Windows 10: Almost a Month with the New Windows

C:\> Wintel
It's me again.  If I got you readers excited with the new upcoming version of Windows, then it's good.  Whenever Microsoft sells more Windows machine, Intel sell more processors.  Face it... Intel don't sell more processors cause Krzanich says so.  Intel sell more processors cause Nadella says so.



C:\> Win 10 is Coming
I installed the Technical preview (build 9926) almost a month ago.  My initial reaction is not that impressed with the new Windows.  In this short month, Microsoft has been constantly updating newer releases every now and then.  If you got your copy and still wondering why you're not getting the latest and greatest releases, you're probably not on the fast ring.



Switch to the fast ring and you'll be leaving the 99xx branch into the much faster 100xx branch builds.  Microsoft has lately made the 10074 build the Insider preview, kind of the latest stable build based on the fast ring.

C:\> Windows 10 Insider Preview
The insider preview is definitely more aesthetically pleasing compared to the technical preview.  With some more tweaks and fixes over the previous 100xx releases.

One thing I forgot to mention on my previous review is that Microsoft did try to unite all Microsoft utilities into Windows 10.  Much like Android when you sign in with your Google account, you'll get your contacts, calendar, Google drive etc all synced up.  Here, you'll get the exact same treatment with personalized Edge browser, one drive, outlook etc.  Provided if you sign in using your Microsoft account of course.



C:\> The Feel?
If you still remember, I install this on a 10 year old machine and the performance I dare not say it's good.  Several updates later, the same feeling doesn't go away.  The latest build still hogs the processor time.  Although me putting more colgate on the thermal heat sink of my machine does help mitigate the heat problem, the fan still spins far too quickly.  So I'm still limiting it to 50%.

So tips for buyers.  Microsoft is saying if your PC can run windows 8.1 i.e. having 1 GHz processor, 1GB (x86) or 2GB (x64) of RAM, then you can run Windows 10.  See here.  They're bullshitting you.  I have a limited to 1 GHz dual core processor and 2GB or RAM and it runs like shit.

Another tips for buyers.  I think you'll need at least a Nehalem or newer processor for this.  And who in the right mind still have only 2GB of RAM.  Samsung Galaxy Note 4 already has 3GB of RAM mind you.  So, buy new machine to enjoy Windows 10.  Buy more... it'll be good for Intel.

C:\> More Testing
Forget about my old junky machine.  I brought this to work and got Windows 10 on my work machine.  I'm doing Windbg stuff so I'm not catching snake or anything.

Here's the spec of my work machine (give me some woah....!!!)
Processor: Core i7 4770K 3.5GHz
RAM: 16GB DDR3 1600
Storage: 480GB Intel SSD
Graphics: 780GTX
Host OS: Windows Server 2012 x64

OK, I don't put this on native hardware but on virtualized with hyper-v.  So I bottled down the resources to match what I have on my Merom machine.  Single core and 2GB of RAM.  As a added bonus, I have a Windows 8 on the exact virtualized setup as control.

Sorry, screenshot is from build 10061.

I must admit, Windows 8 does perform beautifully even on a limited spec machine.  But Microsoft screw it all up by giving it a 如花 like appearance.  On the contrast, Windows 10 insider preview kind of crawling on the same setup.  Maybe the final release will be more polished.  But a significant user will consider upgrading their hardware in the anticipation of this.  Good news for Intel.

The look is a lot better now with much cleaner interface and icons.  I'm still not much of a fan of those modern UI apps but having live tiles (yet to work) on the redesigned start menu is definitely a win.  One thing is I'm still surprised that 3rd party desktop app still doesn't design an icon fit to match the tiles despite all the time they have with Windows 8.x.  You'll end up having an enlarged desktop icon pinned together with the live tiles.  Looks silly.  Blek!



My major complain right now is still the performance.  Lots of apps, including the all new project spartan (still being called as such) does crash upon launching.  Or they just launch too slowly like 10 to 15 seconds after I clicked it from the start menu.

The live tiles doesn't work for me on the insider preview.  Maybe some secret potion is needed, I don't know.  And the search bar takes too much space out of the taskbar so I minimized it to an icon (Yup, it's possible).  Then again, the search box are way to slow to be anything useful.  Cortana takes forever to load and the search result are just dismal.

And the legendary non responsive modern UI start menu still exist.  You click the start menu, nothing happens.  Clicked harder still nothing.  Clicked rapidly and harder, still nothing.  Not like it's new to me cause I've seen similar behavior in Windows 8.1 and server 2012 but it's just so damn annoying.  If you don't have the my computer shortcut on your desktop, then the only way to navigate around is using the run box.

