DSLR with SpeedLight Flash

My sis bought a new Nikon Speedlight SB-600 to complement our Nikon D40X DSLR. Now we have a proper flash with a proper diffuser to capture our images. 

A lot of our photography takes place in indoor and night situations and the stock flash in the D40X just wasn’t good enough as the angle could not be adjusted to get the right bounce.

Was practicing at my cousin’s wedding over the weekend. Got a hang of the flash and its capabilities. 

But I’m still a long way to go from being able to do really high quality images. I think one thing that is limiting me is the use of the kit-lens. Somehow the glass not very good la. Images not sharp enough even with all the tuning.

Gotta save up for some power lenses. This is becoming expensive!

Outdoor WIFI continually evades me!

Wifi out of home is sometimes pretty difficult to get even in technologically advanced Singapore. Wireless@Sg sill logs me out every 15 mins. Today I thought I could get a nice cup of coffee at Coffee Bean and use the ACCESS-STARHUB but I was so wrong. DHCP totally didn’t work. Couldn’t get an IP at all. My Huawei E270 3G modem never works with my MAC OSX Leopard. Drivers fail! All the uninstall-reinstall cycles were to no avail. Let’s see if iPhone 3G or even a 3G MacBook (if it is on the cards) would be able to help with my external connectivity issues? 

Stacks and Stacks of Email

Been so busy with last week’s speaking engagement and the eBay event and post event reports and various what nots that I now have 620 emails stacked up in the various inboxes over the course of a few days. Die la!

IDC Asia/Pacific Web 2.0 Conference - Speaking there, See you!

Hey everyone! I’ll be speaking at the IDC Asia/Pacific Web 2.0 Conference next week.

My topic will be about the Web 2.0 landscape in Asia. The conference is pretty high-profile with the attendees mainly being CXOs ad information technology managers.

From the list of signups, it does seem as though Web 2.0 is really getting into the corporate meme as more executives are beginning to have the idea sink in that Web2 is here to stay and while there are many opportunities, there will also be many threats.

Nothing too insurmountable though

It’s not easy to prepare for a bunch of seasoned execs. The topic is just broad. With just 30 minutes to speak, I’ll probably have to laser speed my way through it. But I’ll make it fun.

I personally don’t like to sit through boring lectures so I’ll crack my head to make sure no one falls asleep!

In early April, I flew up to Hong Kong to speak to some corporate head-honchos about Facebook. The questions they shoot are definitely not the easy peasy kind but it was excellent opportunity to train up.

I live by the philosophy that the harder it is the better. The more I can stretch myself the better. Otherwise, no fun la!

Prof Wong’s Blog

Professor Wong Poh Kam has started blogging on his blog. (If you are not familiar with Prof Wong, you can read his intro post here.)

Prof Wong has been very supportive of us young people. In many ways I really admire his far-sighted vision.

He helped to formulate the NOC program which has definitely changed my life along with hundreds of others. It gave me the opportunity to see beyond the usual career choice to choose the path of entrepreneurship with gumption.

I don’t look back nowadays and put in my 120% week-in-week out. It stretches me but not a day has passed with out its challenging moments yet it’s still so fun.

Also, Prof Wong saw how important it was to really engage young entrepreneurs and provided us with the support to begin the Garag3.

So it’s really nice to have Zack from SgStartups write about the energy at the Garag3. We didn’t pay him to write about it. It’s 100% authentic. Many in part due to the young founders at the Garag3 and also the interns working there. Over 50 people work full-time in the startups at the Garag3 this summer.

It’s an electrifying experience to be there. So fast-paced, so intellectually-challenging.

But back to Prof Wong. He’s joined the Blogosphere only now, but being the Prof, I’m pretty sure he’ll have some interesting stories to share!

If you’re looking for angel investments, engaging Prof Wong through his blog could be a very good way to begin conversations. I’m not sure how many other angel investors or VCs in this region blog but it seems like Prof Wong is one of few. Bernie still blogs fervently of course

Lasalle Carpet Grass

There’s this nice carpet grass area at the new Lasalle campus in selegie. Fantastic place! I’m lying here enjoying the sunset and the wifi and doing my work from here.The architect created a little patch of ‘fake’ greenery. It looks like a putting course with astroturf laid all over it. It is in the middle of the canvas covered atrium. Sitting on the grass you can see into all the buildings.I think it’s a really cool idea to have a place like this. In Singapore it’s usually too hot and dirty on the pavements. You don’t want to lie on the grass because the cowgrass makes your skin itch. So it’s really nice to have a place like this where you can sit and be sheltered from the elements by the big canopy above.The orientation of the atrium makes it possible for a breeze to blow through and it has this wonderful feeling about it.Just sitting here in this public space, in the city centre which is fast rejuvenating, I realize how wonderful the transformation of the city is becoming. Despite all the rising prices and lack of political freedom in this country, at least things like this is right.  If only they had a power socket on the grass for me to plugin my laptop! 

Vietnam To Make Motorcyclists Wear Helmet

When I went to Vietnam a couple of months ago, it was interesting to observe that no-one wore helmets.

I then remarked to a friend that it would be a big business opportunity if there was a law enacted that made everyone wear helmets.

Tada: Check out this news.

So assuming that each helmet sells at 200,000 dong which is ~ S$20. Assuming a 50% profit margin (S$10). All you need to do is sell 100k helmets to be a millionaire!

Quick! Quit your jobs, go Vietnam and sell helmets! Even better, distribute helmets to Vietnamese importers!

Go Karting and Paint Ball

Just had a fantastic day in JB Go-Karting and playing Paint Ball.

Haven’t Go-Karted for close to a decade. The thrill of rounding the corners was exhilarating. Wished I had a little more guts to push myself a little more so that I could get a faster timing.

Then we played paintball. Playing the solder was extremely fun for me! Unfortunately, I got shot once on my calf for sticking it out too far. Oh well. Ouch!

Tesla Stores — Nice Apple-seque marketing

Taking a leaf from Apple, Tesla Motors has started to build stores.

In the right places: Menlo Park, SF, Los Angeles, New York and Miami. These are the places where trendsetters with high incomes live in.

Selling a next-generation electric car is the same as selling the iPod. Target the celebs, the cool and the upper class and make it fashionable to be seen driving around in one.

Last year I blogged that Tesla would be the electric Ferrari. Looks like it’s shaping up well!

Hawker Centres - Last Bastions of Price Resonability

In a land where prices keep going up up up and inflation feel like as if we are in some Cold War Eastern Bloc countries, one of the pleasures of living in this little island is its Hawker Centres.

I just bought a bowl of century egg porridge that comes with a you tiao for $2.50. The guy didn’t even charge me for the plastic bowl. I felt bad.

Then I also bought a 3pack tau pok for $2. He even gave me one big packet of sweet sauce.