Bits from ramprasad thoughts

Oz sucks!

2011-07-01T23:16:00.001+05:30

Oz media has to shut up instead of making harsh remarks about Dhoni and indian team..They need to learn how international media works... Track history of Oz seems to be on the negative side these days from racists attacks to harsh comments on India.. Oz is not mature to understand the recent contentious work done by their umpire.... Oz media... just _shut up_! ICC also seems to be more into these kind of works due to the blackjack people running it...After all it is the matter of india/WI country match...not between kids... Oz has to concentrate more on involving with international works and do some helpful actions rather than just keep itself outside of other internationals and not contributing....

UK gov needs to be senseful, thoughtful, innovative, and humane

2011-07-01T23:15:00.001+05:30

* It is humane to reward the workers as per their wish who build the nation
* It is insane to ask for best available professionals, get work done from them and throw them
* It is to be innovative on how to manage the immigrants
* It is foolish to act this way. If gov does not revoke this, then the immigrants might need to think about other and better available places to work and live
* It is quite immpossible for UK native nationals to work as indians

NB: No man's land it is on this planet to throw others

Bing.com isn't fair - As usual act from Microsoft

2009-06-01T21:56:00.021+05:30

Well, today i started reviewing the bing search developed from none other than Microsoft..yes the renamed version of live.com - $ mv live.com bing.com

It is really insane how microsoft provides it's services to the users by considering it's competitors into picture. I tell you, this is true for all of it's products. Am i, lying? No, i am not. Try yourself digging!

As i had noted last year (2008), the way live.com and search.yahoo.com use to provide the search results for the keyword - google, it is the similar unfair been intergrated now to bing.com too...

Well, try to search for google in bing.com and you see how microsoft is unfair for google..

http://www.bing.com/search?q=google

As you see from the screenshot, bing.com shows up only one result for google and provides an option for the users to get more results for google or not.

When the user clicks on "Search for other results containing google", bing.com shows up actual full search results for the keyword - google

As you can see here now -

The same thing is now done when you try to search for yahoo..LOL

http://www.bing.com/search?q=yahoo

But, when you try to search for other than google, yahoo, (i am not sure of other words, yet) keyword, then bing.com shows up full search results at one shot.

Won't you feel that bing.com and in general microsoft being an unfair player here? It is a big _YES_ Microsoft is trying to make users avoid or know less about google. This is not the way to market their products!

I think someone has to stop this...and they will in near future...i feel sick of these kiddish acts....

FYI, google is still _fair_ from the beginning - try

www.google.com/search?q=microsoft

GTalk web chat bug

2009-05-29T23:09:00.005+05:30

Ooops...bugs in Google core products...Anyway, i am an avid user of Google products. Keep encountering many bugs, unavailability of the system, etc..Have taken some screenshots till date..but never blogged about this..from now on i shall blog them as users create bug in bugzilla...;)

Here it goes my official Google bug announcement ;)

Bug Id - 1
Product - GTalk web chat
Platform - SuSE 11.0 GNU/Linux running Mozilla Firefox 3.0b5
Assigned To - GMail Team
Target Milestone - Current
Summary - GTalk web chat bug
Description - When i sent an chat message, the GTalk server threw me a message saying - "Palanisamy did not receive your chat." even tough the my freind was online. After this my friend was able to send me a corresponding chat message reply to me.

Here is the screen shot -

Happy bug fixing GTalk team!

Stay tuned for more strange stuff :)

Happy Googling!

Live and Yahoo! search sucks!

2009-01-23T14:14:00.014+05:30

I am again very happy to say that Live search really sucks and would like to say that it does not deserve to be one of the search engines at all. I know that Microsoft could not develop a decent search engine that would meet the Internet users standards.

I am surprised that how verizon chose Live search as their cellphones default search service. Immediately, two things strike me are -

1. Either verizon are dumb guys in chosing best service & providing and/or
2. Microsoft has bribed verizon

If i think more on this, yes, i have got it right that, both of the above are correct ;)

For e.g. - I have provided my website link www.ramprasadb.in to Live serach at http://search.msn.com/docs/submit.aspx 15 days ago and still MSNBot hasn't gotten up and started to crawl at all. What has Microsoft written - MSNBot? Moreover, the search results aren't relevant at all. They played a game - when user tries to search the word `Google', they use to add a search button that user can search through live search service above the first google result, this shows how Microsoft as usual being unfair in computer business.

This being the scenario, how does one like Steve Ballmer gets convinced by his company's products, go and strike a deal with others. This seems funny.

I surprised to see that this is the same case in Yahoo! search too for AT&T and T-Mobile. I am not sure on how AT&T and T-Mobile agreed to have Yahoo! search as default search service on their cellphones.

These guys (Microsoft, Yahoo!, AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile) are just working to make more money rather than concentrating on technologies that enable usesr to use in full extent and fair manner.

Hey btw, how does users get convinced on the service that being provided by Live Search and Yahoo! Search? Lolz

There are better search engines available worldwide such as Google - which can be rated 10 out of 10 in terms of service standards met for internet users - from clean, simple, fast to the amount of internet content being indexed and managing it.

I am not endorsing or supporting Google here. I am user of internet since 1999 and being using search engines since then and developing them since 2004 or so and found Google as the only one which meet the standards - Fair, Quality, Technology, Clean, Simple and Wow. Till now could not find any other search service like Google, but found unfair little competition from others.

`whois domain.com' from Google?

2008-11-24T22:31:00.001+05:30

I sometimes keep checking whois info for random domain names. It's hard to find domain names info for certain reasons, such as

1. There is no specific website wherein i can get info on any domain names belonging to any TLD.

2. The info isn't fetched quite fast.

So, what if google provides a new search feature, say - whois info? e.g. whois google.com?

Yes, will that not be great? I recently suggested this idea to google as feedback - http://www.google.com/quality_form?q=whois

Hope, google provides this search feature :)

1 Peta Byte data sorted by Google in six hours and two minutes

2008-11-24T21:12:00.000+05:30

Google has announced that they were able to sort one petabyte of data in 6 hours and 2 minutes across 4,000 computers. According to the Google Blog, '... to put this amount in perspective, it is 12 times the amount of archived web data in the US Library of Congress as of May 2008. In comparison, consider that the aggregate size of data processed by all instances of MapReduce at Google was on average 20PB per day in January 2008.' The technology making this possible is MapReduce 'a programming model and an associated implementation for processing and generating large data sets.'

The ISS is now 10 Years old In Space

2008-11-19T10:27:00.000+05:30

On 20 November 1998, a Russian Proton rocket lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome for a historic mission: It was carrying the first module of the International Space Station ISS, named Zarya (Russian for 'dawn'). This cargo and control module, which weighs about 20 tonnes and is almost 13 meters long, provides electrical power, propulsion, flight path guidance and storage space. The launch of the module... heralded a new era in space exploration, as, for the first time ever, lasting cooperation in space was achieved between Russia, the US, Europe, Canada and Japan. Over the next ten years, many other modules were brought into orbit, and ISS developed into the largest human outpost in space. Since that time, the building blocks, transported by Russian launch vehicles or the US Space Shuttle, have expanded the ISS to the size of a soccer pitch and a current total mass of about 300 tons.

