Review of the Asus T100TA Transformer notebook

I have used my new "toy" for about two weeks now and I love it to bits. It is amazing how many different ways it transforms itself to suit my needs.

Form factor:
As a tablet, the screen itself weighs about 10% less than an iPad 3.
As a laptop, at just 1.44kg, it is about the lightest laptop you can find.
Assuming you are happy with a 10.1" screen (which I am), the display quality is impressive, albeit 1377x768 pixel in resolution and not full HD (but that's asking too much, considering I only paid less than AUD$600 for it). It even has touch screen.

Software:
It comes factory installed with Windows 8.1, and Microsoft Office Home Edition.
If you are into apps, Windows 8.1 has its app store to tap into.
If you are thinking of a Chromebook, just install Chrome and you can use it as a Chromebook.
For work, just switch into the regular Windows environment.

What makes this notebook particularly outstanding:
Processing speed. It uses the latest quad core Atom processor from Intel. I find this notebook performs just as well or better than my old desktop computer. Even when running photoediting in Lightroom.
SSD drive. In this age of cloud computing, who needs a large HDD drive? This notebook has 64GB SSD, which can be supplemented by another 64GB in a microSD slot. That is quite ample if you store your data in the cloud. I believe SSD is more robust than HDD when it comes to hauling the notebook around.

There is plenty more to say about why I so like the T100TA but I'll stop here before I drool over the keyboard.

Smartphone camera versus dedicated camera

While a smartphone camera is a practical one to carry; it is definitely practical to carry a dedicated camera.

Nowadays a top-of-the-range smartphone comes with a very capable camera indeed. In many cases the image quality is on par with that taken with a compact camera, if we are talking about sharing on social media, making prints, or even making a photobook. And I really mean just the top-of-the-range smartphones, if you are serious about image quality.

However, there is a good reason to buy a dedicated camera, say a compact point-and-shoot camera. The difference is in how fast you can shoot. I am talking about 4 kinds of "fastness".

1. It takes several moments to get the smartphone ready to shoot, whereas it is almost instantaneous with a dedicated camera. The same goes for video; a reasonably good camera nowadays has a dedicated video button. At anytime one can immediately press the video button to shoot video without changing the settings.

2. Focusing speed. A camera generally can focus faster. That is not only because it has a dedicated processor, but also because it has a dedicated shutter release button. You don't get that on a smartphone, unless you are buying the oddball Samsung Galaxy Camera (a hybrid between smartphone and camera).

3. Shot-to-shot speed. Once an image is taken, it is processed and saved in the camera. The smartphone takes a noticeably longer time to do this than even a budget point-and-shoot camera. Hence you can shoot many times over on a dedicated camera before your very obliging subject disappears.

4. Shutter lag. Shutter lag is becoming less of an issue with a good smartphone. This is the time between pressing the shutter release button and when the image is actually captured. Thus the reason for the half closed eyes and the faded smile.

For a photographer, there is another reason to use a dedicated camera, even when conditions are favourable for shooting with just a smartphone. The reason is image compression. For now, images from smartphones come only in Jpegs, whereas a good compact is able to shoot RAW. This allows the photographer more flexibility in post-processing work to improve the image; if nothing else, at least for exposure and white balance correction.

How to unclog your bathroom sink

Recently my bathroom sink was getting clogged. The water could only drain out very slowly. I had tried pouring sodium bicarbonate and vinegar into it, in the hope that that would work. Before long, the sink would have been fully clogged up and I would have to do what I did last time, which was to use a very long metal cable that snakes through the pipe from the exterior. It was very tough and dirty work and I was not looking forward to that.

Yesterday I came across this product called the "Drain Clean, Hair Unclogger". It costs about AUD$8 and I got it from Bunnings. Following the instructions, I poured about 500 ml into the sink and left it overnight. Yes, it is literally pouring money down the drain, but for a good cause! The sink is now unclogged and I am now able to leave the tap fully running. Mission accomplished.

Thy will be done

The one part of the Lord's prayer that intrigued me today was: "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done".

