Saturday, December 29, 2007

Why Digg sucks

Consider the recent news of AOL stopping development of the Netscape Browser

See this on Digg and the pointless comments there

and see Slashdot - Now which one do you prefer

Digg sucks , most of its users are dumb who pretend to be elitist and the front page is a bunch of shit stories and each one of them having many useless comments

Thursday, December 20, 2007

PDF Split and Merge

pdfsam is an open source tool (GPL license) designed to handle pdf files. It requires JVM 1.4.2 or higher and it’s released in 2 versions, basic and enhanced.

pdfsam basic can split and merge pdf files -

* split your pdf documents (into chapters, single pages, etc.).
* merge many pdf documents or subsections of them.
* exctract sections of your document into a single pdf document.
* save and load your environment to automatize your recurrent jobs.
* manage pdfsam settings and set an environment to load at start up.

pdfsam enhanced also lets you encrypt your pdf files (RC40 bits, RC128 bits, AES128 bits) and set permissions on them. It also lets you add a pdf cover or footer (or both) to your pdf documents.

Get it here for Windows

Here comes another bubble


Here Comes Another Bubble - Free videos are just a click away

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Paypal supports Indian Banks


Paypal now supports Indian Banks! This would be cheered by web publishers who want to receive their payments instantly via Paypal

Paypal supports the following Banks

State Bank of India

Bank of India

Canara Bank

Union Bank of India

HDFC Bank

ICICI Bank

ING Vysya Bank

Axis Bank

Standard Chartered

HSBC

Citibank

You will have to provide the IFS Code which is usually on your Cheque Book and your account details

Charges for withdrawal are Rs 50 for amount less than 7000 and free for greater amounts!

Monday, December 10, 2007

In-car GPS Navigation Device

CE Infosystems, India has launched a in-car GPS navigation device.

The device lets you enter any destination in India and you will be guided, turn by turn with voice prompts. It would be interesting to see how this works with the entirely unplanned road infrastructure India has.

The device is powered by mapmyindia.com which is not too bad except the search!

See the demo video below


Go to the Site

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Gmail integrates AIM

Check your gmail and see if its enabled!

Sunday, December 02, 2007

Enable Video Acceleration on Linux

These are Debian/Ubuntu specific steps

  1. In your terminal, execute lspci -v and check for the manufacturer of your video card. You are likely to find either nvidia or ATI
  2. To install Nvidia drivers
    1. Check for your kernel version using uname -r which might return a output like 2.6.22-14-generic
    2. Install the restricted drivers package - sudo apt-get install linux-restricted-modules-2.6.22-14-generic
    3. Install nvidia-glx module - sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx
    4. Make a backup of /etc/X11/xorg.conf. Edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf and replace the string Driver "nv" with Driver "nvidia"
    5. Exit Gnome and you should see the nvidia Logo. See the difference in framerate!
  3. To install ATI drivers
    1. Install the fglrx driver - sudo apt-get install xorg-driver-fglrx
    2. Make a back up of /etc/X11/xorg.conf. Edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf and replace the string Driver "ati" with Driver "fglrx"
    3. If you want to install ATI's own driver, you might have to check their site for the procedure

Microsoft Office Mobile

Microsoft has released a updated version of Microsoft Office Mobile.

It's priced at $50 and you can pick it up here

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Cross domain XHR

W3C has proposed a draft that allows cross domain XHR

To facilitate clear and controlled read access to resources, this specification defines a read access control mechanism that enables a Web resource to permit access to its content from external domains when such access would otherwise be prohibited by a same origin policy. The defined mechanism only works in conjunction with other specifications that are using the read access control mechanism to enable read access.


Read more

Difference between URI, URL

A URI identifies a resource either by location or name. More often than not, most of us use URIs that defines a location to a resource. However, a URI does not have to specify the location of a specific representation. Citing and example of a W3C URI for their home image, they use the following URI: http://www.w3.org/Icons/w3c_home. Note the absence of a file extension. The URI for the w3c_home image is still universally unique, but it does not specify the specific representation of the image (either a GIF, PNG, or JPG). The selection of the representation can be determined by the web server through HTTP content negotiation. The Apache HTTPD server has had excellent support for content negotiation for many years. Oddly, few sites take advantage of HTTP content negotiation. The W3C is one web application that makes heavy use of URIs and content negotiation.

URL

A URL is a URI but a URI is not a URL. A URL is a specialization of URI that defines the network location of a specific representation for a given resource. Taking the same W3C example, there are actually 2 representations available for the w3c_home resource:

* http://www.w3.org/Icons/w3c_home.gif
* http://www.w3.org/Icons/w3c_home.png

These URIs also define the file extension that indicates what content type is available at the URL. Through content negotiation, the web server will forward the user agent to the proper type, depending on the client’s capabilities, when the URI http://www.w3.org/Icons/w3c_home is accessed.

