Moving back to dotkoyi.blogspot.com :D

Hi, long time no see on dotkoyi.blogspot.com.

According to my last post, I have moved my blog to dotkoyi.hobby-site.org, which was hosted on my home server, but why am I still posting here? The simple answer is: I have moved back to blogspot.com :P

The longer version of the answer is that, I moved house. In this new house, I switched my Internet provider from ADSL to Cable, which unfortunately caused some trouble with publishing my own server. The real problem is yet to be found out, I just need to have a channel to write :)

Below you can find some old posts which I have posted on dotkoyi.hobby-site.org, in case somebody missed them :P

A lover too confident

This post was originally posted on dotkoyi.hobby-site.org, which is my home server on 20 January 2008. This home server has to be taken down due to some technical reasons.

I bought an iPod Classic 80GB last Thursday. The guy in the shop asked me whether I was using a Windows PC or a Mac machine, and said that this iPod only works on Windows XP, Vista and Mac OS X more recent than 10.4.x. I said, “OK, but I have both types of machines so it shouldn’t be a problem.” or at least so I thought, although my iBook G4 is still running Panther which is version 10.3.x. I thought there might be some incompatibilities or lack of functions, but the basic functions should work well under Linux or Panther. But I was wrong. Apple did something to the new iTunesDB file in iPod making it impossible to work with other players except iTunes, and even Panther can’t handle iPod anymore COMPLETELY! I just couldn’t get it. If it works with iTunes in Windows XP, what is preventing it from working under Panther??? Disappointed

However, I was lucky that the team at gtkpod (an open source iPod management software in Linux) had managed to reverse-engineered the problem and made iPod working again under gtkpod. Now I have been playing around with my new iPod for a few days with the help of newly compiled libgpod, gtkpod and gpodder, although I feel there are something wrong (I have only used an iPod Shuffle 512MB) so I don’t really know how other models of iPod should work :-P) like the not showing of covers and played podcast episodes don’t get sync’ed correctly with gpodder/gtkpod, I can still live with it

Once again I have to say a big thanks to the open source world

And I have felt much disappointment in Apple. I am still somehow OK if they only block out other players but they have gone too far by blocking out their own OS, too. Those who know me know that I am a big fan of Apple’s products, but now I feel like being betrayed by someone I loved Sigh.

Happy New Year!!! (^^)

This post was originally posted on dotkoyi.hobby-site.org, which is my home server on 4 January 2008. This home server has to be taken down due to some technical reasons.

Wow it is year 2008! How fast. Here I would like to wish my family, all my friends and all the people a Happy New Year and a fruitful year to come

I used to make new year resolution in my blog, …, ok, only once in year 2006. Oh no, I think I haven’t improved much since then (^^!).

Anyway I think I have somehow managed to realize some of them in certain degree, and my priority for this year changed a bit. So, here I go.

1. Don’t give up easily.
2. Be patient and take things slowly.
3. Be nice to the others from my heart.

Having a lot is just like having none, so this is it. (^^)

Hope that this will be a great year for all of us.

A Christmas Tune

This post was originally posted on dotkoyi.hobby-site.org, which is my home server on 26 December 2007. This home server has to be taken down due to some technical reasons.

Merry X’mas everybody!

Err… I wouldn’t try this with my board, though (^^!)

A long wait…

This post was originally posted on dotkoyi.hobby-site.org, which is my home server on 1 December 2007. This home server has to be taken down due to some technical reasons.

Just bought a new 320GB external USB hard disk from the Internet and it was delivered in the afternoon. The last one I bought was about 3 years ago. Since then data has been growing and recently I couldn’t even defrag it since Windows complained that it has too little free space left. So, time for a new one I thought (or a new filesystem without the need to defrag and acessible from all major OSes?). So here it is.

I have been spending the whole afternoon just for moving data from the old to the new one, so I would have my personal stuff on one and work-related stuff on the other. And I noticed something funny regarding the time needed to move data.

First, I moved some 40GB worth of files, which consist of some individual 2GB files (smart reader would recognize this as the consequence of using FAT filesystem which can only handle 2GB per file at most). And surprisingly, it didn’t take a very long time. Now, I am moving about 3GB of files, consisting variable file sizes which are comparatively small. And the time it took has already exceeded that of the 40GB worth of 2GB files. Well maybe this is not something new to find out about and rather predictable, I didn’t know the difference would be so big.

10 Career-killers to avoid

This post was originally posted on dotkoyi.hobby-site.org, which is my home server on 25 November 2007. This home server has to be taken down due to some technical reasons.

This is the first post I have since I moved my blog from Blogspot.com to here. This article from the career section in Computerworld tells about what you should watch out for if you care about your career path, especially in the IT sector. I just want to keep this link as a reminder to myself and at the same time to share it with you. See ya next.

Please update your bookmark

Hello fellow readers, I hereby announce that dotkoyi has been moved to the following URL hosted at my home server (^^)

http://dotkoyi.hobby-site.org/

From now on, all updates will be added to the new site. However, I will leave this site active in case there are any troubles with my server at home.

