Wednesday, October 21, 2009

A quote from nowhere from my mind, thanks to Mr. Chang

[CuRRent MooD:] Fine

[CuRRent Song:] None

[Last FooD/BeveRage:] Same as just now

While reading my fellow Msia blogger friend's blog, in a response to his post, this is what I wrote:

Anyway, in the search for yourself, do not lose yourself.

寻找自我,勿失自我。

.LuKe.

Non-personal topics - Football and Technology

[CuRRent MooD:] Fine

[CuRRent Song:] Some familiar song but I do not know the title (from radio)

[Last FooD/BeveRage:] Chicken Rice / Iced Tea

First on football, people who knows me do know I'm a Manchester United FC supporter and thus major rivals' downfall should be my glee. Not this time though, upon seeing Liverpool stumble to their 4th consecutive defeat, it's hard to imagine how such a top-class team could come out like that. Of course, it isn't news to any football person that the engines of Liverpool are Steven Gerrald and Fernando Torres, which to Liverpool fans' dismay are both injured. This spun a great deal for any hope in any team playing with Liverpool, and with Sunderland winning them with some luck due to the referee's incompetence to stop the game due to a beach ball and with Lyon winning with substitutes in the Champions' League, Liverpool will certainly face the heat and scrutiny of many. With the coming week's big match of Liverpool vs Man Utd, this is certainly one loss they can avoid catching, and if the 5th defeat is imminent, we might expect to see some changes in the managerial room for Liverpool.

Next on IT, I was reading articles on Ars Technica when I found a convenient flash presentation done by Microsoft about introducing the appropriate laptop for users. They even do some educating on their part so that users will possibly know what the various terms like Processor, RAM and Video Graphics are. Here is the link:

PC Scout

Of course, note the part they mentioned about Vista, and any IT guy knows they are bu||$hitting. Of course again, please get any system with Vista Home Premium and beyond to get the free Windows 7 equivalent upgrade (which in many testers' opinion is much better than Vista).

Oh well, time to throw my link to those who wants to know more!

.LuKe.

Friday, October 16, 2009

Baby I'm amazed by you (Mozilla) - a techie post

[CuRRent MooD:] Fine

[CuRRent Song:] None at the moment, unless you are talking about the title which rings in my brain

[Last FooD/BeveRage:] Milo

From ComputerWorld:

"Apple gets best spot in EU browser 'ballot screen,' Mozilla says"
"Safari for Windows shouldn't get first place on Microsoft's proposed ballot, Firefox maker argues"

Just because Microsoft sorted it in the parent company's alphabetical order. Of course, fair say to mention it "should" be sorted according to market share or (maybe) security, but it gets to the point you get a feeling that Mozilla is whining they ain't getting the best treatment.

Under Microsoft, this is what you will get:

(Apple) Safari
(Google) Chrome
(Microsoft) Internet Explorer
(Mozilla) Firefox
(Opera) Opera

If it's the browser's alphabetical order:

Chrome (Google)
Firefox (Mozilla)
Internet Explorer (Microsoft)
Opera (Opera)
Safari (Apple)

Both ways and Mozilla doesn't get first slot. The Commission has reasoned market share is not the way to go as the original indictment was due to "unfair automatic" installation of "recommended" Internet Explorer without giving users a choice of other browsers. Maybe random slots? Well, though processor cycles are cheap nowadays, but to me it's a waste of coding to include code to do the randomization, though it's very simple.

No one can be happy with such a case, and for certain Microsoft isn't that happy with so much whining going about. After all, it's a stupid case to begin with since it's MS's Windows and they should have the choice to insert only their own browser as default - it's not as if they do not allow other browsers to be installed. Only the tech savvy will usually take other browsers and for those who aren't, I don't really think they care what browser they use so long it suits their objective. Then again, IE is not the most secure or fastest around, maybe that's what they are arguing all along.

But then again, isn't Windows a Microsoft product? Sounds like someone's forcing me to use other brands of flour when I have my preferred and "recommended" brand of flour that I use for my cake, as an analogy.

.LuKe.