My Lovey Dovey Apple Techy

So, yes. I used to be a big fat nerd in love with gadgets, computers, IT's, CPU's, giga-bytes, etc. I used to know everything about everything in technological worlds. Intel's Smithfield series with Netburst architecture, AMD's Barcelona architecture, DDR vs. DDR2, L2 vs L3 Cache... I knew everything!

Well, as you see the examples I listed above, I'm old and obsolete. I no longer am up-to-date with today's technology. When I was a student, my budget was limited, so I had to research and make sure to get the best valued products. Now I have more than enough money that I can manage, so I don't care as much anymore, muohahaha.

No, I was joking. I don't have that much money. But, having more money now did contribute to my change. As I started working 8 hours every day and sometimes weekends to compensate my inefficiency from dumb brain. So, I don't have much time following up the latest technology news. Also, since I started making my own money, I am not as desperate to search for the best-valued gadgets.

That being said, I started loving Apple products. Yes. If you're a true nerd, I mean a true poor nerd, you will never look at Apple products. They ARE NOT BEST-VALUED GADGETS, if not over-priced. They look pretty, shiny, "minimalistic", and all that. Sometimes they are arrogant when promoting their products. I never looked at their stuffs either when I was a student, until right before I graduate.

What I like about their products is that... they are worry-free... mostly. Part of the reason I was a big fat nerd before was because of Windows. It just broke so many times that in order to fix them myself, I had to learn lots of stuffs, and that naturally led me to nerdy world. But, Apple products didn't make me learn as much. I mean, they do break from time to time. But spending minimal time on the internet researching for solution works all the time. I've never had to go into like Registry Editor or open one of those .sys files. Most times, I was able to solve the problems still in GUI interface. Many times, problems weren't really problems. It was more of me not configuring things properly.

I see that Windows got a lot better since XP. I also have the latest version, 8.1, on the virtual machine on my MacBook pro. I agree that it is great, 10,000 times better than Windows 95/98. (By the way, MS-DOS 5.3 was the first OS I played with). Microsoft is finally doing things right. If they keep doing it, I may go back to Windows again. I mean, I'm not a maniac of anything. I just love computers and its tech specs although I'm not knowledgeable anymore.

Enough talking. I'll end the post with pictures of some Apple products I have.

iPhone 5S

Macbook Pro Retina, iPad Mini Retina, and Magic Trackpad

Airport Extreme

iMac

빠른생일 따지는 사람들

오랜만에 쓰는 한글 블로그로구나.

이런 경우가 있었다. 두 명의 빠른 84년생이 어떤 곳으로 이주했다, 첫 번째 빠른 84년생은 친구들은 모두 83년생이지만 어차피 새로운 곳으로 이사왔고 복잡한걸 싫어해서 그냥 84년생으로 지내며 83년생에겐 형이라 부르고 84년생과는 친구로 지냈다. 그리고 두 번째 빠른 84년생이 왔는데 그는 빠른 84년생, 즉 83년생 취급을 받고 싶어했다... 이유는 친구들이 전부 83년생이라서...

그래서 약간 꼬이는 상황이 발생했다. 두 번째 빠른 84년생은 83년생들과 친구먹기 시작했고 84년생들에게는 형/오빠 대접을 받았다. 하지만 이 사람은 첫 번째 빠른 84년생에게는 형 대접을 받을 수 없었다. 그렇지만 그 사람은 83년생들에겐 형이라 부른다.

결국 궁여지책으로 첫 번째 빠른 84년생은 두 번째 빠른 84년생이 있을 땐 83년생들과 친구먹고 없을 땐 형으로 대접한다. 이 무슨 머리아픈 상황이...

일반적인 상황으로 봤을 땐 첫 번째 빠른 84년생이 일을 복잡하게 한 걸 수도 있겠다. 빠른년생들이 윗사람 대접받는 건 사실 한국에선 보통 상황이니까. 하지만 인간적으로 좀 이해가 안가는 부분들은 왜 굳이 그 대접을 받고 싶어하는 걸까...

난 85년생인데, 예를 들면 내가 빠른 85년생이랑 친구먹고 싶으면 친구먹을 수 있는 거 아닌가? 물론 그 사람 친구들은 죄다 84년생이겠지만 만약 새로운 곳으로 이주한 경우에, 그 사람 친구들이 84년생이건 아니건 나랑 상관없는 거 아닌가.

