Tong Family (richtong.org sync)

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/allyoucaneat/2012244893_din_tai_fung_opening_in_bellev.html?syndication=rss says that din tai Fung is finally coming to Seattle. So now we will have Bellevue version and hopefully their xiao long Bao will be hee and delicious. Opening in the fall

I don’t know if it is the perfect car, but the Nissan Leaf sounds pretty amazing. $33K with $25K if you qualify for the federal subsidy. It looks pretty cool, goes 100 miles and uses Lithium Ion batteries. Plus, it is a hatchback. Wow.  It has a 240V charger that recharges in 30 minutes to…

If you have a little time to visit DC here are some nits 0. Its hot in DC so do yourself a favor and tour at night. The monuments are amazingly open way into the night. There is a wonderful walk from Lafayette park past the treasury to the eisenhower executive office building and the…

Quick notes on accessories for the iPad. They are just coming out but the apple case really works well although expensive at $40. Having the stand is nice although I don’t use it as much as i would expect. The screen protector is a good thing although unlike the iPhone the screen is usually protected…

Hey i posted mono price.com cables were great and cheap but they only sync they don’t charge ipads at all. Don’t know why. See http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=11618818&#11618818

Ok, the latest things acquired: The water pistols that are electrically powered and which look like real guns are actually pretty cool. Lots of fun squirting Used my Leatherman Wave over the weekend. What an amazing tool. Was top rated by Outdoor magazine three years ago, but never got around to it. Calvin loves it.…

Well, there are so many large sensor cameras. The Lumix GF-1, Epson EP-2 and now the new Sony NEX-3 and -5 and the Samsung NX-10 with Nikon and Canon rumored to be coming out with theirs. The net is that if you can hold off, I wouldn’t buy one of these things. There is so…

If you have a whole summer free and want to make your NXT robot sing from your Mac, what are your options. If you have Windows and Bootcamp, you can use the free Lego software, otherwise off to open source you go… Mactech

John reminded me that even with my Drobo, I’m still not really safe in terms of data loss. It handles two drive failures, but it still means things can get lost. For a while I was manually backing up to tongfamily.com which is unlimited data on bluehost.com, but it isn’t automatic. So onto reviews. He…

Well iPhone 4 mean dead iPhone in chinese, but what the heck, mine is on order. July 2 baby. My buddy Bruce points out however that if you want maximum flexibility, in the UK and Canada, they are going to sell unlocked iPhones for unsubsidized price of $600 or so. This is great if you…

Ugh. I love the new iPad but there are still quirks. Today it is getting gmail to run properly. The confusing thing is that you should never use the default gmail setup on an iPhone or iPad. That is because when you delete it doesn’t save the deleted mail on the web so you lose…

Well, if you want to backup your Mac, there aren’t very good choices. Time Capsule is wonderful in terms of specs, you can from a network restore from it, but it has an incredible failure rate. I’ve lost 6 of 8 Time Capsules in the last two years with no way to recover data except…

Kurt and his dad are terrific and the rendition of Poker Face is incredible. What lyrics you don’t hear when it is at hip hop speed

Looking at the new reviews of APS-sized compact cameras, there are really four choices. The technology leader is definitely the Sony NEX-5, but it is nearly impossible to use because there are so few buttons. So typical of Sony to have amazing hardware. It is light and small and incredible picture quality up to ISO…

I need to return the Lumix DMC-GF1 I bought. Sony has now shipped their APS-sized compact cameras. Nikon and Canon are right behind. Digital Resource says that the Sony is amazing. The lenses are interchangeable and more importantly in video mode, it actually autofocuses. Something none of the dSLRs do right so it can be…

Calvin’s new camera does panoramas automatically and it reminded me that my digital photography workflow has some real holes in it. Here is an overview: For copying from my Canon 5d Mark ii, I use the bundled EOS Utility. This is because I still like to keep my photos in directories and it is inconvenient…

Time once again to review what the cheapest ways to call are: 1. Google Voice. If you have this, you can use your phone and call anywhere in the US for free. But your phones has to be in the US. You can send US text messages for free as well. It is 9 cents…

So here using my IPad as my primary device. Here are tips and notes: If you are using your MacBook for network sharing because you are on the road and there is only one network connection. Here is what you do. Connect your MacBook to a wired connection. You can’t share a wifi one. Then…

Lifehacker points when out that the entire Foreign Service language pack is in the public domain. A great resource as there aren’t not much Vietnamese.

Man monoprice.com is an amazing site. Got their six foot cables for iPods. Works well and are just $5 vs $20 from apple. Also have a combo cable that has a audio out and power too so I can eliminate out cable. They have two foot hdmi cables for $6 vs. $20 at places like…

Thanks to Rennie, I got a Lumix DMC-GF!, but found out today, he deferred the purchase because he things Nikon and Canon will release a similar small frame camera and he just couldn’t cope with the lack of a real viewfinder. Hope I like what I got. It will be nice to have a 40mm…

Thanks to a note from Bill. I finally understand the difference through a Venn diagram

I;ve been using Chrome more and more and the only thing I really miss from Firefox is scribefire (the other things like adblock plus and lastpass are already here). The main thing is being able to copy snippets and insert. The alpha is nice, but I do miss the delete key. Doesn’t seem to work!

Mrs-o.org. Michelle Obama was om the cover of Conde Nast traveller looking very good. They don’t disclose what clothes she is wearing. Well if yiu care there is a whole web site devoted to just that. Everything is on the internet! see mrs-o.org

>Macrumors has a view for the next iPhone. Looks cool. Has a glass back and removable battery (at last!!!). Someone found it dropped in a bar in San Jose! And AT&T has cancelled vacations in June, so it looks like more toys, don’t buy an iPhone now if you can help it and wait it…

I bought some expensive $11 cables from Kensington for iphone charging because we were running out. What a dummy. I should have just gone to monoprice.com, they really have great prices and great cables. Here is what I got $4 iphone charging cables (vs. $20 from Apple) Mini Displayport to HDMI Adapter for $8 when…

Josh had some good recommendations: Saltery Lodge as a good all inclusive. Catch silvers and do other things like river fishing to.

Well there are already dedicated sites like padgadget.com focused on it, but here is a quick list of accessories to buy. Apparently they’ve sold 500K in the first week! BodyGuardz is a plastic protective layer for the iPad like invisibleshield for the iPhone. I’ve used invisible shield and it works ok. Main problem is that for…

It is amazing to me what Steve Jobs has done and in a very unconventional way. Someone who essentially invented the PC with the Apple and then Apple II, then has a series of try to do it again with lots of hype and then fails with Apple III, Lisa, Newton, Next. But some how…

Someone actually analyzed Yodaspeak so it is fascinating to see how to talk like him.