k r i s a n d r o

It’s only two days away from Christmas, which also happens to be my birthday! Yes, I am a Christmas baby and Christmas was great until people around me realize that they should give me one birthday-cum-Christmas present instead of two separate gifts. One good thing that is still prevalent through these years is that it is so easy to remember my birthday; Kris is born on Christmas day! How hard is that? If you don’t remember my birthday, SHAME ON YOU!!! Go repent and get me a big gift! (Or make it two… )

 

As much as I would like to believe that I am 18 years of age, I am actually turning 27 on Christmas and that thought is quite scary! I am actually inching towards the big 30 soon! And I can actually feel the age catching up on me; friends of the same age/batch getting married, more wrinkles, deteriorating stamina and most of all, the increasing hunger for a superpower to turn back time. That and X-ray vision. Heheheheheheheeee.

Despite the fallbacks that come of age, I think I am still happy with the past year. I made a lot of friends through the revival of blogging in February and through channels and platforms like wholivesnearyou.com, ping.sg, twitter, yebber, facebook & plurk. Being so active in the social media scene also gave me opportunities to attend various events that added colors to an otherwise mundane life. Most of all, thanks to Ruifang aka KuKuNehNeh aka KKNN aka the gf, for contributing the most joy for the past year.

Merry KRISmas and a Happy New Year everyone!

With the every growing popularity of social media tools in the internet such as blogging, twittering, plurking,  facebook, friendster and WLM, it’s no wonder that people start to use less of other traditional forms of communication like landlines and handphones.

[Image from here]

I remember my first encounter with the internet was back in secondary school when I joined this ECA called ‘Media Resource Club’(MRC). The school purchased about 3 to 4 computers in the library and they are connected to the internet. I was with 2 other friends and we logged on to explore. I distinctly remembered going to Yahoo! and the very first term I search for was,

“Amy Yip”

WAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAAH!!!!!!

Younger generations won’t know who she is but let’s just say that she was pretty popular back in the days for her erm… assets.

=D

Anyway, I soon acquired my own computer and a 56K modem and I was connected! I used mIRC to make all sorts of new friends and stayed connected with them through ICQ. Papers constantly reported the dangers of the internet during those times and I understood them, but I still proceeded to meet people up. Before all this, I was this introverted geek and the internet really opened me up to chatting and meeting new people up.

Fast forward to now and I am still using the internet to meet a whole lot of people I got to know online through popular social sites and tools.

At least for me, the internet has made me more sociable and enabled me to reach out to a bigger pool of people. Whether or not these relationships can be continued and substained in the real world is still too early to tell. With the right mindset and correct approach, I strongly believe that the internet is a great tool for socializing.

This is a proper review of the HP 2133 Mini-Note (HP Mini) and not like the last rubbish review I did. And this is definitely a review based on my true opinions of the product, even though I did win it from the Ping Awards II. Be warned though! I am only a half-past six geek and I am better at talking about himbotic stuffs like how many idiots there are in the MRT every morning. So please bear with me if this review is not up to your expectations.

I managed to squeeze some time out of my schedule to collect the HP Mini last thursday and if not for the crowded bus ride, I would have whipped it out in excitement to play with it. It was only till I reached the office when both my colleagues, Claudia and Andy unboxed the HP Mini for me and they would have been mistaken to be having orgasms from all the “OOoooooooo(s)” and the “Ahhhhhhhhhhh(s)” when they saw it. Both of them own laptops and their immediate reactions was coming from the fact that it is so small!

HP Mini VS My Hand

I know it is a bad way to compare the size of the HP Mini to something since my hand is rather large. But I just want to remind you people on what they say about guys with large hands…

WAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA!!!!

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And you know what? The people at HP gave me the top of the line model from the HP Mini series!

1.6G Processor!!! 2G of Ram!!!!

But…….

Windows Vista Business?

The bane of all new PCs and laptops – the Windows Vista. It is akin to buying a brand new Lamborghini and fitting it with one tonne of parts. Chio (Beautiful) but useless as it is S.L.O.W. Not to mention that it is buggy. 7 Days with it and it crashed 5 times so far. If only it came with WIndows XP pre-installed!

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The other thing that one will notice immediately apart from its size is the built!

Great finish

Upon looking at it closely and handling it, I found it to be very sturdy and a little heavy for it’s size. I am not one who can determine what material a product is made of with a knock or a bite and so a quick google search reveals that the HP Mini is made of aluminum all round and the internal structure is protected by a magnesium alloy. The surface of the LCD is also made scratch resistant which means that if my girl decides to damage the HP Mini because I spend too much time on it, the HP Mini should be relatively safe.

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The HP Mini looks moderately pleasing from the outside but I think the finish on the inside makes it one of the most aesthetically pleasing UMPC I’ve seen. I did say ‘one of’ right? The Mac fanbois look to be ready to slit my throats with their Macbook Air.

Gorgeous ain’t she?

The cool power button

People are quite used to seeing people whip out notebooks in public places but not this one. The size and the built turns heads whenever I take the HP Mini out. OKAY FINE! It could have been due to the kaypoh (nosy) nature of Singaporeans but… but it really turns more heads than usual!

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Nicely sized for laptops

Extends all the way to the edges for easy cleaning

The keyboard is 92% full sized and it is comfortable enough to type on for long durations without feeling the need to strangle someone to loosen the stiff muscles.

