Palm Pre block by iTunes

Apple just upgrade iTunes to version 8.2.1, so third party product including Palm Pre will not be able to sync with iTunes software. Palm Pre users may be disappointed.

iTunes, its showtime.
Originally uploaded by snowman

We all know that Apple system is a very close up system, but we also know that iTunes is a good software and important platform, it runs on Mac as well as Windows (but not Linux). Apple not just using iTunes as a mp3 management software to sync mp3 to iPod, but use it as a platform to sell mp3, video, movies and iPhone application. Finally Nokia has learn from Apple App store (iTunes), and start up its ovi.

I am not surprise Nokia can start up the ovi service, because Nokia have acquired the necessary technology like starfish software, intellisync. I don't understand why Palm is going backward, they already have a long running synchronization software, Palm Desktop. Palm should keep improving and extend the software, rather than just depending on their competitor (Apple).

Not an Apple fan boy

I promise Mun, I am going to write this post. I have a big laugh inside my heart when I set the title.

I know Mun from the MyOSS monthly meetup, MyOSS meetup is the gathering for those who are interested in open source. Mun told me he has something interesting to show me, other than open source software, he is going to show me open source hardware.

Few days ago, I meet Mun. Mun keep his promise and show me the open hardware platfrom the he was hacking for some time. Mun explains to me in details on the hardware and how it works.

The hardware is call arduino, it is a general platform with a microprocessor, limited memory. It is a simple, extensible, low cost and affordable hardware. There are many hardware modules available, which add on to the arduino platform, extend the functionality, eg. the audio module. In simple word for computer tech geeks, the arduino platform is like the computer mother board, the audio module is like sound card or video card.

Why spend money on such a limited platform? This is something a software people like us will never understand. Mun is a hardware guy, he knows how to modified the circuit board on the arduino platform. Arduino is like a compiler and a programming language for Mun. Other than the hardware platform, need some software programming to power up the hardware, that Mun going to show me next time.

I never meet any hardware guy in open source meetup, Mun is the first one. It reminds me Steve Wozniak (Apple co-founder who design the Apple II computer), too bad he is not in Silicon Valley. See you again Mun.

Malaysia Jewellery Fair 2009

Malaysia International Jewellery Fair is coming again, started from 9 July to 12 July, four days at Kuala Lumpur Convention Center.

Open ceremony by Tuanku Tenku Fauziah

The fair organized by Elite. Elite stated that this is the largest jewellery event in Malaysia. The open ceremony on 9 July morning by The Raja Perempuan of Perlis, Tuanku Tengku Fauziah.

Malaysia International Jewellery Fair (MIJF) 2009
Venue: Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, Kuala Lumpur City Centre.
Date: 9-12 July (Thursday - Sunday)
Time: 11am to 7pm
Organizer: Elite
Tel: (603) 90588772

Note:
No un-authorised photo-taking.
Children under age of 12 and visitor with slippers, shorts or singlet will not be granted admission to the fair.
Open to public and trader by invitation or registration only.

Photos on open ceremony event.

Arrival of Tuanku Tenku Fauziah
The Raja Perempuan of Perlis

Emily Poon

DJ KK and Gan Mei-Yan

Red Hat seminar at Shangri-Li Hotel, KL 2009

Red Hat open for business seminar at Shangri-La Hotel, KL 2009

Event organize by ECS and Red Hat
Training-Choice is here as well

Yeak forward me an email from ECS. ECS stated in the email that Red Hat CEO will speak in this event, in this morning at Shangri-La Hotel, so I attended. Seems like like ECS has made some mistake or they do not communicate well with Red Hat, Daniel Ng, Director of Marketing Red Hat Asia Pacific is giving the presentation, not the Red Hat CEO.

Daniel Ng, Marketing Director of Red Hat

Daniel announced Red Hat will have an office to support Red Hat software in Malaysia. Daniel complaints a little bit about users in Asia just downloaded the open source software, but didn't contributed back to the open source community. I think Daniel has misunderstand a bit.

1. There is not much software developers here, majority of the open source supporters are just user and not programmer, so they do not contribute coding and patches.
2. By downloading and using open source software, is one way of supporting the open source.
3. Actually there are people here who contribute to the open source community. The meetup that I attended last week, Izhar Firdaus (aka kagesenshi) is showing us how to package and contribute back to fedora.

I think Red Hat has lost their communication with the local open source interest group. May be the open source market here are just too small to be ignored. I notice that most open source companies including Red Hat are just interested to talk to institution like government sector, and not supporting the smaller community but actually closer to the open source.

So Mr. Jim Whitehurst (or James Whitehurst?), if you are interested to come to Malaysia here to give a talk to the public, we are always here to listen.

Twitter is not a social networking website

I just read a forwarded article from Singapore newspaper The Straits Times, this unknown writer name twitter a social networking website.

Twitter is not a social networking website, at lease for me.

I met many people who just thought that community website is just social networking website, but community website is not just social networking website.

Facebook is a very popular social networking website, and facebook is also a community website. Even facebook and twitter are looks more and more similar now, they are different, you should know they are different not just by their name.

There are many types of community website, like photo sharing, blog, online bookmark, wiki. Social networking is just one of those. Social networking (like facebook and friendster) is a website for users to connect to their friends virtually through Internet, extend their networking through the website.

Other community website serve different purposes, for example twitter. Twitter is for you to share your thoughts (or status) with the others, that's the most common things that people do over there. You might be reading you friend's status or someone who is unknown to you on twitter.

Don't tell me you are a friend of Barack Obama because you know him on twitter. Please don't get it wrong, even is very confusing, twitter is not a social networking website.

Meetup July 2009

All my monthly meetup were set on first week of the month, the MyOSS meetup is one of those.

Is not easy to organize and host a monthly meetup or a gathering. You need to arrange time, venue and most importantly the objective. Everyone is so busy these days, no one is going to spend their precious time with you for nothing.

For a small meetup group, you can start in a coffee shop or cafe like Starbucks, Coffee Bean. If you looking for something cheaper try Oldtown cafe, or PappaRich cafe. McDonald and KFC is not a bad choice as well. Open air mamak stall is Malaysian's favorite.

For a frequent meetup like monthly meetup, try not to have it on weekend, most people is not going to make it. Time and venue is easy to solve, start a meetup with an objective for most people interest is even harder.

I salute to those people who is still attending the MyOSS meetup. Congratulation to MyOSS meetup has pass the four years mark.

Free GSC movies

If I tell you there is an operating system which works like Windows but is free, you are not going to believe it, because is too good to be true. If I tell you there is an office suite which works like Microsoft Office, you are not going to believe it, because is too good to be true.

I heard from a friend that there are free movies shown in Tropicana City Mall GSC cinema from June 20th to 23rd, as a promotion for the opening of the latest GSC cinema in town. I doubt about it as well, because is too good to be true. What you need is just print out the coupons from the website or use the original copy of the GSC listing on the newspaper, each coupon can redeem for 2 movie tickets, maximum 4 tickets per person.

