From that list I read “The Inmates are Running the Asylum” and “The Design of Everyday Things”. Actually from the last one I read just 3/4 because the the book is too theoretical (psychology) and, even though I like psychology, it was a little too boring much – don’t get me wrong, the author offers valuable information about the things used every day and how simple is/should be the design, but the mix of practical and theoretical has a wrong ratio.

However, the former book is absolutely fascinating. Alan Cooper shows that whatever has a computer is actually a computer (or at least has that complexity). He also shows that programmers tend to increase the complexity of the software in order to make the development easier or, just because they can and see this a challenge. One of the main ideas of the book is that programmer cannot design simple software; they always design software that is supposed to be used by people with a lot of technical knowledge, who enjoy complicated things. Cooper’s suggestion is that developers should create software that is as simple as possible to operate, for the end user and, usually, the design must be made by a designer (a person who is able to understand how an experienced person will act).

Currently, my attention is on “Surely You’re Joking, Mr Feynman”. The book has a nice introduction about the first years of Richard Feynman’s life, but things may change as I progress with the lecture. I postpone any conclusion until I read the last page of the book.

• Hardware failure
• Software failure
• Accidents (fire, water, earth quake)
• Theft

Handy Backup from Novosoft is a solution that can help in this unfortunate situations (if is used prior to those events :) ). Unlike most other backup software out there, Handy Backup doesn’t treat your data like faceless chunks of memory. As quickly and efficiently as o2 broadband, it gets the job done while treating your data with care. It features a complete, extensible plug-in-based system and a variety of plug-ins designed to back up settings, playlists, tweaks and preferences. New plugins care be created with basic XML knowledge.

As expected, Handy Backup can:

• Create backup, restore and synchronization tasks
• Schedule tasks (hourly, daily, monthly)
• Backup of different supports (depending on the version you have): Local Disk, FTP, SFTP, CD, DVD, Blu-Ray, Online Account
• Create full or incremental backup with or without compression and encryption

IT-experts can take advantage of extended feature set including disk image backup and database backup.  There are several plug-ins that can handle backup and restore of most popular DBMS including Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle database, IBM DB2 Data Server, Lotus Domino/Notes environment, and a common Database Backup plug-in that can be used for any ODBC-compatible databases. Also, there is a plug-in for backing up Microsoft Exchange Server stores.

The interface is minimalistic and the application uses ~9 MB of RAM memory. Some might say that the interface is too old-style but I find it pleasant and it is really easy to access any function. However there are some language problems in the GUI – the English is not always correct.

You can see the difference between HandyBackup versions on the official website or you can download a full-featured 30-days trial by clicking the following link download Handy Backup.

Most of you know Google Docs (GD) - the web-based word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, and form application offered by Google. Probably in the attempt to remove GD’s supremacy and to promote their new Office 2010, Microsoft is preparing a free online version of Office called Office Web Apps.

For the Technical Preview four application are available: Excel, PowerPoint, Word and OneNote. Each of them tries to reproduce the aspect and the functionally of their offline big brother. For Office 2007 users, the interface is well known. In the top side we have a Ribbon bar, the middle part is dominated by the working area and to bottom is reserved for an optional status bar.

In order to use Office Live Apps you need to have a Live ID and a Skydrive account. All these applications integrate with Skydrive and this is a curious fact because I would expect to be part of Office Live [very strange decision!].

The interaction with the live apps is not really fluid because it has a delay, especially in Excel, when you work with formulas – it takes 3-4 seconds to see the result. I understand Microsoft’s wish for adoption and interoperability with any browser without any addon, of the new product, but I think that a Silverlight interface would improve the usability or at least some drag/drop support and a right click menu.

Excel Live

Spreadsheets – this is Excel all about. The little brother of the offline version is, for the moment, limited to some basic spreadsheet operations. The are no more and no less then 3 sheets [does anyone know how to add/remove them?] on which you can put your data.

The simple tools available are: text format (color, font, size) and cell format (color, text alignment, data type). There is support for part of the formulas in Excel and one can use cell references to add dynamic data. There is some support for external data sources but it seems that data can only be refreshed if already exists – one cannot add/modify a data source.

Unfortunately there is no support for locked sheets, hidden sheets and data validation. If you try to open an uploaded document containing some of the previous you will get and error message for edit.

