techno.no.nology

apple releases safari 3.1 --- 3 years too late

2008-03-18T18:41:00.012-04:00

apple just released safari 3.1 for windows, but seriously, who cares.
there're much stronger competitors like firefox, flock and opera.
and once you go firefox, you won't look back.
apple safari would have its chance of the market share if it opened to windows users 3 years ago while IE6 was dying and firefox just started out to gain some ground. but now the market has already been shared, where is the target market for safari? it's too late, give it up.

this is a map of browser market share in November, 2007

however, there's one market still not too late which is instant messenger. open ichat for windows and make it open source. with those ugly interface the rest applications have, ichat has the most chance to win out. that will take most market from openAOL and from windows live messenger.

it's now or never, apple.

According to the latest figures from Neilsen/Netratings, AOL still has a commanding lead in the IM market.

AOL: 53 million
MSN: 27 million
Yahoo: 22 million
Google: 866,000

QuickSilver clone for windows --- MightyBox

2008-01-21T12:16:00.000-05:00

I found this open source project MightyBox.
It's a clone of QuickSilver.
It's still in alpha version but I tried it and thought it's pretty good.

sticky notes & screen shots

2006-04-18T04:00:00.000-04:00

Talking about some good old desktop applications. I have been using these two applications for a long time. They are small applications that doesn't take much space, straight forward and simple, do what they are supposed to do. Unlike some applications trying to become a huge 'do-it-all' monster where I find them just trying too hard.

1. For taking screen shot, Screen grab pro is the best. simple, clean, small.
you can select any part of the screen you want to cover, then save it as jpg or bmp file.

I was thinking of a Mac's grab parallel program in windows, then I finally found this. Other related programs tried to make things so complicated. If you just want to take a screenshot of a website or desktop sometime, trust me, this one does the job nice and easy. No fuss at all.

2. sticky notes
I was so jealous about Mac's sticky note. It looks great and must be very convenient to have them. So I went out to surf the net, found several stickies program, tried them.

The Turbonote+ got my nod. I've been using it for years now. It's a great program. You can change note color, set alarm, sent it out as email, etc. But one down side is they are not free.

I have recently come across stickies. It's as good as the other one I just mentioned. Not only you have several options of skin, but it's also free.

So to save your time googling and testing out all the programs out there, use these stuff if you need them. No need to shop around. You don't have to pay anything anyway. :)

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keep a copy of whatever image of a website you like, yeap.

2006-04-06T15:51:00.002-04:00

Some webpages disabled the right click so you can't save an image you like on your hard drive.
The reason why I want to save those images is simply because I liked them and want to have them on my desktop to look at from time to time. ;)
So here is an easy way to disable this blocking.

on Firefox browser:
Tools -> Options -> Web Features -> uncheck Enable JavaScrip

This information is initially found from here.

Or, you can install firefox extension --- allow right click.

one more option, use this greasemonky script.

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Firefox help: Accidentally removed all passwords

2006-03-14T04:10:00.000-05:00

There are certain times when it's smarter just to leave your computer alone.
Like when you are sleepy, half conscious or drunk. Because something you do in that state might cause you great pain later.
I knew I should not have been on my computer when I got up on Sunday morning feeling still sleepy and were not able to concentrate.
I accidentally removed all the passwords in the password manager.

Yes, I have been using PasswordMaker for a while, so I was not in a total panic. But I was lazy. I didn't change all my old passwords. They were in the password manager, I thought, it should be fine. When I was attempting to delete only one wrong password entry, I clicked on the 'removed all' button. There was not a 'do you really want to do this?' dialogue box to confirm my intention, so right away everything was erased.

I said I wasn't panicked. But it still shocked me.
Now instead of going to brunch, read Sunday New York Times and enjoy a nice day, I sat in front of the computer searching for hours only to recover the passwords.

During my research, I found Firefox 1.5.0.1 now has built-in automatic bookmarks backup. It was backup-ed in the profiles folder with dates on the file name. However, the information about lost password was not easy to find.

