The iPad

With all the hullaballoo surrounding the announcement of the new iPad, I thought I would add to all the noise by putting my own thoughts out there. By the way, if you haven't heard about the iPad yet, then just think of it as the next piece of fancy technology that everyone will be surprised that I don't have...

That's right - just to make my position clear up front - I have no intention of getting the iPad. Frankly, at this moment in time, it looks like a giant iPod Touch (which I had no interest in either). Don't get me wrong - I think it looks like a really nice piece of kit and, judging from comments by techgeek friends that they couldn't wait to buy one despite not actually knowing what they would use it for, I'm guessing that it will probably be a commercial success.

The problem for me is nicely outlined in this article (which I found via Techdirt - luv that site!). In brief, like some of Apple's other products, the iPad is a closed system - which for me is a major deal killer. Bear in mind, I didn't like that the iPhone used a closed system either but that was just a smartphone. It seems like the iPad is being pitched as a possible alternative to PCs, in particular netbooks, and there is no way in hell that I am going to accept a closed platform for something like that. If nothing else, the whole issue with Google Voice on the iPhone convinces me that using a closed system is just not consumer friendly.

And when you factor in that the initial iPad won't be able to multi-task? Seriously? Considering that the basic price point is US$499 (and that only gives you a wifi enabled iPad), I might as well just get a netbook.

One last point. I found this article to be really entertaining. The guy seems to believe that the iPad will end up killing off the PC. Yeah. Lets just say that I suspect the PC will still be around in 5 years whereas the iPad will be dead in its second (killed off by the second generation iPad to be released next year!!!).

All joking aside, the author in that article is trying to say that the tablet computer as an idea means the death of PCs and the iPad is worth singling out due to the popularity surrounding it (and for which other tablets haven't managed to gain). In my opinion, if you want to use this argument, you may as well say that the Star Trek franchise killed off the PC when it introduced the PADD and got people thinking about tablet PCs in the first place.

Here's a prediction for you.

Tablet PCs (and stuff like the iPad if you don't want to think of it as a Tablet) won't ever kill off the PC - it will just change the way we interact with it. The problem is that by trading in the small form factor of the Tablet, you give up the major processing power which the desk based PC gives you. Even as technology improves and we miniaturize more powerful chips, this only means that the desk based PC will either be even more powerful still or, if it has the same power, more budget friendly (due to it not needing such advanced manufacturing techniques). The only way that I can see you getting around this is if processing power eventually gets to the stage where we no longer need more of it (although I will be the first to admit that I'm no expert on this and am probably way off base).

In my opinion, what is more likely is that we will eventually get to a stage where bandwidth won't be an issue and everyone is permanently online via some kind of wireless system. By then, Tablets will just become dumb terminals which are used to wirelessly access your PC regardless of where it is physically stored (that or some form of cloud processing). This gives you the small form factor of a Tablet while still having major processing power.

And that is something I would love to see!

Update: Scott Adams nailed it in terms of my reaction to the iPad.

Gerry and Gordon - around the home

Just some random pictures of Gerry and Gordon around the home.


Gordon doesn't smile as much as he used to when he was a baby but when he does - boy does he know how to smile!


Another lucky picture that we managed to get in the millisecond that he is smiling.


And just in case Gerry feels excluded, here is a picture of him ROFLMAO. Not sure what was so funny though...


Awwwww - ain't that just the sweetest thing you ever did see?


There was a period where Gordon was crawling around all over the place. For some reason, Gerry loved to crawl around with him and pretend he was a baby. This was invariably followed by him demanding that his mummy pick him up and give him a cuddle. Considering how heavy he is now, he normally only got the cuddle.
:)

Blame it on the Pop

Not that long ago, I mentioned that I liked songs with a nice beat. As further proof of this, the latest song that I've been listening to (and the latest video to light up the interwebz) is Blame it on the Pop.



What is great about this song is that its actually a mashup by DJ Earworm. What he's done is created a new song by mashing up the top 25 hits according to the US Billboard and its incredible how well he has managed to incorporate the lyrics and music together into one cohesive whole.

I'm guessing this video has really put him on the board as well. With this video going viral (over 7 million views at the time of writing - not only impressive in its own right but particularly considering that it was only 6 million just a day or two ago), I noticed that a lot of his other videos are getting loads of hits as well just in the couple of days since I first noticed him.

Gerry goes to Day Camp - part two

And here, for your viewing pleasure, some more pictures from Gerry's day trip to Lavender Garden.

One of the more fun activities that Lavender Garden had was the candle making activity. Its a really good fit for kids and allowed Gerry to pour different coloured stones into a small glass with layers of candle wax between them (or should that be the other way round?).


