Anyway, working on Saturday has been a complaints among all the colleagues. I don’t know why, as I don’t always make appointment with friends. I keep myself at home all the time I am fine with working on Saturday as I live and have the experience of working on Saturday, my father used to work on Saturday whole his life, so when I was kid I always thought it was conpulsory to work on Saturday too.

However, this company has go too over on me. It’s now Saturday 9.14pm and I’m still in the office, just straight away give me some moving boxes so I can move into the office and stay there dude. Damn… Hopefully can go back at 10.00pm? I have jobs to do at home too bro…

Social networking has been a great invention on the internet. They are like colon cleansers pushed all other websites out of the way, at the same time, help building what those websites want to be. Well, there has way too much benefit of having a social network site, but mostly not for personal, for business. Here are my points on personal benefit of social network.

Getting expose

Especially Twitter user. You can easily get expose by your expertise. Doesn’t matter which area you’re into. As long as you know how to maximise the use of Twitter , you’re going to receive quite a number of followers.

Get relationship

My girlfriend once told me that there’s this primary classmate found her on Facebook. Believe it or not, it will eventually. The whole connection in Facebook is like a spider web, each and every line is linked to each other, so finding someone you know isn’t that hard in Facebook.

Interactive or consulting

Just because Internet is free, doesn’t mean it is cheap or no quality. You get to interactive with people you don’t know, but they’re happy to share with you too. It’s like striking a conversation with a stranger on the street side.

However, I think it is not too good to spend too much time on social network. It is addictive. Research finding that more than 80% of people are spending time on the social network at work and at campus. So, better watch out a little bit. I… Too have a Twitter, and so addicted with it now

I am no pro in Ubuntu, not even a beginner yet. But I’ll try to share as much as I could to support open source and people’s mind about Linux Macbook is now a part time machine for me. An entertainment machine that play music and movie while I’m working with Ubuntu. It is a design tool for me.

Windows function

I find they are the same as Windows. The familiar windows, windows sidebar and etc. Funny thing is, there are still people thought that Linux use only Terminal command. This is so yesterday! Especially Ubuntu, *.deb is the installer like *.exe.

Flexibility

Ubuntu combined both Windows and Macintosh into one. Well, not exactly Macintosh, Mac can’t customise at all with fresh install machine, unless installing some application. Windows has a few option though, especially Vista, basic, Aero and classic. Basic theme will look like Windows Classic, but taskbar and the menu is way customisable compare to Windows.

What I am lacking is the multimedia and design tools Ubuntu can support. I’m not saying GIMP is not good, but it is somewhat not on the same like as Adobe Photoshop. From the key shortcut, interface and features. I am too used to Adobe applications to be honest, if it aren’t for Adobe applications, I wouldn’t need the Macbook as well.

Now that I have 2 laptops at home and a big LCD monitor, I seriously need some discount lighting as well as a bigger table

Slow

Opening windows and application is way slow comparing with Vista and Ubuntu. Though the system is faster, but I still believe a vendor who created the operating system and hardware should have a better performance.

Mouse

I need to stress this again. Without laser mouse or 1000dpi mouse, Mac OSX Tiger just don’t run that smooth. I am using a 800dpi mouse, in Vista and Ubuntu it runs well. Not in Mac OSX Tiger. That’s a down turn. I just cannot afford a mighty mouse. I am giving chance to Apple by buying their product, but they did not give me a chance to use/buy their product in long term.

Fragile

Macbook white 1.83GHz, bought 3 years ago. As fragile as it gets. Let’s see, I get battery defeated, DVD-ROM down, screen flickering… Almost everything that can be taken down has been broken. I don’t know how long it can stand anymore.

Anyway, just a few side note here:

1. Going to be busy due to some big personal event.
2. Friend went to Singapore to get an opportunity but ended up the medical check out that he need Mesothelioma treatment so he has been bounce back home again.
3. Parent is coming on August. Spent some money for their ticket already.

Obviously I wouldn’t be able to update too much on all my blog. But of course I will try my best for update my experience with the OS I have with me

1. Install LAMP
2. Install multimedia codec
3. True Typeface

Installing LAMP

Basically Ubuntu (or maybe all Linux distro) run very well with Internet. This is the one thing Windows and Mac cannot achieve. In Ubuntu, anything I want to install, I can simply go to System -> Administration -> Synaptic Package Manager. When Synaptic Package Manager window pop-up, go to Edit -> Mark Packages by Task…, and you’ll see LAMP server, check on it and click ok. Simple as that. Your localhost foldder will be on /var/www/.

Installing multimedia codec

Basically all you need to do is to open the files (mp3, avi, wmv you name it) then it will tell you that those are restrict (read: money) codec, however, it allow you to click on “Search” so it can installl the necessary codec for you.

