Archive for the 'Computing' Category

I don’t get it

Published by
James
at 3:50 UTC Oct 29, 2010 in Computing, Gadgets and Thoughts. 0 Comments

Is it just me?

What’s all the hype about touch screen phone UI, specifically swipe paging anyway? A cellphone is not a book and it is not like anyone’s swipe paging UI does the paper seam flipping animation along with the finger movement gesture following. If swiping animation were considered “a cool thing” to have, what’s so cool about it when everyone does the same, at least for capacitive touch screen phones which comes in a dime a dozen these days?!

I can see that even when the Nokia N8 front page swiping UI actually does so in a much faster paging rate than iOS4 does, and that the N8 actually has a virtual button on the screen bottom which does flawless paging in an instant, the virtual button does take up screen real estate. Yet why would blindly following the iOS or Android way be any cool or even be competitive as everyone seems to be dreaming about. Following others is not “cool”. “Cool” is when you have a better way than everyone else!

Oh yes, there is a better way that I can think of alright; you bet!

After using an iPod Touch 4 for a mere 2 weeks and an Nokia N8 a little over a week, which I will have a full report for them later, I wish there would be a much simpler, faster, and surer paging for all touch OSs’ UI. Just off the top of my head there is a way.

If swiping, like all other iOS gesturing functions, has no on-screen indicators, instructions, menus, or commands anyway, why not just have the screen divided into two imaginary half areas, one left one right (or top and bottom halves if you like)? Simply press the left half portion of the screen to flip backward and press the right half portion of the screen to flip forward! That would work just as easily for either hand. Simple, quick, functional, FAST, and SURE! You can animate to hell after the pressing for those eye candy junkies and kill off all the gesture thumbtitis buffs after that, I don’t care. Just make all commands swift!

No, the iOS is not swift either. There, I said it.

Nokia Smartphone Just Got Dumber

Published by
James
at 8:08 UTC Sep 30, 2010 in Computing, Gadgets and Vehicles. 0 Comments

Engadget reported a demonstration of a car computer from a VW linked up to a Nokia N97 via USB and be able to control the N97 from the display of the VW in order to access the music loaded on the N97 or the preset GPS routing information on Ovi Maps.

Some say Nokia Smartphones are not smartphones at all, I supposed this video demonstrated just exactly how dumb a N97 got.

Incidentally, any mentioned of delays and slowness of the N97 in the Engadget article does not seem to exist in their video. The only slowness bit was from the VW terminal side and the vast amount of data of the satellite image transfered to the N97 via 3G data and then to the VW via a USB2.0 link. The actual delay seen on the video was by far no more frustrating than the rolling beachball on OSX. A USB3.0 link such as the one available on the Nokia N8 should be a lot faster should the VW link is up to that standard.

Any closed system phones would have a tough time getting through all the red tapes before this would work. Perhaps that’s why VW chose a 2 year old Nokia phone for this demo.

Apple OS X Turns 10

Published by
James
at 14:58 UTC Sep 15, 2010 in Computing. 0 Comments

As of September 13th, 2010, OS X is 10 years old. It started on September 13th, 2000.

By comparison, Windows XP was first released in August 2001, and Symbian was first released in June 2001.

Windows XP had been replaced by Windows Vista a few years back and now by Windows 7 despite still being sold and used as of today. Symbian being widely considered as old despite being the most sold smartphone OS to date by far. OS X, being actually even older than these two, is still ticking along nicely.

Talk about old OSs.

More Windows Pet Peeves

Published by
James
at 11:28 UTC Jul 7, 2010 in Computing and 唉~. 2 Comments

I have been told that Windows 7 is a lot better than it’s predecessors.

When a friend of mine recently needed to buy a computer for his insurance field application, I told him to ask the tech support specifically if their application would work on 64-bit Window 7 OS so he could get 4GB RAM right off the bat. The tech support assured him it would, so he went ahead on the purchase of a nice notebook with numeric keypad built-in and have 64-bit Windows 7 installed with 4GB of RAM. When his friend went over to his house to help him install the insurance field application, it didn’t work. It says it requires 32-bit OS!

So what is a guy supposed to do anyway since modern day applications and computing only runs smoothly with over 3GB RAM and 32-bit Windows OS doesn’t support more than 3GB and 64-bit Windows OS which does support over 3GB of RAM yet it can’t run some of the 32-bit applications?!

It’s All in the Attitude and Marketing

Published by
James
at 15:25 UTC Jun 23, 2010 in Computing, Facts and Gadgets. 0 Comments

Mobile Review has a review on Symbian ^3 here.

While Mobile Review has pointed out the shortcomings and remaining problems from Symbian S60 brought on to Symbian ^3, which will make its debut in the Q4 this year with the Nokia N8 phone, they have neglected a few N8 functions which make it stands out above all other phones including the iPhone 4 with the latest iOS4. Namely USB which can be used with an external storage device for file transfer, and BT3.0 which supports not only BT keyboard but also BT mouse through out its entire system.

