Arthro Theoreio (The BOX) v.1.0.158

Internet Explorer 7 (Final Version): Revisited

A few minutes ago I downloaded and installed the newest and final version of the latest and somewhat biggest mistake of Microsoft (well next to Windows i guess), and ladies and gentlemen, I am referring to Internet explorer 7 (A.K.A Internet Exploder 7). So, what was I thinking when i did such a thing? Well, It seems that there are quite a few people who are actually impressed by the final version. To tell you the truth I was surprised because I have already tested the Beat 2 version (although I did test a beta version more or less I would have an idea on how the Final version would perform).

So, I decided to waste precious bandwidth just to be able to try this version. After waiting for about an eternity for downloading a 14MB installer in my super dial-up connection, I was able to installer the said browser in my PC (geeshh! Firefox 2.0 only took me a few minutes to download and it's only 5+Mb). The installation of IE7 is somewhat a lot faster than the one I tested, but it is still longer than the installation of Firefox 2.0. it took me about 8-10 minutes to install. Not bad, for IE7 standards but not good enough.

After installation I was required to reboot my system, maybe to update older files in my hard drive, so I restarted. I took a deep breath before I started the performance testing that I have applied to the beta 2 version of IE. Again, I used 56kbps dial-up for this test (and I found out that Dial-up is definitely the best speed to test these new browsers and not DSL connections this is because you'd see just how fast the browsers will be able to display graphic and texts from websites).

I fired up IE7 and loaded Yahoo's Homepage, it took quite a while before texts and graphics showed in IE7 but it was faster than the Beta version. This was somewhat good but still, it's not good enough. Firefox 2.0 loads the Yahoo homepage in my PC about 4 seconds faster (with Firefox web page Cache cleared).  Having been somewhat satisfied with the improvement in speed and web page rendering. I tried, loading more tabs into the IE interface. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and.... on the 8th tab IE7 became sluggish and somehow it's having some trouble in loading the 8th page (Adobe acrobat homepage). After realizing that IE7 is getting all unstable, I closed the Abode acrobat page and everything went smoother compared to when the Adobe page was loaded. So, IE7 can't handle flash objects very well, also it has trouble trying to handle tabs that are more tan 8 (although i'm not really sure if it has something to do with my hardware, but firefox can load upto 30+ tabs with out any sweat in my PC tsk..tsk..).

Then, I loaded Yahoo's new beta mail GUI. I gotta' say Yahoo's Beta mail page looks better in Firefox than IE7. Now, while testing IE7 I realized that the Tile function that i once loved in the bate version of IE7 was in fact a way to cover up how horrible IE7 handles its tabs. When I tried to load 8 tabs in the browser the tabs just became smaller and smaller, this is mainly because the "Home" and "Options" tool bar are located next to the  "tabs" area. So, the tab would only have really small spaces to occupy and they need to fit in that small space (poor tabs). So , to address this issue, the MS people thought about the  "tile" function for, supposedly, easier navigation. I have to admit this was good, but the way the "Tile" function was implemented was crappy at best. The Browser tends to slow down and even hung up when the user switches from the "tab" look to the "tile" look. Furthermore, the tiles that should show the users a preview of the pages that are loaded do not update as fast as they should. So much for preview.

Still, after making the installer of IE7 grow to 14MB Microsoft still was not able to fit a dictionary and spell checker function on IE7. Mozilla Firefox was able to fit Spell checker on a 5MB installer.

My verdict? Well although some say that the performance of the final version of IE7 is good. It's not good enough to win back Firefox users like me. It's just too little too late in the part of Microsoft. Security-wise, IE7 is still one big security risk for all Windows Users. Heck! it still has the exploits that IE6 has. I mean, how foolish could the MS people be? IE7, does NOT deserve the version 7.0 title, its' better of to be called 6.5 or something. My recommendations still stand (and they stand high and proud) junk IE, and adopt either Mozilla Firefox or Opera or any other open source browser for Windows Vista and the succeeding Windows Versions and let the MS people concentrate on making Windows a better OS for PC users.

End OF ATI?

