DIGITAL AND TECH

Microsoft launches DreamSpark in India!

2008-11-08T03:35:00.000-08:00

On 5^th November 2008, Microsoft unveiled DreamSpark - a software giveaway for an estimated 10 million eligible students in India. DreamSpark will provide students access to the latest Microsoft developer and designer tools at no charge.

Microsoft DreamSpark will be available to all students whose studies touch on technology, design, math, science and engineering. The software available to students will include:

Microsoft developer tools

Visual Studio 2005 Express
Visual Studio 2005 Professional
Visual Studio 2008 Professional
Visual Basic 2008 Express
Visual C++ 2008 Express
Visual C# 2008 Express
Visual Web Developer 2008 Express
XNA Game Studio 2.0
12-month free Academic membership in the XNA Creators Club

Microsoft designer tools

Expression Studio 2, including

o Expression Web

o Expression Blend

o Expression Design

o Expression Media

Microsoft platform resources

SQL Server 2008 Developer
SQL Server 2008 Express
Windows Server 2008 Standard Edition
Virtual PC 2007

Training Resources

IT Academy Student Pass

This broad range of professional-level software will be available both online via www.dreamsparkindia.com; and in offline format via DVDs distributed by program partners NIIT, Aptech and Hughes Net Fusion Centers. A student merely needs to offer a proof of identity at a branch of these institutes to avail of a DreamSpark DVD. There are 125 NIIT, 175 Aptech, and 200 Hughes Net Fusion Centers participating across the country.

These program partners will also provide technology training on the DreamSpark software tools at a nominal cost; as well as have the option of soft skills training in languages like English and Hindi. Microsoft India is also working with academic institutions, government bodies and student organizations across the country to ensure that all students get a chance to benefit from DreamSpark.

The DreamSpark program in India is tailor-made to join the dots between software access and employability - which means making training and enablement complement simple access to technology.

DreamSpark will also facilitate student participation in Microsoft’s annual marquee contest, Imagine Cup, through various contest categories such as software design, short films, photography etc. Students from India that qualify for the Imagine Cup 2009 World Finals will get to travel to Egypt. Selected teams will also get the opportunity to get mentored by the Centre for Innovation, Incubation & Entrepreneurship (CIIE) at IIM, Ahmedabad.

Addressing students and academicians at IIT Delhi – where the DreamSpark program was unveiled - Bill Gates, Chairman, Microsoft Corp, said, “We want to do everything we can to equip a new generation of technology leaders with the knowledge and tools they need to harness the magic of software to improve lives, solve problems and catalyze economic growth. Microsoft DreamSpark provides professional-level tools that we hope will inspire students like you to explore the power of software and encourage you to forge the next wave of software-driven breakthroughs.

Compiling Singularity

2008-09-28T20:16:00.000-07:00

Its been a long time since I posted.. have been very busy lately, but with some time well spent; tinkering with the Singularity RDK 1.1

So finally I managed to install .Net framework 1.1 (Required to compile Singularity) on Vista.. One hell of a job. You will have to slip-stream both .net1.1 and .net1.1sp1 into a single exe and then install it on vista..

After spending hours on installing .net 1.1 and compiling World Distro and Tiny Distro of Singularity, I finally hosted it on a Virtual Machine for the first time.. here is a screen shot.

Currently running the world model.. Will post more soon.. gotta rush and complete some pending files.

Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP)

2008-09-14T09:03:00.000-07:00

Hello all, so here is my first post on urjit's blog : www.thenewtech.blogspot.com .. I have been keeping tabs on VRRP lately so decided what better than this to kick-off..

Prologue: This series is about a recently developed approach undertaken by a number of network administrators to provide better availability of the critical network components in a complex network. They take aid of the virtualization construct and implement it on the router. We’ll see how this actually happens. As such this is a wide topic in its own right and so I’ve decided to partition it into a number of posts. I would be dealing with specific areas in each post to provide a sound understanding of the underlying concepts and the related issues.

Introducing - Harsh Dhulia

2008-09-14T04:19:00.000-07:00

Lets the drums roll... switch on the lights... here comes a new messiah of technology.. Introducing our new "Guest-Column-Write" : Mr. Harsh Dhulia, (HD for short)

So, HD is an enthusiast who digs Information Security and Networking.. all pdfs on these topics are devoured like hot cakes. For times to come, we will see a lot of articles by HD on my blogoshpere..

HD will also share his C# programming experiences at http://www.csharpinmylife.blogspot.com/. His other areas of interest include Virtualization and Operating Systems (we share these interest though..)

So welcome Harsh, looking forward to your expert columns here..

Microsoft Mindstorm

2008-09-14T03:47:00.000-07:00

On 30th of August, we finally witnessed the Microsoft Mindstorm at Ahemdabad. We had been planning for such a long time for this, with a lot of initial set-backs right from unavailability of auditoriums to clashing schedules, but finally the event was a huge success.

While planning for the event, we never imagined such a huge response, the seating capacity of the auditorium was about 370 something.... and the total turn over was over 480 students who attended the event. Those who reached late even sat on the stairs!! Whew! that was a very good response to the event..

