Comment Feed for jclee

Re: Defrag: Uninstall leftovers, IE Crash, Watchdog Bugcheck

jclee — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 20:07:05 GMT

Process Explorer is an interesting tool. Thanks for showing us.

posted by jclee

Re: Windows Store Weekly: Twitter, Galactic Reign, Audible, NIM, BrainPOP

jclee — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 07:05:26 GMT

I must say that I'm rather impressed by what those Windows Store apps can do. Those usage scenarios is certainly worthy to be called "Windows Re-imagination", not a replacement for existing and upcoming complex desktop apps though.

posted by jclee

Re: Ping 172: MVP Program, Developers get paid, TMall in China, Xbox hacked

jclee — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 01:00:32 GMT

Within China, the people there may have little choice due to the political, economic, and social environment there. But outside China, we have to ask ourselves that can we have confidence over the reliability, accountability, quality control, etc. over the merchants and services originated solely from China, without some measures of control by foreign entity. China represents both great business opportunity and great challenge not only to the people of China but also the people around the world. China badly needs political, social, and economic reform. The question is, when or how or who. When will it happen, if ever? How will it happen? Who will have the political will, determination, and ability to make it happens. While we appreciate the benefits of capitalism, out-of-control capitalism is not what we want; that's why we need the rule of law for social order and balanced growth in the economy.

posted by jclee

Re: Ping 171: SXSW wins, Flash & IE, Cross-platform gaming, Office 365 FREE

jclee — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 00:02:13 GMT

The web is the big place. No one, including Microsoft, can single-handedly decide the future of it. Each one of us plays a role to affect the future, even though we do not know what the outcome will be.

posted by jclee

Re: Channel 9 turns 9!

jclee — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 23:09:21 GMT

Thank you. Channel 9 is very informative and useful, to say the least. I hope Channel 9 will still be around for years to come.

posted by jclee

Re: Ping 164: IllumiRoom, Skype, Ballmer & Basketball, Surface Pro

jclee — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 04:10:51 GMT

I bet very few people would disagree that Apple popularizes touch devices with its i-devices, such as iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, etc. Yesterday, I went to a mall near where I live. As expected, I saw the stalls were flooded with Android devices. Samsung Galaxy Tab or iPad is certainly easy to be found. Windows 8 touch-enabled device? I did find some; that was when I actually tried to look for them; unlike Apple or Samsung, those devices can be seen to be on sale even when I was not looking for them; when I was only wandering around the IT department.

In the eyes of ordinary shoppers, it's not hard to tell that Apple and Samsung are the two main competitors in the category of smartphone and tablet. Other minor players do exist in these categories. I never owned an Apple or Android device, partly because I did not see the need for it. I've got a HP TouchSmart PC that was shipped with Windows 7 Home Premium when I first bought it. I've replaced the OS with Windows 8 Pro x64. Part of the reasons that I bought this PC was that I was once curious what touch would mean for a desktop PC. To summarize the experience, touch for a desktop PC is mainly for experimental purposes. Stretching my arm over long period of time certainly caused pain over my shoulders and arms; some people would put it as "Gorilla's arm". I realized how comfortable it is to use a desktop PC with wireless keyboard and mouse. There remains a certain distance between me and the screen.

I prefer larger screen and clearer image (high-definition). Touch certain gains traction on smartphone or tablet; perhaps it would make sense to use 'touch' on smaller, portable device?

Then I got Nokia Lumia 710 and Sony Vaio Duo 11. Nokia Lumia 710 is a touch-only Windows Phone 7.5 device. Sony Vaio Duo 11 is a versatile mobile PC with touch, trackpad, and keyboard. It's small, thin, and light but larger and heavier than ordinary tablets. It's running Windows 8 Pro x64. Unlike Surface, it's completely usable for it to be put on top of my laps. One of the crucial design differences is that the motherboard and battery is put under the keyboard for Sony Vaio Duo 11; kick-stand may make Surface usable on a desk but not on my laps. My brief experience with it told me that I would use whatever input method that makes the most sense, no matter it's touch, trackpad or keyboard. Although the keyboard with optical trackpad can be hidden, I found myself slide it out most of the time because keyboard is the most effective input device for inserting texts.