내 친구들 중에도 빠른 86년생이 있다. 사실 상관없다. 솔직히 9월생이라 빠른 86년생이랑 아무리 멀어봤자 6개월도 안되는데 1월이 사이에 있다고 형/동생 하는것도 좀 그렇다. 하지만 이런 마음은 빠른85년생에도 느껴진다. 어차피 같은 해에 태어났고 생일이 아닌 해에 따라 나이가 드는 시스템인 만큼 빠른 85년생도 솔직히 동갑으로 치는게 그렇게 문제가 되는 걸까. 가끔은 그런 거 없는 미국식 사고방식이 훨씬 편하다고 느껴진다.

하지만 새파랗게 어린 눈퍼런놈이 "헤이 맨~" 하는것도 정말 못봐주긴 해...

All That Gold iPhone

Yeah, finally, I got the gold iPhone 5s in my hand, like a bauss!!

With my darl Boshin on the screen, I felt like... nothing special. Really. I meant when I heard the release of gold iPhone, I wanted it really bad. I ordered and cancelled so many times on AT&T website and Apple website, trying to get this as quick as I can. Well, I couldn't, and after about a month and half of its release, I finally got it! But really... That was it.

I meant, yeah. It has all those full features with A7 and M7 processor, Fingerprint sensor, more antenna, blah blah blah and blah. Most improvements made on iPhone 5s, you won't really get any benefits from them. Maybe developers and mobile business... They may find Fingerprint sensor (Touch ID) useful. But if you have had iPhone 5, you won't notice much difference. I had iPhone 5 for 3 months before this phone.

Actually I knew this. I knew all this. That's why I got the gold one. Because 5s is so not different from its previous generation, the only way I let others know I got the 5s was to have the gold one, since gold color was first introduced on 5s. Well, call me a superficial guy bragging about all his latest gadgets. Get envious! And question yourself for why you can't be like me, muogahahahajajaha.

Anyway, to wrap up my bragging, iPhone 5s gold wasn't all that special. Unless you're an early adapter like me, I don't recommend this as a must-have gadget. Wait for iPhone 6.

Cyworld... Time to Say Good-bye, My Old Friend

Today, I paid my last visit to my Cyworld page, a Korean social website prior to Facebook. Nowadays, you can lock down everything in Facebook, but back in 2004, Facebook had lots of problems with privacy due to its open environment. Cyworld, on the other hand, was designed to provide very limited, closed interactions among users.

Like its name, Cyworld (Cyber-world), you were given a little web space, called Mini-hompie (Mini homepage). Inside your mini-hompie, you have a small area where you could decorate the way you want with items. It was called Mini-room, and you had to buy items to decorate.

The currency was called acorn... that you can buy with real money (with credit cards, to be exact). You spend certain amount of acorn to buy songs, decorative items, mini-homie backgrounds, etc. That's something I really hated... that although my mini-hompie is MY mini-hompie, I couldn't do lots of things in my way. Why do I have to buy songs again when I already have them in my computer? Why can't I use custom decorative items I designed?

The contents were the only things I could control. Any writings, pictures, and videos you upload, you have full control of them. The usage is a lot like Facebook. People visit their friends' mini-hompies, check how they are doing, leave a comment or two in "Visitor" section, leave comments on pictures, etc.

I spent lots and lots of money and time on my mini-hompie back in 2003~2007. Although I have had Facebook account since 2003, I never made use of it until 2007. I'm not sure what happened to trigger me to shift from one to another, but now, I visit my mini-hompie so scarcely that I have trouble remembering my password every time I visit there.

I see that Cyworld is trying their best to keep attracting the current/new users. But, it's obviously not working. Facebook is surely taking over the world. The new design they're pushing now is actually nice, but I think it's too late...

I may pay one last visit soon to get all my pictures down. I'm afraid it has to be done manually.

Good-bye, mini-hompie. I did share lots of fun and sad moments with you. I think it's time for revision, for both of us.

If it is my Lord's will for me

Burn me up and let me roar

I sacrifice myself on your altar.

Let me live not long but meaningful

Like the Lord that chose death for the world.

If it is your will, take my burning blood

Like the Lord that chose death for the world.

