The best technologies of the decade

With only few days left before we enter a new year, a lot of new technologies has been explored by us since last decade. The fastest growing technologies is in ICT. Below are the best of technologies so far that we can consider as the best within years period of time;

AJAX

It’s hard to remember what life was like before Asynchronous JavaScript and XML came along, so I’ll prod your memory. It was boring. Web 1.0 consisted of a lot of static web pages, where every mouse click was a round trip to the web server. If you wanted rich content, you had to embed a Java applet in the page, and pray that the client browser supported it.

Without the advent of AJAX, we wouldn’t have Web 2.0, GMail, or most of the other cloud-based web applications. Flash is still popular, but especially with HTML 5 on the way, even functionality that formerly required a RIA like Flash or Silverlight can now be accomplished with AJAX.

Twitter

When they first started, blogs were just what they said, web logs. In other words, a journal of interesting web sites that the author had encountered. These days, blogs are more like platforms for rants, opinions, essays, and anything else on the writer’s mind. Then along came Twitter. Sure, people like to find out what J-Lo had for dinner, but the real power of the 140 character dynamo is that it has brought about a resurgence of real web logging. The most useful tweets consist of a Tiny URL and a little bit of context. Combine that with the use of Twitter to send out real time notices about everything from breaking news to the current specials at the corner restaurant, and it’s easy to see why Twitter has become a dominant player.

Ubiquitous WiFi

I want you to imagine you’re on the road in the mid-90s. You get to your hotel room, and plop your laptop on the table. Then you get out your handy RJ-11 cord, and check to see if the hotel phone has a data jack (most didn’t), or if you’ll have to unplug the phone entirely. Then you’d look up the local number for your ISP, and have your laptop dial it, so you could suck down your e-mail at an anemic 56K.

Now, of course, WiFi is everywhere. You may end up having to pay for it, but fast Internet connectivity is available everywhere from your local McDonalds to your hotel room to an airport terminal. Of course, this is not without its downsides, since unsecured WiFi access points have led to all sorts of security headaches, and using an open access point is a risky proposition unless your antivirus software is up to date, but on the whole, ubiquitous WiFi has made the world a much more connected place.

Phones Get Smarter

In the late 90s, we started to see the first personal digital assistants emerge, but this has been the decade when the PDA and the cell phone got married and had a baby called the smartphone. Palm got the ball rolling with the Treos about the same time that Windows Mobile started appearing on phones, and RIM’s Blackberry put functional phones in the hands of business, but it was Apple that took the ball and ran for the touchdown with the iPhone. You can argue if the droid is better than the 3GS or the Pre, but the original iPhone was the game-changer that showed what a smartphone really could do, including the business model of the App Store,

The next convergence is likely to be with Netbooks, as more and more of the mini-laptops come with 3G service integrated in them, and VoIP services such as Skype continue to eat into both landline and cellular business.

Open Source Goes Mainstream

Aha..this is what I like most. Quick! Name 5 open source pieces of software you might have had on your computer in 1999. Don’t worry I’ll wait…

How about today? Firefox is an easy candidate, as are Open Office, Chrome, Audacity, Eclipse (if you’re a developer), Blender, VLC, and many others. Many netbooks now ship with Linux as the underlying OS. Open Source has gone from a rebel movement to part of the establishment, and when you combine increasing end user adoption with the massive amounts of FLOSS you find on the server side, it can be argued that it is the 800 pound Gorilla now.

As Gandhi said, “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” When even Microsoft is releasing Open Source code, you know that you’re somewhere between the fight and win stages.

Toward giant Resources

56K modems, 20MB hard drives, 640K of RAM, 2 MHz processors. You don’t have to go far back in time for all of these to represent the state of the art. Now, of course, you would have more than that in a good toaster…

Moore’s Law continues to drive technology innovation at a breakneck pace, and it seems that related technologies like storage capacity and bandwidth are trying to follow the same curve. Consider that AT&T users gripe about the iPhone’s 5GB/month bandwidth cap, a limit that would have taken 10 solid days of transferring to achieve with a dialup connection.

A iPhone has 3,200 times the storage of the first hard drive I ever owned, and the graphics card on Mac Pro has 16,000 times the memory of my first computer. We can now do amazing things in the palm of our hands, things that would have seemed like science fiction in 1999.

The best technologies of the decade

With only few days left before we enter a new year, a lot of new technologies has been explored by us since last decade. The fastest growing technologies is in ICT. Below are the best of technologies so far that we can consider as the best within years period of time;

AJAX

It’s hard to remember what life was like before Asynchronous JavaScript and XML came along, so I’ll prod your memory. It was boring. Web 1.0 consisted of a lot of static web pages, where every mouse click was a round trip to the web server. If you wanted rich content, you had to embed a Java applet in the page, and pray that the client browser supported it.

Without the advent of AJAX, we wouldn’t have Web 2.0, GMail, or most of the other cloud-based web applications. Flash is still popular, but especially with HTML 5 on the way, even functionality that formerly required a RIA like Flash or Silverlight can now be accomplished with AJAX.

Twitter

When they first started, blogs were just what they said, web logs. In other words, a journal of interesting web sites that the author had encountered. These days, blogs are more like platforms for rants, opinions, essays, and anything else on the writer’s mind. Then along came Twitter. Sure, people like to find out what J-Lo had for dinner, but the real power of the 140 character dynamo is that it has brought about a resurgence of real web logging. The most useful tweets consist of a Tiny URL and a little bit of context. Combine that with the use of Twitter to send out real time notices about everything from breaking news to the current specials at the corner restaurant, and it’s easy to see why Twitter has become a dominant player.

Ubiquitous WiFi

I want you to imagine you’re on the road in the mid-90s. You get to your hotel room, and plop your laptop on the table. Then you get out your handy RJ-11 cord, and check to see if the hotel phone has a data jack (most didn’t), or if you’ll have to unplug the phone entirely. Then you’d look up the local number for your ISP, and have your laptop dial it, so you could suck down your e-mail at an anemic 56K.

Now, of course, WiFi is everywhere. You may end up having to pay for it, but fast Internet connectivity is available everywhere from your local McDonalds to your hotel room to an airport terminal. Of course, this is not without its downsides, since unsecured WiFi access points have led to all sorts of security headaches, and using an open access point is a risky proposition unless your antivirus software is up to date, but on the whole, ubiquitous WiFi has made the world a much more connected place.

Phones Get Smarter

In the late 90s, we started to see the first personal digital assistants emerge, but this has been the decade when the PDA and the cell phone got married and had a baby called the smartphone. Palm got the ball rolling with the Treos about the same time that Windows Mobile started appearing on phones, and RIM’s Blackberry put functional phones in the hands of business, but it was Apple that took the ball and ran for the touchdown with the iPhone. You can argue if the droid is better than the 3GS or the Pre, but the original iPhone was the game-changer that showed what a smartphone really could do, including the business model of the App Store,

The next convergence is likely to be with Netbooks, as more and more of the mini-laptops come with 3G service integrated in them, and VoIP services such as Skype continue to eat into both landline and cellular business.

