Code's Worst Enemy

Stevey's Blog Rants: Code's Worst Enemy:

Want to read something fun about programming bloatware? Check the link above.

Warning: It's a looooong read. Beware.

The Age of Data

Google Is All About Large Amounts of Data

This truly is the age of data. I have a friend who works in the GIS domain. Here's what he said when he compared his company's product to Google Maps: "Google Maps beats the pants off our system when it comes to mapping Bangalore, but we have more data of the local bussinesses than Google does."

That's a proof that data can give an edge to any product. Hit the link above and see what Google's VP Marissa Mayer has to say about it.

Happy New Year.

BEA runs Java on bare (virtual) metal

BEA Weblogic Server Virtual Edition doesn't run on Windows. It doesn't run on Linux, or MacOSX, or FreeBSD, AmigaDOS, CP/M, OS/2, or any other operating system you can think of. It runs directly on an x86 hypervisor. A hypervisor is a thin layer of low level code that sits just the hardware and creates a virtualized version of that hardware.

read more | digg story

Google Desktop for Linux. Finally!

Google has announced the release of Google Desktop for Linux. God! I've been waiting for this.

Here's the link for downloading the .deb/.rpm packages.
For those of you who want to install from a repository, head to this link.
The above link give you detailed instructions on how to get Google Desktop onto your Linux box.
Get going.

Installing a .rpm package: rpm -ivh "file_name_with_extension"
Installing a .deb package: dpkg -i "file_name_with_extension"

Via Google Operating System.

A few Ubuntu & Firefox tips and tricks

Hello! Folks.

Here are some tips for the users of Ubuntu and Firefox.
Gnome 2.x: Supercharge your right-click menu with Nautilus Scripts
Gnome:Add screen actions with Brightside
Gnome/KDE:Dock any application to the system tray with AllTray
Gnome on Linux:Copy and paste without using the clipboard
Gnome:Embed the terminal on the desktop
Linux: Speed up Gnome menu
Ubuntu: How To: Give Ubuntu a speed boost
Ubuntu:Print to PDF in Ubuntu
Ubuntu:Encrypt CDs/DVDs in Ubuntu
Ubuntu:Load programs faster with Preload
How To: Create .iso disk images and generate MD5 checksums

Firefox: Tweak about:config options with Configuration Mania
Firefox on Ubuntu:Beautify Firefox web page forms on Ubuntu

Thanks Lifehacker.
Happy tweaking.

Where's web going? To your Desktop.

You must have heard the buzz that Web 2.0 has been making. Didn't it make you wonder for a fleeting second, if there will be day when you boot into an OS on a remote server using just your browser (YouOS). Thanks to Ajax and the almost transparent asynchronous communication it allows with a server, we have a fleet of Social networking sites(MySpace, Facebook, etc.), Online Office Suites(ThinkFree, Zoho, Google Docs), Mash up Editors(Yahoo! Pipes, Google Mash-up Editor) and myriad other tools that mimic our desktops. Is this going to get any better? Allison Randal, over at O'Reilly Radar gives some insights into the future of Web.

According to the article, the future web will thrive on "ambidextrous" lightweight networked Desktop Applications. That is to say, the future applications run on your desktop and connect to the network giving you the best of both worlds, The speed of the desktop and the ease of use of web applications. The author gives iTunes and Songbird as examples for such apps. Networked Apps make more sense in this ever shrinking world. And they are bound to be more effective, if not efficient, than desktop apps. Imagine, all the processor intensive tasks could be performed locally and data could be fetched from the network.

The author goes on to express interest in ubiquity of Linux. She points to a recent development in the virtualisation space, LINA. LINA is lightweight virtual machine that allows desktop applications to be developed for Linux and run with a native look-and-feel on Windows, Mac OS X, and various flavors of *nix.
More on the technology aspects of LINA:

There are already several ways to run an application written for one platform on a different platform. One is system call mapping: for instance mapping a Linux system call to a Windows system call as CYGWIN does. This allows a Linux application to run in CYGWIN on Windows without the Linux kernel. Unfortunately, syscalls cannot always be mapped exactly, which can prevent the application from compiling or from working as expected. Virtualization takes a different approach, actually implementing an entire operating system on top of another, but applications running in this guest end up being completely unintegrated with the host operating system.

