filipmares.com

Like most university students I suffer a terrible addiction. This addiction is caffeine. It has become my best friend and lover. Nothing can really describe my experience with my first cup of coffee of the day. This cup needs to be strong and with a tiny bit of milk/rice milk. No sugar as sugar is the DEVIL! Depending on this cup’s potency my day will either go good or great. It always is a weak start without it.

Deep down I feel like a junky and I hate It. Caffeine has become the acceptable drug these days and let’s face it’s not without it’s side effects. I would like within the next 18 months to kick the habit and lead the healthy lifestyle I try and follow(I eat great).

In comes Brain Toniq the much talked about energy drink on twitter. They claim to have no caffeine and made from all natural extracts. Sounds good right? I’ve been long putting off the decision to purchase a bunch of cans and ship them over the border. Even though it’s no sold legally here in Canada (because of DMAE and the fact that laws are more strict against supplements) a few weeks Ago I took the plunge and ordered a pack of 12.

The package arrived within a week with their cheapest of shipping options. One day later i drank my first can. At first i didn’t feel anything different, but within the next 15 min my mood changed dramatically and i was actually enjoying putting together my poorly designed wine rack. Since then for the past 2 weeks I’ve consumed one once a day with the excepting one day when I needed a bit more brain power than usual (two midterm and a lab in one day). I must say that the reaction has been quite pleasant. It is not similar to coffee or other energy drinks(although I don’t drink them often…vodka redbull  ) I must say although my mood improved and my brain felt refreshed, it did almost nothing on a physical level.  One morning I was tired from a late night and being sore from the gym. Brain Toniq did not improve my physical tiredness it instead refreshed my tired brain. I focused real easily for prolonged periods of time and have had some of my most productive study sessions.

I conclusion, I have enjoyed the benefits of Brain Toniq and will re-order another package very soon. I feel it’s a great substitute for coffee and it tastes great. It seems to last for a long time, so I wouldn’t worry about drinking more than one. The folks at Brain Toniq are doing a promotion and have offered an 18% discount with the promo code: SOC.

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So i tried it out and i did not like my weekly posts summarized (see screenshot below). I felt as if it took the essence away from my blog. From now on my tweets will be available on twitter and hopefully soon i can get a new theme going for the blog to give more of a “life stream” experience.

As for new post coming up; i have a review of Brain Toniq energy drink and the 2nd part to my Living in the Cloud series.

Till then i leave you with the latest @tinybuddha quote.

"Worry pretends to be necessary but serves no useful purpose." ~Eckhart Tolle

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So i like organizing and planning most aspects of my day to day life. I am a huge fan of Google Calendar and Google tasks. Recently Google has started integrating the two services and it has made me the happiest Google user ever…until Wave.

I personally don’t leave my GCal windows open all day. I might have Gmail open about 80% of my day. I do however like to have my tasks displayed so that i am constantly reminded about the little things that need to get done so that i don’t feel like my day is a waist. Sadly to get at Google tasks now, you need to either be in Gmail or GCal. I thought about it long and hard (that’s what she said) and realized there is a web interface for mobiles for tasks (http://m.google.com). There are two really awesome versions: one for Android devices and another for the iPhone. I personally prefer the Android one as the font is much easier to read and Chrome doesn’t whine about switching to the Android site.

Android version (left) and iPhone version (right)

Turn on your Google Chrome browser and turn this site into an application (guide). This will create an icon to launch your new Google tasks Gadget. The end result… –>

Very sexy, i know. No go on and be more productive.

Note: This can obviously be done with Firefox and Prism add-on.

Links:

Add Tasks to Google Calendar

Add Tasks to GMail

Info on Firefox and Prism Applications

UPDATE: Thanks to reader Tom who also suggested the iGoogle widget.

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I have been reformatting my machines quite often over the past 8 months and re-installing my most used applications has become quite tedious. I have been reformatting due to trying out new builds of Windows 7. It has been quite the treat to have seen this operating system become as polished as it is in its latest build of Release Candidate. In my quest for the ultimate in lean lightweight computing I’ve decided to stop relying so much on apps that run locally and start looking for alternatives in the cloud. Being an regular Gmail user, i  am already accustomed to the idea of having an application in a web browser feel like a native one. Throughout the next month or so i will cover the many ways in which i am eliminating my day to day native applications (Live Messenger, Outlook, Photoshop, Word, Excel, One Note etc.) for in browser solutions.

