Compiz on a Thinkpad T61

It's always a chore installing linux on a new computer but it has never been this gratifying.
I recently had the chance to install OpenSUSE 10.2 on a brand new Thinkpad T61. I'll write a review on my next post about my experiences, but for now allow me to indulge you with a few pics of the latest Compiz-Fusion in action on this sweet machine.

Now we can sync with Google Calendar

Hot off the Ajaxian presses, Google now allows you to write back using the GData API. In the past, all developers have been able to do is to consume data from services like Google Calendar, however, with this development, it won't be long before we see web apps or even desktop apps that sync with Google Calendar.

Making Sense of the NBN Project

I think having close to all the cabinet secretaries and resource persons who had a hand or are directly or indirectly related to the NBN Broadband project in that room was decisive and well played in the part of the Executive.

It sends a strong message to the Filipino people, at least it did to me, that the government is executing this project in good faith, that it is above board, that they have nothing to hide and that it is in the interest of the nation.

Whether or not you or I believe it is a totally different matter, of course :-)

However, sticking to the TECH side of things, Yuga enumerates exactly what that contract will get us if it ever pushes thru.

Web Page Development ala Opera

I love the Opera Web Browser. It's the browser I use to check mail, read feeds and chat (yup Opera comes with an IRC chat client).

It's the one browser I can keep on for almost forever on my linux desktop without crashing or using up a ton of resources. If it does crash, it's intuitive enough to resume and launch the pages prior to it crashing. Firefox has that same feature now but I do recall Opera was first to introduce it (please correct me if I am wrong). In fact, tabbed browsing has been an Opera mainstay way before Firefox or IE had it.

What's interesting and maybe laudable about Opera (the company) is that they're not out to conquer your desktop. It seems they're taking aim on consumer devices like mobile phones and game consoles. I was rather intrigued to find out that Opera developed a web browser for the Nintendo Wii. They even have a javascript API for the Wiimote. Too bad I don't have a wii yet and the browser (aka the Internet Channel) isn't free anymore.

If any geeks out there happen to have a Wii and would like to develop web pages on Opera, they might find this page helpful. I've always raved about the firebug on firefox combination for developers.

It seems Opera has a couple of nifty developer tools to challenge the dynamic duo of web development with its Developer Console and DOM Snapshot tools.

On the Other Hand: The Flip Side of Entrepreneurship by Glenn Kelman

If you're like me, I'm sure you were elated after watching this video. For a split second I'm sure you thought that you too could create a site like or even better than Plenty of Fish that gets twelve billion page views, 380 hits per second, $5-6 million a year in ad revenue and with only two hours of work a day.

The elation gradually wears away though after reality bites and you realize how hard starting a Web 2.0 company really is and that Markus Frind is probably in sane to believe that his site is up and running getting that many hits with ASP.Net on just one IIS server.

Well, after the let down, I encourage you to read this article, also from Guy Kawasaki's blog on Glen Kelman's counterpoint.

He makes interesting, encouraging and comforting points about the flip side of entrepreneurship. He cites very interesting and relevant anecdotes and quotes while presenting his points in a free flowing train of easy to comprehend text. If he wasn't introduced as CEO of Redfin I'd say he's a professional writer/blogger and a good one too.

Ajax powered File Manager demo

The revolution started a few short years ago with Google's Gmail.

It's the web application that put WOW back into WWW.

It is truly the first web application that I would trade in my trusty e-mail client for. The decision to switch was a no brainer. Yahoo Mail didn't have POP. At that time, no free email hosting provider offered more than a measely 5MB of email storage. Outlook Express crashes at the sheer volume of e-mail I get everyday. Finally, searching thru hundreds to thousands of messages wasn't such a chore because it actually works !

Suddenly, more and more people were turning to their browsers to read mail, gradually weaning away from the desktop e-mail clients that they have become so use to.

After the e-mail client, is the file manager not too far away from the same fate ?

