Windows Vista

I can finally get rid of my infamous computer with the broken monitor because the department has purchased a new computer for me, and so I finally get a chance to use Windows Vista. Several people have warned me before that Vista is no good and so suggested me not to use it. I've been using Vista for a day and I have a good feeling towards it so far. It's very different from Windows XP. For example, it has much more items in Control Panel. The Display Settings tool is not shown in Control Panel by default but is within the Personalization tool. There is a Windows Defender tool which is a serious competition with other anti-virus software in the market. It allows administrators to re-partition the hard disk without losing data and thus save the money to purchase PartitionMagic. It has a Windows Sidebar feature which allows users to insert something called "gadget" on the desktop, such as the Weather gadget that displays the temperature of where the user lives, the Stock gadget that shows the stock market indices in real-time, etc., and this is one of the new features I love most. Also, I observe that Windows Media Player seems to play streaming audio/video more smoothly in Vista than in XP. Besides all these, there are many other new things in Vista that I need some time to learn.

Microsoft has received a lot of criticisms regarding the security of its OS products in the past five years. But I gotta say Microsoft has put a lot of efforts in making sure that Vista is secure, and Bill Gates' Trustworthy Computing initiative is not just an ad slogan. Linux is not necessarily more secure than Windows any more. The predictable random number generator vulnerability (seeded with process ids) introduced by the Debian development team has become a joke in the security community, showing the lack of knowledge in security and cryptography among programmers in general.

Good job, Bill Gates!

Sichuan Earthquake

My country began three days of official mourning today. The death toll of the Sichuan earthquake has risen to more than 30,000 with tens of thousands hurt. This was the earthquake with the greatest magnitude in the history of modern China. My deepest condolences to those who lost their lives. May their souls rest in peace!