My life is not mine but yours, spill my blood, only for you

To be or not to be, let it be your choice, only for you.

A lamp is destined to die, sacrificed with the knife

I choose death for eternal life.

Let me choose eternity, and give up the rest

Stupidity would be my name, but I still choose you.

God rules, not the religion

I believe in God, and I read Bible from time to time. I don't think I know Jesus perfectly, and I never will. The relationship between me and God is tight, and at the same time, is no one else's business. I do not let anyone, even my parent, get involved in it. No help is necessary, thank you.

First of all, the United States of America takes Republic System, kind of abstracted, modified Democracy. I believe that religion is not supposed to take any place in the government system because it takes away the freedom of choice from the people. When any religion is enforced in the government system, it's no longer with Democracy, but with Theocracy. So, "we shouldn't do that because God doesn't like it" does not / should not work in our system. This is the fact, whether I am a faithful believer or not. If I think a certain law should pass because that's what God would like, that's only my preference. It cannot be used as a convincing reason. That's why I'm okay with gay marriage despite the church's traditional teachings. Do I "personally" support gay marriage as a Christ believer? Well, again, that's none of your business.

Second, no matter how much we study Bible, we will never know everything about it. Yes, some people like pastors will definitely know more than others because they spend more time on it. But, if Bible is something we cannot perfectly understand, then whatever we say from Bible cannot be perfect either. It's our educated guess plus some evidences: we call this "theory". Trinity is a theory. Earth being 10,000-year old is a theory. These theories are believed to be the truth by church traditions. Guess what, screw them. I'm going to choose the theory I want to believe. Do I believe in Trinity? Do I believe that the Earth is 10,000 years old? Again, it's no one else's business but only mine. (Well, I do believe them. But I do not judge others who don't agree because I simply can't. I don't have enough evidences, either, to tell them that what I believe is the truth. My evidences are all up in the air, called faith.)

I'm really emotional at the moment as I'm writing this blog. Too many people think that they perfectly understand what God thinks. There's no way for you to know that. Bible is just too hard book to understand even after you spend lots of time studying about it. All of your good words are just full of your guesses and opinions (although your guesses could be more valid or probable depending on how much you studied and how smart you are). No one has a right to tell anyone about how to believe in God. After all, we couldn't convince Jehovah's Witness believers that what they believe is actually a cult. We couldn't convince Unitarian church people. We couldn't convince Mormon. Those religions that Christianity consider as cults, we could not convert them. No excuses. We are just not smart, logical, good enough, and maybe not faithful enough. In fact, we may be not even sure that what we believe is the absolute truth. We are just repeating what we've been taught by our preachers, Sunday schools, those sermon CD's, and Joel Osteen's worship services on TV.

My life in God is my own, and I have full responsibility for that. I will not judge you, so you do not judge me. Didn't you hear this somewhere before?

Crate Training

My dog Boshin is only 4-month old, getting 5 month in a couple weeks. Like anyone with puppies, I'm also having a little headache with him peeing and pooping everywhere in the house. My pets in my life had been only cats, so I never had to worry about potty training until now. And after wrestling with Boshin and million different way of potty training, I've made rather cruel choice: crate training. It is believed to be the most efficient and effective.

Basically, he stays in the crate the whole time. I only release him every other hour and bring him outside. If he goes to bathroom, I pet him and let him run around the house for about 20 minutes. If not, he goes right back to his crate. Basically, I make him live his life only to poop outside... "Outside" is the key word here. He will have no problem learning that the world is a lot larger than his crate and there are more things to do in life. At this moment, what I'm teaching him is that he eats, stays in the crate, and poops outside, and that's all his life about. But, when he successfully poops outside, I try to show him my affection... that I'm doing this because I love him.

I hope the time comes quickly that I no longer have to crate him, ever.

Smartphone Saga

So, to fulfill the duty of being a geek, I had to have a smartphone on my palm since day one of its birth. But I was a student until iPhone 3G came out, and after I graduated and got a job, I was still in slavery contract with AT&T. So, the very first smartphone I had was iPhone 3GS.

iPhone 3GS was fantastic. It opened a whole new world to me in technology. I was also popular among my other Korean friends, because no one else had a smartphone yet, because no one had graduated and got a job at that time... some of them had those "pseudo-smartphone" that I call... Android was not even in infantry stage at that time. iPhone was THE ONLY smartphone. For one whole year, I had lots of fun with my phone until Apple release their next iPhone that was 10 times better than iPhone 3GS...

