Jeff Chan

del.icio.us

I never was a hardcore del.icio.us user. I would add bookmarks to it once in awhile when I know I’ll be needing the bookmark somewhere else on another computer. Most of my bookmarks were in my Firefox browser. Some bookmarks were bookmarked with Google’s star thingy. And the rest was either in del.icio.us or somewhere in a textfile on my computer.

Today I decided I should just keep all my bookmarks in one place. The obvious choice here was to use del.icio.us. I won’t be able to access my bookmarks elsewhere with Firefox and I’m scared of Google. So I grabbed the Firefox extension which allows me to import all my bookmarks into del.icio.us. Importing was a real pain because the extension would not import all my bookmarks at once. I had to import by each folder, which I had like 10 folders of.

At the same time, I went ahead to uninstall my Google toolbar. The only purpose I installed Google toolbar was so that Google could know where I went and I could come back to search it. But after thinking about it, it’s kind of scary so I cleared all my history Google has (and my 5200+searches), although I still want Google to track my searches so I can enjoy my own geekiness of Googling 30+ times a day.

Another reason I ported to del.icio.us was I wanted to be able to share my bookmarks here with you guys. I figured I’d give the del.icio.us auto post feature a try. You should be seeing daily posts of my bookmarks if the thing actually works .

So in the meantime, go ahead and check out what I find delicious here. Most of my bookmarks are programming and web development related XD

 Topics: bookmarks, delicious, google, programming, Tech

Microsoft Natural Ergonomics Keyboard 4000

Like I was saying a few days ago, I got myself a brand new keyboard, the Microsoft Natural Ergonomics Keyboard 4000. I got the package yesterday and I’ve been using it ever since. Despite a few minor problems so far it’s been pretty good.

In the past I’ve always got the cheap $5 dollar keyboards, but those come with a great price. My hands and fingers would start to hurt if I type on the keyboard too much (over 30 minutes). I’ve been wanting to get an ergonomics keyboard for awhile now, hoping that it will solve my problems. Right now, I can’t say for sure if this is helping.

The keyboard takes sometime to get use to. As you can see, the middle is curved up, supposedly to make you more comfortable. But as someone who doesn’t type the 100% proper way, it takes time for me to adapt the keyboard.

The keys are fairly comfortable and quiet. The keyboard also comes with software to allow you to customize the buttons at the top. I’ve never really used those keyboard buttons before, but I may give it a try this time. There’s also a zoom button but it’s quite awkward to have it right in the middle. The back and forward buttons are also in the middle, which is kind of odd. My Logitech MX Revolution mice does a better job of zooming and back and forward browsing since it has better customizations.

I was a little disappointed to find that my keyboard didn’t come with the 7 degree riser. When I was in Office Depot to check out the keyboard myself. The riser made typing much more comfortable. But hey, I bought the OEM version of the keyboard, which is of course cheaper. Nothing to complain here. The truth is that Microsoft makes pretty damn good keyboards. Overall, I think the keyboard is well worth the money.

 Topics: ergonomic, keyboard, microsoft, opinion, review, Tech

Switching To Google Reader … and Back

I am a pretty loyal Bloglines user ever since I started subscribing to RSS feeds. I’ve been tempted to switch over to the new version of Google Reader for awhile. Three days ago, I finally got around to organize my feeds and exporting them to Google Reader. However, Google Reader just doesn’t fit my taste and I switched back today.

Here are the main reasons:

1. Scrolling One of the things I like about Bloglines is the ability to just swift through the feeds really quick and take a glance at the headlines. But in Google Reader, scrolling is really annoying because it marks the posts as read one by one, thus making scrolling really slow.
2. Sharing Another great thing about Bloglines is the ability to just have a public page where you can show everyone else the feeds you are subscribing to. In Google Reader, there is a similar feature. But instead of displaying a list, it actually displays the RSS items.
3. Shortcuts This is the main reason I switched back to Bloglines. Bloglines’ shortcuts are very simple. j is next item. k is previous item. n marks the item. f goes to the next folder. Things are not quite the same in Google Reader. The previous and next item shortcuts are the same, but switching between folders makes me want to scream. First I have to select a folder by pressing shift+n or shift+p. Then I have to OPEN it, again, holding down shift and pressing o. Why can’t I just select the NEXT folder and OPEN it in one press.
4. Marking Items as read The is the main reason I actually use feed readers instead of iGoogle or anything of the like. With feed readers, I can keep track of what I’ve read and what I haven’t. One small annoyance in Google reader is that when I open a folder and when there is only one or two items unread(and don’t take up the whole page), I still have to press the “j” button n times, to mark them as read. Of course I can always “mark all read”, but Bloglines makes it so that I don’t even have to do any of that.
5. Organizing It’s so hard to organize your feeds in Google Reader. It just plain sucks. I want the ability to just drag and drop my feeds and folders. Double click to rename them. And hold on to control to select multiple of them. I also just want to hit delete to delete a feed or folder. But with Google Reader, you have to make bunch of check marks one by one and then choose your action.