C:\> The Verdict Again
Windows 7 has been the winner for more than half a decade now.  It's very easy to get around this OS and it's very user friendly and reliable.  Just like your good old year 2000 Benz, good, expensive and reliable.  But it doesn't have all the great features of a more modernized OS.  Just like your old year 2000 Benz without those fancy touch screen head unit, DRL, paddle shifters etc.  Windows 8.1 have all these goodies but it looked terrible, just like the 2014 Honda Civic.



Windows 10 will be a game changer.  No doubt.  The insider preview is a step up from the technical preview.  Usability can still be improved (read my previous rant about the start menu).  Performance is an area to improve.  Right now it looks a bit like my K3.  Looks gorgeous, feature packed but with sluggish handling, non responsive head unit and guzzling gasoline like mad.

Windows 10: The One that will save Intel and Microsoft, or will it?

C:\> Microsoft
This is a Microsoft Windows review.  If you are using MacOS or Linux, and somehow hate Microsoft, do read my other posts which are equally interesting.  But if you're curious, then do continue.

Microsoft Windows.  The OS that most of the people is using or at least once using before.

We all know the infamous Microsoft Windows trend of good-bad releases over the years.  And up until Windows 8, the trend continues to hold true.

Up until today, even the EOL Windows XP is more popular than the all new Windows 8.1 with update plus Windows 8 combined.  As of March 2015, Windows 7 holds majority market share with 58.04%, Windows XP comes second with 16.94%, Windows 8.1, 10.55% and Windows 8 at 3.52%.

Thus, Windows 10 should be a good OS.  Or is it?  And will it be?

C:\> Windows 10
Microsoft has been actively pushing out their preview to Windows 10 to developers and early adopters.  I, admittedly also being rejecting the completely unusable Windows 8 and is being curious what's the remedy in plan that Microsoft put in order to revive their dying OS.



And so I installed the Technical Preview to find out Microsoft's Aegis of Immortal.  If you're interested, go to Download Windows 10 Technical Preview ISO - Microsoft Windows and get your copy today.

However, there's a problem.  I don't have a modern enough machine to install this on.  I'm damn sure I don't want to mess up my Yorkfield gaming machine.  So I ended up taking out my 10 year old Merom dual core laptop as the test platform.

Here's some spec of the Merom machine.
Proc: Intel Merom Dual Core 2.16GHz
RAM: 2GB DDR2
Storage: SATA 100GB HDD
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce Go 7600

This thing has Windows Vista Basic installed on it and the performance is just crawling because Vista being Vista.  Not friendly at all on even on a considerably good hardware during its time.



Although the Conroe Woodcrest Merom family of processor are once the game changer in CPU, that was 10 years ago.  Back then, 290 million transistors are considered godlike.  But it's nothing compared to today's Haswell having 1.4 BILLION transistors.  Moore's law my friends.

C:\> Installing Windows
And so I started installing....


The installation completed in just under 10 minutes.  Windows XP takes 26 minutes to install on the same machine.  The time it takes to install exceed my expectation as Windows 8 takes the same amount of time to install on a Haswell machine.  This is a 10 year old hardware mind you.

However I ran straight into problem.  The laptop I'm installing Windows 10 on keeps shutting down on it's own.  Start install, reboot once, boom, shut down.  I repeated a few more times and same result.  I was like, "it's time to retire this piece of hardware".

OK, debugging tips.  If something wrong with your PC, reboot.  If reboot doesn't solve the problem, leave it overnight and all is well on tomorrow morning.

But I'm an engineer and things doesn't magically happens.  And I found out the random shutdown is due to thermal trip.  Then I thought, Windows 10 must be more resource hungry than Vista.  Not a good sign.  I had at least 20 trips until the installation finally completes (with the help of switching on the aircond).  Kind of self explanatory as Windows ran the hardware at maximum performance during installation and during initial setup.  And a 10 year old machine is no longer capable handling that level of stress.

C:\> Construction Complete



















And finally, the desktop.  Definitely a breath of fresh air seeing the familiar yet different desktop.  However, the problem hasn't ended.  The laptop's cooling fan is still humming loudly, the whole desktop experience is as choppy as f**k.  Then I thought again, maybe these hardware is really not capable of supporting Windows 10 after all.