Excel Web Apps gets another minus because there is no support for diagrams/charts. It would be nice to have at least support for charts in a new sheet. Maybe in the next version?

I am thinking to migrate my expenses Excel document in Skydrive (Office Live Apps) even though it is quite limited.

PowerPoint Live

If you have to give a speech and you need to edit your presentation 5 minutes before start on a computer with no PPT installed then you will appreciate this.

“Tech Preview” is the word that describes PPT Live best. It is just a preview with the basic of basic most functionally of the offline version. You can add some text in predefined areas, some predefined graphics and images. That’s all. There is no theme support, not even background color and worthless to say, advanced features like animations.

However, there is support for slideshow – you can run your presentation in browser and you can see/edit the slide notes. If you want to make a simple presentation like Steve Jobs (one word/slide, white background), this is the tool for you :)

You can create as many slides as you want – don’t think it is a limit – and you can also copy/cut/paste/duplicate/delete any of them.

Word Live

Well… Not yet. Coming soon.

OneNote Live

I was so happy to see OneNote in the applications list but the happyness was ruined when I clicked the link. Just like Word, “Coming soon”. [Yeah.. Just reveal one corner... Make me wish it! :( ]

Conclusion

Not even far as powerful as Google Docs but with a bright future, Office Live Apps will attract a lot of Microsoft (Office) fans that want a consistent experience when switching from offline to online.

I see a lot of possibilities in education for this kind of online apps. You can do last minute changes to your presentations and/or papers (thesis?) or you can even write them on computers with no Office installed (however I don’t recommend writing your thesis in Word – try LaTeX).

• Ask people about the ROM you want to install. Make sure it did not brake any phone.
• The phone’s battery must be at least 50% charged (better 100%)
• Make sure you have and UPS. Or a laptop with good battery because if you cancel the process after it started the results might be unexpected.
• Make sure the USB cable is firmly connect and is not broken!

I cannot be made responsible for any damages caused directly or indirectly by this article.

On PortegeClub.com there is a WM 6.5 ROM Release Candidate for the G900. Because PortegeClub is not always working I uploaded the ROM on my server  and you can download it from this link. It is not the kitchen version (clean version) and it includes some software but it is reasonable and it is not bloated.

The upgrade process is simple:

1. Get the ROM
2. Get SuperRUU
3. Run SuperRUU on a 32 bit Windows machine
4. Select the ROM image and check the “OS” radio button
5. Click “Upgrade target”.
6. Turn off the phone and start it while pressing the left softkey. A red screen should appear informing you that you need USB connection.
7. Connect the phone to the PC running SuperRUU and the upgrade process should start. Do not interrupt it!!! It takes about two minutes.

WM6.5 brings a new startup logo and animation and a lot of other visual changes.

The first thing you will notice after startup is the new redesigned Today screen which supports widgets just like the HTC home screen. It’s aspect is nice but you will find out soon that it cannot be customized. The only item supporting customization is the favorites widget :( Like usual there are widgets for time, messages, calls, pictures and music. Also you can use the classical Today screen items but you will use the eye-candy widgets. What I really enjoyed is that you can scroll through items by moving your finger over the screen in any region not just on the right side – this is a nice addition and also works for menus.

Another major interface change is the start menu. Well it is no longer MENU, it’s a start screen that displays shortcuts to applications and phone settings. They are all arranged in the well-known WM6.5 combs and have a nice aspect. You can also scroll through items with your finger and when you get to the top/bottom of the menu there is a visual bounce effect that creates a realistic sensation. What is hard here is to navigate with the hardware DPad through items because pressing right many times cycles through a “row” of the comb and is not going the lower items. You must use all directions to navigate.

There are some other major visual changes but I don’t have screenshots for them. The first thing is the unlock screen which has an object that must be slide in order to unlock the phone just like on iPhone. The second are the menus that are larger and more “finger-friendly” – you can navigate easily with the finger through them.

On my G900 screen rotation took almost 10 seconds (from portrait to landscape). While using the PDA in landscape the icons seemed crowded, hard to follow and the Today screen was not so good looking.

Because it is not an official release I cannot say it works bad. There could be “unofficial” reasons why this is not working properly. Anyhow, I haven’t seen other major changes except the interface. The problem with interface changes is that you get used to them quickly and then you start to see what is not working. The ringtones are corrupted in this ROM and the SD card is disconnecting after a few hours so I reverted the ROM to a kitchen version of Windows Mobile 6.1 – you should try the 6.5, it’s a nice experience!

