Posts filed under 'Technology'
Looking for technology news … , try digg.com. Really cool, and is driven by community. You get the very latests technology information.
From thier FAQ page :
What is digg?
Digg is a technology news website that combines social bookmarking, blogging, RSS, and non-hierarchical editorial control. With digg, users submit stories for review, but rather than allow an editor to decide which stories go on the homepage, the users do.
They even have an RSS feed of the news times on their homepage.
Definately a good competition for technorati which is kind of loosing its shine recently.
Happy digging :)
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August 28th, 2005 at 03:20pm
I guess someone just pressed the F5 button at Google. In the last couple of weeks we have seen some major changes in the services that Google offers. And more importantly, some new services too!
Quality of Search Results
Let me begin with the Quality of the search result. No doubt the quality is much much better now. I had cribbed about it sometime back, but now, I guess my cribs have been answered. The much talked about ‘trust rank‘ paper/algorithm seems to be working. Kudos ! :)
Google Talk
The biggest talk of this week has been the launch of Google talk instant messenger!. Wow. They have done a neat job here.
- Its based on open standards.
- Works out of the box with other clients that support the jabber protocol
- Is got a very clean UI, zero clutter. Full points here. Windows neatly arrange/dock.
- People say that even the voice quality is cool. I am yet to check it out.
- Very good integration with gmail.
- Oh.. yes.. Its still in beta :) So, we can expect a few more cool additions.
The major point here is, Google’s entry into VOIP scene. What next ? Video chat ? or a Google becoming a ISP ?? Rumors all around the net.
You can read more about Google talk over the Google blog.
Google Desktop 2
Other major release in the past week was the Google Desktop 2. Notice that its Google Desktop, and not Google Desktop Search. Clearly, it does a lot more than searching. This software too is a clear winner. Installed it over my home PC. The best part of this is its extensible, i.e., you can use plugins to add functionality to it!. Check out the huge plugins library here. If you are using AdSense, there is this cool plugin which shows your AdSene earnings right on your desktop. One more point to note here is, this software clearly portrays Google’s expertise in writing desktop application. It clearly shows that they are not just a web-based company. The UI is cool, and very intuitive.
A detailed review of Google Desktop is available here.
Making Sense of AdSense?
The best news here is Section Targeting. This comes as a major relief to many bloggers. Normally, the navigation text mess-up with the AdSense bot, and as a result, irrelevant Adsare shown on many blogs. It takes lot of tweaking for proper Ads to show up. But this feature is a major blessing. Section targeting allows us to suggest sections of our text and HTML content that we’d like Google to emphasize or downplay when matching ads to our site’s content. You can read more about this here.
The AdSense reporting too has been improved. We can also know the top search queries too. Btw, did you know that the Adsense Team has a blog called Inside AdSense?.
GMail
Did you that by the end of this year, GMail would be offering 3GB storage space?. Its growing by the day. One cool feature that was introduced recently was the “Send as” feature. Now you can send mail using some other From id. This is a neat and useful feature. And, finally, gmail is open to all.
Blogger
On the blogger front, they have introduced Word Verification for Comments, this would be a weclome addition for most bloggers to fight comment spam. Recently, they also launched a Word Plugin for blogger. So, you can directly blog from Word!
Google Sitemap
After using Sitemaps, I have noticed that my pages are indexed faster, and the traffic too has increased. Also, the AdSense performance is better. So, do use Sitemaps if you haven’t yet used it.
Google Blogs
Here is a list of official Google blogs.
So, this is google refresh ? .. if so, what would happen at the next google refresh ?
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August 25th, 2005 at 11:18pm
After the ant attack, i was installing windows xp on a fresh partition. While doing the installation, windows xp install executed chkdsk, and did some really stupid thing. It somehow manage to detect some errors on other partition as shown below :
Unrecoverable error in folder \FolderName.
Convert folder to file (Y/N)? Yes
It never asked me if I wanted to correct this error ! It itself corrected the errors! As a result, the entire folder got converted to a file called FolderName which of 32kb in size. The same thing was done for around 12 to 13 folders. (got this info from the event log)
And the content of the folder ??? gone. vanished.
Later, I found that CHKDSK had created a folder called FOUND.000 in the root directory of that drive, and it contained tons of files serially numbered…
FILE0000.chk
FILE0001.chk
FILE0002.chk
and so on….
So, basically, it had taken the content of the folder (the lost one), and created these files.
Now, the data was present, but the task was to Identify the type of the file. Around 4K plus files were created. Not all of them were important, but some were, and they were quite big. Eg, My old mail archives - PST file…. or some JPG photos that I had clicked with my digi cam!
I was looking for some tool or program which could identify the type of a file. And my search ended up with a tool called TrID.
