1. Ease of Use

One of the great thing about Windows Phone 7 is easy to use. Phone divided into several parts of the main menu: People, Pictures, Games, Music + Video, Marketplace and Office. The menu is like a big application with broad panorama, which is not enough on one screen so the user must shift to the right and the left to see the whole application.

Windows Phone 7 has big, oversized, beautiful, bold, clear, and interactive icon, unlike every other phone in the market the menu filled with square arranged in a pattern like 4×4 or so. So it made this phone made easier to use, with big clear icon you no longer need to navigate carefully where you want to go, just a simple look at the screen and a touch. Moreover, the icon is dynamically updated according the application. So for instance, you have three new messages, you’ll be presented with number ‘3’ at top of the icon.

What makes Windows Phone 7 is interesting is it is integrated with live, real-time data seamlessly integrated, with smooth and more natural interface. The start screen is live, meaning it will dynamically updated with fresh content like weather, status updates, photos from facebook and you can totally customize it. So, you don’t have to open separate application just to see what your friend up to, just a simple glance at the screen. This is dream comes true for social networking geek.

2. Ergonomic

Office and Email

Yes, there will be an office application on Windows Phone 7. It will be connected to Cloud and can be synced to corporate server. So that means business people can read, create and edit their work while on the go.

The Outlook email is stunning, according to some people it’s much better than reading email on a BlackBerry. Text is huge, gorgeous, readable, and support Microsoft Exchange. Business people should be happy.

Browser

There will be Internet Explorer. Although the rumour says it’s going as fast as Mobile Safari. But at least it support multitouch. Bing and Bing Maps are built into the phone as default search engine and map provider.

3. Easy to Navigate

Microsoft radically upgraded the look and feel Windows Phone 7 from previous Windows mobile series. Gone the day when you need stylus to navigate the phone. Now it featuring unusual interface element that found on other phone in the market: Interface elements that run off the screen, oversized dynamically updated icon, fresh start screen. Although integrating unusual aspect, yet it’s still easy to navigate.

4. Easy to Learn

“Cognitive load” is one of the criteria to rate user interface. To use sophisticated programs like Windows Phone 7 users must drop all their OS concept, because Windows Phone 7 is all new experience for them. It’s necessary to provide smallest learning curve for users, because most of the time users don’t have necessary time to read manual. Human have limited capacity of working memory, users can only hold five to nine chunks of information simultaneously. Users may feel overwhelmed by numerous options that increase the cognitive load.

Thankfully, Windows Phone 7 provides original and what one Nike designers calls an “authentically digital” and “chromeless” experience. The whole looks is oversimplified which is good thing for this phone since the previous windows mobile series is famous for absurd menu and hard to use.

5. Information Representation

Microsoft has done a good word to put many features in Windows Phone 7 is an understandable form. The interface is elegantly designed to show as much information as possible to users. Users certainly able to find all the information they want in single screen.

For example, ‘people’ screen you not only can see your contacts but also their status update and photos from social networking sites.

In Music+ Video you’ll be able to see all your collection of music, video, podcast. More over you can opt to listening to radio or visiting a integrated marketplace where you can buy music or video.

Related posts:

1. Windows Phone 7 Mobile User Interface Review
2. What is a command prompt?

After beaten by Apple and Google in mobile operating system arena, Microsoft finally reveal their new Operating System for smart phone which inevitably called Windows Phone 7. Although technical details is still sparse and Microsoft didn’t reveal much about what changes except the obvious glossy new user interface. Let’s not talk about technical details, new kernel, the next SDK, or developer policies. Let’s just admire the new user interface which I admit looks very much alike Zune/Zune HD.

In my opinion the interface is much more better than current iPhone and basically every other phone in the market where thumbnail-sized glossy-looking icons arranged in a pattern. Instead Microsoft developer opt to using oversized set of bright squares that fill the screen. Beautiful user interface combined with crisp wide screen made this phone aesthetically pleasant yet very practical. It’s combining unusual practices like big size text, interface elements that run off the screen, oversized text and graphics, flipping, panning, scrolling, zooming from screen to screen. This made iPhone user interface feels conservative by comparison.

Overall it’s very fun and playful phone to use, yet it’s still maintain “corporate fell” since there will be a new Office and app store.

