I have noticed that a number of blogs and web sites have begun using the Snap Preview Anywhere service. What it basically does is show a preview image of the web page that a link points to. This might sound interesting, but it’s actually a terrible idea. It has got to be one of the most annoying web “technologies” that I’ve seen in a long while.
The actual benefits of 3D computer desktops is a topic I have written about in the past. And today I’d like to revist it, specifically after seeing an article linking to a YouTube video of Beryl in action. In short, the title of the article challenges Bill Gates and Microsoft to exceed what is shown in the video. Except I don’t think that there video really shows anything remarkable.
My last article was about the performance and memory consumption of the popular open source KDE and GNOME desktops. Well, it seems that that particular article was submitted to Digg. I looked at some of the comments that people posted, and I specifically wanted to address this one comment in particular.
Today I read an article comparing KDE and GNOME. It covers a number of criteria, including customization, configurability, ease-of-use, and dependability. But some major criteria I really didn’t see much about were those of performance and memory usage.
Let me start off by saying that I have not performed any formal benchmarking of either GNOME nor KDE. I have never really bothered to peruse the source code of either system to any great extent. What I say comes directly from my experience as a user of various versions of both desktop environments.
I feel lucky that I do not really have to deal with Windows on a regular basis. Unfortunately, most other people are not so lucky. Those who have to fix malware-infested Windows computers are perhaps the worst off of us all. Windows computers are notorious for getting infected quite easily, and then being a major hassle to clean up. I’m talking about a scenario like the one described in an article at Slashdot.
Slashdot recently ran a story about the early release version of a Java 6 SDK from IBM. Reading through some of the comments to that story, I noticed that a number of them mentioned some common misconceptions about Java that I think we need to clear up. Having used Java for quite some time now, in a variety of client and server-side environments, I think we can get these misconceptions cleared up pretty quickly.
A while back I noticed that some of my articles had been submitted to Digg. I had heard about Digg, but I really wasn’t aware of exactly how it worked. As I was checking the site out, one thing I noticed was that it would show which users showed approval of a submission, but it hid the identities of those users who did not offer approval. So I wrote an article asking why Digg hides the identity of those who “bury” a submission. Well, it seems like that story got submitted to Digg, and I think my question may have been answered in one of the replies to that submission.
Over the years I have done much in the way of C++ and Java development. Each language does have its benefits and drawbacks. Today I read an article that suggests that Java is better than C++ for software development, and I think it failed to touch on some pretty significant issues. I’d like to discuss some of the problems I saw with parts of the article.
Today I was pointed to an article giving 10 reasons to use Windows Vista by a topic over at OSNews. I have read the reasons, and they may very well be factual. My opposition of them mostly derives from the fact that the capabilities listed are nothing new or special. Many of them have been around for a decade, if not more, on existing systems.
One of the main uses of the System Restore functionality of recent Windows systems is to return a system to a working state after installing some new software. That is the sort of scenario that is discussed in an article I read about why System Restore should be used.