Happy New Year (^^)

Some nice songs

A long-time-no-see friend sent me a link of a nice song, which led me to this site which provides a collection of more nice songs :-)

To all my friends: I know sometimes when I am too stressed with my work load, I will be very down and this might cause you a bad time dealing with me :-P I am sorry about that and really appreciate you guys being there. Thank you. - from a sometimes-not-so-friendly friend ;-)

For those who are in hunt for a job!!! Must read!!!

Oh... I absolutely know that I should be doing work now. But this article would certainly help those looking for jobs, this would include many of my friends and juniors. So, let's find out how to answer interview questions properly. I don't know if this works in Japan, too, but I think it would at least impress the interviewers in a good way :-)

10 types of programmers you’ll encounter in the field

Ya, I totally agree that working at work is more productive than surfing the Internet, but I can't ignore this article. Again, only for programmers, don't say I didn't warn you. Emm... I think I fit in the following types:

• The Evangelist
• The Code Cowboy
  

Eating makes you full faster than not eating...

Found a funny article which claims that working at work improves productivity. This must have been conducted by some frustrated managers who see their employees walking or talking around each day in the office not doing what they are supposed to do. Of course I totally agree with it. Perhaps working is 100% more productive than doing research like this, too. :-P

Mama Stands Up for Her Fun with the Kid

The copyrights war begins, again. From this piece of news from ABC News, a mother got a take-down notice from YouTube for her post of below home-made video, featuring her toddler dancing to the music in the background. Can you actually tell what is playing on the background? At least I don't.



This brave mother has fought back with a lawsuit against Universal, who has sent the take-down notice. From the mother, after the incident,

"I'm constantly thinking about what's going on in the background, what's on the TV, what's on the CD player, the characters on my kids' clothes, the characters on the toys that they are playing with,'' she said.

"I'm cognizant of what's going on at every step, instead of focusing on my kids, which is where my attention should be."

Are you a right brainer or a left one?

A friend sent me this link yesterday. I think it is quite fun so here you are.

The Right Brain vs Left Brain

You can find out you are on which side of the camps through a simple experiment. Well, whichever side you are on, I think both are good.... (Now what will happen if both brains perform equivalently well...)

Those who couldn't wait

Took this photo on the way back from a station not-so-near-by. Some of the leaves are starting to turn red. That means autumn is just around the corner. Weather in autumn can be strange. Hot and sunny in day time, cold and windy at night. So you will have to watch out what you wear. Ha... I don't really know what to write about this photo. But anyway, the photo is not original, which is too dark because I didn't adjust the camera to the right settings. I cut out part of it and made it brighter. Sorry about that.

OK. I am going to take a shower now and go to bed (^^) Somebody might be disappointed seeing this post about nothing. Just like I told you, it is nothing important. Haha. Good night.

China Trip Photo Album

Hi, I have added some photos taken during my week-long trip to China on Facebook. Take a look. (^^) And below is a short clip of a panda.

Search and Win some prizes!

Yeah, that's right. Now you can test your fortune by doing searches online with this new search engine called wabbadabba (Why are the names so hard to remember nowadays?). According to their FAQs, they are trying to give back something to the people who are helping them make money. The search results are provided by Yahoo (I wonder why not Google), so those of you who are Yahoo supporters might like it since it gives you a sense of thrill :-P

By the way, I am supposed to be sleeping now since I have an early flight to catch tomorrow. I successfully got into sleep two hours earlier, but woke up feeling some pain in the stomach, thanks to the KFC and ice cream mix I had for dinner :-P But I am OK so don't worry :-)

By the way, recently found an alternative to VMware Server. Let me introduce to you VirtualBox! While both of them are available free of charge for personal use, VirtualBox has an open source edition, too with cut-down functionalities. I tried installing FreeBSD on it and found the results quite satisfying, except for some troubles in the network setup.

OK, I think it is time for me to get back to bed. See you when I am back :-)

Experience some frustrations if your life is too wonderful :-D

Windows RG (Really Good Edition) Online

Have some frustrations!

Well, I think only those who have used earlier versions of Windows will get the sense of humor in this little flash animation. Later versions of Windows which are based on the NT architecture have suffered less of these problems (for example, the notorious BSOD - Blue Screen Of Death).

Well I think this flash game helps recall some good-old-day memories, doesn't it? :-)

It has been a month :P

Ok guys, I am still here alive. Just hasn't been in a mood to post anything :P But that doesn't mean that I do have a mood to post now. So I would like to make this a short post, too.

It seems that many people nowadays are cyberslacking during work time through the Internet. Whether this is beneficial or inefficient depends much on individuals. But I think it is important to hit a balance in between.

On another article, interviewers now like to ask spontaneous questions which don't have a definite answer. Well, I like this style of questions though. So there is nothing to prepare for :P

Have a nice nice day.

Programming might be fun as LEGO!

MIT's Lifelong Kindergarten research group (what a cheerful name ^^) has introduced Scratch, a programming tool used to teach kids how to program. Of course it would be fun for adults, too. Give it a visit and be amazed what the kids are making :-)

Have a nice day scratching (^^)

Microsoft in China

Found an interesting (but a bit lengthy) article about Microsoft's business in China here.

As I once commented in an older post, Microsoft gains a lot of its market share from software piracy. Seem that even Mr. Gates agreed with me.

"It's easier for our software to compete with Linux when there's piracy than when there's not," Gates says.