Tech Update

I restarted using Delicious (Delicious/mgthantzin) again as it looks/works much better. Still, I see ‘You’ve been blocked…‘ message now and then. (Reload just works most of the time.) Launchy 2.1.1 seems more responsive in Vista then previous versions. I’m reusing that also. I uninstalled 7-Zip and replaced it with jZip Only one reason: I can ‘Extract to <foldername>…’ right from context-menu.

TeraCopy was installed a few weeks back just to move some *big* files. It works. I’ve also installed Vista SP1 after I installed TeraCopy. So, I don’t know whether native move/copy function is really enough or TeraCopy is a better alternative? I haven’t tried.

I received DropBox invite a month+ ago (finally!). It works like a charm. You may wanna check out Syncplicity as well. In XP, PowerToy Image Resizer does its work from context-menu. In Vista, my choice is VSO Image Resizer. They said faster Engine Version 2 was used in this release. But, the interface is kinda more complex than previous versions. I suggest they should keep it simple. All we need is to resize an image/images.

2 Adobe AIR applications I find quite useful are twhirl and Doomi.

Browsers

IE7 is pre-installed with my Vista. But, I never used it and I won’t. (I would agree that it is quite light on resource). If I am forced to use IE (let say, for web development), I will use Maxthon (previously, myIE2). I would like you to give it a try.

Firefox 3 is much better than its previous version 2. It does perform better. People love Firefox primarily due to its add-ons. my guess. (Some of my favourite add-ons: ImageZoom, FireBug, DownThemAll, and FastDial).

But, hmm, Opera 7.5 began to support Burmese unicode font. Lack of that support was the only reason I did not use Opera before. More, I feel that Opera font rendering seems nicer than Firefox’s. I like Opera’s SpeedDial but Firefox’s FastDial works similar way, too.

I use Safari just to access my Google Reader. Google Reader looks so good in Safari. But, Safari Still crashes now and then. But, web page rendering speed is really satisfactory. But, Firefox 3 and Opera 7.5 still can compete with Safari 3 for page rendering. They all are generally getting better.

I don’t use Flock.

Thingyan 2008

Well, nothing much for me to do here, except missing Yangon. This year it is a 5-days festival. Burmese people here would be quite happy to welcome the festival on this weekend, I guess. Actually, even in Yangon, I did not fully celebrate it like others. My dad sometimes brought us in his saloon with glass doors closed and we looked around Yangon.

But, just before I came to Singapore, my family went to Maymyo - my favourite place on earth – during Thingyan festival 2005. It was so cool to travel all the way up there. Along the highway, local people threw water at us (or our car). It was such an exciting experience in my life. I would never forget that journey. Aww.. It has been already 4 years since then…

C# ‘HTML to PDF’ Conversion Component

Today, I was tasked to look for a solution to generate some PDF file from aspx. I spent some time exploring any available projects on SourceForge. I found almost a dozen. Some well-known are PDFizer, PDFSharp, SharpPDF, and my choice - iTextSharp. We also have commercial solutions such as ExpertPDF HtmlToPdf Converter and HTML to PDF Converter for .Net.

PDFizer could read just simple HTML tags. It could not even support HTML tables (yet). And, after reading some more forums, I found iSharpText quite appropriate to deploy. I have to structure my PDF much like we use HTMLTextWriter. I tested it. Not so bad. I managed to generate a PDF in which user input text was rendered.

Today, I would like to thank Chris for introducing Hide Menubar and Faviconize Tab Firefox extensions. I need some screen space! =)

LTNP (April)

Long time no post. When was my last entry posted??? Hmm… December 16. Almost 4 months already. Well, I am just using Twitter and Tumblr more.

Now, I am working full-time. So, I don’t have much time to write here, plus nothing interesting to talk about these days. Yep, at the end of January, I went back to Yangon (Rangoon of Burma). I stayed there for 1 month + 10 days. I had a great time there. I went to Chaung Tha beach and Maw-La-Myein (Moulmein) with my family. 

