Journal

7Shadows - Music Is Inspiration.
I must say I'm really impressed with how useful this site is since day one. Playlist.com lets you find, add and play ANY music, for free -- FULL version, not commercial demo crap.
Plus, you get to listen to the same music that chicks from the front page listen to.

http://www.playlist.com

Here's my Playlist:


Feel free to recommend songs.

7Shadows - One Day with Leopard!
After 3 hours of installation, Leopard finally runs on my Macbook Pro. It has been very smooth so far. For those wondering, it doesn't change a thing in your previous Tiger setup.

Before going into details about this page-turning upgrade, I will say that it takes time to truly appreciate all the work put into the smallest features of Leopard. For some, it might even be disappointing because of all the hype behind this product. But I can assure you that Leopard is indeed quite an evolution to its already fantastic predecessor.
As a designer, I know the importance of having a great setup. It affects your productivity in a big way. It affects your influences, your vision of simplicity and it inspires you to do greater things. Leopard is one of those.

As I started with Leopard, I noticed that my setup was almost completely the same -- same background, same desktop items etc. Among the few noticeable things were the dock or the top bar. Most importantly, it felt really smooth. It was much faster and that's a huge deal.

I was instantly prompted to explore the stacks feature because for good reasons, my desktop was cluttered with icons and organization flaws. I also bought a 500 Gigs hard drive so I could use Time Machine. These reasons were enough for me to re-organize my whole collection of files.

Time Machine is one of those applications that a lot will think that it's cool, but not for them. I used to think that way. It took a good 7 hours to setup it up for backing up the first 170 Gigs. I also thought it was a simple backup system. I was wrong. Time Machine offers much more to just anyone. You have works, movies or music that you move all the time, back up to CDs or on different hard drives. With Time Machine, you don't need to do that anymore -- it does everything for you and in the background. You can start deleting all your junks without a worry that something important might have slipped in.
There are 300 features on Leopard, but I haven't tested them all. But so far, here are the top features I've been really enjoying:

Spaces is amazing. I'm using it to separate my email/calendar from music, video viewing and of course work. It's fast and you can use expose to make it even more usable.

RSS feeds right on Mail, how convenient!

Downloads + stacks. Unclutter your Desktop 101.

They reorganized the left menu on Finder. That menu is dragable and custumizable!!

Cover flow + Quick-look movies! Play on the spot.

Previews of movies, pdf etc finally viewable from the thumbnails!

Front Row is really cool. I was especially impressed with the movie trailers updated right to your screen.
A lot of Leopard's features can be truly enjoyed as you really get used to it. Because it's about usability and usefulness. It makes my life so much easier. You will upgrade to leopard because it's cooler, faster, more stable and it will make your life easier and clutter-free.
300+ features listed here: http://www.apple.com/macosx/features

- Meng

7Shadows - Amazing Creations Contest!
nVidia has created a pretty exciting contest!

Amazing Creations ~ 25 October 2007 - 7 January 2008
Artists through the ages have been dreamers and creators of fantastic images but have always been constrained by the medium they work in. Liquid sculptures, fractal growths and knotted freeways, are all examples of amazing things that only exist in virtual reality.

This competition celebrates the very essence of the creativity that defines digital art – the ability to create artistically and technically excellent images of things that are impossible in the real world. Digital artists don’t have any barriers to realizing their wildest ideas. They can build whole virtual worlds and render them in a way that makes them almost tangible and embodied with life.

Prizes:
Over $21,000 (USD) of prizes in total.
1st Prize: 2 x NVIDIA Quadro FX 5500 cards and 1 week ‘all inclusive' holiday valued at $10,000 (USD).
2nd Prize: NVIDIA Quadro FX 5500 and a $500 (USD) American Express Gift Card.
3rd Prize: NVIDIA Quadro FX 3500 and a $500 (USD) American Express Gift Card.


Contest details here

--
I will be entering this contest, so watch out!
-Meng

7Shadows - M-Pro
I'm officially happy with my new setup. Music is pumping and from here on, I'm gonna be in front of a visual-fest, utter sexyness all day long. The photos I took are pretty self-explanatory!

Specs are here! http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/specs.html -- Take the far end, 17-inches madness.

7Shadows - S7.7.7 Launch!
Just yesterday, I was reminded to create a countdown splash for the S7 Public Beta launch. I didn't plan on it. But I decided to do it to give a great memory to everyone. That was my little gift to the community for being patient at me.

So how did you live it? Were you stressed? Were you excited?

A little heads up on what's coming:
The next launch is on 7 August '07.
We will be out of beta finally. A lot of new features and expansion from existing features will be done! Yep, still more to hype!

So, what do you want for S7.8.7? A new bike? A drag-and-drop album organize? A new artwork and countdown from me?

7Shadows - Paint Your Munny!
I came across this gallery of a pretty cool toy that lets you go wild with your creativity. It's basically a cute-looking fella all blank, and you'd have to take it like an art canvas where you'd paint / sculpt it!

24,95$ -- pretty huge toy (perfect for a gift??)
Munnny website

CHECK OUT this gallery!

