Tag Archives: software

Reinstall Windows

After I upgraded my motherboard and add a couple of new hard disk, I have been spending most of my time installing Windows XP and applications.  I didn’t keep track of how many times I reboot my computer over the weekend.  Somehow many software require you to reboot after installation, probably the software want to run a daemon as background service.  Why can’t Windows just dynamically load those daemon software just like Linux?

When I prepare applications installations, I look into my downloaded software library.  I found most of my download are out of date, there are already newer releases out there.  So I have to hunting down the necessary torrents to update my software library.  Once a software is installed, usually I won’t have the motivation to upgrade to the latest release.  I am afraid that the upgrade may breaks something that is already working fine.  Setting up the computer doesn’t take very long provide all the software are ready in hands.  Probably it had only took me only two nights to get my computer fully operational.

New my computer is back on line, I can spend my time writing reviews and comment the world affairs.  I have to finish an anime review and two book review before I fly to India.  I would also like to make comments on the photo incident in HK and new year transportation mess in China.  Oh, maybe I should voice my opinion on the US election.  FYI, I support John McCain, stay tune for my reason.

worldwind

Worldwind is createdby NASA and is free to download. It is a model of earth with satellite photos overlay on the 3D terran, which you can fly over using different camera angle. The software also provide animation on different measurements on scientific data such as ocean current or cloud movement. The major drawback is that the ultra high resolution satellite photos only covers U.S. cities. There are major problems in overlaying city names of certain countries, hopeful this bug will be fixed on the next release. I had spent quite some time exploring and really fascinated by this virtual globe. It can be download at here

picasa

Today when I download the google desktop search bar, I came across a photo management tool from google, picasa. So I installed and tried out both softwares. The searchbar is nothing special, just yet another search tool. But I’m quite impressed by picasa. The interface is pretty user friendly and the speed is lightening fast, much better than the another tool, acdsee, I used to view images. Picasa crawls through my harddisk and index all the the pictures, including some I had long forgotten their existience. When I’m viewing the old photos from several years ago, it brings back some good old memories and I wonder how time had really goes by quickly. Another thing I always wonder about is how come I looked so awkward with the funny hairstyle back then?

On a minor thought, today I got assigned to a new project. It is another rush-to-market kind has development cycle less than 6 months. Somehow I have a feeling that it’ll go bust somewhere down the road. I guess I’ll just keep my head down and staying cool to avoid the turmoils. Just concentrate on finishing my thesis and I can move on into a new chapter of my life.