有消息指，酒牌局要求部分續酒牌的酒吧凌晨2時後不可以賣酒，而近日已至少有 40 間位於不同地區的酒吧在續牌時加入有關條款。酒牌局發言人表示，在審批酒牌申請時會加入賣酒時限等條件，申請人如果不滿可提出上訴。

有近 200名會員的酒吧業協會副主席錢雋永表示，客人11、12點落到酒吧，但 2時就要關門，因為 2時後不能賣酒，酒吧如何能經營呢？他又表示，大部分酒吧老闆基本上是在不知情的情況下，當去到續牌時附加了有關條件。

旅遊界立法會議員謝偉俊認為，酒牌局的做法會影響旅遊業：「應考慮有關地方是商業用地、還是民居為主，作出平衡，在措施、政策上要體恤民情，亦要看香港現時在商業上、旅遊業上的需要，作出較合適、合理比較平衡的做法。」

朋友柏秋雲也憤憤不平道:

這種條例對做酒業生意的人非常不公平。

我也在 Facebook 及 Twitter 引述報導, 可以說 100% 的人都反對香港這個無能政府的做法。說什麼民主自主, 可以的話不如來個全民投票?

Snow Leopard takes up less than half the disk space of the previous version, freeing about 7GB for you — enough for about 1,750 more songs or a few thousand more photos.

One  of the reasons could be related to the PowerPC code removal within the universal binaries.  Secondly, it is related to the new compiler and linker, which generates a small size of target code.  The third reason, which not much people are paying attention to, is the way how to convert from bytes to KB, MB, GB, or TB.

For the past few years, Microsoft Windows uses the base of 10 to calculate storage size.  In computing world, 1MB = 1024KB.  On the other hand, 1MB = 1000KB in metric world.  In other words, a hard drive that has 10,485,760 bytes of available space will be shown as 10.49GB in Windows but only 10GB in pre-Snow Leopard.  Now, in Snow Leopard, we will see 10.49GB instead of 10GB.

Do you see the magic there?

Here is what I found:

1. My Epson Workforce 600 All-in-One Printer doesn’t work after installed Snow Leopard.  I have to download a new version of the driver and installed Rosetta in order to have my printer/scanner works.
2. iStat Menu does not work at all.  My topbar is naked now.
3. Developer Version Google Chrome crashes occasionally.

[Update: 09/01/2009 10:00am]

[Update: 09/02/2009 08:20am]

[Update: 09/03/2009 08:57am]

• The new iPhone like Chinese handwriting input method is very cool.  Your trackpad turns into a Chinese handwriting board.  There are 3 virtual buttons on the left hand side and the other 3 virtual buttons on the right hand side of the trackpad.  You write in the middle of the trackpad and you pick the words by hitting 1 of the 3 virtual buttons on the right hand side.
• Many people mentioned their Macbook Pro runs faster after installed Snow Leopard.  Honestly, I don’t feel any difference on my non-unibody 15″ Macbook Pro (the last model before the unibody model).
• Apple mentioned Snow Leopard can free up storage space due to the removal of PowerPC code in the binaries.  However, it seems Apple changes the way how to calculate storage size.  In computing world, 1KB = 1024 Bytes , 1MB = 1024KB, and 1GB = 1024MB.  As a result, a 524,288,000 bytes hard drive will be shown 500GB .  Using the new calculation, the same size of hard drive will be shown as 524.28GB.  Do you see the “magic”?
• iStat Menus for Mac 2.0 is just released on 09/03/2009.  The latest version finally supports Snow Leopard and it has a minor user interface upgrade.

So what’s new here?

1. Sony finally officially supports Mac.  However, by saying supporting Mac, I guess it’s just about the user can transfer file from Mac to the reader using USB cable.  However, it’s a good enough feature comparing to the existing popular eBook readers (i.e. Kindle and iPhone/iPod Touch).
2. The reader comes in 3 different favorites with 3 different prices.  Personally, I think the 5-inch Pocket Edition is very attractive.  Not many people wants to buy/download books via 3G and paying the premium price that they rarely use.  Also, 5-inch screen should be good enough for casual ebook readers (just think about iPhone’s screen size).
3. Users can transfer files from Mac/PC to the ebook reader using USB cable.  This is a very attractive feature.  May be Sony is different than Amazon, who doesn’t sell books as it’s primary business.
4. The Daily edition uses AT&T 3G service and user doesn’t need to pay monthly charge.  Sony is copying Amazon Kindle’s model.  Good luck with AT&T’s coverage in US.  However, Sony can easily selling this device around the globe because the readers are using HSPA.

