Laptop cooling pad - as portable as a bamboo sushi roller

I wanted to get a notebook cooling pad for a long time. I procrastinated for a while because I kept thinking of my "inactivity" on my notebook.

I may be wrong now since I use my notebook more often than the desktop PC , even when I'm at home. It is approximately 12hrs of daily usage of my notebook. Maybe it makes sense to get a cooling pad now. The Gigabyte Rolling Pad (picture, left) really caught my attention. It was featured in a Taiwanese show last night. With this rolling pad, it becomes more mobile for me to carry the pad in my laptop bag. You can roll up the cooling pad, just like a bamboo sushi-roller and stuff it in my carrying case. It is the design that fascinates me. No wonder this won the iF Product Design Award 2008.
Well, you can compare the flexibility factor with the Belkin Cooling Pad that appears so much bulkier.

How effective is heat transfer of a standard cooling pad and rolling cooling pad for the laptop/notebook, I am not sure. First, let me check the price of the rolling pad and if I could get my hands on it in Taiwan.


P.S My hub read this and asked me to use two chopsticks to create a cooling "gap" between the laptop base and the working table. :(

Nothing technological about JEANS - what shoes goes with skinny jeans

It is about sense. I've always been a "jeans" person. Counting from university days, I think I have 20 or more jeans. 10 years past uni, I believe I have about 8-10 pairs of jeans to-date of which there are 2-3 pairs I really like. I am not a person who goes along with fashion even when jeans are concerned. I have always preferred straight-cut jeans to tapered jeans. However, ever since I got a few pairs of leggings (cropped and long), I thought of trying skinny jeans. Well, the fabric is different but to me, the "cut" is similar. I have no Kate Moss type figure that goes perfect with skinny jeans but I've been trying to think - what shoes goes with skinny jeans.

(1) Ballerina flats
(2) Non-chunky wedges that are almost like flats
(3) Heeled shoes - pump or sandal-like, provided they are not chunky
(4) Knee high boots that goes over your jeans
(5) Pointed toed shoes to make you look even taller. Rounder toed shoes if it could be pulled off

Because the skinny jeans are supposed to make you "look slim"knee down to ankle, you should not pair off with any chunky shoes or it will tend to make the bottom look bulky ALL OF A SUDDEN, and especially spoil the visual effect of slimness knee-down.

Color of shoes - I prefer neutral colors such as black, brown, beige and on the shimmer-side ~ either golden or silver. Take note if you wear a brightly-colored shoe, it will draw all attention to your shoes and create the effect that "you are short" (skinny jeans or not). Unless you have the height to pull that off, stick to plain boring colors like myself.

Since long leggings have a softer lighter feel (due to thinner fabric) compared to jeans, you could pull it off with (1)-(5) as long as it does not add too much bulk to ankle and below. Remember: proportion, proportion and proportion.

Make ethanol at home washing machine style

Instructions:

1. Open the "washing" machine
2. Dump in sugar, yeast and water
3. Close the machine door
4. Click the "Make" Button
5. After full cycle, go collect 100% ethanol

Yes. That is basically the gist in Wired's Feature on Micro-Fueler. A stacked washing machine+dryer- sized machine you can place at home and easily make ethanol. Then, pump and go. The car, I mean. My hb was telling me one could make alcohol with this. OK. I don't deny that. It says Micro-Fueler but did not specify if it's for the vehicle or the beer-belly.

I'm not advocating you to dump food for fuel but it is just interesting to see how easy the concept is.

Portfolio management vs Program management

I woke up this morning, suddenly thinking of project management. Don't ask me why. Must be one of those weird days. I could not remember the differences between program and portfolio management all of a sudden. Started referring to some "old" notes.

What will make me remember in future ? In a gist (I'm leaving out most details and capturing the essence) :

Program management - a pool of INTERDEPENDENT projects, working towards a greater company objective or goal.

Portfolio management - a pool of projects, some of which may be INDEPENDENT to one another, towards a strategic objective of the company.

More specifically, if Company A has a business strategy - to develop Green Energy in the Road Map.

Then PROGRAM BIOFUEL can be broken down into smaller interdependent projects -
Project A - growing fuel-ready corn for ethanol production
Project B - using used vegetable oil for diesel
Project C - researching into cellulose - algae to breakdown biomass for energy production

Then I could also have PROJECT SOLAR that is independent from BIOFUEL (sort of) but together, all these projects forms a portfolio and works towards a common strategy of GREEN ENERGY.

Am I right or wrong ?

ShopWiki - a shopper friendly site

I enjoy online shopping sites even if it is not for shopping and just for browsing or researching. That is because most online shopping sites have the basics of allowing me to compare different online store prices. Sometimes, I could even use the online reference price and check out if the on-site store itself carries a same product which is cheaper or more expensive. What I like about ShopWiki.com is that it does not just focus on online stores that have paid for advertising placement in the internet. Instead, ShopWiki finds every store on the internet for you and me (the consumers) and this means...I can do a thorough and more objective comparison, translating to better deals and savings. To the consumer, this is all good news.

I was researching about video game consoles under Gaming and interestingly found good reviews and opinions being offered around each product. I could also link to established and reputable brands for popular gaming consoles. With a specific video game console like the Xbox+360, I could easily find supporting and compatible gaming accessories - out came a list that allows sorting by prices and linking to stores that carry each specific accessory product. ShopWiki is such a shopper-friendly site.