Preface

LibreOffice Writer is better than Microsoft Word. If you are a web developer, you should understand that there are class and style. Using LibreOffice is tended to using class-like style, instead of direct formatting, which causes a lot of inconsistent, troublesome, and time consuming modification throughout the word processing. And this is happened when the newbies are using Microsoft Word to create templates for the advanced user like me, and causes me full of trouble as being tortured.

I would like to share some of my computer management habits regarding the folder name. Unlike my friends or colleagues, I seldom put the files in the Desktop folder. Because I prefer that my computer desktop is always clean (yet physically, my desktop is messy).

Therefore, there are several folders appeared in my computer, and these folders can be appeared in any other folders.

Firstly, “temp” is my most favourite folder. Any temporary documents or files, that are not very important, they are saved here. The “temp” folder is also appeared in my Download folder. Furthermore, when necessary, “temp2”, “temp3”, and so on will be created. These folders, if they are deleted, normally will not cause any catastrophic effect.

这篇用中文，赠给有缘人。

JPEG vs PNG

很多人在工作时，都会用到图形文件（image file）。甚至有时还需要制作图形（图画）。当图形完成时，一般人都会使用JPEG格式。JPEG格式，就是在文件扩展名（file extension）后，加入 .jpg，或 .jpeg，甚至 .jpe。一般遇到的都是 .jpg。若是Windows用户，就未必会看到这些文件扩展名。

除了JPEG格式，还有一种格式是必须知道的，即使PNG。PNG和JPEG是有极大的差别的。以下是例子：

[caption id=“attachment_1063” align=“aligncenter” width=“147”] hello.jpg[/caption]

[caption id=“attachment_1064” align=“aligncenter” width=“147”] hello.png[/caption]

这两种格式，乍看之下是没有差别。因为hello.jpg用了90的压缩质量（类似90%之意）。就是这个压缩级别（compression level）带来了很大的差别。虽然压缩质量90，但是现在我将它们放大后做比较，

[caption id=“attachment_1065” align=“aligncenter” width=“300”] 放大后的JPEG[/caption]

[caption id=“attachment_1066” align=“aligncenter” width=“300”] 放大后的PNG[/caption]

这里我们可以看到两个差别。就是PNG的字非常“干净”，而JPEG的则有些“脏”。那是90的压缩质量的结果。若使用者想要把文件压缩成更小的file size，而将压缩级别调成90以下，那图形会变得更“脏”。原因是JPEG的压缩方式是lossy compression，即“有损压缩”。就是在压缩的时候，将不重要的讯息摈弃，好让文件大小减少。相反地，PNG用的是“无损压缩”。

更惨的是，若把JPEG文件打开，再储存一次，就会再次“有损”图形。储存越多次，“有损”也越多次。

因此，本人的基本原则就是，类似照片的图形文件，本人都用JPEG。而自制的海报类，有文字的图形，电脑绘制的图形，本人都用PNG。

Raster vs Vector

这两个东西比较少人懂。即是raster image（位图）和vector image（矢量图形）。以上的JPEG和PNG都是属于raster image。而vector image一般人比较少接触到。最普遍的vector image的格式本人知道的就是SVG。一般的绘图软件（image editor）是无法编辑SVG的，必须用专用的软件，如Inkscape。

Raster image和vector image的最大差别就是，当raster image的品质越好的时候，file size就会越大；而vector image是没有如此的问题。正如我们拍照，若用13MP的质量和5MP的质量相比，file size是有很大的差别的。然而，vector image的file size不会随着图形的大小而有多大的差别。纵然如此，vector image不能用在如照片这类由现实而来的图形上。因此，用vector image的话，图形的大小是没有任何影响的。而用raster image，图形的大小会影响到图形的质量。以下举个简单的例子。

[caption id=“attachment_1067” align=“aligncenter” width=“300”] 放大后vector image的边缘[/caption]

[caption id=“attachment_1068” align=“aligncenter” width=“300”] 放大后raster image的边缘[/caption]

These days, want to compile old projects. Firstly, I compiled all my code using Arch Linux. Then I decided to install my project to a LiveUSB, so that I need not to partition or use virtual machine on the target computer.

So I planned to use KNOPPIX.  I tried Linux Mint in VirtualBox, since it is based Debian, but failed to compile my code due to the CEGUI version is not the latest as Arch Linux.

LiveUSB is too nice, especially for recovery. KNOPPIX or Puppy Linux can also be used as OS temporary to do the work and save the file. However, LiveUSB is too distro dependent. Thus, I am wondering how to prepare a portable OS by virtualisation through Qemu.

The advantages of this idea is to

• allow the user to install any OS, meaning that the user can install any packages to do any work.
• have an OS in an FAT32 formatted pendrive where the OS can have the size exceeds 4G.
• be portable as a portable application.

However, there are some disadvantages.

Firstly, I want to state that I am totally anti (dislike) Internet Explorer. There are several reasons that I don’t like Internet Explorer.

Internet Explorer version less than 9 has a lot of problems with CSS. As a result, as a developer, developing the webpages for among IE and other web browsers is exhaustive. In order to make the compatibilities, the CSS is almost web browser dependent. Besides that, CSS3 which is supported by most of the modern web browsers, does not work well in Internet Explorer. Luckily there is a trick using PIE. But this is not the best solution.

I tried to escape from the Windows dependency problem. Wishing that all my devices can work without problem with Linux. But one of the greatest problems is that Canon PIXMA iP1600 does not have driver for Linux, except using iP2200 which is compatible.

Previously, I solved this problem with the virtualisation. This work perfectly to do my printing. However, it is still depending on Windows. Without Windows, the virtualisation is almost useless.

I always thought that Wine (or WINE, WINE Is Not an Emulator) is good enough for me to play Windows games and running Windows applications without using the virtualisation such as VirtualBox. However, this is not completed.

Recently, due to a giveaway from CodeWeavers, I downloaded and tried the CrossOver. Then I found the comparison of Wine and CrossOver, CrossOver contains some proprietary components, which makes Windows applications run smoother than Wine. I tried, yes, there are some differences. But I am still using Wine because of my own favour.

Sometimes we use spreadsheet to store data as table just like database. Especially the features provided like sorting and filtering. This allows us to look at the data easily without the knowledge of SQL (structured query language). Furthermore, we can add in the rows easily, do calculation using formulae, and also copy-paste the data to any cell. Comparing to database, the data needs to be filled row by row, this is the main drawback. This is why spreadsheet is easier to use.

The best desktop environment I mentioned here, doesn’t mean the DE such as KDE, GNOME, Xfce, LXDE, etc. The purpose of this post is to express the best desktop environment, that is, the features and functionalities.

You can called me old fashion, does not able to follow the latest technology. Whatever it is, the followings are my opinions on the features:

Taskbar as in Windows XP, or task list as in Xfce.

The taskbar in Windows 7, which groups them all, not user friendly for me. At least two actions needed: mouse over (or click) to show the whole group, then click again into the window of interested. The best is ungrouped, zero level, all windows showed. The sorting can based on time or window name, at least the users will know how to find the window based on some rules. The DE like GNOME 3 or Unity are too bad for me. Group the windows or applications in workspace, difficult to switch between the windows.