// Convert the number into a short - you can make this a little more safe by using short.TryParse instead
short mycode = Convert.ToInt16("27941");

// Now convert that integer into a byte array
byte[] mybytes = BitConverter.GetBytes(mycode);

// We have our byte array, convert to a string! Tada!
string mystring = Encoding.Unicode.GetString(mybytes);

And there we have it. In order to parse all the unicode encoded numbers out, you just need a simple regular expression which I’m sure you can figure out.

I hope that helps someone out there, because it took me some time inspecting variables in order to get it right.

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Cambodian Comics & Web Comic
Mon, Mar 8 7:30 pm Mon, Mar 8 8:30 pm

John Weeks, comic researcher and an entrepreneur living in Cambodia is visiting us at hackerspace.sg this Monday. He will be talking about Cambodian comics. John is also keen on discussing the future comics. John is a member of ‘think tank’ Sang Salapak, co-founder of House 32 Web Design, and advisor to nonprofit publisher Our Books as well as numerous other organisations. He enjoys sharing his interests via blogging, drawing and varied writings. John’s opinions on art, culture, and technology have been cited in publications ranging from Time and USA Today to Punk Planet. Web: http://www.jweeks.net

ABAF Cocktails
Tue, Mar 9 7:00 pm Wed, Mar 10 1:00 am

We are hosting the Asian Business Angel Forum Cocktails and After Party for them. ABAF brings together for the first time early-stage venture players and participants: angel networks, investors, startup companies, policy makers, fund managers, and investment professionals from across Asia, Europe and the US.

Book Club Meetup
Wed, Mar 10 7:30 pm Wed, Mar 10 10:30 pm

We’ll be reading and discussing The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde – we’re a small but open group – all who’ve read the book or are interested literature are welcome.

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2 months ago, Mariko from LG approached me to do a review of their latest LCD monitor, the LG W2486L. I thought, “Hey, why not?” not quite knowing what I was getting myself into. Among all my other friends that got a unit to review, it seems like not everyone had an idea how to review this. It is a little tough to review a monitor, but hey, I’m going to try and I hope you find this useful.

Table of Contents

Specifications
Notables
My Take
Summary
Photos

Specifications

Notables

The LG W2486L is surprisingly thin and light, weighing in only at 3kg (4kg with weighted stand) and 2 cm thick. The blacks are really black due to the high contrast ratio at 2,000,000:1. Essentially what LG has done with the LG W2486L is to scale down their already great TVs into a 24″. When I first got this monitor, it was marketed to me as being a slim and light monitor. To me, I don’t think that’s a huge plus point except for the fact that it will be easier to carry it home and set it up. But once you’re done with it, you don’t really bother about the weight or the slimness. Oh well, that’s just me.

There are 2 HDMI ports available for any HDMI capable devices to use this as your monitor/TV. This means you can plug in your Sony PS3, DVD player, or even your laptop/computer that supports HDMI and use this monitor for your other devices too. You can switch which input to display on your monitor from the menu, which is pretty similar to how you would switch the input for your TV. See what I mean when I say it’s a miniature TV?

Beside the 2 HDMI ports are the DVI and standard VGA ports. If you notice that blue hole there, that is for your speakers. There isn’t any internal speakers in this monitor, and for those who wants to plug in your HDMI device that outputs audio too, this is where you have to plug in your speakers in order to have sound.

Notice the Cinema Mode? Yes. I love the Cinema Mode, especially when watching any videos. You have to see it to believe the difference it makes. Need I repeat again? This is not a monitor but a miniature TV. It has a time control that allows you to turn off the monitor after certain hours. This is good for falling asleep in front of your monitor/TV. It also has a SMART eco-friendly setting that somehow reduces your power usage.

There is a zooming tool (EZ Zooming) inbuilt into the monitor, but I don’t quite see the point in doing that when there are tools out there for your computers to do the same. However, if it is for your HDMI device, then I do see some point in having that feature. Similarly with the photo effects. Maybe one of the things you can do with this monitor/TV is to display your pictures directly from some HDMI device and add special photo effects. I don’t know, it puzzles me.