Open Source Goes Mainstream

Aha..this is what I like most. Quick! Name 5 open source pieces of software you might have had on your computer in 1999. Don’t worry I’ll wait…

How about today? Firefox is an easy candidate, as are Open Office, Chrome, Audacity, Eclipse (if you’re a developer), Blender, VLC, and many others. Many netbooks now ship with Linux as the underlying OS. Open Source has gone from a rebel movement to part of the establishment, and when you combine increasing end user adoption with the massive amounts of FLOSS you find on the server side, it can be argued that it is the 800 pound Gorilla now.

As Gandhi said, “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” When even Microsoft is releasing Open Source code, you know that you’re somewhere between the fight and win stages.

Toward giant Resources

56K modems, 20MB hard drives, 640K of RAM, 2 MHz processors. You don’t have to go far back in time for all of these to represent the state of the art. Now, of course, you would have more than that in a good toaster…

Moore’s Law continues to drive technology innovation at a breakneck pace, and it seems that related technologies like storage capacity and bandwidth are trying to follow the same curve. Consider that AT&T users gripe about the iPhone’s 5GB/month bandwidth cap, a limit that would have taken 10 solid days of transferring to achieve with a dialup connection.

A iPhone has 3,200 times the storage of the first hard drive I ever owned, and the graphics card on Mac Pro has 16,000 times the memory of my first computer. We can now do amazing things in the palm of our hands, things that would have seemed like science fiction in 1999.

The best technologies of the decade

With only few days left before we enter a new year, a lot of new technologies has been explored by us since last decade. The fastest growing technologies is in ICT. Below are the best of technologies so far that we can consider as the best within years period of time;

AJAX

It’s hard to remember what life was like before Asynchronous JavaScript and XML came along, so I’ll prod your memory. It was boring. Web 1.0 consisted of a lot of static web pages, where every mouse click was a round trip to the web server. If you wanted rich content, you had to embed a Java applet in the page, and pray that the client browser supported it.

Without the advent of AJAX, we wouldn’t have Web 2.0, GMail, or most of the other cloud-based web applications. Flash is still popular, but especially with HTML 5 on the way, even functionality that formerly required a RIA like Flash or Silverlight can now be accomplished with AJAX.

Twitter

When they first started, blogs were just what they said, web logs. In other words, a journal of interesting web sites that the author had encountered. These days, blogs are more like platforms for rants, opinions, essays, and anything else on the writer’s mind. Then along came Twitter. Sure, people like to find out what J-Lo had for dinner, but the real power of the 140 character dynamo is that it has brought about a resurgence of real web logging. The most useful tweets consist of a Tiny URL and a little bit of context. Combine that with the use of Twitter to send out real time notices about everything from breaking news to the current specials at the corner restaurant, and it’s easy to see why Twitter has become a dominant player.

Ubiquitous WiFi

I want you to imagine you’re on the road in the mid-90s. You get to your hotel room, and plop your laptop on the table. Then you get out your handy RJ-11 cord, and check to see if the hotel phone has a data jack (most didn’t), or if you’ll have to unplug the phone entirely. Then you’d look up the local number for your ISP, and have your laptop dial it, so you could suck down your e-mail at an anemic 56K.

Now, of course, WiFi is everywhere. You may end up having to pay for it, but fast Internet connectivity is available everywhere from your local McDonalds to your hotel room to an airport terminal. Of course, this is not without its downsides, since unsecured WiFi access points have led to all sorts of security headaches, and using an open access point is a risky proposition unless your antivirus software is up to date, but on the whole, ubiquitous WiFi has made the world a much more connected place.

Phones Get Smarter

In the late 90s, we started to see the first personal digital assistants emerge, but this has been the decade when the PDA and the cell phone got married and had a baby called the smartphone. Palm got the ball rolling with the Treos about the same time that Windows Mobile started appearing on phones, and RIM’s Blackberry put functional phones in the hands of business, but it was Apple that took the ball and ran for the touchdown with the iPhone. You can argue if the droid is better than the 3GS or the Pre, but the original iPhone was the game-changer that showed what a smartphone really could do, including the business model of the App Store,

The next convergence is likely to be with Netbooks, as more and more of the mini-laptops come with 3G service integrated in them, and VoIP services such as Skype continue to eat into both landline and cellular business.

Open Source Goes Mainstream

Aha..this is what I like most. Quick! Name 5 open source pieces of software you might have had on your computer in 1999. Don’t worry I’ll wait…

How about today? Firefox is an easy candidate, as are Open Office, Chrome, Audacity, Eclipse (if you’re a developer), Blender, VLC, and many others. Many netbooks now ship with Linux as the underlying OS. Open Source has gone from a rebel movement to part of the establishment, and when you combine increasing end user adoption with the massive amounts of FLOSS you find on the server side, it can be argued that it is the 800 pound Gorilla now.

As Gandhi said, “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” When even Microsoft is releasing Open Source code, you know that you’re somewhere between the fight and win stages.

Toward giant Resources

56K modems, 20MB hard drives, 640K of RAM, 2 MHz processors. You don’t have to go far back in time for all of these to represent the state of the art. Now, of course, you would have more than that in a good toaster…

Moore’s Law continues to drive technology innovation at a breakneck pace, and it seems that related technologies like storage capacity and bandwidth are trying to follow the same curve. Consider that AT&T users gripe about the iPhone’s 5GB/month bandwidth cap, a limit that would have taken 10 solid days of transferring to achieve with a dialup connection.

A iPhone has 3,200 times the storage of the first hard drive I ever owned, and the graphics card on Mac Pro has 16,000 times the memory of my first computer. We can now do amazing things in the palm of our hands, things that would have seemed like science fiction in 1999.

Windows 7 - New transform from slumpy Vista product or backward roadmap?

Microsoft has recently announced a new baby birth from Microsoft family, called Windows 7, which will be a predecessor for Windows Vista and Xp soon. Well, hearing this kind of thing would give a lot in mind. Why they have to come with new windows product very soon? Is the vista not good enough to sustain the requirement of global need? or the XP already run out of petrol so then they cannot boost further?

Any of the answer you might have if you browse the google website a little deep further. Most of the internet savvy said that the Vista is suck!. Is it true? Well, some is right and some of the little is not really actually. At the first time when Vista is launched, the current hardware cannot support this giant truck. Just imagine a giant Bigfoot try to walk on the half lane road. Really slow right. In fact, not as claimed by brother gates from Microsoft, who said that This kitty Vista will finely run with single Core and 512 MB RAM, the Windows vista only can really work with Quad core 9300 series together with more than 2 GB RAM. Off course, you have to count enhanced display also, like HD 4850 or Nvidia 8600GT for minimum optimal performance and . Then this giant can run as fast as windows Xp as it is full with petrol and boosted by hydrogen + nitrogen + turbo charger. The price? That actually the main factor why this giant vista still walking in the darkness. Don`t surprise if some of people out there call VIsta as Me of NT.

