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May 20 Wolfram AlphaWith so much knoweldge out there, I often wonder why I may need to google something 5 times, trying 5 different keywords until I get everything I want. But with this tool (http://www.wolframalpha.com/) you get answers to factual queries directly, rather than providing a list of documents or web pages that might contain the answer. Ever since Wolfram Alpha was announced in March 2009 I have been looking forward to try it. It was released to the public on May 15, 2009 and I admit it won me over. Try it!
 Some queries you can try:
a city (e.g. New York)
a math formla (e.g. x^2 sin(x))
a calculation (e.g. 5+2)
any date (try your birthday!)
types of food (e.g. pizza) - i was impressed with this one!
Have fun learning! March 04 OS X Netbook?
How disappointing… all these netbooks to choose from and not one from Apple :( I don't know if they're planning on ever selling one but there's a solution to get us going until they do: Hackintosh a Dell Mini 9 Into the Ultimate OS X Netbook. I know, I know, WHAT? Well, maybe you have nothing better to do and you like customizing stuff or you think you can't live without your OS X even for just browsing the web. I can't blame you, just look at this:
Doesn't XP look ugly in comparison? Of course I'm sure Apple wouldn't like this very much and the Dell people wouldn't be too happy about it but who cares right? :P Wouldn't it be great to open up your Dell netbook only to boot up to Mac and not Windows or Linux? Apparently, it runs really good on the Dell Mini… Well… only one way to find out! ;) http://i.gizmodo.com/5156903/how-to-hackintosh-a-dell-mini-9-into-the-ultimate-os-x-netbook October 03 January 2001 anyone?Remember January 2001? Yeah neither do I :P But sometimes I wish I could go back in time, to see how things were, how things were supposed to move forward (but didn't), maybe check on myself... well, now I can. And you can too :) How? Try Google 2001! Yes, Google brought back the oldest index they could find in honor of their 10th birthday (has it been that long?). Try searching for 9/11, firefox, web 2.0, facebook, ipod and Paris Hilton :) Talk about a different world! Maybe try searching for yourself and see what you were up to back then. You can even view archived versions of old websites, which is kind of fun, just found a site with horrible JavaScript telling me I have no permission to right-click. I would have copy-pasted the fact that Heath Ledger turned down an offer to play Spiderman and Anakin Skywalker! Oh what could have been :)
I did, however, find an iPhone! Yes, a real product called iPhone (http://web.archive.org/web/20010207002902/www.uioa.com/productcatalog/). I wonder how Apple handled that one! Actually, WTF this is just like the iPhone: fully integrated telephone and Internet device with a built-in touch screen to bring the world of the Internet into your home or office with the touch of your finger... Sounds like a cool product, doesn't it? I'm guessing it's not a mobile phone but... it does sound kind of similar :) One more thing: life in 2008 as written by a person still in 2000 :) pretty close, but the real thing is not quite as depressing, RIGHT? :/ I'll let you do your own searches... have fun re-discovering the past :) October 02 Five ways Linux is better than VistaI gave Windows a fair chance; I've been using windows for what feels like a century but it's actually 13 years. That's half my life. That's a long time. I got really tired lately. I couldn't do anything without crashing the whole system. What should have been a robust, easy to use operating system became a real burden. A few months ago I decided I'd switch. I was thinking Mac maybe but I needed a new computer to do that. Linux always seemed appealing to me, but now more than ever, it was time to make the switch. So I installed Ubuntu. My life has been so much easier since then. So here we go, five ways Linux is better than Vista (and XP too, I assure you of that) from: http://www.itnews.com.au/News/62060,five-ways-linux-is-better-than-vista.aspx 