LINA takes a new approach. In LINA, Linux applications run on a cross-platform Linux kernel on a virtual machine. LINA uses resource mapping instead of syscall mapping. So the Windows file system is mapped to a Linux file system, the Windows GUI APIs are mapped to Linux GUI APIs, etc. From the perspective of the LINA Linux application, it is running in a standard Linux operating system. From the perspective of the user, the LINA application is identical to a normal Windows or Mac OS X application.

Doesn't it sound sweet? Probably those of our machines with meager specs will be able to run LINA. Since it is "lightweight". LINA will be licensed under GPLv2. It is built in C and C++. You can write applications for LINA in C and C++. Support for Perl, Python and Ruby will soon be added. LINA can currently run Linux command line utilities and some web applications. Support for development in Qt and GTK+ libraries is planned. See the FAQ section on openlina.com or more info.

Here's the article: Beyond the Browser.

How to build your own Firefox Extension

Have you been planning to whip up your own Firefox extension? Well, here's something for starters. This Lifehacker post can get you started on your very own, pet extension for the browser you love. The post points to plenty of developer resources too. Wachoo waiting for? Go, put on creative thinking cap.

Good Luck.

Tweaks; Speed up Adobe Reader 8

Here's the tweak if you don't have time: Just remove the "accessability.api" file.

To remove this 'feature' simply navigate to your %Program Files%\Adobe\Reader 8.0\reader\plug_ins folder, and rename (delete, copy elsewhere) the 'accessability.api' file. The same file exists, but in slightly different locations, in older version of Acrobat Reader.

Warning: You do this, you won't be able to get Adobe Reader to read your documents aloud.

Don't want to put up with the bloat that Adobe Reader is? Get Foxit Reader. Works only Windows though.

Here the Original Post: Adobe Acrobat Reader got you down? [Arsgeek]


Via Lifehacker.org

RIP: Remove It Permanantly. FireFox Extension

Are you irritated by huge graphical ads smack in the middle of an article? Or maybe you don't want to waste bandwidth viewing the dozens of images in a review, or user icons in forum boards? You can remove them for good with a single click by using Firefox's RIP extension, which zaps anything out of a Web page, permanently.

RIP, which stands for Remove It Permanently, is inspired by the two popular Firefox extensions -- Nuke Anything and Adblock. Nuke Anything is designed to remove elements from a page to make it more printer-friendly, but the extension doesn't remember those changes. Adblock, on the other hand, focuses solely on removing graphical advertisements. RIP can remove a lot more.

In addition to graphical ads, with RIP you can also remove text ads, or even pieces of text such as tables or copyright notices. The best thing about the extension is that it doesn't leave empty spaces where the removed content used to reside; if you delete a horizontal banner between two paragraphs, the page will close up around the missing element.

Complete Article Here.

Bad Astronomer :Hubble finds dark matter smoke ring.

Check out this post for some awesome pictures of the smoke ring.
I'm fascinated by Astronomy. Aren't you? If you are check this Bad Astronomy Blog. Here's the feed for his blog if you want to subscribe. He's got a funny style of writing, this Bad Astronomer and he's cool too. If you got some questions about Astronomy and Space, head to Q&BA section of his site. He's even written a book called Bad Astronomy.

The Dell XPS 720 H2C: Drool over it.

Doesn't that look SEXY?
Here are the specs:

• choice of factory overclocked QX6700 or QX6800 Core 2 Extreme processors, dual GeForce 8800 GTX or GeForce 8800 Ultra graphics cards,
• a pair of 160GB SATA hard drives,
• some overclocked Corsair Dominator DDR2 memory,
• a Blu-ray drive,
• Dell's trademark H2C thermo-electric/liquid cooling system

Via Engadget.
Clean your desk now and get back to work.

DIY: Mineral Oil Submerged Computer

I've heard of and seen liquid cooling mods for computers before. But this takes cooling mods to an Ultra Cool new level. The link lists out steps for you build it yourself and the performance results too. Go on, placate your monster computer's heating needs. The basic components will cost you around 150USD(approx) though.

Happy! Modding.

What's Hot today? Google Hot Trends.

Some of you might be aware of Google Zeitgeist and Google Trends. Zeitgeist lists popular searches and Trends compares the popularity of searche terms. Google has announced something new: Hot Trends. These guys at Google, seems to me, never stop at finding new ways to look at data.

Here's more on "Hot Trends" from the Official Google Blog: ...It's a new feature of Google Trends for sharing the the hottest current searches with you in very close to real time. What's on our collective mind as we search for information? What's interesting to people right now? Hot Trends will tell you. At a glance, you'll see the huge variety of topics capturing our attention, from current events to daily crossword puzzle clues to the latest celebrity gossip. Hot Trends is updated throughout the day,....

