五師兄字

The History of Web Browsers

Microsoft IE9 (Internet Explorer 9) is finally out. As I am not running Windows at home so I am not going to test it today (yes, I am still sick-leaving at home, for the 2nd day).

I always hate IE since when it was a kid. It was slow and ugly. I hated it more when it murdered Netscape. So I jumped to Firefox as soon as it was available, just to avoid using IE. Now I am using Chrome all the time because I am so used to the native searching ability within the browsers. Which browser are you using now?

Below is a beautiful infographic for the history of web browsers. Pretty cool huh?  (I love how Opera could remain as a straight thin line for all these years, and still exists.)

Sources: DEHAHS via Bit Rebels

Two Practical Applications for Augmented Reality

USPS Priority Mail Simulator:

Rayban Virtual Mirror Webcam Application:

非法獻花

#GoogleCN 谷歌真汉子

《Google Beijing, Jan 13, 2010》

picture taken by Junyu Wang

Supplementary Information:
非法献花_百度百科 – 2010年1月13日
… 清华科技园(Google中国办事处所在地)的保安表示，向GOOGLE献花，必须事先向有关部门申请，获得审批后方可进行，否则属于非法献花。 …

Stefana Broadbent: How the Internet enables intimacy

The title of this TED presentation is somewhat misleading. It is not about Internet, or only Internet.

She did start off with some examples about how people like to engage with a small group of people all the time; and with the current technology, we are able to do it better than ever. However, the main point of her final argument is: “Should we be allowed to engaged with our personal life while being in an ‘institution’ ?”

via Guy Kawasaki

I know some people might pick on how she thought a bus driver should be OK to carry a cell. But that’s not the point.

I mean, personal engagement is part of the physical needs. In order to focus at work and perform, we need the right work/life balance. Of course the actually executions have to be depending on the situation, but the principle is simple: I see that as the same level as letting the staff to the bathroom.

And more importantly, the fact is, according to the statistics (that she has collected, assuming they are unbias), people are naturally doing that anyway. Well, obviously you can tell I am already on her side, coz otherwise I won’t post this video at 10:30am in the morning on a weekday. =p

By the way there is an ad by IBM at the end of the video. Quite interesting, but a bit scary.

Windows 7 Demo

友人傳來下面的 Windows 柒示範。

我唔識日文，所以完全唔知佢 up 乜，只見到那示範者不斷用手指敲打顯示屏面，但敲極也沒有反應，然後節目工作人員一方面插播事前錄好的片段，另一方面同時在搶救失靈中的電腦/顯示屏。最後一臉尷尬地草草收場……

究竟這真的是一趟認真（但失敗）的新產品示範，還是其實是一個攪笑節目嘗試去模擬微軟產品一貫的風格？要我估，我當然估前者，因為微軟產品落場那刻跌低以致示範者當眾出醜其實是一件平常不過的事：連 Bill Gates 自己也在台上出過藍畫面！而平日大家上台做簡報時更一定有經驗曾將所有電腦軟件冇反應、硬件瓜柴、甚至自己發台瘟的因由都全算到 Windows 品質問題的頭上！

不過，又如何？當不日大家買新電腦，我們何嘗不是又會乖乖地投回那不斷被我們嘲笑的 Windows 的懷抱當中嗎？這也好，要不然那又何來一個大眾都供認可信的藉口去解釋自己交唔出功課呢？（最常見的「理由」：做做下部機 hang / 瓜 / rebooted 左，或 saved 完個 file 唔見左）

後記：
後來整番好了，再 demo 過 ~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_gkLVwMAW8