Category: English

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Google Chrome Beta – First Impressions

I downloaded Google Chrome Beta today. The reason is that the chat functionality in Facebook doesn’t work well from Firefox with the connection I have here. It’s only with the connection here, although it works well for any other application, so I have no idea why that happens. For a few days I’ve been using IE7 to access Facebook but got tired of it because it’s practically killing my computer. IE8 will be out any day now, but I’m not happy about using it either.

So I ended up installing Chrome and I’ve been only using it for 30 minutes. What I instantly liked about it is that its user interface is minimal. No status bar, for example. That’s very important when you only have 600 pixels height like I do on this Eee netbook. Additionally, the tabs are edged on the top of the screen, so it’s easier to switch tabs with the mouse (complying with one aspect of Fitts’ Law) and especially with the Eee’s touchpad. The second thing that I like about it is how fast and responsive the user interface is. Things like opening a new tab, switching tabs or scrolling on a page are really fast (at least they seem faster than Firefox.)

When it comes to JavaScript engine speed, it doesn’t really seem faster to me. Maybe that’s because I’m not such a power user of the JavaScript applications I use like Gmail and Google Reader.

One thing I didn’t expect is that Google Gears didn’t realize I already have a synchronized copy of my Gmail messages on my computer (for offline usage) so now it appears as though I will have two different copies that will be synchronized separately from each other, depends on which browser I use to open Gmail (or any other website with offline support.) That’s pretty disappointing.

I think I’m going to give Chrome a spin for a while. Now that it has (beta) extension support, I’m sure that only extension I’m missing, Delicious, will be soon available to use on it.

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The Trip – Day 52 – Koh Phangan

Today it was sunny most of the day but it rained for a little while as well. I got my flight ticket to Bangkok finalized to the evening of the 24th and already started looking for hotels there. I’m also looking at pre-booking train tickets for the UK because it saves a ton of money. I didn’t run today, so this was a true day of rest. Today is the Half Moon party but I don’t think it eventually happened because I didn’t see any taxis going there. I wouldn’t have gone anyway – I heard it’s not something to be excited about.

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The Trip – Day 51 – Koh Phangan

Today was almost exactly the same like yesterday with the exception that I treated myself to a foot massage after running. As expected, it was great :)

I decided to get a flight ticket to Bangkok on the 24th in the evening, which will leave me a day (or a day and a half if I’m up to it) to see what Bangkok is like. From what I heard – one day is enough. Until then I think I’m going to stay right here. I enjoy doing nothing and I’m happy that I can also keep in shape, something that is also important to me.

Today there was a hint of a party on the beach, but it’s not really coming together yet. Probably in the next few days people will start dancing to the music (it’s really sad when no one jumps the fire skipping rope.)

I’ve started to think about my time in the UK. The first thing I’ll do is go to meet my ever-traveling friend, Katz, in Yorkshire. I’ll be with her at least until her birthday, which is April 5th. That’s also the date of the first Prodigy show I’m going to. But there’s still time to think about all that. I’ll just keep on doing nothing for now.

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I’ve Upgraded To A 50GB Dropbox Account

Dropbox is one of the only file backup/sync services that works across Windows, Mac and Linux. I’ve had an unused free Dropbox account for a while now, but today I upgraded it to a 50GB account for 10$/month. I’ve been considering an online backup solution for a while now (even before the trip) but now that I have all this data from the trip (mainly pictures from the cameras but also music files and others) and considering that I will now have three computers (Linux desktop, work laptop and this Eee netbook) I can no longer pretend that my data is safe and organized. Even things that I have multiple copies of – I can’t control the last time I backed them up and where that backup is.

The only thing that’s really annoying about Dropbox is that it synchronizes and backs up only one folder. So if I want to backup/sync my pictures I have to move all of them into that folder. So I did that with my pictures and my music and now I have 8 more upload days until everything is backed up online. When I’m back home I’ll install Dropbox on my Linux machine and work laptop and everything will be synched automatically on them.

Dropbox gives you 2GB for a free account, which is perfect for storing configuration files (for example, Linux’s /etc folder.) I’m already know 50GB won’t be enough for me, but it’s enough for the duration of the trip.

Update: I spoke too soon. There is a way to sync files outside of the Dropbox folder. In Linux/Mac/Windows Vista (or later) it’s as simple as creating a link. In Windows XP you need to use a utility.

