Cavlyn。

2 column layout

noreply@blogger.com (Kahfei) — Fri, 30 May 2008 03:31:00 +0000

Nice quick 2 column css layout tutorial from 456bereastreet

Sinatra

noreply@blogger.com (Kahfei) — Fri, 23 May 2008 09:22:00 +0000

Classy web-development dressed in a DSL. Newest kid from the Ruby framework block, though not that new that it actually started at the end of last year.

Well, it definitely look cool, but I try to refrain myself from venturing into it just yet, not before I finish teaching myself Rails (I know, been talking about that long enough. )

Especially like the logo. Just cool.

Bit Bit Bit converter

noreply@blogger.com (Kahfei) — Wed, 21 May 2008 11:50:00 +0000

I often get confused what is kb in term of Mb or Gb, as I am joting down RAM or Hardisk size.
All System Information or System Properties (if you are using Windows) can give us is just "1310164kb". 1310164kb? what is exactly 1310164kb?

Well, I stumbled upon this same situation again today, and did a quick google. Look like there a tons of sites helping you to convert this. Most of them are pretty ugly, I would say, but do the job nonetheless.

And so I present to you Bit Calculator, one that I found the look to be less suck. Even giving you the code, in perl.

The Photoshop Anthology book, for Free

noreply@blogger.com (Kahfei) — Sat, 17 May 2008 15:14:00 +0000

wow, look like sitepoint is giving away another another book after the "Build your own Ruby on Rails application" book.

This time it is "The Photoshop Anthology", of course, just as last time around, the offer is only for a limited time, as I know, the offer will be valid only for another 26 days, from May 17. So better be quick.

Arc

noreply@blogger.com (Kahfei) — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 06:53:00 +0000

Arc is now released. For those not in the known, Arc is a dialect of Lisp, written by Paul Graham and Robert Morris. In Paul Graham's own word,

"Arc is designed above all for exploratory programming: the kind where you decide what to write by writing it. A good medium for exploratory programming is one that makes programs brief and malleable, so that's what we've aimed for. This is a medium for sketching software." or in short, "it's a quick and dirty language for writing quick and dirty programs."

Taken from tutorial,

arc> (+ 1 2)
3

arc> (+ (+ 1 2) (+ 3 (+ 4 5)))
15

seems interesting.

Fresh Installation of Gutsy crash

noreply@blogger.com (Kahfei) — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 13:39:00 +0000

This is rather frustrating. Just as I am getting excited with the Gutsy Live CD, and happily proceed to go on with a fresh installation, my desktop start to behave strangely. It hang quite often, with no obvious pattern.

Sometimes it is while using Ubuntu Synaptic Manager, sometimes it is just surfing the net, sometimes it is nothing at all, just let it idle for a while, then it hang. Sometimes it just jump out to the login screen, and re-login will sometimes give your some "Greeter application crash" error message. Ya, you will notice that there are too many sometimes here, what really frustrating me is the intermittent nature of this error, you can't really tell what is causing it. And Gutsy is working perfectly ok before I did the fresh installation.

I have tried to re-install, more than 5 times. I have tried to install Feisty, if it work then maybe upgrade from there. But both fail. I don't really think that this is Gutsy problem, maybe it is just my machine. Of course I have google high and low for it, but so far didn't seems to find any similar experience or solution to this. The thing is, I have spent the whole weekend trying to get this thing work, while I should really spending this time working with it. So, reluctantly, I have decided to stop this, at least for the time being. Now the machine is running Windows. It is really disappointing after I have getting used to working in Ubuntu environment, just that I really don't have the capacity to digg deeper into the issue as of now.

Hmmm...think the lesson learn here is, if it ain't broken, then don't fix it.

Gutsy CD is here

noreply@blogger.com (Kahfei) — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 16:08:00 +0000

I have already upgraded my Ubuntu from Feisty to Gutsy.
But I always plan to have a fresh installation, once the CD arrive.
I have been waiting for weeks, almost seems like eternity. Finally, the CD pack arrived yesterday.

