Monday, February 28, 2011

Mac OS X Lion - v10.7

It's just been 2 weeks when I had chance to play around with Mac OS X Snow Leopard (v10.6.6) which was pre-installed during the purchase of my Macbook Air. And 3 days ago Apple released Mac OS X Lion for delevopers and within few hours the devs hacked it and published the installer to public

Without further ado, I grabbed one copy and straight away installed the dmg file. I was 50-50 to install worrying the OS will void and put my machine to halt (LoL, such a worrier). But everything went fine and the new OS is sooooo blooody damn great!!





There are lots of improvements, lots of new features, and very user friendly with combination of iPad-style iOS. I can do many things by swiping my finger/s. Using one or two or three or even four fingers can give you different commands which are customizable.

Apple has changed how iFinder (similar to Windows Explorer) works by making copy/paste and moving files easier. The '+' button now really maximizes the window (padahal MS Windows dah lama implement feature ni LOL) ...

I also just learned and installed some new apps like Cinch, QuickSilver, Secrets which enhance and improve the performance and functionality of my machine. All I need to do now is to practice and get use with the multi-touch swipe gestures, shortcut strokes and functions of each app. But there are also real-productivity apps which sold by the devs on App Store such as iWork 09 which includes Pages, Keynotes and Numbers (similar to MS Office- Word, Excel, PowerPoint). There is also iLife '11 which includes iMovie, iPhoto and iWeb. Check out my Facebook where I have uploaded some clips composed using iMovie. Those are simple editing clips, but to produce more eye-catching and hollywood-movie clips, I need to use Final Cut Pro which is very hard to learn and makes my machine slower. I should have bought iMac in future :P sure my wifey bising lagi

Mac OS X Lion also has new feature called 'Mission Control' where all Dashboard, Spaces, Expose and running apps are presented in one big display as you can see on picture below



As you can see on top of the screen, I have four desktops which means I have four workstations. E.G: 1st desktop is for internet browsing, downloading files, twitter and emailing. 2nd desktop is for iPhoto editing, 3rd desktop to edit my Cork Trip videos using iMovie and 4th desktop to run MS Windows 7. I can do all tasks simultaneously and switch between them using my 4 fingers swipe. I can load any app I like on each desktops, and the best thing is, I can have as many desktops as I want. But I believe loading too much apps/tasks can reduce the performance speed. I have an app to monitor the processor speed and temperature and they go high when I run heavy apps like iMovie or Final Cut Pro. The word 'Dashboard' on top left inside the pic above is the 'widgets screen' where I can download those widgets for free E.G: weather forecast widget, calendar, currency exchange, sticky note, dictionary etc.

Whoaa, there are too many things to describe, too many things to share. The best way to present all these new features is by watching videos. I won't make one as you can find them on youtube (Actually aku tak reti nak embed link youtube kat blog ni haha).. But if you need some demo, drop me a call and we can arrange an appointment for sesi-racun..

I am so happy with my thin sexy new OS'ed Macbook Air ;)

**Edit: Ceh senang gila nak embed video kat blogspot rupanya... semesekk jah! Enjoy the video

Saturday, February 5, 2011

London Trip & TT Ex-PCdUK v3.0 (beta)

I received a call from Bob two weeks ago telling me that he is coming to London for vacation before flies to Amsterdam for a meeting. I quickly booked flight tickets and hostel for accommodation. I spent almost €60 for everything (excluding food and traveling). Pheww, quite a lot for unemployed guy like me but as expected as the gathering date was quite imminent. I emailed and invited Fazrul, Sherini (both of them are in London), Akmal (who was in Nottingham but apparently already went back for good) and also Lord (who's currently studying in Cardiff)

I went there on 4th and got back to Dublin on 5th. The trip was not really fun as I travelled alone and I've been to London few months back before.

On day one, I visited Greenwich, Oxford Street for some window shoppings and met the guyz at Tukdin, Bayswater around 7pm.

But the first thing to do when you arrive London is to stop at KFC!! I believe every Malaysian from Dublin enjoys eating KFC as we don't have HALAL KFC in Dublin


I took Underground and DLR to Greenwich. And as aspected, Greenwich has been a very lovely place. It's a small town to live but it has The Royal Observatory as a colossal attraction.



Part of Greenwich city


Bergambar di University of Greenwich



Greenwich city from The Royal Observatory station


Well, visiting this place reminisced me studying Astronomy in Geomatic Engineering back in UTM Skudai 10 years ago. This is the place to determine and observe 0° 00' 00" Longitude from North to South Pole and the word "Greenwich Mean Time" (GMT) is named in honor of this city


Kuala Lumpur longitude degree


Meridian Line



Then I went to Oxford Street for cuci mata window shopping and sipped a cup of coffee while charging my smartphone which run out of battery juice.



Underground Train known as Tube



The hanging Macbook Air @ Apple Store

I met Bob and family around 6pm and we walked together to Tukdin to meet Fazrul. Fazrul is working at Old Street in aviation company and he lives somewhere around Hendon, London

Bob, Fazrul and me

Then lepas hantar Bob ke Picadilly Underground station, fazrul and me walked to Malaysia Hall pekena extra teh tarik while chit chat talked about life, work, marriage, friends etc


@ Malaysia Hall cafe around 9.30pm

I walked to Hyde Park Inn hostel for a bed and shower, it costed me £19 for a night with breakfast (hahaha) I laugh because the breakfast was very simple. Just a bowl of cereal and some toasts with tasteless jam

Travelers checking-in hostel

I woke up early next morning, had the terrible breakfast, checked out and straight away took tube to White City Station which placed the British Broadcasting Corporation



I did visit some charity shops tapi yg menarik semua mahal2. So I decided to go back to Baker Street Station and have my KFC meal (again!) before took bus to Stansted Airport.

Alhamdulillah I safely arrived Dublin even the rain and strong wind intervened