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My Nokia N80 is showing its age, basically starting to break apart. I have to give it an early retirement.
But it seems it has found a new life: turning into a 3G wifi access point.

The recipe is simple:

- the JoikuSport Premium* software for N80 (EUR 15, about RM 73).
- a 3G service, I am using the Celcom’s “home, hop & away” broadband (RM 20 monthly).

With this adhoc AP, can can finally get rid of the bluetooth dongle that I have to bring along with my Eee.
I can use the iPod touch to get online when there is no other open wifi available.
I can also share the connection with others on the move. It is also serve as the backup connection to my home broadband.

Sweet!

* I’ve mentioned about this 9 months ago here. It is now fully developed, and support NAT too.

3 years ago I wrote about how camera should have a GPS implementation (GPS in camera“).
Today I was blown away by the iPhone 3G which has tagged the GPS information on the photo that it takes.

No GPS in camera yet. Not that I know.
I consider this a good progress.

Colleague of mine brought a pack of tea from Sri Lanka: Dilmah Tea.
If you pronounce it loudly in Hok Kian (福建) accent, it really sounds rude.

It is almost on par with the Google GBuy in Hok Kian (launched as “Google Checkout” – phew).

If you use BBEdit on Mac OS X, coding in some language that is not recognizable by BBEdit, read on.

I’ve been using BBEdit for years, coding in MetaCard’s MetaTalk language. Odd? You bet. But that’s not something that I want to elaborate this time.

Instead, this is about how you can hack BBEdit language module to give you a better language keyword coloring and highlight in the coding process.

If you are coding in xTalk (HyperTalk, MetaTalk or Revolution) on daily basis, you can tricked BBEdit by telling it to render your code in Python syntax – that’s give you pretty comfortable coloring and highlight text to work with – but not entirely accurate.

Python is still Python, not xTalk.

There is a Revolution language module for BBEdit available from Blue Mango Learning Systems.

Unfortunately, it is broken on some recently released BBEdit, such as version 8.7.2 that I am using now.
Update 2008-12-20: The author has fix the zip file, verified working by now.

Here is how you can hack a language module out, based on the Python language plugin.

What I did was rather simple:



• right click on the BBEdit.app application, and select "Show Package Contents".
• drill down to the "Contents" folder, then the "Language Modules".
• select "Phython.bblm" and make a copy (type Apple + D in the Finder).
• rename the copy to "xtalk.bblm".
• right click on "xtalk.bblm" and "Show Package Contents".
• open the "Contents" folder, then "MacOS" folder.
• look for the file "Phython" and rename it to "xtalk" (it is the only file in the MacOS folder).
• edit the Info.plist - use your programming sense with some force

To make things easier, you can download the hacked version that I am using now instead. Unzip it, and place it in BBEdit.app -> Contents -> Language Modules.
Restart your BBEdit, and you should able to see the “xtalk” item appear in your BBEdit Preferences language tab.

Enjoy the xTalk syntax highlight and coloring from now on!
If you have made some changes to the hack and wish to share with me, drop me an email at magixbox at gmail.com.

We went to Taiping 太平 for a colleague wedding. It is a small town over 250 KM from they place we stay.
We start at 10 am, and reach there at 3 pm — a long journey due to heavy traffic along the North South Highway during the festive.
Anyway, Taiping is a small town with a lot of energy – and stomach too. There is a lot of food stalls and hawkers center around, which is outnumber to Petaling Jaya in term of density of hawker stalls per square kilometer.

The lake is awesome.

The zoo is reasonably fun. I had a feeling that it has more fun than Zoo Negara if we have more time – although I consider the admission wasn’t cheap: RM 12 for adult, RM 8 for child – but well worth it to kill a few hours in there.

It was my first time visiting Taiping, but it seems easy enough to drive around in the town, all without much helps from the native friends. Maybe it was due a typical one-street-town.

If you enjoy cruising on highway (like me), and don’t mind the high toll fair (RM 25++ one way from PJ to Taiping), go there.
Make sure you find some place to stay for a night, you’ll probably enjoy the hawker stalls there.

I’ve got an iPod touch recently, to scratch an itch somewhere.
My target was the Google Android phone, but since it will takes years to get to our shore here, I’ll have to make decision fast.

The unlocked iPhone 3G selling for about RM 3,200.00 in Hong Kong. There is no legally available iPhone here. The price is a little steep – and no international warrantee if I bring it back here – not really worth the risk.

That’s why I picked up the iPod touch when I was loitering around Low Yat days ago to get a feel of what an iPhone should be. It was RM 930.00 for the 8 Gb modal, quite an expensive “demo” for the iPhone.

I have to cut my finger nail short to use the gesture screen more efficiently – that is quite a secryfy on me… as I am more comfortable with long finger nail all the time.

I must say I was impressed. I have been thru Apple Newton, Palm Pilot and even attempted to use my Nokia N80 as some form of PDA, none getting close this this.

But the funny things is, I feel the iPod touch was really designed as an “extension” from the Mac (or PC) with iTunes install. They sync to each other, and I can basically update some contents (calendar events, contacts etc) on either the iPod or the Mac at my own convenient time – but it seriously lacks on content generation engine and some real essential things:

- the note cannot be sync, suppose you write something using the iPod note app, there no way to get to your desktop thru sync – you have to email it to yourself, which was one of tricks that I used 11 years ago to transfer a file from Apple to PC in an intranet.

- no sync on Safari bookmark.

- application closes when switching from one application to another. It is however, capable for multi-tasks as the MP3 can be played in the background, and the alarm/alert from the calendar is always on time.

- downloading free apps have to click a “Buy” button to confirm in iTunes. Misleading, and quite scary. I’ve even received a bill from Apple saying that I’ve bought their Remote app, for USD 0.00.

- the new podcast download feature doesn’t work on my account, as iTunes store is not available in Malaysia.

- can’t act as an USB disk. Everything has to go thru the iTunes, which is quite capable but still restricted: how to transfer a PDF file over? Or simple TEXT snippet? Not with the sophisticated, moon landing capable iPod.

In short, I would say it is not so much as a PIM tool or even classify as PDA – it was positioned by Apple as the “funnest” iPod, which I assumed more on the gaming and recreation department.

Will I buy the iPhone when it is available in this part of the planet? Yes. Because Android will not be ready in a few years time – which I am still putting my money there.

I am bringing the iPod touch out more these days instead of the Eee, as it has a small terminal software for me to do some quick fixes on servers. However, it was a pain to “type” on it. I wanted to jailbreak it, but the new generation iPod touch (firmware version 2.2) seems to have no jailbreak available – yet.

How easy to use an iPod touch? I gave it to my 5 years old daughter, she master it in minutes. Then I gave it to my 3 years old son, he master it in minutes too.

There is no training required – which I think Apple has done some magic there.

We’ve been to Kota Kinabalu for a brief family trip. As usual, the kids get all the fun, with other kids instead of site seeing.

One thing that impressed me, I’ve got full GSM coverage to everywhere I’ve been to, good 3G coverage in town, and Wifi internet access in our resort in the middle of no where. This is not something I can enjoy even in PJ.

Here is the link to the some photos.