Hurray, now I am going to have the installation done as soon as I finish this post.

Playing with InstantRails behind a Firewall

noreply@blogger.com (Kahfei) — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 15:57:00 +0000

Normally I will just use the trusty Command prompt to play with Rails stuff. Just got around to play with InstantRails lately , while reading "Build Your Own Ruby on Rails Web Application". Perhaps this is not really InstantRails specific, rather more for setting up rails for behind a firewalled environment. I used to go it via the manual way, download all the gem, and do the install from local.

Found this while playing with InstantRails, might be handy if you are in the same situation as well.

Install InstantRails.
Unzip to C:\InstantRails. Spaces in path name will not work, also, Windows Compression option might have problem in extracting the file, use other options like 7zip, or winzip instead.
After extraction, double-Click on InstantRails.exe file in the folder. A message pop-up to confirm on regenerating the configuration files. Click on ok.

And so, InstantRails started.

Next up will be updating gem version as well as installation of Rails. Now, if you are not behind a firewall, that will be pretty straightforward, just do these,

Rails Application > Open Ruby Console Windows, type

C:\InstantRails> gem update –system
C:\InstantRails> gem install rails –include-dependencies

However, if you are behind a firewall, then you will have to do set the http_proxy first.

set http_proxy=http://username:password@proxy.whateverthename.com

then, you should be able to do the normal

C:\InstantRails>gem update –system
C:\InstantRails>gem install rails –include-dependencies

Free Ruby on Rails book

noreply@blogger.com (Kahfei) — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 14:20:00 +0000

If you still didn't know about this news, Sitepoints is offering the "Build your own Ruby on Rails Application" free for download in pdf format. Yes, free, absolutely free.

I was caught in a bit of surprise when I read it from my google reader, but wake myself up quickly to download the 22Mb file, :-). Understand that Sitepoints server even been take down by the heavy traffics once the news was announced. The offer is valid for the next 60 day, counting from 2nd October. So better be quick.

Ubuntu Update

noreply@blogger.com (Kahfei) — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 13:22:00 +0000

Well, the CD didn't arrive faster than my download. I have actually install Ubuntu after downloaded the image, in fact this post is being typed and published in Ubuntu while I still waiting for the CD.

This could be just my personal opinion, Ubuntu 7.04 did feel a bit faster than Fedora Core 7.0 on the same machine. I heard a lot of rave about the simplicity of Ubuntu menu layout, but I didn't really see a big different with Fedora. Oh, and I think Fedora Core artwork look nicer than Ubuntu, I especially love the hot air balloon in version 7.0.

But moving around menu and installing applications did feel faster in Ubuntu, not sure why. System boot up also seems to be a lot faster. So far, I have already installed ruby, rails and also mongrel, so can play with Rails in Ubuntu now.

But something really bad happen after installing Ubuntu though, it seems like I couldn't login to Fedora at another partition. Can't even mount it after boot into Ubuntu. Have read lot of tips and hints on the net, but still trying.

Another great thing about Ubuntu is that the irc channel #Ubuntu is really useful, I have lot of my questions answered there.

I hate how Ubuntu displaying Chinese Character though....down right ugly, see screenshot below. Even after I have downloaded a few font packages, it still look the same. Damn. Fedora Core would have no problem at all displaying Chinese Character straight out of the box.

Blogger in Draft

noreply@blogger.com (Kahfei) — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 14:38:00 +0000

Wow...now blogger let you upload video!

The announcement actually been made on 13th June, but I didn't realize that till I have some time to browse around Blogger Buzz today...

This is the first feature rollout under what they call Blogger in Draft , which act rather like an experimental lab, for early adopter to test out new features before it is released to the masses.
The name is rather odd though, it can't be called Blogger Beta for the obvious reason that it already been used once. But I think with the overdose of Beta tags these days, this naming should serve blogger better.

Here is the blog of Blogger in Draft, so you can read about all the latest update here. Currently just Video upload is available, I can't wait to see what other features gonna rollout later.

