Monday, September 21, 2009

The Prices are in…

After spending so much dough this month on home security so that there won’t be a third time… I am back on the trail of the pc upgrade project, managed to visit a local hardware store to get some prices, after a short discussion it looks like I may need to replace my power supply as well…

Going back to the net, here are the bold park prices for the hardware (based on US$ 1 : 35 Baths);

      CPU - Core i7 920                  10,490 Bahts (US$ 300)
   MB  - Asus
P6T Deluxe V2           10,490 Bahts (US$ 300)
   Ram - OCZ 2x3 6GB, 1333            4,950  Bahts (US$ 142)
   GC  - Asus GTX 275 896MB DDR3      8,790  Bahts (US$ 252)
   FAN - Coolermaster V8              2,350  Bahts (US$ 68)
   PSU - Tough Power 850W             5,800  Bahts (US$ 166)

                          Total       42,870 Bahts (US$ 1,225)

Whooooow, I think that is just a little too much… and I haven’t added the cost of Windows 7.

I still can not believe my existing Enermax 535W won’t be enough for this new system. Thinking of leaving out the GTX 275 for the time being, making the whole project down to around 34,080 Bahts (US$ 974), not too bad, although I can not see Gio approving this… :) (that is about the price of an iPhone here in Thailand).

 

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Been Burgled: My Batcave (sort of…)

IMG_6780IMG_6782 All done in only a day and a half, first day was a full day of just wiring… On the second day, it only took half the day to install all of the cameras and set up the DVR.

I am glad this project is over, it went much quicker and smoother than I had anticipated, the next coming project is the burglar alarm, there will be no wiring this time (decided to go with a wireless solution), they should be coming in to set it all up within a couple weeks.

It was all rather a great novice experience at first, sitting and watching the world going by… a cat taking a nap on the car, a car going pass the front gate… and so on.

Now the little TV is off, and I can not see it coming on again any time soon, lets hope this investment becomes worthwhile when it is really needed, yet again I hope I never have to use it, ever :)

Friday, September 11, 2009

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Been Burgled: Security 2

Have just spent most of the day talking to security system people, the burglar alarm decision was finalised weeks ago, now it was the CCTV system, and there are so many of them, again we talked to 2 of the suppliers that were recommended through friends.

Choosing the hardware was a simple matter, but the installation and wiring discussion took forever, the 2 companies had totally different strategy (the pricing was totally different too… hee hee).

The next step will be the quotations, the burglar alarm is already setting me back around 100k, and it looks like this will be in the same pricing bracket, that is a lot of money, but I think this will bring peace of mind for Gio and that is the most important thing of all :)

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Inspirational: Sir Nicholas Winton

Prior to the start of the second world war, Sir Nicholas Winton with an absolute clarity in this foresight, initiated and ran an operation to evacuate children from the Czech Republic who would have surely been sent to the concentration camp, all in all 669 children were saved. All the children travelled by specially charted trains from Prague to London where they were placed with their adopted family. To me this is an absolutely fantastic true story.

 

The link below will only take you 5 – 10 minutes to read :)
     http://abcnews.go.com/International/holocaust-children-honor-sir-nicholas-winton-saved/story?id=8493151

Or you can watch this short VDO (about 9 minutes)
     http://www.cbc.ca/national/blog/video/internationalus/return_to_slovakia.html

 

What a great way to end a Sunday… totally not looking forward to a difficult meeting at work tomorrow… :(

Saturday, September 5, 2009

Could it be any messier?

IMG_6649

 

Nothing more I can say here, do you know who picks up after you? And you don’t even want to play with anything… it seems like you just enjoy tipping things over follow by spreading everything almost everywhere, then just walk away… Is it art? :)

 

 

Love you.

 

Mum and Dad.

Moving away from safe grounds…

I am just a little obsessive right now, looking for a replacement for the D90 that the burglars (ar*% hol^%) took. As mentioned before, I am looking to go up a notch to a full frame sensor, meaning a D700 or its replacement… reading rumours after rumours and looking at the product cycle I don’t think I have that long to wait :)

Lumix GF1However, I need something to tie me over before then, my Canon G7 is reaching its limit especially for photographing little Panop running around in low light, and here is where I believe my luck is changing… Panasonic Lumix GF1…

I am a hardware addict, for point and shoot I have been glued to Canon for so many years, I know this is slightly soppy, but even a thought of changing brand have given me a pause.

I know some hardcore people out there will say, one can not compare Canon G11 to Lumix GF1 (different price point, sensor size and so on), I have only one criteria, ‘size’. What is the best camera that ‘externally’ fits into a ‘Point & Shoot’ category.