No, I do not use it as a pure touch-device. Why should I limit myself to a less effective way of doing things? Many web sites and applications are still better off with trackpad or mouse compared with touch. A command such as 'mouse-over' simply does not exist for 'touch'. On-screen keyboard itself is a compromise for the sake of beauty and portability. No wonder keyboard is one of the most popular add-ons for iPad and Android tablets.

I welcome touch as a useful input method for a mobile PC. If you regard touch-only experience as tablet experience, then a pure tablet experience is probably not my cup of tea. I would like touch as one of the options, not the only options. Tablet? Laptop? It's just a device that works.

posted by jclee

Re: Ping 163: Xbox Countdown, Programming language popularity, 3D presentations, Eye controlled computer

jclee — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 19:57:22 GMT

It's glad to know that the Ping Show is still ongoing. Keep up the good work. Happy New Year, guys.

posted by jclee

Re: Ping 161: Scroogled, Xbox sales, Windows Store wins, IE 10 trolls

jclee — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 11:00:13 GMT

Surely, Ping Show is informative. That's why I keep watching it. Personally, I would rather be silent than speaking / writing something inaccurate / unhelpful. I can be critical at times, especially when I found the need and likelihood of making changes. Perhaps a simple comment like "This show is fun" is encouraging. On the other hand, I do believe the statistics of Ping Show viewing number is fairly accurate. Sorry, if I've nothing more to say, I would just be silent although I've been a Ping Show viewer for quite some time. Please do remind me to comment from time to time. Hey, I do not even have time to update my own personal web site. But I will do so in the future if possible.

posted by jclee

Re: Ping 146: Ballmer speaks out, Halo movie, Kinect Playfit, Father blames Xbox LIVE

jclee — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 12:45:20 GMT

It's good to see you back, Laura. Lost decade? I guess the right way to put it is that while Microsoft has made a couple of remarkable achievements over a decade, it does stumble at times, just like any real-world entity / person does. When you are trying to frame a headline or topic, you can choose several events as evidences to support your argument, of course, without taking the entire situation into consideration. A good old saying goes like this: do not judge the book by the cover. While the headline may not represent the entire fact, past experience is certainly valuable for a company. Having weaknesses is not a loss or shame. It's up to us to figure out how to overcome the difficulties for a better future.

A dangerous trend is happening in the academics around the world: all too often, people equate memorizing, accepting, and practicing as learning. While practice does help a lot to improve our skills, critical and analytical mind actually requires not to easily accept what are being told by just about anyone, no matter who he is; we need constantly reevaluate the underlying assumptions with the available information, which are often being unnoticed by most people. It's easy to regard assumptions as facts. Make no mistake. Making assumptions is a crucial part of learning; but making assumptions without further validation and re-evaluation will lead us to alternative views from what reality really is.

Peer pressure is the pressure that one may face when he encounters that mainstream views from his peers, more broadly, from the entire society. It's not said that mainstream views are wrong by default. However, they are not right by default, either. The love of simplicity, less work, and better life is not wrong, either. What is wrong is the overlooking the nature, which does not behave the way we want but according to the constant laws.

The name 'live' is particularly interesting. It sounds attractive to people because they want their entertainment immediately. To me, though, I do not particularly buy into 'live' programs. First of all, 'live' is merely perceptional, which means that it just happens in a very short time interval that people may not even notice. For those who have studied special relativity they know that 'action at a distance', if exists at all, would violate the principle of causality; the speed of travel of information and energy cannot exceed the speed of light in vacuum. Previously, there were reports in the media that claimed that special relativity was proven wrong by the experiments; those reports forgot to mention that those experiments were far from being able to give us a trustworthy conclusion. Soon after, a re-validation of the experiments found that special relativity was indeed right.

