Alternatives to Window$

I've found some alternatives to Windows, which some of them are quite attractive:

http://www.reactos.org/en/index.html

http://www.ecomstation.com/

OS/2 clones:

http://www.osfree.org/
http://voyager.netlabs.org/en/site/index.xml

Vista Is a Pain in the Butt!

The more I use Vista, the more frustation I get. My Vista has been updated with SP1 (as it always be, because it's been running Update scheduler since day one). Recently, my PC locks up more frequently than before. What I mean "lock up" is really a locked-up condition (freeze) to user. The mouse pointer freezes, there is no way to shutdown/reboot and doesn't get any response for any inputs either from keyboard nor mouse. I notice there is some activity on the hard disk, though.

With this issue, my list of dissapointment with Vista has even longer. Here's some of them:

1. No support for 4 GB RAM (only 64-bit does support it). What the heck? Mac OS-X and Linux much better (Mac OS-X 10.4 or later is actually a 64-bit OS so no issue, while on Linux 64-bit, support for 32-bit apps are excellent). Why doesn't Micro$oft just sell one version of the OS?
2. GUI freezes frequently (Yeah, no BSOD, but what's the difference? both render my PC as dead anyway!)
3. To-much minimum hardware requirements
4. Many compatibility issues with older applications
5. Costly (As comparation: Mac OS-X Leopard cost only $100'ish [there is only single version! no home, ultima bla...bla...edition]. Linux is even totally free!). Vista Ultimate? $300'ish!!!
6. Still immature driver support.
7. Super-fetch which is not super (it keeps my hard-disk busy for most of the time, although my PC has 4 GB of RAM and it's a Quad-core Intel 2.4 GHz!). Instead of a boost, it slows down the PC.
8. Slower than XP !! (and takes more space than XP too).
9. Lack of bundled development environment (Mac OS has XCode comes in its OS installation CD as an optional application. Linux has GCC and many others). Microsoft sells the development packages separately as MSVC, .NET bla..bla and cost hundreds of dollars each.

I now boot to Linux partition more than its Vista. openSUSE ver 10.3 now supports writing to NTFS partition, so there is no issue with mixed partitions. There are some limitations too on openSUSE, but at least I am in control if an application is going south (I can switch to text console, I can force-kill an application, I can even modify the operating system as I want!)

Windows versions

Windows, internally, have been versioned with numbers instead of codename like "Longhorn", "Vienna" etc. For example, Windows XP is internally versioned with "5.x", while Vista is basically Windows version 6. The next windows version (Windows 7) is trully windows version 7.
All are rooted since Windows 3.x Users mostly see product name (e.g, XP or Vista), but developers usually can see the versions (WinAPI doc from MSDN).  The numbers correspond to their major version and revision.  So expect a another big revision from Vista to Windows 7 (although users may not see or feel it, because the changes may be only internal to the system).

Here I try to list the versions:

Windows 3.0 -> winver 3
Windows 3.1 -> winver 3
Windows 95 -> winver 4
Windows NT -> winver 4
Windows 98 -> winver 4
Windows 2000 -> winver 5
Windows XP -> winver 5
Windows Vista -> winver 6
Windows 7 -> winver 7

Post a blog Right from WORD

So far I hadn't been much of using Microsoft Word 2007. A few minutes ago I just tried to exlore this look-totally-different-than-before word processor. All the menus were rearranged differently. At first, I got lost as I was only familiar with its predecessors (which had not change the menus that much).

One cool feature is its direct-posting your document to bloggers. such Bloggers, Wordpress etc. Just click "Publish" and select "Blog". The first time we use the feature, we need to set it up. It will guide us by asking which blog site we are going to publish to and then our account and password. That easy!

COMPUSA USB VIDEO GRABBER

High Speed USB Video Grabber

 

SKU: 318714

 

 

FCC and CE Radiation Norm

FCC

This equipment has been tested and found to comply with limits for Class B digital device pursuant to Part 15 of Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules. 

CE

This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits of the European Council Directive on the approximation of the law of the member states relating to electromagnetic compatibility (89/336/EEC) according to EN 55022 Class B.