10 Million Images From Life Magazine's Archive hosted by G!

2008-11-19T10:25:00.000+05:30

Google announced that it was making available 10 million images from Life magazine's archives dating back to the 1750s. (Most of the news accounts covering this announcement refer to Life's "photos," and none mention that photography wasn't invented until early in the 19th century.) Only a small percentage of the images — including newly digitized images from photos and etchings — have even been published. The rest have been "sitting in dusty archives in the form of negatives, slides, glass plates, etchings, and prints." At this point about 20% of Life's archive is online; the rest is promised within months.

More - http://images.google.com/hosted/life

Deep-Space Network Modeled On the Internet tested

2008-11-19T10:23:00.000+05:30

NASA has successfully tested the first deep space communications network modeled on the Internet. Working as part of a NASA-wide team, engineers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA, used software called Disruption-Tolerant Networking, or DTN, to transmit dozens of space images to and from a NASA science spacecraft located about 20 million miles from Earth. The store-and-forward protocol was designed by NASA in consultation with Vint Cerf. Here's a discussion from last July before the test began.

MS to ship Anti-Virus software as `Free'

2008-11-19T10:21:00.000+05:30

The good news is that Microsoft have announced free anti-virus software for consumers, dubbed Morro, available late next year. The bad news is... well, exactly the same. Although Microsoft's anti-malware products are pretty good, this move could drive many competitors out of business and create a dangerous security monoculture; major rivals will be lawyering up already. On the other hand, many malware infections could be prevented even by basic software. So is this going to be a good or bad thing overall?

C becomes browser scripting language

2008-07-11T14:32:00.000+05:30

The toolchain includes lots of other details, such as a custom POSIX system call API and a C multimedia library that provides access to Flash. And there's some things that Petersen had to add to Tamarin, such as a native byte array that maps directly to RAM, thereby allowing the VM's "emulation" of memory to have only a minor overhead over the real thing. The end result is the ability to run a wide variety of existing C code in Flash at acceptable speeds. Petersen demonstrated a version of Quake running in a Flash app, as well as a C-based Nintendo emulator running Zelda; both were eminently playable, and included sound effects and music.

Google's browser sync

2008-07-11T14:27:00.000+05:30

Google Browser Sync for Firefox is an extension that continuously synchronizes your browser settings – including bookmarks, history, persistent cookies, and saved passwords – across your computers. It also allows you to restore open tabs and windows across different machines and browser sessions.

Google's new social networking tool

2008-07-11T14:22:00.001+05:30

Google has launched a Windows-only, in-browser (you need to install a client first, though) 3D avatar world — Lively — that you can embed in websites and use to interact with other people. It's not as expansive as Second Life yet, but expect things to get better.

At first glance the website Lively.com is not appealing, it’s got a mediocre layout and if it wasn’t for the logo at the top left you wouldn’t even know it was owned and operated by Google. The page is blend with no much color or style. Nothing explains what Lively is; only a download link at the top seems important.

Seagate's latest Desktop HDD is about 1.5TB!

2008-07-11T14:21:00.000+05:30

Seagate announced three new consumer-level hard drives today, which it claims are the 'industry's first 1.5-terabyte desktop and half-terabyte notebook hard drives.' The company claims that it is able to greatly increase the areal density of its drive substrates by utilizing perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) technology that is capable of delivering more than triple the storage density of traditional longitudinal recording. Seagate's latest desktop-class hard drive, the Barracuda 7200.11, will be available in a 1.5TB capacity starting in August. The 3.5-inch drive is made up of four 375GB platters and has a 7,200-rpm rotational speed.

Top 10 worst uses of MS Windows

2008-07-11T14:14:00.000+05:30

1. To display a static green arrow over the open TSA security lanes at Detroit Metro.
2. Ticket scanner at Frankfurt airport
3. Gift certificate dispensing kiosk
4. Job application kiosk
5. Train engine controls
6. Building controls
7. Manufacturing controls
8. ATMs
9. SCADA Networks
10. Medical equipment

Go ahead and read them in detail.......

Wierd Google web search result message!

2008-05-10T13:20:00.002+05:30

Was just hacking google search features and the various URL fields that google system understands to service it's huge user base. The pretty field `num', tells the google system to get the specified `num' search results for a particular keyword query. `num' can be anywhere from 1 to 100. But when num=0 for any keywords (in this case `google'), Google throws a surprising message for the query - google.com/search?q=google&num=0 to the user as below -

--------------------------------------------------------
Your search - google - did not match any documents.

Suggestions:

* Make sure all words are spelled correctly.
* Try different keywords.
* Try more general keywords.
--------------------------------------------------------

Here's the screenshot -

Does this message suits for the query - get _zero_ search result? Hey Google, this result is absolutely nothing to do with the way query is done to your web index. It should be somewhat clear, fair and positive to the user. It should say `You are trying to query a keyword for 0 result' which does not make any sense or something like that. Instead, mentioning `Your search - google - did not match any documents' is a strange and inappropriate message. Don't you think Google?

Happy Googling!

G.ho.st shakes Microsoft?

2007-05-07T15:37:00.000+05:30

Somehow, the fact that startup G.ho.st has its headquarters in Jerusalem is fitting. After all, it wasn't far from the ancient city that the biblical hero David squared off against Goliath. And, in a sense, that is the tiny company and its G.ho.st (Global Hosted Operating System), is intent on doing with the giant of the operating system business: Microsoft...

Yahoo Photos going out

2007-05-07T15:32:00.000+05:30

"Welcome to the new Yahoo! Photos!" That's the cheerful greeting atop the home page for Yahoo Photos, the online photo storage, sharing, and printing site maintained by the search-engine company. If a spate of online rumors is correct, however, the Yahoo Photos greeting will soon disappear, along with the service itself...

Mugshot: Social networking open source style

2007-05-07T15:30:00.000+05:30

Now that we have open source beer, open source cars, and open source photography, a social networking service run by Red Hat and based around open source software comes as no surprise. The name of the project is Mugshot, and the official definition describes it as "an open project to create live social experiences around entertainment." That may sound vague, but it's actually a useful service, and there are quite a few things you can do with it.

First of all, Mugshot provides a single entry point to popular social networking tools such as Flickr, Google Reader, Blogger, Digg, del.icio.us, Picasa, YouTube, and others. Your Mugshot account page allows you to easily add Web services for use with your Mugshot page; all you have to do is to provide your account information for each service. Your Mugshot user page then acts as a kind of aggregator that watches the configured services and provides notifications when they are updated. For example, if you specify the URL of your blog, Mugshot will automatically add the recent blog posts to your Mugshot page. Enable and configure your Flickr account, and Mugshot adds your photos to the Mugshot page and provides notifications when you add new photos. If you choose to enable the Digg and del.icio.us services, your Mugshot page will display the articles you dugg and recent bookmarks...

