Not just mobile phones

Wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

These days mobile phone is not just a mobile phone. It is a phone, camera and mp3 player, whatever it is, you can't miss its basic function as a phone, which you can call and talk to others.

My friend get a smart phone, is a HP PDA phone, can be used as a phone, store a lot of SMS, plan daily schedule, play game, surf internet, and it came with a lot of software utilities like calculator.

After my friend has used it for some time, it can do everything except one thing, to received call. It was ok when my friend first bought it, after use for about a year, the smart phone is not so smart anymore. My friend get a lot of miss call, the caller ask my friend why didn't pick up those calls, actually the phone never ring for incoming calls.

It happen to many smart phone users that I know. They always have problems with receiving call or sending SMS. I think when they try to fit in too many functions into a phone, the software becomes buggy. Remember a phone is still a phone, no matter what, you still have to make the basic function working.


Sony Ericsson Cybershot

I match this concept with a business, you can diversified your business, but you can't forget your core business. Google core business is search, something google is very good at it. Google's revenue came from online advertisement, which tie to their search and keywords.

Yahoo start as a search engine and moving to portal. Yahoo slowly losing the war to Google (refer, Google passes yahoo...), but you can't blame Yahoo, no one knows search can be so precise and so important, until Google prove it.

Not all diversified business fail, Apple is selling iPod mp3 player now and making a lot of money.

Yahoo Taiwan to acquire wretch website

天大的消息啊！雅虎奇摩收購無名小站。


無名小站班底

雅虎最喜歡併購了，怎麼會放過無名小站呢？別以為這個無名小站，只是無名，或是小站，在台灣可是大有名氣。有美少女的地方總是可吸引人氣。

雅虎沒有宣佈收購金額，據說有兩千萬美金。

Yahoo!奇摩並購無名小站
新聞評析─雅虎買無名小站
交大簡志宇 締造「無名」傳奇
無名小站不放手 將成下個蕃薯藤?
forbes.com

Microemulator on Solaris 2.6

Microemulator is an open source j2me emulator, I find it nice and easy to use. It support applet, so you can access your midp application through web browser.

I have some problem running microemulator from Solaris 2.6, finally I found out why and solve the problem.


Microemulator run on Solaris

The binary that I downloaded from the internet was compile as java 1.4 binary, but I get this error when I run java 1.4 on Solaris 2.6:

libjvm.so: symbol getloadavg: referenced symbol not found

This error will happen to java 5 as well. I am not sure the problem can be solved by patching the Solaris 2.6, but I am using the java 1.3.

What I need is to do is re-compile microemulator with java 1.3, I download from sourceforge (version 1.0), change the build.xml file to generate 1.3 code (just change 1.4 to 1.3 will do).

I change AppRecordStoreManager.java
$ vi AppRecordStoreManager.java
(at line 166)
FileOutputStream(recordStoreFile, false) to
FileOutputStream(recordStoreFile)

In 1.3 there is not such constructor, so this is yet another quick and dirty hack.

$ cd microemulator
$ ant

This will create me-app.jar in target directory

$ java -jar mee-app.jar HelloWorld.jad

This will launch your j2me midp program in microemulator, is just easy.

j2me pre-verifier on os x

Development is not that difficult as you think.

I have work on j2me development back in year 2000, j2me is very new at that time. There is no such things as MIDP (Mobile Information Device Profile), there is no available phone which support java. We use an j2me GUI call spotlet, running on a Palm device.

After that I have lost track with j2me development for a few years time, I almost forgotten how to develop a j2me application. I have tried to pick up some mobile development skills at the beginning of this year but the progress is very slow.

Recently I was inspired by Gmail java client, I think may be I should refresh my j2me development skills. A few years back I develop j2me program on Linux platform and this time I want to try it on Mac OS X, but I encounter some problems with the development tools.

A j2me program is just like your normal java program, it can be compiled by a normal (J2SE) java compiler. You need an extra step to create a j2me program, pre-verify the java class object, using the j2me pre-verify tools.

When a java program loaded, it must be verify (for security, valid classes etc.), but the verify process need a lot of resources (cpu power, memory), is difficult to implement on a mobile device. A j2me program need to be pre-verify before it was loaded into a j2me virtual machine, this can be done by a pre-verify tool.

SUN java wireless toolkit came with a pre-verifier, the toolkit is available on Windows, Linux and Solaris platform. Michael Powers have ported the toolkit on Mac OS X, if you are interested to know how to do it, refer to Do-It-Yourself MIDP on Mac OS X. The pre-verifier on OS X, need a X Window library to run. The X11 on OS X is a 43MB download, after installed is about 100MB, which I don't think is necessary.

I download j2me source, and compile it myself. The source is available at Sun website, you need a login account and registration is free, it was license under Sun Community Source License (I expect it will be release soon as GPL?).

The binary is about 160k in size, and it doesn't need a X11 to execute. This is a quick and dirty hack for my own use, it work for me, but not sure it will work for all time.

I am looking for some place to upload this file.

Web stickies

What ever I can think of, is already there.

After I change my view on web zip utility, I ask myself, what else can do for similiar web application. It quickly came into my mind, the stickies utility.

I never use stickies utility, not until recently. I found it useful to write some temporary notes on my PC desktop, so is easy for me to relate it to a web application. I can even create a browser addons for it, that's what I think.

Some how I have a feeling that such an application already exist, so I search through the internet and found MyStickies and its firefox addons.


MyStickies, web stickies application

You need 2 things for a start:-

1. MyStickies account, is free.
2. plugins for your browser, currently only plugins for Firefox is available.

Once you have register with an account and installed the plugins, use the following method to add new stickies:-

1. ALT + left click, or ALT + left click and mouse drag
2. click "New Sticky" on the toolbar
3. right click (context menu), My Stickies, and New Sticky.

I have tried the plugins (version 0.1.14 and 0.1.15), is not working, I think is still buggy. If you are in mystickies site, it is working.

Yahoo China CEO resigned

自雅虎中國與阿里巴巴合併後，周鴻禕離職，田健做了一陣子，又好像做不來，現在的謝文又閃電離職。據說是雅虎中國的理念與美國雅虎不合有關。


雅虎中國 CEO 謝文，閃電離職

看來雅虎中國大佬的位置真的不好坐。

雅虎中國總裁謝文閃電離職
競報：謝文離職揭開雅虎中國未來之危

CIMB to create world largest plantation company

CIMB (CIMB Investment Merchant Bank Berhad) propose to merge three plantation company in Malaysia-- Sime Darby, Golden Hope and Guthrie. This will create the world largest plantation company, worth 31.4 billion ringgit (USD$9.8 billion).

Sime Darby, Golden Hope and Guthrie are the legacy of Brithish colonie, all these company around hundred years old history, just like the Hong Kong's Hutchison Whampoa, Jardine Matheson, Weelock and Swire Group.

Sime Darby remind me of Hutchison Whampao. Sime Darby was form by Middleton Sime and Henry Darby, Hutchison Whampao is a merger of Hongkong Whampoa Dock and Hutchison International. Both are conglomerate company. Hutchison Whampao investion a lot in telecommunication industry, especially 3G license in Europe.

Some chinese translation here:-
CIMB 聯昌
Sime Darby 森那美
Golden Hope 金希望
Guthrie 牙直利
Hutchison Whampao 和記黃埔
Jardine Matheson 怡和洋行
Weelock 會德豐
Swire Group 太古洋行

What a simple plan

No doubt DiGi has a very good marketing plan for it mobile package, no wander it's share price soar from RM4 to more than RM10, even higher than its long time rival Maxis. Maxis is still the leader now, but things could be changing.