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Speakers on the LCD face

Most laptops I have seen have their speakers on the face of the keyboard or around the sides of the base. The HP Mini has the speakers right where the sound should emit from. The front! I think this works well especially to the audiophiles as it makes more sense to have the sound propagating from where you are seeing the image from. The power of the speakers is also good. I haven’t had the chance to increase the volume beyond half of what the HP Mini can offer.

One problem which might be only particular to my unit is that the covers of the speaker (the one that my finger is pointing at on the pic above) keeps popping out by a couple of millimeters. It could be an issue of bad assembly but I am not sure. Not a big problem, but I keep pushing it in so that it can stay flushed with my screen. I don’t have OCD. Really.

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One of my last gripes of the HP Mini is of the touchpad.

HP Mini’s Touchpad

The left and right click buttons are unconventionally located on the sides of the touchpad instead of the bottom and it takes some getting used to. My lack of experience with a laptop might prove to be a bonus in this as I should be able to be accustomed to this faster than people who are so used to the conventional placements. The touchpad seems to be over sensitive at times and undersized while the “I-don’t-know-what-is-the-proper-name” scroll thingy that you see on the right side is super laggy. And when it does detect that I am trying to scroll, it becomes overly responsive as well.

Special Button

I took sometime to figure out what that button is. Once activated, it actually disables the touchpad and the purpose of it is to actually prevent users from accidentally activating the touchpad when you are typing for long hours. Not a problem for me so far as my hands don’t seem to have the problem of touching the touchpad when typing.

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One final and biggest problem I have with the HP Mini is that the batteries don’t last very long. I use the HP Mini a lot on the go or when I am in my room and even when I am doing my ‘business’ (Ewwwwww! I know!). And I use it mainly for surfing which means the wifi is constantly on. Such usage brings the life of the Mini to about 1 hr 20 mins to 1 hr 30 mins or even lesser sometimes. I wished HP had provided me with the 6-cell battery instead which can theoretically bring the battery life to twice the amount which makes it in the acceptable range for a mobile computer.

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In summary, apart from the big problem of the short battery life (*cough* 6-Cell Battery HP? *cough cough*) and the other small nuances, I love the HP Mini to death. It’s small and light for me to bring it almost anywhere (toilet not forbidding)! It’s not much of a workhorse because of it’s small screen and slow OS & processor but it definitely meets the need for blogging and surfing on the go (and while doing ‘business’).

Once again, a big thank you to Ping.sg for bringing in the sponsors, Waggener Edstrom and HP for the prize, and to the people who voted for me!

Before I end this, I shall leave you guys with my favourite website.

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WAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAAH!!!!!!

 

After months of preparation and anticipation, Ping.sg finally had their 2nd Anniversary and Awards at Fig & Olive on Saturday!

The committee were at the venue early but we were running around like headless chickens sometimes. Everyone helped one another and we managed to complete our tasks in time. My slaves, Hendri and Miccheng, helped me finish up on the table tennis bats which were given out as award trophies.

Sylvia hooked the committee up with a lady named Caressa who made us such great looking and tasting cupcakes! If I wasn’t battling the fact that my love handles are starting to look like the edges of the cupcakes, I would have had seconds.

People started trickling in and everyone had their chances to meet up with the bloggers that they come across every now and then in the Ping community. Everyone had name tags that helped identify each one of us and due to the evil blogger by the name of Wendy, I had this tag.

Everyone loves to hate a Chao Ah Beng and hence I got quite a lot of poofs from the pingsters. But I wasn’t the most hated! The winner is actually…

Diana’s lovely daughter, Shervon got the most POOFed award! WAHAHAHHAHAHAHA! Not that she is hated though. Everyone wanted the little girl to win something. =P

The awards were hosted by the laugh inducing duo, NTT & Mintea. Despite a few cock-ups here and there, the awards were given out at a very nice pace. I was nominated for quite a few and I expected to return home empty handed after awhile as other bloggers walked away with their prizes. But I manage to win the “Most Entertaining Blog Award!”

And with the votes of the great crowd there, I won the “HP Blog of the Year”!!!

I TOTALLY DIDN’T EXPECT IT! I only remembered being in a daze as I walked up to receive my prizes which consists of….

…..and the biggest prize of the night….

This has to be the most awesome thing I won so far in my life! And no better time than now when I am actually looking to get an UMPC to blog and surf on the go. Thank you to the great people at HP and Waggener Edstrom Worldwide for sponsoring such a prize!

Melvin! If you are reading this, get me a new set soon! I can’t wait to caress it!

Sorry if this post felt very truncated and bullet like. I am so bloody sleepy and I cannot write this post as well as I should. But before I end this post. I will like to thank the following people. Uzyn, Daphne & the committee for organizing such a memorable event. Claudia and Miccheng for preserving the memories in pictures and video.

But most of all,

I want to thank all the readers who nominated and voted for me. Without you guys and girls, I would be just a regular guy with a blog.

Now, I am a regular guy with a blog, armed with two ping pong bats, a glass and a HP MINI!

WOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh! And please watch this great lipdub video created by Rinaz for the Anniversary!

Ping Lipdub Project from rinaz on Vimeo.