The overheating problem is never ending.  Bam! Shutdown! Bam! Shutdown!  Barely lasting 5 minutes.  Then I thought again maybe I'll need to put more toothpaste to dissipate the heat more cleanly.  But that involves dissecting the laptop and I'm not too keen to do that.  So a quick fix, changing the power scheme.  I limit the CPU to 50% and immediately it yield results.  The system stabilized and no longer thermal tripping.  So instead of having 2.16GHz at my disposal, I am limited to 1GHz of processor speed.




















So how does Windows 10 performs on a 1GHz dual core machine with 2GB of RAM?  I'm expecting it to be horrible with crashes here and there, while hungrily devour system resources.  But no.  It looked liked a real deal.  I haven't seen any random crashes.  There's no noticeable UI lag although it does get a lot more sluggish as more applications being launched (including memory hungry Chrome browser).  All of these are down to outdated hardware.  I believe Windows 10 will run like a charm on modern hardware.
OK, time to lurk around.

C:\> Start Menu
Microsoft promised the return of a proper Start menu.  Just 5 minutes into usage, I'm not impressed. The new start menu reminded me of something.  That right.  The modern UI.  So instead of being forced to full screen, now the modern UI only takes a partial of your screen.  You can still maximize it to look exactly like Windows 8.



It looks nothing like the Windows 7 start menu that we used to know.  There's no link to user folder.  There's no link to my computer.  Although you can pin these to the start menu, it provide no additional function e.g. going to computer management, system advanced settings etc other than a link to those folders.  Exactly like Windows 8.  And there's no way I can pin control panel to the new start menu while the old one is just there.

Maybe Microsoft themselves doesn't realize why the start menu is so important.  It's the portion highlighted in red which makes a start menu so powerful in Windows XP and Windows 7.  Not some shortcut to apps which the current Windows 10 start menu trying to get.





















So is start menu back? I would say no.  It is just a resizeable Modern UI.

C:\> Modern Apps
Modern apps integration into Windows 10 has improved.  Mainly due to the capability of running these apps in window mode.  Less annoying too.  And makes multitasking a lot easier.  The days of moving mouse to screen edges and doing funny mouse movement to navigate between full screen apps are over.  I understand that pain, especially you having multiple monitors and have to point to a "corner"in the middle of nowhere.



However there's still a problem.  There's still modern apps and default desktop apps that again, doing the exact same thing.  For example, windows default you to open a JPEG file with it's modern photo app.  The problem is very clear.  Opening an "app" takes a bit of time.  And there's a desktop photo viewer that opens JPEG images instantly.  So the performance of modern apps vs traditional desktop application is still miles apart.  Maybe there's a lot more animation needed in order to open a modern app.  I don't know.  But it makes your whole PC experience, a bit slower.  Bummer.

Duplicated applications is still a problem.  Like the example I gave above on the photo viewer vs photo app.  The modern UI settings app is again as pointless as it was in Windows 8 compared to the legacy control panel which does thing a lot better.  And a lot more knobs for you to turn as well.

And there's a bunch more modern apps pre-installed that you probably never going to use.  Food & drink.. Money... Sounds familiar.  Exactly.  It's bloatware.

So with modern apps, the sense of getting what you want in an instant is not there.  If you strongly believe modern app is the way to go, try do Ctrl+R and type calc in Windows 10.  And compare it to Windows 7.  Enough said.

C:\> Other Desktop Improvements
The desktop mode again really does feel like desktop again.  Touch oriented stuff like charm bar, edge of screen actions are removed all together from desktop.  So there's no more doing finger gestures using mouse pointer, something that dumb Windows 8 forces users to do.  And finally windows OS will have multiple desktop feature.  Something that Linux and Mac users already had for years.



Windows 10 also includes a new notification center.  Something that Mac OS did to integrate Mac OS with iOS, and Android with Chrome OS.  So now a seamless experience across all Windows 10 enabled device, something which is totally lacking now with Windows 8 and Windows Mobile.



C:\> Tablet Mode
So what happens to all the touch oriented gimmick Microsoft introduced in Windows 8?  Don't worry.  It is still there.  It's just that now Windows 10 clearly distinguish between tablet mode and desktop mode.  They call it the continuum mode.



Windows 10 hides all the touch oriented features away while in desktop mode.  And if you have a detachable or a 2-in-1, the familiar Windows 8 experience can still be achieved when you switch to tablet mode.

C:\> So is Windows 10 a win? Windows 10 is definitely a win if you own a device with Windows 8.  Doesn't matter if it's an Ultrabook, a detachable, a surface pro or even 2-in-1's.  Windows 10 will definitely provide a better experience compared to Windows 8.  I still can't see the improvement on Windows 10 that makes it a better desktop OS than Windows 7.  If you're doing productivity work with Windows 7, you might find yourself again reluctant to switch to Windows 10, just like Windows 8 case.

