iampriteshdesai

Download All Calvin & Hobbes Comics

2008-09-02T22:22:00.001-07:00

I am a big Calvin & Hobbes buff and if you are one too then you have stumbled across the right page. While browsing I found this site called “”Marcello's Homepage” which contains all the Calvin & Hobbes comics every published till date and Mr. Marcello thankfully has given a link to download the entire archieve in a single file. The file weighs in 105 MB. Once you have downloaded the file all you need is your browser to read them. All the strips are neatly organized based on the year in which they were published. I must say this has been the best download of my life. The site all Garfield comics too, however there is no link to do that. But you can download them too by using other means.

Here is the link: http://www.marcellosendos.ch/comics/ch/

Critical Flaw Discovered in Firefox 3

2008-08-23T07:53:00.001-07:00

Like 8 million other Firefox users I downloaded my copy of Firefox on the 'Download Day'. I was hoping for an amazing browser and Firefox 3 did just that.

For once Firefox became nimble and quick like Opera. Soon the extensions which make Firefox the best browser updated themselves and Firefox 2 was forgotten, left behind by a much superior browser. After some time I discover a flaw in Firefox 3 which seems to have been a new feature put in by the developers. However the stupidity of the feature left me wondering why was such a feature introduced.

In prior versions of Firefox if you tried to save a loaded page by
hitting Ctrl+S, Firefox would save the page from its cache. However this behavior has been changed in Firefox 3. Now if you try to hit Ctrl+S Firefox 3 will save the page by downloading it from the web. This causes an unnecessary increase in traffic and time. Sure, you may say that this won't take much time normally. Yes I wont deny that, but I am talking about those webpages which are about 10 MB in size. In such cases Firefox would come to crippling state.

I went to this site [http://www.scienceray.com/Biology/Violent-Death-in-the-Insect-World-Stunning-Photography.215219] and tried to save it (It is about 4MB in size) and tried to save it, and unfortunately Firefox 3 downloaded it again.

Previous versions of Firefox would save the document from cache. Even Opera can do it.
For proof do this:
Load some web page, kill off internet by pulling the plug and hit
Ctrl+S, Firefox 3 will say Download Error

"the page could not be saved, because the source file could not be read.

Try again later, or contact the server administrator."

Why was this feature changed? Please tell me if you know.

Firefox: You Can Skin Foxytunes

2008-08-19T06:34:00.001-07:00

You read it right! Foxytunes can be customized with various skins. I learned about it just now. You can download the skins from this site. Installation is like installing extensions. Here are few skins.

Finespun 1.3

By: Joshua Hamilton

Spun so as to be fine

[R]evolution 1.8

By: Phobos

Foxytunes skin inspired by Lynchknot's evolution theme for Firefox

Top 10 Myths of an Apple Fanboy

2008-08-16T23:28:00.001-07:00

1. Steve Jobs is our God: Well no! Sure he is a cool dude, extremely talented and has the right attitude-but he isn't our God. We know how to separate Church from the state.

2. We love all things Apple: We don't go gaga over iPods, iPhones and Macs simply because they were made by Apple-We go gaga over them because, iPods and iPhones are the best in the world. Although yes we do get disappointed, when Apple doubles iPods memory and slashes the rate be half after we get our 10th iPod, but its better since progress is made.

3.MobileMe has made us a Mac hater: No, it hasn't. Sure by usual Apple standards MobileMe had a bad start, but now the service is back on track and when it works, it is amazing. Very few people were affected in the first place; and wait, didn't Gmail go down few days ago?

4. We play no games: Well we do. We buy Wii (Notice the 'i'), PS3 and yes even XBOX 360 to play games. Why play games when gaming consoles offer a better experience?

5. We use Macs only for fun: Macs are so versatile and come with the best software preinstalled. The best example is Final Cut Pro, even top directors in Hollywood use it for movie editing.

6. We are dumb: A survey was done a few moths ago and it showed the IQ of people sorted according to the Operating system used. And guess what? Mac users using Safari were rated as the group having highest IQ. Take that.

7. We want Apple to take over the world: No we don't. Sure we want Apple to grow and be successful, but we don't want an complete OS domination, let Apple be a niche product. Yeah we are elitist!

8. We prefer looks over functionality: No. Macs look cool and are better for heavy duty work as compared to Windows. QuickTime, FCP are made to work.

9. We secretly love Windows but advocate Macs since we wasted money in the fist place: No. Macs are cool and that is the only reason we support them. Honestly if some other company made even better product than Apple we'd use that instead.

10. You can fool us into believing that your sick PC is a Mac by simply putting up a dock and a Mac theme: Beauty is only skin deep, what set Macs apart is their superior performance. By having a stupid dock-Doesn't make your PC into a Mac.

So come on all the Mac fanboys of the world, lets debunk the myths of an Apple fanboy.

Reduce Internet Bandwidth Useage by Half

2008-08-15T23:46:00.001-07:00

Thanks to broadband, the evil days of slow loading text-only web sites are over. Now it takes only few seconds to load web sites. However as always site owners kept pace with technology and modern sites make use of this speed in order to add many yummy things like Ajax, javascripts and other fabulous things like flash ads, which can seriously cripple your internet experience and make you wonder whether you really are using broadband connection. I faced the same problem and decided to find solution to it and thankfully I did find one! These tricks are also applicable for those who want to reduce their data use age, reasons can be different, one reason for doing this could be to save money, in case you have pay-as-you-use internet. And for dialup users these tricks are indispensable.

[Note: I have used Firefox for most of these hacks, since it can be customized to do you bidding with the help of extensions]

1. Turn off the Images: Turning off the images will obviously save bandwidth, since images form the bulk of a web page. So first we will have to stop Firefox from loading images from internet. By merely turning off the ‘load images’ option won’t help since if you do that Firefox will download the images but not display them. Thankfully an extension exists to force Firefox not to load images. It is called imglikeopera. It was made by a Russian guy. Unfortunately it hasn’t been updated to Firefox 3, fortunately though some Indian guy has made it compatible with Firefox 3 and called it ‘imglikeopera reloaded’.

The same thing can be done in Opera without extensions- but we love Firefox!

2. Turn off the stupid flash: Flash is the next biggest culprit. Those annoying and useless flash ads can cause the page load time to lengthen considerably. But on the other hand flash is used to make useful content- Most online video sites like Youtube make use of flash. Thankfully there is an easy solution. Install the flashblock extension for Firefox. It is one of the best extensions, the best part about it is the fact that if you want to see some flash content, you merely have to click once on the content to activate it. Also flashblock replaces the ugly flash ads with a cool icon! And you can also whitelist sites- this can be useful in case of Youtube. Flashblock won’t block flash contents of whitelisted sites. With Opera there is no direct way to do that- one geeky way exists, however it isn’t as simple nor does it work properly.

3. Adblock Plus: The best Firefox extension. Adblock is like an oasis in this desert of internet. Adblock Plus automatically removes most of stupid internet ads, on its own. You don’t have to do anything! And if you want to stop some odd ad which props up you can do it easily. Adblock Plus rules!

4. The Ultimate Hack: Well as you have seen most of the hacks here have been about blocking this or that, but what if you want to enjoy all the images, flash and still want to save bandwidth? There is an simple way to do that- but you’ll have to let go of Firefox. For this hack we will use Opera Mini- The mobile browser. Now Opera- the company behind Opera browser; compresses the webpage so that the data transaction decreases. So typical webpage running at 900kb reduces to 200kb. And yes with all the formatting, images preserved.

Here is a method to it (via http://my.opera.com/larskl/blog/2008/03/29/opera-mini-in-1280-1024)

So how do you do this?
Downloading and installing the software you need:

go to http://microemu.org/
download the latest release (you can pick the snapshot as well, doesn't really matter)
unzip the archive on your PC
Download the Opera Mini .jar and .jad files from operamini.com

Starting and configuring the software:

double-click "microemulator.jar" to run it. If that doesn't work you'll have to type "java -jar microemulator.jar" on console. (Please note you need to have JRE installed for this to work
go to "Options > Select device", click "Add...", navigate to "microemulator\devices" and select "microemu-device-resizable.jar"
select the "Resizable device" profile you just added and click "Set as default"
click the "Resize" button in lower right to set the size you want
go to "File > Open JAD" and choose the Opera Mini jad you previously downloaded
"Opera Mini" now appears in the list of apps you can start, click the "Start" button to launch it

You can now browse the web using Opera Mini on your PC, in whatever resolution you want!

10 Best Harry Potter Quotes

2008-08-06T07:08:00.001-07:00

1. "You know, the Stone was really not such a wonderful thing. As much money and life as you could want! The two things most human beings would choose above all -- the trouble is, humans do have a knack of choosing precisely those things that are worst for them."

: Albus Dumbledore to Harry Potter (Sorcerer's Stone)

2. "Strange how nearsighted being invisible can make you."

: Albus Dumbledore to Harry Potter (Sorcerer's Stone)

3. "It is a curious thing, Harry, but perhaps those who are best suited to power are those who have never sought it. Those who, like you, have leadership thrust upon them, and take up the mantle because they must, and find to their own surprise that they wear it well."

: Albus Dumbledore to Harry Potter (Book 4)

4. It is the unknown we fear when we look upon death and darkness, nothing more."

: Albus Dumbledore to Harry Potter (Book 6)

5. “That suggests that what you fear most of all is—fear. Very wise, Harry.”

: Lupin to Harry (Book 3)

6. "If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals."

: Sirius Black to the trio (Book 4)

7. "After all, to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure."

: Albus Dumbledore to Harry Potter (Book 1)

8. “It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, just as much to stand up to our friends.”

: Albus Dumbledore to Hogwarts students (Book 1)

9. “It is our choices, Harry, that show what we are, far more than our abilities.”

: Albus Dumbledore to Harry Potter.

10. "Dumbledore says people find it far easier to forgive others for
being wrong than being right."

: Hermione to Ron and Harry (Book 6)

Finally Gmail on Your Desktop!!!

2008-08-02T12:55:00.001-07:00

Today I have discovered a hack to get Gmail on your desktop like Outlook. Finally Gmail is truly an desktop app.

For this hack to work you will require a software called Microemulator, you will also require Gmail .jad and .jar files.

Here is a screen shot:

Downloading and installing the software you need:

go to http://microemu.org/
download the latest release (you can pick the snapshot as well, doesn't really matter)
unzip the archive on your PC
Download the Gmail .jad and .jar files from here:

http://rapidshare.com/files/134381952/gmail-g.jar.html

http://rapidshare.com/files/134382217/gmail.jad.html

5. Now place these two files in the same folder in which you have extracted the Microemulator.

Starting and configuring the software:

double-click "microemulator.jar" to run it. If that doesn't work you'll have to type "java -jar microemulator.jar" on console. (Please note you need to have JRE installed for this to work
go to "Options > Select device", click "Add...", navigate to "microemulator\devices" and select "microemu-device-resizable.jar"
select the "Resizable device" profile you just added and click "Set as default"
click the "Resize" button in lower right to set the size you want
go to "File > Open JAD" and choose the Gmail.jad you previously downloaded.
Sign in to Gmail using your username and password

Now you are ready to use Gmail for desktop.