Some people may think that they did not care if there were actually 'action at a distance' as 'live' would mean they can get the contents they want as soon as possible. As Laura pointed out, the Ping Show is heavily edited before it is available online, at least for the non-live episodes. The editing is meant for producing videos that have high quality. Personally, I would like to have high quality contents and I would not mind to wait for a little while for better-quality shows. 'Action at a distance' does not exist in the first place. Of course I do want to get my favorite contents as soon as possible. When you can get raw videos and improved versions of videos at the same time, would you still prefer live-contents? Probably not. Would you not?

posted by jclee

Re: Keynote - Antoine Leblond: Windows 8

jclee — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 06:28:09 GMT

Windows Store at its current form is still at its early stage. I've been uncertain about the usage scenarios of metro style apps. It does not appear to me that metro style apps are going to be able to replace existing complex and powerful desktop apps. I still do not know what metro style apps will be used for perhaps until certain time after the commercial release of Windows 8. Nevertheless, this keynote does at least tell me that metro style apps are at least pretty useful in some scenarios, while are not the replacement of desktop apps. I'm particularly intrigued by the beautiful visualization of data within metro style apps, in addition to online stores, touch-based games, etc. Certainly, while one is on the road, he can get access to data, share data, communicate with others, doing some light editing, etc., all with different kind of metro style apps. They do not seem to be powerful, complex, and rich in functionalities, as compared with existing desktop apps. However, they do make tablet very useful while one is on the road. Perhaps the kind of complex, heavy, and difficult computing tasks are not going to be handled by metro style apps. When I think about it, metro style apps is about how most people deal with their tablets and devices; and they are not going to ever deal with heavy computing tasks or changing the PC settings very often. That, perhaps, explains why 'Desktop' has become an 'app' in Windows 8, as some Microsoft's employees have said. Technically, traditional 'Desktop' is still a Windows shell that exists in Windows 8; it's also an app environment in many ways different from metro environment; 'Desktop' is many things but definitely not an app like other metro style apps. A question I wish to ask: will the desktop or power users spend much time on metro environment? Only time will tell. Given the usefulness and power of 'Desktop', it's not surprising that the desktop PC or power users would spend most of their time in desktop environment going forward while using Windows 8.

posted by jclee

Re: Ping 129: Windows Phone climbing the ladder, Xbox admits fault, Visual Studio Game! Bing is for Doing

jclee — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 19:49:24 GMT

I did not actually make any conclusion out of Laura's explanation on the comment I left on Ping Show Episode 128. Anyway, I do appreciate that Laura cared to explain further. To Laura, love is about forgiveness, at least that's what I think. Hopefully you are no longer mad at your dog, if you were ever mad at it at all. 'jclee' is actually abbreviation of my actual name. Perhaps I should put it as 'J. C. Lee'; but I deliberate took out the punctuation. Honestly, I really did not expect Paul would pronounce my name in such way. Is that what people called 'different points of view'?

posted by jclee

Re: Ping 128: CES, Windows Phone Devs make $$, Kinect for Windows, Mango & Nokia news

jclee — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 09:12:08 GMT

It's good to see the back of Ping Show. Laptop was spoiled by the dog? Interesting explanation... I do not know how to respond... to believe? Or not? But yeah... that does explain the missing 127^th episode.