Bogor Agricultural University

Related posts:

1. 5 assessment criteria for user interface : Windows Phone 7 Case

I found out one of my favourite IDE in Windows that support JAVA programming is also available on Linux, it is NetBeans. Netbeans is free Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that supports a lot of languages, including Java, JavaScript, PHP, Python, Ruby, C/C++ and more. NetBeans is written in Java and runs with Java Virtual Machine (JVM) installed. For Java development functionality you must install JDK first, but for other languages you can just install JVM.

Install JDK/JRE Ubuntu Linux

Okay, let’s start with installing JDK and JRE. There are two ways Installing JDK and JRE, the easy way is from Synaptic Package Manager and the hard way is install from .bin file. Installing from Synaptic Package Manager is the best way when you have internet connection or any access to repository (DVD, server, etc). But if your computer don’t have any access to repository server, you can download .bin file from Sun Website from other computer and install it on the computer that you want.

Option 1
First lets start with the easy way, install from Synaptic. Make sure you have the Multiverse repository enabled.

System > Administration > Software Source > Select Multisource > Close

Open your terminal and type the following command to install JDK and JRE

$ sudo apt-get install sun-java6-bin sun-java6-jre sun-java6-jdk

Wait till it download and install, depend on your connection it should take several minutes.
Make sure the correct version is used by using this command

$ sudo update-java-alternatives –s java-6-sun

—

Option 2

For those who want to install the hard way, first download JDK and JRE from Sun. You will get .bin file.

Open your terminal, then go to directory where the download file is, and make sure the file is executable.

cd /directory/where/you/download/file
sudo chmod +x filename

Install the file with this command

sudo ./filename

Make sure the correct version is used by using this command

$ sudo update-java-alternatives –s java-6-sun

Install Netbeans Ubuntu Linux

Option 1
Download Netbeans from here and save it to your computer. Let’s say the file is called “netbeans-6.8-ml-linux.sh”. Run your terminal and change directory to where you download the file.

$ cd /direcory/where/you/download/file

Make sure the file is present by using ls command. Finally execute the following command

$ sudo ./netbeans-6.8-ml-linux

After completing command, you will see installer that will install NetBeans into /opt directory. Finish!.

—

Option 2
Alternatively you can also install using Synaptic Package Manager, just execute the following command.

$sudo apt-get install netbeans

Finish!.

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1. Linux Tips : Automatically find Fastest Repository Server in Ubuntu
2. Linux Command Line Guide
3. Real Time Proxy Server Monitoring

In contrast to this division into physical records, a file often has natural divisions determined by the information represented. For example, a file containing information regarding a company’s employees would consist of multiple units, each consisting of the information about one employee. Or, a file containing a text document would consist of paragraph or pages. These naturally occurring blocks of data are called logical records.

Logical records often consist of smaller units called fields. For example, a logical record containing information about an employee would probably consist of fields such as name, address, employee identification number, etc. Sometimes each logical record within a file is uniquely indentified by means of a particular field within a record. Such as identifying fields is called a key field. The value held in a key field is called a key.

Logical record sizes rarely match the physical record size dictated by a mass storage device. In turn, one may find several logical records residing within a single physical record or perhaps a logical record split between two or more physical records. The result is that a certain amount of unscrambling is associated within a retrieving data from mass storage systems. A common solution to this problem is to set aside an area of main memory that is large enough to hold several physical records and to use this memory space as a regrouping area. That is, a blocks of data compatible with physical records can be transferred between this main memory area and the mass storage system, while the data residing in the main memory area can be referenced in terms of logical records.

An area of memory used in this manner is called a buffer. In general, a buffer is a storage area used to hold data on temporary basis, usually during the process of being transferred from one device to another. For example, modern printers contain memory circuitry of their own, a large part of which is used as a buffer for holding portions of a document that have been received by the printer but not yet printed.

Further Reading:
1. Wikipedia : Information Retrieval, File System, Database
2. Information Retrieval Wiki

Related posts:

1. Mass Storage
2. Flash Drives
3. Magnetic Systems

The answer is to let your system scan for the fastest server available. You will need to launch Software Sources tool, which can be found in

System > Administration > Software Sources

This administrative menu will allow you to change the location of your preferred repository, and change items within the repository you want to subscribe to. You will have the most software available if all boxes are checked.

From ‘Ubuntu Software’ tab select ‘Other’ from ‘Download from:’ drop-down menu and you’ll be given a list of available server sorted with country.

