Travelling & Living: First Time To Apliu Street

You must be laughing when you saw the title of this entry. Yes, it is my first time to Apliu Street, but everyone has his first time, even if it is a place not so difficult to get to.

Years I have heard of this place, never had I found the urge to pay a visit, until recently I began to search for  a Geiger metre online just to discover the unbelievably ridiculous price tags people set on ebay, I decided to give Apliu Street a go, since it is famous for all sorts of ridiculously rare-slash-cheap devices. (As to why I wanted to get a Geiger metre, please read the previous entries on Medical & News: What Causes Cancer? -- Part 1 & Medical & News: What Causes Cancer? -- Part 2)

Back to Apliu Street, I created a photography day on Facebook and invited a few guys to join. And to me, it was an amazing little trip. I give you -- 14 Wonders of Apliu Street!

14 Wonders of Apliu Street

First, I have never seen so many saws and power drills laid out on the ground.

Saws and power drills

Second, I had never seen a roadside store that will display the products as messy as the photo below.

Messy display of products

Third, I had no idea that Apliu Street sells fishing rod, since it is nowhere near the sea (except the sea water in the public toilet)

Fishing rods for sale

Fourth, even laboratory tech equipments such as oscilloscopes can be found acting as table legs.

Oscilloscopes on the floor acting as table legs.

Fifth, poorly-kept old vinyl records are sold regardless of weather.

Old Vinyl Records

Sixth, expensive LED bulbs and stripes are sold, forcing me to revert to shopping LEDs on Taobao.

expensive LED stripes are sold 

Seventh, useless remote controls actually has a value!!!! I will remember to sell mine next time.

Old remote controls for all devices

Eighth, look up and you'll see the unique old Hong Kong architecture -- Tong Lau.

Round-corner Tong Lau

Nineth, clean pans and woks that no one would buy are sold.

Woks and pans carefully spaced out

Tenth, dusty tripods that I wouldn't touch are displayed.

Tripods and more tripods

Eleventh, I was surprised to see someone actually collects circuit boards in order to find the right part to fix faulty VHS/CD players.

Circuit boards (broken or whole)

Twelveth, I can definitely buy super magnets here if I need to! I tried to pull out one of them out from the stack, I couldn't!!!!!! $6 a piece.

Super strong magnets

Thirteenth, Yashica twin-lens reflex (TLR) camera, Rollei Mercury II, Voigtländer COMPUR folding camera can be found there!!!!

Yashica Twin-lens reflex camera!!!! Made in Hong Kong

Rollei Mercury II (made in 1945) Half-frame 35mm non-rangefinder

Voigtländer COMPUR folding camera

Fourteenth, lots of people needed help on filling tax forms???

Tax, tax, tax!!!!!

You see, walking around Apliu Street can also be beneficial! I learn a lot of terms, what about you?

Vocabulary:

oscilloscope

vinyl record

Tong Lau

twin-lens reflex camera (TLR)

folding camera

Resources:

Medical & News: What Causes Cancer? -- Part 1 @ Locky's English Playground

http://lockyep.blogspot.com/2011/08/medical-news-what-causes-cancer.html

Medical & News: What Causes Cancer? -- Part 2 @ Locky's English Playground

http://lockyep.blogspot.com/2011/08/medical-news-what-causes-cancer-part-2.html

Living: Lamps & LED @ Taobao  @ Locky's English Playground

http://lockyep.blogspot.com/2011/09/living-lamps-led-taobao.html

Oscilloscope @ Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscilloscope

Vinyl Record @ Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinyl_record

Tong Lau @ Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tong_Lau

Twin-lens reflex camera  @ Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twin-lens_reflex_camera

Folding Camera  @ Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camera#Folding_camera

Ollinger's Camera Collection 

http://www.jollinger.com/photo/cam-coll/cameras/35mm_nonslr/12901_MercuryII.html

Technology: Windows 8 Developer Preview

Hi guys, instead of writing one single entry today, I have found a few things that really interest me and will split that into several entries. First of all,  as most of us know that Windows 8 Developer Preview version is out! And anyone can download it, have fun with it FOR FREE!!!!! (Actually, the same thing happened before Windows 7 was officially released.)

First, Windows 8 has a reputation of 8 seconds boot-up time (with the right hardware of course) which is said to be 50% faster than Windows 7.

Image from zdnet.co.uk

Second, it promises a totally new desktop interface allowing users to view their PC like a mobile phone, third, just in case you don't like the new interface, you still get the Windows 7 traditional desktop, and fourth, Windows 8 is totally finger-touch-friendly so very soon, we will be able to use PC monitors/ laptops/ netbooks like an iPod.

To try Windows 8 out, you are suggested to use virtualisation softwares such as VirtualBox (which is  free, multi-platform (Windows, Linux, Mac, and Solarus) ) or VMware's Workstation 8 (not free, but has 30-day free trial) instead of directly installing the Windows 8 on your hard disk. If you are a Mac user who got bored by Apple and would like to try out Windows 8, you also have Parallel Desktop 7 (free 14-day trial),  or VMware Fusion 4 (free 30-day trial).'