Just a few days ago, AMD and ATI has finalized the deal that would merge two companies. But as of now nobody can really say what AMD's plans for ATI is. Some say that AMD will definitely integrate a GPU chip into it's CPU chip. Some say that they'd better let ATI do their business and keep the "openess" of the AMD systems that has made AMD popular because this will still generate revenue for the company.

If AMD decides to integrate ATI to its chip, this could be a good thing for ATI rival Nvidia, this is because, as we all know there are only 2 leading GPU makers, and if this happens Nvidia will have a much bigger share (something close to monopoly i think) in the stand-alone GPU business. If such will happen, Intel's GPU controller for laptops will have an instant rival.

In my opinion, AMD is better off if it just let ATI do it's own thing. This will still generate revenue for the company, also AMD could also test the waters by introducing some CPU model that would have an integrated GPU controller. AMD just might pull this kind of stunt off.

So, how would an Chip with integrated GPU controller benefit us users? well, for gamer and PC enthusiast this will mean better graphics for gaming, higher frames per minute rate and better video rendering. This kind of move will definitely be something to look forward to. But how AMD will do this is quite unclear. As of Now.

Does Intel need to worry about this move? I'd say no, well not yet. Intel also has this kind of technology, but it seems to me that they have not really perfected this technology, and so is AMD. But as AMD's reputation would show, they can easily develop and perfect such a technology; specially now that the pressure to produce a better chip is on the AMD side.

Whatever AMD will do to ATI will definitely affect not only AMD users but also Intel users indirectly. But this is definitely an interesting development to follow.            

Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 : Scrutinized

 A few days ago I downloaded Microsoft’s latest version of IE 7 Beta 2 because I wanted to know if the raves about this decade old web browser is true or at least justifiable. And since this beta version is supposed to be close to the final release one could expect that the main stay features would already be here and stability would be at least decent. But, before I go on examining the browser itself let me just say that I am an avid Firefox fan and the ultimate thing that this browser can do is to win me back and make me realize that Firefox is not in any way more advance than this IE 7.

 

 First of, the installation; the installation of IE 7 took ages! This is the first disappointment that I had with this browser. It took about 20+ minutes to install in my Sempron 2200+ (1.5Ghz) 512DDR PC. Firefox only took about 2-4 minutes to install in my setup. I guess IE7 won’t be able to win me back. Tsk… tsk…

 

 Second, launch time. One of the negative things about Firefox is it’s inability to launch fast enough. And this is where IE7 wins, well I do know that IE7 is cheating here. Most of the components that IE7 needs to run is launched once Windows boots up. But then again, I’d still say that IE7 wins because it starts 2-3 seconds after I clicked the IE icon compare that to the 10-15 seconds delay of Firefox 2.0 RC3. I just wished Firefox was able to launch faster.

 

 Nowadays, programs need not only be powerful rather they should also look good. So, next I would like to comment on IE7’s interface (GUI, for tech people out there). Well, definitely this is one of the features that Microsoft worked on, I just wonder how long it took them to assemble such a horrible GUI (stupid and inconvenient at that). Although this is truly a big change for IE6 users I think it does not seem to assume that most of the users of IE6 are working professionals and even executives in corporations who do not like re-studying something. Believe me, I’ve used so many kinds of browsers but this GUI is so far the ugliest and most tiring to look at. The first time I launched IE7 that first thing that I noticed is that the round “stop” button is nowhere to be found, but after a few minutes of tinkering with the GUI I noticed a square (and not round) button that has an “X” on it. Gee, that’s the Stop button, Why the heck did they change the round button? At first I thought that was the “close” button for the tabs. The “refresh” button is also changed and it’s beside the “stop” button. One more thing that I noticed is a little tab-like thing that is put beside the main tab. I found out that that was the “add new tab” button, how retarded! I guess IE people did not really think too much about aesthetics at all! All in all I’d say that the new GUI for IE is the most horrible GUI I’ve seen. So much for good looks.

 

 So, what’s new about this browser that’s worth raving for? Well it does have things that it copied from open-source and freeware browsers like the Tab system, Anti-Phising features, built-in search section, the ability to have plug-ins (one that MS calls add-ons) and a built-in pop-up blocker. All of these features have been in both Firefox and Opera for ages. One thing that most people are raving about this browser is its RSS reader. I’m not a big fan of RSS and I’ve never tried it myself so, that does not mean so much for me and a majority of common web users all around the world.

