If I could go back and change my name, I'd name myself... Sputnik! Cool name, yeah? Well, there's actually a story behind the name, and little did anyone guess that a simple metal ball that could beep would hurtle man towards the space age.
Sputnik was the crowning glory of the Soviet Union (the then USSR) and shocked the US into the realisation that perhaps, just perhaps, there was a civilization outside their own that was ahead of them in the technology race. On October 4th 1957.
As the story goes (the one I'm making up right about now), one morning some staff at the United States Space Research Centre woke up early that morning, made his cup of coffee, trained his telescope towards space as he had always done and then... "CRASH!" spilt coffee. "What is that Metal Ball up there?"
Bemused, Sputnik beeped.
*BEEP*
Of course, as history would tell us, this then resulted in a fevered rush for advancement that meant science became the most important subject in class.
But what I'm trying to say is, if not for Russian innovation and Sputnik, we probably wouldn't have a lot of the technology, research and innovation we all have today. Imagine if the internet was invented 30 years later, I'd be 50 before I could get on ICQ. So, those of us young whippersnappers who care nary a thought for dear old Sputnik, remember this: this interesting world of Tech-overdose you live in, of wirelessly transmitted voice and blinking screens in your face, wouldn't have been yours if it wasn't for a simple, nondescript metal ball in space that beeped.
This world would've been your grandchildren's.
Monday, October 8, 2007
50 years of Sputnik!
Friday, October 5, 2007
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Talking to God!
Okay, please don't get stumbled by this. It's really just for FUN.
I stumbled upon this link by clicking on someone's MyBlogLog profile who happened to read my blog. And... LOL. This is so funny. Click on the below. Check it out:
http://www.titane.ca/concordia/dfar251/igod/main.html
Oh, by the way, that random person who randomly clicked on my blog, which randomly led me to finding this site was CarolineL
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
I'm chatting with you on my mobile...
If you own a Nokia Nseries device and you click onto your download folder, you'll see a new folder pop-up saying "Windows Live". Yup, the Windows Live suite announced last month in Europe has now been made available in Asia.
I've actually been running this little piece of software for days now since downloading it through MOSH but didn't expect it to reach Asia so quickly.
To be honest, the Windows Live Messenger client is utterly fantastic. So good, in fact, that I've gone ahead and replaced Fring with it. After all, I mostly chat on Windows Live Messenger. No screenshots to share yet coz I don't have a screenshot capture ap on my N95, but I'll get that soon.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Top new technology... for something essentially old!
It's been nearly two decades since I grew out of it. But when I encountered today's new-fangled "tanglung" design at our church's Mooncake Festival do on Sunday, "wow!" I felt so amazed at what technology has done to this ancient tradition.
As you can see, the familiar glass-paper tanglungs we used to have are now replaced with slick beachball-type material ones. Instead of expecting kids to burn up about 2 - 3 tanglungs a night thanks to wax candles and highly flamable material, you can rely on the these modern tungsten bulb-lighted tanglungs to be burn-resistant. And, of course, the highly stylised fish and butterfly characters of our well-loved tanglungs are now replaced with branded characters such as.... Winnie the Pooh (which is Lydia's favourite Disney character, by the way)!
Above is Kee Gan, the product of Mr. and Mrs. Low and a fantastic model for showing just how stylish these new tanglungs are. It's like, really evolving tradition with technology. Now... the one thing I don't appreciate is replacing all the great-tasting traditional mooncakes with wacky-flavours like "Mint Chocolate" and "Cheesecake." Makes my stomach queasy.