[Note: Some work is still remaining, and there are some minor issues, I hope to resolve them soon.]

2008: The Year Blogging Died?

2008-08-01T05:53:00.001-07:00

It was 2005 when blogging took off along with web 2.0 and the hype of user generated content. However come 2008 most of its fizz is coming to an end. With the rise of Youtube and Facebook blogging has taken a backseat. Statistics have shown that only 12% of Americans read blogs regularly. A whopping 44% have never read a single blog in their entire life. Many popular blogs have

Recently Download Squad went under ground when AOL, its owner told DS bloggers to stop posting until the end of the month (July), I kept wondering why hadn't DS come up with any article for the whole day. Download Squad gets about 2 million unique visitors every month (yikes)! AOL is apparently selling off DS and shutting down other blogs such as The Unofficial Apple Weblog and DIY. Is AOL really that stupid? If you cannot make profit even with 2 million visitors, hand over your blog to me!

Take Lifehacker's example. Lifehacker is the world's most popular (tech) blog and of late it has been flooded with iPhone hacks, iPhone tricks, iPhone apps sure iPhone is 'THE Gadget' however aren't there other things to blog about? Most of Lifehacker's articles seem to rely on Hollywood like formulaic scripts; 10 best ways to do this or do that, Cheap Mac under $800 and the most irritating is DIY (Build your own toilet seat using 2 DVDs and a blu-ray kind of shit) and have you noticed the amount of inspired articles? After most articles you will find a link pointing towards the original article (Via gHacks etc). Sure getting inspired isn't bad but shouldn't Lifehacker come up with more of its own original content? Of course the do come up with that one odd gem of an article every other week, but wait don't they hit my feed reader with around 200 articles per week? So is 1:200 is a good enough ratio to have the most popular blog? Shouldn't LH reduce the quantity and increase its quality?

Also another blog which seems to have lost its soul in the recent times is Amit Agarwal's Digital Inspiration. Till last year it used to be among my favorite blogs, however with the arrival of year 2008 its only blogger Amit, seems to be concentrating more on the financial and marketing aspect of the blog than the actual content. His writing style remains the same, however the quality of content has dropped drastically. If you have been following his blog since a long time even you'd agree with me. He is clearly taking advantage of past glory rather than build upon it. Sure there are still many useful articles but those are more of the usual thing (Put a bookmark on your browser) rather than any killer tips. Digital Inspiration seems to be a case of a disappointing sequel.

And oh before you point your finger at me, saying, "Your blog sucks too!" remember one thing I am just an amateur whereas those guys are pros. All I want is my favorite blogs to be alive and kicking. And do you really like Lifehacker? Which is your favorite blog?

Navigate in Firefox using the Scroll Wheel on Mouse

2008-07-24T02:57:00.001-07:00

Firefox is definitely the best browser and comes with tons of extensions. However for this hack which is accidentally discovered today, you don't need to download any extensions. In Firefox 3 if you want to go backwards or forwards while surfing and do that with scroll wheel on your mouse do this:

Press Shift key and now roll the scroll wheel upward and downwards. Scrolling up takes you forward in history whereas scrolling down takes you back.

Cool huh?

Manage windows more easily in a 3D desktop

2008-07-23T12:54:00.000-07:00

Windows can be really boring sometimes with 2D. Vista brought some eye candy with it but is a big disappointment.

Would you like to interact with any version of Windows in a 3D desktop, without loading up the system resources? Actually, there are lots of applications that allow you to do so, but they take to much system resources. Bottom line, they are useless.

However, there's a nice tool that makes 3D desktop possible under Windows 2000/XP without hogging your whole system. It's called Madotate and works pretty well. Its 3D desktop management helps organizing your work a lot. Besides, it only takes a peak usage about 5 MB of RAM.

To install it, just create a folder on your hard drive, unzip all files and run it. It also includes a plugin that adds a button on every window to make it 3D/2D.

Languages:
English

OS requirements for Madotate:
OS: Win98/98SE/2000/XP

Blogger Tips To Pimp Your Blog

2008-07-15T08:04:00.001-07:00

Blogger is definitely the best place to start your first blog, Wordpress is more advanced than Blogger but it can also be quite intimidating for novice users. There are many blogs which tell you how to setup a blog on blogger (there isn't any need though, you can figure it out on your own). However once you have setup your blog follow these tips to have a rocking blog:

Preliminary Step:

This is a common step for most tips. Whenever I say go to the Layouts, you have to go here. Go to http://draft.blogger.com> Login> Click on Layouts> Page Elements> Now Look for Add a Gadget. Click on it. You will be presented with a host of cool things to add to your blog.

Note: The blogger address is correct. Draft Blogger is like Blogger Labs, before enabling the service to the masses, cool features are tried here. Draft blogger is 'the ' coolest place to hang out on blogger. Draft blogger is in blue as opposed to blogger's orange.

1. Subscribe To:

All popular blogs have an option by which readers can subscribe to their blog. Your blog should have it too. Do the preliminary step and select Subscription Links.

2. Add the Rating Stars and :

Below my blog you can see rating stars, go rate them and come back to know how you can have them too. Go to Layout and look for the biggest block titled, 'Blog Posts'. Click on the edit link. Now tick mark the check-box with the option 'Show Star Ratings ( )'.

I'd suggest ticking all except the 'Show ads between posts' boxes. Nobody likes ads between posts.

Adjust the elements by using the box given below the options.

3. Social Buttons:

Now for those horde of social buttons you can watch below my blog. When I was new to blogging even I used to wonder how to have those elusive buttons. I tried looking for Digg and other such sites, but couldn't understand a thing. Thankfully my friend Mario gave me the easiest guide to have social links. Here was his guide:

Login to blogger, go to templates and click edit html.
Then click on "expand widget templates" and copy the code....
<p class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-3'>
<h4>Submit This Article!</h4>
<span class='socialbookmarking'>
<a Title='Digg This Story' expr:href='"http://digg.com/submit?phase=3&url=" + data:post.url + "&title=" + data:post.title' target='_blank'><img alt=' Digg ' border='1' height='16' src='http://s100.photobucket.com/albums/m32/kajangmarc/th_SubmitDigg.gif' width='16'/></a>
<a Title='Submit To Del.icio.us' expr:href='"http://del.icio.us/post?url=" + data:post.url + "&title=" + data:post.title' target='_blank'><img alt=' Del.icio.us ' height='16' src='http://s100.photobucket.com/albums/m32/kajangmarc/th_SubmitDelicious.gif' width='16'/></a>
<a Title='Add To Technorati' expr:href='"http://technorati.com/faves?add=" + data:post.url + "&title=" + data:post.title' target='_blank'><img alt=' Technorati ' height='16' src='http://s100.photobucket.com/albums/m32/kajangmarc/th_technorati.png' width='16'/></a>
<a Title='reddit It' expr:href='"http://reddit.com/submit?url=" + data:post.url' target='_blank'><img alt=' Reddit ' height='16' src='http://s100.photobucket.com/albums/m32/kajangmarc/th_SubmitReddit.gif' width='16'/></a>
<a Title='Add To YahooMyWeb' expr:href='"http://myweb2.search.yahoo.com/myresults/bookmarklet?u=" + data:post.url' target='_blank'><img alt=' YahooMyWeb ' height='16' src='http://s100.photobucket.com/albums/m32/kajangmarc/th_yahoomyweb.png' width='16'/></a>
<a Title='Submit to SlashDot' expr:href='"http://slashdot.org/bookmark.pl?url=" + data:post.url + "&title=" + data:post.title' target='_blank'><img alt=' SlashDot ' height='16' src='http://s100.photobucket.com/albums/m32/kajangmarc/th_SubmitSlashdot.gif' width='16'/></a>
<a Title='Furl It' expr:href='"http://furl.net/storeIt.jsp?t=Frequently+Asked+Questions&url=" + data:post.url + "&title=" + data:post.title' target='_blank'><img alt=' Furl' height='16' src='http://s100.photobucket.com/albums/m32/kajangmarc/th_furl.gif' width='16'/></a>
<a Title='Submit to BlinkList' expr:href='"http://blinklist.com/index.php?Action=Blink/addblink.php&Description=Frequently+Asked+Questions&URL=" + data:post.url + "&title=" + data:post.title' target='_blank'><img alt=' BlinkList ' height='16' src='http://s100.photobucket.com/albums/m32/kajangmarc/th_blinklist.gif' width='16'/></a>
<a Title='Bookmark On Netscape' expr:href='"http://www.netscape.com/submit/?U=" + data:post.url + "&title=" + data:post.title' target='_blank'><img alt=' Netscape ' height='16' src='http://s100.photobucket.com/albums/m32/kajangmarc/th_netscape.gif' width='16'/></a>
<a Title='Submit to Ma.gnolia' expr:href='"http://ma.gnolia.com/bookmarklet/add?url=" + data:post.url + "&title=" + data:post.title' target='_blank'><img alt=' Ma.gnolia ' height='16' src='http://s100.photobucket.com/albums/m32/kajangmarc/th_ma.gnolia.gif' width='16'/></a>
<a Title='Submit to Netvouz' expr:href='"http://www.netvouz.com/action/submitBookmark?url=" + data:post.url + "&title=" + data:post.title' target='_blank'><img alt=' Netvouz ' height='16' src='http://s100.photobucket.com/albums/m32/kajangmarc/th_netvouz.gif' width='16'/></a>
</span></p>
... and paste it below the line "<div class='post-footer'>" .
Then save your changes and check if it looks nice.

4. Google Analytics:

Google Analytics is a feature by which you can know many things about visitors to your site. Including who visits your blog, when does he visit your blog and many other things. One of the best things to have for a blog. Go to Google Analytics. Register your blog, follow the instructions. Also block Google Analytics from counting your ip address in the visitors list, as doing that will give you the real count of people visiting your site. Know your ip address from this site http://whatismy.com/

5. Adsense:

You have your blog so why not use it to earn some cash? Adsense is the best way to earn money of the net. You simply have to write your own blog, enable Adsense and you are ready to earn. To enable Adsense do this, go to Layout and click on Add a Gadget and select Adsense. Now remember this you wont probably earn big with Adsense. Very few people make their living out of Adsense. Turn it on just for the sake of it. I have floated this blog since couple of months and my Adsense earnings has not even crossed $10 (It's hovering around at $5.75). Don't get frustrated and you have to be 18 or above for it.

(If you liked this post then please click on one of the ads )

iGame - Apple's New Gaming Console

2008-07-12T07:15:00.000-07:00

We all know that Apple's fortune changed the day they launched our favorite iPod. Since then Apple has never looked back and has dazzled consumers with a range of consumer devices. iPhone has been 'the gadget', New Mac's are continuously pulling PC user's away. iTunes has made Apple the King digital media. Now there are speculations that Apple is about to enter the Gaming Console market which is populated with Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3. With Xbox 360 gaming consoles have stopped being , only gaming consoles. Now they are nothing short of a media centre power house. This could be a threat for Apple. Game developers would obviously jump at the chance of making games for the (now) imaginary iGame. I'm sure with Apple's marketing genius and technical superiority they would blow away the competition away. There might be a game store just like iTunes for buying games online. And I'm sure as hell it iGame would be the best looking console out there.

