Zen of Tofu

For those of you who haven’t explored the powers of iTunes, I do advise you check it out. Probably the most useful aspects is the iTunes Store is the podcasts. “What are podcasts?” you might ask. Well, they are free audio tracks or videos that you can download and they are updated sometimes daily by the podcaster. You can listen or watch news from around the world, technology news, how-to’s, discussions, and even download lessons.

Recently I subscribed to a few podcasts that teach Japanese from the beginner level all the way to the intermediate and advanced levels. I thought they would be useful to reinforce what I learn in my Japanese course. I was surprised to find that they are not only well done but they are absolutely hilarious! It’s great to learn something while laughing out loud. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to find such podcasts on Cantonese lessons but there are Mandarin ones on there already. The quality of the lesson is only limited by the podcaster but from what I’ve heard the quality is great.

I strongly urge you to download iTunes and subscribe to some podcasts. It’s almost as good as television on demand, minus the channel surfing, but nevertheless there is something there for just about anyone.

written by tofu

Seems like Rogers will be the official carrier of the iPhone here in Canada. It’s not surprising since Rogers is running a GSM network, but what might be a conflicting interest is the lineup of RIM handhelds. Some may say the two types are totally different and in a sense they are, because the iPhone will be featuring a wide variety of new technologies to be found in a cell phone. Meanwhile, Apple is getting lawsuits or speculations of lawsuits from just about everyone. First there was the issue of the name iPhone and then now there’s a similar phone made by Prada and LG that looks just like an iPhone. Is this merely a stepping stone for Apple or is it a major road block? I think Apple will still release the iPhone the way they intended and either absorb or avoid anymore problems.

The center of attention in the next few weeks will definitely be the launch of Windows Vista. And as every new PC owner rushes to order their upgrades to Vista, the rumours and beta complaints still cry out loud. I won’t make a stand on that OS before I see it in action, but I’m sure that the Leopard version of Mac OS (to be released in the Spring this year) will “one-up” Vista in usability but mostly likely not in terms of gaming performance.
It will be interesting to observe the battle that will soon ensue.

written by tofu

Have you seen the new Blackjack commercial? This is definitely one of the coolest commercials to date:

I remember a few Summers ago when I went to see a movie in the theater there was a really cool Toyota Matrix commercial before the movie started with an amazing trance track playing in the background:

The next commercial that I can’t seem to get enough of is the Ferrero Rocher commercial. It’s not the chocolate or even the visuals alone, it’s the combination of music and visuals that make this ad great:

Last but not least is a favourite advert of any guy who watches UFC or Pride FC bouts. The one and only Monica.
Disclaimer: Ladies, take no offence, it’s just a commercial:

Enjoy!

written by tofu

This has been one crazy week for me. Between having a whole bunch of math assignments and a programming assignment I barely found time to sleep. But now, still slightly sleep deprived, I am here to write about the aforementioned new MacBook. A spectacle of design, functionality, and simplicity. The MacBook is like a metaphor to the theme of this blog. It’s like it was made in a state of zen, just as tofu is the careful balance between water and curd. And in the theme of mathematics I present a proof as to why zen is an equivalent to tofu:

This is intended to prove that both “tofu is part of zen”, and therefore “zen is tofu”.
A) Let x be the element of tofu known as “water”.
=> x is part of zen since it is the balance of destruction and growth; where destruction takes the form of typhoons and tidal waves, and growth is trivial since all life forms require x to grow.
.: It is proven that tofu is part of zen.
- Now we shall prove that zen and tofu are indeed one in the same.
B) Let z be an element in zen, namely the idea of “perfect balance” and “tranquility”.
=> z is part of tofu since the creation of perfect tofu requires the concept described by z.
.: It is proven that zen is part of tofu.
By A & B, it can easily be seen that tofu and zen are one in the same.
.: Q.E.D

Now that the idea is satisfied I’ll continue with the main intention of this long-awaited entry. This MacBook is absolutely amazing. I am impressed in every way. First of all I haven’t even booted up my Windows machine ever since I got my Mac since I can do everything that I did in Windows on OS X. I would complain that I can’t play all my games on OS X but oddly enough I’ve been bent on productivity and studies more than ever and I just haven’t had the time nor the interest to play something serious. I was thinking of upgrading my desktop PC this summer but this Mac has effectively changed my mind, also in part because of the XBOX360 featuring Forza Motorsport 2 at the end of February(EDIT: End of April - May?! Oh man…). Why play PC games when the 360 has Forza 2? Also featured on this Mac is a built-in webcam, microphone, Bluetooth, and a wireless network card.

The wifi card deserves a discussion on its own since Apple has released a patch to the card. Why patch it so soon? Well to unlock the hidden 802.11n standard! How sweet of a surprise was that! Better transfer rate, longer range, and backwards compatibility, how can you go wrong?! I can’t wait to upgrade my home’s wifi network to 802.11n when a stable router is released.

An issue I was worried about when I first though about switching to OS X was how long it would take me to get used to the shortcuts and interface. To my surprise the learning curve isn’t very steep but the depth is great. From assigning my own keyboard shortcuts to doing all my tasks without a click of the mouse, the interface is not just intuitive but also fast and pleasant to the eye. This operating system is very far ahead of Windows XP in my opinion but that all might change with the official release of Windows Vista in less than a week now. I’m excited to see the graphic intensive Vista and how far Microsoft has come. Some people have speculated that this will be the last version of Windows since it is simply becoming a game of patch, patch, patch, but I can see Vista having a lifetime as long as 6 years if it doesn’t bomb like the Playstation 3.

For the rest of the details of my MacBook, refer to these photos I took and possibly this weekend I will have a separate page dedicated to it on the menu bar. Thanks for reading and feel free to leave comments as usual!

P.S. This new colour scheme is just an experiment. Don’t expect it to stay like this for much longer than the weekend.

written by tofu

I’m so excited! Indeed I did receive my MacBook on Friday night! In fact I’m typing this entry right now on it. From the moment I unpacked it from the box to the moment I watched the screen come to life, I was truly amazed. I am an Apple believer now. Not enough of a believer to delve into iPod culture but I still use iTunes to get my podcasts and listen to my music.

For now I need to get back to two of my many assignments that are due this week. I’ll be slowly making a new page on the site dedicated to the MacBook (ie. Photos) and sometime this week I’ll give a little review on my experience this far. I’m still running on the high for this laptop, so I’ll be channeling that to my coding assignment. Bust out the coffee and the code! It’s coding time!

written by tofu