Stumbles of a Stag

Report: Android Market Nearing 6 Billion Downloads; Weather Apps Are Makin’ It Rain

2011-09-13T16:03:00.001+05:30

via feedproxy.google.com

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Particle Self-Interaction.

2011-08-30T16:25:00.001+05:30

http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2353

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Google Art Project offers gigapixel images of art classics, 'indoor' Street View of museums

2011-02-01T19:44:00.001+05:30

You gotta check this out. http://www.googleartproject.com/

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Surveillance Backdoor Enabled Chinese Gmail Attack?

2010-01-25T08:20:00.001+05:30

Surveillance Backdoor Enabled Chinese Gmail Attack?

via Slashdot by Soulskill on 1/24/10

Major Blud writes "CNN is running an opinion piece on their front page from security technologist Bruce Schneier, in which he suggest that 'In order to comply with government search warrants on user data, Google created a backdoor access system into Gmail accounts. This feature is what the Chinese hackers exploited to gain access.' His article is short on sources, and the common belief is that a flaw in IE was the main attack method. Has this come up elsewhere? Schneier continues, 'Whether the eavesdroppers are the good guys or the bad guys, these systems put us all at greater risk. Communications systems that have no inherent eavesdropping capabilities are more secure than systems with those capabilities built in. And it's bad civic hygiene to build technologies that could someday be used to facilitate a police state.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Apple launching 22-inch touchscreen iMac this year?

2010-01-18T21:46:00.001+05:30

Apple launching 22-inch touchscreen iMac this year?

via Engadget by Tim Stevens on 1/18/10

Sure, those new Core i7, 27-inch iMacs are lovely things (when they're working), but there's something missing: the sense of touch. That's coming soon, according to a report published in the Chinese Commercial Times. The new 22-inch model is said to slot in between current 21.5- and 27-inch iMacs, will use a capacitive touchscreen provided by Sintek Photronic, and unsurprisingly will be built by Quanta. Beyond that, and a supposed release before the end of the year, we know nothing -- but maybe we'll learn more at a certain press event next week?

Apple launching 22-inch touchscreen iMac this year? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 18 Jan 2010 06:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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20 Things That Happen in 1 Minute

2009-12-26T15:46:00.001+05:30

20 Things That Happen in 1 Minute

via The Best Article Every day by bspcn on 12/25/09

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Cool trivia: Mistletoe

2009-12-18T20:42:00.001+05:30

Mistletoe

via Daily Writing Tips by Maeve Maddox on 12/17/09

Before mistletoe became an excuse to kiss people at Christmas parties, it was an important symbol in ancient Celtic religion.

Pliny the Elder describes a ceremony in which Druids climbed an oak tree to harvest mistletoe with a golden sickle. Wrote Pliny:

They believe that mistletoe given in drink will impart fertility to any animal that is barren and that it is an antidote to all poisons.

Mistletoe figures in the story of the Norse god Baldur. (Also spelled Balder and Baldr.)

Baldur was the most beloved of the Norse gods. All the gods loved him except Loki the mean-spirited troublemaker.

Baldur’s mother Freya dreamed that he died and was taken by Hel. Norsemen who died in battle were taken by the Valkyries to Valhalla. Everyone else went to Hel’s kingdom. When Freya woke she went to Hel and begged her not to take her son. Hel said that if she could persuade everything in the world not to harm Baldur, he could go on living. Freya extracted an oath from rocks, elves, giants, plants, and everything else. Every thing and every creature swore not to harm Baldur. Unfortunately, Freya neglected to speak to the mistletoe. It was so small and insignificant that she didn’t see how it could be a threat to anyone.

When it became evident that nothing would kill Baldur, the other gods made a game of throwing weapons at him. Loki found out about the unsworn mistletoe. He went to the plant and took a cutting back to Asgard. He fastened it to an arrow and gave it to Baldur’s blind brother Hoder. Loki guided Hoder’s hand and the mistletoe on the arrow pierced Baldur’s heart, killing him.

There’s more to Baldur’s story, but this is the part about the mistletoe.

If you’re in the mood for more seasonal lore, you may enjoy these DWT posts from previous years.
Dec 2008 Deck the Halls
Dec 2008 December 26
Dec 2007 Festive Words
Dec 2007 The Meaning of Christmas

Your eBook: Click here to download the Basic English Grammar ebook.