Then, why this Windows 7 come out so soon? This is because Microsoft sees that people are starting to look into other alternative , like Ubuntu, or just simply go back to Windows Xp, which really can promise on stability and great performance even though its kernel safety is really suck no matter how many patch you fed him. Not good investment and reputation right?So, This Windows 7 will come out with lesser memory consumption while still remain the vista look. See? This is Microsoft. Sell it. see what happen. “Oh! got problem”.then come out with new backward thing in 2010. Done.

Windows 7 - New transform from slumpy Vista product or backward roadmap?

Microsoft has recently announced a new baby birth from Microsoft family, called Windows 7, which will be a predecessor for Windows Vista and Xp soon. Well, hearing this kind of thing would give a lot in mind. Why they have to come with new windows product very soon? Is the vista not good enough to sustain the requirement of global need? or the XP already run out of petrol so then they cannot boost further?

Any of the answer you might have if you browse the google website a little deep further. Most of the internet savvy said that the Vista is suck!. Is it true? Well, some is right and some of the little is not really actually. At the first time when Vista is launched, the current hardware cannot support this giant truck. Just imagine a giant Bigfoot try to walk on the half lane road. Really slow right. In fact, not as claimed by brother gates from Microsoft, who said that This kitty Vista will finely run with single Core and 512 MB RAM, the Windows vista only can really work with Quad core 9300 series together with more than 2 GB RAM. Off course, you have to count enhanced display also, like HD 4850 or Nvidia 8600GT for minimum optimal performance and . Then this giant can run as fast as windows Xp as it is full with petrol and boosted by hydrogen + nitrogen + turbo charger. The price? That actually the main factor why this giant vista still walking in the darkness. Don`t surprise if some of people out there call VIsta as Me of NT.

Then, why this Windows 7 come out so soon? This is because Microsoft sees that people are starting to look into other alternative , like Ubuntu, or just simply go back to Windows Xp, which really can promise on stability and great performance even though its kernel safety is really suck no matter how many patch you fed him. Not good investment and reputation right?So, This Windows 7 will come out with lesser memory consumption while still remain the vista look. See? This is Microsoft. Sell it. see what happen. “Oh! got problem”.then come out with new backward thing in 2010. Done.

Windows 7 - New transform from slumpy Vista product or backward roadmap?

Microsoft has recently announced a new baby birth from Microsoft family, called Windows 7, which will be a predecessor for Windows Vista and Xp soon. Well, hearing this kind of thing would give a lot in mind. Why they have to come with new windows product very soon? Is the vista not good enough to sustain the requirement of global need? or the XP already run out of petrol so then they cannot boost further?

Any of the answer you might have if you browse the google website a little deep further. Most of the internet savvy said that the Vista is suck!. Is it true? Well, some is right and some of the little is not really actually. At the first time when Vista is launched, the current hardware cannot support this giant truck. Just imagine a giant Bigfoot try to walk on the half lane road. Really slow right. In fact, not as claimed by brother gates from Microsoft, who said that This kitty Vista will finely run with single Core and 512 MB RAM, the Windows vista only can really work with Quad core 9300 series together with more than 2 GB RAM. Off course, you have to count enhanced display also, like HD 4850 or Nvidia 8600GT for minimum optimal performance and . Then this giant can run as fast as windows Xp as it is full with petrol and boosted by hydrogen + nitrogen + turbo charger. The price? That actually the main factor why this giant vista still walking in the darkness. Don`t surprise if some of people out there call VIsta as Me of NT.

Then, why this Windows 7 come out so soon? This is because Microsoft sees that people are starting to look into other alternative , like Ubuntu, or just simply go back to Windows Xp, which really can promise on stability and great performance even though its kernel safety is really suck no matter how many patch you fed him. Not good investment and reputation right?So, This Windows 7 will come out with lesser memory consumption while still remain the vista look. See? This is Microsoft. Sell it. see what happen. “Oh! got problem”.then come out with new backward thing in 2010. Done.

The most admired CPU chassis

Its seems like pentagon is trying to sell their product (not enough money to built Noah`s ship fro 2012, I guest). But, it is just an extraordinary CPU chassis with extraordinary attraction for it. Thermaltake wowed us all with theannouncement of the Level 10, a concept case designed in conjunction with BMW DesignWorks. Rather than a standard aluminum box, the Thermaltake Level 10 would incorporate a central pillar, with individual compartments hanging from it for the motherboard, PSU, optical drives, and hard drives.

As you can see, the production Level 10 is nearly identical to the concept shots we’ve seen earlier. Each compartment on the Level 10 has its own ventilation. The large panels on the lower left cover the motherboard mount, PCI-E cards, GPUs, and so forth. The six slots on the right are hot-swap SATA bays, connected to a large vertical heatsink. The bays have mounts for 3.5-inch and 2.5-inch drives. The top right box holds three optical drives, and the upper left box holds the power supply.

The most admired CPU chassis

Its seems like pentagon is trying to sell their product (not enough money to built Noah`s ship fro 2012, I guest). But, it is just an extraordinary CPU chassis with extraordinary attraction for it. Thermaltake wowed us all with theannouncement of the Level 10, a concept case designed in conjunction with BMW DesignWorks. Rather than a standard aluminum box, the Thermaltake Level 10 would incorporate a central pillar, with individual compartments hanging from it for the motherboard, PSU, optical drives, and hard drives.

As you can see, the production Level 10 is nearly identical to the concept shots we’ve seen earlier. Each compartment on the Level 10 has its own ventilation. The large panels on the lower left cover the motherboard mount, PCI-E cards, GPUs, and so forth. The six slots on the right are hot-swap SATA bays, connected to a large vertical heatsink. The bays have mounts for 3.5-inch and 2.5-inch drives. The top right box holds three optical drives, and the upper left box holds the power supply.

The most admired CPU chassis

Its seems like pentagon is trying to sell their product (not enough money to built Noah`s ship fro 2012, I guest). But, it is just an extraordinary CPU chassis with extraordinary attraction for it. Thermaltake wowed us all with theannouncement of the Level 10, a concept case designed in conjunction with BMW DesignWorks. Rather than a standard aluminum box, the Thermaltake Level 10 would incorporate a central pillar, with individual compartments hanging from it for the motherboard, PSU, optical drives, and hard drives.

As you can see, the production Level 10 is nearly identical to the concept shots we’ve seen earlier. Each compartment on the Level 10 has its own ventilation. The large panels on the lower left cover the motherboard mount, PCI-E cards, GPUs, and so forth. The six slots on the right are hot-swap SATA bays, connected to a large vertical heatsink. The bays have mounts for 3.5-inch and 2.5-inch drives. The top right box holds three optical drives, and the upper left box holds the power supply.

