Windows Vista Product Lineup

Microsoft has finally make it official.

“the Microsoft^® Windows Vista product lineup will bring clarity to customers’ digital world by helping them easily accomplish everyday tasks, instantly find what they want, enjoy the latest in entertainment, improve the safety of their personal information, stay connected at home or on the go, and help ensure PCs are up-to-date, more secure and running smoothly.

There are a total of 6 versions, 2 for businesses, 3 for home users and 1 for emerging markets.  Windows Vista Business and Windows Vista Enterprise are for businesses.  Windows Vista Home Basic, Windows Vista Home Premium and Windows Vista Ultimate are for home users.  Windows Vista Starter is for emerging markets.

Windows Vista Enterprise is only available for business customers participating in Microsoft’s Software Assurance program and it will contain certain features that is only available in this version.  Windows Vista Starter is only for emerging markets, giving these markets a basic and low-cost OS.  The rest of the versions will be available for retail and on new PC.

Windows Vista Home Basic and Windows Vista Starter will not contain the new user interface Windows Aero.  The Home Basic only comes with the classic look and feel of Windows and the Starter will be a much simpler OS which only available in 32 bit.  The rest of the versions will let users experience the new Windows Aero, including the now so famous Aero Glass.

Windows Vista Home Premium and Windows Vista Ultimate will also get the new Vista Media Center capabilities.  Windows Vista Business and Windows Vista Enterprise on the other hand will get the all new tablet PC capabilities.

The interesting thing to me is that if Home Basic does not contain the Windows Aero, what is the price point that it is going to launch?  If this package is of the same price as the current Windows XP, then Microsoft is really trying to collect a premium for their latest Windows Aero.  I hope this is not the case.

Windows Vista Feb CTP and WinFX Feb CTP

So they are officially released.  Although, currently only Beta Testers can get their hands on Windows Vista Feb CTP, but it will be out soon for the MSDN subscribers.  In this feature complete build, Windows Sidebar finally make a debut and user can now try out the new rss feed gadget that lies on top of the sidebar.For WinFX Feb CTP, it is now publicly available.  There will be some changes as compared to the Jan CTP that will break any application that was build base on Jan CTP.Since the Windows Vista Feb CTP came out on 22nd Feb, the popular rumour “starter” is wrong again.

HD Ready?

I don’t think so.  After so many years of bombardment by marketing terms, “XXXXX Ready” should alert you that something fishy is going on.  Recently, I went around looking at the HDTV products that are currently available on the market.  I have also blog about some Plasma Vs LCD.  TV manufacturers are using the “Ready” trick again, specifically “HD Ready”.

They are not wrong when they said that certain technology are “Ready” in their products, but to us consumers, we need to know what do they mean by “Ready”.  “Ready” does not necessary means that the product already has that technology.  It can means that you need to add certain component to get that technology, or that it can simply interface with that technology.  In this case “HD Ready” really just means that the TV can accept any HD input.

So what is HD input?  Let’s start with SD.  SD is Standard Definition and is the current format of normal TV.  It means that the video display has roughly about 480 viewable lines.  HD on the other hand is High Definition and consist of at least 720 viewable lines.

Coming back to “HD Ready”.  Certain cheaper TV Panel although it claims “HD Ready”, you can’t really enjoy HD quality when the format becomes vastly available.  This is because this type of panel can only display 852 x 480 pixels.  Which means that at most it can display 480 lines horizontally.  Which means that this panel is actually a SD panel.  So although it can accept HD input, it will use some technique to decrease the 720 or more lines to only 480 lines.  This is of course not true HD quality.

Some people will say, “Well, I can’t see the difference.”  This is true, unless the shop you go to has HD broadcast set top, you can’t really see the difference between SD and HD.  DVD is actually a SD input source and normal broadcast is also of a SD quality.  So when both SD and HD panels are displaying SD video, how can you see the difference?

