Must Vegie, no Belly: Computers and Internet

DreamScene Preview

Wed, 14 Feb 2007 23:38:09 GMT

I just found that I haven't been writing anything for months... so here is something I wanna share:

DreamScene - a free component for Windows Vista Ultimate Edition, allows you to use video files as your wallpaper and play it. Of course it wont play the sound, and it may not be very productive. But at the technical-side of it, it's very cool!

This free thinggy isn't final version... it's just a preview version so I guess there are few issues to work out. But it looks so damn good already (see screenie below).

One down-side is that, if you use dual-screen you may be out of luck, as your video card may not have big enough texture size to support both of your screens.

Say goodbye to XP

Sun, 27 Aug 2006 19:39:14 GMT

With the new build of Vista (pre-RC1 build 5536) on hand, I guess I can say good bye to XP on my desktop.

So what's with this Vista this time? Applications work fine (next to 100%), no more app crashes, no more slowness of GUI and app, no more BSOD, no more weird fundamental GUI bugs that plague the OS (ie: scrollbars turn black when you need it), etc...

Okay, there paradise is here, but I have a feeling that I feel this way cuz the older builds were just not as competitive as this one. So here's the where this Vista ticks off:

- 550MB RAM usage at boot up

- 10GB diskspace usage for a clean install (including PFs), compare to the 7GB in build 5472 and in Japanese version of build 5536 (Why?!)

- Upgrade from XP is just too long compare to a clean install. Upgrade: over an hour; Clean install: just 20 minutes!!!

- File Types customization is too limited. In XP we could still change the file icon if we want to, through a little complex GUI; In Vista there isn't any GUI that does this, the option is just GONE! (while you can still change the program association for file types in a simple GUI though)

- Not much GUI coloring customization in Vista. Yeah surely you can change the colours for window borders, but what if you want to change the Green toolbar in Explorer, or the Blue toolbar in Windows Mail, or the Purple/Silver toolbar in IE? Okay, maybe I'm being a bitch on these FIXED colourizations, but at least I should be able to change the text shadow of the dialog's title, especially when I changed the color for windows border to be BLACK! Yes I can change the text to be white, but the text shadows are also white, which blurs the text into a funny looking clouds!

Yup, but still, I guess I can finally use this as my primary OS and really test this thing out.

Digital Data Management

Wed, 02 Aug 2006 15:38:39 GMT

I'm a very unorganized person. I do clean up my surroundings once a while, but after a while things pile up again. It's the same to my digital contents, which most of them are organized, but new ones are wandering around throughout my file system.

2 years ago, when I watched the Bill Gate's keynote in Longhorn PDC 2003, I thought to myself, "There must be a more automatic way, a more intelligent way, and a more intuitive way to organize (sort, group, categorize), manage (move, copy, delete, create, modify), and collect (search, filter, and relationship) digital data.

When I say digital data, I dont mean files only. Of course, pictures, musics, video files are digital data. But digital data is much more, such as music album, picture album, video series (tv show, anime, movie series), contacts, calendars and schedules, and much more.

Right now we use many software to fulfill the goals for every single type of digital data. Each of them use their own derived formats and interfaces. Even though their format may have their advantages, and their UI maybe so intuitive, the whole experience is rather fraction.

The main difference between a MacOS and a Windows is that, in Windows, you use explorer and find the file, double click to do actions to the file such as open it with a program. In MacOS, you open a program, then tell the program to look for the files you want. So the simple way to say is that, in Windows, it's file-based (file first, then programs); but in MacOS, it's program-based (programs first, then files).

But this aspect of Windows is getting destroyed by all these different software that has their own database storing everything in a single file, which makes Windows Explorer completely useless if I were to find an entry within the database (ie: finding a contact within a contact database of a program).

I feel more and more like I'm using a MacOS instead of a Windows just because of this and you know what, it really ticks me off and annoying. So I started myself a data-browser-like program that will allow plugins and operates with a set of client + server software. While I have such ideas, I do need some opinions of what other people might think about this "data management". Please share some of your thoughts with me. Thanks~ Below is a prototype photo of what my program look like

Dell's laptops are explosives.. in another sense

Thu, 22 Jun 2006 18:18:40 GMT

As laptops (or notebooks) gain its popularity among students and mobile work force, so as the possibilities of what the laptop do to you. We have heard of laptop overheating burnt skin of lap, and battery failure cause short-circuit and other problem. While all these are rather common, this one reported at theinquirer.net here is certainly unheard-of.

A Dell laptop explodes during a Japanese conference. The cause of it is unknown, and little is known about the laptop itself, such as the model, the OS and programs it was running, and the owner/primary user of the laptop.

