News: Amazing Stuff From Last Week -- Part 2

Gingerbread, Ice Cream Sandwich, Jelly Bean and Honeycomb
Image from Slashgear

Here comes part 2 of the news,

Google is always about fun, including naming their Android versions, and at the biggest Google developers' event of the year -- the Google I/O 2012, they put up the new Android stuffed with jelly beans in their Googleplex, and so yes, they named their Android 4.1 as Jelly Bean.

(front to back) Jelly Bean, Éclair, (left to right) Cupcake, Froyo, Gingerbread
Image from Slashgear

Developers are all excited about this update, and so are the mobile manufacturers as we will be seeing newer and better Android phones pretty soon!

Image from CNet

Zynga should be a name quite familiar to the Hong Kong gamers, what might be less familar is the virtual sex, yes, virtual sex, that is allowed in their new game The Ville! Mummies and daddies won't be too happy with this, but that is much safer than actual sex, if you think of it this way, there are viruses, but just computer ones.

Image from BBC News

The last of the kind, Lonesome George the giant Galapagos tortoise, died on the 24th June 2012, and that of course, means another great specie has extinct. Scientists says this specie can live up to 200 years, and Lonesome George is only half of that age. Who said loneliness cannot kill? But why has it become the last of his kind? Humans.

So long, farewell to Charles Darwin's inspiration of his theories on evolution.

Image from The Raw Story

Noam Chomsky is a name everyone must know and should know in the English language studies and the linguistics department. What some might not know about him, is that he is also aware of how to play Lemmings, a 1991 video game.

Image from Wikipedia

In The Julian Assange Show, He said that "even a seemingly less complex issue like climate change makes him believe that humanity is, increasingly, “like lemmings going over the cliff.”" In the game, if you don't take care of the lemmings, they will mindlessly fall off the cliff one after another until they all die out.

Here's a real videos of real lemmings jumping off the cliff, blindly getting killed.

Is humanity really going this way? You may want to read more from The Raw Story.

Image from Getty Images

Lastly, David Beckham was disappointed for not being selected in the Olympic soccer team despite having done so much for the country. He was heartbroken as he publicly told the media, and so were his fans. Olympic team manager Stuart Pearce simply claimed that his decision on not selecting Beckham was because he's a football man, and he picks solely on football ability. That means, Beckham is no longer having the football ability needed to compete in the game. 


How will the Beckham fans + sponsors think? 


Knowing that he made a huge huge HUGE mistake, Pearce made some sort of save-his-own-ass act by announcing that Beckham may be offered a place on the "standby-list". What that means is if and only if, Giggs, Bellamy or Richards is injured, then Beckham will be able to join the 18-man squad. Thank you so much!


I think Pearce should learn something from this whole incidence, and that is, even if you have picked your best, your team is most likely not going to win the champion anyway, so after Beckham has done so much promotion for his country, he damn right deserves a place in the main squad! Not on the standby-list! The Olympic games is not about winning, it is about passion for the sports and sportsmanship! David Beckham deserves this more than anyone else on the list!





Vocabulary:
Éclair -- (n)(French) an oblong pastry made with choux dough filled with a cream and topped with icing.
virtual sex -- (n)[U] a sexual act where two or more people gather together via some form of communications equipment to arouse each other by transmitting sexually explicit messages.
lemmings -- (n) are small rodents, usually found in or near the Arctic
humanity -- (n) [U] people in general



Resources:
News: Amazing Stuff From Last Week -- Part 1 @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.hk/2012/07/news-amazing-stuff-from-last-week-part-1.html

Android Jelly Bean statue appears at Googleplex [UPDATE] @ SlashGear
http://www.slashgear.com/android-jelly-bean-statue-appears-at-googleplex-26235738/

New Zynga game The Ville allows virtual sex @ CNet
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57460546-93/new-zynga-game-the-ville-allows-virtual-sex/

Giant tortoise Lonesome George to be embalmed @ BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-18604682

Noam Chomsky tells Julian Assange: Humanity ‘like lemmings going over the cliff’ @ The Raw Story
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/06/26/noam-chomsky-tells-julian-assange-humanity-like-lemmings-going-over-the-cliff/

Noam Chomsky @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noam_Chomsky

The Julian Assange Show: Noam Chomsky & Tariq Ali (E10) @ YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iJjtEMamjc

