My 2012 Cannondale CAAD10

My first bike was one of those "chopper" style bikes - the one that had a gear shifter on the top tube on the bike which I am sure did nothing for gear shifting - but it sure looked cool.

Since then, I have gone through a whole series of bikes - ranging from steel to carbon fibre and now to aluminium. Why downgrade - some might say. Carbon fibre has to be the best material for a bike correct? Well to a point yes. Carbon fibre bikes can be built to be both compliant for comfort(horizontally!) and stiff for responsiveness. It can be made light - oh yes. If you have ever held a carbon fibre frame in your hand you would swear it was all made out of cardboard - thats how light it would feel. However, I still wager that carbon fibre still cannot match the smoothness of a real good steel bike and the zippiness or zinginess (some call it sports car like feel) of a good aluminium bike.

Which brings me to the Cannondale CAAD10 - I have always wanted a Cannondale. Whats not to like about the name - "Cannondale" ;). But those things are expensive. A ready made Cannondale in Singapore will cost you easily USD2k if not more unless you manage to capture a late model variant like a CAAD8 or a CAAD9. But me - I wanted a CAAD10. After taking a few test rides - I just loved this Taiwan built CAAD10 frame (the older CAADs were supposedly handmade in the USA). It was light, it was smooth - relatively anyway and it was responsive.

 

After scoring a deal on the 'Bay, I bought this size 56 frame and built it up with a Deda cockpit (Deda Zero 100 stem and Deda Newton shallow bars) and seatpost (Deda Zero 100), a Selle Italia SLR (Update in Oct 2013 - I have since replaced this with a Fizik Arione) saddle, SRAM Force components (Update in Oct 2013 - SRAM BB30 bearings failed due to corrosion and replaced at 2200km :( ) and beautiful Campagnolo Eurus wheels. Frame weight was around 1.2kg and total build weight was around 7.5kg / 16.5lbs. I probably could have built the bike lighter by using weight weenie components and by using carbon wheelset but as this bike was meant to be a daily thrashabout bike, I decided to spec components that were tougher on it e.g. aluminium parts throughout. Frame specs-wise for my size 56 - it has a 56cm top tube and seat tube length, a "traditional" 73degree seatpost and head tube angle, a 80cm standover height.

 

How does it ride you might ask? She (bikes tend to be referred to as females gender-wise) feels very stiff, accelerates very easily and retains speed well. Turn in in corners with the Cannondale fork is very predictable and there is very little "jitteriness" in terms of controlling it. Compliance-wise, it is a harsher ride compared to carbon fibre or steel or titanium over rough roads. To tune the ride for more comfort, you might consider adding a carbon fibre seatpost and or cockpit and or wheels. For me, I just trust aluminium a lot more in terms of reliability in terms of components. I have had this baby for a year or more now and am looking for a change soon. Maybe back to steel again - we'll see how it goes.

Olympus OMD camera

Being late to the game, I recently bought an Olympus OM-D EM-5 camera. Like a lot of people, I hate the name so I'm just gonna call it the Olympus OMD for the rest of this review.

Back in 2009, I bought a Panasonic GF1 camera. At that time, I was looking for a smaller camera compared to a DSLR however I wasnt willing to compromise on picture taking capability by using a compact camera. The GF1 was, to me, a perfect choice. It was light, had great picture quality and could do videos better than my DSLR. What drew me to the GF1 most of all however was the fact that it looked retro. It looked and worked (mostly) like a mini digital rangefinder would.

Mid last year, the Olympus OMD was announced and it drew rave reviews from the Olympus faithful but for some reason, I wasnt that interested. I have always been a Nikon user, with occasional dabblings in Canon, Pentax and Fujifilm. I did however love my old Olympus Stylus Mju. So much so that I still have it even though I havent shot a roll of film in years. And I also had an Olymus C5060 briefly which I was ever so impressed with.