This move is not only in anticipation of the wiping my systems again on Oct 15th, but also in anticipation to a notebook purchase. Although i am not a big fan of the netbook movement, it’s admirable to see how much hardware can be stuffed into the little 8-9″ package. I’d prefer the 10-12″ variety, but then I personally don’t consider those netbooks. Let’s call them thin and light notebooks. I can see no use for a 9″ screen with a resolution that barely supports most web pages. It would be tedious to use it as thin client for web apps.

Just a couple of netbooks that i have my eye on. Asus EEEPC 1008HA(left and Dell Inspiron Mini 10 (right).

Hardware

For the time being I’ve resorted to my current notebook to be the platform for this series of Cloud Computing. Here are the specs:

Asus Z71V Notebook

Intel Pentium M 1.86Ghz

1 GB Ram (gettign back to 2 after i get my memory stick RMA’d. BTW this has been the delay in this post as i had to make time to troubleshoot the system)

25Gb of 65 Gb (i have allotted this much based on the fact that i am triple booting between Windows 7, OsX and Linux. Less will suffice also, although i will not recommend less than 20Gb)

Software

Obviously i am using Windows 7, but this really does apply to all versions of windows and sometimes even cross platform. The web browser I plan on using is Google Chrome. Recently, I have started favouring Chrome I’ve Firefox due to its interface simplicity, superior screen real estate and its sheer speed. Some other advantages that chrome has over Firefox or any other browser is its JavaScript engine and built in Google gears engine. This will come in handy when using more intensive web applications.

Conclusion

The types of applications I have planned on covering so far are alternatives to office and personal documents synchronization. I not only plan on picking a service, but also provide some alternatives. To follow along with my posts all you’ll need is a computer (Mac or PC) with either Google Chrome or Firefox with the prism add-on.

That’s all for now.

Update: I was notified that i did not link to any of the browsers and plugins i mentionesd. So here are a few of the links:

Firefox Web Browser

Prism add-on (Firefox only, not needed for Chrome)

Google Gears Addon (Firefox only, not needed for Chrome)

Google Chrome

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During the 2009 ‘Reading Week’ (Feb. 16th – Feb20th) I interviewed with Microsoft for a Software Development Engineer (SDE) internship. Throughout the day I had the “pleasure” of interviewing with some of the greatest minds behind the Windows Live Experience team. It was a dream come true and if only this would have been an interview I was conducting I might have left a little less troubled.

My day started out I’m building 19 which is know as the Recruiting Building. This was equipped with Microsoft’s latest and greatest. From Touch Smart PCs, to XBox 360s with Rockband and of course the Microsoft Surface. Needless to say I was drawn immediately to the surface and spent a good 15 minutes trying to “break it”.  It didn’t, which impress me immensely. I managed to play some games on it along with 3 other internship candidates from some renowned colleges in the US (Michigan State, Ohio State, and Dartmouth…from what i remember). On this day in particular it seemed as I was the only Canadian University student.

After about 30 minutes of waiting I was greeted by my recruiter who seemed really interested in my future. She revealed that i would be interviewing with the Live Experience Team. This was no surprise to me as i expressed my great interest in the Live services side of Microsoft. I was however super excited as this opportunity got more exciting than before. She asked me what my plans are after finishing my undergrad program. Asked me if i was considering Grad school or joining the industry? I told her I was undecided, but I’m leaning more towards joining the industry and getting my feet wet. Grad school is not out of the question in the long run. It was a pleasant yet brief meet and greet.

Afterward i was set up with a “shuttle” which drove me to the Live building. The shuttles on campus are a mixture of Toyota Sienna and Prius. This one was a Prius. I was pleasantly surprised to see this, as they drive people around quite a bit and we could sure use a large company display their environmentally conscious side. Once arrived at the Live Building i saw the most hilarious nerdy thing of all day. Outside the front entrance there was a mailbox which was painted with the old Hotmail logo.

My interviews throughout the day were held with Senior Developers from the Live Sync Client team, SkyDrive team and the Live Social Team. We discussed Microsoft and how Live fits in to the big picture. From the start i could tell i was speaking to gifted individuals with tremendous experience. It was hard not to feel a little intimidated.