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Mozilla Exec Urges Switch From Google To Bing

2009-12-11T20:56:00.001+05:30

Mozilla Exec Urges Switch From Google To Bing

via Slashdot by timothy on 12/11/09

Andorin writes "Asa Dotzler, Mozilla's director of community development, has published a brief blog post in which he recommends that Firefox users move from using Google as their main search engine to Bing, citing privacy issues. Disregarding the existence of alternative search engines such as Ask and Yahoo, Dotzler asserts that Bing's privacy policy is better than Google's. Dotzler explains the recommendation with a quote from Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google: 'If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place. If you really need that kind of privacy, the reality is that search engines — including Google — do retain this information for some time...' Ars Technica also covers the story."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Learn Italian in Thirty Minutes

2009-12-08T18:58:00.001+05:30

Learn Italian in Thirty Minutes

via Nat Friedman by Nat Friedman on 12/5/09

For our wedding in Florence this summer, we created an Italian language learning CD for all of our guests.

Our CD is only 30 minutes. That’s all it takes to achieve fluency, right? The CD teaches you the basics of Italian, and gives an overview of Italian coffee, culture, driving regulations, and history since 1920.

And we threw in a few key phrases for attending weddings.

Anyway, it seemed a shame that our guests were the only ones to benefit from this highly concentrated language education resource, so you can listen to the CD here:

(Thanks to Flavio Castelli for his help with a few parts of the script.)

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Good news: Sony Reader Store to support the open EPUB format

2009-12-08T15:54:00.001+05:30

Sony Reader Store goes 100% EPUB on Friday

via Engadget by Thomas Ricker on 12/7/09

Listen up Sony Reader owners: you've got three days to change your ways. On December 11th, the eBook Store from Sony will be renamed the Reader Store with a new URL to prove it. In addition to a new store layout, the change also extends the open EPUB format to Sony's entire inventory of eBooks. In fact, any new electronic books will only be available in EPUB which helps explain the motivation for Sony's PRS-500 trade-in program. As such, we can say goodbye to Sony's proprietary BBeB ("BroadBand eBook") format which goes the way of ATRAC (outside of Japan, anyway). Sony's also making its Reader Library 3.1 software for Mac and PC available on the same day with support for the imminent Reader Daily Edition launch and compatibility with Windows 7 and OS X Snow Leopard -- how timely.

Sony Reader Store goes 100% EPUB on Friday originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 Dec 2009 01:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HipLogic sounds to me like "snaptu". Or am I wrong?

2009-12-02T20:08:00.001+05:30

HipLogic Raises $7 Million To Bring Smartphone Intelligence to Mass Market Phones

via TechCrunch by Leena Rao on 12/2/09

Mobile application platform HipLogic has raised $7 million in Series B funding from Benchmark Capital, Stage 1 Ventures, Bay Partners, and Accrue Sports and Entertainment Ventures. HipLogic’s platform helps improve content discoverability and applications on both smartphone and non-smartphones.

Formerly known as Numobiq, the startup raised $4.5 million in Series A funding in 2008. Founded by three veterans from Sun Microsystems, it wants to bring sophisticated applications to the simplest cell phones by keeping all the complexity in the network. In essence, HipLogic is trying to bring the quick, easy interface of the iPhone, Android and BlackBerry to more simple, lightweight phones that are available for the mass market.

HipLogic makes existing phones ’smarter’ by allowing consumers to toggle on a more iPhone like interface complete with real-time content, social networking and apps. This is all done via a free downloadable mobile application that has yet to be launched. Behind the curtains, HipLogic’s application platform features a lightweight, JavaScript virtual machine connected to the cloud and aggregates info from network operators and the web to create mash-ups on mobile devices

HipLogic is currently being deployed through a partnership with The Carphone Warehouse, a European mobile retailer and hopes to partner with retailers and phone developers in the near future. The startup is remaining mum about the intricacies of its platform for now, but HipLogic could be on to something.

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Somali Pirate "Stock Exchange" - Should add this to my portfolio.

2009-12-02T15:25:00.001+05:30

Somali Pirates Open Up a "Stock Exchange"

via Slashdot by kdawson on 12/1/09

reginaldo writes to clue us that pirates in Somalia have opened up a cooperative in Haradheere, where investors can pay money or guns to help their favorite pirate crew for a share of the piracy profits. "'Four months ago, during the monsoon rains, we decided to set up this stock exchange. We started with 15 "maritime companies" and now we are hosting 72. Ten of them have so far been successful at hijacking,' Mohammed [a wealthy former pirate who took a Reuters reporter to the facility] said. ... Piracy investor Sahra Ibrahim, a 22-year-old divorcee, was lined up with others waiting for her cut of a ransom pay-out after one of the gangs freed a Spanish tuna fishing vessel. 'I am waiting for my share after I contributed a rocket-propelled grenade for the operation,' she said, adding that she got the weapon from her ex-husband in alimony. 'I am really happy and lucky. I have made $75,000 in only 38 days since I joined the "company."'"

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UNIX is 40 and still kicking and screaming.

