Monday, October 25, 2010
"Every ending is a new beginning"
...I don't recall where did I heard that wisdom, but I believe that it's true. Ending something is an opening for something else. I'm talking about my friendship here. I have a best friend that I usually hang out with. I'm not going to sit here and drag about things I like or don't like about him. I just find that, many people that I hang out with, or surrounded with, are unproductive people. Unproductive in a sense that they don't want to work hard and expect great things come to them; including money, goods, relationship, career, social life....laziness. Life is an equal game. If you put great effort on something, you will get great result in return. If you're too lazy then don't sit there and whining about not making progress because progress doesn't grow on tree. I don't know, I just feel angry right now because I'm not making any progress in life. Maybe it's because of me, or maybe because of many negative people that I'm associating with. Either way, farewell my friend, and hope that you'll grow up!
Sunday, October 17, 2010
5 most essential apps for Android
While it's hard to claim something is more essential than the others because everyone has different taste and point of view; For example, someone may say milk is essential to our daily life, while I find it's hard to accept because I don't like drinking milk and I'm doing fine without it ...though I have weak arms, couple of bone fractures, and diagnosed with calcium deficiency D: ...but anyway, there are 5 Android Apps that I think very essential, or at least, very essential to me as I should say, and I can't live happily without them. I think they should be included as standard default applications.
1) Timeriffic - an app to set your droid behave differently in different period of time (ring, vibrate, airplan mode)
2) Missed call - a custom notification for missed call, text, voice mail, etc.
3) Astro Pro - file explorer, task manager, zipper.
4) iGo 8 - gps navigation software, without internet or data plan
5) SMS Wishes - sms text messaging scheduler
So why are they essential? I'll discuss that in a bit, but first let me tell ya my first impression bout Android. I used to be a big fan of Windows Mobile phones, but now I know why Win Mobile is falling behind the competitions; it's not fingers friendly. For anything on Windows Mobile phone, you will need a stylus, a pen, or a toothpick, or something pointy. Thanks to SPB Mobile Shell, which made it a bit easier on the finger, but still, most applications on Win Mobile were not designed for fingers use. On the other hand, Android (or even iPhone) doesn't require pointy fingers, in fact, it doesn't work if you use a pen or stylus on the touch screen; just stick your thumbs on it, or better yet, stick the whole tongue on it and it will work better.
Ok, back to the topic :D
1) Timeriffic
Ok I'm not sure about you, but cellphone reception is spooky. It tilts the VGA monitor screen if you put cellphone close to the monitor; it generates weird noises if you place it close to a speaker; it alternates the compass pole if you place the compass between 2 cellphones and make a call. While no one can prove that cellphone wave is unhealthy or not, I certainly don't like to keep it bouncing back a forth in my room while I'm sleeping. Timeriffic does a terrific job of managing automatic airplane mode (save battery), ringer, phone profile, and more. Just set your desire time for whichever action you want your phone to perform as a routine and it will do it automatically. It work best compare to other apps, doesn't matter if your phone is rooted or not, and best of all ...it's FREE
2) Missed call
Missed call should be a standard features on an Android. It lets you customize the notification of missed call, incoming sms, incoming call, voice mail. Customize how often it should repeat notification until you notice; it even let you control the LED blinking light and its color WOW! I thought LED color is a hardware thing, but turn out its color can be changed ...interesting!
3) Astro Pro
I was surprised that Android doesn't have a built-in file explorer, which is really silly thing for a smartphone. Maybe my Android (1.6) version is old or something. Maybe it will be included in future release. But for now, Astro remain the best appp for file explorer compare to other apps. It's more stable, quicker, and recognize SD card better than others. It has more features than just file explorer, but I haven't fully explore it yet.
4) iGo 8 Navigation for Android
The Google Maps is a great app. It has a broad database of virtually anything you need to find on the road. But for someone who doesn't have a data plan like me, Google Maps is useless. Even if I do have a data plan, it becomes useless when I go up the mountain or in the desert where there's no reception. iGo is best known for GPS Navigation, even better than other apps in the same class, such as TomTom, Garmin, CoPilot. iGo8 comes in 3 different versions: Windows Mobile, iPhone, and Android. The Android version however, seem to have less features than other versions, but they all share the same map files, which divided into separate states for the US.
5) SMS Wishes
This is my personal favorite apps. It's a text messaging scheduler for the future. You can setup a "Good morning sunshine!" text to your friend for tomorrow morning, while you're still snoring in bed; or a reminder, or a birthday greeting, or anything you like and it will text it for you. It's very simple and should be included as an option for sms texting.
1) Timeriffic - an app to set your droid behave differently in different period of time (ring, vibrate, airplan mode)
2) Missed call - a custom notification for missed call, text, voice mail, etc.
3) Astro Pro - file explorer, task manager, zipper.
