Pictures for thoughts...... *:-)

Being Stoned

Embracing creativity and open source values

I am sick now...so of course naturally, i am feeling dead bored. Not waiting to do nothing, all i did is read and surf and read.

Stumbled across on Wired's Article on Lego's Mindstorm, Geeks in Toyland. For some reason, this geek toy did not catch my attention for a long time. At least now it had caught me for sure. Interestingly, it was'nt the technical content that interest me, but the way how Lego's Mindstorm management team embrace creativity in a wide scope without compromising their business values.

To cut the story short, the intial Mindstorm's firmware or OS that interfaces between the user and the logic controller of the Mindstorm's brain were pretty un-intutives and cumbersome to learn and built.

Insteads of needing less than an hour to built a robot, many are finding it's hard and had it work exactly what they wanted. Many kids shuned away while the adult happily friggles away, so Lego's Executives need to re-think and how to "buy" the concept back into the kids, so they outsourced the software development to National Instrument, as Lego build plastic blocks of bricks, not software!

However to their awe, a Standford student named Kekoa Proudfoot reversed engineered the new code and posted his finding online. Soon various engineers concerted their effort to create an Open source Mindstorm's firmware called LegOS. It's caught the attention of Lego's executives and it's legal department was very eager eagle to a pull a full stop to all these unathorised intrusion of IP.

However, ingeniously Lego embraced their effort and believed that people buying the values of Mindstorm's product does not stop at their own imagination and creativity. Thus creating an open community committed to the improvement of Lego's Mindstorm product lines.

So brickhead's manufacturers are'nt too blocky either. :D

In the supersecret research lab at Lego headquarters in Billund, Denmark, a sign hangs on the wall: “We will do for robotics what iPod did for music.”

:D

Post sighted at YesButNoButYes on their article on Sony vs Lego.

Retrospective

Manz....can't believed it, i'm still down with Flu over the past few days everythings was likes living like a zombie with no corpse to eat. :D darn sucky..

Taiwan's line, i think she's very jammed, she's donning my favorite hair style :D

Betel Nut Girls, Taiwan's wonder

Geez, i have to admit heartily that i have never been to Taiwan, but i'd heard great deals about the Betel Nut Girls dressing scantily to attract customers. Having heard from friends that they are almost everywhere the places, but seriously it's really hard for me to picture what they looked likes actually until today, having fallen sick at CNY, i started to surf some of the blog sites dedicated to write about their life in Taiwan. Mostly, making up of english educators teaching in Taiwan are offering great insight into Taiwan's Political scene and social mechanism, [one of my favorite soughted after topic].

Despite the local media have been portraying how mess up Taiwan's political scene thru their internal parliamentary struggles via parties brawls, however one failed to realise how democratic has Taiwan gotten to date and how Authoritarian our hinterland had gotten to be. In the next few years, i won't see Singapore turning to be a much open society due to PAP's paternality ruling.

Interesting to said, President Chen has been rotating Premier almost every years. And to correlate it with their political struggles and upholding it's existence against Mainland Chinese's yearness for Chinese's Unification effort, Netel Nut girl's is another profession that has little appreciation....at least not in the eye of a dirty old man :D

Who are Netel Nut girl actually? And why they were so integral to Taiwan economic and social's status quo despites citing long term consumption of Netel Nut leads to oral cancer.

According to Micheal's blog, there are closed to 100,000 Betel Nut stands scattering the whole of Taiwan mainland, the economical impact could have been quite an impact on re-creating jobs for these girls, not dismissing the severance of supply chains on Betel Nut plantation and public's demands.

Excerpts from Michael Thurton's site.

Betel Nut Girls are one of Taiwan's distinctive features. Born at the beginning of the 1990s, their popularity grew out of a number of social trends: vanishing jobs for unskilled females in Taiwan's factories, the embrace of "traditional" Taiwanese culture that celebrated betel nut, and competition for customers for the island's 100,000 betel nut stands. According to one researcher, about 60,000 of the stands feature an underdressed babe. Keep in mind that the nuts have to be processed -- slit open and a mixture of flavorings inserted -- a repetitive fine motor task well suited to young, unskilled women, so that the use of young women is probably inevitable in any case. As for myself, I have no idea why barely clad women selling stimulants along public roadways is so interesting. I offer this page purely as a visual database about this important facet of the culture and economy of Taiwan.

