I was just thinking the other day that if one day everything becomes open-source and free, what would become of programmers? Are they going to earn a living or what? If one day everything becomes open source, there is a good chance that you have to pay for your opensource software.
Open source does not mean it is free and freeware doesn’t mean it’s open source. Perhaps one day we may just have to pay for all the open source products which isn’t what most people wish for. Most people just want free software anyway, they don’t care if it’s open source, it’s just that open source sounded like it’s free.
The current situation of commercial close source products and the free open source seem to be in quite a balance. Free alternatives remain while the commercial sectors are still charging and all.
And I’m tired of all the ‘Lite’, ‘Express’ or non-Pro versions that remained free. If only every big software company can make one of their non-flagship products free, kinda like giving back to the society and at the same time create more competition and drive advancements in software.
On a side note - this looks a little strange to me.
Microsoft and opensource? Hmmmp…
One of my favorite improvements in Windows Vista is the bloody clock at the bottom right corner of your task bar or notification bar - whatever people call it (my friend calls it the blue bar).
On clicking on the digital clock at the blue bar you get this (picture):
In Windows XP, I double click on the clock quite often and it’ll launch this control panel thingy and all I want is too check a calendar. There was a couple of occasions that I click on some other month and I click okay. Of course, I set my clock to another day. With the new clock in Windows Vista, it shows a calendar that you can flip months and years and it will not change the date at all. But if it’s your intention to change the date, you can of course. The new feature does make a hell lot more sense, doesn’t it?
I love the additional clocks setting too (picture):
You can reveal more clocks if you’re travelling or something. I don’t travel much - if at all in fact. I set my other clock to Greenwich Mean Time, it’s useful when I check out logs and see server notices as it’s all reported in GMT. Another good time zone to set is Pacific Standard Time (PST) but I didn’t bother with that since Singapore time (similar to Australian Western Standard Time) is +800 hours and PST is just -800 hours. The analog clock would essentially look the same.
Have fun with clocks. 
WordPress users should upgrade to 2.1.2 as soon as possible.
If you downloaded WordPress 2.1.1 within the past 3-4 days, your files may include a security exploit that was added by a cracker, and you should upgrade all of your files to 2.1.2 immediately.
Although not all downloads of 2.1.1 were affected, weâ??re declaring the entire version dangerous and have released a new version 2.1.2 that includes minor updates and entirely verified files. We are also taking lots of measures to ensure something like this canâ??t happen again, not the least of which is minutely external verification of the download package so weâ??ll know immediately if something goes wrong for any reason.
Source: WordPress blog
I’ll bring the site down for 5 minutes to upgrade. Seriously, an auto update feature should be implemented. Maybe get a prompt that there is an update you can you just click one button to just update. Your five minutes started one minute ago.
Download WordPress 2.1.2.
[Upgrade completed on 10:10 am.]
It’s been released, all WordPress users should make some effort to get it updated.
Version 2.1.1 includes about 30 bug fixes, mostly minor things around encoding, XML-RPC, the object cache, and HTML code.
You can download WordPress here. WordPress is the software I used for blogging, I used it since version 1.2 I think, it’s improved a lot since then. 
It is late morning when I answered a call on my phone. I’m usually unkeen to answer calls on my cellphone, it usually means work, but this time it means school.
I enquired about a computing school. And one of the questions I post was regarding software licenses. It just came to my mind and I asked, “So what if the school requires Adobe Photoshop or some 3D Studio Max like programs?” She didn’t have the answer and promises to get back to me.
She did, “As for the software license questions, you don’t have to worry about it. We won’t be providing Microsoft Office but you can get Adobe Photoshop and those software online.”
“Where may I get those? Are they academic licenses?” I questioned.
“Oh, they told me that you can download for free.”
“Free? You mean Photoshop? Is it a trial version?” I was a little shocked, a little amused.
“Not the trial, Photoshop is free online, you can download on Adobe’s website,” she declared.
I am always slow in adopting web applications because they’re such a pain to upload and upgrade. It’s not like your usual computer applications where you just click and it’ll install and upgrade; you’ve got to be careful not to overwrite your files when upgrading.
But when WordPress 2.1 is officially released, I upgraded it within an hour. There are some admin interface upgrades, it now has a more Ajaxy interface and seems to load faster than before.
What that makes me really happy is how easy uploading images actually gotten. I organized my images files in /images/2007/01/image.jpg manually in the past. I upload it with an FTP client (Filezilla) and link it manually. The builtin image uploading tool makes blogging so much more enjoyable for me.
The Users page is updated too, it is currently still a little buggy but I can live with it. I can add users easily. It’s very useful for a multiuser web site. The other feature that I really like is how links can now be assigned categories. Categories are not just for posts now.
Version 2.1 also introduce privacy options which would be helpful for people who don’t wish their friends find their blog. It tells the search engine not to index. I don’t really use that feature but it’s still worth a mention.
My only wish is that tags can be supported in WordPress together with categories. Most of my plugins still work in WordPress 2.1.
I don’t face any problems after the upgrade. But I did do my usual back ups before attempting to upgrade, you should too. Now, WordPress 2.1 is powering this blog nicely.
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Still running well with more than a thousand posts in the database. 
Windows Vista is kinda launched already and you can already find the PCs available at Harvey Norman or Courts stores in Singapore. I was talking to the salesman just yesterday and he was saying that it’s very good and advanced. Not sure what he meant but never mind.
It’s great that Microsoft finally releases Windows Vista, I had enough of Windows XP and I think it’s time for people to upgrade soon. I’ll probably upgrade on April when I buy a new computer and I’ll give my father my current computer. I’m thinking of installing Ubuntu for him. I wonder if it’s friendly enough for beginners.
You can find out more about Windows Vista or see the product comparison here.
[By the way, my image is purple due to Photoshop's auto coloring tools. I automate some stuff with Photoshop and I'm too lazy to adjust back the colors.]