 

 So far I’m very disappointed with IE7’s features and looks, what’s next? Well performance test is. I got tired of looking at IE7’s GUI so, I tried loading pages like Yahoo and Google. I also tried loading the Yahoo beta mail that launches pretty fast with my Firefox. I also tried loading numerous tabs (about 10-15 of them at the same time) and guess what! The browser crashed. I guess IE has not mastered the tabbing technology yet. Come to think of it I have never crashed Firefox with only 15 tabs loading in it, I even tried loading about 30+ tabs in it but it never crashed like IE7 did. So, next I tried loading PDF pages in the browser. Again, it crashed! I just hope that IE also copied “restore session” from Firefox.

 

One thing that impressed me about this IE version is that it has the ability to “cascade” pages that you are loading. The tabs are replaced by “tiles” that previews the page that is loading. This is one thing that I’d like to see Firefox do one of this days. It looks cool!

 

 As for loading speed, I tried loading yahoo’s homepage and the yahoo mail beta using my 50.6 kbps dial-up. Man! It took forever to load those pages in this browser, to think that it usually loads fast in my Firefox. IE even hangs when I scroll up and down a page that’s full of images.

 

 My verdict? Well IE7 is certainly something to try if you’re quite curious about what the fuzz is all about, but I must warn you there’s nothing much. I think this is all the works of the promotions branch of MS. Bad looks and worse performance that’s what IE 7 is. It’s not even going to be challenging Firefox 2.0 with its lousy imitation of Firefox’s tabs.

 

 My suggestions? I say to MS, scrap IE! For crying out loud! Let the Windows users have some choices! Please adapt either Opera or Firefox as the bundled browser instead. Now, for users, do not and I repeat, DO NOT even think of using IE7 as your main browser. It still has the old IE6 flaws in it! MS is doing a whack job with their IE. It’s just so stupid. And they even worked one whole year for this piece of miserable junk!? One year of waiting and anticipating and all of those for nothing.

 

 Oh well, Firefox 2.0 the final version is going to be released tomorrow and I’m quite excited to see any improvements from the RC3 that I have. Although they say that it would not differ much from RC3. I’m still sticking with my Firefox. Period.   

 

 

A glimpse of Firefox 2.0 RC2

While reading articles online, firefox told me that that it has finished downloading the newest version of the browser (Firefox 2.0 RC2). I was surprised that they were able to come up with another beta in a few days time. I was just getting the hang of the RC1 release of Firefox. Nothing much was changed from RC1 but it is quite more stable (errors are lesser now). The new version of Firefox has definitely able to work with  Yahoo mail in harmony (compared to the 1.5.x release where yahoo mail seems to dislike the browser for some reason) Firefox 2.0 RC2 and RC1 has a new set of icons and a much better looking GUI. 2.0 also has changed the position of the "X" close button for each tab.

Firefox 2.0 still starts slow, that's a downside. and for RSS users and feed users sad to say Firefox has not perfected this feature yet (well, not like IE 7 has). But if you're not a fan of RSS feeds Firefox is definitely a good alternative for IE6 and maybe even IE7.

If you're tired of having to re-edit your blog posts because of Typos you will certainly like the built-in spell checker of the 2.0 version. This feature is one that i have come to love the most with this browser. although it would have been a plus if there was a option to plug-in other languages for Firefox to learn. that would have been so great. Also, there is a very limited selection of themes to choose from. It would have been so great if the programmers of Firefox could make the browser launch faster.

All-in-all, I think Firefox is still better than IE7 in general, I mean it's only a matter of time before hackers crash IE's security measures. I'm not saying that Firefox is invulnerable, it's just that it's lesser of a target for hackers and virus makers.

Yahoo Make-up

While logging-in to my Yahoo Mail Account I was greeted by a new interface for yahoo mail, they call it "yahoo mail beta" (so much for creating really exciting names for new products). The new interface was quite good, it looks a lot like the Opera Web browser or the Firefox 2.0 interface with all those tabs. My first log-in  to the new Yahoo mail was quite slow maybe due to my ISP an my Browser I think it may be that Firefox is "Caching" the page for faster loading time. While logging into the new yahoo mail, I was greeted with boy sitting in a bouncing green balloon.In my opinion,  it would have been better if yahoo put their smiling face logo instead of that boy in a green balloon it just doesn't make any sense (it's not Yahoo-like to do something like that). Although it would be a good idea if yahoo would actually offer users to choose or costumize that log-on thing.

