My Thoughts

Alternatives.. Alternatives.. Alternatives!

2010-05-28T22:40:00.005+05:30

When I got my new phone, I was quite happy about it. My old one, Sony Ericsson W550i was a music phone, not a phone for social networking. Of course I was able to install Snaptu and Opera Mini in it, still I needed something much more productive. I went for a phone with wireless connectivity, 3G support, GPS etc etc, and I finally settled on Nokia 5800 Express Music.

Now, when I explored the Ovi App Store, I found out that some best apps for social networking like Gravity came with a price tag. Its true that the best things in life don't come for free.. but what I think is Better things in life come for free!

I was unhappy on one thing. I could see a numerous social networking apps for iPhone and Android, even Blackberry, but not for Symbian. Recently I joined Foursquare. There also, this same thing was a problem. They had apps for Android and iPhone, but for symbian, it was their lame site. I felt "damn!! screwed!! No single social networking service has their own app for Symbian."

And then, I began to search for alternatives. And yes i got them! in fact, now i am totally happy!!

Given below are a list of the alternatives that i am using now.

Facebook+Twitter: Snaptu

Twitter+Foursquare: Waze

Gtalk, Yahoo Messenger, MSN, ICQ etc etc: Nimbuzz

Twitter Client: Gravity (of course it is not free.. but one can easily download the full version using the link.)

Sharing: PixelPipe

Always remember: The better things in life come for free! ;)

Official Gmail Blog: Improved comment collapsing for Google Buzz posts

2010-04-02T20:55:00.000+05:30

Official Gmail Blog: Improved comment collapsing for Google Buzz posts: "Improved comment collapsing for Google Buzz posts
Friday, April 02, 2010 7:50 AM
Posted by Sean McBride, User Experience Designer"

Happy 6th Birthday Facebook...!! (Infographic)

2010-02-13T20:28:00.009+05:30

Launched on February 4, 2004, Facebook has come a long way from a Harvard-only networking site to the world's favorite social networking site within a short timespan of 6 years. It is undoubtedly the social networking giant. It has redefined the term Social Networking, to a more meaningful form.

Below is a closer look at what kinds of numbers and user activity this growth translates.

Muhammad Saleem is a social media consultant and a top-ranked community member on multiple social news sites. Follow him on Twitter for more social media insights

Courtesy: Mashable

Integrating Facebook and Twitter into Gmail

2010-02-13T18:57:00.007+05:30

Google has just launched Google Buzz , which "has stormed the web like a swarm of locusts. An array of strong features, integration with Gmail, and lots of press have turned Buzz into an overnight phenomenon" (courtesy: Mashable) . But for me, it was a bit disturbing and a BORING!!

Some of us know and MOST of us are unaware of the fact that we are actually able to integrate Twitter and Facebook into our Gmail. YES!! it is possible.. And by doing so, u won't have to sacrifice tweeting and facebooking.

By using third party gadgets, we'll be able to club Facebook, Twitter and Gmail into a same window! Aint that good?

Here I'll be giving a step by step procedure on HOW TO INTEGRATE FACEBOOK AND TWITTER INTO GMAIL.

Step 1: Go to Gmail Labs and activate "Add any gadget by URL". You'll be able to find it towards the bottom of the list.

Step 2: After completing step 1, go to Settings -> Gadgets.

Step 3: Add the TwitterGadgetApp, by copy-pasting the below mentioned URL on to Gmail Gadget Settings.

https://twittergadget.appspot.com/gadget-gmail.xml

Step 4: Next, we add the Facebook Gadget, the same way we added the TwitterGadgetApp.

Copy-paste the below mentioned URL on to Gmail Gadget Settings.

http://hosting.gmodules.com/ig/gadgets/file/104971404861070329537/facebook.xml

Refer to the screenshots.

TwitterGadgetApp:

Facebook Gadget

Thats it..!! Now Buzz, Twitter and Facebook are wrapped together in a single packet!! Now you don't have to sacrifice tweeting and facebooking even if u are bloody addicted to BUZZing.. :)

Along with all that.. I am putting forward a question.. With all those Buzz, FB and Twitter along with Gmail, Ain't that information overloading.??? :(

Google Wave, New Orkut Invites Give Away!

2009-11-28T17:35:00.006+05:30

I've got around 23 invites to Google Wave and around 15 New Orkut Invites. If anyone needs it, please let me know.. Leave ur email id below.

Remember.. First Come, First Serve!

Leave your email ids below!

