Rawitat Pulam@IT News & Stuff

Back to test again...

2005-06-23T11:05:00.000+07:00

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...

2005-05-06T17:44:00.000+07:00

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

Bye .. Blogspot

2005-05-05T09:18:00.000+07:00

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

2005-05-05T06:25:00.000+07:00

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!

2005-05-04T08:24:00.000+07:00

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

2005-04-13T02:17:00.000+07:00

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 [?!?!?]

2005-04-04T18:15:00.000+07:00

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."

Update on Super shuffle: Actually a Stunt?

2005-03-22T22:45:00.000+07:00

It had the world winded up about a week ago, and for many Apple and iPod fans it is still one of the topics to talk about. Love it or hate it, Super shuffle wasn't real.

From Engadget article (from Jack Campbell's e-mail to Engadget):

"The Super Shuffle is not in production by LuxPro. There is no intent by LuxPro to ever put the Super Shuffle into production. The entire CeBit sideshow was planned from the start as a gambit to gain a hugely disproportionate share of the industry’s attention, so as to find a few customers for the Super Shuffle’s electronics."

Campbell's e-mail's concluding remark:

So, there will be no Apple lawsuits, no Super Shuffles fighting their way onto racks at Circuit City, no angry mobs of Apple lawyers storming the LuxPro factory.
This was not a prank, nor was it an act of blind stupidity. In my view, it was one of the most clever PR maneuvers I have ever seen executed by a small company.

The mail said it all about the reality of this Super shuffle gadget. It is not completely out of the realm of possibility, though, that someone, smaller makers possibly, might eventually rip-off some well-known devices (like the iPod and Rio's devices) and selling it somewhere. Bigger players will have to make the rip-off less obvious though (now we're seeing a lot of laptops that look in one way or another much like Apple's PowerBook, be it the current Aluminum line or the older Titanium one).

Let's back to the topic for now.

Even though the Super shuffle had turned out to be the publicity stunt, what I wrote in my previous weblog entry about it still holds true for all other devices. Just read that in a general way, I was talking much about the user experiences of the iPod (and actually a lot of Apple's products) that is an emergence result from the interplay between software systems, whether they will be interacting directly with users or not.

On the other note, this actually reminded me a lot about CherryOS, a product from Maui-X, that made a really really loud noise sometime last year, promising to deliver a great PPC emulation performance on x86. There was no actual product found at that time, only a few annoying video on the product's website. Well, Maui-X is a company doing video streaming. So by getting a lot of people excited about it, they get a lot of free test for their actual technology. Clever trick. Now when people demanding the product, they ended up violating GPL and use PearPC's code [PearPC is an open-source PPC emulator].

"Super shuffle" ... another time when they get it wrong

2005-03-20T10:55:00.000+07:00

Recently, a large portion of portable music player market went crazy when LUXPRO introduced a new MP3 player called Super shuffle which is basically an iPod shuffle RIP-OFF (and it's LAME).

Putting the two side by side, we see that the super shuffle is really a rip-off from iPod shuffle:

The advertisement is also a mere rip-off from the well-known iPod campaign:

So, with almost exactly the same look, more functionalities, does this super shuffle superior to the iPod shuffle and will take away the iPod market?

Not exactly .... because it's not about hardware, it's about user experience which largely due to software.

I doubt that super shuffle will have anything like the iPod-iTunes interplay, which creates a pretty smooth experience with as little interaction as possible. You plug the iPod shuffle into your computer, click a button, you're on the go. Apple's software does the rest for you behind the scene.

I have a certain level of confident that you will be using the super shuffle by manually selecting songs, dragging and dropping, fustration, etc; like a lot of portable music players before it.

The Power of Collective Cooperation: The AOL Case

2005-03-16T15:31:00.000+07:00

After AOL changed its Term of Service (ToS) by including a highly privacy abusing statement:

"Although you or the owner of the Content retain ownership of all right, title and interest in Content that you post to any AIM Product, AOL owns all right, title and interest in any compilation, collective work or other derivative work created by AOL using or incorporating this Content. In addition, by posting Content on an AIM Product, you grant AOL, its parent, affiliates, subsidiaries, assigns, agents and licensees the irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide right to reproduce, display, perform, distribute, adapt and promote this Content in any medium. You waive any right to privacy. You waive any right to inspect or approve uses of the Content or to be compensated for any such uses.”

[I highlighted this for emphasizing. The boldface didn't exist in the original ToS]...

Right after that, a lot of people who involve in some kind of online activities, like blogging and discussion, started talking about this like crazy. We see a lot of blog articles, a lot of online discussion, notably the Your Right Online section of Slashdot had a lively discussion twice (here, and here). Also a lot of well-known weblogs.

Finally, AOL had just revised its ToS once again and remove that abusive statement. Now the new ToS reads:

”Once you submit or post Content to any public area on an AIM Product, AOL does not need to give you any further right to inspect or approve uses of such Content or to compensate you for any such uses. AOL owns all right, title and interest in any compilation, collective work or other derivative work created by AOL using or incorporating Content posted to public areas of AIM Products.”

Also notice that the new ToS clearly state that it only apply to the public area (once again, I highlighted that myself).

This is another proof, another example, of what a collective & cooperative behavior can do, even in the online world. You do what is good for yourself and effectively good for the group. It doens't matter how you as an individual think about this, if your action is in the same as the other, it can be formed into a collective behavior that can change something globally like this.

PB: Dual Core or G5? NO, it's not OR, it's AND!?!?

2005-03-16T10:35:00.000+07:00

I had posted a weblog article about my speculation of PowerBook's future, which might be using either a Dual-Core G4 or a G5. In which I wrote:

Personal Conclusion: I will take the Dual-Core G4 PowerBook over the G5 one anyday, when it comes out (and if it does come out; the rumor had re-surfaced, at least). Also when it comes to performance, I don't think the power-down G5 with smaller bus can perform any better the Dual-core G4. Actually, it can even be outperformed by the dual-core G4.

The only problem Apple might have for making Dual-Core G4 the next generation PowerBook: Marketing. They had created so much hype about one word: G5. Many people I know really believe that G5 is everything and being a G5 making it the fastest thing on this planet. If the Dual-Core G4 is outperforming the G5 ... then Apple has a problem.

Shortly afterward, Apple came out with the (probably) last update to the PowerBook line we know and love.

After the line was updated, all rumors about PowerBook went silent for a while, only to resurfaced again recently with a few exciting evidences which supporting the rumor:

The change in Apple's CHUD Tools. (Click here for The Register's article (www.theregister.co.uk))
Application note about how to use thermal diodes posted by IBM (Click here (www-306.ibm.com))

People will now starting to speculate a Dual-Core G5 PowerBook. But before that, I think there are still some questions that needed answers:

Can IBM tame the chip well enough to put it into a compact and feature-rich space of PowerBook? (I haven't read the note posted by them yet. Still feel sick and headache).
Can Apple design the thermal control system good enough to control the heat in such a small space?

When Jobs debut the G5 PowerMac in WWDC 2003, he promised 3.0 GHz in a year. However WWDC 2004 had gone, and half a year after that the top of the line PowerMac is still at 2.5 GHz. Jobs mentioned the difficulties the entire industry had at the 90nm scale. In Steve's word: the entire industry had hit the wall.

So it seems to me that the current G5 chip has problem going any faster. So, if they are hitting the wall going straight, why wouldn't they just go around the wall to make it faster?

So, here come a new chip with new specification; the way to go around that wall. I rather think we will see this new dual core chip first in the new PowerMac, which should be announced by WWDC the latest. PowerBook just saw it last update not so long ago, so it would be WWDC the soonest (and most unlikely) that we will see another update.

Before I see any of this dual core G5 in reality and how much heat it produces and how IBM and Apple engineers tame it, I won't be betting any cent that it would be appearing in the next PowerBook; my current bet is still with the dual core G4.

Yet-Another-Weblog

2005-03-15T04:07:00.000+07:00

"The Personal Side of Myself".

Microsoft to kill MSN for Mac

2005-03-12T14:09:00.000+07:00

From MSN for Mac OS X Official Website (microsoft.com):

After May 31, 2005, customers will no longer access MSN service by using the MSN for Mac OS X Internet Software. Instead of accessing MSN services using the MSN for Mac OS X internet software, customers will access MSN services and features with their preferred browser and by setting up a My MSN page as a portal to their favorite online destinations.

If you are a current MSN subscriber and you use MSN for Mac Internet Software, you will maintain your current e-mail address and still have access to your e-mail, contacts, calendar, and most other MSN services through MSN Hotmail and your My MSN page. To create, customize or view your current My MSN page, go to my.msn.com.

Don't confuse MSN service with MSN Messenger for Mac. MSN is an internet service, which you have to subscribe to use, while MSN Messenger is a free (as in free beer) instant messenger software, which some often called shortly just MSN.

MSN service is following IE route on the Mac platform. Seriously, I don't know how many Mac users are also MSN subscribers, but I think there aren't many. After all, to most people Mac and Microsoft are something that don't belong together (they use MS Office anyway, but that's another story, as Office is pretty standard software required by many. Also, MS Office on Mac is quite a good software, even compared to Windows version. This is quite an opposite case to many MS software/service on the Mac).

For MSN Messenger and Office, the Mac BU at Microsoft still planned to release the next version, 5.0 and Service Pack 2, respectively.

Ubuntu PPC on PowerBook 17"

2005-03-12T04:02:00.001+07:00

I had been thinking of installing GNU/Linux on my PowerBook since I got my 15", and that was since October 2003. Now, with my master thesis done, not in a mood start packing yet, and waiting for graduation (and waiting to see my girlfriend), I decided that it's a good time to kill my boredom.

This is my first time to install GNU/Linux on PPC (or, basically, a non-x86) architecture. I am really at home with install any distro, including Gentoo, on the x86 and especially for the Debian (and Debian-based) distro, my hands and heart remember the installation steps.

