The problem that emerged later during installation was that to make the Flash projector run fullscreen on boot up was quite difficult. I tried using task scheduler to make the application run at full screen after the auto-logon feature of Windows XP, but the taskbar always appeared in front of the projector. I even tried to tweak the registry to hide the the taskbar on startup without success. In the end, I managed to run the projector fullscreen on bootup by putting a shortcut to the projector in the startup folder in the start menu.

With the shortcut installed in the startup folder of the start menu, Windows XP will boot and the computer will automatically logon to the desktop and then when the sequence is completed, the projector will be started at fullscreen.

As it turned out, running the projector at fullscreen in a fully-automated sequence was the least of my problems. I also had to deal with the memory leak issue in Flash player 9 and 10, especially with the use of the timer object. The whole installation would grind to a halt after a couple of hours due to these problems.

Naturally when I went back to using my MacBook running Leopard 10.5.8 I felt that I was missing something. Even though browsing the net with Firefox on the MacBook was generally pretty snappy, I felt a longing for something similar to the Chrome experience on Windows XP. Since I heard that the Chromium team was releasing experimental builds for Chrome on Mac OS X, I thought I would download it and check it out.

I went to the Chromium website and downloaded a zip file containing the latest build of Chromium (version 4.0.223.4 (29381)). I unzipped the file and run it from the folder on the desktop and it asked to be the default browser, so I let it be the default browser. After that, I decided to move it from the desktop to the Application folder and just put a link in the Dock so I can run it without having to search through the folder.

Keeping in mind that this was an experimental build, I was prepared to encounter some bugs and crashes, but so far I have not found any serious ones. The only thing I have noticed is that it makes my MacBook spin the fan hard whenever Flash content was encountered. While this could be a bug in Chromium for Mac OS X, having worked with the Flash player for a while and having witnessed its voracious appetite for system resources on OS X, I am not at all surprised if the bug is in the Flash player itself rather than in the Chromium browser.

All I can say is that this build of Chromium is almost ready for prime time and I have been using it daily for the last four weeks without any major issues. It kind of makes me forget to use Firefox and Stainless for a while. It would be really nice, though, to be able to import all your settings (cookies, bookmarks and all) from Firefox into Chromium.

For the sake of simplicity, I decided to just build around a motherboard from Foxconn with an Intel Atom processor 330 (dual core) built-in, or rather soldered onto the board. The model number for the board is 45CSX and it has 1 slot for DDR2 RAM with a 2GB ceiling. To house the board I also bought a Foxconn RS-338 case which comes with a 150W PSU and enough space for a 3.5″ HDD and a DVDRW drive. Since RAM is so cheap these days, I bought the maximum 2GB size for $40. All up, the rig cost a little under $300 and I decided to mate it to a 24″ widescreen 1920×1080  LCD from ViewSonic.

After installing Windows XP SP3 (yes, I know I should have installed Linux, but I wanted to test the performance of the CS3 suite on this rig), I installed the Adobe CS3 suite to test the machine and see how it performs. Upon running Photoshop CS3 and even together with AfterEffects CS3, I came to the conclusion that this machine is not as bad as it’s been cracked up to be. Photoshop launch seems to be quite snappy and AfterEffects seems to run just fine (takes just as long to launch on my MacBook).

Everything seems to work fine and yes, there was a performance difference compared to my MacBook with a C2D 2.16Ghz processor, but for something that costs a little over a quarter the price I think it is a quite acceptable trade off. So unless you work with Photoshop and AfterEffects in a heavy-duty production, I can recommend this setup as a secondary machine.

In case you are interested, I tested Photoshop on this machine with a file that has 134 layers, each with a mask of its own. AfterEffects was tested with a six layer 1:30:00 length animation.

I suspect the new OS will be based on one of the pre-existing Linux distro (Ubuntu?) with the Google layer built on top to enable constant synchronising of data when online and caching mode when offline (ala Google Gears?). When it is released, hopefully it will free us all from having to worry what or which computer we are working on at any given time. To a certain extent, I have already implemented some of the ideas of cloud computing by using Google services to synchronise my calendar on my notebooks and phones. I guess the only other thing that I would like with the Google Chrome OS is cheaper data rates. This issue of data charges is what prevent a lot of people from utlising cloud-based services more often on their wireless devices (phones).

The only issue that can be noted is with the wifi connection manager. It seems after a few hibernates that the connection is stuck at the “getting ip address…” stage. This can be quickly fixed with a reboot. Other than this issue, I have not found any major ones to mention. Sound works flawlessly, Bluetooth works normally and the webcam works with Cheese (I have not tested it to work with Skype or anything like that).

Recently, I also purchased the 6-cell battery for the Mini-note, which makes the notebook (or netbook, if you like) much more usable. Since I use this notebook mainly for writing text, coding and web browsing, I have found that having that extra amount of battery capacity makes the notebook a little easier to use. No longer staring at the battery icon every few minutes to see if I will have time to finish what I am doing. It puts the usability of this little notebook on par with my MacBook and my Dell Inspiron laptop. Using it with little power management and with wifi on seems to give around 3-3.5 hrs of uninterrupted use. What joy!