P.S if u need an Orkut Invitation, add me as ur temp friend and after u've got the invitation, u can delete me from ur friend list.. Visit My Orkut Profile

Installing TweetDeck in Ubuntu 9.04

2009-09-22T02:31:00.003+05:30

I've been tweeting for a pretty long time. The most useful twitter app I found was TweetDeck. I had to refresh the site periodically, which made me feel unconfortable. Then I remembered reading somewhere that Adobe Air applications are platform independent (correct me if i am wrong). Now, it occured to me that why not install TweetDeck in Ubuntu, as I work on GNU/Linux more than windows now a days. Given below is a step by step procedure of installing TweetDeck in Ubuntu.

(Please note that sentences highlighted with green color are commands that are to be executed in terminal.)

Phase 1:

Installing Adobe Air:

1. wget http://airdownload.adobe.com/air/lin/download/1.5/AdobeAIRInstaller.bin

2. Save the file in Home Directory, with the file name AdobeAIRInstaller.bin

3. chmod +x AdobeAIRInstaller.bin

4. sudo ./AdobeAIRInstaller.bin

5. The normal installer will now start. Install it. From now on, download any file with .air extension and double-click it to install.

Phase 2

Installing TweetDeck

1. Go to http://tweetdeck.com/beta/download/ and download the latest version of TweetDeck.

2. Save the file and double-click to run it.

Install it and Tweet on..!!

How To Kill a Dragon With Various Programming Languages

2009-09-02T16:09:00.005+05:30

There's a beautiful princess, prisoner in the highest tower of a castle, guarded by a mighty dragon, and a fearless knight must rescue her. This is how each language would manage to rescue the princess from the hands of the dragon

Java - Gets there, finds the dragon, develops a framework for dragon anihilation with multiple layers, writes several articles about the framework… But doesn't kill the dragon.

.NET - Gets there, sees the idea of the Java developer and copies it. Tries to kill the dragon, but the monster eats him.

C - Arrives, looks down at the dragon, pulls out his sword, beheads the dragon, finds the princess, and ignores her to see the last checkins of linux kernel cvs.

C++ - Creates a basic needle, and gathers functionality until he has a complex sword that he can barely understand… He kills the dragon, but gets stuck crossing the bridge because of memory leaks.

COBOL - Arrives, sees the dragon and thinks that he is too old to kill a monster that big and rescuing the princess, so he leaves.

Pascal - He prepares for 10 years to create a dragon annihilation system… When the moment comes, he discovers the program can only take lizards as an entry.

VB - Builds a dragon destruction weapon based on several components, jumps to the back of the dragon and in the most critical time he discovers that the sword works only on rainy nights…

PL/SQL - Gets data from other dragon slayers, creates tables with n ternary complexity relations, tridimensional data, OLAP, takes a lot of years to process the information and by the time the princess became old.

Ruby - Arrives with massive fame, saying he is the best at anything and when he faces the dragon, he shows a lame motion picture of himself killing a dragon… The dragon eats him out of boredom.

Smalltalk - Arrives, analyzes the dragon and princess, turns around and leaves, they are way too inferior.

shell - Creates a very powerful dragon slaying weapon… But in the moment of truth, he can't remember how to use it.

shell(2) - The guy approaches the dragon with a two line script that kills, cuts, disembowels, impales, chops to pieces and packs the beast, but when he runs it the script grows, it fattens, irritates and puts alcohol in the fire of the dragon…

Assembler - He thinks he's doing the right and most efficient things… But he writes an A instead of a D and kills the princess instead of killing the dragon.

Fortran - Arrives and develops a 45-thousand-code-line-solution, kills the dragon, meets the princess… But she calls him a weakling and runs after the Java programmer who was elegant, and also rich.

FOX PRO - Develops a dragon killing system. It's gorgeous and works on the outside, but it's really patched inside, so when he runs the dragon anihilator, he realizes he forgot to index the DBFs.

PROCESS ANALYST - Approaches the dragon with two tons of documentation, develops the unified dragon-killing process, he develops a DFD to free the princess and marry her, convinces the dragon that it's the best for him and it won't hurt. When he executes the process, he estimates the effort and the damage he will cause with a plan signed by the Pope, Buddha and Michael Jackson. Then he buys a couple of nukes, 45 cannons, an aircraft carrier and hires 300 heavily armed men… When all he needed was the sword he was holding in his hand in the beginning…

CLIPPER: Sets up a routine that loads a codeblock array to insult the dragon, serenade the princess, load the sword in memory, beat the crap out of the dragon, clean the mess, prepare a raspberry milkshake for the princess, make love to her, take a bath, start the car, put it some gas and come back home. When he runs it, he gets a "Bound Error: Array Access" and the dragon eats him with fries.

Lisp: where the famous knight-errant, after speaking with numerous experts in dragon-killing, and modeling the knowledge they possess, he programs the system, and when he runs it he realizes he forgot a bracket (bender the offender).

