Activity for November 12

Review - Microsoft SyncToy
2.1 (Nov 12, 2009)

Sync Toy is simple and easy to use, it saves me a lot of hassle cross syncing both my home computer and work computer. SyncToy was noticibly missing and missed when I migrated to Windows 7, I am happy that Microsoft finally has released this powertoy for free again.
Review - Google Chrome for Windows
4.0.223.9 Beta (Oct 23, 2009)

After I first got my hands on Chrome in the pre-1.0 days, I suddenly noticed Firefox took forever to load (trust me, my Firefox is not laden with any add-ons); and IE is too slow to render or execute anything. Chrome's minimal list UI and the integrate search have instantly convinced me that it should be my default browser.

Version 2, 3 and 4 of Chrome have never failed me from their speed and stability. I am glad the last two beta's of Chrome have got rid of theme from the blank page as the themes are utterly terrible.

For those who complain about Google big bro -- well, what's the proof? Have you ever turned on Wire Shark, Fiddler or any http proxy and see how much Chrome has big brothered your usage?
Review - Microsoft Streets and Trips 2010
Trial (Sep 1, 2009)

MIcrosoft Money was the one discontinued but not Microsoft Streets and Trips. Microsoft Streets and Trips is NOT designed to use for Garmin, and it is pointless to make it work with Garmin as Garmin is already loaded with maps, and basically has a lot of duplicate functionality.

GPS that comes with MS can only tell the location, while the software provides advanced mapping, trip planning, and map browsing in a way that Garmin cannot do too well.

I use Streets and Trips to help me look at my routes, optimize trips with multiple locations, and find other interesting information such as restaurants and POI. Though my Garmin can do this as well, POIs only work on the spot, and it is slow. Streets and Trips make it easy for me to zoom in and out of the map, pan and search for information in blazing speed. I don't need internet connection to do this, so it works perfectly anywhere with or without wifi connection.

Garmin does not come with any road construction update, but Streets and Trips do, so it helps me avoid construction zone.

Streets and Trips isn't designed to replace the simplicity of general GPS such as Garmin or TomTom. For navigation, it is still easier to hang a 7" screen on the windshield than mounting a laptop. Streets and Trips rival other mapping software products (note that I am not comparing with online mapping such as Google Maps or MapQuest) with simple interface and convenient navigation.

Occasionally I find some maps are out of date in some areas, if not, it would have earned a 5-star!
Review - Microsoft Internet Explorer for Windows Vista/2008
8.0 (Mar 20, 2009)

For those who may use OWA (Outlook Web Access), I would caution that IE8 may fail to work properly on Windows Vista. In my case, IE just cannot let me compose email. I have learnt a lesson not to upgrade to the latest if it is from Microsoft, their backward compatibility has been quite poor lately.
Review - RSS Bandit
1.5.0.9 RC2 (Feb 20, 2007)

RSSBandit is still my top of the choice for RSS reader, although I admit I have been searching for its replacement for a while. What I like about it the most is it aggregates all the unread items once you click at the feed or the category, this makes it very convenient for me to scroll those all the posts. I cannot do that easily with Outlook 2007 and OmegaReader.

What I dislike about RSSBandit is its Outlook interface, which hogs memory, and the interface would be dysfunctionally when I launch MS Money and do a few operations with it. As a UI designer for the past 8 years, I don't like fancy interface elements that have functions like the standard ones. Such eye-candy does not add much values, but it creates instability to the system.
Comment - Why is John Hodgman smiling? Data loss isn't the only Snow Leopard problem
1.5.0.9 RC2 (Oct 13, 2009 - 12:31 PM)

"This is Mac for God's sake!" -- apparently a lot of people have a short memory of the System 7.5 age where Macintosh is a short for "Most Application Crashes, If Not, The Operating System Hangs" -- Just because the first few generations of the OS was a success does not mean the later releases would inherit the glory. In fact, this is a classic growing pain for OS to have stability and backward compatibility. Windows went through that, Mac OS is going through that, and guess what, have we heard of the latest fiasco of iPhone OS 3.1.1 crashing many 3G model, and Apple had to put up a new release to fix those issues.
Comment - DC Metro begins wireless signal improvement in underground stations
1.5.0.9 RC2 (Aug 19, 2009 - 5:21 PM)

This means more ppl yapping loudly in the train about nothing. :)

More than a year ago Metro already posted cellphone courtesy with only VZ accessible in the tunnel ... well, the noise level hasn't really come down. I would imagine they will have to try harder to get people to respect the noise level, not to share their dinner plan.
Comment - Microsoft removes the blinders from the front end of VS 2010
1.5.0.9 RC2 (Feb 25, 2009 - 1:02 AM)

The link to Zander's Blog is broken, it should be
http://blogs.msdn.com/ja...visual-studio-2010.aspx
Comment - Adobe claims 100 million AIR installs...Where's Silverlight?
1.5.0.9 RC2 (Jan 29, 2009 - 1:02 PM)

Ultimately content is really what drives adoption. Flash 9 adoption was mostly driven by Youtube. Even Microsoft themselves have decided to use Flash for their Soapbox video service, announce Vista via Flash video (not Silverlight). As a .NET developer who happens to have years of experience with Flash and Flex, I can only say Silverlight still needs iteration(s) to be mature. Hopefully content developers would help drive the product forward.
Comment - Adobe launches 'Astro,' Flash Player 10
1.5.0.9 RC2 (Oct 15, 2008 - 6:59 PM)

The only pity is that they also release Flash Player for PS3 -- but version 9 only. Thank goodness the underlying architecture between the two are rather similar for developers (Flash Player 8 to FP9 is a much bigger jump).

The world would be ideal if Adobe can sync up all of its Flash versions there is little gap between device and desktop.