Apple in the News proposed that a redesigned Mac mini could "advance over the game market, a market that Microsoft is trying so fiercely to conquer. With a new mac mini including a killer graphics board, Apple could relatively easily attract a large number of game producing companies."

Israel to Reward the Man Who Beheaded Hitler

2008-07-12T06:46:00.000-07:00

A waxwork of Adolf Hitler before a 41-year-old man tore its head off from the controversial exhibit on the opening day of Berlin's Madame Tussauds.
Three minutes after the opening of the new Madame Tussauds in Berlin, Frank L., who had been second in the line to enter the waxwork museum, stormed past security and toward an exhibit that had aroused controversy during the weeks prior to the opening: a wax figure of Adolf Hitler, depicting the dictator as a broken man, sitting behind his desk during his last days in the "Führerbunker." The attacker shouted "No more War!" several times, while tackling the figure, and managed to yank off its head before being seized by the police.
It remains unclear what kind of legal action or punishment he'll face. "It depends on the actual damage, which remains to be assessed," said Natalie Rurss, spokeswoman of Madame Tussauds.
There are rumors that Israel government is planning to reward Frank for his 'noble' gesture. Looks like he caused quite a Führer!

Control Firefox's Click Behaviour

2008-07-08T07:10:00.000-07:00

Do you hate it when you click on the address bar Firefox only to find, that instead of placing the pointer where you want, Firefox selects the entire text. If you are frustrated too then do this. Or if its the opposite, you want Firefox to select the entire text in the Awesome (Or search bar) then too you can use this hack.
Click here or if you are a security obsessed person type about:config in your adress bar.
about:config

Next click on that cute warning.

Search for "browser.urlbar.clickSelectsAll"

and modify the parameter to either true or false. If you select true then Firefox will select all the text and vice versa.

Should The Ubuntu Wubi Check be Removed?

2008-07-06T12:04:00.000-07:00

The newest version of Ubuntu, called Hardy Heron 8.04 (8 stands for year of release and 04 stands for the month) is a long term release, meaning it will be supported by Canonical with updates for 3 yrs on desktop and 5 yrs on servers. This version supports installing Ubuntu right besides your Windows XP with the help of Wubi. Now Wubi supports a RAM memory check to determine whether you have right amount of memory. However in doing so it is potentially doing more harm than good. Now I wonder why this check is present. The reasons are:
1. Wubi doesn't require256 MB to run. Neither does Ubuntu.

2. On my 256 MB system I got an error saying ‘atleast 256 MB required for the installer’. Now my PC has 256 MB so, this error seemed fishy. I had heard a lot about Ubuntu and desperately wanted to give it a go. I googled it and the second result was the answer. If I hadn't got the result I would have never installed Ubuntu and would have never known the beauty of Ubuntu. I might have even dissuaded others from trying it. Most wouldn't try much and would give up.

3. Wubi is the most major factor for users to try Ubuntu. Now normally people won't do partitioning and other stuff. Wubi is one click solution for all. Many people try Ubuntu first on older PC's with less RAM because XP is too much for it. Now if Wubi won't allow them to load Ubuntu they will never try Ubuntu again. Note, Wubi can run on systems with less than 256MB with a simple workaround.

4. Not all of your RAM is free all the time. Some of your main memory is allocated to your onboard graphics, that happens with Via Unichrome. So even if you have something like 400 MB RAM and your system (XP+Programs running) uses, say 150 MB, Wubi will give an error message. Now people will think will think the OS sucks so much that it cannot even check the RAM properly and will not install such an OS

I have posted this idea on Ubuntu Brainstorm, http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/10786/

Also Read:

Install Ubuntu Hardy Heron on PC with less than 256 MB RAM

Keyboard Shortcuts for Fun!!!

2008-07-05T23:04:00.001-07:00

Long ago when PC’s were in the land of DOS there was only text, text and only text around. Geeks had to type text like ‘C:/dos/suckshard/godsaveme/’ all day long, thankfully then Windows 95 came and GUI was unleashed on the masses. Mouse took over as the dominant partner from the keyboard. If there could be any one PC peripheral which we can dispense with, it’d be the keyboard, whatever bits of typing you want to do can be done with ‘on screen keyboard’. Hell before I started blogging even my keyboard was lying uselessly where as the mouse powered on. Now mouse is obviously more productive than the keyboard (we are all happy for it) but even then in this age of XP’s and Vista it pays to have some keyboard shortcuts up your sleeve. These will definitely save you some hefty mouse clicks and also give some productive edge. I have only put up those shortcuts which I use myself.

Fun Shortcuts:

Try Alt+Tab and enjoy zooming through all the softwares you are running right now. For more entertainment you might want to pimp it up with free Windows Alt-Tab power-toy.

Vista has a cool feature which lets you shuffle through the open programs like a pack of cards, the windows shortcut for it is Win+Tab. XP users can get the taste of it by using a cool free software WinFlip which provides the same functionality. Hell it runs fine even on crap system (I used it fine on measly 256 Mb RAM)

Work Shortcuts:

It happens many times, every once in a while you happily open MS Word to type that one odd document you have to type. After typing for about 10-15 min suddenly the PC freezes up and depending on your luck nine times out of ten you end up losing that document simply because you didn't save it. Most of us have the habit of saving the document at the last correction. However if you imbibe the habit of saving the document after writing the heading you will never ever lose your work again. Also remember this God sent shortcut 'Ctrl+S', it saves whatever work you have done up till that point of time. Fall into this habit of pressing 'Ctrl+S' every time you want to take a break from typing. Trust me it helps a lot!

Many of you who may be having naughty kids at home must know the frustration of leaving the PC unattended with kids; they wreck all your work while your backs are turned. So every time you have to attend a call or take coffee break press 'Win+L'. It will take your PC to the login screen (All your programs will be left as they are) to access the PC you will require the password.

Oops!! I did it again:

It happens to all of us. You want to do something but end up doing something else. Well if that’s the case with you try this shortcut ‘Ctrl+Z’, it undo’s (if that’s a word) whatever action you have taken. So if you have accidentally deleted a file this thing can whip it back for you.

Secrecy Shortcuts:

I’m sure this never happens to you: You’re looking at something diverse and interesting on the computer when someone else walks into the room. Do you panic? Do you freak out and yell at them? Or, do you quickly and stealthily

know how to hide the entire contents of the screen? Hopefully, you know the trick to instantly hide everything on the screen: Press the 'Win+M' key combination, where Win is the Windows key. Win+M automatically minimizes every open window and leaves only the desktop displayed. Alas, you have no Win+M key equivalent if your computer’s keyboard

lacks a Windows key. The mouse equivalent for this command is to right-click the taskbar and choose Minimize All Windows from the pop-up menu. Alas, sometimes that’s just too slow. Oh, you can always switch off the monitor, though that tends to arouse suspicion. ‘Win+D’ too does the same thing.

Full Screen Shortcuts:

For Firefox users try pressing F11 for browsing nirvana. Each and every pixel of your monitor is used to display the webpage, move over toolbars. Also if you want full screen slide show for Windows Picture and Fax Viewer press F11.

Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex 8.10- The Ugliest Ubuntu Ever?

2008-07-04T13:05:00.000-07:00

Guys don't get me wrong, this isn't a Linux bashing blog. I have been using Ubuntu Hardy Heron and love its simplicity. Compiz is the most coolest thing ever on PC. Even more cooler than those shiny, white Macs. Apart from gaming I use Ubuntu most of the time. I am curious about Intrepid Ibex. Hope more cool softwares are added in. The thing I'm most interested in is the new theme change we all were expecting. I am personally hoping for Vista like theme. All black, sleek and shiny with those transparent borders. Or some thing like PCLinuxOS. However the first screen shots of Ibex Alpha 1 have put all 'Hoping for a Great Theme' thoughts away from my mind. In one word I'd describe the alpha theme as 'Ugly'. I cannot understand Ubuntu's theme makers obsession with brown. Guys brown is one of the ugliest colors on earth for a desktop, why don't you experiment with black, silver or some other color? At lest looking at the current work Ibex is surely going to look one hell of an OS.

Will it stop me from using Ubuntu? No, I'll quickly change over to the glossy theme, which according to me is the best theme for Ubuntu. And if Mr. Shuttleworth is reading this, good work keep on going strong and please change the ugly color. Apart from that Ubuntu Rox!!!

Here are few reviews of Ibex alpha 1:

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Ubuntu-8-10-Alpha-1-Screenshot-Tour-89049.shtml

http://phorolinux.com/ubuntu-810-intrepid-ibex-alpha-1-screenshots.html

http://www.webmonkey.com/blog/First_Look:_Ubuntu_Intrepid_Ibex_Alpha_1

PS: Read the comments.

Resolve Tracker Problem in Ubuntu

2008-07-04T12:48:00.000-07:00

Ubuntu has an indexing software by default called Tracker. It replaced Beagle which was a mono app. I have been using Ubuntu for some time and have ran into this problem where Tracker simply doesn't show any results. So thanks to Google now I know how to cure Tracker. If Tracker simply doesn't show any results for you too do this:
1. Kill of Tracker by using System Monitor. You can find it at Sytem>Administration>System Monitor.
Search for Tracker manually and kill two processes.
2. Now open the terminal and type:
trackerd -v 2 -R
3. Let Tracker reindex your PC.
4. Problem Solved!

Firefox Gets The Record!!!

2008-07-02T21:47:00.000-07:00

Our favorite Firefox has completed the Record for the most software downloads in 24 hours. With your help we reached 8,002,530 downloads.
For those of you who downloaded Firefox on the Download Day you can get your participatory certificate here: certificate
Hurray!!!
Go FireFox Go!!!

Ubuntu Tweak

2008-07-01T06:26:00.000-07:00

I have recently started using Ubuntu and must say I'm really impressed and love it more than Windows. Now as in any other OS Ubuntu too is also customizable, but who wants to get their hands dirty?

Now Ubuntu Tweak is a utility created to make it easier for users to configure and change a variety of system settings. You can use it to quickly adjust settings for GNOME Panel, Compiz, and Nautilus, along with some more advanced security settings.

My favorite are the options to enable advanced features in Ubuntu and the option to change the location of the default system folders like My Documents, My Images, etc. I've changed them to point to their Windows counterparts. So now my Ubuntu and XP have the same My Music, My Documents folders. Ubuntu Tweak is a small software, around 250Kb

All in all this is a wonderful application and a must have for every one who uses Ubuntu. Also Ubuntu Tweak's author TualatriX has promised me that he has added even more cool features in the upcoming version 0.3.2

Download Ubuntu Tweak here

if it doesn't work go to this download page: http://ubuntu-tweak.com/downloads

Celestia

2008-06-29T03:57:00.001-07:00

Long ago when I was a kid without a PC, I used to wish to become an astronaut (as all kids do at that age). Back then I used to think a bit about the magical powers of PC’s and thought there would be one game which would put me in space suit (virtual) and take me through tour in space . The thought that I would zoom past Saturn made PC’s even more desirable thing to me. And then I got my very own PC and crappy graphics ugly GUI pissed away such ‘childish’ thoughts out of my mind. And I forgot all about it until I bumped on this page in Wikipedia which is about ‘Celestia’. A software as beautiful as the name suggests. With Celestia you can visit any star, planet, asteroid, comet you want. You simply have to type the name and Celestia takes you across the universe to that place. Truly, now you don’t have to do good deeds and die to get heavenly experience, simply download Celestia! The graphics are of high quality and the sights are awesome. Celestia is open source software and is completely free of charge. Also like Firefox there are many add-ons to choose from to enhance the heavenly experience. Thanks guys for making Celestia and making my childhood dream a reality!