HTML: Mounts a web on famous swords used to kill dragons, but he ignores the W3C standards. When he meets the dragon, he finds out the code isn't compatible with his browser, so he's left swordless. The dragon eats him as an appetizer.

Prolog: Thinks he needs a weapon to kill the dragon. Searches in a catalog for 182014 weapons. By the time the princess dies of her age, he's achieved to know how to make every weapon starting with A: Atomic Bombs, Anti-Air Weapons, Arches, Ammunition, Axes...

PHP: Creates a web page that when he executes it would eliminate the $dragon selecting from a weapons database in MySQL over an Apache server. Nevertheless he forgot the WHERE in the DELETE query and kills the princess, the dragon, the peasants, the witch, the sorcerer and the programmer himself.

JavaScript: The programmer tries to kill the great green dragon that spits fire through his mouth. He creates a script that will delete the dragon when he loads a webpage, to create seconds after, some damsels to throw him flowers and make clapping sounds. Unfortunately he didn't take into account the DOM structure of the lizard, also known as Mozilla, and the only thing he gets is to fill his console of errors and that the Book of Mozilla tells how he was devoured.

ActiveX: The programmers create a tunnel to enter the dragon's lair from the castle and run a program that will kill the dragon from a safe and prudential distance. The dragon discovers the tunnel, eats the workers who dug, the dragon slayers, and enslaves every servant in the castle. The castle becomes a dragon-breeding place, full of little dragons that the dragon sends in pop-ups to other castles. The untasty remains of the knights are put in cans of Spam and sent to other castles as well as a warning. (aquelquesiente)

Basic. He creates a weapon able to kill paper dragons, but no matter how they improve it, they discover it's not good enough to kill any dragon bigger than a baby poodle.

Matlab: They create a loop that calculates the trajectories to shoot a giant arrow at the dragon. The program works flawlessly. What they need now are the voluntaries capable to launch the arrow with the necessary strength and accuracy.

Videogame Programmer : Spends two years programming a state-of-the-art sword with shaders and all. When the time comes to kill the dragon, he finds that half the knights aren't strong enough to raise the sword.

Battle Of The Brains : ACM-ICPC Asia Regionals @ Amrita University – Kerala

2009-08-28T22:06:00.012+05:30

Its that time of the year again when brains from all over theAsia meet each other face2face, compete with all their programming and problem solving skills in C , C++ and Java.. Yes..!! You guessed it right.. its ICPC time again atAmrita University..!!

Welcome to ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest 2009 Asia Regionals, the multitier, team-based, programming competition operating under the auspices of ACM and headquartered at Baylor University.

ACM ICPC 2009 Asia Regionals - Online Contest over internet will be held at Amrita University,Kerala.

Each team will consist of 3 members, all undergraduate, and they will be asked to solve a set of 8-10 programming challenge problems - mostly based on algorithms, within a period of 4 hours.!! The choice of programming language between Java, C++ and C is upto the team.

How to register????

A team can only compete in ACM ICPC 2009 Asia Regionals, if-n-only-if they've registered for the same. So, register here

Registration is for one team, consisting of 3 contestants and one coach. The “coach” refers to any full time faculty member of the university or institution, where the contestants pursue their studies.

The contest rules can be found here: Rules_ACM_ICPC09

Hurry up!!! Last date for registration is: 9 September 2009.

Contestant Feedback of the previous contests:

http://sathyaphoenix.wordpress.com/2008/12/09/acm-icpc-asia-regionals-amrita-university-kerala/

http://amritaicpc.wordpress.com/

For more info, visit http://icpc.amrita.ac.in/site/

The Ten Commandments of C Style

2009-08-16T03:51:00.011+05:30

1. Woe be to those errant scribes who ignore capitalization in the writing of the C program, and a plague of frogs on those who turn off the switch of capitalization.

2. Thou shalt not capitalize statements such as the "if" or the "for".

3. CONSTANTS shall be shouted to the multitudes in all caps, from every rooftop and steeple, as they are the unchanging firmament and change not through all time, and woe be to those that confuse them with variables.

4. Those Types and Structures which are user defined shall be presented with the first letter capitalized, as they are the high born, lest they be confused with the lesser variables, nor with the shouted CONSTANTS.

5. Variables shall be lower case, even as they start a sentence, for they are the low and common peasant workers doing the everyday drudgery of programming work, and must not be confused with the high-born Structures, nor with the ever-stable firmament of CONSTANTS.

