An extensive list of Googling later, I decided to sell the Powerbook, buy myself a Netbook to hackintosh. After consulting the most amazing hackintosh guide table ever, I went for a used Dell Inspiron Mini 10v (1011), which was one of the very few models that could support every Mac OSX function.

Once I got it though, it wasn’t smooth sailing at all. I originally intended to get partitioned dual-boot working between Mac OSX and Windows 7, but I kept running into the not-so-well-documented “boot0″ error, which seems to occur because the two operating systems have completely different boot protocols. A couple threads online recommended using fdisk in terminal to fix this error, but I went wrong somewhere and ended up not being able to boot into ANY of my partitions.

I ended up re-installing the OSX, this time giving up on the dual-boot. I wasn’t really going to need Windows anyway. With one partition running OSX, the netbook seemed to be hacked without problems… until Snow Leopard updated to 10.6.4. This resulted in a kernel & CPU mismatch error, crashing mid-boot. Panicking, I re-installed OSX yet again. Later I found out there is an easier solution to the problem, which is using the NetbookInstaller from Meklort’s Blog after starting the computer in recovery mode – hold shift while booting, and type “recovery=y” as a boot option.

So it’s been a long journey, but I finally got the thing to work. My Dell Mini 10v is now running OSX 10.6.4 with iPhone SDK installed.Hopefully I’ll teach myself fast enough to make some apps soon!

Oh. My. God. This is one of the most genius things I have seen in a long time. Just in time for my move to a new apartment too; I can’t wait to use this. Sent to me by my good friend Jeremy, picture courtesy of whatthechrist.

Courtesy of xkcd.com

I’ve been wanting to blog about this fantastic web-comic for a long time. Ever since my friend found it on the web, I have been wasting a copious amount of time browsing through its archives (I still haven’t finished reading them). Though minimalist in appearance, the contents of XKCD hit every spot in a nerd’s penchant… though I like to consider myself a very different type of nerd from those who dress up for Matrix, read all the Star Wars novels or learn Klingon. Filled with hilariously esoteric jokes spanning fields of physics, chemistry, high-level mathematics (like cryptography), Linux computing, programming, and web design, XKCD is the ultimate website for those who enjoy the “hey I get that joke!” moments.

Until I stumbled on the site, I had no idea that over the 24 years of my life, I have acquired ridiculously obscure skill & knowledge sets (the only jokes I don’t get are the Linux ones…and it’s making me want to learn it). Granted, I majored in chemistry and minored in math, and I do web design now, but bully, am I a nerd.

The above was one of my favorites from its archives, expanding on a hopelessly esoteric subject of SQL injection. Also, make sure to read the mouseover texts (or as web designers call them, “title” attributes).

I don’t read very much anymore, at least not nearly as much as when I was forced to. But lately I have been lucky choosing amazing books. To me, a good book not only is educational but must inspire the reader to reassess a good chunk of his/her world, and my recent readings, including Richard Dawkins‘ illuminating the God Delusion – by far the strongest argument for atheism I had ever heard -  have been quite successful at that.

I picked up the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell through a recommendation. I have a habit of skimming through the first few pages before starting which, until the Tipping Point, has dissuaded me from starting at all (it is undoubtedly the reason behind my decreased bibliophilia). This book managed to grip me through the mere chapter headings. As someone who has worked in the marketing department and a web designer who is perpetually wallowed in the riddle of how to reach the people, I could not think of a better book for me to have read.

Gladwell dissects the phenomenon of social epidemics, ranging from fashion trends and diseases to TV shows and Paul Revere. He divides the key players in the “tipping” of these epidemics into three categories: connectors, salesmen, and mavens. All of us know at least one person in our lives who knows everyone, or convinces others naturally, or seems to know everything there is to know. His examples in the book surely are extreme cases, but I enjoyed the systematic approach with which he tried to put a finger on the epicenters of social epidemics. He emphasizes how small and modest changes can “tip” a concept to permeate a society – who could have thought the seemingly simplest shows on TV required more thought than any other? Who would have imagined…but I don’t want to spoil the book for you. On a scale from a Jimmy Fallon joke to Maxim magazine, this book is Hemingway.

So when I got this game for my Nintendo DS called Scribblenauts, I did not expect much. It seemed like a decent side-scroller, and since I am too old to play 3D games without getting motion sickness (at this young age I have been trapped in the age of Mario), I thought I’d give this a try. To my pleasant surprise, Scribblenauts turned out to be one of the most impressive games I have ever seen. The premise is that your main character Maxwell has a magic notepad (shown above), in which you can write ANYTHING and it will produce it for him. For example, in order to get the star from the picture above, you could write “ladder,” “box,” “trampoline,” or anything you might step on. I’ve tried a couple really random ones like “triceratops” and “evangelist,” and the game did not fail me. As long as the word is not a proper noun or vulgar, the notebook will grant your wish in lieu of Japanese cartoon icon Doraemon. And it made me say, good golly, games have evolved.

I was born in Masan, a small city on the Southeastern coast of Korea, famous for its textile industry and steamed monkfish. My memories there are hazy, for my family moved to the neighboring town of Changwon when I was 2 or 3, and stayed there until 1999. The capital of Kyungsangnam-do Province, Changwon was just starting to develop when I moved there. The first city in Korea to be planned before built, it boasts wide and open roads that cannot be found anywhere else in the country, a giant traffic circle in its center, as well as beautiful parks and reservoirs for leisurely post-dinner walks. Honestly, it was a great town to live in, and even greater now that they have built a few malls and theaters. Of course, they waited to develop it into the semi-metropolis it is today until I left the country.

My family relocated to Albany, NY area in 1999 with my father’s job transfer. Having had only a month’s notice before getting on the plane, I hit the language barrier head-on and hard. There would be days when I wouldn’t get to say a word while at school. It took me good six months to start expressing myself and, in the loose sense of the word, communicating. This is also when I picked up the guitar to deal with loneliness. Fortunately, by the time I graduated high school, I had overcome my linguistic challenges.

I liked my chemistry teachers a little too much in high school, and ended up getting a B.S. in chemistry at Boston College. I did not feel like pursuing a career in science, however, and I went through a few teaching and marketing jobs before finding out how much I love web design. I have been freelancing as a web designer for about 9 years now, creating websites for bands and local businesses. Feel free to look through my portfolio and related resume if you are interested in my services.

I am now located in Chicago, IL in the lovely Lincoln Park area. I enjoy playing my guitar, listening to music, running down the beach, cooking at home, classy movies and occasional glasses of scotch. I speak Korean, English, and enough Japanese to get by. So, as boring as this entry has been, this is my story so far.

Find out more about me on Twitter and MySpace!