These are the questions that i was asked throughout the day:

You have a character array with the contents “the brown bear”. Reverse it. No stacks, no string manipulation.

What is the complexity of your algorithm and how can you improve on that?

You have another char [] with contents ” 5 3 3 15 2″. Output the repeating character.

How would you do it better?

What if you did know the character in the array? How would you do it?

Given a circular doubly linked list write out the methods to add a new node as such: addNode(Node itemToAdd, Node itemToAddBefore).

Write a method to remove the node.

Given a char[], find out if a given char[] is present. How many times does the char[] show up?

Can you do it more efficiently?

What extra curricular activities do you do? Strictly coding related.

How do you like Microsoft so far?

I might have missed a few questions as the interview was now almost a month ago. I’ve been working on this long post for just about that time as well. I’ve been incredibly busy and felt incredibly burdened as of lately to post this. I am sharing this with all the readers because posts like these helped me in my mental preparation for the interview.

I am sad to say that my interview with Microsoft was unsuccessful in getting the Internship. I consider myself very fortunate to have had the opportunity to get as far and be considered as a potential candidate. In the prep call for the trip to Seattle, we were informed that 1000s apply for the Internships and only a select few ever get the chance to interview on the MS campus in Redmond. I will remember this statistic for year to come and use it as motivation to pursue excellence. This has not been an end to a dream. IT has merely been a validation of my commitment to one day join the elite group of innovators that I idolize. I will be reapplying to Microsoft in the Fall for a full-time position as i will be graduating in the Spring of 2010.

So what’s next for Filip Mares you say? Well lot’s actually. I have my 4th year Engineering Project starting in the fall of 2009. I have a few ideas kicking around and now it’s just a matter of narrowing down to one which a professor is willing to supervise. As to the ideas; many of them have yet to materialize beyond paper. I have been fortunate enough to have met a fellow peer who is as passionate about new technologies as I am. We will be announcing a project within the next few months. I am very excited about the possibilities and  hope to have more to say on the matter real soon. 

Here are a few breathtaking pictures from the Seattle-Redmond-Bellevue area.

-Filip

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I recently got involved with a marketing campaign for new Blackberry plans and promotions from Bell for students. This is actually a pretty cool deal, so that’s why i am posting it on my blog.

Here’s the break-down:

• trade any phone towards a new Blackberry from Bell at market value
• sign up for the contest and become eligible to win $50,000
• new data and voice plans for students
• All you have to do is add the application on Facebook and sign-up for the contest.

You have the chance to win $50,000 with no purchase necessary and can trade to upgrade ANY cellphone, smartphone or BlackBerry you currently own to a newer device at a discounted price. Want to graduate debt free? Find out more, by checking the Facebook fan page here http://www.facebook.com/BlackBerryStudents or just go straight towww.blackberry.com/graduate .

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Hello fellow readers,

As many people starting a new year, I started making a list of things to do this year. Looking back I had achieved a lot with regards to my online presence. My twitter followers have increased exponentially towards the end of the year. Having started all of this less than 6 months ago the site has gained lots of traffic and i am super excited about the future.

The first change for 2009 was an entire blog migration from Blogengine.NET to the more popular Wordpress. This change was due to increased frustration with Blogengine.NET and it’s complexly implemented plugins. I needed something customizable and simple to maintain. The decision is also based on the fact that I changed hosting providers(GoDaddy to DreamHost). This meant switching from asp.net to php unfortunately, but I think it might pay off in the long run.

I plan on posting more often and integrating my “tip-a-day” twitted feed as part of the blog. I microblog on twitter more often then I post on my actual blog. Currently about 80:20 ratio. I’m going to try and bring that closer to a 70:30. This will be largely made possible by being able to post from my iPhone or at least start drafts on it. I have a busy semester coming up, so the majority of posts will start rolling in towards the end of April.

My sincere apologies about the I porter posts which have had the images posted removed. I will gradually be going through the guides and replacing the images manually.

Until the next time…

Make sure to follow me on twitter @filipmares for regular updates and announcements.

