After Microsoft withdraw Yahoo offer, Yahoo share price drop more than 10% to $24.
I read a news today on OLPC's XO notebook may use Windows. Is using Windows easier for both vendor and consumer?
Basically OLPC project is not very successful until now, because it was not able to deliver a good product for mass production, is still far far away from Nicholas Negroponte's dream, a USD100 notebook for the developing country. OLPC project is a great dream, to achieve it, is never been easy.
OLPC notebook should be portable, WiFi enable, low power consumption and is cheap, target price is USD100 for a notebook. Currently they are selling at USD188. The cost can be lower if you get the right vendor to manufacture it. Taiwanese can make it cheaper, OEM manufacturer like Asus, Quanta or Foxconn(Hon Hai Precision Industry) is capable to manufacture low cost electronic parts with high quality. Notebooks from Dell and HP, Apple's iPod are manufactured by these companies.
People can't wait to see the dream comes true, even hardware vendor can not wait. Intel can't wait, so Intel start selling Classmate PC, which is a low cost laptop mainly design for education purpose. Asus can't wait, recently Asus launch low cost 7" notebook EeePC 701, is very successful in the market. These companies who is good in hardware design, is going into the sub-notebook market.
OLPC have good hardware design too, OLPC's CTO Mary Lou Jepsen, invented an ultr-low cost display, which is readable under sunlight. Mary left OLPC on January 2008, other top executive in OLPC is leaving as well, like Ivan Krstic and Walter Bender. Walter is a great fan of open source, OLPC sweet talk with Microsoft should be the main reason for his departure.
Forget about the hardware and management, let's talk about software. People always think that Windows are easier to use than Linux, but things change these days. To cut down the cost of OLPC notebook, the free and open source Linux was chosen as the operating system software, Nicholas first in favor of using Red Hat Linux (may be he needs Red Hat's funding), but Red Hat Linux could be far too complicated, so Sugar Linux (base on Red Hat/Fedora) was created for OLPC.
Do you still remember the time?
Program hello(output);
begin
writeln('hello world!');
end.
Program hello(output);
var
n: Integer;
begin
writeln('hello world!');
readln(n);
end.
hello world! 1 (input anything thing and just press enter)
> tpc hello.pas > dir hello.exe hello.exe
Do you still remember the time?
Don't read this if you are not software developer.
, is boring
Programming is an art, like writing a novel or drawing a picture. You need creativity, but to create is difficult, so sometimes look at other developer's code, will improve your programming skills. Is nothing wrong to borrow some ideas from other software developers, just avoid copyright infringement.
Most software developers that I know, especially talented software developers with strong programming skills, hate to maintain or make improvement on other software developers' work. They always think that create their own code and program is easier that maintain and make improvement over others' code.
Create is more easy? How can it be? One of the main problem with today's software developer is, the codes are very badly written, and there is no developer guide documentation (so how do I start?). Sometimes I don't even find one line of comment in the code, and no proper indent for code block (eg. code in if (condition) { } block are not inline).
If you examine other programmer's coding, there are signatures inside the program. Everyone have their own style of coding.
An easy and simple example of coding style is, how you place your parenthesis ( '{' and '}' ) for condition block?
1.
if (condition)
{
statement 1;
}
2.
if (condition)
{
statement 1;
}
3.
if (condition) {
statement ;
}
Come on, DiGi, you can do better than this
My friend show me a DiGi data package promotion. There are two package, both are ASUS EeePC + data access plan, with slightly different. Let's look at the package, is it worth getting or not.
Package A
1. Data only SIM (RM66 x 24 mths) = RM1,584
2. WiFi (AirZed) server (24 mths) = RM2,232
3. Asus EeePC = RM1,599
4. Asus data modem T500 = RM1,199
Total RM6,614
Promotion price now RM2,952
Total savings RM3,622.
But unfortunately there is a lot of misleading information here.
EeePC selling at RM1299, not RM1599. If you have the budget and need a Windows version, you may consider Twinhead's E10 or HP Compaq 2133.
I don't know how they compute the WiFi charges, because if you subscribe to DiGi unlimited data access, WiFi access should be free.
The only thing you are getting extra is the T500 data modem (I am wandering how to connect to EeePC), some says you can get a data modem for RM400, but I am not so sure about that.
So is this a good deal? You don't really save much. Don't forget if you subscribe to the package, you tie up with the data access for two years.
For the WiFi access, there is a easier and better plan, even without subscribe to DiGi unlimited data access. With pay per use with DiGi, you can get a 1 day access for just RM3.
DiGi always came out with good package with flexible plan, like RM10 prepaid card, RM1 top up (for prepaid). Come on DiGi, you can do better than this.
Recently I was learning some javascript and CSS (Cascading Style Sheet). I accidentally found this CSS naked day website (http://naked.dustindiaz.com/). CSS naked day in on 9 April, the idea is to promote standard and plain html web page presentation, so remove all your CSS on this day.
