Technology

Windows 8 Is Not That Scary

Categories Technology2 Comments on Windows 8 Is Not That Scary

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I bit the bullet and upgraded my Windows 7 laptop to Windows 8. It is the first operating system I have ever purchased. In the past they usually just came pre-installed on my computer or from other people’s borrowed CD-R disks.

I have been using it for a couple of days now and I have to wonder why people are so frightened by Windows 8. The colour screen with the updating tiles can be thought of as a glorified smartbar with apps. Otherwise, it is a noticeably faster and smoother running version of Windows 7 with some new features. People are weird, they criticize Microsoft for not doing anything innovative to Windows and when they finally do something that looks different from Windows 95, it is the end of the world.

What I really like about it is that you can replace the Desktop versions of software with the app versions that use less CPU. The app versions also “snap” nicely to the side of the screen so you can chat while working without the window disappearing.

As an avid Windows user all my life, there was a bit of a learning curve. The first few minutes on the system I did have my panic attack moments. HOW THE HELL DO I CLOSE THIS APP?! and WHERE THE HELL IS MY PROGRAMS?  were among the many questions I asked myself.

However, through experimenting and looking up a dummy sheet on the internet I am quite integrated with the new system. I actually found myself quite productive on what is supposedly Blue Monday morning. So far, I love the new Windows 8 system.

What Was Your First Ever Screen Name?

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I had a long conversation with someone recently about how stupid our first screen names used to be. Even when I was little, I liked to have all my internet identities fall under the same pseudonym in the off-chance that I might run into someone I knew in a game or IRC chat room. Yeah yeah, I was a nerd as a kid, still am.

Due to my innate desire to have some sort of personal branding as a kid, I actually have not gone through that many reincarnations of nicknames. However my first ever screen name was pikachu12345.

This was probably due to the fact that it was grade 5 and Pokemon was very very popular, and the first time it was introduced in North America. Yahoo mail was actually a thing people used back then and the e-mail was also attached to my beloved Pokemon gifs website hosted on the now defunct Geocities.

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After a while, I got bored of the Pokemon gifs site. Well no, I found out too many gifs on a website back then made your computer freeze so I stopped. Hotmail was becoming a popular alternative for Yahoo! and so I switched my username to anime_angel28 because my 13 year old self thought this was cute. I also might have been obsessed with Anime.

Embarrassingly (even though I became less obsessed with Anime), I used this e-mail/username until I went to university when it became commonplace to use your name for things. And so future employers would not think I am some strange Asian freak. In addition, sometime in high school one of my friends gave me teepoo as a nickname, and I begun using that for screen names in games and the newly rising social media networks.

The other nicknames no longer exist (nor do most of the networks I used them on) but I still use teepoo sometimes. When googled, it brings up a few things that are associated with me. An ex.fm account, this WordPress blog and probably some of my past work making anime wallpapers.

Only in the past few years, with the rising of Twitter did I really start using my own name publicly for things. In the era of social media, hiding behind a screen name is a thing of the past. If you’re afraid of people making a connection between your online/offline self  than maybe you shouldn’t be on the internet. So, what was your first ever screen name?

Update: After writing this post, I decided to change the logo of the blog to reflect the future.

Who Should Blog?

Categories Social Media, Technology3 Comments on Who Should Blog?

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A couple weeks ago, I wrote one of my many restaurant experiences on this blog. I hit publish and then proceeded to paste the link on my Facebook wall. Most of my friends enjoy reading of local eats, so I do the occasional share on social networks. A minute later somebody posted this rather passive aggressive Facebook status:

“Unless you know what a mirepoix, paysanne or bain-marie is you shouldn’t write about food. Eating out with a camera doesn’t make you a writer.”

Technically, it wasn’t personally directed at me, but the timing was just too perfect. For the record, I do know what all those things are without looking them up on Wikipedia. I do my fine share of making fried rice, cutting vegetables for stir fry and watching the food network. Anyways, all those things are irrelevant to what makes a blogger.