I would say Windows 10 is a windows 8 trying to grow up.  Instead of being in the blue corner to challenge Windows 7 for the OS title.  Windows 8 will die off when Windows 10 is released (just like Windows Vista did when Windows 7 is released) but Windows 7 will most likely continue to live on and dominate the OS market until it EOL in 2020 (just like Windows XP today).

Unless Microsoft makes the desktop experience on Windows 10 on par or even better than Windows 7, the trend of good OS-bad OS will end with 2 successive failure for Microsoft.  Then, Microsoft might as well just call this windows release Windows 8.2 instead.

And on that bombshell, that's my review.  Thank you for reading.

Instant Noodle Craze

C:\> Oh?
Somehow, I got my hands on this.  Sibu Instant Kampua Noodles.  So is it any good?  Read on to find out.



C:\> Instant Local Delicacy Craze
It all started when MyKuali came out with the instant Penang White Curry Noodles.  This thing sells like Apple selling iPhone.  People all over the country went crazy hunting one of these noodle packets down.  Soon, others like maggi, ibumie, uncle sun, kim curry etc started to follow.


But.... let's just say, none of these are actually very good.

C:\> Instant Local Delicacy with Different Approach
Lately when I returned to Kuching for the new year break, I saw supermarkets are flooded with Instant Kuching Kolo mee and instant Sibu Kampua mee.  Following a not so good experience with the sub-standard recreation of the Penang curry mee, I at first didn't give much damn about the instant kampua noodles.



But maybe I've been away from this corner shop cafe (Hiek Lik Cafe.  A freaking must stop place for a good bowl of Kampua noodles if you happened to stop by at Sarikei) for far too long.  So I decided to take a shot.



The packaging for the instant kampua noodles is simple.  No fancy colorful package.  Just a see through package.  Simplicity is one thing.  But I think the main selling point of this is the noodles itself.  One packet consist of one serving of dried kampua noodles, a packet of soy sauce and a packet of vegetable oil, lard and shallots.



Pictured is my 10 inch plate with the packet ingredients.


C:\> Time to Recreate the Glorious Kampua Mee



Cooking is very easy, just add hot water and boil for 3 minutes.  Then drain the water off until dry and mix well with the seasoning.  Sound familiar?  Exact step on how you make maggi mee goreng.


C:\> The Verdict



Here's the outcome.  A good plate of kampua noodles.  The noodles itself is a spot on.  As good as what you'll get around the streets of Sibu or Sarikei.

However, there's a few problem....

First, there's not enough umph in the seasoning.  The lard did much of the fragrance out of the noodles.  But, I grew up at the stronger taste part of town.  But luckily, there's a quick fix by adding some extra chili and soy sauce.  With the extra soy sauce, the kampua noodles have a much livelier color, and looks much more delicious.  Like what foochow people always ordered - kampua-dou-yiu-lak.




C:\> There's More!

However, a plate of kampua will not be considered perfect without slices of char siew and minced pork.  But I can't really find those ingredient in a short time so... time to compromise.  Char siew and siew bak.. on top of this glorious noodles.




C:\> The Summary

The noodles itself is already a good recreation of the original kampua noodles.  But that is all you need.  The rest, is up to your creativity to decorate the noodles.  For me, it's some extra chili and soy sauce plus a generous serving of char siew and siew bak.




C:\> What's Next?

A good plate of kampua noodles has get my engine going.  So next time, I should experiment with other instant recreation of Sarawak authentic delicacies.

Zer0's Smartphone War Part 2: An Apple's Battle to Lose

OK, so I finally got the best smartphone your money can buy - the iPhone 5.  But please discount the HTC J Butterfly cause it's only available in Japan.  I know 6 months down the road, many more iPhone 5 killers are going to emerge e.g. the Oppo (Gangnam Style) Find 5.

I have now own the both up-to-date Apple and Android devices and it's time to pass the real judgement.


Apple
What is like-able.

The iPhone is a purpose build smartphone to function as a smartphone. I cannot begin to imagine how much effort Apple has put in order to create this piece of wonder.  Thinner, lighter, longer and probably better finishing than any other phones you can find out there.  The A6 chip is a purpose build chip for the iPhone 5 and the iOS 6 is the purpose build OS for the iPhone 5.  If it doesn't run well, what else will?