With that in mind and also because my GF1 was showing signs of being long in the tooth i.e. the low light capability really isnt that good and the AVCHD format was just giving me fits in terms of editing - I decided to get an OMD.

Playing with the camera briefly, I purchased it in Hong Kong as a body only kit, some things immediately become clear and some things start to annoy me.

First, the really good stuff, the picture quality in low light is really good and the IBIS ("in-body image stabilization") is one of the best of its kind. The picture quality is not Nikon D4 good but its borders on being as good as a D90. Olympus added a small flash in the kit however the power output is rather poor and after a few shots I packed it carefully in the box and do not intend to use it again bar some urgent need for fill in flash. I intend to use the OMD using existing light.

The OMD is probably the fastest micro four-thirds camera that Olympus has ever produced. For years its Pen line, Olympus AF systems had a weird "hunting for focus" behaviour which my Panasonic GF1 never had. AF-speed wise and responsiveness wise, I dont think anyone will complain much about the OMD. Features-wise, the OMD has lots of other cameras licked - it has a pretty good EVF plus LCD, a "virtual horizon" feature, 9fps, tiltable LCD, light weather proofing, a magnesium alloy body - you could go on and on.

Onto the negatives - my biggest grip is regarding the ergonomics and usability. Unless your hands are small, you will find the grip to be slightly awkward to use. Its a little bit like I have to learn how to hold the camera vs having a camera grip being moulded to fit my hand. The eyelet for the shoulder strap eats into my palm each time I grip the camera tightly. Its more of a finger hold camera vs a full in your palms type of camera. The buttons are fiddly.

Olympus (to be fair - the same holds true for all pure play camera manufacturers) is not and has never been good at UI. The OMD has a lot of configurability and settings hidden and disabled. When I first got the camera - I couldn't figure how to set the ISO. One of the first things you have to do when you get this camera is to enable the Super Control Panel (go [Camera] Control Settings in Custom Menu > section D > and enable LIVE SCP). For some reason Olympus thinks that you would want a different setting for each exposure mode - a sure sign of a programmer making a decision vs a photographer. My advice - do a google search on "OM-D tips" and setup the camera once according to how you like to shoot.

To be honest - for all my complaints - I do not think there is a better camera for me. Its retro (check out this pic of my OMD with an old Nikon) and it takes good pictures. Enuff said.

What's next for Apple?

Apple is now the biggest company in the world based on market valuation.

Over the past few years, the iPhone has been their main seller, their número UNO product bringing in the most profit. Unfortunately, I think so many iterations of iPhone and shipping so much product I think the market is kinda tired of the iPhone. It has become boring especially with so many people having at least one generation of phone.

After the iPhone, the next major seller was the iPad. We had the iPad 1, iPad 2 and the ridiculously named "new iPad" which automatically made all the previous versions "old iPads". I guess "iPad 3" was probably a patented name which they couldnt use. Or maybe it was an unlucky number.

Apple is a design company. It's products aren't necessarily better in any way than it's competitors the iPhone when it came out didn't have the best battery life or the best camera etc.

My predictions for the next Apple products?

a) Apple iPhone - introduce the iPhone 6 obviously. However I have feeling that the smaller is better credo will come back and Apple will introduce a smaller iPhone - iPhone mini - smaller screen obviously and controlled mostly by voice - Siri.. ugh. After that.. its pretty obvious they will launch an iPhone Nano... and Pico... you heard it here first boys and girls..

b) Apple iPad - the iPad mini will be launched soon however it is definitely a strategic move by Apple henchies to match what the competitors are doing. If Steve Jobs were in the house still, he would introduce ever larger iPads until they were big enough to fill a wall...

Nokia N82

Been using this phone for the past 5 months. Tough tough time to get used to it after using a Sony Ericsson for so long. For the longest time, I couldnt get to grips to locking the keypad, why can't these phone manufacturers standardize these keystrokes?