 

FCC and CE Compliance Statement

These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against frequency interference in residential installation. This equipment generates, uses and can radiate radio frequency energy, and if not installed or used in accordance with the instructions, may cause harmful interference to radio communication. However, there is no guarantee that interference will not occur in television reception, which can be determined by turning the equipment off and on. The user is encouraged to try and correct the interference by one or more of the following measures:

 

PACKAGE CONTENTS:

• High Speed USB Video Grabber
  
• User's Manual
  
• Ulead® VideoStudio™ 7.0 DVD Software & Driver CD
  

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:

• Windows® 2000 and XP
  
• CPU: Intel® Pentium or AMD Athlon® 1.5GHz or Higher Recommended
  
• 256MB RAM Recommended
  
• DirectX® 9.0 or Higher
  
• 300MB HDD Space, Additional 4GB Required for every 20 minutes of captured video
  
• An Available USB 2.0 Port (backward compatible with USB 1.1)
  
• An Available Line-In or Mic Port (for Audio Input)
  
• CD-ROM Drive (for driver & software installation)
  

SYSTEM SPECIFICATIONS:

• Capture Video Signals from DVD, VCR, Camcorders and Video Game Systems
  
• Supports Composite (RCA) and S-Video Inputs
  
• Supports NTSC, PAL and SECAM Formats
  
• Maximum Resolution 720x480 Pixels at 30 Frames Per Second for USB 2.0, 320x240 at 30 Frames Per Second for USB 1.1
  
• Records in AVI, VCD, MPEG and WMV Formats
  
• USB 2.0 Compliant
  
• USB Powered (no external adapter needed)
  

DRIVER INSTALLATION:

1. Please make sure that you have the latest Windows® updates before installing the driver.
   
2. Insert the Driver CD into the CD-ROM Drive of your computer. The Ulead® Products installation menu will start automatically. If the menu does not start up automatically, click "Start", then "Run…", then type in "D:\Autorun.exe" where D designates the letter of your CD-ROM Drive, and then click "OK."
   

    Note: If D is not the letter of your CD-ROM drive, please substitute D with the correct drive     letter.

1. Click "Install Grabber Driver" to install the driver.
   
2. Follow the on-screen instructions to install the driver files onto your computer.
   
3. Connect the USB connector of your Video Grabber to an available USB port and the 3.5mm audio jack of your Video Grabber to the Line-In or Mic port of your computer. (See image below)
   

 

1. For Windows® 2000, your system will automatically detect and install the necessary driver, please continue to step 9. For Windows® XP the "Add New Hardware Wizard" will appear, click "Next" and continue to step 7.
   
2. If the Microsoft digital signature box appears, click "Continue Anyway."
   
3. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the driver installation and click "Finish" to close the wizard. Your video grabber is now ready to be used.
   
4. If you do not have video editing software installed, please go through the Software Installation procedures to install "Ulead VideoStudio 7.0 SE Basic" onto your computer.
   

SOFTWARE INSTALLATION:

1. If the Ulead® Products installation menu is not running, refer to Step 2 under Driver Installation on how to run the Ulead® Products installation menu.
   
2. Click "Install Ulead VideoStudio 7.0 SE Basic."
   
3. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the software installation.
   
4. Restart your computer. For instructions on how to use Ulead® VideoStudio™ 7.0, please click on "Start", go to "Programs", then "Ulead VideoStudio 7", and then select "User Manual" to open the VideoStudio™ User's Manual.
   

My Dream Digital Camera

Nowadays digital cameras are used every where with various features. The latest news I read last time was a camera that could submit pictures online to a website/blog space.

My dream camera actually is more than that. I am dreaming a camera that has GPS to tell the exact location where I took the picture, an electronic compass to tell the direction where the shot was taken to , and an electronic accelerometer to tell the orientation or tilt of the camera against horizon (e.g, postscript or landscape, altitude etc.). All these data should be stored in the picture's JPEG file as an extension to the existing EXIF format.

So, next time we want to repeat the exact snapshot, the camera can tell you. Seems thi may be helpful for crime investigators too.