Vista performance score of Lenovo S10

I bought this little nice netbook for Christmas.  It came with Windows XP and loaded with a lot of OEM installed craplets.  When I booted it, it wasn’t super fast, but it was OK.  There are some reviews that say Vista will run like molasses on these kind of machines.  I wanted to check if it’s true, so I installed Vista.  It turns out Vista is actually pretty fast on S10.  I got the performance score of 2.7 which is limitted by “gaming graphics.”  This is not surprising.  Next is Intel Atom processor with the score of 3.0 and the rest are actually above 4.0 which is pretty good.  In fact Vista doesn’t need a fast processor so much as it needs memory and a fast disk.

Here is the whole picture (click for larger view):

Interactive Collective Quiz

This is pretty darn funny.  Try to guess which collectivist said what.  Among the collectivists are: Hilary Clinton, Vladimir Lenin, Karl Marx, Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro, Barack Obama and many more.  The quotes are strikingly similar.  It's hard to get it right the first time.  And soon you'll love to get it wrong.  Want to know why?  Just try the quiz.

http://thepeoplescube.com/QuoteQuiz/index.php

Constantly changing explorer views in Vista

This is a very annoying problem in Vista.  Vista Explorer adapts its folder views depending on the type of files it finds there.  For example, if it finds a picture it changes the folder view to iconic although you might have another files there and you don't want the iconic view, but rather detailed view.  Here is a solution to this problem that fixes folder views once and for all.

Solution

* Delete these registry keys:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\BagMRU]

* Create a new key:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\ Windows\Shell\Bags\AllFolders\Shell]

* Create a new string value:

FolderType="NotSpecified"

* Open folder options in Explorer and click "Apply to all folders" button.

* Done!

Army Strong

This ad is breathtaking.  I never served in the army.  I'm not even an American.  But it somehow makes me proud of this country.

Living in Issaquah

It's nice to live practically within a walking distance of the Tiger Mountain in Issaquah.  You don't need much convincing to do to grab a camera and go on a hike.  Fresh air and nice trails always welcome you.  Here's a picture of the Tiger Mountain Trail (click for larger view):

Tony Snow dies

This is sad.  Tony Snow died on Saturday April 12 from cancer.  I first learned about him as a radio talk host.  He actually got me hooked up on the talk shows.  He also appeared frequently on Fox News which I regularly watch.  When he became a White House spokesman it was both great news (because this is a position to be proud of) and not so great (because it meant no more talk shows with him any time soon).  But I knew that Snow took this position because he wanted and could make a difference.  I heard that he took a significant pay cut when he left his job in the media.  He battled with cancer since 2005, but he still continued to do his job despite of it.  He never whined about it, and he didn't become bitter.  He was truly a great man that America should be proud of.  In fact, Cincinnati should name a street or a park after him or something like that as a gesture of recognition.  This is the least they can do.

Read more on CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/12/obit.snow/index.html#cnnSTCPhoto

and on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Snow

It's 2008 and Linux is still not ready for the desktop

Otherwise how can you explain that Fedora 8 can't perform two of the most basic desktop tasks: configure dual monitor desktop and set the correct resolution on my SyncMaster 2043BWX monitor which is 1680x1050?  Do I need to explain what it takes to perform these tasks in Windows?  Hope not.  Even a 7 year old XP can do it.  And half year old Fedora 8 can't.  Pathetic.

Dinner and a movie: Fahrenhype 9/11

I was trying to decide what to watch while I was having a dinner at home and my glance fell on the movie "Fahrenhype 9/11" and I thought why not.  I have had for quite some time - after all it was released in 2004 - and I vaguely remembered what it was about.  But as I was re-watching the movie I knew it was a right choice.  Nowadays people tend to have a short memory.  This movie does a very good job refreshing the memory on the subject of terrorism, 9/11, war in Afghanistan, etc.  Its primary purpose is the rebuttal of the well known propaganda movie "Fahrenheit 9/11" - and it does rebut it very effectively - but it also has a viewing value on its own.  It reminds that we're living in a difficult time and facing challenges that can be no longer ignored.

Ubuntu 8.04

Hardy Heron or just Hardy if you will.  This is the best Linux release this far.  I was using Fedora 8 before because it was more cutting edge than Ubuntu Gutsy.  In many ways Fedora and Ubuntu are very similar in spirit.  Built on different foundations both try to be on the cutting edge, both are experimental and a little unstable.  But Hardy was released ahead of Fedora 9 and so my choice was made in favor of Ubuntu.

Compared to the previous version, Gutsy, Hardy has much better hardware support.  I have Dell D630 laptop which I bought last year in June.  Gutsy couldn't be easily installed on it.  It had problems with the graphics card (and I'm sure other problems as well, I just didn't go beyond that).  Hardy on the other hand recognized and supported all D630 components: graphics, sound, monitor brightness, suspend, hibernate - everything appears to work just fine.

Although Hardy installed without a hitch, post-installation configuration wasn't that smooth.  The first thing that always annoys me in any Linux distribution is the fact that X server tries to read and use Edid monitor configuration which is nice except that it completely screws the resolution of fonts and key UI elements.  Usually they become much larger that they should be.  The resolution of my monitor is identified as 121dpi.  Normal resolution is 96dpi and my first task was to reset it to normal.  The way to do it is through xorg.conf file.  I've done it before, however this time I made a mistake and added configuration options to a wrong section in xorg.conf file.  After ctrl-alt-backspace and logging in X server locked up in a blank screen.  Mouse pointer was moving, but I couldn't do anything else.  I couldn't even go to the console with ctrl-alt-f1 to fix the mistake.  I had to shut down the machine and boot it in a single user mode.  I had to modify xorg.conf several times since then and once in a while I ended up with an incorrect configuration which required a reboot into the single user mode again.  Is it a bug in Xorg?  Don't know, but it sure is annoying.

Next thing I always do is fixing fonts.  To be continued...

Good Code vs Bad Code

Does it sound familiar? It certainly does to me.

Gordon House

Seriously cool stuff:

If you look at this picture and go "what?" follow these two links: Who is Gordon Freeman? Who is Gregory House?