I like movies, especially free movies. I went alone yesterday afternoon, and redeem 2 movie tickets for "Race to Witch Mountain". I just need one, but they don't allow me redeem for 2 different movies. I try to offer the tickets to some who bring their children and family, may be their kids might like it. Most of them already have tickets and in return they are offering their extra tickets to me.

After 7pm, crowds coming, long queue infront of ticket counters. About 8pm plus, all the promotion cinemas are full. I am consider lucky to get a free ticket. This is a new shopping mall, is clean, there are 8 cinemas available, the seat are spacious, just as good as 1Utama GSC if it is not better.

This afternoon I went again for free movies. I just ask around, "do you have extra tickets?", and yes, there is a kind lady gave me 2 of her extra coupons, so I watch another 2 movies, "Slumdog Millionaire" and "Confessions of a Shopaholic".

By the way, the Tropicana City Mall carpark is free till 30 June, a good move to promote the shopping mall. Is just too good to be true.

Second chance for Palm Pre

Just talk through phone with my friend, he is so excited with the new Palm Pre. Palm Pre is the lastest smart phone by Palm, it has multimedia cababilities, with WiFi, GPS and a multi-touch screen (and more), so it was always compared with Apple iPhone. Pre has very possitive review on Internet.

Palm Pre using new Palm OS call webOS, which is a Linux base operating system. Palm Pre first shown on CES (Consumer Electronics Show) on January 2009, release on early June but CDMA version only. Not like iPhone which was first release with GSM network which is common outside US. Even if you bought a Pre from US, you might not able to use in your area without the CDMA network.

I was a supporter of Palm, I am happy with my Palm Vx but I am very disappointed with the Palm TX which I bought few years back. The Palm TX has a higher storage capacity, SD slot for external storage, multimedia, bluetooth and WiFi connection.

It looks like a good portable device to surf internet, but after sometime, the Palm TX browser just give a blank screen while surfing the Internet, and I experience system crash especially with the network related application (refer here and here). The system crashes so often that I have to back up as frequent as possible, there is no software update to fix the problem after I bought the Palm. The new Palm Desktop software is worst than the earlier version, I have to stop synchronize through desktop and just backup on the SD card.

My friend told me, this is Pre (not TX), and Palm deserve a second chance. Ok, everyone deserve a second chance, so does Palm. I hope Palm don't screw it this time.

Pre-Apple WWDC 2009

Is June, almost half of the year. After six month medical leave, will Steve Jobs came back and show his face at Apple WWDC (World Wide Developer Conference) 2009?

Apple WWDC 2009, at San Francisco

I guess Jobs may show his face but most likely he will not introduce those Apple new products as before. Someone has to take over his place, and this is the good time for a "rehearsal".

What expected to be appeared on WWDC a few more more hours later at San Francisco?

1. Snow Leopard.
2. New iPhone.

What else?

YouTube XL for TV launch

If your website want to go beyond desktop, where it will go? Mobile? ...What next?

Reading techcrunch today, the video war post, Youtube launch a new website YouTube XL specially customize for the TV.

It has been a long time, people try to surf website using the TV, but HD TV is not common at that time, website design go for a higher and a higher resolution. Surfing the net using the TV doesn't seems to be a good choice. Watching video could be different, because the video are normally display at lower resolution.

Youtube optimize YouTube XL, suitable to browse on TV. As long as your living room devices (PS3, Wii, setop box...) with browser support and output to TV, it should works.

This is not the first time Youtube on TV. Two years ago, Apple launch the Apple TV version 2, is able to access internet and show Youtube video. Now Youtube take it one step further, not just on Apple TV, they customize a version which suitable for TV browsing, as long as the device has a browser.

to be continue...

Read later, a dead simple online bookmark service

The website is not readlater.com but instapaper.com.

You just need to register a username, password is not even necessary. If you need some security, just setup the password later. Drag a "read later" icon to your browser toolbar (it support firefox, not sure for other browser), then it is done. Is simple, right?

The idea of the service is, if you found some good websites for reading, you can bookmark it and read later. After you read the website later, it will be remove from your bookmark by default. You need to disable the default setting from your configuration.

Instapaper is an online bookmark service, but it is different from delicious. Delicious allow you to keep and share your bookmarks online, tag your bookmark, it was build with the community concept. Instapaper do not have the community or network circle (may be they will build one), it even delete the bookmark automatically after you have read it. Instapaper is dead simple, from the registration to the bookmark management process.

For me, instapaper is different from delicous because instapaper have good support on iPhone, which I have eagerly expected from delicious.

Ashton and Oprah on Twitter

When hollywood star start using it, you can't stop it.

Oprah register a Twitter account, no update yet, but she is going to send out the first tweet on her show tomorrow. Twitter founder Evan Williams will be there on the show as well.

On April 14, Ashton Kutcher tweet that he will plunk Ted Turners (media tycoon, founder of CNN) if his followers number beat CNN's millions (more than 900k) followers. You can refer to the TechCrunch story here. On 17 April (GMT 4:00) Ashton's follower has surpass CNN(Ashton 998,996 CNN 998,608).

Who is Ashton Kutcher? He is the host of the well known MTV celebrities prank show. He is an actor as well, I like the movie 'Just Married' that he co-star with Brittany Murphy. Ashton Kutcher married actress Demi Moore in year 2005.

When there are people to criticize iPod (the first generation of classic verion) are too big to be carried and over priced, but you found iPod inside every hollywood star's pocket and handbags, you know that you will not able to stop it. The only thing that you can worried is Twitter can handle the volume.

Update: Ashton Kutcher's followers already hit one million.

Beware of MSN messenger virus - photobukkets

"I am not so alert today"

Received a photobucket link on MSN, 30 minutes after I chat with my friend online using MSN messenger. I though my friend want to share some photo with me. After I click on the link, it ask me to login with my MSN username and password.

I don't really like photobucket (a photo sharing site), I only visit the site once or twice some time ago, but when did photobucket start using MSN username for login? I take a quick glance at the url, it looks normal. I hesitate... for just 2 seconds and continue login...I must be crazy for doing it.

Oh! No. It doesn't look like a photobucket website. I key in the url manually, pretty sure that is not a photobucket website (but I type the wrong address again, photobuckets). I take a close look at url send from my friend's url, is http://xxx. PhotoBukkets .com... and not the popular photobuckets.

The first thing I do is change my MSN password. How? Go to passport member services, sign in and change password.

There are some precautions that you can avoid this type of mistake:

1. Do not click on external url link from suspecious email or IM (instant messenger).
2. Never login from the url you click on any hyperlink document, just in case you miss out the url name like what I experience today.
3. If you really need a login, type in the url address manually and login from its homepage. After you have login, click on the external url link, if the url link is same with your login address, it should automatically login for you, it will not ask for username and password again.

Sometimes we are just lazy and forget about all the rules, but just be alert.

CSS Naked Day 2009

Earth Hour just pass. More that 1000 cities participated, off the lights for one hour.

Today is CSS naked day, I found it last year. Wow! Another year just pass. I don't like CSS, I prefre simplicity, but no doubt CSS make website looks better, make web application more presentable and extend its capabilities.

Be it good or not good, strip your CSS for just a day, be CSS naked, it not a bad idea.