Windows 7 64-bit : Frequent hangs, lock-ups and freezes

Last time I decided to install Windows 7 64-bit enterprise edition on my machine ( HP DC 7800 c, dual core, 8Gb RAM, NVIDIA 285). I managed to copy and install all setting from my previous Vista 64 bit using easy migration tool in windows. Windows 7 detected all the hardware correctly even my bluetooth device that was not detected in windows vista. I install all my office and work related apps without a hitch.

However, after a while my windows 7 machine would occasionally freeze or lock-up and the only way to restore is to do a hard reset; pushing the on/off button on my machine. Looking around for assistance I turned to the internet for possible solution.

Among the key suspects were the NVidia driver and the power saving plan. I also suspected the setting in bios which enabled the hardware assisted virtualisation. so what I did was to install latest nvidia driver… well it didn’t help. So was changing the power saving options….. I even reset the setting I did in bios… all to no avail. It was frustrating to me.


Then, I got a new workstation from a project. It’s Dell workstation T5500, Intel Xeon Quad Core, 12 GB RAM, 2 TB HD and dual NVidia FX580 with 512Mb memory. I thought all is fine. It came with windows vista 64 bit. I let it run for a 2-3 days with out problem. Then I upgraded it to Windows 7, and it was fine for a couple of days. Then I install all the software that I need. It sure seems to em that everything was OK.

Unfortunately it wasn’t so. My new PC show the same strange behavior. It would randomly lock up and I had to do a hard reset. There wasn’t any particular reason. Sometimes it just stop when I was doing Word, at other times when I was browsing. Yet it also stop dead in the water even when I was not running any apps ( except those that run in the background). I was at lost.

So I tried all find the root cause. The event viewer does not offer much help. Nor does logging. and doing performance logging. I downloaded the new Nvidia driver.. still it hangs. I reset the power saving plan.. same result. I undo any settings in the bios by resetting to default factory setting… and still same problem occurs. Thinking that the CPU was heating up, I downloaded Core Temp to monitor its temperature. All the cores are functioning within normal parameter (.. refering to Lt. Cmdr Data in ST:TNG ). So what was the problem…..

Finally I read somewhere that some anti-virus program were causing strange behaviour in 64-bit OS. SO I uninstall AVG Free version (v. 9.0)… and my PC is working fine.. it has been 30 hours of operation without any hiccup….. Go Figure.

It seems to me that somehow AVG 32 bit causes my OS to stop responding. However, I also installed a 64bit windows 7 on my old HP pc, but without the Nvidia graphics board.. just using the onboard Intel Chip, and the PC does not display any symptom of freezes or lock-up.

So I guess that 9.0 free edition + NVIDIA Graphics + 64Bit WIndows 7 = frequent lock-up expected. Hopefully this is true. I shall see for the next week if my machine would still function normally. Any input from readers will be appreciated.

added: I have to conclude that my Av program is the cause for this misery since I have had no problem with my machine now, even when the system is running continuosly for 5 days. Right now I am testing my machine with Avast! pro (trial version).

Windows 7 64-bit : Frequent hangs, lock-ups and freezes

Last time I decided to install Windows 7 64-bit enterprise edition on my machine ( HP DC 7800 c, dual core, 8Gb RAM, NVIDIA 285). I managed to copy and install all setting from my previous Vista 64 bit using easy migration tool in windows. Windows 7 detected all the hardware correctly even my bluetooth device that was not detected in windows vista. I install all my office and work related apps without a hitch.

However, after a while my windows 7 machine would occasionally freeze or lock-up and the only way to restore is to do a hard reset; pushing the on/off button on my machine. Looking around for assistance I turned to the internet for possible solution.

Among the key suspects were the NVidia driver and the power saving plan. I also suspected the setting in bios which enabled the hardware assisted virtualisation. so what I did was to install latest nvidia driver… well it didn’t help. So was changing the power saving options….. I even reset the setting I did in bios… all to no avail. It was frustrating to me.


Then, I got a new workstation from a project. It’s Dell workstation T5500, Intel Xeon Quad Core, 12 GB RAM, 2 TB HD and dual NVidia FX580 with 512Mb memory. I thought all is fine. It came with windows vista 64 bit. I let it run for a 2-3 days with out problem. Then I upgraded it to Windows 7, and it was fine for a couple of days. Then I install all the software that I need. It sure seems to em that everything was OK.

Unfortunately it wasn’t so. My new PC show the same strange behavior. It would randomly lock up and I had to do a hard reset. There wasn’t any particular reason. Sometimes it just stop when I was doing Word, at other times when I was browsing. Yet it also stop dead in the water even when I was not running any apps ( except those that run in the background). I was at lost.

So I tried all find the root cause. The event viewer does not offer much help. Nor does logging. and doing performance logging. I downloaded the new Nvidia driver.. still it hangs. I reset the power saving plan.. same result. I undo any settings in the bios by resetting to default factory setting… and still same problem occurs. Thinking that the CPU was heating up, I downloaded Core Temp to monitor its temperature. All the cores are functioning within normal parameter (.. refering to Lt. Cmdr Data in ST:TNG ). So what was the problem…..

Finally I read somewhere that some anti-virus program were causing strange behaviour in 64-bit OS. SO I uninstall AVG Free version (v. 9.0)… and my PC is working fine.. it has been 30 hours of operation without any hiccup….. Go Figure.

It seems to me that somehow AVG 32 bit causes my OS to stop responding. However, I also installed a 64bit windows 7 on my old HP pc, but without the Nvidia graphics board.. just using the onboard Intel Chip, and the PC does not display any symptom of freezes or lock-up.

So I guess that 9.0 free edition + NVIDIA Graphics + 64Bit WIndows 7 = frequent lock-up expected. Hopefully this is true. I shall see for the next week if my machine would still function normally. Any input from readers will be appreciated.

added: I have to conclude that my Av program is the cause for this misery since I have had no problem with my machine now, even when the system is running continuosly for 5 days. Right now I am testing my machine with Avast! pro (trial version).

Windows 7 64-bit : Frequent hangs, lock-ups and freezes

Last time I decided to install Windows 7 64-bit enterprise edition on my machine ( HP DC 7800 c, dual core, 8Gb RAM, NVIDIA 285). I managed to copy and install all setting from my previous Vista 64 bit using easy migration tool in windows. Windows 7 detected all the hardware correctly even my bluetooth device that was not detected in windows vista. I install all my office and work related apps without a hitch.

However, after a while my windows 7 machine would occasionally freeze or lock-up and the only way to restore is to do a hard reset; pushing the on/off button on my machine. Looking around for assistance I turned to the internet for possible solution.

