Orangeman Burns - Sriram Sridharan's Blog

Kingston SSD review

2011-04-28T21:28:00.002+05:30

The folks at Kingston were very kind to send me two 30GB Kingston V Series SSDs. SSDs are like flash drives, only much much faster and expensive. I was positively salivating at the idea of running the SSDs in a RAID 0 configuration. The SSDs I received are 2.5” in size and come with a 3.5” conversion kit. To remind you non-techie types out there, a laptop usually takes 2.5” drives and desktops usually take 3.5” ones.

Testing:
I tested the SSDs in a variety of configurations.

1. On a netbook. With Ubuntu Netbook Remix and Windows 7.
2. In a RAID 0 configuration on a desktop.

I measured the startup time as the primary indication of the SSD’s performance. I define the startup time as the time from POST/BIOS logo until a usable browser screen pops up.

Netbook specs: Dell Mini 10V 1011, Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz and 2GB RAM

Ubuntu Netbook Remix[UNR] on a netbook:
I used EXT2 for the UNR since it was a non journalled FileSystem - minimizes number of writes compared to journalled FS’es like EXT4. I actually came across an article that explained making the EXT4 FS non-journalled but I decided that it made the whole exercise needlessly complex and my commandline-fu is less than adequate.

I measured the startup time as the time from POST/BIOS logo until a usable browser screen pops up.

Ubuntu takes a pretty decent 22.9s to startup to Firefox. It is not the sub 10s times you’d see on instant on OS’es like Slashtop or Latitude ON. The response was very snappy but since I do not have a similar experience on a HDD based UNR install, I cannot compare them objectively.

Windows 7 Ultimate x86 on a netbook:
The SSD was formatted as NTFS during install. I disabled unnecessary services like Windows Search and Desktop Window Manager Session Manager. I also adjusted the appearance for best performance. It took the Windows 7 install 35.911s to boot to a usable FireFox tab.

RAID 0 SSDs on desktop:
Let me give you the bad news first: The TRIM command cannot be passed on to RAID volumes. Even with a TRIM compatible OS like Windows 7 or on a Linux kernel of 2.6.28 or above. TRIM is a command that a compatible OS passes to a SSD to use blocks which are no longer use. If the TRIM command is not passed, the SSD will slow with use. There are tools like SSD Tweaker from Elpamsoft that help with the absence of TRIM but the performance will definitely degrade over time.

With all the above mentioned drawbacks, you’d wonder why a sane man would run SSDs in a RAID. RAID 0 stripes the data across multiple drives and increases the disk performance by two fold. SSDs already have a crazy fast read speed compared to conventional HDDs. With RAID 0, the performance boost is almost explosive.

I installed Windows 7 on a Dell Vostro 430 with a Intel Core i7 860 2.8GHz processor and 4GB DDR3 RAM. I enabled RAID 0 on the SSDs using the onboard hardware RAID controller.

Here is the performance data:
------------------------------
Sequential:
------------------------------
Read: 350.03 MB/s
Write: 103.57 MB/s
------------------------------
Access Times:
------------------------------
Read: 0.427 ms
Write: 0.755 ms

In contrast, the OEM HDD from the desktop clocked much slower:
------------------------------
Sequential:
------------------------------
Read: 108.37 MB/s
Write: 103.89 MB/s
------------------------------
Access Times:
------------------------------
Read: 20.473 ms
Write: 2.931 ms

As you can see, the RAID 0 SSD configuration excels at read speeds and at access times. The read times are almost 40 times faster than a conventional 7200rpm HDD. The write times are almost 4 times faster than a HDD.

The startup times are pretty good too with 11.31s for the SSD as opposed to 24.414s for the HDD. That right, it more than halved the boot time.

Windows experience index for PC with the SSDs in RAID 0
Windows experience index for PC with a HDD installed

Cost
Now, SSDs are expensive at almost Rs. 125 per gig. The Kingston 30GB V series SSD drives are priced at about Rs. 3500. This might be expensive compared to a conventional HDD but I believe that the SSDs are not for everyone. They probably suit gamers with their fast read speeds and access times.

Also an option is to use the SSD as a boot disk. 30GB is more than enough for the Windows 7 install [17GB for the Ultimate Edition]. You could then add a HDD to the PC and install non-essential programs and the page file[Frequent writes are not good for the SSD’s life] to it.

Conclusion
SSDs are pretty fast but are expensive compared to conventional HDDs. While this could slow down mainstream usage, performance seeking users like gamers or those who need extremely fast read times are already adopting SSDs as a standard.

Make Gmail the default mail program for Windows 7

2011-04-28T21:19:00.002+05:30

I wanted to make Gmail the default client for my Windows 7 machine but, as I found out to my dismay, it is not natively possible. My Google searches came up with some posts with non-working answers. Here's a method which will work with all browsers - IE, Chrome, Opera, Firefox and Safari. It will open the default browser with the Gmail url.

1. Right click on an empty space on your desktop

2. Select New|Shortcut

3. In the text box labelled "Type the Location of the item", enter https://gmail.com if you want the gmail main page to open up or https://mail.google.com/mail?extsrc=mailto if you want the new email compose page to open up and hit next

4. In the text box titled "Type a name for the shortcut", enter Gmail

5. There will be a shortcut named Gmail on your desktop. Copy it to a directory where the shortcut will not deleted. My suggestion would be to copy to C:\Windows\

Now comes the risky part. Editing the Registry. As usual, I will not be responsible for any damages that may occur

6. Hit Windows key + R together. In the dialog box that comes up, type regedit and hit enter

7. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\mailto\shell\open\command in the left tab and on the right tab, double click Default and enter the location of the shortcut encased in quotes[In this case "C:\Windows\Gmail.url"]

8. Close the registry editor

You're now all set.

3G in India

2011-01-06T08:50:00.004+05:30

Introduction

After what has been a long wait, it looks like 3G networks will go live en masse Q1 this year. I remember writing excitedly on my blog; sometime in February 2009, when then Communications and IT Minister A.M. Raja made the first 3G call, at BSNL’s Anna Salai Telephone Exchange. I believed that it was the beginning of a huge change. Well, looking back, it was a huge change after all; it just took a while. BSNL and MTNL launched their 3G services early last year and private players like Reliance and Tata DoCoMo commercially started offering 3G during Q4 of 2010. Other players like Vodafone, Airtel and Aircel are expected to start their 3G services in Q1 2011. But what does all this mean to you?

Back in the time

Let me give you an impromptu history class, before we head into the pros and cons of 3G. For your reference, when I say 3G, I mean the GSM kind of 3G or something that’s popularly known as UMTS.

The 1G standard used analog modulation for the signals, much like the AM/FM radios. Even though it meant lugging around huge phones, it was the birth of true mobile communications for the masses.

The 2G standard, which most of us are aware of, was the first digital standard for mobile phones. This used digital signalling for voice modulation. It was however voice only. In the 2.5G iteration, GPRS was introduced. This enabled a user to get a data connection to the internet. It was however slow, with the theoretical speeds of about 120kbps and with an actual rated speed of about 20-50kbps. It also introduced MMS. It was touted to be an SMS like service but with audio visual-content. 2.75G introduced EDGE which promised a data connection of up to 240kbps but delivered anywhere between 60-120kbps. Remember that these speeds are dependent of the user’s location, his/her movement etc.

The 3G standard is the next big evolution after 2.75G. After multiple iterations of the 2G standards, 3G may not seem like a huge leap as compared to 1G->2G but, trust me, it is. 3G brings even faster data access speeds- from a minimum of 384kbps with UMTS to 21Mbps of the HSPA+ evolution. It also brings more security with End User Equipment authentication and a more evolved encryption scheme.

Again, what does this mean to you?

The 3G Experience

I have access to AT&T’s 3G network in the US on an Apple iPhone 4. The whole video call phenomenon has not really taken off in the US. In my very humble opinion, having a video call tariff is rubbish since with a 3G’s data speeds, it is often cheaper to use software based video calling[Skype, Facetime, Fring] in conjunction with a data plan. The typical speeds I have experienced vary between 1-6Mbps. I actually have tethered the 3G data to my netbook via MiWi and watched YouTube videos on a road trip. YouTube HD videos are pretty fast as are HD Netflix movies/TV shows. To sum up, your 3G data connection will actually be as fast, if not faster, than most of your residential internet connections.

Cons

So what are the cons?

With the operators being allocated on a region to region basis, your original provider might not have 3G cell towers in your roaming region. In the 2G world, you’d simply use a partner’s cell tower but most operators today have not inked agreements for sharing 3G resources.

You will also need a compatible 3G handset to use the 3G services. You will also be responsible for procuring a device with a front camera if you need to make a voice call. You also need to make sure that it works with India’s 3G frequency band i.e. 2100MHz.

Video calls are now temporarily on hold, as of the time of writing this article, while the Indian Government evaluates and includes a backdoor into the data stream for surveillance and monitoring.

You also need to take into account the pricing shift. Data plans will be significantly be more expensive than the 2G tariffs. Looking at BSNL’s current tariffs, here is an estimated table of costs:

Post Paid[per month]	Pre Paid[per month]
Rs. 200 - .5 GB	Rs. 220 - .5 GB
Rs. 300 - 1GB	Rs. 350 - 1GB
Rs. 520 – 2GB	Rs. 570 – 2GB

Remember, the above figures are an educated guess, derived from BSNL’s current offerings. Competition might drive the prices own even further. To compare, 2G data [GPRS/EDGE] will run you about Rs.100 a month for 2GB usage.

Conclusion

To wind up this article, 3G is clearly not for everyone. If you plan to use heavy streaming data on your mobile phone and have a 3G compatible phone, 3G is for you. If you just check the scores/news and would rather not plop down the extra cash for a 3G data plan or a 3G enabled phone, EDGE should be fast enough for you.

Top gadgets to watch out for in 2010

2009-12-31T12:39:00.005+05:30

The year 2010 has a lot of surprises in store for use, gadget-wise. Some of them will be expected, but others will not be. Let us look at what 2010 has in store for us.

5. Solid State Drives
Solid State Drives have been available for industrial and military consumption since the mid 90s but the high cost/GB has kept it from being adopted by the general public. The SDDs offers better performance, is more efficient and is more silent compared to the Hard Drives [HDDs] that the modern computers have. In a couple of years, SSDs will be standard equipment for anyone buying a desktop or a laptop. Most of the modern Operating Systems like Windows 7 and some Linux distros have support for SSD commands like the TRIM function. By the Fall of 2009, the SSDs have almost reached the $2/GB barrier in the international markets. While the SSDs are yet to take off in India, they will when the market reaches maturity in the US and Europe.

4. Google Chrome OS:
The Chrome OS is Google’s maiden attempt at developing an Operating System primarily intended for cloud computing. While this is not Google’s first attempt for developing an OS [They developed the Android OS for mobile phones], this is the first serious attempt any developer has made towards an OS built exclusively for cloud computing. In cloud computing, the data and the applications are not stored on your hard drive. They are stored on specialized servers called the “Cloud”. While the Chrome OS is based off Linux and will run on Google recommended and approved hardware, it should be hacked to support other hardware soon. The Chrome OS is designed to run on netbooks and other portable computing devices. Google has promised a sub-10 second startup time and this should blow the other netbook OS’es out of the water.

3. Project Natal:
Project Natal is the internal name for Microsoft’s new Xbox system where the gamers would use their hands, gestures and spoken words to play instead of using the controller. Think of it like a controller-less Wii, just with better games. The system was launched in 2009 and is expected to ship out as an add-on to the existing XBox 360s. The system consists of a camera, depth sensor and a mic. The inputs taken from these sources control the game play. The new controller is capable to tracking 4 persons at 48 points for movement and can identify individual fingers. This makes Microsoft’s Xbox 360 a viable contender to the Play Station since Sony introduced the EyeToy.

2. Apple iPhone 4G:
Apple’s new iPhone is rumored to launch in summer 2010 with a host of hardware and software improvements. The phone is reported to have a 5 Megapixel camera with AF, a 1GHz Snapdragon processor under clocked to 800MHz and a front facing camera for video conferencing. The phone may operate on the Verizon’s 4G LTE network in the US which means India will never see the 4G soon. But with Apple’s uber-secretive policies, we will only know more about the phone a few weeks from the launch date.

1. Google Nexus One:
The Nexus One has been Google’s worst kept secret after their employees twittered away the details of the phone when it was given away to a select few. The phone is unlocked and heralds Google’s entry into the mobile phone market. The phone is 3G equipped with HSDPA/HSUPA support and WiFi. The phone comes with a 3.7 inch OLED touch screen and runs the soon-to-be-released Android 2.1 . It does not support multi-touch out of the box like other Android phones and Google has fully customized the Android OS for the Nexus One. It also comes with a 5 Megapixel camera with support for geo-tagging. The phone is also equipped with two mics- one in the front and one in the rear. The one in the front is for the user’s voice and the one in the rear is to cancel out the background noise. The phone will be sold unlocked and has an expected release date in the 5th of January. It will be priced at around $500 for the unlocked version and $180 for the subsidized version through a 2 year contract with T-Mobile.

My HP wishlist

2009-08-25T19:41:00.011+05:30

It's now officially Fall, the time when people start planning their purchases for the new school year and the holidays. I'm sure that the first thing on the mind of most people all over the world is a laptop. With the huge publicity surrounding Windows 7, corporate and home users alike have been putting off their computing purchases until the OS’s release. I personally know of atleast 15 people who plan to trash their aging laptops and desktops and get brand new ones after Windows 7’s release. HP is one of the very few companies that have mastered the magic of balancing features with value. HP’s site is replete with laptops, desktops, accessories, peripheral devices and many other gadgets and gizmos, that promises to cater to everyone’s whim and fancy. Let me share with you some of the gadgets I’d love to be able to buy from HP.

The first thing that ran across my mind, when the words HP and wish list were uttered, was HP’s flagship Touch Smart series tablet. The HP Touch Smart tx2z tablet one of the popular tablet computers that has regularly updated touch drivers. Most of the gadget freaks reading this article might remember the beta touch drivers that came out in time for the Windows 7 Beta and RC releases. This tablet is equipped with a 12.1” multi touch screen that has some really impressive specs under the hood. The eye catching pattern on the lid and the palm rest looks great and is trendy. HP also has some really good additional options for the tx2z in the form of battery, processor, memory, HDD upgrades.