…and just because i’m cool

– Post From My iPhone

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This is a list of software and hardware that has made my year a little better in some way. These are the things i can’t live without…

8. Gyminee

For any health or fitness nut out there, Gyminee is by far the most in-depth food and workout tracker i have come across. It is a little tedious to keep track of every bite you eat, but weight loss comes with both exercise and good eating habits. The database for food items is so vast as users add dishes and even common grocery/fast food item that there is no way you won’t find what you ate. I recommend this to anyone that wants to bring a little discipline in their health and fitness routine.

7. Toodledo

I have a busy life with school and studying, so keeping my tasks in a centralized place makes all the sense in the world. Some prefer Remember the Milk (RTM), but i am a Toodledo kind of guy. Maybe it’s the name or maybe it’s cause i used it for my MobileMe Alternatives Guide but this is one task scheduler i can’t live without. Thanks to it’s API you can get it built into Google Calendar.

6. Microsoft Wireless Notebook Laser Mouse 6000

I needed a mouse for my notebook to use at school and when i travel. I wanted something small and with laser tracking. Got a great deal on this mouse for $9.99 and have never been more pleased. I use the Zoom button real often as the resolution on my notebook screen is very high and when I’m tired i can’t really read the small text. There are newer models out there right now, but this has greatly enhanced my mobile experience.

5. Syncplicity

My greatest scare is data and file loss caused by a failing hard drive. In the 1st quarter of this year i found on online solution which does everything i want at the price that i want. I back up my documents and other random files with 2GB available at start. I have used up all my invites and it is now maxed out at 5GB. More than anyone should need for important documents and maybe even a small collection of pictures. I also sync my files in between my notebook and PC with this service. There are other free alternatives(Mesh/Live Sync/SkyDrive), but none as easy as Syncplicity.

4. NewsGator(NetNewsWire)

Lately i have turned into quite the RSS feign. I get all my news with browsing anywhere. I mostly read it just on my IPhone, but sometimes on my PC as well. I recommend this method to everyone as it takes way less time  and you never forget to visit a site in a while. I rarely miss news as i have it all in the palm of my hand. Some of my Feeds are Engadget, Gizmodo, WinSuperSite, Boy Genius Report and Within Windows.

3. Windows 7 build 6801 M3

Ah, we come again to Windows. A very common topic in my tech discussion with my friends. Let’s start off with me saying that this is the best Windows to date and i love Vista too. I was supposed to do a preview post on the OS, but decided not to based on reasons some of you know and cannot discuss. A shame, but here is a short version of my takes on it.

• Aero snap is by far the most useful thing know to man and in my #tip-a-day post i showed a way to get it for XP/Vista. LOVE IT!
• The new taskbar is what made the OsX dock so popular and as usual MS copies it and makes it better. This is mostly due to the Aero Flow interface which i have to admit is good. Gimmicky, but good.
• Performance is a night and day difference from Vista. I am running it on my old notebook with under 1gb of ram used and it is fast even with all effects on.
• Some software is still wonky so beware (Google Chrome, Adobe Air software) The public BETA will be out soon so if you’re feeling brave download it here. I’ve been running the pre-beta since PDC and it is pretty stable. I’m real excited as what’s to come and this is a great way fro MS to bring excitement back to the PC.

2. Twitter(twhirl, Twitterrific)

Now, I’ve never been a fan of the constant status updates that some people do on Facebook or even MSN Messenger; frankly i HATE it. Twitter for some reason though really appealed to me. I like to up to date on anything whether it be tech news, events or latest trends. I follow a few Tech personalities such as Kevin Rose, Paul Thurrott and Jason Calacanis which drop some news from time to time from the Tech world. I mostly follow people for this purpose. I use it for a very small number of status updates, but most use it as a micro blogging platform. I ”blog” on it mostly about tech stuff and other thing as i find on the interwebs (a set of tubes :p). I do the daily #tip-a-day which keeps me busy and will get significantly harder with time as eventually i will run out of tips. Might have to move that to a few times a week. On the computer i use twhirl client while on the IPhone i use Twitterrfic Pro.

1. IPhone 3G

Quite frankly this device has change my life for ever. Until last summer i didn’t even own a data plan. Right now i am so connected with this thing that i don’t know if i can go a day without it. As a student it’s the ideal device, having an MP3 player and a phone in one package. I walk a lot and travel  a lot on public transport and having everything handy like this is a blessing. That isn’t to say i don’t have my gripes with it. Typing, ITunes, Battery Life are the downfalls of the device. I am personally still waiting for the Zune phone or a Nokia S60 revamped phone.