Celestia is a free download and is available for Windows, Mac OSX and for Linux. The download for Windows weighs in at around 14 MB. Celestia is an Open Source project and Open Soure rules!

Celestia can be downloaded here

The End of Internet - Google Reader

2008-06-28T09:55:00.001-07:00

I was browsing through Google Reader and had finished reading all my feeds. Later I went into settings and clicked on settings. There was an option to have a bookmark for Google Reader. I dragged it to my bookmarks bar and clicked on it. It took me to this page:

The URL of the page is http://www.shibumi.org/eoti.htm

Easy Ways To Download Youtube Videos

2008-06-28T00:32:00.001-07:00

There are times when you just want to download that Youtube video, but Youtube doesn't simply provide a download button, so how can you download those cute videos?

Few extensions and download managers exist which can sift through the crap and give you the url to download the actual video. However there is one inherent flaw in this process. Youtube doesn't have download resume feature. So if your internet connection suddenly went kaput midway you will have to stat all over again. Also the file downloaded is in .FLV format which most players can't play. So here are few free and great ways to download the videos of Youtube and other sites and that too in a format which you want, .AVI, .MOV etc.

Step 1:

Go to the Youtube web page of the video you want and copy the complete url ( http://www.youtube.com/zzxgvd)

Step 2:

Go to http://www.zamzar.com

Step 3:

Select the option "Convert from url" and paste the url in the 'box'.

Step 4:

Select the appropriate format yuo want. ( .MOV works best, size vs quality)

Step 5:

Type your email address and go to your inbox to find the video ready for downloading.

or you may want to check out http://vixy.net to do the same thing, without giving your email id.

Have fun.

You might like to view this short video too:

Which is the Best Mobile Browser?

2008-06-26T06:12:00.001-07:00

I have been using mobile internet heavily for the last 2 yrs and found it to be more fun than browsing on the PC. The obvious benefits are mobility, more fun, instant access to your favorite sites, not having to wait or that fat PC to boot up.

Apart from entertainment there are other several more benefits. Want to buy movie tickets? Want to know where the nearest restaurant is? Want to settle that trivia bet you have with your friend then and there? Or would you rather snuggle up in your bed at night and read ghost stories - mobile internet can do it all. But using internet on cell can be a real frustrating experience too. The small screens, constant side scrolling, and slow speeds can act as a deterrent for you. So here are two mobile browsers which work on most java supported mobiles.

Opera Mini:

If you have ever tried to use wap you must have experienced the frustration we all have faced. The tiny screen coupled with the worthless browser makes things as though as they get. Thankfully the guys at Opera, Norway have found a way to make things better. The only and the best way to surf internet from mobile is Opera mini. It is small, fast and efficient. Opera Mini uses a remote server to pre-process Web pages before sending them to your phone. Web content is compressed to reduce the size of data transferred, enabling handling on simpler phones and creating fast browsing at low costs. The latest version has made mobile browsing even better, it is so fast that pages load faster than on a PC. Opera mini uses small screen rendering to display web pages. It also has a virtual mouse to help in scrolling; the mouse cursor will look for content and links, and snap the view to them. No registration is required for downloading.

Opera Mini 4.1 lets you have the full Web everywhere. This newest release includes several new features, including automatic completion of Web addresses, making it easier to get to the sites you need; tools for attaching files to Web-based email; uploading photos to your blog or other site; downloading attachments from email for storage on your phone; and saving and viewing pages offline.

New in Opera Mini 4.1

Prior to this release, we upgraded our servers and Opera Mini now receives your requested Web pages up to 50% faster. So you can now access sites like Facebook, BBC, and any of your other favorite Web sites even faster, with Desktop-like speeds.

Find things faster

The new Opera Mini 4.1 lets you search for text within a Web page so you can get to the information you need even quicker than before.

Get to your Web sites faster

When typing Web addresses, Opera Mini 4.1 will recognize and suggest completions for you based on your bookmarks and browsing history, making address input faster, easier and much more intuitive.

Download and upload files

On phones with JSR-75, you can now upload and download files using Opera Mini 4.1, without being re-routed to your phone’s native browser. Update your blog while on the go. Upload photos to your Web site or social network. Add attachments easily to Web-based email, and download other non media-rich content to your phone using Opera Mini 4.1.

Save it for later

On phones with JSR-75, Opera Mini 4.1 lets you save pages for offline viewing so you can quickly access and read your desired Web content, even when you’re on a plane, in the subway, or in other places where you can’t get network reception. Depending on your phone, you may need to choose a destination folder for storing pages for offline viewing.

Download Opera Mini here

TeaShark Browser:

This one is still in beta but seems to be the closest to match Opera. In features and performance it is almost matches Opera Mini. The best feature is tabbed browsing. Yes you read it right, TeaShark supports tabbed browsing. I tried it while it was in its alphas and I wasn’t so amused however recently I tried the beta and was surprised at the amount of features the developers had managed to bundle in this tiny app. Some are not found in Opera Mini.

Full Web for your mobile phone

TeaShark renders web pages the same way as desktop browsers. It's no more mobile web with hardly any content. Your favorite sites are the same on your phone and the desktop.

Navigate intuitively

There's an intelligent mouse for easy navigation. The cursor jumps to the next link to click, saving you the trouble. Navigate as fast or slow as you need with page up and down, left and right shortcuts. Jump to content: the display snaps to the text you're reading.

2-level zoom

TeaShark has unique 2-level zooming. The first level is for fine scrolling with reading capabilities, while the second is for quick jumping from section to section. You'll never be lost on the page.

Landscape

Go sideways for a more natural feel. TeaShark can rotate the page 90 degrees to landscape mode.

Multiple tabs and history

Tabs is a must for any browser. TeaShark has it. You can open a link in a tab and access it the same way as you would access your browsing history. You can easily slide back and forth, up and down. TeaShark also remembers your last session and when you start it up again, your browsing and tab history is there as you left it the last time.

Bookmark management with color tagging

Color tagging helps you to keep your favorite pages organized. There are 8 pre-defined colors from which you can choose from.

Enhanced click and search

With desktop-like text selection and phone number recognition.

And many more features

Including smart web address entry, find text, built-in web search, RSS reader, in-line editing, permanent history, you name it.

Faster, smaller and better

With about 120 kB, TeaShark packs more features than any of its competitors. But that's not all! TeaShark server has gone through a major upgrade to fix the bugs reported by alpha users. The new beta server is based on WebKit3, the same engine used by Safari 3 in Mac OS 10.5 "Leopard". It's more robust and much faster than it has ever been.

Tabbed browsing and page thumbnails

Tabbed browsing is a great way to improve productivity, and it couldn't be easier to use tabs in TeaShark.

You can enter a url or open a link in another tab. Switching tabs also becomes easy with the page thumbnail support. As the saying goes, "A picture is worth a thousand words", TeaShark pimps out your tabs and browsing history by showing real thumbnails of the pages.

Remember your browsing session

TeaShark saves your browsing history, including tabs, when you exit and restores it automatically when you start up the browser again. It makes multitasking easy for you, when you need to switch between TeaShark and your phone.

Manage your bookmarks with color tags

Color tagging is an innovative way to group your bookmarks. In TeaShark, you can assign multiple color tags to a bookmark and share the very same bookmark among several groups. Mission impossible for traditional bookmark folders.

Click, search and call

TeaShark allows you to select text right out of the page and search them with your favorite search engine, saving you tedious and painful typing on mobile. If you see a phone number on the page, you can make a call right from the browser too. All you need to do is just to click and call. Yes, it's that easy!

Editing in page and auto-complete

In TeaShark, you can type text directly into input boxes, without switching to phone's native editor. Should you need to use the native editor to enter special characters, you can just click the input box. Even better, all your input is remembered so that next time, TeaShark automatically fills the box as you type.

Not just a browser

TeaShark seamlessly works with native applications in your phone to accomplish tasks beyond its capability. You can click a download link in any page and TeaShark will launch your phone's built in browser to download the file for you. If your phone supports streaming video, you can use TeaShark to point at the video's link and play it in your phone's media player.

Go and download it here.

Have fun with mobile internet!

Firefox Easter Eggs

2008-06-25T11:30:00.001-07:00

Firefox 3 was recently released. It is definitely the best browser on the planet right now. Here are some great Easter eggs to try out in your Firefox

1. Firefox in Firefox:

Enter the following in the address bar:

chrome://browser/content/browser.xul

You will find a complete Firefox window (With all toolbars) with in a tab.

2. Book of Mozilla:

Type in the Awesome Bar:

about:mozilla

You will get the following text

"Mammon slept. And the beast reborn spread over the earth and its numbers

grew legion. And they proclaimed the times and sacrificed crops unto the

fire, with the cunning of foxes. And they built a new world in their own

image as promised by the

sacred words, and spoke

of the beast with their children. Mammon awoke, and lo! it was

naught but a follower.

from The Book of Mozilla, 11:9

(10th Edition)"

Clearly Mammon is IE which went into hibernation after slaying Netscape.

This easter egg is the second in series of Firefox revenge for IE5's joke.

This was what you'd get in Firefox 1 if you punched about:mozilla in it.

"And so at last the beast fell and the unbelievers rejoiced. But all was not lost, for from the ash rose a great bird. The bird gazed down upon the unbelievers and cast fire and thunder upon them. For the beast had been reborn with its strength renewed, and the followers of Mammon cowered in horror.

From The Book of Mozilla, 7:15 "

This is actually a reply to the IE5 (Internet Explorer 5 from Microsoft) team's joke about Mozilla crashing computers.

3. Credits:

To find the list of people involved with the development of Firefox type in the address bar

about:credits

4. Spelling Bee:

Get on a website that allows you to type text in a large text text box.

Write "awnser" without speech marks.

Right Click on the spelling error

5.Help Robots!!!

The best easter egg for the last. Type in the address bar

about:robots

Enjoy the robots! Oh do press the 'buttons'

If you like this post you may want to subscribe to my blog. You can also Digg it if you want :-p

Adobe AIR or Mozilla Prism

2008-06-24T13:24:00.001-07:00

Desktop based web apps are the latest thing doing buzz on the Internet. The two main supporters of offline web apps are Adobe AIR and Mozilla Prism. I decided to try them out. AIR requires you to download a 11 Mb software as a primary install and then you have to install different software for different apps. Prism lets you create an web app for any web page by downloading a small extension called Prism. Then to make a web app simply go to that web page and then select Tools>Make a web app. Prism is more or less like creating a shortcut pointing to a url on Internet. AIR apps are beautiful. There are few apps that are really worth checking out. I really like the Google Reader app. It has a Mac OSX like look and works nice. Twhirl is another nice app. It is an app for Twitter and is the best demonstration of what an Web app should be.