More often than not, URI is the correct term to use when referring to the location of resources on the WWW.

Via Ajaxian

Friday, November 09, 2007

iTunes Alternatives

Looking for iTunes alternatives ?

DownloadSquad has compiled a nice list of the options you have to overcome the buggy and memory hog iTunes

Demonoid Dead ?

Demonoid - the popular Bittorrent sharing site may be gone forever

Currently the site displays this message

"The CRIA threatened the company renting the servers to us, and because of this it is not possible to keep the site online. Sorry for the inconvenience and thanks for your understanding."

Alicia Keys MySpace page hacked



One of the most popular major music artist on MySpace - Alicia Keys' has been hacked

If you visit the infected page, it will install a malware and then you are prompted to install a Fake Codec to view the video

How to write a Resume

Looking to write/update your resume ?

The Simple Dollar has tips on how to write a resume to sell yourself

Read more here

Thursday, November 08, 2007

Beautiful HTML Code

See here

Via Digg

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Gmail IMAP

Updates for Gmail come thick and fast after so many years :-)

Gmail now has IMAP for select users - if you are lucky to be in this phase of updates - you will see IMAP settings at Settings > Forwarding - IMAP/POP

See more at DownloadSquad

Monday, October 22, 2007

Gmail - more space - 4GB now!

Gutsy Gibbon - Request CDs

Download here

You can request Gutsy Gibbon CDs at Shipit

If you want to upgrade from 7.04, Go to System > Administration > Update Manager - you will get a prompt to upgrade

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Frequent search items from around the world

"Sex" - Egypt, India and Turkey

"Nazi" - Chile, Australia and the United Kingdom

"Jihad" - Morocco, Indonesia, Pakistan

"Terrorism" - Pakistan, Philippines, Australia

"Hangover" - Ireland, United Kingdom, United States

"Burrito" - United States, Argentina, Canada

"Iraq" - United States, Australia, Canada

"Taliban" - Pakistan, Australia, Canada

"Tom Cruise" - Canada, United States, Australia

"Britney Spears" - Mexico, Venezuela, Canada

"Homosexual" - Philippines, Chile, Venezuela

"Love" - Philippines, Australia, United States

"Botox" - Australia, United States, United Kingdom

"Viagra" - Italy, United Kingdom, Germany

"David Beckham" - Venezuela, United Kingdom, Mexico

"Kate Moss" - Ireland, United Kingdom, Sweden

"Dolly Buster" - Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia

"Car bomb" - Australia, United States, Canada

"Marijuana" - Canada, United States, Australia

"IAEA" - Austria, Pakistan, Iran

Monday, October 15, 2007

Yahoo India Open Hack Day










Via Kamla Bhatt

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Winamp 5.5 released, download it!


Whats new in Winamp 5.5 !

  • A Completely Redesigned Interface, including Album Art
  • Multiple device support, including iPods
  • Access and Share Your Music and Videos with Winamp Remote
  • Play and Playlist the Best Music on the Web with Media Monitor
  • Get Artist & Concert News, Videos & more with Smart Search
  • Enjoy Dynamic Song Recommendations
  • Experience MP3 Surround Sound Support
  • Access to Thousands of Online Radio Stations, Videos and More!
  • 50 FREE MP3 Music Downloads compliments of eMusic's 2-week Trial
  • Auto-Tagger provides automatic updates to file information
  • Control Winamp From Your Browser with the Winamp Toolbar
Download

Friday, October 05, 2007

IE7 without WGA ?

Microsoft is officially supporting IE7 without WGA validation.



Almost a year ago, we released Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP. Since then, IE7 is well on its way to becoming the most used browser in the world, and we’ve seen lots of evidence that IE7 makes it safer and easier to accomplish everyday tasks online. For example, the built-in Phishing Filter has protected consumers from known phishing web sites an average of 900,000 times per week. IE7 is the first – and still the only – browser with native support for Extended Validation SSL Certificates that help prevent online fraud. (Of course, tabbed browsing, QuickTabs, shrink-to-fit printing, an easily customizable search box, CSS improvements, and some add-ons are all good things too.)

Read more and go and download if you care


We ofcourse still suggest Firefox

Future of web startups

There's something interesting happening right now. Startups are undergoing the same transformation that technology does when it becomes cheaper.

There's a pattern that we see over and over in technology. Initially there's some kind of device that's very expensive and custom made in small quantities. Then someone figures out a way to make them much more cheaply, and orders of magnitude more get built. And that allows them to be used in ways that would have been inconceivable before.

Read the whole essay

XBOX 360 - NBA 2K8

Visual Concepts knows how to make a great basketball game. Of course, it's been producing them for years, starting way back on the Sega Dreamcast and eventually moving on to more complex game machines. However, this year's NBA 2K8 feels like its most complete basketball experience yet, a game that just misses being a perfect digital recreation of the sport.

