Justice!

FIFA World Cup, Brazil 26 June 2014 - Uruguay forward Luis Suarez banned for nine matches and banned for 4 months from any football activity. Bravo! FIFA, you can still do some things right.

Details being updated at: http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/28023882

Why Windows still lags Mac OS X - Part II (aka Lenovo saga)

The machine took its time to do the Windows updates with the mouse pad showing no sign of working. Finally, after the updates finished, I restarted the machine and it goes back to the Thinpad/Lenovo log and nothing happens.

Did some quick search on the net and Lenovo has suggestions for (not the same model) Thinkpad BIOS upgrade. Even if the model was in their list, I don't see a way to upgrade the BIOS if the machine does not even go into the BIOS!!

Almost at the edge to return the package to Newegg :(

OnePlus One - can't wait to get one

The new OnePlus One phone that I'm hoping to get my hands on soon, although it will probably serve me as a small tablet controlling my Chromecast.

Highlight specs: It has a 5.5" screen (1920x1080), Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor clocked at 2.5GHz, 3GB RAM, 13Mpixel camera which supports 4K recording. You can see detailed Specifications at your leisure.


See more at OnePlus website.

Easy clean browsing

With all the tracking cookies, disturbing advertisements and privacy concerns when one faces these days when browsing the Internet, below are the simple things that can be done to have a better experience.

1. Use Firefox browser - the wide range of addons available for it make it a good candidate
2. In Firefox install the following addons:
• AdBlock Edge
• HTTPS Everywhere
• PrivacyBadger
• Disconnect

More explanation to follow for the addons. These, I think, are the bare essential addons one should use to have a relatively safe and clean browsing experience these days.

Those looking for better privacy and cleaner (read - inconvenient) browsing, they can look towards NoScript based Tor Browser or even Tails.

Why Windows still lags Mac OS X

I received a Thinkpad T530 earlier today and as soon as I got home, I opened it up to configure it. As per the few instructions on the pamphlet which came with it, I connected the battery and the power adapter. I set it to charge for a few minutes in case the battery had no juice in it.

After about 10 minutes, I pushed the power button to turn it ON and the Thinkpad logo appeared... and it didn't go away. No lights except the green halo beside the power button. No HDD activity at all! After waiting for about 3-4 minutes, I shut it down and tried again. 5 minutes and nothing changed. Third time, I powered it on and started looking for customer support information. Took me some time and when I looked towards the screen, it had something.... that was around 10minutes after powering ON!

I have had Mac machines and their power ON and the configuration (which I usually skip) is almost instant. It has been like this since at least 2006 Mac OS X Tiger. If Windows/Lenovo or other laptop makers cannot get their hardware/software to be more responsive, they are going to continue to loose the fight to Mac OS X.

That wasn't all though - during the configuration the mouse pad or the red pointing device DID NOT WORK. Luckily I know how to use a machine without a mouse and was able to get through the configuration without the mouse. After initial configuration, I started Windows updates and I still cannot use the mouse pointer!!

PS: Machine is for someone else, I would have slapped a Debian install by now if it was for me.