Google Chrome OS is out there for test!

Today i had the chance to try the Google Chrome OS, unlike other beta Open Source OS the operating system was not just a proof of concept with a command line commands. No, the chrome OS opens as a web browser and you can access the internet via the browser.

It was really amazing in this aspect.

I got the Chrome OS virtual harddisk that i ran inside VMware Player.

The installation was not so complicated, it took some minutes to look for the settings for configuring the virtual harddisk.

The OS took more than 30 seconds to load, almost as much as my Windows 7 and i just thought about the promises of google about the runtime of the Chrome OS, and i dint understand why it does take so much time to start when it just a web browser.

I tried to surf with the browser inside the Chrome OS and it worked at the start, then i logged out myself from Gmail and everything just froze down. Seems you have to be logged in for the whole session other wise the OS doesn't respond.

The OS didn't have any ctrl-alt-del function (as far as went with it) so there were no way to bring it back but resetting the virtual machine.

I don't know if i am going hard on google but i must say that google is wonderful with the web and they suck when it comes to desktop applications (or anything that runs on a local machine).

I have tried a few of their products and i really had a bad experience, even Microsoft doesn't commit such mistakes that they do at google.

Not to mention the Gmail Backup application that just crashes with a runtime error, didn't they catch that exception, weird. Another thing that i am suffering from is Google Chrome Browser.

Its nice but its incomparable with the great FireFox. Chrome crashes when i have two YouTube tabs open, dint ask me why to have two tabs of youtube, but i do open many tabs at the same time and check them quickly and with Chrome its always a problem.

Back to google chrome OS, i believe its a great start "anyway" and i am looking forward for the complete product, it would be a great think to use as a thin client OS and keep the rest of the work for a real OS.

Can VB.NET be more fun than C#?

Check out this post about Lambda Expressions.
It posted by in Matthew Manela his blog

Enjoy!!

Brian Beckman, Algebra on VB

Today i came to know a new person (on the internet of course, not in person).
Brian Beckman , he is a Principal Developer at Erik Meijer. In his interview with Beth Massi he shows some ~High~ Algebra with Visual Basic. (see it)


enjoy!!

Kid's corner e-books!!

I forgot to leave some direct links to the e-books that comes in the kid's corner.

Here is a link of the Visual Basic book VB for Very Bright Kids (link-date: 071224)
Here is a link of the C# book C# for Sharp Kids (link-date: 071224)

There is also couple of pages with some more details; Visual basic & C#

Kids corner

Today i have a good news for the kids who might think that programming is cool. I was reading in some training material at Microsoft site and i found a link for training track for kids. Kid's corner
I would have had highly appreciated such thing if i could have had it 12 years ago, when i was trying to learn 8085 assembly language or Casio basic language, huh!!

Anyway just give it a try and check the link.

Enjoy!!

Is there something called Windows XP Media Center Edition

Do you need to have a special installation CD for Win XP Media Center Edition?
Let me tell you my story.
I had a laptop with a French keyboard, and it had a label "Designed for Windows XP Media Center Edition". I wanted to use that laptop as an MS SQL Server, a test one.
It was no problem with MS SQL Server since it was for free and it has a simple installation. But the problem was that the laptop had a French version of Windows XP MCE, at the start I thought that it’s alright to use it as is. So I started installing MS SQL Server on the French windows and I got a message telling me that the installation was completed. Then I had to make some configurations to the server and that wasn’t so easy, I tried to read the text from another pc that has an English XP and just select the answers in the French XP but there were no hope, since the options were not in the same order. At this point I decided to re-install windows. I checked the restore CD and it was only in French. We didn’t have any CD with the English Windows XP Media Center Edition, and in the end I thought that I was stuck. I left the laptop a side and continued with my work, until I reached a point where I had to have a separate server.

In fact our website host provides us with an instance of MS SQL Server, but I couldn’t reach it when I work at the office, due to the aggressive firewall. So I thought I could configure a server at my home connection. I did that before with an Apache Server and configured it with Tomcat Server to support My SQL.

Back to the French laptop. I got an idea "why don’t I just try to use Win Xp Professional installation CD, and use the same product key that I have for the French Win Xp Media Center Edition". And for my surprise this worked. Though the installation CD was an original one I got a couple of error messages regarding missing files but I ignored them. When my installation was complete I could activate windows and use the windows update.
It worked fine and I could install my server. On that day I left the French laptop for a while and the screensaver was showing Windows Media Center Edition. I was puzzled and double checked my installation CD and it was Professional not MCE. I checked the system properties and the windows was MCE. Now I go asking why to deliver two different installation CD were the same CD works for both?

The trivia is that on the next day we got an order from a French company and the product manager wanted to send that French computer to them. Puhhhhhhh the French took my server, of course after re-installing the French MCE again.
Poor me!!

Gyn Y

In my "About Me" section i mention Gen Y or Generation Y, and i thought its interesting to leave a post about Gyn Y, its big deal just a link from Wikipedia.

Ejoy you!! Specially Gen Y's