Read the whole review

Halo 3 Multiplayer Weapons

Powered by AOL Video

Mac OS X Leopard to release on October 26?

Appleinsider believes that Mac OS X Leopard will be released late October - 26th is the date they are speculating. Leopard is one of the most awaited versions of operating systems, although according to sources , they say that ..


the source code to Leopard had not yet been frozen and a Gold Master had not yet been declared. However, the operating system in recent weeks has inched closer to this status with the last full builds including only one known issue.

Skype 1.4 for Linux

Skype has released a new version of their software for Linux. Codenamed Panacea, it delivers superior voice quality compared to Skype 1.3

Following are the new features of Skype 1.4

  • feature: Command line switches, run “skype —help” for more details.
  • feature: —resources= to set an alternative to /usr/share/skype for resources.
  • feature: Add an option to Sound Devices to enable/disable automatic mixer adjustment.
  • feature: Allow keyboard/keypad to be used to enter DTMF numbers in call window.
  • feature: Clickable links in chat topics.
  • feature: Tooltips for emoticons in the chat window.
  • feature: Chat toolbar with Add People, Send File(s) to Chat, History and Leave Chat buttons.
  • feature: Confirmation dialog for Leave Chat button.
  • feature: Drag-and-drop files to chat input box to send files to chat.
  • feature: Drag-and-drop files to individual contacts in chat or contact list to send files.
  • feature: Drag-and-drop users from contact list into chat input box to send contacts.
  • feature: Drag-and-drop users from contact list into chat memberlist to add to chat.
  • feature: Dragging of contacts into other programs (text entry) will copy skype:.
  • feature: File transfer menu.
  • feature: API OPEN FILETRANSFER and OPEN USERINFO commands.
  • feature: Auto-accept file transfers.
  • feature: “Cleanup transfers” button.
  • feature: Key ‘F6’ to bring main window focus instantly to Quickfilter.
  • feature: Interface language choice in Options based on translation files available (restart required).
  • feature: “New version available” dialog.

Thursday, October 04, 2007

Javascript validation made easy


JSValidate is ibrary based on Prototype and Script.aculo.us which lets validate your form fields through Javascript

You will have to include src="scriptaculous/lib/prototype.js, scriptaculous/src/scriptaculous.js and jsvalidate.js and you will be able to use the following classes for validation

jsrequired - Field must have some sort of value.
jsvalidate_number - Any integer; accepts decimal and negative
jsvalidate_digits - Only Numbers
jsvalidate_alpha - Only letters
jsvalidate_alphanum - Only letters, numbers, and underscores.
jsvalidate_email - Any valid email address.
jsvalidate_uscanzip - US or Canada Zip code; Accepts optional US zip + 4
jsvalidate_usstate - Any 2 letter uppercase state of the United States.
jsvalidate_usphone - US Phone Number, accepts most common formats.
jsvalidate_creditcard - Validates VISA, MasterCard, American Express; formats: no spaces, spaces, or dashes.
jsvalidate_ssn - Social Security Number in the format: XXXXXXXXX, XXX XX XXXX, or XXX-XX-XXXXX
select-notfirst - This class can be applied to select boxes (drop-downs). It prohibits the user from selecting the first option from the list.

See the demo

Download

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Mutating Pictures




A population of 1,000 random pictures, created in October 2007. You allow the fittest pictures to survive. You rate the pictures based on a question and the higher your rating for a pic the more mutated offspring it produces.

More here

Microsoft Zune 2 rolling out soon


Zune 2 might be rolling out as soon as tomorrow

Engadget reports that we might have two flash models and a slimmed-down hard drive editions

Ebay - Skype a mistake


Two years later, after paying $2.6 billion , Ebay now says that Skype was a mistake

Ebay says that they paid $1 billion in excess, and will now be effecting management changes - the skype co-founders will now be leaving the company

Read more

Monday, October 01, 2007

Adobe AIR - new technology !

Adobe AIR lets developers use their existing web development skills in HTML, AJAX, Flash and Flex to build and deploy rich Internet applications to the desktop.

See more

Here are some of the showcase applications

Nokia's anti-apple campaign




Via Engadget

Microsoft Office Live Workspace - Google can smile!

If this is competition, Google can keep smiling!

The great Microsoft Office online is .. well , read for yourself


How much does Microsoft Office Live Workspace cost?

It’s free. No purchase or credit card information is required. Microsoft Office Live Workspace may eventually include advertising, but we’re still testing different designs. At some point, we may also offer additional features or services at a charge.


What is a workspace?

A workspace is an online place where you can store, access, and share documents and files. Use it to group related information for work, school, or personal projects. Sharing is easy – all you need is a person’s e-mail address and you can invite them to your workspace. You decide if they can edit or simply review. You can access your workspace from any computer with an Internet connection and a Web browser.