The Disturbing Truth About Lemmings @ Zactopia
http://zactopia.wordpress.com/2010/01/21/the-disturbing-truth-about-lemmings/

David Beckham may be offered place on standby list after Stuart Pearce snubs him for Olympics @ The Independent
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/olympics/david-beckham-may-be-offered-place-on-standby-list-after-stuart-pearce-snubs-him-for-olympics-7904422.html

Éclair @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89clair_(pastry)

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/humanity_2

News: Amazing Stuff From Last Week -- Part 1

Sorry once again for missing out last Friday's entry, that was due to the final final quiz I have for my Master's degree, now I'm finally done with it, so I can be back more regularly, or ever so often. In this entry, I have something really really amazing to show you!

In my last entry, Technology: Turning your Galaxy S2 to Galaxy S2.5!!!,  I have recommended Flipboard, and Flipboard is such an amazing app that it redefines all that two-finger pinching gesture we all use to magnify the content on our smartphones. The pinching gesture are incredible, but too much can be a pain, and Flipboard allows us to read many webpages in an ebook "standard layout", saving us much of the troubles.

And because reading through Flipboard is so interesting, it allows readers to read more (skipping those you don't like and focusing on those you do like)!

This is one truly revolutionary piece of news by TechCrunch for computer hardware lovers -- Fanless Heatsink!!!

I assemble my own PC and therefore, maintain it by myself. Every time I remove the computer case I will have a hell of a time removing the fan and the heat sink to then vacuum the parts. With this fanless and dustless heatsink, I will be free from all that labour work! I wonder when I will be able to get my hands on it!

The next one is some sort of amazing words from an amazing person! GeekWire interviewed Gates to talk about the use of tablets (of course, mainly referring to the iPads) in the classroom, and Gates had no reservation saying that tablets in the classroom won’t work without keyboard! That was like an "Oops, Steve, sorry, your fantasy doesn't work in the classroom!"

The last one is just as amazing, but in an artistic way! Japanese artist Nagai Hideyuki shows us his touch of genius!

It is not something we can practise our English with, but how can our English Playground misses it? Here's more!

Image from Colossal

Image from Colossal

Image from Colossal

Image from Colossal

Image from Colossal

Image from Colossal

Image from Colossal

Actually, this is nothing really new, it is a kind of art known as Optical Illusion Art, but we will never get enough of it, right? So here's more!

Image from Sevenstring

Image from fugly

Image from Cool Fun Pics

Image from CrystalXP

More to come in the entry tomorrow!!


Vocabulary:
assemble -- (vb) [T] to make something by joining separate parts
Optical Illusion Art -- (n) please read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_illusion

Resources:
Technology: Turning your Galaxy S2 to Galaxy S2.5!!! @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.hk/2012/06/technology-turning-your-galaxy-s2-to.html

Sandia Cooler @ YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWQZNXEKkaU&feature=youtube_gdata_player

This Fanless Heatsink Is The Next Generation In CPU Cooling @ TechCrunch
http://techcrunch.com/2012/06/26/this-fanless-heatsink-is-the-next-generation-in-cpu-cooling/

Gates: Tablets in the classroom won’t work without keyboard @ GeekWire
http://www.geekwire.com/2012/gates-tablets-classroom-work-keyboard/

3D Illusion Sketchbook Drawings by Nagai Hideyuki @ Colossal
http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2012/06/3d-illusion-sketchbook-drawings-by-nagai-hideyuki/

見ると触ってみたくなる立体的トリックアート @ YouTube
http://youtu.be/CsB6mzZLNUU

Optical Illusion @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_illusion

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/assemble_2

Technology: Turning your Galaxy S2 to Galaxy S2.5!!!

Image from Samsung
Modified by Locky's English Playground

I want a Galaxy S3, but my finance doesn't agree (since I'm planning to use the money to buy a camera flash), so I want to at least have some functions of the Galaxy S3. I started sourcing for apps and tutorials, and yes I found them, but they are distributed everywhere on XDA-developers forums, so I decide to compile them and write a tutorial of my own. You can find my article on the XDA-developers forum by pressing this link, but I would recommend you read this one, because this one looks prettier.