Steve Jobs is top-paid CEO

2007-05-07T15:27:00.000+05:30

Even though Jobs was paid a nominal one-dollar salary, the value of his stock options and other benefits made him the highest compensated CEO, the magazine said....

Make Web look better with Stylish

2007-05-07T15:23:00.000+05:30

Most Firefox users are familiar with the Greasemonkey extension, a powerful tool that lets you enhance your browsing experience by rewriting HTML pages and JavaScript on the client side. The Stylish extension gives you that same level of control over Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). Unlike JavaScript, altering a page's CSS cannot change its functionality -- but it can greatly enrich its usability...

A GNU/Linux live CD for amateur radio

2007-05-07T15:19:00.000+05:30

Puppy Linux is a lightweight live Linux distribution that you can boot and run from a CD, USB stick, or DVD. One of its features is the ability to create specialized "pups" -- new versions of Puppy Linux geared toward a specific purpose. Digipup is one such example, with a focus on amateur radio...

7 Things System Administrators Forget to Do

2007-05-07T15:12:00.000+05:30

Out of the plethora of chores that we do each day, which ones make up the top seven activities of forgetful system administrators? To begin, you might ask yourselves if the answer is quantitative or qualitative. Let's think about it for a minute.

You could look at the number of times you forget something. If you did that, you might get a list of things like forgetting to set your alarm clock or showing up to work with unmatched socks. We need something scarier, like forgetting to turn off remote access through a VPN to an employee that just left the company.

In writing this article, I felt like the Simon Cowell of technologists, but in reverse. Out of many worthy candidates I could only pick seven, and Paula Abdul couldn't vote. Beside my own subjective view, I decided to consult other engineers. The men and women I consulted felt the criterion was obvious: administrators forget to do things that matter.

I could cite many reasons why they forget some critical tasks. Those reasons include doing jobs that normally take two or more people, having to provide break-fix services on hardware, covering for absentee help desk personnel or getting involved in pre-sale activities. Regardless, here is the compilation of the top seven things system administrators forget to do...

Tips for transitioning to a GNU/Linux distribution

2007-05-07T15:11:00.000+05:30

So, you've made the choice to try a GNU/Linux distribution or distro and have completed the installation. But now what? While doing some spring cleaning on my desk, I came across the notes from my last distro installation. Here are the key tips that made my last transition from Windows to GNU/Linux easier.

Be aware, GNU/Linux approaches many things differently than MS Windows: Different isn’t bad, really, it’s not. However, be realistic and expect a learning curve. Remember Windows is not programmed into our DNA, we all had to learn Windows somewhere along the way. A dash of persistence and patience may be necessary in transitioning to GNU/Linux.

A little preparation goes a long, long way: Organize and consolidate your music files, picture files, word documents, spreadsheets and other important data. Save your data to some type of external media for the transfer. You will also be creating a backup if something goes wrong along the way...

Google's Internal Company Goals

2006-10-27T20:33:00.000+05:30

The list included several items, for example: Google wants to have an improved infrastructure to make their engineers more productive. This includes allowing employees to have a universal search tool "containing all public Google information searched on all Google searches." Google also wants to build 10MW of green power to be on track to be carbon neutral. (They also want to reduce "Borg disk waste" by 50%... hmmm, Borg?)

Next Generation of iPods to have Wi-Fi?

2006-10-27T20:31:00.000+05:30

Apple has filed a patent for iPods that can purchase music wirelessly over the internet. This was an expected feature in the Zune, though it turns out not to be true. 'While this could be an effort to fight the software giant and its product directly, it should be noted that Zune's built-in Wi-Fi will be limited to the file sharing between devices with no direct Internet purchases from the handheld.

Oracle GNU/Linux review

2006-10-27T20:27:00.000+05:30

Two days ago Slashdot reported on Oracle's move into the enterprise Linux market, and how it may challenge Red Hat. Red Hat's stock has already dropped, and there's a great deal of talk about the implications of this act. Linux Format got hold of the 'Unbreakable' distro to find out what's going on under the hood. Is it a breakthrough for Linux in the corporate market, or just another RHEL respin? See the article for all the info and screenshots — including an 'interesting' choice of GRUB colours.

Guruji.com - India's internet search engine launched

2006-10-13T10:49:00.000+05:30

Yes, india too have it's own internet search engine called as Guruji.com. It is an hypertext based internet search engine, which is quite as fast as Google and faster than Live and Yahoo! as per my experience. It is primarily for local india context search. The user interface is quite good, it has too advertising slots as similar as google's. It's based in Bangalore, silicon valley of India.
Try Guruji.com today !

YouTube, now part of Google !

2006-10-10T07:04:00.000+05:30

After a much awaited and long speculation over YouTube purchasing, finally Google made it to end this excitement by acquiring YouTube for US $1.65 billion in stocks. YouTube has more and better user interface than Google Videos, but in search speed, google is up. Hope, we get an better online video service from Google / YouTube !. M$, Yahoo! was also in race along with Google for YouTube.

Google and YouTube share some of the organisation working values, which led to this YouTube acquisition.

Google Code Search

2006-10-06T17:39:00.000+05:30

Wow, Google, Inc released their new product called Google Code Search. I was waiting for this one since i use to search for code snippets using Koders.com, the other popular code search engine which is dedicated to code search only and couple other search engines. But Google Code Search has not got much user interface than Koders.com does. This can be compensated with the speed that google gives than koders.com !. Google code search is an amazing useful product for hackers and developers, because it not only supports the normal search format, but number of other formats too. Here they are -

* Regular expression
* Search restriction to a ( file | dir | package ) level
* Obviously language and license

Happy googling of code.

More info at Google Labs

CD's on GNU/Linux Systems

2006-08-16T22:17:00.000+05:30

Writing the image to disk is easy as pie. First find the SCSI address of your CD-R/RW:

$ cdrecord -scanbus

Cdrecord 1.10 (i686-pc-linux-gnu) Copyright (C) 1995-2001 Jrg Schilling
Linux sg driver version: 3.1.24
Using libscg version 'schily-0.5'
scsibus0:
0,0,0 0) 'TOSHIBA ' 'DVD-ROM SD-M1202' '1020' Removable CD-ROM
0,1,0 1) 'LITE-ON ' 'LTR-24102B ' '5S54' Removable CD-ROM
0,2,0 2) *
0,3,0 3) *
0,4,0 4) *
0,5,0 5) *
0,6,0 6) *
0,7,0 7) *

The first three numbers for each item refer to SCSI bus, device ID, and LUN (Logical Unit Number), respectively. (The fourth number is the device ID again.) cdrecord wants these three numbers. In this example, the CD recorder is 0,1,0. Anything on SCSI bus 0 can be shortened to 1,0, leaving off the first 0. This is a common convention. Additional buses, if any, must be specified -- no shortcuts.

