Yes, it has been almost two months since the last post I made here. There has been so many things going on that I haven't had much time to blog.. But anyway, I'm back.
Let me enumerate a couple of big events that happened in these past few weeks. First, my sister came back from Carnegie Mellon Univ. to attend a conference here in BKK, Thailand. Good thing that she had her paper accepted and that the conference was located here, because she could also take a summer break with all of us after a conference was done. At any rate, since she, one of the important audiences of the blog, is back here, I had less inspiration to blog. :-P
Second, we had been working with people from Larn Dham (www.larndham.net) on several things. We, as part of the group, collaborated on several things, including creating a Larn Dham T-shirts, creating a survey form to assess Thai teenagers' understanding of Buddhism, and some more. It has been quite an interesting experience to have.
Lastly, my relatives from CA, USA, came to visit us here, too. So, we (as one whole big family on my father's side) had them toured around. So far we had been to Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai. In fact, we even crossed the border to Burma, just for the sole purpose of shopping! It has been very enjoyable to all of our aunties and uncles (and my parents), but I could see from my cousins' eyes that they didn't quite enjoy shopping as much as their parents did. But, hey, we survived. :-P
So, for the past couple of weeks, it has been quite hectic to me (not even to mention about what I had to go through at my office). So it shouldn't be so surprising for people to find out that this blog hadn't been updated for so long.
Anyway, this upcoming Friday, my dear friend Ming, want us the Wash U people to gather up for a little chat (and a dinner) at Siam Discovery. It is another thing for me to attend to, but at least it will be fun, so I have nothing to complain. :-P
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Sunday, May 22, 2005
Looking for a new blog hosting service
I have been thinking for a while about this. And there're a couple of reasons why switching to other place makes sense.
First thing, it's about a lack of features. Though Blogger is probably the earliest player in the field, from what I've seen, it still feels as if Blogger itself couldn't keep up with other newcoming players. Two features that are missing are Calendar, and a simple Prev and Next post links. I mean, gosh, all Thai online diary services have these two seemingly simple features already, so I just couldn't fathom why Blogger haven't got it yet. And it's not like these services are that complex, all of them are home-brew software.
(This is not to say that I think of Blog in the same term as Online Diary, though, since in those diaries you can make only one post per day (that's what diary is all about anyway). But I just want to make a point that Blogger looks pretty bland when talking in terms of features...)
Another thing that annoys the hell out of me is that you cannot have sub categories for the blog. Well, sure, you can get multiple blogs for yourself, and you can easily access each of them on your profile page. But then, you just have to fight for namespace with everybody out there (i.e., the Blog*Spot Address). Also, these blogs doesn't feel connected together: looking at the URLs won't make readers realize that they might have come from one single author. Moreover, what would happen if you've changed your template code in one of the blogs, and you want these changes be made on the others? Yes, it all comes down to manual cut-n-paste. And if you forget to keep track of changes you made to each of the templates, soon you'll face with versioning nightmare. By then, you won't have any desire to blog left. :-(
Fortunately, there is a way to save yourself from all these troubles. Just go Googling for another free, decent blog hosting places, and you'll see that many of them will have comparable (if not better) set of features that Blogger has. So it seems like a good deal.
One of those places that I came across is Weblog.us and JRoller. The first one, you get a pretty good deal (your own MySQL, 1 GB of FTP space). Actually, just the fact that they're hosting WordPress blogs, by itself, is already a good deal. WordPress is very powerful, extensible, and, quite frankly, they've tons of themes you can use for free. It seems like the theming contest is being held once a year, so you can switch from one to another to your heart's content: by this time next year you'll get a bunch more themes to play with. You'll never get bored by the looks of your blog anymore. :-P
JRoller, as you can guess from the capital J, is Java-based. Since the last time that they've updated the site, I've favored it a lot more. First, they've ported three winning themes from WordPress contest, into JRoller themes, so now we've three decent themes to use. Moreover, the fact that you can actually read the Velocity API and start "coding" each component page by yourself is truly great.. (for a programmer like me, that is). From, from the flexibility here, I also like this service.
PS. if you wanna know why I don't prefer using Thai blogging services, then read here, otherwise, just skip this rant if you want.
Well, one thing I worry the most about these Thai services is about their life-spans. In the case of Blogger, since it's funded by a big company, at least I can be sure that the service will always be available as long as the company doesn't go bankrupt. On the other hand, these local services that I've mentioned don't have that luxury. Usually, each of them is funded by a couple of people. So, I just feel that there aren't enough assurance that the service won't vanish into thin air when the funders disappear. So, from my point of view, Blogger is still better in this regard.
First thing, it's about a lack of features. Though Blogger is probably the earliest player in the field, from what I've seen, it still feels as if Blogger itself couldn't keep up with other newcoming players. Two features that are missing are Calendar, and a simple Prev and Next post links. I mean, gosh, all Thai online diary services have these two seemingly simple features already, so I just couldn't fathom why Blogger haven't got it yet. And it's not like these services are that complex, all of them are home-brew software.