For Prism to be taken seriously it has to incorporate few more things within , namely:

Data Storage: Using Google Gears or any such technology all the data ranging from the web page, images, java scripts and all other things should be saved rather than accessing them via Internet when the user turns on the app. For example take Google Calendar, now when I fire up my shortcut, I get a blank screen and then slowly Prism loads up the Google Calendar web page. I believe this is the wrong approach. Rather Google Calendar web page and previous history should be saved and even if there is no Internet connection available on using the Google Calendar app I should get to view the web page rather than getting : Error page could not load.

Also as in AIR there should be no ads. Currently the view one gets in Prism and in Firefox is same: same web page same ads and stuff. Rather than this specialized web apps could be made by developers who make Firefox extensions so that web apps look different from the actual web page. I hate to admit it but right now Adobe seems to be the sole winner in this race. Please Prism developers pull up an ace from your sleeve and put some of the things I have suggested or else Prism would be known as nothing more than a glorious way to make desktop bookmarks.

Download Prism here

Download AIR here

Have Americans Become Too Rich For Their Own Good?

2008-06-23T23:42:00.001-07:00

My cousin recently went to USA and like all Indians he brought us all gifts from the US. I was extremely exited about my brand new American T-Shirt, but my excitement soon turned into amusement when I saw the label. The label said" Made in India". I laughed out loud. My poor T-Shirt went all the way to America only to come back finally to India. The same thing repeated itself in the other gifts. My uncle got a shirt made in Bangladesh whereas my cousin got a T-Shirt from Honolulu. I wondered whether The USA even produce any thing of it's own. Indian and Chinese economy have grew upon BPO's and other shift of work. I wonder whether it is nature's way to keeps every one on the same level. May be 100 yrs from now ( If mankind makes it) India and China will be Super powers and the Americans would be what Italy is today and then probably Indian companies will start BPO's in New York!

Firefox's Awesome bar Triumphs Over Opera?

2008-06-23T10:58:00.001-07:00

I have been using both Firefox and Opera a lot lately and the feature which has been my life line lately is the Awesome bar which saves you the time to hunt down old bookmarks and history. Previously if I had to hunt any bookmark , it used to take me few seconds. Now with awesome bar those things are history.

There is one fundamental difference between Opera's 'intelligent bar' and Firefox's 'Awesome bar'. Opera indexes all the words in the web page where as Firefox indexes only the title. While on the surface Opera's bar may seem superior, my experience has been opposite.

In Firefox whenever I use the awesome bar I get few results but the results are more meaningful than those in Opera. Opera indexes the complete web page so most results are complete jargon. Also Firefox presents the results in a clearer manner than Opera.

Another thing I have noticed is that Firefox doesn't wait for you to type the whole thing. Opera does require you to fill the complete word. Now this isn't applicable for the first word you type,but in general.

Here's an example to make you understand better:

Suppose I want to go to my Digg page with the url: http://digg.com/users/iampriteshdesai

In Firefox I only have to type " d i" By typing these two alphabets I can get the page I need. Even better thing is that by typing the first few letter of my online accounts ( I use the same name) I can get all my accounts neatly lined up.

Now when I try the same thing in Opera I get complete jargon. (I got the idea for this post from here!)

So the folks at Opera should introspect and decide whether the complete index scan is needed or not.

Digg Beats Reddit- Says Google

2008-06-23T09:50:00.001-07:00

Recently we saw "Who Kicksass Digg or Reddit".

I tried them on Google Trends and for the past month Digg beats Reddit by 5 times.

http://www.google.com/trends?q=digg%2C+reddit&ctab=0&geo=all&date=mtd&sort=0

Google Says Wordpress more popular than Blogger

2008-06-23T09:45:00.001-07:00

I tried the words blogger and wordpress in Google Labs and to my surprise found that Wordpress outstripped Blogger!

I currently love Blogger though! Its far easier.

http://www.google.com/trends?q=blogger%2C+wordpress&ctab=0&geo=all&date=mtd&sort=0

Win Money With Your Mobile (India)

2008-06-22T04:05:00.001-07:00

I came across these two sites which pay you for receiving ads on your mobile via SMS. The two sites are http://www.youmint.com and http://mginger.com/userHome.html.

Both are similar and pay you for sending SMS. You get 0.20 RS for every SMS you get. Good Luck!!!

Tell me if you know more such sites.

These sites work in India and pay you by check.

iTunes Sucks!!!

2008-06-22T03:46:00.001-07:00

I don’t know why some(OK many) people claim that iTunes is the world’s best player. I have dabbled with this stupid thing and always found it to be DAMN frustrating. OK I might not have the most ideal PC configuration but all other players run fine on my PC except this rotten apple. Why can’t stupid Apple make a player which can simply play mp3’s rather than going all the way to ‘import’ them? To add to that the thing eats up all my RAM for doing things like playing mp3. Does Steve iJobs want me to stare at his beautiful player all day long while it plays mp3’s? My last tryst with this pain-in-the-backside was when I tried to play a music video and this crap tunes tried to import it and then converted to a crappy ‘Quality MPEG’ video. Since then I have decided never to try crap Apple softwares for Windows. Okay agreed iTunes has the best management, play list and all those things, but what about user experience? Should I simply venerate the way iTunes looks while it imports songs and keeps raising my frustration level? Also the download is real whiner. And another fault is that it needs the world’s crappiest software to run i.e. QuickTime. I’m never using iTunes. Long Live Windows Media Player 11!!!

Amazon Kindle Extinguishes the Flame

2008-06-21T07:59:00.001-07:00

Last year admits great hype Amazon unveiled Kindle- the eBook reader which was touted to revolutionize the way we read or access information. Traditional books were to be completely replaced by Kindle. Its main USP’s were the ability to download books instantly off the wireless net without having to connect the Kindle to the PC. Many document file types were supported by Kindle like .doc, .pdf, .txt.

Traditionally novels and other long books have been only read off the paper on which they were printed. However Kindle offered to make that history. It is said that an eBook reader like Kindle would ‘rekindle’ interest in reading. A hobby which has taken beating thanks to TV and internet. Sure internet has led to blossoming of self publications called blogs but generally people do not use their PC to read novels . Although I have read fake Harry Potter 7 on my PC and know someone who has read real Harry Potter 7 on PC all night, I would agree that it is far better to read books on paper than on PC monitor. Amazon has taken upon itself to popularize Kindle and is providing loads of popular content to support it Kindle venture.

It is expected that it is expected that the sales of books from kindle would help the publishing industry by increasing the revenue. Authors are expected to benefit from it. Also there are many environmental benefits because no trees are cut in order to make paper. However will Kindle really help the publishing industry?

Take a look at the music industry which looses several billion due to illegal file sharing. The record industry is trying hard to fight illegal file sharing by introducing things like DRM.

If Kindle becomes a huge hit such things are bound to happen in publishing industry as well. The Lord of the Rings book along with Hobbits. Even the longest of books can be can do not exceed 1 MB file size, making them ideal to shared on internet. Even without and eBooks many people download several eBooks. Go to http://www.scribd.com It is the Youtube for documents. It has mused too have many eBooks up for grabs. Harry Potter, Dan Brown , Lord of the Rings, Tintin and several others (Note: Many of these books have thankfully been removed). Till now the only real challenge for the publishing industry was the existence of counterfeiters, however internet piracy will kill many budding and well renowned authors. Harry Potter will remain the most selling title simply because no one would buy books- they would download books for free online. To remain in the competition book sellers will have to reduce prices and this would obviously affect the writers and the quality of books coming up would definitely drop. Ultimately only time would tell whether Amazons Kindle would kill or save the publishing industry.

Today is the Happiest Day of the Year!!!

2008-06-21T07:04:00.002-07:00

Psychologist and mathematician Cliff Arnall calculates that today, June 20th, is the happiest day of the year. His formula, which takes into account outdoor activity, socializing, weather, and the expectation of a holiday, identifies the most depressing day of the year around the end of January.

Are you feeling happy?

Who Would Kickass? J K Rowling or Dan Brown??

2008-06-20T23:25:00.000-07:00

Who do I think would kick ass?
"J K Rowling"

Created by Datepad

Add Any Program to Ubuntu Startup Without Being Geeky

2008-06-20T08:52:00.000-07:00

Here is a non geeky way to add programs to the startup list.
Suppose you have installed a new software like CheckGmail. Now find the shortcut icon of that program in the applications menu under the appropriate grouping 9 In this case internet). Next right click that icon and select the option to 'add to panel'. Now when the icon appears on the panel right click on it and and select 'properties' here you will find the command required to start the program (For CheckGmail it is checkgmail). Now copy it.
Now go to System-Preference-Sessions
Here go to 'Startup'. You can uncheck any program to remove it from the Startup list. Next and click on 'Add'to add the program you want. Here type in the name and paste the command next click OK.
And dont forget to remove the icon by right clicking on it and selecting remove from panel ;-)

Password Protect Your Folders For Free

2008-06-20T01:23:00.001-07:00

As someone in his teens I do have my stash of well.... things I don't want anybody else to see. Now Windows XP doesnt provide password protection to private folders. So I searched and tried many password protection programs and all of them turned out to be crap. Finally I found this diamond among the ruble. This software has been more useful than even Firefox. Its beautiful. Folder Lockbox is an application that will enable you to password protect any folder on your computer. The program is extremely easy to use. You can set the lockbox location and the password during the setup procedure. After the setup is done, lockbox will be hidden and locked until you enter the valid password.
Folder Lockbox Control Panel allows you easily change basic lockbox parameters: lockbox location, protection status, password.
In addition, skinned user interface lets you choose from different skins to select the most comfortable look and feel of the software (My favourite one is a Mac OSX like skin). It is free from malware, adware

You can adjust the settings so that Folder Lockbox can hide files even in Safe mode. However I wouldn't recommend it. Suppose you lost your password you can get back all the files simply by booting in safe mode. Thanks for making Folder Lockbox guys!!!

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Security/Security-Related/Folder-Lockbox.shtml

Install Vista Fonts in Ubuntu 8.10

2008-06-20T00:52:00.001-07:00

Many people hate those ugly fonts which come with Ubuntu. Ubuntu comes with many fonts, many are so ugly that you will wonder why have they put them in the first place? There are some quality ones like Ubantang, however to use Vista or XP fonts do this:

Go to Home folder, then turn on the 'view hidden files' option (Ctrl+H).

Next search for the folder .fonts, if its not there then create a new folder and rename it to .fonts

Now download the fonts you want. If the fonts are compressed, extract them and now place the .ttf files you will have in the folder you have created.

Now all these fonts will be available for normal use.