Ubuntu CD

noreply@blogger.com (Kahfei) — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 14:32:00 +0000

I have been running Fedora Core 6 for sometimes now on my desktop...so far it has been pretty good. Fedora Core 7 actually available. But think of it, I just feel a bit tired of putting my PC on for overnight for several days, and checking the percentage of download every half an hour and yet the increase is so minimal that I feel like quiting.

But....I have just order myself a free Ubuntu CD. haha. Maybe I have just reading too much into the hype of Ubuntu. Hey, but when I read from Robert's Talk that Mark Pilgrim decided to switch (from OSX to Ubuntu no less) , I just couldn't help to give it a try. After all, I have picked up Python from Mark's Dive into Python.

CD delivery absolutely free of charge? I know that sound a bit unbelievable, but I read it here that the CD did get delivered, even to this part of the world, and take only 18 days. Even exceeded the 6-10 weeks delivery date as stated. Meanwhile, I will actually start the downloading process of Fedora Core 7 as well. The screenshot(1,2,3) look so neat, plus there
is some sentimental value with Fedora Core being my first Linux system. Perhaps, I will download Ubuntu installer at the same time.

We should see if the CD delivery reach my doorstep ahead of the download. :-)

Note: Fedora Core actually has a similar service of sending out free DVD set, which is called Fedora Free Media Program, but there is an announcement dated 2007-06-01 on the page that they have reached their capacity(200 DVDs) for the month of June, WOW! Reach capacity of the month on the first day of the month itself? Think I better download it from torrent.

Safari for Windows

noreply@blogger.com (Kahfei) — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 05:30:00 +0000

Wow, I never heard of this news before, until I read it from Ntugo's Infini tech today. Apple is releasing a beta version of its Safari browser for Windows!!

I have downloaded it, and now test driving in a Vista. It work fine, but Chinese Character shown up a bit odd, and loading pages seems a bit slow for me too...But this is only Beta, so things might improve later on.

Quoting Project

noreply@blogger.com (Kahfei) — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 15:18:00 +0000

I have been looking for some guides on quoting a project. Well, I swear that I have seen it thousand times when I didn't really looking for it. But somehow, when I try to look for it, it is not much reliable, or at least believable source on the net that talk about how to quote a project.

Which is really strange.

Still, here are some information I manage to grab by googling around. Not much, but hopefully something to start with... well if someone could chip in to share on their experience in quoting a project, would be really appreciated. :-)

There are 2 podcasts from Freelancing on Rails, talking on Quoting a Project, part1 and part2, and also a podcast on Contract and Agreement , almost exactly what I need at the moment. But the download is still in progress due to my pathetic bandwidth, so can't say if it is really helpful at press time, we will see.

Freelanceswitch site offer a few tips on this as well.

9 factors to consider when determining your price.
Hourly vs Fixed Pricing.
The price is right
Even a calculator just to guide to on calculating hourly rate.

And here is an dated discussion in the popular Joel on Software Discussion Group.

But still, I remember I have seen much much more people talking about how to quote their project on the net, just don't know where they are hiding, hmmm...have to dig deeper.

Update
Now, here are more tips on quoting/pricing a project.

Blue Favor's Pricing a Project.
How to set a price for Web project Well, this is more for Web design work, but still can be a reference I think.
How to Charge, A rather old article from Ellen Rohr, but still relevant I think.

Well, the danger is now I get more articles and guides to read that I might spent more time on it than actually working on the project..haha.

Free lunch

noreply@blogger.com (Kahfei) — Thu, 31 May 2007 14:05:00 +0000

Have been scouting for a free web hosting which support Ruby on Rails for sometimes. If you Simply google for it, most likely you will come to names like RailsPlayground, HostingRails, AmbitiousLemon, FreeOnRails, XMG, soyhost, profuse.net., etc. And you would thought, hey, there is free lunch after all.

But the journey of finding a free Rails web hosting, is not necessary a good one. So I thought, I might as well write it down here, could be a handy guide in case someone are in the same situation. Or better still, if someone could chip in and help out on this.

