Distant memories alive! – 92 AL Class
Posted by: Chan on: 10, December, 2008
It is strange sometime how life turn it’s pages. Wonderful I might say.
Today in the morning I gotta call from one of my life long school friend. A surprise call with the hope of re-uniting some of my precious school friends, who were long gone without proper contacts but never forgotten. We have all have grown in to the working ecosystem once after leaving the school so that it never crossed our ways there again, up until now.
Now Randu, and Janaka has initiated re-uniting us all again, in this web ecosystem, it’s easy and I am sure we will always be within reach from now on.
So this is a humble gratitude, for life which offers us endless opportunities, to welcome all my school friends, bringing back the distant memories alive!
Use TrueType fonts on your Palm Treo
Posted by: Chan on: 9, December, 2008
- In: Palm| Software| Tech
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I know most of you guys may aware of the wonderful Palm font utility called FontSmoother. I consider it’s one of the must have for any Palm user. FontSmoother installation comes with many of Palm friendly typefaces where Utopia is one of my favorites.
But I was sort of looking for a way to use some of my favorite fonts that I use on my computer screen. Specially I have grown a fan of the few fonts which came bundled with new MS Office 2007 version. They are very good for screen reading. Namely my personal takes are like Segoe UI, Calibri and Cambria is very nice. Also the new Google Android font is so cool.
So as I figure out there is a simple way to get any of your famous TrueType font on your Palm.
For that, go and download EasyConvert font utility for Windows. Install it and simply use it to convert any TTF you want to Palm friendly PRC format, copy those to you treo and use it. The results outright awesome. Check out the difference!
Below are some of the samples I’ve taken with ScreenDumpDa shows how realistic the FontSmother effect.
Treo borwser with native font
The same with FontSmoother Droid font
One additional advantage of this is you can actually have very small fonts with it so that the shown info for a given screen is very much more that using the normal Treo font. Look at the following captures they show all of app name without cutting off part like with palm font.
LauncherX with normal font
LauncherX with FontSmoother
Also if you use FontSmoother with other famous Palm font utility called Font4OS5 you can set various fonts for various Palm applications with full control.
So enjoy these new possibilities and happy seasonal greetings for you all!
Dream Phone – HTC Touch HD
Posted by: Chan on: 3, October, 2008
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My phone craze was a long forgotten one. Since the day I got my Treo, a four years back, there was nothing on the market to beat it. I lived happily ever after. This is partly to the fact that Palm never did upgrade the famous Treo range even if I were to consider an upgrade.
This notion was slightly challenged last year when Apple released the hyped iPhone. I was tempted. Then again it was a tightly closed system unlike Palm OS so I never really came to like the idea, since I can’t tinker it the way I do with Treo. Even with the Apple App Store out it is still just a hype for me. But I may soon change my mind since Jailbraking of iPhone is now on full swing.
Then Palm came up with Treo Pro. It seems Palm is few years later to the gamble but still HTC made Treo Pro is a one marvelous device, famous full QWERTY Treo keybord with iPhone style. But there is one major glitch, that does’t run my famous Palm OS or now the Mac OS X on iPhone but MS Windows Mobile. The bottom line is I don’t need a palm which runs other than Palm OS.
So the problem persists, if I want to upgrade my phone and it has to be Win Mobile, then here comes the beauty I want. New HTC Touch HD. Showen above next to iPhone, it has double the resolution (800X480) to the given same iPhone size. It is the first and the best screen a mobile phone has seen it. Being a graphics guy whopping 480X800 pixel LCD is a music to my eyes. Reviews seems all ok so far except the Windows Mobile 6.1. So when it hits the road next November 2008, I am sure it will be a dream device I would really want to have.
Still with this down-turn that kind of money for a phone seems a little over kill right now:-(
Rainbow marketing machine is on roll…
Posted by: Chan on: 10, September, 2008
- In: Apple| Tech
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Tempting. Apple’s rainbow marketing machine is on roll, as usual…
I am glad they went back to the original iPod Nano form factor back again. I still like the 1 Gen Nano I use in my car than the shorter 3 Gen Nano though it plays video. So it’s a welcome design change. Anyway nothing much new except the rainbow colors, flip artwork and and smart play lists. iPod Touch actually seems better if it wasn’t killed by the iPhone.
So I will give it a pass this time. Gee says enough iPods. True enough. So Apple, you have to gimme a turn-by-turn GPS enabled matt finished 32/ 60 GB iPhone next time if you want more bucks from me. May be a Nanoish Macbook with better screen would do!
