Interview?

Ha, been catching up on what happened over the past few months in my previous articles, so this is like the first official one where the date actually matches the content....

I was in Descriptive Physics class yesterday when my iPhone buzzed. I did not recognize the number, and told the lady at the other end of the line I wouldn't be available for another hour and a half, she said she'd call me back the next day, which is today.

Today, as I sat in Macroeconomics class, counting the last 15 minutes until dismissal, my iPhone buzzed again. The same unrecognized number, and I guess the same lady as well. She said she'd call me back in 15 minutes.

Out of class, I wondered who in the world is looking for me to have made 2 calls? I'm quite sure I haven't gotten myself into any kind of trouble lately? That's when my iPhone rang again.

Answering, finally able to speak this time (not in the confinement of any class). As it turned out, the nice lady on the other end said she's calling from the MA 儲備幹部 division of Standard Charter Bank, and would like to arrange a telephone interview with me this Friday. 

Of course, I told her yes, and jotted down the time and all. However, while I was finishing the conversation, more than 1 question mark popped up in my head....

Standard Charter? I'm very very sure I did not submit any resume or CV inquiring for a summer internship at all! The only contact I'd ever had with Standard Charter was about 2 month ago, when I took the online assessment test for their global graduate program.

Then, I was told my characteristics and traits did not fit what they are looking for..... and yes, I forgot about the issue completely after that. I completely did not expect this call today, but the only possible explanation is they're calling concerning this MA program, regardless the results on my assessment test.....

in any case, a telephone interview can't hurt, and I plan on finding out more about whatever is going on when she calls again this Friday. This might be a chance, or a scam? who knows.

Apple Frenzy Part III

Been enjoying my jailbroken iPod Touch for a couple of weeks now, the crack is working flawlessly, and the games and added functionality truly makes this the best iPod created ever.

Yes, certainly the best ever.....just a shimmy shy of it's much more potent counterpart - iPhone.

Every time I look at the 'Contacts' application built into iPod touch, I couldn't help but wonder if the Apple developers forgot to remove this function when they separated the iPod function from iPhone to create iPod Touch? Without phone capability, who need the 'Contact' function?

Mr. Mirror have this colleague of his, who's visiting the States to attend some sort of seminar, and he asked the guy to buy 2 iphones, now that iPod touch was successfully cracked, maybe we could do the same with iPhone as well!

In another two days, the iPhone will arrive, and I have no idea what good an iPod touch would be once the iPhone is unlocked..... so, posted a message on PTT, and within the day, some dude contacted me saying he's interested in purchasing this second hand iPod touch from me.

We arranged for the transaction meet at a MRT station near NTU, it went smoothly, and soon I exchanged my iPod Touch for 8,500 cash. If you calculate, that comes to nearly 2,000 for using the iPod for a mere 2 months. But look at it this way, without experimenting the jailbreak process on the iPod Touch, we'd never have dared to purchase the iPhone anyway!

Now, I eagerly awaits the arrival of the iPhone, and pray I could jailbreak it as well. Apple recently released iPhone firmware 1.1.3, and so far the forum's hackers had only successfully jailbroken firmware 1.1.2.....without jailbreak, the iPhone is nothing but a BRICK.

The jailbreak process essentially skips the Activation, and puts installer into the device, allowing third party apps to be added. So, without jailbreak, all the iPhone is good for is display a 'Connect to iTunes' signal on its brilliant screen, nothing more. Not even the iPod or camera functions will be available ~~~ please let the iPhone be an OTB 1.1.2 !!!!!

Apple Frenzy Part II

Setting: National Central University, my cousin's house

Sitting in front of a mac, the living room is wi-fi enabled. The perfect surrounding for jailbreaking the iPod touch. Now, it all boils down to whether or not I'm gonna take the risk to free my iPod touch from all the confines Apple has placed upon it.....

It didn't take long to flash myself the 'green-light', the usual 'who-gives-a-damn' attitude kicked in, and launched myself down the path of jailbreaking.

It's my first time tampering with such complicated a product as an iPod, and I certainly don't want to screw up. Carefully following the onscreen instructions from iPhone 4 Taiwan

1. restored to firmware 1.1.1

2. accessed http://www.jailbreakme.com through safari on iPod touch

3. initiated online jailbreak sequence

4. jailbreak 1.1.1 complete, reboot, installer on screen

5. install Oktoprep via installer

6. 'upgrade' to firmware 1.1.2 via iTunes

7. launch jailbreak 1.1.2.jar on PC

8. Uploading jailbreak files to iPod Touch

9. Finishing jailbreak, installing open SSH, set user root, alpine

10. Reboot

To be honest, following these 10 simple steps seemed very easy, but nonetheless it took me more than 3 hours to get it right. In the end, my iPod touch was successfully jailbroken, and now features up to 30 various applications !!! So much more interesting than the built in functions!!!!!

Apple Frenzy Part I

It's the second day of Model UN conference at NTU, 2007, when the Apple Frenzy official struck me.

Thus far, I have an iPod Photo, my first ever apple product. From recollection, Macintosh used to be the crappy computers with primitive Linux OS..... that was almost 10 years ago. Apple has took on a complete renovation of both its product lines and corporate culture. Embracing stylish yet simple designs, going all the way to produce user-friendly, customer oriented products. Countless innovation went into what made Apple 'Apple' today. 

Anyways, I had been thinking about getting a new iPod. Visiting the Apple reseller on campus, I spent some time fiddling with the 3rd Generation iPod Nano which costs 7000 NT for 8GB of storage when something else caught my eye - the newest of the iPod family, with a thin sleek design and almost the entire surface is occupied by a 3.5 inch screen : iPod Touch.

After deliberating for almost an hour, wondering which to pick for my 20th birthday present, I decided to purchase the iPod Touch for 10,900 NT. It turned out to be absolutely amazing. The multi-touch surface allowed easy manipulation of photos, a built in OSX is able to display stunning graphics for songs and videos and webcasts and more !!!!! It's definitely the best iPod ever, though I must point out Apple is really smart to separate the music function from its iPhone and sell it individually as an iPod in areas where the iPhone isn't available yet.

For the next two weeks or so, carried around my iPod touch wherever I go, loading all my music and video onto the device, enjoying at the same time the content and a sort of 'recognition' from owning such an outstanding product. 

However, the built in functions soon started to bore me. Don't get me wrong, looking at it simply as a music-cum-video player, it is perfect, but since it has a miniature CPU running an OS inside this 'iPod', word has spread that it can install 3rd party apps, provided you hack the system. I know hacking is a risky thing, especially with my brand new iPod that costed 10 grand....sigh....to hack? or not to hack?

A footnote...

Since I'm not planning on purchasing a .Mac account, that basically renders most of the powerful functions of iWeb useless. So I'm looking to combine this blogspot and the photo services of Picasa to sort of make it whole..... anyways, here's the link to my public gallery:

http://picasaweb.google.com/ntufin98

Welcome

I figured Web 2.0 has matured enough, before this I haven't tried to create anything of my own in the virtual world aside from tinkering with the cool applications on facebook. Well, I'd tried to take up keeping a diary again this year, but sometimes one just can't always bring the diary along. So, I am hoping the world wide web is the solution I'd always been looking for....and now that I have a MacBook, this is gonna be awesome!