Among the key suspects were the NVidia driver and the power saving plan. I also suspected the setting in bios which enabled the hardware assisted virtualisation. so what I did was to install latest nvidia driver… well it didn’t help. So was changing the power saving options….. I even reset the setting I did in bios… all to no avail. It was frustrating to me.


Then, I got a new workstation from a project. It’s Dell workstation T5500, Intel Xeon Quad Core, 12 GB RAM, 2 TB HD and dual NVidia FX580 with 512Mb memory. I thought all is fine. It came with windows vista 64 bit. I let it run for a 2-3 days with out problem. Then I upgraded it to Windows 7, and it was fine for a couple of days. Then I install all the software that I need. It sure seems to em that everything was OK.

Unfortunately it wasn’t so. My new PC show the same strange behavior. It would randomly lock up and I had to do a hard reset. There wasn’t any particular reason. Sometimes it just stop when I was doing Word, at other times when I was browsing. Yet it also stop dead in the water even when I was not running any apps ( except those that run in the background). I was at lost.

So I tried all find the root cause. The event viewer does not offer much help. Nor does logging. and doing performance logging. I downloaded the new Nvidia driver.. still it hangs. I reset the power saving plan.. same result. I undo any settings in the bios by resetting to default factory setting… and still same problem occurs. Thinking that the CPU was heating up, I downloaded Core Temp to monitor its temperature. All the cores are functioning within normal parameter (.. refering to Lt. Cmdr Data in ST:TNG ). So what was the problem…..

Finally I read somewhere that some anti-virus program were causing strange behaviour in 64-bit OS. SO I uninstall AVG Free version (v. 9.0)… and my PC is working fine.. it has been 30 hours of operation without any hiccup….. Go Figure.

It seems to me that somehow AVG 32 bit causes my OS to stop responding. However, I also installed a 64bit windows 7 on my old HP pc, but without the Nvidia graphics board.. just using the onboard Intel Chip, and the PC does not display any symptom of freezes or lock-up.

So I guess that 9.0 free edition + NVIDIA Graphics + 64Bit WIndows 7 = frequent lock-up expected. Hopefully this is true. I shall see for the next week if my machine would still function normally. Any input from readers will be appreciated.

added: I have to conclude that my Av program is the cause for this misery since I have had no problem with my machine now, even when the system is running continuosly for 5 days. Right now I am testing my machine with Avast! pro (trial version).

Microsoft Open Communication System (OCS) - heterogenous solutions

Today, enterprises have widely adopted desktop collaboration as an employee productivity tool, dramatically reducing costs and ensuring a competitive position within their respective markets.  The market acceptance of main stream enterprise collaboration solutions such as Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS) / Live Communications Server (LCS) and IBM Lotus Sometime have helped fuel this trend coupled with the prior acceptance in the SMB market of open platforms such as Jabber/XMPP. An equally pervasive movement in the enterprise is increasing workforce mobilization with large percentages of the staff being remote from their headquarters or immediate manager, located in the field, or just away from their desk for > 30% of the time. As these trends continue, the challenge for enterprises is to maximize the efficiencies possible through presence-enabled real-time collaboration across all usage situations and to do so in a way that ensures the best integration and flexibility with their current and future IT environments.

Same thing goes to International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) Community. The latest OCS deployment in IIUM give us a wide access towards a better and effective communication world widely. Even though this Service just being implemented among technical staff and higher management level, still it will give a significant breakthrough to become IIUM Digital Campus.

However, since the OCS come from Microsoft, it is actually a proprietary program developed mainly for their Operating System such as Windows Xp, Vista, Windows Mobile, Windows CE and will not work with other Operating System. But how about some of the IIUM Community who are using Linux or Apple Mac (anti-microsoft group..hehhe)? Did they do this to purposefully kill users of linux desktops? Or were they unaware you’re using linux desktops?

Even it so, do we have any solution so that this niche IIUM community can communicate through Microsoft LCS server or we just ask them to change their mindset towards Microsoft?

When this matter has been highlighted to the Linux Expert Team, They propose various of solution that might suite to our environment. One of the solution is Wildfire. Wildfire is an enterprise instant messaging (EIM) server dual-licensed under the Open Source GPL and commercially. It uses the only widely adopted open protocol for instant messaging, XMPP (also called Jabber). As a 100% Java application, Wildfire supports Windows, Unix/Linux, and Mac OSX. They also propose other OCS client such as Whisper, Xmpppy,JWchat, ejabberd , but these IM client still not fully tested.While Standard IM client like Kopete and Pidgin are still under development towards OCS compatibility.

OCS server is actually another standard Session Initial Protocol (SIP) server. The only different is that they run on TCP and TLS , while the rest like Okiga or Brekeke SIP server run on UDP. So, in order to communicate through Microsoft OCS, try to look at the 3rd party IM Client who can support TCP and TLS.  To remind earlier the linux IM Client is working but might not working with Video Chatting.

For Mobile users, they wont have any problem if they are using Mobile with Windows Mobile Operating System. But how about for those who are using others like Nokia E90 (Symbian), Blackberry (Blackberry OS), Palm (Palm OS), or even Iphone (OS X Iphone). From the deep search, I found that there is one product that might help these mobile user in order to communicate with IM through OCS/LCS Server. It is called WebMessenger. For those Wifi enabled Mobile Phone , you can use the IIUM Wireless Infra  to establish connection . Nonetheless, this software have not been tested yet in our IIUM environment (the component for Mobile client still not up yet at the OCS Server), so I do not know the exact result on its compatibility with OCS Server.

Microsoft Open Communication System (OCS) - heterogenous solutions

Today, enterprises have widely adopted desktop collaboration as an employee productivity tool, dramatically reducing costs and ensuring a competitive position within their respective markets.  The market acceptance of main stream enterprise collaboration solutions such as Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS) / Live Communications Server (LCS) and IBM Lotus Sometime have helped fuel this trend coupled with the prior acceptance in the SMB market of open platforms such as Jabber/XMPP. An equally pervasive movement in the enterprise is increasing workforce mobilization with large percentages of the staff being remote from their headquarters or immediate manager, located in the field, or just away from their desk for > 30% of the time. As these trends continue, the challenge for enterprises is to maximize the efficiencies possible through presence-enabled real-time collaboration across all usage situations and to do so in a way that ensures the best integration and flexibility with their current and future IT environments.

Same thing goes to International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) Community. The latest OCS deployment in IIUM give us a wide access towards a better and effective communication world widely. Even though this Service just being implemented among technical staff and higher management level, still it will give a significant breakthrough to become IIUM Digital Campus.

However, since the OCS come from Microsoft, it is actually a proprietary program developed mainly for their Operating System such as Windows Xp, Vista, Windows Mobile, Windows CE and will not work with other Operating System. But how about some of the IIUM Community who are using Linux or Apple Mac (anti-microsoft group..hehhe)? Did they do this to purposefully kill users of linux desktops? Or were they unaware you’re using linux desktops?