Its a very good tool, and here is the description from its readme file.
TrID is a utility designed to identify file types from their binary
signatures. While there are similar utilities with hard coded rules,
TriID has no such rules. Instead, it is extensible and can be trained
to recognize new formats in a fast and automatic way.
TrID uses an XML-based database of definitions which describe
recurring patterns for supported file types.
You can help creating new definitions!
Just run the TrIDScan module against a number of files of a given type.
The program will do the rest.
Basically there are three versions available..
1. Command line version - good for batch jobs.
2. GUI version - TrIDNet - based on .net - so you need the .net framework installed.
3. The online version. - You can upload a file, and get to know the type of the file.
Hope this info becomes useful in case you find a need for such a utility.
So, now, 100% recovery is possible, but, its a painful process. Maybe I should write some code which automates the renaming part!
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August 22nd, 2005 at 11:18pm
Well, this post is kind of very lengthy and a bit nostalgic. The story dates back to somewhere in the late 80’s and the early 90’s I guess. Woow…Ok. its not about Me and Chitra (my wife). Chitra is NOT my first love :D (I always say that to her too)
Ok. Its about me and computers.
When did I first see this device?
…….I think when I was in grade 2!!. May be around 1986-1987.
Where did I see it ?
…… @ a bank!! Karnataka Bank to be precise. My aunt used to work there and it was close to our school. Me and my cousin used to go there if our school left early … and to keep us busy, our aunt would execute some code, which would basically print some numbers on the screen. We would sit and see the numbers scroll up on the screen, …. and that would keep us busy! (feel soo stupid now!). I think it was mostly some COBOL code running on a mainframe … I have no idea about the setup even today.
Anyway, being in grade 2, it did not make any sense to us at that point of time.
Well being a kid, I was kind of very very interested in electronics stuff. Hand-held video games, TV-video games, electronic watches, … anything!.. and computer was no different. It was a BIG electronic device.
The real introduction to computer happened when I was in grade 6 I think. We had an optional computer course/subject in school (Canara High School), and I was more than happy to take that course/subject.
I think this was somewhere in 1991-1992. Our school had 2 computers at that time. Both were IBM compatible PC. The specs were as follows :
- The brand name was Siva. (sterling computers)
- I think it had a 12″ CGA monitor
- A 8086 processor
- 640 kb RAM
- no harddisk
- Two 5.25″ floppy drives
- And a keyboard
- DOS 2.0 (I think. not very sure)
The worst part was, one of the two PCs was always in not-working state. There weren’t many people in mangalore those days with computer knowledge. So, repairs would take ages.
So, we had one computer at our disposal, and 32 people around it.
What did we learn on it ?
I remember learning Logo & Beginner’s All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code (BASIC). Wow………..I still remember the logo turtle :) cute! and the line numbering in Basic :)
Games……oh boy!!!. Most of the time was spent in games. The instructor had somehow managed to get some games on a floppy………… and that was kind of the most awaited event. :)
32*2 = 64 hands on a single keyboard :)…….Just Imagine!!!
What games did we play ?
I remember playing pac-man. Then there was Grand Prix. Someone had renamed the file as maruti.exe !! So, the game was Maruti for us for quite sometime and not Grand Prix!! (btw, Maruti was/is a popular car in India, specially in the early 90’s and even now.) But the most popular game was Digger. One of the most addictive games, and I play it even today :). Then there were other games like Alley Cat, Donkey Kong, HangMan, “Where in the world is carmen sandiago”, space invaders etc.
Those days, the games would fit on one single floppy. Not one game, but many games!. The only exception was the game “Prince of Persia“. This game was totally different from others. It would take one full floppy!!!
I still remember buying 2 floppies for Rs 120 each !!! and storing some games on it! around 20 of them!! I still have those floppies with me, even today. Verbatim :)
After a year or two, we got one more computer at our school, a PC-XT (eXtended Technology). This one had a harddisk too! 20 MB I think, which was HUGE those days. (Please note, its MB)
Then one fine day, my uncle bought a computer for his automobile shop to manage thier inventory. This one was a much powerful computer! It was a PC-AT (Advance technology). The config was :
- It basically had a Intel 286 processor
- It had a math co-processor 287
- 1 MB of RAM
- 40 MB Hard-disk
- 3.5″ and 5.25″ floppy drives
- CGA monitor
- Keyboard
- A turbo switch !!! (to make it slower!!)
- Don’t remember the clock speed!. Think it was 16 MHz.
Oh yes, one more thing………. How would one switch on the PC’s those days ?? There was a small lever at the rear end of the cabinet. You had to use it like a electrical circuit breaker! :) fun :)
I still remember one major incident that happened at my uncles office….. Here it goes.. :
The new computer was in office for a month or so. They asked a guy to write some program for their day to day operations. The program was written, and the data entry started. …. and this went on for around a month. In the mean while, I had my floppy with me with all the games on it, and I was just waiting for a chance to try it out on my uncles PC.