Post your favorites in the comments!! w/ html < img > code

7Shadows - iPhone = Sexy!
This is just too sexy...
Get your dose of Sexyness! -- June 29th @ 6PM.

Apple keep impressing me with the way they approach design. I think black + white + silver is the perfect combination. Just like S7!

UPDATE -- "iPhone will feature up to 8 hours of talk time, 6 hours of Internet use, 7 hours of video playback or 24 hours of audio playback.* In addition, iPhone will feature up to 250 hours—more than 10 days—of standby time. Apple also announced that the entire top surface of iPhone, including its stunning 3.5-inch display, has been upgraded from plastic to optical-quality glass to achieve a superior level of scratch resistance and optical clarity."

Price and battery info: http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2007/06/18iphone.html

7Shadows - Apple.com Redesign
After using the same glossy header for 7 years (or more?? -- or as far as we remember of Apple.com website), they redesigned the header and a bunch of pages with a more straightforward and cleaner look.

The whole site use more of AJAX and every page is a little louder and adaptable to the content since the header itself is adaptable! Much like S7! Alot of websites are transitioning to use .PNGs since now most browsers support it and IE has finally grown to 7! Apple and S7 are no exception!

Anyways, what do you think?

http://www.apple.com

7Shadows - LOL@Apple
This is by far the funniest mistake I've seen on a Website. awkward....

Don't believe me? http://www.apple.com/mac/

7Shadows - Surface again
Now I am familiar with seeing the founder of this technology. It seems he does the same technology for the iPhone that's coming this month.

It's a 5,000-10,000 machine. I am just excited to see how Apple will respond to this!

This is largely more interesting than the last preview of Microsoft Surface!

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/industry/4217348.html

Last preview:
http://www.microsoft.com/surface/

Showcased way before by Apple?
http://www.youtube.com/?v=zp-y3ZNaCqs

7Shadows - Adam's Birthday
Here I am... gathering thoughts hoping that I can honor well enough the moments I have just experienced during my trip to New York.

Adam made it sound like a casual invitation. It's not. After seeing for myself the lenghts of preparations, the deepness of friendship that it involves and the generosity of this man, I feel profoundly blessed and privileged.

What an incredibly concious person, a charismatic speaker --all the girls were all over him, him alone wtf??-- a talented and dedicated mind with the smarts to start or help strenghten any out-of-control storm. But despite all the gifts, after he just graduated, he could have celebrated from this day in a wealthy career and social importance, he chose to find himself even more for the next year to come by travelling all over the world, so he can spoil his friends even more with the profoundness of his well-rounded knowledge.

Adam, I can never thank you enough for inviting me to your birthday and to have showed me how cool NYC was despite all the gunshots... err honks, verbal spits, waiting in line for a taxi, confusingness of the subway, discrimination to the smallness of asian people, endless food talk, people talking about prison in a bus, bus stopping for 30 mins because they think it could catch on fire, some english words so fucking hard to pronounce and in front of unfriendly people ready to punch you, questionable sanity in some shady places...

It's also my fault-- I am the worst tourist. I did ask too loudly the subway woman which direction to the hotel in a bullet-proof microphone that sounds like there were 30 cockroaches doing orgy every time i said a word, I did ask the taxi man to get me to an address, I do follow people when they cross the street in a red light--but slower, I did forget my bus ticket 30 mins before getting on so that adam could run and save my day.

The food was incredible from day 1 and that birthday supper was a night to remember for all the gourmets and wine any man could ever wet-dream of. Now I know what it is like to taste some of the world's finest cuisine.

Adam, thanks to you, I could meet with Chris Dang. I could even meet with you before you leave us like... forever in the deepest caves of Thailand or Alaska... or so it sounds?? Thanks for making me meet your amazing friends too.

I hope you find the rarest beauties that this world has to offer in those coming trips.

-Meng

PS. That swedish massage was out of control. I love when people touch my hair. It makes me want to touch my lips like Chris do.

7Shadows - Chris Dang
I met with mytinypants -- or so he calls himself when he DJ... and there's nothing about this guy that doesn't scream talent and style. He can do out-of-this-world art, dancing, designing, djing... and now he's establishing to be the awesomest fashion designer and he'll make this world need it..

I took a lot of photos... bought my gf a shirt from the store he and his girl is starting to take shape in Brooklyn, NY. He even does model for the poster he designed for Love Brigade. I got a bunch of his cards and made sure we'll hear about him again... ever.

There's a good chance I'm gonna bring him, or at least, his awesome presence on S7. Keep ya updated.

7Shadows - Microsft Surface
About a year ago, I saw Apple's demonstration of multi-touch screen. Well, now it seems like Microsoft is having a head-start with Surface

Looks pretty neat...
http://www.microsoft.com/surface/

7Shadows - Write your best quotes ever
Best quotes evar:
--
Hello, die for you.
I love speedos
I love you in a non-perverted way
Take that, take that

7Shadows - Ideas: Thumbnail sizes
What do you think of the thumbnail sizes?

7Shadows - Logo
Hey guys, let me know what you think about the logo and how it can be improved?