Jay And Short Game Competition

Date:  Mar 22, 2015

There is only one medal for this short game competition.

Jay is the one of the youngest in his class.  The rest I think is P4-P6.

So far he has yet to get any medal this year.  The older kids are definitely much better golfer than him.  But he enjoys it.  

Today competition is to hit putting into the hole from all direction (with slopes) and score points.

Not so hard, not so easy either.  The kids needs to learn how to read the green, read the slope and putt so that it goes into the hole.

This is one of the hole that made him proud.  He is the only kid who get the ball in twice in the long putt.  The rest did not get it in.

He still learning how to read the green, so, some holes he is in trouble.

Chip and run.  Not too bad.  And he scores.

He learned the technique and applied it in his golf game.

He has some problem in the sand bunker shots.  He did not score well there.

I think he placed his ball too far right.  That is why the swing did not catch much sands and the ball flies up high.  

Jay likes golf a lot.  Kay expressed his interest in golf too.  So, it will be very happy for us if the whole family can go to Golf Vacation trip together when they gets older.

Next week is a big day for Jay.  he is going to take part in his first every Golf Game Competition.  It will be the monthly Junior Medal game competition with his peers.  Let’s see how it goes.  Anything can happen on the golf course.  HaHaHaHa.  Good luck Jay.

The Thing About of IPTV

Date:  Oct 4, 2015

I learned something new the past week.  And I would like to share it here.  This article is for advance users.  Means, you are capable of Google for a topic, such as How to Install XBMC, or Kodi or TVMC, and you are able to understand and execute the instructions found.  :)  If you can do so, I am sure you are about to open up a brand new world of Steaming TV entertainment.

1.  IPTV is to

         a) watch Live TV,

         b) Video On Demand,

         c) Your own collections of videos, be it Home Video, or downloaded videos,

         d) Listen to music,

         e) Watch Youtube or Vimeo,

         f) Play Games,

         g) Watch Podcast, etc on your TV. 

 

2.  IPTV is about three things.

         a) Hardware - such as Amazon FireTV, Apple TV, Xiaomi, Android TV box, Minix, ViewQwest TV2, etc etc.

         b) Software - the Apps or Apks that allows you to watch the TV shows

         c) Contents - the web site that holds all these contents

   

3.  In the past, I have posted a lot of TV boxes, a lot of Apps that you can run to watch TV.  The false impressions is China has done a pretty good job in this.  All you need is to load nice simple desktop, and run the Apps from the Desktop.  As simple as that.

 

It is easy to use.  Once you launch an app, you get to see all these wonderful shows.  Almost every apps has similar shows and setup.  However, what differentiate them is where there place their contents and how they stream it to us.

Every ISP has different IP upstreams and different ways to get to these contents.  That is why some users complaint slow and buffering all the time, cannot watch.

It has nothing to do with these contents.  It is the ISP who decided what they allow you to watch.

Always remember the basic concept… ISP who owns TV channels are afraid that you no longer subscribe to their TV channels.  So, somehow, watching IPTV is not an enjoyable experience on these ISP networks.  These ISP afraid that if users start watching IPTV it will cannibalise their TV channels revenues.  Otherwise, these super rich ISP who always earn profits in Millions or Billions, don’t tell me they can’t hire the right people or find the right solutions to solve their network problem.

The main point here is, I and some of the friends agrees that China is pretty advance in these IPTV streaming business.

We do not know what is their business model.  Or do they even have any business model, how they make money, etc etc.

But we enjoy so much.

Until the China Government started to come in to regulate these part of the business.

They start setting up a lot of rules.

All the software cannot be installed into the TV.

All the software running on the TV box cannot display on the TV without approval from the government.

It is a Cat and Mouse chasing game.

One by one, we see them (the TV apps) go down.  Then they come back up again, then, they go down.

So, what about the Western community.  We did not see any TV apps coming out from these western community such as US.

The only thing we cheered is Youtube, and Podcast.

So, I always thought that the Western world is lagging behind.

Until the last few weeks, when I start playing XBMC, Kodi & TVMC.

 

4.  What is XBMC?

XBMC stands for Xbox Media Centre.  I believe it is originally an application on Xbox which is the Media Centre to play your videos and music files.

Later, when it is open source, developers come up with various versions that can do many things.

To me when I look at it, it is like GOPHER. 

Hey, how many of you knows GOPHER?  The text base browsers.  The one like directory based navigation where you need to navigate inside to find information.  