I can't find any way to recover deleted passwords. Once it was removed, it was gone. The main files for storing passwords are in profiles folder too. They are "key3.db" and "singons.txt". You need both files. Thanks god I had full hard drive backup-ed three days ago. So I simply go into my backup, found these files, copied and pasted them back to the hard drive. Everything was back on track in two hours. That was not too bad.

But what if I don't have a backup? Then the pain will just follow me for several days and finally it will come up and sting me every time I can't log on a website.

To keep a backup of passwords is important if you don't want this happen to you. One way is just keep a copy of them in another folder. Or, keep a full backup of the hard drive, or the Firefox profiles folder. Backup is like brushing your teeth. Do it, don't think!

There is an extension to help you output all passwords in a text document so you can print it out as a record. It's called Password Save. It's not the best way but it's an old school way. Or you can just start using PasswordMaker and never have to worry about it thereafter.

Choose a way, either way. Save your heart ache for something else.

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Rss reader

2006-03-06T21:47:00.000-05:00

Rss reader is a very convenient software if you have a bunch of blogs that you want to keep track of. It will let you know when the blogs are updated.

I am not so keen to reading on rss readers. It takes away the individual website design. Unless the site is terribly designed, I think it's more fun to go to the website.

Nevertheless, it's a good way to keep track of websites and blogs. You'll get notified if they are updated. So you don't have to surf the net in vain.

I spent several hours looking and testing several rss readers. In a quest to find a simple, effective, and well-designed rss reader. My standard here is to find a easy to use, easy for the eye and not a stand alone program. I prefer to have it integrated with the browser or an email client, so I don't have to have one more program running on my computer all the time.

Sage turns out to be the best one for me.

You need to be using firefox browser. Install Sage extension. It will then open on the sidebar of the browser with only a click. So far, there're 30 different styles you can download to customize the display. When visiting a webpage, it can search for rss or atom feed automatically. You can easily add feeds to the list.

What if when you are not able to access your computer? There are web based rss readers too.

Google reader is the one I most preferred. It's very simple. I like the magnifing on a single post interface design. And the import/export of the rss feeds are very easy. I exported the OPML file from Sage, then imported it to Google reader. So now no matter I am on my computer or at public pcs, I have the same settings.

The other web based rss reader I tried is Bloglines. It seems to have a lot of users. I applied for an account and set it up. After trying it 20 minutes, I found it complicate and too ambitious. The way it set up to pull hundreds of news feeds just add to my information anxiety. Besides the interface was also confusing. I gave it up.

One other find I thought is very interesting and worth a mention. Which is a messenger like rss reader called Nutshell. It sits on your desktop like a messenger and informs you new updates and headlines with a ticker bar on top of the screen. It's highly customizable, versatile and beautifully designed for the look.

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the delicious Bli.nkli.st

2006-02-24T04:58:00.000-05:00

I posted 2 entries on my other blog about social bookmarking. Mainly talked about my experience which transformed from resistance to enthusiasm about del.icio.us. The first post was "share bookmarks". The second was "social bookmarking... it's del.icio.us". On the second day I posted it, mindvalley's Mike kindly enough to send me an ivitation to try out Blinklist. I was quite happy with del.icio.us then. Didn't see any need for using another bookmarking service. So I put off the invitation for awhile.

But in a short time, I started to accumulate a big amount of bookmarks, that's when the problem began. With del.icio.us, it's hard to find my bookmarks. The tag cloud is not as big as I wished for easy browsing, the website design has not improved for a long time. It seemed like they were quite happy with how they are now, no more improvment needed. But that's not quite the truth. For one thing, it's hard to find bookmarks that were burried deep inside the pages.

