Chris’s Domain

Today, I discovered this really cool utility that allows one to share a single keyboard/mouse setup on 2 separate computers. My home workstation setup consists of an 8730w workstation laptop connected to an external monitor and with this utility, I can now share my external keyboard and mouse across the main laptop and my ultraportable X301 and have an effective dual PC solution.

http://www.inputdirector.com/downloads.html

Watching the WWDC segment on the new Macbook Pro line up this morning and then reading the comments on various web forums, I began to realise how shallow some people can be when it comes to owning a computer. Apple rebadged the 13″ unibody Macbook as a Macbook Pro, and suddenly, I see comments from people saying how they now deem this to be a worthwhile purpose, all because it is now a “Pro” device.

Come on! It’s only “Pro” because Apple says it so. How is the notebook different in any way from its predecessor, besides the addition of some features which is probably irrelevant to most buyers. Let’s break it down:

1) Firewire 800 - Unless you’re a digital content professional (which probably means the 13″ Macbook was never the right device to use in the first place due to the limited screen resolution, processing power and graphics chipset), you’d hardly use this. An eSata port may have been a better solution.

2) Built-in Battery - Now, this is probably worth an upgrade IF the single battery 6 hour light to moderate usage scenario suites you.

3) Better Screen - The original Macbook doesn’t have such a bad screen either. Now, if the resolution was higher at say 1440×900, then it will be completely worth it.

4) 8GB RAM - Too expensive and by the time I can get one, I’d be upgrading the notebook anyway.

5) Larger HDDs and SSDs - NewEgg.

6) SD Card Slot - Seriously? This is a cheap addition and completely unnecesary. A full-sized ExpressCard slot would offer better expandability.

7) Processor speed bump - Insignificant

Backlit keyboard - Already have it if you had the higher end model.

9) Pro nametag - Ah ha! The big ticket item, or so it seems. I can assure you there are people who refused to buy the first unibody model because it wasn’t “Pro”. It’s interesting how people actually react to branding. Must be the reason why GM was so successful.

Head on to eBay in the next few weeks and expect to see a whole bunch of people selling off their Macbooks in order to “upgrade” to a Pro’er version. I’d rather wait for the next Intel platform refresh which will actually bring in real performance gains worth waiting for.

Clearly Lenovo believes that its customers are immune to the current economic climate. With prices like these, how could Macs possibly be overpriced? Apple tax vs Lenovo tax, your pick.

Recently, after updating to IE8 on Vista x64, I am encountering problems while trying to load web pages in multiple tabs. The tab would open and will be stuck at Connecting forever. After some amount of Googling, I found a solution which fixes the problem (as described here). Doing the following should fix this problem:
1) Run command prompt with administrator rights (Start > type ‘cmd’ > Right click on Command Prompt shortcut and select “Run as Administrator”)

2) type ‘regsvr32 actxprxy.dll’ (ignore quotes) to re-register the ActiveX dll.

After more than a year (1.5 year to be exact), I’ve finally managed to find the time (and enthusiasm) to maintain a blog again. The old boastMachine engine is dead, after being spammed one too many times and I’ve finally settled on Wordpress.

Henceforth, this is the brand new 2008 edition of my story. As the story of my life in the past year is too much and possibly too traumatic to recount, we’ll just ignore it.

Last week during a lecture, Alex told me about some Microsoft offer for uni students. Apparently, you can purchase Office Ultimate 2007 for only $75. I was more than shocked since the retail version costs $1200. Needless to say, I rushed home and quickly googled for the site URL without waiting for link from him. I logged on and tried to make a purchase immediately. I tried 3 times with my credit card, and every time, the site dies just after the verification page. Now, I’m worried if my card’s been charged, so I called up the bank to enquire. Nope, it hasn’t. So, the site’s credit card page is a little wonky I thought.
Then, I decided to try a more secure and reliable browser such as the Mozilla Firefox (was using IE7 prior). This time, surprise, surprise, it worked! A Microsoft site which works best on Firefox is quite a surprise. I received the product key almost immediately, downloaded the setup file, installed and activated a full, unlimited version of Office Ultimate 2007. This has simply got to be the most fulfilling purchase of the year since I was seriously contemplating Office Professional AE 2007 for $249 before I heard about this offer.
It’s too good a deal to miss. There’s still time to purchase it. I’d definitely recommend going for it as it’s a perfect opportunity to go genuine at least once. Microsoft is aware that 99% of students run cracked Office, so this is their opportunity to get them to convert I guess. For $75, there’s no compelling reason for anyone to get Office_Enterprise_2007+Keygen+ActivationCracked+OGA.