I tried Ubuntu, Warty release with my new PowerBook 17" last night. It did work and installation went fine. I had problem with getting X11 works, or more precisely, get the graphics displaying, correctly. All I had were glitches, like a broken television.

Today while reading OSNews (this topic), I learned that Ubuntu had released the preview of their upcoming 5.04 (or Hoary) release. Both the installation and LiveCD. So I gave it another shot.

The LiveCD works fine and the graphics now displaying properly. So I had my fingers crossed and install it for real.

The installation was flawless. Ubuntu installer (Debian installer, actually) works really fine. It is still in text-only mode, which is quite less attractive than Anaconda installer of Fedora-based distro. I like it more than Anaconda, however. All I had to do was hitting enter and telling the name of computer and my name. All hardware were correctly detected, with exception of Airport Extreme card, which had yet to open the spec, so it is not supported entirely.

After a few minutes (10 maybe), the installation was done, reboot, greeted by GDM, then GNOME desktop, do the software update. Beautiful. Here's how it looks like (which doing software update):

I like the new default desktop. I always think the default Warty desktop was a bit dull, especially comparing to the default Mac OS X desktop. I know I can change this later, but still ;-)

The Software Update works fine (was doing it in the screenshot).

More on this later, with might be a full article about experience and installation guide. Now have to go back to OS X to reinstall things and copy data back from backup ;-)

Is Apple the "New Microsoft"?

2005-03-08T12:38:00.000+07:00

Forbes's article: Is Apple the New Microsoft had brought a lot of hot and interesting discussions. Most noticably, interesting and informative, as well as insightful ones are

Slashdot thread and
OSNews thread

I recommend skimming/reading both threads.

I won't going to discuss the thing discussed in Forbes article, though. I will, however, discuss here the more fundamental question ... is Apple, behaviorally, actually better than Microsoft in anyway?

I have to tell you first that I am a Mac user and I like lots of Apple products, hardware and software alike. They make really cool hardware and easy to use software. The user experience I got from their product is superb.

However, here is not a discussion about how cooler Apple products are compared to Microsoft's. It's the discussion of behavior alone. So, put all your bias about the coolness of Apple aside.

Even before starting my discussion, I will say that I will disappoint all of you right here, right now. I'm happier that Microsoft is ruling the world, not Apple. I am on Microsoft's side of the coin this time.

Apple are not a bunch of nice guys making things for the sake of the world, or doing the world a favour in any sense. They are basically the same as Microsoft; a company that doing business and care for its profit. Jobs might be differ from Gates and Ballmer in the how to do the business, though.

Most people have bad images about Microsoft. This happened because many of us keep talking about Microsoft in a very bad way and projecting Bill Gates as a very bad guy. I like Gates personally, though.

I won't go into the details here; OSNews and Slashdot threads have them all of the why Apple actually has more of dictatorship than Microsoft. If you don't have time to read both; go for OSNews.

Had Apple won the 1984 war, the face of the world will be entirely different today, of course. We will have NO, let me repeat, NO variety of choices between computers even the software.

Don't get me wrong; I love my PowerBook (and is now waiting for my new PowerBook 17"). I love my iPods. Apple makes great products and really satisfying customers, like me. However, that doesn't make Apple a nice guy who can never do a bad thing. Apple is not a savior of this world from Microsoft. They are Microsoft in their own world. Maybe even worst (again, go read /. or OSNews to find out more).

Changes in Sony

2005-03-08T10:54:00.000+07:00

From MacWorld article

Sony's Chairman and CEO Nobuyuki Idei and President Kunitake Ando are stepping down as the heads of the company.

Idei will be replaced by Howard Stringer, vice chairman and chief operating officer (COO). Ando will be replaced by Ryoji Chubachi, executive deputy president and COO.

Several other positions will also change.

Many had foreseen this happening. After all, only thing that never changed ... change itself. And only thing that is ever certain is uncertainty. However, I guess not many had foreseen it happening this fast, and now.

While Sony remains one of the biggest players in world business, in electronic devices and entertainment (mainly Music), Sony failed to materialize the digital entertainment market. Considering its power and ability, its share in music market (especially after merging with BMG) and digital devices, Sony failed miserably to let the digital music market (currently dominated by Apple's iTune Music Store and its iPod) slipped through its own fingers.

Also, talking about Computer industry. I quite like Sony Vaio's recent product lines. The design is pretty impressive for most models, the hardware spec is pretty good, even though comparing with other PC makers, seem expensive (even when comparing to Apple). However, Sony is about the only PC maker that had attempted to provide more than hardware for users.

Computer is not (only) about hardware, it's (also) software, stupid! [If you want to make it very extreme, take out things in the () ]

Sony had been trying to create user experience for Vaio, by bundling loads of software that should make life of Vaio users better than other PC users.

I don't own any current Vaio model, but I always playing with them (with their software, of course). While I don't really think Sony bundling is doing as a good job (providing good user experience) as software on the Mac, it's not that bad either (but the software on Vaio feel heavy...). Relying on Windows and making moderate wrapper to Windows system won't, and cant' be as good as all the native things, built from ground up, of the Mac.

Nevermind what I think and say here, I have no number with me, but I don't really think Vaio is contributing much factor to Sony's entire business core. After all, Sony wasn't a computer company, but an entertainment and home electronic devices and music company.

I don't really know what this shift in power inside Sony might mean. Would it bring Sony up again against Apple in the dawn digital entertainment era? Or would Sony instead make alliance with Apple in the DRM war with Microsoft (+ the rest, i.e., Napster and Real)? Will .... [whatever]?

Wait and see.

Intel unveiled Mini PC concept

2005-03-04T19:21:00.000+07:00

CNet news article: Intel shows off Mac Mini-like concept PC.

Read the article first. Then, if you are interested and have time, here is Slashdot discussion thread for it: Intel Flaunts Mac mini Knock-off (slashdot.org).

Here is the Mini PC in question, compare with Mac mini:

And here is the comparison when Steve holding one in his hand during the Keynote and when Intel VP Don MacDonald showing off the Mini PC's Sleek Concept.

Judging from the look of the hardware alone, it's a rip-off from Apple's product, obviously. However, Intel's design is still only a dream and an empty plastic box. Nothing is real yet. I also have highly doubt of whether any maker in computer industry can turn this into reality or not. It seems too small, almost the size of the optical drive alone, which leaving almost no room for anything else.

Anyway, let's assume that one day, someone (Sony maybe, they are capable of making nice and sleek computers sometime. Forget about Dull, oops. .. Hell ... oops, I mean Dell)..... then, is it the end of Mac mini phenomena?

No, it's not the hardware ... it's software, stupid!

PC makers will one day match the design of Apple product (one day ... no-one know exactly when .. but let's assume the design space is ergodic, then one day the trajectory will cover the entire space given enough time. Hence, one day it will. Nothing come close to the PowerBook yet, though .. even the current PB-line is old and badly needed major update).... one thing they have to understand and can't, probably, match the Cupertino's offering:

Software

True. Design is one thing. But design isn't bound to the look of hardware. That can of course attract users, but it won't create any user experience. It's the software that does the job. You need to design the software properly so it creates good user experience.

For example: I probably won't be considering a new PowerBook if it runs Windows XP, not Mac OS X. Another example being .. no matter how cool the iPod is, I don't think people will like it much if the software really suck and hard to use; now you just plug it in and it works.

The Mini PC, if it ever be realized, will be running Windows by default (assuming using current market status), ridden by all problems (securities, virus, maintenance, etc) and unsleekness of Windows, which directly defied Intel's Sleek Concept design proporsal. Nothing will just works like the Mac and Mac mini. There will be no substitute for iLife

I like the look of a lot of mobile phone ... but I found many of those cool looking ones to be difficult to use, over featured (in simpler word: bloat) in many areas, and not simplified enough in area that should be simple. So, while I might like their looks, I prefer something that I can actually use.

Get it?

In Which OS Do You Feel More Productive?

2005-03-03T16:53:00.000+07:00

From Slashdot thread with the same name.

HTMLChecker asks: "I found an article in which the author talks about how she is more productive using Mac OS X. What about the people of Slashdot? Where do you feel more productive, in Linux? Windows? DOS? Mac OS X? Also, what is the best way to rate productivity in an OS?"

The linked article had also became OSNews thread article: From Gui-Hater to OS X.

While I'm too lazy (and not too stupid) to make the poll by counting people preferences from /. (slashdot)'s thread of more than a thousand posts, I am under impression that many people found Mac OS X productive. A lot of people also say GNU/Linux. Windows is probably the least. This is not surprising result considering nature of /. readers.

For me, I would love to give Mac OS X and GNU/Linux (especially Debian or Debian-based distro) an equal marks as productive working environment, with slightly more points to, surprise, GNU/Linux.

Why?

I love OS X and it is, IMO, the best OS we have out there right now. It is very easy to use, very easy to configure, (almost) everything just work, good applications available, many UNIX-apps compiled and run with not much problems on X11 and some even have native aqua port. Xcode is also great (but the editor can be pretty slow when editing large file, with the code-sensing turned on) and Cocoa is really a time-saving when making apps.

However, one problem: Games.

While there are a lot of games on GNU/Linux as well, none of them had really taking my time for work, not as much as Windows games that had been ported to the Mac. So, working in GNU/Linux, while I feel less pleasure, there are less things that can taking my working time away from me, too.

I know it's the matter of controling myself. However, let's put it this way: if there's nothing, then I have to control nothing, I will be just working, too.

Taking games out of equation, however, Mac OS X eats everything else for breakfast.

