Laptop Messenger Bag

Was looking for a messenger bag for Serenity and was considering getting the Timbuk2 Commute. However, the bag including shipping will set me back close to US$170 – pre-tax! It would have been better if I were still in the US!

I also considered getting one of the Crumpler bags that are available locally. For less than PhP4K for the Dreadful Embarrassment, that is no bargain but surely worth it.

One thing, though, the quality of the laptop padding is very important for me. The Brenthaven protection is close to perfect. Unfortunately, their US$99 messenger bags are quite big and do not come with a removable sleeve like their backpacks, one of which I own.

So – what I did was to look for a good sized bag that can accommodate the Brenthaven sleeve. I found this – the Victorinox University Cambridge Basic Messenger bag. It is already EOL’d but hey, it still works for me. It fits the Brenthaven sleeve perfectly and at PhP2690, I think it is cheap considering!

Want IE7 but using a pirated Windows OS?

Microsoft to launch scheme vs software piracy in RP – INQ7.net:

MICROSOFT Philippines said it will introduce a new global initiative on Tuesday to boost its battle against software piracy in the country.The Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) program will build on a pilot program that allowed consumers to voluntarily let Microsoft determine whether they were using a genuine copy of the Microsoft Windows XP operating system.

The new WGA scheme will give a user access this time to the “Windows Defender,” a service that detects and removes spyware from computer systems, and the new Internet Explorer (version 7.0), Microsoft said.

For Mac and Open Source software users, this is a good thing. Before anyone can take advantage of whatever Internet Explorer 7 has to offer (which is not much, btw), they need to have their operating systems evaluated. Imagine the number of IE7 installers that will be made available in CDs from your neighborhood corner store (read: pirate).

Anyway, I highly recommend that you use Firefox instead or even better, get Ubuntu Linux 6.06 Dapper Drake – comes bundled with Firefox and no pirate OS whatsoever!

Technorati Tags: internet explorer, windows XP

UP’s Open Source initiative, what next?

UNDP program sets up Asia Pacific open source centers – INQ7.net:

THREE open source “centers of excellence” were recently established to aid research and development, and advocate the use of free or open source software in the Asia Pacific region, INQ7.net has learned.

The centers will be part of the International Open Source Network (IOSN), according to the website of the Asia Pacific Development Information Program (APDIP) of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

The IOSN has been advocating the adoption of free or open source software, as well as open standards, the website said.

The three centers of excellence – IOSN ASEAN+3, IOSN PIC (Pacific Island Countries), and IOSN South Asia, will also being involved in the “institutional strengthening” and training on open source software.

The University of the Philippines is now involved with the IOSN Asean+3.

It is true that the University of the Philippines is leading all other universities (and government agencies) in the adoption and promotion of Open Source software. The previous university president, Dr. Francisco Nemenzo Jr., openly supported the use of Open Source software. I wonder if Dr. Emerlinda R. Roman will do the same thing.

Frankly, I hope that she does. This will strengthen UP’s role as the leader in FLOSS (Free/Libre Open Source Software) in the country. However, internally, I still believe that the adoption of FLOSS is lackadaisical. Whilst it is true that the use of Linux is gaining ground, the use of other Open Standards, such as the Open Document Format, needs to be addressed.

UP Office, a customized version of OpenOffice.org’s office suite, may have been downloaded several times but its use, although difficult to track, may not be as wide. Currently, UP Office runs on its second version to keep up with OpenOffice.org’s current version 2 release. However, documents are still distributed in Microsoft’s Office file format and worse, almost everybody expects that you are using Microsoft Office when they send you documents attached to e-mail. [I hate this!]

Anyway, I think the next step is to ensure that all electronic documents should be saved in OpenDocument Format instead of proprietary Microsoft Office file format. And no, Microsoft’s XML-based file format is *not* an ISO standard but ODF is (ISO/IEC 26300)! Without the UP President’s mandate for standardization, this will never be realized.

What do you think?

Technorati Tags: Open Source

Heads-up: Picasa now on Linux!

Picasa:
Picasa is a free software download from Google. Now available for Linux!

Picasa is software that helps you instantly find, edit and share all the pictures on your computer. Every time you open Picasa, it automatically locates all your pictures (even ones you forgot you had) and sorts them into visual albums organized by date with folder names you will recognize. You can drag and drop to arrange your albums and make labels to create new groups. Picasa makes sure your pictures are always organized.

What is interesting about this is the bundled library – wine! Check it out and enjoy all the goodness of Picasa on a much superior OS than Windows XP! hehehe… this is the first time that a major product gets released on Linux first before a Mac. Come to think of it, Mac’s iPhoto is more than enough for Mac users to manage their photos.

So what the heck are you waiting for? Download it now!