If Google fixes these annoyances, I will definitely give it another shot. But for now, Bloglines it is. Oh yes, meanwhile, checkout what I’m reading every day.

 Topics: Bloglines, feeds, Google Reader, opinion, review, RSS, syndication, Tech

So Much Code…

You’ve probably been wondering why I haven’t updated my blog even when it’s summer… but here’s what I’ve been up to.

• Doing some client work – writing a pretty big plugin for MyBB
• Playing around with Ajax/Ahah – whatever you want to call it
• Diving into CakePHP – awesome framework. This thing will make my coding life so much easier
• Working on a new layout for this site. Yup, it’s my first attempt at designing one. Don’t expect too much though. It’s a very simple layout I like simplicity anyways
• I just ordered a new keyboard. It’s the Microsoft Ergo Keyboard 4000. It just get here soon. Can’t wait for it.

But here’s what I really should be doing but I’m not

• Do my AP World History summer assignment
• Programming robots
• Creating my portfolio

This is actually the first summer where I’ve actually attempted to accomplish my goals. I don’t see this progress continuing once I go on vacation to Taiwan.

 Topics: AHAH, AJAX, AP, CakePHP, coding, homework, keyboard, layout, MyBB, portfolio, programming, robotics, Tech, web development

Many Tech Announcements Today

At the All Things D conference, several companies announced there new products and releases. I’m very excited about some of them.

• Microsoft Surface: Great concept. I would love to see this in application. See video here.
• Apple releases the DRM-free music store. Apple did a clever trick on the new DRM-free songs; even though you can transfer the songs freely, your username is still embedded into the song file. So if you share your music, your username will be all over the place XD. I think this is what the real DRM should be. You should be able to use your music freely but that does not mean to pirate it.
• Google’s new street map view. Very creepy but very useful. You can do a virtual tour, basically. I hope they keep it updated though.

 Topics: Apple, DRM, google, map, microsoft, music, Tech, touch screen

Wordpress 2.1

I’ve taken the time to upgrade this site to Wordpress 2.1. Everything went smoothly except I had to update some old plugins and edit some files. The best feature I like from this new release is the separate comments section which allows better comment control. The other thing I really like is the included Akismet plugin which filters spam. I’ve been using this plugin for a long time and it’s been catching over 2000 spam comments for me. The autosave feature is really awesome. I’ve lost several drafts because browser crash or what not.

 Topics: akismet, autosave, Blog Updates, spam, Tech, update, wordpress

Twitter

I discovered a really awesome web service called Twitter. Twitter is a live blogging tool that allows people to track what other people are doing. It’s basically a stalking tool. For example, I setup my profile and update it as I’m doing things. You on the other end can see what I’m doing. It might be hard to understand, but you’ll get it once you register and start stalking .

To get started is really easy. All you have to do is register an account. You can update your profile via SMS, IM, or web. There is an application for the Mac called Twitteriffic to update your profile as well as a Dashboard widget. Shane and I are anticipating an application or widget for the PC. Similarly, you can receive updates via SMS, IM, or web.

If you want, you can add me as a friend at here and stalk me. I’d love to see what you are doing too Trust me, you’ll get addicted too this once you start using it.

 Topics: Tech, twitter

Vista: Part 2 Screenshots

Screenshots to the Vista: Part 2.

New Vista start menu. I love it.

Paint will always be superior than Photoshop!

Say goodbye to the My’s.

Not many new functionality, but photo gallery does what it needs to do.

The desktop now gets its own spot in Alt-Tab!

 Topics: screenshots, Tech, vista

Vista: Part 2

This is the second part of my Vista series. You can check out Part 1 and the screenshots.

The very first thing you’ll probably notice when you first boot up your Vista is the new start menu and start bar. The new start bar takes out the word “start”, so I’m not even sure if I should call it “Start” or not (:D). There’s not much change to the start bar, except for the new icons, which Brad says it looks ugly. As for the start menu, when you click that Windows icon at the botton, you’ll notice a little text box just above the icon. It’s the Windows search. Just like Spotlight on the Mac, this search let’s you do real time searches in which results will return in one or two seconds. Whether you are searching for a file or an application, it comes in very handy. When you click on “All Programs”, menus no longer extend out. Instead, it just make use of the existing column. As I hover over the different links on the right, you can see that the icon changes. Pretty cool. I must say I like the new search and the new way of browsing applications.

You can’t talk about Windows without even mentioning Paint. In this edition of Windows, Microsoft polished Paint a little bit by making the icons look better. I don’t see any other significant new feature or change. Microsoft is still keeping it simple.