It starts from pre-paid SIM pack. DiGi pre-paid selling at RM8.80 (now is RM8.50), it came with a RM20 talk time, Maxis hotlink follow DiGi foot step, selling with a cheaper price at RM8.50. Compare with RM88 a few years ago, pre-paid sim card never been as low as this price before.

DiGi is the first mobile telco came out with pre-paid services, then Maxis came out with its hotlink services. DiGi pre-paid top up value is flexible, it even can top up with RM1 value.

You though DiGi pre-paid packaging is good? It's post paid package is even better. Do you notice DiGi advertise it's 1 low flat rate, very frequent on newspaper and TV? I always confuse with those mobile telco charges, this sounds much better.

DiGi came out with other new call rates as well. RM0 call between family line, and is all free call from DiGi to DiGi number, once your call charges are above RM123. Monthly subscription for DiGi post paid is just about RM10 to RM20.

Maxis, DiGi and Celcom have unlimited data access package, about hundred RM per month, once you subscribe to the package, you have to pay every month.

DiGi give you an option with some flexibility, you can paid per used (about RM0.10 every 10K, which is very expensive), and once you data charges reach RM149, is all free. Getting confused? Even without subscribe to data access package, is still an unlimited access plan, but rate are higher, at RM150.

People use Maxis because they said Maxis coverage is better, but I believe things will changed.

TechCrunch and Krunch tech

Michael Arrington write TechCrunch, earning hundred thousand per month.

I write Krunch tech, my earning just two cents, from AdSense.

I know the reason, why?

Some people says, you can't make money from AdSense anymore. That could be true.

PS. Last line is just a joke.

Google on mobile

My friend suddenly remind me this.

Sooner or later, (I think) there will be Google Calendar on your mobile phone, this is not the SMS alert from Google Calendar, is a (java) application like the Gmail reader. I don't know Google will do it, but I just believe Google will do it very soon.

The impact of Google Calendar on your mobile is, you don't need your Motorola or Nokia calendar anymore. In another word, Google is going to put your PIM (Personal Information Managment) application (eg. calendar, address book) into your mobile devices (mobile phones or PDA), no way you can stop them, unless you can provide a better services than Google.

I have use Google Calendar and Google Gmail contact management, they are equally good, I have no complain, any complain will be on Yahoo's adress book. I am wandering why Nokia and Motorola not doing it earlier, what they are waiting for!? Google!?

Those who have used Treo smart phone before, I like one of the SMS application which group all messages into a chat log, similar as Gmail group those email with same topic into one. Image Google upload your SMS into Gmail, imagine Google Talk can send message to your mobile phone as SMS. Wow! I couldn't imagine further anymore!

FireFTP and Krunch

Some idea on web services.

FireFTP is a ftp client plugins for Firefox.


FireFTP, ftp plugins for Firefox

I didn't try it until today, it is quite useful, especially when I don't have a ftp client installed on my desktop.

Later it remind me of this website, krun.ch.


online file compress services

I thought it was useless, just like many others think that web base IM client is useless (too slow). You can install a 200k utility (eg. freezip, info-zip) which help you to do the job. After I have tried the FireFTP, I change my mind. Online zip/unzip services could be useful, especially when zip utility is not available and you are not allow to install extra program into your desktop computer (eg. for security reason).

If you are still not convinced, let me give another reason why online zip/unzip services is necessary. You can zip/unzip on your desktop computer, but how about other file format which was not supported like tar, Z, lha, gz, bzip2, rar? There are applications which support these compress format, but if there is an online service, it could be easier.

Online zip/unzip services might not be as useful as what I describe. Since bandwidth are always limited, you might have trouble to compress a large file (that's the reason why we want to compress it).

What other value-added services we can improve on top of the online file compress services? Remeber I blog on info-Zip? The zipnote can add a comment (or description) to the archive file inside the zip file. I was not able to do it using my desktop utility. If the online zip/unzip services have such a function, it add value to the web services, and make it different from the desktop utility.

Link:-
FileSquash.com

SUN plan for GPL Java

This is a BIG BIG news, and it sounds GREAT, if it is true.

SUN Microsystems set to use the GNU General Public License for its open source java. I am not too excited (but I am very surprised by their GPL license decision) about their open source decision. I am more concern that java have a better development path in the future. I hope java will still be stable and (backward) compatible.

For me the most valuable properties of SUN are Solaris operating system and Java, now both open source.

SUN have a long time struggling between open standard and open source, they always differentiate themselves with Microsoft by adopting open standard like Unix and XML. SUN still take a tight control of java, even though many parties urge them to release Java, especially IBM.

I think SUN has made a wrong decision to acquire Netscape server end product, but leave the browser to AOL. The Netscape server end product became iPlanet server and SUN One application server, but it was not a very successful product.

If SUN work closely with Mozilla foundation, java might not be diminish from the browser, but now is still not too late for SUN to strengthen Java platform in the internet back end.

Not sure what's the future of java, and where it is going, let's observe.

Thoughts on Firefox 2.0 release

I have written this quite some time back, but never get it posted until now.


Remember firefox put a 2 page advertisement on New York Times?

Is another year after the official release of Firefox 1.0, Mozilla Firefox 2.0 was released a few weeks ago (24 Oct), right after the release of Internet Explorer 7.0. The browser war continue.

Do you remember the very first browser war, Netscape vs Internet Explorer? Netscape browser was discontinue and rely on Mozilla code, but Firefox survive as an open source source software (now you can see the power of open source).

Firefox shares in the browser market just increase a little bit to 12 percent (and majority of the rest is IE). Firefox is one of the most successful marketing in open source software world. What is the success story behind it?

A browser is still a browser. Just a few years back, (Netscape) software developers try to put everything in one, functionality is much important than stability, especially in browser war with Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Netscape include email client, html editor into its flagship product--Netscape Communicator browser, later it became a 20MB bloatware. Firefox browser is a strip down from Mozilla browser, just about 4 to 5 MB in size. It do what it originally doing when it was first started, a browser. This seems to be a smart move for Mozilla.

It doesn't means package a few software into one is a bad idea. Lotus SmartSuite is a good idea, Microsoft Office is a good idea, but you must do it right.

Firefox sounds cool. Firefox originally was named Pheonix and Firebird, but changed its name to Firefox, because the 2 earlier name have some trademark issue. A good name and icon, help in branding, most open source software has a interesting name compared with commercial software.

Tab browsing and plugins. Other than branding and marketing, , a good product must exist. Firefox came with some useful function like tab browsing.

Personally I don't think tab browsing is a great function. "Open html link in new window" (other than tab) make not much different for me. A lot of the users I know, switch from IE to Firefox for the tab browsing. IE only add in tab browsing function in version 7, which is few years time after IE 6.

Firefox function are extensible through plugins and extension. There is a lot of extension available, which can be downloaded from firefox add-ons.

Partner with Google. Partner with Google is another good move from Mozilla Foundation. According to Mozilla Foundation CEO, Mitchell Baker, Mozilla earn 10 of millions through partnership with Google and other website like Amazon.

The deal with Mozilla and Google was not reviewed, but many people says that, when you use the google search bar and the Firefox Google homepage to search for information, Google paid to Mozilla. Some rumors even said Mozilla earn 30 million to 70 million.

Is still a long way to go for Firefox to fight against with IE, and i would like to see both software improve, provide a better life for users like us.

Google ads one step further

My friend ask me a tough question, "How to make money through website?"

