A 3-D visualisation of virtual desktops
switching under 3-D Desktop (click image above for homepage)

IRTUAL desktops are means of extending one’s workspace. Given the finite size of a monitor, one wonders if that size also imposes strict limits on the (in)visible window environment. Well, it does not. It is possible to treat the monitor as just a rectagular box or a a ‘sliding window’, which metaphrically glances at something much larger. It enables the user to view smaller segments of the whole at any one time. Most commonly, the user would watch only a quarter of the workspace at any one time.

Virtual desktop environments have been available for a long time to Linux user. They will also be officially introduced in Windows Vista, having encountered third-party software that achieved this in the past. Apple Macs have commercial add-ons that achieve the same thing — presenting the users with a pager to control multiple virtual desktops.

The Pager is a small widget which enables the user to select which segment of the screen should be viewed. More specifically, it enables switching from one virtual desktop to another. It often reflects on the content in all virtual desktops. In KDE, for example, the pager contains a schematic of active windows and their positions. In GNOME, it appears to even embed application icons. I used the Pager with virtual desktops about 4 years ago, but not excessively. I needed them when doing some programming jobs, but wasn’t competent with the corresponding CTRL+[1-4] shortcuts, which make the transition between one desktop to another very smooth and rapid.

On to page 2

The WordPress dashboard in its ’2.0 gown’

OR the past few weeks I have been working with the existing revision of WordPress 2.0 (RC2, soon Beta). It is currently on ‘feature freeze’, so it’s primarily a matter of cleaning up all imperfections and minor bugs. The nightly build of WordPress appears to be in a solid state and can definitely be described as “impressive”. My intention is to move this modified WordPress 1.2 blog (as well as another) into a newer and more robust section. There are various limitations to WordPress 1.2, the main one being its adaptability to scale and accommodation for functionality.

I have not made the new installation public yet, but the idea I have in mind is migrating the feeds to the new platform. I will be leaving the old 1.2 installation as-is to serve as a collection of legacy pages. The new installation will not contain older posts as to avoid duplicates. It can be perceived as a successor in a sense.

So what else should you know about WordPress 2.0? [Read on for details]

(more…)

HERE is a certain rumour, according to which Google are eyeing the acquisition of Opera. Opera is a powerful Web browser that has never attained its much-deserved popularity.

Google already financially support Mozilla Firefox and are sometimes even biased towards it. Evidently, Google cannot buy Mozilla or get directly involved in this splendid project. One wonders what powers Google would have gained if it adopted Mozilla Firefox more religiously. With the buzz about on-line operating systems and speculations over a so-called “Google O/S“ , one can speak of embracing the network boot, then using the browser for Web applications.

Opera was made free (yet it remains a commerical project) some months ago, shortly after its 10^th birthday. It was only then that I decided to install it. I must admit that it looks very slick in this latest version, which is great improvement when compared against my memories of it. I first used Opera around 2002 under Red Hat Linux.

Opera is rich in terms of its features, but lacks that freelance developer involvement as it is not Open Source. Therefore, Opera does not have many plug-ins and is about as extensible as Internet Explorer, if not less. The base package, however, is featured and incorporates mouse gestures support and plenty of other goodies. If Google ever decided to gain ownership over this inter-operable browser, they would have a wonderful starting point and be able to use their reputation to spread it among the international community.

Addendum: Google are developing even more plug-ins for Mozilla Firefox.

Update (17/12/2005): Opera Dismisses Google Takeover Talk

My personal experiences in handling comment spam are limited, as often is the case. Very few individuals have had the opportunity to test the full spectrum of any given type of software or product (a classic example are laptops, of which they are many models and manufacturers). Only an exhaustive trial, in turn, enables to give a good and comprehensive review.

As regards faults or statistics or reliability, these can rarely be accounted for unless a careful, systematic, and prolonged study is conducted. As a result, the suggestion I make will suffer from a relatively narrow scope. By all means, I am not proposing the best prevention methods for comment spam. I can merely add my 2 cents, speaking about my evolutionary experience with a few spam prevention tools, plug-ins, or paradigms. I shall also provide some links to a variety of popular tools that I am less familiar with.

(more…)

Opting for ‘old school’ TV, even on a modern set

HILE many of us are afraid of change, some of us refuse to accept change. At some of the worst scenarios, without any awareness, we can miss out on tremendous benefits. Examples from the hardware domain:

• Half of all HDTV owners never use the high definition capabilities of their set.
• Many people still use a single-head display even though they have dual-head graphics card and some old monitor(s) lying around in the house. It is poor use of the available hardware, which few people seem to mind.

As for more examples pertaining to software:

• People browse with Firefox/Opera/Mozilla/Netscape and make no use of tabs.
• Use of heavy and sluggish, Web-based E-mail services, notably MSN/Hotmail. Some vendors/hosts make the exception nonetheless.

ntel are starting to feel the greatest of heats from their competition, most notably AMD. That heat cannot be circumvented by more fans or underclocking either. As explained in a ZDNet blog:

The news keeps getting worse for Intel when it comes to arch nemesis AMD.

[...]

But if that news isn’t bad enough for Intel (and good for AMD), now comes this: AMD’s 7-round clean sweep technical knockout in ZDNet’s comparative review that benchmarked the two companies’ dual-core offerings against each other.

Another comprehensive review provides even more AMD versus Intel CPU benchmarks. Yesterday I heard about profit warnings in Intel, which led to the dive of their stock.

Intel on Thursday slightly narrowed its outlook for fourth-quarter sales, a sign that seems to be making some investors queasy.

As if that was not enough, Intel call the $100 laptop, which runs Open Source software and is intended to serve developing nations, an “undesired gadget”. This sounds like resistance and mockery of a good cause. Need it be mentioned that those laptops use AMD chips? Intel’s chips cost around $40 to manufacture, yet they can never be sold for a price that makes them viable for such low-end, inexpensive laptops.

Previous critiques of Intel:

• Farewell Intel, Welcome AMD
• Intel Sidles Closer to Microsoft

ECOMING your own Web host and E-mail administrator is troublesome. It’s a challenge, but a very unproductive one, which can lead to entanglement and nervousness.

Try to imagine hosting your site the DIY way. Think of managing E-mail on your own workstation or a personal Web server; not a dedicated Web server, but one which is owned and run by yourself. Such server would reside in a not-so-secure environment, which is bound to lose power at times while no generator is available. Data on the server begs for regular backups that are time consuming. Moreover, the server may lose its Internet connection or suffer from bandwidth spikes, making stability and resilience prone to great risk. On top of it all, the server will require software updates on occasion, which are easier for a professional host to take care of. The professional uses time more effectively because all is done in ‘batch mode’ — hundreds of sites affected by an upgrade in one fell swoop. Experience plays a role too.

Lastly, on a less technical and more personal level, I reckon that ‘self-sysadmining’ would be too emotional. Although I have the knowledge required for doing it, as well as 3 boxes at my disposal for the purpose, I believe this could lead to a resource hog to begin with. Without peers involved and in the lack of diverse experience, the step would be a daunting one too. By running code that is questionable the Web server, which is never to be considered a computational server, everything is put at risk, even the mail daemon. Mechanical faults are another issue as there are no alternative hardware to divert that traffic ‘aqueduct’ onto.

Related items:

• Remote Data
• Leave the Hard Stuff to Someone Else (external)