Technorati Tags: Linux

Mac as Java Developer Tool

A Java developer friend of mine just blogged about my recent article. Being a Java Champion, it was difficult to promote Java development on a Mac… then! Now it is easy since Sun officially supports Mac OS X, specially on Intel Macs! Heck, even Java’s father, Dr. James Gosling, uses Macs! How can you not use it?

Anyway, back to the article. We can go on and on about the advantages and disadvantages of each OS and each computer but at the end of the day, it will boil down to your own preferences anyway. The thing is, however, do not criticize one technology over the other without actually trying it out yourself! Unfortunately, I have tried all Windows OS to date (except for WinME) and I must say that I still prefer Mac OS X over it.

Technorati Tags: java, Mac OS X

Eye-candy?

I have been slowly converting my friends over to the Mac. However, there are others who simply dismisses it over their favorite OS from Redmond by saying that the Mac is nothing but a glorified eye-candy.

Well, I am wondering what the new features Microsoft is bragging about that will come with Vista. What is that? 3D effects? Wow, I think that this is pure eye-candy – with no added functionality like LookingGlass or Mac OS X’s Dashboard Widget design. Transparent windows? Cool!

What is with Linux and Xgl? Do you find it cool to have those wobbly windows? Purely eye-candy, I must say.

Frankly, eye-candy is important in providing a better overall UI experience. However, dismissing one technology over another without trying it out (oh, I forget, your computer cannot run Mac OS X!) is simply not fair.

As it is, getting a computer that can run almost all of the operating systems available out there is still better than a computer that can only run far less number of OS. Simple mathematics, I must say. :p

Anyway, to those who have switched, maybe you can tell me if you are still going back to the OSfR.

Technorati Tags: Mac OS X, MacBook Pro

MacBook Review

The MacBook comes in the same “WASH YOUR HANDS BEFORE USING ME” material as the older snow iBooks. In looks, it it the middle sibling of the small (12″) and large (14″) iBooks, but thinner than both of them. For those who have used a 12″ for a long time, the MacBook will seem HUGE. It is also slightly heavier, but overall the weight difference is negligible.

If you are still contemplating on whether to get that MacBook or not, well, here is a very detailed review from one of the moderators of Pinoymac, Gino Ledesma (see his uber-cool setup at work).

If you are looking for one right now, check out Accent Micro promo and cite the PinoyMac and UP (faculty, staff and students ONLY) promo and you get:

1.83Ghz MacBook white – PhP66,000
2.0Ghz MacBook white – PhP78,400
2.00Ghz MacbOok black – PhP89,900

Plus a *free* Targus Backpack!

Cool, huh?

Technorati Tags: MacBook

Heads-up: DivX for Mac

If you are fond of viewing movies and TV shows in DivX format, this is definitely good news. Although I use VLC to view DivX files but I want to be able to view DivX files on my QuickTime Pro player as well. I used to be able to do this when with the DivX QT plug-in from Roxio’s Toast but since it is in PowerPC format, the plug-in does not work on my MacBook Pro without making QT Pro run on Rosetta.

Anyway, DivX for Mac comes with the QT plug-in which works perfectly well. I have not tried encoding yet since Toast supports DivX encoding “natively” — not enough incentive for me to buy the US$20 Pro version.

Technorati Tags: DiVX, Mac OS X

2nd FREE Java Intro Programming Bootcamp course

The free 10-week Introduction to Programming using Java Bootcamp starts today. This is led by JavaPassion’s Sang Shin, one of the Sun Java Evangelists and a Java Education & Development Initiative (JEDI) Master.

You can still join the online class by subscribing to javaintro1-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. The course website and schedule along with other details can be found at JavaPassion.

C’mon and join the fun!

Technorati Tags: java

Microsoft shows off JPEG rival

Microsoft shows off JPEG rival | Tech News on ZDNet:

The software maker detailed the new image format Wednesday at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference here. Windows Media Photo will be supported in Windows Vista and also be made available for Windows XP, Bill Crow, program manager for Windows Media Photo said in a presentation.

Do we really need another graphic image format? JPEG, JP2000, PNG and TIFF are more than enough for us. Let us say that Microsoft’s file format is indeed better – there are still several questions that need to be answered and the most important one is licensing. Microsoft is not known to give away their technology for free so I doubt if this technology will be given away for free. Heck, they even tried exploiting the FAT32 patent. Shesh!

Next question is – how fast can you encode and decode the image? What is the use of an ultra small file format if it takes you a minute to encode/compress an image and another 30 seconds to decode it? Or maybe it requires a quad processor device to achieve instantaneous encoding/decoding. hehehe…

With digital cameras now supporting CCD/CMOS RAW image file formats and with storage getting cheaper and faster, I think RAW and JPEG are here to stay. Heck, you can use fractal image compression techniques and achieve far better image quality but again, the question of processing power requirement should be addressed.

Anyway, until the first issue gets answered, I don’t think Microsoft can successfully push this technology for rapid adoption.

Technorati Tags: Windows Media Photo