It is also unknown whether Dell is aware of this incident though~

photos of the explosion are posted here: http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=32550

update: Dell is aware of the news cover. It appears the conference was being held in Osaka in Japan, and Dell spokeman stressed that "it appeared unconnected to a battery overheating problem" and is investigating the cause of the incident/accident.

Yahoo! Mail - An arguably nicer UI for AJAX-like free web mail service

Thu, 08 Jun 2006 20:32:28 GMT

I've been using Google Mail, Yahoo! Mail, and Windows Live Mail (Hotmail) for quite some time. As I could finally use Yahoo! Mail beta in my IE7, here's my thoughts about all 3 beta services:

Google Mail beta:

- A creative way to manage e-mails and replies/forwards. It definitely makes reply-checking and information linking much easier.

- The response speed is the fastest, including inbox/msg loading and such.

- A simple and clear (but not plain) user interface.

- First web-mail I use that has a AJAX like interface, though functionality and implementations are quite limited.

Windows Live Mail beta:

- Not as fast as Google Mail, but things are quite fast once the inbox is loaded.

- UI are responsive and fast.

- I liked how I double-click on an e-mail it shows the e-mail in the same window, and instead of loading the inbox again when I clicked on Inbox, it merely shows the inbox that was previously shown, to decrease loading time.

- UI is simple and plain, but not intuitive. As most (if not all) UI elements are in flat style, it contradicts with the user interface users have been using in Windows and other OS.

- UI options are easy to access, if user ever finds the right button to click on. Yes, the options are NOT in the Settings/Options section, which is so weird.

Yahoo! Mail beta:

- Finally support IE7 beta2

- The best UI of the 3 here. The loading time for the UI graphics and such isn't long at all.

- The idea of tabs is helpful, so now I wont be opening 4-5 inbox tabs within the same IE window.

- The responsiveness of the UI is way too slow, especially the scroll bar which contents are loaded again during scrolling.

- Couple of UI bugs regarding incomplete double-click

- Ads take quite alot of space and so noticable!

- Ads get changed too often (possibly a bug), especially when repeatedly scroll up and down in inbox.

- The inability of having 2 or more e-mails opened in tabs is a minus!

Though the UI of Yahoo! Mail is slow to response, it's the best looking so far (to me). Here's how it looks like in inbox.

First Decommission Computer

Sat, 06 May 2006 22:31:48 GMT

There was a week during my exams that two of the computers (a P4 and P2) at my home went down all of the sudden. Since I was having exams I don't bother touching them, but now I can. The cause of dead for the P4 is yet unknown, while the P2's HDD is dead for some reason. Since there isn't any HDD that my P2 supports nowadays, it's time to take the HDD from my P1 and -> decommission the P1.

The machine came a little more than 9 years ago, as a nicely package with a 15" CRT, speakers and printer. It was my first computer in Canada, and was so much faster over my 80-386 (I still have it here!). It's also the third time I use Windows 95, while my cousin-in-law was explaining this and that (the Display Properties).

I soon ditched the computer since year of 98, when my dad bought a P2, and my bro took over my P1. I still remember there was a day I dropped my original HDD (1.6GB) on the floor and charged (fried) it. So I had to get a 6.4GB HDD (which was $200+) for replacement to my bro :-S I used the P2 until 2001, and since then the P1 hasn't been much used. It had 2 HDDs, one died at some day for no reason, while the other one is now at my P2.

I have a question, where do I dump these obsolete computer hardware to? Is there a place to recycle these?

Mini Review on Vista build 5365

Mon, 24 Apr 2006 01:44:01 GMT

For those who aren't in the beta but want some review on it, here's my mini review on build 5365

Goods:
1. Changes to the UAC are pretty good, it gets much less annoying. I like the darken screen with the UAC warning at the front, it really emphasize the importance of the message.

2. The usability of Task Manager is greatly improved.
3. New Wallpapers are very nice, they come in different categories too.

4. Sidebar gadgets are working perfectly (as it was so buggy in build 5342).
5. Installation was relatively faster than previous builds, and the job descriptions gave me a sense of what it is doing.
6. New Screensavers, I like the bubble one; New user picture, though I got a strange user picture in the 5342 upgrade which is not in list.
7. Most Aero Glass issues are now gone.
8. Upgrade works from build 5342 to 5365, good!