XBMC is just like that.  I believe is a set of XMLs for people to display thumbnails, and contents, once selected, it link to the media player.

Kodi seems to be the new name for it.  So, we will use Kodi from now on.

And TVMC is a special customised version that loads all the common, and popular IPTV streaming onto Kodi.

 

5.  So, when I take a look at it, and google it.  There are tons of information out there to teach people how to customise their Kodi.  And all these developers, customised Add-Ons to easily access a certain content providers to get the video streaming.  You can watch almost everything you want.

For example, let’s say I want to watch Doctor Who latest episode, what will I do?

And the videos playback is very good.  It stream from Akamai.  The quality s at least 720p.  And it all depends on your ISP network too. 

 

6.  There are many Add-ons out there.  This is similar to the APK we found from the China Shafa App Store.  The Kodi/TVMC is like the Shafa Desktop.  The biggest different is, Kodi reads the XMLs informations and thus, it is easy to customised the Kodi Add-On contents.  As for the APK from Shafa App store, all those are APK, means software by itself.  If the developer need to change anything, they need to write the software to change it.  As for Kodi, it is a consistent platform.  All you need to do is to change the feeding information to him.  It is very simple, not so fancy too.  May need a lot of navigation clicks, but it does the same thing.  And the whole world is using it.  You can get Spanish show, you can get Korean movies, etc etc.

 

7.  As CartoonHD APK got shutdown.  This is my new way of watching English movies and TV streams.  I am still trying to understand it too.  TVMC somehow does not work on my Xiaomi, so, TVMC runs on my Amazon FireTV.  The Live TV somehow does not work on Xiaomi TVbox too, only have sound no video.  Something to do with the hardware.  But it support others Android platforms (True Android).

 

I will share more once I know more about it.  For now, I am watching all the TV series and latest movies from US on Genesis, Doctor Who on BBC iPlayer, Apple Podcast, etc.  All these add-ons available on TVMC.

 

Jay Golf Updates

Date:  June 27, 2015

This is what I told my son, Jay.

1) "I know you like sport, but you don’t have to be good in every one of them."  So that you do not create any pressure for him.  He can learn & play whatever sports he likes.

2) Jay has been exposed to many different sports.  But mostly, I told him is for fitness purpose.  I want a child to be very active in sport so that he understands doing sports will do good thing to his health.

3) Golf has been Jay’s favourite sport.  It is a game that the ball does not move.  All you need to do is to hit the stationary ball at the ground.  It is challenging especially at the golf course as there are uneven ground, there will be obstacle, and you will need a little bit of Science to make it roll to places you like the golf ball to roll.

Here is some updates of his learning journey of golf….

He played a few holes to let his coach see how’s his skills.

At the moment, he can only played at the Millennium Course executive 9-hole.  He played 6 holes today because he wanted to go play with Riyandi at the Adventure Cove.  So, we actually skipped 3 holes.  Here is the hole by hole coverage to see his swing, his chips and his putts.  I enjoyed all the videos very much.  It shows how dedicated my boy towards learning to play golf the right way.  Please enjoy the videos.

Hole #1

The first hole is about 95 meter.  He no longer can use his Driver for this hole to tee off.  He has to use a hybrid to tee off about 85 meter.

The drive fly straight, and put his ball right at the edge of the green.  And the green is quite difficult as he has about 10 meter slope (quite steep) need to clear.  So, with one chip and one putt, he got a PAR on this hole.

 

Hole #2

The second hold is about 195 meter.

He uses his big Driver.  Correct stance, and correct ball position for him.  Slowly bring up the driver.

No over-swing.  Hip turned.

Swing the club.  There is a big break at the left arm.  But it’s OK.

Hip turned and let the driver turn his body.

Natural finishing position.

And he nailed it!  The drive goes straight and about 120 meter.  Big drive for an 8 year old kid (9 soon).

Very big drive.

This shall be my favourite photo for a long while.  :)

The 2nd shot he uses his hybrid.  But the ball goes to the right.

He decided to attack the green with a bunker in front of the flag.  He uses a sand wedge to make the shot.

The shot is a bit difficult for him, as he has to hit the shot from a slope going to the left.

As a result, not enough compensation, his ball goes to the left.

From there, again, he uses his sand wedge to try to bring the ball to the green.  Before he do so, let’s practise the stroke. 

Can you hear his club brushing thru the rough?  

And he make the shot.  To the left of the flag.

Left with about 20 plus feet, he putted the ball slightly over.  And then, he nailed the last putt.  