Until then shine rainbow shine!
Battle of the Clones – A Possible End ?
Posted by: Chan on: 9, September, 2008
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This is the Part II, my follow up post to Web 3.0 Already – Part I
According to the things Google matters and beyond. Below is the background story of that
“Why I think Google Chrome can take the web to the next level“. Jump Start to the Web 3.0 from some ancient 8 years old web tech to the future.
NCSA Mosaic – The first people friendly web browser.
This is the same old successor story repeating a decade later which shaped our world. The web all started with tech geeks or with so called nerds. The famous Netscape Navigator successor to the Mosaic the first web browser made it people friendly. I loved it and wowed by Netscape and thought web was Netscape those days. Likewise everyone back then suggested the Netscape will become the computer OS itself eliminating the OS part it resides, Bongo! Soon, it became the problem child.
The problem child which triggered the Modern Browser War
This hype woke up the sleeping giant, the mighty Microsoft. It was the most successful tech firm which was making millions already by selling it’s flagship infancy Windows OS. With all the industry strengths behind, Microsoft feared that it’s booming Windows business may go out of business due to this new child. I have heard that MS even offered Netscape a buy back offer which they refused knowing their own future potential. But in this hype Netscape was blind eyed to what Microsoft was capable of. This triggered series of chain reactions finally Microsoft put all it’s industry strengths and resources focus on one thing. Developing their own browser, copying everything from Netscape and Mosaic itself. MS made the Internet Explorer better. The rest is the famous “Written History“.
Years later Netscape obviously stumbled. Many create other own browser families. Netscape itself, then IE and afterwords Mozilla, Opera, Safari and various other IE shell based (NetCaptor) browsers all rooted back to the old Mosaic engine somehow, in order to comply the way the original web is written.
Hence the Battle of the Clones has to end if the web to freely innovate further where MS Internet Explorer is the unrival king of the web browsers which is blocking this. Technology wise web has evolved so much. But browsers have not evolved as such due to the simple fact that no one had the guts or the strength to go against Microsoft. Knowing this MS halted all IE development and innovations altogether after it’s 5th iteration for more than 8 years now posing a fundamental barrier limiting the web’s technological growth which should have come along with the time.
Or so thinks many including the famous Mozilla Firefox and the Google Chrome Team now.
Web developers also knew this and became frustrated to put more energies just to make their sites browser compatible, limiting the web innovations, cos MS IE breaks most HTML standards at will but they have to make it IE compatible since it’s the sheer leader, now the problem child number two.
So, welcome to Google Chrome. For better or worse, I think that they can change this game, forever.
That I will follow up with a post, Web 3.0 Already – Part III.
Your future desktop, Web 3.0 already ?
Posted by: Chan on: 4, September, 2008
- In: Tech
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Yesterday I woke up to a surprise, a surprise I never even believed that it could happen “so fast”. Saying “overnight” even seems literary an overstatement! I always lurk on the web circles but there was not a clue about what’s going to happen. Bingo, here it is!
Google unveiled it’s take on web 3.0 as it seems now introducing the Google Chrome Browser. Re-igniting the famous Browser War, part III is now showing on the desktop near you! There were some hints in the past that Google may be developing a browser, but having seen the heart they have for Mozilla Firefox folks, the idea never took off. Nonetheless as we know it now, Google’s foray in to the Browser War had been under wraps for over two years.
If we forget the direct threat Google Chrome puts on Microsoft’s IE, I guess even the Firefox and other browser guys may feel the pinch much too overwhelming right now. This can be the cold start of dethroning the Microsoft Windows Operating System dominance of the desktop, giving way to now forgotten Sun Microsystems’ Thin Client like concept. The web itself can become the “only” window you ever need for all your computing needs, hence the name Chrome they have given it. The old newsgroup text based web has grown up to a point that developers can no longer push its envelope without rethinking afresh.
The day before yesterday I was happily using Firefox 3 it was as though I was having the best web at my disposal. All these web I scroll, Gmail like web applications I use, the content I consumed on the web. All took a whopping 180° turn in one night. The splash I spilled my milk on keyboard over this “web shock” even isn’t dry yet. I’m wowed by the sheer number of nightmare problems Google Chrome just offered to solve that I hardly knew even existed as a web developer user, overnight, in one shot.
It may lack all the bells & whistle of Firefox 3 to replace it as my primary browser yet. But I guess its almost there and everyone feels the stakes here. Mainly I miss my Firefox Bookmarks Panel and few good extensions that I can’t live without like AdBlock.