I'll be trying that on my removable hard disk to be safe! Update you when I have done so!

Resources:
Windows Developer Preview downloads @ Microsoft
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/br229516\\

Watch Windows 8 boot in eight seconds, thanks to kernel hibernation@ This Is My Next.com
http://thisismynext.com/2011/09/08/windows-8-fast-boot-hibernate-resume/

Windows 8 @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_8

VirtualBox Official website
http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

VMWare Workstation 8 @ VMware
https://www.vmware.com/tryvmware/?p=vmware-workstation8&lp=1

Windows 8 Playlist @ Locky's English Playground
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5F019CE34A67F55D

Parallel official website
http://www.parallels.com/upgradepd7/

VMware official website
https://www.vmware.com/tryvmware/index.php

Photography: Canon's new Powershot S100 is out!

Image from ZDnet

Hi guys! Look what's out! The once-on-my-shopping-list-S90-or-S95-successor is out! What's new? Watch the video below!

That was rather boring wasn't it? Well, official videos are always boring to watch, but the guy speaks pretty clear English, so not bad as a listening practice.

Then of course, you can also read the article from ZDNet, which is less tedious.

Or you can just look at the comparison below.

Model	Release date	Sensor resolution,  size,  type	Lens (35 mm equiv) zoom,aperture	Image processor	LCD screen size, pixels	Card	Size W×H×D (mm)	Weight (body, g)	Notes
Prosumer
S90	Sep  2009	10.0 MP 3648×2736 1/1.7" CCD	28–105 mm (3.8×) f/2.0–4.9	DIGIC 4	3.0" 461,000	SD,  SDHC,  MMC,  MMC+,   HC MMC+	100.0 ×  58.4 ×  30.9	175	New High Sensitivity System and higher ISO speeds, f/2.0 lens, image stabilization. HD movie feature removed.[11] Bears similarity to earlierPowershot SD series models[10]
S95	Aug 2010						99.8 ×  58.4 ×  29.5	170	Hybrid IS, 720p HD video.[12]
S100	Sep 2011	12.1 MP 4000x3000 1/1.7" CMOS	24–120 mm (5×) f/2.0–5.9	DIGIC 5		SD,  SDHC,  SDXC,  Eye-Fi	98.9 ×  59.8 ×  26.7	173	GPS, 1080p HD video.[13] Not to be confused with the older S100, the first Digital IXUS/ELPH camera.

Source from Wikipedia

Am I going to buy this? Nope! But if S100 is using DIGIC 5, and if DIGIC 5 is good, the upcoming EOS 8D or 7D Mk II might be using the new processor. As to the performance? Well, we'll see.



Vocabulary:
tedious -- (adj) boring

Resources:
Power for passionate photographers - the Canon PowerShot S100 and PowerShot SX40 HS @ YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbWKtpCwRE4

Canon PowerShot S100: Successor to popular S95 adds GPS, 5x zoom @ ZDNet
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/digitalcameras/canon-powershot-s100-successor-to-popular-s95-adds-gps-5x-zoom/5286

Canon Powershot S series
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_PowerShot_S#Compact_S_series

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/tedious?q=tedious

Living: Lamps & LED @ Taobao

LED light bulbs arrived @ Locky's home

Unpacked from box 

Have been busying with all sorts of work, so I missed one entry yesterday. To make it up, here's a good recommendation for all of you who are interested in switching to LED lights.

First of all, we have to learn something about light bulbs. The old, cost-ineffective, energy-inefficient, un-ecofriendly ones we used in the old days are called incandescent light bulbs, commonly known to have tungsten as the filament and halogen gas (iodine or bromine) as the gas filling.

Compact fluorescent lamp
Image from Wikipedia

Fluorescent tube with "beat effect"
Image from Wikipedia

As time goes by, more and more people have switched to fluorescent lamps and compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs)  (around 15% luminous efficiency), which is more energy saving than the incandescent light bulbs (around 3% luminous efficiency), but the mercury gas that is used inside the CFLs are dangerous if handled wrongly, and it promotes the use of mercury with every lamp you buy, plus, CFLs create "beat effect" which makes the light appear to be like water waves or ripples. After considering these points, I decided that I would not do any more damage to the environment. The only solution? Light-emitting diodes (LEDs)!!!!

The luminous efficiency of LEDs is roughly 10%- 12%, which is lower than the CFLs, so generally, more light bulbs are needed, and for people in Hong Kong, with each LED light bulbs selling at $170 each, more light bulbs mean much more money! But I have a source!

Taobao has given me a great chance to scoop great LEDs at low price this time round! And the LED provider Natsen has an organised factory and offers wide range of LED products, so after checking its website, I decided to go for the products!

On average, each LED light bulb costs around HK$30 including the delivery cost, which is only slightly more expensive than the local Philips CFLs, the products arrived safely packed and all are in good working conditions.