If you have time, I recommended reading the /. thread. Very entertaining and there are a lot of old-fashion bashings, like some clueless who has been living under the rock in the end of the cave at the bottom of the ocean bashing X11 ;-)

Three weeks with iPod shuffle

2005-03-01T18:54:00.000+07:00

Despite the nature of my traditional blog articles and the name of this entry, this will be a short review of my newest Apple gadget, iPod shuffle (1GB model), which I waited 3 weeks since ordered it right after Macworld Expo, and had been using as my primary portable music player since I got it (with occassionally switching back to my 1st gen iPod mini). So here we go:

First off, a little surprise on a box ...

notice that, while the official website for the iPod still say Mac+PC for every model, the iPod shuffle box clearly says PC+Mac (same as the boxes for 2nd gen iPod mini. I have no idea about the revised iPod photo). This change maybe subtle, but nevertheless an important one. With PC users outnumbering Mac users anywhere in the world, having the word emphasizing that it would work with the PC will ensuring much higher number of potential customers, that the shinny iPod will work with their computers. A surprise nonetheless.
Talking about size, this iPod shuffle is amazingly small. I hardly notice it at all when I put it either in my trousers or shirt pocket. It is even smaller than my old USB memory stick. I would very much like to have the aluminum version, though ... (even though I don't think Apple will eventually make one).
Shuffle only. This is the feature many people who never actually try it are complaining the most. After all, we are accustomed to being able to choose songs/playlists we want to listen. However, I found out after trying out the shuffle mode in my iTunes and iPod mini, that shuffling is actually a good way to listen to music.

I autofilled my iPod shuffle from my top rating songs, 5 stars only (or now, 4-5 stars), and not classical musics (which are usually too long and not suitable for listening on the road). Then, no matter what is coming up, I'm sure I will have no problem listening to it. Also, with the skip and repeat button (forward and backward), I can skip things I don't feel like listening anyway.

Now, why is this a good thing? Well, when given less choice (i.e., I can no long choose the song myself), I became less and less selective about the song. This mean, I can focus more on what I'm doing, like coding (programming), writing articles, making class handouts, cycling, etc. Also, I have less feeling of the routine in my life. After all, I cannot predict 2-3 songs in advanced any more (and guessing what is coming up next had been a game I play with myself for fun).
It doesn't work with my Bose speakers. I just tried plugging it in, and it doesn't seem to have enough power to drive my Bose speaker. Not a surprise, and this does not give this iPod shuffle any minus point. After all, iPod shuffle is a device for listening to music on the go, not in the room. For that, I use my old 3rd gen iPod or iPod mini, or directly from iTunes.
A real minus point here: while it can be put into sequential playing mode or shuffle mode, it does *not* have the repeat one song mode. Sometime, it shuffled up the song I really like, and I really in the mood for listening to that song 3-4 times. All I could do is keep pressing the backward button. A minus here for me.
Interface. Whille it is still symmetric like the iPod remote control, which had confused many people (and, one of the worst design out of Cupertino in my opinion), it is less symmetric (the placement of the entire interface) and therefore giving less confusion. The status-indicating LED took me a while to get used to, and now I have no problem reading it.
Talking about LED, well ... the battery indicator could have more work. After all, I want to be able to distinguish between 51% charged and 88% charged. Now the LED only change the color after the batter is down below 50% (maybe?). Battery life is pretty good though.
Haven't tested it with the car adapter yet. (I love using iPod while driving ... but I have no car in Japan, will test it when I go back to Thailand, soon).

So, that was my review. Longer than I initially thought ;-)

Conclusion: iPod shuffle is clearly a winner, if you want some music in your ears on the go, and help you focus on your works without worrying at all about the music.

End User License Agreement (EULA) matters!

2005-02-24T09:45:00.000+07:00

From Slashdot article (in Your Right Online section).

"When Doug Heckman was installing a PC Pitstop program, he actually read the EULA. In it, he found a clause stating that he could get financial compensation if he e-mailed PC Pitstop. The result: a $1,000 check, and proof that people don't read EULAs (3,000 people before him didn't notice it). The goal of this was to prove that one should read all EULAs, so that one can see if an app is spyware if it is buried in the EULA."

Right. That's what most users never do: read the EULA. Most users just choose to accept the license, implying accepting all its condition, by just clicking OK on the EULA dialog box.

Why does this matter? Well, this is a proof that people don't read EULA.

So, how does that matter? Because a lot of software (mostly those free/shareware downloaded from the internet) sometime will do some nasty things to your computer, like installing spyware or other forms of ads-support system, or whatever. While many of those software will just install those, without informing the user (hence violating individual right and privacy), many other software have statements in their EULA informing the user what it will do. So, by choosing to accept the license, users agree to let the software do it by free will.

This shows one thing: we all should be reading EULA, by two reasons:

to know what is the what the software might do once we installed it, and what we could do with it.
we might get money ;-)

Apple gains marketshare in Australia

2005-02-22T00:33:00.000+07:00

Australian IT said that Apple had gained marketshare in Aus, from 3% to 4.1%.

I know that marketshare doesn't mean much, it's one of many ways to play with raw numbers. However, this nevertheless is a good indication to welcoming Apple back into the game. Now with the incredible Mac mini, with the ever-better Mac OS X ... Apple certainly has potential to take over a much larger market in developed countries. Forget about the developing countries and underdeveloped countries, though. For those, Mac mini would still cost more than the do-it-yourself-from-the-cheapest-possible-parts kind of systems.

However, with the Mac mini costing very little, the iBook doesn't cost much, iMac and PowerBook are pretty attractive and reasonable for their prices, and with Windows PC getting more and more security and stability problems, while OS X getting almost none ... there are less and less reasons to stick with PC and not making a switch to a Mac, unless your work requires it and you absolutely cannot find any alternative on OS X.

Watch out, the jump from 3% to 4.1% in Aus was only the beginning.

By the way ... that jump was BEFORE the introducing of Mac mini and the new speed-bumped (with some new technologies and hardware-spec bumped) PowerBook .... now, NeXT, Watch What Happens! ;-)

[Also, for those who think 3% to 4.1% is little ... let look at the number this way: in the same quarter, the number of Mac units sold in Australia increased by 49.1% ... so, looking only the number of Mac sold, it's 49.1% growth for Apple].

HotU is actually by the Thais?

2005-02-21T15:25:00.000+07:00

Surprising ... Home of the Underdogs (HotU), a museum of old software (mostly games), akin to what Project Gutenberg is to old books, might actually be in Thailand and/or made by Thai people?

I used to visit that website a lot when I was younger (years away in the past, from today). I don't know what made me want to visit it again today, after so long time of not visting. When I entered the site, I found this notice:

The fist line read Here in Thailand we are still trying to cope with ..... Errr.... In Thailand and we? .... are they foreigners living in Thailand? or they are Thai people in Thailand? ... or they are just travelling and happened to be in Thailand on that day?

Well, I might mail them to find out.

The longest few days

2005-02-14T08:13:00.000+07:00

I have to wait for something ..... which I might or might not like the outcome. Nevertheless, it's the good outcome that I want to hear the most, and I cannot cope with doing anything until I know the result. Be it the bad one, my life might be ruined. Now I just want time to pass as fast as it could.

Time is passing 1 second per second. What? No, that doesn't make sense. I can make it feel longer and short. Now, I just feel that every second passing is as long as a minute, or an hour. The sound of clock ticking is proving me otherwise. But that's physical, I still feel it's much longer than usual ...

So what should I possibly be doing until that time come?

Dave, here is you list:

RSS reader, now since my favourite RSS reader, NewsFire became a shareware, costing quite a bit for an RSS reader, ~20$, I might want to write one myself. I have never written any XML parser in Cocoa/Objective-C yet (nor I had in any other language) ... so this will take me whiles.

The problem: I don't feel like coding that much. Also, I could always use NetNewsWire Lite, a freeware version of NetNewsWire (same link). I just like NewsFire more.
Cocoa Tutorial (in Thai). Another thing I want to do. I had been writing a book about C++ programming, which I got a bit quite far. Now I'm thinking of writing another one on Cocoa/GNUstep. However, after times, I think I'd better do it in the collection of small tutorials fashion, so I can update them partially, as it's done, to the web (or someone else's web).

The problem: I don't feel like writing text that much either. Also, there aren't many Mac users out there in Thailand who might want to get their hands on coding. Another thing is: teaching people programming actually remind me a lot ... of something I don't want to during the time-killing tasks.
Reading books I bought. Have a lot of books that I haven't finished, or worst, haven't started reading much.

The problem: No ... nevermind. Can't do it. Can you?
Start packing things back to Thailand. Sooner or later I will have to do it anyway.

The problem: No ... nevermind. Don't feel like doing it right now.
What else? .... hmmm let see ... taking sleeping pills and just sleep and let the time pass? hmmm ... make some sense ... travels? no .. probably not, not in that mood at all, besides I hate traveling alone. Reinstall GNU/Linux or FreeBSD on my Dell? No... not this time, had been doing that too frequently. My fingers are used to that and won't kill much time anyway.

So ... conclusion?... hmm .. maybe playing Star Wars: Knight of the Old Republic ... but well, nevermind that either. Not in gaming mood.

iPod shuffle

2005-02-09T13:10:00.000+07:00

Got my last Macworld order today [haven't ordered Mac mini yet, but will later .. after I had thoroughly think and rethink what can I do with it], the iPod shuffle.

I'm not gonna review it in-depth here; you can always find the yet-another-review everywhere on the web.

All I have to say with this little iPod is, it just what I expected it to be: Just Work. All I have to do is, like all other iPods i have (3Gen and mini), plug it in. The autofill function will pick songs from library and fill it up for me. But since I have many classical songs that I'm sure I won't like listening to on the road, I choose to have it pick songs from my top rate playlist. Now it is smaller than the capacity of the iPod shuffle, so everything is there.

The little neat thing is: I can easily specify how much of the space I would like to keep some data.

This is one of the main reason I bought the shuffle. I want something that feel less fragile than the iPod mini (which is quite tough actually) and can act as the USB memory stick that I can use on both Mac and Windows (and Linux). While I'm working, I won't need the screen anyway .. and having the screen will just suck the battery. Also, having only 5-stars songs on the shuffle, I am ensured that I will like whatever song that shuffle will randomize for me.