The HP TouchSmart tx2z

Now that I have a state of the art lappie, the next gadget on my radar is a printer. Most modern printers need not be chained to PCs; you have printers that interact with your device via Bluetooth and WiFi. So the ideal printer for me would be a color all-in-one PC with WiFi like the HP Photosmart Plus all in one printer. This color inkjet comes along with a 2.39 inch touch screen that makes printing, scanning and copying really simple.

Ideally my wishlist would never conclude but these are the top gadgets that caught my attention. I’m sure I’ve got you salivating with all the great products that HP has to offer. If you’re planning on getting something from the HP online store , here’s a great offer. For a limited time, HP’s offering a stackable coupon for $30 off on orders $150 or greater at the HP Home Store. The coupon code you need to use is SV2132. Valid through 10/31 or while supplies last. Restrictions and exclusions apply.

Hold on! That’s not where the good news ends. I’m pleased to announce that there will be a contest, where all you gotta do is to leave a comment on this post telling everyone what HP laptop you like. The winner gets a $100 gift card from HP. Please do read the contest rules.

Samsung N120 netbook: A review

2009-07-17T19:25:00.006+05:30

I've been watching the netbook market closely, what with the new models being introduced like it's CeBIT time. If this is the first time you've heard of the term netbook, let me fill you in on what that is. A netbook is an ultra portable notebook computer which is optimized for web based usage like browsing, emailing and running online apps. They are typically on the lower end of both the performance and price scales. With low specced models, it often surprises me when manufacturers try to cram in Windows Vista on a netbook. I have nothing against Windows Vista, I love it and use it daily on my PC; but a netbook shipping with Vista is akin to a 50cc scooter outfitted with an cast iron frame weighing 5000Lbs. The Samsung N120 netbook however bucks against this trend and offers Windows XP Home. I expect Samsung to upgrade the OS to the Windows 7 Starter edition when the OS is released on October 22nd.

The USP of this laptop is that it comes with a full size keyboard. I personally hate having to press 2-3 key combinations to use a number pad key. It is also coated in Samsung's trademark Silver Nano technology that provides anti bacterial protection. It's a frill yes, but it's nice know that it's there. The display is a 10.1" glossy led backlit screen. The LED backlit screen makes the display thinner compared to the traditionally used CCFL backlighting. The Samsung N120 works off a Intel 945GSE chipset and is coupled with an Intel Atom 1.6GHz processor with a 512KB L2 cache. It comes bundled with a 1GB stick of DDR 2 RAM that makes it faster than my last desktop. It has integrated graphics, no biggie here, but it does have a SRS 3D sound effect feature that promises realistic surround sounds when coupled with the 2.1 speaker system that the N120 comes with. That's right. This netbook comes with a subwoofer! The speakers are rated at 1.5W each, which is quite decent for a netbook . There is a 1.3 Mp camera that lets you chat with your family and friends and lets you take snapshots. The primary storage is with a 160GB HDD which is quite a lot compared to what you'll see on the competition. Draft n support is missing on the wireless card though b/g support is present. The N120 also comes with a internal bluetooth module with EDR. If you're like me, you'll know how important is is to have BT on your laptop for transferring files, syncing and tethering your phone, headsets etc. The battery is a 6 Cell deal, which is huge compared to the 3 Cell batteries that the other netbooks ship with. This alone should get you 8-10 hours of mobile computing with the Samsung N120.

The Samsung N120 is a great netbook with a very good battery life and a full keyboard. This alone should get the laptop/Desktop PC owners who are on the fence to the world of netbooks. While you're looking at its product page, you might also want to check out CNET's review here. I'd love to hear from you guys about the Samsung N120 netbook, your experiences with it, other reviews that you read, pros and cons, etc. Do feel free to leave a comment or email me. Cheers!

Introducing my new Desktop: Dell Inspiron 545 MT

2009-07-09T21:38:00.006+05:30

Hi there! Here's some news. My old workhorse of a PC has been working tirelessly for 5 years now and though I hate to say it, it's time to move over to a newer model . I decided to get a desktop from Dell. Dell's made a very good impression with me with it's relatively cheap prices, good support options and excellent customizability. I was looking for a desktop in the sub Rs. 40,000[~US $800] range. I'd probably get some swanky new Studio or XPS desktop in US for that kind of moola, but at Dell India I had to make do with the Inspiron desktop series. Inspiron's a series of Desktops and Notebooks aimed at the home usage segment. Don't get me wrong, Inspiron's a great series, but I did have a little more in mind. Nevertheless, I found two models available for me. The Inspiron 535 and Inspiron 545 series. I immediately discarded the slim versions[Inspiron 535s and the Inspiron 545s] since they had puny 200W PSUs. I opted for the Inspiron 545 series since it had the newer GM33 chipset compared to the older GM31 chipset on the Inspiron 535 series desktop.

Here's the configuration I opted for:

Piano Black casing
3GB DDR2 RAM (2GB + 1GB) @ 800MHz
Core 2 Duo 2.8GHz processor with 3 MB L2 cache
500GB SATA HDD with NCQ
18.5" Widescreen TFT Monitor
Laser mouse
18 in 1 flash card reader
Windows Vista Home Premium 32 bit with free upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium 32bit
DVD+/-RW with Dual Layer Write Capabilities
ATI Radeon HD 4350 512MB DDR2
McAfee AntiVirus - 15 Months subscription

I bought a Logitech QuickCam Connect [640x480 video] and a Creative VOIP headset at a local electronics store nearby. Everything cost me about Rs. 39,000[~US $790] including taxes, shipping and freight insurance.

The Dell Inspiron 545 MT arrived within a week of my placing the order. I got a service tech at my home the next day for installation. He was quite knowledgeable, he helped us get the old PC out, clean it a bit. My dad has some reservations with Vista, having heard all the horror stories we all have. I don't think he was quite satisfied with my explanation that Vista is quite stable with SP2 installed, 3GB RAM and a discrete graphics card. The initial configuration was done in a few minutes and IE7 took less than a few seconds to start. I downloaded FireFox 3.5 (which was released the day before) and it literally zoomed. I then updated the OS to SP2 (shipped with SP1), installed VLC, K-Lite Mega Codec Pack, Media Player Classic and Revo Uninstaller. I removed Microsoft Works, Dell Dock and other bloatware with Revo. This is my first long term exposure with Vista and I love it. Everything's pretty fast, Aero's cool and UAC grows on you.

Let me sign off with a snap of the new Dell Inspiron 545 MT Desktop:

A photo of Dell India's Inspiron 545 MT desktop PC

P.S. I'm sorry about the mess in the photo.

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2009-07-08T12:59:00.003+05:30

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2009-07-08T12:41:00.005+05:30

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Entrepreneur Journeys: A book review

2009-07-06T20:14:00.002+05:30

Entrepreneur Journeys: How to stop looking for a job and start up your life’s work is Sramana Mitra’s first book in a seven book series filled with inspiring discussions with entrepreneur legends and their case studies. Sramana Mitra, an entrepreneur herself, begins the book with a modest prologue about herself and her experiences entrepreneurship. She starts with the unfriendly environment that greenhorn entrepreneurs had to face in early nineties Kolkata and how she had to move to the Silicon Valley, the entrepreneur’s paradise.

She talks about the companies she built, not founded but built, from DAIS to ProspectMiner to Intarka. She then tells the readers about the mistakes she made when she was a young entrepreneur. Like how she decided to raise venture capital for Intarka instead of bootstrapping the business with her funds. She shares her experiences with VCs [Venture Capitalists], the dotcom bust in late 1990s when most companies around the world, particularly the US, hemorrhaged money and collapsed.

Her first section of the book talks about Bootstrapping and contains two discussions. One is with Jerry Rawls who is the CEO of the fiber optics giant Finisar and has the Texas Tech University’s business school named after him! The other is with AdventNet’s [Now called ZOHO Corp.] Sridhar Vembu who is more popular as the creator of the ZOHO suite that is based on cloud computing. Bootstrapping a business is basically the process of starting up a company without relying on external capital [Venture Capital]. I once read in a blog[I think it was Guy Kawasaki’s], that the chances for an entrepreneur to get venture capital are the same as the probability of getting hit by a lightning, while standing in the bottom of a swimming pool on a sunny day.

Sramana says setting up a startup and funding it without relying on VC’s is all the rage. She quotes several instances where bootstrapping played a key role, including the now very popular Craigslist.

The first interview is with Jerry Rawls, a Texan, who was an entrepreneur right from his childhood and is a graduate of Purdue’s business school. They talk about his first small jobs at Raychem as a sales engineer and then his position as a General Manager of Interconnections Systems Division where he hired and met the soon to be founder of Finisar. Jerry describes how they initially provided consulting services and used the revenues as startup capital for Finisar. He then tells us about the stock market collapse of the 2000 and how they had to decide if Finisar would be a long term asset and the strategies they would use to ride it out.

The second interview is with Sridhar Vembu, a product of our very own Chennai IIT, whose completely bootstrapped company ZOHO Corp. now gets a six figure[in dollars] profit a month. He starts off by telling us about his software development center in India that he uses to cater to the demands of networking companies like Cisco. He started out with a network monitoring and management company, the Manage Engine, now a part of ZOHO Corp., reached out to his customers with innovative targeting techniques like Google’s AdSense and AdWords and then diversified into an on-demand offering.

In the second section of her book, Sramana talks about the evolution of the Web from the Web 1.0 with the static pages, linear searches to the Web 2.0 with dynamically generated pages, rich user generated content to the upcoming Web 3.0 which promises to be all about intelligently customizing your online experience by tailoring the data presented to you as per your requirements, tastes and search patterns. She talks to Kayak.com’s Steve Hafne, Simply Hired’s Gautam Godhwani and Russ Fradin of Adify, an online ad network solutions provider which allows advertisers to use their backend and processing services and run their own ad networks.

Steve Hafner is also a Texan who started Orbitz, as a direct rival to the internet based travel agency giant Expedia. He then collaborated with Expedia’s and Travelocity’s former CEO’s and started Kayak, which was billed as a one stop shop for all travel related services, from transit to accommodation. He then describes how he started out with the ideal that concentrating on the functionality of the business would be better than marketing. And when he felt the conspicuous need for a sales and marketing division, he signed an agreement with SideStep which had a strong marketing and sales platform.

The second discussion is with Gautham whose SimplyMind seeks to be something more than a plain job search engine. He says that the Simply Mind aims to be a refined job search engine that also understands the resumes submitted and links the qualified and available opportunities with them. He starts off by talking about his maiden ventures, AtWeb and Website Garage which were both online website code optimization tools. He then tells us about the research he did before he setup the Indian Community Center, a 20,000sft facility for Indians to learn about and contribute to the Indian heritage and the transition to SimplyHired.

The third discussion with Russ Fradin talks about the fact that the media is now aware that companies like Google and Yahoo now are the major players in the bloggers’ arena and the steps the media is taking to remedy this folly. In this connection, the chat with Russ begins with an in depth discussion about Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick, a leader online advertising tools business. They then talk about the business model of Adfiy which essentially connects niche advertising networks from around the world by providing a common technology and services platform.

The third section of Sramana’s book is titled Disrupting Business Models and relates to organizations providing Software-as-a-service [Saas] model. She talks to Philippe Courtot who’s the CEO of Qualys, a Saas provider, deals with security, risk and compliance management solutions. She also chats with Steve Singh, CEO of Concur, an expense and payment software provider.

In the first discussion, Sramana Mitra chats with Philippe Courtot the CEO of Qualys and a former CEO of Signio and Verity. Courtot talks about his younger years in France when he was denied a job because the psychometric tests showed that he was an independent thinker, while the companies wanted an employee who would follow given instructions! He then realized that the American society acted much different compared to the way the French did. The former placed merit in what you could do while the later placed importance in what you were. After running a very successful ad campaign about mammograms for Thompson CGR, he studied for a year with a VC firm. He then joined an ailing software firm cc:Mail which later became the standard for more than 250 Fortune 1000 companies and became a direct competitor to Microsoft’s Mail. In this discussion, he talks about his spectacular track record in turning small ailing companies around, how he setup Qualys and his plans for the future to ward off the competition.

Steve Singh shares his experience with Concur in the second discussion. He tells Sramana that when he had to file expense reports when he worked at Symantec, it took him nearly a week to file $150,000 worth. This got him thinking about making a simpler way of expense reporting and payment management.

The fourth section of the book, titled “Addressing unmet marketing needs”, contains two case studies. One with Mercado Libre’s Marcos Galperin and the other with Edward Fields of Hot Chalk.

In her first discussion, Sramana chats it up with Marcos who is the founder of Mercado Libre, Latin America’s top online market place. Marcos tells us about the research he made about the penetration of online shopping services in Latin America. He talks about the poor initial penetration of online business stores in Latin America, nearer to 3% and how he adopted his business model from eBay. More interestingly, he tells us that he’s more interested in building the business than flipping it, especially after the effort he’s put in.

In the second discussion, we meet Edward Field who setup HotChalk a site that has teamed up with NBC news, to offer a free online educational community for teachers, students and parents. Ed then talks to Sramana about creating and forging alliances with other business for a bigger market reach. He then narrates how he achieved funding for his startup with a combination of bootstrapping for round one and venture capital for rounds two and three.

The last section of the book is titled Tackling Planet-scale Problems. It contains a talk with Hans Peter Michelet of Energy Recovery International, a company that produces a freshwater extraction device from salt water, with Carol Realini of Obopay, a payment system based on mobile phones and with Harish Hande of SELCO, a company bent on bringing solar lighting to the masses.

Sramana starts off the discussion by asking Hans Peter about his latest venture. He states that PX is a ceramic pressure exchanger for desalination of water. He states that he has just 50 employees but is expecting a turnover of about $40 million. He further tells Sramana that he has three offices around the world to talk to his customers directly. Hans peter says that PX is a renewable energy answer to the rapidly depleting freshwater supplies around the world. He then tells us about the unconventional ways that he used to fund his R&D with, something a traditional VC would never let him do.