If you’re reading a food blog, unless it’s a recipe blog, nobody cares if the carrots were julienned. In the Yelp and Foursquare era, people just want to know that things taste good. That is what the food (books and other) posts are for, to give an opinion on something. If you don’t care about my opinion than kindly hit the x at the top right corner (or left if you’re on a Mac). Also, what are you doing here in the first place? I have a modest following of people who do care.

In the internet age, everyone has the right to blog. All food critics probably started out paying for meals themselves and evaluating them. Just like all music bloggers started out paying for concerts and practising their camera shots and reviews. Blogging is not a god-given right to somebody with a pretentious degree in a subject area. In fact I don’t think people would even want to read something with a lot of condescending jargon. Would anybody care if I told you some song had too many parallel 5ths? If you are passionate about a subject, or if you just like sharing things regularly then go ahead and blog.

I lulled on this subject for the past few weeks and then realized. Who cares what one dude thinks? As long as you can maintain readership and a following on your blog (even if it is a few really dedicated fans), then keep writing. You have every right to.

Ps. I love all my followers. Thank you for continuously following my life adventures and nerdism. I promise to bring you a lot more in 2013.

Photo Blogging on Tumblr

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I learnt last week that Tumblr is now the 9th largest site in America and that I should probably start using it to my advantage. As you know, I am no stranger to Tumblr. Teddy’s Tumblr was a very successful experiment that I will continue and I have one for doodles which I update very once in a while.

However, I never really had one that showcased any of my photography skills. My Flickr is also too jam packed with concert photos that nobody really knows I can take photos of other things. I have been posting my non-concert photo sets on this blog in the past (and will probably continue doing so), but if you can’t get enough photography I also now have a daily photo blog at tianafeng.tumblr.com.

I Cut All The Ropes

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I spent a lot of time commuting lately and short-level games have been great for the ride. I finally I beat Chillingo’s Cut the Rope. I’ve had the game on my iPad for quite some time but I recently restarted it on my iPhone and within a month of commuting finally finished the game.

If you live in a box, Cut the Rope is a cute little physics game where you literally cut rope, avoid traps or use things to your advantage in order to get the candy to the cute little dinosaur. The game is only 99 cents in the iTunes app store and has over 300 levels.

Levels are arranged in “boxes” and each box has a certain type of theme that determines the types of traps in the level. Like angry birds you can gain up to 3 stars per level. I’ll be honest and say I didn’t get 3 stars for all the levels (and I think if I did that for every game it would take forever).


It’s definitely worth the money with the amount of levels and the promise of more to come.

Addicted to Learning

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As mentioned in a previous post, I have an irrational fear of losing brain cells. Now that I’m out of school, it’s up to me to keep fueling my brain, so now I am kind of addicted to learning.

Not only am I reading whenever I get the chance, but now there are a handful of online sites that provide university level courses for free. I am currently doing a course that teaches the fundamentals of Python coding on Coursera. I enrolled in a bunch of Coursera courses, but they are time sensitive and none of them have started yet. Most of the courses have start dates that are still far off in the future.

Other useful learning sites I am looking into include interactive programming community Code Academy and Udacity. I like these sites because they provide relevant courses for today’s modern world, something that my traditional schooling did not always consider.

Have any of you tried free online courses? I’d love to know your stories and experiences.

Unplugged For A Day

Categories Art, Photography, Social Media, Technology2 Comments on Unplugged For A Day

With a view like this. Who needs the internet?

As my previous post mentioned, I went to my uncle’s cottage last weekend. It was 3-4 hours up north, and a boat ride across the lake. I was surrounded by nature and 3G was sparse.

I previously wrote a post, Could You Give Up the Internet for $50 million? where I admitted that I could not give it up. However this weekend unplugged for a day I learned that I was able to (at least for a day). I also realized that there were benefits to it. It was stress-relieving. I didn’t need to constantly check my e-mail, think of what to tweet or give a damn about what my friends were posting on Facebook. I didn’t even have the urge to instagram photos of our BBQ’d food.

Instead I taught Teddy how to swim, went hiking and took some breath taking photos of my surroundings. The only time I did use my 3G was to download Sky Map, an app that names all the constellations in the night sky.

Though I will probably not quit social media or the internet, sometimes I wonder how much of the real world we’re missing as we sit in front of blinking screens.