More pictures here

And Leakypen's blog aslo have a similar article as well. Picture also from Leakypen

Flouro design for you, Sire?

Guessed, how many of you actually paid attentions to the flourescent lamp designs that could illuminate corners and create a special ambient within our living habitat.

Dan Flavin's sublime way of constructing lighting deco with flourescent lamps offers a new perspective in lighting design. I could said, it's gave a unique sense of being "enlight-ed" by some carefully designed lamps which we never imagined that they do made a good design materials.

Check out his gallery..

Year of the Oversize Spectacle?

Oversized framed spectacle seemed to be in vogue lately. So much that most varieties of frame makers are churning out in greater quantity now. Styled with clean line, protecting the iris using Polariod's latest U.V protective len, Leopold offers a whole new ranges of oversized sunshades and different styling. Promised to make you outstanding amoong the crowd, i would said real hard not to look at someone donning a oversized sunshade, dun we?

They look great as fashion statement, however you may not want to look likes Michael Hui & Sam Hui in "Private eye" with those huge sunglasses... hee.. B-)

So who said, old stuffs no longer fashionable?

Tokyo Confidential

Found it at "I like toys" blog, that one of our local boy, Anthony Koithra had made a lil resemblence of a documentary but not sustantially long enough to quanlify it as a full length documentary of Tokyo's scene which some of the stuffs shown is not something you can see if you ever tour Tokyo.

13 min stretch and probably filmed using a Panasonic Digital Video cam. It even won a grand prize in National Geographic MyAsia Short Film Competition.

Honda, the Impossible dream

Let's take a little stroll onto Honda's motor car making history, i quite liked the concept of running from a little puny bike to a modern Honda vechicle. Play the Video and pump up the volume please! Play

Again playing back in Technicolor...:)

Political cartoon for CNY eve

Onitsuka Tiger, Mexico 66 Baja

Gotten the Onitsuka Asic Tiger shoe today @Stars Three Sixty @Lane Crawford. Lily was nice enough to accompany me there to get my little shoe. But the model that i was looking for was sold out, sob sob. Finally, i thought Mexico 66 Baja [with velco straps] was a good alternative to my initial Mexico 66, Blue and Red stripes.

I chose the Orange stripes/Birch leather top, while Lily preferred the Brown and Beige top. Both are nice, but i think Orange/Birch might looks a little outstandish while Brown/Beige prefer a subtle setting. Guessed, i need some attention sometime!! :P

This two months i'd have done quite a fair bits of shopping spree. x2 Zara's Man Business shirts, x1 Adidas Dri-Fit running top, x1 Adidas Tennis top, FCUK long Sleeve shirt, Olympus C8080 Digital Camera and Diesel Denim Jean. It's no wonder the idiot government said i lifted the economy up by a few percentage. :P

Now i need to work on my next target, an IWC Mark XIV vintage watch. Wish me luck hor.

There's Lily coming along to help me choose my shoe, such sweetness...hopefully i won't need the shoe to run away from her. :p

Thanks...babe, in crop and displayed in Technicolor for a good reason. :)

Post my Desktop, yes i am a wallpaper freak :p

Random thoughts, CNY eve

Just a small good wishes to all my friends and visitors a Happy Chinese Lunar New Year.

Gong Hei Fatt Choi :D

Never wear a Seal felt winter suit in a zoo!!

Considered yourself warned.... :p already been proven, haha :D

Samsung SCH-B500 Mobile Digital Cam Phone

Samsung's SCH-B500 looks like a stunner with all metal finishing, again the Korean Electronic giant is making more in-road into Digital camera manufacturing when they OEM-ed some of the Pentax Prosumer camera and rebadged as their own. Samsung will be introducing more Digital SLRs in the coming months.