True Typeface

Linux don’t go well with Windows and Mac? Think again, until today, some geek friends even tell me that Linux typeface is ugly. So what? You can change the typeface, you can even download font from DaFont and install it on your system and use it as the main typeface. I use Vista typeface for my system though, they seems nice

Here is the rough idea of what I thought about previously… I want a Vista user interface, with Macintosh system smoothness and Linux customisation. Am I greedy? Not really, this is just a purely consumer right of thinking

I’ve spend 2 days working purely with Ubuntu only. Working with it on one of the client website installation and one client theme adjustment on Ubuntu. Quite a nice machine I have to say. Heh, company is giving out free New York Yankees tickets tonight. I’m thinking about going or not. Because I just feel too happy in the same time don’t want to leave my Ubuntu at the moment

Now that I am experiencing a better in-depth of Ubuntu, I really recommend it if one want to ask for an alternative. Oh, did I mention about I’m blogging with it now? Not to mention, upon the installation, my network all run smoothly, even my Celcom broadband, which need driver for Windows, it just work with Ubuntu and Mac

Anyway, today was good, cause I’m getting a decent learning of Ubuntu from the net and self exploring. Speaking of Internet, I was afraid that Celcom mobile broadband doesn’t work on Ubuntu. It turns out quite impressive. I don’t need to setup anything at all, well, beside choosing country and service provider. It works out of the box with Ubuntu, both my P1 broadband and Celcom doesn’t require me to setup anything at all (I wonder if I call in P1 support and tell them I’m using Ubuntu, how they going to instruct me?).

Anyway, previously I blog about how to force Celcom to do faster connection, I can’t seems to find any non Ubuntu. And yes, it gets slower and faster quite unstable. Now that doubt me about Celcom broadband. I’m not saying I want to cancel it after half month of subscription. It works well in Windows, if I adjust it to WCDMA.

Speaking of Internet, I tested on the download speed by downloading stuff myself By using P1, I get up to 100KB/s download speed, the first time I experience such a fast connection from Malaysia ISP. The best download speed I get previously in Vista was 48KB/s. However, I don’t know it is the operating system or the mood (of P1) that differ the speed.

If all you need is to delete a file in File System disk, you can use the Terminal command to gain root access by typing:

sudo nautilus

Then key in password. It will open main folder with root access. It is not recommend by lots of Linux user, mainly because not everyone familiar with Linux and once you go wrong, the whole system will be down.

Well, if you hate to use Terminal command, you can change system access to root only. Which mean once you login, turn on your computer, you’ll be as root (you can’t change name though) and everything basically is adjustable. Strongly not recommend by the Linux community. I doubt that though. With no virrus attack, why bother?

Last option, do like what I did, which is similar to above mentioned method. I change my user into root group. So I gain all the root access with my name on it By going to System -> Administration -> Users and Groups. Click on your username and c lick “Properties”…

Then you’ll gain access to /var/www/ without the need to get root access to copy-paste.

I don’t know how truth it was that Celcom broadband can be setup to use only HSDPA or WCDMA speed, doesn’t matter where you are or if you exceed 5GB bandwidth. They said this can help improve stability and a certain speed anytime anywhere. So I hook up with the 3G USD stick modem and check into it…

Currently I’m in a famous tourist island, which I reckon there should have the best of everything. So running with WCDMA and HSDPA speed here is not something to be surprise. But back in Puchong, that is where the test begin Another few more days to go

5 months of working, I did not really touch down to computer too. Just look into my blog entries recently, it’s more about my working field more than my computer. This vacation might give me a little time to re-arrange myself a little bit too. From clearing out my schedule to arranging my schedule Hopefully everything going to be smooth after this week of vacation

First, Macbook is going be the main design workstation. I have After Effect, iMovie, Photoshop, Illustration and all those necessary application ready on my Macbook. Only thing is I don’t have a Linux yet Acer is the Linux soon

The thing here is that I need a bigger table This small table (though it’s the toughest I’ve ever seen so far) is not enough now, as I’m looking forward for another 20″ LCD… I really want to have a plasma stand and hang my LCD instead. Having everything placing on the flat surface will never look as clean as hanging on wall.

More gadget to go

People will bring more and more gadget when outing. From only a small BB Call, to then mobile hand phone, then hand phone with camera, then mp3 jumps in the market and now, a netbook? I still prefer to get a hand phone with a few big function like camera, mp3, radio and wifi. Still can’t convince myself to use and online somewhere else (privacy).

Computer is oh-so-common

Netbook seems to be more affordable than a laptop and desktop. I started to see people taking netbook to Starbucks and do their blogging. I did not conduct any research though, just a plain observation and gut feels here. I think all they have is only the netbook, a blogger especially, don’t need a fancy computer after all. I personally don’t like netbook by the way

Faster information

Wifi, also one of the main factor that makes information flow faster. A lot of countries I know already have wifi nationwide, even Malaysia, though it’s not free (commercial area) but you find it absolutely free at cafe. So the Information flowing will be much much faster and might be more accurate due to social networks

All and all, I just want to have a more details about netbook users. I want to know what and why they get one and what they do with it. Isn’t it strange to know that people getting a netbook, probably no third party software at all and use it all the time? Well, last question will be my favourite one… Is that mean Linux are climbing up the hill? Next up!

