Leng's chronicle...

I never had interest in Facebook the moment I open an account, there was just a need to utilize the media in order for me to have bonding time with the students as well as to utilize it for academic advertisement for students.
In fact, every time I advertise an announcement or perhaps a reminder in FB (Facebook), and at the same time in Micronet info website which I am authoring as well, constantly, FB audience is more that what I get compared to the actual website with domain solely created for student communication purposes. Can you see the difference now? FB or other social networking media such as Friendster, YouTube, Multiply are more powerful. Indeed, many businesses are utilizing these networks for marketing purposes and it is proven efficient and cheap.

In FB, I can see introverts’ self revelation; they tell u what’s on their mind, or what they currently feel thru their “STATUS”. Introverts may have limitations with their self revelation while extroverts are at FULL BLAST some are swearing, cursing, smiling (happy), crying (sad), gesture of loneliness, broken hearted and so on.
Second, are you bored? Well, hundreds of applications are available in FB, they have games, lifestyle, sports and so on trying to capture which area you might fall on and I got captivated on gaming hehehe. I get addicted, hypnotized and all. The Famous Mafia War, Farm Town, Poker, Pet Society, Restaurant City and the likes.
I started playing these APPS early this year (2009) and now its September a quarter to go to the year end and if I’m going to assess myself, I am really less productive this year.
I’m less productive with so many aspects. First, with my Job, I used to be commended always for my dedication “I LOVE MY JOB”. However this is not an issue of being appreciated but the quality of my work output. I am really worst this time, I fail to motivate my students, I fail to support them, I fail to let them know that I’m just here willing to offer a helping hand.
Second is myself development, I could have learn many things, read more books, write more articles and spend more time with my family.
Lastly, I fail God; I spend few hours playing, few hours working at night where my sleeping duration will only be 4 to 5 hours. The next day, then I’ll have back pain, headache, stress, and hypertensive. When is my prayer time? Every Saturday night, I always find myself closing my eyes to sleep at times where others are opening theirs to prepare for Sunday Church services. When it’s my moment to meet my GOD I am not with myself. Oftentimes I am sleepy and tired.
Of course I don’t blame FB for this, sometimes playing can help us to release stress and forget our problems but addiction is a different story.
According to Bill Gates “ALL THESE TOOLS OF TECH WASTE OUR TIME IF WE’RE NOT CAREFUL” that’s why he dumped FB. Well, I am not Bill Gates and neither a fan though, hence I won’t dump FB but I will dump all APSS I’m using as I chose to be productive.
For those who are using Pet Society, Poker, Restaurant City, Farm Town just IM me guys and I will donate all my properties before closing them hehehe…
This blog entry is not to tell you to have a SUDDEN BRAKE, rather to remind you to slow down and turn your gear low perhaps 1st gear? Or 2nd Gear? Allow yourself to drive FB moderately rather than FB drives you crazily.
In fact, FB is a powerful tool to touch people’s life, to reach out and embrace the lonely. Just drive moderately.

It is one of the topic of my student's assignment to review and research what are the major criticism of Windows Vista received after its shipment on 30 January 2007 and during the beta releases earlier. I just want to share the insights and findings I have gathered as stated below:

Windows Vista is often referred to as longhorn because of the fact that the development has taken longer time than expected. The development has indeed taken 5 years and that is why many had hoped for the best.

Hardware Requirement is very high

It is quiet daunting to note that Windows Vista’s minimum hardware requirement is very high that older PC bought before 2005 needs to have an upgrade. According to Paul Thurrott, the minimum hardware requirements that can run on Vista OS are as follows”

“- A "modern" Intel, AMD, or VIA Technologies CPU

- 512MB of RAM or more

- A DirectX 9-class 3D graphics card

Such a system will provide what Microsoft calls a "good" experience with Vista, though it might not provide you with the high-end Aero Glass UI. For a better experience, the company recommends a graphics processor that supports the new Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) technology. Such systems will enjoy "enhanced graphics stability, multi-application performance, and monitor hot-plugging" when compared to Windows XP, Microsoft says. For the best experience, Microsoft recommends DirectX 9-class graphics hardware that supports WDDM and Pixel Shader 2.0 technologies, and 64-256MB of dedicated video RAM, depending on screen resolution.”