6. Brothers have come to blows o'er the use of long variable names, with many favoring the internal capitalization, thus the use of

long int numberOfPeopleInHell;

whereas others have countered with heated words that the proper way would be

long int number_of_people_in_hell;

Woe be to those who use either name, for it is likely not unique in the first six to eight letters, making some compilers gnash their teeth, while the true scope of the number of people in hell would vastly exceed the capacity of the long int, causing the dreaded plague which infecteth, locketh-up and rebooteth all computers from the lowly PIC to the mighty Cray.

7. While much blood has been shed over the issue of the curly brace, and many are the programmers that have argued that opening curly braces should go on their own line, while others have protested with sword-in-hand that they must go on the same line as the statement, and many have come to blows over this, the closing curly brace shall be indented to the same level as the opening function.

8. Thou shalt not comment the obvious. Those rapscallions and heathens who penned the line:

i++; /* Add one to i */

shall be forever banned from the inner circle of C, though their resume grow long and their accomplishments and finished code stretch out before them like a lake of ASCII text. Likewise, any code which is not obvious, or obfuscates and bebothers the user, shall be extensively commented so as to make clear the intent of the programmer.

9. Thou shalt comment the author, date, and revision of each C program, and lo, other comments shall be brief, descriptive, to the point, yet clear as the purest mountain spring water in their explanation and clarification of the code. Each function shall have as its companion a description of its function, its inputs and outputs, as each dog has its day and each actor his moment on the stage. Thou shalt document the purpose of each and every I/O pin in an embedded processor, and for each variable, data member or Structure there shall be a comment which shall illuminate and enlighten the reader of the program as to its use.

10. Thou shalt properly indent programs, each subservient function being indented one level more than its master.

courtesy: Suhas Kurup M
Lecturer, Dept. of Information Technology
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
Amritapuri Campus.
Kollam-690525
homepage: SuhasKurupM

Twitterspeak

2009-08-15T16:37:00.007+05:30

I've been tweeting since April 09. I found Twitter as a powerful medium of Micro-blogging as it enables sharing of ideas. I remember my friend Unnikrishnan(follow him on Twitter), talking about a concept in which the people with similar ideas get a chance to contact each other. He expressed it in a very confusing manner, as a result of which we all started running away from him the next time we saw him. Sometime later, I heard about Twitter. It also does the same thing what Unnikrishnan said, but in a more simple, yet powerful manner(again, Occam's razor stole the show..!!).

Twitter is used for many purposes, including:
• Sharing interesting web links
• Reporting local news you have witnessed
• Rebroadcasting fresh information you have received
• Philosophizing
• Making brief, directed commentaries to another person
• Emoting and venting
• Recording behavior, such as a change in location or eating habits
• Posing a question
• Rickrolling (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rickrolling)
• Crowdsourcing
• Organizing flash mobs and tweetups (in-person meetups with Twitter friends

The Twitter culture has created its own lexicon, filled with new words you should
know. Here are a few of the basics:

Tweet: The preferred name for a status update.

Retweet: The reposting of an interesting tweet from another twitterer.

Detweet: Craig Danuloff suggests there should be a way to refute someone’s post by passing
along a tweet with “a degree of disapproval” (Sad part is tht we have Like in Facebook and don't have an option for Dislike.).

Tweeple/tweeps: Twitter people, Twitter members, Twitter users, twitterers.

Twoosh: A tweet that is a perfect 140 characters long.

Tweetup: When tweeple meet in person.

For a more complete list of Twitter words, try Twittonary, the Twictionary wiki , or the Twitter Fan Wiki’s Twitter Glossary.

Themes for Google Chrome..!!!

2009-08-09T12:16:00.001+05:30

New themes for Google Chrome.. That sounded like a "wow" to me. I tweeted about it last week but didn't blog it as there were some problems with installing some themes. Now, after some update and stuff, the UI looks cool.

Now to install some themes..
Plan A
Go to Settings -> Options -> Personal Stuff -> Get Themes

You'll be directed to the Google Chrome Themes Page .
Plan B
Go to https://tools.google.com/chrome/intl/en/themes/index.html and try out one by one. Save them in one folder.

Sad that Chrome does not provide any kind of option such as Theme Selector. If you need to change the current theme, then you'll have to double click on the theme file you've downloaded, and thats where we find Firefox as a better option..!!

For me, some of the themes were so bright(Vertical Stripe , Legal Pad , Color Chips) and some were so pleasing. Anyway, its time for you people to try the new look for your chrome. Here are the screen shots of some themes which i like.

Baseball

Brushed

Cork Board

Desktop

Earthy

Glow

Floral Blue

Grass

Stargazer

Zen Spring

Minimal

So wat are you waiting for?? Get a new look for your Chrome..!!