In the second chat with Carol, it is revealed to us that she hit upon the idea of using a payment system via the mobile phone after seeing people in Congo, standing in a queue with bags of money[heavy inflation I suppose], waiting to recharge their prepaid cellphones. Carol tells Sramana about her move from her cushy and well paid job at Legato to become the CEO of a consultancy firm. She later setup Obopay. She then tells us some more about the general architecture, working and her financial strategy vis a vis Obopay.

The last interview/case study is with Harish Hande whose goal is to enable rural India with solar based independent lighting. He tells us that the main difficulties he faced were in having the banks to finance his project and having enough technical assistance in the villages. He then tells us the business model of his project and how he thinks it would be useful to the numerous villages that dot India. He then talks about microfinancing and microcredit, the industry buzzwords for the relatively easy method to finance a project in rural areas.

In conclusion, I feel that a five hundred or a thousand word review can hardly do justice to Sramana Mitra’s book. The little nuggets of tips and information that she’s scattered all through the book, makes it a pleasure for the both the young entrepreneur and the veteran business man. I definitely recommend this book to anyone looking to setup a business on their own or even willing to learn a bit about doing so.

Higher education in US - A few tips

2009-07-06T19:57:00.008+05:30

Studying abroad has long been a desire for an Indian, shrouded with myths and magic. But now, with most of the aspirants having direct access to the information superhighway, studying abroad is no longer the mystery it used to be. So let me give you some tips that you can use in your quest for higher studies. My tips are intended with an education in USA in mind, but fear not, if you are going elsewhere some of the tips might still apply to you.

Course and College selection
This part needs to be set in motion as early as possible. The ideal time to start would be the June of the year before you intend to go study. For a student who intends to start his/her education in Fall 2010, starting right now is very advisable. Even earlier would be better as it will give you a more time to shortlist the prospective schools and mull over the course you want to take. Selecting a course might seem easy, it is indeed so if you keep in mind a few pointers:
It's easier to get an admit in a course related to your bachelor's specialization. For example, a BA Economics student will have difficulty getting an admit in a Fashion Technology Masters degree unless he/she can prove a definitive link to the applied field in his undergraduate studies. An Electronics and Communication graduate might be able to secure an admission in the Computer Science department but he/she will be needed to demonstrate that his/her skills are equivalent to or greater than other CS applicants. The safest route is to apply to a course that is the closest to the one in your undergraduate studies.

Do remember that courses like Nuclear Engineering, Nano Technology and Artificial Intelligence might raise flags during your visa interview and you might need additional processing[a delay of up to a month], where they run all sorts of background checks against you at DC and make sure everything is kosher.

Note for ECE students: There is no Electronics Engineering course available. You'll need to choose Electrical Engineering and then specialize in a Electronics/Communication related course.

College selection is a bit difficult if you're pressed for time. You'll need to select colleges based on your degree, specialization, degree value, school value, location and most importantly cost. Make sure you can afford the degree you're taking and keep in mind that you'll also need to pay living expenses. Private universities like MIT or Princeton are expensive while public universities like Virginia Tech and University of Maryland are cheaper. If you cannot afford the tuition, for get adding the school to your must apply list. Remember, cost of living in cities like New York City, Los Angeles are pretty high so make sure you factor in the typical living costs into the equation.

The best sources include your college's higher studies department, seniors, friends, relatives and the Internet. I recommend getting a subscription at US News as it provides a definitive ranking of schools of almost every discipline in the US. It is definitely worth the $10 or so that you pay there. Internet is your friend if you need any help, google it.

Taking the exams
Book your GRE/TOEFL/IELTS date as early as July to make sure you have time for a second attempt if needed. Do plenty of practice tests online and offline to get a feel of the real thing. Use flashcards to learn when you are waiting at the doctors or travelling in a bus. You most definitely shouldn't learn by rote, word lists from Baron's. There is something elementally wrong about force feeding 1000s of words in a short span of a month or so. Try reading books or at the very least newspapers and the online news articles. Watching a few Hollywood movies might be in order, if you need to analyze and assimilate that American accent for your TOEFL and watching BBC is very helpful for that delightful English lilt for IELTS. Just don't go overboard though!

Getting the relevant documents and getting the visa
The worst part is waiting for your decision. Checking your inbox or the school site every morning will become a ritual for a couple of months until you get your admit decisions. Do not bombard the admissions office or the department with emails asking them about the status of your applications. Patience is the key here. make sure you send all your application packets via tracked mail so that you can see and confirm delivery. Most international couriers like FedEx or DHL have special rates and benefits for students. Ask for them.

Get yourself the vaccinations that your school requires and make sure you have a record of them. You'll be needed to produce them later on. Apply for an education loan at the earliest to avoid processing delays at the last minute. And no matter what you do, do NOT forge or fudge your documents for the visa interview. If you get caught presenting fake documents at the visa interview[trust me, the visa officer will know], you might be disbarred from entering USA even on a tourist visa and you might be criminally prosecuted by the Indian Government. Just don't do it.

Though the whole process is sometimes as frustrating as crossing Anna Salai at 10 AM on a Monday morning with a bunch of hyperactive kids with a seeing eye dog, the satisfaction that you get in the end more than makes up for it. Remember don't give up, persevere and stay clean. Best of luck!

A dummies guide to flash memory cards

2009-07-06T19:25:00.007+05:30

With basic and advanced multimedia phones cheaply available in India, it is no surprise that almost everybody seems to have one. Be it a Nokia or a Motorola or a SE or maybe even a Chinese knockoff, multimedia phones are all the rage at the moment. So everyone seems to have a multimedia capable phone, but what do they use it for? Calling, messaging, shooting a couple of pictures, listening to music and a little web browsing. But most phones usually come with a 512MB or 1GB card out of the box which is hardly enough to put one quarter of your music collection on board. The solution - Memory cards.

Memory card capacities and prices have come a long long way. I remember my old Nokia 6600[It became the world's then most popular and recognizable Symbian phone] which came with a 64MB MMC card. I actually had to think twice about the songs that I copied on it. With about 50Mb available, there was only space for an album's worth of music. The next year I splurged on a no-name 512MB MMC which cost me about Rs. 1000[~US$ 20]. This was like a whole new playground for me. I had enough space for my top 30-40 songs, encoded at 64 or 128 Kbps and a couple of cartoons/movies encoded in 3gp. Nokia didn't have a stereo headset to go along with the 2.5mm socket on the phone so I remember using a operator's headset to listen to music and later switching to a Chinese "stereo" headset which simply gave mono out to both the channels.

Then I bought a Nokia 5610. Even though Nokia marketed it as a Music Phone, it came with a 512MB MicroSD if I remember correctly. I bought a 1GB Toshiba MicroSD for about US $35[~Rs. 1750] shipped, at an online store based in Japan. In 2008, when the memory card prices started to go down, I bought a Kingston 4GB MicroSDHC Class 4 card for about US $32[~Rs. 1600] shipped, from a HK based retailer. The same Kingston 4GB MicroSDHC Class 4 card now retails for less than Rs. 500[~US $10]

I'm sure you're wondering why I gave you this little trip down my memory lane and peppered you with a bunch of obtuse jargon and abbreviations. Let me explain. There are a bunch of memory card formats in use today but only a handful of them are used regularly. We'll be talking primarily about the SD family because they are easily the most popular card format used across a wide variety of devices from mobile phones to MP3 players to GPS units to digital cameras.

SD stands for Secure Digital and was introduced in 1999 as a successor to the MMC card format that I referenced a few paragraphs earlier. It comes in three form factors- SD, MiniSD and MicroSD. The SD cards are incredibly versatile. Once you have the card smallest form factor, it is possible to go up the hierarchy by using adapters. For example, a microSD card will fit in a MiniSD adapter to form a MiniSD card, a MicroSD/MiniSD card in a SD adapter to form a SD card. The relative sizes and measurements are shown below, courtesy of wikimedia:

Relative sizes of SD flash memory cards. Image courtesy: Wikimedia Commons

There are 2 commonly used types of SD cards. One is the SD card and the other is the SDHC card. SD cards are cards of upto 4GB sizes[It is difficult to find a SD card of a 4GB capacity though] and the SDHC[Secure Digital High Capacity] cards are extended capacity cards of more than 4GB to a limit of 32GB. Most SD only devices will not read SDHC cards but SDHC compatible devices will read SD cards. So it is imperative to buy a device with SDHC compatibility if you need to use higher capacity cards. Most of the newer multimedia models like Nokia's Music Express series or the N series are compatible with SDHC cards. To check if your device is SDHC compatible, look at your device's manual or manufacturer support site or look at Kingston's device database here: http://www.ec.kingston.com/ecom/configurator_new/mfrmod.asp.

There are also two other lesser known types: the SDIO[Secure Digital Input Output cards] that are usually used to increase the functionality of a portable device and the SDXC[Secure Digital eXtended Capacity] cards that were recently demo'ed at CES in 2009. We will not be talking about the last two variants as they are not common place enough in our devices.

Now that you have decided to upgrade to a SDHC card, there are somethings you need to know about. The first is card speed. The SDHC cards are divided into different categories called classes, depending on the speed of data transfer of the card. Here's a table that should help you understand this concept further:

Rating	Speed (MB/s)	SD Class
6x	0.9	n/a
10x	1.5	n/a
13x	2.0	2
26x	4.0	4
32x	4.8	4
40x	6.0	6
66x	10.0	6
100x	15.0	6
133x	20.0	6
150x	22.5	6
200x	30.0	6
266x	40.0	6
300x	45.0	6

The rating is the same speed rating that you see on the CD drives. 1x is equivalent to 150KBps. The rows highlighted in bold is the minimum speed for that particular class. Hence a Class 6 is faster than a Class 4 which is faster than a Class 2. Some devices have limitations on the speed of the card that can be used. To check the speed compatibility of your device, check the manual or the manufacturer's site as indicated above. So when you shop for a new card, you want to get the fastest version that is supported by your device. A slower card will mean more lag especially with higher capacities.

Now you've decided that an 8GB Class 6 MicroSD card is what you want for your phone. Now lets talk about the brands. There are a couple of good brands that you can trust your money with. Here are a couple- Kingston, Sandisk, Transcend, KingMax and Toshiba. I prefer Kingston SD cards because they are closer to the rated speeds, come with a life time warranty and are very reliable. If you need a MicroSD card of Class 6 variety, you'll have skip Kingston, as it doesn't produce them.

Lets look at the practical aspects now and see how the the SD/SDHC cards perform. I've used the same Nokia supplied OEM microSD to SD adapter for the tests. The tests were performed using H2testw v1.4. This free software is available here: http://www.heise.de/software/download/h2testw/50539. All the tests were performed for a 128MB file transfer. It must be noted that the read speeds are what you need to chiefly look at, since these are the speeds that influence access times on a phone/portable device.

512MB Nokia OEM MicroSD card:
Writing speed: 4.04 MByte/s
Reading speed: 13.1 MByte/s

1GB Toshiba MicroSD card:
Writing speed: 3.07 MByte/s
Reading speed: 13.1 MByte/s

2GB Nokia OEM MicroSD card:
Writing speed: 3.96 MByte/s
Reading speed: 9.84 MByte/s

4GB Transcend Class 6 rated MicroSD card:
Writing speed: 6.37 MByte/s
Reading speed: 14.1 MByte/s

8GB Kingston Class 4 rated MicroSD card:
Writing speed: 4.92 MByte/s
Reading speed: 13.7 MByte/s

As you can see the cards scored slightly above the minimum specs, with Kingston and both Nokia OEM cards performing much higher than their rated speeds.

First row: Memory Card readers. Second row: MicroSD to SD adapters. Third row: MicroSD to MiniSD adapter. Fourth row: MicroSD cards.

If you have any suggestions or comments, please feel free to post them below. Until next time, Cheers!

Guess someone forgot to fill in the blanks!

2009-06-04T21:05:00.005+05:30

Look what popped up in Gmail today:

Click for a bigger image

When I clicked the link out of curiosity, it led to a blank page on a subdomain on netsolads.com. It looks like someone's AdWords Dollars are down the drain.

ConsumerMate.com helps you buy a laptop

2009-05-27T11:58:00.006+05:30

In a few months it will officially be back to school/college time. A time when students of all ages prepare themselves for another year of gruelling studies and hard work. For most of the college students, it also includes buying a laptop to assist their educational endeavors. A laptop, also called by its more politically correct name "notebook computer", is no longer a luxury. It is vital for most students as an educational tool and as an effective learning aid. But choosing a notebook within your price range has always been a harrowing task. It used to entail going to dubious system engineers and asking them for a quote or asking friends and family abroad to get one for you. ConsumerMate.com has made buying a laptop computer very simple. You just go to their site, move the sliders around corresponding to your budget, screen size requirement and weight and choose one from the shortlisted notebooks. It's that simple! You know that their rankings and ratings are reliable as they use the popular Indian computer magazine - Digit's time tested and meticulously assimilated data.

ConsumerMate.com also provides guides to help you decide if you need a laptop over a desktop or the features you need to be looking at or the types of the notebook computers available in the market. They also have a hot deals section that lists some really good steals and a new arrivals section which helps you look at the newest laptops. There's also a forum to talk your decision over with your peers, an ask us section to put your lingering doubts to rest and a Laptop guru section that helps you find a tailor made laptop with a bunch of questions.

So before you get a laptop, look at ConsumerMate.com for good laptop prices, reliable rankings and a great knowledge base. You never know what you'll learn!

Free international magazine subscriptions and whitepapers

2009-05-24T20:35:00.006+05:30

Orangeman Burns has always tried to bring its readers a better understanding of technology. I am pleased to announce Orangeman Burns' partnership with the international publications company TradePub to bring you the latest magazine subscriptions and whitepapers for free. Visit http://sriraminhell.tradepub.com today to browse our selection of complimentary Industry magazines, white papers, webinars, podcasts, and more across 34 industry sectors. It's absolutely free. No strings. Choose between magazines delivered to your house via postal mail or magazines delivered to your inbox via email. This is a great opportunity for students to grab the leading magazines and learn about the business and tech practices in various sectors. Working professionals can also use this offer to stay of top and to get a competitive edge over their peers. Try it today!

