While I have left the PC and Windows behind for personal use, I have to say that most of what I’ve done in my professional life has been done in a PC, and the passion and love I feel for technology involves everything from PCs, Macs, UNIX systems, and everything in between.

He, who has been labeled as evil, is the one among the very few people who has made it possible for almost anyone with a fairly reasonable economic power to own and use a computer, to have an email address, to use a word processor, to do your taxes in an easier way…

Thank you for all the hard work you’ve done for the past three decades.

Your legacy will prevail… whether people like it or not.

In the current Firefox 2.X, the Remember password feature acts as a popup dialog.  The problem with that is that I often doubted to click on ‘Remember’ because I wasn’t sure this was the right User/Password combination for certain sites, so I often clicked on ‘Not Now’ when I thought I might have got that Password wrong.

Now on the Release Candidate, you actually login, and instead of a popup, it actually opens the dialog as a bar right below the tabbing area.

This allows you to wait a little bit and see if the password actually worked.  If you were able to login to the protected area, then you can click on ‘Remember’ from the new dialog.

That is great!

“I’m not driven by making a cultural impact [...] That’s just a consequence of taking a remarkably powerful technology and making it relevant. [...] My goal is simply to try to make products that really are meaningful to people. Ultimately there is something motivating and inspiring in seeing someone using an Apple product and enjoying an Apple product.”

-Jonathan Ive, Interviewed by The Independent

Ive is Apple’s Senior VP of Industrial Design, and was in charge of designing the iPod, iMac, iPhone.

It is rather awesome, so check it out at Perceptive Pixel.

• Michael Clayton
• There will be Blood
• In the Valley of Elah
• No Country for Old Men
• Atonement
• Gone Baby Gone
• Juno

Buyers throw their money away for the first five years they own a home, because they simply give money to the bank for the privilege of borrowing money. Renters, on the other hand, pay for one thing every month: shelter. They don’t pay interest to the bank, property taxes or maintenance fees. They pay rent.

(source)
(via Kottke)

I have been playing around with it and looks really awesome!

Great interface improvement, and a rather solid RC1.

It has been a great experience, filled with joy, but it has also meant to face many different challenges. Not all is pretty… and many things are not easy: doctor’s visits, illnesses, diaper rashes… you name it.

But the joy only grows bigger and bigger.

To see him do things he didn’t do just days before is an impressive display of how quickly a human being develops, how fast we learn, and how much you can care about someone else.

2008 has been very challenging. He has already got a bad gastroenteritis, two ear infections, an endless runny nose, a loud cough… sigh… We just wish he could already tell us what he feels, where it hurts… but it is not that time yet.

And while all this feels terrible for us like parents, I am not complaining. We’ve got it easy, because even with all these problems we know he is a very healthy kid. We are lucky to see him enjoy every moment of his life… even when he has hit a few rough spots. We have also been very lucky for getting so much support from our families and our friends.

At this time, Ben has been walking more and more, and seems to be very eager to talk. He seems to be enjoying daycare quite a bit, and since the two other kids that are with him throughout the day are older, we believe they will be a good influence for him.

Now that he has turned one, we can’t wait to start feeding him more and more ‘real’ things. Surprisingly he’s not too fond of fruit juice… they say it’s a good thing, but it turned out to be a hassle when he had that nasty gastroenteritis… No pedialyte for Ben. =)

Anyway… it has been an awesome year. We’ve learned a lot, he’s learned much more, and this is just the beginning.

We love you very very much.

The offer arrives just in time, since Yahoo! has been struggling financially, this week they announced ‘hundreds’ of layoffs. In the end, they disclosed the number: 1000 jobs.

This trip was his second. And he enjoyed it very very much.

Time to start the Frequent Flyer Program… he has piled up around 8000 miles during his short life. =)

Have a cookie!

I am thinking I should get some gum or lozenges.

I suddenly see this brown Altoids box.

Dark Chocolate Dipped Mints.

Don’t think about it twice, so I go and checkout.

Walk back to my desk.

Open the package.

Put one in my mouth.

WHAT THE HECK!!

Hot Tamales taste all over my tongue.

Read the package closely, the red CINNAMON sign is disguised by the brown box.

WHO IN THE WORLD CALLS A CINNAMON LOZENGE A MINT??????

I am very disappointed.

It’s amazing how quickly you learn new things here and there. And we keep learning from you so much. Your ability to crawl is just fantastic, once you get set, you just go. =)

We are just thankful that you are so healthy and happy.

One cool thing is that we go in to your room, you always greet us with an awesome smile.

With Love,
Dad.

After a few years, the Gmail IMAP access feature will be enabled in your account soon.

Don’t fret if you don’t see “IMAP Access” yet under the Settings menu. We’re rolling it out to everyone over the next few days.

The feature has been activated on some accounts, my Google Apps account which is tied to my domain mail service already has it (screenshot).

There is a fair amount of popular supported email clients, the list comes with detailed instructions on how to configure it.

I am in awe of all the changes he has gone through in these 8 months.

