維也納軟性轉移至Linux系統

from cnet tw. 26 Jan 2005 奧地利首都維也納的市政府，即將自今年第二季開始改用開放原始碼桌面作業系統。 維也納市府共1.6萬台桌上型電腦中，已確定有7,500台將改用OpenOffice。

wine and xo

After tring for some time. WINE and Crossover office is still not usable at least for my case here. I have try IE55 and office 97, Crossover office is much more compatible then WINE, but performance is real slow. I decide to remove the WINE to get back some hard disk space. I only found out today, why they name Crossover Office as xo, because one type of wine, interesting.

History of Openoffice

Before the OpenOffice.org 2.0 beta launch(schedule on Feb 2005), let talk some history of OpenOffice.

Marco Borries start StarDivision at the age of 16, in year 1985.

August 1999, Sun Microsystems purchased StarDivision(for 73.5 million, according to wikipedia), produce a commercial version known as StarOffice(v5.x).

Year 2000, Sun opensource StarOffice as OpenOffice.org, the commercial version of StarOffice is still available, they share some common code base but market as different name.

Creative CEO comment on iPod shuffle

Creative CEO Sim Wong Hoo comment (refer engadget) on iPod shuffle as "five generations older".

I think Sim have forgotten about iTunes software or simple he is just not a software guy like me. iPod shuffle is not a 5 gegerations older or 4 years old product, it just came to fill up the gaps(on low budget) of full range iPod products, and it work seamlessly with iTunes software.

If you put iPod(classic or mini) with Creative Zen together, you already know what to buy.

This really light up my life (as a joke) today.

Justin Frankel, creator of winamp

read something interesting about Justine Frankel. Another article about him on rolling stone. AOL trade nullsoft for a 100(or 86 report in zdnet?) million. 300 million for ICQ, 4 billion for netscape. Plus the merging with Time Warner, they have become a giant media company but end up doing nothing as analysis here. You can read Justin's weblog.

Why IE only web application?

Found new IE6 Vulnerabilities, one the solution for them is "Use another product." What a joke, many product out the is stick to IE only, like our office's intranet application. Tt will take long time to fix.

Why these developers still design website run on IE only? Is either they don't know the standard, they don't follow, or these developers though that IE is the standard?

Hitachi's microdrive

Hitachi's microdrive is in Richard Menta's Digital Media Winners of 2004 top 10 list. It was in in loser list while with IBM, because it was priced too high. Not just the technical itself, marketting and pricing is very important too.

Gaim version 1.1.1

Few days back, chat with ICQ friend using gaim. He ask me whether can I use gaim connect to Yahoo messenger. I try and fail, and he says, "Strange, I can!". He is using gaim 1.1.1. Since I have not been updating my gaim for quite some time, so I spend so time yesterday to download and install the gaim-1.1.1 on my office desktop x86 mandrake 10 and my ibook gentoo linux, both working fine. I find out the Yahoo connection because I connect to cs.yahoo.co.jp:80, after I change to cs.yahoo.co.jp:5050, it work fine.

Mandrake 10

My colleague ask me do I have the installer for my desktop PC? So I lend him my Mandrake 10 CDs, hope more people will be using Linux.

Apple computer story

take a look at folklore.

Hitachi "Micky", 8G micro drive

Previous version is 4G micro drive, now improve to 8G. Micro drive technology from IBM, but they sold it to Hitachi.

New Year 2005!

Wish everyone have a prosperous new year 2005!

Last day of 2004

Today is the last day of 2004, did I miss out anything? Wish everyone have a prosperous year in 2005. Happy New Year!

Crossover Office

If you compare crossover office with WINE, immediatelly you know the difference. Codeweavers really do a good job. I can install IE 5.5 and access to our intranet application without any problem now.

Crossover Office

My colleague ask me this morning, can I use Internet Explorer on my linux system?

I say, "Can not.".

Then she ask again, "How do you access to our intranet application?"

I answer, "I have 2 PC!" (1 install linux, the other is Windows 95)

I think over again, actually I can use Internet Explorer in my linux, just too lazy to try. I get the crossover office about a month ago, but too busy to try out, crossover office is just like WINE, a window emulator on linux. Why don't I give it a try.

I did download and try to compile WINE before, but no luck. This time before trying the crossover linux, I will try the WINE again. I download the binaries, luckily there is rpm for mandrake10. I just install a libstdc++ libraries, everything install just fine.

I try to install the Office97 and ie5.5. I can't install the ie5.5, is a common problem, stop at about 75%. Ofiice97 can be installed without much problems, excel is not working, winword can be launch. Anyway this version of Word is buggy.

I heard crossover office can support IE, will try next time.

Journey of 'Thelma and Louise'

'Thelma and Louise' is a movie by director Ridley Scott. We are going for journey in the coming weekend before the end of 2004, travel through Perak and Kedah state, no plan, no destination, just like 'Thelma and Louise' in the 1991 movie, but should be a happy ending.

Some interesting reading about programming

A lot of the programmer like to re-write codes. Joel Spolsky have a different view point here.

should I still blog? :)

Read a news here. Dairy of a Fired Flight Attendant.

Configure CUPS, nightmare

Configure printing service is always a nightmare for me in Unix system. There is once I try to configure network printing services on a Solaris 2.8, the printer should output to a windows shared printer, I give up. Sun claim that they are good in networking? In windows, I just share out the printer by right click on the folder will do, everyone on the same network can print through their windows system. Just click on 'Add printer', select network printer, and choose the printer server from the selection will do. Just so easy. I though after CUPS came out, the printer configuration on UNIX system will be a lot easier, yes it is much more easier but not good enough. I add a network printer(share by windows system) on my mandrake 10 using the Mandrake configuration tools. After sometime I change the printer name, so I need to modified the configuration, but unfortunately I was not able to add/modified the printer through Mandraker system console, it always give me Add/Modified printer fail, and I don't know what is the reason behind it! There is no terminal selection through samba, I have to key in the terminal(with printer attached on it) manually. So, I use the browser to connect http://127.0.0.1:631/. Now I am able to add printer, but problem again, I was not able to get the HP LaserJet 1100 driver from here, but I am able to get from Mandrake printer configuration. How could it be different on the same system! Finally I have to manually change the url in /etc/cups/printers.conf. If you set password for your pinter sharing in windows, can try edit /etc/cups/printers.conf, change url to smb://user:password@printer_server/printer_name. I spend almost the hold day settig this up, why can't they just make it easier. No matter how much you dislike about Microsoft Windows, but they really do things right.

Lode runner game for Palm

Yesterday help my friend to install his palm device, is a m515 model, like my Vx, but with colors(160x160), 16M, with SD slot. I found the lode runner game from Aaron Ardiri(his interview). The game just look like the old PC game in 80s, the animation is surprisingly smooth and actractive, even though it is running on a 160x160 screen rather than 320x200, you can find it here, take a look at the re-make of Nintendo's Game & Watch Octopus too. There is quite a number of Game & Watch game that I like but hard to find now, like Octopus, Mickey Mouse(Egg), manhole etc. Those games are simple but good to play, thanks to Nintendo's Gunpei Yokoi.