Apple New Third Generation iPod Shuffle

Even I seldom listen mp3, I am tempted to buy Apple iPod. Now you know how Apple accumulate their cash.

Apple quietly launch it's new iPod Shuffle few days back. iPod Shuffle is getting simpler, is not just smaller in size, is neater in user interface.

When iPod Shuffle first launch, it doesn't came with a LCD display as other iPod does. Some people criticize this expensive 'low end' mp3 player, but I think Shuffle is just nice. The iPod Shuffle fill in the gap for Apple low end iPod mp3 player, fill up the full range product line for its iPod, from low end to high end.

Not everyone likes Apple product, not everyone need high capacity but bigger size iPod. Some people will prefer smaller, simpler mp3, like iPod Shuffle.

The 3rd generation iPod Shuffle not just smaller in size but the interface is simpler. Apple remove the wheel control, move it to the earphone. The control interface is much simpler, but provide more functions. How Apple do it?

Other than the normal pause and play, volume control, iPod Shuffle has VoiceOver function which speak out the song title, I think the design work just nice with Shuffle without LCD display. Another extra function is, you can now choose playlist with your earphone control.

If you do not need extra functions, you can ignored the extra 2 functions and still handle your iPod with the earphone control well. If you like simplicity (like me), iPod Shuffle is just for you.

A potential Google competitor candidate 2009

Google is the giant of the Internet, especially on search and online advertisment. If you ask me who is the potential candidate to compete with Google? I will say, is not Yahoo!, is not Alibaba, but is Apple.

Why not Microsoft? Microsoft is another IT giant, Microsoft can compete with anyone. It will not inspire you.

Google is a service provider on the Internet, but it also an Internet media company. Apple is a hardware, a software or an entertainment related company by selling iPod and mp3 songs. How could these two companies could compete with each other?

Google is good in search, and Apple is developing its search technology as well. Apple add in spotlight technology in Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, it is a search function, not just to help user to look for a data file on the hard disk, but it can help user access to application easily, by 'searching' it.

The different is Google search the Internet, Apple spotlight search your desktop. This is not all the truth, as you know Google Desktop application search your desktop too. Is hard to avoid competition these day.

Searching is just a start. Browser application lead me to relate Apple as the potential competitor of Google.

Google search already dominate the Internet, if it can control the software platform like Microsoft does, that will be great. Google's answer for the software platform is browser--Chrome.

Google Chrome is an innovative browser, it not just render html real fast, its new v8 javascript engine performance out do all browsers available on the market. Since new web application depends heavily on javascript, an efficient javascript engine is crucial for a browser.

Apple release Safari 4.0 beta public few days ago.
Click on the picture to view

Apple develop browser application many years ago, way before Google does. The first Safari browser was release in year 2003. Recently Apple release Safari 4.0 beta public, is surprisingly fast on javascript performance (test by Sun Spider and V8) , it is the only javascript engine which can compete with Chrome in terms of speed.

Chrome and Safari share the same html engine, WebKit. It is one of the fastest html render engine in the market now. WebKit is modified from an open source html engine, khtml from KDE project. WebKit is open source as well, Google take the engine to build Chrome and added in with their v8 javascript engine.

Is too early to say that Apple will compete with Google with its new Safari browser, it is just a beta version and javascript engine is not the only thing that we are looking for in a browser, but I think Apple is a potential competitor.

Exchange for a stealing

若說以金錢購買，就受到法律全面保護，那麼購買盜版，何罪之有？

園明園是清朝時期所建立的皇家宮苑，於 1860 年八國聯軍入侵中國時被聯軍一把燒毀。園中許多寶物與珍藏被聯軍所掠奪而空。

園明園內西洋樓，海晏堂前有十二獸首人身銅像，為水力報時鐘，每一時辰輪流噴水報時。聯軍劫後十二獸首散落世界各地，不知所踪。

十二生肖銅像水力鐘

其中牛，猴，虎首以逾三千萬港元購回。豬，馬首被何鴻燊購下，再轉贈中國政府。鼠，兔首落在法國私人收藏家手裡，其餘五件下落不明。

最近有新聞報導說，已故法國時尚之王聖羅蘭 (Yves Saint Laurent) 的合夥人表示，若中國保證保障人權，解放西藏，將歸還寶物。若說以金錢購買，就受到法律全面保護，那麼購買盜版，何罪之有？此二銅像乃盜品，若要歸還何來交換條件之說？

清朝積弱，受列強欺凌，是中國人的恥辱。若華人要到法國羅浮宮 (Louvre)看中國銅像，卻是悲哀。

Do you still backup your document?

The concept of backup important document, started at least few hundred years ago, but we are still careless about it.

How often do you back up your document and source code? Every day? or every month? Most people started to backup everytime they make modification, but later only backup once in a while, till our hard disk (or system) crash, then we will start to backup frequently again.

The biggest China encyclopedia history book-- Si Ku Quan Shu, completed in year 1781, has seven hand written copies, located in different places.

The concept of backup important document, started few hundred years ago, or earlier. Today hard disk storage are so cheap, making copy with photocopy mahcine is so easy, and I still miss the backup procedure sometimes.

《四庫全書》是中國歷史上規模最大的一大套叢書，在清朝時乾隆皇帝，指派紀旳（紀曉嵐）為總編輯，收集了大量民間與官方的重要書籍，編汇而成。始於 1773 年，完成於 1781 年，歷時九年（一說十年）。

四庫全書收錄了從先秦到乾隆前，大部份的重要書籍，包括《論語》、《孟子》、《孫子兵法》、《本草綱目》等著作，是一部中國百科全書。全書共有七部手抄本－文淵閣、文源閣、文溯閣、文津閣、文宗閣、文匯閣及文瀾閣，分別典藏於七個不同的地方。

四庫全書抄本，多份都在戰亂中被毁。卻因為有多份抄本，才能保留至今。

The Sony VAIO P ads

After all these notebook vendors release netbook one after another. From EeePC, Acer to Dell, now Sony following the steps.
I found this ads when looking for some video clips on youtube.

I am not sure which is bigger, the VIAO or the butt.
Click on the picture to view video

It reminds me when Apple's Steve Jobs first introduce iPod nano, by taking out the iPod nano from his jean, check here

Anyway, the VAIO P doesn't look small which putting at the back of the jean pocket.

Back to basic Nokia 2630

I just bought a discounted Nokia 2630 phone from Digital Mall second anniversary sales. This anniversary sales are not really a mega sales, especially compare with the last few Digital Mall offer, if you have miss don't regret, if you were here, hope you found some good offer.

This Nokia 2630 is a budget, and light weight (66g) phone, with some useful features but limited. It has a 65k color display, 0.3 megapixel camera spec is too low by today standard. Since no expansion memory slot, 10Mb internal storage is limited, but it has all these basic features, it even has bluetooth and radio function. Do not forget this still consider as a budget phone.

The phone has 2 color, black and white. One of my friend bought this phone earlier, the black color version. I choose the white model, to differentiate from his one. There is a problem with the white color phone, when the keypad back lid is on under florescent or sun light, the keypad number is hardly visible.