I always use my iPod mini this way anyway; have it shuffling the songs in my top rate playlist.

The function of the shuffle seems a bit weird to me currently. It will take a little to get used to the 'new' hold-scheme that I have to press a play/pause button for 3 seconds instead of sliding the 'hold' slider. Also, having a nicer way to indicate the amount of remaining battery would be nicer. Now I can't distinguish 80% and 100% any more. But since I will likely have it fully charged before going out anyway, this is minor problem.

To summarize my thought up: Apple is a big fan of Zen minimalism. Things they designed are pretty simple, straightforward, easy to use and figure out, no-nonsense/not-needed parts/components, especially the interface. This is something that right now in computer industry is unique to Apple. This iPod shuffle is no different. It is a lean-and-mean portable music player. Nothing else. Just Works. (Almost) no interaction required. And it is pretty small. Put it in my shirt pocket, and then I can forget about it.

Talking a bit about the 'no-screen' and 'shuffle only' that had worried some people. Psychologically, people can be very selective when they are given choices. But when choice isn't available, people will just ignore it. Especially for the 'sideline' thing, like listening to music while doing 'main' thing like working/traveling/sight-seeing/sleeping/reading.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, try leaving iTunes on in the partly shuffle mode, make it choose songs from your top rated list. Or, try this with iPod or iPod mini.

www.apple.com/powerbook/g5

2005-02-03T10:33:00.000+07:00

The title read

"World-Wide-Wait (www) for Apple's PowerBook to get the G5".

So, don't get me wrong with the title! (And, please Apple, I'm not releasing anything about your new product, so don't sue me!)

Just making fun of the latest NEWS.com article: Apple on G5 PowerBook: Not so fast and NewsFactor's: G5 PowerBook Will Have To Wait (via Yahoo news)...

The wait for the new PowerBook to sport the G5 processor is the worldwide one now (thus, WWW), especially ones after others speculation failed to come true. Since Macworld Expo 2004 to Macworld Expo 2005, even before the iMac G5. Everytime there's the official Apple keynote/expo, people had been expecting the new shiny PowerBook G5.

Eight months passed since the last update (which saw the top model topping at with 1.5GHz G4), PowerBook line got its update once again: speed bumped G4 (top at 1.67) plus various advancements in technology. Not, however, the much awaited G5.

Putting the G5 into the laptop right now, is not out of the realm of possibility. But this assumes that any kind of laptop, any thickness, any weight is OK. Putting the G5 into laptop as slim and slick as PowerBook, is another story, and I don't think it is even plausible to think about now.

For this, I quote NEWS.com article:

"It'd be this really thick, heavy notebook, and it would be loud as all get-out," said Kevin Krewell, editor in chief of the Microprocessor Report. "Those would not be design choices that Apple would want to pursue.

[...skipped ... fast forward...]
The main thing holding back a G5 PowerBook is the chip itself. IBM technical documents show that when running at 2.5GHz and 1.3 volts, the chip consumes a maximum of 100 watts of power, a fair amount of juice for a notebook.

[...skipped...]
That's not to say a 100-watt chip cannot be built into a notebook. Dell's Inspiron XPS, for one, offers Intel's 3.4GHz Intel Pentium 4 Extreme Edition processor, which is designed for desktops. Intel's thermal-design guidelines call for computers using the chip to be able to dissipate heat produced by a chip of nearly 110 watts.

But the Dell machine, which comes with a 15.4-inch wide screen, is a relatively hefty 2 inches thick and weighs just over 9 pounds with a CD drive and battery installed. Apple's 17-inch screen PowerBook measures 1 inch thick and weighs in at 6.9 pounds with a CD drive and battery. (Apple's 12-inch and 15-inch screen PowerBooks are 1.18 inches and 1.1 inches thick and weigh 4.6 pounds and 5.6 pounds, respectively. Dell's Pentium M-based, 17-inch screen Inspiron 9200 is 1.6 inches thick and weighs 7.7 pounds.)

They are talking about this bulky piece of brick

[source: dell.com]

I'm sure none of us would want to see a PowerBook like that. (I've seen the Dell machine ... and it looks really incredibly amazing ... a *downward* accomplishment of engineering and design).

What's more? From the same NEWS.com article:

Thus, to fit the G5 into a typical PowerBook-size chassis, Apple would have to throttle down the G5, causing the chip to run more slowly than current G4 mobile chips. The G4 also would likely still consume less power--or produce a bulkier laptop, probably with noisy cooling fans, said the Microprocessor Report's Krewell.

This is very crucial part, very important piece of information.

To those misinformed people who think they must have 64-bit processor for e-mailing and watching movies and browsing internet. 64-bit processing is not what you think. Being 64-bit won't *automatically* make things faster. Many things will actually slower. If you want to address the multi-GB data (think about the very big poster pixel-by-pixel, or the entire human-DNA sequencing, simulaiton of solar wind, composing & playback the symphony with very very fine details) .. then you might need one.

G4 is not yet obsoleted. It is still a pretty good processor, especially as the *mobile* processor. The downside of the current powerbook line I can think of, is the narrow Front-Side-Bus (yeah ... it's a joke). But it still quite a good processor and architecture for laptop.

One last time I will say this: if PowerBook will have a big update anytime within this year, unless IBM pull off a miracle in microprocessor technology ... I'm keeping my fingers crossed for Dual-core G4. [This current PowerBook update .. is, at any cost, likely to be the last update to the current PowerBook line].

Ultimate accessory for your iPod: the Mac mini

2005-02-03T07:59:00.000+07:00

iPodlounge had reviewd the Mac mini in this article: Apple's Mac mini: the Ultimate iPod Accessory?

The review is quite good, well-written, and thorough, though sometime & somewhere bias toward mac (well, everyone is bias in his way anyway, so this is not a complain). Read the review article first before you continue here.

The idea of picturing the Mac mini as the ultimate iPod accessory is quite an interesting one, and actually is another way we can position the Mac mini in the market: for iPod-Windows users.

To summarize up the review regarding this bit:

iPods on Macs have no problem with driver conflictions, music transfering, programs conflictions, and formatting

New features for the iPod will likely be Mac-first, or Mac-only features, or simply performing much better and/or simpler on the Mac (especially ones that take advantage of the iLife suite; think iPhoto library and iPod photo)

iTunes just works better on Mac. The Windows version is more buggy, consuming more resources, slow (these are my additions to the comment). Parts of this came from Windows' own weaknesses in handling multi-tasks (compared to OS X).

On the Mac, it's not just iTunes but you get the entire iLife package. Nothing comes close to this iLife experience on Windows. Use iPhoto once and you will forget most other photo (or images) management tools.

iLife, again, of course, nothing comes close on the PC.

Mac OS X. Period

Apart from its potential to be a killer home media center (for living room photo-viewing, watching DVDs, and streaming musics to the entire house), potential to tempt Windows-users who already got monitor, keyboard, and mouse and wanting to switch to Mac but don't want to pay extras for these, potential for geek to build his own cluster of his dream, .... and potential to be the vehicle for anything Apple has in its hand .... Mac mini as the ultimate iPod accessories for those Windows-iPod geeks and lovers .... isn't the bad way of positioning it after all (everyone wins; except may be Microsoft).

One word of caution: once you fully get onto OS X, there's almost no going back to Windows (IMHO).

iPod shuffle at ... what? 7-Eleven?

2005-02-01T13:09:00.000+07:00

According to the news (Macworld UK) Singaporeans can soon buy the iPod shuffle at 7-Eleven!

Quoting here:

The Shuffle will be sold at 50 7-Eleven outlets "located in major residential and commercial areas" from 1 February.

Apple's distributor in Singapore told hotMILK: "7-Eleven has the widest reaches of storefronts in Singapore. This gives anyone who wants an iPod a very easy retail location".

New PowerBook - Finally

2005-02-01T11:48:00.000+07:00

Just a few hours after I wrote my previous entry: New PowerBook: To Be or Not To Be, Apple had updated the PowerBook G4 line.

In my previous entry, I was talking about the possibility of the PowerBook update, and considered G5 PowerBook, Dual-Core G4 PowerBook, and the speed bump G4 PowerBook. About the update that actually happened, I quote myself:

Else? Hmmm .... Yet-Another-Speed-Bump rumor surfaced before the Macworld Expo. At that time (and still this time), it seems to be the most likely thing to happen, but is surely the least people want it to. After all, 8 months and only 0.17 GHz? You can't kid people like that.

It seems Apple can really kid people. Anyhow, it is nice that the PowerBook line got the update finally.

However, there actually more to this update than yet-another-speed-bump. This new PowerBook sports various new technology: Scrolling Trackpad, Sudden Motion Sensor, Bluetooth 2.0, and DVD+/-R/RW SuperDrive.

Talking about the speed bump, now they are up to 1.67 GHz G4. I don't know how much faster it is comparing to the previous update that topped at 1.5 GHz, eight months ago, and how much faster it is compared to my first aluminum 15" model at 1.25. Does't matter much, I'm not getting a new one.

I see this update, however, as the technology testbed for the next update. We will see all these technology in the next update, too. The next update of the PowerBook, no matter when it comes, will be BIG. Either they crack the way of putting the G5 in or decide that Dual-core G4 is the way to go; it will be BIG either way. So, with Apple's decision of including tomorrow's technology today, the gap of the current PowerBook line and the newer one that could come out at either WWDC or Paris, will be smaller, and make the buyers of this speed-bump update fell less cheated.

Take this: aside from newer chip, and probably newer design, (and a lot of machine architecture that most users don't know'/care about) everything else is the same.

I still really believe that Apple is desperately trying to put G5 into the laptop (the PowerBook, and future iBook) instead of going with the Dual-Core G4, even I myself would want to have the dual-core more. This is because of just one thing I mentioned in the previous entry: Marketting.

