in Malaysia

Yay! The iPod nano's officially here (although it has already been in some shops for the past couple of days or so). Quite fast, when you consider that it was only released in the USA a week ago.

The 4GB version costs about RM1,219 and the 2GB one costs RM969. You can probably get it for cheaper in Singapore, but that means you'll have to spend some money just to travel there. Unless you know someone coming from there... :)

Basically, it's really small. Sure, you probably know it's as thin as a 2B pencil and has a footprint that's about the size of a bar of Kit Kat.

There are smaller devices out there, but this feels smaller, thanks to the ratio between the nano's thickness and footprint. Plus, it looks great in black.

There are a whole bunch of accessories for it too:




The coolest accessory, though, is this Mercedes Benz A200 CDI:


It comes with an iPod connector in the glove box, which allows you to select tracks and adjust the volume with your steering wheel buttons and view track information on the dashboard's computer screen.

'Regular' iPod shown



Unfortunately, this isn't available in Malaysia. Yet. It'll probably cost more than RM180k, though (the car, not the connector).

Patience...

As it turns out, they actually did talk about high ISO noise performance of the EOS 5D and EOS 1D MkII N at the Canon launch a couple of days ago.

Apparently, someone else gave a more intelligent presentation after I had stormed off. The best part, of course, is that none of the other journalists I know realised I was even there...

Note to self: Be more patient next time.

Bangkok in 18 hours

The great thing about Bangkok is that there's lots to see. Unfortunately, I was only there for a grand total of 18 hours (including sleep, time at the airport, etc...). Needless to say, I didn't see much.

While the Royal Orchid Sheraton Hotel looks quite old from the outside, it's pretty damn nice on the inside. For starters, there was the band in the lounge.

Now when was the last time you saw a hotel in Malaysia where the band wasn't Filipino? It's nice to be able to actually understand what the performers say when they're not singing.

And they're quite talented too. They play mostly country, classic rock and easy listening stuff. And best of all, they don't play Michael Learns to Rock, Celine Dion or any of that rubbish. Very tasteful.

The other journalists and PR people started making fun of me when I took close-up shots of the female vocalist. You know, the usual childish "Wah, you ham sap loh (Cantonese for dirty bastard)! Taking pictures of girls arr...? What, for your own private collection izzit?"

I was annoyed and rather disappointed in their lack of maturity. Yes, she's pretty, but it's not like I'm spying on her from afar with a zoom lens (which is what they'd probably do). I've always had problems taking close-ups of people in the past but after some tips from a friend, I've learnt that the best way to take a portrait is to go up to the person and ask politely. It's a little odd at first, but - more often than not - people actually like having their pictures taken. Plus, it's definitely more respectful than zooming in from behind the bar/potted plants with a 300mm lens.


This was the view from my room. In Bangkok, the Royal Orchid Sheraton is unique in that every room faces the Chao Phrya river, which is cool. Shame about the haze, though...



These pictures were taken along one of the canals that branch off from the Chao Phrya river. Unlike most other major cities, the people of Bangkok use the river as a daily mode of transportation (via bus-like boats). Everyday, thousands (millions?) of people use these rivers to commute to work or to get around.



I'm sure I wasn't anywhere near the trendy or more modern parts of Bangkok, but these streets remind me a lot of the older parts of KL. What surprises me is how similar it is to KL, with food stalls by the roads, loads of motorcyclists, old buildings interleaved with new ones... Quite interesting. Wish I had more time to explore.


Last but not least, a silly English sign. There were also a bunch of signs at the airport saying "Apologize for any inconvenience cause. We are upgrading the system."

So, I'm supposed to say sorry that I have to queue longer than usual? :) Yup, Bangkok is similar to KL in many ways...

The ultimate guide to reading instructions...

In standard 5 (primary school), I had to sit for the end-of-semester Malay essay test. There were questions printed on both sides of the paper and, after looking through both of them, I picked the one on the first page and began writing. When I finished, I went through the essay a few times to make sure that my grammar was decent enough and made minor corrections.

After the tests, I got back my answer sheet and - true enough - I scored pretty well for that essay.

The only problem was, I was supposed to do the essays on BOTH sides of the paper. Which meant I ended up with a 'D'. I protested, arguing with the teacher "But you never said we had to write BOTH essays!"

But she answered, "Oh yes I DID. It says so in the instructions on the top of the first page!"

"Oh..."

