No, not me nor my friend.
I am a great great fan of xkcd. Check it out and you’d know what I mean. And if you’re a fan too, you know you have to do it.
It said the number of results returned was 2. Last I checked, it was 421 458. And I guess I have just added myself to the result pool…
(Right: Another comic strip from xkcd, one of my favourite.)
This T-shirt detects Wi-Fi signal nearby and displays its strength on it with LED. Oh man this is so awesome! Can’t wait to wear it and walk along the campus! Someone please buy me this as birthday gift!! More info here.
Windows 最近可謂腹背受敵，計有 Apple 的 Mr Mac, Mr PC 鼓勵使用 Windows 的朋友switch，Linux也出了個Ubuntu──這個被喻為「最具人性」的Linux，連一直是 Microsoft 親密夥伴的 Dell，最近也在其一部份電腦上預載 Ubuntu！
試用 Apple，需要付錢；試用 Ubuntu 就不用了！但要試用一下 Ubuntu 也不是一件容易事。最理想是用上另一個 hard disk，但如果你沒有的話，就要在原 hard disk 上另外劃分一個 partition。當然，你可以用上 live CD，又或者 virtual machine，如此則連安裝程序也可以省掉，但效能會大受影響，而且也不利於長時期試用。
安裝Ubuntu真的要如此費周章嗎？Not any more! Wubi 標榜的正是「無痛」Ubuntu experience──不用另置 hard disk、不用劃 partition，連燒 CD/DVD 的功夫也可以省掉！你只要 download 一個 Wubi 的 installer，在 Windows 內執行，Wubi 就會替你安裝 Ubuntu。
連 partition 也不用劃分，那麼 Ubuntu 的檔案都放哪兒？原來 Wubi 將所有 Ubuntu 的 files 收納在 Windows 的一個檔案內。當你 boot 機選上 Ubuntu 這個OS 時，這個檔案就會被 mount 成一個 filesystem 來 boot 機。
我試用過。效能跟你直接 install Ubuntu 是一樣的。安全方面，從 Ubuntu 可以直接 read/write Windows NTFS 內的檔案，不過只要你小心，不要刪除重要的檔案，正常來說不會影響到 Windows。不過 wubi 還是有些小問題：例如我的 Thinkpad X31 就不能休眠（hibernate）。
想試試看Ubuntu而又怕麻煩的朋友，可以一試！
Microsoft 最新推出市場的 Surface，一出場便引來極大迴響。
最觸目的是其 multi-touch 功能，這教人不其然想起 Apple 的 iPhone 來。但其實兩者運作原理很不同的：Surface 用了一組共五個的近紅外線（near-infrared）鏡頭來偵測觸碰點。
不過最令我感極大興趣的是 Surface 的連接功能。從 Bill Gates 親自示範的 demo 所見，將有 Wi-Fi 或 Bluetooth（將來應包括 wireless USB）連線功能的 digital camera 或電話往 Surface 一放，就可以讀取到當中的文件例如相片、ringtones 等，可以極輕易地作資料傳送或同步。這真教擁有不少 cables 而煩惱的我興奮不已！最神奇是連普通物件例如信用卡甚至酒杯都可以從中讀取資料，難道是用上 RFID？
非也，原來 demo 中的物件都有用上 Microsoft 自己開發的標籤（tag），叫 domino。其原理就好像 barcode 一樣，Surface 讀取到 domino 上面的點狀圖案，解碼作資料信號──例如酒杯上盛的酒名、年份，然後在 Surface 上顯示出來。這在成本效益上應該比用 RFID 來得大吧！
平心而論，Microsoft一直在革命性創新事物都不是先行者，不過今次其快人一步推出市場以顯其決心，我覺得是走對了。
For some reason I was looking up the term botnet in the wikipedia today… and got sucked. When realized I have already spent a few hours reading related stuffs, oh damn…
It’s always the dark side of the Internet that fascinates me. In this case, botnet, refers to a network of computers that are infected by virus and, since then, always waiting for commands (from a evil commander) to be executed. These commands include: sending spam emails, stealing your credit card info, attacking websites, and all kinds of illegal activities. Of course, you don’t know a thing about it, because it’s hidden deep inside your system. Continue reading »
Web 2.0.m denotes an era when rich web services (like Gmail, Google map, Facebook and Youtube - aka. Web 2.0) got extended to mobile devices. The launch of Apple’s iPhone, which has full-powered Safari as its build-in browser, mark an important milestone of Web 2.0.m.
This term is actually coined by me! Help spreading it as far as it can! Wow!
Hi digger! Do you feel really tired of having half of the frontpage stories pointing to no where but “Bandwidth quota exceed“, “Wordpress database error” etc, and that duggmirror or coral cache never seems to cache the page early enough? I do. That’s why I’ve created this really simple lalaf-cache and its Greasemonkey script and I encourage you guys to install it. Continue reading »