So I decided to give Bli.nkli.st a try. (I hope guys at mindvalley won't get offended by my 'delicious-ize' blinklist. I think they had the idea and name it quite well. Why not borrow it too?)
First, the import process was blissful. Smooth as highway 99. In under 10 minutes, I have all my bookmarks up on blinklist. But after this, there's a little reading required to be able to get a more comprehansive idea of it. I think this part should have an intuitive interactive tutorial, or plain drawing to explain each part's function. I would say it's a little bit too much reading for the present presentation.

It took me around 30 minutes reading to be able to use it confidently(including rumpling around in the help page and lots of back and forth clicks to find out the differences.) And had to google 'shoutbox' to know what is that. :) But even so, I'd say the reading is quite worthwhile, if you have enough patience to do it. It paid off very well. Cause I found out bli.nkli.st is a very versatile application which can be set up according to whatever need you have and let you find your bookmark quickly. Most people have 'to read', 'to buy', 'to try'... tags on the favourite tab for easy organizing and quick access. However, the quickstart button has to open another page, which doesn't seem quick enough for me.

Bli.nkli.st has a much cooler interface design. That's one more point added for making my using experience quite pleasant.

My only humble request now, is to have a 2 button toolbar, like delicious', one for go to the website, one for tagging. That will make me very happy.

(This is my current solution instead of the toolbar.)

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Overhaul your binary thinking

2006-02-20T06:51:00.000-05:00

When I was younger, things used to be black or white. It's either this or that, yes or no, all or nothing. People have a nice term for person like me, they said I am an 'idealist'. But to think of it, idealists are usually people who don't want to grow up. To take the world as either black or white is actually, missing a whole lot of fun.

Unlike the easiness of eastern culture, the western thinking based on binary basis. At the twilight of western culture, "God created the heavens and the earth. ... and separated the light from the darkness." While in the east, a Goddess , Nu Wa, the creator of mankind, was using colored stones, trying to mend the broken sky caused by the fight between Fire God and Water God.

Light or darkness. "Good or evil" was the main discourse from the begining of philosophy to literature in 18th century. The binary thinking kept rolling on but it switched to "True or False" when the age of enlightenment followed by industrial revolution kicked in. By the end of 20th century, the explosion of information and media had messed up everything and there was no more truth or lie. There was only "the making of news". Everybody understood what appeared to be true was actually made to be true. The truth was out there, nowhere. The discourse finished.

The next main discourse was made by a TV "reality show", rememberable "Survivors", which brougt forth the new battle field "public or private". People brought out their private behavior in public. What's cunning here is that "reality" was derived from the old "True or False" discussion but made no note of it. The point is not about what is the truth anymore. It has shifted yet to a new field. What used to be considered as private was taken out to public for examin or reassessment. Think about how Paris Hilton shared her private sex life to the public.

I know I am sounding too serious by now. But wait, I am getting to the point. Now this trend came on to internet and on to everyone. As web2.0 applications and services spreading over internet, people started to share private information. Or rather, to reconsider the idea "private" and "public". I used to think bookmarks are private. But now I am putting all my bookmarks online for anyone to see, happily. What's more, not only bookmarks, but also calendars, to do lists, notes, thoughts, mp3s, photos, files, travel plans. I was even writing this post using an online sharable word processor. The idea of sharring private information has penetrated to places it has never been before. When I ran into this website where you can share your list of products you wish to buy, I was sure something seriously "wrong" is happening.

What fun to be in the gray area.

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PasswordMaker --- a quick setup guide

2006-01-20T00:43:00.000-05:00

Recently I came upon this password panic.
Because my password list was getting too long and too not organized. I checked on the password manager built in firefox and I found some of them were not properly recorded. Plus I used a password keychaine like program to keep passwords but I got tired of having to keep track of every single password. Then I started to try to search for extensions in an attempt to 'organize' all my passwords better.
That's when I found PasswordMaker.

Even though not without humor, its introduction still sounds a bit intimidating.