Here's a list of the popular magazines and whitepapers that people around the world have signed up for:

* Streamlining Blended Learning for Leadership Training: Learning outside the classroom created a challenge: continuing to provide high-quality, customized training without direct human interaction. In this case study, you will gain insight on strategies used to meld blended learning with a highly collaborative training, from design to implementation, the challenges of the virtual classroom and lessons learned.

* ABCs of RFID: Understanding and Using Radio Frequency Identification: RFID offers great value for many industries and applications. However, misconceptions about what RFID is and what it can do pose obstacles that discourage some organizations from taking advantage of the technology. This white paper provides an overview of RFID technology and capabilities, describes the common frequencies and technologies used in business applications, identifies major standards, and introduces ways to take advantage of RFID to improve convenience, accuracy, safety and security.

* Oracle Magazine: Oracle Magazine contains technology strategy articles, sample code, tips, Oracle and partner news, how to articles for developers and DBAs, and more. Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) is the world's largest enterprise software company.

* How Scientific Business Intelligence Can Drive Top Line Innovation Growth: In this white paper, you will gain valuable information on how scientists and engineers at R&D organizations can:
1. Easily access and aggregate both structured and unstructured data from multiple research areas into a single environment
2. Conduct advanced scientific analytics allowing them to integrate the applications and algorithms that work best for them
3. View results in the manner most effective for their needs
4. Unlock their data's true value by delivering the precise information they need when and how they need through real time interactive reports and dashboards.
Learn how you can do all this while limiting the burden on IT resources!

* Global Finance: Global Finance delivers the full story; corporate finance, joint ventures and M&A, country profiles, capital markets, investor relations, currencies, banking, risk management, custody, direct investment, money management and all the rest-specifically tailored for corporate readers around the world.

* NASA Tech Briefs: Authored by the engineers or scientists who did the work, the briefs span a wide array of fields, including electronics, physical sciences, materials, computer software, mechanics, machinery/automation, manufacturing/fabrication, mathematics/information sciences, and life sciences. NASA Tech Briefs also contains feature articles on successful NASA spinoffs , profiles of NASA tech transfer resources, news briefs, and application stories. Regular columns describe new patents, industry products, software, and literature.

* Website Magazine: Until now, there has not been a magazine that caters exclusively to the business of running a website. Website Magazine has tapped premier talent in the Internet industry for our content and each and every issue will contain practical advice and insights for website owners.

* The Hidden Dangers of Spam: How SMBs can confront security risks and restore productivity: Beyond the well-understood productivity drain that spam inflicts on businesses, threats posed by illicit email circulating through a network are causing many security professionals to rethink protective measures. Spam is more than a nuisance—it is often a vehicle for hackers and fraudsters to bridge network defenses and release dangerous payloads inside the network. Enterprise-scale organizations often protect themselves against illicit email intrusions with elaborate gateways, using expensive and complex screening techniques. Small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) however, sometimes leave themselves open to risks, largely because they lack the resources to implement countermeasures. Mail gateways scaled to the needs of smaller businesses offer a means to combat spam, mitigate security risks, and restore productivity to companies grappling with an influx of illicit email.

* Adopting Server Virtualization for Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery: Hyper-V™ virtualization technology, a feature of the Windows Server® 2008 operating system, is an enterprise-class virtualization solution that can be quickly deployed in any business environment. By using Hyper-V with BC/DR solutions from CA such as CA ARCserve® Backup, CA XOsoft™ Replication, and CA XOsoft High Availability, you can build an IT infrastructure with robust business continuity and disaster recovery capabilities to protect mission-critical applications and data while reducing Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).

* Content Management System Pocket Guide - A Guide to Evaluating, Implementing and Deploying Content Management Systems: Once you've built the business case for purchasing a CMS, this guide can serve as a 'field guide' for the evaluation, implementation and deployment process. It begins by analyzing the anatomy of a CMS project, going through the decide and buy, implement and integrate, manage and maintain and upgrade and enhance phases. As part of the first phase, this guide provides a very useful sample of a Request for Proposal (RFP) to help you evaluate content management vendors. The guide also underlines the importance of viewing content management as a process, not a product, and suggests working with a content management vendor who will become a core part of your Web site management team.

Here's a list of the popular magazines and whitepapers in India[other than the ones above]:

* Size Doesn't Matter - Server Performance on AMC Form Factor: The Adax HDC3-AMC signaling controller and Kontron AM4010 Processor on the Kontron OM5080 carrier-grade platform benchmarked against server platforms revealed:
* Low CPU utilization enabling applications to run alongside
* This AMC system offers comparable performance levels to server platforms
* Signaling links easily maintained at full Erlang
Read this report to gain further insight into how the Adax/Kontron ATCA products offer a higher performing, more scalable solution ideal for carrier-grade signaling nodes.

* Supply & Demand Chain Executive: Supply & Demand Chain Executive provides comprehensive coverage highlighting business strategies trends and issues on supply chain management. The magazine explores each area of the global enabled supply chain including order/demand capture, sourcing, procurement, fulfillment, logistics, payment,CRM , consulting, information sharing, financing. It also provides the most advanced and detailed information so that industry professionals can stay informed.

* Advanced Imaging: Advanced Imaging provides the latest information on the imaging hardware, software and peripherals that are used in capturing, displaying, manipulating and storing images. In addition details on how available imaging tools and techniques are being used by professionals at work and looks at the burgeoning industry the tools have fostered.

* Recycling Today: Recycling Today is published monthly and is edited for the secondary commodity processing/recycling market. News is targeted to dealers, processors, material recovery facilities, and consultants and engineers designing recycling systems, and brokers in addition to scrap generators and consumers.

* Aerospace Manufacturing and Design: Aerospace Manufacturing and Design delves into all aspects of the production of commercial, military and private aircraft and the new equipment that will ensure manufacturers are aware of the latest technology to produce products competitively and profitably.

* International Railway Journal: International Railway Journal, introduced in 1960 as the first truly international railway trade publication, covers the rapidly developing railway marketplace for railway and rail transit managers and engineers, suppliers, and consultants worldwide.IRJ's editorial coverage encompasses national railways worldwide, and public transport authorities in every city known to operate an urban rail system.

More social surveys from dNeero

2009-05-24T16:57:00.012+05:30

What are your thoughts about memorial day?

Hair and hair stylings!

Xerox launches solid ink capable printers for SMB segment

2009-05-09T19:51:00.006+05:30

With the home and small business printing remaining stagnated, Xerox's announcement of a solid ink based printing spells a whiff of fresh air for the industry.

Solid color ink blocks: Yellow, Cyan, Magenta and Black

Xerox recently announced their new ColorQube 9200 series printers that use solid ink technology. Developed in 1986, solid ink technology melts solid blocks of colored wax for use as ink. Since the technology was put in use by Xerox in its Phaser III printer series, the technology has progressed by several strides. Important improvements to the technology from it's introduction to the present day usage, includes better finish of the printed page, cheaper cartridges and the internal handling and disposal of the inks.

While the technology has been around for years, problems like high printer cost, usage of proprietary technology, wastage and backwards incompatibility have made the solid ink technology unappealing to the users. But with the launch of the ColorQube 9200 Multifunction Printer series,starting at about US$23,500, Xerox hopes that the technology will gain a foothold in small and medium businesses.

Find cheap and reliable web hosting with WHG

2009-05-09T19:36:00.004+05:30

Finding a web host, when I first started being a web master, meant paying very a high price for a few megabytes of storage and bandwidth. There were no features so speak of, reliability and support was non existent. You had to upload files with a web browser. The host usually had a file size limit which meant no embedded video, audio or flash. Then you'd have to get past the forced banner ads, pop ups, pop downs, pop unders and inline links. If you wanted to extend the functionality of your web site, there were no pre built addons. You had to find JS code and embed it in your page. Altogether, it was a very tough time to look for web hosting plans, much less compare them.

Now, with the advent of blogs, personal, business and e-commerce websites, web hosting has changed for the better. Unlimited everything web hosting plans for few bucks a month and dedicated server hosting are quite common; but the question remains about weeding out the good established and reliable web hosts from the fly by night operators. I am sure that you don't want to meticulously plan your online business site, replete with product pages and payment portal links and have it replaced with a 404 error message the next morning.

WebHostingGeeks, or WHG as they are popularly known in the Internet, is a trusted company that has been rating, reviewing and awarding web hosts since 1994. They have a simple tabulated column listing the top web hosts of the current year on the main page. If you are more specific about the kind of web hosting plan, like a plan with free domain name or Yahoo/Google ad credits or green hosting, WHG has them ranked as well.

As I always say, having a domain and a good web host is always a good investment. You can never go wrong with it. No matter if you are ready to take the plunge and get some web hosting or need more information about web hosting or need to keep up with the latest news in the web hosting world, be sure to check out WebHostingGeeks for the latest, most accurate and reliable information.

MS not going to abandon Vista after 7's release

2009-05-06T10:58:00.002+05:30

Microsoft Corp. will not dump Vista when Windows 7 launches and plans to keep selling it to computer makers, system builders, volume licensees and consumers at retail until at least January 2011, a Microsoft spokesman said, citing long-running policy.

The company, however, will drop support for the three consumer editions of Windows Vista in less than three years. Earlier today, a Microsoft general manager hinted to the IDG News Service that the company might ditch Vista as soon as Windows 7 ships. He also said that support for all versions of Vista will end in April 2012.

Neither is true, according to the company. Richard Francis, general manager and Windows client business group lead at Microsoft Asia-Pacific, told the news service Monday that, “We are still not sure if [computer makers] will be able to ship Vista once Windows 7 is made available.” The comment fueled speculation that Microsoft, embarrassed by the poor reception given to Vista, was getting ready to abandon the operating system at the first opportunity.

For Vista, that mark would be January 2011 — four years after its January 2007 launch.

Even without that policy, it would be a sharp departure from past practice if Microsoft did drop Vista shortly after Windows 7 shipped. According to Computerworld’s analysis of Windows 95’s, Windows 98’s and Windows XP’s transition periods — the time span during which the company sold both old and new versions — Microsoft has never offered less than a six-month overlap.

Gain an edge with online schools

2009-05-06T10:40:00.004+05:30

Most of the white collar workers were hired right out of their college and have been working ever since. But with the current financial situation, a lot of companies and industries have started looking for recruits with advanced degrees. The biggest deterrent for most people is the hours. With their current employer taxing them to the limit most employed people cannot afford to spend time at school. This is where Online Schools comes in. They offer a well rounded educational experience with a lower cost, the comfort of pursuing your degree at home and the option to study at your own hours.

Online Schools has over 1000 degrees that you can choose from. From Law to Engineering to Literature, there is always something for everyone. Online Schools also detailed guides on their site with explanations and examples for accredited online degrees, tips on choosing a major, how online schools function, costs associated with online education, online degree scholarships and other financial aspects of a online degree.

With You Tube videos detailing tips and tricks about saving for an online education, success stories, guest talks, college costs and more, it definitely makes good sense to check out Online School's site before choosing or making a decision about your higher education.

Internet pirates are more 1000% more likely to buy songs than others!

2009-05-06T10:02:00.003+05:30

Everybody knows that music sales have continued to fall in recent years, and that filesharing is usually blamed. We are made to imagine legions of internet criminals, their fingers on track-pads, downloading songs via BitTorrent and never paying for anything. One of the only bits of good news amid this doom and gloom is the steady rise in digital music sales. Millions of internet do-gooders, their fingers on track-pads, who pay for songs they like – purchasing them from Amazon or iTunes Music Store. And yet according to Professor Anne-Britt Gran’s new research, these two groups may be the same. A report from the BI Norwegian School of Management has found that those who download music illegally are also 10 times more likely to pay for songs than those who don’t.

The Norwegian study looked at almost 2,000 online music users, all over the age of 15. Researchers found that those who downloaded “free” music – whether from lawful or seedy sources – were also 10 times more likely to pay for music. This would make music pirates the industry’s largest audience for digital sales.

Wisely, the study did not rely on music pirates’ honesty. Researchers asked music buyers to prove that they had proof of purchase.

Mozilla Firefox 3.5 Beta 4 out

2009-04-30T13:45:00.004+05:30

Mozilla Corp. late tuesday released Firefox 3.5 Beta 4, the latest development preview of the company’s next browser, which has been delayed several times and now is tentatively slated to ship before the end of June. The milestone features more work under the hood — particularly in stability and performance of the new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine — as well as tweaks to the private browsing mode and improvements to the underlying Gecko layout engine, said Mike Beltzner, director of Firefox.

Computerworld’s tests showed that Firefox 3.5 Beta 4 is about 19% faster than Beta 3 in the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark; both betas were considerably faster than the production browser, Firefox 3.0.10, which was also released recently. Other enhancements, said Beltzner in a message posted to the mozilla.dev.planning forum, have been made to Firefox’s new location awareness feature and support for Web worker threads — an enhanced scripting functionality that lets site developers shift JavaScript computations to a background thread — has been completed.

As it usually does, Mozilla warned users that Beta 4 is suitable for testing only. “Firefox 3.5 Beta 4 is a public preview release intended for developer testing and community feedback,” said Beltzner. We recommend that you read the release notes and known issues before installing this beta.” The beta’s release notes highlighted several still-unfixed issues with Firefox 3.5, including problems with Gmail, Google Inc.’s popular Web-based e-mail service, and with parts of the new privacy feature. Beta 4 is the first major milestone of Mozilla’s new browser to carry the “3.5″ moniker; originally, the upgrade was called Firefox 3.1, but the company decided it had added enough new features to justify the larger bump in version number from last summer’s Firefox 3.0.

Release notes from Firefox 3.5 Beta 4: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/3.5b4/releasenotes/

Courtesy ZitZot

Gain an edge in MMO games

2009-04-30T12:47:00.003+05:30

With the popularity of Massively Multiplayer Online games, it's not a surprise that the users will do their best to gain an edge over their competitors. In the hugely popular game - World of Warcraft, the easiest way to get an advantage over your fellow competitors is to use pre-played cheap wow accounts. These accounts are available widely over the internet but the question is, would you trust some anonymous user with a handle "wowaccounts1975" over the Internet?

