Alvin Poh's Blog

Samsung i780 versus Apple iPhone

Alvin — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 05:45:58 +0000

To cut a long story short, I sold off my Samsung i780 for an Apple iPhone. I bought the Samsung i780 at SGD680, and sold it off for SGD480. It was 3 months old, but in great condition, and I hated to see it go.

So that’s a SGD200 loss. Verdict? I love the iPhone. It’s gorgeous and user-friendly as hell. After getting it, I realised how clunky the Windows Mobile interface was. It just isn’t intuitive as the iPhone’s, or even Palm’s (which was what I was using before I switched to my Samsung i780).

With the switch, I gave up certain features like the ability to edit Office documents, do custom Windows Mobile programming, and use Microsoft Exchange, but I realised that it wasn’t a big deal at all. In fact, I didn’t even miss those features. So I guess it really boils down to what you really need, versus every features thrown into the mix. The Windows Mobile interface just didn’t cut it for me, which was why I decided to sell the i780, and I’m glad I did so!

Updates about the iPhone soon!

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Bottle of Wine

Alvin — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 18:18:31 +0000

A woman and a man are involved in a car accident on a snowy, cold Monday morning; it’s a bad one.

Both of their cars are totally demolished, but amazingly neither of them is hurt. God works in mysterious ways.

After they crawl out of their cars, the man is yelling about women drivers.
The woman says, ‘So, you’re a man. That’s interesting. I’m a woman.
Wow, just look at our cars!
There’s nothing left, but we’re unhurt.
This must be a sign from God that we should be friends and live in peace for the rest of our days.’

Flattered, the man replies, ‘Oh yes, I agree completely, this must be a sign from God!
But you’re still at fault… women shouldn’t be allowed to drive.”

The woman continues, ‘And look at this, here’s another miracle.
My car is completely demolished but this bottle of wine didn’t break.

Surely God wants us to drink this wine and celebrate our good fortune.’

She hands the bottle to the man.
The man nods his head in agreement, opens it and drinks half the bottle and then hands it back to the woman.

The woman takes the bottle, puts the cap back on and hands it back to the man.

The man asks, ‘Aren’t you having any?’

The woman replies, ‘No. I think I’ll just wait for the police…’

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What’s Up With The Simpsons?

Alvin — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 16:55:07 +0000

I managed to watch a few episodes of The Simpons season 17 the other day, and I couldn’t help but feel like the show’s getting old. The jokes aren’t as funny, and I don’t get the desire to plonk myself down and watch episode after episode, like how I’d use to a few years ago.

Or maybe it’s just me.

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Microsoft Office Outlook (Outlook XP/2002, Outlook 2003 or Outlook 2007) Personal Folders (PST) Backup Tool

Alvin — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 08:18:56 +0000

Many users use Microsoft Office Outlook (i.e. Outlook XP/2002, Outlook 2003 or Outlook 2007) as their default e-mail client, contact list manager and daily management tasks organizer. Over time, it’s common to have Outlook contain all your important email messages, contacts information, calendar entries, appointment details, essential notes, critical to-do tasks and other personal data. To safeguard your important data against data loss and theft, it’s crucial to backup all your data — imagine what would happen if your hard disk got corrupted or if you accidentally formatted your computer and lost all your data!

Thankfully, the later versions of Microsoft Outlook stores all data in .pst (Personal Folders) files, which makes it very easy for backup and restore purposes. Each .pst file contains all of your Outlook folders, including the Inbox, Calendar, and Contacts. You can have a single .pst file, but you might also have an additional .PST file that you use for archiving.

Compare Personal Folders Backup, exporting, and archiving

There are three ways to back up your Outlook e-mail messages, contacts, appointments, tasks, notes, and journal entries — the Personal Folders Backup tool, exporting, and archiving.

Personal Folders Backup tool is used to copy your entire .pst file or files to your hard disk or to a network server or share.

Export is used to create a file containing Outlook information, but still keep the original data in your folders. You can only export one folder at a time.

Archive is used to move the items that you want to back up out of your folders.

Microsoft provides a Outlook add-in named the Personal Folders Backup plugin that can create backup copies of your .pst files at regular intervals (only for Outlook 2002 and later versions), backing up all of your Outlook folders easily and automatically.

Personal Folders Backup offers several options. For example, you can choose which .pst file you want to back up, and how often you want to back them up. Before you begin the backup process, you might want to check the size of your .pst file. If you have multiple folders in your .pst file, you must select the top-level folder to determine the total file size for all the folders. Make sure that the file sizes tally.

