As of October 31, 2009 5am, the center of typhoon Santi is 60 kilometers south-southeast of Metro Manila. It is moving West Southwest at 24 kilometers per hour. For more information on the typhoon, visit PAGASA’s website.
Due to typhoon Santi, airline flights have been cancelled. Continue reading “Bagyong Santi Advisories” »
After performing a full format on my Windows Vista partition (I have a separate one for Linux), I reinstalled the usual Windows applications I use — specifically those software I use for freelance projects that doesn’t have a good Linux alternative. Obviously, I did not settle with my project essentials. I still installed my favorite time wasters; Instant Messaging software, games, etc. I installed the latest version of Google Talk and the Vista-version of Yahoo Messenger.
Choosing the “Yahoo Messenger for Vista” instead of the old version 8 (which had no ads embedded to it) I always loved was one of the greatest reversible mistake I did. Yahoo Messenger for Vista, was indeed, a crap — worse than the previous versions of Yahoo Messenger.
Yahoo Messenger for Vista is a memory hog (memory pig, memory hoarder). Running the program is almost the same as running a decent PopCap or Yahoo game. On a rather average machine, everything just turns sluggish once it logs in. But on a pretty fast one, it’s doing okay.
It has a trying-hard eye candy interface. The term trying hard is there as eye candy is not a right term basing on it’s definition that is visual images that are pleasing to see but are intellectually undemanding (wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn). I bet Yahoo’s designers tried their best to make it as attractive as possible; but mind you I was never astonished by it. The heavy typeface applied on the items of the messenger list just suck, plus the bad choice of font.
The notification popups are no less than annoying. Previous non-Vista versions of Yahoo Messenger has this small notification popup whenever a buddy signs in or out. This feature has not been removed in the Vista version, but instead made it a lot bigger and more distracting. It just annoys me the way it is, I hope Yahoo would revert it back to the smaller ones on the next releases.
The visual effects were good. The effects are attractive and soothes the eyes. The windows are non-rectangular; unlike the typical windows we have. Translucency (partial transparency) is also evident especially whendealing with popup menus.
Most of the features are not outrightly visible. To change the chat text font, one still has to click the intuitive “A” font icon on the conversation window. To add a friend or perform other contact-related options, one still has to click the very unintuitive downward pointing arrow. Everything is unfamiliar.
Given all those observations, an assumption that Yahoo tried to concentrate on the visual appeal to the extent of compromising stability (yes, it’s unstable plus it’s nature of being a memory hog) can be concluded.
They should also consider putting the essential features outright on the window and not hide them behind menus. Yahoo should redesign the said application putting balance on the visuals and stability.
Hey guys.
Several few hours ago, I delivered a shout-out during the 2nd Mindanao Bloggers Summit held at Family Country Hotel and Restaurant in General Santos City.
The slides I used for my presentation is available here. Please don’t expect a lot from it since I made it on-the-spot, like 3 hours before my shout-out.
Hey guys!
The 2nd Mindanao Bloggers Summit is less than a week away. The organizers and volunteers (including me) are starting to get busy, really busy. Kuya Avel and company is brewing something big, bigger than the tuna in GenSan.
Aside from the post-summit events (tour, Sashimi night, among others), there is certainly more reason to attend the said event. I will be speaking for the shout-out in the afternoon — will rant about my blog, my blog life (blogger’s events, etc) and life as a student blogger.
I, too, am very excited for my shout-out. In fact, I’m now starting to outline what I’ll be saying. For parties interested on getting the outline, I’ll post them on my blog right after my shout-out (yes, there’s free wireless Internet connection in the area powered by 802.11a/b/g technology).
Weeeee, exciting! See you there!
Tomorrow noontime, I’d be leaving Manila en route to General Santos for my semestral break. I’m pretty excited right now, with all those stuff I can do at home.
I’m gonna have nonrestricted Internet (bandwidth-hog websites no longer blocked) spiced up by the one-to-one child-to-laptop/PC ratio. This means no need to compete for a PC. Adding to the excitement is the home-cooked food I surely missed. Not to mention the new motor-vehicles at home, at last my lil bro will teach me how to drive one (but I know the basics of driving a car [he doesn't]).
Before I could leave, I still have to pack my stuff and clean up my mess. It’s quite hard to clean all my mess since I’m occupying three rooms in the dorm – three rooms to clean, amf!
I’ll be flying with Cebu Pacific for the second time. Departure is by 1230 PHT which is scheduled to arrive by 1420 PHT. The flight will be using the controversial newly-opened Terminal 3 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. I guess the aerial vehicle to be used is an Airbus 320 Family Member (could be A319).
Exciting!! Weeeee.
Woot!
I just came home (dorm, my second home) from a Google event at Manila B of Shangri-La Makati. In contrast to most of the events I attend, I went to the venue all alone this time since the slots were too limited that I was not able to tag anyone to go with me.
The Google event was their launching Power User Launch of their new product Google Map Maker. In a conversation with John Pinette, Google’s Director of Communications in Asia Pacific, Philippines is the only South East Asian region where Google Map Maker has been officially launched – although it is already deployed in some countries such as in Vietnam. Continue reading “Google Map Maker: the Power User Launch” »