What’s really amazing is his ability to makes us smile, no matter how crappy our day was… no matter how gloomy is outside… no matter what, he just throws a smile like this… a genuine smile like this, and for a few moments our lives have no problems whatsoever.

Happy 8 Months, buddie. 

Years went by and that ‘business model’ was gone.

Now you pay for ‘exclusive’ content, plus the commercials, over your long large 140+ channel lineup, it is close to a miracle to find a show or movie being broadcast without commercials. Actually if you are a subscriber for premium channels (HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, Encore, et al.) you get to enjoy to at least enjoy movies and cool shows without the commercials.

About 8 months ago, my wife and I subscribed to XM Radio. We both like music a lot, and the main reason was so she could listen to non-stop music when taking care of our kid during his first three months of life. It worked great!

We decided to keep the service as their programming is quite decent. Their wide variety of genres through their 100+ channels, makes it almost impossible to resist. I agree, we probably listen to 10% of their channels, but it was a good service, and it wasn’t overly expensive, considering that every time we went on a road trip, it would be quite the deal to have non-stop music on the road. Yes, an iPod would’ve worked, but the variety here is key.

Last week we were driving back from one of those weekend road trips. I was just appalled when I started listening to a McDonald’s commercial. WHAT THE HECK!!??

Not only that, but they were kind enough to display on the XM Receiver the title of the commercial… I can’t remember what it said, but it read something like: “MCDONALDS NEW DOLLAR MENU”.

Is this the end of 100% Commercial Free XM Radio? Is it even wort to be paying such a price for “nearly 100%” Commercial Free radio?

Of course I already checked their website for their claim about Commercial Free radio, and I found it. So I am still supposed to hear ZERO commercials.

I am not cheap, but I agreed to pay their monthly fee just because I can’t stand commercials on the radio, and if we (the subscribers) are supposed to be supporting it because we pay a premium for their service, wouldn’t it be fair to let us know so we could then make choices on whether to keep being a subscriber?

Last Monday, I sent a message through their site, and I haven’t received an answer.

What do you think? If you are an XM Radio subscriber, have you had the same issue?

After many many thoughts and considerations, left the iPhone behind and jumped into the CrackBerry bandwagon. There’s quite a few reasons why I didn’t get one:

• The network - I wasn’t really compelled to join Cingular AT&T. I was part of their network before, and it wasn’t that impressive. OK, it actually sucked.
• The lock - I could’ve bought it if and only if I didn’t have to pry open the phone, get electrical equipment, have some cables soldered, and hack my way into the iPhone so I could use it in another network… here or outside of the U.S…. making you pay roaming charges is just not right… which leads me again to my previous reason: the network. Sadly, I don’t think I can blame it all on the carrier… I feel like Apple is also guilty… but I still like them. =)
• The iPod within - I still have an iPod, old, but it works. Plus, I have invested on my car audio system so I could seamlessly use my iPod by buying an Alpine head unit, that controls an iPod with its controls… It was reported that the iPhone didn’t fully work with these head units… that’s a deal breaker.
• The price tag - While I am fully convinced that you are paying a fair price for an iPhone… I wasn’t ready to get one… especially because of my previous reason.
• No installable apps - a big turn-off was to know that I couldn’t get Java apps installed on the phone, and that there was no Flash plugin for browsing. I am a Gmail user, and having Gmail on my BlackBerry has been one of the coolest things of having such device… along with Google Talk, Yahoo! Messenger, and the like.

I was very very happy to leave Verizon, and join T-Mobile back again. Last year I decided to switch to Verizon on a family plan… but I experienced, first hand, how they cripple their phones by adding their own OS, hence making good phones work not up to par. Doing that is just mean.

When Apple decides to open the iPhone to other GSM companies, I think I’ll be more eager to go for it.

For now, I have a beautifully crafted BlackBerry Pearl, which did did cost me nothing, and while doesn’t have a touchscreen and Safari for good browsing experience… it does have many of the things the iPhone has, and I am satisfied so far with it. No regrets.

Plus, T-Mobile has always been happy to unlock phones after 30 or 60 days of service so you can use another SIM card, which comes handy for when you are traveling abroad.

The Plan? 1000 Whenever minutes (no night/weekend), unlimited data, unlimited text messaging: $59.99. While many may cringe because of the no nights/weekends minutes… I find it perfectly fitting my talking needs: I am almost at the end of the billing cycle and I have used a little over 400 minutes.

While I didn’t get the coolest phone… I believe I made a smart decision on waiting for a new version of both the phone and the business model.

For now, I have understood why Crackberries are called like that… they are indeed addictive, and shortly after I got it, it made me wonder how I lived without one. =)

They have the rates for Individual, Family, and Existing plans.

I have to say: they are not that bad, considering the unlimited data transfer, mobile-to-mobile, monthly rollover, and 200 SMS included.

The Family plan for 700 minutes is only $10 more expensive than what Verizon Wireless offers. But if you consider that you have unlimited web access and 200 SMS messages, you have a good deal.

Quite interesting.

Update: They have also released videos on how to activate your iPhone.