DeepAurelia

Wow! I just finished wiping the sweat off my forehead after running into problems with upgrading to WordPress 3.1.3. The automatic upgrade failed and on the live site displays an unpleasant “Briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance. Check back in a minute.” error message.

According to this article, the simple fix is to remove the hidden .maintenance file in the root directory of the WordPress installation.

Tonight I dined out with Evelyn at JFX on the ground floor of Southport Central. At $11, the dinner set comes with your choice of meat, 3 pieces of salmon sashimi, rice, salad and miso soup. I paid ~$30 for 2 entrees and 2 main courses which isn’t bad for the quality service. They even offered blankets to patrons sitting outside. I give JFX a 9 out of 10!

I have been window shopping for a new phone for some time. Having had the iPhone 4 for just over a year now, it is time again for identity change.

You are probably wondering why the hell I’m getting rid of my iPhone 4? Well, there isn’t a great answer to that. The iPhone 4 is a great product. Many features work great out of the box. But for years it also lacked many features found in other smartphones. So, current candidates are:

• HTC HD7 – Yes, I know it’s a Windows Phone 7 and you may find it hard to believe coming from an Apple fanboy. This phone is really what a Windows Phone should be. The design is just great and dont forget that lovely camera hardware button.
• Samsung Galaxy S II – Ok, this one is even a surprise to myself. I once swore to never purchase a Samsung phone, EVER! What makes this phone change my mind? Design (I don’t care whether they copied iPhone or not!). Android (the Android Market is not bad). Intuitive (you had me at voice control: I thought the iPhone’s voice control was pretty damn good. Then I saw Samsung’s). Did I mention dual-core processor?
• HTC Incredible S – I really want the HTC Sense. No phone manufacturers have done anything like it. Turn over your phone to hang up on an income call is just brilliant. I’m not going to name every single feature that comes with HTC Sense but it’s not hard to imagine what you can do with it.

Telstra has kindly offered a free handset upgrade in July so tik tok…tik tok. I will be posting more about it when the decision is made.

Hey guys, long time no see!

I have left the Department of Communities about a month ago and joined gotalk as a web designer on the Gold Coast. I’m very happy by the fact that my commute has shortened from 4 hours to just 30 minutes.

My new job has been keeping me real busy but has not stopped my learning. Evidently I have converted this site to HTML5/CSS3. I have completely given up on IE6. Afterall, we never advance unless we ditch the old and outdated technologies. Just following our beloved Steve Jobs here.

Evelyn introduced me to a new sushi place called Heiroku Sushi in Labrador. It’s across the road from KFC. Not the best sushi on the Gold Coast but the Deep Fried Chicken and Prawn Tempura Udon are delicious. Nom nom nom.

Congratulations to Piyada for passing her Australian citizenship test.

For the last couple of days I’ve discovered the world of HDR. Shooting photos with AEB and having Photomatix is such a bliss.

Recently I acquired a BlackBerry Bold 9700. A lot of people have asked for a comparison with iPhone 4 so here it is.

iPhone 4

Pros:

• Chinese and Thai input methods out-of-the-box.
• Built for entertainment (music, photos, videos).
• Best touch screen
• Good UI
• Better camera for photos and videos (5MP)
• Front-facing and rear-facing cameras
• App store: more software
• Maximum capacity: 32GB

Cons:

• Non-removable battery
• Battery drains quickly due to apps (running in the background)
• Non-expandable memory
• Fragile hardware (case is made out of glass, breaks easily if dropped)
• No physical keypads
• Uses micro-sim (makes it difficult if you want to use a different handset interchangeably)

BlackBerry Bold 9700

Pros:

• Built for email
• Uses secure PIN network
• Removable battery
• Expandable memory (microSD)
• Solid hardware (case is strong, does not break easily if dropped)
• Physical keypads: arguably better than touchscreen

Cons:

• Have to install language packs via computer in order to read and type different languages
• BlackBerry Internet Service: extremely painful to setup email accounts
• User-interface is not so intuitive
• Camera is only 3.2MP
• No front-facing camera
• Smaller screen results in excessive scrolling for long emails
• Maximum capacity: 16GB (microSD)

About a week ago I attended the iPhone 4 midnight launch (thanks Evelyn for your company!) and have signed up on a $79 cap with Telstra. So far it has been a good experience. The phone runs much faster due to the A4 processor and the Next G network. The most noticeable improvement for me is the camera. Photos look flawless and playback of videos recorded with the phone is pixel perfect on a 27-inch iMac. Reception issue: yes there is a 1-bar drop when I cover the bottom left corner but I have not found any problems whilst making calls. I have ordered a free bumper through the Case Program app.

Shop 1007, Robina Town Centre
T 07 5578 8389

Up front we give River Penang a 9 out of 10. The fully licensed and BYO Malaysian dine-in and take-away restaurant is situated at Level 1 of the shopping mall and offers quality Malaysian cuisine at reasonable prices. The service was a little flat as they would certainly serve tables with more than 2 people as a priority even for those who come first.

If you do visit River Penang, be sure to try the Penang Char Kway Teow as it is simply one of the best around Brisbane – Gold Coast. A major plus is that they do accept Credit Cards including American Express and EFTPOS so for people like us who don’t carry cash, you are in safe hands.