Full Speed Ahead! Oh Are We?

This coming 12 to 15 of June marks a very special day for me. No, it's not my birthday. No, it's not any wedding occasion. Let me be specific. It will be a great day for techies like me. Yes, I'm talking about THE PC SHOW!

With it just around the corner, I'm sure, VERY sure to be exact, that we all have our various shopping list. I can imagine some with a highlighted new plasma or a PS3 on that No 1 spot. Whatever it may be, the PC Show will be a great place to check out new tech goodies and also exploit the great bargains.

But before you flash that 'no-limit-credit-card'! Let me share some of my experiences and some tips. Granted, I'm no shopping guru (Well actually, this should be the Girl's job) but I ain't no different when encoutering BUYER'S REGRET DISEASE! What's that? Oh it's the awful fate of an innocent buyer. No one, as far as I know, could see it coming. It can happen to ANYONE. Like a streak of lightning, it hits you hard, immobilising every limb as you finally realise,

that product you just bought, is no more the best.

Yes, that horror, virus, natural disaster, bombing or whatever. It hurts much more than you realise. Sure, it's hard to run away (that is if your wallet is a bottomless pit) but I can equip you with some paddings so when it hits you, you won't feel suicidal.

CASE STUDY NO 1: The Nintendo DS
That little clamshell may be the future of gaming. More interaction of touch and less punching of buttons. So it wasn't wrong for one to feel 'I gotta have that!'. But if you don't know, Nintendo has a pretty bad history of Nip/Tuck. Nintendo would make the DS undergo a slimming program.

I remember the coolness I had garnered when I brought it to school and also the raging flames I got when the DS Lite came out. Sigh. TIP: ALWAYS, ALWAYS DO YOUR RESEARCH! Check it out. Cnet, Gamespot, GameFAQS or even Google.

CASE STUDY NO 2: The Misinterpretation
If you're like me, a lonely dude who is like a one-man country where you get your $$$ from you citizens (in this case my parents), you better choose carefully on what you want to propose to them. I'm nobody's fan. I'm everybody's admirer. I dream of a sub-$1000 Mac Pro with gaming support and an ultimate gaming machine made in partnership of Microsoft and Sony. And yes, they have been only in my dreams.

Usually, my parents sponsor me. So when I saw the sleek, sexy PS3, I totally wanted it. So I brought my parents to Courts, (the Asian version of Best Buy) just like a meet with my girl, and told them about the PS3. And yes they said no because of the $800 price tag.

And when I got back. I pondered, 'Hey! I could get the Xbox 360. It's comparably cheaper and my parents would buy it!'. No dude, that doesn't work. Now, they'll just use the excuse that it's also expensive. TIP NO 2: DON'T JUMP INTO THAT PRODUCT!

Well that's all I have now. Plenty of tips out there but I only got 2. Happy PC Show guys!

; )

C'mon people! I WANT TO BUY LESS THINGS!

Alright. I got less than 30 minutes to write this post. On my previous 80 Cents post, I got myself to write an Apple Fanboy's worst nightmare, APPLE AS A MONOPOLY!

O.O

Don't worry guys, that's just my take on Apple's future. Yes, it was difficult for me to write that post. After all, I am part of the club. But let's look at this way. With the club growing in number and also, the number of reasons why they joined, it's quite hard to say that they're NOT going down the line of 'monopoly'. From laptops to MP3 Players to even a media streamer for TV, Apple has tackled many marketable areas. So it's not surprising to see them venturing to greater markets and greater heights.

But let's take a rest and look at the reasons people join the fan club. Nowadays, people (consumers to be exact) are not looking just at the price but also at the brand name. With the world in much political haywire, one may reconsider a 'Made In China' goods for something less famous of a name but locally made and sorta trustworthy.

Shall I give an example? Look at Nike. After some much flames of workers' abuse, it is really obvious that Nike's image has suffered. Well, so much for 'Just Do It'. YOU ARE ABUSING WORKERS!

The point is that consumers are now willing to pay extra for a better service, a better work material and a trustworthy brand name. So in this area, Apple scores! In addition to trustworthiness, Apple's move to the 'larger' market, in a sense that they are more open to ideas, gives an addition to their more-reasons stint. As trust comes into play, more consumers are turning to one company for their needs. I guess people are getting lazy and they don't want to scour for a bargain.

I'm feeling the same way too. I'd rather buy a Dell than do a DIY even though I KNOW THAT THE DIY WILL BE FAR MUCH BETTER. A little note about brand names, image is almost everything. When I carry my MacBook around, I'm stuffed with pride and much care to carry this 'piece of art'. A Dell basically says that you have a budget. A HP reminds me of fanciful ads. Yeah, I remember the one with Sindfeild... WHAT? And of course, Gateway, COWS.

So let me add on, Apple may be going to the Road Of Monopolistic Ideas but it also may go on with the everyone-loves-Apple attitude.

To top it off, let me remind you that we, consumers, will determine our 'friends' business. Also, think before you fling out your credit card! ;)

Apple, a monopoly?

The term monopoly (from Greek monos , alone or single + polein , to sell) can bear 2 meanings. This is the one to be highlighted.

"In Economics, monopoly (also "Pure monopoly") exists when a specific individual or enterprise has sufficient control over a particular product or service to determine significantly the terms on which other individuals shall have access to it. [1] Monopolies are thus characterized by a lack of economic competition for the good or service that they provide and a lack of viable substitute goods. [2] Alternatively (a modern and less common usage), it may be used as a verb or adjective to refer to the process (see Monopolism) by which a firm gains persistently greater market share than what is expected under perfect competition. The latter usage of the term is invoked in the theory of monopolistic competition."