The new interface is quite more attractive that the old one, you can just drag and drop a mail from your inbox to one of your folders at the side (now, that's cool!). You can also use hotkeys now, although this cannot be changed by the user yet. Although this Yahoo mail beta is still hmm.. a BETA. I think Yahoo mail has made an excellent decision to upgrade their GUI, it's something new and it's  convenient.

I think yahoo made such a decision to keep yahoo mail users from going to the G-mail side. Al though I would really have liked it if they did Upgrade also the Mail size (currently 1GB) to 2GB just like G-mail.

Let's just wait and see what G-mail will do to answer this move by Yahoo.

Narrow-minded Broadband

Yesterday, I my ISP had some problems and i  could not connect to the net and i was not able to check my mail one task that has already become a habit for me, every morning. Checking mails, for me, is like drinking a cup of coffee, it's like my day would not be complete with out having to log-on to Yahoo mail or G-mail. I think this is because I've gotten used to this kind of lifestyle since I am a Distance Education Student.

After trying to connect ,desperately, to the web with my PLDT Vibe dial-up connection. I realized that they have a problem with their server or maybe they're just taking time to maintain their servers. Oh well, that's one of the down side of using dial-up connection (thank God it's already Sem break, or else I may have missed very important mails from my professors.)

Dial-up connection has a speed limit of 56kbps, well, actually it only gets as high as 50.6 kbps on my Dial-up line, that's not bad for people who only check their mails and chat in Yahoo, but if you're the type that likes to download things from the web, that speed sucks, and it sucks hard. It normally takes me about2-4 minutes to download a 1-2 MB file. And an eternity to download anything that is larger than 50MB (service packs and windows updates included, even MP3s). So, this is why I tried to sell the idea of having a DSL connection for our PC. My Mom liked the idea (since she is also using the PC to talk to our other relatives abroad). So, I jumped in front of my PC and connected to the net to see what kind of promos ISP companies could offer me. there are only a handful ISP that offers cheap DSL packages, one is PLDT MyDSL. The most basic plan for MyDSL is P799 (if i'm not mistaken) this is because if we choose MyDSL it would only be an upgrade from their Dial-up (this is good, because we'll be able to save about P100 per month). But, one thing that really pissed me off is that they did not even have any available port in our area. Now, that sucks!

Disappointed with MyDSL I researched the web for other ISPs that will offer us DSL connection. Then, I saw this add by SkyDSL in friendster, they are offering 300+kbps for only P899. not bad, i will only be adding P100/month to have 128kbps more. So, I told my mom about this offer and we paid their installation fee of P2,000. They promised us that DSL will be connected within 5-7 working days. a few days after we paid the installation fee (that is very expensive by the way) the contractor called us and told us that they'd be able to connect the DSL within that day, so I waited for a whole day for them. they finally arrived about 5PM and they called 10AM in the morning (so much for fast installation). So, they came but they did not do anything, they told us that they will survey the ports first. Again, i waited and waited and waited, until it was about 8 days after we paid the installation fee I still don't have any DSL connection in my PC.

We tried calling the agent of the DSL company but it seems that the agent is MIA (Missing in Action). So, again very disappointed with what happened to our application we decied to refund our installation fee. It took us about 1hour just to be able to get our refund, It seems that companies train their workers to move as slow as they can when they are going to refund fees from unsatisfied costumers, Again that Sucks!

So, i tried to search for people who are complaining about ISPs And DSL connections in the web, and Of course there are about a million unsatisfied users who are ranting about slow and "on/off connection" from MyDSL and other DSL companies. There is also a growing number of Smart BRO users who are complaining that they are paying P899 (a common DSL rate) for a Dial-up bandwidth (56kbps and even less).

One question, why is it that DSL and Wifi connections in this country so horrible? are we actually becoming guinea pigs for these corporations? and worst of all they are doing this at our expense (literally) we are shelling out big amounts of money in exchange for horrendous services. What is the government doing to make sure that the interest of the consumers are carefully looked after?

