This morning, I turned on my office’s laptop, and saw this screen.
I was like “huh?” So I clicked the first option “Activate Windows online now” and all goes well. Strange.
June 28, 2007
Windows Vista activation
June 27, 2007
Using Mac OS X, finally
Last night was my full night using Mac OS X Tiger (10.4.8) without touching Windows Vista at all. So far, my impression of this OS is quite good. It’s solid, lots of niceties being built-in, things which I hoped would be built-into Vista. As much advanced I am in using Windows, I am a total n00b when using Mac. After I boot it up (oh yeah, the boot up to Mac OS X is super duper fast), I was left sitting there, don’t know how to use this new OS facing me. The first thing I installed was Microsoft Messenger for Mac, followed by Firefox 2 for Mac. After that, I don’t know what else will run in Mac. Frankly speaking, I didn’t know how to do basic things that I can do with “my eyes closed” in Windows, like taking screenshots, safely remove hardware, so embarassing.
So, I read a couple of “switching-to-Mac” guide on the Internet, 10 Things Every New Mac Owner Should Know, From Windows to OS X, Useful Keyboard Shortcuts in OS X, A Guide to OS X Software for Switchers, and The Tao of Mac. As there are many software I usually use in Windows are Windows-only, I have to find its Mac OS X-equivalent that can do the same tasks. The software guide to OS X really helps me going, from there I knew about Flip4Mac (to play WMV files in QuickTime), Adium (a wonderful and cute instant messaging application, supports popular MSN, Yahoo, GTalk until never-heard-before of Gadu-Gadu and QQ), and some other applications that I have installed.
Speaking about installation, it’s a no-brainer in OS X. A guide I read said Windows users like to complicate things, searching for installers and uninstallers, kinda true. There’s no such thing per-se in OS X. Just drag the downloaded application into Applications folder, and good you go. To remove the application, just drag the application into Trash, and it’s gone. It’s so simple I was skeptical at first, hehe…. Maybe the guide was right, Windows users like to complicate things :p How to take screenshots? I clicked on Print-Screen, then looked for Microsoft Paint equivalent. It’s not available. Now what? Later on I found out, by Cmd+Shift+3, it’ll take whole-screen-shot, and automatically save the resulting PNG onto desktop. Weird combination, but much less steps than in Windows for sure.
My Mac OS X desktop now, still quite bare.
Keyboard shortcuts are different and takes time to get used to. Instead of Ctrl, Alt, and Shift, it has 
, 
, 
, and Shift. Home and End are Ctrl+left-arrow and Ctrl+right-arrow respectively. To move files, instead of Shift+drag files, it’s Command+drag files. Instead of Ctrl+C, Ctrl+X, and Ctrl+V for Copy, Cut, and Paste, it’s Cmd+C, Cmd+X, and Cmd+V respectively. Different, but not that hard to get used to.
Mac OS X System Preferences Search. Note how it tries to “spotlight” the potential icon you are looking for based on your search terms
Also note how wonderful application like Adium uses the Dock to its maximum potential, showing you who messaged, how many unread messages, and that duck icon is quite animated, depending on your status, very cute indeed. Download manager shows the current download speed (200+KB/sec in the screenshot considered quite slow. At one point, I managed to hit 670KB/sec 
) All in all, it has been a positive experience the last few days with Mac OS X, and am looking forward to using it more for my computing usage. I know I’ll still need to boot to Windows Vista once in a while to use applications that are not available for Mac OS X, notably Microsoft Money 2007 Deluxe. We’ll see how it goes
June 25, 2007
June 22, 2007
Windows Vista is more secure than Mac OS X Tiger (so far)
There have been lots of discussions and opinions that Mac OS X is more secure than Windows by far, that Windows is a sinking ship with too many holes. Well, the truth is out, for the first six months Windows Vista is in the market, it is proven that it is more secure than any other major OS out there.
Operating System Vulnerabilities – First 6 months Full packages
High severity vulnerabilities – first 6 months – all packages
Let me skip all those Linux distros, but concentrate on just Windows and Mac OS X.
From the graph, we can see that although Windows XP has less vulnerabilities compared to Mac OS X, but out of all those vulnerabilities, Windows XP has more that are categorized as High Severity, like those that can allow hackers outside to gain control of your machine without you knowing or do anything.
The good thing is, with Windows Vista, the outlook is so much brighter. It has less vulnerabilities, even for High Severity levels. Coupled that, if you agree, with the fact that Windows gets more security scrutiny than any other OS, makes the result even more impressive.
Now, why do we “feel” that Windows is more insecure? The answer lies not in the operating system, but with the users. yeah, you and me. We, humans, are the curious bunch of creatures that will click on anything that comes our way, right right? including fishy message like: “Click here to know who blocks your MSN”, or “Download latest <whatever> here”, or “Screensaver with Jessica Alba photos”, or “Watch dancing baby” etc. You get the idea. We click on those links, we download attachments from people we don’t know, and with that, we infected our own machine, and we blame our system for it. The system is responsible for it, but we have to at least share the responsibility as well. The answer to security lies in user education. Just DON’T click on “funny” links and you’ll be safe. Just DON’T.
The full research article can be read from http://blogs.csoonline.com/windows_vista_6_month_vulnerability_report
June 18, 2007
Giving seat in MRT
This morning, when I was in the MRT on my way to work, I saw this pregnant lady (looking at her tummy size, about 8 months I guess) entered the train. She stood quite near to me (I was standing also btw) in front of a few guys (late 20s and early 30s) and young ladies (late 20s) who are sitting. One guy was sleeping (he was sleeping since I boarded the train, so he was not pretending to sleep), another guy was busy flipping his morning paper, and another lady was playing with her handphone. I was looking at them, to see if they would give up their seat for this pregnant mother. Can’t do anything about the one sleeping, the one reading newspaper clearly saw this lady. I saw him saw the lady, then continue reading his paper. Man !!!!! I was quite upset. You know, just feel like asking him to give up his seat, politely of course.
Few MRT stops after that, the lady moved to the center, this sleeping guy woke up for a few seconds, looked at her and continue sleeping, TWICE !!! Then, this young lady who’s playing with her handphone conveniently ignored the lady as well. You know, I was that close to asking one of them to give up their seat when someone else from five seats away gave up her seat. The three who ignored this pregnant woman looked very professional in their office attire whom I expect to be well, professional, and socially mature. Whereas, the one who gave up her seat, like this blog post said, this young girl fulfilled all the criteria of people who won’t give up their seats – young teenager with iPod, very loud SMS tone, and very alian outfit (okay, i’m stereo-typing here, but you get the idea)
Do you think it’s wise to politely ask someone who’s sitting to give up their seat for another person who need it more than they do? Note that all are strangers to each other.
As for each of us, don’t get caught red-handed like this man, k? 
Taken from http://www.indrani.net/2005/02/36th-week.html
June 17, 2007
Billy Graham: Wife ‘had a great reception in heaven’
Ruth Graham died Thursday at age 87 following a lengthy illness. Her husband’s closest confidant, she was remembered as a spiritual stalwart and modest mentor who provided a solid foundation — both biblically and geographically — for her globe-trotting husband.
“The mama that we saw at home was the mama that the world saw,” said their son, Franklin, who is now the head of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