If you value your money like me and want reliability, look no further than MMOA. They are a registered business in Alberta, Canada, which means that they're certified by the Registrar of Corporations in Alberta, so you know that it's not a fly by night operator who wants to fleece you. To keep their customer's safety in mind, they are certified by McAfee, a major Internet and computer security company, and Verisign, which provides secure certificates to the popular banking and merchant establishments online.

They stock plenty of types of Horde and Alliance accounts with different characters and features. All their accounts have been played by users in the North America and are sold pre-leveled. They have a 100% guarantee of the safety of the accounts. This means if the safety of the account is compromised, or if the account is disabled by the manufacturers, they'll try get the account reinstated or they'll give you a refund. This guarantee is obviously not valid if you share account info with third parties. MMOAccounts will even buy your old WoW user accounts. They are open 7 days a week and have a dedicated national and international phone line for support questions.

So if you're looking for a boost over the other players in the World of Warcraft, do give MMOA a look.

Virtual XP mode in Windows 7

2009-04-26T21:39:00.005+05:30

After my last post about Windows 7 here, you might be curious about the new features that MS hid from the beta testers but which will appear in the actual version. Microsoft Corp. will apparently unveil an add-on to Windows 7 that lets users run applications designed for Windows XP in a virtual machine — the first time Microsoft has relied on virtualization to provide backward compatibility.

Dubbed “Windows XP Mode,” the add-on creates an XP virtual environment running under Virtual PC, Microsoft’s client virtualization technology, within Windows 7, said Scott Woodgate, the director of Windows enterprise and virtualization strategy. In a post, he said the add-on is part of the pitch to convince businesses to migrate to Windows 7.

Details of Windows XP Mode (XPM) were first reported by Rafael Rivera and Paul Thurrott, two prominent bloggers who are also collaborating on a book, Windows 7 Secrets, due out this fall.

Windows XP Mode (XPM) requires processor-based virtualization support and is based on the next-generation Microsoft Virtual PC 7 virtualization technology, said Rivera, who also disclosed that Microsoft will include a fully licensed copy of Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) with the add-on. That, in effect, gives Windows 7 users a way to run older applications without having to pay for another operating system license. Rivera also touted, as had Woodgate, the ability to run Windows XP applications directly from the Windows 7 desktop without having to first open a separate virtual machine window.

Geocities shuts down!

2009-04-26T18:26:00.001+05:30

You guys probably already know this but let me say it again, Geocities has shutdown it's operations. It was on Geocities on which I set up my first "web site" in 2005. It consisted of just two similarly named pages sriram.html and SRIRAM.HTML. Tip: Hit ctrl+A to see all content in the latter webpage :). As you can see, my first serious attempts at creating a live webpage were replete with comic sans fonts, white font on white backgrounds, dialog boxes on entry, no index.html pages, scrolling text, attempts to provide background music and failing by using the wrong path and last but not the least, using MS Word to create html documents. Coding nazis, do check out the HTML source of the above mentioned pages to have hours of fun at my expense.

Coming back to the news, Yahoo announced on Thursday that it will shut down GeoCities, the Web site building business it acquired a decade ago. “We have decided to discontinue the process of allowing new customers to sign up for GeoCities accounts as we focus on helping our customers explore and build new relationships online in other ways,” Yahoo said in a statement. “We will be closing GeoCities later this year.” The closure is part of an effort to streamline operations at Yahoo, a plan that chief executive Carol Bartz outlined in more detail during the company’s Tuesday earnings call. “We are increasing investment in some areas while scaling back in others,” according to a spokeswoman. “For example, after careful consideration, we recently discontinued products such as Yahoo Briefcase, Farechase, My Web, Yahoo Audio Search, RSS ads, Yahoo Pets, Yahoo Live, Kickstart and Yahoo For Teachers, and outsourced Launchcast radio to CBS. We continue to evaluate our portfolio of products and services on a regular basis, and plan to share details of further changes with our consumers and partners in the months ahead.”

People with existing Geocities Web sites can still access and add content to their sites, but they will be shut down by the end of the year. “You don’t need to change a thing right now — we just wanted you to let you know about the closure as soon as possible,” Yahoo said in a FAQ on the Geocities site. “We’ll provide more details about closing GeoCities and how to save your site data this summer, and we will update the help center with more details at that time.” The company urged users to upgrade to Yahoo Web Hosting service. Yahoo purchased GeoCities in January 1999 for $5 billion.

Hidden Cameras

2009-04-22T11:21:00.004+05:30

Using a Hidden Camera in today's age is so ubiquitous in today's age that we don't even notice them. In fact we probably even use a couple of them ourselves. From nanny cameras to outdoor camera used in conjunction with a home security system to IP cameras that allow you real-time access to the video, anywhere in the world. I even own a small hidden camera in a pen to allow me to record unpleasant encounters with salesmen, customer service execs and for when I mystery shop.

It's quite understandable that this gets people all riled up about invasion of privacy and all that. The fact is that spy cameras and other secret surveillance techniques are double edged weapons. They can be used lawfully to protect ourselves and our loved ones and they can also be used for criminal purposes live eaves dropping and unlawful surveillance. As long as the surveillance activity is legitimate, it's OK with me. For example, I'm alright with usage of cameras in Banks, Automatic Teller Machines [ATMs], apartment entrances, retail stores etc.

Usage of nanny cams in your house is ethically a gray area. You can tell the nanny in the interest of her privacy that she may be monitored while in the home and risk giving her an opportunity to disable the camera, or you could simply use a hidden camera and protect your loved ones. In the end, since no two situations are alike, you will have to evaluate the pros and cons of using a hidden camera and see if it will be beneficial.

Gadget review: A "Bluephones" BT headset and an IK Colouring watch

2009-04-19T23:05:00.005+05:30

Guess what the stork delivered this morning?? A baby.. OK, not so much as a stork and a baby, it was my local postman with my latest gadgets. :) I was really surprised that India Post was able to deliver my parcel with today being Sunday and hence a postal holiday. Remembering not look at a gift horse in the mouth, I opened the parcel to find a nice chrono style automatic watch and an "around the neck" Bluetooth headset.

I call the watch "chrono-style" as it has the small round dials you see in a chronograph, but they show the day, date, 24hr notation and Day/Night indication. The watch is pretty solid like my other IK Colouring automatic. This one has a regular dial with three sub dials . They indicate the day, date and 24 hr hour notation. Just above the third dial is the Day/Night indicator. The date and day are both adjusted with the push buttons on the either side of the main crown. The watch doesn't work on batteries. Instead, it stores kinetic energy into a spring and slowly releases it to the movement. You can also screw the crown clockwise to wind the watch.

Couple of things I don't like about the watch are - No GITD[Glow In The Dark] hands and one of the two crystals for the"12" hour is crooked. You probably can only notice it up close but it's still a small design flaw in my book.

The IK Colouring watch with its warranty.

A front view of the IK Colouring watch.

A side of the IK Colouring watch - You can see the day/night indicator clearly.

A back view of the IK Colouring watch.

I wanted a bluetooth headset a while back because my regular Nokia wired headset kept in the way when I went jogging. It also kept slipping off. My two other bluetooth headsets kept slipping off as well. So I decided to but a thin and light A2DP compatible "around-the-neck" bluetooth headset. The Bluephones as the product is called, is a step away from the traditional around-the-neck headset placement. The Bluephones comes with two sets of molded in ear plugs that transform the headset to an in-ear model. As a result, ambient noise is minimized and the audio is pretty audible. The headset also surprised me with it's great audio quality. I had to charge it for 2 hours when I took it out of its packing. The left ear pad contains the charging slot, the indicator LEDs and the volume control buttons. The other pad contains a multi-functional button that handles calls, switches the headset on and off and pairs it. The right headset pad also has the next track and the previous track buttons. The smaller set of molded earplugs fit me perfectly and were very comfortable. The call handling was superb and the microphone picked up my voice really well.

If I had to grudge and find a flaw with this headset, it would be about the feel of the buttons. With the small size of the headset, feeling around for the buttons is awkward but you'll get used to it soon. The tactile response of the buttons are not the same. One had a lot of play when pressed and the other had very little. But that's probably a problem with my headset.

The "Bluephones" around -the-neck bluetooth headset packaging.

The "Bluephones" around -the-neck bluetooth headset rear packaging.

The "Bluephones" around -the-neck bluetooth headset opened packaging.

The "Bluephones" around -the-neck bluetooth headset.

The "Bluephones" around -the-neck bluetooth headset instruction manual.

Gmail auto-suggests contacts

2009-04-18T20:43:00.006+05:30

Gmail Labs adds a new feature to save time when composing messages—it can now suggest contacts based on the groups you email most often.

Enabling the feature works the same as all the Gmail Labs options—just head to the Labs tab under Settings and turn on the option. Once you've enabled it, you'll see suggestions once you've added at least two recipients to an email message. It's a simple but potentially great time-saving feature—just one of many Labs features you should enable.

Sounds like there might be a small possibility for emails to be sent by mistake. Maybe it should be paired with the drunken send check plugin. :)

Courtesy: Lifehacker

Webhosting for webmasters made easy

2009-04-17T22:56:00.004+05:30

When most people think about building or maintaining sites, they think about SEO, link backs, advertising and so on. But the most important item, that I feel, is finding the right host. Looking for the best web hosting for you is like looking for a house. You balance the features you need versus the payment you can afford per month. Like looking for the perfect house, finding he perfect host can sometimes be more than a little tiresome.

WebHostingChoice is a site that evaluates and provides rankings of web hosts on different criteria. They assign each host with a percentile score after evaluating their price, features, space, bandwidth and customer friendliness. They have several categories of hosts like Linux based, e-commerce, email and much more.

WebHostingChoice even has an advanced search engine that helps you refine the web hosts using categories like - cost, setup fee, bandwidth, disk space, host rating, types of features required etc.

One think I find that differentiates them from other host rating sites is their "Learning Center". It has a FAQ, a quick start guide, a brief overview of scams related to web hosting and a huge collection of resources designed to help a new webmaster learn about managing a site and about getting it up and running smoothly.

Summing up, I think WebHostingChoice provides a reliable rating service for both novice and experienced webmasters alike, with loads of resources and a killer custom search engine.

Spectrial verdict: ThePirateBay founders found guilty

2009-04-17T21:27:00.008+05:30

The wait for, what seems to be the most awaited trial in the IT community, is over. All four defendants were accused of ‘assisting in making copyright content available’. Peter Sunde: Guilty. Fredrik Neij: Guilty. Gottfrid Svartholm: Guilty. Carl Lundström: Guilty. The four receive 1 year in jail and fines of US$905,000 each.

After this shocking judgement, TPB announced it's intention to appeal on a post on their blog. Characteristically, they said -

So, the dice courts judgement is here. It was lol to read and hear, crazy verdict.

But as in all good movies, the heroes lose in the beginning but have an epic victory in the end anyhow. That's the only thing hollywood ever taught us.

- in a statement appropriately titled "2009 Epic Win Any How". Their home page seems to be echoing the optimism by saying -

Don't worry - we're from the internets. It's going to be alright. :-)

It appears that the court did not take any of the technical details tendered by the defense into account and only judged based on intent. They apparently found it obvious that it was the intention of the defendants to facilitate sharing of copyrighted works.

In a minor victory for the P2P'ers, while the judge stated that the usage of BitTorrent at The Pirate Bay is illegal, he did not order the site to be shut down.

Pro Memory Upgrade: Upgrade your RAM like a pro

2009-04-17T21:16:00.005+05:30

With the current economic crisis in mind, I'm sure many of you readers will put off buying a new new computer, be it a desktop or a laptop or a server. But to make most of the existing PCs, upgrading the components is a necessity. The easiest way to do this is by upgrading the memory of your computer.

Unfortunately, upgrading your RAM is not so straight forward. There is the issue of compatibility eg. Newer i7 Motherboards only support DDR3 RAM. You must also take into account the brand of the RAM modules - Brands like Transcend, Hynix and Samsung. Also important is the need to check if the "speed" of the memory module is supported by the hardware.

With so many little things to be taken into account while choosing RAM modules for your computer, MemoryUpgrade.pro offers OEM RAM solutions to match the hardware you have. So instead of looking at RAM compatibility, you just need to head over to their site, choose the make and model of your computer and you're done. By using the same OEM manufacturers, Pro Memory Upgrade ensures compatibility and reliability. Their site offers RAM intended for businesses - Servers[Like the Proliant memory upgrade expansions and the IBM eServer memory options] and for SOHO/Home usage - Desktops, Laptops and for motherboards[Like the Dell memory upgrade options].

So the next time you need to buy RAM visit Pro Memory Upgrade for superior RAM solutions and complete peace of mind.

Review: USB powered Numerical Keypad

2009-04-16T22:30:00.006+05:30

When you're working on a laptop or in a cramped desktop space for that matter, you would have found it difficult to enter numbers from the numeric keypad. Laptop users obviously find it even more so difficult as the numeric keypad is removed to save space. Instead, they have to play Twister with their fingers by holding a couple of keys pressed together.

My latest gadget acquisition, in what's been a very very long time, is the USB numeric keyboard from Budget Gadgets. This nifty lil' gadget is a small USB pluggable discrete numeric keypad, encased in rubber. It looks pretty sturdy and surprisingly has a firm footing. The gadget uses the HID[Human Interface Device] profile to effect a driver-less operation. You heard me right.. No drivers are required - this gadget is pretty much plug and play.

The keypad features a retractable cable system that allows you to customize the length of the usb cable to suit your convenience. It features a regular numeric keypad with an extra calculator hot key. I could feel my mom's eyes lighting up as she looked the keypad. She regularly punches in a lot of numbers as a part of her daily routine. This sort of a device would make the whole routine as painless as possible.

When you plug the cable in, the system recognizes it as a HID hardware and loads the drivers automatically. I've tried this with XP Pro SP3. Vista and Windows 7 should work similarly well. There is a red LED that serves as a num-lock status indicator. Once plugged in the keypad works as a regular numeric keypad. Pressing the calculator key caused the Windows Calculator program to open.