Anyway, the phone is a cracker in some areas - the camera especially is most possibly the best in the market now and the browser is really good for browsing and reading web feeds - and a dud in some areas - the keypad is really uncomfortable to use due to the narrow keys and the GPS takes ages to acquire a satellite signal.

When I bought the phone, the initial plan was to use it for a while and switch to something else quickly. But from the looks of it, this phone is a keeper. Its not a perfect package by all means but it does the job of a phone well and with the camera being as good as it is, I can use it as my everyday camera.

Sony Ericsson phone video taking capabilities

The ability for my phone to take good videos is important to me since I am not one to lug around a huge videocam. Good enough for me is AT LEAST QVGA resolution although this is pretty archaeic compared to the megapixel war manufacturers are fighting. My fav phone brand - Sony Ericsson seems to be embarrassed about their phone video recording capabilities. From the website, there are no specs to indicate the resolution or FPS video specs for their phones. Compared to Nokia, which has a rash of VGA capable phones (N93, 95 etc), SE is really far behind.

I have compiled a selected list of phones (current and future as of April 2008) and their video recording specs. Please help me with your comments if I make a few mistakes here or if I have left your phone out..

QCIF (quarter CIF - 176x144, a truly pathetic resolution that can only record stamp sized videoclips)
- K800i/K810i
- K750i
- most other phones not listed otherwise

QVGA (320x240)
- K850i
- K660i
- W890i
- W910i
- P1i
- C902
- C702

VGA (640x480)
- Xperia X1

Mini-Zs from Kyosho

Lots of people play with RC toys and when these get too boring or break, dump them for actual cars. For myself, that was also the case, however, I still have my Audi Quattro car from my childhood days in my dad's place.


In my case, I have gone back to RC with Mini-Zs. However, like Kyosho has written in their catalog, Mini-Zs can't be called RC Toys. They drive like mini-cars (or 1:28 scale versions) and follow the same driving dynamics because of proportional steering and the way the cars are designed. Well, not really. Mini-Z cars have much more power in proportion to their weight unlike normal cars (power to weight ratio). For example, I can easily break traction and slide on a slippery surface like the wooden floor of my living room especially with the reverse gear which has that much more torque.

A Readyset Mini-Z kit comes with a radio transmitter and a single car cover on a chassis all ready to go except for adding batteries (8AAs and 4AAAs) and screwing in the antenna.

Mini-Zs come in many chassis types -

1. MR-01 (the original config with batteries one on top of another),
2. MR-02 (different battery config and batteries side by side),
3. MR-015 (same battery config as MR-01 but with different/cheaper electronics and no brake) which are rear wheel drive cars, and
4. MA-010 which is front wheel drive.

and mounts - i.e. RM - rear mount "engine"/motor, MM - mid mount, and HM - high mount (actually rear mount also).

I bought a lovely red Lamborghini Jota MR-015MM i-Series (which is kind of like a lower spec Mini-Z for beginners) for $139 in Singapore and a really cool black Enzo MR-02MM. I also got a whole bunch of covers, a red Enzo, a black and a silver Mclaren F1, a black BMW M3 and a white VW Golf GTI - Kyosho calls them Autoscale models just for the heck of it and bcos I love the look of model cars. My plan is to get a display case for the cars plus my other 1:24 scale die-cast models - a black Porsche Carrera, a green Lamborghini Murcielago and a black BMW Z8. I figured since I am hitting middle age and cant afford any of these in real life.. what the heck..

Some links to Mini-Z guides I found..

http://mini-z.home.att.net/

http://www.dansdata.com/miniz.htm

Ferrari Enzo Test Car (Kyosho Mini-Z MR02MM)

The Ferrari Enzo is one of the premier supercars in the world today (out of production) capable of 0-62mph times of 3.6s and a top speed of 217mph. Even though others might be faster e.g. the Mclaren F1 (243mph) and quicker to 62mph i.e. Bugatti Veyron (2.5s, the Bugatti also can reach 254mph), I dont think any supercar can match the sheer looks and presence of the Enzo. Even the name Enzo sounds good. Imagine telling pp that you have a Veyron.. the looks you would get.. what Veron huh... blahaha

Well, I can boast that I have 2 Enzos... a Black Test car version and a Red one for everyday driving.. ha!