Many times I talked to people, many are mac zealots or even non-zealot mac users. They have misunderstand completely about the G5 and 64 bit processing and misunderstand completely the concept of dual-core chips. Also, they will just think that Dual-core G4 is just another G4 with all its current weaknesses (like narrow FSB). I have to tell them "read the spec first please" always.

One more thing to this update: it's cheaper.

New PowerBook: To Be or Not To Be

2005-01-31T18:14:00.000+07:00

Apple's current PowerBook G4 line is currently the longest line without update. I can't remember when the last speed bump was (probably last April ... I remember roughly that it was before WWDC04). I've got one, bought October 2003. The first Alu-PBG4 15" model (with the famous white spots problem).

It had been so long since the last update. Since then Apple had announced a lot of cool products, notably the iMac G5 and new Mac mini (honestly, I want both ... iMac for desktop computer and the mini for being home media center. I will also connect them over the wireless, so I can build my code with Xcode using the distributed build feature and using the mini as the in-home server).... the iPod family had seen a lot of cool updates: the iPod U2, iPod photo, and latest iPod shuffle (waiting for my 1GB one right now). Even the iBook line had seen an update, which brought it up to much the same level as the PowerBook!

Sure, PowerBook deserved an update. The question is: when? ... or may be more: to what?

I believe that because of the G5-hype and marketing, a lot of people (dare I say almost everyone ?) are looking forward seeing a PowerBook G5 out the door. This had been speculated for so long, even before the iMac G5!

However, since the thermal control seems to be the persisting problem for the G5, it still pretty unlikely that we will see one anytime soon, and Apple had admitted this themselves.

What's next? Freescale's Dual-core G4 which was announced a while ago. Since its annoucement, people once again speculated it to become the next generation chip for PowerBook. But since then nothing came close to reality yet.

Else? Hmmm .... Yet-Another-Speed-Bump rumor surfaced before the Macworld Expo. At that time (and still this time), it seems to be the most likely thing to happen, but is surely the least people want it to. After all, 8 months and only 0.17 GHz? You can't kid people like that.

What do I want?

Hmm... I figured I don't really want a G5 in the PowerBook because of the power consumption and heat problem. I want to be able to use my laptop for hours, without burning my hands (or burn something else more important to a guy). One of G5 biggest advantages over other chips is its wider front side bus, and I don't think Apple can engineer the bus that wide in the laptop anyway (see it in the iMac? compare that with the PowerMac's FSB).

Personal Conclusion: I will take the Dual-Core G4 PowerBook over the G5 one anyday, when it comes out (and if it does come out; the rumor had re-surfaced, at least). Also when it comes to performance, I don't think the power-down G5 with smaller bus can perform any better the Dual-core G4. Actually, it can even be outperformed by the dual-core G4.

The only problem Apple might have for making Dual-Core G4 the next generation PowerBook: Marketing. They had created so much hype about one word: G5. Many people I know really believe that G5 is everything and being a G5 making it the fastest thing on this planet. If the Dual-Core G4 is outperforming the G5 ... then Apple has a problem.

However, if Apple (and IBM) can engineer the solution to put the G5 in PowerBook, with reasonable battery life and not making it hotter or heavier than the current line, it won't be that bad too. I might want one, consider that if PBG5 comes out, then the dual-core G4 might not be available at all.

Jan 31st. 4PM.

2005-01-31T17:50:00.000+07:00

For the first time in days, if not weeks, that I feel free ... and can browse webs, writing articles, watch movies (I bought some of movies ... most notably Lost Highway, but haven't found time to watch any yet), and even play games (yes, I bought Star Wars: Knight of the Old Republic for Mac OS X and haven't played or even installed it! ... also my finishing of Neverwinter Nights had been long-overdue already) .... or I could be playing with my newly arrived iWork '05 and iLife '05, too! Wow ... it seems there are so many I want to do ... and what's better? Now I can effort to do them!

What happened?

Well, Jan 31st, 4PM, the deadline time for my master thesis had passed, and I DID submit it on time! Even though I still have to defend my thesis on the 10th of Feb. That's less work for me (just taking things from my thesis, making it more appropriate for presentation, etc).

Defending my thesis, will be the testbed for Keynote 2.0, that came with my copy of iWork ;-)

Now, what is the first thing I should do? :D

May be the most appropriate answer is: pad myself in the back, and take a good & full sleep

5 Minutes with Pages (iWork '05)

2005-01-29T17:44:00.000+07:00

Got my copy of iWork '05 today. Unfortunately, a pity that I don't have time to play with it much, gotta finish my thesis. Anyway, I got 5 minutes to play with it while my another machine (Dell) doing some calculation. I pull out some images from my iPhoto library and copy texts from my thesis ... and this is what I have, done in less than 5 minutes... looks really impressive.

Time to remove Microsoft Word from my dock! (I have never really used Word anyway ... I write most of my works, including casual articles in LaTeX, and drafting in TextEdit ... Pages seems to be really fit for writing articles. Have to see though).

If it works .... removing MS Office entirely from my computer isn't a bad thing ;-) [I removed PowerPoint after I got Keynote 1.1, and I don't use Excel. Not a chance for Entourage).

X.org on Debian Sarge

2005-01-23T14:11:00.000+07:00

Felt bad & Had emotional problem again. So, I decided to do something to pull myself back, and installing X.org on the Debian-based systems had been that thing for me last few times I felt like this :-)

After successfully setting X.org system to work with my Ubuntu Warty Warthog (see the relating entry), I thought that I should be killing my time by trying to get it work on Debian Sarge one last time, after my previous attempt failed. I missed Debian Menu so much when I'm using Ubuntu anyway, so I have been stick myself to Sarge when I'm using my Dell laptop.

Since my previous attempt broke more or less my Sarge installation (luckily, I backed up the data I had .. which is not that much), I had to reinstall Sarge again. So I get the older Debian net-installer daily/nightly build (9/25 .. which doesn't exist in that linked page anymore) which I found working fine with my Inspiron 4150, and reinstalled it with the Desktop Environment option in taskselect. OK, as usual, I got the working GNOME and KDE, and a few others, and of course, XFree86 X11 system. Now it's time to change.

So I edited the /etc/apt/sources.list to use packages from Ubuntu Hoary repository, as I did in the previous two entries (this and this), and commented out the rest. Next, I ran the usual


apt-get install xserver-xorg

to install X.org X-server. It installed with no problem, and then the configurator asked me which X-server I would like to use, XFree or X.org, which, of course, I selected X.org (otherwise why installing it?). I had to fix a dependency problem afterward. The xfree86-common refused to get removed. So I had to manually remove it, which is just the matter of performing the usual apt-get remove command


apt-get remove xfree86-common

Done.

Now I'm apt-get upgrading the packages using Hoary repository. Will report back the result. Stay tunes!

[UPDATE: Now done with everything. A few dependencies problems, of course. But it's working!] So, what else? FreeBSD?Joking, really ;-) ]

Mac mini photo posted!

2005-01-21T16:26:00.000+07:00

I saw it in Steve Jobs' hand during his keynote ... I saw its photo in its official website ... I saw the stories of it everywhere, the Mac mini is obvious one of the hottest topics and gadgets in computing world now. However, I haven't seen it with my own eyes yet, or haven't seen any customer-taken picture of the mini, so I can't really tell how cool it is, in various sense.

Well, good picture worths millions ... and .:UNEASYsilence:. had posted a set of just-arrived Mac mini photos, off the box.

So small, so cool! And when I see the picture of it sitting beside the 4G iPod (or the iPod photo .. they are quite the same size and I can't really distinguish them by look) ... oh my god .. the iPod looks freakingly BIG. Yeah ... let me repeat, freakingly BIG!. Especially when we consider that the Mac mini is a desktop computer and the iPod is the portable digital music player!.

Check out the photos [www.uneasysilence.com]!

Rawitat Pulam@Com/Science

2005-01-21T16:11:00.000+07:00

My yet-another-weblog.

Rawitat Pulam@Com/Science (http://rawitatscience.blogspot.com/)

Mostly about science, natural and computational, from classical and modern, to quantum and complexity. Also something about computer programming (mostly will be about Cocoa).

MSN users be ware! New worm is attacking you!

2005-01-20T14:24:00.000+07:00

Just today, some of my friends had been trying to send me some *weird* files (with weird name ... and ending with suspecious extension .PIF (Microsoft's Program Information File) ... which is potentially dangerous file, since it can (and usually) store the information to execute some programs to do some certain things.

The more potentially dangerous thing about this PIF file this time is: the extension is close enough to .GIF which is one of the standard format for graphics/image files. This could easily cause many users off guard and accepting the files, and, consequentially, execute it.

More information can be found here (ThaiCERT). The page is in Thai, but I believe you can find the information written in your native (or preferred) language easily.

[UPDATE: I made the English version of the original ThaiCERT article (a quick & dirty work ... translating+writing HTML page done in 10 mins). Check it out.]

The worm's name is W32.Bropia, and effecting any version of Windows. GNU/Linux, Mac OS, Mac OS X, OS/2, BSD, UNIX are safe. Windows users, if you haven't thought of switching to GNU/Linux or Mac OS X, please start your consideration. The world out there is not so safe ;-)

Ubuntu Hoary and X.org #2

2005-01-19T04:49:00.000+07:00

Got it working this time. Here's the screenshot (click to see 640x480 version):

So, basically, I reinstalled the Ubuntu Warty Warthog, then edit the /etc/apt/source.list as mentioned in my previous entry:


deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hoary main restricted 

deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hoary universe 

deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hoary-security main restricted

Or, simply put: change every warty in the /etc/apt/source.list to hoary. Then do the following:


sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

which performs the upgrade to the entire distribution using the Hoary repository. Note that, therefore, this will upgrade everything using packages from Hoary, which will be using X.org instead of XFree86, so the X get replaced too.