My mom went to see the teacher the next day, asking if I could be excused for my stupidity and inability to read instructions. It was a big deal because it meant that I would be dropped from the "A" class and slotted into the slightly less mentally capable "B" class. In other words, there were 40 people in school who were smarter than I was. Of course, it meant that I met equally stupid friends such as Aloy. An ironic twist of fate.

Anyway, the reason why I'm being all nostalgic is because - about 17 years later - I STILL don't read instructions.

The latest example came after I received an e-mail detailing my upcoming assignment to Bangkok (which I've decided to tell my parents a couple of days before taking off). They asked if I was flying business class, which hotel I'm staying at and whether or not I would be touring the country.

I answered 'probably not', 'dunno - they all never tell me' and 'sure got no time one...' respectively.


I then handed my mom the itenerary, which (very clearly) stated that I would be flying in business class, that I'd be staying at the Royal Orchid Sheraton Hotel and that I'll be going on a cruise on the Chao Phraya river on my second day.

"Oh..."

Ok, it seemed funny when I was thinking about it in my head.

How to plan a stag night...

Step 1: Meet in pub with friends.

Step 2: Order loads of beer.

Step 3: Drink

Step 4: Make one friend the target of all jokes, insults, etc... (*cough!* *cough!* *aloy!* *cough!*)

Step 5: Leave pub while shouting to each other "Oi, who's getting the strippers arr...?" and "Eh, you want to become best man arr?" followed by "Can oso... but I don't even like you!" and ending with "Eh, hungry lah! Let's go mamak."

Step 6: Eat at mamak and go home.

Hopefully everything goes well...

He's having a wedding!

He's having a shit...

New IXUS and the domino effect

As it turns out, because I spent the whole of last night playing with my blog, I only woke up at 11am. The Canon launch started at 10am. Not good. At all.

With teeth unbrushed, hair undone and face unshaven, I jumped out of bed, picked up yesterday's clothes and hopped into the car. I'm sure I smelt like a basket of flowers...

Anyway, arrived at about 12pm and could see some familiar faces (i.e. other journalists) leaving the venue at KLCC. Arrived just in time to catch the PR people, take some photos and play around with the new camera: an IXUS i-Zoom.





It's really small, measuring 96x45x24mm and weighing 105g (about the size of an old-ish candy bar mobile phone). It has a 5-megapixel CCD sensor, 2.7x (38-90mm) optical zoom lens and a selection of four metallic colours. It'll cost RM1,499.

Also went to the new aquarium at the KL Convention Centre (called Aquaria KLCC) nearby to try out the Canon Powershot S2 IS we've got on review:

Even with image stabilisation, it was far too dark for the S2 IS to cope, so most of my pictures were full of camera shake. Good thing I brought my Nikon D70 along :). Here are some pictures taken with the S2 IS:

Turbo fish!

There's this cool-looking tank near the glass underwater tunnel


This is a view you don't want to see if you're swimming in the ocean


If the tunnel freaks you out, you can look from this big window instead...

...yes, the view here is pretty good too. And all this for RM28... depending on your point of view, this is either a bargain or a total waste of time.

No Nikon D200

With all the hype, rumours and fake images bouncing around the net (along with the knowledge that Nikon was having several press conferences today), I waited with baited breath for Nikon to announce the D200 - supposedly a 10+ megapixel digital camera based on a Nikon F6 body with other goodies such as an enhanced version of the Speedlite commander mode (found on the D70) and a larger viewfinder. Even Thom Hogan mentioned the D200 on his site, which added a fair amount of credibility to the rumours.

Of course, it turned out that Nikon were just announcing some updates to its range of sub-par Coolpix consumer digital cameras. Normally, this would be good news (well, better than nothing at all) but the thing is that - apart from the excellent Coolpix 8400 and 8800 - the entire Coolpix range is rubbish. Basically, their interface requires far too many button presses and menu navigation in order to get anything done. And from the looks of it, nothing's changed.

Looks like we'll have to wait till around Christmas for any D200 announcement (if it even exists).

Not that there's anything wrong with my Nikon D70, mind you. But it would be cool if Nikon released a professional digital SLR that doesn't weigh over a kilo or require a dedicated suitcase to carry around.

Going to a Canon camera launch in KLCC tomorrow at 10am. just after rush hour. Soooo looking forward to it...

Nokia N90

Kit finally got his new car today, so all 4 of us went out for a spin. Kelly tried out the video / photo recording functions of Nokia's new N90. It comes with a 2-megapixel sensor and a Carl Zeiss autofocus lens, apparently.

It also reinforces the stereotype that all 3G phones are big and bulky. It's nice to use, though... kinda like a phone that also happens to be a rubix cube.