The protection model based on a thin-client agent and server architecture which services malware protection as opposed to locally installed products. By combining local detection technologies with cloud-scanning capabilities and applying non-intrusive interception techniques on the client architecture, Panda Cloud Antivirus provides some of the best protection with a lightweight antivirus thin-client agent that barely consumes any PC resources.

Of course this S+S approach has advantages and drawbacks.

Advantages:

• Always using the latest version of software and protection
• Minimum impact on local resources
• Detection of threats in less than 6 minutes (this is what Panda announced on the official blog)

Drawbacks:

• Need of permanent Internet connection
• Without Internet connection the protection is reduced

Panda Cloud Antivirus takes advantage of the cloud world and combines the information from all users in order to detect and stop malware. Using the so called Panda Collective Intelligence, a cloud-based test lab for malicious software, samples are collected, analyzed, categorized and, if needed, disinfection routines are created. Therefore the community becomes the lab. In this way there is no need for software updates, there is no virus definition database on the client computer and everyone has access to the latest protection.

Compared to other antivirus solutions, Panda categorizes local files from “real security risk” to “minimum security risk” and by this criteria the scanning engine prioritizes it’s tasks. There are three types of automatic scanning (as mentioned on the official blog):

• On-Access Scan. This is the maximum priority resident scan that is applied only to objects which are truly a security risk in a specific point in time: files which are being executed or used. The file is intercepted, prevented from running and disinfected if found to be malicious.
• Prefetch Scan. There are other elements such as files downloaded from the Internet which, while not being executed at a specific point in time, have a much higher risk and probability of being executed at any time. These files should be watched more closely than files which have barely any activity, as we can expect them to be executed, unpacked, copied or moved shortly. A Prefetch Scan basically launches an asynchronous local & cloud query on the file to scan it “as soon as possible” without impacting performance. Of course if any of these files is called to be executed, the file will be intercepted and an on-access scan will be applied to it.
• Background Scan. Lastly a normal PC has hundreds of thousands of files in its hard drive. Most of these files are not executing normally and simply just “sit there” until either the use double-clicks on them or they are called upon by another process. These are considered the least dangerous files from a security perspective. Panda Cloud Antivirus will continuously run Background Scans on these in an asynchronous manner while the PC is idle, without impacting performance at all. Of course if any of these files is called to be executed, the file will be intercepted and an on-access scan will be applied to it.

In my opinion this approach is completely logic and makes sense to scan executing files first because they are the big candidates for infecting the system.

Because it would be impossible to send the entire file in the cloud for analysis, for each file multiple cryptographic hashes are created; among them is a “reverse signature” of the file. This reverse signature is able to identify multiple similar files. The response from the cloud can be “malware”, “goodware” or “unknown”. There are sent also some “behavioral traits” of files to be scanned heuristically remotely by the cloud. These are basically properties and characteristics of each file. In summary, no content and no personal information is ever sent to the cloud.

The following video describes how the Cloud Antivirus works:

The system I used for testing is a Windows Xp Professional with Service Pack 3 that was running in a virtual machine with 512 MB of RAM and single core processor. The results mostly sure were affected by my laptop’s hdd with only 5400 rpm and by the fact that I was running in a VM. However the overall impression was good.

The interface is absolute minimalistic. Window appearance is quite fancy with some flip effects if you click the lower right corner – I think it is inspired by Mac applications. The user has access to some basic settings, scanning options and reports:

I was impressed by the fact that it actually found some threats. Also he detected instantly the “Sub7″ application and deleted all its files.  The only problem is that the computer scanning process (full scan) is extremely slow. It took almost an hour to scan all the files on drive C.

But considering that the resource usage is more that reasonable (see the next image – the CPU graph) I think the previous aspect might be overlooked.

If the previous thoughts were not enough to make you try it then the fact that it is FREE might change your mind. Panda announced that this product will remain free even when going out of the Beta program.

I think this type of solutions are the future but there is still a gap that must be filled in: the permanent Internet connection. However if the connection is available Panda Cloud Antivirus is a viable solution especially for machine with low resources like netbooks or even PDA’s. There are still many problems with Panda Cloud Antivirus that can be seen and discussed on the official blog and there is no 64 bit support but the overall trend is good and I think it might be a future protection solution.

