Web 2.0 + Virtualization

I have never been a good video game player. Even though I have PS2 and zillion games, the only game I play is Fifa. Maybe I don't like to play, maybe just I cannot.

However, I found my old favorite game, Duke Nukem 3D. It is a cult game. It is ported to Linux and XP-Vista. I started to play, just for remember old days. When I get off the computer, the first episode was done!

What I like about the game is Duke himself. He is the coolest game character ever. His cues are so good. When I get in front of a mirror, he says "Damn 'm lookin goood!" And the day after I started to play, whenever I see a mirror I was like, shaped my hair and said "Damn 'm lookin goood!"

If you still haven't play Duke, do your torrent search and get it. Highly recommended!!

10 out of 10..

Duke_nukem_3d_-_atomic_edition

Turkey welcomes you..

I have been a computer user for more than 12 years. Throughout those years, Linux was always a phenomena for me, and always wanted to use, at least be able to do something with it. Maybe I didn't like the KDE, maybe it was not mature enough for me, or vise versa. But, then I met with Ubuntu. As many of people, Ubuntu is my first Linux in real meaning.

Despite I'm a huge fan of Ubuntu, I realized that no one can beat Microsoft, especially in business environment. Linux or Unix can only be a server, nothing else.

Today, I examined my company's web site for monthly statistic report, and saw that only 0.19% of visitors use Linux operating system. We had almost 10.000 visitors for May 2008, and the number of Linux users is only 17. Couple of them are me, when I was out of office. Here is the full visitor profile of a small size company web site (most of them contractor or business;)

• Windows XP - 76.79%
• Windows Vista - 15.32%
• Mac OS X - 5.32%
• Windows 2000 - 1.25%
• Windows 2003 - 0.35%
• Linux - 0.19%
• and others.

And I'm asking question by myself: "What do employees do except using office or surfing with computer?"

- Nothing.

Then another question raises, why they don't use...

There are some reasons that I found why businesses are not using Linux.

1. They buy computers come with Windows operating system
2. They have no idea that what Linux is. Most of them have never seen Linux
3. They believe, business software are written for only Windows, not for Linux.
4. They are not mentally ready to use something is not from Microsoft.
5. No one has offered such a thing before, leave the Microsoft, go with Ubuntu.
6. They think the mission critical software are not available for Linux (such as MSN, Yahoo Messenger, Google Chat)
7. They have lots of money to spend.
8. They love their antivirus software.

To be honest, I don't believe the support lie. Who calls the Microsoft and ask how the damn cursor changes? I have never called the Microsoft. When I have a problem (yes even in Windows) I always go to net, search and find the answer as I do when I have a problem with Ubuntu...

I really don't like to people who always criticize Microsoft and don't use anything else Microsoft provide. It's kind of "being cool" I guess. But, nonsense. Because, all we know that Microsoft produces product for dummies who 97% of all population. :) Anyway. I'm not going to criticize Microsoft to be cool, or just because it's the trend.

But they do something, they deserve something. One of my digs is running Vista, and I'm browsing with IE 7. I captured Microsoft Web site on June 1, 2008 at 1 am. What I see is ridiculous. It is the company decides the how Internet works, It is the company how the web should be. And its web site doesn't work properly on its operating system and browser.

Microsoft, Microsoft, Microsoft... I love you (?)

Microsoft_web_site

While I was looking something on YouTube, coincidencely I found the Stick Fighters.

For more information, go to http://www.darkcrystalgames.com/stickfighters.html

May 14 was such a great night for everybody at Strathmore, MD. The Moscow Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra, led by Maestro Vladimir Spivakov performed; Arnold Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht (“Transfigured Night”), Op. 4, Franz Joseph Haydn: Piano Concerto in D major, Dmitri Shostakovich: Concerto No. 1 in C minor for Piano, Trumpet & Strings, Op. 35, Friedrich Gulda: Aria, and Astor Piazzolla: Two Tangos.

Moscow Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra

It is very hard to find this kind of quality music. I was lucky that I found a ticket and have been there.

Note: I have never seen that much russian together in my life :)

Embedding Flash to XHTML is a big challenge. The old method is dead years ago even though still a lot of people use. For XHTML validation there are some techniques existing but they are complicated from who looks for a simple solution. Using Java Script is not a smart way either.

So while I was looking a simple solution I have found a Flash XHTML validator. It's simple enough to use. But not perfect! It gives me code as below;

<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="banner.swf" width="300" height="200">

<param name="movie" value="banner.swf" />

It needs some tweak, so I simply added an image of my banner in case the visitor has no flash and adding a text for search engines. And the code end up as below;

<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="banner.swf" width="300" height="200">

<param name="movie" value="banner.swf" />

<img src=”banner.gif” width=”300” height=”200” alt=”banner”/>

<p>A text for search engines.</p>

</object>

I might have add a link to Adobe's website for download flash plug-in, but it's fine.

I tested the code and it works in Internet Explorer 5.01, 5.5, 6.0, Mozilla, Mozilla Firefox (former Mozilla Firebird), Opera and Konqueror and is fully XHTML Strict valid. No <embed> tags needed.

Related useful stuff;

·         Flash Satay: Embedding Flash While Supporting Standards

·         Embedding Macromedia Flash in XHTML

·         XHTML Validation & Flash Movies

Haven't you have a 404 file not found page yet? Here some advices;

• Make the page as minimal as possible.
• Make it static, not dynamic. Even your style!
• Put your logo and explain what happened: "The page you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, is temporarily unavailable, or never existed."
• Do not let your visitors go somewhere else, so put a site map or at least some hyperlinks to your home page and the prior page that visitor comes from.
• If you have a site search, there is no better place to add in.
• You may want to know what page cause the 404, so add "report to webmaster" link.

Read these articles;

http://www.alistapart.com/articles/perfect404/

http://www.thesitewizard.com/archive/custom404.shtml

And finally, do google search for sample 404 pages. If you want to something creative just check this out http://www.bspcn.com/2007/09/13/collection-of-awesome-404-pages/