Nonetheless, we were nowhere near at the completion of Web 2.0 experience yet, which brought us all the wonderful Zoho, Gmail, Flickr, Facebook to the stage. But suddenly now I’m sure that we gonna skip all that already “slow“ so called asynchronous web 2.0 (Ajax) and “Jump Start” to the Web 3.0, the future and beyond.
Thanks Google for taking me there in overnight!
I am still grasping the scope of this. The sooner I clean up my head over this sudden splash. I may follow up with a post on “Why I think that Google jump started the future of web with this announcement.
Meanwhile I wish all my friends a “speedier browsing” experience with Google Chrome.
Cheers!
Take on Apple…
Posted by: Chan on: 14, August, 2008
- In: Apple| Tech
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OaSis (Operating Systems) of Computing
Posted by: Chan on: 5, August, 2008
- In: Apple| Software| Tech| Windows
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Since the invention of Personal Computers Apple and Microsoft have come a long way with their rival Operating Systems. There were life long battles and I considered them as “The Beauty and the Beast”. Mac OS is the Beauty for the nice aesthetics and Windows is the Beast for the features and software availability.
Oasis of Computing
Neither did marry very well together due to their worlds apart core strengths but co-existed nonetheless. I started computing with pre-windows DOS era and then up to Windows 3.1 or so. Got wowed and switched to Mac OS version up to 7-8 back them.
Mainly due to my early career shift from data information company (DataOne) to advertising (Advantage SL) which made the different from I am becoming an Information Executive to Design Guru.
I learned what I know and a make a living because of Macintosh, I became what I’ve become and what I’ve gained because of the net bubble and Microsoft Windows. Both have contributed to my life alike.
Anyway I have lived enough, last 8 or so years purely on Windows which made me at home and never felt that I have missed anything. It lacked the eye candy or the performance of a Macs I knew but sheer number of software titles and Windows Explorer’s strong file handling capabilities kept me hooked. Nonetheless Apple didn’t do anything impressive lately until Mac OS X and iPod either so I was bestowed with Windows.
They were two different worlds that do not go along hand in hand. My company is a Windows, IT based one, I get my work done quite nicely with Windows. So things seems OK up until I started using an iPod. Suddenly I felt things have changed for Mac OS since I abandoned it. Apple re-wrote it as Mac OS X dropping the legacy which Microsoft never had the guts to do with Windows.
Suddenly out of nowhere Apple is having the industry’s most advanced modem operating systems under it’s hood to be tweaked into anything it wants. Considering the fact that no other tech firm exists today which excels in hardware design as Apple does, gifted, Apple got industry’s most portable (versatile) OS as Mac OS X to drive these wonderful piece of hardware it creates. It’s a matchmaking done in heaven.
So while the rest of the industry yet to figure out how to master this your toasters to fridge to computer “everything runs on software” future. Apple is cranking out it’s Mac OS X variants one after another.
IPod, iTunes, Music Store, AirPort Base Station, Apple TV and now making the mobile industry clueless the iPhone and App Store. Let’s not forget this is alongside their core business Macintosh Computers. Everything now runs on Mac OS.
The point is this got interesting enough now that I am back on using an Macs instead of my beloved PCs. The switch made some fairly considerable thinking but now I see there’s no turning back.
Viola! “The Beauty and The Beast” I referred earlier, both now runs on Mac OS.
Read my next article on how Apple took over the rein of computing again for better or worse.
You are tethered!
Posted by: Chan on: 28, July, 2008
- In: Apple| Tech
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Continued from my last post…
As impressive as it is, yet there are many things about Apple’s iPhone strategy isn’t sexy as the iPhone. Either your are a user or a developer, you are tethered to play by Apple’s rules.
So Apple, If you hear me Steve, the way you throw iPhone at me. It’s truly impressive. It’s everything but yet nothing I wanted. There seems enough who are in the same boat. So will see how you gonna get around this.
You advertise iPhone a six month early, then you released it, US only, carrier exclusive. You thought it’d move fast, generate genuine sales. Instead I found it here in the gray market. So did the Chinese man. I could have afford one though, No I said! Expensive, locked, may be jailbroken, no 3G, no video camera, no third party apps. Not good.
Inferior than many cheaper rivals found here.
Then you cut the price. Your operator exclusive way wasn’t a success either in Europe, was it figure to reflect famous Apple that you sold 370,000 iPhones there? I guess brands next to Nokia even sell more in our small SL 20 million market. Not to mention India or China. So it isn’t going to work in Asia either, knowing that you presumably you didn’t release version one here.