So the next time when you go shopping for a new TV and want it to be able to last another 5-10 years, you need to check the specification and see what resolution does the panel support.  If it states that the panel can support 1366 x 768 or 1024 x 768, then you can rest assured that this panel can display HD quality video.

2007 Microsoft Office System

It is official, Office “12″ will now be officially known as 2007 Microsoft Office System which will release by end of 2006.  Packaging and pricing info is also out.

The Home and Student edition seems interesting, which replace the Office 2003 Student and Teacher edition.  I am just wondering, what is OneNote 2007?

Twinkle Twinkle little star

This star is not little, in fact it is the biggest diamond in the whole universe, completely outclass the biggest diamond on earth, the 530-carat Star of Africa.  But, of course you can’t wear it.

Windows Defender for Windows XP

Formerly known as Microsoft Antispyware.  Windows Defender is a free software that will help your fight against spyware.  So if you are interested you can get the Beta 2 here.

The Legend

It was the end of 1950s, a tractor maker went to Modena to tell Enzo Ferrari that the clutch on his car was unsatisfactory.  Enzo Ferrari was not someone who can take criticism, after talking with this tractor maker, he dismiss him saying “What does a tractor maker know about super cars?”.  This tractor maker felt insulted.  He took his car back home and fixed the problem himself using his own tractor clutch.  He then took a long hard look at the car’s engine and vowed that he will build himself a super car that will meet or beat Ferrari at his own game.

In 1964, 13 Lamborghini 350 GT were built and Ferruccio Lamborghini, the tractor maker, change the history of automobile forever.

Freedom does not exist

Or I should say total freedom does not exist and should not exist.  With freedom comes responsibilities, which will then create a limited freedom.  We exist in a world where there are lots and lots of different people and with modern technology, interaction between these different different kind of people has become much more easier.  Thus total freedom that disregard the feelings of others does not exist and should not be allowed to exist.  If it exist, it will lead to destruction of human society and in the end a compromise will be reach whereby a limited freedom come into play.

Freedom should exist in a sandbox guarded by our rules and sensitivity to others.   If I can just go into your property and disfigure one of your tree, that is not freedom, that will lead to total chaos.  If I can just create a story about someone’s reputation and state it as fact, that is not freedom, that is total disregard of the meaning of freedom.  Freedom in itself comes responsibilities.

Chinese New Year is over

Yesterday was the end of a 15 days celebration of Chinese New Year.  Of course in modern day Singapore, we celebrate only the first few days.  But the last day of traditional Chinese New Year celebration is still followed by a lot of people.  In Hokkien, Chap-Ghor Meh means the 15th night of Chinese New Year.  And on this night most families reunite to have a banquet and celebrate the end of Chinese New Year.  This night is also considered as a Chinese Valentine day, so some lovers will be out celebrating after the dinner.

For me, yesterday coincide with my Grandmother’s birthday celebration (or more specifically my wife’s grandmother).  We had a buffet dinner at my Grandma’s house.  A lot of relatives were there and it was quite a celebration.  When the celebration ends, one of my relative said “See you all next year” and it hit me.

It is kind of sad that only a few of our relatives get together and mingle around throughout the year.  We only get to see most other relatives during big event like Chinese New Year and the birthday celebration of our Grandma.  The kind of big family spirit can only now be found in our textbook.  But will I go out and meetup with my other relatives?  I don’t think so.

Plasma vs LCD – again

Which is good?

Plasma will give a better black, since it can off its pixel totally which will make it as black.   LCD on the other hand use filter to change color and thus will only give shades of gray and not true black.  However, with today’s technology, LCD’s “black” is not as obvious to the naked eyes.

LCD will give a sharper image.  Thus when you walk into a room with both plasma and LCD of the same size, you will first be attracted to the LCD panel as it look nicer.  But after staying in the room for sometime, you will feel that the plasma panel is nicer to watch.

Plasma has a burn-in effect, meaning if you watch a channel with a channel logo on the top right corner and watch only that channel.  After sometimes the color at that top right corner will be similar to the logo even when you watch other channel without any logo.  There will be a dim logo as if it has been printed on the screen.  But this is very rare.  LCD doesn’t suffer from this effect.