I insert the floppy, and issue the following command at the DOS prompt : A:
I get some error message. I think it was something like “General Failure reading drive A:”
I press I (Ignore).
Then I started some game (alley cat I guess)……….
The game went on, played for sometime.
I happily switched off the PC.
It was kind of an achievement!!. And then, the next day, my uncle came home looking for me, asking what I had done. It seemed that there was some virus, and the entire harddisk was wiped off…. All data gone……. back to square one. No back up nothing.
So, in short, that was my introduction to virus. I don’t remember the name of that virus , but…….after that incident, I used to regularly use antivirus software!. Nashshot was one of the most popular antivirus software those days. then there was Central Point Antivirus, and with one version of DOS, there was Microsoft Antivirus too (which was basically Central Point thing).
This incident made me more curious about computers… and I began to explore more of it!
During those days, we did not have windows/GUI. It was all text based. I think when I was in Grade 9, they started a Computer College in our school campus, called the Canara Community College. And they had arranged for some basic classes for the students in the evening. I was one of the students who decided to join it. The first batch, that is.
Some serious stuff this time :
- Word Star 4 : The first word processor that I learnt
- DBase III : The first Database application/package I learnt
- Some basic programming too in DBase III.(by this time we had already done some basic programming in BASIC)
- Also learnt a spreadsheet application called Quattro Pro (It was similar to Lotus 123, excel), but DOS based. It was from Borland.
After I finished my Grade 10 (SSLC), during the vacation, I joined one more course. This time was Corel Ventura (version 4 I think), and it was on a Windows 3.1! I think this was in 1995., and it was fun. It was here where I learnt about the basics of formatting, GUI, designs etc !….
In the mean while, the computer at my uncles office was kind of obsolete, and this time around they bought a more powerful PC, a 486 DX PC with 16 MB of RAM running Windows 3.0. But this one had still a B&W monitor. But the
graphics was better. VGA :)
I think I have spent hundreds of hours in front of the PC those days. (and I continue to do so even today)!
:)
At home, the demand for a PC at home was building up, and I think in 1998 or so, I got a PC at home. I think we spend somewhere around Rs. 45K on this machine.
It was a Pentium machine. (P1)
166 MHz
128 MB RAM!
MMX technology :)
2 GB Hard disk!!!!
Win 95
14″ color monitor (vintron)
Sound card + CD ROM drive! Woooo…
Then then on, I have kept upgrading my PC from time to time. I think totally around 4 to 5 major upgrades.
From Pentium I, I moved to a 300 MHz Celeron Processor. And then I think a 500 MHz PII. and finally, now a AMD Athlon XP 2000 processor!
Talking about the Internet/mail revolution, My first E-mail account was a Hotmail account. It was way back in 1997. I still use that account!. Those days, hotmail was plain hotmail!. Ie, it wasn’t Microsoft hotmail. We had to go to Cyber cafe to browse. I think we paid around Rs. 90 for 1 hour on the net!.. lol. Today, things have changed drastically! Got a broad band connection, and I am always connected to the net!
I booked my domain name in 1999 I think. There was a company called namezero.com, and they started to offer domain names for free. (they would put a frame of ad on your site!). So, that was when I took this domain!!!. It has been with me ever since then even though namezero does not provide the same free service now!
Times have changed, the hardware is changed, the Internet has changed…….but one thing still remains……….- The love!
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August 15th, 2005 at 02:00am
Cleared the first exam of the MCAD certification program.
ie, Exam 70-305 - Developing and Implementing Web Applications with Microsoft Visual Basic® .NET and Microsoft Visual Studio® .NET
Now I am a Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) ! :)
Score : 981 out of 1000. ie, around 98.1% (70% is needed to clear the exam)
The exam was pretty cool. The boot-camps held a couple of days back at our office helped a lot. The dumps available on the net too helped.
2 more to go for MCAD !.
Update : Folks, If you are looking for dumps, I dont have the latest ones. Kindly have a look at braindumps.com
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August 11th, 2005 at 01:18pm
Be ready to buy a new monitor, and other hardware if you are planing on to upgrade to Windows Vista.
Traditionally every time Microsoft releases a new version of Windows, it implicitly means that its time to junk your existing hardware, no matter how new it is.
This time, even if you have the latest, and the fastest hardware, its even worse. You might need to replace your Monitor tooo - If you want to see protected contents. You need to get a DRM enabled monitor, which obviously would be expensive.
More info here : Microsoft Vista means you need new monitors
This is one more way of making money. And its a cheap way of making money.