Now write to disk:
$ cdrecord -v -eject speed=8 dev=0,1,0 test.iso

In this example:

* -v is verbose
* -eject ejects the disk when finished
* -speed specifies write speed (8)
* -dev is the device number (0,1,0) obtained from cdrecord -scanbus
* Last is the name of the image being burned (test.iso)

This is a simple, serviceable way to create disks for public distribution, as it creates a disk that can be read on any Windows or Linux system. mkisofs alone is good for creating .isos for download, and mkisofs is capable of creating filesystems for many platforms. Please see mkisofs man pages for more information.

On a fast machine with lots of memory, you can get away with doing low-CPU-intensive tasks during recording, but it is better to do nothing else during a burn. The laser is not capable of stopping and then picking up where it left off, so any interruptions are fatal.

cdrecord will try to run the recorder at its highest speed, so it is not necessary to specify a speed, but let experience be your guide. Specifying slower speeds is useful for correcting errors and buffer underruns. Newer drives with "burn-proof" technology (the opposite of what it's supposed to do; again, who comes up with these names?) are not plagued by buffer underruns as older drives are...

Java source in October

2006-08-16T11:24:00.000+05:30

Sun Microsystems plans to publish the first open source Java code by October this year, the company has revealed.

Laurie Tolson, vice president of developer programmes and products at Sun, said at a company event that the first components include Java C and the Hotspot VM. The remainder of the code will be open sourced by the end of 2007.

Sun first announced that it would release the Java source code under an open source licence at...

Community site - http://community.java.net/jdk/opensource/

Robots gallery

2006-08-16T11:23:00.000+05:30

Chinese engineers have unveiled a series of robots these days — without releasing lots of technical details about them. In the past two months, I've gathered pictures of robots which can act as waiters in restaurants in Hong Kong or pull rickshaws near Beijing. I've also found a four-finger robotic hand able to play organ, a female robot greeting tourists visiting the Sichuan Science Museum with 'ni hao' ('How are you?' in Mandarin — if my sources are correct), and even a robotic chimpanzee. Please visit my photo gallery…

Greatest softwares ever written

2006-08-16T11:20:00.000+05:30

One of the most significant pieces of programming I know wasn't even software. Before the British built the Colossus machine, which translated German teletype code during World War II, it took the Allies up to six hours to decode a message and a day or more to pore over intelligence, draw conclusions, and pass along information to military command. After Colossus, the Allies gained a picture of German military activity across the English Channel as the day unfolded--intelligence that gave Gen. Dwight Eisenhower the confidence to launch the D-Day invasion.

To the moon and back thanks to routine software

Photo courtesy of NASA
Colossus was built in 1944 to perform Boolean operations on a paper data tape that streamed through the machine at 30 miles an hour. Its logic was literally wired into the machine. It is, perhaps, the greatest software that never got written.

So where does that leave us? First, let's set criteria for what makes software great. Superior programming can be judged only within its historical context. It must represent a breakthrough, technical brilliance, something difficult that hadn't been done before. And it must be adopted in the real world. Colossus transformed a drawn-out mechanical process into electronics--it was an early computer--and provided a useful service by accelerating coded teletype translation. Colossus shaped history. ..

5 that made almost to the list -

http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2006/08/the_greatest_so.html

Simple trick to unblock orkut access

2006-08-14T11:43:00.000+05:30

Hmmm, i got so many comments regarding orkut from my organisation colleagues, saying that orkut has been blocked, at my organisation !. I thought for some time, and saw that i was able to bypass the blocking policy for orkut at my organisation.

A simple hack ;)

Say how ?

Here is the solution -

Instead of doing http to orkut.com, just do https to it. There you go, you can access orkut and enjoy. This is what i shared with my organisation colleagues and they were very happy to see the results ! Yep, i know that sysadmins have blocked http to orkut.com, but not https to it ;)

Enjoy Orkut !

1984 to present GUI evolution

2006-08-14T11:34:00.000+05:30

This nice gallery shows the evolution in the appearance of Mac OS, Microsoft Windows and KDE through the years, from the first version to the last available. Not technical, but still interesting to recall some memories from the good old days.

25 Greatest PC's all time

2006-08-14T11:32:00.000+05:30

PC World's list of the top 25 PCs of all time was assembled after we polled our editors for nominations. We then rated the nominated gadgets for innovation, impact, industrial design, and intangibles

my fav is Apple's !

List -

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,126692-page,14-c,systems/article.html#

Different data compression algorithms

2006-08-14T11:31:00.000+05:30

PAQ is a series of open source data compression archivers that have evolved through collaborative development to top rankings on several benchmarks measuring compression ratio (although at the expense of speed and memory usage). This page traces their development. All versions may be downloaded here (GPL source and Windows executables).

Trouble in rounding floating point numbers

2006-08-14T11:25:00.000+05:30

We all know of floating point numbers, so much so that we reach for them each time we write code that does math. But do we ever stop to think what goes on inside that floating point unit and whether we can really trust it?

Prevent Google's search logging

2006-08-13T10:45:00.000+05:30

Google's policy of storing everyone's search histories forever is causing concern amongst many, especially since Google stores a cookie on everyone's PC expiring in 2038. But at least one user is fighting back. His short and simple guide tells you how to set up any decent web browser so that it routes Google requests through an anonymous proxy, while sending everything else direct to the net for full-speed surfing. Follow these steps and get Google's nose out of your business once and for all.

AOL searcher data exposed

2006-08-10T14:04:00.000+05:30

AOL search user No. 4417749 conducted hundreds of searches over a three-month period on topics ranging from "numb fingers" to "60 single men" to "dog that urinates on everything., report NYT journalists Michael Barbaro and Tom Zeller Jr., but with a permission from Mrs. Thelma Arnold, 62. "Those are my searches," she said, after a reporter read part of the list to her, continues the article.

NASA has lost tapes and pictures of moon

2006-08-10T14:02:00.000+05:30

Also among tapes feared missing are the original recordings of the other five Apollo moon landings. The format used by the original pictures beamed from the moon was not compatible with commercial technology used by television networks. So the images received at Parkes, and at tracking stations near Canberra and in California, were played on screens mounted in front of conventional television cameras.

Laptop's future technology

2006-07-31T16:24:00.000+05:30

ThinkPad founder Arimasa Naitoh sat down for a chat with CNET.com.au about the future of the laptop. The article includes a few concept design images, as well as details on why Lenovo believes that fuel-cell technology is poor and that Origami will never succeed as a primary device.

