First glance at OpenSolaris 2008.05

After three years of incubation development, is the announcement of OpenSolaris 2008.05 release. OpenSolaris 2008.05 is the first official OpenSolaris release with support, but I expect there will be more release update after this. I take a quick look at it before the end of May (while it still fresh and hot).

OpenSolaris 2008.05 is LiveCD for desktop (but Solaris is always a server OS than a desktop OS), you can use the same LiveCD for installation as well. The 700Mb (685Mb) iso image can be downloaded from opensolaris.com, or opensolaris.org website.

With the release of OpenSolaris 2008.05, it also mark as an end of SXDE (Solaris Express Developer Edition). OpenSolaris is the quick peek at what may look like in Solaris 11. OpenSolaris should be binary compatible with Solaris 10, that means your device driver for Solaris 10 can be used in OpenSolaris as well(*).

If you are able to install OpenSolaris without much problems, congratulation. You may have nVidia video card and plenty of Ram. There are some problems that I have encounter that I want to share with you all.

1. Bloated desktop? The LiveCD running very slow on 512Mb Pentium 4 machine. May be the Java Desktop Environment take up a lot of Ram, but don't blame it on Java. Java Desktop Environment is not Java, is just a marketing term, is actually Gnome. I think Gnome are bloated. That's why some Solaris distribution like Belenix use XFCE for the Desktop.

2. Limited Driver support. Don't expect it work like Windows, boot successfully on most desktop hardware, even ubuntu linux will have better support than OpenSolaris 2008.05. For display, tested and work well with Nvidia and Intel video chipset, but ATI display may have some problem (a blur screen display).

Network is a very important device other than the video display, it could be much more important than the display. A very common Intel PRO100/VE network card is not included, even through driver provided by third party is available.

3. Limited installation mode. Unable to use VESA VGA or text mode for installation, if you can't get your display setup properly, you are in trouble.

4. Unable to load extra driver. Unable to load extra driver disk, if hard disk controller card (eg. HP Smart Array) is not supported, it was unable to install.

After all the bad comment, does OpenSolaris has any good? Yes.

New package system (IPS, Image Packaging System), may improve software installation process. There are more... which I am not listed here.

Not everyone need OpenSolaris, don't get it just because is open source. I have told you my reason here, so what's yours?

* You might need to change the name from 10 to 11.

Reference:
Review on zdnet.
Another installation review.

OpenSolaris 2008.05 release

I am not surprise Windows users don't like Solaris, because is unix and is difficult to use. Unix is like DOS, text base, do not have a easy to use installer. Some Windows users find that unix is difficult to use, because they can't locate where is the C drive, unix use a directory name for each data partition and not using alphabet to name the disk drive.

OpenSolaris release 2008.05 is free for download

I am surprise Linux users don't like Solaris, for the same reason -- Solaris is difficult to use. Even Linux and Solaris are unix base operating system, there are some minor differences. They have a different name for network device, the configuration file setting could be different, Solaris name their X-windows as openwindow, but basically both Linux and Solaris is quite similar.

Solaris is difficult to install. Yes, it could be difficult for new Solaris users, especially when they experience a driver problem (most common is the network driver problem). Without a rich driver support as Windows, install an operating system is always a problem. Linux is easier to install because the Linux users were using Red Hat 9.0, Fedora or Ubuntu. If these Linux users are using Linux since Slackware, they will have a different definition on what "difficult" means.

Install a software (including the operating system) is not really a big issue, it only need to be done for the first time, and sometimes it was done by the hardware engineer or system support engineer. The worst nightmare for software developer is, the piece of software that you write, keep crashing for an unknown reason, it could cause by your application, it could be the operating system, or may be is an unstable system API call in your coding.

I use Windows, I use Linux and I use Solaris. Solaris is my prefer software for server end operating system because Solaris is very stable. I have experience on using Solaris to run heavy loaded software for years without shutdown, it has good performance while running on old and low end Sun machines, eg. 50Mhz sparc CPU.

Sun Microsystems has release Solaris as open source and free for use, that is OpenSolaris, and it runs on x86 platform. So is easy for software developers to try it on their machine. The latest is 2008.05 release, available at opensolaris.org website, try it out today.

Powerful earthquake at Sichuan China

A 7.8-magnitude earthquake happen in Sichuan China this afternoon about 2pm.

When such a news and event happen, is time to test how fast the internet media can responds.

Shanghai can feel the earthquake too.
Originally uploaded by 2 dogs

The earthquake happen in Sichuan but Shanghai can feel the earthquake as well. More flickr photos here.

I search photobucket, but can't find related photos.

Hope the 900 students buried and trap under the collapsed building at Dujiangyan (都江堰) will be saved, let's pray hard for them. Another news here

Dujiangyan is a historical city which has more than 2000 years.

墨魚飯風波

日前香港發生一件社會小插曲，事情的經過在網上被廣泛地報導，引起網民的熱烈討論與媒體的關注。事情應該發生在四月中，約於四月二十九日在互聯網上被廣泛地報導。

事件過發生在香港某一港式快餐店，一位女顧客點了一客墨魚飯，可是椻台告之說沒有單賣墨魚飯，或許可以點六寶飯，內有墨魚。可是這位女顧客卻相當堅持地說，以前曾經點過墨魚飯，而且又只想吃墨魚飯。僵持了一陣子，快餐店員建議點六寶飯或是叉燒墨魚飯，最後女顧客就點了叉燒墨飯，不過卻要求叉燒與飯要分開置放，快餐店也允許這麼要求。

後來準備食物的阿叔又誤將叉燒與墨魚飯放置在一起，早前與椻台已有爭執的女顧客又再次與這位快餐店阿叔起了爭執，而這位阿叔脾氣亦不好，兩者互相對罵，而且越罵越兇，一發不可收拾。後來，女顧主將對罵的片段上載到 youtube 網站，引起軒然大波。大部份的網民都認為女事主小事化大，反而同情被調走的快餐店阿叔。

由於此一事件與早前“巴士阿叔“事件類似，所以又被稱作“快餐店阿叔“事件，或又稱為“墨魚阿姑“事件。這位女事主除了將錄影片段上載到 youtube 之外，也在網上說明經過，發表不滿。後來受到大批網民的口殊筆伐，就將文章與影片撤走，不過影片已經被其他人下載後，又再次放在 youtube 上。

從這次事件，我們又再次看到互聯網這種新媒體的力量。這些社會小插曲，若是投書到報紙與雜誌，可能不被受理，因為傳統的媒體畢竟受到版位的限制，沒有辦法報導每一個事件。而在互聯網上的媒體，“幾乎“沒有有版位的限制問題。事主選擇了在網上披露事情的經過，其影響也超越了傳統媒介。大部份網民非但不支持女事主，而且轉向支持快餐店阿叔，倒是女事主所始料未及之事。

香港網絡大典的快餐店阿叔事件說明。
女事主的事後聲明，轉貼在此。
網民在討論區對事件的回應。

Microsoft drop Yahoo offer

After Microsoft withdraw Yahoo offer, Yahoo share price drop more than 10% to $24.

After Yahoo reject Microsoft's $33 offer, is now $24.

Microsoft offer $33 for Yahoo, make it a $44.6 billion deal, but Yahoo think they worth more than that.

Google share price is almost 600.

Google share price is almost $600, compare with 54x about 2 weeks ago.

OLPC may switch to Windows?

I read a news today on OLPC's XO notebook may use Windows. Is using Windows easier for both vendor and consumer?

Basically OLPC project is not very successful until now, because it was not able to deliver a good product for mass production, is still far far away from Nicholas Negroponte's dream, a USD100 notebook for the developing country. OLPC project is a great dream, to achieve it, is never been easy.