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The Trip – Day 50 – Koh Phangan

Normal day – eating, napping, reading, running. Very tired now. Tomorrow I might go for a foot massage. My feet are hurting a little from the running and it will be a good way to pass an hour or so :)

It’s still pretty cloudy and currently there are no parties at nights on the beach (despite the “there’s always a party on the beach at night” rumor you may have heard.)

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The Trip – Day 49 – Back To Koh Phangan

The power was back on again at about 9am this morning in Koh Samui. Two hours after that I was on a taxi to the boat back to Koh Phangan. I got my resort room just before it started raining like crazy for quite a long time. There isn’t much to do here in the rain but to sit in restaurants and watch TV/movies. Which is great :) So I booked 5 nights in the resort so that means I’m staying here at least until March 20th.

Here are some pictures from Koh Samui just before I left and a video of the rain in Koh Phangan:

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The Trip – Day 48 – Koh Samui

Yesterday, after posting on the blog, I went to walk the streets of Koh Samui. The place is full of high-end restaurants, pubs and hookers. I didn’t like it at all, as some of the places seemed downright creepy to me. Eventually I sat at an Irish pub called Tropical Murphy’s and had a very good Shepherd’s Pie while listening to live music.

This morning Neil and I went looking to rent ATVs (4 wheelers.) You can rent scooters everywhere, but ATVs are harder to find. Apparently when they break it’s hard to get parts for them because all the places in Samui that used to have them only had broken ones, except for one place that had rented all of its ATVs for the day. So going to look for ATVs is what we did this morning. Then lunch and a nap.

We also found out that our resort has a small gym. How small? It’s a room just big enough to hold 6 treadmills. At around 4:30pm I decided to try running on a treadmill after not doing it for 2 months. It was definitely easier than running outside but the problem was that the air conditioning and the ventilation in the room didn’t work, so my body became very hot very fast and my heart rate was at 180 bpm after running at 10 km/h for only 35 minutes. Eventually I did 6 km in 40 minutes, an embarrassing average of 9 km/h. Going outside to the 30 degrees heat I actually felt relieved. Usually I would start worrying that I’m not in shape anymore, but those were really sub-optimal conditions. Tomorrow I’ll be back in Koh Phangan and the day after that I’m hoping to run on Haad Rin beach again.

We thought about going to that party again but at around 8pm there was lightning and thunder over the sea and then there was a power cut for the entire night until the next morning at 9am. Rain really brings me down but now it appears to be clearing (the power cut off again just as I was writing that sentence. I should post now.)

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The Trip – Full Moon Party Videos

I’ve uploaded a few videos. I have more but they take a long time to convert and upload, so I had to pick these four.

The first two are of the party’s warm up entertainment. There are many fire shows but the most entertaining one by far is the fire skipping rope, where drunk people (sometimes 7 or 8 at a time) try to jump a skipping rope that is soaked in fuel and lit on fire:

The next two videos are just 2 minutes of the better moments of the party:

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The Trip – Day 47 – Koh Samui

The doing-absolutely-nothing attitude continued today. It took me quite a while to recuperate from the very long sleep of last night. I sat by the pool and did some online reading. Then I went to have breakfast and for a walk on the beach. Chaweng beach is very long and curvy so it’s nice to walk the length of it. I didn’t walk all of it, though. After about 10 minutes of walking I was so sweaty I turned around and walked back.

After that Neil and I moved to a different room. The room we had stayed in the previous night was booked for today so we got a better room – a bungalow with a window facing the pool. It’s funny how that works – the people that pre-booked the lesser room got exactly what they wanted, while we were upgraded to a better room for the same price because we walked in without pre-booking.

Anyway, after that we went to lunch in a very stylish restaurant called “Chef’s Table.” The food was really really good and the service impeccable. We really enjoyed that meal and will definitely go back, even tonight.

Tomorrow is my last day in koh Samui. The following day I will be heading back to Koh Phangan. While Koh Samui is nice, the tourist population here is older and while the restaurants here are better, it’s nothing I care much for (Neil loves it, though.) I prefer sitting in a restaurant watching endless reruns of “Friends” with people my age.

Here are some pictures I took today:

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The Trip – Out Of Space Played During The Full Moon Party (Video)

I asked one of the DJs during the Full Moon party to play Smack My Bitch Up. He signaled to me something I interpreted as “it’s on my list.” However, the only Prodigy track I heard him play is Out Of Space (Audio Bullys remix.) I’m pretty sure playing the original Out Of Space would have gotten better response from the party goers, but this is pretty good too. It was 2:30am so most of them are already completely wasted.