An average human being wants everything his way. We are happy when things go right; when our children behave the way we want them to; or when our spouse behaves exactly the way we expect them to. We are happy when strangers follow all the rules of courtesy when we are present. We are happy when service providers render good service to us. However, as soon as things run contrary to our expectations, we become a different animal. A prayerful Christian might start to pray for OTHERS to change and become "good". We seldom think that it is we ourselves who need to change.

If we truly pray for God's will to be done, I think it is useful to look inwards. People around us will always fall short of perfection. If we are able to accept them for who and what they are, then we will begin to understand what we are praying for, and we will no longer be a sweet Christian when things go well, and an ugly sinner when the going gets ugly.

Travelling with a point-and-shoot and a flashgun

I have just returned home from a holiday in Malaysia and Jogjakarta, with about 2500 shots to show for. On this trip I took just my Lumix LX7 and my SB600 flashgun, which was used only in the manual mode. So what have I got to tell, as far as shooting satisfaction goes? 

First of all, let me qualify by saying that the shots were purely social shots (or record shots). The intent was to get properly exposed, technically good shots, rather than competition-quality shots (which is always difficult to do on a family event).

During this trip I had many opportunities to use the flashgun: a wedding dinner, inside a museum, just before sunrise and just after sunset, inside a batik factory, and an indoor social gathering. A high percentage of the shots were taken with the flash. 

Here is my experience. The flash-aided shootings went as well as I imagined they would be, but could be improved. For one, I think I should have kept the ISO fixed at 80 (the lowest possible in the LX7). I used the P mode, which worked quite well. On hindsight, it wouldn't have hurt to keep it in M mode with speed setting of 1/60s and aperture wide open.

In the following, the wedding dinner image was at ISO 100, the sunset was at ISO 100, the factory hand was at ISO 400, and the museum was at ISO 80. All were shot at speed 1/60s, with Stofen diffuser fitted on flash.

In the wedding dinner scene, a large sensor high-ISO camera would have been better, especially since the presence of large mirrors actually created an annoying flare in some of the other images when the flash fired. This LX7/flash combo worked alright, but only just. In the other scenes, I did not miss having my Nikon D700 with me, as the tiny LX7 was a joy to carry around (although not the fairly large flash gun). I did get a few looks from other photographers at the wedding, as I must have looked odd holding the LX7 on one hand, and the flash on the other.

The Tower of Babel

Genesis 11:4 says: "Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” " By itself there seems nothing wrong with that declaration.

However, God saw differently. In Gen 11:6 "The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them." Again, by itself this verse doesn't seem to contain any malicious intent on what man is trying to do.

In the context of what the gospel teaches, God wants us to be one body in Christ, not one body without Christ. By ourselves, through science, human beings can collectively do wonders. Just think how much the internet has accelerated human capacity to gather, and disseminate knowledge almost instantly. It is as if mankind is once more able to gather together in one place (via the internet) and virtually build anything the human mind can imagine. Without God in the picture, this is dangerous.  Many decades ago, we already have enough nuclear power to destroy the whole world. Now, through breakthroughs in genetic engineering, man may soon be able to clone another human being, or "create" new species of animals.

The more we advance scientifically, the more we are led to believe that we can do life without God or that there is no God. Yet all the advances of science cannot solve any of the basic problems that have prevailed since the dawn of time: wars, hungers, diseases, and social ills. People need God and God knows that. So it makes perfect sense to me now that in Genesis 11:6, God took a preemptive strike by confusing the people with different languages as they were trying to build the Tower of Babel . From then on they stopped building the tower and they scattered all over the earth.

The good news is, it was never God's intent to let us be perpetually scattered. God wants us to be united in Christ. Romans 12:5 says "... so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others."

My Father's house has many rooms

In the gospel of John, Chapter 14 verses 2-3, Jesus said, "My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”

I once heard a child asking his parents how he is going to find them when they all die and go to heaven. Heaven must be such a big place that it will take forever to locate all your loved ones! Fortunately for us believers, we are not going to a strange new place, but to Jesus' own dwelling place in heaven. Jesus is there to prepare a place for us. What a comforting thought!