LEDs installed @ Locky's home

I have included 3 links here and below for your reference:
http://item.tmall.com/item.htm?id=12515840278&prc=2
http://item.tmall.com/item.htm?id=12270500159&prc=1
http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=12403942359


Here are some tips for you before you buy:

1. LEDs are said to have a lifespan of 50,000 hours (5.7 years), 50 times longer than CFLs, so don't buy too many spare ones.
2. E27 (Edison) screw is more common for LEDs and there are more choices of LEDs with E27 than E14
3. E14 is smaller in size and is mainly candlelight shape, thus it is not my consideration
4. Do NOT get the light bulbs with the wrong screw!!!
5. The LED light bulb's bright part is not too hot even when it has been switched on for a long time, but the lower part (the heat sink) can be very hot! Be careful!
6. For more advantages and disadvantages of LEDs, please click on the link.

Do let me know if you have decided to try them out!


Vocabulary:
fluorescent lamps
compact fluorescent lamps (CLFs)

beat effect 
Light-emitting diode (LED)
Edison screw


Resources:
Living: Taobao-ing @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.com/2011/08/living-taobao-ing.html

Incandescent Light Bulb @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incandescent_light_bulb

Fluorescent Lamp @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluorescent_lamp

Compact Fluorescent Lamp @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_fluorescent_lamp

Halogen @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halogen

Light Efficiency @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luminous_efficacy#Lighting_efficiency

Light-emitting diode @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light-emitting_diode

Natsen Official website
http://www.natsen.com/

Natsen LED Items @ Taobao
http://item.tmall.com/item.htm?id=12515840278&prc=2
http://item.tmall.com/item.htm?id=12270500159&prc=1
http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=12403942359

Edison Screw @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E27_screw

Heat Sink @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_sink

LED Advantages @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Led#Advantages

Message: Happy Mid-Autumn Festival 2011!

Locky's English Playground wishes everyone a very happy Mid-Autumn Festival!

Image from touchaholics

And like every year (well, actually 2009 and 2010), let's not forget you can learn some English terms on this festive day!

http://lockyep.blogspot.com/2009/10/message-happy-mid-autumn-festival.html


Resources:
Message: Happy Mid-Autumn Festival 2009!!! @ Locky's English Playground

http://lockyep.blogspot.com/2009/10/message-happy-mid-autumn-festival.html

Food, Dining & TV: Sushi, Sashimi & Monsters Inside Me

Salmon
Iamge from Wikipedia

To be honest, I really like the rhyme in the title.

Okay, who likes sushi? Sashimi?

Has anyone of your heard that eating sushi or sashimi can give you worms and maggots in the brain? Well, maggots in brain is confirmed fake! Parasite fly larvae causing myiasis, or human cerebral myiasis was the truth.

But what about worms?

So infected sushi can give you worms in the guts, how about worms in the brain? Well, then you will have to eat undercooked pork. Here's the full video for both parasites:

And this is no joke!!!

So next time you eat raw fish, look before you eat! Or you will have monsters inside you.

What is really intriguing for me is that the videos really showed Anisakis worms getting energised by the lemon juice! So those people who claims that the high acidity in the lemon juice can kill the worms, they are wrong! Lemon juice may be as acidic as pH 2.3 (lemon juice was used in the test because it is similar to the pH of the gastric juice in the stomach, pH 1 to 2), but it is not enough to kill any Anisakids. I wonder how wasabi might affect them? One point to note is that, if you follow the flow of the video, this worm is more fierce when it is dead, then you might be thinking, it makes no difference for the worm to be dead before it gets into your body or after it has got into your body. In fact, there is a big difference, because if the worm is alive when it gets into your body, it will pass the stomach and reach the intestines when it triggers an immune reaction causing the bile obstruction. However, if the worm is already dead before it gets inside the body, then it should be digested in the stomach and will not reach the intestine as a living worm. So it is still safer to eat cooked or frozen seafood, that includes fish and shellfish. Let's not forget, the Anisakids first live in the crabs, shrimps and lobsters  (the crustaceans) before getting inside the fish.

Have a happy meal!


Vocabulary:
Anisakis -- see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anisakis
energised -- (adj) to make someone feel energetic or eager
parasite -- (n)[C] An organism that lives in or on another organism (its host) and benefits by deriving nutrients at the host's expense
gastric juice -- (n) [U] a digestive fluid, formed in the stomach. It has a pH of 1 to 2 and is composed of hydrochloric acid (HCl) (around 0.5%, or 5000 parts per million), and large quantities ofpotassium chloride (KCl) and sodium chloride (NaCl). The acid plays a key role in digestion of proteins, by activating digestive enzymes, and making ingested proteins unravel so that digestive enzymes can break down the long chains of amino acids.


Resources:
Maggots Brain @ Snopes
http://www.snopes.com/photos/medical/maggots.asp

Myiasis @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myiasis

Anisakis @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anisakis

Medical & TV: Scabies, Monsters Inside Me & solutions -- Part 1 @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.com/2011/08/medical-tv-scabies-monsters-inside-me.html

Monsters Inside Me 2  @ Locky's English Playground YouTube Channel
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2DEE3528F0AE393B

Salmon Worms @ YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG6NW6AjN_A&NR=1

Lemon Juice @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemon_juice

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/energize?q=energize
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastric_juice