This is what the Zeigeist home page says about "Hot Trends"....On May 22, 2007, the original Google Zeitgeist for Google.com was replaced by Hot Trends, a dynamic feature in Google Trends. Visit Hot Trends for regular updates throughout the day into what people are searching for on Google.....

Keep up with the trends.

Via Official Google Blog

Sun prepared to defend Red Hat and Ubuntu against Microsoft patent threats

I've always admired and respected SUN as a company. Now, i love them for what they are standing up to.In Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz's blog this week, he calls on traditional software companies like Microsoft to embrace the "free press" of open source instead of trying to censor it through legal tactics. Sun has an extensive patent portfolio of its own, Schwartz says, and "we'd use it to defend Red Hat and Ubuntu, both)....More on this here: http://blogs.zdnet.com/Burnette/?p=313



read more | digg story

What jargon reveals about you.

Think using jargon is cool? Think again.
Penelope Trunk dissects what jargon reveals about us. Read it, it's both informative and funny. This is actually an excerpt from her book Brazen Careerist: The New Rules for Success.

She runs a column on Yahoo! Finance. I like the way she writes. She writes a blog. Here's the feed if you want to subscribe to her blog

The MS patent fiasco

I came across these two articles about the recent patent infringement claims by Microsoft against Linux, one interesting and one insightful (Via Linux&OpenSrc Blog) and both brilliant.
I'll say no more. Just head to the articles.

Upcoming features in Gmail.

Down with Yahoo! Web Messenger? Well, there some news on the Gmail front too.
Here's a set of new features that will be appearing on Gmail soon.

• Skip spam classifier as an action for a filter.
• Information about your login: "This account is open in N other locations", "Last account activity".
• Attach inline images.
• View attached images as a slideshow.
• Multi-user conversations in Gmail Chat.
• Integration with AIM in Gmail Chat.

Cool, Ain't it?

Via Google Operating System.

Yahoo Web Messenger.

Finally its here. Yahoo announced the release of their Web based messenger akin to Gmail Talk.
For those who can't wait, here's the url. If you couldn't click it here it is in plain text: "http://webmessenger.yahoo.com/".

The web messenger has a slick UI. And like Google it will allow you to save your Chats. And i noticed that it's built in flash, which isn't as light on the browser as Gmail chat. But still, the page loads up pretty fast. And simultaneous chats are organised into a tabbed frame which saves on the web page real estate. Shame though, you'll have to open a separate page to use the web messenger unlike Gmail, which allows you chat right from your browser window(with an option of popping the chat window out).

Well, the whole web messenger thing is pretty darn decent. It's just that I'm Google fan and can't help being biased. Just now i opened the web messenger and had a friend online who wanted to call me. I had to switch to the Yahoo messenger client to accept the call and i was logged out of the web messenger. Imagine how cool it would be, to talk without switching to the desktop client. I dunno if it's technically possible but hey, you never know these folks at Yahoo might actually make it possible.

Here's a link to the Life Hacker post about Yahoo Web messenger.

IT Skills You'll Need in 2010

Marker blog has this post that observes the shifting trend in head hunting. According to consensus and research, by 2010 skill set of an IT professional needs to include things ranging from artistic talents, math excellence to expertise in Information integration, systems integration and customer service.

Some excerpts from the post:

...“the most effective workforce will be outward-focused, business-driven competency centers,”...

Project management and application development skills — “whether for service providers, software developers or IT organizations — are characteristics that will be absolute” in 2010, Morello adds.
Also, projects will be multisourced. “You’ll be working with people from different types of channels,” Morello says. “That will raise opportunities in relationships and sourcing management” and require IT workers to think about process design and management.

By 2010, six out of 10 people affiliated with IT will assume business-facing roles, according to Gartner. What’s more, IT organizations in midsize and large companies will be at least 30% smaller than they were in 2005. Gartner also predicts that by 2010, 10% to 15% of IT professionals will leave their IT occupations as a result of the automation of tasks or because of a lack of interest in the sector.

..."the hot jobs in 2010 will be these enabler jobs: business enterprise architects, business technologists, systems analysts and project managers,”

...“There is much more emphasis on the business domain and on project management skills than on the technical skills,”... “It’s not that you don’t need technical skills, but there’s much more of a need for the business skills, the more rounded skills,”

According to respondents to the Gartner survey, the skills that will have the steepest decline in 2010 will be in technology infrastructure and service jobs — such as programming and operations work. Those roles will go overseas or more likely be automated.

