Back to test again...

Still missing blogspot sometimes ... it's a good blog, only had problems with safari browser (at least on my machine). Anyway, it might be fixed now. So I'm testing it again.

retest...

visiting this blog today .. and found that safari loaded it correctly. so, now i'm testing it again.

Bye .. Blogspot

After series of fustration with reloading problem with Safari web browser (it doesn't load/display the latest additions, both RSS-feed and normal website), while Firefox does it finely ... I decided it's might be a time to move on.

My new weblogs are relocated to:

• Main weblog (IT news & Science/Comsci
  
• Personal
  

Both will be in mixture of Thai and English, depending on my mood of writing which article/content in which. I don't really have time to do the full translation of my contents anymore.

I will keep checking my blogspot blogs and update occassionally on the new Safari release to see if the new bugfixed, updated, enhances, whatever, will fix anything or at least make it better or not.

Update your bookmark.

A few days with Tiger

After I reinstalled Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger clean a few days ago, my first impression is it's really a major improvement over any previous release of Mac OS X. I thought the gap between 10.2.x Jaguar and 10.3.x Panther was big. Tiger simply made that gap look like only a small step.

However, it's definitely not without problems.

While 10.3 was a major improvement over 10.2 in term of stability, IMO, Tiger is quite unstable compared to initial 10.3.0 release. The rumor that there were still some outstanding issues in the gold-master build of Tiger seems to have some, if not being entirely, truth.

Also, I don't know if it's the problem with my faculty/department router or not, but now I cannot login/access the iChatAV. I could use it a while when I was using Panther and when I installed Tiger as upgrade (installed over Panther). But now with clean-reinstallation, I can't use it anymore. Maybe I have to ask the admin later.

Crashing is another problem. Apps crash here and there, more often than I expected them to.

10.4.1 is on the way? Better be soon ....

I'm Back!

After my last blog ages ago, before I come back to Thailand ... now I'm back after such a long period.

The major reason was that most of the time I couldn't find good enough internet connection. And when I do so, I will mostly occupied with some other things that have to be done first at those particular moments. So, all my weblogs were left un-updated for almost a month.

Now I'm back, welcome to the real world!

Tiger & Paris: Two major news from Apple

These are what most Mac users (and many PC users who are thinking of switching) had been waiting for.

The first is the new generation of Mac OS X, codenamed Tiger had been officially annouced the release date, April 29th (Friday).

More on Tiger later. MacDD.com asked me to write a brief article about it. I also wrote the Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger Preview for MacDD when it was newly annouced in last year's WWDC. So, more on it later.

Another is the annoucement for the date of Apple Expo 2005, Paris. Expo at Paris is often the place where the biggest annoucements of the year is being made, as it is the closest official expo (excluding all the special events) to christmas and 4th quarter, when Apple could sell things the most. The date is: September 20-24.

About Paris ... yeah .. I don't know what cool (?) new hardware Apple will annouce this year, after seeing the iMac G5 in last year's expo.

Low Cost Laptops .... $100 [?!?!?]

Wired News: Low-Cost Laptops for Kids in Need:

Negroponte and some MIT colleagues are hard at work on a project they hope will brighten the lives and prospects of hundreds of millions of developing world kids. It's a grand idea and a daunting challenge: to create rugged, internet- and multimedia-capable laptop computers at a cost of $100 apiece.

[...skipped...]

The laptops would be mass-produced in orders of no smaller than 1 million units and bought by governments, which would distribute them.

This will help a lot of people in the 3rd world and developing country, where computers, especially laptops, are still considered to be luxury. This project will cut cost on software, using open-source and free software instead of bundling (or bloating) the machine with the commercial apps:

Details are still being worked out, but here's the MIT team's current recipe: Put the laptop on a software diet; use the freely distributed Linux operating system; design a battery capable of being recharged with a hand crank; and use newly developed "electronic ink" or a novel rear-projected image display with a 12-inch screen.

Then, give it Wi-Fi access, and add USB ports to hook up peripheral devices.

The detailed hardware spec is yet to be revealed (or might yet to be decided). However, given the concept of being a multimedia capable computer, they should be more than capable for student doing homeworks and learn programming and application development. However, they wouldn't, I guess, be capable of playing latest games (DOOM3 eats anything for breakfast).

This, however again, is a big plus obviously. Students should spend their time doing homeworks and studying, not playing games. Those who are interested in IT and CS will have an Research/Academic-calibre system (most of us use UNIX/Linux) environment to play with.

Kudos MIT folks!

Now I would like to quote the beginning of the article, which Wired News lovely put:

In a rural Cambodian village where the homes lack electricity, the nighttime darkness is pierced by the glow from laptops that children bring from school. The students were equipped with notebook computers from a foundation run by MIT Media Lab founder Nicholas Negroponte and his wife Elaine.

"When the kids bring them home and open them up, it's the brightest light source in the home," said Negroponte. "Parents love it."