My Take

So here’s my take on this monitor. As a developer, I require the amount of space, and I stare at the screen very regularly. I’ve used many monitors in my lifetime and I can safely say that this monitor does not strain my eyes after staring at it for long hours. The reason is simply the intelligent auto back light adjustment with the light sensor located just below the power touch key (shown above). This light sensor detects your ambient surroundings and adjusts the brightness of your monitor based on the amount of light available in the room. However, remember not to cover that sensor with papers or other accessories as it really screws up the adjustment. I did that, and that’s how I found out where the light sensor was. You can turn on and off this feature from the menu.

I didn’t really like the fact that I wasn’t able to tilt and adjust the angle of the monitor due to the fact that it is locked down to a specific angle, much like their TVs. You have to adjust the height with some books to lift the screen up to a proper height lest you’ll strain your neck. Also, the inability to rotate the monitor makes it difficult for me as a developer to fully utilize the monitor’s real estate to its full potential, that is to display as many lines of code in 1 screen as possible. However, with that said, these points are not really a big deal and it is a “good to have”. This will not stop me from purchasing this monitor for its brilliant display.

Summary

If you’re looking for a monitor that is essentially a miniature TV with a stunning display for your computer, this is the monitor for you. LG has taken what they’ve done so well with their TVs (I own an LG TV and I really love it) and shrunk it down to a consumable 24″ size for daily PC usage. Not only that, it provides HDMI ports for you to plug in any HDMI capable device and directly display it on this monitor. It doubles up nicely as a TV. I would recommend this monitor for home consumers who wants both a TV and a monitor. But if you want a TV, this is not for you. I would recommend you to fork out another SGD$300 and purchase one of the LG TVs instead.

However, if you’re like myself who require the full real estate of the screen and works on it for a long period of time, I do not recommend this monitor simply because of the inability to adjust the angle of the screen and rotate the screen. This monitor is not geared towards normal work related usage, but more gaming, multimedia, and graphics.

If I had 1 quotable line to say about this monitor, it will be this: “The LG W2486L is a 24″ TV with a DVI, VGA output and no speakers.”

+ TV capabilities
- Adjusting the angle and tilt of the monitor

Well, I hope you find this review useful. Do post any comments or ask any questions and I’ll do my best to answer all of them. Till the next time, cheers!

Photos

Other Reviews

TechieLobang – LG 24-Inch LED Monitor W2486L Review
Nanyate – Review: LG Monitor W2486L
Lester Chan – LG Monitor W2486L Review

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Hackerspace Hack Time
Mon, Mar 1 6:00 pm Mon, Mar 1 11:59 pm

We currently have the following projects being worked on – Sucktionator, Water Rocket, Stop Motion Animation, and many other miscellaneous projects currently worked on by our members. So come join in and hack on any of your projects!

Singapore Ruby Brigade Meetup
Wed, Mar 3 7:00 pm Wed, Mar 3 10:00 pm

This month, the topic for our regular Ruby meetup will be on Rails 3. That’s right! Rails 3 Beta was released last month, and we’re meeting up to discuss about what’s new with Rails 3, and possibly how it impacts your current Rails code. I always love a good Ruby discussion.

Introduction to Programming for Beginners Workshop (1/2)
Thu, Mar 4 7:30 pm Thr, Mar 4 10:00 pm

Please note this event is by registration only.

If you have always wondered how computer programs are written and whether you can write a program yourself here is your chance to find out! Over a 2-session workshop you will learn some of the fundamentals of programming and start writing your first programs almost at once! The workshop is designed to be hands-on and fun for complete beginners. We will be using the Python programming language. If you have always wondered how computer programs are written andwhether you can write a program yourself here is your chance to findout! Over a 2-session workshop you will learn some of the fundamentals of programming and start writing your first programs almost at once! The workshop is designed to be hands-on and fun for complete beginners. We will be using the Python programming language.