To have your system test and find the faster server you can select the ‘Select Best Server’ option, which will try to connect to each repository server mirror and find the fastest response. After the process done, it will select the fastest server available and you can either change it or run the process again until you’re satisfied.

note: Tested on Ubuntu 8.04 and 9.10. Your mileage may vary. Try to run the process two or three times until you find the good one. Repository mirror speeds can fluctuate based on many factors (e.g Traffic).

Related posts:

1. Linux Tips : Setting Java programming environment in Ubuntu Linux
2. Real Time Proxy Server Monitoring
3. Linux Command Line Guide

Note: Where example files (e.g., file.ext, file1, file2), file extensions (.ext), directories (e.g., diry, diry1, diry2), commands (e.g., command), and drive letters (e.g., a:, b:, c:) are given, substitute the name of your own file, directory, command, or drive letter. Since DOS is not case sensitive, you can type these commands in either upper- or lowercase.

This list was adapted from the August 1991 issue of PC World magazine

Further Reading:

Command-line reference A-Z: microsoft.com

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Windows

To access the command prompt in Windows, from the Start menu, select Run… In the “Open:” field, enter cmd (Windows NT, 2000, XP, Vista, 7) or command (Windows 95, 98, and Me).

In next article I’ll talk about some common example of DOS commands.

Mac OS X

Mac OS X built on a version of UNIX called Darwin. To access the UNIX command prompt in MAC OS X, open the Terminal application. It is located by default inside the utilities folder, which in turn is inside the Applications folder. Since, Mac OS X is built on a version of Unix and Linux is Unix-like, so the command on Linux also works on Mac OS X.

You can see the previous article, where I share some Linux Command.

Unix

When you log into a Unix computer, your shell begins to run and provides you with a command prompt. The command prompt’s appearance varies depending on the shell you’re using.

For some common Unix command, you can see my article on Linux command which is Unix-like computer operating System.

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Compression
tar cf file.tar files – create a tar named file.tar containing files
tar xf file.tar – extract the files from file.tar
tar cf file.tar.gz files – create a tar with Gzip compression
tar xf file.tar.gz – extract a tar using Gzip
tar cf file.tar.bz2 – create a tar with Bzip2 compression
tar xf file.tar.bz2 – extract a tar using Bzip2
gzip file – compresses file and renames it to file.gz
gzip -d file.gz – decompresses file.gz back to file

Disk Space
ls -lSr show files by size, largest last
df -h show free space on mounted filesystems
df -i show free inodes on mounted filesystems
fdisk -l show disks partitions sizes and types
> file truncate data of file or create an empty file

File Commands
ls – directory listing
ls -a – directory listing with hidden files
ls -al – formatted directory listing with hidden files
cd dir – change directory to dir
cd – change to home
cd - – change back to previous directory
pwd – show current directory
mkdir dir – create directory dir
rm file – delete file
rmdir dir – delete empty directory dir
rm -r dir – recursively delete directory dir (use with caution)
rm -f file – force remove file; no error output if file doesn’t exist
rm -rf dir – recursively force remove directory dir (use with caution)
cp file1 file2 – copy file1 to file2
cp file1 file2 file3 dir – copy file1, file2 and file3 to dir
cp -r dir1 dir2 – recursively copy dir1 to dir2; create dir2 if it doesn’t exist
mv file1 file2 – move file1 to file2 if file2 is an existing directory, moves file1 into directory file2
ln -s file link – create symbolic link link to file
>file – create file (use with caution, doing this on an existing file will overwrite the content)
touch file – create or update file
cat > file – places standard input into file
cat file1 > file2 – overwrites the content of file2 with the content of file1
cat file1 >> file2 – appends the content of file1 to file2
echo "Hello World" > file – overwrites file’s content with Hellow World
echo "Hello World" >> file – appends Hello World to the end of file
less file – output the contents of file
more file – output the contents of file
head file – output the first 10 lines of file
tail file – output the last 10 lines of file
tail -f file – output the contents of file as it grows, starting with the last 10 lines
sed ’s/foo/bar/g’ file – replaces all occurrences of foo with bar in file
sed -i.backup ’s/foo/bar/g’ file – replaces all occurrences of foo with bar in file after backing up file as file.backup
rm {m,M}yfile – remove files according to a pattern
Example:
$ ls
$ touch myfile Myfile myfile1 Myfile1
$ ls
myfile Myfile myfile1 Myfile1
$ rm {m,M}yfile
$ ls
myfile1 Myfile1