Installing Ubuntu 9.04 Desktop Edition

2009-07-27T02:35:00.005+05:30

Okay people, we are back to freedom a.k.a GNU/Linux. In this post we'll be discussing on how to install Ubuntu 9.04(Jaunty Jackalope).

Preliminaries.

Step. 1: First, we'll take a look at the Minimum System Requirements needed for this version of Ubuntu.
please check this link: Go!!

Step 2: If the above dependency is satisfied, then we need to download the installation media. http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download and download the appropriate version. Then burn it into a CD or DVD.
Step 3: Boot from the CD and do the following steps. We are now going to install Ubuntu. I’m providing you sufficient pictures and descriptions, so that you won’t have any difficulty in installing Ubuntu on your machine.

Installation:
Step 1: Boot from the CD and when you see the following screen, select “Install Ubuntu”. You need to wait for some time as the system needs to prepare for the installation.

Step 2: You will be asked to select a language for the installation process. Select the language (Usually English) and click Next.

Step 3: Select your time-zone by selecting a city nearby you or selecting the country you are in.

Step 4: Select the Keyboard Layout, in most cases it is US. Click the Forward button. Wait for sometime as the Partitioner is being set up.

Step 5: Select “Specify Partitions Manually” and click Forward button.

Step 6: Select the required partition and click on “New Partition” button.

Step 7: Enter the required partition size. Make sure that you leave at least 1GB space for Swap area. Select the required file system type(Ext2 or Ext3) from “Use As” menu and set the “Mount Point” as “/”. Click “OK”.

Step 8: Allocate the required “Swap Area”. Remember to set it to at least 1GB. I’ve set it less than 1GB as a matter of shortage of free space. Click the Forward button.

Step 9: In this step, you need to give the login details like username and password. Click the Forward button.

Step 10: Click “Install” button. Now, sit back and relax as the installation takes some time.

Step 11: After the installation is complete, click the “Restart Now” button.

Step 12: After the system reboots, from the Grub loader, select the Ubuntu installation enter your username and password to login to your system.

What are you waiting for??? Explore and Enjoy...!!!

Not able to restore hidden folders????

2009-07-05T20:02:00.007+05:30

Sometimes it may occur that you may hide those folders containing your "precious" files, and at the time when you need them..... BAM... u can't restore the hidden folder. Don't panic, its just the doing of USBWorm (Heap 41a).

W32.USB Worm or Heap41a attempts to periodically copy itself to removable drives and USB keys. The worm will attempt to create a hidden file Autorun.inf on the removeable drive and copy itself to the removeable drive as MicrosoftPowerPoint.exe. It will monitor internet brwser activities and display the following messages:

· “USE INTERNET EXPLORER YOU DOPE, I DNT HATE MOZILLA BUT USE IE OR ELSE…”

· “Orkut is BANNED you fool, The adminstrators didn’t write this program guess who did??”

And now, coming back to the solution to the “Hidden Folder problem”. Perform the following rituals.

1. Go to your Start menu, click on Run and open up your Registry Editor by typing "regedit" without the quotes and pressing OK.

2. Once there go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\Folde r\Hidden\SHOWALL

3. Delete the value CheckedValue. (Its type should be REG_SZ and data should be 2.)

4. Create a new DWORD value called CheckedValue (same as above, except that the type is REG_DWORD) by right clicking on the right pane->New->DWORD Value. Modify the value data to 1 (0x00000001).

This will help in restoring the hidden folders.

And next time, have an efficient antivirus installed in your system. Oh I would recommend ESET NOD32.

Nvidia Drivers For Windows 7

2009-06-03T22:26:00.004+05:30

Nvidia has launched drivers for Windows 7(32 bit and 64 bit). Check out their site or the NVIDIA widget in my blog. You can download the drivers for Linux, Solaris, and FreeBSD too.

This widget is one useful thing I guess.!!

Gmail Stickers...!!!!!

2009-04-05T22:37:00.009+05:30

Seeing a previous post on my blog (this one), Venu, one of my seniors, had sent a request for Gmail Stickers. He had almost abandoned the hope of getting 'em as he didn't get an IRC from the post office. But it so happened that the Google guys were kind enough to send him the stickers and guess what... they paid for the stamps...!!

Venu with his Gmail stickers

The Gmail Stickers..

Installing Dotnet Framework 1.1 on Windows 7 beta edition

2009-02-02T17:04:00.006+05:30

When I installed Windows 7 beta version on my laptop, it was a relief as i was fed up with vista. The first problem popped while I tried to install Daemon Tools.

( For people who still have problem installing Daemon Tools, try installing Virtual Clone Drive. It seems Daemon Tools dont have support for beta editions.)

The next problem arose when I tried to install dotnet framework 1.1. When I tried doing that, the following error showed up.

