After weeks and weeks of never ending tutorials, assignments and projects, Li Xiang and I decided to take a break and reward ourself with some good food. Tried Shokudo Japanese Food Bazaar which is located at Basement 1 of Raffles City. This $3-million Japanese Style Marche restaurant was opened by Thai Express Concepts, which also runs Thai Express chain, Xin Wang Hong Kong cafes and New York New York restaurants.

We went there at about 5.30pm and there was no queue, but after our dinner, the queue was as long as the TOTO queue for the Chinese New Year Hong Bao draw!

We ate a total of 13 dishes which I think is a lot for 2 persons. But the portion of each dish is much smaller than Marche. Our total bill including 10% service charge and 7% Goods & Services Tax is SGD$85.21. Which is very expensive for 2 person, or perhaps we ordered too many dishes.

By the way, all pictures are taken using my Nokia N82!

*Update* Personally, I feel that both the desserts we ate is not bad, followed by Bacon & Cheese Omelette and perhaps the Teppanyaki Assorted Mushrooms. The rest of the dishes are pretty average. The Shokudo Mushroom Cheese Burger is quite a popular dish among reviews. However, I find it just average, maybe slightly better than Botak Jones’s The Botak Burger as it is juicer (Botak Jones’s burgers are a little dry).

Shokudo Card

Shokudo Reserved Sign

Shokudo Cutleries

Click on the Read More link for pictures with prices of all the dishes that we ate.

Read More (146 More Words, 9 More Images)

Seems that everyone is buying things at the IT Show 008 except my brother and I.

Mom:

1. Western Digital Passport 250GB, SGD$179.99
2. Canon PIXMA MX700, SGD$399

Uncle Raymond:

1. Canon IXUS 860 IS, SGD$599

Cousin Peggy:

1. Asus F8Sn Laptop, SGD$2550
2. Canon IXUS 860 IS, SGD$599

Wayne:

1. Asus Laptop - F8Sn, SGD$2550

For the Canon IXUS 860 IS, the fee gifts include: 1x 4GB SD Card, 2x 2GB SD Card, Digital Kit Bag, Case and 23-in-1 Card Reader.

For the Canon PIXMA MX700, the free gifts include: Targus Backpack, Trolley, USB Cable.

For the Western Digital Passport 250GB, the free gift is only 1 pouch for the harddisk.

For the Asus F8Sn Laptop, the original price is SGD$2598, BUT you have to pay by cash (if I am not wrong) to get the price. If you are using NETS you have to pay 1.8% extra or credit cards 2.0% extra. I think that is deceiving the consumers (IT Show is not Sim Lim Square) as it is NOT written in the brochure at all. They should not pass the surcharge to the consumer at all. But apparently, Wayne and my cousin Peggy bought the 2 laptops together and hence they waive the credit card charges as well as give them additional SGD$48.00 discount.

PC Show 2008
The next IT fair will be PC Show 2008 and it is happening from 12th June 2008 to 15th June 2008 at Suntec City, Singapore International Convention & Exhibition Centre (Level 3, 4 and 6). Opening hours are from 12pm to 9pm.

That is the time for me to hoot my Dell 2408WFP Monitor, Altec Lansing 2.1 speakers and perhaps a keyboard and mouse set. WOOT.

I am so pissed off with TNT service, they told me they will be here at my place to collect my Nokia N81 8GB between 3pm and 5pm and now it is 5.45pm and THEY ARE STILL NOT HERE. I gave the driver a call and he ask me to wait for him for another 20 minutes. This is so ridiculous.

I am going to the IT Show 2008 and this stupid thing is delaying me.

EDIT: After some pressurizing, the driver told me he will drop by my place first and save me from waiting the 20 minutes, but nevertheless, he is late for an hour, which I think is totally unacceptable.

Some new features in IE8 Beta 1:

1. Activities - Activities are contextual services that provide quick access to external services from any webpage. Activities typically involve one of two types of actions.
2. WebSlices - Web sites can expose portions of their page as a WebSlice that users can subscribe to and bring that content with them on their links bar wherever they are on the web. Users receive update notifications when the content changes.
3. Choice of layout engine - Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 will ship in standards mode by default. However, three different rendering modes (Quirks mode, Strict mode and IE8 standards mode) that may be set using the X-UA-Compatible header.

Copy + Paste from IE8 Official Site:

Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 (Developer Preview)

Welcome to the website for Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1. Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 is a developer preview for web designers and developers to help prepare their websites for the launch of Internet Explorer 8. Some of the new features designed for developers include a developer toolbar and improved interoperability and compatibility.

