My contract with Three UK ended 2 months ago, since I’m still quite happy with my K800i that I got 2 years ago, I thought I will just continue with the contract as what they’re charging me is quite reasonable (£10 per month). Last Sunday, they called me and asked if I want to upgrade my mobile, at the end I decided to get the LG Renoir. I surprised myself this time as I didn’t read any reviews before getting it, but since I am not intended to keep this phone for myself and they are charging me a one off £40 for it, I decided to get it.

The phone arrived today, it was packed in a very nice and a relatively small box, which is good because nowadays products tends to come with excessive packaging. My first thought was that this looks so much like the iPhone! I’m impressed by the phone, and here are some of the features that I like:

• Wi-Fi - Can do without having a computer at home if all we need is checking email and some browsing…
• GPS - Very useful for travelling especially when we are driving (not yet supported)
• 8MP Camera - Since I’m using my K800i as my camera, this would be nice
• 8GB SD card - Surprisingly it comes with that much memory, I can’t believe memory is getting so cheap nowadays!
• Touch screen - I find touch screen a clever invention for human to interact with computers/machine, much more user friendly when implemented well.

There are also something that I think it can improve on:

• GPS - only for geotagging at the moment, no software support for navigation
• Speed - The interface can be slow at times
• Touch screen - not quite sensitive enough, sometimes I’ve push it!
• Application - As the phone is still quite new, many are not supported yet. The good thing is, most of the points mentioned here can be fixed in the next firmware.

All these features used to be what I want in a mobile, integrating everything that I need into one! It’s all nice to have, but none of these are necessary!

The world has changed so much, and our wanting never ends, so does our suffering. Often, we want something so much, and after much hard work, when we get it, how do we feel? Satisfy? Happy? May be for a moment, a very short moment! This phone remind me again that these materialistic things really doesn’t bring happiness, peace nor make us feel contented, all these are impermanence! After getting the object that we long wanted, moment later we often move on to wanting the next object, our wanting never ends! You may not agree with me, but try to ask yourself if these materialistic things give you long lasting happiness or does these wantings bring endless suffering.

On Sunday, I went to Amaravati Buddhist Monastery to join their Kathina ceremony this year. This is my third time attending this ceremony, the first time was in 2006. One of the points that I remember from the talk after the ceremony is that advertisements are decided to make us feel discontented! I found this very true myself, many advertisements often try to make us want more, make us feel unsatisfied and a feeling of lacking something, suggesting that buying their product would satisfy us.

Adverts are everywhere nowadays, even if we don’t watch TV, they are on websites, bus stops, train stations, you name it. Often we are not aware of what they are doing to us, no wonder why many of us always feel unsatisfy and wanting more all the time! I’m not blaming the companies for advertising here, it comes down to supply and demand again. If there is no demand, why would they advertise anymore. It’s ourself who is reasonable to watch our mind, as soon as we start blaming others, we are not doing ourself any good. I will share a quote from the Dhammapada (法句經):

 As a well covered house is not penetrated by a rain,  thus a well developed mind is not penetrated by passion.

如盖屋不密，必为雨漏浸，如是不修心，贪欲必漏入。

I still have a great interest in technology and it’s one of the things that I still do get affected by. I’ve to admit that I do like this phone, but I must watch my mind from wanting it! So I’ve decided to keep to my K800i as long as it lasts and not keeping the LG Renoir for myself. I still have much to work on!

Tags: k800i, kc910, lg renoir, mobile, Technology, Weblog
Categories: Weblog, Technology
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Tried out Ubuntu’s latest version (8.10 - The Intrepid Ibex) over the weekend on a laptop and a old Dell desktop, both of them works without any problem. The big improvement for my laptop (Toshiba Tecra-S1) that I noticed is the xorg settings in gnome for external monitors. I didn’t need to go and change the xorg.conf manually this time, I only need to set it from the GUI, restart and everything works. It even works on a 22″ HD ready monitor (LG 22LS4D) displaying the correct resoluation (1920×1080) which didn’t work with Ubuntu 7.10 nor 8.04. I would recommend trying this version if xorg hasn’t been working properly for you in previous version.