OLPC notebook should be portable, WiFi enable, low power consumption and is cheap, target price is USD100 for a notebook. Currently they are selling at USD188. The cost can be lower if you get the right vendor to manufacture it. Taiwanese can make it cheaper, OEM manufacturer like Asus, Quanta or Foxconn(Hon Hai Precision Industry) is capable to manufacture low cost electronic parts with high quality. Notebooks from Dell and HP, Apple's iPod are manufactured by these companies.

People can't wait to see the dream comes true, even hardware vendor can not wait. Intel can't wait, so Intel start selling Classmate PC, which is a low cost laptop mainly design for education purpose. Asus can't wait, recently Asus launch low cost 7" notebook EeePC 701, is very successful in the market. These companies who is good in hardware design, is going into the sub-notebook market.

OLPC have good hardware design too, OLPC's CTO Mary Lou Jepsen, invented an ultr-low cost display, which is readable under sunlight. Mary left OLPC on January 2008, other top executive in OLPC is leaving as well, like Ivan Krstic and Walter Bender. Walter is a great fan of open source, OLPC sweet talk with Microsoft should be the main reason for his departure.

Forget about the hardware and management, let's talk about software. People always think that Windows are easier to use than Linux, but things change these days. To cut down the cost of OLPC notebook, the free and open source Linux was chosen as the operating system software, Nicholas first in favor of using Red Hat Linux (may be he needs Red Hat's funding), but Red Hat Linux could be far too complicated, so Sugar Linux (base on Red Hat/Fedora) was created for OLPC.

Sugar Linux on OLPC's XO-1.
Originally uploaded by karindalziel

Linux are getting easier and easier to use, and there is a lot of choices other than Red Hat. As desktop PC, many of my friends commented that Ubuntu Linux is easier to use compare with Red Hat Linux. Asus EeePC's Linux is another good examples, EeePC's Linux is provided by Xandros. Xandros Linux is base on Corel Linux, acquired from Corel after Corel decided to left Linux market in year 2001. Corel Linux is base on Debian (yes, Ubuntu is base on Debian too). Corel build in an easy to use installer on it, is just as easy as like installing Windows (but too bad that I always encounter problem while installing Corel Linux). The Xandos Linux used in Asus EeePC is a tab base version, simpler and is easy to use.

Tab base Xandros Linux on EeePC.
Originally uploaded by Renegade Buddha

Linux is easy to use, if you don't believe, try the Linux on EeePC. OLPC may switch to Windows simply because Microsoft has a better marketing plan and Windows are more popular.

Turbo Pascal on DosBox

Do you still remember the time?

There are at least 3 version of Turbo Pascal free for download (version 1, 3 and 5.5), I suggest to download Turbo Pascal 5.5.

Tutorial for Turbo Pascal 5.5.

1. download the software from here.
alternative download from http://altd.embarcadero.com/download/museum/tp55.zip

2. extracted the software, there are two directory DISK1 and DISK2, basically you just need DISK1.

3. run the software
> turbo

Turbo Pascal running in DosBox for OS X PowerPC.

You can run the program direct from Windows terminal, if you are using Linux you can run it under a simulator. I am using the DosBox simulator.

You can download DosBox from sourceforge.

After running the DosBox, create the C drive by:
> mount C c:\tp55
or
> mount C /home/user/foo (unix system)
(the second parameter is your Turbo Pascal program path on your real hard disk)

4. Write your first pascal program, File, New.

Program hello(output);
begin
    writeln('hello world!');
end.

File, Save as, hello.pas.

Compile the program shows ok, but if you run the program, you don't see the result. Actually it display the result but it was clear once the program terminate.

5. Make some modification

Program hello(output);
var
    n: Integer;
begin
    writeln('hello world!');
    readln(n);
end.

Run:

hello world!
1
(input anything thing and just press enter)

6. Make it to executable
Alternatively you can make it into executable
a. from IDE
Menu, Compile, Destination (set to Disk)

b. from dos prompt

> tpc hello.pas
> dir hello.exe
hello.exe

Take a look at the executable, how small it is, just about 2k in size.

What's next? May be you can try to compile the Mario clone.

Legendary Turbo Pascal Compiler

Do you still remember the time?

Recently Borland stock price down to bottom as USD 1 plus.

Borland share price goes down.

Borland was co-founded by American technology entrepreneur Philippe Kahn in 1983 (or 1982?). Borland was once a top 10 software company in the 80s, famous for its compiler tools, most remarkable is Turbo Pascal compiler. Borland once change their name to Inprise but later change back to Borland. Philippe Kahn left Borland in 1995.

Turbo Pascal from Borland is one of the easy to use and fastest pascal compiler available on PC during the 80s. Turbo Pascal is an IDE (Integrated Development Environment, integrate editor, compiler and linker together) compiler, even though running on DOS as text base program, it was a break through, because its performance is fantastic even running on a 4.77Mhz IBM PC. While other compiler software was selling as USD one thousand to two thousand, Turbo Pascal was selling for only USD49.99 when it first release in 1984. Very quickly the software was sold over million of copies

Why Turbo Pascal can perform so well (especially on old 4.77Mhz IBM PC)?

1. It is small. As for Turbo Pascal version 5.5, the IDE and the compiler is about 200k to 300k. Software at that time is all very small in size.

2. Everything was done in memory. Normally before the program can be executed, it will be compile into an object (normally .o file), store on the disk. Then it will be link as executable file, before it can be executed and show the program result. Turbo Pascal compile and generated the executable code all in Ram, and didn't need to access to auxiliary storage (5.25" floppy disk), so it is very fast.

3. Optimized compiler core. Turbo Pascal creator Anders Hejlsberg, have spent a lot of effort in optimizing the compiler core. The compiler was written so well that it was still being used in the first three version of the later Delphi compiler.

Borland has release the earlier version of Turbo Pascal as free for use, you download from here.

Google stock soars on profit reported

Google stock price just goes up almost one 100 USD (+20%), after the company report a 31% increase in profit for the first quarter. Is 540 now, wow!

Soar on profit report.

To create or to inherit 1

Don't read this if you are not software developer., is boring

Programming is an art, like writing a novel or drawing a picture. You need creativity, but to create is difficult, so sometimes look at other developer's code, will improve your programming skills. Is nothing wrong to borrow some ideas from other software developers, just avoid copyright infringement.

Most software developers that I know, especially talented software developers with strong programming skills, hate to maintain or make improvement on other software developers' work. They always think that create their own code and program is easier that maintain and make improvement over others' code.

Create is more easy? How can it be? One of the main problem with today's software developer is, the codes are very badly written, and there is no developer guide documentation (so how do I start?). Sometimes I don't even find one line of comment in the code, and no proper indent for code block (eg. code in if (condition) { } block are not inline).

If you examine other programmer's coding, there are signatures inside the program. Everyone have their own style of coding.

An easy and simple example of coding style is, how you place your parenthesis ( '{' and '}' ) for condition block?

1.
if (condition)
{
    statement 1;
}

2.
if (condition)
    {
    statement 1;
    }

3.
if (condition) {
    statement ;
    }

There are more examples... and you can name it.

Which style do you prefer? Your style of coding will be your signature in the program even without putting your name in. So learn other programmers coding style, use it within the same program, so the program code looks consistent.

Another example of coding style is how you name the variable and functions. Like user_name, UserName, or userName? Normally naming convention will be stated in the developer guide. Some programming language will have their prefer way for naming convention, like Java's function and variable name always start with a capital letter for each word, except the first starting alphabet (eg. userName).

To maintain the original coding style, you have to make it look consistent, this is another difficulty to continue others work, or else the next developer after you, will drop all your hard work and create their own program as a start.

Netscape navigator codes are difficult to maintain, that's why there is a lot of bugs and problem after version 4. Netscape 5.0 has never been released, it was scraped and rewritten as Netscape 6, but a lot of users started to switch to IE browser during that time.

To create or just continue with existing code (in software development), both is not easy. To avoid the hard work source code scrap in the future, a good software developer should know how to create, to continue, and write code which is easy to be maintained.

