It has been almost 3 years since we got married. We have been searching for a place of our own before we got married - knowing that there is no way we would qualify for a subsidized public housing. We thought that the current arrangement to stay with our parents would cease once we find a place of our own, but we only find ourselves still shuttling between parents. As prudent spenders, we would prefer to spend less for a house that I live in because I need to support my parents and we need to safe for old age. But now, I seriously have no idea where my children will sleep when they are born when we are only taking up a room at our parents' place. Are we supposed to pay S$1M for a resale flat that would not appreciate as much over time? Or pay over $900psf for a private property that is far from city and be laden with huge housing installment for the rest of our lives - only to be left without savings to support ourselves when we are old?
03/14/2010
02/03/2010
First Acquisition in 2010
I blogged about purchasing a Kohjinsha previously. It was a small white netbook that just hit the shores at the time I bought it.
Now... I bought another one. WHY? No no.. not that Kohjinsha is not good. For me, its a tad too slow, and the Windows Vista does not seem to be as friendly as I thought it would be: There are just too many updates! I brought Whitie (a name I gave my Kohjinsha) to Japan recently - I had hell of a time trying to get the internet connection in the hotel room to talk to the machine. DUH....
Anyway, at the rate I'm using my computers, I figured that I needed something much faster, lighter and allows me to store as much as I can. After looking around for a while, I decided to spend S$1,200 to buy the ACER Ferrari One that comes with 4GB RAM and 500GB harddisk (comes with a free ACER external DVD RW).
Honestly, I was never a fan of ACER products - I doubt their reliability - to last beyond the warranty period. The reason I bought it was because of the CHIP. Yup, its the AMD chip that I was after. The chip is more stable and faster than Intel Atom (I feel) and so far after all the things I've loaded into the system - its performance is still pretty decent.
If you are looking for packaging, the ACER Ferrari One is sleek and snazzy. I have been telling my friends - if you can't afford a Ferrari, you can always go for its substitute. A friend told me that the Ferrari logo at the back of the screen is too Man-ly for a lady like me; but I am after performance, so its not an issue to me. The Ferrari One comes with a Dolby Theatre Surround Sound system (I was impressed....) that delivers surround sound like no other. When you boot it up, you also hear a short sound clip of a race car dashing on the racetrack (vroom!). Most interesting of all, the rubbers that helps support the laptop (you find in on laptops and they are usually small round flat and black thingy that comes in fours or fives at the bottom of your laptop) actually has TYRE MARKS on it. Talk about intricate design!
Any how, I've only started using the Ferrari One recently. I hope it won't disappoint me! :p
01/03/2010
06/25/2008
Akira LCD w/ Built-in DVD Player
Okay, say that I'm into shopping spree - its just me once in a while.
It all started with window shopping in Giant Hypermarket at Tampines. We were there to buy sundries but turns out buying an LCD tv instead. We thought it was a good buy - considering the price tag of $570 for a 22" LCD TV with built in DVD player.
Best of all, it comes with a port to connect to your laptop (ah... its a monitor as well!), an SD card slot, a port for you to connect to your handycams if you want to do a slide show of your takes for the day. The dvd player plays all approved formats (the sales guy told us its all international formats from 1-9), and the resolution is pretty decent for that kind of price.
Oh, and did I mention its HD Ready - but of course, a HD Box is still required. The picture I had here was taken off Akira's website - its not exactly how my new TV looks but it does depict a build in DVD player so I used it. You must check this out yourself if you are also looking for a LCD tv of this size. The model at Giant Tampinese comes with 19" and 22" screen. Price difference is about $100. 1 year parts and service warranty, thereafter would be free for service only.
UMPC - My Kohjinsha
I went to PC Show 2008 a weekend ago, and bought a Kohjinsha UMPC.
Its small - 7" screen and 120GB harddisk. Comes with a complete laptop keyboard and works great as a tablet, thrown in with a Windows Vista Home Premium. The price - $1398 - after I asked for the 4-cell battery to be swapped to 6-cell one. Its really cool! While many commented that the screen is too small and the fonts are too hard to read, I'm cool about it coz its so easy to carry. With its battery, its barely 1kg, and sits well into my big lime-green bag. They also gave me a keyboard cover as well as screen protector (which I didnt use coz its a teensy weensy bigger than my screen - its meant for EEEPC screen FYI). Anyhow, on comparison with EEEPC and HP's laptop, this is a coolio because EEEPC is too light (the pc topples backwards if you put it on a sofa, and it runs on opensource applications. No harddisk, just 8GB of flash memory. While HP seems like a strong competitor, HP didnt come with a 6 cell battery, it only runs on a 4cell battery (those who use laptops would know how important it is to have a lasting battery life). It came with 160GB harddisk, but was sold out, so only the one with 120GB harddisk was sold. The price was $1199 (same price as Kohjinsha before the battery swap option), slightly larger screen and keyboard. Not as slim though and the weight is not as impressive - though it came with Windows Vista Business.
Here's the link to the SH811WS
06/11/2008
06/08/2008
05/12/2008
My Vaude Purchase - Again!
I went to a warehouse sale at Kaki Bukit last Sunday. Here's what I bought from Vaude:-
I bought a 70L backpack for $159, a small gym bag, a washer bag and a wrapper (good for travelling!). Was really happy with my purchases coz they are really cheap! Too bad the backpack I bought was already the last piece else hubby would be able to get one too. ;-) Hubby did see the Tatonka backpacks but the lining didn't turn out to be as good as the Vaude one (the rubbery waterproof lining that usually would wear out over time - had a bad experience with Deuter backpacks where the rubbery lining broke down and became powdery and stuck on clothes!)
Oh, I saw the same Vaude jacket that I bought a month ago - it was selling at half price! Anyhow, I've already worn mine so its okay. :-) If not for the lack of size, I think I'd have bought one for brother-in-law who travels quite a bit lately.
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