Tag Archives: tech

Windows 10

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The most extraordinary happened because of the most extraordinary reason: I started using Windows 10 a few months ago, because I’m playing PC games.

Windows 10 has a modern and clean interface of all Windows ever. You can tell Microsoft has abandoned its past and truly worked on something new. In fact, I think the UI is more modern than that of MacOS. And it’s stable enough that running Windows no longer feels as compromised as before.

The killer app in Windows 10 is perhaps the new Chromium based Edge browser. It’s no longer IE; it’s not the useless first versions of Edge; it’s not Chrome either. It’s fast like Chrome, but it offers a peace of mind that your online profile isn’t entirely controlled by Google.

When using Windows 10, I rediscovered good things about Windows itself. If there’s one thing Windows do better than the Mac, it’s full screen apps. Full screen apps on the Mac is a joke. They try to get you focused by treating full screen apps as an entirely new desktop. But in that way you’re disconnected from the rest of your tasks, when the reason of using desktop (rather than tablets) these days is better multitasking. But in Windows, every app can be maximized by default, meaning every app is optimized as a full screen app. Double clicking anywhere on the title bar (rather than clicking a small green dot on the Mac) and the window is made full-screen. Clicking the large app icon on the start menu and the window is minimized. In my opinion that’s how full screen apps should work.

Of course, deep down when we talk about the core technologies, Windows still lags behind the Mac. E.g., DLL sucks; font rendering sucks; virus sucks. But my point is, after using and rediscovering Windows over the past few months, using Windows in 2020 feels less of a compromise than it did a decade ago.

What’s in my bag?

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In the tech blogs I frequently visit one question keep resurfacing: what’s in your bag? I believe this question is a derivative of “what’s in your iPod” when the iPod was still at large (or the other way round). What’s in one’s iPod to a certain extent tells who one is, and what’s in one’s bag definitely tells more. So, what’s in my bag?

iPhone X
Well iPhone X isn’t technically in my bag; it’s in my pocket, for good reasons. A smartphone is the single most important device we carry with us. It holds the entire
Internet in our pockets. It’s worthwhile to spend on the best phone money can buy. So even a $10000 phone is a worthy purchase.

Before I laid my hands on iPhone X I had so many doubts about it. But once I started using it those doubts faded away. The notch was OK as long as you don’t use your phone in landscape mode; iPhone X’s even thicker than iPhone 5 but that’s ok. The OLED screen isn’t like those oversaturated Android screens at all. Overall it’s a really beautiful phone.

MacBook 12”
I’m kinda done with the iPad. Yes, Steve Jobs used to say the post PC era has come. But with Steve no longer leading the revolution, the iPad still feels less capable than their PC counterparts. The latest iPad Pro may beat the MacBook in benchmark tests, but the Mac still excels in real world multitasking performance. And I can testify MacBook runs Lighrtoom just fine; it even edits 4K video in FCP with not-too-shabby performance. I’m about to install Bootcamp and try running GTA V.

That doesn’t mean I’m content with the performance of the MacBook, which runs on an Intel i5 (rebranded from m5 but still being a m5) processor. I still keep my retina MacBook Pro (late 2013) which still runs exceptionally ably.

Shure SE535
It’s simply a pair of earphones with great sound quality. Shure released a separate bluetooth cable to attach the earbugs on and it works. I didn’t buy it because it doesn’t sound as good as a plug-in cable. But I’m definitely considering buying a lightning cable because it gives better sound than Apple’s lightning-to-3.5mm connector.

Accessories contained in a pouch
Carrying devices with you means carrying loads of adapters and chargers too. Such accessories should be contained in a pouch to 1) keep things tidy, 2) make it easier to switch bags, 3) prevent metal objects from making scratches on other devices.

Stain remover pen
This pen magically removes (or at least fades) stains on shirts. Don’t buy the Tide one though, it stinks.

Shoehorn
This adorable shoehorn from Muji is made of stainless steel. Really handy for those who hate to untie and tie shoelaces.

PPE (Personal Protective Equipment)
If a car mechanic would carry a wrench with him, a dentist would definitely bring PPE with him. The most basic PPE a dentist should have are latex gloves, masks and alcohol gel. Gloves are useful for instance when you try to remove bird poo on your car and when eating crabs. Masks are necessary when you see contagious people on those inevitable train rides. Alcohol gel is for cleaning hands after laying my hands on products in Apple Store.

I also carry a flat plastic barrier in case I need to give emergency mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

Olympus EM5 with 14/17/45mm lenses
When I have to bring a camera I bring my only camera, the Olympus EM5. If the event is single purpose I tend to bring only prime lenses for portability. The M43 system excels in having loads of good prime lenses of small sizes.

Billingham Hadley Pro
For the bag itself, I now usually carry a Billingham. It’s a camera bag, meaning it’s reasonably water-proof. The important point to note is that you should pick the FibreNyte material instead of canvas, so that the black colour stays black instead of fading into dark green like canvas does.

Commenting the new iPad

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Apple’s new iPad is out. Before going any further we need to understand the structure of the iPad family. First there’s the iPad-iPad (including the original iPad, iPad 2, New iPad [Apple’s nomenclature disaster began after SJ died], iPad Air, iPad Air 2, and now simply iPad), then there’s iPad mini (which is all but abandoned), and finally iPad Pro, which tries to imagine the future of computing but failed. Well, I just wish to say I have no plan to upgrade my iPad at this moment. I think my iPad Air 2 is the best iPad ever.

iPad mini is too small to be useful. Period.

iPad Pro is a failure in that there’s a camera bulge at the back and it can’t lie flat on the table. SJ said there’s no need for a hard keyboard. The soft keyboard should be good enough. But if it wobbles on a table, how can you type (in SJ’s recommended way)? And then they invented the Smart Keyboard. When you have the Smart Keyboard on the iPad, the screen assumes a normal notebook angle. I remember Phil Schiller said the reason there’s no touch screen MacBook is that the ergonomics is just wrong. Well? iPad in a notebook angle suddenly have the right ergonomics?

This new $329 iPad is 1.4mm (one-fifth) thicker than iPad Air 2, and has a crappy sceeen (no optical lamination). Owners of this new iPad or the iPad Air may think the difference is tiny — only because they can’t admit they have a crap screen. I remember @EugeneY used to say (in 2001/2002) “you think Windows XP is unstable because you don’t have it”. Likewise you think you don’t need an Audi because you don’t have an Audi. You don’t have a good screen and a thin iPad so you think there’s no difference.

So to sum up, iPad Air 2 is still the best iPad ever because 1) it doesn’t have a camera bulge, 2) it has a good screen, 3) it is the thinnest iPad to date.

Footnote: Wow, this is probably the happiest blog post I’ve written for ages. I didn’t force myself to add a poetic touch and use good language in this article, hence the above crappy English. But it’s fun.