Personally I don't like CSS, no doubt it is powerful, to master it is another story.
BTW, I found this image cropping script interesting. No flash or java applet needed.
Sun is your Eco-friend
Just drop by at Microsoft event at Kuala Lumpur Convention Center during lunch time. Microsoft launch its Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008 and SQL Server 2008.
I saw Sun Microsystems there, what is Sun doing in a Microsoft event? They are promoting their SUN X4150 Quad-Core x86 1U server, which run Solaris, Linux and Windows operating system. On such an event, they only mention Windows, they more emphasize on the server's compact design, 1U server but with 8 hard disk, power saving. So Sun is eco-friendly. I didn't follow up with server price recently, Sun says they are giving a promotion price for the server, RM8,888.00 for the basic model, limited quantity available, I think it is a very competitive price.
Sun also showing their blackbox project, which is a mobile datacenter installed in a standard cargo container. It is using a water cooling system which is eco-friendly as well. Not many people attended Sun's briefing session, they are giving out 2 16Gb iPod Touch to those who submitted the lucky draw form and attend the session. They have draw more than 10 forms to get a winner (most of the name called, but they were not there), one of they guy sitting right behind me, get 1 of the iPod Touch, he is really lucky.
Sun X4150 server is comparable with HP's hot selling DL380 G5 server.
Yesterday night having a steam boat dinner with some friends, after the dinner, we site down in-front of TV, watching the live broadcast of Malaysia Election 2008 results.
We read news from in internet too, like merdeka and Malaysia Kini. The news from the internet is faster than the TV live broadcast.
Malaysia largest political alliance Barisan Nation win federal, but lost 5 state (Kelantan, Penang, Kedah, Perak and Selangor) to the opposition. The is the best result ever scored by the opposition.
All the newspaper were sold off early in the morning. The 7-11 shop keeper say, already request to send in more newspaper, but all swap by the customer once the newspaper reach the shop.
For those who is able access to Internet, still can get the latest news update. When there is such things happen, is an opportunity for those new media to become popular.
Just don't forget Internet is the new media.
You must be hearing me talking a lot about open source, Linux, Mac OS, Solaris, Palm OS, but I seldom talk about Microsoft Windows, I am not anti Microsoft. In fact I was using Microsoft products since MS-DOS, I am still using Microsoft products like Windows and Word, because my office is using it.
I just want to support the minority, give other company (other than Microsoft) a chance, Microsoft already have enough supporters. All those software that I mention above are good products.
Palm is a successful commercialize PDA, it has a simple, easy to use and working user interface, even it is different from those software that we have used before. Spend just an hour or two with the new operating system, you will learn how to use it.
I have been developing software on Solaris operating system for many years. Solaris is unix, unix is powerful and Solaris is very stable. I am having a lot of fun with text base telnet to the Solaris machine.
I was always not an Apple supporter until I meet OS X. There are 2 things that attract me, the aqua interface and OS X is unix. If you read Mac OS history, the very first Mac OS (with graphic user interface) runs on 128k (yes! only 128k) Macintosh machine, you will surprise by Apple's technology and their innovative invention.
I know Linux and open source for many years. I am so excited about it, because I can get software for free (free beer is important for a poor user like me at that time), is unbelievable. Richard Stallman (open source evangelist , Free Software Foundation founder) has great vision, Linux is a great invention.
Frequent Microsoft users, please give other software company a chance.
Google always write some good, simple but useful application. Google release an application to sync your Microsoft Outlook schedule with your Google calendar.
The instructions on how to setup and sync Google calendar, refer here.
Just download a small application and install on your Windows desktop, configuration is easy, you do not need to specified where is your outlook located, just specified the sync method, one way or both way. You can just copy Google calendar to Outlook, copy Outlook to Google calendar, or sync in both way. If you want to change the configuration, right click on the Google calendar sync icon on the task bar.
I do a quick test, it work fine without much problem.
My friend has a Nokia 6510 mobile phone that he never turn off, even while he was sleeping. So I ask him, did he ever off his phone? He says, only when the phone hang or not function properly, then he will off and restarted the phone, normally it can last for weeks or even months. He just need to restart the phone a few times a year (That's amazing, for a computer user like me).
Most people that I know, off their mobile phone when they go to sleep. The professional will suggest you to do so (off the phone), to cut down the wave and radiation which may affected our brain and body. The main reason is, we just don't want others to call our mobile phone and disturb us while we were sleeping, except for those who are on call 24 hours.
That's is not my main subject here. Why phone can on for months, but why can't I do the same to my desktop PC for weeks? Sometimes I need to reboot my desktop every week to get a better performance. The answer is simple, because the system runs on you phone is much less complicated that your desktop's operating system.