DiGi and EeePC promotion

Come on, DiGi, you can do better than this

My friend show me a DiGi data package promotion. There are two package, both are ASUS EeePC + data access plan, with slightly different. Let's look at the package, is it worth getting or not.

Package A
1. Data only SIM (RM66 x 24 mths) = RM1,584
2. WiFi (AirZed) server (24 mths) = RM2,232
3. Asus EeePC = RM1,599
4. Asus data modem T500 = RM1,199
Total RM6,614

Promotion price now RM2,952

Total savings RM3,622.

But unfortunately there is a lot of misleading information here.

EeePC selling at RM1299, not RM1599. If you have the budget and need a Windows version, you may consider Twinhead's E10 or HP Compaq 2133.

I don't know how they compute the WiFi charges, because if you subscribe to DiGi unlimited data access, WiFi access should be free.

The only thing you are getting extra is the T500 data modem (I am wandering how to connect to EeePC), some says you can get a data modem for RM400, but I am not so sure about that.

So is this a good deal? You don't really save much. Don't forget if you subscribe to the package, you tie up with the data access for two years.

For the WiFi access, there is a easier and better plan, even without subscribe to DiGi unlimited data access. With pay per use with DiGi, you can get a 1 day access for just RM3.

DiGi always came out with good package with flexible plan, like RM10 prepaid card, RM1 top up (for prepaid). Come on DiGi, you can do better than this.

CSS naked day 2008

Recently I was learning some javascript and CSS (Cascading Style Sheet). I accidentally found this CSS naked day website (http://naked.dustindiaz.com/). CSS naked day in on 9 April, the idea is to promote standard and plain html web page presentation, so remove all your CSS on this day.

Personally I don't like CSS, no doubt it is powerful, to master it is another story.

BTW, I found this image cropping script interesting. No flash or java applet needed.

Sun at Microsoft Server 2008 launch event

Sun is your Eco-friend

Just drop by at Microsoft event at Kuala Lumpur Convention Center during lunch time. Microsoft launch its Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008 and SQL Server 2008.

I saw Sun Microsystems there, what is Sun doing in a Microsoft event? They are promoting their SUN X4150 Quad-Core x86 1U server, which run Solaris, Linux and Windows operating system. On such an event, they only mention Windows, they more emphasize on the server's compact design, 1U server but with 8 hard disk, power saving. So Sun is eco-friendly. I didn't follow up with server price recently, Sun says they are giving a promotion price for the server, RM8,888.00 for the basic model, limited quantity available, I think it is a very competitive price.

Sun also showing their blackbox project, which is a mobile datacenter installed in a standard cargo container. It is using a water cooling system which is eco-friendly as well. Not many people attended Sun's briefing session, they are giving out 2 16Gb iPod Touch to those who submitted the lucky draw form and attend the session. They have draw more than 10 forms to get a winner (most of the name called, but they were not there), one of they guy sitting right behind me, get 1 of the iPod Touch, he is really lucky.

Sun X4150 server is comparable with HP's hot selling DL380 G5 server.

Internet the new media

Yesterday night having a steam boat dinner with some friends, after the dinner, we site down in-front of TV, watching the live broadcast of Malaysia Election 2008 results.

We read news from in internet too, like merdeka and Malaysia Kini. The news from the internet is faster than the TV live broadcast.

Malaysia largest political alliance Barisan Nation win federal, but lost 5 state (Kelantan, Penang, Kedah, Perak and Selangor) to the opposition. The is the best result ever scored by the opposition.

All the newspaper were sold off early in the morning. The 7-11 shop keeper say, already request to send in more newspaper, but all swap by the customer once the newspaper reach the shop.

For those who is able access to Internet, still can get the latest news update. When there is such things happen, is an opportunity for those new media to become popular.

Just don't forget Internet is the new media.

Not anti Microsoft

Tomorrow is election day for Malaysia

You must be hearing me talking a lot about open source, Linux, Mac OS, Solaris, Palm OS, but I seldom talk about Microsoft Windows, I am not anti Microsoft. In fact I was using Microsoft products since MS-DOS, I am still using Microsoft products like Windows and Word, because my office is using it.

I just want to support the minority, give other company (other than Microsoft) a chance, Microsoft already have enough supporters. All those software that I mention above are good products.

Palm is a successful commercialize PDA, it has a simple, easy to use and working user interface, even it is different from those software that we have used before. Spend just an hour or two with the new operating system, you will learn how to use it.

I have been developing software on Solaris operating system for many years. Solaris is unix, unix is powerful and Solaris is very stable. I am having a lot of fun with text base telnet to the Solaris machine.

I was always not an Apple supporter until I meet OS X. There are 2 things that attract me, the aqua interface and OS X is unix. If you read Mac OS history, the very first Mac OS (with graphic user interface) runs on 128k (yes! only 128k) Macintosh machine, you will surprise by Apple's technology and their innovative invention.

I know Linux and open source for many years. I am so excited about it, because I can get software for free (free beer is important for a poor user like me at that time), is unbelievable. Richard Stallman (open source evangelist , Free Software Foundation founder) has great vision, Linux is a great invention.

Frequent Microsoft users, please give other software company a chance.

Google calendar sync with Microsoft Outlook

Google always write some good, simple but useful application. Google release an application to sync your Microsoft Outlook schedule with your Google calendar.

The instructions on how to setup and sync Google calendar, refer here.

Just download a small application and install on your Windows desktop, configuration is easy, you do not need to specified where is your outlook located, just specified the sync method, one way or both way. You can just copy Google calendar to Outlook, copy Outlook to Google calendar, or sync in both way. If you want to change the configuration, right click on the Google calendar sync icon on the task bar.

I do a quick test, it work fine without much problem.

A mobile phone that never been off

My friend has a Nokia 6510 mobile phone that he never turn off, even while he was sleeping. So I ask him, did he ever off his phone? He says, only when the phone hang or not function properly, then he will off and restarted the phone, normally it can last for weeks or even months. He just need to restart the phone a few times a year (That's amazing, for a computer user like me).

Most people that I know, off their mobile phone when they go to sleep. The professional will suggest you to do so (off the phone), to cut down the wave and radiation which may affected our brain and body. The main reason is, we just don't want others to call our mobile phone and disturb us while we were sleeping, except for those who are on call 24 hours.

That's is not my main subject here. Why phone can on for months, but why can't I do the same to my desktop PC for weeks? Sometimes I need to reboot my desktop every week to get a better performance. The answer is simple, because the system runs on you phone is much less complicated that your desktop's operating system.

Is easier to write a stable software to perform some simple task, desktop PC's operating system design and implementation are complicated, especially for a mobile phone users. In simple words, desktop PC has more functions, more complicated, and not so stable compare to a mobile phone.

These days mobile phone are not just mobile phones, they have added more functions, and thus more complicated, and not so stable. My friend just told me, he need to reboot his new phone (not the Nokia 6510, and I don't want to mention the model here) every few days, or else the phone will become unstable. He just reboot his phone everyday to make sure it works properly, this is normal especially for smart phone users.

The system (including Symbian and Windows mobile) runs on your smart phone, can perform complicated task 'almost' like your desktop PC. You have calendar with notes and reminder, electronic dictionary, media player, games... on your smart phone, but I still miss the stable system on the old dummy phone which can only make calls and sms.

Macworld 2008 Steve Jobs keynote

Most rumors and predictions are quite correct. There are the new products announced by Steve Jobs at the Macworld 2008 keynote:

1. MacBook Air
A 13 inch (13.3 inch), the thinnest notebook ever, about 2cm thick, without sacrificed the performance.

Apple Macbook Air, very slim and thin.

I would like to see Apple release a MacBook mini, a 10 inch or smaller than that, but cheaper in price, like the Asus eeePC. This most likely will not happen as the direction for Apple now is, they make smaller device, but bigger memory and storage size.