One amazing thing that I discovered is that playing FPS games with this keypad instead of the W-A-S-D keys is a killer combo with a mouse. It feels very ergonomic to have the keypad in my left had, slightly elevated; and the mouse in my right. :)

You can probably check out the different versions of keypads and keyboards available here:
http://www.budgetgadgets.com/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=Keyboard&imageField.x=0&imageField.y=0
If you do decide to buy one, be sure to use the Sriraminhell Blog's exclusive discount with the coupon code SM5OFF9 to get a 5% off on your order at Budget Gadgets.

Images:

Front packaging of the USB powered Numerical Keypad

Rear packaging of the USB powered Numerical Keypad

View of the USB powered Numerical Keypad

Connected view of the USB powered Numerical Keypad

USB powered Numerical Keypad at work on a laptop.

Source your communication products easily with MLCP

2009-04-13T21:41:00.004+05:30

With the current financial recession going on, it is prudent to use networking to the maximum extent, by relying on cost saving measures like telecommuting and video conferencing. But it makes sense to invest in reputed brands like Cisco instead of going to lesser quality brands which might cost you in the longer run. Multi-Link Communications Products[MLCP] are the leading vendors of communication equipment like Cisco Routers, Cisco Switches and transceivers from Juniper. That's not all, they have equipment from other industry standard manufacturers like Nortel, Adtran, Extreme and Foundry.

If you cannot afford to buy a new piece of hardware now, then you should probably go ahead and visit MLCP's site because they also stock used and refurbished equipment from the above manufacturers. They even have a rental/leasing program for the communication equipment if you need to try out a new hardware in your infrastructure. In the end by leasing from Multi-Link, you'll probably free up some capital that could be put to another use.

They are also the go-to guys if you need comm equipment like Cisco Hardware in a hurry. They have a large inventory that enables them to have almost every piece of equipment you'll need, ready to ship on your request. They also have international partners and with Worldwide shipping facility to enable you to get your much needed hardware immediately, wherever in the world you are.

So when you think about communication hardware sourcing, think Multi-Link Communications Products[MLCP].

ICICI bank ATM can peek into tomorrow's transaction!

2009-03-29T20:25:00.007+05:30

Indian private bank ICICI has apparently found a way to see into the future. When my mom went into the ICICI ATM at Velachery Road, Velachery, Chennai today and printed out her mini statement, look what the ATM spewed out:

Edit: The transaction in question is a cash withdrawal from an ATM from the morning. Just to make things clear.

Update: http://www.sriraminhell.com/2009/03/icici-bank-atm-can-peek-into-tomorrows.html#comment-4637832773832991574

Top freeware Java and Symbian applications for your mobile phone

2009-03-24T22:27:00.004+05:30

J2ME apps: For phones that can install .Jar applications. You'll need the .jad file as well in most cases.
GPS and Navigation: Trekbuddy , Google Maps , GPSed
Browsers: Opera Mini , Teashark
Chat and social networking: Nimbuzz , Mig 33 , YMess, Yahoo Go
Dictionary: English
Music Players: KD Player , Jam SE
File Explorer: FileExplorer
Religious: Quran, King James Bible
Book viewers: TequilaCat
Educational: Calcuphone
Email: Gmail

S60 V3 applications: For phones on S60 V3 platform like the N81 that can install .sis and .sisx applications.
GPS and Navigation: Nokia Maps
Browsers: Skyfire
Chat: Fring
Internet: Symtorrent , Nokia Internet Radio
Photo: Location Tagger
Music: TTPod, Ogg Play
Productivity Apps: Mobile Number Locator[India and Pak only], Sports Tracker, PhoNetInfo

These are the applications that I remember offhand. Do feel free to chip in with your comments, views and any other software that I might have missed.

As usual, I am not liable for any damages caused by using the software(s) linked to above and I do not provide tech support for them. The apps are hosted in third party websites and are out of my control.

Surveys from dNeero

2009-03-16T10:13:00.014+05:30

Here's something about fashion fads:

Here's something about the world of music and rock stars!

Talk about concert mania:

Lets fight cancer!

Celebrity tweets:

Obama rulez??

Re-mixing social media:

Twitter me up:

Israeli missile maker Rafael propositions India

2009-03-14T10:37:00.005+05:30

I couldn't resist posting this video:

The video that you just saw right now is what Israel's arms manufacturer, Rafael, showed the Indian Military at the Aero India 2009. They were apparently trying to lobby the military to buy missiles.

If you didn't know what was going on in the video, it was a Bollywood style dance number. The tune is indeed quite catchy but the characters remind me of actors from a 1980s B-grade Hindi horror flick.

Gizmodo

Exclusive: Hyderabad - Chennai flight path dissected!

2009-03-04T20:44:00.018+05:30

Last month, I went to Hyderabad to attend my best friend's wedding. Seizing the opportunity, I brought along my i.Trek M7 Bluetooth GPS unit with me into the plane. I had taken care to web-checkin earlier so that I'd get the window seat[A clear view of the sky is needed for good signal reception]. I just switched on TrekBuddy and set it to log the path of the flight into a gpx file.

On the flight from Chennai - Hyderabad, the GPS kicked in a good 5 minutes after takeoff, so that portion of the data is missing. The return leg as more complete data and I have used that data for the illustrations.

Aircraft: A320-200
Equipment: i.Trek Bluetooth GPS set to 1Hz refresh cycle[max is 5Hz] on a N81 running TrekBuddy.
Log Format: GPX
Analysis software used: http://www.gpsvisualizer.com
Flight Path: http://ponds.2002.googlepages.com/hyd_chennai.html

Analysis[HYD-MAA]:

Distance Vs. Elevation

Distance Vs. Speed

Distance Vs. Satellites

Distance Vs. Climb Rate

Combined

Download:
Chennai - Hyderabad
GPX : http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/5/20/1920680/maa-hyd.gpx
KMZ : http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/5/20/1920680/maa_hyd.kmz

Hyderabad - Chennai
GPX : http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/5/20/1920680/hyd-maa.gpx
KMZ : http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/5/20/1920680/hyd_maa.kmz

The KMZ files are to be opened in Google Earth. The GPX files have a time update error. An offset of -11 Hours should do the trick.

Update:

Here's a satellite shot of the landing at MAA:

The Times UK Labs has Blogged about us. Catch their post here: http://labs.timesonline.co.uk/blog/2009/03/05/measuring-plane-speed-from-your-seat/

Filesharing in your phone with BitTorrent

2009-02-23T14:41:00.010+05:30

Imagine this: You're on the way to an important meeting. You suddenly realize that you forgot to transfer your Powerpoint presentation onto your laptop or pendrive. What do you do?

One obvious solution is to ask your secretary to upload the file onto a file hosting website like Rapidshare or Megaupload so that you can download it from your mobile phone. The problem is that HTTP transfers on mobile phone connections are notoriously unstable for transfers more than 10-15 KB. Even more so when on the move. This is where BitTorrent redeems itself. You might know it as "Torrent" or "BT". BitTorrent has a very good error checking mechanism and can pause, stop and resume file transfers without any data loss.

BitTorrent is a technology that is specifically meant for fast and shared transfer of files also known as P2P(Peer to Peer) Sharing. While the technology behind BitTorrent is vast and not relavant right now, let me share with you the salient points. The explanations given here are highly simplified for content and space.

The person with a full copy of the file is called a seeder.
A person attempting to download the file is called a leecher.
To initiate the download of the file from a seeder, you need a torrent file. Simply put, a torrent file acts like an index of all the computers who have a copy of the file. It also contains a link to the torrent tracker.
A torrent tracker is a service run by a server that enables communication between the peer and seeder computers.

In our previous forgetful businessman analog, the secretary/collegue who has the file is seeder. You are the leecher.

To transfer the file from your office to your mobile phone via BitTorrent, you'll need the following:

1. A BitTorrent client on your computer. A simple freeware client that i recommend is uTorrent. The file itself is less than 300KB in size. You can download it here: http://www.utorrent.com/download.php
2. A BitTorrent client on your mobile phone. If you have a Symbian S60 V3 or V5 phone, get Symtorrent. For any other phones that support Java based applications[Most of the modern phones on the market do] use MobTorrent . To use MobTorrent, your phones must support CLDC 1.1, MIDP 2.0 and JSR 75. To know if your phone does support these specifications, visit your manufacturer's website. If you have a S60 V2 phone that doesn't support the above applications, give WizBit a try. Though it is no longer supported, it does work on old phones like Nokia 6600.

3. A Data plan or a GPRS enabled connection on your SIM card. Charges typically are about 1 paise per KB but don't hold me to it. A typical resume is about 50KB. So to transfer the file, you'll be charged about 50 paise.

4. An account with a BitTorrent tracker. I personally recommend and use ThePirateBay but you can use any other tracker.

The screenshots and procedure I will be following in this guide are from uTorrent and Symtorrent. If you are going to use other clients, the steps you need to follow will differ a little.

What your secretary/collegue needs to do:
1. Open uTorrent.
2. Go to File >> Create New Torrent or simply hit Ctrl-N.

Creating a new Torrent file in uTorrent

3. Browse to the directory where the file in question is located, and select it.
4. Add the tracker urls for the tracker site you selected. If you're using ThePirateBay, use the following trackers:

http://open.tracker.thepiratebay.org/announce
http://tracker.thepiratebay.org:80/announce
udp://tracker.thepiratebay.org:80/announce

5. Enter a comment if you need to, check the "Start seeding" option and click the "Create and save as" button.

Creating a new Torrent file: Filling in the details

Saving the new Torrent file

6. The created torrent file will have started seeding in the uTorrent window.

Seeding the Torrent

7. Go to the torrent tracker site and login and select upload torrent.
8. Upload the torrent by filling in the requisite details. The screenshot shows form for uploading a torrent on ThePirateBay.

Uploading the Torrent file in uTorrent

9. When you're done, go to the torrent page you've been given and download the torrent file from the site.
10. Send the torrent file via email or a file sharing site. A simple filesharing site I recommend is drop.io.
11. This part of file sharing is done!
Note: Since the created torrent file is about 1KB for a small file, downloading the torrent file via HTTP does not pose any problems. Also remember to keep uTorrent running until the file is downloaded on the mobile phone.

What you need to do:
1. Download the .Torrent file that your secretary/colleague sends you and save it on your phone.
2. Open Symtorrent.

Symtorrent

3. Browse, navigate to the torrent file and open it.

Adding the Torrent file in Symtorrent

Navigating to the Torrent file

Checking the hash of the Torrent file

4. The downloading process will automatically start.

Connecting to the tracker to retrieve the peer list

Downloading the file

5. Once the download status reaches 100%, press stop sharing and the file transfer is done.

Stopping the transfer

6. Instruct your secretary/colleague to delete the file from the tracker and exit uTorrent.
7. You've successfully transferred your file.

Opening the transferred file

Since the files that uploaded in the tracker are open for public download, it's recommended that you encrypt your files with atleast a 256 bit key. An easy way of doing it is to use WinZip or WinRar where this functionality is built in. Also do not forget to delete the upload from the tracker site.

For a more detailed readup on filesharing, P2P and BitTorrent checkout my earlier posts:
http://www.sriraminhell.com/2007/08/p2p-brief-introduction.html
http://www.sriraminhell.com/2007/08/peer-to-peer-ii-bit-torrent.html

3G services inaugurated in India

2009-02-22T11:25:00.007+05:30

This was a huge surprise. Chief Minister M. Karunanithi was hospitalized and was recovering so I didn't expect 3G services to be launched this month. Today's edition of The Hindu [22nd Feb 2009] carried a full page ad, on it's last page, about the inauguration of the 3G services in Chennai. The State telecom provider BSNL that gets first dibs at the 3G spectrum in India, as expected. Images below:

If you are a BSNL employee who can help me score a review/preview/soft launch 3G U-SIM, send me an email here:

I just won the 100 things to do in Las Vegas contest

2009-02-07T19:17:00.007+05:30

Thor over at Las Vegas had a contest on his blog almost a month ago. A gorgeous Flip Video recorder was up for grabs. The contest ended today and Thor just crowned me as the winner! Yay!!

For those of you just joining us, read about Thor's post on 100 things to do in Las Vegas here http://www.sriraminhell.com/2009/01/100-things-to-do-in-las-vegas.html

Naturally, I'll do a review of the video recorder once it arrives. :)

Nokia S40 hack: Access internet on your Nokia S40 phone

2009-02-07T18:05:00.015+05:30

I have always been frustrated that I couldn't use the Opera Mini or Gmail apps on my Nokia 5610 Xpress Music. Even though I had a working data plan, I would get message saying "Unable to connect" or "Needs a working Internet connection" or something similar. I recently found out that this was due to Nokia excluding a proxy setting for the Access Point.

A list of Nokia S40 phones: http://www.forum.nokia.com/devices/matrix_s40_1.html

What you'll need:

The .prov file for your operator
Two phones with Bluetooth

How to go about it:

Download the archive here: http://drop.io/nokias40
Find the folder with your operator's name on it
Copy the NokiaJAVAProxy.prov file to the friend's cellphone
Switch on your Bluetooth and ask your friend to send you the file[Needs object push mode, hence will not work with simple PC-phone transfers]
You dont need to transfer the .xml files
Save the settings and select the new proxy setting in your phone
Done!

Give it a spin by trying the Gmail App that can be downloaded here: http://www.google.com/mobile/default/mail.html

Please refer to readme.txt inside the zip file if you have have questions. I did not code the .prov files so I cannot answer your queries. And you'll still have to pay the data transfer charges for your plan.

The files and methods used here are legal. Nokia actually provides documentation on coding the .prov files.

Edit:
Supported operators-

Airtel (India)
Ancel (Uruguay)
BPL Mobile (India)
CellOne (India)
Cingular (USA)
Fido (Canada)
Meteor (Ireland)
MIC1 (Lebanon)
Mobitel (Slovenia)
O2 (Germany)
O2 (Ireland)
O2 (UK)
Orange (Romania)
Personal (Argentina)
Rogers (Canada)
T-Mobile (Hungary)
T-Mobile (USA)
Vodafone (Germany)
Vodafone (India)
Vodafone (Ireland)
Vodafone (Romania)
Wind (Greece)

OpenDNS update

2009-02-06T17:58:00.004+05:30

I have been in constant touch with Allison Rhodes and Marc Mirenzi at OpenDNS for the last 10 days about the website blocking problem. Though I still don't know what caused the glitch, everything's back on track and I now have my router on OpenDNS. Kudos to the OpenDNS team for having a great and responsive support service.