If user click “OK’, the installation of .NET 1.1 will be cancelled, while clicking “CANCEL”
produces another error message similar to below:

RegSvcs.exe - No debugger found Registered JIT debugger is not available. An attempt to launch a JIT debugger with the following command resulted in an error code of 0×2 (s). Please check settings.
cardbg.exe !a 9×8e

Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 SP1(Service Pack 1) has resolved the issue. However, Microsoft does not provide download to standalone .NET Framework 1.1 installer that integrated with SP1.

To fix this, we need to follow the following steps, which is called slipstreaming. We need to sliptstream .NET Framework 1.1 SP1 into .NET Framework 1.1 installer, so that both the .NET
Framework and the Service Pack can be installed at the same time.

Follow these steps:
1. Create a new folder named DotNet in C:\ drive. (The path i used was C:\DotNet )
2. Download Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 Redistributable Package (dotnetfx.exe). Make
sure the setup file is saved as dotnetfx.exe.
3. Download Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 Service Pack 1 (NDP1.1sp1-KB867460-
X86.exe). Rename the file to dotnetfxsp1.exe.
4. Copy both installation files into the same directory (i.e. C:\DotNet),.
5. Open Command Prompt as Administrator.
6. Change to the directory where the two installation files are stored, ie C:\DotNet.
7. Run the following commands one by one.

--> dotnetfx.exe /c:"msiexec.exe /a netfx.msi TARGETDIR=C:\DotNet"

Click on Yes and wait for this dialog which says installation complete.

--> dotnetfxsp1.exe /Xp:C:\DotNet\netfxsp.msp

--> msiexec.exe /a c:\DotNet\netfx.msi /p c:\DotNet\netfxsp.msp

Wait for the installer to disappear automatically.

8. Install Microsoft .Net Framework 1.1 with slipstreamed Service Pack 1 by running netfx.msi from the working folder.

Dotnet Framework 1.1 is successfully installed. :-)

Windows 7

2009-01-11T00:27:00.003+05:30

The beta version of Windows 7 is out and this is how Randall Munroe sees it...

This is a cartoon strip taken from http://www.xkcd.com/528/

Google Chrome(Beta) is now Google Chrome...

2008-12-15T00:08:00.010+05:30

So finally, the Beta label is no more attatched to Google Chrome. With their 15th update, Google removed the beta label from Chrome. So, how to get the new Google Chrome??

Existing users,

go to Settings and, there, to the bottom, there's an option called 'About GoogleChrome'.
Click on it, and in that, you will see one option ie, Check for updates.
Click on it, if the version of your chrome is not 1.0.154.36.
After updating, restart the browser.
Follow the steps 1&2. Now it should look like this:

New users, Download Google Chrome and try it out.

Improved features of Google Chrome at a glance.

PDF just got better in gmail

2008-12-14T00:20:00.012+05:30

When i get pdf docs by mail, I always hesitate to open it as it is slow and a major pain in the ass. I sometimes wanna just browse through the document, rather than downloading it. Now what Google did is, they gave a "View" option near to the Download option. It looks like this:

Clicking "View" quickly opens the PDF inside your browser(not with Adobe Reader), complete with the graphics and formatting you expect to see in a PDF. It is the same feature used in Google Docs. Now at this stage, you can even view the document in html format, or download it or print the whole thing. Here.. take a look:

(click to see an enlarged image.)

The Official Gmail Blog

Organise your Tasks, the Google way!

2008-12-09T21:59:00.007+05:30

Email has been revolutionised since Google came up with Gmail. Now they introduce "Tasks", or to put it simple, the Google way to keep us organised.. Tasks is a kind of utility, inside Gmail, which will help us to keep track on what we need to do.

By default, Tasks is not enabled in your Gmail. So to enable it follow the following steps:

Go to Settings and select the Labs tab from there.
In that, enable the feature named Tasks.
Save the changes.

Tasks utility will now be enabled. To enter a new task, just click in an empty part of your list and start typing. No buttons to click and it's saved automatically. Hit 'Enter' and you've got a new task right there.

You can also easily convert emails into tasks: select one or more messages and go to More Actions > Add to Tasks. (Or turn on keyboard shortcuts and use + t.)

Tasks are arranged in the same kind of window as chats, so they're visible while you're scanning your inbox, reading mail, or searching (and in Settings, too!). Just pop your list out into a new window to use Tasks outside of Gmail.

Google is looking forward to hear from people on how to make this utility more useful. Interested people please contact Google.

For more information visit The Official Gmail Blog.

