Anonymous

Fire and Insomnia

Have you ever had a series of unfortunate events? After a long time of not meeting, I suddenly felt insomnia creeping up to me. Here is the story of my series of unfortunate events. Btw, this was typed partially on my iPhone!

One saturday, the Aussie spring paid a surprise visit to Melbourne. The weather was so good that the residents of Rmit village decided to party. About 40 people jumped in the pseudo saltwater pool. About the pool, it was supposed to be a fresh water pool. But I guess with people or students who just jump in wearing their undershorts, the pool became kinda disgusting. Worse of all Melbourne is having water restrictions and changing swimming pool water is illegal. So, what hapens when u add more stuff to a pool while the water evaporate? What more, some parts of melbourne have been drought stricken for as long as ten years! So, get a bunch of hormone filled Americans and a pool, instant party! I swear I won't enter that pool ever unless the water is changed!

Then, from 7pm to midnight, some guy brought out has dj set and speakers to his balcony to play music for 500 residents. I was trying to complete an assignment but alas, the guy was living directly below my unit! Sui! After hours of headache and high blood pressure, i finally got to sleep.

I was far away dreaming when I heard the music playing again. I thought to myself: WTF... It was 2 am. I went to my balcony preparing to swear, but as I came back to earth, it wasn't music, it was the fire alarm! Down I went to the fire exit where I met Alex, equally dazed. When we went out:

2 fire engines, 500 residents and a AU$1700 fine! Poor guy.

After that, back to sleep. Barely an hour of twisting and turning, my roomie decides to come back wasted. The toilet was noisy and here u go:
Right.. so i decided not to sleep through the night, and theres when my problem was solved! You can't get insomnia if you dont try to sleep!

iPhoned

Introducing the new iPhone 3Gs!

Guess who has got one! Probably as a gift for myself for actually maintaning my grades in second year. Yeah, just entered a 12 month contract with Optus for a 32GB white iPhone 3Gs! A$100 per month. So it does so many things like have super calendars, super alarms, and all the fuuny things that you can dream about. Applications are many and free to download from iTunes with a lil bit of hassle. Only problem with the iPhone is that it hates PCs. Needs a program to do every little thing like upload pictures to the computer. Silly Apple vs Microsoft business.

Handphones has been in the market over 20 years now. I has been a bitter sweet story in owning handsets. The first ever handphone i had was a Nokia 5110 back in 2000. At that time, not many people had handphones yet and they were on post paid basis. This state of the art handphone featured a 1.4 inch green light LCD screen, and the nokia tune we all grew up to. Note the antenna that is revolutionary compared to the Tai Kor Tai that used to be pulled out. It was certainly useful for calling and thats it! Simple and sweet.

The next phone I got was in 2001. It was a Kyocera but older than this model below. It featured a blue 1 inch screen! yay.. Calls, messages...who needs more? Plus, it was super small and super light weight, that it can be kept in the shoes during a spot check in class!In 2002, Nokia upgraded their 5210 series and wow. This lil baby comes in full rubber skin that could be changed. Was really useful cause i tend to drop my phone. I had a yellow LCD screen but the size was still the same. What set it apart was the fact that the antenna is now missing! and the it was one of the first phones to come with a vibrate mode! I remember there was a craze about making monotonic ringtones from the ringtone editor. Hours were also spent playing Snake! Note of caution: the phone despite its appearance, is NOT water proof. My bro found out the hard way.

For my 16th birthday, I requested from my parents a new phone and so i got this:Don't really know why Nokia phones followed a fattening trend but the 6600 was one of the first smart phones in the market. 32MB of space, bluetooth, infrared, 2G even.. with the best screen at the time, with really good camera and a 2 inch display. It also had a small joystick, with all the nifty features. Only issue was that the phone was quite heavy and bulky but smooth at the same time, so it tends to slip out of grip. I have not much memory of this phone as it was the only phone i lost. Lesson learnt: Never go out cycling with a really expensive phone and really cheap trousers.

Thats how i ended up with this phone in 2004. The Nokia 3200. I am still using it now and I guess when tough times call, compromise. This lil phone just refuses to die. After 6 years of torture, it is still functioning really well. It has been 6 years since i got a new phone, and I always wonder has the lesson been learnt? Featuring 1MB of memory, infrared, an economical camera, and a modest screen, I still keep it beside me. The buttons took some getting use to but after 6 years, no probs.

Here are the biggest competitors to the iPhone that I was considering an I might just out of curiosity. Might get them when i get enough cash. The Nokia N97. The flagship phone of Nokia and the latest of the super successful N series, 32GB space and 256MB RAM, its just like a small computer. The price tag is huge, need I say more?

Like any good market, competition is just around the corner and Samsung promises the next generation of smart phones to be their making. The Omnia HD i1890 is the latest in the Omnia series. It is comparable to the iPhone and the N97 but with significantly more firepower, including its superb Samsung screen and speakers, and its camera features including time lapse and slow motion! What other phone can do that?

Have your pick!