Are we going to bare this kind of cross forever? when will these companies listen to all our complains? and when will those stupid costumer service agents keep us on hold?

Vista and Core 2 DUO

Well, what can I say, I’m back. During the times when this blog was dormant there have been so many movements and innovations and even accidents that the tech world has encountered (all that in about 3 months). Basically there is a good and rather blissful vibe in the tech world today, there’s good news here and there and some of the not-so-good news too (like exploding batteries). It’s like the two leading companies in computing is actually doing things rightly (well, it is safe to say that they are not doing things as they used to do, and that’s good especially with Bill’s MS). Both Intel and Microsoft have released some of the best products in the market so far, Core 2 DUO and Windows Vista are both having great reviews from both common users and tech people. Just last night I spoke to the people in a chatroom in yahoo, they have laid their hands on the latest Windows Vista RC2, the so-called ultimate beta (more like the tallest midget for me LOL!), and I got surprise to hear that they are actually praising the newest Windows release (knowing that they are fans of Linux and Mac and one of the harshest critics of Windows).

They say that Windows Vista is far more stable than Windows XP Pro SP2, some even predict that there will only be a few fixes for the Operating system and no major Service Pack will be released. If all this remains as it is, then Microsoft has struck a gold mine with this kind of initiative and it’s quite good; it’s nice to know that they are actually thinking of improving our computing experience. So, what can I say about this Vista raves? One thing, in my opinion eventhough Vista is quite pleasing and so far it has delivered major improvements for the Windows product line, these features come with a very high price tag (I think about double of the premium Windows XP license). And let’s face it not all computers will actually be able to run Vista with all the eye-candy. A regular PC right now only meets the minimum requirements for running Vista.

I think that Vista will be delivered on time but, its effects will be quite slow and the transition from XP to Vista will be quite costly. One more issue that I see that will hinder Vista from entering the Asian market would be the enhanced Anti-Piracy module in the OS. In my opinion more and more people will be annoyed by this “anti-privacy” step of Microsoft, remember how these measures were met by XP users? Windows Vista seems to be promising, but do the regular Joe and the big corporations really feel that they need to upgrade their OS? And how will the underground community welcome this new OS? How many viruses and exploits can this new OS handle? And how will Vista perform in the real-world stress test as a primary operating system? These questions still remains unanswered, all we can do is to wait and see.

Now, let’s look at the newest and, as Intel says it, the best Chip in town; Core 2 DUO. Well, after about 3 years of getting beat-up by rival AMD in the CPU race, Intel has unleashed a beast, well an energy saving beast. Core 2 DUO processors have been in the lead for about a few months already, it’s nothing but great reviews for this chip. Superb performance and lesser energy in-take that’s quite good, but this chip also has a “good” price tag, about double of the regular AMD chip. And as we all know, AMD has kept its market share in the chip industry by plunging the prices of their chips and introducing ground breaking features for their chips. This is one thing that is affecting the “Core DUO wave” from shattering AMD’s brand line. But, what is AMD thinking of doing next, now that Intel has released a powerful chip?

So, far all they did is to, again, dive prices and introduce AM2 technology (which is not that much a threat to Intel’s Core DUO), I think AMD is yet to release another trick out of its sleeves. What it is, we still don’t know. But surely, it’s bound to benefit us users. So, what my take in this entire Intel wave”? Well, the new chip seems promising but the price tag isn’t, this is going to be a big factor for the greater number of Intel consumers, users are not really into the big scores thing anymore, for the greater chunk of users it’s all about the price tag that comes with the upgrade. And this will also be the deciding factor for business establishments all around the world. There is also no Operating system and programs that are optimized for Core DUO yet, well until Windows Vista is released. But most common users will not be too thrilled by this new chip, after all it’s all about the price.             

Bottom line, these two new technologies are quite good but they are still very pricy that’s not so good for these companies because their biggest market shares lie on the middle-income earners. Gamers and PC enthusiasts are but a small piece of that pie, if Intel does not see this trend immediately they just might loose more of their market shares to their rival AMD with their price tag strategy. But, let’s wait and see what people will think of this new chip when Vista comes out.