Yes, iPhone 4. I was so envious!! It surpassed everything compared to iPhone 3GS. Of course, it is expected since it was the next generation to 3GS, but it was TOO MUCH better!! I was so angry, feeling like my 3GS is just a trash. Some of the features I really liked about 4 over 3GS was...

1. 5 MP camera vs. 3 MP.

2. 720P HD video recording vs. VGA resolution

3. RETINA!!! vs. crappy low-density display

But, guess what! Fortunately, one of my Korean friends left the U.S. for good, and his phone was iPhone 4!! Because he had to leave in such hurry, he had to sell this phone quickly. I got this from him for only $100!! Can you believe that?? Only $100!!

But, I only had this phone for about 5 months. Android was getting better and better every day. I believe that around this time, Android Froyo and Gingerbread came out, the first stable version of Android in my opinion. But because Android was still inferior compared to iOS at that time, Android smartphones attracted users with bigger screen and better camera features. And one day, Samsung shocked the world with this mega-sized Android phone (at that time), Galaxy Note.

It was 5.3 inch with pen! Nowadays, there are million smartphones with similar size, and I give credit to Galaxy Note... it proved that bigger screen worked out in the smartphone market. I had to have it. Fortunately, my contract was over, so I gave my iPhone 4 to one of my friends and purchased this one.

And for about a couple weeks, I had fun with this phone. But to be honest, Android was still far from being matured stage. I started seeing bugs, lags, app compatibility issues, etc, that I never had to worry in iOS. After about three months or so, I was able to trick one of my friends who had iPhone 4S, and swapped the phone with him.

And I survived with 4S for about a year. iPhone 4S was a great phone. I loved every aspect of it. It didn't support LTE, and that bothered me a bit, but I was OK. AT&T didn't provide LTE service in Baton Rouge area until later 2011, and it wasn't that stable anyway until later 2012. So, I was completely fine with this phone until I got a new job. In my office, this phone just did not work. It had very poor to no reception, and I was so pissed about it. I saw that my co-workers phones worked fine. They had either Verizon or AT&T LTE services. So, after a year, when my mom's number was eligible for phone upgrade, I got HTC ONE, another Android phone in my life, and gave this 4S to one of my friends (I indeed have lots of friends, don't I?).

The bottom line is... this phone is great! It was truly a state-of-art phone. I loved it a lot. I just loved it. There was one problem though, and it was rather a big problem. I had this phone for 3 months, and I was never able to get used to its keyboard. I kept making mistakes in texts and emails. Also, I heard a rumor that Falcom, one of my favorite game companies, decided to release its games that I really enjoyed before, for iOS. (Developers like to release apps in iOS, because iOS provides easier environments hardware-wise.) So, I changed my mind again, purchased iPhone 5, and gave HTC One to my mom... which she's still struggling to learn how to use it.

And my impression about iPhone 5? It's an awesome phone. No matter who says what, iPhone is an awesome phone. iPhone 5 has everything I like. LTE service, nice keyboard, Retina display, good camera, and stable apps.

As you see, there is a little pattern in my smartphone saga. I also saw it too, and what I realized is that Android phone is just not for me. I think I'll stick with iPhone because historically, I was most satisfied and complained least when I had iPhone in my hand.

I'm really looking into the next iPhone Apple will release. Once they release, I think I'll get it and give this iPhone 5 to my mom (and make her life easier). HTC One... I may sell it, or give it to one of my friends again.

Back to Blog

Yay, I'm back.

How long has it been? So many things changed in last three years.

First of all, I got a house now and a puppy as companion. I also have my best friend as the roommate. So far, everything is going well.

Second, I started doing stuffs I've always been dreaming of. One of them was acting. I started as a small role since I had no prior experience, but it was great and well worth the time. I learned a lot.

Last, I finally got my dream job! I'm working for a company that every chemical engineer dreams of. Unfortunately, I can't reveal the name of my company because that's the rule. It kind of sucks because I can't brag about it, but hey, I'm enjoying every time I spend there, and the paycheck hehe.