Even it so, do we have any solution so that this niche IIUM community can communicate through Microsoft LCS server or we just ask them to change their mindset towards Microsoft?

When this matter has been highlighted to the Linux Expert Team, They propose various of solution that might suite to our environment. One of the solution is Wildfire. Wildfire is an enterprise instant messaging (EIM) server dual-licensed under the Open Source GPL and commercially. It uses the only widely adopted open protocol for instant messaging, XMPP (also called Jabber). As a 100% Java application, Wildfire supports Windows, Unix/Linux, and Mac OSX. They also propose other OCS client such as Whisper, Xmpppy,JWchat, ejabberd , but these IM client still not fully tested.While Standard IM client like Kopete and Pidgin are still under development towards OCS compatibility.

OCS server is actually another standard Session Initial Protocol (SIP) server. The only different is that they run on TCP and TLS , while the rest like Okiga or Brekeke SIP server run on UDP. So, in order to communicate through Microsoft OCS, try to look at the 3rd party IM Client who can support TCP and TLS.  To remind earlier the linux IM Client is working but might not working with Video Chatting.

For Mobile users, they wont have any problem if they are using Mobile with Windows Mobile Operating System. But how about for those who are using others like Nokia E90 (Symbian), Blackberry (Blackberry OS), Palm (Palm OS), or even Iphone (OS X Iphone). From the deep search, I found that there is one product that might help these mobile user in order to communicate with IM through OCS/LCS Server. It is called WebMessenger. For those Wifi enabled Mobile Phone , you can use the IIUM Wireless Infra  to establish connection . Nonetheless, this software have not been tested yet in our IIUM environment (the component for Mobile client still not up yet at the OCS Server), so I do not know the exact result on its compatibility with OCS Server.

Microsoft Open Communication System (OCS) - heterogenous solutions

Today, enterprises have widely adopted desktop collaboration as an employee productivity tool, dramatically reducing costs and ensuring a competitive position within their respective markets.  The market acceptance of main stream enterprise collaboration solutions such as Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS) / Live Communications Server (LCS) and IBM Lotus Sometime have helped fuel this trend coupled with the prior acceptance in the SMB market of open platforms such as Jabber/XMPP. An equally pervasive movement in the enterprise is increasing workforce mobilization with large percentages of the staff being remote from their headquarters or immediate manager, located in the field, or just away from their desk for > 30% of the time. As these trends continue, the challenge for enterprises is to maximize the efficiencies possible through presence-enabled real-time collaboration across all usage situations and to do so in a way that ensures the best integration and flexibility with their current and future IT environments.

Same thing goes to International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) Community. The latest OCS deployment in IIUM give us a wide access towards a better and effective communication world widely. Even though this Service just being implemented among technical staff and higher management level, still it will give a significant breakthrough to become IIUM Digital Campus.

However, since the OCS come from Microsoft, it is actually a proprietary program developed mainly for their Operating System such as Windows Xp, Vista, Windows Mobile, Windows CE and will not work with other Operating System. But how about some of the IIUM Community who are using Linux or Apple Mac (anti-microsoft group..hehhe)? Did they do this to purposefully kill users of linux desktops? Or were they unaware you’re using linux desktops?

Even it so, do we have any solution so that this niche IIUM community can communicate through Microsoft LCS server or we just ask them to change their mindset towards Microsoft?

When this matter has been highlighted to the Linux Expert Team, They propose various of solution that might suite to our environment. One of the solution is Wildfire. Wildfire is an enterprise instant messaging (EIM) server dual-licensed under the Open Source GPL and commercially. It uses the only widely adopted open protocol for instant messaging, XMPP (also called Jabber). As a 100% Java application, Wildfire supports Windows, Unix/Linux, and Mac OSX. They also propose other OCS client such as Whisper, Xmpppy,JWchat, ejabberd , but these IM client still not fully tested.While Standard IM client like Kopete and Pidgin are still under development towards OCS compatibility.

OCS server is actually another standard Session Initial Protocol (SIP) server. The only different is that they run on TCP and TLS , while the rest like Okiga or Brekeke SIP server run on UDP. So, in order to communicate through Microsoft OCS, try to look at the 3rd party IM Client who can support TCP and TLS.  To remind earlier the linux IM Client is working but might not working with Video Chatting.

For Mobile users, they wont have any problem if they are using Mobile with Windows Mobile Operating System. But how about for those who are using others like Nokia E90 (Symbian), Blackberry (Blackberry OS), Palm (Palm OS), or even Iphone (OS X Iphone). From the deep search, I found that there is one product that might help these mobile user in order to communicate with IM through OCS/LCS Server. It is called WebMessenger. For those Wifi enabled Mobile Phone , you can use the IIUM Wireless Infra  to establish connection . Nonetheless, this software have not been tested yet in our IIUM environment (the component for Mobile client still not up yet at the OCS Server), so I do not know the exact result on its compatibility with OCS Server.

Palm Pre : When they try to mix Iphone and Android

The first time I say the Palm pre, I was thinking in myself, could they beat Iphone ? emmm…not yet…Android? emmm…sort off..but still need have alot of improvement….

The Palm Pre is a lot smaller than I thpught it suppose to be. A good size comparison would be an iPod classic with a big hard drive. In terms of thickness, it’s definitely not as thin as the iPhone, or even the bold, but it’s an acceptable size considering it’s a slider.

The Pre’s Web OS UI and and UX really looks great. After watching (and using) for 20 minutes, It rarely looked (or felt) unresponsive, choppy, or laggy and it’s clear a lot of thought was put into the design, especially with regard to how the phone would be used with fingers, as opposed to a stylus or d-pad

The Card system is really a great way to keep your information in front of you and know what you’re working on. When you launch an app, you can drag it onto your phone desktop to create a new card, then when you’re finished with a card for a specific app, closing it is as simple as flicking the card upwards.

The input technology that doesn’t involve the screen is also top notch. Palm created the gesture bar, which is the black surface under the screen, because they found it was too hard to control a touchscreen phone with one hand, especially when trying to reach the upper part of the screen. The Gesture Bar streamlines some of the navigation so you can use the phone on the go.

There’s also an accelrometer that works with apps like the web browser and photo viewer, which automatically rotates the screen depending on its orientation. It’s the same as what’s on many other phones, but it’s worth noting that the accelerometer works quite well.

If you’re working in a specific app, you can drag your finger up from the Gesture Bar to the screen, hold it for a second, and the wave dock will appear, making it easy to quick launch another app. The trackball, which feels similar to that of the G1 and Blackberry phones, provides another quick way to get around the Web OS interface.