http://www.itsnotcheating.com.au

This is a belated post. I’ve kinda devoted my attention elsewhere for quite some time, hence the lack of updates.
So, as usual, uni has started yet again. Everything’s pretty much normal as I expect. Taking 4 CSE courses a session is definitely a killer (both WAM and sanity wise), but I have absolutely no idea why I’m doing so. It’s probably because I’d just like to get all my COMP courses out of the way so I can progress towards my Commerce degree from next session.
I’ve also finally got my beloved new notebook in working order, a nice new custom-configured nx8420 with docking station. Why an HP? Well, I’ve had them in the past and they were great. Good support (Good but NOT excellent because I have had to grapple initially with HP India’s call centre which isn’t a great experience), great specs and good price. What more can you ask for, right? Now considering purchasing an additional 1GB stick of RAM and a nice 19″ or 20″ widescreen monitor and I’ll be all set for a whole new computing experience (I hope). Still running Windows XP on this notebook though as I intend to make it a desktop replacement, so can’t really risk battling with Vista’s little quirks on it while I need to get my work done, although I’m experimenting with Vista on my uni notebook which is all fine as nothing important gets done there. Vista will be a nice OS, it just requires some getting used to. I took 12 months to migrate from Windows 98 to XP, so I expect that long for my Vista migration too as XP still hasn’t failed on me.

Exams are finally over….There goes another year of uni.
On Friday night, I had the end of year Engineering Student Ambassador dinner. It was a great night, thanks to Donna’s great organising skills and all those who attended. The place was great, the food was lovely (woodfire pizzas fr all you can eat) and an almost freeflow of alcohol (courtesy of Donna, Andrew, Tom) made it all the better. It’s amazing how 15 people managed to finish 12 bottles of alcohol, despite the advise for moderate drinking which we managed to uphold (I think).
Saturday, went to watch Borat. Now, this movie is seriously funny. There’s no word to describe it. It’s so much bizarre as it’s funny. It reminds us of how much we miss out in our increasingly politically-correct world because the jokes are no-holds-barred. The nude wrestling match scene is so funny i make you cry. Picture an obese man and a thin guy wrestling nude, both wth hairy arses and yo know what. It’s so wrong, so wrong.
Spent much of my Saturday morning marking a tonne of SENG reports, then worked on a SMARTS project.
Sunday wasn’t too eventful. Wanted to have dinner at Hurricane, but was completely booked out, so had to settle for one of the restaurants along the beach strip.
Now, time to detox…..
High Schools Info Day on Monday at uni, Work, HP Appointment on Weds, Work + Work + Work.

This is the greatest piece of gadget I’ve ever owned, a silver/plum Nokia N73. Just take a look at the beautiful pictures it makes. Only problem I have coming from a Windows Mobile background is the lack of “hackability” I find on the Series 60 platform. Either that, or I have yet to find a good resource like Modaco for Symbian. However, this isn’t much of a concern (yet), as the myriad of features will keep me satisfied for the next few months. 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera, 2GB miniSD card, QVGA screen, Series 60 3rd edition, full HTML browser, Word/Excel viewers and editors, Flash Player, Real Player, etc. It’s the perfect workhorse, only missing the WiFi.

Some pics I took from a corporate cruise lunch last Thursday, with winds of up to 60 knots. Definitely “hair-rasing” !

Pic 1 | Pic 2

Imagine there’s no heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today…
Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace…

You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world…

You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one