2009-12-01T18:48:00.001+05:30

UNIX turns 40

via IBM developerWorks : AIX on 11/30/09

The systems world will shortly be celebrating a major anniversary milestone. UNIX is turning 40 years old! Most of us know the story of how UNIX was born, but what about why? Was it born strictly because its founders wanted to play a computer game on a different platform? And why does UNIX continue to thrive 15 years after an (in)famous Byte Magazine article that asked, "Is UNIX dead?" How has AIX (the only UNIX flavor that has increased its market share through the years) been a part of the evolution of UNIX and what are the current trends today in the UNIX arena? These are just some of the topics this article explores.

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HOW-TO: Virtualization - Fedora on Windows with Virtualbox

2009-11-30T22:54:00.001+05:30

This post is a step-by-step guide to installing Fedora on Windows as a Virtual OS using VirtualBox. The steps involved are the same if you want to install any other Linux based OS. I have tried this with Android(desktop build), Ubuntu, OpenSuSE and Fedora.

Before we step into this tech mumbo-jumbo; If you want to know what Virtualization is, check out my post here.

Ingredients

VirtualBox – Virtualization software. – Get it here.
A computer(desktop or laptop) running Windows.
Some free space on the Hard-Drive - 8 GB is what I set aside.
ISO file for the Fedora OS. – Get it here.

Recipe

I thought I would write out a step-by-step guide with pictures and all. But then I realized it would be cooler to post a screencast of the whole procedure. So, here it is:

If the embedded video is not clear enough, get the original here. If you didn't understand any particular thing shown on the video, please post your questions in the comments and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

And BTW, I used CamStudio to record the screencast. CamStudio is an uber-cool, Free Screen Recording Software.

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Neat tricks for fishing Pirate ships.

2009-11-30T16:03:00.001+05:30

Air Cannon Ties Pirates In Knots

via Slashdot by kdawson on 11/29/09

Hugh Pickens writes "Numerous high-tech devices have been proposed to help ships cope with piracy on the high seas. Now a company has developed a ship-borne launching device that fires a net or coiled rope into the path of pirate vessels using compressed air with a range of up to a range of 400m. The payload net or rope, which has a parachute attached to the end, will unravel and lay out across the surface of the water so that as the pirate boat travels through the water its propeller shaft will pick up the line and become entangled. 'With the trials and testing we've done, it has taken us some 45 minutes to cut and disentangle the line from the propeller itself,' says Jonathan Delf. 'Within that time of course, the target ship is on its way and hopefully help has arrived in the form of naval forces or helicopter support.' The system can be fired up to five times off just a cylinder of air like a simple scuba tank." The video mentions that the device can also fire a payload of golf balls. The systems have recently be sold to "several large shipping companies that travel near the oil-rich Nigerian Delta, which, like the Somalian coast, is rife with piracy."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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The Technology Behind Last.fm

2009-11-30T15:53:00.001+05:30

The Technology Behind Last.fm

via Slashdot by kdawson on 11/29/09

CNET's Crave has up a detailed interview with Last.fm's Matthew Ogle, the company's head of Web development. Reader CNETNate notes that Last.fm has streamed 275,000 years of audio around the world. From the interview: "We stream all music directly off our servers in London. We have a cluster of streaming nodes including a bunch of powerful machines with solid-state hard drives. We have a process that runs daily which finds the hottest music and pushes those tracks on to the SSDs streamers that sit in front of our regular platter-based streaming machines. That way, if someone is listening to one of our more popular stations, the chances are really good that these songs are coming off our high-speed SSD machines. They're fast because every song is sitting in memory instead of being on a slow, spinning platter." The interview is actually on two pages but pretends it's on three.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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As a counter terror intiative Indian Government is gonna get snoopy on citizens.

2009-11-27T13:37:00.001+05:30

India To Have Automatic Communications Monitoring

via Slashdot by timothy on 11/26/09

angry tapir writes "India plans to set up a centralized system to monitor communications on mobile phones, landlines and the Internet in the country, a minister has told the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of Parliament. Indian laws allow the interception and monitoring of communications under certain conditions, including to counter terrorism. A pilot of the new Centralized Monitoring System (CMS) is to be started by June next year, subject to clearances by other government agencies."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Scary: Facebook Photos Lead To Cancellation of Quebec Woman's Insurance

2009-11-23T02:29:00.001+05:30

Facebook Photos Lead To Cancellation of Quebec Woman's Insurance

via Slashdot by timothy on 11/22/09

No. 24601 writes "A Quebec woman on long-term sick leave, due to a diagnosis of depression, lost her health benefits after her insurance provider found photos of her on Facebook smiling and looking cheerful at parties and out on the beach. Besides all the obvious questions, how did the insurance company access her locked Facebook profile?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Google needs a tighter reign on the Android platform

2009-11-23T02:21:00.001+05:30

Disclaimer: I love Google as a company and I am excited about Android as a platform.