Probably not in the near future. As I have mentioned before, browsers need a little catching up before we can actually see that happening. Right now, for instance, if you want seamless dragging and dropping of files from your desktop to a web page, you have to rely on a java applet.

Click the title link above to see a demo I wrote of an ajax powered file manager (username:coa,password:123) that works on top of the robust OpenACS File Storage package.

I wouldn't call it innovative, in fact, it copies a lot of things from Windows Explorer but it has to start somewhere :-)

Yahoo! Announces YSlow, Firebug based performance tool

Just a few weeks ago I posted my lessons learned from trying to get an ajax powered web application to run better and faster.

No doubt many developers are constantly trying to find ways to do just that and it looks like Yahoo! has answered the call with this plug-in.

Globe says subscribers "abusing" their network ....

It's rather upsetting to hear Globe say that their subscribers are "abusing" their network.

Are they in effect saying that people should only subscribe to their internet service to do important stuff like work and not for something trivial as downloading torrents ?

How can it be abusive for subscribers to maximize the usage of a service that they are paying for ?

Don't get me wrong, I believe the reason for the cap is valid, we're talking about the survival of their service and their company after all.

Furthermore, if it will improve the quality of service, why not. As one commenter on Yuga's blog posted :

"The 5 GB cap would be fine with me, if they could deliver the service with decent speeds".

However, to say that the reason for the action is that their subscribers are "abusing" their network is like adding insult to injury, in particular, to the subscribers who are paying for the service but are not really getting the advertised speeds.

If I were Globe, I would just be honest and admit that their network isn't up to that kind of load at the present time. Don't blame your subscribers for maximizing their usage of your service !

PS : I'm not a Globe visibility subscriber :-)

Bye Bye Beagle

That is what hundreds of Linux users will be saying as they download Google's latest masterpiece, Google Desktop for Linux.

Get it now before all the geeks flood their servers ....
http://desktop.google.com/linux/

Addicted to Ice Tea

Yes, I will admit it, I am addicted .... addicted to iced tea.

What's worse, it's not your regular P20 ($0.50) iced tea. In fact a large cup costs about 5 times as much but, I dare say, it tastes as good as it is expensive.

I am biased towards the Southern Blend Iced Tea served at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf which I frequent quite often since I fell in love with the exquisite drink. I've always thought that I was a Starbucks Frapuccino guy but when it's scorching hot and you're parched, a frapuccino isn't exactly the kind of beverage that will quench your thirst.

HELP : Link texts gone on Safari Beta on windows

Update : Safari doesn't work on Windows 2003 Server. Although the installer won't complain that you're installing it on an unsupported OS, you will end up with the problems below if you do try it out.

It seems I can truly forego buying that Macbook Pro I've been drooling over because Safari is finally available for Windows. I promptly downloaded the setup file from apple.com and went thru the rudimentary install.

Lo and behold Apple's start page on Safari.



However, when I visited my favorite search engine Google, I see this ....



I tried to edit the font preferences but they're all blanked out. Clicking "Select" allows me to select a font but nothing shows up on the textboxes after making the selection.



Any help or hint will be most appreciated :-)

Blogger "Tagalized"

I guess it was only a matter of time, it first happened to "Anime" and "Korea Novelas" on TV, and now Blogger too.

I logged in to my Blogger dashboard today to find "tagalog" as the language used on the dashboard. I'm sure the Japanese and Chinese will cheer to see dashboard scribbled in their local dialect but I doubt that Filipinos will find it an improvement. That's just my opinion though.

Quirksmode and Strict Mode

Being a back end developer for the longest time, I never really bothered myself with web browser standards. Not until recently.

I've been into Web 2.0 a lot where the development is more on the front end. I've come to realize how front end web developers are completely at the mercy of web browsers and the stubborn adamant companies who make them.

If you find yourself working on the front end of web development a lot, I encourage you to not only know the standards (yes, we do have standards, that's what the W3C is for) but to also know and understand the quirks of the most popular browsers around.