What's wins for Apple is everything just works, flawlessly.  It's kind of rare (although I don't rule out the possibility) to find a not working apps on Apple devices.  Many apps just don't run properly on Android and the robot fanatics blames Android have to support many screen sizes.  Mind you, the fruit company also have many screen sizes.  Good try.

Apple has one of the most intuitive UI you can navigate around.  They sell familiarity.  And many users who are so accustomed with the iOS are reluctant to change.  When iOS6 introduces some add-ons from Jailbreak communities, people bashes Apple for ruining the user friendliness.  I don't mind having these candies but Apple must continue to put more in as the Jailbreak communities already breaks down.


What is not like-able.
For many, i-devices design kind of stale.  The 5 is just a longer 4.  But I don't own any i-devices between the 1st until the latest 5.  So it's a big win for me at least.  But surely everyone takes out the same black or white phone distinguished only by the skin it wears.

Jailbreak is always the prime of me not moving away from iOS.  Android is customizable. Yeah right, I can do the same over Jailbreaks.  And Android is just more customizable compared to stock iOS unless you root your device.  But the recent withdrawal of Hackulo.us is a big hit.  I can no longer free my iPhone.  I can no longer get all the cool upgrades, cool add-ons for the iPhone.  Suddenly, the iOS is not so cool anymore.

Apple has stolen a lot of ideas from the Jailbreak communities and implanted those in the iOS.  Which is a good thing.  But shutting down the underworld that give the joy to the iOS power users is beyond forgiving.  Apple users have to give in that the iOS is no longer customizable and will have the same pale look abide being the most powerful mobile OS.

Apple is one of many companies that defines the platform that they're releasing.  So as a result, you'll get a funny 30pin (old) or lightning (new) connector instead of a standard micro USB.  Good thing is that there were so many Apple fanatics out there and supply for these odd technologies are limitless.  But bad thing is an Apple lightning cable cost your a whooping $39 while you can get a micro USB cable for a mere $2.

If you're already using Apple families like MacBook, Apple TV etc, then adopting an Apple phone is not a problem as long as you have the money.  But getting the iPhone to work with the rest of the world is a challenge.  Bluetooth file transfer, not without Jailbreak. Well, we can't really blame Apple cause they really want each and every one of you to shop their 99 cents iTunes store.  DRM prevails freedom.

Android
What's like-able.

It's undeniable that Android is taking the world by storm.  And Google is backing up the most activated mobile OS in the world.  But there's just one problem.  Because iOS is not free, OEMs is dumping Android in every device imaginable.  Putting together a bunch of body parts doesn't make a perfect human.  Most of the time, it's just abominations a.k.a. Pudge.  Many adopters like  is putting add-ons which claimed to make the AOS friendlier.  In truth, it just spoils the good jelly bean Google is making.  BeanBoozled anyone?

But it's the truth is that AOS is more customizable.  All the junkies you can think of.  And there's no 2 Android device that looks the same.  With AOS still root-able, the power of users to customize the OS is infinite.  Something that iOS user is going to miss.

In truth, buying an Android device is like buying an empty shell.  In which the shell comes in different sizes, colors, smell and comes with a possibly the worst tuned AOS ever.  This is where the power of root and custom ROMs comes in.  Salvation for those who bought Samsung or HTC.

The ability of hacking and slashing your Android is probably one of the winning point of me to not get the iPad mini and continue meddling with my Android powered tablet.

Google kind of know that OEMs tend to break their blood sweat effort to make AOS on par if not better than iOS.  This is when the Nexus comes in.  Nexus is probably the best Android since Android.  Fluidity and all the best android you can get, it's on the Nexus devices.  Not some Android wannabes who're talking "The next big this is already here".  More good news is that now, there will be more devices bearing the tag of Nexus that runs vanilla Android.  No mumbo jumbo.  Just Android.  And I have been using vanilla Android for quite some time and to my surprise it's matching iOS in terms of performance.  Although mine is still running ICS and things still breaks up and down.

OEM who adopted Android also tend to put in the best hardware they can find to their devices.  Like the J Butterfly's 1080p screen.  Latest and greatest Qualcomm or Atom chips.  LTE and NFC.  All the latest junks you can think of, one of the Android device will have it.  And at a good price too.

What is not like-able.
Unless you get a Nexus, you'll never experience Android to the fullest.  That's awfully similar to what the fruit company is selling.  Although there might be more Nexus devices in the future, but these are not as popular as what the Koreans are selling.  Android devices are suppose to be universal friendly.  But OEM companies like Samsung always tries to be Apple and sell their proprietary add-ons which doesn't sell.