JavaFX + Netbeans 6.5

2008-12-07T03:15:00.007+05:30

JavaFX was the answer to Adobe Flex. With JavaFX, one can create rich internet applications. JavaFX allows creative developers to program in a visual context thus helping them to bring their ideas to life quicker and easier. JavaFX makes it easy to integrate video, audio, graphics, animation and rich text. Applications can combine audio/video and 2D graphics with 3D perspective transform ( true 3D graphics coming soon) and rich text, with compellin visual effects and transformations.

And now the good news is that Netbeans 6.5 is out with JavaFX pluggin. Until Dec 4th, JavaFX plugin was not available for Netbeans6.5. As now it is available, one can get it by simply following the steps below.

PLAN-A

Select Tools->Plugins from your NetBeans 6.5 menu.
Select the Available Plugins tab.
Click on the Reload Catalog button just to make sure you have a fresh copy of all available plugins (this will take some time..)
Scroll down the plugin list to find the JavaFX 1.0 plugin, and click on its check box. You can also select a JavaFX debugger and several demos in the same area of the plugin list!
Click the Install button
Continue working until the download is finished and restart NetBeans IDE

Well I am giving PLAN-B as PLAN-A didnt work out for me. I had downloaded the 6.5 version of Netbeans the day it was launched, and I selected the installation bundle which contained almost all the modules. When you got to the download page, you can see that JavaFX module is not compatible with certain installation bundles.

Go to download page and download the package
Download and install the bundle containing the JavaFX module.(Make sure you uninstall the previous version(if you have any)).

Why Netbeans??

The NetBeans IDE is the recommended tool to create, test, debug, and deploy JavaFX applications for the desktop, browser and mobile platforms. You have the option of deploying JavaFX projects as Java web start (JNLP), Java Applet or stand-alone applications. To get started quickly, select File > New Project from the main menu and have a look at our ready-to-run sample projects.

The JavaFX Script Editor supports syntax highlighting, source navigation, code completion, code folding, javadoc pop-ups, and error detection. You can use the Preview button to display the output of your visual code live. The IDE contains code snippets that can be dragged and dropped into the editor: The Palette allows you to quickly add JavaFX objects with transformations, effects and animation to your project.

Use the integrated Profiler for standard CPU or memory profiling, or simple monitoring to optimize your JavaFX application's speed and memory usage. The options have been preset to default values by experts, but you can customize settings for a specific application.

Free Gmail Stickers

2008-12-06T08:06:00.011+05:30

Looks pretty cool.. dont they?? Gmail Stickers. But how to get these?

Just send a self-addressed stamped envelope to

Send me some Gmail stickers already

P.O. Box 391420

Mountain View, CA 94039-1420

Make sure to include enough postage to return a sticker pack via U.S. mail. It's less than one ounce, so a standard $0.42 stamp will do if you're in the United States; enclose an international reply coupon (IRC) if you're outside of the U.S. And be sure to send your envelope in soon.

Conditions Apply*

For more information and story of Gmail Stickers, visit the official Google Blog.

*additionally lawyer requested terms from the Gmail blog: while supplies last, Google won’t maintain your contact information in any way, and these stickers are “void where prohibited and only while supplies last.

Time to react

2008-12-04T03:44:00.006+05:30

(I got the following as a forwarded mail. Usually i don't read such mails. But this one is different. Thanks to Unnikrishnan. R. Read it, and please express yourselves...)

Enough Is Enough !!
All of us Indians feel the same way. That enough is enough. Those idiots in the government & bureaucracy should be held accountable. But anger is good to the extent of it being constructive. Let us pick the pieces and start all over again. We should start thinking differently since only a secure nation can become successful economically. We criticize our politicians all the time but how about us becoming politicians ourselves and become the change we want to see? Obama has shown that change truly is possible in politics. Our bureaucracy & our security infrastructure needs to be re-organized. Who better to do that than we ourselves? Well, those words are easily said. But how do we get started? How do we start to hold the govt accountable? The luxuries that these people are from what people like you and me pay the govt as taxes and all the import and export duties and whatnot. I suggest all of you start to question the govt. A powerful tool is already available - The Right To Information Act. You can file an application under the RTI act to know how the politicians spend our money. Visit this link to learn about filing RTI forms. For example those of you in the coastal states can file requests to know the present status of our maritime security, whether there are any emergency protocols in place to handle situations like a tsunami or a terror attack, how much is being allocated for modernizing the police force? These people are answerable to all of us. They are public servants. You can do this and more. Get involved in debates. Instead of chit-chating about the latest bollywood gossip in your college & workplace cafeteria, talk about real issues, try to find creative solutions. Instead of doing senseless final year projects like library info systems that most of us computer science students are prone to do, how about creating security related applications like surveillance equipment, bomb disposing robots and new ways to fight crime and terror?. And do not forget that basic power that most of you have : the Right to Vote. Get out and vote. Every vote counts.

