Quote Of The Day: "The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it." - W M Lewis |
January 10, 2008
Windows Vista: How do I loathe thee? Let me count the ways
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Techie Corner
Note: This entry was written in early December 2007
I've generally been a supporter of Microsoft Windows. I consider myself pretty familiar with Windows 2000/XP, and though Vista was been out for a year, I had yet to try Microsoft's latest operating system. Until this week.
A relative had acquired a new laptop, which came with Vista Home Premium. I was to help her install some applications, whatever I deemed necessary, like IM and internet security.
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Posted at 4:51 PM | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0) | Tags: network windows
August 16, 2007
The Return of the AMP Experience
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Techie Corner
Sometime ago, I posted about a sour experience trying to get Apache + MySQL + PHP running on Linux. I don't believe in letting one single experience affect my future actions. Some months back, I was on the lookout for a cheap NAS (network attached storage). The idea was that it would be cheaper than buying a second system, and if I used a NAS instead of just adding a hard disk to my PC, I should be able to switch off my PC sometimes, and not worry about shared files being inaccessible. Plus, I just wanted to play with a new gadget.
I had two choices at that time: Planex NAS-01G or Kuro-Box (a.k.a. Kurobox, KuroBox, Kuro Box...). The Kuro-Box was about SGD40 more expensive, but it was essentially a Linux box, and highly "hackable". The Planex NAS-01G is also a Linux box, but it is meant to work out-of-the-box, and has limited "hack-ability".
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Posted at 8:00 AM | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0) | Tags: apache kuro-box linux mysql php
July 28, 2007
Making the most out of non-HDTV Wii
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Techie Corner
My Nintendo Wii is connected to my TV tuner on my PC. This means I get to play my Wii in my room, on my 19" LCD monitor. The TV tuner isn't a HDTV one, so it only has composite (RCA) and S-Video inputs. Nintendo only bundles composite video cables, and initially, only sold component (HDTV) cables. Over the past months, third-party S-Video cables appeared.
I got hold of an S-Video cable today, and am pleased to report that there is quite an improvement in image quality over the composite cable. Of course, it won't be HDTV-quality (which, by the way, is only 480p on the Wii), but it's an improvement nonetheless. And, at SGD20 (~USD13), is much cheaper than buying a HDTV tuner or HDTV.
Click here to compare the image quality of composite versus S-Video cable on the Wii.
Posted at 9:28 PM | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0) | Tags: wii
December 29, 2006
SimpleViewerAdmin Mods
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Techie Corner
I designed a website for a friend, who wanted to use SimpleViewer for his portfolio. I wanted a dynamic gallery, rather than a static one requiring him to use, for example, Picasa to manage the gallery and then upload it. Thus I searched and came upon SimpleViewerAdmin.
He requested a hidden album feature such that the album can only be accessed directly through its URL.
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Posted at 11:22 AM | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0) | Tags: code gallery mod php
October 4, 2006
Why I use Maxthon, and keep on using it.
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Techie Corner
It's about time I wrote a little plug for my all-time favourite Internet browser.
Maxthon wasn't initially known as Maxthon. It was called MyIE2. Back then (sometime between 2002 and 2004, I can't remember), there were wasn't Firefox. It was Internet Explorer, Opera or Netscape. Opera was the first browser with tabbed-browsing - you know, where you can open multiple webpages in the same program window.
Opera was (and still is) fast. And I loved its mouse gestures. Mouse what? Gestures. Mouse gestures. For example, you hold down the right mouse button and draw an "L" on screen, and the current tab gets closed. The problem I had with Opera was compatibility. Remember, it was only quite recently that it was so important to design standards-compliant pages. Back then (there I go using that phrase again), the majority of webpages were hack-and-slash, and since the majority of surfers were using IE, those web "designers" made sure their pages looked perfect in IE, leaving users of other browsers feeling, well, left out.
Through some stroke of luck, I stumbled upon MyIE2. It featured tabbed-browsing, mouse gestures and it used the IE engine to render web pages. What this meant is that pages would look exactly as they would if I were to open them using IE.
MyIE2 was then renamed to Maxthon, and has been constantly being improved upon. When Firefox was first released, I didn't bother to download and try it out. I just didn't see the need to. It was only when the popularity of Firefox hit a fever pitch that I decided to take a look for myself. Unfortunately, I was left with a bitter taste in my mouth.
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Posted at 3:40 PM | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0) | Tags: browsers