9. Platform is solid, stable, and fast.

10. It works with Symantec Anti-Virus that I have, no more "Auto-Protected failed to start" messages

Bads:
1. Old gadgets in build 5342 no longer functions in 5365, and not removed during upgrade.
2. WerFault.exe runs for 2 seconds when explorer.exe is loading a folder
(with Aero Glass running), means everytime I browse a folder I have to wait
at least 2 seconds (sometimes it loads up 3 times so took about 8 seconds to
bring up a folder) regardless how many files/folders in the folder.
3. There's still a "Desktop" in ALT+TAB, WIN+TAB. And the Desktop wallpaper
isn't spanned underneath the Task bar, so either there's no wallpaper under
the task bar or showing the wrong wallpaper when changing the wallpaper to a
different one.
4. Where's my explorer's in-place filter?! I was filtering WebFault.exe in
the system32 folder, but ended up searching the entire folder (including
subfolder)... I really miss the filtering.
5. Still no link/button to opens up the Second Display Configuration wizard
from Personalization/Display Settings. I don't know how to bring that
wizard up... Any help?

6. The Desktop layer still appears in WIN+TAB and ALT+TAB

7. The time zone and time bug is still there.

8. The progress bar in setup is mis-leading, as it draws out of bound.

9. The information pane in explorer is now in light blue, I still prefer the dark green pane.

If you have any questions, e-mail me or msg me through msn. I'll happily answer your question under the bound of Non-disclosure guidance.

Windows Live Messenger 8 looks nice.

Fri, 16 Dec 2005 04:41:14 GMT

If you haven't heard of what it is, it's basically the upcoming version of MSN Messenger that replaces the current ones. It features a slicker UI (user interface) with other features such as offline messages (finally!).

Most testers think the UI is nicely done, while a small portion of testers think it's bulky and space-wasting. Certainly, the UI with default settings (with tabs and such enabled) would look ugly, but once you disable the tabs, and somehow manages to remove the advertisements, then everything looks amazing!

P.S. exam tomorrow, and just did some exercise with snow removal - got me worn out.

Office 12 BETA

Thu, 10 Nov 2005 22:48:19 GMT

I just received notification of acceptance of entering Microsoft Office 12 (the upcoming version) beta. As alot of tech news sites state, Office 12 will come with a major revamped UI and tons of other enhancements to make things done easier and faster. Can't wait to use it :D

A file missing in a beta build

Wed, 26 Oct 2005 19:52:11 GMT

I'm in a bottleneck and need to find the right way to go - either staying inside the bottle or, squeeze myself out of it... here's the deal:

I'm in the technical beta testing project for the next version of Windows, which "beta" means software yet-to-be-released. A build is a version of a software (project) that is compiled (or packaged) internally. That means I'm not getting every single build, but rather builds with certain QA (Quality Assurance) control there. So here's what I got... I got a new build installed, and it has a software that lets me watch TV in it (the Media Center). I'm using XP that has the same thing, so I'm not really amazed~ What I'm amazed of is - my TV card driver isn't compatible with the new Media Center?!?! My first thought is the stupid ATI is too slow to roll out proper driver for the beta Windows~ Yet I found another stuning news - the real cause of the inability for me to watch TV in the beta Windows - A FREAKEN FILE IS MISSING!

so I have 2 options:

1 - continue the testing without touching the TV part, but when I want to watch TV I'll have to reboot into XP!

2 - to get the missing file from the older build I have. But that would invalidate the bugs I'll possibly find in Media Center cuz I'm using a file from older build~

which one should I take?

New Home Server

Sun, 16 Oct 2005 00:28:45 GMT

I finally got my hands to assemble a server with some spare and new parts. When I bought my barebone case more than a year ago, I've left my old computer in corner of my room with a working motherboard, video card, DVD ROM, and a floppy drive. So if I were to get a server, I would need a CPU, RAM, and HDD (harddrive). Don't underestimate these 3 things as they may cost you hundreds (which it did to me).

My barebone desktop has a P4 2.4Ghz CPU, with a 80GB hard drive. I thought - if I were to buy another P4 2.4Ghz since it's the cheapest and slowest P4 you would get nowadays, why don't I replace the 2.4Ghz CPU on my desktop with a more powerful one, and re-use it in the server? I have also been always complaining about storage shortage problem. So here's what I was planning to get:

- P4 3.0Ghz socket 478 (P4 3.0E) with HyperThreading- $223

- SD-RAM 168pin (yeah the DIMM one, not DDR) 512MB - $118

- Seagate 200GB 7200rpm hard drive - $117

As my old motherboard supports both DDR and SD-RAM, I thought the decision to buy another out-dated SD-RAM is stupid, so I added about $10+ more and get 2 DDR 512MB (in total of 1GB of RAM) :D

Since my desktop is a barebone case, which the power supply unit (PSU) has a relatively small power output (200W only). For a P4 2.4Ghz with Radeon 9550 as its video card, it's more than enough; but what if it's a P4 3.0 wHT? Originally I would rather reduce the clock speed down to 2.8Ghz just to make things easier, but heck~ I'm running it at full speed and it seems fine (for now)~ And my lovely 200GB hard drive behaves just as it should (though it's made in China instead of Singapore). One thing I noticed when I was playing around in BIOS - I limited my Radeon 9550 to have 64MB and use AGP 4x, which it actually has 128MB and supports AGP 8x!!!! OMG I can't believe I did such a silly mistake! So now the desktop is working fine, but what about the server?