This phone came with 4 languages, English, Malay, Chinese and Tamail(?). Which ever language you enable for you interface, you still can switch to a different input language when you type SMS. For example, if you choose English as the user interface, all your menu will be display as English, but you can switch to Chinese input while writing SMS.

The phone came with some handy application like Calendar, Todo list, expenses, dictionary and games.

It sounds good right? For me the missing functions are: No volume control button on the phone, no flight mode.

Why back to the basic feature phones? A phone is just a phone, I do not need a lot of fancy features. More features are better if it came with no cost. With a limited budget, 2630 is an ideal phone, but if you have more budget, may be you can try out the new 7210.

Where is Gmail task undo delete function

Happy New Year 2009!

I have bad memory, I use Palm to record my todo list. Sometimes I use the yellow stickies software to record down my todo list on my desktop and notebook.

When Gmail launch task function, I am happy with it, because I can use it as the yellow stickies software, and I can access to it through web. After I have been using it for a while, there is one thing I need to complain about the software.

Gmail task

I write down the task list because I will forget what I am going to do. I accidentally deleted a task entry by clicking on the dusbin icon, the entry just gone, and there is NO UNDO! I can not remember what I have deleted (that's the reason I write it down). Some other users having the same problem.

Having an undo function will be good. For me, a delete icon shouldn't exist, you don't need to delete a task, you just tick and complete it. If you need to remove it, click on Actions, Clear completed tasks, this is a 2 step actions, much safer.

Google has been writing good software, just need minor improvement.

HP mini 1001TU hardware

Bought a HP mini 1001TU last two weeks at PC Fair. Normally it was called HP mini 1000, 1001 should be an Asia model, mine one should a China model, because there are some China stickers on it.

Black Imprint Swirl version.
Originally uploaded by eeepcnews

Spec in short:
Intel Atom N270 1.6Ghz, 1024Mb Ram, 60Gb hard disk (4200rpm), 10.2" display 1024x600 wide screen, wireless WiFi & bluetooth, 1.11kg

Refer HP site for detail of the spec.

Please take note: I can't find the 56K modem. Upgrade to 2g ram is possible.

Taiwan launch 2 models, a black Imprint Swirl version and a red Vivienne Tam limited edition. The one I have is the black version. Vivienne Tam version is slightly more expensive.

Vivienne Tam version.
Originally uploaded by hpproducts2008

This HP mini 1001TU normally refer as 1000. The 1000 model has few configuration with different screen size and SSD, the 1001 I have is with 60G HD, and no other different configuration for 1001.

I was a EeePC supporter, I prefer Asus because they are pioneer in low cost sub-noteboom (or netbook). My prefer model is 901 and S101, but why I finally bought an HP mini? This HP mini 1001 is the second generation of HP netbook. The first generation is 2133 which is famous for its good looking and bigger keyboard amoung all netbook, but a bit expensive.

Since 901 and S101 is not availble in Malaysia now, and I think Asus slowly losing their direction in netbook market (refer here). HP mini 1001TU is selling about RM1699, which meet my target price.

If you like bigger and comfortable keyboard, get HP. If you think battery life is important, get Asus EeePC. I really like the HP keyboard, so I give up the battery life. If you need do a lot of presentation and connect to projector, you must take note that this HP do not have VGA output. You need an extra cable for VGA output, which doesn't came with the package. I heard the cable will only start selling at the beginning of year 2009.

Summary:
Pros:
Keyboard is easy to type
Altec Lancing speaker
Nice looking design

Cons:
only 2 USB
3 cells battery life might not last as long as expected
some people find the glossy display is hard to see

Christmas eve 2008

Today is Christmas eve.

Merry Christmas!

Google add task application to Gmail

Google have added task application to Gmail, it can be enable from Gmail setting - Lab. Even I am not hurry to try it out, but is a big news, because with task application, Google has a complete PIM application on web.

What is PIM? PIM is Personal Information Management. Back to old days of Palm, it normally refer to Datebook (Scheduler or Calendar), Contact (Address book), Task list and Memo application. These are the four applications that Palm defined by default, assign to the four access button on a classic Palm (New Palm has made some changes to the access button).

You can install more applications on a Palm PDA. For my case, the PIM applications listed above are the most frequently used applications. Top 2 is Datebook and Contact, and I am still using it everyday. Yahoo has added PIM in Yahoo! Mail many years ago. If you login to Yahoo! Mail classic, you will see four tab label with Mail, Contact, Calendar, Notepad, which is almost like the PIM on Palm except the Task list.

Google already have Calendar, Contact and Google Notebook (you almost forgotten about it right?), now with the newly added Task list, next to have just a missing sync application.

By the way, Google already have the sync program for Calendar to Outlook.

星洲，別搞砸了

This is about a short story of exchanging a Sin Chew Daily newspaper, written in Chinese character.

傍晚回到家裡，拾起送到家中的星洲夜報，很薄。首頁印上了斗大的四個字－－誠摯道歉。

由於生產程序出現間題，影響報紙出版，敬請大家寬諒。本報同仁為此向讀者及廣告商誠摯道歉。
星洲日報啟

國際與國內主版僅有三大開，共十二版。正常印刷出版應該約有三十二版。友人說，才那幾頁，上大號還沒結束，就看完了。就是打電話向派報的投訴，對方怕事，要我們直接打電話到星洲總社。

可是電話打到星洲總社發行部，沒人接聽，轉到接線員處，又幫不上忙。我問說，"不知道可不可以換一份完整的星洲日報？” 友人說，“星洲日報是一間大企業，不會在意讓你換一份。”

由於家住靠近星洲日報總社，決定開車到那兒去碰碰運氣。說真的，一元三毛一份報紙，我開車過去換是虧定了。不過這不是錢多錢少的問題，我就是想試試星洲這一個大企業，是不是如我朋友所說，不會在意。

夜晚十點，我們在星洲總社守衛亭，播了電話到總社辦公室，接電話的財哥說，對不起，無能為力，一來因為電腦故障，報紙還沒印好。二來，我們應該找派報者負責。最令我氣憤的是，財哥還丟了一句話，“你們只好自認倒霉。”

開什麼玩笑，這像是一間上市大企業對待忠實顧客應有的態度嗎？

世華媒體（原星洲日報，後與香港明報合併後更名）是在香港與大馬兩地上市的中文媒體集團。除了擁有香港明報集團與旗下報刊外，在大馬控制了星，明，中，商四份中文報紙，幾乎壟斷了大馬的中文報業。

別告訴我，這就是星洲對待兩位親自上門想要更換一份完整報紙的忠實讀者的方式與態度？

報紙出版問題，可以寬諒，可是待客態度不佳與推卸責任，卻無法被接受。

難道報上刊登的“誠摯道歉”是虛偽的。今日我最大，我要犯錯，你奈我何？所以你只好自認倒霉。

媒體出版也應該有社會責任。

星洲，別搞砸了。

New HP mini 1000 and Asus S101

The first generation of the 7 inch (display) EeePC 701 looks like a toy for me, but carrying a light weight "toy" around and giving you the ability to access to the Internet easily, is still better than your 2 to 3 kg notebook or the overpriced UMPC (Ultra mobile personal computer).