And yes, Android devices has all the latest and coolest gadgets.  But the practicality of it still remains a question.  If Apple is selling something on their phones, it comes with usage models.  Apple provides Facetime infrastructure to utilize the front facing camera for video calls.  Android devices has front facing camera before Apple but many wonders how to utilize it other than cam-whoring before Skype and such comes to light.  And yes, Samsung galaxy have NFC built in.  But other than touching the backside of another Samsung phones, there's not much widely known usage models yet.

Then comes the apps compatibility and support.  My argument of app developers should give more attention to Android is still true.  Take for example, my smurf village on iOS has received latest updates 2 days ago while the new update remains elusive on Android.  Pop Cap's PvZ in Android still lacks features and extra contents compared to the complete version in iOS while costs 3 times more.  And when you pay for an app in Android, you better pray it works or you'll start bashing the developers.

We all know iOS users enjoys the native Facebook apps for a while now and Android users are not receiving the same treatment for the most popular social networking company until 4 months later.

And don't bring the argument of  screen sizes because Apple is known for it's funny screen resolutions like 960x640 or 1136x640.  If the iOS counterpart can work out their apps with all these funny resolution, I don't see why it won't work with Android's more standard 800x480, 1280x720 or 1920x1080 offerings.

The Play Store is really full of what I call junk apps.  Google shouldn't even count this as apps that they accumulate to overtake Apple's App store.  For example, if you're looking for PvZ, there's 1 PvZ game, 20 PvZ game guides, 10 PvZ cheats app and 20 other zombie games.  And then there's a possibility that one of these contains some malware that might just steal your Facebook account.  And we all know that Android is prone to malware attacks.  But unless you do something stupid, you'll probably won't be hacked (although I don't rule out the possibility).  Better safe than sorry.

Conclusion
If you looking for something that is known to work and does not want to modify much of the stock OS, pick Apple.  If you like to meddle around with your device, hack and slash and blue screen the next day, pick Android.  If you seriously dislike Apple, which a lot of Android user does, pick anything else which is not Apple.

Both seems to be an equal choice.  A better hardware vs a more refined software.  Apple is still a must have device.  But Android, alongside Nexus is being more attractive now.  Google has polish Android UI to a great extend.  Until they fix the Play store and free it from malicious and junk apps, I will going to stick with Apple.  Not by religion, but by choice.

Zer0's Smartphone War

Long time no see fellas.  

The new iPhone shows up today and I also wants to share my excitement on Apple's new flagship phone.

The release of the new iPhone gives Apple fanbois something to woo about after being miniscule to their Android partners for quite a long time.

Android fans might be non stoppingly jerking at how lousy and un-innovative the new iPhone is, how small it is comparing to the bigger screen rivals.  But to be exact, the market norm is 4.3 inch.  The new iPhone is not that far off with much better PPI.  Only the Samsung bandwagon is Hummer to smartphones.

iPhone 5 comes at the right time since I'm in line for a phone upgrade.  My iPhone [Legacy] still packs a lot of punch but it's really time to see a new shine after a sentimental 4+ years with my old iPhone.  Pity this poor Intel engineers that cannot afford upgrading his phone.  I've been saving a cent a day for this you know...

P/S: If you hate me for lining up for the new iPhone, feel free to donate a Galaxy S3 to me.  I'll gladly accept and probably talks some good things about Android.

Spec wise, it's pretty much compared here.

So here's my insight about my thought and consideration on either 5 or S3.
1) Internal hardware

Hardware wise, both are neck to neck and possibly equally powerful, offers similar features e.g. LTE, 1080p 30fps camera, similar storage offerings etc.  Since no one knows the spec for the A6 processor yet and there's no head to head benchmark scores, I'm giving this a tie.

Apple: 5
Samsung: 5


2) Screen
Many people will close this as a 10-0 win for Samsung but wait.  Just wait. The S3 uses Pentile Matrix in their display which causes the color to be less natural but Samsung being a leader in display panels really did a good job making the drawbacks of Pentile almost un-noticeable.

iPhone 5 boast a more complex screen that is capable of full sRGB rendering and at the same time thinner.  

Despite all the technology the fruit company puts in, many people still prefers a bigger screen.  I'm rating this in relative to market's average 4.3 inch.  Samsung offering is out of this world and Apple is stepping up it's game.

