-- 魔杰座 Capricorn

Jay's 9th album, 魔杰座 Capricorn, will be released on Oct 8.

In Chinese, the title is actually a pretty cool pun.

Using the Zodiac sign 摩羯座 (mo2 jie2 zuo4, because he's a Capricorn),
but changing the 1st and 2nd character to 魔杰座 (still pronounced the same),
and you literally get...

Magical-Jay (Zodiac sign)... .

Also, why magic? Cause he's always been interested in magic (tricks), and always showing it off to others...

This album will contain lots of love songs (which i don't want), not the sad type, but "healing/morale booster" type. Very obvious from the album single.

There's also the mention of a song based on magic and clown/joker. Hopefully it's good.

Pre-order should've started by now in Malaysia (but not last Sunday, when i went out... tsk). If it's the same as Taiwan, the pre-order version would come with a table calendar and rubik's cube (only from music stores).

I'm guessing Malaysia's version would not come with the cube... but i don't really mind. But the calendar's design is quite nice, looking like oversized playing cards (image on China's website wouldn't load finish).

Would've been really cool to come with a deck of cards!

The design this time is based on magic ofcoz. The poster below is actually a "showdown" between a magician and a rather spooky looking joker (check out the tear).

...but the most important thing, the songs. So far only the single has been revealed (usually by now, a few song would've been leaked out).

Titled - 稻香 (dao4 xiang1), Paddy Fragrance. Written and composed by himself.



Just a normal soothing song though, nothing outstanding. The lyric's about appreciating what you have, picking youself up if you fall, not giving up and some childhood memories thrown in. There's a mention that the song is kinda dedicated to the Sichuan earthquake victims.

《稻香》
词：周杰伦 曲：周杰伦

对这个世界如果你有太多的抱怨
跌倒了就不敢继续往前走
为什麼人要这麼的脆弱 堕落
请你打开电视看看
多少人为生命在努力勇敢的走下去
我们是不是该知足
珍惜一切 就算没有拥有

还记得你说家是唯一的城堡 随著稻香河流继续奔跑
微微笑 小时候的梦我知道
不要哭让萤火虫带著你逃跑 乡间的歌谣永远的依靠
回家吧 回到最初的美好

不要这麼容易就想放弃 就像我说的
追不到的梦想 换个梦不就得了
为自己的人生鲜艳上色 先把爱涂上喜欢的颜色
笑一个吧 功成名就不是目的
让自己快乐快乐这才叫做意义
童年的纸飞机 现在终於飞回我手里

所谓的那快乐 赤脚在田里追蜻蜓追到累了
偷摘水果被蜜蜂给叮到怕了 谁在偷笑呢
我靠著稻草人吹著风唱著歌睡著了
哦 哦 午后吉它在虫鸣中更清脆
哦 哦 阳光洒在路上就不怕心碎
珍惜一切 就算没有拥有


Full song, radio broadcast.


2 minutes MV.


Full MV starting at 2:27.


The making of Paddy Fragrance's MV.


Paddy Fragrance
Lyric: Jay Chou Music: Jay Chou

If you have too many grievances towards this world,
Having fallen, you lose the courage to go on
Why do people want to be so weak and fallen?
Please turn on the television now and see for yourself
So many people bravely fighting for their lives
Shouldn't we be content,
Cherish all we have, even if we don't possess them

I still remember you said home is your only castle
Following the paddy fragrance, the flowing stream, I continued running
Smile, I know the childhood dreams
Don't cry, let the fireflies take you away, escaping
You will always find serenity in folk songs
Go home, return to the sweet past

Don't give up so easily, just like what I said,
If the dream can't be reached, then just follow another dream
Add bright colours to your own life
Paint LOVE in your favourite colour
Smile, fame and success isn't the aim
Be happy. That is the whole meaning
(Just like how) I finally found my lost childhood innocence

What is happiness? It's chasing dragonflies in the fields barefooted till we're exhausted
Tried to steal fruits but suffered so much beestungs until i am scared. Who's snickering (at me)?
Leaning against the scarecrow, enjoying the wind, singing songs till I fall asleep
Oh~ Oh~ In the afternoon, the guitar chords sound more crisp amidst the cries of the insects
Oh~ Oh~ The sunlight shines on the road so there's no need to fear a heartbreak
Cherish everything, even if we don't possess them

Translation from
>> http://www.jay-chou.net/forums/showthread.php?t=278945

-- F1 Singapore Grand Prix preview

The most anticipated race of the 2008 calendar (for me), Singapore GP!!

I know i'm no expert, but since it's a street circuit, there's a lot of edgy corners from normal road junctions meant for normal cars.