2. iPod Touch. More application for iPod Touch, 5 new application, Mail, Maps, Stocks, Notes, and Weather.

3. iTunes movie rental. You can get movie by all major studio like Touchstone, Miramax, MGM, New Line Cinema, Fox, Warner, Disney (sure!), Paramount, Universal and Sony.

4. Apple TV take 2. The new Apple TV doesn't connect to the computer, but build in with a new software. You can rent movies with the new Apple TV.

Refer to my Pre-Macworld 2008 post, which I just summarize on what others people predicted. There is no 3G iPhone, Mac software is on new Microsoft Office, and nothing much. Slim macbook, iTunes video rental, new Apple TV is what other people predicted.

Updates:
If you are lazy to watch the 90 minutes keynote, mahalo has a summarize version here.

Pre-Macworld 2008

Macworld 2008 is coming very soon, January 14 to 18. What new products do you think Steve Jobs will announce this year? 3G iPhone? Or an ultra slim macbook?

Other than the above 2 product, most people will predict iTunes video rental, but I am not so interested on it.

New Apple TV. The Apple TV is not selling well, if Apple is not going to drop the product, is time for an upgrade.

For sure Apple is going to upgrade their software, Mac OS X, iLife or whatever it is.

So stay tune for great news from Apple Macworld 2008.

SE M600i is not a smart phone

I have a Sony Ericsson M600i phone. I am not satisfied with the phone, may be it is not a phone, it is just a device in between a PDA and phone.

M600i is not a smart phone, because it is not smart. If you try to search from the contact application, you can only search from the Last name, unless you didn't key in the Last name, then it will search from the First name.

Let say you have a contact entry, John Smith. If you key in as:

First name: John
Last name: Smith
Display: Smith, John
(Name display will depends on sorting sequence)

You will not able to search it by key in John, unless you key in Smith. If,

First name: John Smith
Last name:
Display: John Smith

You will be able to search it by key in John, but again you will not able to search the contact by Smith, and you will not get the right entry by key in John Smith.

This is only happen in those five years old phone. Today's phone, should have smart search capability. The smart search here means you can search John Smith by John, Smith, ohn, mith or even JS (John Smith).

M600i is a PDA. It has a large display, high resolution, touch screen, it is good for PDA usage. Take a look at the Schedule application, the monthly view display are just too small, is hard to click. When you change the date and time of your appointment, is not user friendly, compare it with Palm's Calendar application, you know what I mean.

M600i can install Dictionary and Timer application, but the basic application like Contact and Scheduler, is not easy to use. M600i is a PDA, but still not so good as a PDA.

By today's standard, M600i is not a phone. It don't even support profile setting (and many other basic function), if you are a Nokia phone user, you should know what is profile setting.

In Nokia, you can have a different profile for pre-set ring tone and message alert, eg.

Indoor, ring tone with no vibrate.
Outdoor, vibrate and ring tone set as loud as possible.
Meeting, silent with vibrate, or just a beep sound will do.

By preset profile, you can switch to different phone mode by just one or 2 click.

M600i is not a smart phone, is more like a PDA, or a device between a PDA and a phone.

DNA and social networking

Even biotechnology company is building up social community. 23andme, a newly startup biotechnology company is offering Personal Genome Service, the service cost USD1000, they will send you a kit, follow the instructions, send back your saliva sample. They analyse the DNA and help you to find out more about yourself, they can help you on friend matching by DNA as well.

23andme offer Personal Genome Service.

23andme is not the only company provide such services. In a news title, 'online dating site offer DNA matching', the story tells a company-- Scientific Match, use DNA to look for a match for married partner. For me is more like, 'Biotechnology company offer online dating service'.

23andme is a privately held company. Google has invested 3.9 millions into the company a few months back. Anne Wojcicki is the co-founder of 23andme, she married to Google co-founder Sergey Brin. Now you should not surprise why Google invested in 23andme, with 23andme join in the social community website, it make more sense.

When WiMAX is popular

Can you imagine, purely just imagine. When WiMAX is popular, Intel launch a mobile phone with build in Intel WiMAX mobile cpu, it is not using GSM or 3G network, but pre-installed with a Skype software. Skype became of the biggest telco in the world.

Before Intel launch its Intel mobile phone, Google already launch its Google phone with Google Talk client software, and not Skype. May be Intel, Google and Apple will form an alliance against traditional mobile phone maker like Nokia, Motorola and Samsung. Sony Ericsson is not sure to create a phone, a camera or a mp3 player.

When WiMAX is popular, just imagine, purely imagine, what will happen.

Google buy Jaiku

Google is one step further into mobile market. After Google ported their Gmail, search portal, youtube and news (quietly) to mobile version, Google now buying mobile community website Jaiku.

Jaiku is a Finland's micro-blogging website started in year 2006, it was described as a pownce and twitter like website.

Micro-blogging normally refer to short blog post which less than 200 characters, so you can send and received these post through mobile SMS.

Recently my friend introduce me a Malaysia local website call pacmee, I was quite surprised by pacmee, because is simple and the idea is good. Later I just found out that is just another twitter-like website. (Yes, I am a bit out dated)

Google is moving to mobile market, and they are acting fast.

Sony close its online photo sharing service

I received an email a few days back. Sony is going to close its online photo sharing service, ImageStation.

Sony to close down ImageStation.

I am not surprised. If the photo sharing web site can not build up its community or not as interesting as flickr, it will be closed down as a matter of time.

In another word, you must upgrade your web site to version 2.0, or at least make it as interesting as flickr. Is easy to browse, upload and add comments in flickr, there is a lot of third parties application build for flickr.

Yahoo already have its online photo sharing service, but Yahoo acquire flickr in year 2005, deal amount is not disclose, there is rumors says is about 30 million, that will be a very good buy for Yahoo, and Terry Semel has do something right before he left Yahoo.

On June 2007, Yahoo announce to close down Yahoo! Photo which has been launch for 7 years, move their online photo service to flickr. It start with Yahoo! Photo and now ImageStation, who's next?

Go green

I notice some company started to be environmental friendly, running some campaign and conform to the ISO 14000 standard. The ISO 14000/14001 is an environment management standard. Simple steps you do may help the environment, like switch off the light before you leave your office, don't keep the water pipe running if you are no using it...

IT people try to be environmental friendly these days, by cutting down paper usage. They use email, and not fax, they exchange documentation using PDF attachment in email. They use electronic yellow stickies on desktop...

Most software developers read their program source on their screen (monitor). I notice a lot of the junior programmers (or you can call the rookies if you want), always print out their source code on papers for reading, it is a waste of paper usage. Read it on the monitor or read it on printed paper is just a habit. Once you get use to it, is not a problem for most software developers to read program source code on monitor.

I know some senior programmers still need to print out their source code on papers, they must be born at 60s or earlier, then be it. If you are newer generation, please read your source code on your monitor, just get a bigger (19", 20") monitor, if one is not enough, get two.

My first job as a programmer in a MIS department, print a lot of papers. When they found out any bug in a program, the first thing they will do is print out the program source code (on paper). Even is just a minor change like adding an arithmetic operator or one line if condition checking code, they still print it out. Even we use up both page of the paper before we recycle it, is still a waste of paper.

The modern CPU design is not just go for speed, but target for low power consumption. It generate less heat, save more power and more cost efficient. Especially for those data center, running hundreds of cpu, lower down the power consumption will save the cost.

blackle.com, dark surfing experience.

Black web page surfing idea, try to create web page with back insteed of white background. They claim that back display consume less watts compare with a white display (refer here) on cathode ray tube (CRT) monitor, but not LCD. Some software developer quickly develop a dark google search page, like Blacke. But there is a debate on white web page display really consume more energy or not.

This girl send 30 to 35k sms per month!