Had this notebook shipped with Jackalope instead of Windows Vista Basic (standard on all Mini-notes shipped in Australia), it would have been a winner from the start. A 6-cell battery, even though it adds a little to the price should have been standard on all models.

One of the things that irks me about Web is when the screen goes blank after I click on a link. It first shows a text-only view of the web page, then it goes blank until the whole page and the majority of the graphics have loaded. This little habit of Web‘s is quite annoying on its own. It might be fine if I am looking at the mobile version pages of the large internet sites like flickr and facebook and so on, but some sites do not have any mobile version and they regularly exceed 1MB in size, so on my E71, that means quite a few seconds (with a very good network connection) sitting idle waiting for something to load, staring at a blank screen. This is compounded by the fact that even when the same graphics are involved (eg the second page of a website with the exact same graphical elements), Web still makes you wait a few seconds (while it reads the local cache? How slow!). This is also true when you hit the back button to view a previously loaded page.

Having put up with Nokia’s little  browser for a year, I have decided that I have to find an alternative. I first looked at Opera Mobile, but it is only available for platforms such as Windows Mobile.  However, inspired by the good experience I had with Opera Mobile on my HTC phone (imate Jamin), I wanted to see if Opera made a browser for the Symbian platform. After looking around the Opera website, it turns out that they make Opera Mini, which is available for the Symbian phone, including my Nokia E71.

Download and installation was a snap and using the browser is such a joy. Pages load up so quickly and the zooming function works really well. Opera’s technology for the mobile browser has really created a nice user experience. Hitting the back button to view previous pages loads them in such a snappy fashion that I feel so compelled to write about it here. It seems that the use of server-side compression has really paid off for Opera in the mobile space.

So if you are on a symbian phone, make sure you give Opera Mini a try!

The solution, however simple, took me about a day to find out. It seems that the SpryData.js that Dreamweaver CS3 shipped with is an older version, so while I was actually doing things correctly using the documentation of Spry 1.6.1 and the SpryPagedView.js from the 1.6.1 package, it was the SpryData.js that somehow broke it all. So if you are trying to create a paged view of a data set using Adobe Spry, make sure you update the SpryData.js to the one that comes with the 1.6.1 package from Adobe Labs. This way at least you will end up with more hair on your head.

Having owned a Canon DSLR for more than two years now, I have become somewhat aware of some of the limitations of the DSLR format. Even though it is a beautiful piece of equipment with nice results, I often find it a little cumbersome to carry.

Everyday, I find myself lugging a laptop, either my MacBook, Dell or the HP Mini-note 2133, depending on what I need to do for the day. As I am both working and studying, this could mean a whole day out of the home, so that means I have to carry everything that I need for the day from the morning to at least two or three different locations.

While it would definitely be nice to lug around a DSLR with some nice lenses and a flash gun, I sometimes feel that for my day to day photography needs, the DSLR is definitely an overkill. Carrying the whole kit with a laptop and its charger plus everything else that I need makes carrying the camera kit a burden in more sense than one.

With that idea in mind, I began searching for a compact camera that is capable of replacing the DSLR to a certain point, with a good quality sensor and some manual override functions. Since I have always had Canon photographic gear since the days of chemical photography, naturally I thought about getting a Canon G10 (I already own a Canon G6, but it is not in anyway pocket sized).

However,when I went to the camera shop I became interested in the Ricoh range of compact cameras. They looked good and seemed to be solidly constructed. I became interested in the odd-looking viewfinder attachment on the top of the GX200 and when I found out from the sales assistant that it was a tilt-adjustable viewfinder I was seriously smitten, but there was a slight problem.

One of the things that I have found to be quite annoying about cameras in general is the lens caps. The lens cap is the single item that I have to detach from the camera lens in order to take a picture. When I have to take a picture in a hurry, usually I end up not remembering where I have put it. There have also been occassion when the lens cap just fell off the front of the lens and these caps (if you buy the genuine Canon ones) cost about $25 each.

When I found out that you could replace the lens cap on the GX200 with a self-opening ones (it’s a lens cap made up of three leaves which get pushed open by the lens barrel when you switch the camera on), it was a deal nearly done. So I bought the camera with the self-opening lens cap and an extra attachment with an extra wide-angle lens.

After two days of use, I found that the GX200 is a solidly built camera with magnesium alloy body and a soft rubbery grip. It takes pictures in the RAW DNG format (licensed from Adobe?) and 12MP JPEG files. I found the battery to be worryingly small, but its ability to be replaced by two AAA sized batteries to be a stroke of genius (means that you can get emergency batteries from many different places). It is light and slim enough to be carried everyday, but I have found that the focusing is a little hesitant at times, which can slow down your picture-taking speed.

Overall, I have been very happy with this latest addition to my equipment bag.