William Computer Blog

Windows Vista Day 2:

Now that Vista is installed, time to install some softwares on Windows Vista. Before anything else is installed, the most important thing software to install is an anti virus software. There are few anti virus software that works for Windows Vista:

1. AVG Anti Virus Free Edition works on Windows Vista. The AVG Anti Virus Free edition will not work on the 64-bit version of Windows. You’d have to buy the professional license.
2. Trend Micro is offering free 90-days trial to PC-Cillin Internet Security for Windows Vista beta testers
3. Avast Anti Virus

Mozilla Firefox 1.5.0.7 — Firefox works well on Windows Vista but it has a funny twitching bug. The problem can be solved by either adding something to the bookmark bar or hide the bookmark bar.

Opera 9.02 — Works.

iTunes 7 — Works. The most important thing for me is iTunes can access and play shared music from another computer.

Quicktime 7 — Works.

Foxit Reader 2.0 — Works.

Skype — Skype works, outgoing and incoming calls are working just fine.

Yahoo Messenger 8 (With voice) — Works.

Windows Live Messenger — Works but incompatible with Windows Aero color scheme. When Windows Live Messenger is running Windows Vista will its color scheme to Windows Vista Basic.

mIRC — Works.

TightVNC — Works but very slow. It takes longer to view the desktop than usual. Perhaps disabling Windows Aero and removing desktop wallpaper will improve the speed.

UltraEdit — Works.

FeedDemon — Works. The reason I’m using FeedDemon is because of its ability to sync with NewsGator online so I don’t have to import my RSS subscription. I miss NetNewsWire already.

Putty — Works.

Java Runtime Environment Version 5.0 Update 6 — Works. Azureus runs well on Windows Vista.

WinRAR 3.61 — Works.

VLC — Works.

Microsoft C# 2005 Express Edition — Works.

Let me know if you would like me to test your software under Windows Vista RC1.

I’m sending my MacBook Pro to an Apple repair center today because of the shutdown problem. According to an Apple tech support, the repair process could take up to 2 - 3 weeks depending on the problem. I cannot work without a computer for 3 weeks so I decided to build myself a PC and run Windows Vista RC1 on it.

Here’s the spec:

• GIGABYTE GA-M55SLI-S4
• AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-core Processor 3800+
• Generic 1GB RAM
• Western Digital 250GB Hard disk
• NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT

It took me about 1.5 hours to build the computer, not bad for a guy who hasn’t build his own PC for a very long time. The most tricky part when building this PC was figuring out how to install the front USB/Firewire ports to the motherboard. The motherboard manual do not provide enough information. Luckily, I found this guide on how to install the usb port.

The installation of Windows Vista RC1 was fast and easy. Windows Vista installation process is a huge improvement over previous versions. I tested Vista a few months ago and it took a very long time for the installers to load the files.

Vista did not have a driver for my PCI wireless network card, so I had to pull a very long cable from my router to the PC so I can run Windows Update. Windows Update did find a driver for my wireless network card, once it installed the correct driver.

For the next few weeks, I’m going to live on the bleeding edge by using a release candidate software on my main computer. I’ll be posting more Windows Vista related posts on this blog for the next few weeks.

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I was invited to an event called Influence Forum held from September 10 - 12 at Cypress Lake Resort, Hunter Valley.

Web 2.0

Ross Dawson, of the Future Exploration Network was on the panel of Web 2.0. Ross talked about Web 2.0 and user-filtered content.

I also had a discussions with him over lunch about Web 3.0 (What will be the next big thing in web technologies).

Also on the panel of Web 2.0 session is PokerStars.com and I don’t think PokerStars should be in the Web 2.0 category because I do not consider PokerStars a web application and the PokerStars game only works under Windows.

In my personal opinion, a web application should be platform independent, it should be accessible on any operating system by any web browser.

I had a nice time playing poker during the Gala dinner hosted by PokerStars though.

Samsung UMPC

I finally had the chance to play around with Samsung Ultra Mobile PC, which I wrote last March. I like DialKeys, the onscreen rounded QWERTY keyboard.

For the price of $1700, I would rather get a notebook though. Since the UMPC is still to big to fit into your pocket therefor a bag is still required to take it around with you.

Other bloggers

I also had the chance to meet other bloggers:

• Duncan Riley of b5media — the blogging network.
• Richard Giles — Richard podcasts on gadgets and technology news.
• Paul Montgomery of Tinfinger
• Dan Warne and William Maher of APC Magazine

I’d like to thank Phil Sim, the managing director of MediaConnect for inviting me to the event. It was a good experience.

I’ve been having a problem with my MacBook Pro shutting down at random time whenever it is attached to an Apple Cinema Display. The shutdown usually happened when I leave my desk and the screensaver activates, it will take a few minutes after the screensaver is activated for the computer to shutdown. The MacBook Pro is very stable when it’s not connected to the display.

After repairing the permission using Disk Utility and resetting the Power Management Unit (PMU) the problem continue to exist. I called Apple Technical Support and the technician told me to create a new account on Mac OS X and use it.

Today, the notebook would shutdown without the need to wait for the screensaver to activate. All I did was watch a quicktime movie and the MacBook Pro would shutdown automatically. So, for the third time this week, I called Apple again and the technician recommend me to reinstall Mac OS X and see if the problem persist.

I will reinstall Mac OS X on the weekend so I can backup my hard disk and do a clean install. If the problem continue after the reinstall then I should take my MacBook Pro to a service center for further investigation. It could be a problem with the video card since the shutdown happened when I watch quicktime videos or the screensaver activate (OpenGL)?

Does any MacBook Pro attached to a cinema display experience this? Please let me know, and let Apple know about it!