Through the magic of one-way hash algorithms, PASSWORDMAKER calculates a message digest, also known as a digital fingerprint, which can be used as your password for the website. Although one-way hash algorithms have a number of interesting characteristics, the one capitalized by PASSWORDMAKER is that the resulting fingerprint (password) does "not reveal anything about the input that was used to generate it."

I don't know about you, but I definitely don't understand what is 'one-way hash algorithms'. And didn't think I can chew it down with my lunch. It took me awhile to find out exactly how it works. I had to look into the manual in order to know how to set it up. Some of them just seemed too complicated. And there's not a quick setup guide.

Once you read the introduction, it should be easy to find out this PasswordMaker is a great idea. With only one Master password, you'll have all the password you'll ever need and you don't have to keep them anywhere. No more organizing or searching passwords. I checked on digg and was surprised to find the responses to it was not high (not many people 'dug' it). I wonder why.

I'll try to provide a quick setup guide here. I hope it will help.
After installed the extension, you will have an icon on the browser status bar on the right bottom side. Click on the icon will open basic options dialogue.

1. Go to View\advanced options. Choose Account tab. In 'make selection' menu, choose settings.
An account-specific setting will popup. Go to 'page2'.

2. In this page, play with the field 'Use l33t', 'l33t level', 'Hash algorism' , 'password lenth' and 'characters' to set up a satisfied password strenth you'd like. Every time you change an option, the password strenth bar will respond at once displaying how strong it is. When you are happy with it, click 'OK'.

3. Choose 'Global setting' tab. On 'Action to take when coolkey is activated', choose an action you'd like it to work.

4. Now choose a Master password carefully and type it in the box. Need to understand once you choose it you'll have to stick with it for a long time. To change a master password will be almost like running a marathon. At least before they add in the new feature. And also note that in their FAQ, the answer to 'what if I forgot my master password' is --- you are out of luck.

5. So after you happily choose your master password, in the drop down menu of 'store master password', choose 'In memory'. Thus, you only have to enter your password once when you start the browser. It will be cleared when you close the browser.

6. Now you are good to go. You can log in to every website account to change your password with PasswordMaker. Read their 'getting started' page to find out how.

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symptoms of the death of a PC

2006-01-16T01:06:00.000-05:00

I woke up in the morning, my computer was shut down.
I didn't remember I shut it down before going to sleep. Then I tried to power it on, the power light came on for 2 seconds, then it went dead again.

I didn't do anything to it, if I remember correctly. So quickly I assume it's hardware problem.
I powered it on several times again. It only responded and powered on for seconds if I shut off the power button on the back of the computer and turn it back on again.

Now, there could be millions of things go wrong here. Most possibly is hardware failure. But which part? It could be the motherboard, CPU processor, power supply unit. I quickly did some reasearch online and found out the symptom sounds more like a power supply faliure. But I am not sure.

I opened up the PC box and observed the action. When I pushed the power button, the CPU fan started to turn, about 3 seconds later, it shut down by itself. So I thought, it shouldn't be the motherboard, otherwise the fan probably would even not start turning at all. It wouldn't even respond. The same thing goes to the processor.

Then I boldly presumed it must be the power supply unit. Which is the huge square box sitting on the back top side of the computer with a big fan in charge of pummping air out.

It's actually quite easy to replace it. I unscrewed the unit and took it out. Studied the label on it, noted down the voltage, as detailed as I can then took the specs to the circuit city near by.

It is possilbe to 'upgrade' the PSU a bit by its wattage. My old one was 350 watt. So I guess 400 watt would be all right too. So I bought a 400 watt new PSU with all the other same specs I copied from the old one.

Before unpluging wire, try to remember which plug goes where. It will make the installing easier. If you are not familiar with this, then get a pen and a paper to write down the way it used to plug on your machine. There should be two plugs hook on to the motherborad, one each to every single hard drive, cd/dvd player and floppy drive. The plugs on the motherboard usually have a hook on the side of the plug. You need to press it down while you pull it out. The rest should be easy.

I crossed my fingers while pressed down the power button.