Plasma has a life span of 30,000 hours, but if you do the maths, watching TV 10 hours a day, 7 days a week, your plasma will still last you 8 years.  And if you drop it down to 5 hours a day, which is more of a norm, then it will last you 16 years.  LCD on the other hand doesn’t neccessary has a standard life span, but the light bulb will burn out after sometimes and it can be changed.  But the cost of changing the light bulb is normally quite expensive.

Plasma is cheaper now as compared with the price of an LCD of the same size.  This is because plasma as a technology is more mature than LCD, at least in terms of bigger screen TV panel.

Both are good technology, so in the end it is just your budget and your eyes that will decide which panel you will ultimately go for.  Just remember don’t let the sales person decide for you, you are the one using it and not him/her.

Multi-touch technology

I have come across a new touch screen technology from New York University Media Research Lab.  Its really amazing.  Zooming in and out of a picture, dragging them here and there, zooming and panning a world map in 2D or 3D, turn table and music mixer.  You can do all these with a touch screen and your hand.  Kind of remind me of the movie Minority Report, whereby Tom Cruise interact with the futuristic computer to find information.

But I still think that our “fat” finger will get in the way once the touch screen panel becomes smaller.  Thus the recent Apple’s patent filing for multipoint touch screen might be a bit of a stretch if they are going to implement it on a screen as small as the current iPod.

Plasma vs LCD – which is better for our eyesight

During one of my Chinese New Year gathering, one of my friends asked me whether plasma or LCD is better for one’s eyesight.  My answer was that both are OK.  Since plasma and LCD are both fixed pixel display (meaning to say both don’t draw pixel one by one from left to right, all pixels are drawn at the same time), flickering is a non-issue.  Both panels also do not emit low-radiation and thus not harmful to our health.  Which lead me to conclude that both panels are better for the eyesight than conventional TV and both are equally good.  Provided that brightness and contrast are set to a comfortable level.

However, after giving the issue another thought, I feel that the time you spent in front of the TV is still important.  The focusing of our eyes at a certain object for too long, will make our eyes too dry and will cause myopia.  Thus after watching TV for 2 or 3 hours, one should take a break and let our eyes have a good rest, like looking out through the window at some beautiful scenery.  This way, we can maintain our eyesight and still enjoy our favourite TV programme.

PS3 is still the likely top seller

Gamespot reported that the latest issue of the Japanese Magazine, Famitsu run a survey that claim that Gamers and publishers both pick PlayStation 3 as the likely top money raking machine this year.  However a surprise take is that Retailers are picking Nintendo DS as the one.  Apparently in Japan, after a year of release, the DS is still sold out.  PlayStation 3 on the other hand will be troubled by lack of games when it first comes out as only 8 out of 102 games slated for PlayStation 3 will be launch in 2006.

I am still leaning towards PlayStation 3 and will probably buy one once the dust has settled.

Microsoft is shipping 2 Beta 2 for Windows Vista

Jim Allchin, Co-president of Microsoft, has confirmed that there will be 2 release for Windows Vista Beta 2.

“We’ll produce one this quarter and one next quarter. We’re targeting each CTP at a particular audience. The one coming up this quarter will be targeted toward our corporate accounts.

From what I know, ever since the first CTP for Windows Vista (which came out during the PDC 05), every build has been tagged as Beta 2.  You can see this tag at the lower right of the desktop once you startup Windows Vista.

Community Technology Preview

People who are familiar with the traditional software development milestones will know about Alpha, Beta, and RC.  As in the schedule for a particular software release will be like this, start out in Alpha, where by important features are in but most things are not that stable, this stage is normally for internal testing only.  Then when the software is stable enough for more people to test, it will go into Beta stage.  And after a few iteration, in a final Beta, all features will be in and the software will be consider feature complete.  After that the software will go into RC stage (RC stands for Release Candidate), and the software is being prep for the final release.