...IT security is one of the top 10 skills that will become “newly important” to companies in the next five years,...
Companies employ 1.4 million IT security professionals worldwide, according to a January study by IDC on security workforce trends. By 2010, that number will reach 2 million, an increase of almost 30%, the researcher said. U.S. companies will also increase spending on information security training by 16.4% annually through 2009. Meanwhile, skills associated with data continuity and recovery will be relegated to third-party providers.

...While many enterprises have shown that they can successfully integrate systems, “they’re lousy at integrating cultures,”...


The article observes the skill sets that will need to change under various technology and domain heads like Technology Infrastructure and Services, Security, Storage, Application Development, Internet and Business Intelligence. It makes an interesting read. It's valuable for those of us who wants to carve a niche in the changing global scenario.

My take on this whole thing is: Whatever the article predicts or guesses might not(or partly) hold true for the Indian software industry. Since our market revolves around back-end operations, consulting and services, the impact of this changing trend will be minimal. Indian IT workforce will still be needed when these MNC's are set to look for "Versatilists". We will be the "Third Party Providers" the author talks about. We will be doing their programming(coding! rather) and back-end operations work.

Good Luck.

10 Reasons Why Geeks Make Better Lovers.

Here's something for the geeks to be proud of. I found this post on the SexDrive column on WIRED. And, it's different from the routine stuff that geeks are famous for. It was kinda fun reading the article. And hey, some of the links on the post are Not Safe For Work. This is the author's blog site.

Dissecting Silverlight

Silverlight 1.0 is the "camel's nose in the tent". In Silverlight 1.1, the camel has his whole head in the tent and is rummaging around in your backpack for food. In this article I take the wraps off the install packages to see what's inside.



read more | digg story

One man writes Linux drivers for 352 USB web-cams

I love Open Source. Imagine, all these 352(+) webcams would have been rendered virtually useless if Linux was closed source and didn't bother to suport them. It's the community that's benefiting. One man writes the drivers and millions benefit out of this.



read more | digg story

Ubuntu is going to be officially supported on Dell computers.

From the post:....From your humble servant at Canonical:"It’s now official. That’s it, the embargo is over. We can talk. Many people have been involved in this and I can only say I am excited to be a tiny small part of it: Ubuntu will be officially supported on Dell computers. Any other details will come on www.ubuntu.com, check it for the official press release!"



read more | digg story

17 Must have freeware for Ubuntu Newbies

Hey! there.

Check this post on Free Geekery for a useful set free ware apps for your Ubuntu system. The post provides links to all the applications.

At the least you should try installing Automatix2, Beagle, KMyMoney and of course VLC.

Good luck.

Humour ! Debain WrEtch: review of an UnAmerican Linux system

Linux.com | Debain WrEtch: review of an UnAmerican Linux system: Simply funny. A must read.

From the post:

PARODY: Debain is the only group of software developers who still believe that Richard Stallman invented programming. Everyone else now correctly credits Bill Gates for doing so. Debain developers hold themselves separate from the rest of the Linux community because of their pride in not stealing from other operating systems to build their version of Linux. All other versions of Linux are based directly on Windows.

This pride has been codified as the Debain Free Software Guidelines, or as it's commonly known, the GPL. Debain pays some of its developers in a successful effort to piss off the rest of its developers. Debain was originally created and maintained by Ian Murdoch and his wife, who are secretly paid by Software in the Public Interest, a conservative think-tank based in Branson, Missouri, which is owned by the British billionaire Richard "I simply rock harder" Branson.

You can generally recognize a Debain user if you see one, as they customarily wear bright colors, have waist-length beards, and tend to sport pastel eyepatches and/or crack pipes. Debain developers look similar, but they usually carry some sort of small monkey, parrot, or miniature fat pony on their shoulders. It's also easy to recognize Debain developers because none of them are Americans. All true Americans run Genuine Windows Vista, and have no need for Debain.

It is rumored that as many as 110% of terrorists are Debain developers, and that the WrEtch release, occurring as it does so closely to the Vista launch, is a sign that the terrorists wish to leave their mark on Microsoft's profits in particular, and on the US economy in general. Given all of this, it's no surprise that Debain's logo is red and that Debain itself is an ancient African word meaning Down with America.

>>>Full post

Anxious Thoughts: Anxiety, Depression, Technology, and Me

Anxious Thoughts: Anxiety, Depression, Technology, and Me: This is something for us IT professionals to relate to and reflect upon. Personally, I've never been in such a bad place and god forbid, should this happen to me. All you people out there take a good look at your lives and make mends before it is too late.

