Life is moving oh so fast, I think we should take it slow

Life is moving oh so fast,
I think we should take it slow.
Rest our heads upon the grass
and listen to it grow.

From the song Splendour in the Grass, the latest album of the same name by Pink Martini. It's especially apt in crazy today's world where we are all working fast and hard, with hardly enough time for ourselves. Pianist Thomas Lauderdale has also ingeniously woven in Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 into the song. He has done other similar classical cameos in previous albums as well.

The other meaningful verse is:-

Back when i was starting out,
I always wanted more.
But every time I got it,
I still felt just like before

Time to take a break, slow things down, and relax a little.

Pink Martini's New Album - Splendor in the Grass

One of my favourite bands, Pink Martini, has released a new album titled "Splendor in the Grass". Sounds pretty nice from the preview. Speaking of which, it's very nice of Pink Martini to provide full song previews of 4 of the songs, unlike many online music retailers out there who provides only a mere 30s. The caveat is of course, that it's only limited to 4 songs (otherwise no one will buy the CDs given the very high audio quality of the preview). Can't wait for it to be available here.

iPod Touch vs Zune HD Screen

Screen comparison between the iPod Touch 32GB (1st Gen) vs the Zune HD. Shot on location on Singapore's world-class MRT train. Though the iPod Touch screen is brighter, the Zune HD is much more vibrant/contrasty, making the iPod Touch's colours look pale in comparison. Photos shot with a Panasonic LX3.

The Math of Pizzas

Saw this in my Twitter timeline:

True: A pizza with the radius "z" and thickness "a" has the volume pi*z*z*a

Whoever thought of this iAnd it's been retweeted many times over now.

Microsoft's Mega Fail in Project Naming

A long time ago, Rio had a MP3 player called the Chiba. Then Google had a payment system they called GBuy before renaming it to Google Checkout. Now, Microsoft calls their latest software project Ciba which they describe it as "a generic static analyzer based on abstract interpretation for the modular analysis and verification of Java classes".

Unbeknownst to them, the term actually sounds very similar to the hokkien for a female private part, and is often used as a profanity. This website has an explanation of the term and of course, popular Singaporean mrbrown also had something to say about this as well. :) The Twittersphere is now awash with people mocking the name with #cibai becoming the top trending topic for a short while.

Lesson learnt : It sure makes sense (and is worth the trouble) to make sure that you check your product naming in all possible languages to see if it has any negative connotations before using. :)

Singapore Tourism Board Singapore Grand Prix Photo Contest Submission

These are the entries I submitted for Singapore Grand Prix Photo Contest by the Singapore Tourism Board. I got shortlisted in the Top 50 but unfortunately did not make it to the finals. You can see the results here. Apparently the same contestant can win more than one prize each. Here's what they have to say about this:

The photos where short-listed based on 3 criteria : relevancy to requested competition theme, Photography Technique and Innovation & Creativity. Photos where chosen completely on merit independent of who submitted it. Therefore, one participant who submitted multiple photos which satisfied our criteria could potentially win more than once. As such, Alphonsus Chern and Vivencio S.Rojas, JR won two prizes

And there's still a missing second prize winner, which they did not answer when I asked them.

Here are the contest submissions. Unfortunately I can no longer remember the captions I submitted, since STB never had a confirmation email when I submitted these.

On hindsight, looking at the winners, maybe this photo below could have won me something :p

Free High-Resolution (24-bit/96kHz) Audiophile Tracks

HDtracks.com has released another free sampler of their audiophile recordings called the HDtracks 96/24 Ultimate Download Experience. The tracks are in the 24-bit, 96kHz FLAC format and are culled from HDtracks' extensive collection of audiophile recordings. I downloaded them and they were excellent when played through the Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum.

Cheap HDMI Cables

This is possibly one of the cheapest HDMI cables you can get. Only US$1.05! Considering how much HDMI cables can cost (esp. the so-called Premium brands), this is really a steal. They also have cheap TOSLink Optical and DVI-to-HDMI cables.