Who is it for?

Anyone who uses Microsoft Office can benefit from this service. If you answer ‘yes’ to any of the following questions, this service is for you:

* Do you store information on a flash drive or send yourself documents via e-mail to work on later?
* Do you need to access work files when away from your office?
* Do you need to access school documents when away from your desk (at the library, home on break, etc.)?
* Do you share documents via e-mail and then manually merge all the comments later?
* Do you use e-mail to coordinate and share information with your sports clubs, PTA, study group, etc?
* Are you planning an event and coordinating with multiple people or vendors?

So, much for Online Office Suite!

Apple iPhone Protest

Sunday, September 30, 2007

PDF processing using perl

Looking to modify PDF files using perl ?

perl.com has a nice article on how to use PDF::Reuse to manipulate the pdf files including adding bookmarks, combining files and more.

See the article here

Netscape - about to die...

Netscape.com (Click to view Fullsize)

Propeller.com

(Click to view Fullsize)


Looks like AOL is doing a good job killing Netscape in entirety !

Gnash - open source Flash player!


Gnash is a project which aims to create a player and browser plugin for the Adobe Flash file format which is free software, replacing the proprietary software niche currently occupied by Adobe Flash Player.

Gnash requires either of the following - AGG, Cairo, or OpenGL for rendering.

It supports SWF-4 version completely and parts of SWF-8-9 formats

To install Gnash -

sudo apt-get install gnash

sudo apt-get install mozilla-plugin-gnash

N800 - iphone Killer ?



Via Downloadsquad

Downgrade iPhone to 1.0.2


If you have upgraded your iphone to 1.1.1, luckily, there are few instances reported that you can now downgrade so as to avoid locking of non AT&T sims

Hit here to see how to downgrade

Anyone for hotmail ?


Hard to imagine anyone signing up for a hotmail account these days - So, Microsoft is trying their hardest offering you Cool Hotmail where you get to choose customized email addresses - however, you can do that only from the domain names that they have chosen for you just like those days when one used to have mailaddress@india.com or mailaddress@mail.com. Anyway, if you are still interested having a weird email address like address@mailmumbai.com or address@shree420.in and more, head out to Cool Hotmail

More Blogrush problems

We hear that the dashboard is not being displayed for couple of days now due to "upgrades"

Here is a note


Your Dashboard is currently unavailable as we are in the process of rolling out all the new changes to BlogRush. Please read our
recent announcement for all the details.


We're doing a major overhaul of our network and we'll be releasing a completely revamped Dashboard. Your new Dashboard will contain new charts and additional statistics aimed at helping you maximize the traffic we drive to your blog. We're also working on "per post" syndication activity and results.


We expect to have your Dashboard (and our other major changes) fully active in the next few days -- please be patient as we finalize our major systems upgrade. Rest assured that this will not affect your current account activity. All of your credit and syndication activities, as well as all of your referral activity, is still operating normally.


We apologize for any inconvenience. Please know we are working hard to help you generate more targeted traffic to your blog!

CSS Sprites

CSS sprites are a way to reduce the number of HTTP requests made for image resources referenced by your site. Images are combined into one larger image at defined X and Y coorindates. Having assigned this generated image to relevant page elements the background-position CSS property can then be used to shift the visible area to the required component image.

Generate your own sprites on this site

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

India Pakistan T20 Final Video

Yuvaraj - 6 Sixes - England

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Blogrush - already cheated

For those of you who are using Blogrush, there is bad news

Apparently, some users have started cheating the system and hence clickthrough ratio has been very low. Here is a message passed on by a friend who is using Blogrush


IMPORTANT MESSAGE: Click- through rates are very low right now due to problems with some users cheating the system. We are a few days away from removing all abuse from the system and you will see your click-rates increase. We are also moving to a Manual Review Process for all member blogs which will also increase the traffic you receive. Thank you for your patience -- we're working hard to improve this beta version of our service.

Google Calendar - not supporting Airtel



In India, Google Partners with Airtel to provide mobile search services. However, their application Google Calendar doesn't seem to provide support Airtel.

