Month: April 2009

你真正努力過嗎？

喺銅鑼灣鬧市中無所事事，傳嚟動聽嘅音樂，於是向崇光方向走去。只見到一個青年自彈自唱，都唔錯。隔離仲有另一個青年跳著近期大熱 – “娃娃看天下”嘅舞姿。但係完全無人欣賞，因為所有人都圍喺另一邊，另一個”表現者”。

於是好奇心作怪，又走去睇睇。幾經辛苦，從人群中望過去，見到地上有一張張長長嘅白紙，上面寫滿一個個鐵劃銀勾嘅大字。字字工整，有勁，仲有隸書，草書等等。可用台式一個字，”讚”。

從啲個中年書法家嘅背影中可以睇到，他正在努力完成另一張墨寶，圍觀嘅幾十人亦都全神貫注欣賞。突然書法家一個轉身，我都睇到啦。。。原來書法家係沒有一對手嘅。

只見他心思地放好剛完成的作品，再用他已經痿縮嘅雙臂純熟地準備另一張白紙，用紙鎮壓好位置，”夾”起支毛筆，點墨，又一次像奇蹟般寫字。

只覺得突然眼濕濕，因為眼前嘅書法家係幾咁努力，真係殘而不廢。而我地正常人又殘，又廢，又懶，又眼角高，又自私，又唔識用毛筆，又唔識”寫”自己嘅文字（淨係識”打”）。。。下刪一百字。

書法家再完成一張作品，要停低啦。圍觀嘅人冇拍手，但係都靜靜地喺銀包中挪出小小心意放喺書法家前面。有眼濕濕嘅我，有眼濕濕嘅少女，亦有眼濕濕正在教仔嘅媽咪。

人群散去，鬧市中再走過跳”娃娃看天下”嘅青年，可能有點不公平，但睇住佢喺心裡有個疑惑 –

“你真正努力過嗎？”

 

Registering Kindle 2 from outside US

The short answer to that task is “No, you cannot do that”. And following is the long answer and how I did it a couple of days ago in a trip to US. (See also the Update 1 below)

You cannot register your Kindle 2 (click Settings in Home / Menu) outside US, as it works only wirelessly with Sprint network in US. And even you can hack your Kindle to connect to Internet (without the Sprint network), the built-in GPS in Kindle 2 will reject the registration. In other words, you need to fly to US or ask your friend to take your lovely Kindle 2 to US to do it for you.

But still, without registering your Kindle 2, you still can buy eBooks and read those without any problems.

Anyway, I did register mine in a recent trip to US, and here are the details. I arrived San Francisco airport and I took out my Kindle 2, switched it on, turned on the Whispernet and tried to register.

Surprisingly, the device registered itself (I thought I needed to enter the Amazon membership information). And my Kindle also downloaded the previous sample reading, downloaded Jeff Bezos welcome letter and even whispersync my other book I was reading with my Kindle for iPhone. Freaking brilliant.

Then I started the Kindle shop from within the Kindle 2, searched the book I want (Quiet Strength), clicked Go and bought a book. Within a minute, my Kindle 2 homepage shows the new book. It’s that easy. The only thing I thought it could improve was it should have indicated that the book has been downloaded – as just from the name in the homepage, I could not tell (from user experience point of view) whether the Kindle was downloading a book, or already finished the download. Anyway, I browsed the new book a bit and confirmed all chapters were there.

So, my Kindle 2 is kinda completed all the basics, the next frontier is to hack the Kindle 2. Stay tuned.

Update 1 : If you really want to register your email address, Kindle name etc. to your Kindle – without Whispernet, here is a trick … create a reginfo file and copy it to your Kindle (for expert only though …. I warn you here).

Kindle for iPhone from outside US

Yes, after getting the Kindle 2 and buying Kindle books from outside US, the logical next step is of course getting the Kindle for iPhone. As in my other blog posts, here are the steps:

  1. To prepare for it, you need a new email address (other than the one you registered to iTunes) from Gmail, Yahoo etc. In other words, don’t use an email address with a country suffix.
  2. Connect your iPhone, kick start the iTunes and sign out from the default email address (Apple ID) by clicking the email address button in the upper right corner of the iTunes.
  3. Go to iTunes Store homepage, scroll down to the bottom and then change the country to United States.
  4. Search for Kindle for iPhone in that US iTunes store, and click the “Get App” button.
  5. When you see the sign in screen, do not sign in. Instead click “Create New Account”.
  6. Register as usual but in the Payment Method Page, click “none” as the method … that means you can download free application only in the future, but it avoids the issue of getting an US based credit card. (I suppose the Paypal will work as well, but I have not tested it).
  7. Then enter the US Address and phone number that generated before.
  8. That’s it !! You created a iTunes new account with your email as the new Apple ID !!
  9. Make sure you click the link in the iTunes Store Account Verification email to activate your account.
  10. Now you should be able to download the Kindle for iPhone application and synchronize to your iPhone.
  11. Run the application in your iPhone and enter your Amazon account information. And you shall see the Kindle eBook you bought before !!

Note : Since there is no Whispernet here, therefore the Whispernync may not work. In other words, you may not able to switch back and forth between your Kindle and your Kindle for iPhone, and each will keep track of where you’ve stopped reading. But you can download the books from your Amazon archive and read it in iPhone. Enjoy !!

Update 1 : In step 7, I reckon since you don’t need a real physical address to ship anything, so may be all you need is to get any US address and corresponding phone number … even the White House address shall work. Just a thought.

Here is the proof : The books I bought so far …

Kindle for iPhone

Twitter Mania

So there is a rumor that Google is in negotiation to acquire Twitter. I think it is a great news, as the service will soon be more stable and the search will be more powerful. But to Google, why do they want to buy Twitter ? I don’t think Google really care what I am doing, thinking … as an individual, but I do think there are lots of companies want to know what the Internet users are doing and thinking … collectively. And they want to know these information in real time, they don’t want to wait. And that is why the Twitter platform and its search are so powerful. If I were Google, I would acquire Twitter, just for that.

Here are four examples I recently encountered, all because of my twits:

  1. I twitted that I was evaluating three websites A.com, B.com and C.com the other day … a few days later, both A.com and B.com followed me (I assume they want to know my opinion). And of course, I told myself that C.com was not doing good enough in collecting customer feedbacks.
  2. I modified a small program for WordPress and then I twitted about it … a few days later, the program developer followed me and asked what had I done – such that he could put in the change in next version. And he did !!
  3. Shortly I mentioned some technical keywords in my twits, a few recruitment firms followed me and asked me to follow them to get the latest job information.
  4. Last night, I twitted and asked for comments of a web site service … within an hour, I received a direct message from that web site and had a follower from that website’s competitor. Amazing, isn’t it ?

So, don’t use Twitter just to twit “What are you doing?”, but also use it as a tool to express your views, to collect other people’s views, and to spread your friends’ views (by re-twit) … all in real time.

Have you twit lately ?