--Source: Wikipedia

I was reading up an article on Cnet. For you people out there, Cnet is the one-stop place for you to get reviews of most tech goodies. I always make an effort to pass by there to do some research or just to waste my afternoons, drooling about the PS3. Give it a try, I find their reviews really helpful!

As I was saying, I was reading an article about Apple making a game console! WHOA! That is something new! Apple is the leading tech-company, that's how I catogerize them, that speciallizes in our technology needs. From iMacs, to iPhones and to the TV, I won't be surprised that they will arter the gaming industry.

Why? Firstly, we know that Apple is trying to be a standard of its own. Beautifully crafted computers that seems to be a work of art than a daily neccessity. But maybe, this could be a marketting campaign. I mean, c'mon. Who will not stare at the uniqueness of its beauty? Just like the girl next door. DROOLING LIAO. And as the world gets flooded with this acid, other companies have stepped up to the artistic plate. Look at Sony, Dell and HP. Apple has disticntly launcehed themselves as a leader, a standard. So before you know it, an Apple will not be just a fruit but rather a standard like ISO. [Haha! It'll be hilarious!]

A leader in everything. Hmm? But also, they want to be the ALL IN ONE kinda-guy. Just like a perfect date or something. Apple has been pioneers of AIOs like the iMac and since the debut of the iPhone a.k.a iPod Touch, Video, phone, internet tablet and maybe we can give the GPS title too. Hey, Google Maps is still better than that self talking computer. Sigh. Mighty journalist of techies call them convergence devices. Just one thing to do ALL YOUR STUFF. How cool is that?

And of course, since money is on our mind, the gaming industry is sure a place to make big bucks. After GTA 4 gave Rockstar 500 million bucks in the first week, why not take the chance?

Well, I don't care. In the life of a techie, you will get buyer's regret. No matter what. That PS3 you bought last year cost you $800. But it justs cost $700 with 3 games and 2 controllers. [Can't wait for the PS3 man...] A tip for you, buy that thing for a reason. I plan to buy a PS3 to distract myself from the distractions.

Say What?: English as you MAY know it...

I don’t know what to say actually. However deep I search, I can’t find any word that reflects what I think right now. I think people associates this to a mere state of suicidal. Then the average will add a little suspense by saying that the ’victim’ was being subjected to high levels of ‘stress’. -_- I figure we all have been misusing that word for quite some time now. When an exam crawls near, we say that we are being stressed. WHAT? It is not even a week near and you say you’re being stressed? I mean, the sentence itself hides a flaw in you. You can’t be stressed by something that hasn’t happened! You can say that you MIGHT or for extreme cases WILL be stressed when the exam draws near. C’mon fellas! Maybe it’s here that I insert that English is not just like any other subject. It’s a tool devised by the majority (Praise democracy?) to be our medium in conversing, delivering and form our ideas. Look there, 2 men. One is an Indian while the other, a Chinese. They are happily discussing their day with a simple notch of English. So I say, why can’t we just practice it while we still can? I’m sure after 10 years of ‘compulsory’ education, our English will be just enough to call our British counterparts. (Don’t try and compare to ours. Ours is so bad that we need them to correct our English in the O’s!)

Though, I won’t object to our ‘fluent’ use of English everyday. It’s not perfect. SO this got me thinking, why would we use a medium that is not perfect for our way to live life? Another thing is that why must it be perfect? Ok now, I’m already contradicting myself. ‘Democratic’ and ‘Republican’. They both pose the same definition: To serve without a King nor Queen and in favour of the great majority. BUT, they serve as two different parties in the ongoing American Presidential Elections. English ain’t perfect!

But hey, when we need to just deliver the simplest of ideas, the best way is to speak in something that you’re comfortable and ‘feel safe’ with. That way, you won’t embarrass yourself when you talk!

Finally, my theme for the month of April and May:

: )

80 cents

Remember Project INTEGRATE?

Yeah. Some posts ago, I was talking on how the average Singaporean family is ‘low’ in the knowledge of information communication technology (IT). Let’s just run through on what I said. Such advancements in technology is PHENOMENAL as it does so many things at a touch of a single button! It’s the new world order I say. But, these advancements are not being used to their fullest extent. Why? Because not all know how to or even do not know about their existence. And so, I wrapped it up by saying how Singapore (the world too) should make IT as simple as it can be (Apple to be credited here) or they should educate their people on how to use it. The pros? Online banking, VoIP, see the doctor online, shopping online and etc. The most important is none other than inflicting a sense of requirement to constantly upgrade oneself. With this ‘project’, people can see the need to constantly upgrade themselves. I’m sure this has been stressed gazillion times by Singapore especially when the population has a balloon rise in elderly.

Meet infocomm123, a site where you can ask ANY tech question! Well, I can see Yahoo calling their lawyers now.

Thanks Singapore! (The World Wide Web, letting the officials read my post! HAH!)

Why Can't We Be Friends?

Imagine, Yahoo, Goggle and MSN working together. Combined, they bring the best our browsers can over. Well, we usually take over this 'loop' by entitling ourselves with all the services they can offer. With the power of the web within our finger tips, who will not notice the hidden trap. TOO MANY PASSWORDS! Security enforces always point out that a password of alphanumeric (and sometimes that includes spaces, caps lock and even num lock activated keys) strength is like a diamond lock. But of course, remembering 3 types of 24-characters long 'words' will be a pain in the ass. -_- So may I suggest the young and bold?

Finally, technology says: