sangsara.net

Month: June 2007

Yahoo! Go beta imminent

Yahoo! Go. The Internet to go.

I rarely get excited about Yahoo! products, but this Friday will see the release of a new Yahoo! Go beta, including a version localized for Singapore. One has to admit that Yahoo! seems a great deal more committed to localization here than Google. Their movie times service is one example, and I’m not sure, but I think their Maps are far more usable than Google Maps in a local context.

Hopefully, Friday’s version will be the long awaited Java MIDP2 version, compatible with most modern phones including my Sony Ericsson K800. See the demo at the website linked above. Very promising. Location Awareness means you can get listings of businesses and services in your city, as well as advanced access to Flickr, news, weather services, etc. all in one custom app. I currently use their Mobile site when I need these things, but nothing beats a fast local client.

Geek out.

June 20, 2007
Opera Mini Dimension

The long-awaited beta of Opera Mini 4 (aka Dimension) has finally been released. It’s fantastic, and the best reason to get a data plan (until next Friday, if you live in the US near AT&T coverage).

Here are some points that stand out, because reading my site is so much better than checking out the official one:

• Full-screen view with zoom. This is similar to what the Nokia Webkit browsers (N series) do, and what Opera Mobile does on Symbian/PocketPC. The difference is that you get the awesome speed of Mini’s server-side compression/optimization.

Effect: Extremely fast web browsing with spacious views. No more single-column claustrophobia. This is what the iPhone will feel and look like, only without the touchscreen. But you can have it today.

• Better scrolling/movement. Something Opera Mini has needed for ages! Like many Sony Ericsson phones, mine has a joystick that get clogged with dust and fails to respond correctly most of the time. Putting heavy-duty actions like scrolling onto hardware buttons is a wise move. It also locks all content into invisible columns so that zooming in and scrolling produces nicely aligned text/images. It’s invisible genius magic.

Effect: A great mobile browsing experience like no built-in software can provide.

• Rewritten code base, from the ground up. The whole damned thing is 91kb and feels more buttery than the latest Firefox/Safari builds. When devs have time to code eye candy, you know the underlying product is solid. Unless said devs work for Microsoft.

June 19, 2007
Bad 7-11 ad

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }

Bad 7-11 ad, originally uploaded by Freebusman.

This cannot be a mistake.

June 19, 2007
At Play!

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }

At Play!, originally uploaded by sangsara.

June 16, 2007
What’s Up Tiger Lily

I’ve mentioned this early Woody Allen movie before, here and here, but not in great detail. As I am short of time now, I won’t do it here either. But here’s the wikipedia entry for this great film.

What’s Up, Tiger Lily? is the first film directed by Woody Allen. He also wrote and appeared in this 1966 comedy, which utilized clips from Kokusai himitsu keisatsu: Kagi no kagi (literal English title: International Secret Police: Key of Keys, 1965, [1]), a Japanese spy film. Instead of translating the film, Allen added completely original dialogue that had nothing to do with the plot of the original Japanese film. By putting in new scenes and rearranging the order of existing scenes, he completely changed the tone of the film from a James Bond clone into a comedy about a secret egg salad recipe.

Here are some related egg salad recipes. If anyone would like to see this movie, there’s a link on my FaceBook. =D

June 15, 2007
Fordmodels.tv

Lauren’s sexy bikinis:

Ford Models has started a website/YouTube channel. If the above is any indication of what they’ll produce, I’m subscribing to every feed they’ve got.

And there’s something for everyone! Here, a hairstylist tells you sisters how to update your ponytail for the 07. Chckt!

How to: Make a simple ponytail modern:

June 13, 2007