Poking around on your iPod touch can be fun but those who have owned one know that it’s a horrible fingerprint magnet especially the chrome back panel. But then the fingerprints at the back are the least of your problems. The front display, being glossy and bordered in black makes for annoying smudges that can obscure your view.

I can see those rolling eyes and those thought balloons saying you could just wash your hands before you use the damn thing. Yeesh!

Anyways, I previously had a screen guard that I purchased when I first bought my iPod Touch. My mobile phones always have sticker-type screen guards so obviously, I’d get one for a screen as large as the iPod Touch. But I had earlier just picked a regular glossy type screen guard from Capdase that only covered the screen area and not the surrounding black border. And at some point it got a scratch from God-knew-where.

While we were at the Apple store in Greenhills yesterday, I saw an iPod Touch 3rd Gen on display and it had a matte finish screen guard. I asked the lady in the store if they had it on stock and she said yes. It was a bit expensive but I willingly forked over the money just so I could have the matte finish surface on my iPod Touch that I had always wanted. I don’t like glossy computer screens and prefer a matte finish especially on my laptop monitor. And since I use my iPod Touch pretty much like a pocket computer while I’m walking around the house, I wanted the same surface on it. So there, a good amount of cash less, but with a matte finish surface iPod Touch.

So here’s the screen guard that I’ll be installing onto my iPod Touch. There are other types of screen guards being sold by Capdase like the privacy guard which darkens the screen if you view your iPod at an angle so they wouldn’t be able to watch your dolphin-care videos while they sit beside you on the bus. But I had that on my PSP before and it darkened my screen too much it was annoying.

Removed the clear plastic hard case and gave the screen a good rub-down. Need to make sure the surface is completely dust-free before I apply the new screen guard.

Removed the previous screen guard I had on. There was some accumulated dust around the screen guard and I had to clean that off too. >_<

Once I had my screen completely cleaned, I got the new screen guard and began applying it onto my iPod Touch. As you can see in the image above, the surface is different from the iPod Touch’s glossy surface. Also, it covers the entire face of the iPod Touch which is neat. No more dust accumulating around my screen.

Since I was still a newbie on applying screen guards (I normally have the store people apply it so if it gets messed up, it would be on them), there were a couple of times where some bits of dust got in between the iPod screen and the screen guard. I had to get some scotch tape to remove the dust particles without smudging the adhesive part of the screen guard.

After a couple of tries, I finally managed to put the screen guard on properly (making the hole on the screen guard match the home button on the iPod took up most of my time. >_<

So now, Winslow, my iPod Touch, has a nice matte surface on the screen. It kinda dims my view when I’m under direct sunlight but I prefer that over strong glare and fingerprints every where. In the image above, I have already replaced the clear plastic case. I was thinking of getting a different colored one but I also liked the chrome finish at the back so I stuck to the clear plastic version.

What do you use to protect your iPod Touch/iPhone?

Updated my desktop. Screenshot above. Wallpaper source here. Samurize config changes were only on the icon color from black to white and font color from black to white. Everything else remains the same.

I do love photography much, but I love admiring other people’s work just as much and wish I could shoot as good as they do. A colleague of mine, and fellow blogger, Maki, showed me a type of photography I did not know existed until I actually saw her work. It’s called infrared photography.

Wikipedia on IR Photography:

In infrared photography, the film or image sensor used is sensitive to infrared light. The part of the spectrum used is referred to as near-infrared to distinguish it from far-infrared, which is the domain of thermal imaging. Wavelengths used for photography range from about 700 nm to about 900 nm. Usually an “infrared filter” is used; this lets infrared (IR) light pass through to the camera, but blocks all or most of the visible light spectrum (the filter thus looks black or deep red).

When these filters are used together with infrared-sensitive film or sensors, very interesting “in-camera effects” can be obtained; false-color or black-and-white images with a dreamlike or sometimes lurid appearance known as the “Wood Effect,” an effect mainly caused by foliage (such as tree leaves and grass) strongly reflecting in the same way visible light is reflected from snow^[1]. There is a small contribution from chlorophyll fluorescence, but this is extremely small and is not the real cause of the brightness seen in infrared photographs. The effect is named after the infrared photography pioneer Robert W. Wood, and not after the material wood, which does not glow under infrared.