And do not forget one important thing : no matter how much we criticize our politicians or our bureaucracy, we will and should present a united face to the rest of the world. The Pakistani media and establishment been remarkably successful in being influential in the world media in suggesting that India is being irrationally aggressive. See this pakistani news video footage for instance - http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=Eij5o7XizIA. One can see that even the most moderate of Pakistani voices are heavily and irrationally anti-Indian. Each one of you should realise something : that Pakistan is fundamentally untrustable and unreliable. We realise and forget this lesson in vicious circles again and again. Remember 1998 when Vajpayee was talking about opening Indian borders, peace with pakistan and blah blah? What happened next? The Kargil incursion. Remember the whole idiotic Hindi-Chini bhai-bhai drama that you learned in your history books? What happened next? The 1962 Indo-China war. We have become used to our politicians making strategic blunders and then our brave soldiers and police officers like Maj Unnikrishnan and Hemant Karkare cleaning the mess up and making the ultimate sacrifice for the country.

What can you do about the Pakistani issue? I suggest that you start presenting the threat that India faces to the world media by writing to editors of leading magazines around the world, to influential groups like the American Jewish lobby & the Indian American community. The lack of accountability is one thing that every politician & terrorist in the present and our many conquerors in the past has taken advantage of. Because we are divided by them on the basis of religion, caste and langauge and we are too busy fighting amongst ourselves. It is time to act. It is time to ask some hard questions :

- Why is it that significant parts of Chattisgarh, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh are virtually in a different nation altogether under the control of the maoists??

- Why is that Bangladeshi migrants can come into our nation across our "open" borders in Assam almost unchallenged? And how come they settle down and get the same privileges and rights of Indian citizens?

- Why is that the Central & Maharashtra governments simply ignored the warnings by the Intelligence Bureau and the RAW about possible sea based attacks on Bombay??

- Why is that Afzal Guru, a terrorist who has been found guilty by the Supreme Court and sentenced to death for trying to destroy our parliament, the citadel of Indian democracy, still alive and well?? Why is the govt tying this issue to vote bank politics?

- How come that the Defense minister of the then NDA govt, Jaswant Singh "escorted" Maulana Masood Azhar and two other terrorists to Kandahar during the IC814 hijacking in 1999? Why was there not any attempt to rescue the hostages using our commandos? [Please don't justify it by saying that it was in Afghanistan, the Taliban was in control etc etc coz Israel had rescued hundred of their citizens from Uganda who were taken hostage by Palestinian terrorists during the famous entebbe incident. ]

- Why wasn't there any retaliation against the attacks on the Indian embassy which according to international diplomatic rules is Indian territory? Why was there no retaliatory attack against Pakistan when the CIA itself said that the ISI was involved?

- How did Bombay limp back on its feet every time after the terror attacks that had been hitting the city for the last few years? Was it because of the "spirit" of Bombay or simply because of the fact that the people were helpless and had no other option but to go to work to feed their families??

This is the nation on which the bravest of the brave were born : Arjuna, Akbar, Prithviraj Chauhan, Chatrapati Shivaji and countless more. It is time for India to wake up. It is time to do our Dharmic duty.

PS : I am looking forward to hear your comments on this issue and more. This is a time for national debate and action. Your ideas will be invaluable.

Occam's Razor

2008-12-04T01:44:00.008+05:30

I first came across this word when i was watching a film called CONTACT. Its based on a Sci-Fi Novel by Carl Sagan(American Astronomer). Its a nice film, which has a completely different view about extraterrestrial beings and how they contact earthlings.

Occam's Razor is often described as "All other things being equal, the simplest solution is the best."(source: Wikipedia) if you want to explain something, choose the simplest way. Don't confuse your readers by just giving some high-end technical terms, instead just make it simple. The more you make it simple, the more your listeners will understand.

Read More:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam's_Razor

2008-12-04T01:32:00.005+05:30

Hello World..

"Hello World.." I still remember that phrase when it was heard for the first time, when uttered by our faculty for C programming (lets call him Mr. C). At that time I was wondering why the hell is he using this phrase. All programmers use it for the first time , when they learn some prog.language to write that 'simple program'(well, it looked like hieroglyphics for the whole class, (exceptions overruled..) ) and being a programmer, Mr. C used it too..

I use this phrase while stepping into a new technology.. a new world..

So..

HELLO WORLD!!!!

Technical topics will be simplified.. User inputs are crucial and inevitable.. So, share your knowledge, make it simple.

Simplest explanation tends to be the right one.-Occam's razor