Some may argue that the USB and BT ports are N8 hardware specific, not a part of Symbian ^3, they did however mentioned the HDMI on the N8 on their report which is even more of a hardware specific port then the earlier two.

Also, while mentioning other either not Nokia new or market new functions, they say so in a way that they are of no thrills and seemly down right ho hum boring. Yet when reporting on Apple’s iPhone, to this date even with the latest iPhone 4, no one would say that their new found ability to open new folders and or Wi-Fi video calling are nothing but 1st gen 3G phone should have functions that should have been on the 1st gen iPhone to begin with.

Neither the Nokia N8 nor the iPhone 4 are perfect. I simply think that reviewers need to be fair on each devices during their reports especially when they are directly comparing 2 or more of them.

Maps

Published by
James
at 5:44 UTC Mar 6, 2010 in Computing, Education and Gadgets. 0 Comments

This week, I have finally been able to make the change from a 100MB data cellphone plan to an unlimited data one.   My usual monthly spending for the line came to an average of about HKD$220, sometimes up to HKD$250.  So this HKD$232 unlimited data + 3000min talk time adding a couple of other extra feature should not be any noticeable change in monthly spending to me.  With this, I’ll have carefree online experience and I’ll be able to use Google Maps more frequently.

Although Nokia had make Ovi maps navigation free for “everyone” last month, my Nokia E71 is still not listed as a supported device.  I could try the E72 version but I don’t feel like debugging for manufacturer again here as I usually ended up doing for most other new features new gadgets.  That’s because I have a 5″ Chinese GPS navigation device for my car now which is a very nice upgrade from my older 4″ device since dad don’t want to bother with it after I had given him the 5″ one for his birthday last Dec.

Nokia Maps has been a love hate feature over these years for me.  The nice feature is of course the handiness of having GPS navigation readily available at all times.  However, the installation of maps is a logic (or the lack of it) course in itself.  The single most important feature in worldwide map is having the local language available.  Google Maps does this brilliantly.  The reason being so is that when one is traveling abroad, all signs and people speak their own local language.  Asking for direction or simply checking the street signs to match the location on the map with the local language is the only way.  Even in my local town Hong Kong, official street names can sometimes be translated in it’s literal meaning or by the sound of the  pronunciation, making it difficult to decipher the names between the 2 official languages here – Chinese and English.

I use my phones in English, Nokia or otherwise.  It is because I find English much more easily recognized at a glance than Chinese.  Sorting in alphabetical order alone is enough to make me use English as I still don’t know how a Chinese list is being sorting when not in the number of strokes for the first word.  Like those names in a country list in any M$ products; I could be staring at it for weeks and I still have to search for it one by one or switch over to Chinese input and type in the full Chinese character to let the system search for (or miss) it.  When one downloads a Nokia Map and subsequently upload it to the phone, Nokia sends the map in the language which is currently set as one’s own phone operation language set.  In my case, English.  I am sorry this could be my fault but, what good is an Hong Kong map to any Chinese in English anyway?  If you had further downloaded any maps for the rest of China, you are bound to redo all your map downloading chores.  In order to have maps in the local language, I think one might need to switch the operating language before each and every country.  I doubt that my phone has all the languages in the world.

Having an unlimited data line and Google Maps only solves half the problem.  There is no free roaming for data.

I just fired up Ovi maps online with my computer and saw this…

Ovi Map Screen Shot

The above screen shot shows the widest view on Ovi Maps where it no longer shows “Hong Kong” on it.  Yet, Macau is still promptly being showed on the map.  Way to go HK.

Another thing that shows on the screen shot picture is the local languages available for Ovi Maps.  Chinese (Traditional or Simplified) is not on the list.

Creating a worldwide map for everyone in the world is no easy task.  Google is by far the only one that has what it takes to be on the leading edge.

Canon Pixma Pro 9500 A3+ Color Printer

Published by
James
at 9:06 UTC Jan 12, 2010 in Arts&Crafts and Computing. 0 Comments

I have bought this printer second hand at a very affordable price for a few months now and it had even gotten me through a joint photo exhibition with three of my photos printed in A3+ size with raved reviews.   However, after that exhibition, I haven’t been printing much of anything; and that’s where the expenses come in…

Unlike most HP inkjet printers, Canon printers does not change printhead at every ink-cartridge  replacement.  The problem with this is, if you don’t print often, printheads could get clogged up and you need to do numerous printhead cleaning routines to unclog them.  When you do, massive amount of ink would be used.  Although this in no different with HP printers, the main issue is, sometimes the printheads get so clogged up, you could use up the entire full cartridge and the printhead is still clogged; whereas in the case of HP printers, a new printhead comes with each ink-cartridge and therefore no more clogging and no more further cleaning is necessary.

Regardless of printer brands, I suggest one prints a full color photo daily so each and every single printhead nozzle gets used daily to prevent clogging.