It all started with Microsoft Visual Studio 2005.  Microsoft decided to try a new method of releasing software for external testing and they called it Community Technology Preview (CTP).  The CTP will be release monthly and feedback from external tester can then be gotten far more frequently than traditional milestones.  CTP being a preview, will also put less pressure on developers.  In between CTP, there will also be Beta and RC milestones.  For Visual Studio 2005, the CTP program was a success, this success prompted Microsoft to try out the CTP program for Windows Vista as well.

But after the first 2 CTP for Windows Vista (the Sep CTP and the Oct CTP), the suppose Nov CTP turns out to be too bugy for external release.  After some delay Microsoft finally announce that they will not release monthly CTP as it is too taxing on resources.  However, the CTP program has also been successful, but instead of monthly CTP they will now release CTP as frequent as possible.  Furthermore, they will skip Nov CTP and will release Dec CTP instead.  A public Beta 2 will aslo be release sometime in the Q1 of 2006.

Now Microsoft’s co-president Jim Allchin is saying that they will concentrate instead on the CTP approach and will drop the traditional milestones method.  This really make me wonder, is the CTP approach really better or am I missing something?

Gathering

I had a meetup with my college friends last Sunday.  It was such a long time since last we met and some of them already have 2 or 3 kids.  How time flies.  Luckily we still have plenty to talk about and the meetup was quite a good one.

iBlog advance posting – Not Working

For the past few days, I was trying out the advance posting feature of iBlog.  But seems like it is not working.  I have slated for my 3 posts to be published at 7am on 4-6 Feb, but when I went into my website on the afternoon of 5 Feb, none of the advance posts were published.  Then I login to manage my account and try to update the posts (so as to finally published them).  My posts are finally all published but seems like I can’t do advance posting.

Sony Reader

Will this device finally revolutionize reading experience?  Weighing about 255g, it can store the equivalent of 80 books.  But the size and storage is not the main thing, the truly innovative feature is the display.  Quote from its official website:

“The result is a reading experience that’s similar to paper – high contrast, high resolution, viewable in direct sunlight and at a nearly 180-degree angle, and requiring no power to maintain the image.”Available in Spring 2006, you can get the detail here.

Wu

武: The Chinese word that roughly translate to martial art or art of fighting (normally 2 words are use to describe martial art, but the single word is also used).  If you separate the top from the bottom, the top look like 戈 and the bottom look like 止.  The top part in Chinese means fight and the bottom means stop.  So the single word actually give the meaning of how to stop a fight.  This also goes well with the teaching of WuShu, you learn to stop a fight not to start one.

Trying out web browser

After playing around with IE 7 Beta 2, got curious with what other browsers give that make users flock to them.  Since I have been using IE 6 and Netscape 8.0.4, I have decided to try other popular browser like Firefox and Opera.  Both FireFox 1.5.0.1 and Opera 8.5 are good, they even have features that are just introduced in IE 7.  Tabbed browsing seems to be the way to go, all modern browsers have this feature.  But there is one big problem for both browsers, loading of page is slow.  Way too slow.  Somehow my company network dislike other rendering engine.  Last I check BillG isn’t one of my company’s shareholder.

The Pride of Chinese

Overheard on the radio a story related by a lawyer.  He was handling a case whereby the compensation given by the government to relocate was too low for a particular family.  That family consist of an old lady with kidney failure and her daughter who did not finish her primary education.  They are quite poor and thus are getting monthly allowance from a certain charity.  So the lawyer was trying to argue the case base on the financial difficulty of the family in order to secure a better pay out for the relocation.

Come the actual day of the court case and the lawyer was waiting for the family outside the court as they were late.  Finally they appear, the old lady was still wearing her normal everyday clothing, but the daughter went for a hairdo and was wearing a brand new pink long sleeve shirt.  Furthermore her shirt’s first few buttons was undone, both sleeves rolled up and a thick gold necklace can be seen shining brightly.  She was also wearing a shiny gold bracelet.