The Raffles Boulevard (along Marina Square and Ritz Carlton) will be the fastest part of the circuit, heading into 3 continuous sharp turns. And the other straight, part of it being on a bridge, heading towards Esplanade will provide some nice scenery indeed.

[full size on click]

Let's see how team Vodafone McLaren Mercedes is preparing the car to face the night... (i swear to you, it's a joke.... lol)

Straight faced all the way... lol.

The weird thing about this race is the race time ofcoz. Normally, drivers (and basically the whole team) work and race in the day. But for this, it's night time, which is a problem itself as our human bodies would naturally adjust to the daytime/night-time of the country.

And so, the drivers and teams will maintain the UK time (body-wise), and wake up late in the afternoon, and work late past midnight, and with the help of the hotels, like blacking out a section to give an impression of nighttime.

Alright... some sexy night shots of parts of the circuit.


If still pictures are not enough, how about a 3D simulation, driving around the circuit by Torro Rosso? narrated by Mark Webber.


And here's some comments by Mark Webber on the Singapore GP and circuit twist and turns whilst driving on the road itself.


If you're wondering, the floodlights are put up high, along the side of the circuit... all, the, way. So i'm sure you can imagine just how many floodlights were used... *pengsan*

Looks freaking costly!! I can't imagine the Malaysian GP one turning like that.

-- new touches

HTC has just officially unveiled 3 new PDA phones into the Touch family.

• Touch Viva, for people on budget,
• Touch 3G, adding 3G to the original Touch, but remaining relatively light (96g only),
  
• and Touch HD, the king of touchscreen Windows Mobile devices.

All tech geeks including even iPhone 3G users are focused on Touch HD, no doubt due to its whopdeedodily humongous screen. The display is...

• 3.8 inches (iPhone's 3.5 inches)
• 480x800 in resolution (iPhone's meager - 320x480)

The best website browsing experience falls to Touch HD now. Not to mention there's FLASH and Javascript support, unlike Safari.


Despite having (almost) the same dimensions as iPhone 3G, HTC managed to pack in features better than the iPhone, giving it a good spanking, spec to spec, everywhere.

• main 5 megapixels camera with autofocus (iPhone's 2MP fixed focus)
• front VGA camera (or 640x480 or 0.3MP, which even my N82 can't do)
• HSDPA 7.2Mbps support (while Steve Jobs is only touting 3G!?)
• microSD slot
• Pocket Office (yes, it can edit Office files)
• and more... like FM, TV-out...
  

Also, the features that Windows Mobile users get to enjoy ever since... ever since, while Apple haven't got to implement yet and also purposely crippled...

• COPY and PASTE!!! (no kidding...)
  
• FULL Bluetooth features with A2DP support!! (so you can freely transfer anything to anyone, and can use the Bluetooth headset of your choice)
• FREEDOM to install any software you want (without having to jailbreak)

The only downside... it's heavier than iPhone 3G (which is already heavy enough).

>> http://www.htc.com/www/default.aspx

-- The future of inks

Esquire, October issue...



Now... imagine the future of pr0n mag...

..

...

Well... not so bright...



It's just limited to black (grey?) and white, as seen in Amazon's Kindle e-book reader. And the one on the mag is really simple, it just lights up the "backdrop". *hopes shattered*...

>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-ink

Anyway, off topic... TechSpank "episode 2" (just started up hence the low views, but professionally done show, and i like this wacky guy), somehow... featured our local blogger-turned-politician - Jeff Ooi of Screenshots. Check it out.



Oh well... just a flash, but I'd like to know the reason he/they chose Jeff Ooi... lol.

And i'll say it here. I like Facebook's new tabbed layout. I want a quick look at someone's Feed and Info, i can view them straight... frikkin EASY!! instead of having to frikkin search through thousands of frikkin applications to look for that frikkin "misplaced" Info.

-- Let's Rock... not

Apple's event this year is named Let's Rock... clearly an overstatement. Trying to outdo themselves each year is nto an easy job afterall. Let's take a quick look at the refreshes...

---

Shuffle, refreshed again with new colors.


It's a refresh of the older duller colors, which is now... much less duller. But overall, I'd say i like the new colors much more than the older ones.

---

Classic - 6th generation refreshed, a bump from 80GB and a drop from 160GB.


Now only available in 120GB. Thinner than before. And new Genius feature (along with iTunes 8).
Why only 120GB? Most probably Samsung or whoever the HDD manufacturer came out with a thinner drive, which also explains why Microsoft released a new 120GB Zune.

---

Nano - 4th generation, back to 2nd generation retro.


Comes with accelerometer for auto landscape/potrait rotate. New UI with Genius feature. Only 8GB and 16GB now.
The new UI definitely has the iPhone/iPod touch looks to it. And the screen is still the same 2" that you get in the fatty 3rd generation Nano.


Not forgetting, curved edge and still thinner than last gen (there must be a limit someday!).