Hole #2 is a PAR 4 hole.  So, 1-2-3-4-5-6 shots.  A double boogey.

Hole #3

This hole is about 95 meter.  So, again, he will use his hybrid for this hole.

He hits the ball to the left and lie deep in the rough.

But look at his butt, his hip finishing.  He is learning the correct way of golf swing, and this will help him to have lesser injury next time.

 Coach is happy with his hips turn.  He is using his hips to deliver the ball.

Ok, he landed his ball at a slope with a deep grass.  So, coach double dare him $100 if he makes his shots on to the green.  HaHaHa… I think coach James saw his stands and knew he is going to hit into the left.  HaHaHa… And indeed, he chip the ball to the left.  But very nice solid chip.

From the edge of the green, he left with about 10-12 feet.

And he bring the ball closer to the hole.  It is a downhill.  So, he needs to control his putting strength a bit.

He nailed the hole.  It is a boogey for this hole.

Hole #4

Hole 4 is a steep uphill 100 meter hole.

Using a driver, he drives the ball to the right.  On a slope with long grass again.

He then hit the ball to the left.  Standing not the steep slope, it is hard for him to place the weight on the left foot, and then, hit the ball front.  That will throw him off balance.  But he did make the shot well.

From the left, again, is another slope.  He needs to chip the ball into the green.  And he hit the ball high up.

Here comes the difficulty putt.  It is a downhill putt.  When we tell him it is downhill, kids is like this, they immediately reduce the speed of the swing.

And they do so, in a very discrete way.  They cut the power by half.  hahahaha

If I don’t say it is a down hill he probably hit it far, but once I told him is downhill, he hit is short.  Very short.

The next hole, he miss his putt.  So, he got a double PAR for this hole.

Hole #5

This is a 196 meter PAR 4 hole.

It is a very long hole.  He drives the ball to the right.  Right side of buggy, lying on a slide slope.  Correct stance, correct swing, correct hips turn.  He hit it about 110 meter.

He is left with about 70-80 meter.  The coach asked to use a 9-Iron where he really should use a 7-Iron here.

Well, he hits it short.  And the coach thought about it, and he says he might be advising the wrong clubs just now.  hahahaha

Now, he has to hit on a slope again. 

Today is a game with lots of slope shots.

But he hits it OK.  To the left.

Just outside the green.  So, he spent 3 putts here.  A double boogey.

Hole #9

We skipped hole 6, hole 7 & hole 8.  Because Jay Jay wants to go Adventure Cove to join his friend Riyandi for water play.  So, since the coach has left, so, we skipped the three PAR-3 holes, and go straight to the last hole which is a 212 meter hole.

I reminded him about the hips turn.  And he nailed it.  The ball landed on the mark of 10 meter in front of the 100 meter marker.  So, he drives about 122 meter.  Big drive.

Then, with his trusty hybrid, he hit the second shot onto the green.

This is to show you his second shot, how far away from the pin.  Great shot Jay!

His first putt.  Miss it.  But close to the pin.

And he nailed his putt.  He score a PAR on the last hole.

He should be quite happy about this!

This is probably one of his best score I have seen so far playing so many times with him.

He has a Junior Medal game competition coming up this Sunday 2:30.  Hope it does not rain.  All the past 2 events were cancelled because of rain.

He will be competing with all these higher primary students in the group.  Let’s see how he do.

He is learning, learning fast, learning correctly.  And I think he is going to do well.

OK.  Let’s go home pick up Kay Kay and go Adventure Cove.  Well done Jay for today’s great game.

Today’s Score

=====

Hole 1 - PAR3 - 3 (PAR)

Hole 2 - PAR4 - 6 (DOUBLE BOOGEY)

Hole 3 - PAR3 - 4 (BOOGEY)

Hole 4 - PAR3 - 6 (DOUBLE PAR)

Hole 5 - PAR4 - 6 (DOUBLE BOOGEY)

Hole 6 - PAR4 - 4 (PAR)

=====

Total 6 holes

Total 21 shots - and Jay made it with 29 shots.  8 over.  Not too bad.

For a kid.

The Mighty Duct Tape Speed Tape

Date:  Jan 14, 2015

It is often mistaken as a “duct tape”.  But it looks very shinny.  

Yesterday, we came home on this Jetstar plane.  And to our surprise, we saw this!

Duct tape!

For don’t know what reason, Jetstar actually uses the duct tape to path the engine/turbine together.  Seems like it.

Indeed looks very very scary.

But we arrived home from Hong Kong to Singapore safely.

The ride is very smooth.  Should we thank the duct tape?