The 7.7Megapixel phone offers 3x optical zoom, TV output and uses MicroSD as storage.

Can't miss this phone, i would think.

Darn it, i better join Ballet Class...

Young Angeline Jodie

Angeline Jodie has got to be my favorite so far, darn this Brad Pitt snatched her under my nose.

I got some of her teenager's pictures URL. So still a stunner in her teen. How nice i can just sleep beside her...:P

Magazine Illusion

Quite a cool idea actually. :P Did not know that magazine's images can be so creatives

Check the site out :D Here

Brokeback Topgun Squadron, darn gay...

Honda Civic Ad, freaking cool [ Honda UK]

I have to admit this is one of the best car ad i ever seen so far.

Click here the best sound and driving experience. :D

From Honda UK

Cat woman on the loose...meowWww purrr

Cool new anime-ish MTV

Yearning for a good anime-ish inspired MTV?

Run your mouse over Pleix Film

Drew Barrymore no bra Saturday Night's Live

Hee...Drew Barrymore seems rather a humorous gal...how i wish she places her tits on my head insteads...anyway i dun buy 4D, that does'nt not hurt me much...hehe :P

I give u, Spider man!!!

Remember Zachary Travis

For a moment, i thought he was a "Gal"

Sibeh Sian, Liverpool lost to Man U

Am not a Liverpool's fan, but gotten the news that Liverpool had lost to a last min goal grasp from the freak Rio Ferdinand really made my blood boils.... 1-0 to Man U.

A Man U's lost is a good news to me anytime. But it did not went that way...well..

:(

Random thoughts

Just random shots...

Sis going to Dubai for a month

Lil sis, Retna will be heading to Dubai for a month assignment. Hopefully, she can find what she want in her career and cancel out all her "crisis" in one swipe.

G'luck, Chok Dee to your trip @10 Feb.

Mercede latest SL series coupe

Suey mak mak!!

Taken from Autoblog

Though falling far short of a complete redesign, the Mercedes Benz SL-Class will get a few upgrades this year not the least of which is a new engine lineup. The SL’s trio of powerplants will include a new 272-hp V6 for the SL350, the company’s new 5.5L V8 making 388 hp for the SL500, and finally a reworked biturbo V12 in the SL600 that offers its opulent owner 517 hp.

Other improvements include a new exhaust system for each engine, new steering set up, a revised Active Body Control System and new 7G-TRONIC sport shifter that changes cogs 30% faster thanks to shift paddles on the steering wheel.

The sheetmetal that wraps this expensive gift has also been reworked at both the front and rear ends, although only the most discriminating connoisseur could tell. Inside the cabin Mercedes has only tweaked a few color choices and splashed some chrome and aluminum trim about.

KIA Motor fats rising car in Europe

Stupid Eddy made me giam that the car's price had plunge to a new low due to low COE bidding last month, even bro went out to trade in his Nissian Sunny. Well, while taking curiosity therapy by heading to some local car's web site for pricing. KIA offers the best price for 1.6 litre car. But i expect more people rushing out for new car.

I'd rather wait since i have no hurry getting a car or i have to wait for something else to happen to decide. Anyway, US economy now is in a melting pot now and going thru deep deficits and Baby Bush is brewing his war against Iran. I'd only see Europe as one of the rising money chip trader, story goes around why US attack Iraq because Saddam switched to Euro dollar for oil trading, hard to swallow?

Anyway, this caught my attention while reading Cars blog. KIA has just garnered to be one of the growing car markers in West Europe for three straight years.

That's a very good effort by the Korean.

Quick snipe below.

(SEOUL) January 17, 2006 -- Kia Motors Corporation continues its record
breaking growth in the Western European market. According to the ACEA'S
(European Automobile Manufacturers Association) 2005 New Passenger Car
Registrations, Kia achieved 39% year-on-year sales growth with 230,743
units sold in 15 EU member countries plus 3 EFTA countries in 2005, thereby
cementing its position as the fastest growing automaker in the Western
European market for three years in a row.