They do support Hutch/Vodafone which incidentally has partnered with Yahoo

Here are the list of service providers that Google Calendar supports -

India

  • Hutch-Mumbai
  • Hutch-Delhi
  • Hutch-Gujarat
  • Hutchison Essar Cellular Limited
  • Hutch-Kolkata
  • Spice Karnataka
  • Spice Punjab

Friday, September 21, 2007

Gran Paradiso Alpha 8 for download

Gran Paradiso Alpha 8 is an early developer milestone for Firefox 3 and the next generation of Mozilla’s layout engine, Gecko 1.9. Gran Paradiso Alpha 8 is being made available for testing purposes only, and is intended for web application developers and our testing community. Current users of Mozilla Firefox should not use alpha releases. Some of the changes included with Gran Paradiso Alpha 8 are:

  • Basic and unpolished UI for starring and tagging pages has been added, as well as a richer Location Bar autocomplete algorithm that matches against page title (see Places UI Plan for more details)
  • Prompt for remembering passwords is no longer a modal dialog
  • Built in malware protection (which you can test here)
  • Basic and unpolished UI for indicating richer website identity information has been added
  • Support for web-based protocol handlers, though it doesn’t work in all situations (see bug 394483).
  • A new Applications preference panel for configuring handlers for various content types (see bug 377784) has replaced the Download Actions dialog and the Feeds preference panel
  • All Firefox add-ons must now use a secure method for auto-updating (see bug 378216 and this guide for more details)
  • Firefox now quits properly (instead of just being killed) when Windows is shut down or restarted (see bug 333907)
  • Added support for document.elementFromPoint method (see bug 199692)
  • DOMWillOpenModalDialog events are no longer fired by the nsIPrompt implementation (see bug 391100)
  • TYPE_PLUGIN has been removed from the Extension Manager code (see bug 392140)
  • You can also see the full list of all bugs fixed since Gran Paradiso Alpha 7

Gran Paradiso Alpha 8 is available for the following platforms:

Microsoft Windows 2000 or later
Mac OS X 10.4 or later
Linux

Google - the king of search

Hitwise, the leading online competitive intelligence service, today announced that Google accounted for 63.98 percent of all US searches in the four weeks ending September 1, 2007. Yahoo! Search, MSN Search and Ask.com each received 22.87, 7.98 and 3.41 percent respectively. The remaining 48 search engines in the Hitwise Search Engine Analysis Tool accounted for 1.68 percent of U.S. searches.

More here

Thursday, September 20, 2007

New Digg Features

Digg has revamped user profiles in their latest update making it easy for you to share your favorite stories and discover new interesting content by seeing what your friends are digging. It’s also even easier to find and add friends on Digg.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Hack your phone using Asterisk



Via Lifehacker

Monday, September 17, 2007

pidgin for Ubuntu


Looking to install pidgin 2.2.0 on Ubuntu Feisty ?

Remove your old version using sudo apt-get remove gaim

Download Pidgin from Getdeb

and

Pidgin Data files

and use sudo dpkg -i <>

What is Google trying to do ?


What is Google trying to do here ? Suggesting a search somewhere else ?

Trying to help competitors ?

See the Try your search on Yahoo, Ask ...

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Tennix - tennis on your Linux system

Written in C using SDL, Tennix is a simple tennis game for your playing pleasure

On Ubuntu

sudo apt-get install libsdl-mixer1.2 libsmpeg0

Get the deb file from here

Install

sudo dpkg -i tennix_0.4.0-1\~getdeb1_i386.deb

Go to their home page to know about Game hints and keyboard shortcuts

Distrowatch.com hit by a massive DDoS

Looks like Distrowatch has been hit by a massive DDoS as reported on Digg

Here are some of the mirrors

USA: http://distrowatch.serve-you.net/
Ukraine: http://distrowatch.lafox.net/
Czech Republic: http://distrowatch.cz/
Romania: http://dw.rohost.com/
Austria: http://distrowatch.gds.tuwien.ac.at/

Twenty20 Live Cricket

For UK visitors please use Real Player and stream this

Advanced Glow Effects in Photoshop


Here is a tutorial to create some really sharp looking glow effects using a combination of layer styles, the pen tool and colour blending.

The end effect is quite amazing as you look in the picture above (click on the image)

See the tutorial here

Gmail features you may not know

Gmail has a lot of features :-) .. The gmail team has put up a list of features that are very useful once you know them ..

Here are the list of gmail features


1. Create event

2. Offline chat

3. Advanced search

4. Conversation update notification

5. Smart links on the right

6. Gmail for mobile application

7. Reply by chat

8. Gmail gadget for iGoogle

9. Open attachments in Google Docs & Spreadsheets, or view as slideshow

10. Custom "from"

Saturday, September 15, 2007

SCO files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection

Rejoice ...

No business strategy is more time-honored than using a sleepy Friday afternoon to drop some seriously bad news on investors, and SCO has followed the old playbook to the letter. At 3:21pm this afternoon, SCO sent a press release across the wire announcing that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. That sound you hear is the giddy chuckling of Linux devotees across the globe.

More on Arstechnica

Free iPhone unlocking for dummies

Download


  • upload all 3 files to your phone in some location you prefer
  • ssh in
  • run iUnlock_Reloaded (./iUnlock_reloaded)
  • be happy if its done

Via Engadget

Walter Mossberg - Ubuntu not for everyone

Mossberg in his WSJ column says Ubuntu isn't for nontechie users

Says it looks like Windows, but doesn't work like one

Clearly a novice but it is these people who we are targeting to start using Ubuntu

Cellular - why are you here ?

