Experiment: Faster Windows startup

My laptop took about 5 minutes 22 seconds to fully startup before doing any optimization.

After taking the following steps:

• Stop automatic startup for unused programs by disabling the auto start from the programs themself.
• Elinimate some programs from Start>All Programs>StartUp. Result: 4 minutes 22 seconds
• Ajust screen appearance by going to Desktop>Right click>Properties>Setting>Color qualities>16 bits.
• Avoid visual effects in Start>Control Panel>Performances and Maintanence>System>Advance>Performances>Setting> Select best performances. Result: 4 minutes 9 seconds
• Download and run Autorun to deselect some programs on logon. Result: 3 minutes 55 seconds

There is an improvement of 1 minute 27 seconds.

LaTeX softwares comparison

I have been spending three days searching and trying softwares to write my assignment. Below are the results of my finding.

• Scientific Workplace 5.5 is for those who don't know and it is a true WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) kind of document processor. However, the final output (pdf file) is quite dissappointing. The font is too small!
• LEd (LaTeX Editor) is a freeware but not for beginners. Users need to work with mathematical syntax.
• TeXnicCenter is quite identical with LEd. It is free but not intuitive for beginners.
• LyX is the kind of document processor which I was looking for. It is free and doesn't require users to know the syntax beforehand.

Finally, I also found a useful website with a collection of other related websites which provide solution to publish equation on web page or blog.