File Permissions
chmod octal file – change the permissions of file to octal, which can be found separately for user, group, and world by adding:

* 4 – read (r)
* 2 – write (w)
* 1 – execute (x)

Examples:
chmod 777 – rwx for all
chmod 755 – rwx for owner, rx for group and world. For more options, see man chmod

Network
ping host – ping host and output results
whois domain – get whois information for domain
dig domain – get DNS information for domain
dig -x host – reverse lookup host
wget file – download file
wget -c file – continue a stopped download

Package Manipulation
apt-cache show foo – Show info about package foo
apt-cache showsrc – Displays information about a source package
apt-cache showpkg – Displays information about the packages listed on the command line
apt-cache depends foo – Show the depends of package foo
apt-cache rdepends – Shows reverse dependencies for a package
apt-cache search foo – Find packages that include "foo"
apt-cache search –names-only foo – Find packages which have "foo" in the filename
apt-cache pkgnames – Fast listing of every package in the system
apt-cache dump – Lists every package in the cache
apt-cache policy – Lists the repositories in which a package exists
dpkg -L package – List files in the package
dpkg -S foo – Find out which package installed foo
dpkg -c foo – Lists the contents of a binary package
dpkg -f foo – Shows the control file for a binary package
dpkg –get-selections > /path/selectionfile – Get a list of all packages installed
sudo dpkg –set-selections < /path/selectionfile && apt-get dselect-upgrade – Install packages from an exported list
dlocate foo – Determines which installed package owns foo
apt-file search foo – Determines which non-installed package owns foo
sudo aptitude install foo – Install package foo
sudo aptitude remove foo – Uninstall package foo
sudo aptitude purge foo – Uninstall package foo and all of its dependencies
sudo aptitude update – Update the package sources
sudo aptitude safe-upgrade – Update all installed packages to the newest versions
sudo aptitude dist-upgrade – Update the kernel to the newest version
sudo aptitude clean – Remove packages from the package cache

Process Management
ps – display your currently active processes
top – display all running processes
kill pid – kill process id pid
killall proc – kill all processes named proc * file
bg – lists stopped or background jobs; resume a stopped job in the background
fg – brings the most recent job to foreground
fg n – brings job n to the foreground
\ls – ignore alias ls
time command see how long a command takes to finish
which command display the full path of a command
(cd dir && command) go to dir, execute command and return to current dir

Searching
grep pattern files – search for pattern in files
grep -r pattern dir – search recursively for pattern in dir
command | grep pattern – search for pattern in the output of command
updatedb – updates the slocate database; see next item
locate file – find all instances of file; may need to run updatedb first
find $HOME -user root – find files owned by root in $HOME
find /path -depth -type d -empty – find empty directories
find /path -type d -empty -exec rm -rf ‘{}’ \; – find and delete empty directories
find /path -depth -type f -empty – find empty files
find /path -name [name_of_file] – find a file with a specific name
find /path -name "*.[given_extension]" – find a file with a specific extension
find /path -name ‘*.txt’ -perm 644 – find .txt files with specific permissions
find /path -perm -[permission_bits] – find files with some given permissions
find /path -name ‘[given_name].*’ – find files with a given name and any extension
man -t man | ps2pdf – > man.pdf – make a pdf of a man page

Shortcuts
Ctrl+A – move to the start of the line
Ctrl+E - move to the end of the line.
Ctrl+U – delete from the cursor to the beginning of the line.
Ctrl+K – delete from the cursor to the end of the line.
Ctrl+W – delete from the cursor to the start of the word.
Ctrl+Y – pastes text from the clipboard.
Ctrl+L – clear the screen leaving the current line at the top of the screen.
Ctrl+C – halts the current command
Ctrl+Z – stops the current command, resume with fg in the foreground or bg in the background
Ctrl+D – log out of current session, similar to exit
Ctrl+R – reverse search
^abc^xyz – replace first occurrence of abc with xyz in last command and execute it
!! – repeats the last command
sudo !! – repeats the last command with sudo privileges
exit – log out of current session

Software Installation
Install from source:
./configure – execute the configure script
make – compile the source
make install – install needed files
dpkg -i pkg.deb – install a deb package on .deb-based systems
rpm -Uvh pkg.rpm – install an rpm package on .rpm-based systems