Here is the summary of the changes in laptop's future technology -

* Performance is still king
* Fuel-cell battery technology isn't mature
* Evolving designs
* Wireless all the way
* Multimedia isn't a priority

Google Dance orkut community

2006-07-31T16:20:00.000+05:30

Hmmm, created an orkut community for `Google Dance' event which is the first community created by me in orkut.

Let me see how many users, i can attract for it ;)

Happy Google Dance !

Web pages archive

2006-07-31T14:48:00.000+05:30

Wow, the site - www.archive.org/index.php is worth of mentioning in my blog !
I came across this site and it was awesome to use it. The main service for the users it gives is - search the web pages archive for a site from it's beginning to till date. I did it for google.com and i was able to view the first design home page of google which was in wayback 1998 !

I did a search for archive pages for the following sites -

* google.com
* yahoo.com - check out how funny it is in 1996 archive
* gnu.org
* fsf.org
* microsoft.com
* msn.com - this also

It's a great site and worth of visit to it.

First Petaflop Supercomputer by Japan

2006-07-31T11:44:00.000+05:30

Japan has built the fastest supercomputer in the world. While the BlueGene/L contains 130,000 processors, Japan has managed to create the first Petaflop supercomputer, called MDGrape-3, with just 4808 chips, and it cost just $9 million to develop...

NASA websites hacked

2006-07-31T11:43:00.000+05:30

Two NASA websites were hacked today by a group of Chilean activist hackers. The reason was to protest against the war on Lebanon. The mirror of the defaced site contains an image of an injured child and claims that the sites were running MacOSX...

Hacked page - http://zone-h.org/index2.php?option=com_mirrorwrp&Itemid=44&id=4402742

Play with your IBM laptop

2006-07-31T11:42:00.001+05:30

For the first time, you can smack your computer and get a meaningful response! An article at IBM Devworks show you how to rap on the laptop case with your knuckles and have commands run on those knocks. Enterprising hackers have developed modules for the Linux kernel to take advantage of laptop integrated accelerometer sensors; with them the possibilities are endless...

Hard Drive's 50th anniversary

2006-07-31T11:42:00.000+05:30

Experts agree that the amazing gains in storage density at low cost will continue for at least the next couple of decades, allowing cheap peta-bytes (millions of gigabytes) of storage to corporations and terabytes (thousands of gigs) to the home. Meanwhile, drives with mere hundreds of gigabytes will be small enough to wear as jewelry...

License plate for citizens

2006-07-26T00:18:00.000+05:30

Bucholz, who designed some of the first mobile license plate reading, or LPR, equipment, gave a presentation at the 2006 National Institute of Justice conference here last week laying out a vision of the future in which LPR does everything from helping insurance companies find missing cars to letting retail chains chart customer migrations. It could also let a nosy citizen with enough cash find out if the mayor is having an affair, he says.

Comparison of ( Google | AT&T ) Labs

2006-07-26T00:17:00.000+05:30

It's easy to knock the telcos nowadays, especially in the wake of the Net neutrality debates. AT&T and Verizon are lumbering old dinosaur behemoths from the post-war era who are steadily being displaced by the smaller, more agile, more innovative mammals of the Internet age—or so the standard narrative goes. But before we write off the telcos in general and AT&T in specific, I think it's worth looking at their legacy of innovation and how that legacy has evolved. It's also worth asking if the best metaphor for their troubles in the fast-moving innovation economy is really "dinosaurs being replaced by mammals." For my part, I think a better metaphor might be "old people blowing money in an effort to compete with the young, fabulous, and deeply in debt.

New code in DNA

2006-07-26T00:15:00.000+05:30

The genetic code specifies all the proteins that a cell makes. The second code, superimposed on the first, sets the placement of the nucleosomes, miniature protein spools around which the DNA is looped. The spools both protect and control access to the DNA itself...

New feature in Google Mobile through Google Maps

2006-07-26T00:13:00.000+05:30

Now you can check how the traffic is ahead of you, of course as long as you don't cause the traffic incident yourself by checking the local issues on your cell phone while driving. Point your cell phone browser to http://google.com/gmm to get your local traffic maps if you live within one of the 30 U.S. cities where this is available.

Overview of Apple's Operating Systems

2006-07-26T00:11:00.000+05:30

As part of his 1680-page book Mac OS X Internals: A Systems Approach, Amit Singh of kernelthread.com wrote a very detailed technical history of Apple's operating systems. Since he had to cut down on the history chapter because of the book's already too-large size, most of this chapter didn't make it to the printed book. Singh has made available the history chapter as a free PDF. The file is 140 pages long, and is generously filled with figures and screenshots. It starts with the internals of the original Apple I and goes through a tour of all operating systems Apple dabbled with, including internals of A/UX, Lisa OS, and such. It even covers details of outside influences like the Xerox Alto, STAR System, Smalltalk, and Sketchpad, and closer to home things like Mach, NeXTStep, and OpenStep...

Skype into videos

2006-07-26T00:08:00.000+05:30

Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis (creators of Kazaa and Skype) are at work on a new project: 'software for distributing TV shows and other forms of video over the Web.' Calling the work 'The Venice Project,' Zennstrom and Friis have assembled teams of developers to tackle the problem. The developers are already in negotiations with TV networks to use the system...

Plan 9 Overview

2006-07-23T22:34:00.000+05:30

Plan 9 is a research OS produced by Bell Labs. It was open sourced a few years back, and has enjoyed a revival of sorts. Los Alamos National Labs is continuing to favor Plan 9 for their new generation of super computing because its the fastest thing out there. I have downloaded and ran Plan 9 before. In fact the Plan 9 live cd sits here on my desk. Its not an operating system for noobs however, and lacks some graphical refinement. Plan 9 is a very cool and a interesting test drive however. Its definitely worth the price of admission (free) for exploring, and education.

YouOS - The Web Operating System

2006-07-23T22:31:00.000+05:30

You OS comes from the MIT Labs and contains an email client, Chat Function, RSS Reader, and Text Editor. YouOS is a web operating system that lets you run diverse applications within a web browser. Small applications like sticky notes or clocks. Large applications like word processing, mp3 players, and instant messaging. Even better, it's very easy to tweak an existing application or write your own.

The Future of Computing

2006-07-23T22:29:00.000+05:30

Penn State computer science professor Max Fomitchev explains that computing has evolved in a spiral pattern from a centralized model to a distributed model that retains some aspects of centralized computing. Single-task PC operating systems (OSes) evolved into multitasking OSes to make the most of increasing CPU power, and the introduction of the graphical user interface at the same time reduced CPU performance and fueled demands for even more efficiencies. "The role of CPU performance is definitely waning, and if a radical new technology fails to materialize quickly we will be compelled to write more efficient code for power consumption costs and reasons..

