Monday, May 28, 2007

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.

Friday, May 25, 2007

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.

Thursday, May 24, 2007

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.

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

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



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Tuesday, May 22, 2007

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.

Friday, May 04, 2007

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.

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

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.



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Tuesday, May 01, 2007

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.



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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!"



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