First off, I need to give props where they are due. I'm drawing heavily from a post I saw on my twitter stream and from my own experience working on a product that went through much of what is happening to Android . The title of this post may seem to be an oxymoron. How can Google exercise greater control on a Open Source platform? Well, they can if they wanted to and it won't need to go against they unofficial motto of "Don't be Evil".

In a short span of time, Android managed to get on a myriad devices and is serving various consumer markets. That is no mean feat. And it has been possible only because it was an Open Source platform. As much as I love Google for Open Sourcing such a beautiful OS, the current situation is not sitting well with me. But then again, I’m not an expert and Google might know better than me what they are getting into.

Here's the current Android scene as I see it. There are a bunch of devices on the market running Android and they are not essentially running the same OS. It might be the same at the core but not throughout. You want examples? How about Motorola Droid, Sony Ericsson's XPERIA X10, Barnes and Nobles' Nook, Archos 5 PMP, T-Mobile G1 and HTC Hero. Can you say they all run the same OS? I can't. They run their own version of an Open Source OS. And Google is not helping the current situation by being preferential. Yes, I'm talking about Google working closely with Motorola for Android 2.0. I understood why they did that with G1, they were just starting off an they need to market a product soon.

You might ask what’s particularly wrong with all this so, here are some questions: Can you pick an app from the Android market and have it run the same on all the devices that run Android? Can a developer make an easy choice as to which Android version he should build apps for? Can a consumer switching devices expect to find all the apps he had on his previous device? I didn’t think so. The problem is, each device manufacturer gets to make his own mind about what will run on his product and Google doesn’t have any say in it. It will be tough for Google to dictate manufacturers as to what they should run. Tough to dictate, not to influence. There’s a fine line. Developers and consumers are the key and not Google or any other company. For a platform to thrive, Developers and consumers need to be happy. That’s a tough mix though and that’s what Apple and Google are not able achieve. Developers are not happy on Apple’s platform and consumers won’t be happy on the Android platform (they are not yet unhappy).

Now that we know the problem space we can discuss a solution. In my opinion Google should work with all vendors on getting Android on their devices and should actively push updates to respective devices or at least get the vendors to do it. That’s easier said than done. The only other way out is for Google to turn into Apple and I don’t see that happening for many reasons, even if Google wanted to.

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Anti-Smoking Vaccine Is Nearing the Market

2009-11-22T00:58:00.001+05:30

Anti-Smoking Vaccine Is Nearing the Market

via Slashdot by kdawson on 11/20/09

eldavojohn writes "Almost 6 years ago we discussed a vaccine to help people quit smoking as it entered human clinical trials. Now it looks like the finishing touches have been put on a deal that will go into effect once phase III testing of the drug now called NicVAX is completed. NicVAX was developed by Nabi Biopharmaceuticals, who have agreed to license it to GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals; it is expected to complete phase III testing successfully. Others have fallen short of this goal, in pursuit of a smoking-cessation market expected to hit $4.6 billion worldwide by 2016. Nabi has also sold an experimental vaccine for staph infections; and in 2008 we discussed news of a cocaine vaccine."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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The Short but Powerful Guide to Finding Your Passion

2009-11-12T12:40:00.001+05:30

For those of you out there who, like me, want to know what to do with their life.

The Short but Powerful Guide to Finding Your Passion

via Zen Habits by Leo on 11/11/09

“The supreme accomplishment is to blur the line between work and play.” - Arnold Toynbee

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter.

Following your passion can be a tough thing. But figuring out what that passion is can be even more elusive.

I’m lucky — I’ve found my passion, and I’m living it. I can testify that it’s the most wonderful thing, to be able to make a living doing what you love.

And so, in this little guide, I’d like to help you get started figuring out what you’d love doing. This turns out to be one of the most common problems of many Zen Habits readers — including many who recently responded to me on Twitter.

This will be the thing that will get you motivated to get out of bed in the morning, to cry out, “I’m alive! I’m feeling this, baby!”. And to scare your family members or anyone who happens to be in yelling distance as you do this.

This guide won’t be comprehensive, and it won’t find your passion for you. But it will help you in your journey to find it.

Here’s how.

1. What are you good at? Unless you’re just starting out in life, you have some skills or talent, shown some kind of aptitude. Even if you are just starting out, you might have shown some talent when you were young, even as young as elementary school. Have you always been a good writer, speaker, drawer, organizer, builder, teacher, friend? Have you been good at ideas, connecting people, gardening, selling? Give this some thought. Take at least 30 minutes, going over this question — often we forget about things we’ve done well. Think back, as far as you can, to jobs, projects, hobbies. This could be your passion. Or you may have several things. Start a list of potential candidates.