This is a quick tutorial to help S2 users (or other Android phone owners) to achieve a level of functionality close to that of S3, including Touchwiz, Flipboard, Smart Stay, Popup Play, Best Photo, Smart Alert, Direct Call and hopefully more to update in the future. Credits go to all the developers mentioned.




Ripple Live Wallpaper

Image from Samsung

Still waiting for the S3 lockscreen to be ported onto S2, but we can still get a little fun out of the live wallpaper. There are so many versions out there, but I am so far most impressed with this Galaxy S3 Water Dandelion LWP.

APK is one provided by XDA member pratikverma28 and it comes with editable waves.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1750988

I don't like the quality of the stock wallpaper, so I advise you use your own ones.

By far the best setting I have is as follow:

Quality: High
Refraction quality: Middle
Cycles: 3
Wave weight: 400
Spreading speed: Medium
Fade range: 100
Refractive: 20
Random creation: None


TouchWizUX

Image from Locky's English Playground

Image from Locky's English Playground

Thanks to XDA Senior Member Smando who keeps working on better versions. The latest beta version provide landscape view. However, you need your phone to be rooted in order to install this launcher.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1666384

Flipboard

Image from Google Play

Image from Google Play

Want to turn any web pages, Facebook and Twitter into a magazine? Then you must download Flipboard!!
Simply download it from Google Play!
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=flipboard.app

Smart Stay

Image from Samsung

XDA Senior member elnoxvie Beta Smart Stay App has made Smart stay possible! Simply download the file and install it to your phone! 
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1708012
(Interestingly, I just realised that the phone on the right is not S3!!!)


Popup Play

Image from Samsung

Actually, this is way better than the Samsung one! You should watch the video on Google Play. Simply download Super Video, Floating & Popup from Google Play
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...net.PopupVideo

Best Photo

Image from Samsung

Well, not exactly Best Photo, but at least, we can achieve fast burst shots of up to 50 photos per second on my Galaxy S2!!!! (Mind you, the resolution is not exactly very high, but good enough to capture fast moving people!)


XDA Senior member androidindian's production Fast Burst Camera
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1709506

__________________________________________

The following requires rooted phones to proceed.


S Voice

Image from Samsung

Thanks to XDA-developers junior member Xavaris' information, you can now download the CWM Flashable for Galaxy S2 zip here:
http://wanamlite.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=28

__________________________________________

The following functions require Tasker to imitate.


You can download the beta version of Tasker here:
http://tasker.dinglisch.net/beta.html

Smart Alert

Image from Samsung

Choose the type of alert profiles that fits your needs from the link below:
http://tasker.wikidot.com/misnotrem

Direct Call

Image from Samsung

If you want to implement Direct Call on SMS, Naver LINE andWhatsapp, you'll need Tasker.




For my Tasker Profiles, please download from below:

Image from LINE

Call-LINE (Shake Phone Left-Right Gesture)

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/48481471/Tas...l-LINE.prf.xml

Image from Whatsapp

Call-Whatsapp (Pick Up Phone Gesture)
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/48481471/Tas...tsapp1.prf.xml


For the tutorial to set up Direct Call with Whatsapp, please see Chef_Tony's:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1715549


For people who would like to try setting everything by themselves:


Task Edit for Whatsapp, use this,

For Task Edit for Naver LINE, use this I have created, 

(Points to note is that your gesture has to be performed slowly during actual use, and the speed of automation is really slow. If you are tired of the slow reaction and the retrying, I highly recommend you not set the Sensor as Gesture, choose Shake instead.)




More updates on this thread if the development continues.


And I can really officially call myself a developer now after developing those Tasker profiles, although they are actually very simple.

Want More???

Resources:
Photography & Science: Flash and Which Flash? @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.hk/2012/06/photography-science-flash-and-which.html

[TUTORIAL][S3 Imitation] Turning your GS2 to GS2.5 @ XDA-developers
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=27828899#post27828899

S3 Dandelion LWP with Settings @ XDA-developers
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1750988

TouchWizUX @ XDA-developers
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1666384

Flipboard @ Google Play!
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=flipboard.app

Smart Stay Imitation / Beta Smart Stay App
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1708012

Popup Play Imitation /  Super Video, Floating & Popup @ Google Play
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...net.PopupVideo


Burst Shots Imitation / Fast Burst Camera
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1709506

S Voice:
http://wanamlite.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=28