I have started a new blog about Linux, the new blog has been very popular and many articles have been featured in sites like Lifehacker. So do visit my new Linux blog at Help For Linux.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

2008-06-20T00:02:00.001-07:00

The second book of the series Chamber of Secrets had great expectations from it and it delivered well. I like Chamber of Secrets even more than Philosopher’s Stone. The book starts of with Harry in Privet Drive, feeling lonely because none of his friends have tried to communicate with him. However things change soon and action begins with the arrival of Dobby the House Elf. Dobby is a Gollum (LotR) like character. He turns up one day to warn Harry against going back to Hogwarts because the Chamber of Secrets has opened up. Due to the ruckus that Dobby makes uncle Vernon loses an important client and locks up Harry in his room after he comes to know that Harry isn’t allowed to do magic out side school. Ron Weasely, Harry’s best friend rescues him with his flying car. Together they go to Ron’s house – The Burrow. There Harry meets Ron’s family including Ron’s young sister Ginny who has a secret crush on Harry. It was Ginny’s first year at Hogwart’s. The Weaseley’s go to Diagonal alley to buy things for Hogwart’s. Due to wrong use of Floo powder, Harry lands up in Knockturn alley. On the same day they meet Draco Malfoy’s father who intentionally starts a fight with Ron’s dad. Somebody blocks Harry and Ron from going to the platform 9and3/4. So they use the flying car to reach Hogwarts and get attacked by the Whomping Willow. But on reaching Hogwart’s Harry finds that even Hogwart’s isn’t safe; on Halloween Ms. Norris the Caretaker’s cat gets attacked by the Slytherin’s monster and becomes petrified (statue). Many students feel that Harry is the Slytherin’s heir, who has come to rid Hogwart’s of mudbloods (wizards born in muggle families), because Harry can speak in Parseltongue (language of the snakes). Also by some coincidence Harry always finds himself near the scene of attack. Ultimately the monster captures Ginny and takes her to the Chamber of Secrets. Finally Harry has to solve the ‘Riddles’, who is the Slytherin’s heir? Who is the monster? Why is he targeted?

And Harry ultimately solve the riddle brilliantly, he pieces the evidences even better than Dan Brown’s John Langdon could. As always there is typical J.K. Rowling humor. The character of Dobby is one of my most favorite in the series, Oh and look out for Gilderoy Lockhart. We get a thriller on our hands and Harry lives to see another year at Hogwarts. Brilliant Book!

My First Harry Potter Book Review

2008-06-19T12:48:00.000-07:00

I am a big fan of J.K. Rowling and I believe (contrary to the Pope and nay sayers) that the Harry Potter books rock! Although my favorite book is The Godfather by Mario Puzo, the Potter books are still special for me. If you haven’t been a part of the Harry Potter phenomenon yet, then read the reviews and go grab a copy. This is my attempt of reviewing the Harry Potter books. Note that these are my personal reviews and I have flattened those books in the series which I didn’t like, however your taste could be different. Also if you don’t want to read the books simply because you didn’t find the movies and the spin off games interesting then thing twice because the books are at least hundred times better than the movies and at least thousand times better than those stupid kid games (Although I loved movie 3 and 5).

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (UK)

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (US):

This was the first book of the series, and this is where it all began. J.K. Rowling, previously unknown single mother, living on welfare shot suddenly in to limelight with the success of this book. Critics too appreciated the brave attempt of Rowling to paint a secret magical world which existed right beside our own world. Harry Potter books flew off the shelf. I however had to wait until the release of the fifth book (Order of the Phoenix) before I read the Philosopher’s Stone. Initially I found all the You-Know-Who stuff and the Dursley’s to be quite boring, however once Harry stepped into Hogwart’s J.K. Rowling’s magic began. Our bespectacled protagonist suddenly found himself in a place he could truly call home. No longer was he Dudley’s (his evil cousin) punch bag, rather he was the most famous pupil ever to step into Hogwart’s. Everyone in the magical world knew his name. Harry was famous because evil Voldemort (You-Know-Who) supposedly died while trying to kill Harry when he was one year old. Harry’s parents had died while fighting Voldemort that night. At Hogwart’s Harry starts learning magic and found as J.K. Rowling put it, that there was more to magic than waving your wand and saying some mumbo-jumbo words. There he learns to fly on broomstick and plays Quidditch; which is the most famous sport among wizards. However not everyone is happy about Harry being so happy, especially Prof. Snape, the hook nosed teacher at Hogwart’s who teaches Potions. He is forever trying to get Harry into trouble. There are several interesting characters like Dumbledore, Quirrel, Hagrid and many more. The challenges which the trio undergo while getting to the stone are still fresh in my mind.The final House Cup ceremony is awesome. I'll never forget this book!

J.K. Rowling has penned the magical world of Harry Potter in the best possible way. It is here that her brilliance shines most. The reasons given for magical actions are perfect. The sub-plots in the book are brilliant; Hagrid’s affection for Norbert (the baby dragon), the midnight duel, Harry’s enmity with Malfoy, trio’s friendship, are amazing!

This is one book you simply have to read!

Gmail Notifier for Ubuntu

2008-06-19T07:54:00.000-07:00

Do you always have a Gmail tab open in your browser, hoping to get your mail as soon as it drops in your inbox? Gmail notifier for Windows and Mac exists but what if you are on Linux?
Thankfully the Open Source community exists and they have made one available. Check Gmail works wonders by notifying you whenever a mail drops by. It definitely improves your productivity and is a must download!

It is around 1 Mb in size and can be downloaded by the following command:
sudo apt-get install checkgmail
You can also download it vai Synaptic.

Windows Live Search 4 Better than Google Desktop???

2008-06-18T05:08:00.001-07:00

After reading a lot about new and improved Windows Live Desktop search 4, I decided to give it a try. The installation went on fine and I was able to use Windows Desktop Search without rebooting my PC. There aren't many GUI changes. Windows Search 4 took less time than Google Desktop to index my hard drive. Also it used less memory than Google Desktop. I was most impressed by the manner in which results were displayed. In Google Desktop the results are displayed in an random haphazard manner. But Live Search shows the results in its own application and there is live preview function whereby documents, html web pages and others can be viewed in a pane at the right hand side. However the best thing was the way mp3 results were shown. Suppose I searched for Bryan Adams on my PC, then in the results list if I clicked on any mp3 file on the right hand side pane a list would come up with all the songs in that folder with album image and details, cool. Finally, I believe Windows search has improved to a point of usability. Use the keyboard shortcut Win+F to bring on Windows Live Search. I had done an earlier review of Windows Search 3 and found it to be crap, however this version shines, though there is room for improvement.

Download

Firefox is finally here!!!

2008-06-17T12:40:00.001-07:00

It is 1am here in India and I have just downloaded Firefox 3. The latest and greatest version of Firefox took me nearly half an hour to download because of the slow speed, guess many people are trying to lay their hands on Firefox. However I was determined to help guys at Mozilla set up their record. I tried Safari and Opera 9.5 before. Opera was nice, though not as nice as Firefox and Safari was pure crap.Hope this version rocks too!!!

Install Ubuntu Hardy Heron on PC with less than 256 MB RAM

2008-06-17T04:37:00.000-07:00

Open a run box (Win+R), go into the folder that contains wubi.exe and run the path:
example- e:/wubi.exe –skipmemorycheck.

Here e:/ refers to the location of the file wubi.exe, the part skip memory check doesn't allow Wubi to check whether RAM is more than 256 or not.

Rest of the installation went without a hitch. It took about half an hour to complete and finally I was able to login to my shinny new Ubuntu box.

Devils Rule the World

2008-06-16T06:48:00.000-07:00

The Devils did it again! They humiliated Chelsea once again, this time at Moscow to become the Kings of Europe, for the second time after 1999. Nobody in my house – except me- shares enthusiasm for football, so at 12:30 am – in India- I was the only one awake to see Manchester in action. And hell it was an amazing match! By the time Chelsea’s 4th penalty was taken I thought the show was over for United, but fate had it otherwise and Terry had to slip on the big stage. Just as in Community Shield match Van Dar Sar after a poor match became a hero in the penalties and Petr Chec who had a brilliant match failed to save any during the penalties apart from the stupid Ronaldo attempt. Ronaldo proved again that he cannot score from penalties. That was his 3rd miss this year. But still United won!
Go Devils Go!!!!!
(I was on a vacation in Goa so couldn’t post this thing earlier)

Opera 9.5, A Firefox Killer???

2008-06-16T06:28:00.001-07:00

Today I downloaded the latest Opera browser, which is yet another attempt by Opera to establish a sizeable market following, but is this version as nice as Opera Corp wants us to believe or yet another perfect but bloated browser from them?

Download: I tried downloading Opera 9.5 from the official website by using the previous Opera 8.5 browser. Funnily enough Opera 8.5 downloaded the file as a webpage and displayed a question mark icon to show its inability to render that page. I laughed and saved the ‘webpage’ to an .exe file and was thus saved from downloading it again.

Installation: Installation is quick and gives you an option to either upgrade your current 9.25 setup or do a fresh install. I selected a fresh install, yet that didn’t stop Opera from using my 8.5 preferences.

New Skin: Opera 9.5 flashes a new skin. It is a nice looking black theme however it seems incomplete. Opera rushed the skin in an attempt to bring their browser before Mozilla could, the result is disappointing. The protruding arrow thing seems to be half baked.

Features: Opera has always been a leader in introducing new features to the browser market. They introduced tabs as we know them 10 months earlier than Mozilla Firefox. It also has many other features inbuilt like mouse gestures. But this penchant for putting more to the browser has been Opera’s curse. Try as you may, you can never satisfy everyone with features, most would find it obtrusive and those who use it all would long for more. Firefox with extensions does the right thing of allowing you to chose yourself the features you’d want with the help of extensions. This time however the guys at Opera had to copy one marvelous feature from Mozilla and that is ‘Awesome Bar’- your regular address bar which now becomes the most used part of the browser by incorporating your history and the actual content of the pages you visit. Remember I said actual content (all the words and all including some image search results) so be prepared for some hiccups in the search results. Although the hiccups can be safely avoided by deleting those certain web pages from history.

Performance: Opera’s performance is rock solid as ever without using too much memory. This version is even more faster than the earlier versions and is stable. As usual certain web pages are not rendered properly in Opera.

Final Verdict: So will it be the Firefox slayer as it is being touted or just remain another fringe browser? Well having used Opera 9.5 and Firefox 3, I can safely say for normal usage both are equally fast and useful browsers, Opera as usual has basketful of features baked in where as I’ll have to pimp my Firefox tomorrow but I guess I’ll stick with Firefox 3 simply because there are few extensions I cannot do without (Foxytunes). I like Opera (its my second most favorite browser after Firefox) and hope it gains market share-but at the expense of Safari.

