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Archive for the ‘Review’ Category

Apple vs. Opera: Mobile Browser War?

21 May

It’s happening again. The whole Windows+IE story is going to be repeated, and well, we all now that history tends to repeat itself.

In a shocking move, Apple has tagged Opera Mini browser’s download from the AppStore Opera Mini for iPhoneas mature, and before downloading, you need to confirm that you are over 17.

Is Apple really that concerned about anonymous browsing capabilities built-in within the Opera iPhone browser? Is the company really moving to protect our kids from porn? Why not add a similar warning to Safari’s first-run process, then?

Recent events have just take a ridiculous turn in my opinion. If you are selling a device, you are also selling the rights of ownership. You can’t be the big brother so “kindly” watching over us, keeping us from “being naughty boys.” I myself don’t believe in mobile porn business, but I certainly believe in freedom, and that, in my opinion is restricting that freedom.

Safari Browser on iPhone Steve Jobs might have started a revolution in mobile trend, but he is really showing that he just can’t bear the idea of other people sharing the ground with him. You can easily see that, when Opera has not only to compete with a browser already installed into the device, but only get through alarming warnings. Also, bear in mind that as the built-in browser, it has now been a long time since anybody used anything but Apple Safari on iPhone, so familiarity of application is another factor acting in favor of Apple.

But seriously, we all know that competition only makes competitors work harder. So, Apple, is this an indication that you don’t want to work harder and provide us with a better solution? Because it just seems damned so.

Also, read this entry from the Next Web on the same subject.

 

CLRS 3rd Edition

20 May

  CLRS 3rd Edition, CoverAbout two weeks ago, I finally got my hands on an original version of the latest edition of the CLRS book. Most significantly, the pseudo-code convention has changed to be a little more like modern, object-oriented languages (e.g. Java, C#, etc.).

For example, to access a property of an object, instead of property[object] (which was the notation used by the 2nd edition) we will write object.property.

Also, there are many places that the whole text has been rewritten. All in all, it was a very good buy. My only regret is that from now on my “CLRS at a glance” articles won’t be compatible with my earlier notes.

(Cover picture courtesy of Amazon)

 
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Small Idea, Great Potential

14 Feb

Well, actually it might already have become a great business rather than a potential. But as I don’t know how it might exactly be, I’ll stick to my title.

What I’m going to talk about is the WikiReader.

What is WikiReader

WikiReader is a small BSD-based (?) handheld device that let’s your search in a previously downloaded version of Wikipedia articles. Or as the website says

WikiReader is an electronic encyclopedia giving physical form to Wikipedia. Now you can take it with you wherever you go.

It has a nice look, with only three buttons and a touch screen for easy navigation. With two standard AAA batteries it’s said that it’ll function for up to 12 months of normal usage.

It has an apparent monthly schedule for providing update files (which as of now measure to 4.7 GB).

No knowledge of how a wiki operates is required to use this device, which has an intended audience of school children and the like.

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Going Mobile

19 Jan

WordPress Mobile Edition is cool tiny utility that allows you to redirect your mobile visitors to a shiny, new interface which incorporates easy navigation and good looks in a simple UI.

As I’m personally using this plugin, I won’t hesitate to recommend it to anybody who wants their blogs to be compatible with mobile browsers. And remember, the issue here is not merely compatibility, but rather the ease-of-use.

Good luck to you all!

 
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eyeOS 2.0: A First Look

03 Jan

Well, it’s not here yet, but what I’ve seen is pretty smooth. I think the eyeOS GUI designers are well into their business. What I’ve seen so far from the mock-ups and videos and images suggests a big facelift in the upcoming eyeOS major release.

I think you will agree with me when you see the video.

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eyeOS: eyeMail

03 Jan

Okay, it seems like I’m not gonna be able to run eyeMail on my server. After a couple of Google searches, I found out that there could be two things preventing eyeMail from functioning correctly.

One was the MBString PHP module, which as I’ve previously mentioned, I’ve gone through pains to install. The other was the SQLite extension. Well, I tried everything and it seemed to be doing well. But as I searched some more, I realized that my PHP was compiled with PDO-SQLite. But, eyeMail requires the SQLite extention, not the PDO-SQLite.

So, I’ll only be able to run eyeMail on my server if I recompile PHP without the “—without-sqlite” option. Right now, it’s not that important to me, so I’m gonna let it pass.

 

eyeOS 1.9

01 Jan

Today, I installed eyeOS 1.9 on my virtual host. It was more than good, in my opinion. However, the installation didn’t go as smoothly as I thought it would. I mean, the 1.8 worked better for me.

First, I had to uninstall and reinstall Kloxo, PHP, MySQL, Apache, and PEAR several times before getting them to work properly together. I know this wasn’t directly related to the eyeOS installation, but I had to do this because eyeOS (or rather, PHP) didn’t recognize the SQLite and MBString modules I had installed.

Then I had to surf the web for about one hour to find out that I couldn’t see any applications in the package manager, because the default repository address wasn’t working. So, I had to switch the repository to 1.7.

And besides everything, I still haven’t got the IMAP mail client to function properly.

I’ll post as soon as I get that problem solved.

 
 

A Dream Come True

27 Dec

We all have many dreams, most of which we deem unreachable. But many of those “unreachable” dreams are just a little further down the way, waiting for us to put some effort in it. I’ve found an excellent video depicting just such a thing.

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Google Chrome’s Awesome Teaser

24 Dec

Yesterday, I saw this awesome teaser for Google Chrome. The innovation and creativity in this clip is just mind-blowing.

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Windows 7 on my VAIO Z

15 Nov

Yesterday I upgraded my Windows Vista Business to Windows 7 Ultimate. And I have to say, it made a real difference.

First of all, the waking time has shortened by lots. When I wake my VAIO Z530N laptop from standby, everything is just there; no waking up message, no delay, nothing. And resuming Windows from hibernation is also a lot faster. With Vista, it took about 2 or 3 minutes to actually get the system running. With 7 it is less than a minute.

And top all of that with cool new features lake "shake", "snap", "pin to taskbar", "live taskbar", etc. Paint and WordPad have also been equipped with the new 2010 Ribbon.

All in all, I don’t regret having updated it. The only thing I have a problem with right now, is my built-in MotionEYE webcam, which is not recognized by Windows.