1. Hardware requirements: Linux doesn't require a lot of memory or the beefiest graphics card on the market just to get up and running. Vista's system requirements are high, requiring a "modern" processor (at least a Pentium 4) and 512 Mbytes of RAM, although 1 Gbyte is recommended. The operating system takes up at least 60 GBytes of disk space, and needs at least 64 Mbytes video RAM. In contrast, some flavors of Linux can run on a box with as little as 64 Mbytes of RAM and a 486 processor. That's Linux with a graphical user interface, too. The common Linux distributions take up only 1.5 Gbytes of disk space. Vista's Aero and the overall user interface look pretty, but it doesn't make work easier. It doesn't make finding a file on the system easier or make an application run faster, does it? Ironically, all it does is slow down the user because it uses up the system resources. Instead of using the CPU to display graphics, Vista uses the GPU, which puts a strain on memory. Vista uses 256 Mbytes just for screen rendering alone, and that's not even at optimum levels. That's a lot of memory just for graphics. 2. Security: Antivirus and anti-spyware applications are not necessary on Linux boxes, but are essentially required on Vista machines. Granted, one of the reasons Linux is so secure is because malware developers are specifically targeting Windows operating systems and Windows applications. That still doesn't change the fact that Linux users do not have to worry about inadvertently downloading spyware, and sysadmins don't log hours cleaning the latest worm off Linux machines. 3. No limitations: Linux doesn't restrict how content is used on the system. Vista comes with built-in digital rights management features that are not present on Linux boxes. These DRM features can slow down the computer, cause technical support problems, and conflict with peripheral hardware and existing software. The fix may be as simple as an upgrade or as complex as replacing the hardware. For example, Vista has copy protection technology for HD-DVD and Blu-ray disks. High-quality output paths like audio and video are reserved for protected peripheral devices. This means output quality can be artificially degraded. On Linux, regardless of the distribution, music will play, movies will run, and software will load. Linux doesn't interfere with legitimate fair-use rights for the content owned by users, majority of whom are honest users. Vista's DRM can interfere with all kinds of computer use, including the ones that have nothing to do with digital rights. Related to the first point about system resources, Vista is continually monitoring itself to ensure compliance. That costs the CPU. 4. It's all Genuine: There's no such thing as Linux Genuine Advantage. Regardless of what version is installed, or where it came from, a Linux machines will work. There is no risk of losing functionality. Vista, on the other hand, relies on Windows Genuine Advantage servers to verify its serial number. And when the servers go down, as it did recently, Vista users worldwide are locked out of their computers running legitimate copies of Windows Vista. Never would have happened with Linux. 5. Get the apps, already: Increasing number of available applications for Linux have made it easier to get away from bloated Windows applications. Dislike the ribbon? Abandon Microsoft Office and come over to Open Office. It has no ribbon and it offers standards-compliant document formats. (I actually like the ribbon though, am I the only one?) Vista still ships with the cruddy picture editor, Paint. Most Linux distributions come with GIMP 2.2, a powerful application similar to Adobe's Photoshop in terms of it features. Considering all the trouble Internet Explorer has with security and rendering pages correctly, Linux users don't miss it. Mozilla meets their needs. So there you have it. Linux is better than Vista. Doesn't seem to be getting anywhere with that world domination plan, though. August 09 Better write this while I can then...