Keep testing

Testing to make sure everything is in good condition is a good idea, but having too much testing or changes doesn’t seems so good. I ended up all the testing goes into Spam folder. I don’t know why. As far as I know, the server IP is one factor, the content is another factor, and last but not least, keep sending the same is also a spam. So overall, they are actually spamming my mail and when my mail recognised it as spam, what about other mails that using the same free account as I do?

Design wise

Since it is a newsletter, it is totally up to one to think how to use their newsletter, by design-driven or content-driven. That company wants both, and I bang my head right away. Being clear of what you want to do with your newsletter is important. If you think newsletter works as a reminder, and wanted to attract back the client, try content-driven with some images/icons? For instance, most companies sent a very well designed newsletter for their first timer, the rest is text-base (with a nice html signature), which work out as fine as anything else. Simple, quick, on target, that’s newsletter.

Email addresses

Maybe it is my fault, I should have created another newsletter engine for the testing. They change their email so frequent that I cannot update with them. So each time they’ll send a bunch of email addresses that needed to be deliver. So everytime I have to delete all the addresses to test a thousand times then only I add all addresses again just to send once. Hassle, they don’t believe in web version, so I’ll have to do it step by step for an approval.

Sigh, getting jobs in IT field nowadays getting harder and harder. I wish I could be in IT instead of web. Like people always assume. We, the web designer are computer savvy, everything related to computer and Internet can be solved. Seriously I really need to educate these people, especially they always thought I am a programmer, funny huh?

Associate content and The Daily Mind give a lot of information about health and computer that somehow suit my need. It’s all about working environment and how it works. I heard a lot about carpal tunnel syndrome, previously I was about to have it, especially when I rush for my job in the midnight, and have not enough sleep the next day. My left arm almost can’t move. That’s scary, so I take everything slow now. Here are a few personal tips from experience.

Look at green field

Green color does not reflect sunlight as much as any other color. It helps prevent our eyes’ lid muscle to scratch, means the eyes doesn’t go tired at time.

Walk around every hour

Some say every 20 minutes. But I prefer an hour, as I need to smoke every few hours (bad habit, do not follow). Anyway, while walk away from the computer, you can always scratch your hand to prevent carpal tunnel syndrome.

Take time table into account

A lot of people who play computer games or working with computer, they forgot to eat! It happen to me so often. Though it might be effective compare to Apidexin diet pill, but it is not as healthy as Apidexin. Need to make sure breakfast, lunch and dinner are on time everyday. I got gastric because of the unhealthy schedule of eating habit.

Drinks more water, less coffee

Coffee is not good, doesn’t matter how well the advertisement planned, they lie! Drink water, plain water would be the best. It help circulating the whole body system and hey, you might need a toilet break every one hour to scratch your hand and body at the same time

I am not sure about the placement of LCD though. I placed it like 1 meter away from my eye sight. Bigger screen does help! Nowadays, many people are in online income group. This is particular important for those who work online. Freelancer, bloggers, web magazine editor and etc.

While I was with Windows XP, there was this little IE6 stand alone packed for my convenient. But then, naughty me, I upgraded to Windows Vista not long ago, because I wanted to test Vista for a long long time and now I’m addicted to the interface, like how I did with Macintosh.

Recently I found a little software called IETester. Which can render from IE5.5 to IE8 (!) I love it!

Overally it doesn’t have much function. All it did is render your page in IE and do only this, and do it well

One thing I should hate about IE6 is the margin/padding problem, and it does not support .PNG file type. PNG-24 has been a good friend with me

Worse customer support ever

It’s been 3 months and more than 2 years they’re in this business. I don’t know how bad the service is the past 2 years, but for the 3 months, I don’t see any improvement. Not even a technician came to check why this happen, instead, they keep calling me to ensure that I am still in the shit. Even they gave me a waiver for a month, they sound fishy too. They should ACT as they SAY.

Connection

Now let’s check how stupid I am. First 10 days I get 80% of the speed; 11 to 15 days I get 30% of the speed; 16 – 30 days I get 10% download and 0.1% upload speed; 31 to 55 days I get 30% download and 0.1% upload speed; 56 – 65 days I get 30% of the whole month connection. This is way too ridiculous for a broadband provider to do so, I mean way too over!!!

I am demanding a termination and back to either Streamyx or look for another new provider that don’t have a contract. Just because of the contract with P1, I have to pay the monthly repayment doesn’t matter how worse the connection is. Previously they reported that they don’t have enough cell towers to build base station, but I really wonder with all the empty land around the city (or state, or perhaps, the country), how can they’re lack of cell towers? Build more and be better to top up with other providers, not sitting there thinking you’re the only one. Yes, you may be the only Wimax, but you’re the only worst provider of all!