Well. Let us begin the recap of our summer trip with a few of my favorite shots of Kaitlyn from the trip.

Many of the photos from this trip were taken with the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 lens that I just got. If you have a DSLR, like taking portraits or close-ups but on a budget, I would highly recommend you getting one (or the Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D lens if you have a Nikon DSLRs). They are cheap ($80 to $120) plastic lenses but take photos that rival their f/1.4 siblings that cost three to four times more!

If you have an older TV without a digital tuner built in, it will go static by Feb 2009. If you go to dtv2009.gov, you can sign up for up to two $40 coupons & use it to buy digital TV converter(s). The converters will cost between $50-70 each.

One more thing: buy the converters as soon as you get the coupon(s). They expires in 90 days.

If you’re going to be traveling, you may want to find out in advance if the airports you are going through offer free wi-fi (wireless internet connection). Here’s a link to a table that shows how much (if not free) airports charge for wi-fi.

Although some airports charges a fee, if you travel with certain carriers with their own terminals, they may still offer free wi-fi.

I read this article today & think it can really help everybody save a good chunk of money when buying expensive electronics.

When you make your big purchase with a credit card, you are automatically getting up to an additional year of warranty coverage. Depending on the card, it could mean free repairs or even replacement or full refund!

Therefore, depending on the situation & the card you use, buying an extended warranty at BestBuy or Circuit City may not be a smart thing to do.

“Extended Warranty is a special benefit offered to Citi™ Platinum and Gold MasterCard® Cardmembers. This service enables you to make a claim for repairs if the original manufacturer’s warranty has expired on an item you purchased on your MasterCard card. Your claim must be made within the Citibank® Extended Warranty period (double the time of the manufacturer’s warranty, up to one additional year). No registration is necessary.”

And if you have an American Express card, that extra coverage will even give you a replacement or full refund (including tax).

So I guess it’s worth the effort in reading the fine prints of your credit card policies after all.

original article 

…Christmas of 2010, that is.

If you haven’t heard, Apple just came out with a new all-in-one cellphone, the iPhone. It really makes the Blackberry or Q look like 1920 typewriters (“capable” but ugly) & the RAZR look like a Barbie doll (“pretty” but incapable).

The iPhone is a 3-in-one device: phone, widescreen iPod, internet. It not only looks great, it does ALMOST everything (phone calls, visual voicemail, text messaging, photos, video, music, calendar, notes, Google map, full-featured web browsing, rich text push email the Blackberry way), equipped with ALMOST everything (3.5-inch screen, quad-band GSM, EDGE, camera, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR, multi-touch touchscreen, accelerometer, ambient light sensor, proximity sensor), and cost ALMOST everything ($499 for 4 gig or $599 for 8 gig).

OK, so it’s not really that ridiculously expensive. It’s actually a decent price considering all the features included, PLUS all the innovative user interface design that Apple has introduced to the cellphone, taken from the Mac. It takes all the complication & frustration out of using a cellphone (if you’ve seen your parents learning to use their cellphones, you’ll know what I mean). It’s really going to change the way people use & expect from their cellphones.

That’s why I’m predicting that in 3 years, the iPhone & Apple’s marketing department will be so good that, I should no longer be able to resist the urge to get one myself or ask someone to buy me one.

At the rate that they are innovating, by 2010, the phone would be so capable that I can probably use it to watch live TV, track my kids’ whereabouts, start my car, warm my hands, heat up my food, do DNA analysis, beam me up, etc.

You see?

That’s right! For 2007, we got a facelift.

No, I’m not talking about me or Mel. I’m talking about our web site, silly!

One thing hasn’t changed is the clean, somewhat minimalistic look. The biggest change, however, is the header image on the top. It displays our photos & it changes every time the page is loaded & reloaded!

It’s not quite finished yet. I’m still toying w/ the color scheme, font style, and other bells & whistles. But overall, I think it’s where I wanted it to be.

If you have broadband/high-speed internet connection at home, a microphone, and ever need to make long distance phone calls (both within U.S. or international), you may want to consider trying Skype.

It’s a simple program that let you make phone calls using the computer over the internet at a very low rate, or even free! A call from U.S. to Hong Kong is only $0.021 per minute! It’s rates that you only get with those phone cards from Chinatown, and Skype doesn’t charge any additional fee like those phone cards do!

It’s even better if you want to call Canada or within the U.S., it’s FREE until the end of the year! Perfect for the holidays that are coming up! You won’t have to waste your minutes or wait until after 9 pm to call.

All Skype-to-Phone calls have the same sound quality as regular phones, but not for Skype-to-Skype calls! The sound is comparable to FM radio quality!

One time I had my friend from Hong Kong put his mic by his radio’s speakers & it was like I was there in his room!

All it takes is for both sides to have Skype installed. Skype-to-Skype calls are FREE, doesn’t matter where you or the other person is in the world!

Plus, Skype-to-Skype calls are not limited to 2 people. Regular phones can do 3-way, Skype can do 4-way. Skype also does video calls. Good-quality video, unlike Yahoo! Messenger’s choppy video. Of course, you’ll need a decent camera to get good quality in the first place.

When you just want to do regular online text chat, you can do a group chat with up to 100 people at the same time.

If you are familiar with normal chat programs like AIM, MSN, Yahoo!Messenger, ICQ, etc., you would know how to use this.

I wish they pay me to say all this, but seriously, this is one of those rare things that I highly recommend to people (besides getting a Mac).

p.s. Great for those of you who have kids but your parents live far away!