Recently I read a news on the internet, an iPhone user (Justine Ezarik) received a 300 pages bill, printed both side, from AT&T. The phone bill are so detail that, every call and data transaction was listed on it. The user has posted the video on youtube. AT&T announce that they will simplified the phone bill. That is good.

VMWare and VMWare server

I should buy VMWare's company share. VMWare was acquired by EMC in 2003, EMC is a company provide storage solution, I was wandering why they are buying VMWare. I think buying VMWare is a good decision, VMWare has good products, and they keep improving it.

(VMWare listed on 13 Aug, when I write this, VMWare is not listed yet)

vmware server, boot with OLPC image.

I have seen a lot of people using VMWare, especially my friends who use linux. VMWare normally refer to the software which allow you to create a virtual machine on you desktop (or server) machine, which allow you to install another operating system on your machine. VMWare will create a virtual machine with clean environment, without affecting your existing system. My friends will normally install and tried the latest Linux distribution on their windows system using VMWare, after they have finish testing it, they just remove it from their system.

I have not tried VMWare before, even I know this product for many years. VMWare is not free (at that time), and you need more resource like hard disk space, memory to run the virtual machine. VMWare release their VMWare server and VMWare player as freeware (you can download from their website here), which runs on Windows, Linux and even Mac OS X. The OS X version of VMWare called VMWare Fusion. Since WMVare products only runs on x86 base machine, VMWare Fusion only runs on OS X intel.

A few months back when I attended the Sun Tech Days, VMWare has a product which work together with a Sun Ray machine which attract me. According the representative from VMWare, you can install Windows and Solaris operating system at the server end and access it using Sun Ray thin client, I assume you can install Mac OS X and Linux operating system too. When I asked for more demos, the representative suggest visit to their customer site. Seems like VMWare does not have a good support here, they should closely with other company, not just Sun, but those company have a strong sales and support team.

Apple introduce new iMac

As most people and media expected, Apple introduced new iMac on Tuesday.

thiner, faster and cheaper.

Earlier news reported that Steve Jobs might not appear on this special event, but don't worried, Steve Jobs will always be there. I think Steve Jobs enjoy to be on stage, and he is good on it.

A new Apple product launching event without Steve Jobs, is not an Apple event.

Show girls at PC Fair (2) 2007

I don't know since when computer exhibitions are like motor show, employ a lot of show girls to promote their products, it happens these few years in PC Fair exhibitions. It did help to attract a big crowd. Even without those show girls, PC Fair exhibitions are just too crowded.

I can’t move, but luckily I still can breath.

I don’t really like to go to PC Fair like exhibitions, is just too crowded, sometimes you could hardly move around, you don’t have the luxurious to just stand there and take a close look at those products. They have just make the PC Fair like sales carnival.

There is not much new IT products to be displays and shown in the exhibition. If you are looking for new product and technology, you should go to CeBIT. If CeBIT is too far, you can consider attend ACM.

HTC Touch, the phone.

There are more show girls than new products, busy distributing flyers. What I can do is just take a few pictures and practice my shooting skills.

Size does (doesn't) matter

I always like to tell a 'joke' about my idea, about web site business.

Many years ago, I ask my friend to start web site business together, he ask me to give him a good idea about web site.

I told him, how about free web mail? "We already have hotmail, Yahoo! Mail." I said, "hotmail give 2 Mb email storage, Yahoo give 3 Mb (to 5 Mb), then we give 5 Mb, or may be 10 Mb."

Does it sounds like a joke for you now? Because Google is giving out 1GB email storage.

When Google launch its GMail services, instead of giving a 3 Mb or 5Mb storage quota, it gave gigabytes of storage, and increasing every seconds. It outshines Yahoo and MSN hotmail. Everyone started to get an gmail account, and so proud to own one.

MSN and Yahoo need to catch up, MSN increase their email quota 100 times, which is 250Mb. Yahoo give 1G for free email account and 2G for a paid email account.

So, size does matter!?

Gmail increase to about 2.8G by now, Yahoo must be so tired with the catch up game, so Yahoo give you unmilited email quota.

If you are a gmail user, are you going to switch to Yahoo! Mail?

So, size does matter, or size doesn't matter?

Please write a better software

Yesterday I tried to sync my Palm with Google Calendar with goosync, but fail.

They sync procedure just hang there like never ending story. I do a soft reset which results a non-stop reboot on my Palm device. I do a warm reset while stop the reboot, but my system data already mess up, most of the application on the Palm device is not able to launch properly.

I have no choice but perform a hard reset (what is all these reset?). Since I learn from experience, I always backup my data before I try new software, unfortunately after I retrieve my last image with NVBackup, I go back to the non-stop reboot again!

I have tried a few hours with different images and different solution, including restore back from Palm Desktop, It doesn't work. Restore image from InnerBackup was fail half-way. Finally I use "Selective restore" function in NVBackup, it works, I hope I did restore back my records.

"Selective restore" can restore a single or selected database, click on NVBackup menu, you should see the restore function there. "Selective restore" is not for casual user, because you need to know the original database name you need to restore, which was hidden from the user.

I retrieve the following database for my PIMS data (Palm OS 5):

CalendarDB-PDat, CalendarLocationsDBPDat.
DatebookDB
ContactsBDIndex-PAdd (may be this is from HappyDay)
ContactsDB-PAdd
MemosDB, MemosDB-PMem.
TasksDB-PTod

(This is just for reference, not guarantee it will works for everyone)

Palm OS 5 (Garnet) is a good OS, it support ARM cpu and support Non-Volatile File System (NVFS). It make backup and restore on the storage card so easy. But I think Palm need to re-design the OS architecture, because it just crash too easily, this remind my the early days of Microsoft Windows.

I hope the next Palm OS will be stable and efficient, but I really have no confidence when this will happen.

Universal Music may not continue contract with Apple

The Universal Music Group of Vivendi, largest music company may not renew their contract with Apple Inc, which will expired soon. If this is true, a long list (estimate one third) of songs will be removed from iTunes online music store.

There were five largest music publishing company, British's EMI, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, German's BMG and Universal Music Group which is own by French's Vivendi. BMG joint venture with Sony and form Sony BMG in 2004, and become the big four record labels (EMI, Sony BMG, Universal and Warner). Universal has proposed to buy BMG Music Plublishing, and Warner is actively seeking to buy EMI (refer Warner Music mulls new offer to buy EMI).

Why don't Apple just buy one of the music company, since iPod and iTunes online music constribute a significant profit to Apple. Oh! Yes, they can't, in name infringement settlement with Beatles' music company-- Apple Corp (England) in 1980s and 1991, Apple Computer agreed not to enter the music business.

How about iPod and iTunes music store? In September 2003, Apple Corps (Beatles) sued Apple Computer again, for breach of contract. The court ruled in favor of Apple Computer, base on section 4.3 of the agreement, Apple Computer field of use include software, hardware and broadcasting services. Apple Computer using the Apple name on their (online) store and not the music. Beatles catalog is not available on iTunes music store.

May be Apple Computer should have just bought over Apple Corps. Apple did consider to buy a music company, read a cnet story here, "Apple may buy Universal Music", which dated back in year 2003. The Apple share price is $13.20 at that time, and now is $127!

"When your customers are iPod addicts, who are you striking back against?," said Ken Hertz, an entertainment lawyer who represents artists like Beyonce and the Black Eyed Peas (refer to the CNet news). Recently Apple Inc. and Apple Corp agree to reach a settlement (finally!), Apple Inc. are allow to use the Apple name and logo in all area including music.

I have a clean iPod

After collected a few hundred megabytes of songs on my iPod, I decided to backup today. When I try to copy the songs in my iPod using the iTunes software, it doesn't work.

I think may be I can do a sync again. I deleted everything in my iTunes library and do a sync, and hope iTunes copy the songs on iPod to my desktop. No, it doesn't work.