It’s a big and beautiful world out there.
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How to Win at the Genius Bar

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My iPhone 4S’ wifi stopped working. I decided to take it in yesterday and ended up getting a replacement phone for free. I was in and out of the store in around 20 minutes.

Here are some tips to make your trip to the Genius Bar efficient and productive.

Backup your device. That way if you get a replacement product, you won’t have to waste time typing all your contacts and losing your photos. Also if the Genius Bar guy needs you to restore it, you can do that too.

Do your research. If there’s something wrong with your iPhone/iMac/iPod (or any other Apple product), make sure you read the Apple support site and try some of their suggestions. At least, know what those suggestions are so you can fire them at the guy saying you tried them before he tries to suggest them to you. Although there should really be something wrong with your device if you’re looking for a replacement, because they will fight you hard.

Be persistent. I wasn’t going to let the guy talk me into any solutions that were temporary. I assured him that nothing he suggested was going to work.

Prove it. From the beginning of my appointment, I showed him my phone did not detect wifi. He opened it up and said nothing was wrong. Then I proceeded to let him restore it, which temporarily fixed it. I knew in 5-10 minutes it would fail again. So we sat there. And waited 5 minutes. Sure enough, the phone had disconnected from the wifi and did not detect any networks.

Whether it’s a replacement or a repair you’re after, make sure you are prepared when going into the Apple Store. It will make your visit quick, efficient and less likely to end up in multiple trips!

That Is Old News…

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Yesterday we all learned the existence of Chadvil. An hour later I turned to Nash and said something along the lines of “WHY ON EARTH ARE PEOPLE STILL TALKING ABOUT THIS? IT’S OLD NEWS. WHY ARE THEY JUST FINDING OUT NOW?” Then he asked me how something from an hour ago is considered old news. It made me ponder.

Before social networks the phrase “That’s yesterday’s news” was still a thing. Now with Twitter and Facebook we are inundated with vast amounts of information, and we are able to find out about things almost instantly. It’s scary to think that maybe years from now an hour ago will be too slow. Imagine what our future kids would say. That’s 5 seconds ago’s news.

Whether it’s celebrity deaths, world news, the viral video, they’re instantly forgotten about as soon as they are posted. It also makes me wonder how fast actual news outlets have to be in order for them to survive. That’s a bit frightening.

An iPhone Without 3G Is Like Popcorn Without Butter

Categories iOS, Life, TechnologyLeave a Comment on An iPhone Without 3G Is Like Popcorn Without Butter
Without 3G you might as well blend it.

I went over my 1GB data plan today. I decided to turn my phone off instead of incurring any more fees. I’ve only had a smartphone since Christmas but I already feel like a cripple without it’s data-eating ways. Having an iPhone without 3G is as pointless as popcorn without butter.

Here are some things you can’t do without 3G:

iMessage: By default, iPhones running iOS 5 and higher send iMessages. I couldn’t receive messages from any one with an iPhone or send any without manually clicking “send as SMS” first. In addition, without data you can’t sent people pictures of your dog.

Social Networking: Can’t tweet, Facebook, Pinterest, Chime.in, Tumblr or Foursquare what I’m eating.

Find Out Where I am: I had to go pick something up in an area I’m not so familiar with. I took a streetcar, but didn’t get off on time. I even turned on my 3G (getting lost seems like a valid reason to). However, the service must disable itself after you too much over your data plan, because it would not work. I was stranded and had to ask Nash where exactly I was in relation to where I wanted to go.

Without internet to distract you, here are things you end up doing:

Looking at people on the bus: Since my head is not down and immersed in some sort of social network, I have to focus my eyes somewhere. Looking out the window resulted in a lot of sand in my eyes so I started looking around inside the bus. There’s a ton of funny looking people in the world.

Reading other people’s things: I ended up accidentally reading part of someone’s erotic novel.

Listening to brown people talk in circles: “you know?” They seemed to be having something delicious for dinner though.

Thinking to yourself: Sometimes I write blog posts while I’m on the train, but today I thought this one up in my head.

Thank goodness my cellphone billing period restarts tomorrow. One day of this nonsense was enough.