Check out this video about Internet neutrality March 22 Talking about the StopGlobalWarming.org campaignThe new Windows Live Messenger i'm campaign... Fight for any cause just by adding i'm next to your name... I'm fighting global warming by using *help next to my name in WLM More here: http://im.live.com/Messenger/IM/Home/
Quote October 31 Mail Beta (Hotmail beta)If you want to beta test the new hotmail you can sign up to receive an invitation here:
October 03 Get Linux on your i-pod!Computer enthusiasts have worked out how to reprogram Apple's iPod music player with their own code using an ingenious acoustic trick. They adapted the component that generates clicks - or "squeaks" - as a user scrolls through the on-screen menu in order to extract vital information from the latest generation of the device. This allowed them to install an alternative operating system and make their iPods run games and other new programs. The project began when Nils Schneider, a 17-year-old computer science student from Germany, received an iPod for Christmas. Unlike most new iPod owners, he decided to install Linux - a freely available computer operating system not used as standard in iPods - on his device. The existing version of Linux for the iPod would not install easily, however, as the latest generation of player features new hardware. Undeterred, Schneider decided to figure out how these components worked by himself. He found he could control some parts of the device but not those containing details about the way the unit starts up, which is vital to getting Linux installed. Instead of going through the usual process of trial and error to work out the code, Schneider realised that listening to it could provide a shortcut. Bernard Leach, a UK software engineer who helped set up the so-called iPod Linux project, had already worked out how to control the piezoelectric component within the iPod that produces the click. To decipher the bootloader code - the program which allows the iPod to start up - Schneider decided to use Leach's system to play the bootloader code as sound. "I just tried to encode a single byte as a click sound with different spaces between the clicks," Schneider told New Scientist. "It seemed to work but it was slow so I played around with the code and found out how to make the clicks faster." After encoding the bootloader data he recorded the resulting sounds onto another PC programmed to convert it back into computer code. The whole process took more than 20 hours and Schneider had to construct a sound proof box for the recording. But, in the end, he had extracted the information intact. This made it possible to get Linux running on the device, along with a variety of compatible software programs such as simple games and audio recorders. "After extracting the bootloader it was only a couple of days' worth of work to get iPod Linux booting," Leach told New Scientist. "Otherwise it would have taken months." Leach explains that the iPod Linux project is partly for fun but also has a more serious purpose. "It changes the iPod from a consumer device, where the manufacturer sets the rules about what it will and won't do, into a general purpose device," he says. "Much of the interest has been to develop various games, but things like a simple calculator, drawing program and even a GPS/mapping interface are all possible."
September 29 Remember when...
September 01 Top10 Reasons E-Mail is Like a Penis10. Those who have it would be devastated if it was ever cut off. 9. Those who have it think that those who don't are somehow inferior. 8. Those who don't have it may agree that it's neat, but think it's not worth the fuss that those who have it make about it. 7. Many of those who don't have it would like to try it, a phenomenon psychologists call "E-mail Envy." 6. It's more fun when it's up, but this makes it hard to get any real work done. 5. In the distant past, its only purpose was to transmit information vital to the survival of the species. Some people still think that's the only thing it should be used for, but most folks today use it mostly for fun. 4. If you don't take proper precautions, it can spread viruses. 3. We attach an importance to it that is far greater than its actual size and influence warrant. 2. If you're not careful what you do with it, it can get you into a lot of trouble. And the number one reason "Why e-mail is like a penis." 1. If you play with it too much, you'll go blind! July 29 Types of viruses...Adam and Eve virus: Takes a couple of bytes out of your Apple. Airline virus: You're in Dallas, but your data is in Singapore. Arnold Schwarzenegger virus: Terminates and stays resident. It'll be back. Bill Clinton virus: This virus mutates from region to region and we're not exactly sure what it does. Bill Clinton virus: Promises to give equal time to all processes: 50% to poor, slow processes; 50% to middle-class processes, and 50% to rich ones. This virus protests your computer's involvement in other computer's affairs, even though it has been having one of its own for 12 years. Elvis virus: Your computer gets fat, slow, and lazy and then self destructs, only to resurface at shopping malls and service stations across rural America. Freudian virus: Your computer becomes obsessed with marrying its own motherboard. George Bush virus: Doesn't do anything, but you can't get rid of it until November. Madonna virus: If your computer gets this virus, lock up your dog! Michael Jackson virus: Hard to identify because it is constantly altering its appearance. This virus won't harm your PC, but it will trash your car. New World Order virus: probably harmless, but it makes a lot of people really mad just thinking about it. Nike virus: Just Does It! Oprah Winfrey virus: Your 200MB hard drive suddenly shrinks to 80MB, and then slowly expands back to 200MB. Politically correct virus: Never calls itself a "virus", but instead refers to itself as an "electronic microorganism". Richard Nixon virus: Also known as the "Tricky Dick Virus", you can wipe it out but it always makes a comeback. Right To Life virus: Won't allow you to delete a file, regardless of how old it is. If you attempt to erase a file, it requires you to first see a counselor about possible alternatives. Ted Kennedy virus: Crashes your computer but denies it ever happened. Texas virus: Makes sure that it's bigger than any other file. UK Parliament virus: Splits the screen into two with a message in each half blaming other side for the state of the system. |
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