There were 5 sessions at MM:
1. LINQ by Anand MSP - Kamal Singh Rawat
2. .Net 3.5 features and framework by DDIT MSP - Dhara
3. The third one was a session on Silverlight by our new MSP Acad program manager at Microsoft - Siddharth Prakash.
4. There was a short session by a SQL server MVP - Mr. Pinal Dave
5. Session on NextGeneration Technologies was delivered by myself - Urjit Singh Bhatia, I talked about Cloud computing, Virtualization and the likes.. you can find some articles on Cloud Computing on my blog..

In the end there was a quiz and algorithms round, very entertaining I must say.. All in all a huge success. The press and media coverage are awesome, we got media space on 3 dailies and 2 news channels.. WOW!! Here is the video..

Microsoft Student Partner Lead

2008-09-14T03:41:00.000-07:00

There it is, the email announcing that I have been promoted to the rank of Microsoft Student Partner Lead for the year 2008-09.. wow! that feels really good. I have been so busy these days.. So this email was a great break from the monotony of all that truck-load of work. The other Leads are:

1. Kaushal Bhavsar
2. Lakshman Srikant
3. Mayur Tendulkar
4. Raveesh Maaya
5. Biyan Bhar (Edit 18-sept-2008 - sorry, forgot to add the name, thats what happens when u have 3 projects and the same deadlines!!!)

So a total of 5 leads were announced for this acad schedule.. Congrats to all and thanks to the India MSP Acad team.. you guys really rock!

Compiling the Cloud…

2008-09-04T19:01:00.000-07:00

Cloud Computing... The future Haze.

2008-09-02T06:17:00.000-07:00

Cloud computing has been in the news, a lot actually..

Understanding the cloud:

Cloud computing refers to a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) IT paradigm, where the end-user does not know (or have to know) where the IT enabled service is hosted, maintained or stored.

The end-user is simply assuming that the service is somewhere there in the “Cloud”.

Here is a typical Cloud architecture : There can be many background services making up the cloud, DataStorage, Applications, Infrastructure etc, with virtualization adding another dimension to the whole 'Cloud' scenario. The 'Cloud Clients' can be anything right from Mobile Clients to desktops to laptops on Wi-Fi, and as the concept goes, the Client is totally oblivious to the technology in the background, accessing software as a service just as we use electricity on use per unit basis. In the future of things to come, we might be using Visual Studio "Online Edition" and compile our programs on a transparent third-party server and simply save the code on our disk. Pay for as many hours you use the service!!

This is the excerpt from my presentation at the MicrosoftMindstorm - a student DevCon at Ahemdabad on 30th August.

Intel's peek into the future...

2008-08-23T07:27:00.000-07:00

Yes, thats right. Intel is eagerly looking into the future.. The CTO of intel - Justin Ratter, whose job is not about the current products but about the shape of technology (of-course Intel's) 10-20 years from now, disclosed plans for some real eye-candy tech in the recent technology conference Intel Developer Forum (IDF). There were some very cool niche technologies on display (or rather early prototypes).

1. Programmable Matter - Imagine a small crystal ball in your pocket, you step out of the house and put it on the ground, and presto! it turns into a Lamborghini! Reach your office and it turns back into the humble crystal ball. Put it on your desk and it turns into your Power Packed desktop...
Intel wants you to take this flight of fantasy and its working its way to the future with Programmable Matter - > small pellets of matter having a small processing core, independent memory and an electrostatically determined orientation with other pellets. They can shift shape (rather orientation wrt each other) and turn into a solid object as per "program". Imagine a solid model of a car in-design which reflects each change in design instantly for the designers to see if it looks good.

I will post the other 2 tech sneak peaks in the next posts. Have to go to a party tonight.. :)

Windows Live Messenger - 9 its a WPF baby

2008-08-15T00:39:00.000-07:00

Microsoft's next in the Windows Live Messenger series is expected to have some serious eye-candy, all thanks to Microsoft WPF. Its going to be something looking very cool and probably the Vista Client will make some cool use of Aero like GUI extensions. It is still under wraps, but boy, we sure love to anticipate..don't we?

Convert C++ code into DNA?? Whew! what an idea...

2008-08-13T11:53:00.000-07:00

Ever imagined a technology where you could write a nice C++ program, compile and debug it and then finally cross-compile it to be represented as a DNA sequence!! Sounds pretty cool, right?
Someone's already did it for PERL code and he expects to use BACTERIA as a hard (or soft?) disk... Just write your code, convert it into a DNA sequence, synthesize it in your futuristic multi-million dollar lab and inject it into a Bacteria Culture... and there you go!! Organic RAID storage of the future!! Imagine using bacteria culture dyed onto CD like platters..

Microsoft's Open Source Wing

2008-08-11T06:58:00.000-07:00

Microsoft is bracing the OpenSource ideology as a part of its initiative towards future trends in computing. CodePlex - hosting open source projects is a supported partner of Microsoft. On offer for Developers is Microsoft support for starting with OpenSource projects. Check out Microsoft Open Source website here.... It has good sections for Learning about the tools available for the OpenSource venture.

CERN fears allayed..

2008-08-10T11:46:00.000-07:00

In a comment to my previous post about the CERN's Large Hadron Collider,

Moody wrote:

"According to Sean Carroll (of Cosmic Variance), the likelihood of there being a dangerous black hole created is 0.0000000000000000000000001%. That's far, far, far less than a one in a million chance."

Thanks to Moody for sharing this information...