Windows Explorer in Vista has a new take on file browsing on the PC. Unlike XP with the annoying and irrelevant sidebar, when you open up Windows Explorer, you get the file tree right away. They put the main functions you need on the top right below the breadcrumbs. You also should notice that there is no “my” anymore. Yes, you heard it right. No more “My Computer” and “My Documents”, it’s just “Computer” and “Documents”, thank god. I think the Windows Explorer in Vista gets to the point. New way of organizing your files, or in other words, a new file structure is very helpful. I am at the same time celebrating the extinction of the stupid my’s.

The image viewer from XP is now called Photo Gallery on Vista. Basic controls like slide show and rotation are still there. There are a few buttons at the top such as Burn to CD and Make a Movie. I’ve yet to try out the new Fix function which is suppose to fix and adjust your photo.

Finally, it’s the small tweaks that developers do that I love. This new tweak is an addition to the common used Alt-Tab. If you don’t know what this key combination does, it’s basically a shortcut to switching your windows. How many times have you tried to go to the desktop on XP by pressing Alt-Tab. I have, and it doesn’t work, sadly. Thanks to the developers who probably have the same problem, you can now switch to your desktop with the Alt-Tab shortcut.

The screenshot post of this part will follow. Check back!

 Topics: Tech, vista

Vista: Part 1 Screenshots

Screenshots to the Vista: Part 1.

How much RAM used right after Windows Vista boots.

Speech recognition! Neat!

Thanks to this snipping tool, screenshot taking just got 200% easier.

Newly designed visual interface of the control panel.

Example of a control panel page. Lots of new customization.

I love this audio mixer!

Vista: Part 2 is to come soon!

 Topics: screenshots, Tech, vista

Vista: Part 1

As I mentioned a few days ago, I installed and started playing around with Vista. I still do my main work on XP since I’m too lazy to move all my application data and things onto Vista. I’m just using Vista and XP interchangeably. One day Vista, the other day XP.

So far, Vista has not (yet) crashed on me. However, I’ve experienced some lag, probably due to my 768Mb of memory. I must say, Vista definitely is by far the best looking Windows operating system ever made. Microsoft probably realized they need to hire designers in the end.

There are some things I like about Vista. I’ve been playing around with the speech recognition buit-in, and it works very well. Of course, I could do the same work by using my mouse and keyboard in a less amount of time, but speech recognition comes in handy when I’m doing work and I need to look up something. I was amazed that it actually recognized by Asian accent voice.

I also like a nifty new hot key, the start bar switch key. The way you use this is very simple, hold on to the Windows key and press a number like 1. If you press Windows + 1, you’ll switch to the first application listed in your quick launch bar, and so on so forth.

Theres also a built-in screenshot program called Windows Snipping Tool, I believe. It’s a standard snap shot program with different functions like full screen shot, window shot, rectangle shot, and free-hand shot. So now, you don’t have to go press PRINT SCREEN, open up paint, and save. I guess they’ve realized what users really need.

The control panel is also really well-made. You can literally “control” everything from there. They need to fix up the navigation page a little since I had to went through over 15 pages to find speech recognition when I first installed Vista. The power control, parental control, audio control, etc is all there. The audio mixer that enables you to set different volume for each application is very nifty. So you could have your iTunes open setting the volume to fairly low as background music and do whatever you want. As the name says, it’s a mixer.

This is only part 1 of my Vista experience coverage. I want to do more coverage on Vista as I start getting familiar with it and exploring all the new things. I’ll take a screenshot tour of what I’ve covered later too. Stay tuned.

 Topics: Tech, vista

Viissttaaaa

I installed Vista on my computer a few days ago. Things went pretty well, except not Aero Glass for me, and Vista uses TON of RAM.

Here’s a screenshot of my desktop. I’ll post more about my Vista experience later .

 Topics: Tech, vista

Stuff that Rocks

I discover new services, applications and stuff almost everyday. I just want to highlight a few neat applications that I think is pretty awesome.

The first one is Orb.com. I discovered this while reading the Woot forum. Orb.com is a service that allows you to access your computer at home from anywhere using Internet or cellphone. You can put music, videos, pictures, and even your webcam on the stream and you can access it anywhere by simply going to the site and logging in. The neatest thing about this is that you can record and watch TV with this service. Say your computer has a TV tuner card and you are going to be on vacation. You can use the service to record the shows you want to watch on vacation, and watch them while you are on vacation via phone or Internet. Live TV is also available if you have a good connection. The setup is pretty easy, download, install, register, a few clicks, and you’re done. Best of all, this service is free.

The second one is Dark Room. Dark Room is a full screen, distraction free, writing environment. Unlike standard word processors that focus on features, Dark Room is just about you and your text. This is a free app for Windows that is a clone of the Mac app WriteRoom. I knew about WriteRoom previously and was looking for a Windows alternative and found this. There are people like me who just can’t concentrate on work when there is the start menu bar, desktop, etc distracting you. This appication is perfect for people seeking distraction free computer workspace. In fact, I’m typing this in Dark Room. There are some simple settings that allow you to customize the view.

 Topics: , apps, Dark Room, Orb, Tech