I search internet and read this:

"... iTune disable copy function since version 4.x... you have to use third party software like ephPod or iDump... sync a black iTunes library will erase all songs on iPod..."

I check my iPod, all songs has been deleted. Oh! Great, I lost all my songs, the ratings, and many hours of work, and I have a clean iPod now.

Hei! Apple, what you have done with the iTunes software?

You can't just copy back the songs from the iPod back to your desktop, after you encounter a system crash and re-install your PC.

I heard Apple disable copy function in iTunes to prevent users to copy DRM songs from the iPod device. I though Steve Jobs said that "DRMs haven't worked, and may never work, to halt music piracy,"?

Backup your Palm data

I do a hard reset for my Palm after encounter a crash in Y! messenger software and a non stop reboot, this is the second hard reset in between one week time.

There are three types of reset for Palm PDA, soft reset, warm reset and hard reset.

Soft reset. When system crash or application just hang there, press the reset button at the back of the device.

Warm reset. When soft reset doesn't work, eg. when you encounter a non-stop rebooting sequence, try this, hold the up key and press the reset button.

Hard reset. Sometimes warm reset doesn't work, because your system or data already messy. Hard reset will remove all data on the device. If you are not sure take a look at Palm site.

I must be very lucky this time. The earlier hard reset, cost me one whole day to recover about 99 percent of the data. After that I decided to backup data quiet frequently.

Normally we do Palm backup with HotSync, backup using the Palm Desktop software, but recovering all data from Palm Desktop could be quiet slow. I have tried NVBackup and InnerBackup.

When I recover back using InnerBackup, records in Contacts and DateBook are double, and application doesn't recover. I try NVBackup, it works, I have recover 99 percent of the records, in just about 15 to 20 minutes, so I must be lucky.

What is the lesson of the story? Do you backup frequently, especially before you try to install new software on your Palm.

Eclipse europa release count down

I read a news about Eclipse europa will be release on 29 June Friday as scheduled, and today is Friday!

1 day count down to Eclipse europa release

Asia time is much earlier, one more day to go.

I just upgraded to Eclipse 3.3.2 a few days back. Eclipse is a very powerful IDE for Java, and not just Java, I can compile my C program through the CDT plugins. Learning how to setup and configure the IDE is quite painful, as I use vi (a notepad like editor on Unix, if you know vi you know what I mean) for my software development all the time.

I can't wait to see, how's the new Eclipse will looks like.

Palm Desktop, Disk is full

I only encounter this error message on Mac OS X.

Palm Desktop background
Disk is full

After the message pop out, the Palm Desktop software just refuse to start.

I tried to reinstall the software, but is now working.

I google for answer, many encounter such problem, but seems like no answer, or it doesn't work for me. Some user bring it out at Palm's forum, but no answer since year 2004 (refer here. How poor the Palm's support!

I just try my luck, remove those files related to palm disktop at my home directory:-
$ cd
$ rm Preferences/Palm Desktop Info $ rm Preferences/com.palm.* $ rm Application Support/Palm Desktop $ rm Logs/CrashReporter/Palm Desktop.crash.log

It works! I don't know which files to be deleted, better make your backup before you try.

Safari 3 beta for windows

I have download Safari browser 3 beta version for windows for a try.

Apple's Safari browser 3 beta is now available for Windows

The only thing it surprise me is, Apple make it available on windows. It seems like running very slow on windows, if it is the only browser that you prefer to use, I bet you will switch to Mac OS X. It doesn't seem that slow when running on Mac OS X.

Someone (and more than one) founds security issue on it, so I just try for while and remove it.

A long way for Palm

Some history and interesting story about Palm.

Recently there are some rumors and news about Palm is looking for buyers, company like Nokia and Motorola could be the potential buyers. Finally Palm sell 25 percent stake to a private firm, Elevation Partners (read here). I am not worried about who will buy Palm, but after it was bought, Palm will still on its right track?

Palm started as Palm Computing in 1992, founded by Jeff Hawkins, Donna Dubinsky, and Ed Colligan. The first successful PDA products are Pilot 1000 and Pilot 5000. Palm Computing is not the first company who develop PDA device, but their Palm Pilot PDA is the first successful commercial product.

Palm Pilot has done a few things right. Simple and easy to use operating system (Palm OS), working hand recognizing software (Grafitti) and a device with the right size, small enough to fit into the pocket. Before Jeff Hawkins start Palm Computing, he research on handwriting recognition, later he decide to create a successful PDA device.

Palm Computing was acquired by U.S. Robotics in 1995 to bring in more funding to support the company, later Palm become the subsidiary of 3Com, after 3Com acquired U.S. Robotics in 1998. Palm III together with Palm OS version 3 was introduced in 1998, and is a great success. The same time, Jeff Hawkins and Donna Dubinsky left Palm and founded handspring, which create PDA devices like Palm, and using Palm OS license from Palm.

Handspring is not the only company license Palm OS, Sony is another company license Palm OS on their CLIE PDA products. IBM also have a Palm III like PDA which look exactly like Palm III but with their own brand name on it.

3Com listed Palm on Nasdaq in year 2000. After that a few things happen in Palm, and Palm doesn't know when they are heading to. In year 2002, Palm spin off the software as a wholly-owned subsidiary--Palm Source to develop Palm OS, from now onwards Palm split into a software and a hardware company.

Palm OS was originally designed to run on Motorola Dragon ball cpu. In year 2002 Palm introduce Palm Tungsten T PDA which using ARM cpu, the OS was upgraded to version 5, code name Garnet. Garnet consider an important milestone of Palm OS, it runs on new cpu architecture, with backward compatibility with those old Palm program. The old palm program can run on the new OS through the PACE (Palm Application Compatibility Environment) emulator. Garnet is still widely used on most Palm device.

Palm OS was designed as a simple and easy to used operating system, but its lack of full multi-tasking and multimedia capability was critized by most users especially when it was compared with Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system. In year 2001, Palm bought BeOS after Apple computer drop their 'Plan Be', BeOS being a multimedia capable OS, but this doesn't help much in Palm OS development after Palm had acquired BeOS.

In year 2003, the hardware Palm merge with Handspring and rename to PalmOne Inc. Palm trademark was held by a jointly-owned holding company by PalmOne and Palmsource. Two years later (2005), PalmOne bought back the Palm trademark from the software company for USD 30 million, Palm trademark was own by PalmOne, then PalmOne rename as Palm again. Many people will say that Palm spend 30 million just to drop the 'One' from its name.

In year 2004, PalmSource introduce version 6 of its Palm OS Cobalt, but unfortunately it was not widely accepted and consider a fail. At the end of year 2004, PalmSource acquire China MobileSoft, a company developing mobile Linux. Palm OS is moving to Linux platform.

In year 2005, after the Palm name was bought back by the hardware company, PalmSource was acquired by ACCESS, a Japanese company which is popular for its embedded browser software, Netfront. PalmSource continue develop its new version of operating system base on Linux.

In year 2006, Palm (the hardware company) introduced a Treo smartphone version which using Microsoft Windows Mobile operating system. This surprised a lot of Palm users out there, Windows Mobile is a long time competitor of Palm, if using Windows Mobile is a success on Palm device, what is the future of PalmSource?

At the same time, most Palm device still running on Palm OS, which is own by ACCESS company. Other than Windows Mobile, Palm did venture into other solutions including Linux as the replacement of their current OS. This Linux solution is not the the same platform as ACCESS is developing. Speculate from Palm is hiring Linux engineer, Palm is developing their own Palm Linux OS. Both Palm and PalmSource is developing a Linux base OS, but could be heading to different direction.

The development of Linux OS doesn't seems to be successful for both company, Palm and ACCESS. At then end of year 2006, Palm decided to pay ACCESS USD 44 million to get the rights to the source code of Palm OS Garnet (version 5.0).