Is easier to write a stable software to perform some simple task, desktop PC's operating system design and implementation are complicated, especially for a mobile phone users. In simple words, desktop PC has more functions, more complicated, and not so stable compare to a mobile phone.
These days mobile phone are not just mobile phones, they have added more functions, and thus more complicated, and not so stable. My friend just told me, he need to reboot his new phone (not the Nokia 6510, and I don't want to mention the model here) every few days, or else the phone will become unstable. He just reboot his phone everyday to make sure it works properly, this is normal especially for smart phone users.
The system (including Symbian and Windows mobile) runs on your smart phone, can perform complicated task 'almost' like your desktop PC. You have calendar with notes and reminder, electronic dictionary, media player, games... on your smart phone, but I still miss the stable system on the old dummy phone which can only make calls and sms.
Most rumors and predictions are quite correct. There are the new products announced by Steve Jobs at the Macworld 2008 keynote:
1. MacBook Air
A 13 inch (13.3 inch), the thinnest notebook ever, about 2cm thick, without sacrificed the performance.
Macworld 2008 is coming very soon, January 14 to 18. What new products do you think Steve Jobs will announce this year? 3G iPhone? Or an ultra slim macbook?
Other than the above 2 product, most people will predict iTunes video rental, but I am not so interested on it.
New Apple TV. The Apple TV is not selling well, if Apple is not going to drop the product, is time for an upgrade.
For sure Apple is going to upgrade their software, Mac OS X, iLife or whatever it is.
So stay tune for great news from Apple Macworld 2008.
I have a Sony Ericsson M600i phone. I am not satisfied with the phone, may be it is not a phone, it is just a device in between a PDA and phone.
M600i is not a smart phone, because it is not smart. If you try to search from the contact application, you can only search from the Last name, unless you didn't key in the Last name, then it will search from the First name.
Let say you have a contact entry, John Smith. If you key in as:
First name: John
Last name: Smith
Display: Smith, John
(Name display will depends on sorting sequence)
You will not able to search it by key in John, unless you key in Smith. If,
First name: John Smith
Last name:
Display: John Smith
You will be able to search it by key in John, but again you will not able to search the contact by Smith, and you will not get the right entry by key in John Smith.
This is only happen in those five years old phone. Today's phone, should have smart search capability. The smart search here means you can search John Smith by John, Smith, ohn, mith or even JS (John Smith).
M600i is a PDA. It has a large display, high resolution, touch screen, it is good for PDA usage. Take a look at the Schedule application, the monthly view display are just too small, is hard to click. When you change the date and time of your appointment, is not user friendly, compare it with Palm's Calendar application, you know what I mean.
M600i can install Dictionary and Timer application, but the basic application like Contact and Scheduler, is not easy to use. M600i is a PDA, but still not so good as a PDA.
By today's standard, M600i is not a phone. It don't even support profile setting (and many other basic function), if you are a Nokia phone user, you should know what is profile setting.
In Nokia, you can have a different profile for pre-set ring tone and message alert, eg.
Indoor, ring tone with no vibrate.
Outdoor, vibrate and ring tone set as loud as possible.
Meeting, silent with vibrate, or just a beep sound will do.
By preset profile, you can switch to different phone mode by just one or 2 click.
M600i is not a smart phone, is more like a PDA, or a device between a PDA and a phone.
Even biotechnology company is building up social community. 23andme, a newly startup biotechnology company is offering Personal Genome Service, the service cost USD1000, they will send you a kit, follow the instructions, send back your saliva sample. They analyse the DNA and help you to find out more about yourself, they can help you on friend matching by DNA as well.
Can you imagine, purely just imagine. When WiMAX is popular, Intel launch a mobile phone with build in Intel WiMAX mobile cpu, it is not using GSM or 3G network, but pre-installed with a Skype software. Skype became of the biggest telco in the world.
Before Intel launch its Intel mobile phone, Google already launch its Google phone with Google Talk client software, and not Skype. May be Intel, Google and Apple will form an alliance against traditional mobile phone maker like Nokia, Motorola and Samsung. Sony Ericsson is not sure to create a phone, a camera or a mp3 player.
When WiMAX is popular, just imagine, purely imagine, what will happen.
Google is one step further into mobile market. After Google ported their Gmail, search portal, youtube and news (quietly) to mobile version, Google now buying mobile community website Jaiku.
Jaiku is a Finland's micro-blogging website started in year 2006, it was described as a pownce and twitter like website.
Micro-blogging normally refer to short blog post which less than 200 characters, so you can send and received these post through mobile SMS.
Recently my friend introduce me a Malaysia local website call pacmee, I was quite surprised by pacmee, because is simple and the idea is good. Later I just found out that is just another twitter-like website. (Yes, I am a bit out dated)
Google is moving to mobile market, and they are acting fast.
I received an email a few days back. Sony is going to close its online photo sharing service, ImageStation.
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