Out of the names listed above, I have tried a few of them. Since I don't have much time to go through everyone of it, the outlook of their site quickly become one of the most important factor on whether I wanna try my luck with it. I know judging a book by it cover is a bit swallow, but site that cluttered with flash adds, text links can't help but make you feel a bit cautious...ha, I know this might even look to you as one of those "10 Most Visually Appearing Free Rails Web Hosting site" from Smashing Magazine. :-)

Soyhost first impression really..impressed me.
Its simple design immediately make you feel comfortable to try out their service. Submission of application seems really easy, just put in your e-mail address and click the "make it happen button".tata....err.. I have tried more than 20 times, on different times and days as well, but the "make it happen" button just didn't make anything happen. It keeps on showing you the same old error message "File not found. Change this error message for pages not found in public/404.html."And the worst thing is, there is zero contact information in the page, no mail address, no link to a blog or something. You just feel like being left in a dessert, hopelessly.

AmbitiousLemon is another one with simple and neat webpage design.
The application process seems easy enough, only that "AmbitiousLemon is currently not accepting new members, please check back soon". And I have seens that message for months, so I am really not sure if they will ever open it again. Just keep your finger crossed.

If I remember it right, FreeonRails and HostingRails both offered some special promotion with Dreamhost, sometimes ago.

Where you could sign up with them for free hosting, then signup a Dreamhost promotion account that gave you free domain name , put in some promotion code from this sites to counter off the charges for the Dreamhost account, then tata..you get a free hosting plan with free domain name. But the thing is, Dreamhost no longer offer such deal. And FreeonRails didn't give you free domain name, not even sub-domain name. And the site's latest news last updated on February 11, 2006, and I didn't tried to apply for an account yet, so I am not sure if it still valid. As for HostingRails, well, just say the free hosting plan no longer available.

RailsPlayground is the same case, no more free hosting plan. The closest I can find in their front page is "Free setup", duh.

ProfuseHost website has a rather busy design, with ads visible almost on every possible white space.
But heck, after the disappointment of being deceived by good look, I don't believe in clean-simple design anymore. After all, I do understand the need to generate revenue for their business, especially they are offering free hosting. The application process is relatively much more complex, other than standard stuffs like password, username, email, etc, they would like you to give them a valid reason why you need a free hosting plan. I almost feel like filling in a immigration form before entering a foreign country. And so I happily filled in the form, and waited for 2 days for their decision. Well, it has been rejected, reason is my application didn't really comply to their policy. I am a bit disappointed of course, but understand that there might be somewhere in my application which might have just violated their policy. It is more to I didn't have time to read their policy in details than anything else.

XMG hosting look much like profuse, and their application process work almost the same as well.
Well, I signed up by filling in all the information, plus the reason of course. That is yesterday. Still awaited for their decision if I will be accepted. So, wish me luck.

Rails, derails, rerails

noreply@blogger.com (Kahfei) — Wed, 30 May 2007 01:10:00 +0000

It is really frustrating.

I keep on repeating myself. Posting too much (errr...ok, that didn't happen here lately), Reading too much, but doing too less. Try to trick myself into a false sense that I am learning and developing something, but in fact, I am not.

So I get a new notebook after the old one being stolen. Now, this one is runnig Vista, so it take a bit of time for me to settle thing down. Finally I get the time around to set up all the necessary stuffs few says ago.

Installation of Ruby, Rails, Mongrel, and sqlite3 in Vista are actually no different from in XP. So, it just take me less than an hour to get things ready. Great. At the time I wrote this, I have actually continue with my "Ruby for Rails" book, after putting it down for a while.

So here is a promise to myself, write more posts, read more blogs, but do even more actual work - learn and write programming, damn.

Flock

noreply@blogger.com (Kahfei) — Fri, 11 May 2007 14:32:00 +0000

Have tried Flock sometimes ago, and like many other things, just not using it anymore aftr a while.