My personal rating would be 8/10 but because it is Beta I’ll give it a 9/10.

You can download the cloud antivirus from the official website.

Everyone has some favorite places on web – games, communities, forums, blogs. Today I want to share the Top 10 websites/forums that I follow, write on or just find useful:

1. Google
I bet this is the first time you hear about it. This is the place where you should start anything ;)

2. PdfChm
From here you can download almost any technical book.

3. Geek Hero Comic
Geek Hero is a comic about Randall (friends call him Randie), a hardcore geek with the sweetest heart.

4. Assembla
Assembla provides tools and services for accelerating software development. They offer tools for collaboration and management of software projects. Also, for student projects they offer free tools. There are tools like: wiki, SVN repository, tickets, milestones, etc.

5. CHIP.RO Forum
The first forum on which I have wrote. I am still writing there. (Is a Romanian web forum)

6. docs.torrents.ro
A torrent tracker with tutorials, videos and e-learning stuff. The content includes many domains: PC, medicine, architecture, history, biology etc

7. Reuters Pictures
The most impressive pictures and they are updated daily. I think they can be sent by anyone and people from Reuters choose the best.

8. Microsoft How Do I
Microsoft’s Video Learning Center. A lot of video tutorials about Microsoft technologies.

9. Windows Live
Microsoft’s Live suite that includes mail (Hotmail), storage space (SkyDrive), online document repository (OfficeLive), calendar, events and more.

10. MSDN Regex Forum
I just like regular expressions :)

Below is a quote from Chrome’s website about their motivation of building a browser – probablly is just a nice invented story, most sure it is marketing behind :-)

At Google, we spend much of our time working inside a browser. We search, chat, email and collaborate in a browser. And like all of you, in our spare time, we shop, bank, read news and keep in touch with friends – all using a browser. People are spending an increasing amount of time online, and they’re doing things never imagined when the web first appeared about 15 years ago.

Since we spend so much time online, we began seriously thinking about what kind of browser could exist if you started from scratch and built on the best elements out there. We realized that the web had evolved from mainly simple text pages to rich, interactive applications and that we needed to completely rethink the browser. What we really needed was not just a browser, but also a modern platform for web pages and applications, and that’s what we set out to build.

So today we’re releasing the beta version of a new open source browser: Google Chrome.

Even though it is a beta version it is quite stable and it has some interesting features. Some of them are described below.

The first thing almost anyone will notice is the skin. The blue interface remembers about the Gnome theme from Linux Fedora.

There is no explicit window title. The name of the tab gives the window name. Having the tabs placed on the title bar is an amazing thing because there is more space for the actual webpage.

The interface is minimalistic and, surprisingly, it has all it needs: tabs, back/forward buttons, refresh, bookmark button and options. Optionaly a bookmarks bar can be displayed.

I would rate the interface 10/10. I like it a lot!

Compared to Firefox or Internet Explorer 7 there is no search bar. The address bar has a double role, type what you need and search results, history and bookmarks are displayed.

A cool feature are the dynamic tabs. Tabs can be reorderd, drag one of them from the title bar to create a new window with it and, most fascinating, drag a window to another’s title bar and it will become a tab.

A lot of features for safety and privacy are offered. Any web page can be opened in a so called Incognito window. Any page opened like this will not leave any cookies on your computer and will not appear in browsing/searching history.

Crash control is a module that allows the user to view how much memory every page is using. There are also “Stats for nerds” :-) which display much more information but mostly sure will confuse inexperienced people.

I don’t know why but the browser reports that I am from Germany and I am not using any proxy or something like this (see the download screenshot below).

The download manager is minimalistic. When something is available for download the browser will not ask you what to do and will start downloading. After this you can choose what to do. Weird…

There is no explicit history button. When you open a new tab the most recent pages, history, closed tabs and bookmarks are displayed.

Configuration options are almost missing. You can choose the home page, the download directory, font, whether to save passwords or not and a few security options. Mostly sure, in a future version, the number of options will increase.

If I should describe this browser in one word that would be “minimalistic”. It is a good start, Chrome is a fast browser with an ergonomic interface and what I would love would be a mobile version of it.