Of course, I am going to wait for the review on www.dpreview.com, Canon G series has so many plus points (manual control is the hook for me), lets hope GF1 fulfil its potential… looking forward to a new gear, may the best camera (that suits me) wins :)

Friday, September 4, 2009

QOTD

“It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.”

                                                                                                                                                           Mark Twain

Detour to Hualampong

On the days when I come into work with you and your mother, she would drop me off at Hua-Lam-Pong Main (and to my limited knowledge, the only) Railway Station, I am not here to catch the train, but on July 3rd, 2004 the underground line (singular) was opened, and Hua-Lam-Pong doubles up as the main Underground station as well (it makes sense).

IMG_6489

IMG_6502

I had decided to take a little detour (28.08.2009), instead of rushing down the hole to the trains, I walked passed the MRT (underground) and right into Hua-Lam-Pong, in my 37 years on this earth I have travelled by train only once, and have been to Hua-Lam-Pong three times before (once was to use the loo).

 

IMG_6501 During holiday season I would be a little envious of these kids rushing to Hua-Lam-Pong totally laden up with guitars, bags and bags of useless snacks, bongo, sleeping bags and etc (you get the picture) looking forward to get totally sloshed by the sea or some other places even more gorgeous.

Once there, out came the G7 (this was before the D90 was stolen… :(, a few snaps were taken before I headed toward the exhibition in the centre of the hall. It turned out to be  a photography exhibition of all things ‘Train’ in Thailand, oh, what a spoiler to my plan.

 

 

 

IMG_6503 I was suppose to be there for a couple of minutes, take a few pics (for keep sakes) then rush to work, like all the best plans, you have to adapt it to the current environment, so I was ‘way’ late to work on this day (it was all worth it though).

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Been Burgled: Security

Bosch vr8 flyer

We had discovered the break in on Friday evening, moving like a true swift, yesterday we had a sales representative from a security system dealer to give us a quotation on a burglar alarm.

This company came recommended from a friend who had also used their service recently, this had saved us so much time in screening a potential supplier.

As for the chosen system, here in Thailand, if you look into it there are actually several brands (coming from all over the world), again we followed Gio’s friend’s advice and with a little more research it seemed to be a good choice. Especially being a wireless system, there was no need to do any wiring.

VR8, control box can have up to 16 individual sensors, due to the shape of the house we had to ordered additional movement detectors (2 came with the set, so 9 extra were needed), that leaves us with 5 more sensors, the decision was to go for a cheaper magnet sensors, now all we have to do is to do now is to determine where to put the 5 magnets.

 

Next is the CCTV system, this is kind a less urgent, so we are going slowly with this, it involves a lot more work and quite expensive. Many more variables needed to be considered, wiring all around the home, camera type, placement, DVR and etc. Hopefully, with all the railings in place once more, and this new burglar alarm, having some ar%# hol^# coming into our home uninvited should be the thing of the past.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Going back to G7

Now that the Nikon D90 and the Sanyo Xacti CA9 is in some ar%# ho*&’s  hands, I am back to the forever reliable Canon G7. Many years ago when some friends, girlfriend (now wife) and I went down to the tsunami affected areas to the south of Thailand, to help out with the body recovery effort. At that time I had a Canon G6, but didn’t have the heart nor the time to take any photos, all the efforts were spent on processing all the bodies as soon as we could (the key objective at that time was to ‘take them home’ to their awaiting relatives).

To cut a long story short, the G6 was also stolen too… and now the D90… :( nevermind life goes on, I am now hunting for a new system. The purpose of getting the D90 was to learn to use a DSLR proficiently enough before moving to a higher model (probably a full frame camera), so luckily no real investment was made on the lens before the thiefing bas%$^# took it.

So what now? Have just decided to go full frame straight away, it would make more sense for the lens investment, of course the very top end is totally out of my reach (1D Mk IIIIIII or the D3XXXXX), the next step is the D5 MkII or the D700. The D700 is getting on a bit but there is a rumour a replacement should be coming in just a few months… Because of the D90, I have kind a fell in love with the Nikon system and will probably go with the D700’s replacement… Of course this won’t happen until I have install the home security system first :)

What have I learnt from getting the D90? I am never going to get the kit lens again, proficient for learning purposes, but I have found the lens kit to be too slow, better to bite your lips and fork out a little more for a faster lens. So the D700s/D700X/D800 (or whatever) will be purchased “body” only, and perhaps a AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED (I may be dreaming here…)

Oh, forgot about the Canon 7D rumour… yet another option? It would have been better if the D90 was still in my hands… but there isn’t much one can do about that…