CERN - gifting you a black hole this season

2008-08-10T09:08:00.000-07:00

CERN's latest project - The Large Hadron Collider is going to gift you a probable Black Hole. The CERN LHC lab will be creating small black holes by smashing protons and consider the tiny possibility that one of those cute little black holes gets hungry at the wrong time..

Fortunately, the chances of that happening are really small. But we dont want it to be that particular one in million case where things do go wrong..Good luck to the CERN scientists and hope their computers dont crash in the middle of the experiment.

MSI offers ATOM based Laptop

2008-08-07T11:36:00.000-07:00

As I was reading in a tech magazine, MSI's advertisement for their laptop U100X caught my attention. The specs are like this:

Intel ATOM processor (1.6Ghz,512K L2, 533 Mhz FSB)
10" LCD
HDD, Full size keyboard... and so on..

How successful the ATOM processor is on a laptop is yet to be seen. I guess MSI is trying to offer a mobile Internet Device with the ATOM.

In another news snippet some time back, I read that a cell phone powered by the ATOM processor was running Windows XP without hiccups!! whew! seems like cell phones are going to pack more punch than ever. The touted power consumption is like 0.35W at idle load!! Intel engineers are working real hard... Keep it coming people..

Intel ATOM vs AMD Bobcat!! The processor wars

2008-08-04T11:25:00.000-07:00

I had once posted about the Browsers wars.. the classic tug-o-war between IE and FireFox and as they say - history repeats itself, this time its the "Low-Wattage-Processors wars". Not much after Intel's ATOM hit the commercial market, rival AMD has burst the Bobcat bubble.

AMD's Bobcat is their answer to Intel ATOM and is designed for low power consumption functionality. These are targeting the Mobile Internet Device segment in the market. AMD Bobcat will be formally announced in November later this year. Some rumored technical specs say that the proccy will run at ~1Ghz with 128KB L1 cache and 256KB L2 cache.

Comparing both ATOM and Bobcat, the power consumption of Bobcat is likely to be around 8 watts - about three times more than that of ATOM, but Intel's design lays the extra burden of the NorthBridge running at 6 Watts, so the total touches almost the same figure in both architectures.
AMD's solution includes an integrated NorthBridge. The end point is that the commercial IMD segment is going to grow in leaps and bounds now and we can expect many price drops in the near future..

Busy with EXAMS!!!!

2008-07-20T11:52:00.000-07:00

Stuck with prep for multiple exams here.. CCNA and then GRE on 28th July.. and what not..so wont be able to post much this week or two.. Hope my GRE goes well..Wish me luck guys!

Virtualization Ahoy!!.

2008-07-15T00:00:00.000-07:00

Looking at a lot of info about Virtualization, and especially Microsoft Viridian, I see there are various twists and turns to the whole issue..

PROS..

Same Hardware but multiple software roles.. Imagine Print Server, File Server, RADIUS Server etc all on the same machine but on different OSes.. So any admin repair to the File Server that needs a re-start or suspension of the service wont affect the other services.

CONS..

At the same time, the hardware proves to be a single point of failure. what if the parent OS goes down??

Singularity - Series III : Look into Contract Based Channels(CBCs)

2008-07-07T07:42:00.000-07:00

CBCs - Contract Based Channels can be thought of as Pipes in the conventional OS analogy. CBCs are used for communication between SIPs (Software Isolated Processes).

A CBC is bi-directional and both end points are predefined in terms of functionality, working as an in-order message queue.. The bi-directional CBC's two ends are called as Import End (Imp) and Export End(Exp). The CBC is managed by a predefined protocol that is established by the two communicating SIPs.

Thus the 'Contract' in Contract Based Channel defines the arguments and the protocol that will be used during the communication. It also specifies that the protocol applied to one end i.e. either the Imp End or the Export End will not the inter-changeable.

By the details in the research papers, one can confer that the CBSs are owned by exactly two threads.. that is, one end of the CBC is controlled by one thread exclusively and other end by the other and cant be shared by any other thread of any other SIP. This will force the designers to re-think how multiple threads will communicate with each other. There might be a hypothetical situation where say more than 2 threads need to work on the same set of data, in that case maybe there is some mechnanism for chaining the CBCs.

Visual Studio 2008

2008-06-27T17:48:00.000-07:00

Here come the Visual Studio 2008, having used the Team Edition, I bet its the best IDE yet. I liked LINQ the best...

The flexibility to loosely declare variables (a La Javascript) is a cool feature..

var myVariable;
myVariable = 10;

now the 'myVariable' variable that was generically declared as 'var' assumes the functionality of a qualified int. The reflection can be immediately seen as soon as the variable has been 'type-defined'.

LINQ -

int[10] myInts = {.......};
var Query = from number in myInts where number <6 style="font-family: courier new;">

Microsoft XNA 3.0 CTP - made for the ZUNE experience

2008-06-20T11:59:00.000-07:00

Microsoft XNA 3.0 CTP has been touted as the next-gen Game Development Platform released by Microsoft. With support for Zune, enthusiasts all over the world are busy making games for the ZUNE platform, throw in some wireless support and you have a frag happy tag match....Read more on my original Channel8.msdn post..

Microsoft Singularity - Series II

2008-03-21T13:04:00.000-07:00

Somehow, the Singularity project has something that keeps you coming back to update. As I promised, I delved into the innards of Singularity and today I read about the Software Isolated Processes (SIPs) in Singularity.