Why are you searching for Cellular ?

Are you looking for the Movie ?

or Cell Phone Providers ?

Leave a comment - This is a survey blog post to see how Google fares

Yahoo Mash - social networking


Yahoo Mash is Yahoo's new social networking effort. While I haven't checked it out it yet - here is their blog

Its currently invite only

Friday, September 14, 2007

Reboot your Frozen Linux based system

Ctrl-Alt-Backspace doesn't work ?

Try this

Hold down the Alt and SysRq (Print Screen) keys.

While holding those down, type the following in order. Nothing will appear to happen until the last letter is pressed: REISUB

Watch your computer reboot magically.

What the individual keys do in that sequence are not as important as what it does as a whole: stops all programs, unmounts all drives, and reboots.

To remember this,

Raising Skinny Elephants Is Utterly Boring or R E I S U B - is just the word busier in reverse.

R gives back control of the keyboard
S issues a sync
E sends all processes but init the term singal
I sends all processes but init the kill signal
U mounts all filesystem ro to prevent a fsck at reboot
B reboots the system

Via Fosswire

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Free iPhone SIM Unlock Software

Engadget reports that there is a free iPhone unlock software :-)

Go here

What more .. its open source too... here is a snippet




int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
const char * hehe = RE;
int fd;

credit();

if (argc != 3)
usage(argv[0]);

void * secpack = malloc(0x800);
ReadSecpack(argv[1], secpack);

void * fw = NULL;
int fwsize = 0;
fw = ReadBL(argv[2], &fwsize);

RestartBaseband();
fd = InitConn(115200);

GetVersion(fd);
CFIStage1_2(fd);
SendBeginSecpack(fd, secpack);
SendErase(fd, 0xA0020000, 0xA03bfffe);
Seek(fd, 0xA0020000 - 0x400);
unsigned char foo[0x400];
memset(foo, 0, 0x400);
SendWrite(fd, foo, 0x400, false);
SendWrite(fd, fw, fwsize, true);
SendEndSecpack(fd);
ValidateFW(fd, fw);
printf("Completed.\nEnjoy!\n");
free(fw);

return 0;
}

Sunday, September 09, 2007

Ubuntu Packages by "Seveas"


Dennis "Seveas" Kaarsemaker provides you 3rd party packages that Ubuntu don't include in their official repositories for various reasons

These packages include backports, custom packages and packages like libdvdcss :)

Go here to know how to add his repository to your sources.list

XMLHttpRequest - basics you should know ...

You have heard of it a number of times, haven't you ?

Here are few basic things you need to get you started

What is XMLHttpRequest ?

A Javascript object which can be used to retrieve data via HTTP

So, you can retrieve XML data ?

Not really, any type of data, not just XML

What's the dope ?

You can retrieve data from a server without having to refresh the page, this differs from the traditional page where you if you had to retrieve data - you had to do send the data to the server and retrieve it through a different page

Give me an example now!

var request = new XMLHttpRequest();
request.open('GET', 'http://techflock.blogspot.com', false);
request.send(null);
if(request.status == 200)
dump(request.responseText);
What happens to the browser when data is being retrieved ? Does it hang ?

You can prevent action when you are performing your operation. However if you want the user to still use the application when you are performing an operation, you could request the data asynchronously

Asynchronously ?

var request = new XMLHttpRequest();
request.open('GET', 'http://techflock.blogspot.com/', true);
request.onreadystatechange = function (aEvt) {
if (request.readyState == 4) {
if(request.status == 200)
dump(request.responseText);
else
dump("Error loading page\n");
}
};
req.send(null);

the onreadystatechange property will have a function callback assigned which will handle the response of your action

Works on both Mozilla and IE based browsers ?

Yes, but differently - For Mozilla based browsers, the above works

For IE, you have to

var request = new ActiveXObject("MSXML2.XMLHTTP.3.0");

Great! Where can I find more ?

Mozilla Developer Site

Apple

Microsoft MSDN


Examples ?

Here

Shop Ubuntu gear!




Canonical has started a online store for your Ubuntu gear

Go here and shop away!

Linux - the fastest smartphone OS

Over the next 5 years, Linux is expected to be the fastest growing Smartphone OS with a compound annual growth rate in excess of 75 percent. By 2012, a recent study from ABI Research forecasts the Linux-based OS to account for nearly 31 percent of all smart devices in the market - representing more than 331 million cumulative shipments over the same period.

Read more

Saturday, September 08, 2007

Backup your hard drive online

Basic CSS Tutorials


Max Design have nice simple tutorials on how to use CSS properties and understanding CSS floating

You should go here

Thursday, September 06, 2007

the iPod touch


More here

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Chade-Meng - the Google Engineer


Chade-Meng is a engineer at Google who likes to be photographed with Celebrities

So, whenever someone visits Googleplex, he is there with them for a Photo :)

Check his other photos


Saturday, September 01, 2007

Flickr Mashups


Here is a list of Flickr mashups worth checking

Retrievr

Flappr

Captioner!