I give an easy answer, online advertisement.

"Other that that?", that will be difficult to answer, because even online advertisement can not guarantee you will make money.

Ten years ago, I heard my friend talks about double click, show me how good it is, what a bright future it has... bla bla bla, until Google cames in. How could he imagine such a company like Google will appear?

You can not imagine text base advertisement is more effective than a banner style advertisement, more effective than pop-out advertisement. Luckily I don't have to argue with you, because Google prove it.

A lot of my friends still asking me, is Google putting advertisement on its website? Why I didn't know about that? Without your notice, Google already making lots of money out of its online advertisement. Google give online services for free, what do you think their 100 billion market value came from?

Google is not the first company who sell online advertisement keyword, Overture (acquired by Yahoo in 2003) has been doing it much earlier. You know about Google and not Overture, simply Google has a better brand name.

Google online advertisement provided by AdWords and AdSense web services. One of the most valuable piece of AdWords and AdSense is the software application by Google, it provide an automated service for those who want to advertise and for those who want to make money out of Google ads. By just a few clicks and not technical knowledge, you can integrate Google ads into you personal website or blogs, and Google will share the ads profit with you.

Recently Google sign up with more than 50 newspaper including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, to sell advertisement space on traditional newspaper through online, Google is expanding it to some radio station too.

Please don't be surprised Google ads is everywhere, on every bus, every taxi/cab, every corner, every pillar, Wow! You will be surprised.

Meebo new face

Today I launch the meebo website. Oh! It has a new look.


meebo new face

There is a few changes for the new meebo release.

New visual design. Is not much different for me, the old design is good enough.

Drag and drop buddy list management. Ya! This is good, it make the buddy list management much more easier, just drag and drop will do. If they can merge 2 (or more) account into one, like AdiumX do, that will will even better.
(Some user, like me, have more than one IM account, in AdiumX, you can merge the 2 account into a same id, dislay as one in the IM client)

Updated chat logs. It make the browsing for the historical chat logs much easier, but still can't beat if you can search it (like what Google Talk does).

There are something that I don't like:-

Pop outs. If I like pop outs, I would never use tab browsing... Ok, I did once like to open url link in new browser window, but now I get use to tab browsing. :)

Where is the backgroup like buddy icon? I like the semi-transparent buddy icon, which display like a backgroup image on upper right corner of the chat window. I like the semi-transparent buddy icon, even though is so blur that you could hardly seen it sometimes. They have changed to a solid image, the wording will wrap around and never overwrite the buddy icon picture. I hope they can keep that on Mac OS X platform, because OS X like to use semi-transparent graphics, it look nice.

For those who prefer the old design, you can alwasy access to their classic skin.


You can always switch back to classic skin

I believe meebo will have more skins in the future.

PS. meebo is a web (ajax) base instant messenger, which use open source GAIM engine at the backend.

Some OS X software problem

Writing a quality software is important.

This is unbelievable, it always take me more than 20 minutes (I think is about 30 minutes) to sync my pda with the palm desktop software on Mac OS X, even if I just modified a few records. May be I am using a newer version of Palm Desktop (version 4) together with my older version of Palm Vx (OS version 3.x), and there is some compatibility problem.

I think there is some problem with the new palm synchronization software. Palm use to write a lot of good software, like the Palm OS, simple and easy to use, the palm desktop is another piece of good software.

The new palm software is not better than the old one, those on Mac OS is even worst. Mac OS is popular for its easy to use interface, but I find it difficult to use the Palm Desktop for Mac OS X. I don't know why, is just difficult to use.

May be is a common issue, these software developer only familiar with windows operating system, especially on the display interface. Last time I encounter some problem with java applet display on Linux system, the java applet can't refresh the display properly and efficiently. Most people don't care, because they run java on windows platform.


Firefox (ajax) display problem

Here is another example. My firefox on Mac OS X, have this display problem when access to meebo website. The scroll bar at the back display on the front window, don't tell me this is a transparent effect, because when firefox run on my windows platform does not have such problem.

Idealism and Pragmatic

Most people know about Linus Torvalds and Linux, but not RMS (Richard M. Stallman) and GNU, that's normal. Most people know GNU software from Linux and not the other way round.

RMS is idealistic. He want all software to be free, contamination are not allowed in free software, that is a great vision. Free software (GNU) is a revolution to the software world for the past ten or twenty years, and is still goes on. Linus is pragmatic. Usability of linux kernel widely adopted by many users, including commercial sectors. Many developers join Linus, write codes for linux kernel, some other company package the linux kernel together with other open source software as a commercial product.

I respect them, both RMS and Linus.

Open source software always remind me of independent movie production, I think they are quite similar in one way or the other. They are not controlled by big company, like Xerox or Paramount.

I know some independent movie maker (including producer and director) in Malaysia, sometimes I watch their movie (or shorts) to show my support to them (just like using open source software).

Some of the local independent movie maker insist their movie to be artistic, which was not understand by most audience. If you are looking for commercialize movie, you should go for hollywood style movie. Artistic movie target for a different audience, unfortunately there is not a big group of audience out there.

Same thing happen to some local open source software society, they insist software to be free (as freedom) and be free (as free beer). I am wandering if the local open source software people watch the local independent movie, what they will say?

Most probably local open source software people will ask, why should I pay for an entrance for local independent movie? Why it is not free? Why can't I duplicate the DVD (movies)?

For me, open source community must be open minded, free or commercial is not an issue. Open minded means to accept more ideas, more audience and more flexible.

I respect both of them, the local open source software community and local independent movie group. Keep it up.

GSC e-payment

I like movies, but I am lazy. I hate the long queue infront of the cinema ticket counter, so normally I watch movies during weekdays, or waint until everyone finish wathing it.

Some people like to use online booking or telephone booking, but you need to collect the ticket 30 minutes before the movie started. If you know my 'movie marathos', I watch the 7:30pm show after work, I might not able to make it before half an hour time.

Sometimes the phone booking seats was not collected, it will be openned to the others. I did tried my luck to get those seats, is good seat, right in the center of the cinema. I just don't understand why they implement such a system, the system may be abused because you don't have to pay if you don't collect the tickets. If they want to earn the extra 50 cents per booking, I will be very surprised.

Finally GSC came out with the e-payment ticketing system. I have been using it for quite some time and I am happy with it. You pay for the ticket online through credit card, the tickets is yours, you don't have to reach early to pick up the tickets. The e-payment system only available for Mid-Valley and 1U (new wing) cinema only.


GSC e-Payment: Choose your seat

How do you get the tickets? Remeber to bring along your credit card which you used to pay the tickets. Insert the credit card into the e-Payment KIOSK, follow the procedure, you will get the tickets. Sometimes the machine will response a bit slow, just be patient, if is not working, you can always re-print your ticket through Gold Class ticket counter.

The e-payment system charge extra 50 cents for each tickets, is expensive. The good things about using the e-Payment system is, you can choose your seat online, is using Flash technology. You see, these days website don't use Java applet, they use flash. YouTube use flash, was bought over by Google for 1.65 billion USD recently.

Devil wears prada

"size zero is new 2"

If you think working in Google is your dream job because you can wear casual to work, then 'The Devil Wears Prada' is not the movie for you.


The Devil Wears Prada

But if you like open source because you are innovative, you can watch the movie, is quite a nice movie.

The yahoo movie review is here.

The movie is base on the bestseller novel with the same name written by Lauren Weisberger. Most readers believe Miranda Priestly, the editor-in-chief of Runaway fashion magazine in the movie, was build base on editor-in-chief Anna Wintour of Vogue magazine, because Lauren (the novel writer) work there as an intern.