So with the Gen One, you figured something wrong, nonetheless wowed us again and released iPhone 3G with AppStore. Ahem, I am doped by your all out marketing campaign, even third parties doing it all free for you. I haven’t seen any other product gets so much bang for the buck. Ok I am flattered, if that’s what you wanted.
But still it doesn’t make you right. It still doesn’t get a sale from me. You scatter your Apple Mac image I love. Now you sounds more like MS. Even worse. I needed it like yesterday but I am not gonna buy it anytime soon. Not officially, not from the black market. I see eBay sells it whopping 1300USD I piece. Wonder where those margins go. You could have afforded to offer unlocked iPhone 3G around 500USD in contrast to 199USD carrier subsidized one.
You tempt me, make everyone want one, and let the gray market flourish. Hence you abuse me, tease my conscience, miss-use my senses and looses my faith.
There are enough in the same boat. I second the following.
Free Software Foundation, outlines 5 real reasons why you should to avoid iPhone 3G:
- iPhone completely blocks free software. Developers must pay a tax to Apple, who becomes the sole authority over what can and can’t be on everyone’s phones.
- iPhone endorses and supports Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) technology.
- iPhone exposes your whereabouts and provides ways for others to track you without your knowledge.
- iPhone won’t play patent- and DRM-free formats like Ogg Vorbis and Theora.
- iPhone is not the only option. There are better alternatives on the horizon that respect your freedom, don’t spy on you, play free media formats, and let you use free software.
So Apple, we will wait and see how you gonna get around this. Meanwhile I may upgrade my old Treo 650 to Treo 800w or something. You gonna miss a sale this time around too.
Cheers!
Hypnotized but not sold to Apple…
Posted by: Chan on: 26, July, 2008
- In: Apple| Tech
- 2 Comments
Inspired by Michael Maze’s Mobile Opportunity Article
As Maze has hinted I was too struck by this Apple iPhone tidal wave. More than Apple itself, all the tech media portals seems to be doing Apple’s marketing instead. Anyone in the mobile industry would have loved to ride these free marketing waves. Unfortunately only Apple has mastered the art. The shame with it, where is Nokia, Palm, BB or the rest of the industry stands in this abyss?
As a tech hobbyist these are the best and the worst times I’ve ever been. I was happy, contended and doing my daily routines with my age old Treo 650. Switched back and forth with few other phones but T650 kept me happy and I hadn’t had any issues since I devoted to Palm back in 1998 or so. There are ten zillion phones came out. But hard to find something as flexible as Treo. It brought me software freedom without tethers. Despite the long due Palm OS upgrade I use it without a sheer contender to go for. No other phone would hold up my 4 years old, 3000 or more, nearly 100 threaded, 1.5 MB or so SMS database and opens it up in a snap like my Treo does. On the other side this Mobitel SIM I use with this Treo is 7.2 Mbps HSDPA enabled 3.5G connection for nearly two years now! But it’s a desperation without having any means to utilize it with Plam OS. So in a way nothing about T650 is sexy anymore. Then again still nothing else was compelling enough to make the switch, up until now.
Then last year Apple spoiled this mindset. Came in six months prior to the actual release and dropped the iPhone bomb. Now after a year and half later, even today I can’t get one officially here while they drop another shell as iPhone 3G. Most here can’t figure out why Apple deliberately miss out so much potential market in Asia (Europe too) without releasing iPhone just like any other phone sold here. Unlocked, free as beer to consume.
Apple spoiled my day by big time. Amazed, hypnotized, dazzled by seeing my dream device in real which I dreamed years back when I use the SONY CLIE. Ahem, So I can’t get one here since these operator hurdles.
Specially people like me who are accustomed to Asian free GSM mobile ecosystem. Here in Sri Lanka, even a small demography but have four GSM operators. People have few ways to go around if one ill treat them. We are accustomed to freedom, freedom to choose whatever the dream phone we wish regardless the operator crap.
Apple showed me what to do with my abandoned whopping 7.2 HSDPA data link. Everything about iPhone refined phone business. Sexy, hype, hip and all capable. I like Macs over PC so it’s no brain I can simply switch or so I thought?
Not quit so… I realized that there is another side of the story.
After an year or so with two iPhone models and few software versions in the market, and now with the App Store. Suddenly I find Apple is unfairly playing with people’s mindset and choices. No, there is no way Apple’s gonna get me hooked unless they change their iPhone business for better.
Why?
I will tell in my next post…
My Best Shots
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