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So I’m finally done exams and am home for the holidays. Although I feel like I have a lot of gadget, any tech nerd must admit that it’s never enough. Here is a list of what i want most this holiday season(tech/video games only):

Call of Duty : World at War (PS3)

Resistance 2 (PS3)

PS3 DualShock3 Controller

The Dark Knight (Bluray)

Arctic Cooling Freezer 64

IPhone Alarm Clock Speaker Dock (undecided brand)

OCZ Throttle eSATA Flash Drive

More posts coming soon…

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A new episode of the Simpsons aired last night and it poked a little humour at something i blab about everyday to one of my friends; APPLE. The clips below (via Engadget) poke fun at everything from the G4 Cube, IPod, IPhone and of course, Steve Jobs. A lot of the comments are very in-you-face kind of humour and clearly explained to the non-tech crowd. Summary is basically:

• Overpriced
• Most users sport them for pure bragging rights and are willing to pay for the Apple tax
• Steve Jobs knows everything and tells us what’s cool
• Mess with functionality for the pure sake of Form 

As we find ourselves in this economic low, I find it ridiculous that companies like Apple got to coast through with overpriced merchandise and get to take advantage of people who most likely can’t/shouldn’t afford these products. In an interview a month or so ago, Jobs had said their are not stooping down as low as netbook manufacturers, because frankly the products would not be of quality. They chose to address an elite crowd of customers who are willing to pay the premium. This leaving the majority of the people drooling over the flashy gear and willing to go into debt to have them. On Black Friday last week everyone waited anxiously on the discounts on for MAC hardware ware only to be disappointed with the $50-$150 rebates. Even with the lower prices, their notebooks are overpriced.

As mentioned in the last Apple Keynote, the now have “10%  of the home computer market“. What they failed to mention is that this is in the OEM market alongside DELL, HP, Sony, etc. This does not take into account all pc users and custom built PCs. I would estimate their market somewhere around 4% optimistically. When tailoring to such a small market share how can one be so strict on the high pricing . You’d think that with all the Apple switchers adds we see on TV Apple cares about gaining ground on Microsoft. Price the items lower and people will buy them, or at least try them out.

Don’t say Windows sucks, PCs are boring and MACs are good for media creation and editing.

• Even Linux supporters have stated that their distros are not better, but merely a preference. Running a Mac as opposed to a PC is a preference and nothing more. This is definitely not a movement. As Paul Thurott mentioned in one of his latest posts: “Apple and its users are mistaking simple with easy”.
  • Don’t take away my buttons
  • track pad gestures are a gimmick
  • unibody design is pointless and expensive. Innovations should save money and pass that on to the end users.
• PCs are far from boring. They are customizable, affordable and sometimes damn attractive. Companies such as Dell, Alienware, Falcon Northwest, Asus, HP are constantly changing their product lines to great products, but no one holds keynotes and makes a big fuss. It creates diversity and originality most of the time in a user base. Release often and people will not be bored (BTW, how’s that MAC mini doing :p). Products are priced well and sell decently.  Between all these manufactures there are plenty of styles and configuration to satisfy pretty much any consumer. They also get a variety of colours as opposed to Black, White and Aluminium.
• The latest release from Adobe, CS4 runs significantly faster on PCs with x64 architecture. From what I have been reading, a lot of production companies have switched over a few machines for encoding video material already and saved money on the hardware too.

Don’t poke fun of Microsoft for “spending all their money” on advertising rather than fixing Vista bugs

• Apple spends $500 million (13% of SG&A Budget) this year alone on switcher adds and IPod/IPhone adds. That seems to me like a lot of money to throw at consumers advertising when remaining a Luxury Electronics manufacturer.

I predict:

• Apple will suffer through the next 6-8 months and sales figures will show
• Zune flash players will outsell the IPod Nano with the current pricing scheme
• MacWorld won’t bring anything groundbreaking except small refreshes and the usual Mac user burn on purchases previous to the show
• Either the Mac Mini will be killed off or it will get the nVidia treatment
• Snow Leopard will bore fanboys to death

Wake up Apple! Rant done…

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