The other attributes of infrared photographs include very dark skies and penetration of atmospheric haze, caused by reduced Rayleigh scattering and Mie scattering, respectively, compared to visible light. The dark skies, in turn, result in less infrared light in shadows and dark reflections of those skies from water, and clouds will stand out strongly. These wavelengths also penetrate a few millimeters into skin and give a milky look to portraits, although eyes often look black.

What I find amazing with this kind of photography is the surreal effect that it does and the amazing contrast the is produced in the pictures especially nature shots like tree foliage. You could almost see every leaf detailed out in the photo. There are also some very stunning shots of nature being reflected on glassy water which is absolutely amazing.

Her love  for photography and travel mixes well since she mainly shoots landscape photos and the images that she produces are absolutely stunning!

Hit up her blog for more of Maki’s amazing work in infrared photography. You can also see more of her photos in her flickR page.

So I finally managed to put my design into print. I tried to keep the design as simple as possible.

Why would I need business/name cards? For networking purposes as well as to save the time to pull out a pen and piece of paper to write down a number. Also, it helps establish my identity as a blogger. At least one who’s trying to be serious about it.

I won’t deny that I was inspired by Danny Choo’s portrait design for his business cards. Since my winterheim|hdd logo is pretty much what it’s going to be for the rest of God-knows-when, I was ok with the idea of putting some sort of branding on my name cards.

I’ll probably use these in Mark aka coffeebugg’s upcoming Blogger’s Dinner around December, unless I do end up going to some other event that I can trade these off sooner than that.

Took some snapshots of some stuff that you’d almost constantly find at my desk. I know I have been shooting a lot of my toys from my desk but there are a good number of things that I use or that help me with my work or at least help decorate my desk aside from them cute Nendoroids. Here are some of them.

My iPod Touch provides my music while I'm at work. I also take over an hour to almost two hours going to the office and around the same time going back so my iPod keeps my company during the long trip.

I need my keys. Keys for a lot of things, like my house, my locker, even my USB drives are in this keychain. Rosemount is the division I'm under in the company I work for.

After I got this mouse during my long trip to Europe, I already have a hard time using wired/cable mice. When I end up leaving this at home or at the office over the weekend, I'm not in such a good mood working or surfing at home over the weekend.

I'm forcing myself to develop the habit of meeting the 8 glass requirement for water daily. My cold cup helps me with that.

Although I work with minimal paper, I like having a small bin full of pins and clips and other small stuff. Adds color to my desk and something to scrounge around in during the rare moments that I'm bored at the office.

I have a bigger coffee cup but during the times when I just need one small cup of coffee to wake me up, the Zeon 8th MS team military cup is more than enough to perk me up. Coffee drip was from Saizen at Php85 a pop.

I easily focus on my work when I'm listening to my music and can't hear anything else. But sometimes, I don't like having something bulky on my head. So these earbuds serve both purposes quite well. Got these a couple of months ago from Republ1c. They're worth every peso I spent on them.

Got this when I was in the US for Thanksgiving last year. This scent only comes out around Christmas season. Candy + apple scent = me likey. So I got me a couple of bottles o' these.

Remember the A(H1N1) scare? I had these on standby at my desk and in my bag just in case there's an outbreak at my office. It's still hanging on my corkboard.

I love these donuts and treat my team to it every so often by bringing two dozen donuts and let them at it. I have the donut range on my corkboard for reference when I have a donut craving then run across the street from my building to get a dozen.

I carry Miku-chan, my WD Passport around with me anywhere I go (well, not when I go to the pooper). I'm looking into buying a second one soon since I'm already running out of space inside Miku-chan.

These are cross-sections of some of the items we work with and sell to our customers. It's called a T-shaped annubar. They give these out as tiny goodies to customers. They're basically cut up pieces of actual annubars that are attached to our products.

So these are some of the items you would normally find in my desk. What do you have on yours?