PS: One more thing. This blog entry was posted from Chrome :)

After almost two months of research I finally decided to buy a G900. I needed a new mobile phone but I also wanted some big screen in order to be able to navigate on the Internet without carrying the laptop with me. So what I was searching was:

• Big screen
• Wireless network card
• QWERTY keyboard
• Touch screen
• GSM support

Toshiba Portege G900 has all this and even more but with some costs.

There are three things you will notice on G900 at the first look: the big display, no numeric keyboard and the size. Some people will categorize this phone as “huge” and they are probably right because it has 119 x 61 x 21.5 mm (4.68 x 2.4 x 0.84 in) and weights almost 200 g.

There is no numeric keyboard like on most mobile phones. Phone numbers can be dialed by using the keyboard that appears on the screen – it has big buttons so there should be no problem in pressing them with the finger – or by sliding the QWERTY and typing the number from there.

The screen. I mean THE SCREEN is a 3” touch screen display with a resolution of 800×480. The resolution is one of the best on the market (most PDA’s have 320×240 or 640×480). It is great for web navigation because almost any webpage can fit it’s width in 800 pixels so there is no need of vertical scrooling which means a faster any easier navigation.

Except of the three things mentioned above the aspect is a classic one. There is a navigation pad in the center of the buttons block, the classical accept/reject(end) call, two softkeys and four buttons that can be configured as you with (by default they are: Start, Contacts, OK and Messaging). On the right side there is a volume button and the camera button while on top there is the power button. I forgot to mention one important button that is positioned above the screen oposite to the front camera; by default it launches the Internet browser but many people, including me, found that is more appropriate for rotating the screen.

On the left side of the device is a headset jack and the MiniSD card slot while on the bottom there is a mini USB connector where you connect the data cable or the power charger. All connectors are covered by rubber lids. Near the USB connector is the telescopic stylus.

There are two cameras, a rear 2 MP one and a front VGA one. Pictures quality is OK for outdoor photos but you need a tripod for night shots because there is no stabilizer. On a scale from from 1 to 5 I would rate picture quality with 3.5.

There is also a sliding full QWERTY keyboard. Many mobile devices that have keyboards also have some small buttons that are hard to press. G900 has quite large buttons but the top row, in my opinion, is to close to the side of the screen and sometimes the keys are hard to be pressed.

Equipped with a 520 MHz processor and 128 MB of RAM memory Toshiba Portege G900 is able to run many applications simultaneous. Windows Mobile 6 Professional runs exceptional on this device but there is some lag when you rotate the screen.

One interesting undocumented thing is that this mobile device is equipped with a Goforce 5500 graphic accelerator, the same GPU as on O2 XDA Flame. Some more information about this topic can be found here.

Another useful addition is a finger print reader. It’s main purpose is for security but Toshiba implemented cool features. You can click on the finger print reader or even scroll pages by sliding your finder over it. This biometric reader is placed behind the screen and is available only when the keyboard is visible.

The default software configuration includes Windows Mobile 6 Professional, Office Mobile, Opera browser, Picsel Viewer and some Toshiba applications. Another options that can be activated by software is the USB connection option – you can connect any USB device to G900 (memory stick, camera, etc).

I’ve read on some sites that the phone has problems with the battery and lasts under a day but the battery of my G900 resisted almost three days.

Full specifications:

The new 2.6 version brings some exciting new features:

• Word count
• Image captions, so you can add sweet captions like Political Ticker does under your images.
• Bulk management of plugins.
• A completely revamped image control to allow for easier inserting, floating, and resizing. It’s now fully integrated with the WYSIWYG.
• Drag-and-drop reordering of Galleries.
• Plugin update notification bubble.
• Customizable default avatars.
• You can now upload media when in full-screen mode.
• Remote publishing via XML-RPC and APP is now secure (off) by default, but you can turn it on easily through the options screen.
• Full SSL support in the core, and the ability to force SSL for security.
• You can now have many thousands of pages or categories with no interface issues.
• Ability to move your wp-config file and wp-content directories to a custom location, for “clean” SVN checkouts.
• Select a range of checkboxes with “shift-click.”
• You can toggle between the Flash uploader and the classic one.
• A number of proactive security enhancements, including cookies and database interactions.
• Stronger better faster versions of TinyMCE, jQuery, and jQuery UI.
• Version 2.6 fixes approximately 194 bugs.

Here is a video preview of the new features:

Also, the complete release article can be found here: http://wordpress.org/development/2008/07/wordpress-26-tyner/

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