You can see the half completed product here With each layer, Gerry chose a different color so that by the end, we had a multi-coloured monstrosity of a candle. He even chose two different colors for the top which came out quite nice in the finished product which you can see below.


The little bits that you can see around the candlewick are little seashells that we used to decorate the top of the candle.

Quite a few of the activities organised by Disney World of English centred around teaching the kids about wildlife and different parts of animals. One of the games even involved making a toy fish out of strips of rubber.

In case you are wondering, those things stuck on the fish are meant to be scales.

And obviously, for a place called Lavender Garden, they had fields of lavender as well. The kids really enjoyed playing hide and seek in the fields and this is one of the few pictures with a decent focus that we managed to get of Gerry running around.


There was even a "graduation" ceremony at the end of the day to prove that Gerry had been to the camp. The guys in green sweatshirts are the people from Disney World of English who were basically acting as tour guides throughout the day.

Gerry goes to Day Camp - part one

Another of the activities that we enrolled Gerry for during November was a one day camp at a Lavender garden way out in the middle of nowhere. The Lavender garden itself was quite good in that it had quite a lot of activities for visitors.


The camp had quite a few animals which were being reared by the staff. Here you can see Gerry feeding grass to a goat.


The place also had some fish and turtle ponds (no turtle jelly for sale though...). Again, this proved another opportunity for Gerry to get up close and feed the animals.

Gerry has also discovered the joys of playing on a swing. After a little coaching, his swing technique has improved a lot (see how straight his legs are?) although he still needs a wee push from the back as he likes to go high.

The organisers of the Day camp (Disney World of English - the club which we joined as part of Gerry's English extra-curricular learning) also arranged quite a few additional activities as part of the day. One of the games which they played was a fishing game where the kids had to try and catch more fish than the other team.

We managed to get a lot more photos but I will have to share the rest as part of my next post. In the meantime, here is a picture of Gordon to make up for the fact that I seem to have been ignoring him a bit in my blog lately.

Look how cute he is!

Lady GaGa

Another quick intermission before I go back to posting photos of the family.

I have to admit that I like listening to the music of Lady GaGa. On one level, this really surprises me as her most of her audience is probably ... well, lets just say I'm older than her target demographic and leave it there. Having said that, I have always liked fast beat pop music and her songs generally have really catchy beats so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised.

Anyway, one of her bigger hits is Poker Face for which you can find the music video on YouTube below.



And with that, we finally get to the point of this post.

A couple of days ago, I came across the latest hit viral video circulating on the interwebz. An A Capella group called Noteworthy from UCB Berkeley have done an absolutely fabulous rendition of Poker Face. If you have watched the above video, or enjoy the music of Lady GaGa yourself, the below video is definitely worth watching.



PS - if you find that you liked Poker Face, you might also want to check out Lady GaGa's newest hit Bad Romance.

Gerry and the cookie monster

Happy New Year!!

With the end of the holidays, the missus and I are back to work. More importantly, I get back my access to the internet cable which was previously being hogged by persons who shall remain unnamed.

And so - we continue with our long awaited series of family pictures.

Way back in November, we took Gerry to a cooking class. The class was really just an opportunity for the kids to make some cookies (which Gerry has always loved eating - particularly the soft ones by Mrs. Fields) and hopefully share them with loved ones. In Gerry's case, we managed to extract a promise from him that he would share his cookies with my father (who was over in HK for a short period to visit).

The good thing about the class was that it actually allowed the kids to really participate in the making of the cookies. In addition to weighing the ingredients, the kids were also allowed to help mix the ingredients together. Here you can see Gerry concentrating on making the cookie dough.



Once the dough was ready, it was time to shape the dough into various animals or other inanimate objects. Naturally, this step fell to me as the only one in the family with the requisite dexterity to shape the dough...

Although I should also mention that the class had several cookie cutters which we used to make various shapes as well.
:)



Below, you can see the almost finished product. After getting the various shapes, Gerry was able to decorate them with some M&Ms. No chocolate chips unfortunately. Or maybe that should be fortunately - if the cookies had been choc chip cookies, I would probably have ended up fighting Gerry for them.



A quick family photo taken by one of the other parents. This was taken while we were waiting for the cookies to bake hence the unhappy look on Gerry's face. I think he was afraid that someone had stolen his cookies...



At last! The finished product. The "cat" and the "Xmas tree" were inventions of your's truly while the star and the other shapes were a result of the cookie cutters. I'll let you decide which one is the prettiest.



And last of all - do you remember Gerry's promise to share his cookies with his grandfather? Well, he kept it. Sort of.

He broke off a tiny part of one of the cookies and offered it to my dad. In the end, he found a way to keep his word while still eating essentially all the cookies himself.

Note to self - be more specific about what to share in future...