I guess nobody is perfect, the newer version of Internet Explorer for instance tried to be more standards compliant but have fallen quite short.

Click the title link above to learn about quirks mode and strict mode. May it help you keep your hair on your head and most importantly your sanity.

How to hire the best people you've ever worked with

Marc Andreessen (founder of Netscape Communications) shares sound advice on "How to hire the best people you've ever worked with"

Apollo is now AIR

The Ajaxian reports that Adobe Apollo has graduated from Alpha and is now in beta with a fresh new name .... AIR (Apollo Integrated Runtime)

What makes Apollo, I mean AIR, such a promising product is that it allows web developers to enter the realm of desktop development. Well, it's not like web developers don't know a thing or two about desktop application development, as a matter of fact, I'm quite sure that many web developers, specially the older ones (cough!cough!), came from a desktop application development background.

AIR allows developers to leverage knowledge acquired during web development to develop desktop applications. It may not be exciting for the old timers but the new kids on the block that were born to, live with and breath the web have a cause to smile.

Just between you and me, Apollo is a way cooler name :-)

VMWare Fusion and Unity

If this ain't a compelling enough reason to get a Mac, I don't know what is ...



Furthermore, unlike Parallels, Fusion is free. I hope it stays that way.

Alternative Uses for the Google Gears WorkerPool Module

Last week I described how the Local Server module from Google Gears can help speed up loading time of subpages.

I had another brain storm today and it involved using the WorkerPool API to improve interactivity within a website. It's not uncommon for front end developers to use a technique called polling to do such things as real time popup notification or instant chat messages.

My idea is to use the workerpool instead of polling.

Interesting, but is it feasible and worthwhile ?

To be feasible, you'll need people to have gears installed, otherwise your app won't work, unless of course you degrade gracefully in its absence.

To be worthwhile there has to be some advantage in using the workerpool as opposed to polling.

Santa Rosa MacBook Pros : Is it time to switch religions ? ?

Within minutes of reading the Engadget and Gizmodo feeds from google reader about the apple store being down in anticipation of an update, I went to Apple.com and sure enough, I see two giant images of the new MacBook Pros on the frontpage.

Oh how I wish they'd just put "Santa Rosa" in there somewhere. I had to navigate all the way to this page and read about the 800Mhz frontside bus before I could confirm that these are indeed Santa Rosa based laptops.

My old trustee IBM bit the dust a few months back and went to laptop heaven. The shop I went to tells me that unless there's some sentimental value in bringing it back to life, I'd be better off buying a new one.

I've been a windows and linux user for as long as I can remember, frankly, buying a laptop with a different OS, even if it's unix based, is scary, specially if it's worth $1999 and up :-)

However, I have to admit both bootcamp and parallels (coherence mode) are tipping the scales in favor of a new Mac. Another problem is that by the time they get to Philippine shores, there'll be new portables to drool over ... and then the cycle continues ...

Which in itself is a good thing because it means I don't need a laptop, at least not yet, otherwise, I would've snapped up one as fast as I got my desktop.

Web 2.0 for a cellphone ?

I signed up for alpha testing a new (I guess, locally developed) web 2.0 site (ala friendster).

I'm just as curious as Yuga is as to how a Web 2.0 site will be able to promote mobile phones.
Will the site be viewable in one form or another in the cellphone ?
Will the site provide some sort of special service that users of this new mobile phone can use ?
Also, I would be very interested to find out if they used some sort of development or ajax framework.

I guess I'll find out when I see it.

Debugging javascript with debugger

Aside from console.log, there is another javascript command that is available that has been immensely helpful in diagnosing javascript code

It's called "debugger".

Just place that command anywhere in your javascript code. When your page loads, execution will stop on the line where you placed debugger. This works on ...

• Firefox with firebug installed
• Internet Explorer with the Script Debugger installed

var myvar="this is myvar";
// execution stops here and the debugger window appears
debugger;
alert(myvar);