Roy Tang

Programmer, engineer, scientist, critic, gamer, dreamer, and kid-at-heart.

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All entries tagged tech-life.

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Mar 2006

  • Ballmer, Bemused -- Forbes.com

    Ballmer, Bemused – Forbes.com An interview with Steve Ballmer – a lot of “Microsoft is cool” gibberish, but one nice quote stands out for me: Forbes.com: Right now, I can go out and get a free alternative to just about every product Microsoft sells. Why do people keep paying you for something they could get free? Ballmer: One, people value their time. Our stuff does more, and they like that.

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  • I think I’m starting to get the hang of this :p This whole thing with Kubuntu, where I have to use Adept to install stuff is really weirding out my Windows-geek tendencies. For today, all I wanted was to get some mp3s playing on Kubuntu. Unfortunately, the default included players (Kaffeine and Amarok) were giving me trouble, claiming they could not play mp3s! I asked around for some help, and read some FAQs, but I kept getting errors trying to download and install gstreamer-mad 0.

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Feb 2006

  • Previously: I installed Kubuntu, but failed to get the internet working. But now, since we got a router to service our home network (whereas previously we were using a cross-cable directly connecting two computers), I decided to give it another shot. Apparently, if I have a router between my PC and the DSL line, I can use something called DHCP to automatically configure my ethernet connection. And I did that! Woohoo, and now I’m posting from Linux!

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Jan 2006

  • So yeah, out of a strange mix of adventurism, inertia, coincidence and plan old boredom, I decided to install linux on this machine. At first I just wanted to see how easy the install would be, but after I nuked my Windows XP install I sort of had no turning back. (-_-!) Anyway, I went for a dual boot of Windows XP and Kubuntu, supposedly an easy-to-use Linux distro. So yeah, I even watched this video online that showed how to do the installs.

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Oct 2005

Sep 2005

  • Bought a brand-spankin’ new 160GB hard drive yesterday. Seagate Barracuda 7200. Yessir, ups the total hard drive capacity at home to 240 gigs, I hope we don’t fill it up too fast. Moved the 40GB hard drive on the primary computer to the secondary (for a total of 80 on the secondary), and installed the new one on the primary. My brother Alvin was working with me on this, and it took us a better part of three hours to get the connection right (one of the casings wasn’t very agreeable)

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Aug 2005

  • Google Talk

    As you may have heard, Google Talk is up. The client looks neat and all, but there’s not much reason for most people to start using it. Sure, the voice chat thing is neat, but I know that Yahoo Messenger supports it, and probably some of the others do? Otherwise, the client seems awfully thin. Simple, like Google, but it needs to be a lot more than that to make a difference.

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Jul 2005

  • Linux is shareware?

    Or so the paper says. The Philippine Daily Inquirer had an article today about Oracle targetting local SMEs. Apparently they have an advantage because they use “the Linux shareware.” Too bad I can’t find the article online.
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  • Hipster PDA?

    Should I get a Hipster PDA? I’m thinking about it. Or something similar. Not really for organizing tasks and stuff. Only for jotting down temporary things when away from a computer. So I can remember them later. I often think up incredibly clever world-shaking ideas while commuting, it would be nice to remember all of them. I still largely prefer the advantages of electronic storage: cut/paste functionality, easy to make backups/copies, distribution, easily searchable etc.

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Jun 2005

May 2005

  • Pimp My Rig is a hardware review side associated with a friend of mine from high school. Yes, I was asked to help promote it. 😀 I haven’t worried about hardware issues in a while, since I usually ask my kid brother to handle most hardware purchases/setup at home. So, I don’t really know much about the latest and greatest hardware but this site looks helpful enough to be given a try, especially if you’re the sort who enjoys putting together his own PC.

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    Posted by under post at #Hardware #Tech Life
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Mar 2005

Dec 2004

  • Blog Layouts from 2004

    This entry is being published in April 2021. Around this time, I was digging around the wayback machine and found some old versions of my blog, so I thought I’d take some screenshots and psot them here, backdated into their proper place in the timeline. The two screenshots here are from 2004 and 2005, but I didn’t want to bother creating two separate posts. This was back when my blog was powered by Blogger and it was hosted on a free web hosting service called Fateback.

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Oct 2004

  • Firefox 1.0 on November 9

    In case you haven’t heard, Firefox, the little browser that could, is scheduled for the official 1.0 release on Nov. 9. There’s a large promotion campaign going on over at SpreadFirefox.com, including a campaign to gather donations for a large ad of some sort on the New York Times. I’m still using 0.9, despite the availability of 1.0PR, but I’ll surely get the official 1.0 come November 9. 😀 BTW, there are some cool Firefox wallpapers available.

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  • Google Desktop

    People have been raving about Google Desktop lately. I didn’t like it. Aside from the obvious problem with multi-user computers, apparently there are some other issues. I wouldn’t use it for my everyday, personal stuff, but I think it might be okay at work.
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Aug 2004

  • New Hardware

    Spent some cash this weekend. First thing was a 256 Mb Kingston flash drive. Nothing too complicated, just something to transfer MP3s to and from work with. =) Next up was a digital camera. A Kodak CX6330 to be exact. We had been planning to buy one for a while. Pics? Not now. Funny story though. There was this promo where we could get a P5000 discount (less than US$100) if we could show a receipt for P200 worth of Pampers (a local brand of baby diapers)… so I had to explain to people why in the world I was carrying around some diapers…
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May 2004

  • Sweet Sweet Vacation Time

    God, it feels good to be goofing off. After having to spend six days in HK (well, more like five-and-a-half, more on that later) and then proceeding to conduct SQL training sessions for the latest batch of recruits, I was kinda tired and stressed out from work. Good thing I had the common sense to file for two days leave after the elections last Monday; don’t have to come in ‘til tomorrow.

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Nov 2003

  • Windows XP: Luna

    Since I got Windows XP a little less than a year ago, I’ve tried looking around for cheap (read: free) ways to customize the interface. I did eventually find some solutions, but after trying a nice chrome theme for a while, I eventually went back to the default XP look. Why? I realize now, I like the Luna interface. It’s neat. It’s one of the best things to come out of Microsoft in eight years.

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Jan 2003