The lawyer was furious, there he was waiting to tell the judge that the family is poor and the daughter was looking anything but poor.  He ask the old lady what happen and the old lady told him that her daughter wanted to look the best since this is her first time in court.  Then he asked her about the gold necklace and bracelet, the old lady replied that those are left behind by her old man (meaning husband) and that they are the only valuables they have left.

Its not that they are lying about their financial status, they have the proper documents from charities and government organization to prove, it just that for traditional Chinese you need to look the best when attending important event.  The lawyer went over to scold the daughter and help her to button up the shirt, straightened the sleeves and remove all the jewelry.  The daughter was still grumbling about one should look one’s best for occasion like this.  The case was heard and the family got a much reasonable payout.  But for the lawyer he always remember the Pride of Chinese.

Martial Art Anyone?

I have decided…  that I will resume my martial art practice (which has stopped for about a year).  I’ve failed today to wake up early to practice, but I hope I will be able to do it eventually.

Currently what I am practicing is called Xing Yi Quan (this is the Chinese pronunciation, the first word means shape, the second thoughts and the third punch or boxing style).  This martial art style is a branch off from Yi Quan (roughly means thought boxing style) and developed based on the movement of animals.  It is a style that can help to build up your whole body.

Chinese New Year boring?

Hmmm… read in a news article that younger generation (35 years old and below) are saying that Chinese New Year is boring.  They don’t think that the spring cleaning is necessary and that visiting relatives is too much of a trouble.  I don’t think that Chinese New Year is anything boring.  The spring cleaning is tiring (esp for this year, as I’ve added painting) but it is necessary as it helps you to clear all those unwanted stuff and also organize those stuff that you still wants to keep.  Though relatives might ask you some questions that you don’t like to hear, keeping in touch with them is important.

Fearless beats Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon

According to the news article at the official website of Fearless, the weekend outing in most of East Asia total US$ 7.5 million (the news article said South East Asia, but the report include China, HK and Taiwan, thus I change it to East Asia).  Quote “These weekend numbers have surpassed that of “Hero“, “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon” and “House Of Flying Daggers“.”

IE 7 Beta 2 is out

Currently, the new beta will only work with WinXP SP2.  I guess Windows Vista will get the IE 7 Beta 2 in their upcoming Feb CTP.  New to IE 7 is the new interface, which get rid of the old bulky toolbar, and let you see more of the web page. Next is the tabbed browsing (this should not be anything new to users of Firefox and Safari) which let you open several web sites in a single instance of IE 7 using tabs.  Then you have the new built-in search box on the top right corner, this search box even let you select your own favourite search engine like Google, Yahoo and so on.  Another new feature is the RSS Feeds which let you view the headlines and post from your favourite blogs or websites.  Last but not least, is the new phishing detection engine, which let you know whether a website is really just a phishing site.

You can get the beta here.

Fearless

Jet Li’s new shows is awesome!

The fighting is awesome and the story is good.  My take is that anyone who like action movie should definitely watch this.  Very little special effects is employ in this movie (for the fighting scene at least) which make the fighting scene quite true to real Chinese Wushu.  The idealogy put forth in this movie is also true to the teaching of the Wushu.  The true strength of a Chinese pugilist is not in his skill but in his way of treating others and knowing oneself.

Watch the trailer.

Playing game can earn you money

Not by actually playing the game yourself.  I have read a news article that talk about how Chinese “businessman” in China employ less educated Chinese to play the game World of Warcraft.  These “employee” are suppose to gold “mine” 400 virtual gold coin everyday and be paid S$4 each day.  Most of them work 12 hour a day.  Since the standard of living in China is still quite low as compared to those of developed countries, this is good money.  The “businessman” will then re-sold these virtual gold coin in bundle of 2,000 for US$100.  This is S$20 (5 “employee” to get 2,000 gold coin per day) for S$163, a profit of roughly 7 times the cost.  This is very good money indeed.