Chinese Grand Prix 2006

I watch the last few minutes of the F1 race, while having a late lunch in a restaurant.


Chinese Grand Prix 2006, Shanghai.

Michael Schumacher win over Fernando Alonso, Schumacher catch up from 6th place to number 1. Both Alonso and Schumacher score 116 point.


F1 2006 schedule.

If you do not want to miss the last few races for Schumacher, you can add in F1 2006 schedule (iCal) in you Google Calendar.

Where is all the software developer

I met a sales executive in a dinner. He told me he has been doing sales job for about four years, surprisingly, he was a programmer before he changed to sales line.

I ask him, what make him decided to give up programmer life? He told me, programmer life have to work till late night, is just to difficult for him. Yes, is true, not everyone can go through a programmer life.

Malaysia don't treat programmer (or software developer) well, low pay, long working hours, and always under pressure. There are a lot of fresh graduates work as a programmer every year, they need more training, but before they can go through the tough life, most of them had given out.

Obviously Malaysia is still lack of experience software developers.

iMac Intel with core 2 duo

I didn’t notice until I read Jason’s blog, Apple computer slash the iMac G5 Intel price to as low as RM3999 (17” model, America selling at USD999. It came with the new Intel Core 2 duo CPU, a 64bit, much more advance CPU than the earlier Core duo CPU (without the ‘2’) used in mac mini. The iMac 17” model came with combo drive (DVD+CD-RW) and not super drive (DVD-RW).

Even though I stop recommend other people to buy Apple notebook for the overheated and battery problem, but that’s for notebook. For those who considering to upgrade their computer to a Core duo now, I think this is a good deal.

A few good apple products

iPod Shuffle . This 2nd generation iPod shuffle, is smaller and lighter, with 1GB memory. It doesn’t come with USB adaptor interface, you need a dock connector to charge and sync the device.

iPod Shuffle, 2nd generation

iPod nano . This 2nd generation iPod nano designed like a iPod mini, but smaller in size. It came with 5 colors, maximum capacity is 8GB version, which is blank in color.

iPod nano, 2nd generation

USB power adapter. I never notice there is such a product, it can charge you iPod device (through USB cable) while you are on traveling.

USB power adapter, charge your iPod

These days many electronic gadgets charge through USB, like Motorola V3 series phones, Palm PDA, is good to have a standard charger for all your electronic portable devices, so you don’t have to bring so many power adapter with you while traveling. Like Nokia mobile phones, all use standard power adapter, it is an important feature.

AirPort express . I am wandering what is this device. It is a wireless hub but not able to dial up to the internet, it built in with AirTunes, allow you to stream iTunes music to audio system through wireless, but I think plug in iPod device directly to the audio system could be easier.

AirPort Express, wireless base station

This device is small and portable, palm-size, just like a power adapter. You can plug it into an existing network to enable the wireless network capability. You can use it as a wireless router to extend WiFi coverage, but it is not so straight forward especially with WEP encryption on.

Hack in the box 2006

HITB (Hack In The Box) is a security conference since 2003.

Capture the flag, is a hacking competition. There are 10 teams (or may be 9?) in the competition, take place in Westin Hotel, Kuala Lumpur.

When I read the result, I got a shock.

First place : dokdo-kor (South Korea)
Second : zone-h (Italy)
Third : Qb1t (Singapore)

Anyway I think this is a good event.

winmail from outlook email client

Sometimes I received attachments with a name winmail.dat, which was not able to be read by webmail or some email client. If you use the unix file utility to check it:

$ file winmail.dat
winmail.dat: Transport Neutral Encapsulation Format
The attachment was send by Outlook email client. You can use a tnef program to extract out the content. The tnef program is a open source program which runs on unix operating system, is very easy to compile:-

$ cd tnef-1.4.3
$ ./configure --prefix=/usr
$ make

$ src/tnef -f winmail.dat
( this will extract the winmail file content to current directory )

For OS X users, try tnef's enough.

bsod on os x

BSOD (blue screen of death, not BSD!) on Mac OS X.


Mac OS X kernel panic

I have seen this once, I though is a hardware failure, actually is kernel panic, and I have forgotten how it happened. My friend told me, he encounter quite a few times.

It can be customize, read here.

Macbook is a laptop

Earlier when I complain the overheated Apple notebook (my post), I mention about a blog post, and I have found it, is here, but in chinese.

The story is, a lot of customers complain about overheated Apple notebook, so the customer service says, “The MacBook is a notebook, not a laptop, refer to your user manual.” (refer here)

Someone found the picture here:-


from appledefects.com

(If you can't see the picture, click here for the original post)

The original picture, is still at this Apple site. I find it interesting, so share with you all.

Which gcc version?

I have been doing a lot of software development job on unix platform using C programming language. Normally I work on Linux and very old version of SUN Solaris system. How old? Is Solaris 2.5, which was release more than 10 years ago (1992). I use some old gcc compiler as well, don't be surprised if is as old as gcc 2.8.

There are a few version of gcc available, choosing a right version which suit your need is very important. Not all gcc version are (fully) compatible, I just share my gcc experience here:-

gcc 2.8.1. I like this very old version of gcc, is classic. It is small in size (binary), just about 3 to 5 megabytes, you can bring it along with you easily and install on many machine, I use it to compile the later version on target machine. The gcc itself is very easy to compile. I don't suggest anything earlier than 2.8, but I use gcc 2.7 once to compile an old linux kernel (2.0.x).

gcc 2.9x. gcc 2.8 doesn't work well with some new version of open souce software, you need a newer version compiler to do the compilation work. gcc 2.9x is not an offical release from free software foundation, users are waited too long until the next official release, so these people put in a lot of new functioin, and fork out the gcc 2.9x from the offical release. They do it so well that make most people forgotten the official release. If you are late 90s user, you should be familiar with this version.

A lot of the cross-compiler, tool-chain or ARM target binary compiler are base on this version.

gcc 3. Most people upgate from 2.9x to version 3.x without much problem, because they don't write program, especially C++ program, they hardly compily any open source software too. gcc 3 is not compatible with gcc 2.9x, gcc 3 is an official release, but gcc 2.9x is not.

One of common problem when user upgrade Java version or Mozilla/Firefox, and found out that the java plugins is not working anymore. This is cause by the in-compatibility of gcc binaries, browser and java plugins compile by a different version of gcc. eg. browser compile by gcc 3, but java plugins compile by gcc 2.9x. Normally the java plugins provide 2 binaries, one compiled by gcc 3, and another compiled by gcc 2.9x.

These days, not much people care about java plugins problem. They use firefox browser on Windows operating system, for unix users, most of them move to gcc 3. The most important thing is, they hardly need java plugins for website.

gcc 4. gcc has moved to version 4 for quite some time, I have no experience on using it.

Conclusion
Newer doen't mean better, just choose something which suit you best will do.

ACM 2006

I just went to ACM expo in the afternoon.

I know why I prefer ACM expo than PC Fair, is not so crowded. May be most of the people go to Microsoft Tech Ed 2006.

Many exhibitors doesn't know how to make use of this "golden opportunity" to promote their company and products. Just hire some pretty girls, stand there and do nothing (Ok. You can ask them to distribute some leaflet), like Kasturi Technology

If you need them to talk to the customer, make sure they know the product well. Some promoter from Maxis and DiGi, don't even know the detail of the package. These information was shown to the public everyday, sometimes customer knows it better.

