When I was small, I remember I used to buy those made-in-china black cover with red corner notebooks. The paper quality of those notebooks are not great, but I have wrote countless lectures notes on them and they accompany me through my high school years. Actually life is quite decent being able to afford those notebooks, some schoolmates only take notes on the back of a pack of staple d recycle paper. On the other end of the spectrum of notebooks, there is the the legendary Moleskine notebook used by Van Goh, Picasso, Hemingway, and Tom Hanks in Da Vinci’s Code. The report notebook bound on the top is a standard equipment for journalists portrait in classic Hollywood movies. Moleskine is made of very high quality paper. The elastic band holding the notebook when it is close gives a distinct look of a Moleskine. Moleskine is very popular among artists, writers and intellectuals. In the digital age, many people think PDA and laptops are going to make old fashion notebook obsolete. A Moleskine notebooks have a special aura that makes it a irreplaceable cultural icon. I just got my first Moleskine notebook today. Now the problem is whether the contents in my notebook worth the paper I write them on.
Category Archives: Product Reviews
I think therefore I buy. Verdict and justification of my purchase
Lock Picking
A couple of weeks ago, Pat carelessly locked herself outside her home. She have to call the lock smith to open the door. It is about 5 minutes of work from the lock smith and he charged a ridiculous price $50. It doesn’t look that hard and I think I can do it myself. Then last week I read from the news that in HK, people can get lock picking tools and learn to open locks in a few hours. The HK government is talking about outlaw the buying and selling of lock picking tools to unlicensed locksmiths. This two events combined get me really interested in learning lock picking. First I can save money in the future, second I am geniunely interested in anything is on the legal gray area. In Canada, it is very convinient to order lock picking tools from the internet. I got a set of 14 pieces lock picking tools, come with a cut away practice lock showing the cylinders and a CD-ROM on lock picking basics. Lock picking will be the next odd skill I am going to learn by myself, adding to the list of juggling, simple magic, baloon twisting, etc.
Bluetooth Headset
My new Treo 680 has built-in bluetooth connection, which is pretty much a standard feature of all new cell phones. To get the most out of my new phone, I set out to buy a bluetooth headset so that I can talk wirelessly. I browsed alot bluetooth headsets and eventually decidded to get the Plantronics 510, which is PC Magazine editor’s choice. The 510 looks quite stylish, unlike other bluetooth headset with a big chunky module clip to the ear, the hardware module of the 510 is very light, compact and hidden nicely behind the ear. Just like any other bluetooth headset, the 510 is very easy to use, just fully charge it, turn it on, pair it up with the phone and you are ready to go. The voice quality is very clear and it has a good range. I can walk around my apartment without losing connection. Using the wireless headset is more natural than holding the phone or with a wired headset. It feel like talking face to face instead of on the phone. I can even have noodle soup and talk at the same time without feeling awkward. You will never go back to the old way once you had experienced a wireless headset.
Dell Inspiron 6400 Laptop
My laptop (Inspiron 6400) ordered from Dell has arrived today. It is the first laptop I ever own, excluding the piece of junk PMC gave me when I started working. I am quite happy with the laptop, except it doesn’t have enough memory. I know it when I make the order to avoid buying over charged memory from Dell. I am going to order more memory online, so I will have to suffer the sluggish performance for a while. There are lots of work to do after getting a new computer. I have to install all my usual software. However before that, I have to uninstall the useless software come with the laptop. Why can’t Dell allow me choose a clean windows install without all those software cogging my registry? I am still not use to the smaller keyboard and the touch pad, that will take me a while to get use to. I will post some more review of my laptop after I have the chance to use it for a longer period.