Kia was the region's fastest growing automaker in both 2003 and 2004, with
impressive year-on-year sales growth of 48.4% and 54.9%, respectively.
Kia's market share has also increased from 0.8% in 2003 to 1.1% in 2004
and 1.6% in 2005. 

Scarlett Johansson's boob was fondled...woah!!

Actress Scarlett Johansson's boob was touched during the Golden Globe interview, and apparently being gay he allows to fondle her boob. Wahhh...maybe next time i pretend to be one..:P

Humors

Values selling, iPod & baiting Microsoft

Stumbled on this article how Steve Job is trying to bait Microsoft going into portable MP3 player market. As everyone jolly well knew, Microsoft also supplies the Window media player for Portable player but has yet to sank it's tooth into making the physical player. But why Steve want Microsoft to join into the fray when the MP3 market has already gotten so conjested?

Apparently, Steve is looking for more companiesto license Fairplay DRM in order to use iTune Music Service. That's is very intelligent of him...by luring Microsoft into the hardware maufacturing, that will probably drives many different manufacturers to go the Apple
s way.. Brilliant indeed.

iPod has evolved to be one most successful milkcow products that Apple had made so far, interestingly iPod has created so many values enticing propositions that i would said it is still very hard to resist an iPods no matter which model you buy. The range of 3rd parties accessories is enomorous and not only it's provide an enticing reasons to own a fashion icon but also allows may third parties manufacturers to made accessories and profit from it altogether.

Chaining them altogether, it's get into a complete Supple Chain end to end facilitating by Apple.

Amazing idea...i would said.

Never takes away the benefits of creating value chains.

Fully monty here

Blow Monkey

Hee, not entirely related to the 80's pop group called The Blow Monkey, but it's the latest junk accessory from UK selling for $8 for ladies.

The chimp only requires Three AAA batteries.

Shoe lover, we give you cardboy sneaker

Hee, everytime u buy a new shoe, i guessed most of us keep the shoe boxes for some kind of storage or rememberance [me lah]..hee However artist's Mark James who previously made cardboy has crafted a new kind of toy called "Sneaker". The idea of this new creation is to pay homages to sneaker shoes in our generation. Speaking of which, i had 5 pairs of sneaker shoes and about to add one pair into my addition.

Will be widely available in NY & UK sometimes in early Feb.

That's kinda remind me of my birthday [24 Feb] is coming, along with some of the Feb's kids i knew. As listed below

• Paulyn Ong & Cecilia Tan [Same birth date, 5 Feb]
  
• Nung
  
• Amy [Stamford Tour agent, my big sis!! same birth date as me]
• Tong [ex-army friend same birth date, no contact liao]
• Steve Job [ haha ;D same birth date leh, charismatically same same]
• Ken Koo [ rumored to be Feb kid as well, TBA. Towkay of Red Dot, Singapore]

Images

Purchase thru Playbeast [Sold Out!]

Nike 30 years of AIR

Through out my life, i had only own a pair of Nike AIR running shoe, it did not last long actually. Due to Singapore's humility, it pretty hard for these shoes to stay in perfect condition, mine's shoe sole was eroded and broke down into flakes.

However, Nike AIR miraculously has been around for 30 years!! My goodness.

I am a little lazy to type this Nike Air article, but i will pull bits off Beinghunted with credits and they also have a wallpaper to download to commemorate the shoes.

800x600 1024x768 1600x1200

Ever since 1979, when Nike first introduced the Air Technology to its athletic footwear range, we have been running, walking, and sometimes even dancing on Air. With "3 Decades of Cushioning" Nike has put together a special project to pay tribute to the accomplishments of design and technology over these past thirty years and to introduce its newest Air product, the revolutionary Air Max 360.

Mark Parker, brand president of Nike, personally selected some of the most iconic Nike Air cushioning products and issued a briefing to Nike designers and artists to come up with ideas and concepts around the theme of 'Art and Science' - the two key elements found in the new Air Max 360.