Internet Explorer 8 is designed to work in standard mode out of this box. However, Microsoft provides a way for users to browse the web in a way similar to Internet Explorer 7 by using the emulate Internet Explorer 7 button on the chrome. The web at your service

Internet Explorer 8 will take the web experience beyond the page. Internet Explorer 8 introduces a new way to seamlessly experience the best of the web whether you are a web developer writing to standards or a user discovering a new online service. Be one of the first developers to take advantage of improvements in Internet Explorer 8 for your websites and applications.

Official Site: Internet Explorer 8
Download: Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1

First things first, your Nokia Phone must be 802.11 enabled, be it a Nseries or an Eseries phone. I am using S60 3rd edition Symbian OS 9.2 as an example. But in theory it should work with other editions of S60 Symbian OS as well.

We will be using NUS WLAN SSID “NUS” instead of “NUSOPEN”, as “NUS” is protected by PEAP.

Lets begin:
Part 1 - Defining NUS SSID

1. Go to Menu > Tools > Settings > Connection > Access points
2. Click on Options, then New access point
3. Under Connection name, key in NUS
4. Under Data bearer, select Wireless LAN
5. Under WLAN netw. name, key in NUS
6. Under Network status, leave it as Public
7. Under WLAN netw. mode, leave it as Infrastructure
8. Under WLAN security mode, select 802.1x
9. Click on WLAN security settings, and you will get into a new page
10. Under The WPA/WPA2 , leave it as EAP
11. Click on EAP plugin-settings, and you will get into a new page
12. Ensure ONLY EAP-PEAP is ENABLED (check mark will only appear beside EAP-PEAP). You can disable the remaining EAP types by going to Options > Disable
13. Click on EAP-PEAP, and you will get into a new page

Part 2 - Configuring EAP-PEAP

14. Under Personal certificate, leave it as Not defined
15. Under Authority certificate, select Thawte Premium Server
16. Under User name in use, select User defined
17. Under User name, key in your NUSNET UserID (EXCLUDING the domain (NUSSTU, NUSSTF or GUEST) portion)
18. Under Realm in use, select User defined
19. Under Realm, leave it as BLANK
20. Under Allow PEAPv0, select Yes
21. Under Allow PEAPv1, select No
22. Under Allow PEAPv2, select No
23. Move to EAPs tab, by pressing your right arrow key

Part 3 - Configuring EAP-MSCHAPv2

24. Ensure ONLY EAP-MSCHAPv2 is ENABLED (check mark will only appear beside EAP-MSCHAPv2). You can disable the remaining EAP types by going to Options > Disable
25. Click on EAP-MSCHAPv2, and you will get into a new page
26. Under User name, key in your NUSNET UserID (EXCLUDING the domain portion)
27. Under Prompt password, select No
28. Under Password, key in your NUSNET Password
29. Click Back about 10 times or enough times to reach the standby screen

Part 4 - Scanning For NUS SSID

30. Turn On your WLAN scanning and you should be able to detect and connect to NUS wireless network

No screenshots are included as I think it is pretty straightforward.

FULL CREDITS goes to Zit Seng’s Configuring N95 WLAN for NUS Wireless

Nokia is bringing Microsoft Silverlight to S60 on Symbian OS later this year. Now we just need Adobe Flash Lite 3 to be delivered to our mobile phones through a firmware update. You can get the Adobe Flash Lite 3 Developer Edition if you can’t wait.

Espoo, Finland - Nokia today announced plans to make Microsoft Silverlight available for S60 on Symbian OS, the world’s leading smartphone software(1), as well as for Series 40 devices and Nokia Internet tablets. Adding support for Silverlight will extend opportunities for developers to create rich, interactive applications that run on multiple platforms in a consistent and reliable way.

…

Microsoft will demonstrate Silverlight on S60 during the opening keyote at Microsoft’s MIX08 conference on March 5 in Las Vegas. Silverlight is intended to be available to S60 developers later this year with initial service delivery anticipated shortly thereafter for all S60 licensees. This will allow S60 application developers to use an even wider range of development environments for S60 on Symbian OS than today. Today S60 developers can use: C++ (using native Symbian OS APIs and Open C providing subset of standard POSIX libraries), S60 Web Run-time (supporting standards-based web technologies such as Ajax, JavaScript, CSS and HTML), the Java(TM) language, Flash Lite from Adobe, and Python.

Microsoft Silverlight availability for Nokia Series 40 devices and Nokia Internet tablets will be confirmed later.