Thurrott. Paul. Nd http://windowsitpro.com/article/articleid/49835/finally-microsoft-releases-windows-vista-hardware-requirements.html

Windows Vista is Expensive

For Windows XP user upgrade option, Microsoft offers a discount where you just need to pay $99 but for a stand-alone Vista version, user has to fully pay the selling price. The Home, Premium cost is $299 and Windows Vista Ultimate cost is $399 where the Aero UI and Media Center capabilities are included. These features allows user to experience a good multimedia computing but these feature is not available in Home Basic version. Additionally, if you have Xbox gadget, Home Basic can’t connect the peripheral.

Microsoft offers three versions of Vista to home users in the U.S. -- Home Basic, Home Premium and Ultimate. You can buy any of these in the upgrade version with a discount, or the stand-alone version without the discount.

The cheapest way for current Windows XP users to get a legal copy of Vista is to buy the upgrade version of Home Basic, which is $99. But you don't want the cheapest version.

First, the upgrade version will require you to keep your Windows XP CD for years. You do have a Windows XP CD handy, don't you? Second, Home Basic just won't cut it for most people. It lacks the Aero UI and Media Center capabilities. Plus, you can't connect Xbox peripherals to Home Basic. For many, including yours truly, those are the three best reasons to upgrade to Vista in the first place.

A big discount only can be gained if the buyer will get a new PC because the computer reseller’s acquired huge discounts and it will indeed cost too much to purchase new set of PC especially in business used.

Mike Elgan. 2007. [Online] Retrieved on 4 October. 2008. Available at: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9009124&pageNumber=3

Vista is time-consuming

“Installing any new operating system is time-consuming. You have to configure everything, load your data, install your applications and get your peripherals working. Then, in the case of Vista, you have to figure out where Microsoft buried all the options, menus and features and get used to the ubiquitous Search boxes. Anytime you want to do anything in Vista, it seems, the software asks, "Are you sure?" You'll want to figure out how to turn that off and customize Vista to get rid of all its annoying "user-friendly" hand-holding "features."

But buying Vista now, and installing it on old hardware, adds additional, time-consuming tasks -- possibly an additional day or two. Why? Chances are, you'll have to hunt down, install and troubleshoot new drivers for your old peripherals and system components.” (Mike Elgan. 2007)

Mike Elgan. 2007. [Online] Retrieved on 4 October. 2008. Available at: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9009124&pageNumber=3

Windows Easy Transfer where you can easily transfer all installed application from Windows XP to vista is one of the feature of Vista. However, it only works when the user has re-installed all applications because it does not really move the installed applications but merely setup data.

Thus, Windows XP to Vista upgrade is just a big hassle using your old PC and that is why it is not recommended to install Vista on an older PC.

XP SP 3 is proven to be faster than Windows Vista

“New tests have revealed that Windows XP with the beta Service Pack 3 has twice the performance of Vista, even with its long-awaited Service Pack 1.” (Suzanne Tindal. 2007)

Researchers from Florida based Software Company Devil Mountain Software proves than the Windows Vista performance was not overwhelming which proves that the Windows XP SP3 predecessor outshines Vista in terms of speed.

“Vista, both with and without SP1, performed notably slower than XP with SP3 in the test, taking over 80 seconds to complete the test, compared to the beta SP3-enhanced XP's 35 seconds.” (Suzanne Tindal. 2007)

The test was tested using a Dell XPS M1710 with a 2GHz Core 2 Dou CPU and 1GB RAM where Microsoft Office 2007 software was used using a simultaneous productivity task that include a compound document and supporting workbooks and presentation materials. The test has resulted with Vista performance increased less than 2% and the XP SP3 performance increased of 10%.

Suzanne Tindal. 2007. [Online]. Accessed on 5 October 2008. Available at: http://news.cnet.com/Windows-XP-outshines-Vista-in-benchmarking-test/2100-1016_3-6220201.html

User Account Control frustration

Reports shows that the UAC or User Account Control feature of Windows Vista gives so much frustration to its users as it always prompts user for every application or hardware driver to be installed if the user is not the administrator. This frustrates users because most of the PC users are the administrators itself yet it still prompts for some administrative permission.