Palm use to write good software like the PIMS (Personal Information Software eg. Datebook, Contact...) and the synchronization software, but no more. They add more and more functions to their PIM software like graphic memo, which I don't use. Their new synchronization software give me more problems compare with the old one, deleted the category that I created manually and move everything to 'unfiled', convert the telephone number to xxx-xxx-xxxx format which I don't want. The palm desktop for Mac OS is much harder to use compare with the Windows version.

This is how I look at Palm and PalmSource company, they lack of vision and direction, doesn't know where they are heading to, try each and every available opportunities, but so far is not very successful. When Palm started in 1992, they are not creating the hardware or operating system, but on application software. Their first product--Zoomer is not so successful, but the application software-- Graffiti and HotSync is. When Palm sold off PalmSource to ACCESS, they seems like forgotten what they are good at.

In one way or another Palm is similar as Apple Computer (now Apple Inc.), both produce hardware and software, not many company is doing that, and most company did not success by making hardware and software. Palm is not the first one who create PDA, Apple is not the first company start making personal computer but both are very successful launching a good product that everyone likes it. Both have fanatic users. They are quite similar, just Palm has a harder way to go along the road than Apple.

New news system for web 2.0

Users are changing their habit on reading internet news. We used to visit CNN, BBC website for news, these are the traditional news website. I visit cnet to read technology news, but now I read google news. I only read news header from the google news, if I think the news are interested, I just click on the url, it will link me to the original news website. (RSS and mash up)

A lot of readers like slashdot, where users subscribe stories that may be interested to the others. Readers not just reading the news but discuss news in slashdot, exchange their ideas. News are not recommend by editor, but recommended by readers. (User community)

These days blogger write their own news (eg. Techcrunch), readers rate them. Website like digg, where readers subscribe hundreds of news everyday, is getting more popular. Readers read the news from digg before it link to the original post.

These are the trend in web 2.0 that you can't miss out. Editor has less control but users have more, with web 2.0, things change, don't just ignored.

a million dollar question

Why this software run so slow on this machine?

If your answer is, the hardware is too old, you should not continue reading this.

If you are still reading this, congratulation! The above question is not the million dollar question, you have to keep reading till the end for the million dollar question and answer.

The software is running slow because the software has performance issue.

The next question will be, how to improve the software performance?

This is the million dollar question.

There are many ways to solve it, upgrade the hardware is one of it. If one cpu can't perform, buy a two cpu machine. If money is not a problem, you can buy a Sun E10000 (e10k) computer which support up to 64 cpu.

E10k is a few years old product, I am sure they have a much better product now (check here). E10k is not my solution.

I don't like java and java script, because the performance is slow. Even today's hardware can boost up the software performance, but is not my prefer solution. That is the reason they invented Java Just In Time technology, with JIT, Java application can perform as good as a native application.

(Note: Java application was compile as byte code binaries, which need an interpreter environment to run it. Normally application which need an interpreter can't perform as good as the native application compile by C, C++ or the other computer language)

To bring down the cost of the hardware, some CPU was build without the floating point unit, it is common for embedded cpu. The drawback is, software which need extensive floating point calculation can't perform, eg. mpg123 for audio playback.

You are still able to bring down the hardware cost after added in the floating point unit in the hardware, but that's Intel's job, not for us. There are people invented algorithm which do the same job as mpg123, with integer calculation only, which is mpg321.

There is more than one answer for a million dollar question, is either cost you a million or save you a million. You just make your choice.

The new venture capitalist

For me, Google, Yahoo, and some other established web company are venture capitalist.

The story for a typical internet new startup company, get venture capitalist like Sequoia, later sell to Yahoo/Google like company, which have strong financial support and expanding their business.

Here are some of the recent news.

Yahoo may buy bebo, for one billion.

Yahoo buy Right Media, for $680M.

Google buy feedburner?, for $100 million.

Google invest in 23andMe, a bioinformatics startup founded by Sergey Brin's just married wife Anne Wojcicki.

Microsoft acquired aQuantive, for 6 billion.

AOL acquires Third Screen Media. Seems like these big players are competing in speed on acquire new startup company, and with a lot of money, so they are the new venture capitalist.

Reference:
Google vs. the venture capitalists

iGoogle name official

Google personalize page change the name to iGoogle.

I can't really remember what is the original name of Google personalize page, it always end with ig like this:

www.google.com/ig

I seldom access to Google personalize page, I believe a lot of people doesn't access Google personal page as well, because they like Google for its simplicity, not a page crowded with a lot of information.

iGoogle Screenshoot

Google's personalize page is a better and easier to use compare with Yahoo!'s personalize page, iGoogle is like netvibes.

iGoogle remind me of Apple Mac OS X's dashboard. I don't agree with the dashboard idea, or iGoogle or netvibes. Web application is popular because we can use the browser as a common platform access to web services. Dashboard is using a different client access to the same web services. Why don't we just launch a browser? People who like the dashboard idea, will still like it, same for iGoogle.

When a web services information can be displayed as a iGoogle module, it should work on PDA, right?

Google and Yahoo catch up

I always like to tell a story about Yahoo and Google, which I read from the internet. Larry Page (Google) once tried to sell their search technology to David Filo (Yahoo) for one million, but David Filo turn it down but encourage Larry Page to setup their own business.

Yahoo was using Google search engine from year 2000 to 2003, Yahoo always outsource their search engine to other company like Google and Inktomi, Yahoo focus on their portal business. You all should know what happen later, Google's search portal is getting more and more popular and become a treat to Yahoo. Yahoo drop Google search engine in year 2004.

Google and Yahoo just announce their first quarter financial result (here). Yahoo's revenue was $1.67 billion, less than half Google's $3.66 billion. Two years ago, the two company have almost the same revenue (refer to the cnet story here). Yahoo started three years earlier than Google, now Yahoo try very hard to catch up with Google.

Yahoo and Google are two very successful company, there are many company out there tried to be Yahoo and Google but fail. Yahoo started as a website directory, later transform to content portal and tried to be a media company. Google started as a search engine and focus on it. All Google services are build around their search and online advertisement business.

Yahoo is far behind from Google, in terms of revenue or profit figure, and user experience of their products (email, search engine ...), is time for Yahoo to work harder for a catch up.

Let's play with text

Do you know that, you can play mpeg video on text mode terminal?

Aalib (ascii art library) is an open source software library, render graphic and display in pure text (ascii) mode.

Is totally out of imagination, why people want to convert graphic to ascii text, especially for those windows users which never use dos before. There is a lot of reasons why people are doing this.

Reason 1: I only have daisy wheel printer. What is a daisy wheel printer (take a look at the picture here)? In the 80s, there is no such thing as laser printer (I mean normal people do not own such a printer), a laser printer may cost more than your desktop computer. The most commonly used printer is either dot matrix or daisy wheel printer. Most people will use a dot matrix (either 9 pin or 24 pin) printer because it can print both graphics and text, some people might prefer a daisy wheel printer for a better text output quality.

You can take daisy wheel printer as a type writer, which has a printer cable connected to your pc. Daisy wheel printer output a better text quality than your dot matrix printer, the down side is daisy wheel printer can't output graphics. With aalib (or similar graphic to ascii software), you can print graphics to a daisy wheel printer.

Reason 2: I am unix administrator. If you are a unix administrator, you might use a lot of telnet or only deal with a green color display dump terminal. With aalib you can view and manage your graphics (eg. gif or jpeg) files on your unix server with your text base terminal. Since you can view jpeg graphics, is should be easier for you to imagine, play mpeg video or video conferencing (streaming) on monochrome dump terminal is really possible.

display by aalib, move further to get a better view

The original portrait

Since aalib is an open source software library, I like to compile it myself. Aalib is well written, is easy to compile:

$ tar xzvfp aalib-1.4.0.tar.gz
(extract out the source code)
$ cd aalib-1.4.0
$ ./configure --prefix=/usr
$ make
$ make install
(if you know how to make software package like rpm or deb, you should install the rpm, other than install the library directly from the source)

aalib will link with the X windows library (strange right?), aalib use X Window terminal for ascii display by default, if it can't get a X Window display, it will use the dump terminal automatically.