Recently more notebook vendors started to release 10 inch netbook products, most notable are the Asus EeePC S101 and latest HP mini 1000 netbook. 10 inch notebook is the ideal size for me to carry around, both notebook look attractive for me.

Tanaka Chie and HP mini 1000.
Originally uploaded by Andytn

Compare HP mini 1000 and Asus S101, both using Intel Atom N270 cpu (which is commonly found on most netbook, like Acer Aspire One), has a bigger keypad (92% of full size keyboard), so is easier to type compare to most netbook available in the market. HP mini has only 2 USB compare with S101 has 3 USB (USB is important for netbook). HP mini using HD, and S101 use SSD, but I believe this storage can be changed as an option in the future. Pricing wise HP should be cheaper.

I have not seen these 2 products available on the market yet, may be will check out on this coming PC Fair. Asus S101 has been launched in Asia for more than 2 months time, but I have not found any Asus dealers are selling this product. I think Asus should improve their support and distribution in Malaysia. HP has a much better local support.

I am a great fan of Asus EeePC, because they are the first to launch a small, light weight and cheap (USD299) netbook. Most importantly they choose Linux for their low cost netbook. Even though cost is the main concern that Asus use Linux for their EeePC netbook, it need a lot of courage for a company to choose Linux as the operating system. Xandros has done a good job to customize a Linux version for Asus EeePC.

With all latest release of EeePC runs on Windows, the only reason left for me to buy EeePC is just the battery life or the Asus brand name.

The specification of S101 and HP mini 1000.

The down side for HP mini 1000
- 2 USB port only
- glossy display
- slow HD or SSD access
- fan always on

Link:
HP mini 1000 vs EeePC 1000H

Convert iPhone movies nightmare

I have some movies that I want to put into iPod Touch. These movies are in Xvid (Divx) format, since iPod Touch support quicktime and mp4 (H.264) format, but not Xvid, I need to convert it into mp4 or qt.

iSquint is a freeware, easy to use, but development of the software seems has stopped. ffmpegX is open source software, it need another few open source software like mpeg2enc, mencoder, mplayer to work. These binaries can be downloaded from the internet easily.

I have tried iSquint and ffmpegX, both software seems to take forever to complete. To encode a 100 minutes move into a H.264 mp4 media file, on my iBook G3 700Mhz processor, estimate takes 10 hours or more. (Ya, may be I should upgrade)

The encoding processing time is not the worst nightmare. I prefer to add in subtitles. I have tried Submerge, is a shareware cost $9. Submerge add the subtitle directly into the movie file, that means I can't disable the subtitle.

I prefer to have soft subtitles on the iPod Touch, means I can show and hide the subtitles, whenever I want. mp4 support timed text, you can save the subtitle as text into the mp4 file, normally I have the subtitle file as a separated file. With timed text, just need 1 mp4 file.

I found handbrake and muxo, is free and is open source software (that's great!). Muxo fail to run, it doesn't like my G3 cpu.

Never-mind, I found another open source software-- mp4box, which do the same thing, add timed text into mp4, unfortunately it runs on Windows. Since it is an open source software, I believe there are binary compile for Mac. I search around but only found binary for Intel Mac, and my G3 is ppc.

I have to give up, for now. I should have compiled the software myself as before, but not now, may be next time.

ACM 2008

Came back from ACM 2008 (Asean Communication & Multimedia expo).

All the four main celco is there, Maxis, Celcom, Digi, U mobile. Other exhibitor includes RTM, TM, Motorola, Sony, Measat, Jaring, Kasturi, Cyberview, Wimax P1, Astro. The full list you can get from ACM Expo website.

Is like those years, they are there, but you don't know what they are doing there. Promoting 3G broadband? Selling SIM pack? or just promoting their brand? Is worst than last few years, where Maxis promoting their 3G network together with their service and solution partners.

I notice 2 company is promoting WiMax, other than Green Packet's P1, Amax is another company to provide Wimax service, pricing is almost the same. I test their broadband with youtube streaming, both performance are good, but Amax seems to be faster and their modem are smaller. Anyway I don't trust demo, you have to try it and find out yourself.

As I describe in ACM2006, most companies spend the money but doesn't know how to promote themselves. If they can't explain well with their products, show some demo is good, or at least get some pretty promoters to give out some freebies.

When I try to take some photos with these pretties with their company logo at the background, they just turn around and facing me with their back side! Some promoters just talking with each other, not even giving out freebies or entertain the visitors, just chit-chating and sitting there watching visitors playing games.

happy chit-chating

I would like to give credit to the Sony models, showcase their HD video camera (like last year). When they notice that I am taking photos, they look at the camera and smiles, that's what I call professional.

Smiles, Sony models.

Less and less interesting products for me in ACM, hope they can do better next year.

MyOSS October meetup 2008 Openmoko

It rains in the afternoon, traffic is bad, I was late to the MyOSS meetup at AeU, Dataran Kewangan Darul Takaful.

It was almost three years, I have not join the meetup. Saw some familiar faces like Kaeru, Ditesh, Aizat and ... I meet new people like Kai Jen, Sean, Poh Lim, Michael, Wei Liang... Almost 30 members attended, consider good and successful.

The topic today is Openmoko mobile, the speaker bring some demo phones, it runs on Linux, the interface looks quite nice. Probably most people are not impress with it, because they will compare it with Android phones.

I am not going to blog about the meetup event here, I believe Aizat will do it, he already upload the photos here.

After the meetup, have supper with Michael and Wei Liang in Bangsar. Wei Liang says I look like a tourist because I take pictures of the banana leaf supper.

Wei Liang says I look like a tourist by taking the photo

Is really nice to meet with the open source people again.

901 and EeePC strategy

EeePC 901 is no more selling in Malaysia

This is what local sales person told me, it was replace by 900 and 1000H. 900 is using Celeron CPU and 1000H is using Atom CPU but with a SATA hard disk (80G or 160G), selling price around RM2000.

I ask the sales person, since 1000H is using SATA hard disk, will it consumes more battery power compare with 901? The sales person told me, both 1000H and 901 battery life is the same. Later I found out from Asus's official specification, 901's battery last 1 hour longer than 1000H.

I feel like Asus EeePC strategy slowly losing their direction. Asus EeePC 701 as one the first successful sub-notebook, is getting popular because is light weight (less than 1 kg) and low cost (selling less than RM1k, now is about RM800).

If you look at the 1000H model that the market is selling now, the weight has increase to 1.45kg compare with the original 0.99kg. The price has been increased from RM1300 to RM2000, about 50%.

Using Intel Atom CPU is a good move, because it almost double the battery life. Using HD (as in 1000H) and selling with a higher price, I don't think is necessary, even there could be a market for it.

With RM2000 budget, I rather add a few hundred more, get a HP mini than EeePC 1000H. HP mini looks nicer and with a bigger size keyboard.

