Saturday, October 17, 2009

I have no idea what Google Wave is for ?

Now there's the Google Wave hype but many have expressed uncertainty of the use of Google Wave (Wave). Is it an evolution of email ? A mashup ? A chat ? Or a messed up ? Yes, I literally meant it ... a messed up.

Even for myself, I have no idea what Wave for. Google... you have been trying to get your hands too full , poking your nose into too many things. Originally, you are just interested in search engine, next, you have Chrome , Chrome OS , Android and what not ?

Now, you (Google) have created a Frankenstein, Google Wave. A chat that's not a chat , an email that's also not an email , a collaboration tool that doesn't actually fit into that category ...etc... What's Wave ? Wave is ....errhhhh.... and is that your answer you are going to give in conferences and others who want to find out what Wave is ?

Sorry, but Google, you are really really screwing things up yourself... you are tripping yourself up again. Go and figure out how to explain to us what Wave is...

Sunday, October 11, 2009

PasswordStore

I have attempted to create a password manager and this project, PasswordStore, is a casual password manager software project.

Look out for the latest release at: http://cid-5dddb088a8f2c7bc.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Public%20Folder/PasswordStore

You would notice that the file numbers are by dates e.g. 11102009 which means 11th October 2009. It goes by DDMMYYYY format. In it, it might contain release numbers since I may make multiple releases per day.

How do you run them ? Unzip them and just double click on the 'PasswordStore.jar' file and it would run for most system with Sun Java JVM installed (Java 1.6 required !).

Saturday, October 10, 2009

System Rescue CD 1.3.1 and Installing things on Linux

Finally, System Rescue CD have a proper GUI when used in graphical mode (startx). This is something I am so relieved about. Finally it's using at least an Xfce interface. Whenever I am using the old System Rescue CD, the mouse clicks are pretty much 'retarded' since it is a bit hard to interact and the GUI just sucks. With an Xfce interface, there's a good and competent windows manager with a usable GUI. It has the latest Firefox 3.5 and what's better than using the latest stuff on System Rescue CD with a usable interface ?

It's always difficult to install stuff on linux especially for those who aren't 'geeky'. Imagine you have found a software you wanted for your Linux machine and you want to install it but after uncompressing that 'tar.gz' package, to your horror, you have to go to command line / console to run some esoteric './configure' or 'make install' commands and these commands show errors. So you become disappointed when it just doesn't work. Why don't developers add a tool to execute those 'tar.gz' with 'make installs' rather than you doing the uncompressing and other stupid stuff. Why not built into those advance package and software mangers the capability of not only executing those 'RPMs ' and 'DEBs' but also the capability of executing those make installable 'tar.gz' ?

Friday, October 2, 2009

PasswordStore

I have been stopping work on my dbDir database directory software lately since it's mostly stable and I wanted a bit of rest from that topic for a while. Yes, I am behind dateline that I have set for myself on dbDir but hey.... do wait and it might be worth it for you.

I have been frustrated that I do have to login to my encrypted database (AES encryption) to add in, update or view my personal passwords which I have stored in it. Now I have quickly made a front end to access the database but it's half done (no backup or restore functions or logging). But it's something at least easier than logging into database.

I call this password frontend manager as PasswordStore.

All you need to do upon the first start is just login as usual (just think of a username and password and login like nothing happened) and it automatically setup the database and system. Have fun using it. ;P

Oh.. and all you need to do is unzip the file to somewhere or anywhere you want and you are off to go.

Explore PasswordStore by yourself and you would notice how amazingly simple and intuitive it is.

Download here.

Is Google really committed to the Free and Open cause ?

Read the following links...
  • http://androidandme.com/2009/09/hacks/cyanogenmod-in-trouble/
  • http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/09/09/29/1510232/Android-Modder-Tries-To-Outmaneuver-Google
  • http://feeds.arstechnica.com/~r/arstechnica/index/~3/OglawbQqucQ/android-community-aims-to-replace-googles-proprietary-bits.ars
You can find more on the Android modder. His news and what happened to him is now famous in the Free and Open community.

It seems like Google is totally not committed to the Free Cyanogenmod a cease and desist order instead of aiding him in his modding works. Well... maybe Google wanted to hop onto the Free and Open community just because it's a good opportunity to become 'powerful' ?

I personally see that Google is just another hypocrite after what they have done to Cyanogenmod.