Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category

Why I’m not liking Western Digital Sharespace

Wednesday, June 24th, 2009

Before anything else, I am using a WD Passport. This is not related in any way on how I see WD Sharespace.

Game. My initial impression with WD Sharespace is: Cheap. I know how much a Network Attached Storage (NAS) costs but this one is 50% cheaper than most NAS brands.

Power. I noticed that when there’s a power fluctuation, it restarts itself. I’m not sure with the term but obviously power surge goes into it and you know how dangerous that is to anything.

Manual. It came with a user manual and the only thing you can find in there is how to connect it to a network and how to find the configure button. And oh, there’s a diagram wherein front and back panels were identified. But there’s no information on how to interpret blinking LEDs.

Alerts. There’s an e-mail alert. Although the e-mail sent is a one-liner-punchline. You wouldn’t notice that it’s already critical when it said: System shutting down; or NIC 1 is unplugged (even though it’s not).

Status. How will you interpret this: All disks are ‘Good.’ ‘Data Volume’ doesn’t exist. Weird, right?

System. Another weird thing about it is it failed to rebuild the file system with no error messages.

Mode. Basic and Advanced Mode in admin console is almost the same banana.

Reviews. No wonder there are many negative reviews on this. Even in forums. So, don’t try this at home.

Review: Empathy Instant Messenger v 2.24.1 on Fedora 10 Preview

Wednesday, November 12th, 2008

I’ve mentioned that Pidgin is replaced by Empathy Instant Messenger, which is embedded in to Gnome 2.24 (and in the future versions too).

Empathy Instant Messenger as being defined from Gnome.org is a set of reusable instant messaging widgets and it uses Telepathy Mission Control. Telepathy is a project that is building a unified framework for many different kinds of real-time communications. And Mission Control is just a component of Telepathy.

Enough with introductions.

If you used Pidgin, you wouldn’t find it difficult to use Empathy. For initial setup, it will ask for accounts. It supports Yahoo Messenger, Gtalk, AIM, MSN, Jabber, Salut, Gadu Gadu, GroupWise, ICQ and QQ.

For some strange reason, I can’t resolve any server for Chat Rooms; there’s no option for Conference, Voice Chat and Webcam, as opposed to its features defined on Gnome.org.

Impression it gave me was it seemed okay. I didn’t have trouble with connecting online, it handled well both my GTalk and Yahoo Messenger accounts. But what bothers me is, there’s not much to configure in Preferences. A new chat message received is not set to pop up window therefore you wouldn’t notice it. Unless you look at your contact list one by one and see an IM icon or Empathy’s icon on the taskbar if blinking.

I can’t say all of these are caused by me, using Fedora 10 Preview. It’s been ages since I last used Linux GUI and Instant Messenger used be Gaim then Pidgin. And besides, Fedora 10’s Gnome is already a stable release. But I’ll get back on this for sure. I’m just pretty excited to explore.

jumper movie review

Wednesday, February 13th, 2008

click here.

reviews: ym messenger & IE7

Thursday, August 30th, 2007

ym messenger, to be or not to be real time

been noticing it for months, yeah, months of using ym messenger, may it be any version. i’ve read on the internet that ym is real time messaging tool that can be used anytime, anywhere, anyhow.

for all we know, it’s true. BUT actually, it’s not. it has time delay of about 5 to 10 seconds for text, 3 to 5 seconds for voice. how i found out? a couple of tests on my own with my colleagues without them knowing that i’m observing ym’s behavior.

nothing, just want to uncover the truth behind instant messaging. chances are that msn, googletalk and skype does the same. another is that i want to share simple facts.. hehe

before i forget, real time conversation is too essential when talking to a client.

IE 7

i don’t recommend using internet explorer. how awful am i, am i not? hehe. but seriously, internet explorer sucks. and to tell you the truth, ie7 sucks even more than its previous versions.

i’m a fan of opera and firefox. tried using ie7 since it’s the latest release by microsoft and i hoped and prayed that it won’t cause me any trouble. *toink!!* i was wrong. it always hangs up though i’m opening only two tabs. while in opera and firefox, they run with as many as i want tabs… hassle free.

there’s really something wrong with microsoft. even simple java script doesn’t work. i think they are blocking it. or did not include it. but still, it makes a code degrading. based on experience huh.. sort of. but let’s not talk about it.

ah yes! you can’t personalize ie’s environment unlike firefox (one thing i really love). that’s why mine is sooo gooood to look at. i also have cute menus and other add-ons that makes my life better than it could have been with ie.

bridge to terabithia

Tuesday, February 27th, 2007

late movie review

bridge to terabithia
walt disney pictures

main char: jess aarons, leslie burke

we were at the movies last weekend for a little winding up. it was difficult to find a film that would suite our taste and mood that day but still, we watched this movie, “bridge to terabithia.” at first i thought that it was in 3d animation, hell no.

there were a lot of kids clinging to their moms and dads while entering the movie house. indeed, it was for kids and kids at heart (just like us).

anyway, it is about having a mind that is wide open for imagination to take place. having an imaginative mind is not enough just like jess who loves to draw. but when he met leslie on the first day of school, they created a new world that only they know about and the bullies around them are the invaders of their kingdom.

they called their place terabithia in which they are the rulers. and most likely, their people are terabithians. jess and leslie is up against the dark master who take terabithians as his prisoners and slaves.

 

bridge to terabithia is not like other fantasy films that the characters are taken to a place in another dimension in space. it’s only about not hesitating to fantasize and imagining things that only one can understand and see. it is in our dreams that we take sanctuary and liberty.

 

seeing this was pretty relaxing. makes me think of my childhood.