Free gift like pen or paper bags, with the company or product name printed on it, is good advertisement, just distributed to the visitors as much as you can.

Some companies just a have a small booth, put some brochure there, simply ask any staff sitting there. I saw some them almost fall asleep while sitting there. Please don't blame on them, no one can sit there and do nothing for the hold day.

Don't expect people came all the way from their office, take the brochure and walk away, most visitors want better interactive session. Put up a multimedia video, or self-running slides will be good.

Make sure your marketing and sales don't simple bluff, visitors will know. If you want to have technical session, make sure the technical people can talk like Steve Jobs, or visitors will just walk away before they finish.

Some exhibitors get a large booth, like Macro Kiosk. I look around, everything look nice. The problem is, other than the smart car, I don't know what they want to show to the visitors (like last year). I am sure Micro Kiosk sell nothing related to the smart. I saw a few of their (marketing?) people, just group together and talking non stop (within themselves and not to the visitors).

iNavigate have a small booth under MDEC, they have a product call mEye, allow your mobile phones to monitor your home or office, quite interesting. I didn't notice N2N there.

Acer is there. Acer always show up in ACM. Last few years, they show their latest notebook tablet. This time I don't know what they want to show. They have a few handsome guy, dress up with coat nicely, but hardly say any words. I though they were hired as bodyguard.

Skype phone! Finally I saw someone promoting skype phone, I think is from Avantech(?). Sorry I am not so interested with hardware company.

I think RedTone people are force to stand by at the ACM exhibition, because they leave the exhibition before anyone else leaving. If they want to avoid the traffic, may be they should use Maxis' traffic monitoring system. I have invested in RedTone shares, so I really hope they can do better.

Maxis is promoting their phone book backup services, RM2 per month, but these people can't explain well how these things will work, just ask me to access their website. Their 3G still can't display a smooth streaming video, after one year time.

After criticize about so many things, I saw some exhibitors are very hard working, keep doing demo non stop, like EP-Tech. They have a scratch board device, you can just draw on the projector screen using electronic pen or your finger tip. The system is running on Windows operating system.

ACM 2006 coming soon

I attended the ACM (ASEAN Communications Expo & Forum) expo for the pass few years. I prefer this expo than the PC Fair or Microfest every year. PC Fair and Microsfest are for normal consumer, is just like an IT mega sales.


ACM 2006
at KLCC Convention Center

ACM is more focus on telecommunication, company like Maxis, DiGi, TM (Telekom Malaysia) will be there, few years back I saw RedTone and Green Packet. Not so much of pretty show girls around, and I don’t really learn new things all the time there, but is something different.

There is a few mobile and telco related company will be there this year, eg. iWOW, MacroKiosk (they were there last year), Mobile 365.

Normally the expo is at Mines Exhibition Center, but this year they are in Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC), you can pre-register through their website.

5th to 7th September (10am to 5.30pm)
8th (10am to 4pm)

Is weekdays, but if you have time, don’t miss it.

Picaseweb experience

Yesterday night, my friend show me some photos uploaded to Google Picasaweb. Picasa website is available to the public testing for quite some time, but this the first time I browse through the photo site.

When Google acquire Picasa photo management software, I am wandering, how could Google miss out flickr, and let Yahoo grep it. I know Google always like to use their own technology, and I believe Google apply similar technology in Google Earth to Picasaweb.

Many online photo site allow user to upload and display the original digital photo which as large as 1600x1200 pixels. Is nothing wrong to upload a high resolution photo, but display a high resolution photo (around 1M) on the web page, that will be wrong. User will click the close button before the photo is loaded completely.

High resolution photos are for hard copy print out. For a web page display, photo need to be resized in both resolution and capacity. Don’t hope the broadband network will solve the problem, because bandwidth is always limited. Most screen display are set to 1024x768 or even smaller in size, photo resolution which is higher than this will be resize for a better display, so is just wasted.

Browse through Google Picasaweb is a different experience from flickr, even it is not so much fun as flickr, but Picasaweb is fast. Other than a wider bandwidth and higher server load capacity, there are software technology behind the scene. The Picasaweb first deliver a ‘blur’ image, which is smaller size (so it loaded and display faster), and load the other detail of the image at the background, just like what Google Earth is doing.

Link:-
Ofoto, the very first online photo album that I know, acquire by Kodak in June 2001.
Sony ImageStation, official online photo sharing website.
Yahoo photo, Yahoo is a portal, they almost have everything.
flickr, now you know why Yahoo want to acquire another online photo album.

Bandwidth is always limited

Not just about bandwidth, resources are always limited.

Ten years ago, when people start talking about Java technology, people are so excited about it. Java is cross-platform, write once and run everywhere, but Java is slow, so my friend told me not to worry, because CPU getting faster and faster. This is true, but not all the truth.

If you notice these days, website use a lot of Macromedia flash technology, and not java applet. There are many reasons why people doing so, eg. development tools, easy to use, compatibility (with earlier version), browser plug-ins available etc. Most important is the user experience, flash is fast.

The most popular short video website—YouTube, use Macromedia flash to playback videos, not Java applet, not Apple QuickTime or Microsoft Window Media Player. Even though we have broadband of 1M (or more), compare with the dial-up 56.6K is a lot of improvement, user still find that the internet connection is slow. User can’t wait forever until the video downloaded. Flash is light weight, it satisfied the users need.

Ajax technology is so popular today, because it improved the performance and user experience of web application.

There is a lot of potential for flash technology, is a right move for Adobe to acquire Macromedia flash.

Carolyn, you're fired!

Side dishes.

The lady appears in "The Apprentice" show, Carolyn Kepcher has left Donald Trump's Company, reported in many website news today. Carolyn became popular, as appear in "The Apprentice" show. She help Trump to monitor the "apprentice" team progress, help Trump to identify who to be fired.


Carolyn Kepcher

After Carolyn became popular, she is busy writing book and giving speech, could hardly focus on the business. That could be the main reason why Carolyn left Trump’s Company.

Carolyn has her own website carolynkepcher.com.

zip on unix

Other than Phil Katz and PKWare, you should not forget Info-ZIP.

Info-ZIP is an open source software (BSD like license), support many operating system platform, eg. DOS, unix like OS, including Solaris, Linux and even OS X. Many people have contributed to the project.

I have compiled the lastest Info-ZIP's zip(2.32) and unzip(5.52) program on solaris without much problem.

On solaris, just extract the source code, cd into the directory:-

$ make -f unix/Makefile solaris
$ make -f unix/Makefile install

Even though OS X already came with info-zip, and I have another info-zip install through fink (/sw/bin), but I would like to compile a newer version by myself. Is very easy.

$ make -f unix/Makefile generic or
$ make -f unix/Makefile bsd

Another reason I install the new version is, I have this zipnote command, which help to comment files in the zip archive, which I can't find in my old version (zip-2.1).

$ zipnote foo.zip > foo.tmp
(edit foo.tmp file)
$ zipnote -w foo.zip < foo.tmp

$ unzip -l foo.zip
Archive: foo.zip
This zip have foo and bar file
Length Date Time Name
------ ---- ---- ----
37048 08-31-106 18:09 foo
This is foo file
0 08-31-106 18:17 bar
This is bar file
------ -------

This is how you can comment your zip archive, so you don't forget what is inside after some time.

Try it out, compile a zip for yourself, is fun.

Is zip again

Today is Malaysia Merdeka Day (Independent Day), let's celebrate. How do I celebrate? Coding overnight, while other singing karaoke and watching fireworks.