Source: Nokia Press Release

IT Show 2008 will be happening on this Thursday, 6th March 2008 to Sunday, 9th March 2008 at Suntec City Exhibition Centre, Level 1, 3, 4 (Hall 401 to 404) and 6 (Hall 601 to 603). Opening hours are from 12pm to 9pm.

I am going to get the following items:

• Canon Digitial IXUS 860 IS (for my uncle)
• Western Digital 160GB (for my mom)
• Retractable Mini/Micro USB Cable
• Retractable RJ45 Cable
• Retractable iPod Touch Cable (Maybe)

I am going to look out for the following items:

• Dell 24″ Inch Monitor (2408WFP)
• 4 (Print, Scan, Fax and Copy) in 1 Printer (for my mom)
• 17″/19″ Monitors (for LiXiang)

I will be going with my cousin Peggy and Wayne as they are going to get laptops, perhaps they can buy together and ask for more discounts or free gifts.

PARENTS PLEASE DO NOT PUSH YOUR PRAMS THERE. SPARE A THOUGHT FOR OTHERS.

PS: For foreigners, if you have been staying in Singapore for more than 6 months and for Singaporeans, could you help my friends’ group in doing this Online Glico Concept Store Survey? It is for their NUS coursework, module CS4253 (Information Systems Consulting), and this survey is regarding my mom’s company. Thank You So Much!

Introduction
Nokia announced the N-Gage platform last August during Nokia: Go Play event held in London (global press conference) as well as in Singapore (Asia Pacific press conference). As some of you might recognize N-Gage as being referred to as gaming mobile phones ( N-Gage Classic and N-Gage QD) 5 years ago. Nokia has since moved on to using a software approach where N-Gage can be accessed on almost all the later mobile phones rather than being tied down to specific devices. N-Gage games used to be cartridges but now it is distributed straight to the N-Gage platform using Ovi (Nokia’s “umbrella concept” Internet services).
I was invited by Nseries WOM World to beta test the N-Gage platform and share my views and thoughts with the rest of my readers. They sent me a Nokia N81 8GB all the way from UK to Singapore came fully loaded with my N-Gage Profile and 4 unlocked (full version) games.

I am not really a mobile games person as I normally do not play games on my mobile phone. But after playing around with N-Gage for about 1 week, I am kinda addicted to playing games on the N-Gage when I am waiting for someone or I got nothing to do.

In this first impression review, I will do a walkthrough of the N-Gage application came installed in N81, N82 and N95 8GB.
Read More (753 More Words, 12 More Images)

Farewell Nic & Blair
Went to Nic & Blair farewell party yesterday at Screening Room Rooftop Bar located in
12 Ann Siang Road. It is my first time there and the view is so magnificent. I think I will be back there again with Li Xiang. However the price is a little steep especially the food. There is this dish called Burger Bar where you can choose 2 mini burgers and it cost $12 (not including taxes) and the size of each mini burger is like 1/4 the size of a normal burger that you can find in fast food restaurants. The Ice Lemon Tea cost $6 (not including taxes) and it is nice and for that the price is quite reasonable for a bar.

Screening Room - Rooftop Bar View

Screening Room - Rooftop Bar - Ice Lemon Tea

Farewell Nic & Blair! All the best to your new home in Seattle.

Note: The photos are taken on my loan Nokia N81 8GB and hence the quality is not that good, but my N82 will change everything!

Nokia N82
I have finally gotten my Nokia N82 from Luanne last night at the farewell party. Now there are 3 persons in my family using N82, my mom, bro and I. Got myself a 8GB microSDHC from PK Computer in Funan as well for SGD$99.00.

Nokia N82

microSDHC 8GB For My Nokia N82

Thank you Dinesh for the phone and Luanne for passing it to me!

Today is the 29th February 2008 and the next time February have 29 days will be in 2012.

A leap year (or intercalary year) is a year containing one or more extra days (or, in case of lunisolar calendars, an extra month) in order to keep the calendar year synchronised with the astronomical or seasonal year. For example, February would have 29 days in a leap year instead of the usual 28. Seasons and astronomical events do not repeat at an exact number of full days, so a calendar which had the same number of days in each year would over time drift with respect to the event it was supposed to track. By occasionally inserting (or intercalating) an additional day or month into the year, the drift can be corrected. A year which is not a leap year is called a common year.

Source: Wikipedia

Happy Leap Year everyone and for those whose birthday falls on the 29th February, happy birthday!