Online and Tech culture in Cambodia
Fri, Mar 5 7.30 pm Fri, Mar 5 8.30 pm

We will have two popular Cambodian bloggers visiting us on Friday, 5th March. Nearirath is a lawyer and one of the  Barcamp Phnom Penh organizers. Kounila is a writer and is currently planning her first documentary film. They will be talking about the adoption of technology and online culture in Cambodia and tech events in Cambodia.

GenJuice Meetup
Sat, Mar 6 6:00 pm Sat, Mar 6 9:00 pm

It’s basically a meet-up for young people to “get together to discuss their goals and how they market themselves to reach those goals.” (from the site). A personal branding meetup for young people, if you will. RSVP here.

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Even though obesity is not as rampant in Singapore as the US or the UK, but we still need to be aware of what could happen. The Singapore Health Promotion Board is doing a great job right now curbing the increase number of obese children, but with the effluence of current society in Singapore, are we slowly moving towards becoming an obese society, especially when eating is a common past-time, more importantly eating out? I think we need to continue to be cautious and promote a healthy lifestyle.

Here is an article from 2008 on Obesity Prevention and Control Efforts in Singapore which I think touches on various issues and initiatives by the Singapore Health Promotion Board to control obesity.

How can you do your part in this fight? Teach your children, educate your parents. Always have a balanced meal – grains, meat, vegetables and dairy.

Are you making a difference to fight obesity today?

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Demo: Phones for a “Life in Motion”

See how Windows® Phone 7 Series reorganizes the phone, Web and applications to deliver a mobile experience that will help make the most of customers’ busy lives.

Partner Support for Windows Phone 7 Series

See what Microsoft partners are saying about Windows Phone 7 Series

Behind the Design

Albert Shum, Director of Mobile Experience Design at Microsoft, discusses the design inspiration for Windows® Phone 7 Series.

Windows Phone 7 Series Demo

See what happens when you push the envelope. Check out this video to get a first-hand look at the latest Windows Phone that brings your people, photos, music, and video into an unrivaled mobile experience. With a holistic design that brings together web content, applications and services into a single view, phones worships you now, not the other way around.

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I’ll be primarily in these 3 major cities:

Vancouver, Canada

Seattle, US

Seoul, South Korea

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Color Theory for Designers, Part 1: The Meaning of Color

Color in design is very subjective. What evokes one reaction in one person may evoke a very different reaction in somone else. Sometimes this is due to personal preference, and other times due to cultural background.

Color Theory For Designers, Part 2: Understanding Concepts And Terminology

If you’re going to use color effectively in your designs, you’ll need to know some color concepts and color theory terminology. A thorough working knowledge of concepts like chroma, value and saturation is key to creating your own awesome color schemes.

Color Theory for Designer, Part 3: Creating Your Own Color Palettes

Here we’ll be talking about methods for creating your own color schemes, from scratch. We’ll cover the traditional color scheme patterns (monochrome, analogous, complementary, etc.) as well as how to create custom schemes that aren’t based strictly on any one pattern.

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We had Michael Sync talk about the new features of Silverlight 4.0. We had a bunch of guys who came from Microsoft Singapore to witness the formation of this group. We had about 10 people who turned up just to join the group! After that, we had a great discussion on MEF with Silverlight, F# and C# language features, and various other discussions on the side. I thought it was a great night with a good mix of discussions, random thoughts, Mac vs Windows clashes, and I hope that the community loved it.

Our next meeting will be sometime in March, so look out for the announcements!

Take a look at some of the photos.

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Singapore Silverlight User Group
Wed, Feb 10 7:00 pm Tue, Feb 10 10:00 pm

This is the FIRST meeting of the FIRST Silverlight User Group in Singapore, and it is also the FIRST time we have a Microsoft-oriented event at HackerspaceSG. Yes. That’s right. There will be a very short lap around Silverlight 4.0, followed by a discussion based meeting. Come and join the fun if you’re writing Silverlight applications, or if you’re interested to find out more.

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