posted by jclee

Re: Welcome Golnaz to Channel 9

jclee — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 09:29:19 GMT

Welcome to Channel 9. I'm really glad that Microsoft continues to attract new generation of people to Channel 9, at least showing that one of my favorite online video channels will continue to be available for a while. I totally agree that the way we create contents, get information, communication or even our lifestyles have changed continuously due to the evolution and revolution of science and technology. A common issue being raised is that does the convenience brought by technology somehow make us less willing to try hard? In Physics and Mathematics, we ALWAYS talk about ideal situations and theories, knowing that real-world situations will never be IDEAL. But as our society progresses, fundamental natural sciences are still something UNFAMILIAR to most people, leaving those who are genuinely interested in STEM ALWAYS super minority. To me, technology is more-or-less a double-edge sword. To those who want to be more productive, or to physicists, mathematicians, or any scientists, technology enables them to explore the areas which are simply impossible without technology. Those people simply get smarter and more productive because of the "more efficient" use of energy due to the help of technologies. On the other end, there are A LOT MORE people who ONLY read what on the surface, or as people say, "Judge the book by the cover". Technology makes them even lazier and more simple-minded, taking everything more for granted. At the end of the day, ALL of the inventions created are ONLY tools. It's up to the people who decide the outcome.

posted by jclee

Re: Keynote #1

jclee — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 11:00:44 GMT

I used to think that I would be satisfied by just watching Microsoft's demo videos. But the moment I read that Microsoft was going to release Windows '8' 'Developer Preview' to the general public, I did not wait to download it immediately. My PC is now running Windows '8' 'Developer Preview'. Not that I do not appreciate Microsoft's efforts to give us high-quality demo video; > 7 GB for a video of > two-hour length is indeed a very large file. Usually I do not bother to consider downloading smaller but lower-quality video. However, I do realize that not everyone has good enough speed and bandwidth to download such a large file. It's just as Microsoft said, what has been shown, even in this lengthy and large video file is merely a tip of iceberg. From my brief personal experience, Windows '8' is far from being ready for commercial release and I'll definitely not recommend it to ordinary users. Still, I'm glad for some of the progresses being made. I'll use all available means to inform Microsoft and the others about what I think of Windows '8', which will ultimately benefit billions of people including myself when the product is finally 'done'.

posted by jclee

Re: Ping 102: PhotoDNA & Facebook, Xbox update, Give-aways for students, Windows Phone on Verizon

jclee — Tue, 24 May 2011 05:26:22 GMT

Congratulation, dentaku. Well, I don’t own an Xbox of any generation currently. Kinect add-on is not particularly useful to me, considering that I’ve no plan to get an Xbox anytime soon. As for the glitches of streaming videos, while the idea of being able to watch streaming video instantly sounds great, I still prefer to download the whole video before watching it. Maybe I belong to old-school web users but I do like stability and predictability. As you bet, I do not watch streaming videos from some of the most popular video hosting sites, such as YouTube, directly in the web browser but rely on an application called Orbit Downloader to help me download the video or (streaming media files) into the hard drive first. I’m glad that the current version actually supports HTML5 video.

posted by jclee

Re: Ping 101: The Skype deal, Bill Gates & Fashion, Phishing on Facebook, Microsft Research

jclee — Tue, 17 May 2011 10:12:51 GMT

Congratulations for having over 100 comments on the 100^th episode of Ping Show. I really like the show and wrote my comment to voice support for the Ping Show. Most of the time, we just watched the show without leaving feedback as we were not always having things to say… Laura and Paul had indeed carried out an experiment on 100^th episode and the result is interesting: People may do things differing from their usual behavior if there are some incentives of certain types. I can deduce that the number of comments will be reduced to usual level without a special reason, such as giving us 100 comments to show support so that we can continue to bring episode 101 and so on…

posted by jclee

Re: Introduction to Office 365

jclee — Thu, 12 May 2011 10:52:44 GMT

We’ve made use of Windows Live SkyDrive since it was first released three years ago. A considerable amount of essential personal data and data at work has been stored there. Running applications right in the web browser is not anything new. Google has offered Google Docs since 2006 (through acquisition of another company). Roughly five years have passed, I still need Microsoft Office to be installed and run locally. Stripped down version of applications make sense for light editing. At the end, we still need ‘real’ productivity suite to get the work done. I guess that storing data in the cloud is still a relatively new concept to many people, thus giving business opportunities to companies such as Microsoft and Google. We can now get a wide range of Windows Live services from Microsoft for free although Microsoft positions them as the complementary services for Windows experience. Take instant messenger for example, Microsoft has offered Windows Live Messenger (known as MSN Messenger previously) for many years. It does allow us to have a simple chat through text, voice or video. Those tools are not really optimized for businesses, being much more oriented to home users or consumers. Despite having the name of ‘Office’, I think ‘Office 365’ is more about collaboration, cloud storage, and online communication, rather than being a replacement of traditional desktop productivity suite.