Heard there are lot of changes on it, even rewritten the whole thing. It has really been a while. Till now, this is my second shot on Flock, running from a Fedora Core 6. Though there are still no standard package of Flock in Fedora, so you just have to do some small configuration before you could run it. The Flock forum actually quite helpful, I find some tips to getting Flock running in Fedora here, Help Search

So you guessed it, I wrote this post in Flock, so far, so good.

Blogged with Flock

Junebug wiki

noreply@blogger.com (Kahfei) — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 08:07:00 +0000

While browsing the list of blogs in RubyCorner, come across Junebug wiki as mentioned in RobbyonRails. The title "goodbye instiki, Hello Junebug Wiki" rather grabbing my attention immediately.

I have been looking for a simple wiki tools for a while, just for the purpose of putting down my own notes. Have had a brief test run on Instiki, I must admit that due to the really short time I spent with it, it didn't really leave a big impression on me. So, I thought, heck, why not give this funny named "Junebug wiki" a try?

Since I am sitting behind a proxy, installation wouldn't be as simple as gem install, but I really want to figure out a way of getting around it this time and not having to manual install again. I have tried

gem install GemName --Source -p http://proxy_name:80

but that didn't work. After googling around, found a solution, suggesting to turn on the "Use HTTP 1.1 through proxy connections" setting in Internet Explorer, which work immediately, I could install sqlite3-ruby gem straightaway. But installation of junebug still stuck though, and installation of the dependent gems still trigger the need of other gems, even --include-dependencies couldn't get the installation go automatically. So one after another I still look for these gems from rubyforge and installed it manually,

markaby-0.5.gem
builder-2.0.0.gem
metaid-1.0.gem
daemons-1.0.4.gem
camping-1.5.gem
junebug-wiki-0.0.28.gem

No, not necessary in that order. I didn't really remember the sequence I did the installation. But look like I still have to do most of the installation the hard way. Hmmm.

Well, after the installation, getting it to run is easy though, as advertised in TV. :-)

junebug wikiname -start some processes of creating tables in the background, then creating a initial user account, prompting username and password.

cd wikiname

ruby wiki run - start your wiki at 127.0.0.1:3301/ right away. Now here is the prove that I have really get it running, :-)

note: I don't know if the name has got anything to do with a 2005 released film "junebug", which by the way, won quite a number of prestigious film awards, sundance film festival included. But the official words is, there is no good story behind the name. :-)

Update
hmmm...seems like my installation of junebug wiki is broken after the succesful first run.
Just when I tried to explore it a bit further, it just show this,

I didn't change any setting on the computer or Rails in particular after junebug, so I am not too sure about the another instance running thing.

Update 2
Thanks to the advice from an anonymous comment, this problem exist mainly due to the "ruby wiki run" is a fore ground command, which might leave some old pid file when you quit by ^c.

That is what caused more than one instance running error. Suggestion from anonymous is to do "ruby wiki stop" a few times to make sure the wiki is stop.

Another command I found from RubyForge is to do a "ruby wiki zap". This command will actually delete the pid file and hence solve the problem.

love your frameworks

noreply@blogger.com (Kahfei) — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 07:10:00 +0000

Any discussion on the blogs world comparing frameworks will almost immediately spark off religious-like flamewar. But I come across this in codahale's blog, and fully agree with it,

I like Ruby, but I try not to be emotionally involved with it. It’s a nice tool, but it’s not the only one.

Ok, he actually talked about Ruby here, but I think it is true to any Programming languages and frameworks too. They are after all, tools to help us perform our works. Being too emotionally involved with a particular programming language/frameworks sound pretty scary to me.

Just like we can't say English is better than Chinese, or French is better than Spanish. I think being able to appreciate the beauty of different languages/frameworks make this world a better place. Think so?

Rails in Mongrel

noreply@blogger.com (Kahfei) — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 08:25:00 +0000

Been playing with Ruby on Rails lately.
Actually have tried my hand on Curt Hibb's legendary Rolling with Rails tutorial sometimes ago
while I am also playing with Django, but stop playing with it for a while until last December I saved up enough to buy David Black "Ruby for Rails"

Still have long way to go before finishing the book. But so far, I think this is quite a good book, not just for learning Rails, but also picking up Ruby, the language behind Rails.