(This is not to say that I think of Blog in the same term as Online Diary, though, since in those diaries you can make only one post per day (that's what diary is all about anyway). But I just want to make a point that Blogger looks pretty bland when talking in terms of features...)
Another thing that annoys the hell out of me is that you cannot have sub categories for the blog. Well, sure, you can get multiple blogs for yourself, and you can easily access each of them on your profile page. But then, you just have to fight for namespace with everybody out there (i.e., the Blog*Spot Address). Also, these blogs doesn't feel connected together: looking at the URLs won't make readers realize that they might have come from one single author. Moreover, what would happen if you've changed your template code in one of the blogs, and you want these changes be made on the others? Yes, it all comes down to manual cut-n-paste. And if you forget to keep track of changes you made to each of the templates, soon you'll face with versioning nightmare. By then, you won't have any desire to blog left. :-(
Fortunately, there is a way to save yourself from all these troubles. Just go Googling for another free, decent blog hosting places, and you'll see that many of them will have comparable (if not better) set of features that Blogger has. So it seems like a good deal.
One of those places that I came across is Weblog.us and JRoller. The first one, you get a pretty good deal (your own MySQL, 1 GB of FTP space). Actually, just the fact that they're hosting WordPress blogs, by itself, is already a good deal. WordPress is very powerful, extensible, and, quite frankly, they've tons of themes you can use for free. It seems like the theming contest is being held once a year, so you can switch from one to another to your heart's content: by this time next year you'll get a bunch more themes to play with. You'll never get bored by the looks of your blog anymore. :-P
JRoller, as you can guess from the capital J, is Java-based. Since the last time that they've updated the site, I've favored it a lot more. First, they've ported three winning themes from WordPress contest, into JRoller themes, so now we've three decent themes to use. Moreover, the fact that you can actually read the Velocity API and start "coding" each component page by yourself is truly great.. (for a programmer like me, that is). From, from the flexibility here, I also like this service.
PS. if you wanna know why I don't prefer using Thai blogging services, then read here, otherwise, just skip this rant if you want.
Well, one thing I worry the most about these Thai services is about their life-spans. In the case of Blogger, since it's funded by a big company, at least I can be sure that the service will always be available as long as the company doesn't go bankrupt. On the other hand, these local services that I've mentioned don't have that luxury. Usually, each of them is funded by a couple of people. So, I just feel that there aren't enough assurance that the service won't vanish into thin air when the funders disappear. So, from my point of view, Blogger is still better in this regard.
Thursday, May 12, 2005
Mozilla Firefox 1.0.4 released
This release is a minor update to fix vulnerabilities found in previous versions of Firefox.
For those who like installer build, you can grab it directly from Mozilla site. Otherwise, if you're like me, who use zip build (which I think is better), you can download it here via Mozilla FTP. Those who use Thai WBR version just have to wait until Mr. Hui update his blog.
I won't say much about the bugs in details (which are quite serious, actually). If you want to know more, head to MozillaZine front page and look at the news on the 8th and the 9th of this month. The relevant posts are “Mozilla Arbitrary Code Execution Security Flaw” and “More Details on Arbitrary Code Execution Vulnerability”.
For those who like installer build, you can grab it directly from Mozilla site. Otherwise, if you're like me, who use zip build (which I think is better), you can download it here via Mozilla FTP. Those who use Thai WBR version just have to wait until Mr. Hui update his blog.
I won't say much about the bugs in details (which are quite serious, actually). If you want to know more, head to MozillaZine front page and look at the news on the 8th and the 9th of this month. The relevant posts are “Mozilla Arbitrary Code Execution Security Flaw” and “More Details on Arbitrary Code Execution Vulnerability”.
Monday, May 09, 2005
Taking Care of Oneself
Recently, my family (actually, my parents and me) have been planning on having me doing more exercise. After quite a while, I agreed with the idea, and tried looking for a home gym to buy.
One day, we went to a department store, and tried several of the home gyms they had. After trying the 4th one, I felt a tiny back pain. Usually, if this pain happened during the working hours, where I sit at the computer, my mind would probably be too occupied to notice it. Fortunately, I caught that feeling, and realized that I probably need to see a chiropractor before starting any real exercise — the last time I went to see one was around 5 or 6 years ago.
Last Saturday, I went to see a chiropractor for just a check-up. Unfortunately, there's much more things going on there. The first word he spoke was that my spinal structure might have a problem — upon his first glance, he saw that my left and right shoulders weren't at even height. After a bit of explanation (with diagram on one of his textbooks), he sent me away to the hospital, to have some x-rays on my spine, just to check how bad it is.
With just this first-time meeting, my mom was quite impressed. The last chiropractor we had just didn't do enough explanation (let alone a sensible analysis that actually told us what happened). But the doctor we went to see this time was a whole lot more professional. I agree with mom wholeheartedly; I felt I was in good hands.