Do drop a comment at this persons blog.

Thanks.

Seven Reasons Microsoft Loves Open Source — TalkBMC

Seven Reasons Microsoft Loves Open Source — TalkBMC.
Interesting. And i thought Microsoft and open source had no love lost between them.
From the post:...
They aren’t threatened by open source.

Open source is not the threat; Linux is. Don’t confuse the two. Open source is growing rapidly, but Linux has several distinguishing features that make it the real challenger. It’s more mature than other projects, it has a larger, more organized developer base, and it’s well financed. IBM has spent hundreds of millions of dollars developing, distributing, and advertising Linux, not open source. Microsoft doesn’t fear open source; it fears what the competition can do with it.

A Brief Look at C++0x

One of my colleagues referred me to this url. This is a sneak peek at the next C++ standard dubbed as C++0x. The article is a bit outdated though. Still, i thought it might interest some of us. Now, i have a doubt if this could be the Next Big Language stevey was hinting at. (Be warned, stevey's blogs usually run into some couple of hundred pages ;) ) Technically C++0x can't be a new language. It's just a new standard. If i could venture a metaphor, it's going to be "Old wine in a new bottle with a bit of Fizz and Sparkle". And i don't mean to demean or criticise C++, because C++ is earning my daily bread.

I hope it turns out be as exciting as i thought it could get.

Linux and Windows Kernel comparison

Hello! folks.

Been a long time since i made post. Here's something interesting i came across. A comparison of Linux and Windows Vista kernels. I'm not much knowledgeable about either of the kernels. But, it was an interesting read. All I'm gonna say now is: "Linux rocks".

» 768 cores ought to be enough for anybody | Ed Burnette’s Dev Connection | ZDNet.com

Forget dual core and quad core. Here's some whopping » 768 cores coming your way. And i am hoping Ed won't be ridiculed by our grand grand grand children (remember? 640K ought to be enough for anyone).

Sex and Linux

I found this funny post about relation between and sex and linux on Ravi's blog. Now, that's a new high for geeks and linux freaks.

Fruits of Hardwork

Doesn't it feel great when people around the world are using something that you've toiled on? Check out this post and this post
about Windows Vista ship gifts for employees who worked on the development of Vista.

Movie: Blood Diamond

Today, i went to watch Blood Diamond. I'm not a movie buff or something but i was moved so much by the movie, posting about it is the first thing i'm doing after i got out of the cinema.

I'm not going to talk about the movie or the acting abilities of the cast. I'm going to write about what the movie has opened my eyes to. There is so much pain and suffering in the world and all an ordinary person like me can think during a day is to earn a good living, do some savings and retire early. It was proved to me time and again that movies are a great medium to provoke thought and shake audiences' conscience. I know what you're thinking, people get excited like this every once in a while and it is short lived. You are probably right. I could even forget that i made blog post about a movie that made me want to travel the world and do my part to alleviate someone's trauma. But i can say this one thing, someday, not today not tomorrow, someday i will sure do something more than sit at my desk all day and write programs for someone overseas.

Now, about the movie itself, i know i know...i said i wouldn't talk about the movie. It reminded me of the time when i watched Tears of the Sun. That was a good watch too. Blood Diamond is a must watch and don't miss an opportunity to watch it.

And yes, I am definitely visiting Africa. God knows when.

Happy Surfing.

May the stars watch over you.

10 good *nix usage habits and Linux Kernel in a Nutshell

I came across this nice article just a little while ago. If you work on *nix systems now and then you'll find it useful. Do check out the resources section.

And hey, if you're interesetd in Linux Kernel customisations or such, or just want to know want to try it for fun, you could start here. This book is an O'REILLY publication and is available for download too. Visit the page for a chapter wise break up of the download file. And ofcourse, you can buy it too.

My first post

If you're reading this you either know me and wanted to check what i blog about or you just Stumbled across my blog.

Well, this is the first post of my blog. I've been meaning to start blogging for a long time and here it is, finally.
Here's a little introduction of myself.

Who am i? I call myself SilverStag (yes, the name is after Harry's patronus in the Harry Potter series) .
What will i be blogging about? Oh! this and that. Anything and everything that i happen to like.
What do i do? I work for a software consulting firm. But, i'm not into consulting. I work for my company's products division.

More posts coming up, so stay tuned.

May the force be with you.