Want a free Mac OS?

Unless you buy an iPod Shuffle for US$1078, then you can get your MacBook for free. :P

Seriously, I long to have one either. But until then, I stay with theming my current OS. ^^

I started wanting to try Mac way back 2006 just to escape the Windows world once in a while. Though, back then, I'm already trying out GNU/Linux just to learn something new.

Upon learning that Mac OS are only bundled on a Mac machine -- no retails available, I started looking for Mac themes for Windows. It's then that I heard about WindowBlinds and ObjectDock, YzShadow and other freewares and sharewares on the net that help tweak Windows theme into a Mac. Good thing FlyAKite OSX existed -- it did all the dirty jobs for me.

Playing around with my Mac-themed Windows, I wasn't all too happy as it didn't give the UNIX feel.

So I turned into my GNU/Linux box and started looking for FlyAKite OSX for GNU/Linux. Sadly, there was none at that time. Yes, you can find some wallpapers, icons and sounds but it's not close to what FlyAKite did to my Windows box.

Year later, here comes Mac4Lin. I installed it on my newly upgraded Ubuntu Feisty Fawn. Though, you still have to do some dirty works installing the replacements -- reading 6 pages of how-to.

But all that changed last June 2009, as Mac4Lin v1.0 has been released. Automating it all with shell scripts.

Now, everybody can have a free Mac OS -- well a Mac-themed UNIX-like free OS. :D

As Michael Jackson sung it, "easy as 1-2-3":

1. Install Ubuntu
2. Install Mac4Lin
3. Enjoy!

Sweet!

Then the bloat came

Google kept bragging that with their Chrome architecture will have less memory bloat than Firefox do.

But just how less is less? Is it half less than firefox do?

I guess even Google could not quantify less.

Shown below is what Google calls less.

Browsing all day (as I work at home), I noticed Chrome becomes slow. Slow at loading page. slow at rendering page (clicking other tab then back).

I tried closing the Chrome then relaunched again. Guess what. It did the trick, Chrome is as fast as it should be. So then I had this theory that I needed to put on test.

The next day my session started, browsing all day. Posting here and there. Playing some, reading some.

Then I get to a point where it feels all too slow again, I launched Task Manager. To my surprise, Chrome was having a hard time loading and rendering pages, whipping to 100% process time.

Then I closed Chrome then relaunched later. And look what it did. It freed almost 500MB worth of memory bloat.

Take note: I set Chrome to reload the pages I was viewing when I closed it.

Now, tell me. Just how less is less?

I smell some kind of bad marketing going on at Google.

BING Is Not Google

Ever wondered why Microsoft renamed Live Search to Bing? Sounds girly to me.

So I thought of some possible reason to why they picked such an odd name.

Google is one odd name but it got stuck to people that it became a verb. Instead of saying, "search it on the internet", people say, "google it up". And instead of saying, "I'm trying to look for this stuff on the internet", they say, "I'm googling this stuff" or "I googled this stuff".

So while I'm kept amused by how 'google' became a verb, it struck me, could it be that Bing is a recursive accronym for BING Is Not Google?

I also play with words when I name a new project. Like for my WRS project, ZINC Is Not CMS or my game engine project, KAGE Ain't Game Engine. Simply had it based on GNU -- GNU's Not Unix. :D

So I wondered, why BING? and not LING (Live Is Not Google) or MING (Microsoft Is Not Google)

Was it a tribute to Bill Gates?!?... maybe Bing could mean, Bill Is Not Gay -- or so they say. :D