5 Reasons Why J.K. Rowling is Better than Dan Brown

2008-06-15T19:43:00.000-07:00

1. With J.K. Rowling you can never guess who the bad guy is, unlike with Dan Brown where the guy whom the protagonist goes for help is the bad guy:
If you have read all the books from these authors you’d notice that J.K. Rowling doesn’t reveal her cards too soon. In the Philosopher’s Stone (Sorcerer’s Stone [US]) it was only at the very end that we come to know that stuttering Qqq… Quirrel was Voldemort’s cohort and not Snape, as all of us thought. You will find the same thing in Book No. 2 and 3, and when we went prepared for it in the Book No. 4 (Goblet of Fire) she sprung another surprise by introducing the bad guy right at the beginning and most of us were fans of Prof. Moody until Dumbledore stuffed truth potion in his mouth.
Now compare this with Dan Brown’s style, if you have read any Dan Brown books you can guess who is the bad guy is after some 75 pages. In all his books to date the guy who tries to be helpful and provides assistance is the baddie. Another interesting trait is that the villain is some one important in the book (Leigh Teabing). Dan Brown always tries to confuse us by putting in a strict character so that we might think him to be the bad guy (Aringarosa anyone?).

2. Joe doesn’t lie, Dan does:
One of the first thing you would read in Dan Brown’s novels is the sentence—¬
“All the technologies introduced in this book are real and exist”
Then there will be a page which will tell you “Illuminati was an secret organization formed in 1885, blah blah”
Since we have heard before about Illuminati and Free Masons we tend to believe that all things stated by Dan Brown are true. But few of us notice that on the back side of the cover the word fictional novel is printed, which gives Dan Brown liberty to even say that the sky on earth is pink. The line “all the stuff inside is real” is written just so that you take the novel seriously and enjoy it more. But isn’t Dan Brown in some way cheating his own readers. A plane which can fly to Europe, from US within an hour! Hell, even the current fastest experimental plane cannot fly so fast. Even if it did the human body cannot simply take so much acceleration. Making parachutes out of old University Tux? Also nobody has made a microrobot as small as a fly depicted in ‘Deception Point’. And need I say anything about ‘The Da Vinci Code’?
Rowling portrays a magical world, but she keeps it fictional. Nowhere she says like Dan Brown,––
“All the people and places mentioned in this book are real, platform 9¾ exists and you can pass it if you are a Wizard. Hogwarts can be seen as a desolate castle in Scotland by muggles.”

3. Joe is a better person than Dan Brown:
Well let me state this thing first, I don’t mean to say that Dan Brown is not a nice person but comparatively Joe is leagues above him. She is my most favorite celebrity. Despite so much success she is humble and down to earth kind of person. Simply put J.K. Rowling is a wonderful person. She has done lot for people through charities and other such work. She is polite unlike most other celebrities. Dan Brown is also one of the better celebrities but J.K. Rowling is the best.

4. Originality:
The Harry Potter series was completely different from books before it. They were neither crime related, nor JRR Tolkien like fantasy. Agreed, it does include many characters from folk lore and other myths but even Tolkien didn’t invent Elves, Trolls and Dwarfs. Dan Brown’s novels are different but they seem just like any other mystery novel, he tries to introduce many secret organizations and technologies which are impossible for a long time.

5. Literary Skills:
J.K. Rowling does indeed write better than Dan Brown. Her narration flows like a river, sometimes swiftly, sometimes gently. Rereading Harry Potter is also a nice experience; the books have humor, fear of the unknown, and tales of friendship. While reading Harry Potter you always know that J.K. Rowling has a grip on her story. She drops hints and clues along the way hoping you will catch it. Her characters actually grew up as the story progressed – a sign of brilliance of the author– The difference between Harry of the Philosopher’s Stone and that of The Deathly Hallows was immense. Harry, unlike many kids of other books was as real as possible. Many authors including Enid Blyton always showed stereotypical kids; always innocent, shy and without any emotions. J.K. Rowling fed Harry proper emotions at right times. So Harry always seemed just like one of us with a pinch of magic. He used to get angry, some people used to hate him; he got bullied when he was young just like many of us. His feud with Malfoy could be the story of any other youngster. The character of Snape was beautifully written, he went from becoming a villain to a hero.
Dan Brown’s characters are mostly one-dimensional they do not change at all. And his stupid habit of writing one page chapters makes me sick. On the right hand-side page you might be reading about John Langdon drinking tea, but take a glance on the left-side page you will find Aringarosa flying over the Atlantic. It’s almost as if you are watching a movie through a window.

Manchester United Won The Premier League!!!

2008-05-11T12:17:00.001-07:00

Hurray!!! The Devils did it again!!!
Manchester lifted the Premier League for the 10th time in 16 years, proving once again why they are the world's best damn team. Ronaldo the man of the year came to the party with his 41st goal of the season. Ryan Gigs scored the other for a fabulous 2-0 win over Wigan. Second-place Chelsea, which was even on points going into the final day of the season but trailing on goal difference, was held to a 1-1 draw by Bolton and finished two points behind. United have been in fabulous form this year, specially Ronaldo; United have won this year thanks to him. Chelsea did well in the ending stages of the tournament to pressurize Manchester. Rooney too played in this match. My heart is bubbling with joy! The whole season was brilliant and now all eyes are trained on Moscow where my Manchester Uniter will again be the champion of Europe!
Go Devils Go!!!
( I've been an ardent United fan all my life, Sir Alex Ferguson you rock! )

Go Social With Flock Web Browser

2008-05-10T07:12:00.001-07:00

After reading a lot about flock the new browser based on Firefox known for its tight integration with modern social web sites, I decided to give it a try. The installer weighs in a heavy 10MB (as compared to Firefox and Opera which are around 6 MB each). The installation was a breeze and offered me the option of importing bookmarks from IE and Firefox. However it set itself up as the default browser without even asking me, and that’s bad!

The default theme is a nice looking blue one. The first thing you are bound to notice is the large star button next to the address bar. The function of this button is to bookmark pages. This same approach has been used by Firefox in its latest version 3. The default homepage is ‘My World’ which hosts all your feeds from blogs and favorite websites. All the menus and options are just as in Firefox and Firefox users would be completely at home with it Flock. Another big addition is the sidebar from which you can access your friends feed from Facebook. It also has many tricks up its sleeve when it comes to Facebook. There are options available to upload photos directly to online sites like Flickr and Photobucket. You can also view the feeds from streaming media like Youtube . The address bar has an envelop icon next to it, you can send the address of the website you are currently on by email. Flock also has an Blog Writer. However it is basic and you cannot upload pictures with it. I’d prefer Windows Live Writer over it. But the process of setting up the blog writer is extremely simple. You merely have to sign in to your blog with Flock to set it up. As simple as that! Highlight any text on a Web page and drag it to the blogging panel (which pops up when you click a blogging toolbar button), and your blog entry becomes instantly formatted with the highlighted text featured as a quote, nicely formatted in blockquote. The page link is bundled into the entry as well when you drag text. All of this displays in flawless WYSIWYG, and the whole presentation is pretty as a morning flower. Still it lacks things found in Live Writer. Since its based on Firefox Flock can support mast but not all extensions used in Firefox.

Pro’s:

It is your favorite Firefox plus some nifty addons.

Most Firefox extensions work in Flock, so a switch isn’t all that hard.

Looks good and has ‘Social Skills’, an important feature for heavy Facebook and Youtube users.

However I have since reverted back to my good old Firefox. No it isn’t change that I desist but the lack of productivity prompted me back to Firefox. The reasons are

Cons:

Firefox never displayed a page bad. Even Opera splutters at Gmail and some other sites, but Firefox just keeps going strong. I expected the same from Flock however Flock disappointed me.

Many times Flock would open Google search links in new window and that is a big pain in the arse.

The ‘My World’ page has side scrolling and its quite irritating. On wide screen monitors it makes sense but on my 17” screen it is quite irritating.

Also since Firefox 3 is coming out soon I’d be stuck a version below (Flock is based on Firefox 2)

I mainly Orkut so Flock’s lack of support makes it useless.

I hate those stupid friends feed in Facebook coz I don’t share my friend’s view when he thinks posting a video of him scratching his ass is cool.

Final Verdict:

Flock is definitely a cool browser (my 3^rd most favourite browser). A lot better than Safari crap. But if you are completely into Youtube and stuff you might want to Flock with Flock!!!

Download Flock

The Best Desktop Search Engine

2008-05-10T01:59:00.001-07:00

You must be knowing that windows has an inbuilt search feature and also the fact that it sucks. When you use it you will find 'Merlin the Wizard' to give you company. The basic search facility in XP are too bad too be useful with the long time that it takes while it scrounges your hard drive. Windows XP's built-in search function is slow because it scans whole files instead of a list. For a better understanding, consider this analogy: If one is trying to find the title of a chapter of a book in a library, Windows XP's search will search through all the books in the library, whereas these softwares scans the card catalog – a time-saving process. Thankfully all that changed when Google brought its amazing desktop search engine. Several others entered the fray like Ask, Yahoo. Thanks to them even Microsoft came up with its own desktop search engine. So which one is the best? I tried using as many of them as i could including the veteran Copernic desktop search to find the answer.

1. Google Desktop Search Engine: Google Desktop Search Engine is the most famous of the lot. Google keeps bringing out newer versions of this thing. The newer versions have improved the memory usage drastically. I had tried the earlier versions too and found them a bit slow while indexing however version onwards it began running smoothly. The biggest advantage of using GDS is its tight integration with Google services. The options and settings are all (like all things Google) simple and easy. There is an killer option to index the contents of password protected documents so that if you ever forget the password you can find the text when Google indexes it into its cache. It displays results in your web browser. Another nice thing about GDS is its gadgets. Now gadgets are Google's answer to Yahoo's widgets. They are nice looking pretty things(not as good as Yahoo widgets, though). There are several hundreds of them though I found very few to my liking (Few of my favorites are Reversi and Virtual Flower Pot).

Download: http://desktop.google.com/

2. Launchy: This is one of the more famous softwares. Launchy is an application used to launch other applications as opposed to open them from Start Button (and trust me it is a better way). Now you might be using it to open programs but Launchy can be used to bring up your favorite files, songs, documents too. If you would like Launchy to index more than the programs in your start menu, such as folders, mp3s, docs, pdfs, avis, etc.. then this option is for you. Right click on Launchy and select directories. Add the directories you would

like Launchy to scan in the box in the left by hitting the “Add” button under it

Adding Types:

You can specify which file types to search for in each directory, such as .mp3 in

your music directory and .jpg in your pictures folder. You can also add file

types that are searched for in all of the directories you have added. To add a type to a specific directory, write the file type (such as .mp3) in the box marked in the image and then click the Add button below. There are many skins, my favorite being the default black one. It doesn't use much resources and is free.

Download: http://www.launchy.net/

3. Ask Desktop Search: This search program was introduced by the search player Ask. It has fewer options than GDS but its main USP was its fast file searching. It also used less resources than GDS. It has a live preview function where you could see preview of all files, mp3, pdf, doc etc however one fallout was when you came across some umm, confidential info(I'm just guessing) and somebody managed to get a sneak peak. Still nice for people on less CPU resources.

Download: http://sp.ask.com/en/docs/desktop/overview.shtml

4. Copernic Desktop Search: This used to be a paid software with a free version available however due to onslaught of free desktop search software they have decided to make their software a free ware. Now this thing doesn't have any extra features like plug ins and widgets and focuses only on search. It has file preview window too. It indexed a bit slowly on my PC and since I use GDS I have since removed it.

