Panasonic Viera: Budget Friendly High-Quality TV

Five or so years ago, we had only been in our place in Orange for a few months and had been TV-less since we moved.  We walked into a Best Buy store looking for a nice size TV that did not cost an arm and a leg.  Back then flat screen plasma TVs had just come out with HDTV technology - and they were all very expensive.

We stumbled upon this Panasonic Viera TV that was marked as EDTV (enhanced definition).  It was displayed right next to an HDTV box and we could not see any difference in the picture quality.

A helpful store clerk said he couldn't see the difference either and was very helpful on giving us tips on how to make the picture on the TV as clear as possible at home.  So we got the relatively inexpensive box and five years later (though it has now been relegated to our bedroom), we still enjoy watching TV on it.  We were very much impressed with the Panasonic brand.

With the drop in TV prices and the demise of my mother-in-law's old TV, we advised her to buy the more inexpensive Panasonic Viera TV at Costco.  It was an old model 720p LCD unit that wasn't as impressive looking next to all the big screen TVs at the warehouse store.  But when we got it to her place and fitted in her cable antenna - the picture on the digital channels were amazing!  My mother-in-law was very happy with her purchase - and her loving TV installers... wink, wink!

I definitely enjoy Panasonic's audio better than our new Samsung unit.  Although our new unit has a lot more bells and whistles than our old Panasonic TV, when it comes to enjoying the audio quality of a good concert on TV - we still go to our old reliable Panasonic Viera.  And unlike my mother-in-law's 3-year-old Westinghouse TV that expired too soon, it has definitely lasted the test of time.

So if you're in the market for one of those now inexpensive TVs, be sure to check out both picture and audio quality before you buy.  You may be surprised at the brand that suits your preference - the TV manufacturers have become very competitive these days, and the best TV of old has yet to match the new technological advances of its competitors.

A DIY Weekend With Friends

My husband and I are trying to save money - and have decided to stay away from activities that would encourage us to spend.  Long weekends are particularly tough, staying indoors and watching TV or videos all weekend can be boring and I tend to yearn to go outside.

Last weekend, we went out to help build this storage shed for close family friends.  At first, the ladies stayed inside chatting and playing with this adorable little three-year-old.  But when it came to reading the assembly instructions, my husband asked for my help.

We have never built a shed like this before so we had a lot of trials, errors and redo.  But it felt great seeing the shed take form and be built from the ground up.  The pieces were all there, but it still took a bit of tweaking to fit together correctly.

I quite enjoy working outside, especially on such a warm and beautiful day.  I loved spending time with friends and getting something done at the same time.  All in all, I thought it was a very productive weekend - we got to spend time outside and not spend money doing so.

But if you have a storage shed project like this in mind, be warned!  You'll need at least two people building and someone who can interpret the instructions correctly.  Even then it will take you the better part of a weekend - and it's hard work!  But I guarantee that the experience will be all worth it.

Jay Chou: From Harold to Kato

Jay Chou is one of the funniest Asian actors in Hollywood.  He was hilarious in the various comedies he had starred in - especially the Harold and Kumar series.

When they cast him in the role of Kato, I was in doubt - I had never seen him do any martial arts before this movie!  Yet he stepped into Bruce Lee's shoes and made the role his own.  He injected a heavy dose of comedy into the role, making Seth Rogan's character seem even more clueless and idiotic.  As for the martial arts - it was shot artistically enough - with the whole slow motion plus computer animation effects to be believable.

The movie is a funny twist to a great classic and definitely entertaining!  It was only available in 3D on opening night - a bit pricey, but if you're in the mood for laughs this is absolutely a must-see.

Happy watching, my friends!

Teaching Myself Android: Roadblocks

I was reading through Chapter 3 of my Android book and the code was not hard to understand - it was just that the author assumed I knew where to put it.  And I didn't!  Maybe my Java is just rustier than I thought or it was because I'm still getting the hang of using Eclipse, but I finished all of Chapter 3, without finding the Java source code.  I felt sooo clueless!

I was in the middle of Chapter 4 and digging into the API documentation when I stumbled upon the Java source code - and felt so enlightened and momentarily happy...

So I went back and reviewed the snippets of code, but I still wasn't quite sure where to put them within the lines of code. So I did some trial and error, which hopefully did not aversely affect my husband's phone, but my attempts did not produce the results I had hoped.  I also had to reinstall Unblock Me and gave up on getting Angry Birds to work.

I felt so lost!  Here I was thinking, all I needed was this Teach Yourself book and I'd be developing Android Apps in no time.  Three chapters later, I'm digging through API that I have no idea where to put.

Then I had this brilliant idea - why don't I do a Google search.  One of the examples had code that I assumed was for putting a background color in the layout of your application.  And to my utter frustration, I could not find code for backgroundColor in the API documentation.  My exact search terms were, "how to change background color of Android app" and voila!  I found a blog that had the source codes for doing exactly that - with clear labels of where to put the source code (java source, resource files, layout files).  Now this documentation I understand perfectly - after reading the first 3-4 chapters of my book, of course!

I can't wait to test the source codes I found, don't worry I'll tell you all about it when I get it working.  I guess the moral of the story is that there is no such thing as a silver bullet.  You want to teach yourself a new skill?   Then you need to find all the resources you can to educate yourself - and there will be roadblocks!  You just have to learn to overcome them (or go around them, whichever you prefer).