You are not going to believe this, I am still using my floppy diskette to transfer my program from one machine to another. I zip my program, so reading and writing to the diskette will be faster.

Now days, not much people care about zip program, because they store their program or data in their 1GB thumb drive, zip or non-zip make not much different.

Ten or fifteen years ago, zip program is very important to us. There is no thumb drive or CD-Rom storage, hard disk are 40MB in capacity, storage is expensive, we store our data on diskette, zip utility help us a lot.

There is quite a number of compression format and utility tools available:-

pkzip
lha (.LZH)
arj
rar

For some reason, I have chosen lha as my compression tools, all my old data files are still compress in lha format (.LZH). Arj has a better compress ratio at that time, but is slow, rar is proprietary, lha has a better compress ratio than zip, decompress faster than arj, and I have a tools to convert .LZH to an executable.

I should have chosen zip. Zip is the most common compression format, a lot of tools and utility program is available, as freeware or even open source software. I could hardly find any tools and utility program support lha format. Now I have to convert all my .LZH files to .ZIP.

I learn my lesson now, choose a format which common and open, which will last long. Sacrifice a little bit of compression ratio and program performance is reasonable. May be should thanks Phil Katz, whether he is doing right or wrong, he did contribute to the popularity of zip format.

Apple Battery Exchange Program

It has been a long long time, I didn't blog anything, my previous blog is Yahoo Finance Badge, is one month old.

Recent big news about Apple is, they are having a battery exchange program, collecting back some ibook G4 and powerbook notebook battery, and exchange a new one for free.

Not all notebook will be affected, should be those manufactured or sold between October 2003 to August 2006. One of my friend's ibook G4 battery serial number drop in between the range, but another friend's powerbook G4 is not. You can check the serial number from Apple website.

Computer model	Battery model number	Battery serial number range
12-inch iBook G4	A1061	ZZ338 - ZZ427 3K429 - 3K611 6C519 - 6C552 ending with S9WA, S9WC or S9WD
12-inch PowerBook G4	A1079	ZZ411 - ZZ427 3K428 - 3K611
15-inch PowerBook G4	A1078 and A1148	3K425 - 3K601 6N530 - 6N551 ending with THTA, THTB, or THTC 6N601 ending with THTC

These batteries containing parts manufactured by Sony, expose to a risk may result in overheating under rare circumstances. If you ask me, I will tell you not just those battery, my ibook G3 is easily overheated as well, you just can't put on your lap after using for some time.

This is not the first time apple do such a program, they have another exchange program earlier for collecting back the batteries manufacture by South Korea LG.

I am having a ibook G3, bought during march 2003, which is already 3 years old. The model and serial number is not in the range, of both exchange program. The good thing is, I am not expose to the risk of battery explosion, the bad thing is I can't exchange a new battery for free.

My ibook battery is left with 'half life', even I have done a full discharge and recharge, so is not cause by the battery memory effect. I am quite disappointed with apple's notebook battery, because it don't last as long as what I expected.

My friend have a ASUS M series notebook, which was bought a few month earlier than my ibook, still running ok without much battery problem. My palm Vx which was bought in year 2000 is still running ok.

Many users complain having overheated problem with apple notebook, including the new macbook pro. Apple claim that notebook should not put on the lap, so you will not get burn or hurt, but some one pointed out in the blog, Apple has a picture showing some people listening mp3 and using notebook on the lap, I can't find the blog, but will show you all next time when I found it.

I like OS X, and I am happy with their battery exchange program. I will not replace my ibook with macbook pro, and I will not recommend anyone to buy it now, until apple solve the overheated problem.

Yahoo Finance Badge

What can I say about this? Yahoo Finance Badge create the code for you, you just copy and paste the code to your blog template, then real-time price is on your page now!.

Yahoo finance badge

I try to explain to my friends, how's the flickr badge work for real-time stock code, some of them don't get the idea, now I don't have to explain, Yahoo finance badge explain it all.

I 'steal' the idea from flickr badge, but Yahoo own flickr.com.

CSS is not my style sheet

Those people who know me better should know, I don't like CSS (Cascading Style Sheet). Then you will not be surprised I will agree with this article (Why CSS Bugs Me).

Basically this is the problem:-
1. CSS is a standard, but the 3 main stream browser (IE, Firefox and Opera) handle it differently.
2. Is hard to debug.

If not using CSS, how to solve the (style) problem? Since I use JSP, I will use XML to solve the problem.

I don't stop anyone who use CSS, just think twice before you use it. Use something which suit you better.

myoss site in iosn is down

Some myoss blogger's page link my browser to this site, when I click on the myoss meetup link.


Date: 14 July 2006

Unfortunately it was down. Anyone is fixing it?

This IOSN MYOSS site, host some of the myoss meetup information.

Interesting FIFA Worldcup theory

雖然世界杯過了好幾天了，不過第四十四集的 HKPUG Podcast 有一個關於世界杯的＜外圍理論＞是講得很有趣。主要是說，外圍賭球，那一隊的賭注最大，那一隊就不會贏。像巴西，雖然是熱門，因為賭注大，每個人都會買巴西，所以巴西就輸了。

我覺得 HKPUG 的 Podcast 做得不錯。所以我也有點興趣與 Linus Lai 試做看看，因為他最早提出要做 Podcast 。最近我已經停了兩個專欄，也減少參加活動，應該可以擠出一些時間，就在等 Linus 點頭而已了。

OpenVanilla 0.7.2

Open Vanilla
Finally get OpenVanilla install on my OS X Panther (10.3.9).

What is OpenVanilla? OpenVanilla is an open source chinese input method for Mac OS X.


OpenVanilla
open source chinese input method

Why Open Vanilla
Why we need to install chinese input method on OS X since it already came with it? The default chinese input method came with OS X is quite difficult to use, many OS X users having the same problem.

Normally I use changjie （倉頡） input method. I just point out the two problems that I having having. First, I can't type out some character eg. 已 (code su) on the OS X default changjie, I think they use a different code which is different from what I have used for many years. Second, OS X default IM don't pop out the character automatically when there is more than one choices for the IM code, means you have to select by pressing number keys, this is slow.

My experience
You need to download a special version package for OS X Panther.

My first attempt to install OpenVanilla fail, may be I didn't notice the input method is there. So I uninstall the software and re-install again (need reboot), my default chinese input is gone. I select the input method from Preference, International, the OpenVanilla is there.


Preference, International

I am not able to enable the default IM, the program crash, I need the pinyin, when I don't know the changjie code.


Changjie input method

blog template update

I get a complain from a friend, says my blog is just like those web site that I complained. So I have changed my blogger template, not much different, because I am not really good with CSS. The content area should be bigger now.

Talk about blogs, mis2u finally get update, becuase his Favourite Radio Programme banned..

libchewing compile problem

I found out why libchewing can't compile properly (in my earlier post), because I am using gcc 2.8.1. When I use gcc 2.9.x, I solve the first problem but I get another problem, the system complain:-

keymap key;

in hanyupinpinyin.c, I don't know what is keymap in the source code, but will solve this later.

Another poor web layout

This is not bias, but I get another poor web page design:-


Who's Really Running Google?
from Forbes.com

I am just reading a quarter of the screen, and almost the other half of the page is blank.

You can refer to my old post for another example or poor web page design.

oxim compile, first try

oxim is firefly's modified version of xcin, I try to compile today (v1.0.3). xcin in a chinese input method for unix/linux system

These are the dependency:

oxim-1.0.3
  +- libtabe 0.1.9
   +- berkely db2
  +- libchewing

I get a compile error in libchewing, so just stop there. Earlier I want to compile gcin, but it depends on some QT package, so I give up.