Tasker Beta
http://tasker.dinglisch.net/beta.html

Smart Alert Imitation
http://tasker.wikidot.com/misnotrem


Tasker
http://tasker.dinglisch.net/beta.html


My Tasker Profiles:
Call-LINE (Shake Phone Left-Right Gesture)
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/48481471/Tas...l-LINE.prf.xml

Call-Whatsapp (Pick Up Phone Gesture)
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/48481471/Tas...tsapp1.prf.xml


Tutorial to set up Direct Call with Whatsapp @ XDA-developers
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1715549

How to use Tasker on Android @ YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBeEEuT-Lrw

Super Video, Floating! 超級影音, 漂浮! @ YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cenFDf72aI

Food: Cuts of Pork, Beef & Lamb

My apology for missing out the Friday entry, I was really too busy to complete it.

My apology to all vegetarians in this entry, but this is an essential part of English and I highly recommend anyone to at least learn a few of the following terms in order to communicate well with English speakers, and of course, place good orders in restaurants.


In fact, words like "cow", "sheep" and "swine" came from the English speaking farmers, and the a la carte version such as "beef", "mutton" and "pork" came from the French back in the years of 1300. So you must thank the French for what you are going to learn here.

Interestingly (or sadly) enough, the cuts of the livestocks are not universal, so different countries will use different cuts, and I suppose it has a lot to do with food culture, that is the preferences of the people from different countries. Through looking at the cuts, you can more or less understand which part of the meat a particular culture has the most emphasis on.

American Cuts of Pork
Image from Wikipedia

British Cuts of Pork
Image from Wikipedia

Basically, American cuts doesn't have terms like "belly" and "trotters".

Can you tell what kind of cuts the following image uses?

Image from The Cultured Pig

Things get really complicated when you get to beef,

Brazilian Cuts
Image from Wikipedia

British Cuts
Image from Wikipedia

American Cuts
Image from Wikipedia

Dutch Cuts
Image from Wikipedia

Comparing all the beef cuts, you can see that the Brazilians have the most emphasis on the hind legs, the British come second in this aspect; the Americans and the Dutch simply take it as a whole.  All cuts except the British, have singled out the tenderloin and the regions around it, but the British are definitely not without demand on the forequarter. 

Overall, the Brazilians are the most detailed about beef cuts with 20 cuts, the British come second with 14 cuts, the Americans third with 13 cuts, and the Dutch 12 cuts including the tongue. Seems like only the Dutch understands the amazing texture of the ox tongue.

Another exercise for you, can you tell what cut is used in the image below?

+


Lastly, we will look at the lamb cuts.

Cuts of lamb in the wholesale level is called "primal cuts", at the retail level, it will be subdivided.

British Cuts of Lamb
Image from Wikipedia

Image from American Lamb Board

Australian Cuts
Image from mla

Maybe due to the size of a lamb, it seems to me that there are much less variations in the lamb cuts. The Aussies have 9 primal cuts, the British has 8, and the Americans 5. Then again, when retail cuts are involved, there could be many.

So when you do get to visit a country, knowing their cuts might just get yourself a better dish!


A final note here. In general, whenever you see the word "Prime", it usually means this is of top quality. For example, only 2.9% of the U.S. beef is graded as Prime according to Wikipedia's reference. However, you will never know when the use of the word "Prime" is appropriate enough, so just take it as a reference, and don't get too serious about it.

Don't forget those Crabs and Fish we have talked about previously!!!
http://lockyep.blogspot.hk/2012/04/food-more-x2-fishhong-kong-wet-market.html
http://lockyep.blogspot.hk/2009/08/food-serious-crab-time.html
http://lockyep.blogspot.hk/2009/08/food-groupershong-kong-wet-market.html


Vocabulary:
swine -- (n)[C] (plural swine or swines) old-fashioned a person who you consider to be extremely unpleasant and unkind
a la carte -- (adj, adv) [before noun] If you eat à la carte, you choose each dish from a separate list instead of eating a fixed combination of dishes at a fixed price
emphasis -- (n)  [C or U] (plural emphases) the particular importance or attention that you give to something


Resources:

The Norman Conquest - The History of English (2/10) @ YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1B8TwBrCIEY

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

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

Lamb and Mutton @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamb_and_mutton

Lamb Primal Cuts: Leg, Loin, Rib, Breast & More @ About.com
http://culinaryarts.about.com/od/beefporkothermeats/ss/cutsoflamb.htm


Food: More x2 Fish@Hong Kong Wet Market @ Locky's English Playground

http://lockyep.blogspot.hk/2012/04/food-more-x2-fishhong-kong-wet-market.html

Food: Serious Crab Time!!!! @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.hk/2009/08/food-serious-crab-time.html

Food: Groupers@Hong Kong Wet Market @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.hk/2009/08/food-groupershong-kong-wet-market.html


http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/swine_1?q=swine
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/a-la-carte?q=a+la+carte
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/emphasis?q=emphasis

Photography & Science: Flash and Which Flash?