SSH
ssh user@host – connect to host as user
ssh -p port user@host – connect to host on port port as user
ssh-copy-id user@host – add your key to host for user to enable a keyed or password-less login

System
date – show the current date and time
cal – show this month’s calendar
uptime – show current uptime
w – display who is online
whoami – who you are logged in as
finger user – display information about user
uname -a – show kernel information
cat /proc/cpuinfo – cpu information
cat /proc/meminfo – memory information
man command – show the manual for command
df – show disk usage
du – show directory space usage
free – show memory and swap usage
whereis app – show possible locations of app
which app – show which app will be run by default
lshw -html > hardware.html – create an overview of hardware
lsb_release -a – show information about the distro
tr : ‘\n’ <<<$PATH – show directories in the PATH, one per line
sed ’s/:/\n/g’ <<<$PATH – show directories in the PATH, one per line with sed
mount – list currently mounted file systems
mount -o loop cdrom.iso /mnt/dir – mount cdrom image at /mnt/dir
lspci – list all PCI devices
lsusb – list al USB devices
who – list users currently logged in
which command – show the full path of command
time command – see how long command takes to complete

Text Manipulation
sed ’s/string1/string2/g’ replace string1 with string2
sed ’s/\(.*\)1/\12/g’ modify anystring1 to anystring2
sed ‘/ *#/d; /^ *$/d’ remove comments and blank lines
sed ’s/[ \t]*$//’ remove trailing spaces from lines
echo ‘Test’ | tr ‘[:lower:]‘ ‘[:upper:]‘ case conversion
history | wc -l count lines

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2. Some Example Common DOS commands
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Although data stored in flash memory systems can be accessed in small byte-size units as in RAM applications, current technology dictates that stored data be erased in large blocks. Moreover, repeated erasing slowly damages the silicon dioxide chambers, meaning that current flash memory technology is not suitable for general main memory applications where its content might be altered many times a second. However, in those applications in which alterations can be controlled to a reasonable level, such as in digital cameras, cellular phones, and handheld PDAs, flash memory has become the mass storage technology of choice. Indeed, since flash memory is not sensitive to physical shock (unlike magnetic and optic systems) its potential in portable application is enticing.

Flash memory devices called flash drive, with capacities of up to a few GB are available for general mass storage applications. These units are usually packaged in small plastic cases. The high capacity of these portable units as well as the fact that they are easily connected to and disconnected from a computer make them ideal for off-line data storage. However, the vulnerability of their tiny storage chambers dictates that they are not reliable as optical disks for truly long term applications.

Related posts:

1. File Storage and Retrieval
2. Mass Storage
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CD technology was originally applied to audio recordings using a recording format known as CD-DA (compact disk-digital audio), and the CDs used today for computer data storage use essentially the same format. In particular, information on these CDs is stored on a single track that spirals around the CD like a groove on an old fashioned record, however, unlike old-fashioned records, the track on a CD spirals from the inside out. This track is divided into units called sectors, each with its own identifying markings and a capacity of a 2KB of data, which equates to 1/75 of a second of music in the case of audio recordings..

Note that the distance around the spiralled track is greater toward the outer-edge of the disk than at the inner portion. To maximize the capacity of a CD, information is stored at a uniform linear density over the entire spiralled track, which means that more information is stored in a loop around the outer portion of the spiral than in a loop around the inner portion. In turn, more sectors will be read in a single revolution of the disk when the laser beam is scanning the outer  portion of the spiralled track than when the beam is scanning the inner portion of the track. Thus, to obtain a uniform rate of data transfer, CD-DRA players are designed to vary the rotation speed depending on the location of the laser beam. However, most CD system used for computer data storage spin at a faster, constant speed and thus most accommodate variations in data transfer rates.

As a consequence of such design decisions, CD storage systems perform best when dealing with long, continuous strings of data, as when reproducing music. In contrast, when an application requires access to items of data in a random manner, the approach used in magnetic dish storage (individual, concentric tracks divided into individually accessible sectors) outperforms the spiral approach used in CDs.

Traditional CDs have capacities in the range of the 600 to 700MB. However, newer DVDs (Digital Versatile Disks), which are constructed from multiple, semitransparent layers that serve as distinct surfaces when viewed by a precisely focused laser, provide storage capacities of several GB. Such disks are capable of storing lengthy multimedia presentations, including  entire motion pictures.

Related posts:

1. Magnetic Systems
2. Flash Drives
3. File Storage and Retrieval