becoming

Well, when it comes to iPod or Zune, I am not much of a fan.

But the strangest thing happened today when I went to Tigerdirect Markham outlet looking for a power adapter for my notebook. I am 100% sure I saw a Zune (30 GB black) on display at the store. And knowing that they have made a "mistake" before to let people purchase online from Canada, it makes me wonder if there is another "mistake" in the making…..

And just how weird is that when you can purchase accessories for Zune but not the device itself? No updates have been made by Microsoft regarding the Zune's release date in Canada. As far as we know, the Zune is currently only being sold in the US.

Or is it?

教會肢體問我可以怎樣在弟兄姊妹中間提及翻版，非法下載的問題。

坦白說，我也不知可以用甚麼方法鼓勵他們不要如此作，因為每當討論這個題目的時候，沒有人會有耐性和興趣拿出厚厚的法例來讀。而就算讀了，我們也有太多的「似是而非」、 「似非而是」的原因為我們的行為護航。我們有太多的「我知不對…但是」去合理化一切。

在這裡我只想提出另一個出路（至少是電腦軟件的出路）：那是open-source的出路。之前我們會說，幾百元幾千元的軟件實在貴得不可理喻，但現在，絕大部份的電腦軟件類型中，已經出現不少免費的另類選擇，而功能上是真的和收費那些大同小異。好像之前Anson向我們介紹過的那些。

另外，SfSS更是一個一站式的package：

Software for Starving Students is a free collection of programs organized for students (but available to anyone). We’ve gathered a list of best-in-class programs onto one CD (one disc for OS X, one for Windows), including a fully-featured office suite, a cutting-edge web browser, multi-media packages, academic tools, utilities and more.

至少，從此我們不再可以說我們沒有「不非法」的選擇。

I marvel my blogger friends to be able to withhold themselves to say anything about Apple’s new iPhone. And after all the hype and dust settles at the end of the day, I invite you — especially those of you living in North America —
to read this recent article from the Toronto Star:

For the past decade, commentators in the United States and Canada accepted the idea that North America remains the global innovator in consumer electronics and mobile media. The reality, however, is quite different.

Read the whole story here.

I am heading off to the pastoral retreat tomorrow (Monday). Blogging will resume in a few days.

For all your science fans, water still flows on Mars.

Read here.

With AVG 7.1 free version expiring in Jan (7.5 still available for free), I am looking for free (and legal) anti-virus program and software firewall.

My sister recommends Comodo. Anybody use it before? Seems quite decent, and guarantee no renewal and update fee ever! Sounds good to me.

How about you?   

Cartoon by Dave Walker.

Moving to the new hosting company has been a pain all along. The new site has such limited support and many of the extended modules in php are not even available. Not to mention the countless database disconnections…. lots of people complain to me about my blog not available or missing the sidebar frequently.

And because of the move, I was able to clean up all things in my old powweb account and start anew (vs. the endless migration process). So since now everything is running fine at powweb. I have switched back!

Sorry, Powweb, I was wrong…… please accept me back.