Fastr

Flickrball

Flickr Sudoku

Tickr for Flickr

Flickr Logo Makr

Spell with Flickr

Tagnautica


Linux to be Fastest-Growing Smartphone OS

Over the next 5 years, Linux is expected to be the fastest growing Smartphone OS with a compound annual growth rate in excess of 75 percent. By 2012, a recent study from ABI Research forecasts the Linux-based OS to account for nearly 31 percent of all smart devices in the market - representing more than 331 million cumulative shipments over the same period.

More here

Thursday, August 30, 2007

Gmail viral collaborative video

Ubuntu Hardy Heron

Now what's that ? Its Ubuntu 8.04 ! Ofcourse its releasing April 2008 (8, 04)

Ubuntu Hardy Heron is the next LTS ( Long Term Support) version which means that there will be 3 years of security updates for the desktop and 5 years for the server.

Here is the mail to the list

Watch your TV remotely on your mobile



There are couple of companies which let you watch your TV, photos and listen to your music stored on your computer. This way, you would eliminate the need to have a high capacity mobile phone.

The one we are looking at is Orb

It works like this, you install the software on your home PC. If you want TV, you then install a TV tuner card, and then keep your PC switched on and connected to the Internet. You can then access whatever is stored on your PC remotely on your mobile. Its not just that, you can remote control too!

Most of the recent phones with a internet browser, real player or windows media player will work just fine. Also, you will have to have a 3G or a Wi-fi connection for this to work really well. A GPRS connection would work too, only that its slow :)

Now you go to orb.com, login and request for TV, songs and photos and they will be redirected from your PC. There are specific applications like Winamp which could be remote controlled as well

There are others as well - Slingmedia which provides physical devices called the Slingbox do the same job as well lets you stream directly from your TV too and lets you remote control your TV as well as your computer.

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Uniquephones - iPhone unlock video

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Bloglines beta - uses Dojo, Dijit Widgets

Unlocking the iPhone Links

New Jersey teen cracks iPhone

George Hotz' iPhone unlocking HOWTO

Engadget verifies iPhone software unlock utility

iPhone unlocked using SIM cloning

Instant Messengers for iPhone

IM Client Supported Networks URL for Safari Browser
MeeboYahoo!, MSN, GTalk, AIM, ICQhttp://www.meebo.com
Trillian AstraYahoo!, MSN, GTalk, AIM, ICQhttp://www.astra.im/iphone/
JiveTalkYahoo!, MSN, GTalk, AIM, ICQhttp://iphone.beejive.com
Mundu IMYahoo!, MSN, GTalk, AIMhttp://iphone.mundu.com
eBuddyYahoo!, MSN, AIMhttp://www.ebuddy.com
HeysanMSN, AIM, ICQhttp://m.heysan.com
Tinybuddy IMAIMhttp://tybyim.com/
FlickIMAIMhttp://www.flickim.com
iPhoneChatAIMhttp://davidcann.com/im/
IM+ for SkypeSkypehttp://www.skypeforiphone.com
Apollo IM
AIM
http://code.google.com/p/apolloim/ (download)

Via imessengr.com

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Getdeb - the latest Ubuntu packages


The official Ubuntu policy is that you don't get newer packages unless its a critical bug fix. So, the good folks at Getdeb thought that they would give the latest deb packages.

So if you wanted Pidgin for your Ubuntu installation and all the related Pidgin packages, you just go in here, get the packages and install it - simple isn't it ?

Dojo - tutorial - in 30 seconds

If you are planning to use a Javascript framework for your web applications, Dojo 0.9 which was released recently is a almost a perfect choice.

To get started with Dojo, Alex of Dojotoolkit.org has an article describing on how to get started with Dojo, including using the CDN (Content Delivery Network).

Take a look at the tutorial

Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon


Ubuntu has released Gutsy Gibbon - Tribe 5 image for all you folks to download!

There are plenty of features to look forward to in this version including a new printing version.

You can get the image here

The final release date for Gutsy Gibbon is on October 18 2007

If you would like to track how the schedule for the Gutsy Gibbon looks like - Go here

Saturday, August 25, 2007

Adsense between Blogger Posts



1 Log into your Blogger account at http://www.blogger.com .
2 Visit your blog's Template tab and click on the Page Elements link.
3 Click Edit in the Blog Posts section.
4.Check the box next to Show Ads Between Posts. You can then select how often you'd like your ads to appear, such as once after every post or once after every other post.
5.Please note that right now, it's only possible to insert Google ads using this widget, and not AdSense for search boxes or referral units.