There’s also the keyboard. It pretty much looks and feels the same as previous Palm keyboards of late, which isn’t spectacular, but it works well enough. When asked why they opted to go with the vertically oriented slide out keyboard, Palm had two main reasons—they didn’t see much less of a difference in effectiveness when compared to a horizontal slider, and found that more people messaged holding the phone vertically. Second, they said there aren’t really any other smartphones with a vertical QWERTY slider, so it makes the phone more recognizable.

While the hardware is definitely high quality, I’m not entirely blown away by the design. It looks really nice, and original, but it’s a little too cutesy in shape and kind of reminds me of an oversized pebble. A slightly larger screen could have definitely been put to good use, and I really don’t like the black space on the side’s of the screen.

I think this phone’s biggest appeal will be the central role the internet plays in the OS. The way it pulls data from various web services, and melds it into its own framework is top notch. I think being able to text, and gChat and send IMs over AIM all from the same window is such a benefit to the user to not have to switch windows for 3 different apps for messaging. And obviously, you won’t be talking to someone on a bunch of different messengers at once, but over a period of a week, you might have convos over these different services, and it’s good to keep track of all these interactions in one place.

The browser is also a far cry from Blazer that was on the Treo’s Garnet OS. The new browser is built on top of Webkit, just like the Android and iPhone browsers, and renders full pages in under 10 seconds. The zoom and drag/pan functionality is very much like the other browsers, both in operation and feel. There was no glitchiness and the browser was extremely responsive.

I also love the way you can search for something on your phone, and then shoot that same query up to Google or Wikipedia without having to launch your web browser. It’s another way the internet has subtly worked its way into the phone without being constricted to a specific app or browser.

The design influence of the iPhone OS is definitely apparent in Web OS. The App dock that sits at the bottom of the home screen is definitely a page out of the iPhones playbook, and for good reason—it works well. The design of the menus such as the contacts list take that same simple approach of not showing more than you absolutely see on any one page, something the iPhone perfected.

The screen is beautiful, and it really shows when looking at photos, which are so bright and colorful, I’d almost say it looks sharper than any other phone.

The camera takes really beautiful photos as well. Even in lighting that wasn’t super bright, colors came out rich, and though a little grainy, it didn’t suffer the same washed out, sandy look that other camera phones generate. This is also due in part to some image post processing that takes place behind the scenes of the camera app.

As far as video recording goes, it’s not available on the Pre for now, but it’s something Palm is looking at for future upgrades. I find this slightly disappointing, because Palm is touting this as an internet phone, and user generated video is a very big part of what’s going on in the online world. A feature where you could live stream or auto upload to YouTube seems like an idea that fits in with the Pre philosophy. I think this absolutely has to be added in the next year.

The Apps and SDK for Web OS i think will be promising. Palm will make the SDK available to anyone to use, but there will be an App Store which will be accessible on the phone only and an approval process for apps. Palm says there are always exceptions, but they will not play the role of Big Brother so much when it comes to apps. What they are mostly concerned with are the security and stability of the apps. Making sure there aren’t apps that crash or provide holes for their phones to be hacked. They also say they will work close with select partners on app and give them access to deeper areas of the OS that are not available in the SDK.

Like Android, there is an Amazon music store app that looks and smells very similar to that on the G1. It lets you preview songs, as well as download from the same screen.

It also has a few features not found on the iPhone, which include copy and paste and MMS messaging, something hardcore iPhone users have been clamoring for since its introduction.

Palm Pre : When they try to mix Iphone and Android

The first time I say the Palm pre, I was thinking in myself, could they beat Iphone ? emmm…not yet…Android? emmm…sort off..but still need have alot of improvement….

The Palm Pre is a lot smaller than I thpught it suppose to be. A good size comparison would be an iPod classic with a big hard drive. In terms of thickness, it’s definitely not as thin as the iPhone, or even the bold, but it’s an acceptable size considering it’s a slider.

The Pre’s Web OS UI and and UX really looks great. After watching (and using) for 20 minutes, It rarely looked (or felt) unresponsive, choppy, or laggy and it’s clear a lot of thought was put into the design, especially with regard to how the phone would be used with fingers, as opposed to a stylus or d-pad

The Card system is really a great way to keep your information in front of you and know what you’re working on. When you launch an app, you can drag it onto your phone desktop to create a new card, then when you’re finished with a card for a specific app, closing it is as simple as flicking the card upwards.

The input technology that doesn’t involve the screen is also top notch. Palm created the gesture bar, which is the black surface under the screen, because they found it was too hard to control a touchscreen phone with one hand, especially when trying to reach the upper part of the screen. The Gesture Bar streamlines some of the navigation so you can use the phone on the go.

There’s also an accelrometer that works with apps like the web browser and photo viewer, which automatically rotates the screen depending on its orientation. It’s the same as what’s on many other phones, but it’s worth noting that the accelerometer works quite well.

If you’re working in a specific app, you can drag your finger up from the Gesture Bar to the screen, hold it for a second, and the wave dock will appear, making it easy to quick launch another app. The trackball, which feels similar to that of the G1 and Blackberry phones, provides another quick way to get around the Web OS interface.

There’s also the keyboard. It pretty much looks and feels the same as previous Palm keyboards of late, which isn’t spectacular, but it works well enough. When asked why they opted to go with the vertically oriented slide out keyboard, Palm had two main reasons—they didn’t see much less of a difference in effectiveness when compared to a horizontal slider, and found that more people messaged holding the phone vertically. Second, they said there aren’t really any other smartphones with a vertical QWERTY slider, so it makes the phone more recognizable.

While the hardware is definitely high quality, I’m not entirely blown away by the design. It looks really nice, and original, but it’s a little too cutesy in shape and kind of reminds me of an oversized pebble. A slightly larger screen could have definitely been put to good use, and I really don’t like the black space on the side’s of the screen.

I think this phone’s biggest appeal will be the central role the internet plays in the OS. The way it pulls data from various web services, and melds it into its own framework is top notch. I think being able to text, and gChat and send IMs over AIM all from the same window is such a benefit to the user to not have to switch windows for 3 different apps for messaging. And obviously, you won’t be talking to someone on a bunch of different messengers at once, but over a period of a week, you might have convos over these different services, and it’s good to keep track of all these interactions in one place.

The browser is also a far cry from Blazer that was on the Treo’s Garnet OS. The new browser is built on top of Webkit, just like the Android and iPhone browsers, and renders full pages in under 10 seconds. The zoom and drag/pan functionality is very much like the other browsers, both in operation and feel. There was no glitchiness and the browser was extremely responsive.

I also love the way you can search for something on your phone, and then shoot that same query up to Google or Wikipedia without having to launch your web browser. It’s another way the internet has subtly worked its way into the phone without being constricted to a specific app or browser.

The design influence of the iPhone OS is definitely apparent in Web OS. The App dock that sits at the bottom of the home screen is definitely a page out of the iPhones playbook, and for good reason—it works well. The design of the menus such as the contacts list take that same simple approach of not showing more than you absolutely see on any one page, something the iPhone perfected.

