The annual conference Medical Image Understanding and Analysis 2006 is due to begin tomorrow. I will be presenting on the second day (HTML version). This means that I am not very likely to be active on the Web. Certain habitual chores will be unaffected: exercise and posting of GNU/Linux advocacy items. I have begun taking the latter more seriously and, as of several months ago, the return has been tremendous.

The months to proceed are likely to have me occupied with thesis writing. It appears as though I’ll have to make various submissions concurrently. These events often seem to distract, but I am positive that I can stay on track nevertheless and submit in September.

I spent about 10 minutes this morning preparing the following mockup.

There is indeed a typo in the image, but I have not bothered to fix it. Perhaps it can be perceived as humorous.

I have many more such images in the Amusement page.

ORE executives are leaving Microsoft while more of its products are having their release date further delayed. As each blow to the prospects of the company hits, people jokingly say that the CEO throws a chair. This is mentioned in reference to his anger management problems, which are potentially connected to issues with his character, as Wikipedia explains.

Ballmer’s tendency to loudly and enthusiastically express himself is well known. A famous 1991 incident left his vocal cords requiring repairative surgery after he screamed “Windows, Windows, Windows” continuously during a meeting in Japan. With the advent of internet video, such incidents have become increasingly infamous. (see videos)

Recommended: An hilarious video that demonstrates rage and tantrum in computing.

F the visual traits of a desktop environment is anything to go by, Linux has got it all. I am not suggesting that appearance is the very core of user experience. However, who refused to accept a tool which is packaged appropriately and is designed to improve usability?

KDE appears to be getting a gentler, cleaner look through third-party addons and some customisation or themes. Here is a quick preview of the one such outcome. Looks are subjective due to taste, of course, which is not always the case when it comes to function (i.e. features).

Here is a KDE 4 mockup, which might become a reality when KDE matures. KDE 4 is approaching its release date.

Older related item: KDE 4 Preview

Wallpaper from Houghi (click image above
to enlarge; non-lossy PNG version)

HE admirable Compiz/XGL cube has already earned its 15 minutes or fame. However, one alternative that often gets overlooked is 3-D Desktop, which has been available for GNU/Linux for several years.

Here are two 3-D Desktop videos from YouTube. They illustrate that simple function and demonstrate its beauty. Like XGL, speed is highly dependent upon OpenGL with a decent graphics card.

• Video #1
• Video #2

S recently as January this year, I proudly spoke about data resilience in Palm PDA‘s. Now, on the other hand, I am slightly more hesitant in making such bold statements, having screwed up big time. Allow me to elaborate in a stream-of-rage fashion (this won’t be too eloquent).

While my general opinion (and confidence in Palm) has not changed much, this morning I was a victim of data loss. This cost me about 3 hours, a loss of data that I cannot truly recover, and a huge headache (metaphorically-speaking, through distress). To describe the ordeal in brevity, I woke up to discover that my Palm’s battery was empty. I thought the unit was dead until I had it charged and could reset it. I could soon come to grips with the fact that my main, volatile memory was void (not ROM). I then realised that the batteries got emptied without any prior notification. I left the handheld in my trousers’ packet overnight, rather than dock it on the cradle as I usually do.

The drainage took my by surprise. The last HotSync operation took place 24 hours earlier, but backup files were no good under KPilot, which can be odd and inconsistent at times, despite my praises. To make matters worse, it was the past 24 hours when I made the most changes, some of which were crucial and spanned a period of months. But it gets worse…

I attempted recovery in vain. I fortunately had one backup which was one week old in my peripheral SD card. I could recover with the loss of one week. To avoid this considerable time gap, this afternoon I bought a USB card reader. I thought it would enable me to modify the backup on the SD card using Red Feline Backup — that which I mentioned a long time ago. I wanted this backup to be be overriden by newer data which resides on the desktop. However, files were corrupt and led to a mess time after time. So no luck there, either.

All in all, I ended up losing data, some of which I could restore from short-term memory and timely backups on the desktop. It is very laborious and time-consuming though. While the loss was rather small if put in proportion (nothing on par with data loss “disasters”), this occupied a lot of my time as I was somewhat negligent (I was caught off guard due to complacency — an indication of resilience in its own right). I suspect the unit might betray me again, so I will begin backing up more frequently. The paranoid’s approach will perhaps be embraced, but what else do I have to rely on? I never want this to happen again. Ever!

Season of the playful penguins from Oyonale

T is pleasant to see that the world is becoming more protective of choice and standards. More latterly we witnessed the Chinese adopting a strict policy which promotes the easy distribution of Linux on any PC. To quote the summary:

“Taiwan has mandated that all PCs purchased for government use must now be compatible with the Linux operating system.”

These days, I tend to collect and re-publish plenty of Linux advocacy items. Most of them can be viewed among my Digg submissions. I hope this separation keeps my Web Log diverse enough in terms of themes.