Today, I get the chance to search on the Internet - keyword “Jetstar duct tape” ...

And I found this video.

Source:  http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2013/01/watch-an-engineer-repair-a-jetstar-plane-with-gaffer-tape/

WOW!  Jetstar!!!!!!!!!  Why????? Always use duct tape to repair your airplane?

Wait now...

Let’s search “Budget Airline duct tape"

So, it is not only Jetstar.  This is EasyJet.  But they have explained why they need to use this.  It is not a duct tape.  It is called a “Speed Tape”.  It is a common thing in airlines industries.

Source:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-3102312/Shocked-passenger-takes-photo-airport-worker-using-TAPE-engine-shell-easyJet-plane-moments-off.html

Tiger Airline not too bad.  Use duct tape to stick the windows back.  Make it more firm.

Source:  http://forums.vr-zone.com/chit-chatting/3232351-my-window-tiger-air-flight-hong-kong-singapore.html

Cebu Airline fix a bit minor problem using duct tape.

Source:  http://hotels-in-cebu.com/duct-tapes-on-cebu-pacific-plane/

OK.  Wait now….

Let’s try to search “Singapore Airlines duct tape"

And… Singapore Airlines also uses it.

The airlines engineers knows that they doing.

Of course they have calculated all the odds and making sure that the plane flight is safety.

Using duct tape or speed tape to repair the airplane is acceptable.

It can be used to repair boat too.

And cars too.

Something to think about.  hahahahaha

Beautiful Flowers

Went to buy Christmas Tree 2015.  And saw this pot of lovely flower at Far East Flora @ Queensway.

Gadget Notes Nomad Apple Watch Battery Charger

Date:  Jan 11, 2016

Ever since June last year until now, Apple Watch is on my wrist daily.  It has become my fitness device, my watch and social media notification device.  I don’t use a lot of apps on it at all.

So far I am very please with it.

The only thing that I am not so happy with is the Apple Charging cable.

It’s long and ugly.

And I am so reluctant to bring another “lose” cable in my bag along.  I already have one lightning cable, so I should not need another cable.

So, what is my solution?

Yes, Nomad Pod Charger for Apple Watch, solve it all.

This is the Nomad Pod Charger.  It looks like a ice hockey puck.   (Of course, you can remove the USB cable).

There is a USB port inside for you to plug your Apple Watch charger in it.

Then, you start coiling the cable.

Until like this.  And place the charging pad nicely fit into the holder provided.

Then, cover it.  The cover is magnetically attached.

Then, simply placed your Apple Watch on top of it.  

And it starts charging the Apple Watch.

WAIT NOW!  I have not plug in the power yet!  ??

Yes, this is a Portable Battery too.

Basically, you charge the Apple Watch without cable plug in.

When you plug in the cable, it will charge the Apple Watch and at the same time charges the battery.

Very cool product.

It has the battery indicator.

So, when I travel, I bring along this.  Usually I have a micro USB cable.  So, you can use the iPhone power adapter to charge this.

And I don’t have to deal with the ugly cable.

Unique selling point.

I bought it at US$59.95, now I just check, it is on sales.  They ship it to Singapore too.

Here are the specs.

Jay Jay His Ozobot

Date:  Oct 8, 2015

This year, I gave Jay this birthday present.

In responding to LSL’s Smart Nation propaganda.

So, we need to teach kids how to do simple programming.

This is Ozobot.

It is a small little robot that will move.

It moves according to black lines and color coding.  You want it to move fast, you do a blue black blue black blue black line.  If you want it to turn right, make sure your line has blue-red-green in there.

It is quite cute.

It comes with these route cards to demonstrate what it can do.

You can also go to the website to download games and print it out.

At the moment, the Ozobot program is as simple as this.  You can re-program it using the Blockly app.

For kids at this age, don’t jump into that yet.

Let them understand using colour you can program the robots too.

You can make them do funny things too.  All simply by using color coding.

That is why you need the magic pen.  Or you can draw on the white board too.

You can play games from the printed sheet, and fill in the color to make it work.

Jay Jay explaining the robot.

Jay playing with his Ozobot.

He is so happy about it.

Very eager to explore too.

Happy Birthday Jay Jay!  Hope you like this present!

Jay Jay has been a very good kid for the past 1 year.  And he even not to forget to study his Chinese (daily reading and listening) on his birthday before sleep. 

That is why I top up with this.  Which I save S$88 when buying it from Malaysia.  

We finally have a Millennium Falcon at home.