Personally I think 901 suit best for me. The weight is 1.1kg, using Atom and SSD storage, 6 cells battery which last for 4.2 to 7.5 hours. Just the price is slightly over my expectation, or else is just a perfect sub-notebook (without full size keyboard).

Too bad, Asus is no more selling 901 now.

Twitterrific on Mac OS

These days, the first thing I do after I login to my Mac is launch Twitterrific.

Twitterrific on Mac OS

I like twitterrific because twitterrific integrated with growl notification system. Twitterrific is a simple desktop application, with a nice user interface, and is configurable. It has an iPhone version as well.

For Microsoft lover, a twitterrific clone call MadTwitter is available on Windows platform.

More twitter client can be found here.

Google says is right time for Google browser

Google says it by release Google Chrome

While I am still wandering is Google going to create their own browser, and yes, Google release their open source browser Google Chrome, which base on WebKit and Mozilla.

Since Google has a close relation ship with Mozilla Foundation (Mozilla Foundation earn 10 of millions through partner ship with Google, refer here), Google is no hurry on releasing their own browser. Seems like Google is not satisfied with Firefox and can't wait to release their own browser, Google will do it when the time is right.

Should not be a surprise, since Google already building their own browser on Android platform. A desktop version of Google browser will be released, if not now it will be the in the future.

Some website says Google Chrome was accidentally announced, but I think it is a very good marketing after 1G Gmail account. There are more that 700 (now over 2000) news reporting on Google Chrome, is one of the top keywords on twitter search.

Another unavoidable browser war for Google and Microsoft has just begin, and this is just a warm up.

Google Chrome can be downloaded from here.

Why do you buy an iPod Touch?

Why not?

I told my friend, I want to buy an iPod Touch.

"Why don't you buy HTC Touch Diamond?", my friend ask me.

"I don't want to buy a mobile phone, I just want to surf net."

"HTC Diamond can surf net as well."

"The screen is too small."

"Too small... hmm... why don't you buy a Sony PSP (PlayStation Portable)?"

(huh!?)

"I don't want to play games, I just want to surf net."

"PSP can surf net as well."

Ok. I know. I want to buy iPod Touch because it is using Safari browser. Safari use WebKit html render engine which is one the fastest render engine and it support AJAX.

What is AJAX? AJAX is asynchronous javascript and xml.

What is javascript? Javascript is not java, is a scripting language which runs on browser.

What is xml? xml is extensible markup language.

What is markup language?... err...

I just want a portable device which is good enough for me to surf internet. I really hope there is something which better than iPod Touch.

Why do I upgrade to Tiger

Tiger is Mac OS X 10.4"

I was using OS X 10.3 (Panther) for quite a few years, finally I decided to upgrade the OS to 10.4 on my iBook G3. iBook G3 is a very old hardware, I should upgrade my hardware.

Most software doesn't support 10.3 any more, it stated for 10.4 or 10.5 (Leopard). The following are the list of software that I frequently use but not able to upgrade.

The number one on the list is Firefox browser. When Mozilla release version 3, I heard it improves in memory management, I would like to try the software, but the software refused to install because it need OS X 10.4 or above.

Safari browser on my OS X 10.3 is version 1.0, the latest version of Safari is 3, it needs 10.4 as well.

Picasaweb (Google's photo sharing site) has a uploader for iPhoto, but it needs a later version of iPhoto which available on OS X 10.4.

VLC is a very popular video player, version 0.8.6c is the last version which work on my OS X 10.3, even though it didn't stated that it needs 10.4. VLC 0.8.6d (or above) just don't run on my iBook with OS X 10.3.

Limewire which is a Java application for p2p file sharing services, theoretically it should base on Java platform version and not the OS, surprisingly the latest version of LimeWire needs OS X 10.4. The old version 4.12 still runs on 10.3.

I can still using the old version for some of the applications on OS X 10.3, which still working fine. Upgrade to 10.4 allow me to try more software. New release software like MySQL, php and a few others only package for 10.4 (or above).

One day OS X software may only runs on latest version of OS X and intel (x86) platform, like Joost TV and Divx codec for quicktime. When the day comes, hardware upgrade will be the only way.

Install OS X 10.4 on iBook preparation

I have an iBook G3 (dual USB version) which is currently running OS X 10.3 (Panther), I need to upgrade it OS X 10.4 (Tiger). My iBook G3 doesn't came with a DVD drive, the OS X 10.4 is a DVD disc by default, how do I install the OS X 10.4 on my iBook?

There is a few solutions to solve the problem:

1. Use CD installer
When Apple release Tiger OS in year 2005, it came as a DVD installer by default. You can send back the DVD and exchange the CD installer for USD9.95, the service end at 19 March 2007.

2. Get external firewire DVD drive
You must get external firewire DVD drive, usb drive probably will not work, because openfirmware in Apple machine only support firewire. Even if you get external firewire DVD drive, make sure it is boot from your machine, you have to try it.

LaCie has a firewire DVD drive, and D2 DVD drive support both usb and firewire, but the usb+firewire DVD drive is bulky.

3. Target disk mode
By holding 'T' key while booting the Apple machine, will go into target disk mode. This is a great invention from Apple, the idea is turn you Apple machine into a external drive, connected to another machine as a external storage using a firewire cable.

You need another Apple machine with DVD drive. You can turn you target machine (the machine without dvd drive) as target disk mode, install from another machine with DVD drive, or you can turn the machine with DVD drive as target disk mode, so it can be access as a external DVD drive.

The detail process for target disk mode, refer to the Internet. Remember to backup your data for both machine. I will try it out with I am free.

System requirement:
G3/G4 CPU, 256MB Ram (512MB recommended), occupied 3G (with X Code need 4G) HD storage, Firewire port.
To save hard disk space, skip 1.6G printer driver.
Machine without firewire port can try this software, XPostFacto.

Note:
Mac OS X 10.4 available on PowerPC and Intel platform, it came with 2 different DVD, there is not universal installer. Only OS X 10.5 (Leopard) came with universal binary.

Video streaming on mobile phone

There are some people thinks that video streaming could be a big hit on mobile phones, but I don't think so, at least not in the near future. The near future means two years time, three years time, or longer, depends on how the technology grown.

There is a few reasons why I said so.

1. Bandwidth. To perform video streaming, need a lot of bandwidth, and bandwidth is always limited. Even 3G has a broader bandwidth, but wireless capabilities always limited by location, implemented infrastructure. We don't always get the ideal bandwidth, lagging video is common when we stream on mobile network, even on 3G network.

May be WiFi and WiMax can provide a faster video streaming, but we might be referring to a different device from mobile phones for accessing the internet using WiFi and WiMax.

2. Screen size. Mobile device display is getting bigger and bigger, but watching video on a small screen size is not a good experience, especially when you compare it with the large display like iPhone. iPhone is a good mobile device for watching video, but iPhone is the one and only product from Apple, there are a few other mobile phones which came with large display screen size like HTC diamond, but majority of the mobile phones still came with a smaller display.

A device with a 3.5 inch display are too big for many mobile users.

