Frustrated with Office 2010 Web Apps

YARRRRRRRRR Office Live Web Apps are still offline. GRRRRRRR

I like how hootsuite manages my twitter,

I like how hootsuite manages my twitter, facebook, AND wordpress accounts, all in one

Firefox 3.6 is Here!

Today, Mozilla released Firefox 3.6, an update to the world’s one of the most popular web browser.

On the grand continuum from inconsequential bug fix to massive upgrade, Firefox 3.6 isn’t a biggie. But it could be very worthwhile: Mozilla is claiming a 20 percent speed increase (including faster startup and JavaScript improvements) and more stability. I haven’t played with 3.6 enough to form my own conclusions other than “so far, so good,” but just about the only things I don’t like about Firefox are that it feels slow to load, sometimes seems to bog down, and freezes and/or crashes more than it should.  A smoother-running Firefox could get me back on that browser more or less full time.

(At the moment, I use Firefox maybe 25 percent of the time–but I’m more likely to use IE8 on Windows, and Safari on OS X.)

Other improvements in 3.6 include the integration of Personas, a nice one-click system for applying skins to the browser; a new plug-in system that detects outdated plug-ins and helps you install updated versions, and improved form autocomplete features.

Should you get Firefox 3.6? Yes, if you’re a Firefox fan–once you’ve verified that your favorite plug-ins are available for it. And if you’re an ex-Firefox user who’s drifted off to another browser over speed or stability issues, it’s also worth a look. If you take it for a spin, I’d love to know what you think. You don’t need a download link, but here it is just in case.

Windows 7 (and MSDNAA)

Windows 7 is finally out! Yay!

As you all know, I’ve been using Windows 7 full time since its pre-beta days (build 6801), and have been very happy with it. Presently, I’ve been stuck on the Release Candidate since I had no access to the RTM builds.

Recently, I’ve found out that my school (Simon Fraser University) is a member of the MSDNAA (Microsoft Developers Network Academic Alliance), and provides free access to any student currently enrolling in computer science classes. And that, of course, means that as a Computer Science student, I get a free version of Windows 7 Professional (retail). I opted to download the image file via their download client, and here are some screenshots.

It first started downloading a file with the format of .sdc, which was quite baffling, but after the download was complete, it converted itself to an .iso.
I shall be installing Windows 7 Professional RETAIL version on my laptop as soon as I get some breathing room, because, honestly, school has been brutal on me with all its mid-terms and all.

Apple Apps Store Glitch

For the past week there was a really weird glitch on the Apple Apps Store front end client on the iPhones and the iPod touches.
It looked something like this:

Anyways, it was never tha big of a deal, and by the time you read this, Apple probably already had fixed it.

Quick Update

Hello. Sorry I haven’t update my blog for 2 months now. I’ve been busy with things university students do during the summer and didn’t have any time to write a new story. However, I’ve Bern facebooking, twittering, and friendfeeding religiously everyday. You can find me at facebook.com/soahmz, Twitter.com/soahmz, and friendfeed.com/soahmz.
Anyways, I’ve just installed the wordpress app for iPhone and testing it write now. On fact, this will be the first post ever on my blog that was 100% written on a mobile platform. This is very exciting, as it means I can blog on the go now.

Anyways, I’ve got to get going and finish my school homework, but I’ll try to start writing an posting new content up here as much as I can. Bye!

Free HSS Alternative

Ever since Hotspot Shield has been blocked by Hulu, we Canadians have been struggling to find other workarounds to access Hulu. I have been researching a lot about it myself, and found a very simple client called NotMyIP v1.1 by Privacy-Gateway.com. It’s a very simple application that allows you to change your visible IP address to a US address, thereby effectively bypassing many geo blockings that have been placed in sites such as Hulu. Since Privacy-Gateway.com makes a program that does the same job as NotMyIP for money, NotMyIP, being free, is obviously very limited. NotMyIP v1.1 comes with four different American proxies to choose from. Although four may seem adequate when you first see it, it really isn’t. Because of the high demand, these proxies are usually very very crowded with thousands and thousands of people trying to bypass geo blocking or censorship. After experimenting with it for hours, I was finally able to access a proxy that wasn’t as crowded. I headed for Hulu, and voila! It worked!
There however is another downside to this application. HSS was a comparatively fast service which allowed us to stream high def videos from Hulu. NotMyIP, however, isn’t nearly as fast. The videos were only watchable with standard def, and even with that, it took some time to buffer the stream.
All in all, NotMyIP is a good product to try while waiting for HSS to rotate their servers again to get through Hulu, but in the long run, it’s far too slow to use on daily basis.

Windows Vista SP2

I downloaded and installed Vista SP2 this morning as soon as I got up. You can download it right now by clicking here or wait for another 3 weeks until Microsoft starts rolling it out in Windows Update. It took about 20 minutes to install, without any errors or problems whatsoever. Nice.

It supposedly fixes a lot of problems in Vista, which you can find in the list here: http://www.pcworld.com/article/165520/vista_service_pack_2_now_ready_for_download.html.

When my computer booted with SP2 for the first time, it felt very sluggish, giving me an impression of problems in the service pack. However, after a reboot, it started to function fine, and is very stable. In unofficial tests, there doesn’t seem to be too much of a speed boost.