Earlier there are someone suggest to use the name nicx, to avoid confusion with the original xcin program. I think nicx sounds good, oxim is good as well.

Google Earth 4.0 beta

Finally I install the Google Earth after it has been release for sometime. Google Earth is a software allow you to view satallite photo on the earth. For some major city (eg. New York, London), buildings and even cars on the street can be seen quite clearly, but such detail photos only available for major city, not any part of the world.


Mountain View, California
A lot of software and internet company located around here

The software is easy to use, to zoom in just click your left mouse button, click for a few times (I think should be a triple click and hold it), to zoom out just use the right mouse button. I found where I stay and my office building, the photo are quite clear.

Who need Google Earth? Some people just use it for fun, but I think is useful for some property developers, they don't need a helicopter to get a clear picture.

You can download the software from Google website, is available for Windows XP, Mac OS X (10.3.9 and above) and Linux platform. I have tried the Windows and OS X version, OS X version will crash sometimes when I zoom in to the map.

Malaysia open 2006 (not internet ready)

No live match on the internet?


Lee Chong Wei
Originally uploaded by dev_sandy.

Yesterday in Malaysia Open (Badminton) 2006, Malaysian player Lee Chong Wei beat China top player Lin Dan in the final match. I watch part of the match on Television, asking my friend, is there any website like joga.com for badminton live match? My friend do not have an answer for it, ask me to search around on the internet.

I google it for a while, and don't find anything, may be live match for badminton game is just not common. Badminton have many world class tournaments like All England, World Championships, Thomas/Uber Cup, Japan Open, Hong Kong Open, Singapore Open (old Konica Cup, now Aviva) etc. Next tournament is Chinese Taipei Open, which will be started on 20th June.

IBF (International Badminton Federation) change the game rules to 21-point match (like table tennis), to have a better control of the game timing, this will help the timing control when live on television. They have put in effort to improve the sport, but seems like they have to work harder. Each tournament should provide a live match feed.

Malaysian Open shown as a golf tournament in wikipedia. Looking for "Malaysia Open" in Google Calender found nothing, may be they need a unique name.

Link:-
Malaysia Open 2006 4 star. What! 4 star?
Chinese Taipei Open
International badminton

Joga companion

joga companion

Joga.com has a plugins for firefox call Joga.com companion. It will display the match result and news of FIFA Worldcup in firefox browser.


diplay on firefox browser

You can download from the firefox website.

Joga dot com

joga is a community website

This is a soccer (football) community website presented to you by Google and Nike. Google provide the website technology and Nike provide the content.

Unbearable yahoo mail attachment

I received a lot of funny pictures through my yahoo mail, I enjoy viewing the pictures (or photos), but open up attachment in yahoo mail is almost like a nightmare for me now, is so frustrating.

current yahoo mail

You could hardly see a clear picture with the thumbnail. To view the full picture:

1. Click on 'View'. Yahoo will scan the virus
2. Click 'Download Attachment' button. (strange, can't view it through the browser directly)
3. Select 'View with an application' or 'Download to local hard disk'.
4. Click 'Back to message'.

Imagine if I have 10 photo attachments in an email, I have to complete the 40 steps. Compare with Gmail, I just need one or two clicks.

Do you think yahoo mail (v2.0) beta is much better?

yahoo mail beta

I am like viewing one fifth of the display, even after I maximize the windows, disable all toolbars and status bar, I still can not get a full pictures.

One day I may switch to Gmail for this reason.

Worldcup live with google and yahoo

Yesterday my friend show me, how you can include a world cup module in google personal page, but seems like yahoo worldcup is better.

Korea vs Togo

Like today's match, Korea and Togo. Yahoo showing 0:1, but google worldcup module still showing 0:0.

FlickrExport v1.3.4

FlickrExport is an open source software, a plugin for iPhoto to upload photo to flickr.

an open source flickr plugins

Is easy to install, easy to use and is open source! I think there is more than one plugins for iPhoto.

Configure ubuntu chinese display

I learn something new today.

I have some problem with the ubuntu chinese display.

The chinese font display are different in size, some are smaller and some are bigger.

I though is chinese font configuration problem, it is not. Some of the chinese font are loaded from japanese font, that's why they look all different.

Try this solution:-

$ vi /etc/fonts/fonts.conf
($ sudo vi, if necessary)

Look for Kochi, place Kochi after the chinese font.

<family>AR PL KaitiM GB</family>
<family>Kochi Gothic</family>

Ubuntu use x.org server, this should work for all linux which use x.org server.

My Eclipse problem solved

Time flies at night.

Before I finish download Eclipse 3.2RC7, I found out the class file version problem. I set my JAVA_HOME environment in my Windows system (right click on My Computer, Advance, Environment Variables, then set JAVA_HOME in system variables.) to JDK 1.3.

Now I came back to tomcat setting, configure tomcat support XML, taglibs and XPath. I found out that I always have problem when configure tomcat on different system, cause by the different jar file that I used.

I use the new xalan.jar don't give me any problem, but the old xalan.jar give me error like serializer class not found.

I am confuse with xalan.jar, xerces.jar...

Eclipse 3.2RC7

I am having some problem when I build the ant file (build.xml)

Badd class file: C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.0_07\lib\rt.jar(java/io/Serializable.class)
class file has wrong version 49.0, should be 47.0

I read this Malcolm Davis's Blog, it says 'Eclipse 3.1 looked rushed'. Version 3.2 seems to have a lot of changes, so I try 3.2 from eclipse download, let see the version 3.2RC7 will solve my problem.

HP Compaq t5720

HP 推出使用 AMD Geode NX1500 處理器的精簡型電腦 (thin client) ，配搭微軟的 XP Embedded 作業系統，售價約六百美元。看來惠普並沒有放棄精簡型電腦的市場。

HP Compaq t5720

AMD Geode NX1500 是低耗電量處理器，約使用 6 瓦特 (watt) 電量。一般處理器的耗電量介於 60 至 120 瓦特之間。

IBM, Linux and Eclipse

It has been a long time I didn't attend any software or technology related seminar.

Linux and Eclipse

This team from IBM has been travelling around the world for 4 weeks time, and Kuala Lumpur is their last stop.

The morning session presented by business manager, afternoon is more on the Eclipse, sounds more interesting for the developers. They demo

Syntax checking function, the software will shows you where is the syntax error and suggest how to solve it.
History log, roll back to the previous version like your CVS, and you can disable it.
Scrapbook pages, simple type in your java command (eg. System.out.println("Hello, World!"); ), it will run, even without public static void main().
JUnit, is build in function for you to carry out your test script, it will indicate the testing is pass or fail.
GUI, how you can 'draw' your graphic component.
Locallization, easily convert your program to support multilingual.
webtools, it show some demo on ajax too.

I met khoo (his initial is gtk :) ). He is a developer that I met a few months back on a SUN Developer Day seminar. He just start a new job for a few weeks, they are using Linux as their development platform. We exchange some idea on web application development.

Books:
They recommended to get this Eclipse book, 'Java(TM) Developer's Guide to Eclipse, The (2nd Edition)', by Jim D'Anjou, Scott Fairbrother, Dan Kehn, John Kellerman, Pat McCarthy. Some of the authors are from IBM. Check Amazon.

Link:-
Doug Tidwell, the technical speaker who show Eclipse. photo

Ubuntu 5.10 on powerpc

After my Gentoo Linux partition gone, it has been a few months I didn't restore back the Linux operating system on my powerpc notebook. Finally I get it done yesterday night, but I install a Ubuntu Linux this time.