Apple: 3
Samsung: 7

3) Operating System
iOS is a very good OS.  But a jailbroken iOS is even better.  Good news is Apple has a whole team optimizing the one OS for one phone while cherry picking the cool features from the jailbreak community.  Their Android partner were not so lucky.  Android is a much more customize-able OS with tons of eye candies which makes it fancier compared to simple icon oriented iOS.  

While Android vendors tried hard to include all the nooks and crannies in their own version of Android (most of them really comes from the jailbreak community anyway), they're often un-optimized and really hurt end user experience e.g. Lenovo K800... la la la.  So no matter how flowery Google makes their Android, it's often destroyed by OEM's poor optimization.  And in case you still don't know, Android is really a malware magnet.  And I don't see Google even try to fix this.  So, sorry greenies.   


Apple: 9
Samsung: 1 (1 is a consolation point for Google effort to improve Android)

4) Intuitivity
Give both devices to a newbie and you'll know who's the clear winner.  But as Android advances, it's trying to match iOS's simplicity while Apple is trying to slot in more features making it a bit complicated compared to the iOS [Legacy].  As a tech savvy, I find both easy enough to use but Apple's flavor is still easier to accustomed with.
Apple: 6
Samsung: 4

5) Apps
Apple app store, awesome as always.  Google Play Store, shitty as always.  This is main reason I'm staying away from Android and sticking to my iPhone [Legacy] for so many years.  

Yes, the Play Store is going to overtake the App Store in sheer number of apps alone but really tons to those that makes up the number are either rip offs of the original title (like bejeweled) and they're just purely junk apps.  Literally junk!  The worst of all, the app you purchased for $9.99 might not even work properly on your Android device.  

A quick example, Popcap's famous Plants vs Zombies.  The ratings in Apple's store is >95% positive but when it goes to land of Android, it's broken left and right and 33% rates the game lowest.  And don't forget, Google's Play Store apps is also much more susceptible to malware attacks.  And once in a while, a mature XXX apps will pop up in top free/paid apps.  Imagine a kid browsing the store and found this out.
Apple: 10
Samsung: 0 (Shut up! Play Store is really minus 20 marks)

So out of 50 points, Apple won my review round with 33-17.  I might write another round after I actually get either of these but for I am damn poor you may have to wait for the next rant just a tad longer.  

Unless a ground up fixing of all the insecurity of Android platform and back to the drawing board redesign of the Play store, I am not going to show any love to the green robot.

So.... Android fans, bash now!

Zer0's Zeitgeist

WARNING! VIEWERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED!

It will be up to you to believe what is written here.  

It took me 5 years after the release of Zeitgeist The Movie to finally get to watch this great piece of documentary.

The part 1 of the documentary, The Greatest Story ever told documents about the one thing human believe without the backup of science; religion.

Before I go into the depth, here's a thing to ponder.  First, if a man passed from this world, how would the Gods (I mean all of Them from different religions) know who to pick to return to their side?  And where do converts go? Secondly, we all know in religion teachings that good people goes to heaven, bad people goes to hell.  What if a bad person converts at the last second of his life to a religion that believe in reincarnation?  Does this means he gets to reincarnate into this world, continues to do evil and at the same time escapes returning to the Almighty thus escape eternal punishment?

...

In Zeitgeist, it is believed that all religions originated from Egypt.  In fact, they all resembles the oldest deities of Egypt religion, Horus (3000BC).  

Here are some fun facts about Horus.

- Born on December 25th of virgin Isis-Meri.

- Birth of Horus is accompanied by a star in the east.

- Upon his birth, he was adored by 3 kings.

- He was a teacher at the age of 12.

- He was baptized by Anup and began his ministry.

- He has 12 disciples, travelling while performing miracles such as healing the sick and walking on water.

- He was betrayed by Typhon, crucified, buried for 3 days and resurrected.

Sounds familiar?  Indeed they are.  In fact too similar with what our modern Christianity believe in the figure of Jesus Christ.  More here.  But Jesus Christ is not the only God almighty that resembles the attributes of Horus.  

Attis of Phrygia (1200BC), Krishna of India (900BC), Dionysus of Greece (500BC), Mithra of Persia (1200BC) and many more saviors from different periods from around the world share this attributes.  

As the matter of fact, based on the inscription about 3500 years ago on the walls of the Temple of Luxor in Egypt are the image of annunciation, the miracle conception, the birth and the adoration of Horus.

...

Astrologically, the birth of the savior on December 25th can be explained.  The star in the east is Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky which on the period of winter solstice aligns with the 3 stars of Orion's belt thus the 3 kings.  The 3 kings and the star in the east all point to the exact location of the sunrise on December 25th, thus the birth of Christ, the sun.