A year ago when I made my switch from my old computer to this new barebone case, I had few reasons to back me up with such a risk-investment:

- The case definitely looks nice!

- The case definitely is small!

- My old computer crashes too frequently, while I can't determine which hardware is the cause. I suspected the motherboard didn't like the video card, and vice versa. So when I made a switch back then, I take out my CPU, RAM, HDD, DVD burner, and my video card and put it in my new case. It turns out my new computer crashes more often!!! So I made a switch of the video card and everything works out fine. So it's the video card's fault? I would like to give it another chance...

Now that "faulty" video card is in the server, and it still crashes like crazy. But there must be a way to fix it right...? I tried reducing the 64MB video card from 64MB to 32MB, 16MB, and 8MB - none of them works. Also, since I moved the HDD to the server, I'll have to set up my Windows again. In Windows Setup, it gives me different errors at different stage:

- Loading file problem, setup states loading certain file fails, probably due to file corruption (I know my CD is in good form)

- STOP (aka BSOD, or blue screen of death, the blue screen error message that appears when Windows encounters a serious error which cannot be recovered anything but a reset.) message while accessing HDD

- STOP when searching for previous Windows installation

- STOP when booting into Windows Setup

- STOP when booting into Bart's PE (with Windows XP SP1) CD

- STOP when copying files within the HDD in Bart's PE (with Windows XP SP1) CD

- STOP when accessing the MBR (master boot record) of the HDD

- STOP when accessing partition information

- STOP at NTFS.sys, Win2k.sys, and numerous of other drivers

If you think you're good at computer hardware troubleshooting and Windows, take a moment to guess what's wrong.

So here is what I know:

- The RAM is manufacturered by Kingston, which I'm sure 100% satisfactory, so RAM must function correctly.

- The HDD is just moved from desktop and it was working properly, so it's not HDD.

- The Motherboard is a suspect, but it's not so bad that it crashes everytime I set up Windows, so it's not it.

- The video card seems irrelavant to this incident, but I'll keep an eye on it.

So what's your guess?

It's the HDD IDE Cable! Luckily I got a spare one and replaced it, and it works perfectly fine with no crashes whatsoever now! Gosh, wasted 2 hours today, and countless time before~

OMGGGG!!!!!! There's still companies out there using 80-386 computers!!!!

Fri, 16 Sep 2005 21:07:49 GMT

HOLY SMOKE! Jonathan just told me today his newly-work company is using 80-386 computers (computers that are supposed to be retired 9 years ago)!!! OMG! You know nowadays processors are measured Ghz, and the slowest you may hear is 500Mhz; a typical 386 computer has about 50Mhz or LESS!! OMG!

Typing standards are falling~ sigh!!!

Mon, 01 Aug 2005 16:24:00 GMT

I know it's against the terms of use of the newsgroup in private beta, but I just find this post really outstanding. Here's the post:

I am very happy in this new beta program i hope i can contribute with all of
you thanks

After a issue with my videocard i hope that my windows vista rus softly i
have a tablet pc from acer the c112 and i upgrade to graphics driver
6.14.10.4363

every 3 or four restars i needed because the driver that comes with the beta
do a crash constantly with the new driver the system goes softly anyway the
instaler from intel say that the OS is not supported so you can need to go
to the tem foder before click ok on the message and copy the win2000 folder
to your desktop and upgrade the driver manualy

regards

Note there is no single "," and "." (except the version code) within the sentence. I'm not sure if you understand what this tester is saying (oh btw this is from Vista Beta newsgroup), but I certainly not understand a bit!~

Longhorn, I'm IN!

Thu, 28 Jul 2005 02:01:36 GMT

After all the confusion of my participation status being "Pending" for 10 days, with the official launch of Windows Vista BETA 1, I'm finally officially in the beta project.

At first I was nervous about not being "Active" in my beta participation status, as I read through the newsgroup of my Messenger 7.5 beta, I got a bunch of ppl that got "Pending" too. I was then assure about not only myself being left out, haha~

Anyways, this beta also includes Internet Explorer 7 BETA. I just installed it and it's cool so far, though it messed up the www.msn.ca site in some way (the CSS in www.msn.ca is probably malformed for this version of IE).