2. What excites you? It may be something at work — a little part of your job that gets you excited. It could be something you do outside of work — a hobby, a side job, something you do as a volunteer or a parent or a spouse or a friend. It could be something you haven’t done in awhile. Again, think about this for 30 minutes, or 15 at the least. If you don’t, you’re probably shortchanging yourself. Add any answers to your list.

3. What do you read about? What have you spent hours reading about online? What magazines do you look forward to reading? What blogs do you follow? What section of the bookstore do you usually peruse? There may be many topics here — add them to the list.

4. What have you secretly dreamed of? You might have some ridiculous dream job you’ve always wanted to do — to be a novelist, an artist, a designer, an architect, a doctor, an entrepreneur, a programmer. But some fear, some self-doubt, has held you back, has led you to dismiss this idea. Maybe there are several. Add them to the list — no matter how unrealistic.

5. Learn, ask, take notes. OK, you have a list. Pick one thing from the list that excites you most. This is your first candidate. Now read up on it, talk to people who’ve been successful in the field (through their blogs, if they have them, or email). Make a list of notes of things you need to learn, need to improve on, skills you want to master, people to talk to. Study up on it, but don’t make yourself wait too long before diving into the next step.

6. Experiment, try. Here’s where the learning really takes place. If you haven’t been already, start to do the thing you’ve chosen. Maybe you already are, in which case you might be able to skip to the next step or choose a second candidate to try out. But if you haven’t been, start now — just do it. It can be in the privacy of your own home, but as quickly as possible, make it public however you can. This motivates you to improve, it gets you feedback, and your reputation will improve as you do. Pay attention to how you feel doing it — is it something you look forward to, that gets you excited, that you love to share?

7. Narrow things down. I recommend that you pick 3-5 things from your list, if it’s longer than that, and do steps 5 & 6 with them. This could take month, or perhaps you’ve already learned about and tried them all out. So now here’s what you need to ask yourself: which gets you the most excited? Which of these can produce something that people will pay for or get excited about? Which can you see yourself doing for years (even if it’s not a traditional career path)? Pick one, or two at the most, and focus on that. You’re going to do the next three steps with it: banish your fears, find the time, and make it into a career if possible. If it doesn’t work out, you can try the next thing on your list — there’s no shame in giving something a shot and failing, because it’ll teach you valuable lessons that will help you to be successful in the next attempt.

8. Banish your fears. This is the biggest obstacle for most people – self-doubt and fear of failure. You’re going to face it and banish it. First, acknowledge it rather than ignoring or denying it. Second, write it down, to externalize it. Third, feel it, and be OK with having it. Fourth, ask yourself, “What’s the worst that can happen?” Usually it’s not catastrophic. Fifth, prepare yourself for doing it anyway, and then do it. Take small steps, as tiny as possible, and forget about what might happen — focus on what actually is happening, right now. And then celebrate your success, no matter how small.

9. Find the time. Don’t have the time to pursue this passion? Make the time, dammit! If this is a priority, you’ll make the time — rearrange your life until you have the time. This might mean waking earlier, or doing it after work or during lunch, or on weekends. It will probably mean canceling some commitments, simplifying your work routing or doing a lot of work in advance (like you’re going on a vacation). Do what it takes.

10. How to make a living doing it. This doesn’t happen overnight. You need to do something, get good at it, be passionate about it. This could take months or years, but if you’re having fun, that’s what’s most important. When you get to the point where someone would pay you for it, then you’re golden — there are many ways to make a living at that point, including doing freelance or consulting work, making information products such as ebooks, writing a blog and selling advertising. In fact, I recommend you do a blog if you’re not already — it’ll help solidify your thinking, build a reputation, find people who are interested in what you do, demonstrate your knowledge and passion.

I told you this wouldn’t be easy. It’ll require a lot of reflection and soul-searching, at first, then a lot of courage and learning and experimentation, and finally a lot of commitment.

But it’s all worth it — every second, every ounce of courage and effort. Because in the end, you’ll have something that will transform your life in so many ways, will give you that reason to jump out of bed, will make you happy no matter how much you make.

I hope you follow this guide and find success, because I wish on you nothing less than finding your true passion.

“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” - Confucius

If you liked this guide, please bookmark it on Delicious or http://is.gd/4SSLg%20via%20@zen_habits">share on Twitter. Comments? @zen_habits me.

—
On mnmlist: Learn to love less

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Google Offers 20GB ($5/Year) to 16TB ($4096/year) of storage on its Cloud.

2009-11-11T19:10:00.001+05:30

Google Offers A 16 Terabyte Cloud Drive For $4,096 A Year

via TechCrunch by MG Siegler on 11/11/09

Well, it’s not the mythical Google Drive, but it’s close. For a price. And assuming you only want to store pictures and emails.