Xenon in a tube
Image from Wikipedia

Here, my friend Alan predicted on the day that I bought my Canon EOS 7D with my first L lens and the day that I bought my Tokina wide-angle lens that I will one day want to get a flash. I said "no" the first time, "maybe but not any time soon" on the second, but I must say "yes, I am getting one" this time. And that reminds me I still owe him a buffet for getting me much cheaper photography gears.

But buying anything to do with photography is not just about having the money, but also about understanding yourself. Why do you need it? Will you be upgrading in the future? If you are, should you get something less good? How do you get the best within your budget? And what is the "best" anyway?

To answer all these questions, you may first need to understand some basics, starting from the science.




How Does A Flash Work?

Discovery Channel has the best science knowledge possible available. Watch the video below to understand how a flash works.

Xenon, by the way, has an atomic number 54 and it is a colourless, heavy, odorless noble gas.

After you have understood the science, then you will understand why a flash is so costly, which helps you in evaluating the cost of a flash. 


Then you will need to understand what is master flash and slave flash.




What Is A Master Flash And A Slave Flash

Canon 580ex II master, Canon 430EX slave, Hotshoe to mini-phone for master, 2 RF triggers
Image from pointsinfocus

From the Discovery Channel page,

Master and slave are terms used by professional photographers to describe the process of setting up multiple flashes throughout a space in order to achieve a better lighting effect. The master flash can be set off by the camera's shutter. The other "slave" flashes are triggered in turn by the master. Some slave flash designs use the master's light itself as a trigger cue to light their own flashes.

What is basically means is, master flash is the flash you can control, like the pop-up flash, and slave flash is the one that needs to be controlled or triggered by your master flash. Master flash will flash faster, and the slave flash will flash later.

Some flashes can be both master and slave, like Canon 600 EX-RT or 580 EX II, but some can only be slave, like Canon 480EX II, then of course, the price difference is huge. Which one do you need? The best way is to watch a lot of reviews on YouTube.

MichaelTheMentor has some very good videos, and here's one,

You will also need to learn the types of flash metering.

What Is TTL, ETTL and ETTL2?

What Can A Flash Do Anyway?

To understand why you need a flash and some basics of working with flashes, I recommend you watch the following video for beginners, mind you, he speaks quite fast and it is 1 hour 50 mins lecture, but this video is the best.

Do I Need A Flash In Bright Daylight?

Well, in some cases, yeah. In the last video, you can see how to blur the background while using a flash to keep the subject lightened up. This photographer's English is very simple and slow, so it is really easy to understand.

I'll update when I have finally got my equipment. For now, I need that black-&white umbrella from the lecture, a flash-umbrella stand and a flash.


Vocabulary:
Bang for the buck -- more bang for your buck(s) informal the best result for the smallest effort


Resources:
Xenon @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenon

How Stuff Works @ Discovery Channel
http://curiosity.discovery.com/question/master-and-slave-in-photography

MichaelTheMentor @ YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/user/MichaelTheMentor?feature=watch

Canon 600EX-RT vs 580EXII | Is it worth the cost? | Tutorial Training Video @ YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2w1Xq69kLY

TTL vs ETTL | Canon 580EXii / 430 EXii Speedlite DVD @  YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqpRQJhCHBo

http://www.goldfries.com/photography/canon-speedlite-580ex-ii-and-430ex-ii-review/

Controlling the Light: Beginners Guide to Off-Camera Lighting and Control @ YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5v7ejTAIlA

Strobist Photography: Part 4 - Midday strobist portrait at F1.4 @ YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_MLQf9Tk54&feature=relmfu

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/more-bang-for-your-buck-s#more-bang-for-your-buck-s__1