The installation didn't go that smooth though, as expected from the pre-release (and testing) software like Hoary. I had to do various forcing the installation (mostly using -f with the apt-get does the trick).

The next step is to remove the ubuntu off, reinstall Sarge and put X.org on it :-) [Joking a boring joke, Ubuntu is nice and there's no reason for me, at least not yet, to get it out].

Redemption: I'm Back!

2005-01-18T21:44:00.000+07:00

In the fashion of Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire)'s dialog in Spiderman 2 ... I really want to scream

I'm Back

Out loud.

I'm back ....
... from all the emotional and feeling surrounded me recently.
... from clouding my eyes and judgement, and by emotion.
... from giving in too much to feeling, not thinking.
... from fears, uncertainties, and doubt.
... from the dark side of myself.

Troubling myself by trying to get X.org working on my Ubuntu Warty Warthog, which turned out fruitless, had the good side effect. It brought something back to me.

It's like I took the red pill, and had open my eyes, back to the person who I used to be.

Yes, this is me. A semi-anti-social computer geek. Cold-blood (sometime) and emotion-less.

Haven't feel like this for such a long time. Welcome back to the real world.

PS. Finished reinstallation of Ubuntu Warty Warthog now. Will upgrade the system using Hoary repository once more. I will get it work this time.

Mac mini; Less than you think [Really?]

2005-01-18T12:36:00.000+07:00

Today's ExtremeTech's article: Mac mini: Less than you think, the author, Loyd Case commented:

So I feel compelled to point out that for $399, you can get a Dell 2400 with a 2.4GHz Celeron, 256MB of RAM, 40GB hard drive, 17-inch CRT and a keyboard and mouse? And that does include Windows XP Home Edition. Gateway has something similar, except it comes with an 80GB hard drive and speakers - although that $399 is a post-$100 rebate price.

Ok, first off, you get a Celeron system. But it doesn't matter, that would be sufficient for most people who just want to browse the net, sending mails, writing letter anyway. However, the "that does include Windows XP Home Edition" bits bugged me.

So, Mr. Case was comparing Windows XP Home with Mac OS X, as they are quite a good caparable systems?

Not a chance, even a single, slightest chance ... for being even close that.

Browsing, e-mailing in Windows had became day-time & working-time nightmare for many people. Some even refused to go online completely. That's Windows, the operating system that get infected in 20 minutes (<-- quite an old news, though .. Aug 2004).

I guess being to use computer without fearing the malware, being to do what they bought a computer to do, worth some price.

"Apple's designs are certainly far easier on the eye than Dell's mini-towers. And the G5 is a great processor… but, oops, the Mac Mini ships with a G4. So let's not get too carried away about the 'cheap' Macintosh. It's cheap relative to past Apple systems, but you can still get a complete Wintel system for considerably less,"

Now, we are getting some point here: Celeron vs. G4? You're kidding me!

If you want to compare the G4 processor, compare it with something else, a mid-end P4 sounds reasonable, a Pentium-M is also reasonable, considered the G4 is still a top dog for Apple's mobile system. Don't forget, it's RISC vs CISC issue, too! (half-kidding & half-joking here).

Now, let's get into the meat of this blog. How are we define the complete computer system?.

We all buy computers to do tasks we want them to do. We all want things that just work, without being annoyed, bothered, and having headache in things we shouldn't. So far, Mac OS X had been that system for me. Nothing beats the experience of sitting in front of the UNIX-box that is really easy to use and beautiful, and everything just works. Quite safe, quite secure.

Also, did I mention iLife? Yeah, Mac mini does come with a copy of iLife. One of the best integrated tools for home system.

Mac OS X + iLife, only this combination should worth something that is invaluable for the Wintel world (because there exists none that is comparable). It's not only about pricing in US$ or JPY or whatever the currency unit you take. It's the user experience, something that is not measurable by any statistical mean nor by any number. It's something you have to use and feel your own feeling.

Of course, Mac OS X and iLife do have their own flaws. Nothing is perfect. But, things do not have to be perfect to be the best. Different people define best differently. The best for me might not be for anyone else.

Anyway, my point is: it's NOT (only) about the price tag, you get it Mr. Case?

Sneak Peak at GNOME 2.10

2005-01-18T12:09:00.000+07:00

A Sneak Peak at GNOME 2.10.

Look obviously amazing (check out the panel and applet transparency). GNOME is, IMO, the current king of Desktop Environment on Linux, and it would still be in that position, for at least another long while. [No, I'm not a fan of KDE ... it's too Windows-wannabe for my taste .. if I want Windows, I will use Windows].

Ubuntu Hoary and X.org

2005-01-18T10:54:00.000+07:00

I had problems staying focus on what I should be doing recently, that is: finishing my thesis. So much personal problems, stresses, tensions, demands, and whatever I have now. So, I had decided to get myself back the feeling of being a semi anti-social computer geek, careless of people and things around me, regardless of whoever or whatever it might be. ... Something I used to be so good at.

So, I decided to upgrade my playground, Ubuntu Linux,'s X11 system from current XFree86 to X.org, using Ubuntu Hoary Hedgehog repository, a now-testing version which is scheduled to be officially released in April 2005.

So, I added these lines to my apt source.list


deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hoary main restricted 

deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hoary universe 

deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hoary-security main restricted

Then


apt-get install xserver-xorg.

Now, I must have done something wrong or there were some incompatibilities between packages, so my X is now not really working. It's working, but, well, some problems with GNOME it seems. So now I'm apt-get upgrading the entire distribution. If this does not solve the problem, I will switch it back, or installing Debian Sarge without X11 and use Ubuntu Hoary repository to install X.org. Will be back with you reporting the result of this later.

Note: Ubuntu Hoary Hedgehog is not yet a stable release. Do not use it for any production or non-testing, non-playing. You're at your own risk!

[UPDATE] After re-installing Debian Sarge (net-install) clean, without desktop environment, changing to use Hoary repository to still didn't really work. X.org installed fine, but GNOME refused to install. There are some broken dependencies, which I just had no time to attempt to solve. So, maybe I will just try Hoary live-CD. Will report back again.

Japan: iPod shuffle and iTMS

2005-01-17T14:08:00.000+07:00

From Forbes.com's article:

Apple Computer Inc. of the United States hopes to boost its share of Japan's portable digital music player market to 80 pct from around 50 pct now, Vice President Yoshiaki Sakito said Friday.

[skipped]

Expressing a bullish outlook for the product's Japanese debut, Sakito said the Apple group has received more prerelease orders for it in Japan than those placed for the iPod Mini player, which became a blockbuster last year.

Sakito also unveiled a plan to launch the iTunes Music Store online music distribution service in Japan at an early date, saying the group is steadily continuing its preparations.

It would not take 12 months before the Apple group starts the service in Japan, he said.

So, iTMS is coming to Japan, by the time I should be gone from this place already! What a sad story .... :-(

Anyway, looking forward to use it in my second coming. (Gandalf's On the 5th day, at dawn, look East manner ... Well, I will be coming from the Westside of Japan, though ... and it won't take me just 5 days).

Bits about "Sharing"

2005-01-17T08:38:00.001+07:00

Recently, I found many people have misconception about sharing. So I thought I would write a bit about it.

Sharing is basically consists of three aspects: to give and to take. And last but not least, as the consequence, appreciation to both of them.

Giving alone would not make sharing possible. What is the point of giving when no-one is taking it? Taking alone would make it even worse. What to take if there's nothing given?

Appreciation is really important, too. What is the point of giving when no-one appreciates what you're giving, and someone even feel bad when you are giving? Taking need appreciation, too. If you take what you should, taking things that should belong to you with your right, then that should be appreciated by others.

Give what you can give, take only what you should take. Respect the right of people, respect the duty of people, appreciate what people had done for you and will do for you, do not feel bad for that.

Let see if my point is correct: Take P2P file sharing for example. (Talking about P2P file sharing, it's not necessarily means that I'm talking illegal music/movies/programs download. There are a lot of things being shared legally. Images of some GNU/Linux LiveCD, for example).

P2P would not exist if everyone just want to download and not sharing back things they have. You can download things you want, appreciate what the others had shared for you (so you can download it), and share back those files so the others like you who want the file can have it too.

Knowledge sharing works the same. Most things you know, were someone else's discoveries, not your own. People of the past, of the previous generation, had passed and shared their knowledge through us, for us to survive the world better, and for us to pass them it on, to the next generation, to the future.

Get this: one day you will die. This is the hard fact, the real fact, no one lives forever. What's the point of everything you know, if the next group of people who will walk this earth cannot use it to survive to ever-increasing cruelties of the world?

Everyone had taken so much of the others' generosity, and we all appreciate that, thankful for that. What about giving some back? No, the world would not hear your name, it might not be written in any page of history, it might be remembered by none.

But remember the ancient Native American (Indian) proverb,

We do not inherit the land from our ancestors, we borrow it form our children.

Humanity to others.

Aqua OpenOffice.org 2.0 CANCELLED!

2005-01-17T08:17:00.000+07:00

From OO.org source itself (porting.openoffice.org/mac),

It's been over a year and a half since this page was last updated, and as of recent memory, all engineering for OpenOffice.org Mac OS X has been focused on X11 graphics, that is, OpenOffice.org Mac OS X (X11). Without significant contributions of time and talent this will most likely remain the case.

No engineering work has been performed on Quartz or Aqua development within the OpenOffice.org project since mid 2003. For the last year and a half all engineering work focusing on a native Mac OS X OpenOffice.org version has been concentrated in the NeoOffice/J project, using a combination of Java and Carbon technologies to replace X11.