To install the Microsoft Outlook Personal Folders Backup tool:

Download the tool from the Microsoft Office Online site by clicking the Download link and following the instructions in the dialog boxes
Make sure that you quit Outlook
Double-click the Pfbackup.exe program file on your hard disk
Follow the instructions on the screen to complete the installation
Start Outlook

Instructions for use:

The Personal Folders file (.pst) that you want to back up must be open. If the file is visible in Folder List, it is open
On the File menu, click Backup
Click Options
In the Backup these personal folders files list, select the check box for each item you want to back up
Change the .pst file name shown. Or, to select a different folder, click Browse, navigate to the location you want, and then click Open
Note: The default file name and location where the .pst file is saved is shown in the File location box
To have Microsoft Outlook automatically remind you to make a backup copy of this file, select the “Remind me to backup every x days” check box, and then type the number of days between 1 and 999
Click OK
Click Save Backup
Note: The items selected will not be backed up until you quit Outlook

You can download Personal Folders Backup add-in for Office Outlook 2002/2003/2007 from Microsoft Download Center (OGA validation required). Or, you can also download the setup file pfbackup.exe from the following direct download links:

English (US) edition
Spanish edition
German edition
Simplified Chinese edition
Greek edition
Russian edition

Notes

Personal Folders Backup tool only backs up .pst files. If you have an Exchange Server mailbox, your server mailbox folders should already be backed up by your Exchange Server administrator.
If you are using an East Asian operating system with an English version of Microsoft Office, you cannot use this download.

The Personal Folders Backup tool is designed for use in Outlook 2002 and later, and provides a quick and easy way to back up your Outlook data to your hard disk or network. After you back up your information, you can even copy these backups of your Outlook data to a removable media such as a CD, DVD, or external hard drive. The backup files are exact copies of the original files and are saved in the same file format. You can receive periodic reminders to back up your files.

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Brown Leather & Stainless Steel Bi-fold Wallet

Alvin — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 01:33:19 +0000

I just came across the very interesting Stainless Steel Bi-fold Wallet by Stewart/Stand. It claims to be durable and resistant to corrosive materials such as salts, acids and even seawater. I’m not sure about that — but I know that I love the way this wallet looks, because it’s very unique and very different from your usual men’s leather wallet. The difference in these Stewart/Stand wallets, and why they look absolutely gorgeous, is the woven stainless steel texture. The inner pockets are made from this material, so the interior feels silky and looks unlike any other wallet. If you’re a geek or just love cool stuff, then this wallet is a must-buy!

It’s currently sold on Amazon: Brown Leather & Stainless Steel Bi-fold Wallet

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GMail Trick

Alvin — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 01:26:43 +0000

Unlike most webmail services (e.g. Live mail or Yahoo mail), with GMail, you can actually do pretty neat stuff with your email address. For instance, did you know that you could put the + sign in your email, and still receive emails as per normal? So if your email address was yourname@gmail.com, you could actually send an email to yourname+testing@gmail.com, and still receive your mails! This is because Gmail doesn’t recognize anything after the + sign.

GMail does record that particular email address though. To see it, just click on the “Show Details” link to expand the email header. You’ll be able to see the email address to which it was sent.

This trick is useful when you want to track email addresses. For instance, you could give out yourname+your_school@gmail.com to your school-related stuff, and yourname+work@gmail.com for work related stuff. If you want to see who uses a particular email address, you can tag it, maybe with a descriptive phrase or even a number like this: yourname+124@gmail.com.

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25% Big Skinny Wallet Coupon

Alvin — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 03:41:48 +0000

It’s the standard Father’s Day gift - the ubiquitous men’s wallet, and wallet companies are rejoicing. The Big Skinny Corporation is no different, and it’s chancing upon this special day to launch a promotional offer, which I got as an email because I bought a wallet from them in the past.

The Big Skinny is not a bad wallet, but I think I could have been happier with another model or brand. Check out the other wallet alternatives that I researched.

Anyway, if you’re interested in the Big Skinny, you should just get it now because they have a coupon for 25% off classic style models (classic, sports & formal styles). That brings it to only $14.96 instead of the regular price of $19.95 until Father’s Day or while supplies last. The promotion coupon code is FD2008 (non-affiliate coupon).

My bet is that no matter what you’re getting, you should order early so that your gifts can arrive in time. Actually, it does make it interesting because seeing how thin the wallets are, it PROBABLY could fit into a Father’s Day greeting card too.

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Toastmasters Table Topic Ideas for Impromptu Speaking - Mixed Words

Alvin — Mon, 26 May 2008 11:02:16 +0000

Write words on small pieces of paper and put them all in a bag. Have each Table Topics speaker pick up 3 pieces of paper and make up a story that contains all 3 words in it. If your chapter meeting has a “Word of the Day”, you can also require that the speaker use the “Word of the Day” as well.) Generally, you should make variations of the word acceptable. So for example, if the word is “run”, then “running” may be used in the speaker’s story.

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How to Spot a Millionaire

Alvin — Wed, 21 May 2008 11:00:22 +0000

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Daily or Monthly Contact Lenses?

Alvin — Sat, 17 May 2008 06:35:03 +0000

I think contact lenses can be considered one of the best inventions of our time, as the convenience that they give over spectacles is invaluable. When wearing contact lenses though, you’ll need to go through a 4-step process:

1) Wash your hands (with soap) before handling your contact lenses.

2) Clean, rinse, and disinfect whenever you remove your contact lenses from your eyes

3) Use only fresh contact lens care solution and not water or saline

4) Replace your lenses with a new pair regularly

The daily grind of cleaning, rinsing and disinfecting my contact lenses is getting to me though, and I’m thinking of changing my monthly disposable contact lenses to daily disposable ones, which effective removes steps 2 and 3, so it’s a nice and neat 2-step process. In addition, I can go places without having to worry about bringing solution because I can just dump my daily lenses and wear new ones the next day.

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