Basically a SIP is a holder of processing resources and
provides the context for program execution. Unlike
traditional processes, SIPs take advantage of the type and memory
safety of modern programming languages {C#(Sing# in this case)} to dramatically reduce
the cost of isolating safe code.

Execution of each user program occurs within the context of a
SIP. Associated with a SIP is a set of memory pages containing
code and data.

The best feature of using the SIP architecture is failure isolation, which I believe is very important in the OS purview.

More on MBP- Manifest Based Programs in the next post..

Microsoft Singularity - Series I

2008-03-15T12:17:00.000-07:00

I have been reading a lot about Microsoft Singularity, the nex-gen OS research platform and since I have not been updating very regularly lately, what better than Singularity to start with...

What has caught my fantasy in the Singularity Project is the amount of code that has been written in higher level languages, especially C#, breaking the age-old adage that 4th Gen and higher Languages are not meant to write OSes. Around 80% of the source code of the Singularity project has been written in C#. Actually, the Singularity is not an OS in itself, its a platform that allows you to code specifically tailored OSes with an eye into the future, giving emphasis on modularity and impregnability of process memory.

The 3 pillars on which Singularity, conceived in 2003, stands are - Software Isolated Processes (SIPs), Manifest-Based Programs (MBPs) and Contract-Based Channels.. There are many more features that show a radical change in the architecture of OSes that we should look forward to in the near future.

Watch this space for an in-depth analysis of the Singularity architecture.

Imagine Cup 2008

2008-01-27T11:05:00.001-08:00

Image Cup -08 is awesome, and the best news is that I have qualified for Round 2 in Project- Hoshimi Programming Battle!!
Lets see now, the round 2 starts on 15th Feb, till then I have to learn every small thing in the whole Project Hoshimi Namespace.
This time its going to be the expert group.. Hope, I can make it through. I am going to Paris!!

Noise cancelling headphones.

2008-01-19T10:20:00.000-08:00

I was browsing around for some good headphones and found this web site where they have very nicely organized the headphones based on ranking, quite solved my problem. My old headphones were broken a few days back - the wire snapped. They were cheap ones, just temporary so now I thought that I go ahead and get myself some real good "Noise Cancellation Headphones"..
Initially I got lost at ebay! thousands of fakes every where. But WIZE.com has a great listing of headphones from quite a healthy mix of brands: panasonic, Digital Age, Shure, Koss, JVC.... the list goes on.
I also liked the filtering system, so I could filter by brands, type, cost etc.. great website design deserves a mention sure.
I shortlisted the following :

Just love the looks of the ER20BP!
I have put a screen shot of the website for you guys out there to look at.. quite nice design i must say again.

Canon Debuts First High Definition Solid State Camcorders

2008-01-19T09:57:00.000-08:00

Canon took its first step into the solid state category. This recording platform format is expected to overtake both DVD and HDD in coming years.

The HF100 ($899 MSRP) and HF10 ($1099 MSRP) both record high definition video in the AVCHD codec, while The HF100 records exclusively to SDHC memory cards, while the HF10 records to memory cards and an internal 16GB of flash memory.
Canon also announced three standard definition solid state camcorders.

Both models pack some real fire power in terms of recording capacity:
The HF100 and HF10 capture stills up to 2048 x 1536, about 3.1 megapixels. The camcorders operate primarily by the joystick, and once again, feature a full complement of manual controls, including focus, exposure, Aperture and Shutter Priority modes, Program AE modes, white balance, and more.

Of Bugs and Foxes(Fire)

2008-01-15T09:40:00.000-08:00

According to a mail that I got from TechRepublic, FireFox and other open source softwares in the browser family are more prone to attacks than Microsoft's technology.. Now thats really going to put a very happy smile across the faces of the MS guys! The legendary battle goes on..

Australia Ahoy!!

2007-12-18T10:49:00.000-08:00

Jimmy, Ankit and Hersh are going to Australia! They came over yesterday and showed me the trip details brochure.. Here are some of the gr8 things that everyone is looking forward to...

Gold Coast attractions: Beaches, Shopping, theme Parks.

Surfers Paradise attractions: Beaches, Shopping, theme parks.

Adelaide attractions: Churches, local wineries, murray river.

Perth attractions: Beaches, Wineries and Fishing.

They booked their tour through the online booking agents : cheaper than hotels, which is an agency based in Australia itself, but is quite famous for its ease of use with foreigners. Seems like they are going to have a lot fun.
Jimmy was most excited about the visit to Gold Coast, particularly cuz that little wimp got the cheapest rates at the hotels that he booked through his travel agency website, and Hersh was all cheers for the 3 days stay at Adelaide (particularly since there are famous wineries there :) )

I am myself most happy that I will be able to join the gang at Perth, although I will miss the fun at Gold Coast and Adelaide, all since my university delayed the exam sched due to local elections... Oh! I hate politics, else I would have enjoyed my new year in Australia.
Nevertheless, Here I come to Surfers' Paradise!! (albeit a lil' late :() )

Motorola 1600

2007-12-15T10:45:00.000-08:00

The MotoMing A1200 was cool phone. I had checked it out when a friend of mine got it for himself.. Cool interface but I was still expecting more from the body design. I think that the wait is over now.. the new A 1600 looks gr8, but it will still be quite a few months before it hits the local shores.. Hope I can get one.