Google Accessible Search

2006-07-22T22:52:00.000+05:30

Google released Accessible Search on July 20, a Google Labs product aiming to rank higher pages which are optimized for blind users. A small tool to compare results of default and accessible results - http://blog.outer-court.com/accessible/

Glance at memory cards

2006-07-22T22:48:00.000+05:30

Memory cards come in all sorts of formats and capacities but arguably, the most popular types are Secure Digital (SD) and Type I CompactFlash (CF). If you’ve recently bought a digital camera, one of these was probably bundled with your new toy. However, more often than not the capacity of that card is pretty low – 32MB for example – rendering it useless when it comes to storing a decent number of shots and/or movies.

Beloved India gets visual radio

2006-07-22T22:47:00.000+05:30

India continues to march towards becoming an IT and economic super power. The Indian capital of New-Delhi will become the the third city in the world to have a commercial Visual Radio service after Singapore and Helsinki (Finland)...

Walk in space for $15 M !

2006-07-22T16:10:00.000+05:30

Fewer than 450 people have traveled to space, and the club of spacewalkers is even more exclusive. Just 151 people have stepped outside the relative safety of their craft to greet the void with only a visor to separate life and death. 'Spacewalk is the ultimate experience that we've managed to invent as humans,' said Tom Jones, a former astronaut and spacewalker who is an adviser to Space Adventures. Being outside the craft when 'there's nothing between you and the ground below but empty space,' he said, is 'incomparable.

30 year forecast by supercomputer of japan

2006-07-20T00:48:00.000+05:30

The results will help establish predictable routes for typhoons and identify areas that are recurring targets for heavy rains, abundant snow, high waves, heavy winds, scorching heat or crop-threatening droughts.

Firefox 2 vs Opera 9 vs IE 7

2006-07-20T00:45:00.000+05:30

Firefox. In one year, the open-source darling Firefox has pulled within a dead heat of browser the browser popularity crown, at least on the ExtremeTech site, where each browser claims just over 43 percent of our viewers.

Malware Search Engine released

2006-07-18T19:49:00.000+05:30

The release of the search engine was motivated in part by a recent announcement by Websense Security Labs, of San Diego-based Websense, that it was using the freely available Google SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) Search API to find dangerous .exe files sitting on Web servers....

Search Engine - http://metasploit.com/research/misc/mwsearch/index.html

High Level language explained

2006-07-18T19:48:00.000+05:30

The closer to the metal you can get while programming, the faster your program will compile — or so conventional wisdom would have you believe. In this article, I will show you how high-level languages like Java aren't slow by nature, and in fact low level languages may compile less efficiently....

Frm M$ employees have launched site dedicated to OSS

2006-07-17T20:21:00.000+05:30

Great to hear that slowly M$ is stepping into core OSS domain.

This site is for evaluating OSS projects which will be useful for naive users to know about OSS projects before they actually get into it.

It is like ( Google | Yahoo! ) directory, called as OSS directory.

The feature(s) include like comparing different OSS projects and decide which best suits for the user.

This makes an clear documentation of OSS projects which helps users to get into OSS domain rather than into proprietary domain.

M$ COO Kevin Turner warns Google Inc to keep off from Corp Search

2006-07-17T10:49:00.000+05:30

"Those people are not going to be allowed to take food off our plate, because that is what they are intending to do". This is what Kevin Turner, COO M$ told at a press conf.
Read the rest of the remarks made by him.

For me this looks ( kiddish | silly | senseless ) behaviour. Just try to think about this for few seconds and you feel somewhat senseless about it.

These days if you ( order | say ) something to a _kid_, they won't even ( listen | look ) to you, then how can Google listen to this ?

This is unfair remarks from M$ !

All the best for Google on Corp Search business.

World Firefox Day

2006-07-17T00:22:00.000+05:30

Are you a fan of Firefox ?. Want to spread the word to a friend who hasn't heard of it yet ? If you can convince just one person to switch to Firefox before September 15th, you'll both be immortalized in Firefox 2.0's source code - http://lxr.mozilla.org/mozilla1.8/source/browser/

Happy World Firefox day ! ;)

Checkout the Intro on IPV6

2006-07-17T00:17:00.000+05:30

ONLINE, ON THE PHONE, ON THE UP

50 billion the number of e-mails dispatched every day wordwide; in 2001 the traffic was less than 12 billion

88 per cent of e-mails are junk including about 1 per cent which are virus-infected

32 The average number of e-mail messages received per person per day. This is rising by 84 per cent each year

440 million the number of electronic mailboxes in use, including 170 million corporate ones, growing by 32 per cent per year

1,035 million the total number of mobile phone text messages sent each month in Britain

37 The average number of texts a user sends per month compared with 21 in 2001 1 million the number of children aged under 10 in Britain — one in three — who own a phone

8 The average age at which a child gets a mobile phone in Britain

M$, Yahoo! have finally merged their IM networks

2006-07-13T22:17:00.000+05:30

Nine months after their announcement, M$ and Yahoo! are finally ready to roll out beta IM clients of MSN Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger that will be able to talk to each other.

The companies say that the resulting user community will be the world's largest, at around 350 million accounts, and that they'll be using SSL to encrypt the traffic between the systems.

More info -

* http://ideas.live.com/
* http://messenger.yahoo.com/
* http://www.windowsfordevices.com/news/NS9324050507.html

Apple to release new Mac OS called Leopard

2006-07-06T22:46:00.000+05:30

My favourite computer maker has got newer version of Mac OS named Leopard, which is cool and faster than it's predecessors.

Why the name leopard is because the OS is fast and efficient as leopard animal is, opposite to the M$'s Vista which is slow and resource hungry ;).

I am waiting for Leopard eagerly !

Happy Leopard OS !

Software Internet Database

2006-07-03T23:13:00.000+05:30

Wow, one of the nice site which contains the database of softwares, etc. This is how their's mission statement goes - Our mission is to compile the largest database of software titles and credits on the Internet. ...

I have nothing more to say as i haven't yet gone through it.

Amazing site, just get into it and enjoy the various softwares !

Got Invitation from Google's Picasa Team for web albums

2006-07-03T22:49:00.000+05:30

Yep, i was happy to get invitation from Google Picasa Team for their new product called - Picasa Web. It's great as Yahoo!'s Flickr. Here is the invitation -

Anyway this is an test version which they are trying out and soon you too will be getting an account to play with it.

The initial features include -

* storage space - 250 MB, pretty good.
* integration with Google Picasa product (which means you can upload your offline pics to online
through Google Picasa).
* As default from Google, it is light weight and fast.

This is how it looks -

I have to start adding pics of mine and play with it, but don't have enough tick-tick ;)

Happy Google Picasa !

Gonna Sue Google Orkut

2006-06-22T11:29:00.000+05:30

Yes, i am thinking of filiing a lawsuit against Google Orkut for it's strange behaviour with my account which led to losing my account along with friends contacts and communities subscriptions.

This is what has happened to me.

Before Orkut was affiliated with Google, i had an account with it and i had just populated the account details. After Google Inc acquired Orkut, i was unable to login to my Orkut account. I don't have any idea why i couldn't login to my Old Orkut account.

