6th day with iMac

Today is the 6th day with the new iMac. The feeling toward it is still more "strange" and "hard to use" than a Windows PC. Probably I am too used to the "Windows-way".

Besides transferring some songs, importing Emil Chau's "Rain Man", and writing blogs, these days I spent most of my time on importing and organizing my photos with iPhoto. I already successfully crashed the iPhoto several times. For example, create an album "2004 HK 1-day trip" under some folder and fill it with several hundreds photos. Then create another smart album under another folder, set the name of this smart album to "2004 HK 1-day trip" and set the smart settings to "Album is 2004 HK 1-day trip". Then the program freeze and not responsing. But it keeps taking more and more memory slowly.

Today, I plugged an USB harddisk with NTFS format to the mac. I didn't realize that Mac OS X cannot write to NTFS partition (may be I just forgot). Anyway, after several click and move folder, the computer frozen! What? It's a Mac... My first hard-reboot.

I still too new to Mac. But somehow it looks like Linux to me now, besides with the familiar interface of iTunes and iPhoto.

Order of 20" iMac (MA589/A)

Long waiting for nearly a decade, I'd orderd a 20" iMac with upgraded harddisk and keyboard/mouse finally on Wendesday. I'm expecting it delivering in one or two weeeks. By that time, I've to decide whether I should settle the bill in full by cash or EPS and save $500, or settle it by 12-month interest-free installment on VISA card without any discount. Assuming that I select the installment and the money was put into a saving account, the complex interest and the cash rebate on VISA card can add up to $200-$220. That mean I still have to pay $280 extra for the installment. My friend said that is the fee for installment. Quite true. But paying $13930 in full now is quite heavy and unhealthy to my financial report. Yet, $280 in value, unless the interest was rasied by a double, otherwise, the money in saving account can never earn that back.

I just thought of another installment: first I settle the bill by cash and account into Liability, which then I return it month, on my own schedule. That way, the money will not instantly gone on my report and yet, I get both installment and cash discount. (umm... this may sound complicated but... it just fits and works on my financial planner)

Anyway, I still have a week before I've to make up my mind (unless the computer arrive earlier than expected).

Letters Replace Numbers for New Nokia Phones

〔電信產業〕諾基亞效法敵手,未來新手機將以名稱代替數字編號
(路透社) 09月 08日 星期五 08:10PM
路透赫爾辛基電---全球最大的手機製造商諾基亞(Nokia)周四表示，將效仿競爭對手頗為成功的RAZR、「巧克力」等名稱給新手機命名，代替過去的數字編號方式。

諾基亞行銷主管帕爾迪(Keith Pardy)在花旗集團(Citigroup)紐約投資者會議的網路視頻中說：「未來你們看到的將不光是我們的編號系統，你們將開始看到具有某種意涵、且對消費者有重要意義的名稱。」

帕爾迪並未說明究竟是會為全部新機型命名，還是仍會有部分機型以四位數字編號問世。諾基亞本周稍早推出了7390、7373、7360等新機型。

競爭對手摩托羅拉(Motorola)超薄型RAZR手機熱銷，隨後決定多款新機型以四個英文字母命名，諸如SLVR(讀音為sliver)和PEBL(讀pebble)。LG電子的超薄滑蓋手機「巧克力機」也掀起搶購熱潮。

分析師稱，給手機起名並不會改變根本，但對該計劃予以肯定。FIM Securities分析師許厄蒂表示：「沒有人會記得數字。人們希望用名字稱呼手機。數字沒有意涵或感情色彩。」(完)

--翻譯 烏雲高娃;審校 劉瑞芬

E Bible for Mobile (free)

Recently, one of my friends turn to Pocket PC phone from Symbian S60 phone. Smart choices because Pocket PC could be more applicational than Symbian, when both are being compared on phone devices.

He found a free Bible for Pocket PC, namely Pocket e-Sword (official website). It is quite powerful, honestly. And most importantly it is free. However, it doesn't seems to be stable on my Acer n300. Probably because I've installed the program to memory card instead of the internal memory, which the website recommended. I don't have any screenshots yet. But you may find more from the link above.

At the same time, another friend is looking for a e-bible for her Nokia 6280. Here is the one her friend had referred to her: Go Bible. This is a Java (J2ME) applications. Please note the Java limitation of your phone prior to installation. Owners of Nokia phones may click here for device specifications.

May God bless you.


p.s. By the way, I found some links from http://www.christianpda.org/. Registration is required even for browsing. What the! Browsing should be registration-free. It seems to be a personal information collecting forum. Be aware.