4) iGo 8 - gps navigation software, without internet or data plan
5) SMS Wishes - sms text messaging scheduler
So why are they essential? I'll discuss that in a bit, but first let me tell ya my first impression bout Android. I used to be a big fan of Windows Mobile phones, but now I know why Win Mobile is falling behind the competitions; it's not fingers friendly. For anything on Windows Mobile phone, you will need a stylus, a pen, or a toothpick, or something pointy. Thanks to SPB Mobile Shell, which made it a bit easier on the finger, but still, most applications on Win Mobile were not designed for fingers use. On the other hand, Android (or even iPhone) doesn't require pointy fingers, in fact, it doesn't work if you use a pen or stylus on the touch screen; just stick your thumbs on it, or better yet, stick the whole tongue on it and it will work better.
Ok, back to the topic :D
1) Timeriffic
Ok I'm not sure about you, but cellphone reception is spooky. It tilts the VGA monitor screen if you put cellphone close to the monitor; it generates weird noises if you place it close to a speaker; it alternates the compass pole if you place the compass between 2 cellphones and make a call. While no one can prove that cellphone wave is unhealthy or not, I certainly don't like to keep it bouncing back a forth in my room while I'm sleeping. Timeriffic does a terrific job of managing automatic airplane mode (save battery), ringer, phone profile, and more. Just set your desire time for whichever action you want your phone to perform as a routine and it will do it automatically. It work best compare to other apps, doesn't matter if your phone is rooted or not, and best of all ...it's FREE
2) Missed call
Missed call should be a standard features on an Android. It lets you customize the notification of missed call, incoming sms, incoming call, voice mail. Customize how often it should repeat notification until you notice; it even let you control the LED blinking light and its color WOW! I thought LED color is a hardware thing, but turn out its color can be changed ...interesting!
3) Astro Pro
I was surprised that Android doesn't have a built-in file explorer, which is really silly thing for a smartphone. Maybe my Android (1.6) version is old or something. Maybe it will be included in future release. But for now, Astro remain the best appp for file explorer compare to other apps. It's more stable, quicker, and recognize SD card better than others. It has more features than just file explorer, but I haven't fully explore it yet.
4) iGo 8 Navigation for Android
The Google Maps is a great app. It has a broad database of virtually anything you need to find on the road. But for someone who doesn't have a data plan like me, Google Maps is useless. Even if I do have a data plan, it becomes useless when I go up the mountain or in the desert where there's no reception. iGo is best known for GPS Navigation, even better than other apps in the same class, such as TomTom, Garmin, CoPilot. iGo8 comes in 3 different versions: Windows Mobile, iPhone, and Android. The Android version however, seem to have less features than other versions, but they all share the same map files, which divided into separate states for the US.
5) SMS Wishes
This is my personal favorite apps. It's a text messaging scheduler for the future. You can setup a "Good morning sunshine!" text to your friend for tomorrow morning, while you're still snoring in bed; or a reminder, or a birthday greeting, or anything you like and it will text it for you. It's very simple and should be included as an option for sms texting.
T-mobile myTouch 3G without data plan for beginner
I have been a cellphone geek; There's something so sexy about smartphones that make me fall in love with them ...ok that was a bit exaggerating, but I have been a big fan of Windows Mobile phones for a long time because they are so useful, in term of features rich and the ease of customization. But lately, there are much hypes going for Android phones that made me curious, so I got an upgrade from T-mobile for a HTC myTouch 3G Android and I'm telling ya ...it works wonderful!
Ok, let's start from the beginning. For those who are reading this because you're interested in the myTouch 3G, you should know there are several version of myTouch 3Gs phones. Mine is the 2010 model, with Android 1.6, and a 3.5mm headphone jack on top of the phone. There was a problem at first when I was trying to activate my phone. I don't have a data plan ($30/month) and it seem like any Android phone requires an Google activation with a valid Gmail account. There's conspiracy that Google is trying to control the world, like SkyNet in the Terminator movies, someday it will take over the machine and slave mankind D: ...Anyway, I couldn't activate my MT3G phone because I don't have a data plan. There are 3 solutions to that:
1) "You can borrow a friend's SIM who has data plan" I quoted as many people keep saying that in many forums as the best answer to the solution ...and it's NOT! Are you kidding? I can't find anyone who has data SIM card. Most people in my area have Sprint, Verizon, At&T, or iPhone. And most of them have CDMA phones with NO SIM card; and of course, when I found one with a SIM card, they don't have data plan :/
2) Second solution is activating a data plan and then cancel it, which I did. Just login to Tmobile.com and go to "add service" to temporary add data to your phone. Notice, it may not let you add data plan if you have an old obsolete phone model as your default phone; Click on change my device or something like that and pick a T-mobile Wing, or any model that has internet compatibility. After adding service, it will take affected within an hour. Now, the activation should work. How long does it take for the phone to activate once you have data plan? ...less than a second. Don't forget to login back to Tmobile and cancel data plan right away if you don't like being charged $30/month.