---

Touch 2nd generation, praised.


Now with the curved edges like the iPhone 3G, obviously. Thinner (or feels thinner due to the curved edges). Dedicated volume buttons at the side!! Speaker!! Nike+ integration!! (shoes transmitter thingy). Same 8GB, 16GB, 32GB.

The black plastic patch is Wi-Fi antenna (if you're wondering why, it's because radio waves can't go through metal), looks more integrated now.

Volume buttons are godsend if you've used the 1st gen touch. Imagine having to press the Home button twice to bring up volume control, and then u'll have to look at the screen to control it.

As for speaker, take not there's no dedicated hole for it, so the quality is questionable.

The BEST PART is... the price point shifted down. In USD, it's a 100$ drop. For Malaysians, (most probably) new 32GB will get old 16GB's price... and so on and so forth.


Do check out Touch's gallery and give the 360 view a spin... very cool.

---

iTunes 8, +Genius, ~combined List and Album Art view, +Grid view

Genius

First thing, the Genius feature... which "...makes playlist from songs in your library that go great together", which I shall not bother using.

It requires Internet connection, collects information, recommends songs from iTunes store (wtf!), so NO, i myself know what kind of songs i like and go great together... and i buy CDs.

List View (with Album Art)

Apple did away with the Album Art view, and combined it with List view.

The arrow button circled in red toggles the display of the album art. I personally have some playlist in List view and some in Album Art view, and iTunes auto hide list that do not have Album Arts... neat.

And overall, the scrolling through the new List view with album arts is smooth, unlike the now gone Album Art view, which is a little jerky.

Grid View

Then, the new Grid view... which was already available in WMP11 a long time ago.

A slider controls the thumbnail size. 1st time starting up iTunes 8 will create this thumbnails, which will take a while or forever, depending on your arts collection.

To play a song from the Grid view,
- hover on top of the thumbnail and a Play Album/Artist/Genre icon will appear,
- clicking on it will randomly play a song under the Album/Artist/Genre.

If there are multiple entries underneath (like if I sort by Artist, with multiple albums under it), moving the cursor above the thumnail will scroll through the images like on OSX.


Double clicking the thumbnail will bring you to List view with that Album only.

Now... complains!

1. Black background is very jarring from iTunes' majority light color.
2. Grid View is a seperate entity to List and Cover flow view.

Let me explain the 2nd complaint more, which should be obvious to iTunes users...
- as you can see, I'm playing the song - 牛仔很忙 (niu zai hen mang),
- but there's no speaker icon beside the song (as pointed out in the above image).
- and, a click at the "point to the song" button brings me to the List view
- why? because I played it from List view.

- If you play the song from List view or Cover flow view, you can see the speaker icon on both. But you can't see it in Grid view. And it points back to List or Cover flow, depending on which u played it from.

- If you play the song from Gird view, you can see the speaker icon in Grid view, but not the other two. And it points back to Gird view.

So,as you can see, it's sort of "separated" and looks pretty slapped on. Hopefully this gets corrected soon. And don't put your hopes up on iTunes 8 being lighter on the memory.

Images retrieved from
>> http://www.apple.com/ipodshuffle/
>> http://www.apple.com/ipodclassic/
>> http://www.apple.com/ipodnano/
>> http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch/

-- F1 Belgian Grand Prix controversy

The announcement of the F1 stewards' decision to penalize Hamilton 25 seconds - dropping him to 3rd place, and moving Massa to 1st place, has become one of the most controversial decisions ever... which is what prompt me to write a post on F1 again.

Below is a photo of the (start of the) incident that the stewards investigated - Hamilton cutting through the Bus Stop chicane (that's the name) and gaining an advantage on Raikkonen.



Ofcoz, one still picture is not enough to look at the whole thing. Courtesy of Speed TV and the user that uploaded, let take a look at the video right before the incident with only a few laps left.



Really really exciting racing near the end as you can see, but now marred by the stewards' decision. Anyway, a rehease on what happened:

At the chicane,

• LH and KR side by side into the chicane,
• LH and KR touched (as mentioned by commentator),
  
• LH cutting into the chicane to avoid, coming out in front of KR (which is illegal)

At the straight,

• KR and LH about side by side
• LH ease off a bit to let KR pass through (by the rules, for the above incident)
  
• with KR slightly at the front, LH swipes to the left and then on the inside into the 1st corner,

At the 1st corner,

• KR and LH touched again, but LH still leading
  

After the rain comes down,

• KR going wide, using the outer road
• KR squeezes LH into the grass (at the incident with a Williams car)
  
• KR spins, giving lead to LH
  
• KR crashing out at last

Then let's take a look at a slow motion analysis by someone from YouTube.