I have tried to setup two environments for my rails adventure, one in Windows XP, and another in Fedora Core 6. There are tons of Tutorials online on how to setup RoR in XP and Fedora , so installing rail, creating a simple application, and then launching the rails apps with the standard WEBricks server shouldn't be that big a problem.

But as I tried to install Mongrel as the web server instead in XP environment, even though there are instructions available in Mongrel as well as Ruby on Rails HowTo on the installation, still there some surprises along the way.

From the Mongrel site, installation steps are as follow

$ gem install win32-service (pick the most recent one)
$ gem install mongrel (pick the win32 pre-built)
$ gem install mongrel_service

But, somehow installing one gem will trigger for the message that another gem not listed above is needed. And installing that gem will trigger yet another gem. After a bit of wondering and googling around, I found some bits and pieces here and there, and manage to install mongrel eventually.

Here are the list of gems need to be installed, and in the listed sequence as well.

fastthread-0.6.2-mswin32.gem This is not listed in the official mongrel instruction. Apparently, this is something to do with memory leak management. Here is the reason for this gem.
gem_plugin-0.2.2.gem
cgi_multipart_eof_fix-1.0.0.gem, this is related to DOS vulnerability, see here .
mongrel-1.0.1-mswin32.gem
win32-service-0.5.2-mswin32.gem
mongrel_service-0.3.1-mswin32.gem

After installation, just start the rails application as usual, it will start with Mongrel by default. The sequence of rails looking for web servers is as below,

If you happen to wanna tried out Rails with Mongrel in Windows, this list might save you a little bit of time.

Note: as pointed out by arjen, you could actually do a
gem install mongrel --include-dependencies
the installation will pretty much taking care of itself, but the thing is I am sitting behind a firewall, so have to do the gem installation manually, which lead to this rather messy situation.

stupid me

noreply@blogger.com (Kahfei) — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 12:43:00 +0000

I have purposely waited for a while, so that all the frustration and anger to calm down before writing about this here.

Well, I have lost my notebook. Not exactly my notebook, but the company notebook. While I was having breakfast happily in the restaurant, someone broke my car's window and grab it.

I look at the empty space where the notebook used to sit, glasses spreading all over the places , a big hollow feeling quickly surrounding me. Shit. I lost my notebook. There are already enough e-mail circulating around, enough news about stupid notebook users left their notebook in the car while they are away, and people just break in and grab their notebooks...

And now this actually happens to me. I am becoming one of those stupid people that I used to laugh about. The company could have imposed a hefty penalty on me, while I still have to pay to fix the car’s window. Worst of all, I have lost all the works that stored in the notebook (ok, I know, should have backup it), On-going projects documentation, useful notes, and mails oh all my mails are gone!!

For the past two weeks, I was almost like a newbie in the office. Setting up everything from scratch. That really set me back about a month worth of work. But really, I have no one else to blame but myself. When you get away with it time and time again, you start to think it is ok to do certain thing, even though you have been warn. You think other just being paranoid; you think it wouldn’t happen to you.

Perhaps that person needs the notebook more than me. Perhaps he actually use it to learn up some fancy web framework and create a buzzword-proof, hyped web 2.0 social network site and sold it to Google for 3 billion and donate half of that fortune to charity.

Then I have actually done something good.

Perhaps.

Update

noreply@blogger.com (Kahfei) — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 14:09:00 +0000

It has really been a while since my last post here...and all of the sudden, it is year 2007, and Apple Computers Inc. now become Apple Inc. :-)

Of course , the usual excuses for disappearing are busy with this and that. Well, you will always have enough excuses to not doing something isn't?

But I don't mean that I have done nothing at all during this period, at least I have setup FC6 on my computer, and got the Chinese support installed as well. It is not that difficult to setup, just that I search all around the web without checking the FC6 release note first, duh...

