Torrent jackpot

>200kB/s for a torrent download of the lastest Ubuntu OS...

Finally configured my net connection to circumvent The Great Firewall. Muahahahaha!



uTorrent rocks...'nuff said.

Pimp my XP

With a two-week break for Lunar New Year and not much to do, I decided to see how far I can push my 5-year-old Lazarus before I replace it with a tablet this summer. Read somewhere on the web that you can mod your copy of Windows XP to the tablet edition without too much trouble.

So I decided to try and.....


Ha! If only Lazarus had touchscreen or Wacom compatibility!

Now I can run my nLite-d copy of Windows XP with tablet functionality instead of the resource-hogging Windows 7 on the new tablet. Which means I can get something with the power-saving but slower SU series of Core 2 Duo CPU instead of the T or P series and still run a fast OS.

Which means a savings of a few hundred bucks. The Fujitsu T5010, running a T series CPU, costs just over $3k while the T2020, running an SU series CPU, costs about $2.3k.

Sounds like a good deal...

Back on the laptop

My Fujitsu is back online after replacing a burnt out chip. Cleaned out the fan, too. Now it's as quiet as new. I shall henceforth name it Lazarus.

The guy who fixed it is very knowledgeable and provided very good service. Anyone needing his laptop fixed or even looked at for advice, here's his shop contact:

圳芯电脑技术有限公司
漕溪北路41号
太平洋数码一期345号
021-54900137
方先生

Showing some spine?

So maybe Google has decided to show some spine and walk away from a potentially lucrative market?

Read this article.

Everyone's talking China these days.

Censored search engine is an oxymoron anyway. So maybe Google might just salvage some pride with this move.

The journey continues

one more week and on to the next stage in the revolution against closed-source, commercial OSes...

Jobs' Apple

I wonder how much of a company Apple is without Steve Jobs. Recall the troublesome years that it went through between 1985 to 1997. And how it was re-invigorated with his return and the first iMac.


Source: BBC

Now that he has taken 6 months medical leave, and looking increasingly gaunt by the passing months, I fear for the company that always gave us something to look forward to in an industry dominated by suits and geeks who don't necessarily understand what the common man wants from a computer. In essence, he was the driving force behind all that Apple has come to symbolize.

We wish you well, Steve.

More updates on alternate choices

So region-coding sucks and you're restricted to 5 changes of region codes on your PC DVD player.



I cannot play DVDs from any region on my Ubuntu PC.

Libdvdcss2 rocks!

Ha!

Taking the red pill

And so I wiped Windows off the HDD and installed Ubuntu.



Being a strict non-geek, I hadn't expected to do anything useful beyond stare at the pretty start-up screen. So I was pleasantly surprised to find myself surfing wirelessly, watching DVDs, creating documents and blogging.

All this painlessly and quickly, too, on a Pentium-M 1.3GHz, which was anaemic running Windows.

So how much does it cost to get Ubuntu, the office software (word processor, spreadsheet + presentation), media players, browser etc?

$0/-

It's a free 700MB download from www.ubuntu.com

Go ahead, do something different today.

Configuring wintel wireless adapters

Remind me again why I hate Wintel hardware.

Spent the pass 3 hours trying to get my X31 to latch on to the wireless network at home. It was a hair-pulling experience.

Remember, those of you who are using the old Intel 2100 wireless cards. You have to un-hide your network's SSID, otherwise it wouldn't be able to detect it. Even if you type in the ID manually.

I hate Wintel!

Small desktop PC project

So, in an effort to reduce freight charges, my next project is this...


Source: mini-itx.com

Ultimately housed in a 6cmx25cmx25cm casing...



Watch this space for updates...

Feeling airheaded

Source: www.apple.com

I want!