OO.org does give some reasons to stick with X11 version on the Mac (well, OS X is BSD actually. Apple has its own X11 implementation for OS X. The current version of OO.org is running fine on my OS X). Listing here:

X11 Will Always be Faster to Market
X11 Will Always be More Stable
X11 Will Always Look like Other Platforms
X11 is the Ultimate Testing Tool

Given so many differences between Mac OS X API (be it Carbon or Cocoa) and X11, OO.org decision to stick with X11 might not be a wrong decision. Also, I would guess that OO.org do not have many people working on native-Aqua port as they do with Windows port. Porting to the Mac could be pretty difficult, given the complexities of OO.org. (This is not a port of a little tool, it is one of the largest open source software around).

It would be really nice, if they can make X11 version of OO.org 2.0 for Mac to be as nice as Windows version though. (I only tried Windows preview version, haven't tried the Linux version yet).

For those who needs native-Aqua office suite, look for iWork. No, it's not free, neither as in free speech nor beer. But pricing at $79, it's not bad at all. It does not have spreadsheet program though.

Oh, last time I tried NeoOffice ... quite promising, but given the performance of Java VM on Mac, I'll give it a pass. (I don't need a spreadsheet program anyway).

By the way, make sure to read Slashdot discussion thread about this topic.

It's not for "Eating"!!

2005-01-14T17:53:00.000+07:00

Found this from the official iPod shuffle website (see the bottom of the page). Really funny:

It looks yummy though, maybe nicer if it comes in colors. Could be mistaken as gum easily :-)

The new name for Jan 11.

2005-01-14T17:39:00.000+07:00

I wrote in my previous blog entry Jan 11. A Day in the History of "Small" and "Cheap", which I wrote about the Mac mini and the iPod shuffle.

Now I noticed another thing: Both of them are pure minimum, so minimum that they are both screenless.

So, Jan 11: The day in the history of "small", "cheap", and "screenless".

Mossberg on iPod shuffle

2005-01-13T14:38:00.000+07:00

Now, it's Walt Mossberg of Wall Street, (who, according to Steve Jobs during his special event with U2, is the toughest review to please) .. 's turn to review the latest iPod shuffle:

I've been testing the new iPod Shuffle for a couple of days, and, in my tests, it fulfilled -- and even exceeded -- Apple's claims for convenience, battery life and song capacity. Sound quality is so good you can barely believe the music is coming from something so small.

[skipped]

But, the lack of a screen on the Shuffle would bug me, personally. I really enjoy seeing the song information while I play music. It's one of the big advantages digital music players have over playing CDs. Of course, joggers and others who listen to music while they work out won't miss the screen, because they are rarely in a position to watch it, and the fact that the Shuffle is small and lacks a delicate hard disk will make exercising with it appealing.

There are a few design downsides to the iPod Shuffle. The lack of a screen means you can't use playlists of collected songs on it, because you have no way to select such a list. For many people, play lists are a key part of the iPod experience.

[skipped]

Still, this is a good product that will enlarge the iPod's appeal, especially with kids, people on low budgets, or people who work out. I imagine some existing iPod owners will also buy Shuffles as sort of add-on players. And the iPod juggernaut will roll on.

Walt wrote a good review, actually, many good things and many bad things are included. Really provide good information for people who might be thinking about getting one (me included). Make sure you read the full review

iPod shuffle: Experiences around the net

2005-01-12T20:51:00.000+07:00

There are several people who got their hands on the latest member of the iPod family, the now much-talked about iPod shuffle, and were kind enough to share their first hand experiences and imprerssions with the world. So, I'd like to blog & quote somet of them.

First, it's James Duncan Davison, the author of the first Cocoa book I read, Learning Cocoa with Objective-C, in his weblog at www.x180.net:

To be honest, I was a bit skeptical at first. Even after laying out $99 for it, I was a bit worried that the controls would be too simplistic. After all, there's no scroll wheel. And no trademark iPod display. But, you know what? It works. And it works well. Derrick says it best: The reason that it can work so well even though it's so simple is because iTunes does most of the heavy lifting.

Of course, having one on the first day of MacWorld has been fun too. I've been able to show everyone I see what it looks like and let them play with it. But, better yet, was when I got some time to myself with it. Rock on.

Then, Chuck Toporek, the author of several books on Mac OS X, wrote in the O'Reilly Developer Weblogs:

While I didn't have much of an opportunity to listen to the iPod shuffle during the day at Macworld, I've been listening to it now for the last four hours as I work and write blog entries. It's a great little iPod, and I'm totally smitten. It's all I hoped and dreamed for, and more.

Then, Christopher Breen of Playlist magazine, in his article:

The Shuffle’s navigation wheel is divided into quadrants, with a Play/Pause button in the center. Depress the button for 3 seconds to switch into Hold mode. The east and west quadrants of the nav wheel are the Previous/Next functions, while north/south is volume up/down. Press and hold a Previous or Next button to rewind or fast-forward, respectively. The Shuffle also includes an LED indicator that flashes green for ‘good’ and orange for ‘Do Not Disconnect’ or ‘Error.’ Change the iPod from Shuffle to sequential playlist button via a slider on the back of the unit. This slider also functions as power on/off; slide the switch all the way up to turn off the device. So cool.

Where it starts to get really interesting is in the integration with iTunes. Plugging in the iPod Shuffle and selecting it will give you a new pane: the Autofill pane. You choose the source of your music (album, artist, playlist, etc.), and let the iPod do the rest of the work. You can have it select songs randomly, replace all songs, and choose higher-rated songs more often. Yet another ingenious way to remix your own music collection, courtesy of Apple.

I will also look for the negative comments, of course. But what I found so far from the RSS feeds I'm subscribing to, are mostly, if not all, positive.

My work, My life; iWork, iLife

2005-01-12T17:24:00.000+07:00

Amazingly Incredible, or Incredibly Amazing. No other description for the new iLife and iWork.

Let's talk about the older dog first; that's iLife 05, the new version of iLife suite, dubed "Microsoft Office for the rest of your life" last year by Apple.

iLife 05 includes

iPhoto 5, a major update to iPhoto. Tons of new features, like a new photo editing tool set, ability to organize photos in folders, new way to look for pictures, better performance. RAW format is now supported, too.
iMovie HD, a major update to iMovie. Now supporting HD editing, supporting Steve Jobs' 2005: Year of HD Video Editing announcement. Supporting more formats. The killer should be automated process for movies-creation. Of course, better performance.
iDVD 5. More themes. New Live-Drop-Zones feature. Integration with iPhoto. OneStep DVD.
GarageBand, a major update to GarageBand. Supporting eight-tracks recording, musical notation and chord manipulation. Also the companion product line Jam Packs got a new release, too. This one is pretty special, compared to the previous three. It's Jam Pack 4: Symphony Orchestra.
iTunes. iTunes as we know and love. Still available, of course, as free download. As I'm typing this, iTunes update 4.7.1 is showing in my Software Update now. This update adds support to iPod shuffle and some performance improving.

Ok, that's for iLife 05. Now see what I think of it ....

Hmmm, with the price tag of $79, I have to think twice to buy it. The two apps I'm using mostly from iLife suite are iTunes and iPhoto. I used iMovie only once in a long while, never touched iDVD, and played with GarageBand a few times (because it lacks Orchrestra instruments like Violin, so it's quite out of my interest. Jam Pack 4 might change this though). I will have to play with these new iLife apps in Tokyo Apple Store (Ginza) first to see the new iPhoto and then make decision.

Now, let's move to something new: iWork.

iWork is basically an *official* successor to AppleWorks suite. But this doesn't mean they used or extended AppleWorks' codes. AppleWorks, after all, was an old application written prior to Mac OS X and therefore did not take any advantage of anything Mac OS X offers. Days after days, AppleWorks had shown its age.

iWork consists of 2 applications: Keynote, a presentation-creation application, and a whole new word processor with sense of style Pages.

First, I will comment on the Keynote; the application I really love. I have to make presentation quite often, be it at seminar or conferences, and will be more often next year as I will be a full-time lecturer at a university in Thailand. Keynote had been a great helping hand in helping me to create good presentation (great, professional-looking) with ease and in no-time, no-brainer, no-effort manner.

Keynote 2 will just rocks. With all new Apple-designed themes, new effects on text and graphics, new transitions, integration with iLife (being able to browse media library), advanced animation. A real killer should be one of the most asked features: Presenter Tools. Also, Keynote now exports Macromedia Flash format, too.

Next, my comment on Pages.

First off, the name. Basically, it's the same as Keynote. You use Keynote to create keynote presentation, so you use Pages to write pages ;-)

Second, this application blows my mind. If Keynote 2 will just rocks, Pages is a bomb.

I didn't expect it to be *this* good and incredible. Good bye Microsoft Word! (well, I don't really use Microsoft Word anyway, can't remember when was the last time I used it). It's really Keynote for creating pages of written contents (with/without pictures)!

Basically, you pick the style from design templates, you can customize it of course, then type/drag text, pictures, add charts, etc, anything you can do with Keynote ... then Pages takes care of the rest for you. No more manual formatting. Good/professional looking quality content, in no-time, no-brainer, no-effort manner.

And, of course, Pages is compatible with MS Word Document format, both important and exporting. It also export HTML for your website.

iWork, pricing at $79, I ordered my copy.

So, this entry, along with one below, summarized my thought on Apple's new annoucement at MacWorld Expo in two of the major aspects: consumer Hardware and consumer Software.

Jan 11. A Day in the History of "Small" and "Cheap"

2005-01-12T11:38:00.000+07:00

Apple Computer had been on the high end, and high-mid range market of the consumer computers. I will not be talking about supercomputer or high-performance computing, or server here, OK? They are well-known for making expensive, high-end computers, like PowerMac and PowerBook. Their cheaper, more consumer-level products are described at the mid-level of the market at best, like iMac and iBook, as their prices are about the mid-level in the entire computer market.

iPod, even though very popular, also the iPod mini which, according to Steve's iPod mini worked statement, which helped the iPod family in taking over the market from the high-end flash player (recall that Steve said "we want to go after the high-end flash market", as he introduced iPod mini last year?) .... they are relatively expensive compared to the products with comparable technical spec. (Nothing will ever come close to the user-experience of the iPod, so the technical is really emphasized here).