And at the same time during the winter solstice, where the sun is at the lowest point at the noon sky.  The sun will then stops moving for 3 days, resides in the vicinity of the southern cross, Crux.  

And on December 25th, the sun moves 1 degree up north.

So guess what this translates to?  The sun died on the cross, dead for 3 days and resurrected.  

But then, you may ask why the resurrection of sun is not celebrated on December 25th itself?  No, the resurrection of the sun is only celebrated until the spring equinox where the day is officially longer than the night.  And the day we celebrate the resurrection of the sun - Easter.

...

And then there is the cross of the zodiac.

The cross of the zodiac is not just an artistic expression to track the sun's movement.  It was also a Pagan spiritual symbol.  

Ever wonder why the images of Jesus Christ is always shown with His head on the cross?  Try superimposing the 2 image of Jesus Christ and the cross of zodiac together.  You'll realize that Jesus is really the sun.  The "Sun of God", the "Light of the World" and the "Risen Savior".

Verses from the Holy Bible:

"As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world" -John 9:5

Then, there is the Precession of  the Equinoxes.  The theory is that approximately every 2150 years, the sunrise of the spring equinox would occur at a different sign of zodiac.  The constellation is practically going backwards thus the precession.  The amount of time that it takes for the precession to complete all 12 zodiac signs is approximately 26,000 years with each constellation having roughly 2150 years, thus an aeon or age.  And when the cycle completes, the Great Year arrives.

From 4300BC to 2150BC, it was the Age of Taurus, the Bull. From 2150BC to 1AD, it was the Age of Aries, the Ram. From 1AD to 2150AD it is the Age of Pisces, the Two Fish (today) and from 2150AD to 4300AD (coming soon), it will be the Age of Aquarius.

For all the Bible readers out there, I'm pretty sure you remember symbolic references to the 3 ages; Taurus, Aries and Pieces while the Bible also foreshadow the coming age of Aquarius.

In the Old Testament, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the 10 Commandments, he's very upset to see his people worshiping a golden bull and shattered the stone tablets.

The golden bull is Taurus the Bull and Moses represents the new Age of Aries the Ram.  This is why Jews, even until today still blow the Ram's horn.

Then comes Jesus Christ, who represents the Age of Pisces, the Two Fish.  The symbol of fish was abundant in the New Testament.  For example, in Matthew 14:17-21, Jesus feeds 5000 people with bread and "2 fish".

I believe you've seen this symbol representing Christianity.  It is the symbol of Ichthys.  It is a Pagan astrological symbol for the Sun's Kingdom (or God's Kingdom) in the Age of Pisces.  And Jesus' birth is essentially the start of this age.

At Luke 22:10 when Jesus is asked by Peter and John (His disciples) where the last passover would be, Jesus replies:

"Behold, when ye are entered into the city, there shall meet you a man bearing a pitcher of water; follow him into the house where into he goeth" -Luke 22:10.

The man bearing a pitcher of water is Aquarius, the water bearer.  He represents the age after Pisces and when the sun (Jesus Christ) leaves the Age of Pisces, it will go into the house of Aquarius. 

Jesus also says:

"I will be with you even to the end of the world" -Matt 28:20.

There are several mis-translations in the bible such that the verse is translated to:

"I will be with you even to the end of the aeon (age)" -Matt 28:20.

This is true, even with the mis-translation as Jesus' solar Piscean personification will end when the sun enters the Age of Aquarius.  


...

Not just that, the story of Noah's Ark and the Great Flood is awfully similar to the Epic of Gilgamesh (2600BC), one of the earliest surviving literature.  When they say earliest, mean nothing solid and tangible before this can be proven true.  

What about the story Moses?  It is similar to the myth of Sargon of Akkad (2250BC).  Then it comes to the Ten Commandments which is believed to be an exact copy of the Spell 125 from the Egyptian Book of the Dead.

...

In summary, I am not questioning the existence of God and at the same time not indulging in Darwin's evolution theory.  But it is interesting to ponder the presence of early human existence going all the way back to the paleolithic era which doesn't add up to the teachings of religion.  It is interesting that fossils of beings (including dinosaurs) lived thousands or millions of years ago were uncovered from the very Earth itself.  But from the teachings of religions, there were no super-sized reptiles.  Adam and Eve when descended from the heavens were already civilized.  Where does the caveman fit in to the story?

So the more interesting question is, when the Age of Pisces is over as foretold in approximately 1 or 2 centuries in the future, will there be a new religion that fits the Age of Aquarius?