Recently, i asked one of my friend to invite me to join Orkut as it was through invitation only.

I could also create a new account in Orkut using same GMail account which should have stopped me in creating neew Orkut account as i had already one, but Google Orkut didn't !

When i created a new Google Orkut account, i populated with it my details, friends contacts and communities subcriptions.

Recently, Google Orkut asked my whether to use the same login which i use to for new Orkut account or merge it with GMail ID also - i mean to say you can login either Orkut userid / GMail id. I went with option of merging both the account - GMail and Orkut. The result was _really_ bad and ridiculous.

The new Orkut account had been replaced with old Orkut account.
After that whenever i login to Orkut, it use to go to my old Orkut account.
The new Orkut account also existed, i mean to say whoever refers to my new Orkut account, i use to get email for my GMail ID.

I wanted new orkut account as i had populated that which had taken my time and energy.

I deleted my Old Orkut account and my new Orkut account still exists, but i am unable to login to it or use it, but i get emails regarding it.

Summary - Google orkut has serious flaws :

* Why Google Orkut attached two orkut accounts to same GMail ID ?
* Why i am unable to login to the new Orkut account, as it still exists ?
* Why i get emails to my GMail ID for the new Orkut account ?

Totally, Google Orkut has lost my personal data.

Google Earth released for GNU/Linux systems

2006-06-13T12:50:00.000+05:30

Wow, great at last by Google Inc. Finally they made Google Earth to run on GNU/Linux systems.

I have downloaded it and playing with it and will post the screen shots asap.

Google Orkut Flaw

2006-06-10T22:00:00.000+05:30

Yep, the post heading is right !. According to me the Google Orkut has some flaws. One of those i remember at this point of time is, the section displaying `Communities' entires randomly. What i noticed is the `Communities' entries are being displayed redundant as shown below in the screenshot -

When `view all' link is clicked, the communities are listed in serial manner, but isn't being listed redundant for the corresponding entry, depicted as below -

This makes users of orkut to get confused sometimes !

Hope this will be fixed by Google Orkut Team.

`Planet' hasn't been defined correctly yet !

2006-06-10T19:32:00.000+05:30

Huuf, astronomers have not yet defined the word `planet' properly, it seems. OMG, then the meaning what i have kept reading since my childhood days isn't correct ?

There are so much of work to be done if they define other than already defined, like changing text books, documentations, etc, a lot of work :(.

Anyway astronomers are expected to _define_ the word `planet' in september this year.

Me cross-finger and wait to see what is the new definition of `planet'.

Google's amazing new products !

2006-06-10T13:26:00.000+05:30

Oi, i am happy to have these new products from Google Inc.

* Google Browser Sync - It is an amazing product, which allows your cookies, history, cache, etc of the browser to be stored on Google server. This is y ? because it allows you to have roaming feature, meaning you can logon to Google server account somewhere else and use this data stored on Google server. But this product has to be installed in the browser on the remote location. This is what i am doin and it's great.

here is the screenshot.

The screenshot shows that when i started my fav browser - Mozilla Firefox, it say's it is been contacting Google server and syncing the data with my last session of browser. When you close the browser, it displays similar kind of dialog but, saying that it is storing the data onto Google server. It's nice right ?

The above screeshot shows latest products from Google Inc.

* Google spreadsheet is wow !

* Google Notebook is great. Check out the highlighted regions in the second screenshot above. Check the screenshot of Google Notebook below in action -

- The top right says, my browser has been installed Google Browser Sync and logged on to my account.

- The bottom right say's i can have instant notes editor.

Google doing great ;) Check oout them and enjoy !

Wow, one of my fav technology

2006-06-10T11:21:00.000+05:30

Hmm, guys are following SUN, after the latter people released 3D Desktop. I have already installed on my box and enjoying a lot. Wanna 3D, then go ahead, install and enjoy.

2006 Google US Puzzle Championship opened

2006-06-10T11:14:00.000+05:30

Oi, another method of Google Inc to take genius students. The prior method was to organize `Summer of Code', which made Google Inc to have option to have _great_ students of which some of my friends were there. Let me see what will be the results ;)

Join defectivebydesign.org

2006-06-05T12:49:00.000+05:30

Please join `defectivebydesign.org', Free Software Foundation, Inc campaign to eliminate DRM

GMail Intelligence

2006-05-24T14:37:00.000+05:30

Wow, i did not get this type of _warning_ message from Y! Mail, Rediff Mail, and other dozens of email providers.

But GMail has displayed me this warning about a mail sent by anonymous who has impersonated one of my friend.

Google has outshined in GMail service also !

Read the following page link contents to avoid these kinds of hacking in web -

http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?ctx=%67mail&hl=en&answer=8253

Happy GMail ;)

Linus Torvalds, father of GNU/Linux kernel - Linux, interview in CNN

2006-05-20T01:22:00.000+05:30

Hmm, what i was thinking is becoming true and i am happy for that !

As, i had mentioned in my previous post on `The CodeBreakers' programme
aired by BBC, the competition for airing FLOSS programmes has started
between various channels, and i appreciate them :)

Now, it's the time for us to watch the interview of Linus Torvalds,
father of GNU/Linux kernel - Linux, taken by 'The Global Office'
team of CNN.

The complete time schedule is as follows -

-------------------------------------------------------------

Saturday 20 May at 01:00 PM
Saturday 20 May at 07:00 PM (repeat)

-------------------------------------------------------------

Sunday 21 May at 05:00 PM
Sunday 21 May at 11:00 PM (repeat)

-------------------------------------------------------------

The above time schedule was taken from -

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/BUSINESS/05/18/global.office.linustorvalds/index.html

I hope, the above programme will be available for download under GPL !

I thank `CNN' and `The Global Office' team for making and
airing this programme.

We will be having the same fun watching this programme as we
had watching previous programmes / interviews of RMS, Linus. !

HappY FreE OpeN SourcE ;)

Some Tech Updates !

2006-05-17T14:56:00.000+05:30

After a long time posting these kind of stuffs,
i have started all again !

Anyway these are some updates ...

1. Motorola (Motto) launches Open Source site -

http://www.motorola.com/mediacenter/news/
detail.jsp?globalObjectId=6741_6698_23

Their Open Source Resources - https://opensource.motorola.com/sf/sfmain/do/home

2. SUN to release source of Java ! -

http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2156205/
sun-promises-open-source-java

3. My fav Apple's, new MacBook -

http://www.apple.com/macbook/macbook.html

4. Google has opened office at Sydney

* Photo Gallery -
http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/hardware/soa/
Photo_gallery_Googleplex_in_Sydney/0,2000061702,39256655,00.htm

5. Creative Sues Apple for iPod -

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9584_22-6072488.html

Don't forget to have a view at Google's new campus photo gallery !

Note: Above Links are formatted.