So I intend to setup all the necessary tools, things like Python, ruby, django, etc and slowly switch over to Linux environment. And of course, later on try my hand on the famous Desktop effect of FC6.

This is just so great!!

noreply@blogger.com (Kahfei) — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 12:16:00 +0000

Now, I have to bear with Blogger lack of features for so long. Simple thing like labels has been missing from Blogger even though it is a common basic features in all its competitors.

Now I understand that being the earliest blog apps in the market, Blogger host gigantic amount of data, that any change in the features will lead to huge impact on lot of people. But to have a simple thing like labeling, I have to add in a third-party service, labelr, and to have blogroll, another third-party service, blogrolling. And it is fast becoming a frustration. Not long ago, Blogger finally come out with all these features, but in a beta version. Which mean my existing blogs will stay at how it is, only new blog created in beta will have all the features. And no definite date is given as to when we will past the beta phase.

Although rumours has it that if you are lucky enough, you will see an option to convert your blog to the beta version. But for months I expecting seeing something like that when I login to Blogger, only to end up in disappointments.

But good thing happen when you expect the least, and so, as I login Blogger today, ta...ta...

Finally.....sure enough, without hesitating, I just click on the Switching link...

And few more steps...hurray...now my blogs are finally upgraded to the new version. I am a happy man.

Note: big thanks to Labelr (thanks, Amit )and blogrolling for their service, making labeling and adding links possible even in those dark, sad days...

Django Book

noreply@blogger.com (Kahfei) — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 13:42:00 +0000

Well, the book will only be officially released by 2007, but it is available now online as an Beta version...Cool!

The 7 Most Effective way of Cleaning up your LCD

noreply@blogger.com (Kahfei) — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 14:41:00 +0000

Posted about this few weeks ago, and have posted on "The Business of Software" forum the same topic too. There are a few more suggestions there. So I thought I should do an update here, could be a handy guide for cleaning up your LCD screen. "Update on cleaning up your LCD screen" sound too ordinary, maybe I should give it a catchy name for diggability, like "The Most Effective way of Cleaning up your LCD" or something like that. :-).

So here go the list,

1. Baby wipes

Surprisingly, lot of the people actually recommended Baby Wipe! But, there are also people advice against using it, the rational being Baby Wipes actually contain lotion that could lead to damage to your LCD screen.

2. Glass Cleaning Liquid or Clarity Lens Cleaners or other similar products

Well, Glass Cleaning Liquid losing only by a few votes. I personally tried this out. Visibility of my screen now improve significantly, but that mostly due to the state my screen were at before the cleaning, it is so bad that any sort of clean up will make it look like brand new.

3. Solution of Water and Isopropyl alcohol

50% of water plus 50% of Isopropyl alcohol. Isopro…What? Well, since I rarely passed my Chemistry Exam in my high school, long ago, so this sound like a big word to me, fortunately someone did manage to put it in laymen term, turn out it is your normal rubbing alcohol. Since both water and alcohol are cheap, so it should be a solution worth try out, though you still have to get your hand dirty to get the mixture.

4. Water

Some claimed that water alone will do the trick. According to information from LCD manufacturer, there is actually a coat of chemical material on your screen, so using any chemical solution to clean it up will damage this layer. So, what is more natural than H2O? But there are different opinions on what to use with water though, microfiber cloth, paper towels, and a rip piece of an old T-shirt, 100% cotton cloth, or linen.

5. Spit and Kleenex

It is easy to get, no cost at all, and you can use it anytime when you need it! Hmmm... so Spit seems to be the idea cleaning liquid for your LCD screen, right?

6. Windex or other screen cleaning liquid or screen cleaning wipe

They could be a bit more expensive, but hey, this is the pro, they are created to do the job. Besides, everything else will be expensive compare to spit.

7. Prevention

Prevention is always better than cure. True. As what being said by John Topley in the forum, "What are you all doing to get all those smears, smudges and stains on your screens?! Don't poke it with your fingers, don't let other people poke it with theirs, don't eat or drink near it, don't sneeze over it and don't let your pet cat/dog/monkey touch it."