$ aafire

To play video on terminal, you can try apron, but since MPlayer and xine support aalib, apron development is discontinued.

There are people who ported VGA library to aalib, so you can play Doom and Quake game on console terminal. You might be still thinking writing such a library like aalib is just a waste of time. As I told you, aalib is like a Mercedes smart fortwo, if is not applicable, is just for fun!

From Leisure Suit Larry to software development

I suddenly remember an old game call Leisure Suit Larry (in the Land of the Lounge Lizards). This is an adventure game released by Sierra Online during the 80s on PC (XT), the game feature with some adult content, but is a funny game. The game is about Larry looking for (real) love in the city of Lost Wages (the name is a humor by itself, isn’t it?) .

The game has a series of 7 (or 8? I am not sure), I play the part 1 and part 2, can’t even finish the game without the clues.

The game was written by Al Lowe. Al Lowe is a musician... and a game designer, I am not sure he does programming as well. The theme song of Leisure Suit Larry is composed by Al Lowe, you can download from here.

Many of the developers of the original Apple Macintosh 128k operating system like art and music. Jef Raskin who started the Apple Macintosh project like music and composing. Bill Atkinson, one of the key developers for the Macintosh operating system, is a photographer, he is on full time photographing now.

In later development of Macintosh OS, Apple always choose a musical term as the code name for the operating system, eg. Harmony (Mac OS 7.6), Tempo (Mac OS 8), Allegro (Mac OS 8.5). Rhapsody and Copland, the two projects before OS X are music related as well. Copland named after a composer, Aaron Copland. May be these two later project is just a naming convention after the early development of Mac OS, but those developers in early days of Apple, like music.

To become a software developer, other than programming skill, you must be creative and artistic, because programming is an art itself. In the 80s, musician and game designer learn about programming, so they can create, design and develop the software. These days software developer just coding, that will be sad.

In 80s, scientist, physician, musician learn programming because they think software development is interesting. In 90s, most people learn programming to secure a good job and good salary. In 2000s, I know some software development friends leaving the industry and work as art designer, film director and play in a band, that is real sad (for software development industry).

unplug for firefox browser

There are many ways to download an embedded streaming video, in youtube and apple movie trailer.

Using unplug plugins for firefox browser is just one of those, is easy to use. If you are not using firefox browser, may be you can consider install one in your system.

After installed unplug, you should see a fish icon with green color at the right side of url input box of the browser. You access to youtube website, click on the fish icon, it will extract out the video link.

unplug, download embedded video

Just click on the link should download the streaming video. You can use VLC player to view you video on desktop.

Oracle at Sun Tech Days Malaysia 2007

I didn't attend any of the Oracle presentations because I seldom use their products.

Everyone should remember the "Wheel of Oracle".

Spin the wheel and see what type of free gift you get

You submit your feed back form, you get a free gift from Oracle. You spin the wheel and try your luck, see what type of gift you get. Most people get a red color plastic cup. May be they have do some tricks to the "Wheel of Oracle".

Is a free gift, so no complains.

speakers at Sun Tech Days Malaysia 2007

I like to evaluate speakers, because speakers are key to the success of the event.

James Gosling speak in Sun Tech Days

These are the list of speakers who speak in Sun Tech Days.

I can't remember all the speakers on stage. These speakers came from all over the world, like Malaysia, China, India, Australia, South America and North America. I just list a few of them.

Angela M. Caicedo. Most impressive with her j2me presentation and "Minority Report" demo. She don't speak fast during her presentation, so audience can digest what she says. She choose the demo to show the audience, simple and clear.

Lee Chuk Munn. I have seen Chuk Munn a few times in other Sun events, I think he is experience on stage. He choose the right content, not boring even though sometimes his presentation is quite technical. He is a Malaysian.

Peter Karlsson. He speak quite fast but still easy to understand, and he says he work with Microsoft before.

Chris Armes. Chris is big size, so you will not miss out him. He is the host on OpenSolaris day.

Matt Thompson. He speak in an open source session, I think he is a marketing guys.

Joey Shen. A lot of people don't like his speech, but I think he do a good presentation for the open source license.

All speaker do their homework, it need a lot of preparation before on stage. I think every speakers do a good job.

Friends at Sun Tech Days Malaysia 2007

I meet a few friends that I have not seen for quite some time during Sun Tech Days 2007 at KLCC, like Aizatt, Tiang Hin, Lee Wee Jon, Ai Lin, Ethan Soo. I almost can't recognize some of the faces, and some of them can't recognize me too. IT world is a small world.

Sun Tech Days is great event, I am lazy to blog. I do a search in Google, Aizatt blog it. Aizatt blog quite frequent. I only blog when I have the mood to blog.

Open speech by Managing Director of Sun Microsystems, Mr. Gan Boon San, invited guest Deputy Minister of Science Technology and Innovation Malaysia, YB Dato’ Kong Cho Ha. Follow by James Gosling's keynote. Yes, James Gosling did came, but he just give talks on the first day (7 Mar 2007) opening, and not other session.

An air ticket was give out during the opening, winner can fly to USA to attend the JavaOne conference in May, I am not the winner. Early bird stand a chance to win an iPod, it was given out in the morning as well.

The following events as presentation split into three tracks, web, java and solaris, just choose what you like to attend.

They said about 1500 attendees, but don't worried, there is sufficient of food supply. Enough food for lunch and tea break, good review of technology during the presentation, a lot of freebies. If you pay one hundred and twenties for the event, it worth more than that.

Demos at SUN Tech Days Malaysia 2007

I think most people who attended the SUN Tech Days Malaysia was impressed by the few demos shown at the opening of events.

There a six demos:-

1. Java is fast. They compare the performance of a fibonacci program, written with Java and C/C++. The Java performance is as good as those C/C++ program (if is not faster).

2. Petstore 2.0 example. SUN has a popular J2EE petstore example, the SUN people make it more interesting with web 2.0. If you are developing web application and you don't know what is web 2.0, this will wake you up.

3. The remote tanker. Demo shown how to control the tanker movement and action using a mobile phones, definitely is a java enable phones. I heard there will be more java toys will be shown during the JavaOne in America, on this coming May.

4. Netbean IDE. A lot of users already know Netbean, now it came with java mobile edition, for java mobile application development.

5. Java mail client. Java can write application with rich GUI interface.

6. New search technology for multimedia. SUN develop a search technology, which search mp3 with tunes (not text), you can search mp3 with similar tunes, style or genes. I feel like I am in Apple conference, because iTunes and iPod are related to this type of technology.

7. "Minority Report" demo. SUN has a new desktop call Looking Glass, they write an interface to capture the hand movement (with the glove). Use the hand movement to move the cursor, and grab object on the desktop, just like the system use in the "Minority Report" movie. The system is not stable, but good enough to impress everyone.

Each demo was give about 5 minutes time. The demo is short, but very impressive.

iPhone Hello commercial

You know Apple Computer (now Apple Inc.) is good at advertising, most remarkable is their Macintosh 1984 superbowl commercials. It only shown once during the superbowl game, but it repeated uncounted times on News and TV. That’s Apple.

iPhone Hello, Apple commercial

In sync with the OSCAR Academic Awards, Apple shown the first iPhone commercial, intercut movies/TV scenes of famous actors and actress say ‘Hello’ through phone. The commercial was shown during 79th Academy Awards.

Some people comment the iPhone Hello commercial is not as good as the other Apple commercial, but I think is nice.

There is 31 movie scenes, how many actors/actress can you recognized, and what is the movies name?

Refer here and here.