Not any more.

Last year, Steve announced Apple Cinema Display 30", and said the day will go down in the History of Big.

Jan 11. It is the day that will go down in the History of Cheap and Small. It might also mark Apple's full-scale coming back to the real consumer-level market, the lower-end majority.

First off, Mac mini (which, I supposed named to match the iPod mini, as the iMac G5 was designed to match the iPod), a headless computer. Notably, it is very very small. I was surprised when I see Steve holding it. It is even smaller even than the AC power adapter of some laptop! The pricing is remarkably low for Apple, starting just at $499. The machine will be equipped with G4 processor, with speed of 1.25 or 1.42 GHz, and Harddrisk space of 40GB and 80GB, respectively. The memory will be just 256MB, though. However, this is very entry level computer, which should not be expect any higher spec anyway. You usually get machines with lower specs from other makers anyway.

Second, you thought iPod mini was small? Rethink. iPod shuffle will just change your mind. Pricing at $99 for 512 MB model and $149 for 1GB model. This iPod shuffle has no display, and it has a very easy to use interface and mode, that is shuffle-only. Life is Random, or so they say. The size if also remarkably small as well, and has the typical Apple-designed touch.

What? Shuffle-only? Well, 512 will contain just about 120-125 songs. So, taking your top-rated songs, songs you moved listened to, songs that you just love, etc. And I think it's OK regardless of how you shuffle it, it might just find you a new way of rearranging those songs.

So, Jan 11. The Day that will definitely go into the History of "Small" and "Cheap", at least in Apple's book.

[Will comment more on iLife and iWork later].

Jobs' Keynote@MacWorld Expo live update

2005-01-12T00:48:00.000+07:00

This will be a quick blog. Since there's no live webcast of Jobs' keynote, the text-live update will do for this moment:

See:

The quicktime stream will be available 9 hours after the keynote is over. So it should be sometime tomorrow.

Destination: India

2005-01-11T13:37:00.000+07:00

** First appeared in my tBlog weblog but it's one of a few good recent entries that I'd like to keep here. With bits of modifications. **

India is really on its way of becoming the real power of IT, especially for out-sourcing, as many big companies such as IBM are exporting more and more jobs to India. For example, see:

and the most recent one (today)

IBM exports Liverpool jobs to India

The world is getting pretty much smaller now. IT is the present, and future. Especially with one of the newest scientific ideas: Information as a new language of science, or when we look at reality with bits and computational feel.

With offshore outsourcing (or global outsourcing), becoming a really growing option, we can see this thing happening more and more frequence.

India is pretty strong on computer programming and IT, and therefore becoming (it not already) number one in offshore outsourcing for such kind of jobs. Russia is being outsourced for programming and R&D, Philippines for data entry and customer support (have a friend working with a company in Japan, where they do R&D and planning, and all supports are in Manila), and China for programming.

This happens so the country strong in something else, like advancing the technology, could focus more on the R (or R&D) and strategic planning and business.

Where are we (Thailand)?

We need help, a lot. Not only from the outsiders, but the help we need the most is from inside. We need to see the reality and realize (and admit) where we are, find our identity, our strength, and represent it in the fashion the world want to listen, to the world.

I can see a lot of that, but seeing alone would not help. We need to get start, get our hands dirty working on it. We have a fast-moving world to catch. We were left behind in the last scientific and industrial revolution. Now the next revolution is upon us. It's our choice to make: join the revolution now, or being left behind in dust for another century.

No, it's not choice that can be made by government policies, words, idealism, or whatever. Nor it is anyone's choice. It's a choice we have to make together, by action.

If we choose not to join and pretend we can benefit from what the rest of the world is doing, like we are doing nowadays, things will become worse and worse. Look where the front of the world in term of scientific advancement and technology right now, and look back to what we can do. Bangkok has one of the highest traffic in the world, but taking imported cars off the street, we will be left with almost empty street. Taking building built by imported technology out, we almost have a bare land.

That is the world of engineering, the result of the last scientific and industrial revolution.

What we can do with computers and computer networks today are very amazing. There are thousands of undergoing researches to make it become even more amazing and easy to use, and render it more and more indispensable to our lives. I don't want to imagine what we will be able to do with it in the next hundred years.

So, if we are to miss the bus again by not joining the IT revolution now, the next century someone will be saying "taking out all the imported IT, what do we have?". The answer could be even worse than "the bare land" or "empty street" of today. Because you can still building primitive inhabitats and do some basic agriculture (grow corn, rice, have animal farm, etc) on the land, and walk the empty street. I don't know and don't want to give any prediction regarding the future of what IT might eventually become.

We have to do something, we've got to move on, together. Starting from information sharing and knowledge sharing. That is one of the most important thing, you can't do anything without proper information and knowledge.

Together is only way to move forward.

George E. Forsythe on Computer Science

2005-01-11T13:35:00.000+07:00

** First appeared on my tBlog weblog, but it's one of the good entries I like to keep here as well **

Found this on Lambda the Ultimate weblog entry, about what George E. Forsythe (founder of Stanford's Computer Science Department) thought about Computer Science. This is originally written in Stanford technical report, number 26. Quote here:

I consider computer science to be the art and science of exploiting automatic digital computers, and of creating the technology necessary to understand their use. It deals with such related problems as the design of better machines using known components, the design and implementation of adequate software systems for communication between man and machine, and the design and analysis of methods of representing information by abstract symbols and of processes for manipulating these symbols. Computer science must also concern itself with such theoretical subjects supporting this technology as information theory, the logic of the finitely constructable, numerical mathematical analysis, and the psychology of problem solving. Naturally, these theoretical subjects are shared by computer science with such disciplines as philosophy, mathematics, and psychology.

I will translate this to Thai language sometime when I got myself out of all these things I busying with right now.

Later this year, I will be a lecturer at a university in Thailand anyway (will tell you the name later, when things are certain), so I think it would be nice to have this hang up on my door. I had so much of the current *wrong* stereotype about "Computer Science = Programming" in my country, and I had been denying and trying to explain it to people since.

Last minute thoughts on MacWorld Expo's rumors

2005-01-11T11:46:00.000+07:00

All rumors are floating around, some even made lines in CNN and other major news publishers. Mac Rumors article+thread had summarized all the rumors about the upcoming MacWorld Expo. Also, today's Think Secret article listed 10 of the annoucement Steve Jobs might make in the Expo (with nice & short summary).

So, here is my thought regarding things I care about:

iHome, this is! (with Yoda's "My home, this is" voice).

It should be nice as a home media center, for watching DVDs, listening to music, and viewing photos on the TV or computer screen. The system will sport G4 processor with 256MB of memory, which is quite capable for those tasks. However, I don't know where exactly will Apple target this machine. While it would be nice and serve really well as a home media center mentioned above, it's still a computer which could and should do more things, like ordinary word processing (writing school report or family newsletter). I want to know whether people will be able to use it as ordinary computer, or have to use special interface that wrap around Mac OS X exclusively for those home media tasks. People looking for another computer for normal tasks (me, coding and compiling) will be quite disappointed then. Or else, find ways to put GNU/Linux or normal Mac OS X on it (like someone did with XBox).

Note from the lastest Think Secret article: the pictures found in the website linked above are fake.
New PowerBook G4

The word new here is used sarcastically, as it actually yet-another-speedbump update to the current PowerBook line, using new PowerPC MPC7447A from FreeScale with clock speed at 1.5Ghz and 1.67Ghz. There might be minor updates in other hardware, such as BlueTooth and SuperDrive as well.

After a long wait, the PowerBook line, one the flagship line for Mac, get its update. But if this is all it got after such a long wait, it will spell a major disappointment. This means we have to wait for at least another half-year for a real new line of PowerBook, be it a G5 (likely) or a Dual-core G4 (quite likely months ago, less likely now). The release of the new PowerBook should then be coincide somewhat with the release of Tiger, Mac OS X 10.4.

I will wait for revision-B anyway, since the first models are likely to have problems.
iPod flash (or iPod shuffle)

1GB Flash memory, approximately 250 songs. Screenless. Random shuffle only.

Hmmmm ..... mixed feeling. Well, it's only 250 songs, so I can just copy my top-rated songs (which is now containing 216 songs, about 8xx MB) or create another smart playlist containing tracks that I'm sure I like listening to, then I can live with the random shuffle only (with skip/backward buttons). The problem is, even that, sometime I can be pretty selective when I'm in a certain mood. Then the iPod flash is not a good choice. Nevertheless, I want to get one, but have to see it first.

Also, there might be updates to the current iPod family. For instant, iPod mini might gain capacity to 5GB (25% increase).
New Apps

I'm exciting to see Pages, a new word-processing application, and the new Keynote. From what I heard the last time, Pages might not be a word processor (as is Microsoft Word) but rather a semi-publishing software (in other words, a combination of features between MS Word and MS Publisher). So it should help creating a professsional looking (or at least, nice-looking) contents without much effort (like Keynote did for creating presentation).

iLife package might get a new version, too. There are also several apps that people heard of in terms of codename and I have no idea about that, so I'm not commenting on them.

That's all about my own interests in this MacWorld Expo. Can't wait for the real keynote, but sadly, the webcast will be delayed by 9 hours. And the server should be pretty loaded at that time anyway, so I have to wait longer to see it. (Well, reading people's summary and seeing Steve Jobs's Reality Distortion Field is very different and have much different effect).

So, time will tell and we will see.

Hello World!

2005-01-11T11:22:00.000+07:00

Hello world!

Note: For those who don't know about this, one of the typical first program a programmer will write when he try out a new langauge is a simple prorgam that display Hello World! to the screen. There are many reasons to this, for example: checking whether the programming environment is set up correctly or not, the program could compiled or not (if even this program couldn't, then forget about the rest), and also, it does give a nice greeting :-)