Buyer Beware: Geek Mobile Protection Plan

Photo Credit: The Consumerist

My husband and I were very happy with his Android phone.  We bought it because I wanted to learn how to develop Android apps.  We got it with a Best Buy Protection plan that costs $6.90 per month.  They promised that if the phone breaks they will replace it with no questions asked.  I was also under the impression that there was a repair warranty with the protection plan.

So we brought it to Best Buy this morning because I had a problem with its USB connection to my computer.  Apparently it will take 3-4 weeks to repair the phone (that the tech is not even sure is broken).  Then I asked if they would kindly upgrade it to Android 2.1 for me, which - according to the tech - Geek Squad does not do.  Basically telling me, you're on your own with that one.

My husband thought it was absurd that they would take away his phone for 3-4 weeks and not give him a replacement/temporary phone to use!  So we got the phone back and took it to the nearest Sprint Repair Center - it took them an hour to check if it was broken and they upgraded the software for free.  I plugged the phone into my computer and it got detected right away.

And here is a screen capture of my first Android App
on my husband's now-working and debugging phone
(Captured after doing the dance of joy!)

One hour vs 3-4 weeks, I'm never buying a protection plan from Best Buy ever again!

Do yourself a favor and get your mobile protection plan from Sprint (or your mobile service provider) - they will most likely know how to fix your phone more than any other store.  Or if you've been a loyal client, Sprint actually lets you upgrade your phone every year instead of getting you to finish the 2 year contract before doing so.  For regular use, your phone isn't even old in a year's time and will probably be sturdy enough to not get broken.

Teaching Myself Android - Chapter 2

The chapter was called Mastering the Android Development Tools.  I don't feel like I've mastered anything, but I did find the various interactions of the Dalvik Debug Monitor Service (DDMS) with the Android Emulator quite amusing - like a child in a magic show (complete with the clapping and bobbing up and down excitedly)!

Here is the DDMS calling the Emulator

Here is the DDMS texting the Emulator

Here is my Emulator's Home screen capture

Here is the Accelerometer-type feature of the Emulator,
flipping like a normal phone would on its side depending
on its physical orientation

The Emulator settings work just like a normal phone would (except a bit limited in some areas, understandably). I just couldn't figure out why this is happening! Paging all Android Emulator gurus - help needed!

I just can't figure out why my Contacts is in Japanese -
even after I changed the Language settings!

The chapter also said that though the emulator is a great tool, it's not as good as being able to test with a real handset.  So I'm going to consult with some geeks today to try and get my husband's phone fixed.

Worst case scenario:  I have to take my mobile provider's offer of a discount to upgrade my one-year-old-and-much-loved Palm Pre to that new Android 2.2 4G phone coming out this weekend.  I think I have gadget-attachment issues!

Movie Night: Season of the Witch

My husband and I watched the movie, Season of the Witch, on opening night. Staff handed us surveys after the show, but I declined since I didn't want to stay and answer the very long questionnaire. The movie entertained us enough to deserve a review and so I am blogging about it instead.

I must warn you, I'm not a fan of scary movies - movies about exorcism and stories about priests possessed by demons have been known to give me nightmares. The Season of the Witch was meant to be a scary movie, but in the league of Pirates of the Caribbean and not the Exorcism of Emily Rose. Their special effects were "tame" enough not to give kids (and kids-at-hear like me) nightmares.

The movie condemned two historical events, the burning of suspected witches and the Crusades - and was not shy about pointing the blame on ignorant members of the clergy. The plot blamed the infamous plague on the witch's curse. But was she truly a witch? Now that was the driving force of the movie in my opinion.

The heroes of this story sought redemption, comfort from grief, honor, freedom and the end to the disease that ravaged their lands. Their mission was to bring the witch to an abbey where the only remaining copy of the Book of Solomon was kept - a book containing ancient rituals and incantation against evil forces. It's a quest-based movie like Lord of the Rings, but not quite as long. The obstacles they faced, the events that haunted the characters, the baffling mystery surrounding the girl who was accused of being a witch kept the audience guessing and thinking all throughout the movie.

It was a great movie with a semi-happy ending. I think this is a good start to another year of entertainment. It wasn't a wrench your heart out and make you want to change your life kind of movie, but it will make your heart race for the most part. It was definitely a good date night movie!

Enjoy the movie's trailer, my friends, and decide for yourself if it's worth watching!

Teaching Myself Android - Chapter 1

It's 2011 and it's time to learn something new - I chose Android Application Development to start my year.  My Teach Yourself book waited patiently in the sidelines while I celebrated the holidays with family and friends, but it's definitely demanding my attention now.

After wrestling with my desktop to get all the SDKs and IDEs installed, I finally finished the first programming chapter of my book.  And yes, it's a "Hello, World!" application - which took me more than the promised one hour to finish.

And all because I was too impatient for my own good.  The emulator takes a few minutes to load and a few minutes translates to around 5-10!  I ran my application several times and watched the letters spelling, android, with a blinking cursor at the end appear on the screen and stay there for a long time.  And ever the impatient one, I concluded that it was frozen, something was wrong with the code or it was broken.  But I did not get any red-lettered error message, it only said that the emulator was disconnected - I felt so frustrated!

Then I decided to wait, to be patient, to NOT disconnect the emulator.  The typed letters turned into a graphic android logo then the promised cellphone-like screen came up.  I clicked on the Menu key to unlock the screen and there it was - the Droid #1 app name was on the top left corner of the emulator.  And after a few more seconds the words, "Hello, Liza" - it worked!  I did the programmer's dance of joy and took a screen shot for evidence.

Android, I will get to know you - whether you like it or not!