3. Battery life. Today's mobile CPU is good enough to process video streaming, but when you put in more functionalities into a mobile phones, build a bigger screen, it consume more power. A good example will be Nokia N95, it was marketed as a mobile PC, can browse internet, send email, it even cames with GPS, but it drain the battery too fast. Two of my friends get a N95 but can't wait to sell it, because the one day battery life for their normal usage doesn't meet their expectation.

Battery technology will improved, I believe so. I have heard about it since 5 years ago, but it still can't meet most people expectation as for today.

Conclusion
A mobile phone is a device for you to carry around to make phone calls, or receive phone calls. If a mobile device is too big, or the battery life can not last for a day or two, it defeat the purpose of being a mobile phone. iPhone is a good device for video streaming, but is still new and yet to be proven.

I believe the day video streaming on mobile will come. For today, let text application on mobile phones and video streaming by another portable media player device, it sounds more practical.

Olympic schedule and result website

If you need to get Olympic schedule and result, you can access Olympic Beijing official site.

If you are on the move, you can access to this mobile site, if you can't remember the long url, try http://tinyurl.com/2008oly.

If you have a iPhone or iPod Touch, try iOlympic, not just a mobile site, but specially design for iPhone.

Olympic Beijing 20080808

Olympic Beijing 2008 open ceremony tonight 8pm.

Google homepage has change to Olympic Beijing theme as well.

Google Olympic Beijing 2008

Interesting Internet company logo

A brand name is recognize by its name, icon, color, and how they write their company or product name.

There are some interesting logo about Internet company.

Yahoo & Google
Yahoo! originally use red color, and now purple. Google use multiple colors. The 2 fonts which used by Yahoo and Google is different.

Yahoo normally ended with a exclamation mark, font looks a bit like cartoon style, and the words are not align horizontally.

Google font with little 3D effect and very light shadow.

If you mix Yahoo and Google logo together what it will looks like?

Google in Yahoo style

create by log54.com

Yahoo in Google style
created by funny logo

Delicious

Delicious logo is a square with four color, simple and nice. Website name separated by dot del.icio.us, it becomes a very unique way to write their name, even though is hard to remember where to put the dot.

When Yahoo acquire delicious, delicious started with y.ah.oo! in their blog post announcement.

Flickr
Flickr use blue and light red colors, the blue color is normally in front, last 'r' is red color.<

Flickr ended with a 'r' without vowel, application which related to flickr use similar name like
fastr, a flickr game
flippr, flickr wallpaper
retrievr, expose flickr photos
mappr, tag flickr photo on the map

iPhone icon
iPhone icon is a square with round corner, with bringht, sometimes mirror-like or glossy color.

Twitter

Twitter use blue and white color. It use a small letter 't' which doesn't cross through. Twitter sometimes show little bird in their website, normally simple use the 't' to represent Twitter. The emoticon 'o_O' seems to be used quite often in Twitter too.

Twitter and Apple

Apple on twitter

twitter on Apple iPhone

Do you find the difference? iPhone icon will have round corners.

Conclusion
Web 2.0 internet company is creative with their logo as well.

Maxis backup service graphic looks like zyb

Maxis has a contact list backup service, which was launched not long ago.

Maxis contact list backup service

Don't you think is looks like zyb homepage?

zyb is a web 2.0 website for mobile backup service

zyb is a online backup service for mobile phones, it use SyncML technology to backup the contact (or address book) on the mobile phones. It was acquired by Vodafone on May 2008.

Check traffic online

These two days, police setup road block causes massive traffic jam on Federal Highway.

You can check the road traffic from ITIS (Integrated Transport Image System).

Traffic jam from PJ to KL, 9:27am
the opposite lane is clear

The system seems to be unstable sometimes, you will get a blue screen.

Video lost

They provide short video streaming as well, but I don't think video streaming is a necessary, is just a waste of bandwidth.

Sunway Aeroline bus station

You can book online for bus ticket to Singapore

This morning send a friend to Aeroline bus station at Sunway, my friend is taking the Aeroline bus to Singapore. The Sunway bus station is the latest Aeroline bus station added on the existing 4 station.

Aeroline is a luxurious bus service from Malaysia to Singapore, the ticket price is slightly more expensive than the normal bus to Singapore. The Aeroline Lite single deck coach cost RM60(SGD40), double deck coach cost RM80(SGD47). Can book online, through Malaysia Aeroline website, or Singapore Aeroline website. Ticket can be purchased through Aeroline bus stop ticket counter as well.

Aeroline lounge.
Originally uploaded by Enoch Kawai

My friend recommended me to take the double deck coach, is comfortable. The bottom deck is a small lounge, passenger can take a tea break and chit-chat with friends there. The lounge provide power socket for passenger to charge their mobile phone or work with their notebook, but not confirm WiFi service is available.

There are a few Aeroline bus stop in Malaysia. Other than the Sunway, is Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Bandar Utama and Petaling Jaya. The bus stop is not at Pudu bus station or KL Sentral, but is strategic location. In Petaling Jaya is at Menara Axis, near Asia Jaya LRT station. In Kuala Lumpur is in-front of Corus hotel, opposite of KLCC, just two blocks away from Avenue K.

The Sunway Aeroline bus station is located at Sunway Pyramid shopping mall, just opposite of Sunway Lagoon water park. We reach there early so I take a look at the office and passenger waiting room. Is a new office, clean and comfortable, the waiting room is spacious, with instant coffee provided. If you are boring you can watch TV or surf Internet with their free WiFi.

I think is a totally different experience with taking long distance bus in Kuala Lumpur Pudu bus station, which is crowded and messy.

The number is 21

Apple iPhone 3G launch on 11 July 2008 at 21 countries

Yesterday (11 July) Apple's iPhone 3G started selling at 2221 countries, the first country selling iPhone is New Zealand, then Asia, and follow by Europe and America.

As usual, media reports iPhone 3G as an important news, some TV reported the event at the very beginning of the news.

People still crazy queuing to buy an iPhone, but may be not in US. As reported a few people stated to queue up in-front of New York 5th Avenue Apple store, but these people are not Apple fanatics, they are from organization to support organic farming (refer here). May be they just came to catch some media attention.

The other reason is, iPhone 3G is just about one year after Apple start selling the first version of the their iPhone in US. For other countries iPhone 3G is the first time for its official launch, many stores start opening at 0:01 midnight to sell the Apple iPhone 3G.

Long iPhone 3G queue at Wellington.
Originally uploaded by mangee

More photo here and here.

iPhone always tie up with the celco operator, it was first launched June 2007 in United State only, must be activated through AT&T network. Hackers able to jailbreak the phone to work with other network, but you are not able to update the firmware officially through Apple support.

Definitely there are iPhone lovers and there are iPhone haters. You might like it for its outlook, design, the huge 3.5" display or the coverflow (virtually flip through album to choose songs). You might hate it for hard to type in the virtual keyboard, too many functions or hard to look for name in the contact list. Apple iPhone 3G launch, is the news you should never miss.