On another note, for the print driver settings, a Print Quality setting of Standard rather than Fine is better suited for photo printing.  The Fine setting is probably more for brilliant solid pie charts where this setting would put a glaze patches on a photo.  With my 20″ iMac color corrected with OSX’s built-in color management settings, the color settings on the Pro9500 driver can be set at all neutral with an Intensity setting of +1 or +2 within the Color Mode set to Standard gets me pretty well to WYSIWYG.

A nice affordable printer with expensive consumables that saves multiple trips to a photo printing shop.

Reality Virtuation Saves Money

Published by
James
at 11:55 UTC Sep 24, 2007 in Computing, Family and Thoughts. 0 Comments

It is coming to the festive season now. In the old days, people traveled a relatively long way to visit friends and relatives during major holidays bringing gifts for everyone. To this date, the in-laws still go through the whole nine yard every Christmas decorating, exchanging gifts, turkey and all. With cars and airplanes nowadays, traveling is no longer such a big issue; except for 3 things, gifts well thought out, time to shop, and the money to spend. In a big family, this yearly chore has become quite a numbed burden. Add friends to the equation could drive many up the wall.

The Internet has been bringing many conveniences to the web surfers. There have been email, instant messaging, eCard, online purchasing, and many more. It’s been a couple of years now since we have entered the “Web 2.0 Age” which brings us Social Networking.

In a social network, friends not only can send greeting messages but send virtual gifts like a drink, a growing plant, a giraffe, items for the house; draw on friends wall; give them hugs and kisses, lick them, or drop-kick them; put a tattoo on them, or even Vampire bite them!

Virtually speaking, of course. None of these cost a dime. Well, except for the ISP service charges and the time to watch that growing plant grows into something unexpected like a shoelace hanging a rotten Godzilla (no, u can’t really do that yet but perhaps in version 64.13.2b service pack XI you could – that’s if the distribution date isn’t going to be postponed for the 5th time).

With all those widgets available, one saves a lot of money which they don’t have to begin with and perhaps regain some long lost friendships a long way as well. What can be easier than doing the “let’s not and say we did” without actually having to say it out loud to your friends and not needing to actually dress-up, go out the door, spending 8 hours in search of the ultimate gift of all time… repeatedly every single year, attend the gathering for an hour and a half, and then never even call each other for another year minus 2 weeks.

The chilling thoughts make we want to quickly grab that “Festive Gift” widget and start sending the latest trendy festive gift before they became cliches.

Alpha Mike Foxtrot (or AMF – Pick this acronym up from the movie Flight of the Intruder). Gotta lrn mor abbv wuds, RdaYs u cant r8 2 kids & Xpec ‘em 2 undastan u on da Net no mor.

More modern communication breakdown.

Published by
James
at 3:15 UTC Sep 12, 2007 in Computing, Science and Thoughts. 0 Comments

After I have blogged about VoIP , I now have MSN and GTalk permanently installed on my work PC; GTalk through web GMail permanently, with Gizmo Project and Mercury occasionally on my Powerbook. The problem is, MSN and iChat offers video chat, audio chat as well as IM but GTalk offers audio chat and IM only. While there are methods and applications that offer crossed platform IM, audio and video chats are seemingly only available with the same application on both ends. Adding the different computers and OSs, Gizmo Project is pretty well the only application that can do both audio chat as well as IM when both ends have it installed or IM only when just one end has it installed with the other end having some other IM client install; and GP works on both PC and Mac.

Here comes the Web 2.0 age.

Well, actually social networking services have been around for a couple of years. While I have only just been invited to join my first social networking service, I found out there are many of them around such as Facebook, Windows Live Spaces, MySpace, Google orkut,…… The list goes on and on. I don’t want to have to join 50 services just to be able to do one thing with all my friends and colleges.

It would be nice to be able to consolidate different types of applications into one suite like that of Windows Live or Google. Still, not everyone are installed with the same suite.  While I am using GMail, GTalk, and GCalendar, I could use G.orkut which would integrate at least the “contact” (email address book) very well; but no, friends used MSN Live Messenger and/or Facebook (Hey, which one has most babes anyway?).  Just like we have many languages in the world, modern communications are just not as simple as the plain old landline telephone.

So what do we have now? Direct SMS/MMS (video calls with 3G phone), SMS relay notification, over cellphones; Push Mail, mobile web, IM, VoIP over smartphones? Then there is the different cellphone systems over the 5 Continents. Unless you have the top end cellphone nowadays, you may be carrying 2 or every 3 different cellphones if you travel around the world often. Many many ways but all with different hardware/software.  Carrying chargers alone could back your back.

Ohura! Scotty! I want that universal translator online and I want it now!  I kiss all humanoid  females, alien or otherwise!

My Bad

Published by
James
at 19:16 UTC Sep 9, 2007 in Computing. 0 Comments

Wrong time function parameter chosen.

Eradicated.