According to Wikipedia,

Cloud computing is a style of computing in which dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources are provided as a service over the Internet . Users need not have knowledge of, expertise in, or control over the technology infrastructure in the “cloud” that supports them.

According to Berkeley RAD Lab,

The services themselves have long been referred to as Software as a Service (SaaS). The datacenter hardware and software is what we will call a Cloud. When a Cloud is made available in a pay-as-you-go manner to the general public, we call it a Public Cloud; the service being sold is Utility Computing. We use the term Private Cloud to refer to internal datacenters of a business or other organization, not made available to the general public. Thus, Cloud Computing is the sum of SaaS and Utility Computing, but does not include Private Clouds.

Ok, so what extractly is cloud computing?  I’m sure you can figure it out by searching from the web so I’m not going to pretend as an expert.  In general, popular cloud computing services are services from Google (such as Gmail, Google Reader, Google Documents), Dropbox, Moobee, Photoshop.com, etc. (I can easily name over 50 popular cloud computing services)

When I start Firefox, I have 3 default pages need to open: Gmail, Google Reader, Facebook.  However, I have Remember the Milk displaying the todo list on the right hand side of the Gmail page.  Other than Firefox, I have DropBox, Spanning Sync, and MobileMe running in the background to help me pushing my documents, calendars, and contacts back to the clouds.  I also backup important files to MobileMe iDisk and Amazon S3.  When I receive documents within emails, I use Google Document to open them.  I also share documents with friends and co-workers using Google Document as well.

The more I wrote and the more I figure out I don’t use thick client as much as before (i.e. Microsoft Office).  95% of the thick clients are replaced by cloud computing services.  Of course, that’s why I can only carry a 8.9″ Acer Aspire One with me most of the time (instead of the 15″ Macbook Pro).

How about you?  How tie you and your cloud computing services?

Now, you would be going to ask me. Which operating system I like the most on my Acer Aspire One netbook.

The netbook performs pretty good with Windows XP.  I have installed Firefox and some plug-ins of course.  Also, it is a pleasure to watch video using Media Player.  I am happy with iTunes on Windows as well.  However, it is a pain for me to work remotely although I always can install Cygwin or Putty.  I prefer native command line environment such as Mac OS X or Linux.  This is the main reason why I get rid of Windows XP right away after I received my netbook.

There are some issue with Ubuntu 8.10 on Acer Apsire One.  The major pain is the Wifi and sound driver.  I can live without sound, but I really cannot live without Wifi.  The Wifi driver is very unstable and it can disappear any time.  There was a backport can fix the problem but I have to re-compile and install the driver everytime after I update the Linux kernel.  It’s not something I want to deal with.

Then, Microsoft comes out Windows 7 beta.  Most of the reviewers highly recommend Windows 7 to be the operating system for netbook.  I immediately download a copy and install on my netbook.  It’s fast and clean.  Plus, it comes with some eye candies.  Also, Microsoft Live Writer is the best blog writer I ever use.  However, I have less than 1.5MB available memory can use after open Firefox on Windows 7.  I almost cannot do anything else since my netbook only has 1GB memory.

Since Windows 7 could be expired in the future and I don’t want to spend extra money to get a Windows 7 license, I installed Ubuntu 9.04 Netbook Remix (NBR) on my Aspire One.  My netbook works perfectly after the installation.  The only problem I need to fix is the noisy fan, which can be fixed by installed a small program.  Also, if you are the type of person who needs the wiki indicator light blinking, you can always install the linux kernel backport module using apt-get.

Now, what is my answer?  If my netbook has 2GB memory and I am willing to spare the other 50 bucks to get a Windows 7 license, I will pick Windows 7.  Or, I will just stick with Ubuntu 9.04.  Oh, by the way, Ubuntu 9.10 has major user interface changes and it will be released around October.  I really cannot wait for it.