I am so in a splurging mood today! All the stuff I’ve contemplated to buy, I decided to get them all at one shot. Somebody, stop me!! With a whooping half a k, I’m all peace now! Peace.

1. Case-Mate 5G iPod Case. This Case-Mate premium form-fit leather case is one of the best looking cases I’ve seen for the iPod. Some say it’s pretty much a rip-off from the all-sacred god-pricey Vaja cases, but I think its cool Baha Orange skin is simply to die for.
2. Kingston 1Gb SD Card. Especially for item 4.
3. Crucial USB2.0 SD/MMC Card Reader. I’m trying to use this as a bridge for my ipod and my camera. If all work well, I could survive a long trip with just my ipod and digicam.
4. Canon Powershot S80 Digicam. It just pains me to be unable to take wide shots. I can never comfortably fit everyone in my camera view when the party becomes bigger than 10. This 8.0-megapixel Canon S80 epitomizes the very two things I look for in a point-and-shoot cam - small form and wide-angle-shot capability.

The Dutch agency Solar Initiative just recently developed a set of two regular-costing 39-euro-cent stamps for the TGP Post. The coolest thing about them is that they have moving images! Gone were the days where stamps were stills. This short movie on paper, featuring Dutch speed skater Yvonne van Gennip, is created using the lenticular effect technology.

These dynamic stamps greatly remind me of the postcards and newspaper photos we see in the Harry Potter movies, where the people in those pictures move, talk and have a whole life of their own. A familiar technology with a novel application! I’m looking forward to more of these moving postage stamps in future…

I just got a new mouse, the Logitech MX610 - the world’s first laser cordless mouse that sleeps, wakes up and shuts down with your computer. It syncs with the computer to alert you with its ambient email and IM notification buttons. It alerts you when the battery is running low. And its uniquely-Logitech ergonomical shape fits really well in your hand.

As I opened the packaging excitedly and plugged it into my PowerBook G4 laptop, I had the greatest surprise of my life! This mouse doesn’t work with Macs!! The MX610 can move the mouse cursor, but doesn’t respond to clicks. Ugh, so much for having the best (and cheap) mouse in the world (I got it for US$9.99).

Who’ll make a mouse that doesn’t work for Macs???

A soon-to-be-published Chinese map, if accepted, would mean that it is the Chinese Admiral (Zheng He), not Christopher Columbus , who found the America.

This map shows the North and South America, and is said to be a 1763 copy of another map made in 1418.

This would be before Columbus stepped foot on America on 1492.

But skeptics are checking if the map was made in 1763. Even so, they can say it is still only the mapmaker’s word that he copied if from a 1418 map.

I wonder how true this is…

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Now here’s one creative spin-off from the Mac laptop. The iTab is a Mac-based tablet computer modified from the Apple iBooks. The iTabs are built as they are sold on eBay.

The iTab is built by taking Apple’s 12″ iBook laptop, taking the screen off, applying a touchscreen, then flipping the screen around and fastening it on. The whole thing is finished off by putting the leftover screen backing over the top of the iTab, giving it the “rounded white edges.”

For all you tablet PC users wanting to convert to Macs, here’s an option for you. If you are willing to forgo the Apple hardware warranty that is.