The screen is beautiful, and it really shows when looking at photos, which are so bright and colorful, I’d almost say it looks sharper than any other phone.

The camera takes really beautiful photos as well. Even in lighting that wasn’t super bright, colors came out rich, and though a little grainy, it didn’t suffer the same washed out, sandy look that other camera phones generate. This is also due in part to some image post processing that takes place behind the scenes of the camera app.

As far as video recording goes, it’s not available on the Pre for now, but it’s something Palm is looking at for future upgrades. I find this slightly disappointing, because Palm is touting this as an internet phone, and user generated video is a very big part of what’s going on in the online world. A feature where you could live stream or auto upload to YouTube seems like an idea that fits in with the Pre philosophy. I think this absolutely has to be added in the next year.

The Apps and SDK for Web OS i think will be promising. Palm will make the SDK available to anyone to use, but there will be an App Store which will be accessible on the phone only and an approval process for apps. Palm says there are always exceptions, but they will not play the role of Big Brother so much when it comes to apps. What they are mostly concerned with are the security and stability of the apps. Making sure there aren’t apps that crash or provide holes for their phones to be hacked. They also say they will work close with select partners on app and give them access to deeper areas of the OS that are not available in the SDK.

Like Android, there is an Amazon music store app that looks and smells very similar to that on the G1. It lets you preview songs, as well as download from the same screen.

It also has a few features not found on the iPhone, which include copy and paste and MMS messaging, something hardcore iPhone users have been clamoring for since its introduction.

Palm Pre : When they try to mix Iphone and Android

The first time I say the Palm pre, I was thinking in myself, could they beat Iphone ? emmm…not yet…Android? emmm…sort off..but still need have alot of improvement….

The Palm Pre is a lot smaller than I thpught it suppose to be. A good size comparison would be an iPod classic with a big hard drive. In terms of thickness, it’s definitely not as thin as the iPhone, or even the bold, but it’s an acceptable size considering it’s a slider.

The Pre’s Web OS UI and and UX really looks great. After watching (and using) for 20 minutes, It rarely looked (or felt) unresponsive, choppy, or laggy and it’s clear a lot of thought was put into the design, especially with regard to how the phone would be used with fingers, as opposed to a stylus or d-pad

The Card system is really a great way to keep your information in front of you and know what you’re working on. When you launch an app, you can drag it onto your phone desktop to create a new card, then when you’re finished with a card for a specific app, closing it is as simple as flicking the card upwards.

The input technology that doesn’t involve the screen is also top notch. Palm created the gesture bar, which is the black surface under the screen, because they found it was too hard to control a touchscreen phone with one hand, especially when trying to reach the upper part of the screen. The Gesture Bar streamlines some of the navigation so you can use the phone on the go.

There’s also an accelrometer that works with apps like the web browser and photo viewer, which automatically rotates the screen depending on its orientation. It’s the same as what’s on many other phones, but it’s worth noting that the accelerometer works quite well.

If you’re working in a specific app, you can drag your finger up from the Gesture Bar to the screen, hold it for a second, and the wave dock will appear, making it easy to quick launch another app. The trackball, which feels similar to that of the G1 and Blackberry phones, provides another quick way to get around the Web OS interface.

There’s also the keyboard. It pretty much looks and feels the same as previous Palm keyboards of late, which isn’t spectacular, but it works well enough. When asked why they opted to go with the vertically oriented slide out keyboard, Palm had two main reasons—they didn’t see much less of a difference in effectiveness when compared to a horizontal slider, and found that more people messaged holding the phone vertically. Second, they said there aren’t really any other smartphones with a vertical QWERTY slider, so it makes the phone more recognizable.

While the hardware is definitely high quality, I’m not entirely blown away by the design. It looks really nice, and original, but it’s a little too cutesy in shape and kind of reminds me of an oversized pebble. A slightly larger screen could have definitely been put to good use, and I really don’t like the black space on the side’s of the screen.

I think this phone’s biggest appeal will be the central role the internet plays in the OS. The way it pulls data from various web services, and melds it into its own framework is top notch. I think being able to text, and gChat and send IMs over AIM all from the same window is such a benefit to the user to not have to switch windows for 3 different apps for messaging. And obviously, you won’t be talking to someone on a bunch of different messengers at once, but over a period of a week, you might have convos over these different services, and it’s good to keep track of all these interactions in one place.

The browser is also a far cry from Blazer that was on the Treo’s Garnet OS. The new browser is built on top of Webkit, just like the Android and iPhone browsers, and renders full pages in under 10 seconds. The zoom and drag/pan functionality is very much like the other browsers, both in operation and feel. There was no glitchiness and the browser was extremely responsive.

I also love the way you can search for something on your phone, and then shoot that same query up to Google or Wikipedia without having to launch your web browser. It’s another way the internet has subtly worked its way into the phone without being constricted to a specific app or browser.

The design influence of the iPhone OS is definitely apparent in Web OS. The App dock that sits at the bottom of the home screen is definitely a page out of the iPhones playbook, and for good reason—it works well. The design of the menus such as the contacts list take that same simple approach of not showing more than you absolutely see on any one page, something the iPhone perfected.

The screen is beautiful, and it really shows when looking at photos, which are so bright and colorful, I’d almost say it looks sharper than any other phone.

The camera takes really beautiful photos as well. Even in lighting that wasn’t super bright, colors came out rich, and though a little grainy, it didn’t suffer the same washed out, sandy look that other camera phones generate. This is also due in part to some image post processing that takes place behind the scenes of the camera app.

As far as video recording goes, it’s not available on the Pre for now, but it’s something Palm is looking at for future upgrades. I find this slightly disappointing, because Palm is touting this as an internet phone, and user generated video is a very big part of what’s going on in the online world. A feature where you could live stream or auto upload to YouTube seems like an idea that fits in with the Pre philosophy. I think this absolutely has to be added in the next year.

The Apps and SDK for Web OS i think will be promising. Palm will make the SDK available to anyone to use, but there will be an App Store which will be accessible on the phone only and an approval process for apps. Palm says there are always exceptions, but they will not play the role of Big Brother so much when it comes to apps. What they are mostly concerned with are the security and stability of the apps. Making sure there aren’t apps that crash or provide holes for their phones to be hacked. They also say they will work close with select partners on app and give them access to deeper areas of the OS that are not available in the SDK.

Like Android, there is an Amazon music store app that looks and smells very similar to that on the G1. It lets you preview songs, as well as download from the same screen.

It also has a few features not found on the iPhone, which include copy and paste and MMS messaging, something hardcore iPhone users have been clamoring for since its introduction.

Future mobile phone will speed up with Intel Atom

Based on the new roadmap of Intel Atom released in IDF 2009, it is not impossible to run the chipset inside the Mobile phone. with the 15nm platform architecture, Intel Atom is ready for the generation of system-on-chip product.