Treo™ 700w PDA - the handheld beauty

2007-10-01T09:03:00.000-07:00

Hi all.. I have bought a new Treo 700w PDA about a week back through the internet. This is a really cool product. I just love the features it offers : - broadband-like speeds, rich-media.. It runs on the Windows Mobile® platform. Its has great voice mail facilities too. I was talking to a friend of mine who recommended this online shopping portal, where i got this thing - shopping.com There are a lot more models available on this website, I would especially recommend the one with Verizon CDMA service. They also have car chargers for most of the products of the Treo range. I just loved the simplicity of the shopping experience. Here are the specs of my piece.. the majestic Treo 700w PDA ---

4.4 by 2.3 by 0.9 inches and light enough (6.4 ounces) for travel. it fits into my pants' pockets real easy :) .
integrated QWERTY keyboard.
Speed-Dial by Photo (COOL)
Visual Voice-Mail Commands
E-Mail Wizard

Go get yourself one guys...asap. :)

Open Laszlo

2007-09-29T11:04:00.000-07:00

I tried Open laszlo a few days back. Seems to be a really promising package there. Its based on an Ajax like execution pipeline, it updates the online content dynamically without need for refreshing the pages. You can build applications in Open Laszlo with the LZX framework and deploy them SOLO or proxied with the open laszlo server. I am planning to develop an application, lets see hows it moves on. But running Tomcat server on my machine makes it gasp for fresh air more often than a drowning cat. Hopefully am going to get an upgrade soon.

Intel Says Itanium Road Map on Schedule

2007-09-18T13:33:00.000-07:00

Intel Itanium Road Map is right on Schedule: "Intel is preparing to stick with its Itanium processor for some time to come."

Intel disclosed its Itanium road map June 14, and officials said Intel will deliver the refresh of its current 'Montecito' processor by the second half of 2007.

Late 2008, Intel will deliver its next-generation Itanium, code-named Tukwila. It is a quad-core processor that will support 8 software threads simultaneously, taking con-currency to the next level.
After those two processors hit the market, Intel is going to launch another Itanium chip, which has been code-named 'Poulson', and it will be built with Intel's 32-nanometer manufacturing process. That processor will be followed by another chip called 'Kittson.'

Blogsvertise - Thank You

2007-06-22T12:59:00.000-07:00

Blogsvertise is a web service which allows bloggers to earn money along with doing the thing they like to do the most - blogging. Blogsvertise sounds very good and they have a very relaxed set of norms. Any one with an 30 day old blog can sign up with this service and earn money by reviewing about the products of the advertisers. Even advertisers can sign up and use the new channel of blogs to advertise for their products and reap great benefits of easy publicity. Go here to register...

A.L.I.C.E

2007-06-22T12:07:00.000-07:00

Today I had a nice chat with ALICE. The AI enabled bot at alicebot.org. It was a great experience but the poor thing broke up after 3 questions and actually requested me not to ask anymore questions. For all those who are sitting with their retinas focused to the screen and are simultaneously twiddling their thumbs, this is the place to go. The AI bot is a great thing to chat with. Try to match your wits with it.

HEAT->Sound->ELECTRICITY

2007-06-13T23:24:00.000-07:00

A physicist has recently submitted a report on conversion of Waste heat to sound and then to Electricity. They call it an Acoustic engine.
With technologies like this, we have at least some hope of reversing the damage we have caused to our planet.

Virtualization all the way..

2007-06-10T10:29:00.000-07:00

Hi folks. I recently installed a virtualization layer manager : Altiris Software Virtualization Solution. It is a really great software. After installing it, I installed Nvu and Open Laszlo server and set data capture for both these programs. The best part is that i can selectively choose which layer to start and which to block. This keeps the clutter of shortcuts away since the icons for the inactive layer are hidden from user view.
Here is a guide:
1. Go to www.altiris.com and download the virtualization server.
2. Install the server, in the last stage of the installation process, you will be asked to connect to the server and obtain a personal license key, which is obviously free of cost.
3. After the install completes, restart your PC.
4. Whenever you want to install a new application, first start the virtualization server admin console and then select File - Create new layer...
5. Here type in the name of the application and then browse to the location of the setup of the application.
6. The admin server here starts the setup itself. Just wait till it gets over and you are done.
7. The next time you start the PC, just go to the admin console and choose : Activate layer and all icons and shortcuts will be available.

The best part of this software is that it is free of cost and that any harmful changes made by the installations can be controlled and undone by simply deleting the layer.

Next time I will touch upon how to create a data layer and its benefits...

Added functionality in blogger

2007-05-28T23:25:00.000-07:00

Just browsing the site and I saw that we can now blog from google docs and spreadsheets directly. Earlier there was an option to blog from mail but this is getting better. I think that it is good that google has adopted blogger so us bloggers can get some great features. Lets say another feather in google's cap!!

DLP chip from texas intruments

2007-05-28T13:06:00.000-07:00

Guys this is a great thing. the folks at texas instruments have come up with a new type of projection system called as the DLP projection system using millions of tiny mirrors to project light. It has contrast ratio never seen before and awesome image quality. It does not use electricity for the core function. The mirrors are mounted on tiny arms that change the orientation of the mirrors to reflect the light in the required order.
cool stuff.