posted by jclee

Re: Ping 100: HaloFest, Kinect you in Carbonite, Talking to the wall, Ping celebrates 100!

jclee — Tue, 10 May 2011 06:41:00 GMT

Channel 9 is pretty much place aimed for developers and tech-savvy guys, I guess. I do not really expect ordinary folks who are actually patient enough to watch some videos on Channel 9. Ping Show, to me, is pretty much extraordinary compared with other shows. I felt so relaxed with the way Laura Foy and her partner presented the show. I’ve to say that I did not find any information relevant to me in this episode of 100. Still, it marked a significant moment for Ping Show, I guessed.

Going forward, I did not expect Laura Foy or others can remain in Ping Show forever. How long will this show last in the coming months or years? Will Channel 9 find replacement for hosts in the future? Even though Ping Show will certainly not last forever, I sure hope it can last as long as it can.

posted by jclee

Re: Campus Tours: Fuse Labs with Lili Cheng

jclee — Thu, 05 May 2011 07:38:11 GMT

I should have commented this video right after I watched it. After watching another Campus Tours video and commenting it, I thought that I might post my comment here also.

I’ve a mixed feeling about the rise of social networking. I do not want post status update of myself on Facebook and Twitter. Perhaps I’m too secretive to be a sociable person. Still, I do appreciate blog posts that give insightful and inspiring ideas. I generally do not make judgment from, say, 250 characters. There are some people who dislike reading lengthy blog posts. However, I am eager to learn various issues that have great impact on my life and society, as well as some interesting thoughts and ideas on Mathematics and Science.

I’m far from being shy to express myself or speak out my minds. To me, blog is an essential tool for me to share complex ideas that I may come up with. There are times when my personal preferences do not matter much. If someday I will have to engage with the public very often, I do think that Facebook and Twitter will be valuable tools for me.

Lili Cheng did not think of herself as a writer. I do not too. Nevertheless, the “summary” of some idea or report will take thousands of words, with a lot of details being left behind.

posted by jclee

Re: Microsoft Campus Tours - Microsoft Hardware Model Shop

jclee — Thu, 05 May 2011 07:18:31 GMT

I’ve paid close attention to Microsoft as I rely on a number of software products from Microsoft to get my work done. Frankly, I rarely paid attention to Microsoft’s hardware product manufacturing. I knew that Microsoft was making mice and keyboards since the beginning of GUI. One of the original goals is to promote GUI. Such goal has been fulfilled a long time ago but Microsoft, admittedly, is still making mice and keyboards of good quality.

Microsoft’s Campus Tours gave me opportunity to see the environment where Microsoft’s employees work. However, this video did give me an unexpected benefit, that is, I got to peek at how Microsoft designed and made its hardware products. Even though hardware manufacturing does not make significant money compared to cash-cows such as Windows or Microsoft Office, Microsoft is still actively creating and manufacturing hardware products of good quality.

I’ve a set of Microsoft’s wireless keyboard and mouse at home, mainly being used by my father. Compared with keyboard and mouse being manufactured by some unknown companies from China, Microsoft’s hardware product is much more expensive. I’ve not used the ‘Arc Mouse’ myself but it seems to be pretty cool. I do not think that I will get one of those higher-end keyboards/mice coming from Microsoft. To be fair, while I may spend some money buying a decent PC, I prefer to spend less on peripherals such as keyboard and mouse.

I’m not the kind of guy who is fond of designing products. Still, I find this behind-the-scene video fairly interesting.

posted by jclee