I came back to Singapore on March 10. I stayed home for a few days and I started looking for a job. Thank God. I got a job within a couple of days. I thank Chris, Wai Phyo and Pyisoe for this.

Working full-time, I couldn’t even update my Burmese blog very well. But, we’re thinking about purchasing some web space. Hehe. Web hosting for personal usage and some undisclosed project. A project for Burmese people. Hint: It’s a blog. Blog, again!??

I also wanna buy 160GB portable HDD. It is getting cheaper. But, actually, I am not even using my old 40GB Ext HDD. Hmm., I don’t think I’m gonna buy that.

Oh yep! last Monday, I went to SMU to sit for admission Interview. It was an awesome experience. It took us 2 hours to complete the entire interview process. During the interview, I got to understand Fermi Question and its significance. (Classic Fermi Questions)

Actual question that we encountered was:

How many mandarin oranges were sold during Chinese New Year 2008?

Haha… my answer was 65 million. Don’t ask me how I come up with that answer. Anyway, it’s time for bed. Let me stop writing. I hope I update this blog regularly. (Most posts will be personal things, perhaps.) 

That’s all for now. Peace out.

Vista Basic & Domain

I had to set up a new Vista Home PC and join a domain, without realizing that I could not do so. Well, I first tried enabling ‘Ctrl+Alt+Del’ key combination for login. To do so:

Run : netplwiz

Under ‘Advanced’ tab, mark the checkbox ‘Require users to press Ctrl+Alt+Delete’. It did appear but it never requested me to provide username and password at the logon. So, I enabled it under Registry Editor.

Run : regedit

Under ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System‘, ‘dontdisplayusername‘ value was changed to 1 (which means ‘true’). Now, I can provide username and password. So, I entered ‘<domainname>\<username>‘ and ‘<password>‘. But, I later realized that I had not mentioned this PC as part of the domain.

So, I right-clicked on ‘My Computer‘ and just right to ‘Computer name‘, I clicked ‘Change settings‘. Again, I clicked ‘Change‘ button again to join a domain. Eek! I saw the following message on that dialog box.

OS Upgrade

Today, a veteran uncle at my work approached me and told me this:

I’ve got a Windows XP CD. My PC has got Windows 95 installed. Can I upgrade it to Windows XP?

I told him that minimum requirements for Windows XP are higher than Windows 95’s. He accepted the fact.

But, he asked me another question:

If I can install, can I just insert the disk and go!?

I shook my head. Sad… Uncle! It is probable in Leopard only.

A GMAT sample question

If a real estate agent received a commission of 6 percent of the selling price of a certain house, what was the selling price of the house?

(1) The selling price minus the real estate agent’s commission was $84,600.
(2) The selling price was 250 percent of the original purchase price of $36,000.

(A) Statement (1) ALONE is sufficient, but statement (2) alone is not sufficient.

(B) Statement (2) ALONE is sufficient, but statement (1) alone is not sufficient.

(C) BOTH statements TOGETHER are sufficient, but NEITHER statement ALONE is sufficient.

(D) EACH statement ALONE is sufficient.

(E) Statements (1) and (2) TOGETHER are NOT sufficient.

Internship : Week 1

My supervisor said I became a working adult. =) I must try to get up at around 0700 every weekdays. (That’s the worst thing for an IT student! Sigh… people say ‘not a kid anymore!’) Well, just sit in front of a comp and do what I’m asked to do. Say ‘Hi!’, ‘Hello!’ to everyone we see. Trying to make myself comfortable with the environment and trying to get along well with everyone.

As Chris said, it’s totally and completely different from being in a classroom. And, it’s a new experience. My supervisor keep saying that he wants me to think on my own (everytime I ask him what am I gonna do…).

I must learn alot. I hope I’m always ready.

‘Good Luck!’ to all my friends who are in their internship and all the rest, who are doing FYP.

Thant Z.