Via Adsense.blogspot.com

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Google Adsense - no support, you are screwed!

Does Google give you any support at all ? One of my friends had his Adsense account disabled and despite many mails to Adsense Support (email) and the Invalid Clicks Appeal
they don't seem to respond at all. My friend owns a popular website which gets over 8000 pageviews per day (not named, because his invalid clicks appeal is not responded yet!)

It's just not Adsense, Google doesn't provide any support to most of the products be it Google Groups, Gmail or more . Services go down regularly, and there is nil support!

The intoxication of being rich and big has got to Google for sure!

MapmyIndia - local maps for India



I am sure many of you would have already heard of this before - If not, here we go - MapmyIndia is the Indian version of Google Maps/MapQuest - It supports most of the features that Mapquest and Google Maps have, gives out detailed information including distances. Search is a bit flaky, but overall, something is better than nothing

Go to MapmyIndia

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Back to School - Firefox!


Back to School ! Why would Firefox be left behind. This edition comes with add-ons that students might frequently use , such as Zotero, StumbleUpon, and Foxytunes.

Get it

Google Local and asklaila search for India


Google Local for India launched sometime back and is getting fairly popular. Along with the search, you get related pages, reviews, photos and more.

asklaila is another such service which seems to provide just a little more - even your local plumber wala's details. pretty neat too.

Know any other ? Let us know!

Google Maps - embed in your page


View Larger Map

How ? Search for your location, Click on the Link to this Page, you will get your embeddable code!

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Fake death to get out of Verizon contract!

Corey Taylor said he became irate when he learned he'd have to pay $175 to get out of his long-term contract with Verizon Wireless

Washington Post has more!

Gtalk - cannot connect on Pidgin ?

If you have problems connecting to Google Talk on Pidgin, make sure you have the following settings

Click on Accounts > Your Account > Edit Account to get the Modify Account Screen

In Advanced Tab,

Connect Port : 5222

Connect Server: talk.google.com

HTML to Wiki Converter


html2wiki converter lets you convert html to WIKI pages. If you have never used WIKI markup before, this is for you. It's probably a good starting point to start learning the WIKI markup language by looking at the converted code.

Dojo 0.9.0 released



Dijit

  • unified look and feel for all widgets
  • ambitious a11y and i18n features in every Dijit widget
  • a mature CSS-driven theme system with multiple, high-quality themes
  • huge improvements in system performance
  • data-bound widgets
  • Declarations for lightweight widget writing
  • a new page parser that allows instances of any class, not just widgets
  • no magic

Core

  • reduced API surface area (easier to remember and use)
  • dojo.query() always available, returns real arrays
  • from-scratch high-performance DnD system
  • Base (dojo.js) is 25K on the wire (gzipped)
  • dojo.data APIs finalized
  • new build system
  • new test harness for both CLI and browser use
  • dojo.behavior now marked stable and based on dojo.query
  • excellent animation APIs with Color animations in Base (always available)
  • all the features you’ve come to count on from Dojo (RPC, JSON-P, JSON, i18n, formatting utilities, etc.)

DojoX

  • high quality implementations of previously experimental features: gfx (portable 2D drawing), data wires, offline, storage, cometd, etc.
  • dojox.gfx now includes Silverlight support

Here is tour of 0.9 !
Get it here!

iriverter - convert your videos for multimedia players


iriverter is a frontend to mencoder (comes along mplayer) that lets you convert videos for various multimedia formats like H320, H340, PMP120, PMP140, U10, iAudio X5, iPod Video

iriverter is available for Windows, OS X and Linux

On Ubuntu - use - sudo apt-get install iriverter

For others download from the iriverter site

Sunday, August 19, 2007

30 P2P services


Mashable has come out with a list of 30 P2P tools, some of them you wouldn't have heard of !

Go there

Friday, August 17, 2007

Truveo - improved...!




AOL has released Truveo - their video search engine as a separate product and not as a part of their AOL Video site.

Truveo is a neat video search engine and is rated very highly in the industry - This version of Truveo is much cleaner, results look great - it searches multiple web sources and categorizes the results based on those channels. One irritant is not able to play videos from sources like BBC, CNN on Truveo itself.

Try it out at http:/www.truveo.com

Limo Foundation - a open mobile software platform



Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic Mobile Communications, Samsung Electronics, and Vodafone established the LiMo Foundation to develop the Foundation Platform, a Linux-based, open mobile communication device software platform.

A world-class Linux-based platform aims to provide key benefits for the mobile industry including lower development costs, increased flexibility, and a richer mobile ecosystem - all of which contribute to the group's ultimate objective of creating compelling, differentiated and enhanced consumer experiences.

The Foundation's purpose is to advance the creation, evolution, promotion, and support of the Foundation Platform and to cultivate an ecosystem of complementary products, capabilities, and service

Go there