Lamborghini Jota (Kyosho Mini-Z MR015MM)

The Lamborghini Jota was a one-off make of the Miura made by one of their ex-employees. Most of the changes made to create the Jota were internal - namely the aluminium construction and the tweaked engine! I loved the Miura, one the sexiest cars ever made (especially the lime green ones) so it was easy to decide that I was going to get a Jota for my first Mini-Z. Plus the fact that the alternative was a really crappy Ford or a Alfa.

I hope the rumors of a new Miura are true, at least the prototypes look cool..

This car, as well as the new HSC concept by Honda are some of my top cars to look forward to in the coming years.

As for the Mini-Z version of the Jota, I usually drive it at home on my shiny wooden floor and the car really likes to do donuts. Cant say I complain about the power as well however full power will make the car skate over the floor. It probably will do well on a proper RCP track since then, it wont skid and slide so much and have much more traction. It runs on an i-Series board which I have not been able to get much documentation on from Kyosho. Seems fine so far.

Planted tanks.. Aquaria!

We will be moving out of our place soon so I thought I would take a picture of our planted tank that I have had for close to 2 yrs. I still remember buying the tank from a guy who stayed in the 4th storey of a HDB block and I carried it back by myself together with the stand. Boy, was I stronger in those days... :)... only 2 yrs ago!

Its a 3ft tank with CO2 and lighting. Keeping an aquarium is supposed to keep you calm and is a good hobby that requires very little time to maintain and upkeep. On average, I replace 1/4 of the water using a siphon every week with fresh water. I wash the external filter (a Atman 3336) and change the filter sponge every 2 months or so.

As its a planted tank, the plants in the tank will make use of the waste materials from the fish to grow and in turn provide oxygen for the fish to breathe. Of course, you have to provde light to the plants in order for photosynthesis to occur - in our case we have some strip lighting that we place above the tank that we switch on about 9 hours a day. Lots of people put an air pump in their fish tank which is totally unnecessary for planted tanks. The fish in the tank dont require much in terms of food and when I am travelling, I can fit an automatic fish feeder that dispenses food every day.

We keep cardinal tetras, striped pencilfish and also corys (panda and leopard) mostly, with some otos and yamatos and a single dwarf puffer which is mostly caged since he likes to snack on the fins of the other fish. Not sure if we can keep the tank or sell/give it away when we move... life is full of decisions...

My old PCs (drumroll please... tatatataaa!!)

DREWHOME - 2000-2007 (moved to Dads place)

Pentium III-733Mhz
Asus CUSL2 motherboard
512MB SDRAM
Asus ATI MX400 32mb graphics
Creative soundcard
Maxtor 80gb & 40gb + HP CD-writer
Enlight case
Compaq Proliant keyboard + Microsoft optical mouse
Compaq 15in LCD
CH Flightstick Pro
Fav games played - Warcraft 2&3, Starcraft 2, Icewind Dale, Diablo1&2, Tiger Woods golf, Guild Wars etc

DREWII - 1995?-2000 (status - retired)

Pentium 1 200Mhz
Asus MB
128MB EDO RAM
Diamond Stealth 64 DRAM PCI graphics
Turtle Beach Monte Carlo sound (big mistake!)
IBM 16GB hard disk
4x CD reader
Viewsonic 15inch CRT
Fav games - Warcraft, Starcraft, Sims

DREW1 - Pre-1995 (status - retired)

Aris brand
Intel 486-66
32MB RAM?
Mag Innovision 17inch CRT
2.1GB, 4GB hard disk
Fav games played - Microprose Xcom UFO Unknown, Doom

Pre DREW1
Amiga 500
Apple II clone - 64MB