The result of this project is Nike's Powerwall, a wall of 56 Air Max shoes in various color-palettes and materials, featuring different graphic applications. The six rows of shoes display these eight iconic models: Original Air Max, Air Max 90, Air Max 180, Air Max 93, Air Max 95, Air Max 97, Air Max 2003, and Air Max 360.

Each series has its unique appearance, however, there is one detail all of them share: as an homage to the designers of the original Air Max models, footprints of the designers have been imprinted on the sock liner of the shoe(s) they created.

Apart from the Powerwall, Nike's tribute to Air also includes a series of global events and campaigns. In Berlin, the Air Max 360 Lab will open its doors on January 26th and the city will be decorated with billboards depicting the works of four artists/designers in the context of Air.

Feeling erotic? :P

Ever wonder what is like being erotic over and over day in day out?

I know it quite a taboo talking about all this erotic stuffs in our "modern day" society, i'm sure it's take more than thick hide to flip open Douglas Keesey's "Erotic Cinema" book which take a microscopic world of eroticism in the cinema. Whether it is straight, gay or bi...u will certainly find them all in his book.

Alright, just dun feel horny after seeing these...okay? Behaves yourselves, folks.

Job: Michael Dell can't predict the future

This is cracking me up, Okay. I confess that i am no Dell's fan but Steve Job recently is taking a dig at Michael that he do shit at predicting the future. Job seemed to remembered the day when Michael predicted that his Apple will sink before cica 2000 when he was interviewed back in 1997. However today, the outcome was a little different, Apple's stock has soars higher than Dell after 8 years of profits, thanks to iPod actually.

Job wrote the internal email to take a pot shot at Michael to improve the morale. But it's all goes to say, the world is round indeed.

As Apple's stratospheric rise continues, Apple CEO Steve Jobs shared a jab at Dell chairman Michael Dell with employees via e-mail on Friday. The comments are a response to a 1997 comment by Dell, who was asked what he'd do with Apple, then financially struggling and near collapse.

"What would I do?" Dell responded. "I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders." A few weeks later at Apple's official announcement of Jobs' return, with a picture of Dell's face covered by a bull's-eye, Jobs said, "You're in our sights."

On Friday, Apple's market capitalization passed that of Dells. The company is now worth $117.82 ($72.13) billion, versus Dell's $117.56 ($71.97) billion.

Shortly following the market close, Jobs sent an e-mail to employees, showing he hadn't forgotten Dell's comments nearly eight years later.

"Team, it turned out that Michael Dell wasn't perfect at predicting the future. Based on today's stock market close, Apple is worth more than Dell. Stocks go up and down, and things may be different tomorrow, but I thought it was worth a moment of reflection today. Steve."

Dell was not returning requests for comment.

Cart Out with MarkitCart's style

Ever spend a little time in Internet shopping will know that CART OUT means complete the E-commerce shopping and off to pay using Credit Card!

Well, now you can emulate these stuffs in reality & style using MarkitCart equipped with RDIF to scan the price tag of all items inside the cart and pay out. The design is cool as well.

Shin Tanaka, The T Boy

Ever want to pull the T Shirt over your head and declare a new fashion craze? Well, now u can do it without causing too many gazing eyes over you. Head Over to Shin Takana who had a complete range of environmental friendly figure called Shin T Boy. Made of Printed Paper and numerous designs, it's represent a new way of expressing your working desk....

:D

Base Station, Japan

Fashion leechers. Looking for an upbeat Japanese fashion twinkle twinkle lil stars. Check out Base Station only opens in Japan.

Boring lil Sunday

Sunday today is very boring, poor me went down and did some photo snapping. I mean, how bored can you get by snapping pictures?

After snapping pictures, i changed and went for a little jog. After doing half my rounds, the rain came pouring in...well. Not bad, at least cool my body for a while.

Got home wash up and listening to Hernan Cattaneo's Metro 95.1 DJ mix. Now i am really bored.