3) The third option is spooky. Some say that you can root it or flash it with a new Android version and it doesn't ask for activation, which I doubt it because Android is Google's base OS. It doesn't matter if you replace it with a different version or not. Beside, I'm a newbie to Android so I have no clue how it works. I don't want to risk it and end up with a brick phone D:
Other than that, there are many mythes flying around on the net, like touching the four corners of the screen will bypass the activation process, or just hit cancel to quit the activation, bla bla bla...which are either lying or obsolete information.
Ok, let's start from the beginning. For those who are reading this because you're interested in the myTouch 3G, you should know there are several version of myTouch 3Gs phones. Mine is the 2010 model, with Android 1.6, and a 3.5mm headphone jack on top of the phone. There was a problem at first when I was trying to activate my phone. I don't have a data plan ($30/month) and it seem like any Android phone requires an Google activation with a valid Gmail account. There's conspiracy that Google is trying to control the world, like SkyNet in the Terminator movies, someday it will take over the machine and slave mankind D: ...Anyway, I couldn't activate my MT3G phone because I don't have a data plan. There are 3 solutions to that:
1) "You can borrow a friend's SIM who has data plan" I quoted as many people keep saying that in many forums as the best answer to the solution ...and it's NOT! Are you kidding? I can't find anyone who has data SIM card. Most people in my area have Sprint, Verizon, At&T, or iPhone. And most of them have CDMA phones with NO SIM card; and of course, when I found one with a SIM card, they don't have data plan :/
2) Second solution is activating a data plan and then cancel it, which I did. Just login to Tmobile.com and go to "add service" to temporary add data to your phone. Notice, it may not let you add data plan if you have an old obsolete phone model as your default phone; Click on change my device or something like that and pick a T-mobile Wing, or any model that has internet compatibility. After adding service, it will take affected within an hour. Now, the activation should work. How long does it take for the phone to activate once you have data plan? ...less than a second. Don't forget to login back to Tmobile and cancel data plan right away if you don't like being charged $30/month.
3) The third option is spooky. Some say that you can root it or flash it with a new Android version and it doesn't ask for activation, which I doubt it because Android is Google's base OS. It doesn't matter if you replace it with a different version or not. Beside, I'm a newbie to Android so I have no clue how it works. I don't want to risk it and end up with a brick phone D:
Other than that, there are many mythes flying around on the net, like touching the four corners of the screen will bypass the activation process, or just hit cancel to quit the activation, bla bla bla...which are either lying or obsolete information.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
motivation of doubts
Sometimes I wonder, is there any boundary between right and wrong, good and evil. Is good derived from evil as an alternative which are more acceptable by society; or good really sever the true value of goodness, unconditioned, without asking for any benefit in return. As I often see, many people believe in gods because they believe that gods will protect them; being good because good will return...so it's like an investment, which doesn't hold the true value of goodness any more. As I'm mentioning this, is because I want to help a friend but I'm not sure why I want to help her. Is it solely the act of friendship or is there any other purposes going through my mind. ... ..
Thursday, October 7, 2010
man in the mirror
I think I may have little-man syndrome --a constant feeling that I'm destine for something more extraordinary than others, something more special, something that many Vietnamese American haven't achieved. Something other than medical doctor, engineer, nails stuffs, and....well, that's pretty much it. That's pretty much career choices I can have as an immigrant, and I'm very sicked of it. I want a break through and do something more profound, something more enjoyable. But looking at myself in the mirror, I don't see anything special about me, nor any talent that I have; I only see "a tiny asian nerd" as Jlo use to refer to me on her blog :/
I don't know. If any change I want to make, now is the good time because my dad just have been approved for some disability benefit. I don't think it worths much, but at least enough for him to live at the bare-nessity level. I used to count on my brother, thought that once he's done with school, he will move back home and help me taking care of my parents so I can continue my education. But I have learned that my destiny is within my own hands, never count on anyone because it will be a total disappointment.
I don't know. If any change I want to make, now is the good time because my dad just have been approved for some disability benefit. I don't think it worths much, but at least enough for him to live at the bare-nessity level. I used to count on my brother, thought that once he's done with school, he will move back home and help me taking care of my parents so I can continue my education. But I have learned that my destiny is within my own hands, never count on anyone because it will be a total disappointment.
Friday, October 1, 2010
ADHD part 2
So medicine journals has confirmed, ADHD is a genetic link disorder. With that in mind, my mind starting to wander about Q .... nahhhhhhh hom nay la`m bie'n viet blog wa', mai mot viet tiep :D
(to be continued)
(to be continued)
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