Google tonight announced that it was drastically slashing prices while at the same time offering more storage pricing options for users of its services. Specifically, while Gmail users currently get about 7 gigabytes for free and Picasa users get about 1 gigabyte for free, both can now upgrade to 20 GB for just $5 a year. Previously, it cost $20 to get just 10 GB of additional service.

But what’s really pretty incredible is that Google has an option for you to buy up to 16 terabytes, yes, terabytes, of storage from them. As Google notes, that enough to store 8 million very high resolution photos. Considering that most consumers probably still have south of 500 gigabytes of storage in their home, that’s pretty massive.

Of course, you’ll pay for it: 16 TB will set you back $4,096 a year. But if you do something that requires you to store 16 TB of photos, you can probably afford that. And there are varying storage levels at different price points leading up to that. 8 TB is $2,048 a year, 4 TB is $1,024, and so forth.

These all represent significant price decreases from Google’s previous offerings, but it still would be cheaper to buy your own external drives. So why not do that? Well, Google offers the same levels of backup security that it ensures on all of its data currently. Plus, you won’t have to have dozens of drives sitting around. And since the data is all in the cloud, you’d be able to access it from anywhere, which Google highlights in its post.

But there’s something key to remember: Google is only officially offering this storage for use with Gmail and Picasa. It’s not a complete online backup/storage system, which is what Google Drive (or Gdrive) has long been rumored to be. Of course, there are programs and workarounds that will more or less let you use it for that purpose, but Google is not yet sanctioning the use of its storage as your official cloud drive.

Under Google’s system, 1 TB of storage will cost $256 a year and 400 GB is $100 a year. I don’t know about you, but if Apple offered something similar that would let me backup all my iTunes music and movies and allowed me to access them form anywhere, I would do it.

[photo: flickr/vsz]

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In Test, Windows 7 Vulnerable To 8 Out of 10 Viruses

2009-11-05T09:24:00.001+05:30

Why am I not surprised? Still, Windows 7 is the coolest OS I have used ever. I haven't tried a MAC ever so can't really vouch for Win7 here.

In Test, Windows 7 Vulnerable To 8 Out of 10 Viruses

via Slashdot by kdawson on 11/3/09

As Windows 7's market share passes 3.6%, up from 1.9% the day before launch, llManDrakell notes an experiment they did over at Sophos. They installed Windows 7 on a clean machine — with no anti-virus protection — with User Access Control in its default configuration. They threw at it the next 10 virus/worm samples that came in the door. Seven of them ran; UAC stopped only one baddie that had run in the absense of UAC. "Lesson learned? You still need to run anti-virus on Windows 7."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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My take on the Google Chrome OS

2009-07-09T22:12:00.001+05:30

Google Chrome OS is going to be another great piece of software from Google. It’s only natural for them to step into the OS arena, they have a lot of experience there: Google put a lot of code on the Linux kernel tree; they built their own file system on top Linux; they have built the fastest browser I have yet used(Which, in all fairness is a little OS). They are even involved with DirectFB. There’s one more thing, they do it just because they can. They can afford to take big steps to innovate, to revolutionize computing in general because they can monetize it all in the end. And that isn’t such a bad thing(will tell you why, later on).

What really bothers me is that, lot of people think Google is after Microsoft’s coffers. I beg to differ. Who says only one company should rule the OS market? Who says, a lightweight, web centric and a barebones OS is something Microsoft should lose sleep over? (Unless they want to)

Let me paint the background a little. Google took up initiatives in Africa and India to raise awareness about the advantages of Broadband Internet. Now, why should Google do that? Think. More people with access to the web means, more people hitting Google. That in turn means more people to target ads towards. This finally culminates in Ad revenues. Yes, it’s that simple. Why else would Google expose their indexes to people with Mobile phones? (One can do local searches via SMS.). I’m not saying they are just after money. Everyone’s in the business for money. But Google is doing good things for the community while they are at it.

Now, back towards to the point I was trying to make. When you are trying to make a purchase, what is it you first try to do? You find out what your options are. You look at a few products; you pick one that best fits your need. That’s what Google Chrome OS is about, choice. We have Windows, Mac OS X, Linux (a lot them actually) and Chrome OS to pick from. Some people might need more than one. Variety, as they say, is the spice of life. Today’s consumers are smart and rather regard variety as a necessity. Choice is a good thing. Good for the consumers; Good for the products; And good for the vendors involved. Competition in the market will ultimately benefit consumers.

The whole point is: Chrome OS is not a bad thing for Microsoft. Sure it will take a chunk out of Microsoft’s OS market share. Windows 7 is a strong contender and, the consumer space is growing in size by the day. People are already buying more than one laptop/computer for different needs. Heck, some people have different computers in their kitchen, living room and bed rooms. Even though they are contenders for the same market share, Microsoft and Google have their own consumer spaces to cater to. That’s because, Chrome OS is going to be Open-Sourced. This is why I think MS need not fret too much. Ask me why? Well, do you see any of the corporate biggies going for an OpenSource system for their enterprise? I think not. MS and Google have their own crowd to please and exploit before they go daggers at each other.