Book Review: The Paradise Trail

2009-02-02T15:31:00.004+05:30

I had this review written out over a week ago but I kept forgetting to post it. Here you go at last..

The Paradise Trail is the latest book by the British journalist Duncan Campbell. This book is set in the 1971's squalor and refugee filled Calcutta, with the Indo-Pakistan war underway and with the hippie culture at its peak. Anand is the unfortunate LSE graduate who unfortunately inherited the dilapidated Hotel Lux that serves as a transit motel for the hippies. While Anand tries his best to bond with his stoned guests, a series of events occur that leave an indelible impression in Anand and his guests' lives. Between the nightly blackouts, the threat of suspension of air travel, PR opportunities for journos, conducted by the Indian Army and a serial killer on the loose, Duncan Campbell does manage to stuff his readers with idyllic information about the hippie trail, the chequered backgrounds of Anand and his guests and some profound stoner quotes.

The story starts by talking about Anand, his time at LSE, the dependable Baba , his pals- Vanessa, Nii and Vic. Gordon and Larry are two permanent residents at Lux along with Freddie Braintree, who seems to be perpetually stoned; the Australian couple, Keiran and Karen; Hugh, the debauched Britsh journo; Britt, the pretty American photographer and the mysterious silent monk named Mudd. When two murders are committed with the same M.O. as the serial killings[called the "yin-yang murders"] in Mumbai, the story becomes a classic case of whodunnit with nobody above the suspicion. The suspense heightens when one of the victims is shown to be an undercover narc.

The story has two main sub-plots with Anand, Baba, Gordon , Larry, the hotel guests and the Murders in one and with Hugh, Britt and the war in another. Duncan seamlessly switches between the subplots and intertwines them without getting the readers confused. The book jump cuts, movie style, to 30 years in the future where the characters have moved on with their lives and the daughter of the dead undercover cop is intent on unraveling the mystery. I must also mention that Hugh's life seems remarkably similar to Duncan's.

Duncan Campbell draws on his experience as a seasoned crime correspondent at The Guardian to paint a wonderful story filled with period accurate details, dark comedy and an engrossing plot. While the story did progress rather quickly towards the end, with the missing pieces falling into place, one must not forget that for a first time novelist, Duncan Campbell has defied all expectations.

BSNL fuels hysteria among consumers with ill researched info!

2009-01-28T20:06:00.004+05:30

I've always despised the state run Telecom provider BSNL for its archaic equipment, its unwillingness to advance technologically, crappy customer care services, poor quality of networks and a seemingly unlimited amount of bureaucracy.

I spotted this notice, intended for mobile users, posted at the BSNL's Chennai site. I have annotated certain points that are IMO absolute rubbish.

Note #1
It is my opinion that BSNL created this page to cater to a wide customer base who are pretty new to the world of cellular telephony. Continuing in this logic, it seems ridiculous that BSNL would create a few statements that are not applicable to all of their customers. BSNL talks about the dangers of leaving your Bluetooth on or using anti-virus softwares for mobile phones but little does it realize that these so called tips are not applicable for a majority of phones in the Indian market. AFAIK, only phones running Symbian S60, Symbian UIQ, Windows Mobile and some other specialized OS'es have AV software and are even capable of catching a virus. Most of the phone running on a S40 platform or a modified S40 platform[Like what some Motorola, SE, LG and Samsung phones use] do not have anti-viruses and cannot get viruses as they cannot multi task applications. So they are unable to run AV apps or viruses for that matter in the background. The S40 platform has possibly the most stringent security measures that I have ever seen. Applications cannot gain access to important functions like read/writes, network access without a digitally signed certificate. Hacking into a phone via Bluetooth FTP protocol is possible but requires app permissions and in turn that requires signed cert permissions. Verify my claims here and here.

Note #2
As you can see here and here, these apply only to certain models of PBX's and certainly not to mobile phones, as BSNL falsely claims. Also BSNL goes for double word score by saying that using #90 or other combinations of the number will enable the caller to gain control of the SIM card. As a citizen of a developing country and as an Electronics and Communication Engineer, I feel ashamed and embarrassed that one of the most popular Telecom Providers employs people who don't bother to check/proof read the veracity of "claims" and "tips" that they receive via email. It is exactly this reason why more people switch to private Telecom operators everyday, who generally proof-read whatever goes on their websites and marketing materials.

Note #3
Where does a Telecom company get off asking it's users to use it's own service less? This is like Dell asking you to stop using their PCs and laptops a lot. I would agree to BSNL's suggestion/request if it provided unlimited voice and data usage and asked its customers to exercise restraint. But as most, if not all, customers pay a monthly rental + usage, what's BSNL's problem? Is it afraid that the customers are going to jam their network? If so upgrade your networks instead of asking your customers to tone it down. A part of the fee that we pay goes to the network's upkeep right?

Outside India, a prominent company like this would be subject to ridicule, if not sued, for its politically incorrect remarks, false claims and stupid requests. Most people in India possibly ignore this because they couldn't care less, than to visit BSNL's site, and also because they are lazy.

Stop sitting in your chairs and move forward. Spread the word. Tell the Government and PSUs that you want more technologically literate people behind the desks, than some pencil pushing, paan chewing bribe demanding officers who couldn't tell the difference between DVDs and punch cards even if it bit them on their ass.

Religion and God

2009-01-27T21:28:00.003+05:30

I recently had the pleasure to watch Bill Maher's Religulous. It is a good "documentary" but most the documentaries, believe it or not, are biased towards the directors' own thoughts and beliefs. I went back and watched Alexandria Pelosi's Friends of God and Richard Dawkins' The Root of All Evil?. Growing up in India, I have witnessed a melting pot of various beliefs, cultures, religions and denominations. Coming from a Orthodox sect of the Hindu religion, I have always felt that my family gave me the freedom to choose my own beliefs and reject others. I was encouraged to be scientifically curious and was never forced into believing something I did not.

Evolution

It is my opinion that the life on earth, or anywhere else for that matter, is based on the principle of probability. While I do not believe that God or any other supernatural force created life in 6 days, I believe that it is an extraordinary stroke of luck [read as odds that really suck] that life came to be created. I believe in evolution, that life evolved from a primordial soup to single celled organisms and to multiple celled organisms and so on. I can barely stop wondering about the kind of odds that life had for evolving from just a bunch of chemicals to a life form. This is where I believe that a force does exist. Call it fate, providence, luck or just probability, it does certainly exist. Imagine evolving from a single celled organism smaller than anything the naked eye has seen to something 6 feet tall is certainly miraculous. If we are the product of a successful combination of the right amount of chemicals, imagine how many failed tries it would have taken before life began. Earth is certainly very old. The oldest fossils that man has discovered are the Stromatolites. They date back to 2.724 Billion years ago. Stromatolites are formed when sedimentary grains are trapped by microbes [more specifically the cyanobacteria]. So life is at least that much old. This clearly refutes the belief that earth is about 10,000 years old. So is all this a play set forth by a secret cabal of scientists to fling mud at religion?

I am all for kids learning about religion to learn more about their own background, what their religion is all about and so on. I draw the line at having evolution being banned at schools. What next? Are the red states going to ban courses teaching archeology? This is ridiculous. Being from India, where this kind of tomfoolery is restricted to the references to the ruling political party in textbook, I can hardly believe that any Government can officially recognize a few lines from a book that consistently contradicts itself. Do not think that I am intolerant towards the Bible; it's just that this kind of crap happening in a superpower, that cannot keep the church and state separate, is unnerving. When I thought that having a President who claimed to be able to talk to spirits was embarrassing, I can only imagine how ashamed the citizens are in the USA.

Books

Every religion has it's own religious texts. The Christians have the Bible, the Jews the Torah, the Muslims the Quran, the Hindus the Mahabharata and the Ramayana and so on. While no one knows who exactly wrote them they have become the standard on which the religions are based. My oldest memories of the religious books are from the stories my grandfather used to tell me every night before I went to sleep. But they were more like moral stories. So rather than believing that the events described the books actually happened, I just understood the morals. I believe that the Books are little more than stories compiled together, edited to form a folklore. Their main purpose was to sustain the people's faith of which I will talk about later.

Is it so difficult to understand the overall idea of Book tells us than actually taking it at its face value? It just tells us that stealing, fighting, etc are bad things to do. The book calls it sins, we call it crime. The Book punishes the sinners by throwing us in Hell, we punish the guilty by prosecuting them under the law. Sound familiar? The Books are just a collection of wise sayings, quotes and stories that are meant for man to keep order and to instill faith that wrongdoing will be punished from all costs.

Faith

What is faith? Where do we draw the line at before it crosses into fanaticism? These are the kinds of issues we must address before we attempt to make peace amongst ourselves. Faith in God is simple to understand. We all have friends, real or imaginary, whom we confide in, ask questions, attempt to seek answers and just talk to. This is God. The proof that He exists and that we are not just a bunch of lunatics praying into the tin air is called faith. We all have faith in one thing or another like the judicial system, our friends, kids and so on. Faith is good as long as we keep it restricted to ourselves. When we throw our faith about in the public, that's when it all gets nasty.

When things don't work out the way they are supposed to, people just lose faith. The same applies to religion. If we want something to happen and we put our faith in god and it doesn't happen we'll get sorely disappointed. This is another reason why we have religious books. Think of the tales in the Book like the customer retention department a company has. Its job is to tell you that there were several other people who've been affected in the same way you have been, but persevere and you'll be saved in the end.

Beliefs

We all have certain beliefs and superstitions typical to our religion. Some of them are actually true, while some are just ridiculous. For example, I have to take a bath after I attend a funeral. This is pretty logical considering that this keeps the mourners from contracting any disease that might have killed the deceased. On the other end of the scale, there is this belief that we have to take bath and prepare food afresh after a solar eclipse. It is my principle that I try to adhere to any belief of my religion as long as it does no harm to me or to others. It's just basically a thought of "Big deal. Let me just follow it. I'm not losing anything". One thing that I cannot condone is sacrifice in the name of religion. In Kolkata, during the Kali festival, many lambs, goats and bulls have been sacrificed to please the God.

Ideally, it is upto us to choose a common denominator among our faiths and believe in it. But practically, it would probably be the best if we kept our faiths and beliefs to ourselves and stop peddling it to everyone. It would also be wise to keep religion and state separate. I am not an atheist. I have faith in God and pray to him daily and hope that my prayer is fulfilled against the odds. I might be wrong in some of my beliefs or judgments and I'd really love to hear about it in the comments. Cheers!

OpenDNS screws up!

2009-01-26T10:14:00.006+05:30

I woke up this morning trying to access Gmail when it said that OpenDNS had blocked it. Ditto for Google, Google Docs, Youtube and Yahoo!. Removing the OpenDNS servers and replacing them with the ISP supplied ones work so I assume the problem is with OpenDNS.
Screenshots: The messages are self-explanatory, so no captions

Update: http://www.sriraminhell.com/2009/02/opendns-update.html

Weird traffic stats!

2009-01-23T22:16:00.003+05:30

After posting the two previous posts today, I checked statcounter and whosread, when I found 131 users online on my blog and that most of the referrers came from the Blogger navigation bar. :)

Whosread screenshot:

Statcounter screenshot:

I hate the Establishment!

2009-01-23T21:07:00.005+05:30

Let me say this out loud first. I hate the corrupt Indian politics and bureaucracy that are now the hallmarks of the Indian Government. If you haven't read my previous posts on this topic, I suggest you do so now: http://www.sriraminhell.com/2007/06/first-post-on-my-blog-story-my.html http://www.sriraminhell.com/2008/06/typical-indian-bureaucrats.html and http://www.sriraminhell.com/2008/07/counter-terrorism-in-india-truth.html.

I was travelling on the MRTS, from Velachery to Thiruvanmiyur, today to cancel some railway tickets. On the return train, I noticed that the doors of my compartment had actually corroded/mauled to an extent that the jagged metal was a real danger to the public. Pictures below:

For the record this is the train that arrived at 18:53 at Thiruvanmiyur station on 23rd January 2009.

I have absolutely no idea where to lodge a complaint. The Station Master probably doesn't have "jurisdiction" on this. Ideas and suggestions are welcomed.

Television shoot!

2009-01-23T19:33:00.006+05:30

The team from the soon-to-be launched ND TV-Hindu news channel came home today for a show called Bytes[Hope I remembered it correctly]. The topic was my eStore and it went really well. We had an amazing time with the shoot, though it lasted for 6 hours!! I had a lot of fun showing off my gadgets ;) and a couple of them made it "on air" as well. I'll definitely try a cap of my segment when the show airs[I dont know when] or try to get a clip from Dinesh or Prathiba[Hope I pronounced your name correctly!].

P.S. The ND TV-Hindu news channel will be initially launched as a free to air channel!

Vote for my blog!

2009-01-18T22:57:00.005+05:30

I've just registered for the Best Geek Blog award. Do vote for me here: http://bloggerschoiceawards.com/blogs/show/65590

A mistake occurred when I was sending out invites to my friends to vote for my blog. i hit "select all" in the contacts page of my gmail account and I sent an email to everyone on my contact list, to vote for my blog. My gmail account was also temporarily disabled for 24 hours. I have setup my email to be sent from another account but the jury is out on that.So if you are one of the unintentional recipients, please accept my profuse apologies. Cheers!

Nokia 5610 firmware version v9.40 released??

2009-01-16T00:18:00.011+05:30

I just came across this post from a guy at Nokia Discussion Forums about the v9.40 firmware being released for the Nokia 5610 Xpress Music. Naturally I got all excited and checked it out. Google showed me a site with the following info:

Nokia 5610 RM-242 CareDP 20.0 Global
DP Information:
---------------------------------------
DP Name: Global
DP Filename: rm242_CareDP_20.0_Global
DP Type: Care
DP Version: 20.0 MAJOR
Description: GLOBAL Data Package

This was followed with rapidshare links for 500MB worth of files.