I lost my admin password

Sun, 05 Jun 2005 19:34:24 GMT

haha, XP is so weird. Today I was changing my password for my Windows account on both desktop and my laptop. Both are using XP SP2, and they both behave the same - unable to login since then~

I'm not exactly sure what I did wrong to my new passwords, but it turns out that both of my Windows dont recognize my new password nor my old one. I reseted my password on my desktop through the Admin account but here's the question - What's my password for my Admin on my laptop???!~ my laptop came with a pre-installed XP that didn't ask me for Admin password :S, I'm soooo stucked~

PS: today really isn't my day, all the other passwords I've changed are too - not working. I have to reset them one by one, grrrrrrrr~

Another PS: I finally found out my Admin account in my laptop has an "empty" password, but somehow it wouldn't let me login with the message saying "Fail to login due to account restriction"

Then: haha~ I booted into Safe Mode, where the Login Screen shows the Administrator account and I clicked on it, and VIOLA~ Thx God and Alice~

:edit: OMG, even the password on Neowin.net is not the one I edited. I really doubt if I changed the same WRONG password everywhere. But I'm quite sure I typed in my password right, unless my fingers are screwed~

My new laptop

Wed, 01 Jun 2005 05:28:22 GMT

This new laptop is one of my goal of going to Califonia~

Specifications:

Pentium M 1.2Ghz
Intel GME855 video (if i'm not mistaken) 64 shared DDR RAM
512 DDR RAM
60GB 4200rpm HDD
DVD+/-RW 2.4x
Integrated 802.11a/b/g, Bluetooth wireless

My satisfactory rate: 98%

Expectations:

Since the HDD's spinning rate is rather slow, the laptop runs kindda slow when multiple programs requires reading/writing on the HDD.
Sony's 10.6" LCD screen is as clear as usual. It's not those almost-180-degree-visible ones, but I did a side-by-side comparson with Fujitsu's 10.6" and somehow image/text on Sony's one is more clear.
light weight - it's almost 4lbs and it's feature rich
vid is using share RAM from the main 512MB - this is a tricky one. That means that I cant play GuildWars at full speed on this.

Unexpected:

the vid is unexpectedly one of the "unsupported" ones by GuildWars' manufacturer.
the battery is advertised as having 4hr to 8.5hr estimated battery life. While it's really estimated figures, but my laptop is playing music and doing not-HDD/CD intensive tasks and lasted for at least 6 hours. Not bad at all~
The FN button combinations do NOT work when it's not in Windows, that's the first. cuz my Fujitsu's FN combos are controled by BIOS instead of the OS.
802.11a/b/g wireless may have conflict with the bluetooth wireless if use simutaneously.
Not as much as heat I thought it would release when the lid is closed, that means less power is drawn through the board to the LCD = less heat = more battery life.
The Genuine Windows label at the bottom of the laptop is burnt a bit!!~

File Management

Sun, 24 Apr 2005 21:07:44 GMT

Have you ever think organizing your files on your computer is troublesome? Have you ever feel the Undo function your Word, Powerpoint, and other applications provide are not good enough? Have you ever tried to find a file located on your computer, a tiny file that you get it and forget it, and suddenly you wanna use it again?

I'm gathering opinions and user experiences on this criteria, which I find what generally called "File Management" nowadays is a hash experience. Having to manually move files across my harddrive, having to remember the filename of this and that, having to know the fact a file being overwritten is GONE FOREVER, having to know which files are on CDs/DVDs or not, having to know whetever my laptop is holding the more updated ones, or my desktop does..... There are simply too many (if not too much) capabilities you want your file manager (Windows Explorer in Windows, Finder in Mac OSX) to have.

Please leave a comment on any experience or any function you would like to have to help you organize your files, and being to load it fast and accurate.

The patent-hell freezes over

Sat, 23 Apr 2005 03:02:05 GMT

Holy cow, a company called "Forgent Network" is filing suits against companies that produce software / hardware that utilize JPEG image compression.

Of which the patent is granted in 1987, Forgent Network announced it holds the patent in 2001, and start suing companies which haven't been granted permission using this technology.

Despite about whoever is holding the patent of this technology. Is this patent really for JPEG image compression, as noted in the patent details [here], the patent applies to the image-compression used in Video, such as MPEG. While JPEG is a still-image technology, does this patent applies to JPEG as well?

News source: from Neowin.net [http://www.neowin.net/comments.php?category=main&viewchild_id=355605&id=28072#comment355618]