Finally here’s why Google Chrome OS is going to tick:

Anything Google does, gets a lot of exposure. Thanks to the ever active blogosphere.
Chrome OS is built on Linux, Most Linux enthusiasts would definitely try it out.
Google is partnering with OEM to push the OS.
An OpenSource OS is an enticing option for anyone who doesn't want to pay the MS tax.
The growing market for netbooks.
The current interest in OS's that boot up under 10-15 seconds. (Chrome OS is definitely going to be one)

What do you think people?

Technorati Tags: Chrome OS,google,microsoft

Google unveils Wave @ Google I/O.

2009-05-29T09:19:00.004+05:30

There are a lot of things happening @ Google I/O. First day they talked about what a big leap HTML 5 is. Second day they unveiled Wave: A brand new way of communication for this era. I just read the Techcrunch post about this and I'm blown away. Just go read it.

e-books: Devices and Formats

2009-02-14T12:54:00.001+05:30

A lot of us love reading. And a little less of us are eco-conscious. How good would it be, to mix these both passions? Well, if the number of e-book readers that are flooding the market are anything go by, Pretty damn good! You gotta appreciate the USP of e-book readers here. They serve a key demographic of consumers, They are eco-friendly, They make pursuing your hobbies very simple and the business value ain’t so ugly either.

Currently, the market has a lot of e-book readers. Here are some I came across: Kindle, Sony Reader, eSlick, BeBook. Amazon has even released an update to Kindle with a controversial “Text to Speech” feature that allows your reader to read a particular book out loud. Pretty nifty if you ask me, leaving the copyright infringement aside. You can even read e-books on your iPhone/iPod Touch. Which is my favourite by far.

Now, the problem with the whole thing is interoperability. There are as many e-book formats as there are e-book readers. And most of the time you can’t migrate your book collection to a new device or have multiple devices at the same time. There is one format though, ePub, which is an open format and most devices support it.

An avid reader needs to make an informed decision when he chooses a particular device and then a compatible format. If you buy books in epub format you can rest assured that 10 years from now, you won’t have to worry about how you can read the Harry Potter series again in the new generation devices. You are not locked into any proprietary format that might go extinct sometime in the future.

If you are in the United States, Buying a Kindle makes more sense as there is a lot of content available apart from books. People elsewhere might consider Sony Reader or some such depending on the availability of the device and compatible content. I, for one, use my iPod Touch for reading these days. Further, all the books I buy are readable on my computer albeit, by installing additional software.

For further info head to these links:

Some websites that allow you to buy e-Books:

Technorati Tags: ebooks,sony reader,kindle

Google OpenSource Initiatives

2008-07-10T17:32:00.001+05:30

Technorati Tags: google,opensource

There has been slew of open source initiatives from Google lately. These are the one’s I came across.

Protocol Buffers, Google’s own message exchange format, released under Apache Licence.
Browser Sync: A Firefox extension that synchronizes your browser settings across computers, released under New BSD Licence.
Google C++ Testing Framework: Google’s framework for writing C++ tests on various platforms, under New BSD Licence.

Why is this so interesting to me? Well, this will give us an insight into the tools built by Google and their programming standards etc. Personally, I will try and learn as much as possible from these various tools.

There also one more cool thing I came across lately, Google C++ Style Guide. Do check it out. It is mighty useful if you, like me, work on C++.

My favourite Firefox add-ons

2008-06-22T10:21:00.004+05:30

Howdy! Folks.

I use Firefox for my daily browsing needs. Firefox 3.0 is the latest release of this browser. This new release of Firefox is supposedly really good. If you see the release notes on mozilla's website you would know how much work has gone into making this a better browser than Firefox 2.
One of reasons why I use Firefox is the ability to install add-ons to streamline its functionality according to our needs. So, here are some of my favourite Firefox add-ons..

AdBlock Plus:Great tool to block all those flashy banner ads.
Better Gmail2:A must have if you use gmail regularly
Video DownloadHelper:Lets you download videos from sites like YouTube.
DownThemAll:A handy download manager for firefox.
Google Notebook:A great note taking app integrated right into firefox. If you install it, do check out the "Clip" feature.
Google Toolbar:I just can't live without Google toolbar, don't ask me why.
Greasemonkey:Lets you customise the appearance and behaviour of webpages by using little javascript. There are a crazy lot of scripts available on the net even if you don't know javascript.
NoScript:You have got to install it, if you are paraniod about web security. NoScript lets you turn off javascript and flash on selective web pages.
PDF Download:Tired of waiting for that pdf document to load in your browser? Enter "PDF Download". Choose what you want to do with that pdf link. Pretty nifty.

