What The Toot!

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Posts Tagged Computers

When Hell Freezes over in Melbourne, Literally

Oct 5

Posted by khensthoth in Australia, Computers, Internet, Toot! | No Comments

I just upgraded my operating system to the latest beta of Ubuntu Karmic Koala to test it and have fun with it. Overall, it has turned out to be a fine release so far. As part of my upgrade however, I thought I would change the way I use computer and access applications, which is why I install Gnome Do and enabled Docky. Here’s how my current desktop look like:

Ubuntu 9.10 beta with Docky

Ubuntu 9.10 Beta with Docky

Anyway, one of the docklets included in Gnome Do is the weather docklet, which allows me to see the current temperature and a six day forecast of the temperature and the weather conditions with just a click. So, there I was checking the forecast when I was extremely shocked to see this:

Yes, it's that cold.

Yes, it's that cold.

If that’s not immediately clear to you, have a look at Docky alone.

Doomsday on Friday

Doomsday on Friday

Yes, it’s going to be -5572°C in Melbourne this Friday. Even colder than theoretical absolute zero, in fact exactly -5298.15°C colder. Hell is freezing over Melbourne literally. Come to think of it, how is a low of 5°C and a high of 5572°C even be possible?

On second thought, I decided to refresh the weather data to see if there is any glitch:

Hell on Earth

Now THAT'S cold

Immediately the temperature dropped 29°C. For other days, Melbourne will be expected to enjoy weather in commonly experienced in Antarctica.

On the bright side, at least it’s going to be “just” -1747°C on Friday. Yay.

P.S.: The only graphic editing done was cropping the pictures.
P.P.S: Still, how is a high of -1747°C and a low of -26°C even comprehensible?

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Dear DAP Penang Webmaster

Jul 30

Posted by khensthoth in Computers, Internet, Operating System, Technology, Toot! | No Comments

Dear DAP Penang Webmaster,

Firstly, as one of your strong state you are governing as at today, your website is, in my honest opinion, totally inedequate. Apart from  a few photographs, a few YouTube videos, and some online polls, it is essentially only a blog, with a lot of the content originating from blogs of other Penang DAP leaders. Honestly, if you want to be a blog aggregator, you would be better off utilising a “planet” software like this, this or this. In fact, you should implement a Planet Penang DAP to aggregate all the blogs from the different politician together in one place.

Anyway, I digress too much.  This post is not about the content on your website per se. If you want inspiration on what to do with your state website, just refer to the many websites of political parties around the world. I do, however, want to talk about my freedom. You see, this is what I see on your website:

Firefox 3.0.12 on Ubuntu 9.04

Firefox 3.0.12 on Ubuntu 9.04

Being in the minority who chose to use a totally free (both gratis and libre) browser (Firefox 3) and operating system (Ubuntu 9.04), I thought it might just be my particular system. Thus, I decided to use a more mainstream browser in a more mainstream operating system to see what I presume you want your visitors to see when they visit your website:

Internet Explorer 6 on Windows XP SP3

Internet Explorer 6 on Windows XP SP3

Everything seems to be in order, which is why I decide to see how well other browsers in Windows XP would do. To my disappointment, this is what I see:

Firefox 2.0.0.20 on Windows XP SP3

Firefox 2.0.0.20 on Windows XP SP3

I then decided to conduct a series of test, and the following result is as such:

Firefox 3.5.1 on Ubuntu 9.04

Firefox 3.5.1 on Ubuntu 9.04

Safari Browser on iPhone OS 2.0

Safari Browser on iPhone OS 2.0

Opera 9.64 on Ubuntu 9.04

Opera 9.64 on Ubuntu 9.04

If you have not noticed a pattern, let me inform you. You see, both Internet Explorer and Opera browsers are proprietary software, which means they do not release their source code to the general public for inspection. They both use proprietary layout engine. Safari browser is proprietary as well, but they use the open source WebKit layout engine. Similarly, open source browser Firefox uses open source layout engine Gecko. I consider myself a open source movement supporter, and a proponent of open source software. While I do not have a deep hatred for proprietary softwares and companies, I do avoid them whenever I can.

It dawns upon me that a party who champions social freedom and equal rights requires me to use a proprietary browser and a proprietary layout engine just to view the website. This seems like a huge irony to me. Thus, DAP Penang Webmaster, please fix your website!

Sincerely,
WhatTheToot!

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Great Nokia Advertisement

Jul 27

Posted by khensthoth in Computers, Internet, Technology, Toot! | No Comments

I pride myself on having a 19″ LCD screen with a resolution of 1440 x 900, Of course, in this age of information overload and 22″ and above screen, that screen size is not adequate, which is why I value my screen real estate very much. Imagine my horror when I visit Gizmodo (Australia) and see this:

F*ucking Nokia Advertisement

F*ucking Nokia N97 Advertisement

What the hell were they thinking? From my browser user agent, they are perfectly capable of knowing my operating system, my browser, and my screen resolution. Why the hell then would they want me to imagine viewing Gizmodo content through the small screen Nokia N97 when I am sitting in front of my computer with my huge ass screen?

To make matters worse, I decided to do some calculation:

Screenshot1

Making matter clearer

The actual Gizmodo content has been reduced to a meagre resolution of 930 x 578. Great! In fact, taking into account the various title bar, status bar, menu bar and scroll bar, the advertisement effectively take away a cumulative 726930 pixels from me. That’s 56.1% of my screen resolution!

I have to say this is a great marketing idea though, since it creates brand and product awareness. Now I am fully aware of how much I hate Nokia N97 and aware that Nokia has sucky advertisement. Oh, and Gizmodo Australia? Shame on you. No wonder I prefer the US version.