The Code Breakers - Documentary on FOSS and it's Development

2006-05-08T22:13:00.000+05:30

Atlast, BBC World has taken `pains' to find, assemble, do packaging
and air an programme in 2 parts on FOSS's history, development, it's future
and effects to the society on this planet.

I was thinking of suggesting similar kind of stuff for
`National Geographic Channel', `Discovery Channel', `History Channel'. It would
be great if they all air similar kind with more number of programs instead of
airing other kind of programs on Nature, Animals, Automobiles, Computers -
(outdated stuff), `nonsense', etc all the time, which makes viewers bored,
which they too know, i beleive !

They should air programs on Computers, FOSS, GNU, FSF, Richard M Stallman,
Linux Torvalds, etc

Hope, they do in future and that too be done completely and released under GPL !

Thanks for the authors for making and `BBC World' team for airing
this programme.

For complete listing of the schedule for Indian time is as follows -

----------------------------------------------------------------
1/2 Part
----------------------------------------------------------------

11th May Thursday - 01:00 AM

11th May Thursday - 15:00 PM (repeat)

12th May Friday - 22:00 PM (repeat)

15th May Monday- 13:00 PM (repeat)

----------------------------------------------------------------

----------------------------------------------------------------
2/2 Part
----------------------------------------------------------------

18th May Thursday - 01:00 AM

18th May Thursday - 15:00 PM (repeat)

19th May Friday - 22:00 PM (repeat)

---------------------------------------------------

Note: The above schedule info was taken from -

http://bbcworld.com/content/template_tvlistings.asp?pageid=668

Please watch this programme !

Happy FreE OpeN SourcE ;)

Advice from Microsoft for proprietary world

2006-03-08T14:05:00.000+05:30

If you are using a Free Software (Free as in Freedom) browser
like firefox, etc then go to msn.com which is of !@#$'s
site, and click on the video section. They have an
strange Quote as -

"To use this product, you need to install free software"

I don't understand the meaning of #free software#
in their context.

I think the #free software# coined my Mr.RMS must be
changed to freedom software, else these kind of
confusions will be a nightmare in future.

Web Office Suites

2006-02-22T12:49:00.000+05:30

I have signed-up already for all the below ones.
They are the latest released Cool Online Office
Applications !!!
Just try all of them, to have fun in office suites
and bookmark them :)

Word Processor -

http://www.writely.com/
http://www.writeboard.com/
http://www.rallypointhq.com/
http://www.jotlive.com/
http://www.zohowriter.com/Home.do

Spread Sheet -

http://numsum.com/
http://www.irows.com/
http://tracker.jot.com/
http://trimpath.com/project/wiki/TrimSpreadsheet

Calendar -

http://www.30boxes.com/
http://www.calendarhub.com/
http://www.airset.com/
http://joyent.com/
http://www.kiko.com/
http://www.planzo.com/
http://www.spongecell.com/
http://www.trumba.com/

Presentation -

http://www.meyerweb.com/eric/tools/s5/
http://slideml.org/

Project Management -

http://basecamphq.com/

Office Suites -

http://www.zimbra.com/
http://www.goffice.com/
http://online.thinkfree.com/
http://webserver002.goowy.com/

Mail -

Hosted email service from Google Inc -
http://google.com/hosted

!@#$% -

And lastly, only just have a look but don't use M$'s version,
released recently - http://officelive.microsoft.com/

Just Say No To Microsoft: How To Ditch Microsoft And Why It’s Not As Hard As You Think

2006-02-06T14:09:00.000+05:30

"This book, the contents of which should be evident in the self explanatory title, makes you feel a bit revolutionary. It isn’t just the catchy headings, which are clever paraphrasings of song titles and geeky cultural refecences; it’s also the air of genuine excitment which permeates the pages, and makes you feel inspired during and after the reading process. I think many people’s continuing use of Mircosoft, even when they know about the insecurities, and the bugs, and the horror, is caused by inertia. And this is just the book to get them up and off their swivel chairs! Tony Bove has compiled a book that is informative and easy to read and understand—you start thinking “hey, migration would be fun! Find me a free software alternative!”. Bove is the author of a companion website, Get Off Microsoft which is an excellent resource package full of links and comparisons to explore for those considering migration. “Just Say No To Mircosoft” is published by No Starch Press."

Documentation issues in open source

2005-12-23T10:32:00.000+05:30

"Have you ever lamented the documentation that accompanies the latest bit of open source software that you have looked at? Writing high quality documentation is no easy task. Stuart Yeates takes a look at the issues surrounding the production of good quality documentation within open source projects."

SEOBOOK: Search Engine Optimization

2005-12-23T10:27:00.000+05:30

"Briefly, SEOBOOK: Search Engine Optimization is one of those informative texts that every person who is trying to make their website successful and well known should get their hands on and now."

Disney goes towards open source

2005-12-23T10:24:00.000+05:30

"Disney is open-sourcing Donald and Mickey. Will news companies follow their lead?"

Free, open or proprietary ?

2005-12-22T13:53:00.000+05:30

"Software is a tool, a compilation of code that directs computer hardware, a program that empowers people to work more productively. Before Richard Stallman founded the GNU Project, many outside of hacker communities would have reasonably asked: why on earth is the ethics of software distribution philosophically interesting? But by formalising hacker conventions, Stallman kickstarted a revolution in the industry that now raises profound questions about areas of philosophical interest, most notably property. However, the precise differences between Stallman?s conception of ?free software?, the term ?open source? and the alternative: ?proprietary? are often confused. This article seeks to disentangle the issues and present a clear analysis of each approach to software licensing."

LWN : 2005 Linux and free software timeline: December

2005-12-22T12:06:00.000+05:30

FOSS.IN in 2005 Linux and free software timeline: December, LWN reports ...

Times Online article about FOSS.IN

2005-12-22T12:04:00.000+05:30

India is turning into a battleground for the hearts and minds of software developers. On one side are the forces of opensourcing, ranged against them is Bill Gates's Microsoft. It is a battle neither can afford to lose, goes on

Looking at 2005 of Google Search

2005-12-21T13:13:00.000+05:30

Check out the Google's 2005 Search Statistics in various categories

Deciding whether your company needs FOSS insurance

2005-12-19T23:18:00.000+05:30

"Should companies that use free and open source software (FOSS) insure themselves possible patent or copyright violations? That question has no easy answer, say James Gatto, a partner at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman specializing in intellectual property and FOSS issues, and Karen Hiser, director of compliance services at Open Source Risk Management."

Ramp creates power as cars pass

2005-12-18T22:23:00.000+05:30

"An inventor creates a road ramp that uses passing cars to generate power."

Opening the open source community to a profitable business model

2005-12-17T10:22:00.000+05:30

"A paper recently written by two university professors offers a business model that would keep the software open and free, while allowing its developers to profit. The model would have open source software companies make money through royalty fees and sales of their newest innovations, then offer the complete software and source code for free after a predetermined period."