Hotspot Shield is now blocked from Hulu

Sites like Pandora and Hulu block IP addresses not originating from the United States. The solution for the past 6 months or so has been to use Hotspot Shield which proxies your IP address behind an US address.

As of today, this no longer works. When you load up a video, you get the following:

Pandora seems to still work, however.

When is the old world media going to get that the Internet is global and find a solution for all this rights territory nonsense?

The Future of Smart Phones

Today, in 2009, mobile phones known as Cellular Phones are everywhere. It seems that there is at least one phone for every person in today’s modern North American society. Another branch of these mobile phones, known as Smart Phones also exist, are becoming more and more popular by the day, though still are not as prevalent as Cellular Phones. These Smart Phones can be described as hybrids of regular Cellular Phones and underpowered mobile computers, with its relatively powerful processors, matched up with a relatively more capable and powerful Operating Systems (OS), compared to any other existing garden variety Cellular Phones. Though these Smart Phones seem like nothing when compared to full blown Personal Computers, their small size make them the number one choice as the most portable computer that will be always connected, and always with the owner, wherever he/she may be.

In the year 2059, one would find that the term ‘Smart Phone’ not too familiar to the ears. That will be because with the revolution of mobile phones, they would become to be known as ‘netPhones’ instead. The term netPhone derives from ‘Net’book and Smart ‘Phone,’ implying that these mobile devices are as powerful as 2009’s Netbook computers (Netbooks as we know it in 2009 will cease to exist in the distant future). With the introduction of the iPhone, various Blackberries, the Andriod phones, and the WebOS in the 2000’s, Smart Phones have started to become popular with regular consumers, and with this momentum, netPhones will become the ultimate mobile device to have in the year of 2059. By then, at least 3 quarters of all mobile phone users would have switched over to using netPhones, from every self respecting teenagers to young adults, business executives, and perhaps even the consumers of older generations.

Many changes will have occurred regarding the mobile phone technology between the years of 2009 and 2059. Most significantly, these phones would be as powerful as 2009’s Netbooks. This is already happening presently, the iPhone 3G having similar system specifications as older Personal Computers with its 412 MHz CPU and 128MB of RAM (Wikipedia_contributors, iPhone, 2009). In the Year 2059, almost all of these netPhones will be powered by multi-core Intel Atom or AMD Neo chips, allowing them to be very powerful. They will also feature full-blown OS’s that are more fully integrated with the hardware and can perform many tasks that are usually done on Personal Computers today. Another big milestone, or rather milestones, would be the wireless network generation leap of 3G to 8G. In 2009, most data are transferred by either 2.5G or 3G network. However, by 2059, 8G network would be close to the finishing, meaning faster network with even more bandwidth than ever. The network itself will be also much more stable with constant speed, unlike today’s flaky 3G network (Wikipedia_contributers), 2009). These changes translate to more reliable mobile devices that can perform advanced tasks wherever one may happen to be, without the need of relying on larger Personal Computers. Because camera technology on phones is also rapidly advancing, we can safely assume that by 2059, 8MP cameras with at least 1/1.8” sensor and optical zoom instead of digital zoom would be the norm on the netPhones, rendering everyday digital point and shoots practically useless, bulky dead meat. These netPhones will be a very powerful, always connected source of information and entertainment.

Previously, before the emergence of Smart Phones, integrating little applications such as calculators and calendars on mobile phones seemed like intuitive ideas. Today, it is all about the web. The new cool ability one can make use of on Smart Phones is web browsing and little Internet enabled widgets that present updated information of specific things. By 2059, netPhones will be even more about the Internet than 2009’s Smart Phones will ever be. Full Internet Browsers with Java and Flash support will be the norm, with even more sophisticated third party applications to make use of the fast 8G network. Moore’s law explains how the “number of transistors that can be replaced increases exponentially (Wikipedia_contributors, Moore’s Law, 2009),” meaning that the existence of these powerful netPhones are not only possible, but most probable. All technologies will continue to advance in due time, and mobile computing technology is no exception. It has been getting more and more advanced and powerful by time, and it will continue to do so. This imagined future of powerful mobile devices have been fuelled by my keen interest in all high-tech devices, especially by the iPhone, when I realised how powerful its hardware was, being comparable to full-fledged Personal Computers from just a decade ago.

Cellular Phones will be eventually replaced by Smart Phones. netPhones will eventually replace Smart Phones. With netPhones, it will be all about the web and how we use it to interact with others. netPhones will be as powerful as a full Personal Computer with an advanced OS. With the ability to make crystal clear phone calls through its 8G network, netPhones will turn out to be the ultimate mobile computing device that will ever come to existence.

References

3G. (2009, April 6). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved April 7, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=3G&oldid=282094057

Digital Cameras – A beginner’s guide. (2003, N.A). In photo.net. Retrieved April 6, 2009, from http://photo.net/equipment/digital/basics/

IPhone. (2009, April 6). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved April 7, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=IPhone&oldid=282225588

Moore’s law. (2009, April 4). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved April 7, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Moore%27s_law&oldid=281604295