All the above extensions are Firefox 3.0 compatible. Do check them out and you can always uninstall them if you don't find them useful.
If you are looking for more extensions, you could head Mozilla addons website. Someone sent me this compilation of Firefox add-ons for librarians. But it's not just for librarians so, do visit that URL if you want to find out about more add-ons. They may all not be compatible with Firefox 3 though.

Firefox keyboard shortcuts

2008-06-18T17:47:00.005+05:30

Now that Firefox 3.0 is out on the tubes, here's a short list of keyboard shortcuts I compiled. Some of these are pretty straightforward, some are redundant and some are just basic windows keyboard shortcuts, but I will list everything just for the sake of it.

ctrl+w - close a tab (close the window if there are no tabs open).
ctrl+e - place the cursor in the search bar.
ctrl+r - reload page.
ctrl+t - open a new tab.
ctrl+u - view source of the page.
ctrl+i - open bookmarks side bar.
ctrl+o - open file dialog.
ctrl+p - open print dialog.
ctrl+a - select all.
ctrl+s - save.
ctrl+d - bookmark a page(opens a mini bookmark dialog)
ctrl+shift+d - bookmark all open tabs.
ctrl+f - find.
ctrl+g - find again.
ctrl+h - open history sidebar(toggle).
ctrl+j - open downloads window.
ctrl+k - go to firefox search bar.
ctrl+l - go to address/location/awesome bar.
ctrl+z - undo.
ctrl+x - cut.
ctrl+c - copy.
ctrl+v - paste.
ctrl+b - open bookmarks side bar (toggle).
ctrl+shift+b - opens bookmark manager.
ctrl+n - open new window.
/ - quick find. (that should be handy)
ctrl+tab, ctrl+shift+tab - cycle through tabs forward and backward.
ctrl+enter - adds "www" as prefix and ".com" as suffix to anything you enter in the location bar and loads that page in the current tab.
ctrl+shift+enter - same as above but, suffixes ".org".
use "alt" along with the above two to load the page in a new tab rather than the current one.
ctrl+shift+delete - delete browsing history.

If you know any shortcuts I missed out, please write them in the comments.
And hey! If you have participated in the Firefox download day, here's how you could flaunt it. Just visit this page, key in your name and print the pdf document that loads up.

Running Windows and Linux simultaneously without virtualization

2008-04-16T11:37:00.002+05:30

Have you ever wanted to run Windows and Linux simultaneously but thought it's too much work to install and configure a Virtualization software? Well, here's good news for you. andLinux is a Ubuntu Linux system that runs under your Windows installation parallely. Head to this article for more info and this page for andLinux download.

And by the way, if you are looking to install Ubuntu on your windows machine without actually making any changes to your existing OS, try Wubi.

Code's Worst Enemy

2007-12-30T01:19:00.000+05:30

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

2007-12-30T00:37:00.000+05:30

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

2007-08-14T23:30:00.001+05:30

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!

2007-06-28T19:57:00.000+05:30

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

2007-06-20T19:42:00.000+05:30

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.

2007-06-13T12:45:00.000+05:30

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

2007-06-01T18:34:00.000+05:30

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

2007-05-28T22:10:00.000+05:30

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

2007-05-28T21:29:00.000+05:30

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.

2007-05-25T19:01:00.000+05:30

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.

2007-05-24T00:11:00.000+05:30

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

2007-05-23T19:17:00.000+05:30

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.

2007-05-23T18:46:00.000+05:30

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

2007-05-23T17:33:00.001+05:30

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.

2007-05-22T19:15:00.000+05:30

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

2007-05-22T18:50:00.000+05:30

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.

2007-05-04T21:06:00.000+05:30

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.

2007-05-04T20:23:00.000+05:30

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

2007-05-02T19:02:00.000+05:30

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.

2007-05-02T18:34:00.000+05:30

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

2007-05-02T12:26:00.001+05:30

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

2007-05-01T21:17:00.001+05:30

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.

2007-05-01T20:57:00.001+05:30

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

2007-04-30T22:04:00.000+05:30

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

2007-04-28T23:31:00.000+05:30

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

2007-04-28T19:30:00.000+05:30

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

2007-04-25T22:23:00.000+05:30

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

2007-04-25T17:57:00.000+05:30

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

2007-04-22T00:36:00.000+05:30

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

2007-02-17T19:16:00.000+05:30

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

2007-02-17T19:03:00.000+05:30

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

2007-02-10T11:58:00.000+05:30

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

2007-01-13T18:16:00.000+05:30

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

2007-01-12T17:21:00.000+05:30

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

2007-01-06T12:39:00.000+05:30

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.