The twenty one countries which launch iPhone 3G on 11 July 2008, as listed in Apple website is:

1. Australia
2. Austria
3. Belgium
4. Canada
5. Denmark
6. Finland
7. Germany
8. Hong Kong
9. Ireland
10. Italy
11. Japan
12. Mexico
13. Netherlands
14. New Zealand
15. Norway
16. Portugal
17. Spain
18. Sweden
19. Switzerland
20. UK
21. USA

As you can see from the above list, is 21 countries, but some news reported as 22 countries, even stated in wikipedia as 22 countries. Asia countries are Japan and Hong Kong, countries like Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia is not on the list. Singapore will be the next round to launch iPhone, and rumor says iPhone will be launched in Taiwan soon but was not confirmed officially by Apple.

DictCN dictionary plugins for Firefox

I found another Chinese dictionary plugins for Firefox, it work with the latest Firefox 3.x, is DictCN.

DictCN, dictionary plugins for Firefox

When you move the mouse cursor to the english word it will display the explanation as floating tips display, it support simplified chinese and traditional chinese. It support english audio as well. It can be configured by the right click on the 'D' icon at the status bar as well.

I think is a good replacement if you don't like Oak dictionary.

How to load J2ME jar file on Palm OS

use IBM J9 manager on Palm

Fernando leave a comment on my earlier post How to run j2me application on Palm. Fernando pointed out that you can use the IBM J9 VM manager to load in jad or jar file.

This is step by step how to install j2me program on Palm OS:

1. Launch the IBM J9 VM manager.

2. Install program from URL.

Install fremtris

3.

Installing...

4. Launch

Just another Tetris

Is easy right?

The Google Android software stack in brief

The Google Android platform for mobile sounds like a very promising platform and software design. It address some of the common problems that the industry had encountered before. Android use Java as its main application development language, to make sure application is portable on all mobile devices. Android use Linux kernel which already proven as advance and stable.

There is a good Androidology video, explain on Android software platform.

Why Android sounds good?

The Android system contain 3 part of software layer:

1. Application, build by Java.
(I merge application and application framework together)
2. System library written by C and C++.
3. Kernel is base on Linux kernel 2.6.

Application layer. Java language was chosen as the development language. There is a lot of mobile developers out there already know Java language (mainly J2ME which is for mobile devices).

Java is a proven technology, portable on different software and hardware platform. Java is already available on majority of the mobile phones, only some old and low end mobile phones will not have Java included.

Current Java on mobile (J2ME) has a lot of limitation, so major mobile phone company will add in their own extension to the Java library, this make portability of Java application on mobile more difficult. Normally Java was used to create Java games on mobile, many other applications are still build on the native OS and not on the Java layer.

Sun has been pushing Java technology on mobiles for years, it was successfully deploy on most of the mobile phones, but lacking of standardization make it difficult to go further.

If there are rich and standard API stated in Android, developers can use those API to develop games and applications, integrate well into mobile phones, and Java will make Android application portable on all (Android) mobile phones.

The Java program don't run directly on Android, it was converted into Dalvik byte code. Basically Android not just can run Java but other application as long as it can be converted to Dalvik byte code.

The Linux kernel. The Linux kernel was chosen because it was proven to be stable and powerful. Linux has good memory management, process management and already build in with many other functions like tcp/ip networking which is necessary for an operating system (especially you need it to connect to data network on your mobile).

For a new hardware mobile manufacturer, the first thing to do for building an Android platform is to build the device driver on the Linux kernel, there should be a lot of developers around which already know how to do it.

There are a lot of companies try to build mobile phone operating system base on Linux kernel before Android do, but not very successful. Palm and PalmSource is a very good example, they have been working for years to develop a new Palm OS, but unable to deliver.

Even Motorola and Nokia has release some mobile and internet devices which running Linux operating system, but it was not very successful as well, like the Motorola A series phone started with A760. Nokia has an Internet Table device (N770) which build using Linux operating system too. These devices are not popular on the market, even on smart phone market.

In technical point of view, Android use Java + Linux is a smart move. Both Java and Linux is proven technology, and provide portability for mobile application on Android platform.

The system libraries. The system libraries on Android mainly build by C and C++, it should be fast and efficient. Since the library is run on top of the Linux kernel, there should be a lot of available software which ready to run on Android.

Open source. Android has use a lot of open source software to build their platform. Linux is open source, SQLite (in library layer) is open source, the WebKit to build the browser, is base on KHTML, which is open source as well.

The advantage of using these open source software, help to build up the the platform more quickly. All these open source software already proven to be usable, stable and powerful. Most important thing, these open source software will be improved in the future.

Since Android is still under development and there is no real product implementation yet, we will observed in the future how good it will be.

The tag is brain drain, exodus and Yahoo

After Flickr co-founders Stewart Butterfield and Caterina Fake is leaving yahoo, Joshua Schacter, the founder of Delicious is confirmed leaving Yahoo too. Flickr and Delicious are web 2.0 website acquired by Yahoo in these few years. I like these two websites, and I think these two websites are two of the few potential web services which play an important part in Yahoo's future. Yahoo even close down its own online photo service and replace with Flickr.

After Yahoo rejected Microsoft bid and turn to Google, Yahoo senior executives were reported leaving one after another. Qi Lu (executive vice president of engineering for Search and Advertising), Vish Makhijani (senior vice president of search), Brad Garlinghouse (senior vice president of Communications & Communities), and more... TechCrunch run a long list of Yahoo executives who leave yahoo since January 2008, and the list keep updating very frequently.

Jerry Yang was pressured from angry share holder like Carl Icahn, criticized by writer like Joe Nocera, now facing executive exodus widely reported by news and in many blog posts, is really a hard time for Yahoo and Jerry Yang.

Apple WWDC 2008 is almost there

One more thing, 2008

Another few more hours will be the Apple WWDC (World Wide Developer Conference), what will Steve Jobs announce in the event? The development of the next release of Mac OS X 10.6 (snow leopard)? Or a 3G iPhone?

There are rumors reported that sealed boxes shipping to Apple Stores, will not be open up untill Monday (Apple WWDC).

MacRumors will have a live event coverage.

Another interesting thing to be observed is, will twitter survive through the high trafffic during Apple WWDC event? Recently twitter website experience some down time, because the system can not handle the high volume traffic. These days people like to use twitter to report during Apple WWDC(Will wwdc break twitter), it will be a critical load test for the twitter website.

Twitter official blog has a post on the Apple event as well.

OpenSolaris 2008.05 Installation Screenshots

The following screenshots show step by step, how to install OpenSolaris 2008.05.

Boot as LiveCD

Boot as LiveCD

Before you install, you can use the Device Driver Utility to check for hardware compatibility.

Click on "Install OpenSolaris" to install. Make sure you backup your data.

Step 1: Disk

Choose the disk or partition to install

Choose which partition to install, set partition type to "Solaris". You can choose "Use the whole disk", then all data on the disk will be erased.

Step 2: Time Zone

Set time zone

There is a world map for you to choose the time zone.

Step 3: Locale

Choose locale

You have english, chinese, japanese...

Step 4: Users

Create the root password and a normal user(optional).

Step 5: Installation

The installation may take 30 minutes

Just wait, normally it will take about 30 minutes, but depends on your machine.

Once is done, eject the CD and reboot. Is easy right?

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.