Installation process for Ubuntu Linux is easy, the most tricky part is partition for the hard disk. Since I still keep the old partition unused, I don't have to do anything about it. I have forgotten the detail of the hard disk partition, but something special about Apple (New World) hardware design, they store their firmware data on the hard disk, you have to keep this firmware partition.

My friend told me installing Ubuntu Linux takes about 15 minutes. It takes me more than 15 minutes to do than on my 700Mhz machine, the 1st part installation take about 20 minutes, the 2nd part configuration takes about 30 to 40 minutes. Since Ubuntu 5.10 is a few months old distribution, it prompt me for software update. I have not tried the Ubuntu update yet, is already 3am, I need to take some sleep. Tell you all the Ubuntu Live Update experience next time.

Interview and movie making

前兩天與友人提起，想要製作一系列有關 open source 的訪談錄影，報導一些在本地的 open source 的人、事、物，或是活動。沒想到我一提出來，就得到友人的大力支持，熱心地借出數位錄像機，同時要參與製作。出錢出力，真難得。

原來很多人，對拍攝的工作都很有興趣。我曾經幫助友人參與本地地獨立影片的拍攝工作，其實很辛苦。主要是因為資金與資源有限，除了要超時工作，沒有加班費之外，還要一人分飾多角。除了要幫忙收音之外，偶爾還要跑跑龍套，當臨時演員。

製作影片真是不容易，不是拍家庭綠影參加 Home Funniest Video 比賽，不是只用一個錄像機就可以解決的事，還要做許多事前的準備工夫，像是訪談的內容，背景資料等等。為了有好的收音效果，麥克風也要講究，還要打燈。拍攝完成後還要剪接等等後期製作。

製作雖然辛苦，大家有心，已經很難得了。

Two opensource ajax toolkit

Google and Yahoo extended their competition from search technology to ajax.

Recently I am working on Ajax web development. My friends send me two ajax toolkit link, one from google and one from yahoo.

These toolkits are open source (Wow!), Yahoo is using BSD license, Google use Apache License.

Example:-
yui tetris, a tetris build by yahoo toolkit.

Thank you Dave and Yew Fai.

Breakfast gathering

Is a long long time I didn't meet those open source friends.
Finally I organize a free and easy breakfast (lunch) gathering, with Linus Lai (and Jessica) and Yeak (with Patricia and Jonathan), in Bukit Jalil Golf Resort Oriental Pearl Restaurant. We have Dim Sum there.

Is quite a nice place for gathering, no so crowded, very comfortable, we enjoy the food and talking there. Linus Lai show his work he done last night, install Mac OS X on a Acer Intel notebook, you can check out from his blog, but no screen shoot, may be he is just lazy.

We decided to start working out something for the local open source community here, not sure what to do yet, so call for gathering again, next week friday 9.00pm in Sri Petaling.

No photo, too bad.

roar out loud

is all about web 2.0

After I introduced Google AdSense to most of my friends, they just look at me with no expression on their face, like asking me, "So?"

I ask, "Don't you feel excited with it?" Ya I don't think so.

When I show flickr.com to the others, some of them just replied, what so special? Is just a photo management website.

When I introduce Google Calendar to my friends, some of them can't wait until I finish and walk away.

This time when I try to tell others about meebo, I am more careful. I am asking myself, am I short sighted? or some of them just miss out the important milestone of the internet.

They are web 2.0, but not just about technology, is how they design it. Java script exist for many years, now its power was unleashed.

Some people ask me how meebo make money? Why ask me? Ask them. There are many possibilities to get profited and they have to prove it.

meebo is not the first web base instant messenger, at-least there was already an e-messenger.net, but it is not so responsive. I don't know how far meebo can go, but is excited to know.

Coding is not easy

Today I read meebo blog, Elaine (one of the three founders of meebo.com) write in the blog, that she has been working for three years with Sandy (another founder) for the coding.

Even I found meebo still lacking a lot of functionality, but it is usable and is a great work to setup meebo.com. They have spent a lot of effort to get what we see now.

Many developers like coding like me.

Coding is fun. When you try to create some real life application, it is not that easy as what others think it is, especially for non developers, look at what meebo developers have done, you should know what I mean.

McNealy step down from Sun CEO

OOW005
Originally uploaded by Eddie Awad.

After 22 years working in Sun Microsystems, Scott McNealy will step down as CEO, announce by Sun Microsystems on Monday (24 April). Sun Microsystems share price go up after the announcement.

Sun Microsystems doing well during dot-com era, but after the dot-com bubble burst, they company shares are all time low. McNealy is reluctant to reduce the engineer staff, which is not prefer by stock analyst, so is not a surprise their share price go up after McNealy step down announcement.

Recently Sun is aggressive goes into x86 server market, and McNealy promise to 'open' Solaris operating system in the future, seems like the goal has to be accomplish by his successor, Jonathan Schwartz.

The announcement shown that Sun had long stopped being a leader on the market, and McNealy has lost the trust from the share holders.

Yahoo Widgets

Yahoo Widgets
Originally uploaded by Maccise.

You can download the yahoo widgets, is available for Windows and Mac OS platform.

Widgets are just utility, which look simple and nice, normally connect to an internet service to retrieve some information, eg. weather.

Application are moving from desktop to browser, then back to the desktop (as widgets), and eventually it will go back to the browser. It is the services which make the different.

Link:-
CNet, Yahoo acquire Konfabulator.

decode calendar feed

Google Calendar provide a xml and iCal feed for 3rd party application. There is a private feed and a public feed, you need to enable the public feed for other to access, and you shoud not publish you private feed.

I do a quick and dirty hack, to write a C program to retrieve calander information from google, seem to be easy. I am using the libxml2.

I plan to write a plug-ins for JPilot, so I can integrate my google calander into my Palm, I don't think is difficult, but still take time, so I stop here for now.

Anyone is interested?

meebo trio

meebo trio
Originally uploaded by meebo.

The three founders of meebo.com, Elaine, Seth Steinberg and Sandy.
meebo.com is an integrated instant messenger using the AJAX technology, still in alpha, but is so coo1!

The first public release is on September 2005, meebo.com is funded by Sequoia Capital.

There is an interview with Seth Sternberg.

Apple Boot Camp

Apple Boot Camp
Originally uploaded by NBAction.

What is this Boot Camp? Boot Camp is a software release by Apple Computer, in the next release of Mac OS X operating system version 10.5(Leopard), allow users to install Windows XP (SP2) on Intel Mac.

Boot Camp, install Windows on Intel Mac

Earlier there is a hacking competition to install Windows operating system on Intel Mac, a user 'narf' came out with a method to install Windows on Intel Mac. (see here). There is screen shoot in flickr too.

www.flickr.com

Is hard to imagine, Apple Computer release such a software, because Apple always insist on their own software and hardware.

This is a hot news on CNet and some Mac Podcast news. I am not so excited about Windows on Mac, but OS X on (other) Intel base computer.

Mac users are so proud of using Apple product. Compare with the IBM compatible PC in 80s, Macintosh has higher resolution display, a better (Motorola) CPU, a cool user interface, even the single reading head apple disk drive is better (for some mac users). Ok, the last one is a joke, but we know many of the reason why Macintosh is better, is not true for today. The user interface experience of MacOS user interface (which is the software) make it different from the others.

Anyway, Mac users will have more choices in operating system, with OS X, Linux and Windows.