Apple no the iTV track!

2006-09-13T07:25:00.000-07:00

Apple hopes people will buy the gadget to get the movies and other media they buy from the iTunes store via their PC on to other devices around the home - especially the TV.

Toyota puts eyes in back of drivers' heads

2006-08-27T04:11:00.000-07:00

These days auto companies like to very much be in the news; be it launches of concept cars, mergers, new assembly lines, or some new technology brought to life right out of a sci-fi movie. Just the case with Toyota. A hi-tech safety device developed by Toyota means accident-prone motorists will no longer be able to use the excuse that they don't have eyes in the back of their head.The Japanese carmaker claimed today to have pioneered the first system in the world to warn drivers of possible collisions from behind.

A radar fitted in the rear bumper detects approaching vehicles and, if a crash appears imminent, alerts the driver by setting off hazard lights, said Toyota, the world's second biggest carmaker after General Motors in the US.

If a crash occurs, sensors detect the position of the driver's and front passenger's heads and automatically move their headrests to reduce the risk of whiplash.

'World's Smallest' External DVD burner by Plextor

2006-08-27T04:01:00.000-07:00

Aimed at owners of ultraportable laptops that tend to feature bulky external drives (if they feature any at all), the latch-loading, 2/3-inch thick PX-608CU supports dual-layer DVD burning at up to 4x, single-layer DVD burning at up to 8x, and CD-R/RW burning.

read more | digg story

High mileage Fuel Additive!!

2006-08-26T14:41:00.000-07:00

Recently a man in India has claimed to have produced a plant based fuel additive, which not only increases the mileage of vehicles but also drastically reduces the toxicity of the exhaust! He is being offered a helping hand by IIT Guwahati where they have already conducted preliminary tests and have verified the claim.
They have tried the mixture - petrol+additive on various engines in their laboratory and the professors at IIT Guwahati are amazed at the results. Rumours are that Indian Oil and other petro co's are eyeing this man's progress. The petros' are waiting to get a hold of such a technology as soon as its success becomes totally verified by experts at IIT. At times of such high fuel prices this technology could be a welcome change. We hope for the best to come...

Great digital cameras!

2006-08-26T14:00:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine had asked me to compare digital cameras, of lower-middle segment, so i had done a lot of market survey and then i came up with this master list... These cameras are the best to bring out the fun and creative side out of you. CLICK HERE to see the list.

Technorati listing

2006-08-26T13:46:00.000-07:00

technorati.com is the best place to come to if you are regularly lost in the blogosphere! It is like a neatly-done index of all the best blogs from all around the world and here is my claim code!!

Sony PS3: Saving The World For Real This Time

2006-08-26T11:40:00.000-07:00

Sony PS3 is in the news and this time it is expected to do some more general good than satisfying gamers.. Sony says that it has demonstrated a piece of software for the PS3 that will aid in the mapping of protein folding. The software is part of the Folding At Home Project and works like many other existing programs, pooling idle computers together to create supercomputer power. Looks like good times ahead but some people are certainly thinking hard about the price tag that is going to follow.

Microsoft to Outsource Zune to Toshiba

2006-08-26T11:38:00.000-07:00

Microsoft's iPod competitor will be 30GB, wireless, and manufactured by Toshiba.
The FCC documents specify that the Zune will have a 30GB hard drive, an FM tuner, and a three-inch low temperature polysilicone display screen.

Apparently "DJ" has become a verb, because the Zune will have wireless LAN so that users can "DJ" their songs, or beam them to each other's devices. Users can also "DJ" photos, album art, entire albums, and playlists. The network, called Plyxis, allows users to scan any available content around them or turn off their device so their content is private.

According to the user's manual submitted to the FCC, "Pyxis allows you to stream music to up to four other Pyxis devices. If you wish to 'DJ' content to other devices.

Symantec Sues Microsoft to Stop Vista

2006-05-20T09:12:00.000-07:00

Company claims Microsoft is wrongfully using its Veritas storage technology in the next version of Windows.!

IBM to help build $100 million supercomputer center

2006-05-12T12:10:00.000-07:00

IBM, in conjunction with other companies, will help build a supercomputer center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The center is expected to develop new semiconductors and advance nanotechnology.

Microsoft's XBox 360 Chartbuster sale!!

2006-03-30T21:11:00.000-08:00

Microsoft's X-Box 360 console has broken all records for the sale of a games system in Australia. The next-generation console went on sale this week, shifting 30,421 units and 60,000 games.

The Xbox 360 sold three times as many as the last big console launch in Australia, when Nintendo's GameCube shipped 9,190 units in its first week in May 2002.
However, the precedent for strong console sales in Australia was set by Sony's PlayStation Portable, which clocked up 27,055 sales in its first week in 2005.

Google, EarthLink Join on San Fran Wi-Fi

2006-02-23T09:57:00.000-08:00

EarthLink said Wednesday that it had joined forces with Google to submit a proposal to build a public Wi-Fi network in the city of San Francisco. The plan calls for a two-tier business model, with a free network operated by the search giant, and a faster fee-based service operated by EarthLink.