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DELL to Offer Ubuntu 7.04

May 3

Posted by khensthoth in Computers, Linux, Operating System, Technology | 3 Comments

According to DELL’s blog, Direct2Dell, we will be seeing Ubuntu 7.04 (Fiesty Fawn), an alternative operating system, on DELL computers in the coming weeks, in response to the overwhelming request on their IdeaStorm website. They will be initially available in the U.S.

This will allow Ubuntu (a Linux distribution), and Linux to be heard on the consumer level, specifically those who are only exposed to a Windows-based system. The number of people actually do not know of any alternative OS other than Windows and Mac OS may surprise you. That is predicted, since Windows has been the dominant OS in the market for quite some time now. Only the more tech savvy and those who are more open to OS news are aware of Linux, or any open source software or movement.

Software piracy is rampant where I come from, and it may be cheaper and faster to go to a software store, albeit one which sells 99% pirated software, to buy the program instead of downloading a “cracked” copy on the internet. That is to say, our national dominant broadband company sucks. Consumer can get a pirated software for less than USD$ 2.00. Due to that fact, people generally think of obtaining a fake software instead of a free software.

I once introduced several open source movement and software to my father, including Linux and Thunderbird. He couldn’t understand the concept behind people giving software away for free and till this day, I still couldn’t convince him to switch to any open source software.

Open source software can be distributed and obtain for a price, but I am personally more interested in the sense that it is free as in beer, not free as in speech (although we do not get too much freedom of speech where I am from). What that means to me is that I do not have to pay anything for the softwares I use on my computer. I am happier to donate to the open source programmer than to actually buy a piece of software.

So in summary, I shall answer several common questions people might have.

What is DELL?
C’mon! If you really do not know, DELL is a computer hardware company founded by Michael Dell. They sell computer system for consumer and business customer as well as other computer related peripherals like printers, network servers,switches, et cetera. I personally think they have one of the best customer service in large companies.

What is Linux?
Linux is an free (open source) operating system, long used in servers. They are recently entering the consumer market. They are absolutely free, as opposed to other operating system which you have to pay an enormous amount of money on, such as Windows Vista.

What is Operating System?
Basically, it is the thing that communicates between your hardware and your software. Without them you can’t use the computer.

What is Open Source?
Open Source means the source code of the program, or software is licensed in such a way that they are readily obtainable for free, and you can edit the source code, modify the program and redistribute it under similar license. However, different license have different limitations. For more information click here. This is opposed to for example, the Microsoft End User License Agreement (EULA) which basically says you can only use the operating system, and do what they say you can do in the EULA. Anything beyond that would be violating the EULA.

What is Ubuntu?
Linux, being licensed in an open source license, is open to modification and redistribution. Over time, people create their own flavour, called distribution, and post it on the internet. Ubuntu is one of such distribution and is currently the most popular Linux Distribution, according to Distrowatch. You can actually get the CD containing the operating system shipped to you at no cost. For more information, go to Ubuntu.com or the Wikipedia entry for Ubuntu.

So, to all the Windows users who previously do not know about Linux, especially the ignorant ones: Yes. There are operating systems and programmes out there which you do not have to pay a cent for it. This could mean huge savings. (In Malaysia for example, this could be a savings of at least a few hundred ringgit to more than one thousand ringgit.)

I would like to comment on DELL’s customer service, but I think that is reserved for another time.

UPDATE: I just found out that DELL posted information on how to install Ubuntu on a PC on the U.S. support website the day before they officially announce the partnership with Canonical Inc, Ubuntu company. Click here to have a look.

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Mac crashes too! (Just differently)

May 2

Posted by khensthoth in Computers, Mac, Operating System, Technology, Toot! | No Comments

I am a Windows user, mostly due to the fact that where I come from, pirated software (and operating system) are dirt cheap and Macs are, in my opinion, unbelievably expensive compared to a Windows-based PC. I have used other O.S. too, Macs included.

The University of Melbourne has a certain affinity for Macs. Just walk around the university and you are bound to see Macs everywhere, especially in computer laboratories. For example, if you walk near the back of the medical building, you could directly see into their computer lab filled with Apple iMac G5. I do not understand the logic behind that. Do medical students use a lot of software and programmes designed to run on Macs, or do they get to have iMac G5 because of their exorbitant fees? I am a Genetics student and I have used computers in Biology Department and Genetics Lab. All we have are the hideous iMac G3’s, the newest Mac in Biology Department is possibly eMac’s.

In addition, all the lecturers seem to have a particular liking towards the Mac OS X. Even though most computers in lectures hall are configured to dual boot Windows XP and Mac OS X, they use the latter almost exclusively. What program do they use on the computer? Microsoft PowerPoint. Again I do not see the logic behind that.

Today, while the lecturer is showing the last slide of her lecture materials in Micosoft PowerPoint on Mac OS X, a screen suddenly showed up, for no apparent reason AT ALL. It was running smoothly and suddenly,*poof*, this is shown:

Mac OS X Crash

It was interesting to me, since I have never seen a Mac OS X crash. Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera phone with me at that moment. So I did a little research when I got home and cropped the photo out of another photograph from this website. It was interesting to see other Mac appliances crashes too, since the general consensus seem to be that Macs are more stable and prestigious compared to Windows.

The website also showed two videos, one of which I have stumbled upon long ago. It’s a Mac Switch advertisement parody and I find it hilarious. The video is the inspiration to the title of this post. Of course some of the things said in there are far from the real truth, but it’s still worth a look:

Crash Differently

There’s another video which I thought was worth a look. Just wait until the end of the video and see Steve Jobs throwing his digital camera:

[flv]http://whatthetoot.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/maccrash.flv[/flv]

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