Another additional feature that I found interesting is that it allow auto login, so you no longer have to type in your username and password on startup. The default timeout for this auto login is 10 seconds, which I can see is quite handy if you are using it solely at home as a desktop but obvious the draw back is that the system is less secure if auto login used. Haven’t found any problem with it yet, another great release, thanks to everyone who worked on this!

Tags: computer, gnome, laptop, Linux, Toshiba Tecra S1, Ubuntu, xorg
Categories: Linux, Ubuntu
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Took some photos on the way to walk today with my K800i.

Tags: bracknell, snow, Weblog
Categories: Weblog
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般若經云。觀自在菩薩。照見五蘊皆空。度一切苦厄。五蘊。謂色受想行識也。色謂色身。受謂受用。想謂思想。行謂所行。識謂辨識。此五者蘊積不散。以壅蔽真性。故謂之蘊。又謂之五陰。謂陰暗真性也。色身終歸於壞。受用隨時即過。色受豈不空乎。且如思想一物。既得之則無想矣。想豈不空乎。所行之事回首尚如夢 幻。行豈不空乎。識盡千種事物。再生不復能識。識豈不空乎。一切苦厄。皆從五者生。若能照見色身為空。則不泥於色身而畏死亡。是度過此一種苦厄也。照見受 用為空。則不泥於受用而貪奉養。又度過此一種苦厄也。照見思想為空。則不泥於思想。而意乃無所著。又度過此一種苦厄也。照見所行為空。則不泥於所行。而可以息跡。是又度過此一種苦厄也。照見辨識為空。則不泥於辨識。而可以坐忘。是又度過此一種苦厄也。故照見五蘊皆空。則度過一切苦厄。此五者皆不是真實。乃真性中所現之妄緣。若六根六塵六識十二緣四諦皆此類也。

摘錄自《 龍舒淨土文 》

南無阿彌陀佛
合十

Tags: 開示, 佛教
Categories: 佛教
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楞嚴經第一卷。佛與阿難七次論心。終之以尋常所謂心者。乃妄想耳。非真心也。真心即性也。圓覺經謂眾生妄認六塵緣影為自心相。是尋常所謂心者。乃六種塵緣之影耳。謂此心本無。唯因外有六種塵緣。故內現此心。若外因有色。內則起愛色之心。外因有聲。內則起愛聲之心。外因有香味觸法。內則起愛香觸法之心。蓋真性如鏡。六種塵緣如形。此心如影。若外無此六塵。則內亦無此心矣。此心豈不為六種塵緣之影乎。來則影現。形去則影滅。而性鏡則常自若。故金剛經云。過去心 不可得。現在心不可得。未來心不可得。此三心者皆謂妄想心也。故有過去未來現在。若真心。則無始以來。未嘗變動。烏有過去未來現在乎。不可得者謂無也。若飢而思食。得食則此心過去矣。正食而知味。乃現在心。未思食則此心未有。故為未來心。此三心皆隨時壞滅。故云不可得。

摘錄自《 龍舒淨土文 》

南無阿彌陀佛
合十

Tags: 開示, 佛教
Categories: 佛教
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Can’t believe that google will now make it’s own web browser. I didn’t do much/any reading on it, but thought I will just donwload it and try it out. My first impression is that it keeps the interface to minimal which is what I like, all the common shortcuts works, responses is very quick and all the small little details are done right (for me anyway)! Just everything I need for a browser! I’m surely dropping firefox (at the moment I use it to check email since opera doesn’t load gmail nicely!). It’s difficult to not sure google since their products is so well decided, but there is a danger that I’m so dependant on google products!!! Would be nice when they release the Linux version!

Tags: Google, Internet, software
Categories: Internet, Google
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