It worked. Thanks god. You don't want to know what happens if it doesn't.

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Recommended firefox extensions

2005-12-27T01:26:00.000-05:00

Forget about 'the most popular', 'top 10', or 'must have'. I know they make great catchy headlines. But I just want to share my experience with some extensions that I used often and liked a lot. Hopefully people will also find them useful.

A quick tip for beginners: What is extension? Extensions are small add-ons that add new functionality to your Firefox web browser or Thunderbird email client. They can add anything from toolbars to completely new features.

1. scrapbook
Before computer's time, I used to have this hobby of clipping newspapers. This extension totally satisfied me. You can save a webpage any way you like.

2. bookmark all
One click and saves all the opened tabs in a folder that automatically marks the date and time now. It's very convenient when sometimes you need to close firefox for some reason and return to the status or the webpages you were at.

3. update bookmark
Replace a broken bookmark to a recent active one.

4. text size toolbar
Some website designed with text size that's difficult to read. This extension adds a toolbar to the browser for easily changing the text size. For a person who reads news online everyday, I can't do without it.
After installed the extension, right click on the toolbar and choose 'Customize...'. From the popup window, drag the text botton "A+ A- A=" to where you want it to be on the browser.

5. menu editor
After installed some extensions, you'll find the right click context menu went crazily long. Then now you need this menu editor. It automatically modified the context menu by only shows the possible choices you might need under the circumstances. It effectively shorten the menu. You can also customize it but it takes a little time to find out how to get around.

6. sage
The best RSS and Atom feed reader.
You can also find lots of css style sheets to use on the official website.

7. greasemonkey
"Allows you to customize the way a webpage displays using small bits of JavaScript." This is the official quick description on the extension site. But to say it in plain English, it's to apply a skin you want to a webpage.
After installed the extension, go to http://userscripts.org to find the scripts (aka skins) you like. For example, you can modify google to display the way you like.

8. gmail notifier
If you have a gmail account, this is a great extension to have. It will install a gmail icon on the lower right side of firefox browser and notify you when you have mail.

9. ie view lite
It adds a "view in IE" commend on right click context menu.

10. t-mobile minutes used
Displays Tmobile usage in status bar. Very convenient if you are a Tmobile user.

11. search plugin hacks
Is there any search engine you don't need in the search box? This is an extension to get rid of it. Just install it and then you can right click on the search engine to delete it.

12. my portal
This extension creates a live page of your bookmarks for easy browsing. The sites visited often will have larger fonts. I have used Del.icio.us for a while but there're certain amont of bookmarks left in the bookmark folder that I didn't bother to upload them all to Del.icio.us. This is a great tool to have.
Access my portal easily by dragging the url "myportal://" to toolbar.

13. pearl crescent page saver
Save a snapshot of the entire or part of the webpage. The author's homepage has very clear instructions.

14. del.icio.us
Social bookmarking. Save your bookmarks online for easy access from any computer.
This extension integrates Firefox browser and del.icio.us service for easy posting and access to your account.

15. foxylicious
Since you save your bookmarks on the internet, you want a backup copy as well. This extension will download your online bookmarks to the local browser.

Have fun surfing.

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Say what? Lyricsfly spell it out for ya

2005-12-27T00:54:00.000-05:00

I listen to hiphop. And lots of times I really want to know what exactly it's talking about. So I depended on google to do the job. But the search experience was never pleasant. Either the site has lots of popup ads, or crowded with ads that make the site load up rather slow. And sometimes the lyrics are just not so correct. I have to go through several websites to find out the lyrics that really spelled out word by word without mistakes.

Then I ran into this search engine. Lyricsfly.com.

I tried to do several searches. It came out pretty quick. There's 'search while you type' feature. The results are correct and satifying. Without all the clutter of ads window popups and so on, the results display clearly and neatly on the page with related information like the artist, the album and the title.

Before google unleash it's google lyrics search, I think this is the best one so far.

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