Tick mark on IE 6…
June 28, 2007 § Leave a Comment
doesn’t exist. LAMEO!!!!
Redmond, WTF!!!
It’s a simple ✓. How hard can it be to support it?
All other browser use it. Even IE 7 use it. Why IE 7 improvements didn’t crittle down to IE 6?
Lame, Microsoft. Lame…
Silverlight on Linux…
June 25, 2007 § Leave a Comment
is Moonlight.
Fresh today, I read it on Slashdot. A hack-a-thon in 21 days by Mono team created Moonlight. An interesting port of Silverlight.
Interesting Notes:
Note 0: The summary of the development effort can be read here.
Note 1: It doesn’t require Mono. Thus, don’t immediately disregard it as no-future project.
Note 2: The port was done in 21 days. These people deserve extreme credits.
More background to the story:
Q: So what the heck is Silverlight anyway?
A: Silverlight is Microsoft attempt to compete (duh… what else can MSFT do?) with Adobe in Rich Internet Application realm.
Q: What is Rich Internet Application? Yet another Jargon?
A: Kinda. It’s like AJAX & DHTML technologies but instead of using Javascript, it can use Flash (Flex) or native C code (+ browser plugin). Usually it render using interesting technologies.
Q: Is Silverlight available on all platform?
A: Yes, from Wikipedia, MSFT is not being too much of an ass in terms of supported browsers and OSes for Silverlight. That’s a good thing. But then again, you can simply use Flash or Flex for the same results.
Q: So, how about Moonlight? Isn’t it a bit immature? hacked-in-21-days product cannot possibly be that good right?
A: I personally don’t think it’s a bad product. It shows the capability of Mono’s developers. How dedicated they are in delivering more to Linux community (on top of that, remember the harsh criticism Mono team always received).
Q: What does all this mean to me?
A: This fantastic project gives me yet another alternative in building Rich Client application without using Java applet. Although my preference is still traditionally Javascript, now I have Scriptaculous (or Mochikit), Flex, Silverlight, & Moonlight.
Finally, congratulations to Mono team. I have so much respect for you guys.
Safari 3 on Windows…
June 12, 2007 § Leave a Comment
has just been released.
I found out first about it from WWDC keynote on apple.com.
Then of course like a true zeal, I install it on my Windoze work box.
Below are some of my first impressions:
- It is fast. Try it on your typical productivity applications like; GMail or Google Docs or Zoho. (+123456789)
- The GUI feels foreign, but iTunes or Picasa are like that too. (-1.2)
- It crashed 1 time while trying to open too many tabs. But hey… it’s beta. (-3.15)
Overall, the experience is fabulous granted that I have to get used to the menu bar.
Reviews:
Webby Award!!!
June 8, 2007 § Leave a Comment
Logo 2.0!
June 5, 2007 § Leave a Comment
Below are listing of Web 2.0 Logos and what the product actually do:
- http://www.fontshop.com/fontfeed/archives/the-logos-of-web-20/
- http://www.flickr.com/photos/stabilo-boss/93136022/
- http://www.go2web20.net/
Below is some candid explanation about Web 2.0 logo:
Zend Framework… (Part 1)
June 5, 2007 § 1 Comment
Is intriguing and disappointing (a bit) at the same time.
Disclaimer:
This is just part 1 of what’s going to be an ongoing reviews. I decided to do the review this way because I realize that 1-2 days is definitely not going to do the framework justice. The review would take weeks at the very least.
So, let’s talk about why it is intriguing:
It’s web development framework from the official PHP folks. Of course it’s gonna be great. There are lots of PHP developers who are excited with this very thought, me included. Granted I’m late in the party.
Zend framework finally reached version 1.0, it seems to be ready for prime time? Let’s give it a shot.
Reading at the manual and the source code a bit, everything is a component in Zend Framework. Awesome! It seems to have everything I need and more. Once I understand how the component gets called, I’m sure I can develop a component that’s also plug n play in CakePHP. One component to rule the web!
Lastly, My my my… The directory structure is very familiar. Reminds me of RoR and CakePHP… especially CakePHP.
Now let’s talk about what makes me iffy at first:
I swim in RoR, CakePHP style framework for quite some times now. Somehow, I’m starting to like to be hand-held. I know, i know, that sounds bad. Software developer must make their own tools! With their own conventions! and their own configurations! I’m a bad developer for wanting the tools to spoil me.
Ok, enough with the guilt trip. Zend Framework doesn’t force me anything. It seems that I would have to write my own index.php, initialize the Zend_Db or Zend_Cache myself. Not a big deal, I’ll just have to get used to the new mind set.
But that doesn’t mean Zend doesn’t have any conventions. From some tutorials I saw IndexAction function name inside Zend_Controller. That’s an interesting naming convention. Reminds me of Struts Action in JAVA world (Shivers…….).
But what would be the real kicker is:
How performant is it? I haven’t been able to find some data that shows the performance capacity of Zend Framework. If readers have some data, or personal experience with it, please share those to me 
I have yet to see what it can deliver better than CakePHP. But! (This is a big But) This is just the first review. I have yet to complete an application with it.
Stay tuned. Second review will come after I created a blog engine with it and stress test it. That being said the second review would be about performance.
MMORPG: 9Dragons…
June 4, 2007 § 1 Comment
Update (November 26, 2007):
I am going to change my mind on this one. I hope readers don’t think that I’m wishy washy.
9 Dragons is pretty bad. It has more and more weaknesses that nullify all of the positives.
Here are the new cons:
- Its servers are unreliable, when working on really tough monster, you can get disconnected, and then die, and then got your EXP deducted.
- Yes, when you die, your EXP got deducted big time. So when you got disconnected, you just lost 2 hours worth of game time. Definitely frustrating.
- The game’s localization is not very good. But it is not a big deal since this game is basically grind machine.
There is another grind machine game called Martial Heroes. Similar flavor, similar lack of polish in localization department, but this one doesn’t crash/disconnected all that often. I will talk more about this one on separate post.
Below is my old thought:
Turns out to be not so bad after all.
This is yet another MMORPG with different twist and turns. The story is based on fictional ancient China (Ming dynasty to be exact).
True, it’s still fantasy, but at least it’s not another Tolkein-esque setting.
A friend of mine noted that the game has the look and feel of Quake 2 engine. Hmmm… he might be right. That means the system requirement won’t be all that bad.
It turns out that old Pentium 4 with Intel built-in graphic card can still run this game.
Bellow are the pros and cons about how the game played.
Pro:
- Low graphic requirement
- Different setting, different leveling up.
- Less tedious because weaker monsters don’t give experience points.
- Level grinding still exist, but because of different style of leveling up, it’s acceptable.
- Game art is different than the usual fantasy MMORPG. It’s a fresh change.
- The quests are less tedious, each doesn’t really require me to go all around the world delivering items.
- The game is 100% free, although it displays in-game advertisements.
Cons:
- System settings can only be configured inside the game, thus starting up 9dragons is quite painful for old computers.
- The game needs activeX to start using IE, not good. Furthermore…
- Game client is large (about 1GB), downloading it was painful. And on top of that, it still needs IE to start.
- Advertisement cause about 1-2 seconds lag. Well, it’s version 0.9 and it’s free… What more should I expect.
So far the positives really outweigh the negatives.
If readers do have spare time on hand, go check it out. It’s 100% free.