BTW, PC Mag has a detailed review of MS Windows Vista Beta 1 at : http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1840730,00.asp
Reading the review, clearly indicates that windows is aping(as ever) Mac OS! (it never will)
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August 7th, 2005 at 11:56pm
Ever thought about Graphics programming using JavaScript?
Check this out : http://www.west.co.tt/matt/js/redbug/redbug.html (works only in IE)
Excellent example of DHTML. Really cool.
[Via Google Blogoscoped]
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August 5th, 2005 at 03:33pm
I might have to soon be a Microsoft Certified Application Developer. (MCAD) . My company is kind of sponsoring this. :). Its a good thing.
To get the MCAD certification, one has to clear 2 core exams, and 1 elective exams. The individual exams make you a MCP - Microsoft Certified Professional.
I would mostly be taking up the following exams :
Core Exams :
- Exam 70-305 - Developing and Implementing Web Applications with Microsoft Visual Basic® .NET and Microsoft Visual Studio® .NET
- Exam 70-310 - Developing XML Web Services and Server Components with Microsoft Visual Basic .NET and the Microsoft .NET Framework
Elective :
- Exam 70-229 - Designing and Implementing Databases with Microsoft SQL Server™ 2000 Enterprise Edition
Yesterday we had a boot-camp for the 70-305 exam at office. And we had mock test took. Kind of ok. Manageable. Most of the participants cleared the mock test at the end of the boot-camp. Next is the real exam.
Wish me luck ;)
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July 30th, 2005 at 12:44pm
Made a switch from Norton antivirus to Avast antivirus today. Norton was taking too much of resources. Clearly a bloatware. Wanted to switch for sometime now, but somehow it did not happen till now. Ok. Avast is from a company called Alwil software, and is pretty decent. Its free for home/personal use.
I had used avast antivirus for sometime a year ago. I had switched back to Norton antivirus to try out a new version of Norton antivirus - 2005, which was a nightmare. It made my 1.5GHz processor behave like a 400 MHz processor. So, again switched back to Norton 2003.
The latest version of avast is quite impressive. It managed to detect some adwares present in my memory on the first run. Norton antivirus never detected this adware!.
I also did a full system scan, and found that there were some Trojans too which were on my system. Clearly bypassing Norton antivirus.
Avast antivirus is quite responsive, fast. It auto updates its antivirus signatures. Apart from the standard in-memory scanner, it has modules to take care of p2p applications, IM’s, network access etc.
I have been running it for a while, and the performance of the system is pretty good.
More details/features available at the avast site.
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July 21st, 2005 at 12:08am
Got hold of Nokia 9300 smartphone for a day. My uncle has bought this handset. He handed it over to me for a test drive / setup kind of stuff. Was experimenting with it for all the time today morning.
I always thought that my Nokia 6600 was kind of bulky, but after using this, i am kind of happy ;). This one is bigger, and heavier too. But it looks cool. Infact, it looks very professional. Kind of very high tech.
Ok. Coming to my observation…
The only major difference feature wise between nokia 9300 and nokia 6600 is the keyboard or keypad. Otherwise both the phones have more or less the same features, including most of the software (not all). 6600 has a camera/imaging functions. Nokia 9300 does not have it. Its cousin nokia 9500 has the camera too.
The screen is kind of too narrow. 640*200 (w*h). Like an tower. The aspect ratio is 3.2:1. On the other hand, nokia 6600 is 176*208 (h*w) pixels.
Nokia 9300 runs on Series 80 platform. The UI is pretty neat, but i found that it lacks consistency. Could have been better. And since it runs on a series 80 platform (s80) , the programs that run on s60, (i.e., nokia 6600) wont directly run on Nokia 9300. You have to find the appropriate versions.
I managed to get Smart Movie player, and Ultra MP3 for Nokia 9300. Ultra mp3 player rocks on 9300. But when it comes to smart movie player, the broad screen is of little use. Most of the screen is unused. I also installed some games on it. Clearly, 9300 is not a gaming machine.
One very good thing about nokia 9300 is the response time. The UI is pretty fast and responsive at most of the times compared to Nokia 6600. Also, lot of stuff is natively supported. For e.g., you can open word docs, spreadsheets, presentations etc. But in case of Nokia 6600, you need to add some additional software. The same is the case with MP3 playback. Also found that the bluetooth transfer works much faster with this phone. It rocks. Internal memory is 80 MB, which is one major plus point.
Nokia 9300, current cost in Bangalore/India - around 30K INR
Nokia 6600, current cost in Bangalore/India - around 11.5K INR
At the end of it, i am still happy with Nokia 6600 :) One major plus point about nokia 6600 is … there are tons of software already available for it, and its very popular, and affordable.
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July 17th, 2005 at 08:17pm
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