Download: http://www.copernic.com/

Microsoft Search: Microsoft Search is like many things Microsoft buggy and useless. Don’t download it, go with either GDS or Launchy. On my Computer GDS scanned 10000 files where as MDS showed only 773 results.

Ccleaner

2008-05-08T23:32:00.001-07:00

As time progresses our computer keeps getting slow. The main reason for this is because our PC keeps on accumulating junk. Now it is not possible to delete required files however you can always clear out the junk temporary files-the ones created by your PC for doing some tasks. There are many softwares out there which claim to clean your PC including many free ones, however the best one is undoubtedly Ccleaner (Crap Cleaner).

Now Ccleaner does exactly what it says and does a wonderful job of cleaning out the junk files . It also has the ability to clean your registry and so helps a bit in speeding up your PC. Ccleaner has other additional goodies like cleaning out your traces on your PC like history in all web browsers , search terms in all programs (run , outlook , etc) , cache , etc. The initial setting are a bit too much for my liking . I have opted out from the option to clean my history and cache , rest are fine. It also features on uninstalling software although it has same functionality of Add remove program. Also it can control your startup programs. Although I use WinPatrol for it. The program Ccleaner has an beautiful GUI and many crap spinoffs on it (Mcleaner, Fcleaner). A must have free download. It has many features which are found in paid softwares. If you are a regular blog reader then you might have come across this statement about Ccleaner that it cleared 25 Gb of some guy’s PC. Well don’t believe it, Ccleaner is effective but not that effective, still it is one of the most necessary downloads. And to the guy who said the thing - Dude delete the files in your recycle bin once every decade!!!

Technorati Tags: ccleaner,pc,junk,clean,free,software

elete the files in your recycle bin once every , decade!

www.ccleaner.com

Recover Data From Scratched CD's and DVD's

2008-04-29T06:03:00.001-07:00

I hate CD's. The reason? I must have lost more data because of CD's than all others ways put together. Many times it has happened that I have happily burnt data onto them only to find gone after I have completely erased the thing from my hard disk. CD/DVD's are so fragile, an ungainly plate like shape which is impossible to stuff in your pocket and the inability to change the data once written (OK DVD RW exist but they require a writer and also you cannot change it on the fly). Personally I'd love the day USB's become dirt cheap. Many DVD's have been rendered useless by a single scratch. Curse those who made such a stupid format. Blu-Rays will only add to those woes. But you can't deny that CD/DVD's are the most dominant way to transfer those MP3's , movies and games, so what can you do when your PC gives you errors like 'Cyclic redundancy error- can't copy'? Well don't despair there is still some hope left with these free softwares.

Recovery Toolbox for CD Free: This is one of the best ever softwares ever made. I don't know what I would have done without it. This software has bailed me out of many tricky situations like when my PC refused to recognise the CD I'd stuck in its guts. This is the best CD recovery program out there and you should download it. It has an attractive GUI. It is also quite simple to use. Users only have to select which files to copy and where to copy. This program works on all things, CD, DVD, Blu-ray and also HDVD(For those unlucky souls who bought them). Like the name suggests it is completely free. A worthy download. Download Recovery Toolbox for CD Free

Iso-Buster: This one is a paid software and has many other options apart from data recovery, however its data recovery function is free for general use(other features are locked)

CD Check: This is another software which claims to recover lost CD data and is free too. However I didn't found it better than Recovery Toolbox. Still you might want to give it a try.

Unstoppable Copier: This is another software which copies CD contents and if it fails to do so it replaces the data with either ‘0’ or ‘1’. Again it isnt as good as Recovery Toolbox for CD Free.

The Best Way to Edit PDF's

2008-04-28T03:55:00.001-07:00

Pdf's are certainly the best way to read documents now a day most text files traded on Internet are pdf's. There are many types of software available which allow you to make pdf's they work by setting themselves up as your default printer. Using them you can convert any type of document, image, and spreadsheet into a pdf. But still for editing pdf's you will require Adobe writer which costs 300$. However by using an alternate way you can edit PDF's for free. There is this nice small utility called Free PDF to Word. It does exactly what it says i.e. create word files from PDF's. Free PDF to Word is a beautiful and free program which is extremely simple to use. You have to select the pdf file you have to convert and this program will convert it and also open it on your default doc viewing program. Then you can edit them using MS Word or use any other editor like AbiWord- a free and open source software which I use.

Then you can convert the document back to pdf using any converter. Personally I use doPDF which is again free and creates PDF's without any ads or such things. There is also no need to register to use doPDF. Also you may use site like Zamzar for conversion. I however would suggest using doPDF since you can use it to create PDFs even when you are not connected to the net.

My School AVM

2008-03-19T06:37:00.000-07:00

Each teacher at AVM had some or other peculiar habit which used to set them apart from the rest. There are many memories associated with my teachers, now that I have finally bade good buy to my school it feels nice to go over those memories and get transported to those days when there was far less studies than what we have now and had loads of time to watch TV and play.

Geeta Miss was brought on in our school during our 10^th STD. She knew her topics better than most teachers and was one of my most favorite teachers. Her first entry in our class room was rocking by all standards. Normally new teachers are equally frightened of students as much students are frightened of them; their first sentences are something harmless like, “Hi students! I am XYZ Miss, well be friends and have loads of fun (do we ever?).” How ever Geeta miss barged in and went on shouting like hell,” why are you students sitting so far away? I don’t want to shout so loudly, sit closer …. Nobody will sit on last benches… blah blah blah.” And we all were like- who the hell does she think she is! Words like Nepali were used with impunity. How ever by the end of the year most students liked her. My constant approval of her methods earned me the song Prits&Geets by Aks who was irritated by her initially. It used to be fun watching her scold somebody because se would just go on and on and on. She had a snappy sense of humour. She set what was the world’s biggest geometry paper ever. It was a 75 mark paper and nobody managed to complete it. It would have taken atleast 5 hrs to complete it. There were rumors that her left eye was fake (made of glass). I don’t believe it.

Aasha miss was a different combo all together. I personally thought of her as Hyperbole personified. She would watch a thing, comprehend something else and tell others the same story after applying loads of mirch-masala. Some of her famous fakes are, “Hritik Roshan lives opposite my house at Juhu.” Aamir Khan lives in my building, he has given me tickets of Lagan of a complete theater….He will come to our school for Republic day (He obviously never did).” She had a penchant for spinning tales and often used to praise her daughter, “My daughter won first prize in fancy dress competition…..She is very intelligent, she writes 3 notebooks full every day….. Once she told me I don’t know 3 questions out of 100 so I told her that don’t worry you know those 97 questions na.” Her teaching had a pattern which never wavered throughout the years. She would enter the class with an expression suitable for that day’s lesson. If it was a serious lesson like Popat she would be sober but if it was a funny topic then she would be in a funny manner. Then she would tell us about the lesson in short (many times changing the whole story altogether) after this there would be the reading of the lesson. Every time the reading part got over she would have a smile of contentment smeared across her face. The she let hell lose! She would quickly write important meanings calling them ‘same-the-meanings’ followed by synonyms, antonyms and then miss changed tracks she would dictate the one line answers followed by the brief answers (which were often a page or two long), while we tried to keep pace with her. Writing was such a pain! She used to talk a lot during the class, we used to keep her in a good mood to talk so that we’d have to write less and get time for private chat. She talked for a long time while narrating her 26/7 flood experience… ‘’Itna Itna pani” she used to say while clutching her throat. Like her teaching even her marking scheme was same. Any particular student in her class might have studied well or not but the amount of marks he got never deviated much from the golden mean. I personally used to get something like 65-68 marks in Hindi-Marathi and however nicely I wrote the answer I never used to get more than 3 marks for the brief question. Once I had properly Mugged up an answer from the guide for some Hindi poem and wrote it without a spelling mistake in the paper. I was expecting 3 and 1/2 marks but to my dismay I only got 1 and 1/2 mark. I asked her about it to which she gave the answer we all expected from her, “Hey uttar apekshit nahi aahe (This isn't the expected answer)." Boys never crossed the 'Laxman Rekha' of 70 marks in her class and her favorite students who could not even read a line from Marathi textbook properly used to notch up in excess of 80. Once in our 10th STD some boys managed to get their hands on the Hindi question paper. All boys and few girls were given a Xerox copy of the paper. I personally decided not to use it but the urge to score high in Hindi paper (for once in my life) made me take that step. At midnight I went through the paper and read the answers. Next day's paper was a breeze; we all expected a nice score (I personally thought I would get something like 80+). Even miss said that students had written the paper very well, and that even Jafar had got nice marks. We told her that Jafar had copied so as not to arouse her suspicion. I eagerly waited for the paper and to my dismay I only got 70 (Highest in boys was Rahul Patel who got 71.) We checked among ourselves and noticed that all of us had only got 4-5 marks more than our regular score! The usual Marathi-Hindi toppers had too got the same marks. Hell to justice!

There was also this PT teacher in 7^th I guess who had this bad habit of saying ‘You Agree’ after every damn sentence he spoke. His daily talk used to be somewhat like this,”Boys and girls stand in line, ‘You Agree’. Run 3 rounds, ‘You Agree’. Don’t talk, ‘You Agree’. We will play football today, ‘You Agree’.” He also had a habit of slapping his whistle on students to punish them.

The Best PDF Reader

2008-03-19T06:05:00.000-07:00

PDF's are certainly the best way to read documents but the most‭ ‬used PDF reader Adobe Reader is so slow and buggy that many people are mortally afraid of clicking on PDF links on the internet because if Adobe is your default reader then well I pity you.‭ ‬Thankfully there are many options available which are much better than Adobe and are also free.

Adobe Vs Foxit Vs Xchange-Viewer:

Foxit Reader:‭ ‬When I started u‭ (‬like all Adobe products‭ ) ‬I felt was because pdf's are a better format and require more ressing pdf's and found them to be terribly slowources to view them some thing like videos,‭ ‬but then I stumbled across this beauty which is now my default PDF reader.‭ ‬The best thing about Foxit is that it is standalone software meaning that it doesn't require any installation to start working and also it weighs in only‭ ‬2MB.‭ ‬Now Adobe Reader by tradition‭ (‬like all Adobe Softwares Photoshop,‭ ‬PDF Writer‭) ‬is very slow to begin with,‭ ‬recent versions of Adobe reader are bit quick to open,‭ ‬however Foxit opens almost instantaneously.‭ ‬This is most useful while opening pdf's in your web browser.‭ ‬All in all this is the best PDF Reader out there.

PDF XCHANGE VIEWER:‭ ‬This is another decent alternative.‭ ‬It opens up almost as quickly as Foxit but unlike Foxit it isn't standalone software and it is an‭ ‬13MB download.‭ ‬However it goes one up on Foxit because of its editing capabilities.‭ ‬Now when you edit an pdf document with Foxit free version you will get an ugly mark on the top of the document,‭ ‬however with Xchange viewer you can edit it without any watermark.‭ ‬Another amazing feature in Xchange Viewer is that it has‭ '‬tabs‭' ‬like those in firefox reading many‭ ‬PDF’s at a time gets easier also it can showcase all the current pdf files together as IE7‭ ‬does.