To me, at the core of the controversy is
1) whether cutting into the chicane gave Hamilton enough momentum out of the chicane for an advantage against Raikkonen at the straight or
2) did Hamilton eased off enough, as a compensate for cutting through the chicane.

Point 1, is what the race stewards punished Hamilton for, i believe. But in official documents, Hamilton was punished not bcoz of the advantage, but for leaving the track.

Point 2, is what i believe.

From top down videos, it looks like Hamilton did not ease off enough - which would make me agree with the Stewards slightly. But the onboard-cam video below showed that Hamilton DID let Raikkonen's whole car through.

This would mean, Raikkonen was faster than Hamilton at the straight and Hamilton outbraked Raikkonen into the 1st corner, fair and square. Even official timing showed they crossed the start/finish line with 6km/h difference.

Normally, in other cases, if the "offended" car was let through after an unfair cut, there would be no problem at all. And anything afterwards would be a fair fight (which is the fight down the straight for LH and KR).

Here's the onboard-cam video below of Hamilton and Raikkonen, from before the incident to Raikkonen's crash. A skip to 3.25 would be advisable, which is right before the chicane incident.



My verdict, the stewards overreacted once again.

I'd hate to accuse the stewards for being unfair, but this is for real. There are countless incidents involving Ferrari that might put Ferrari in the wrong (like releasing their cars RIGHT IN FRONT of other cars in the pit lane, which is dangerous, or otherwise lose some time waiting), but no action was taken. And since this incident is beneficial to Ferrari, they took action.

*Edit*

After gathering more intel, looks like Raikkonen broke a rule too.

At the part where a Williams (with Rosberg in the car) was suddenly in front of Hamilton and Raikkonen took the chance to squeeze in between them and Hamilton ended up in the grass, YELLOW FLAGS was being waved.

Waving yellow flag means CAUTION. And cars are supposed to slow down and not allowed to pass each other. Yet Raikkonen did. Oh well...

---

Comments are welcomed and encouraged (especially Ferrari fans *nudge Jo*, Ferrari fan wannabes and anti-McLaren/Lewis fans).

-- Nano 4G

Original post - 8/31/08

Lots of rumor flying around regarding iPod nano's new looks...
This one below is just a mock up by someone.



The "craziest" decision would be the curved front (if this is real), which would introduce more glare to the screen.



And this strap above further reinforces the new nano's shape and look... (or maybe some idiot is just too free). Coming this September (as usual).

3rd link for 3D rendering by someone else.

Retrieved from:
>> http://gizmodo.com/5042519/new-ipod-nano-mock+up-takes-the-sting-out-of-the-new-ipod-nano
>> http://gizmodo.com/5042034/is-this-case-for-the-new-ipod-nano
>> http://gizmodo.com/5040823/kevin-rose-ipod-rumors-price-cut-new-itunes-80-features-and-tall-rounded-nano

---

Added part - 9/6/08

A few days later only... and we get this early casing shot...



another render...



and... whoo! spy shot! looks real enough.



This and the new iPods coming real soon - Tuesday, Sept 9th

Retrieved from:
>> http://www.engadget.com/2008/09/01/hands-on-with-hamas-ipod-nano-4g-case-at-ifa/
>> http://www.engadget.com/2008/09/04/yet-another-ipod-nano-4g-render-sure-why-not/
>> http://www.engadget.com/2008/09/05/ipod-nano-4g-leaked-in-actual-factual-really-real-spy-photo/

-- Tag complete

Instructions: Remove uninteresting questions from below and answer the rest :P

Note: I already did this quite a while ago, but I have to give way to Hari Kebangsaan :P

Edit: Oh shit, left some Jensen remnants :P

If you could spend one Ringgit in 5 minutes, what would you spend on? Only if i really could...

What would you give up in return to eat all you want in the world and not get fat? Already am.

Is there someone in your heart right now? You mean there are mini-humans workin' the hell out in my blood pump machine!!?

Do you believe you can survive without money? Wealth can buy you health. Hard Fact

What are you afraid to lose the most? My laptop? I feel it the most when i'm outside.

If there’s someone that you love, would you confess to him/her? What? Confess to my family and embarrass the hell out of me!!? no wai!

List out 3 good points of the person who tagged you Sexy, cute and big (70 inch)^

If you had to eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be? Eat myself out...

If you had a choice to be rich or happy, which one would you pick? Being rich is happiness...

If you have a chance, which part of your character you would like to change? STR +20, DEX +10, INT +50

How do you see yourself in 10 years time? Still arse kickin...

What is the one thing you love about yourself? My ****.

If you can bring only one thing along with you to another world, what would it be? Teleporter... so i can come back.

If there’s someone that you love already got another half, would you still confess to him/her? Confess to the guy in front of the girl... *bwahahahah*...