After we came back to the clinic with the x-rays, we saw the problem as the doctor described — my lower spine bends to the right. The doctor also said that, to balance the whole spinal structure, my upper spine also bends the other way. So basically, right now my spine looks like an ugly S. :-(
Anyhow, even if the first chiropractor didn't catch this 6 years ago, I still consider myself lucky, since I came to see him before I get a chronic pain. At least I still have some time to fix my spine, though it might not be back to 100% straight.
Since I haven't got a chronic pain, the doctor didn't do any weird twisting on my back just yet. He just ordered me a custom shoe insoles used to adjust my leg heights (thereby re-balancing my left and right body weight more symmetrically). And by doing so, the spine can re-adjust itself without using force. :-)
Anyway, there is another reason why I write this post: to inform my dear sis. :P
Aom, if you read this, I can assure you that you'll get to see him when you come back here. Mom noticed that your shoulders are also uneven (probably worse than mine). So, it'll be great if you can come to fix it as soon as possible.
One day, we went to a department store, and tried several of the home gyms they had. After trying the 4th one, I felt a tiny back pain. Usually, if this pain happened during the working hours, where I sit at the computer, my mind would probably be too occupied to notice it. Fortunately, I caught that feeling, and realized that I probably need to see a chiropractor before starting any real exercise — the last time I went to see one was around 5 or 6 years ago.
Last Saturday, I went to see a chiropractor for just a check-up. Unfortunately, there's much more things going on there. The first word he spoke was that my spinal structure might have a problem — upon his first glance, he saw that my left and right shoulders weren't at even height. After a bit of explanation (with diagram on one of his textbooks), he sent me away to the hospital, to have some x-rays on my spine, just to check how bad it is.
With just this first-time meeting, my mom was quite impressed. The last chiropractor we had just didn't do enough explanation (let alone a sensible analysis that actually told us what happened). But the doctor we went to see this time was a whole lot more professional. I agree with mom wholeheartedly; I felt I was in good hands.
After we came back to the clinic with the x-rays, we saw the problem as the doctor described — my lower spine bends to the right. The doctor also said that, to balance the whole spinal structure, my upper spine also bends the other way. So basically, right now my spine looks like an ugly S. :-(
Anyhow, even if the first chiropractor didn't catch this 6 years ago, I still consider myself lucky, since I came to see him before I get a chronic pain. At least I still have some time to fix my spine, though it might not be back to 100% straight.
Since I haven't got a chronic pain, the doctor didn't do any weird twisting on my back just yet. He just ordered me a custom shoe insoles used to adjust my leg heights (thereby re-balancing my left and right body weight more symmetrically). And by doing so, the spine can re-adjust itself without using force. :-)
Anyway, there is another reason why I write this post: to inform my dear sis. :P
Aom, if you read this, I can assure you that you'll get to see him when you come back here. Mom noticed that your shoulders are also uneven (probably worse than mine). So, it'll be great if you can come to fix it as soon as possible.
Wednesday, May 04, 2005
Azureus 2.3.0.0 is out
Maybe a little late (two days late), but the new version of Azureus is out. This new version sports PeerCache technology from Joltid. This new feature supposes to help Torrent users to leech at faster speed (if their ISPs supports PeerCache, that is).
I hope that True will support this too, so that we can enjoy using Bittorrents a bit more. From the looks of it, this technology will benefit both ISPs and customers.
Lately a lot of high-speed customers of True are complaining about speed cap that True put on in order to reduce international traffic due to P2P applications. If True decides to use PeerCache, things would be different. From my understanding, by enabling PeerCache, it means True itself will cache those distributed files, and let True customers download the files off this cache. The result? Instead of sending tons of packets through the Internet Gateway to the outside world, thereby spending lots of money for outbound traffic, most of True's P2P traffic will now be within local network itself. This helps True reducing outbound bottleneck problem, where most of its customers are trying to make international connections. It also saves True (and our country) money. And the users can enjoy P2P too. So, no matter how you look at it, it's a win-win strategy.
I hope that True will support this too, so that we can enjoy using Bittorrents a bit more. From the looks of it, this technology will benefit both ISPs and customers.
Lately a lot of high-speed customers of True are complaining about speed cap that True put on in order to reduce international traffic due to P2P applications. If True decides to use PeerCache, things would be different. From my understanding, by enabling PeerCache, it means True itself will cache those distributed files, and let True customers download the files off this cache. The result? Instead of sending tons of packets through the Internet Gateway to the outside world, thereby spending lots of money for outbound traffic, most of True's P2P traffic will now be within local network itself. This helps True reducing outbound bottleneck problem, where most of its customers are trying to make international connections. It also saves True (and our country) money. And the users can enjoy P2P too. So, no matter how you look at it, it's a win-win strategy.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)