Rotten Apple! New worm for OS X

2006-02-18T11:15:00.000-08:00

The latest worm/virus body to attack the concieved safe Operating system...
The Inqtana virus, discovered yesterday, spreads via the Bluetooth wireless capability. But Apple has already fixed the security hole that Inqtana seeks to exploit.

The OS X / Leap-A virus, detected Thursday on a forum popular among Mac users, spreads via instant messaging once a user downloads and installs it. A software update wouldn't stop Leap-A from spreading; users just shouldn't download files from unknown sources, experts said.

Google's Book Business

2005-11-05T23:21:00.000-08:00

Google is trying to put in full effort for it's virtual-digitized library but it is facing a double jeopardy!

One is from the Copyright legislators and other is from business rivals Yahoo! Inc. and MSN who have come up with similar plans, this seems like the classic war of media corporations similar to the racket cooked up by the video format war by the CD/DVD manufacturers..
Way to go oooogle.

IBM SLOWS DOWN LIGHT!!!!

2005-11-03T05:33:00.000-08:00

IBM creates chip to slow down light!

IBM has created a chip that can slow down light, the latest advance in an industrywide effort to develop computers that will use only a fraction of the energy of today's machines.

The chip, called a photonic silicon waveguide, is a piece of silicon dotted with arrays of tiny holes. Scattered systematically by the holes, light shown on the chip slows down to 1/300th of its ordinary speed of 186,000 miles per second. In a computer system, slower light pulses could carry data rapidly, but in an orderly fashion. The light can be further slowed by applying an electric field to the waveguide.

The catch, however, is that until recently, creating optical components has been more of an art than a science. The components cost a lot to make and can't be cranked out in the millions like silicon chips. Another factor: Optical parts are typically big, unlike silicon chips, which measure only a few millimeters on a side.

Related: Quantum Computing.

ViSTA - the next view!

2005-11-01T03:37:00.000-08:00

Vista- (Code name Longhorn) the new OS from the Microsoft labs is set to hit the market soon, but with a sour taste. It requires high hardware capabilities. So you need to upgrade your hardware in order to take better of the OS.

YONAH - pentium next!

2005-10-31T08:34:00.000-08:00

YONAH is the next processor in the pentium M series of processors. It is a dual-core CPU unit manufactured using the industry's latest 65 Nano meter silicone chip manufacturing process.

Intel Inc. has designed this dual-core chip starting from scratch!
It is targetted for the Pentium M and Celeron M series of processors.

Head lines

2005-10-03T06:45:00.000-07:00

1> Paramount Home Entertainment has decided to offer high-definition versions of its movies on both HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc, the company said Sunday.Paramount Home Entertainment has decided to offer high-definition versions of its movies on both HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc, the company said Sunday.

2> Microsoft has announced that it will be supporting PDF files in the next version of its Office software suite. Office 12 will have a 'Save as PDF' function to create a PDF and electronically distribute a read-only version of the document.

3> The astronomers who claim to have discovered the tenth planet in the solar system have another intriguing announcement: It has a moon.

2005-09-24T08:45:00.000-07:00

Quantum Computing- It is based on the theory that an atom can represent two states say, 0 and 1 at the same time and thus improve the speed of calculation by simultaneous processing by exponential terms. The qubit processors 3 Bit registers may hold all the 8 binary combinations in the same bit. This can be explained with the help of the picture. What happens when a beam of light (ie photons) is projected at a semi reflective mirror? simple, half the intesity gets deflected and half is trnsmitted. But what would happen if only 1 photon is projected on the semi-reflective mirror? complex, the single photon cannot be divided into two halves so that each half takes the available paths. Actually the photon takes both the paths at the same time! This is the fundamental principle behind quatum computing. Representing 0 and 1 by the same state. Let's hope these machines become viable in the near future......

AWEsOME BaTTERies

2005-09-23T05:29:00.000-07:00

Toshiba's new Li-on Batteries recharge 60 times faster than conventional batteries and can reach 80% recharge value in under a minute.
Nanotech to the rescue, Toshiba says "The nano particles quickly absorb and store the vast amount of lithium ions without causing deterioration in the electrode."

Also, these batteries have a long life cycle,even after 1000 discharging/recharging cycles, it's storage capacity reduces by just 7% and it can even operate at very low temperatures. These wonder Batteries are expected to be out in 2006 & will have applications in the automobile industry at the max. because of it's small size, low weight and safety level. These batteries sure have an advantage over the conventional batteries.

WAR OF THE TITANS-EMAIL STORAGE SPACE!

2005-09-22T08:31:00.000-07:00

YES! They are the 21st century Titans- YAHOO!, GMAIL, AND .......... MAIL2WORLD.COM.

Yahoo! Inc. and Gmail have already put cheese on butter; with their mammoth storage space per email account. While Gmail still keeps counting........ Yahoo! gives crisp fact....... Mail2World gives........well infinity (/\). True to the word I have heard, they give an unlimited storage space.

Way to go Yahoo and Gmail....

WiMax! -an INTEL STORY...

2005-09-08T08:15:00.000-07:00

INTEL has just announced the availability of it's first metro area wireless technology- WiMax.

Silicon product equipment makers and servicer provides can now start to deliver broadband wireless networks if they want to!

Let's hope so! Some carriers arround the world have already announced their plans to start testing and comsumers will be able atleast have an experience of the WIRELESS HIGH SPEED BROADBAND.

