SATC rocks!

I like Carrie's and Miranda's outfits!
I enjoyed this scene when Carrie tried on some of her notable dresses - brought back memories!

What was that feather on Carrie's head??? Then I realised in the movie it was a bird. Glad I'm not the only one to think it was a feather though!

I watched Sex and the City with 2 colleagues earlier today. I was initially going to watch it in Singapore but when I heard that Singapore was screening the censored version, I decided to watch it in Australia. Then, I realised the reason for the censorship - Dante!

My verdict? Absolutely loved the movie - it lived up to my expectations and more! It's a funny movie and I was disappointed, though not surprised, that there were so few guys watching the movie at the cinema. And yes, they did look like they were reluctantly dragged to the movie or went cos they were trying to impress a gal.

Out of Carrie, Charlotte, Miranda, and Samantha, I love Miranda's fashion the best! Her clothes, earrings, necklaces. She looked sharp and stylish! I loved most of the songs in the movie too - adding that extra oomph to vital scenes. And although some critics felt the ending was an anti-climax, I understood why it had to be it - so many fans to satisfy!

My main gripe was that all along, I felt Aidan was the right guy, stable, attractive, sporty, one-with-nature, and oh-so-manly, and I would have felt more satisfied if Carrie had ended up with Aidan. So, that crushing scene in one of the series episodes where Aidan was seen carrying a baby, I wished then that he was simply baby-sitting. I know. Me - the delusional one.

Straight after the movie, I wanted to watch the movie again. Yes, that's how much i LOVE the movie. As for the critics? I felt they were just too ready to criticise it and fail to see it for what it's worth, a movie about fashion and relationships. At the end, each gal didn't try and change the other guy. They accepted what they wanted in a relationship, recognised their own shortcomings and decided the type of relationship they wanted. That was quite affirming in terms of what relationships are meant to be - not what we can get from a relationship but what we can offer so that we grow together with our better half to be better persons.

I Love Technology!

I read this article (below) about how a young mum who lost her camera managed to retrieve her photos and interestingly, that of the thieves who stupidly took pictures of themselves with the camera. The special memory card, the Eye-Fi, allowed her to download her photos when the culprits walked past an unsecured network. I love that technology allows you to do that because often, it's the photos we feel sad about losing, not the equipment that is replaceable. Of course, if it's a $10,000 camera, that's quite another story.

And then while watching the news, I saw how technology is incorporated into an American university. While the lecturer teaches and asks questions, the students each has a clicker that they will press with answers of A, B, C or D, and their answers will go towards their final score. That 'forces' students to read up before the lecture and eliminates additional work for lecturers who are inundated with so much marking to do nearly every week! Most lecturers don't just teach one subject. The onus is on the students to work hard and attempt to answer the questions and makes them responsible for their actions.






Lost cameras 'phone home' to catch thieves
June 6, 2008 - 1:02PM

Alison DeLauzon thought the snapshots and home videos of her infant son were gone for good when she lost her digital camera while on vacation in Florida.

Then a funny thing happened: her camera got in touch with her.

Equipped with a special memory card with wireless internet capability, DeLauzon's camera had not only automatically sent her holiday pictures to her computer, but had even uploaded photos of the miscreants who swiped her equipment bag after she accidentally left it behind at a restaurant.

"I opened up the Eye-Fi manager on the computer and, lo and behold, there are the guys that stole our cameras," said DeLauzon, a native of New York. "Not only is it the guy who stole our camera ... but the guy took a picture of (his accomplice) holding our other camera."

DeLauzon received the Eye-Fi, a 2-gigabyte SD memory card that fits into millions of digital cameras, as a holiday gift to go with her Canon camera.

Priced at about $US100, the card automatically uploads pictures to a home computer or online photosharing service as soon as the user is linked to a familiar wireless network.

Luckily, the culprits passed by an unsecured network, whose factory-installed setting matched that of DeLauzon's home system, and the Eye-Fi automatically shipped the photos: first baby pictures, then the snap-happy scoundrels.

Her experience reflects the rise of technology that empowers everyday gadgets to protect themselves or the priceless personal data - from family phone numbers to business budgets - that consumers keep on portable electronics devices.

Cameras are perhaps the most common home-phoning gadget used to thwart criminals.
An eerie case occurred last month, when a Japanese man set up a hidden camera because food was disappearing from his kitchen. While he was out, the camera sent pictures to his mobile phone of the intruder - an unknown woman living secretly in his closet.

A few years ago, there was a well-publicised case of a Sidekick mobile phone that was first lost in a New York taxi, then found by a 16-year-old who used it to take pictures and send instant messages.

But the device's mobile service provider automatically backed up such data on remote computers, allowing the owner's friend, Evan Guttman, to uncover a trail - and launch an online shaming campaign against the 16-year-old, who was eventually arrested.

While passive systems have helped reunite missing gadgets with their owners, more aggressive measures can be employed to protect everything from laptops to iPods and BlackBerrys.

GadgetTrak, sells software that can be loaded onto any of those devices. If a BlackBerry, for example, falls into the wrong hands, the software grabs information from the new user's SIM data card and e-mails it to the rightful owner.

With an Apple Mac computer, the software instructs the built-in camera to take video of the thief and sends to the owner, along information about nearby wireless networks.

Some 20,000 GadgetTrack licenses have been purchased in about one year - including 10,000 from storage company Seagate.

"The reason we have been so successful is that people are not expecting this kind of software to be installed," said Ken Westin, the company's founder. "No security solution is 100 percent - there are always going to be work-arounds. But your average thief is not going to be a computer expert."

DeLauzon didn't want to press charges against the people who had her camera: Both were employees at the restaurant where she dined and accidentally left her photo equipment.
Sure, they were fired - but getting justice was not as important to her as retrieving her memories of her baby boy.

"When we finally got it back, my husband and I spent the night just sitting and watching the videos - stupid videos, like him feeding himself for the first time or him pulling himself up in his crib for the first time. We sat down one night and just relished it."

Reuters

http://www.theage.com.au/news/technology/lost-cameras-phone-home-to-catch-thieves/2008/06/06/1212259068570.html