I've attached the screenshot below:

http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/5/20/1920680/5610-v9.40-leaked1.png

I also found the info on a Chinese forum. Screenshot below:

http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/5/20/1920680/5610-v9.40-leaked2.png

Hope it gets released by the NSU and I can update it from PC Suite soon!!

100 Things To Do In Las Vegas

2009-01-11T21:41:00.003+05:30

Thor at Things To Do In Las Vegas writes about Vegas and its attactions. Most tourists do the usual circuit without going off the beaten track. Thor has a wonderful post up, about 100 things to do in Las Vegas. Even if you end up doing only half of them, I'm sure you'll have one amazing experience!!

Google's new favicon

2009-01-10T10:03:00.006+05:30

What do you think of Google's new favicon. Haven't seen it yet? See it now:

(Converted to PNG)

or

http://www.google.com/intl/en_ALL/favicon.ico
(Direct link)

My blog has been reviewed!

2009-01-09T22:03:00.008+05:30

My blog has been reviewed at ixibo.com. Click the icon below to read it!!

My online store

2009-01-08T07:44:00.001+05:30

Here is the address to my online store:
http://store.sriraminhell.com

Here's a direct address:
http://sriraminhell.zendfree.com/

Windows 7 Build 7000: An installation guide

2009-01-04T18:31:00.011+05:30

With all the hoopla surrounding Microsoft's forthcoming OS, Windows 7, I decided to take a sneak peek. So here's a tutorial that will allow you to dual boot Windows 7 with ease.

Windows 7 (formerly known as Blackcomb and Vienna) is the working name for the next release of the Microsoft Windows Operating System after the not-so-popular Windows Vista.

I'm using Windows 7 build 7000, but these steps should be valid for newer or older builds. We will be dual booting Windows 7 with a pre-existing Windows system[Windows XP in my case]. The system requirements are quite low. It runs "faster than XP" on my 4 year old system with the following specs:

2.4Ghz Single Core P4 processor
512MB DDR RAM at 133MHz
Intel 845 GVSR mother board with integrated graphics card[64MB shared memory]
80GB HDD with an 8GB partition for Windows 7

My Windows Experience Index and detailed specs: http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/5/20/1920680/wei.pdf

I was creating an 8GB partition on my HDD with Paragon Partition Manager, when a random voltage spike caused the computer to restart[The UPS failed to switch to battery]. The MBR was corrupted and I couldn't log in to Win XP or Ubuntu. I booted up Puppy Linux from my USB drive, Googled around and found a solution. I inserted my Win XP Pre-SP1 CD and went to recovery console and used fixmbr. After a reboot, I was able to boot in to XP and browse the C[NTFS] partition, but my D[NTFS],E[NTFS] and G[EXT2] partitions were missing. I then installed the Active Partition Recovery software and after a quick scan, it found and recovered the missing NTFS partitions. So back up stuff before you attempt partitioning or installing the OS.

Create a partition of atleast 8GB and format it as NTFS. There are several tools available from Partition Magic, Paragon or you can even use the one available in the control panel.
Burn the Windows 7 iso into a DVD or mount the ISO. I prefer IMGBURN.
Set the BIOS to "not to boot from the disk". The OS will boot several times and it HAS to boot from the HDD each time.
Auto run the CD in the pre-existing Windows installation.
Choose install type as custom, and choose the partition you need to install Windows 7 in.
The install took me an hour with several reboots.

Now you're done. Simple huh?? Quite fast, painless and not remotely fussy. You'll notice that a new Windows 7 OS selection screen has been installed. To boot XP/Vista, choose the "Earlier installed Windows OS" or something similar. Don't forget to install an antivirus[Avast works fine] and FireFox[Firefox 3.1 beta 2 works fine]. Windows 7 comes default with IE 8 Beta, but I'd just stick to FF. If you want to update your Windows 7 install with a newer build, pop in the DVD with the iso and select upgrade while logged in Windows 7.

Windows 7 desktop

Hope this helps you guys on the fence, the guys who want to take a look at MS' new XP [Yeah, I said it] but don't want to take some unnecessary risks. Enjoy and please do comment on your experiences or share your thoughts below. Cheers!!

Slideshow of screen shots from Windows 7 Build 7000: http://albums.phanfare.com/slideshow.aspx?u=6794639&a_id=3215149

My first post in 2009 and a huge surprise!!

2009-01-02T21:48:00.008+05:30

I have a big surprise for you guys in this first post of 2009. But let's start with the pleasantries first. I hope that you guys had a very good New Year 2009 party. Me, I spent the night of 31 Dec watching episodes of "Friends". :(

Going back to the big surprise now, my good friend Joey's younger brother, John, has designed a logo for my blog. I asked him to work on the Orangeman Burns theme and I must say that he's done an absolutely stunning job. So it's my pleasure to share with you guys, the first ever Orangeman Burns logo and mascot:

Cheers!!

Happy New Year 2009

2008-12-31T23:59:00.003+05:30

Happy New Year 2009 guys!! 2008 has been a wonderful year for me and the blog and I hope that you guys had a good run as well. But however 2008 was, let us move on into the future and look forward to a year full of joy and festivities. Here is a cheesy graphic to start your new year off. :)

P.S. I just set the auto scheduling feature of Blogger to post this message at 23:59PM on 31/Dec/2008. So if is earlier or later, blame the Blogger Team. ;)

Top 5 technology and gadget releases to look out for in 2009

2008-12-31T19:56:00.012+05:30

Here a list of the top 5 tech releases to look out for in 2009.

5. Nintendo DSi: The DSi is the newest evolution of the Nintendo DS series. It is a handheld gaming platform that features dual LCD screens, WiFi and a veritable bevy of games supporting it. The DSi was launched in Japan in November 2008 and is scheduled for a worldwide release in H1 2009. It comes with two VGA cameras, a 3.2" screen, an SD slot and upgradable firmware. Online markets called DSi shops provide the user with several free and paid games downloadable over WiFi. The DSi does away with the GBA slot, which is probably a heart break for old school gamers. It will retail at about $185[Rs. 9300].

The Nintendo DSi in white and black.

4. Android based phones: Android is a new OS intended for mobile devices [read cellphones]. It is an initiative of Android Inc. [Now owned by Google] and has its roots in Linux. It was recently showcased in the HTC G1 released on the T-Mobile network in the US. The main USP of Android is its customization and easy access to the code. The developer base is also very big resulting in more applications. Being a newly released software, it might still have a few bugs; but with the kind of collaborative support Android has, they'll get ironed out soon. Motorola, Lenovo, Sony Ericsson and Samsung are all set to release their G1 based phones in 2009. It remains to be seen if any of those phones would ever make it to the Indian market.

The Android logo

3. Intel i7: Intel core i7 are the new series of desktop processors and the successors to the very popular Core 2 series. They have support for DDR3 RAM which was until last year used in GPUs. DDR3 RAM has quite a bit more bandwidth compared to the current DDR2 RAM and also is more efficient. The Intel i7 also boasts of a feature known as "turbo boost" that overclocks the actives cores in steps 128Mhz as long as the temperature and voltage readings are within the threshold levels. Intel has also brought back Hyper-threading for its processors in i7. Look out for the i7 series processors for a serious performance boost albeit at a higher cost. Price ranges from Rs. 14,000 for the Intel i7 920 model to about 50,000 for the Intel i7 965 series.

The Intel i7 processor

Intel i7 processor logos for the "regular" and the "extreme" models.

2. Nokia 5800: Nokia 5800 is Nokia's latest addition to the much vaunted Music Xpress lineup. Nicknamed "the tube", it is Nokia's first touch screen intended for the popular Symbian S60 platform. It is marketed as the iPhone killer and is scheduled to be out Q1 2009 in India. It matches the iPhone feature by feature and is even cheaper [Rs. 25,000 for the Nokia 5800 Vs Rs. 32,000 for the Apple iPhone 3G]. It features a S60 V5 OS, 3.2" display with a 16:9 aspect ratios, optimal for wide screen videos. It bests the Apple iPhone 3G by supporting video recording at VGA, has a 3.2MP camera with auto focus and has memory slots for expansion. The camera comes with dual flash and even supports GeoTagging, something Nokia perfected with its recent N Series models.

The Nokia 5800 in all its "the tube" like glory

1. 3G in India: The biggest event that Indian techies are waiting for is the unveiling of 3G networks in India. While 3G is on a trial run in New Delhi, it is to be launched in H1-2009. 3G [3rd Generation] is a standard for mobile networks which replaces 2.5G. The most important change that 3G networks will bring is higher bandwidth. This means that Indian mobile users will be able to browse faster sometimes even at speeds rivaling their home connection. While MTNL/BSNL have first dibs on 3G release, private operators like Vodafone and Airtel cannot be too far behind. 3G will also usher in a new era where video streaming and video conferencing is possible and where users will not have to block images/flash to speed up the browsing experience. On the flip-side, considering the current prices for data plans, 3G services will probably cost and arm and leg to use and you do need to own a 3G capable cellphone to use the high speed goodness.

MTNL's 3G service. Getting a graphic for it was really hard to find. :)

Do you think I have missed something out?? Do tell me in the comments!!

Windows 7 Beta 1 Build 7000 and me

2008-12-29T09:43:00.003+05:30

I'm just downloading the leaked Windows 7 Beta 1 Build 7000 version. I'll probably try it on VM-Ware first and then partition a 10GB sector off my HDD and multi boot(?) it with XP and Ubuntu. Hope the Windows 7 install doesn't wipe out the grub loader. I've enough troubles as it is. :)

On the bright side, if Windows 7 at this early stage can run on my 4 year old comp, Windows 7 is officially cool. Wish me luck!!!!

Guest Post 2 - How The Simpsons Can Help

2008-12-29T09:32:00.004+05:30

The Simpsons. An innocent show, right? Wrong. I was watching an episode the other day called Natural Born Kissers where it was Homer and Marge’s 11th Anniversary. I think every anniversary they’ve had in that show so far has been their 11th because they never get older. But that’s besides the point. Their marriage had lost that spark and they began looking for new ways to arouse themselves to get back in the sack (or rock the casbah, as they kept referring to it). The episode had so much sex reference that I found it hilarious, and it’s even funnier that it’s a kid show.

What Lesson Can We Learn From Here?
Now in my blog I often give dating advice for men, and after this Simpsons episode, I thought about how relationships, just like anything in life, get quite boring and repetitive after sometime. It’s very important to recharge your relationships no matter if it’s only been two months or ten years, routine is boring, and reinventing yourself to bring excitement and spark to your love life is a must. In the episode, what worked for them best was the risk of getting caught sleeping together. They kept doing it in the most public places, right under the noses of their Springfield community. And the closer they got to getting caught, the more excited they got. For men and women of the real world, it isn’t much different. Sure, public indecency might not be your thing, but it’s important for the man to think of something. Plain sex is fun the first few times you do it with a new partner, but once you’re both acquainted with each other to a point where it’s routine, then add either some kink or some danger into the mix.

Revive
Guys, for some a good way to bring back the spark is by going on vacation and re-embracing your love and passion for one another. For others, it’s bringing out the whip and showing a new side of you that you weren’t ready to show before. And for many, it’s just rekindling your spark with originality. Showering her bed with rose petals just for the hell of it, or surprising her by playing “your song” and cooking up a romantic dinner for her should do it. Those sound like clichés but they tend to work. If you can, take a few minutes to actually think about something the both of you will enjoy and that will help you rejoice in the passion you once felt for one another in the early stages.

A great quote I picked out from that Simpsons episode was when Marge asked if Homer thought it was wrong that they had their hands in each other’s pockets because they loved each other, Homer replied, “I don't think anything I've ever done is wrong.” That’s the mentality people should have. And when it comes to trying to innovate your love life, routine is a killer, so anything new you try is basically an improvement.

This is a guest post from Robby G at Shite I Like

Merry Christmas and a very happy new year!!

2008-12-25T15:32:00.007+05:30

Orangeman Burns wishes you a warm and merry Christmas and a very happy New Year!!

A dancing Santa Claus (with my face) was featured here for Christmas 2008. It got pretty non-festive after Christmas so I have shifted it. To view Sriram Sridharan as the "dancing Santa", click here: http://ponds.2002.googlepages.com/santa.html

Guest Post 1 - Computer Hacks and Tricks for your life

2008-12-19T18:54:00.005+05:30

This weeks' guest post is by Sjay from http://crazzycool.blogspot.com . Enjoy his post!!

When you hear the word 'Hack', first thing that comes to anyone's mind is cracking the passwords to go into someone else computer and hacking websites. However, the following computer hacks and tricks can help you in many ways.

How many times you have forgotten your password for files, zip files or even for Windows? I have gone through this ordeal a couple of times. The simplest solution for forgotten passwords is to break the password and get access to your important content. If you do a Google search you would be able to download couple of good programs to retrieve windows passwords. Ophcrack XP LiveCD (latest version as on time of writing is ophcrack-xp-livecd-2.0.1.iso) and Ophcrack Vista LiveCD (latest version as on time of writing is ophcrack-vista-livecd-2.01.iso) are simple programs that can be used to retrieve your lost windows XP or vista passwords. Although the concept does have its cons, you can use them to make your life easy.

I was keeping these Programs in a CD for any emergency until I went through the article describing a step by step guide to install an OS into a USB memory stick. This simple hack makes the life easy and bit more secure by keeping the above LiveCD in a USB memory stick.

Mastering how to do a Google search is a better way to make your life easy. It is a fast moving world everything keeps on changing and it is really hard to learn everything as it goes. Behind the simplest webpage you will be able to find out anything you are looking for. It is really important to understand trusted sites and use Google to find what you want. Google is a better tool to make your hacks and tricks better and learn new hacks to solve your problems.

CrazzyCool is the place to share computer and internet related hacks, tricks and tweaks. You can always make better hacks and tricks out of them. Knife can be used to stab a person or cut vegetables it all depends on the person who use it not on the knife. Hacks and tricks are same.