There are predictions that WiFi and WiMax markets are going to score up to $29.3 million of revenue by year 2008!

HotSpot in the Arctic!

2005-09-04T10:43:00.000-07:00

Two Russia based Intel employees have set up a HotSpot at an Ice Camp,which is roughly 80 Kms from the North Pole. An irridium satellite phone powers the 1st HotSpot of the Arctic region and has been set up with the CENTRINO equipment.

Google Earth, Google Moon, and Beyond?

2005-08-20T11:36:00.000-07:00

When Google released Google Moon yesterday I wondered if providing imagery of the Moon was just the first step. Does the Googleplex have plans to provide imagery for the entire solar system?

No official word yet BUT I have learned that Google just registered domain names for the entire solar system and beyond.

Of course, this might just be the Googleplex making sure others don't get the names but you never know. Google is so good at keeping people talking, guessing, and speculating (aka creating buzz).

Here's a list of the domain names Google registered on Tuesday:

Googlegalactic.om

Googleuniverse.com

Googlegalaxy.com

Googlesolarsytem.com

Googlesun.com

Googlemercury.com

Googlevenus.com

Googlearth.com

Googlemoon.com

Googlemars.com

Googlejupiter.com

Googlesaturn.com

Googleuranus.com

Googlenepture.com

Googlepluto.com

In case you're wondering, Google also registered variations on these names.

They also registered these domains for .org, .net., and info.

"PC -TO -PC CALLS FREE WITH YAHOO! MESSENGER"

2005-08-20T04:32:00.000-07:00

^check out the free call story!

YAHOO!'S NEW MESSENGER GIVE YOU THE OPTION TO MAKE FREE PC TO PC CALLS. COMPLETE WITH RINGTONES AND STUFF. ANOTHER NEW FEATURE IS THE VOICE MAIL, SO YOU CAN LEAVE OFFLINE VOICE MAILS TOO! AND SIMILARLY GET THE RESPONSE THROUGH VOICE MAIL(V.M. seems a good abbreviation).

'GIVE THE NEW MESSENGER A TRY'

YAHOO! JUMPS INTO COMPETITION WITH ADSENSE!!

2005-08-11T05:05:00.000-07:00

YAHOO! Has jumped into competition with Google Adsense, although the system is currently supposed to be available in the US. That is a drastic marketing maneuver forayed into by Yahoo.
It certainly means more opportunities for publishers and advertisers alike. Wonder, if you could place both the ad-codes on the same page! Pretty amusing sight(:->)

NO ONE ALIVE TODAY WILL EVER SEE THIS AGAIN.

2005-08-10T07:16:00.000-07:00

The Red Planet (MARS) is about to be spectacular! This month and next, Earth is catching up with Mars in an encounter that will culminate in the closest approach between the two planets in recorded history.
The next time Mars may come this close is in 2287. Due to the way Jupiter's gravity tugs on Mars and perturbs its orbit, astronomers can only be certain that Mars has not come this close to Earth in the last 5,000 years, but it may be as long as 60,000 years before it happens again.
The encounter will culminate on August 27th when Mars comes to within 34,649,589 miles of Earth and will be (next to the moon) the brightest object in the night sky. It will attain a magnitude of - 2.9 and will appear 25.11 arc seconds wide. By August 27, Mars will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye. Mars will be easy to spot.

At the beginning of August it will rise in the east at 10p.m. and reach its azimuth at about 3 a.m. by the end of August when the two planets are closest, Mars will rise at nightfall and reach its highest point in the sky at 12:30a.m. That's pretty convenient to see something that no human being has seen in recorded history. So, mark your calendar at the beginning of August to see Mars grow progressively brighter and brighter throughout the month.

Share this with your family, friends, children and grandchildren

VoIP - An informal introduction

2005-08-06T11:09:00.000-07:00

VoIP (Voice over IP) is the method of sending voice conversations over the internet.

VoIP converts analog signals from a phone into a digital format and makes it compatible to be sent over the internet and then converts it back to analog at the other end. There are two methods by which you can make a call using VoIP:
The first method is to use software like ‘Skype’ .
It can be used to call any number from your computer using a headset.

The second method of using VoIP is to use a phone that has an adapter, which is connected to a broadband connection.

The catch is that it is much cheaper to use VoIP than conventional phone lines.

FUTURISTIC COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY

2005-08-05T12:31:00.000-07:00

Mobile guide

A mobile phone that serves as a city guide and map. Siemens recently integrated an A-GPS receiver weighing just ten grams into a mobile phone. A-GPS stands for Assisted Global Positioning System, a satellite-supported navigation system that turns a new city into familiar territory. To determine your current location, you just select the map application of content provider Map24.

Lasers sculpt miracles- tiny wonders of the 21st Century

2005-08-05T12:28:00.000-07:00

Intricate sculptures far smaller than a grain of sand? New Scientist meets the micro-Michelangelos

IT COULD be the world's smallest fence: a chain of five crude, squarish links is strung between posts just 40 micrometres apart. This microscopic barrier marks the threshold of a new world of fabrication.

The interlocking links of the chain would be impossible to make using conventional microfabrication techniques. Instead, they were conjured into existence by waving a magic wand - or rather, a laser beam. This method, called two-photon 3D microfabrication, is just starting to make its mark. Fast, cheap and flexible, it can create multilayered microchips, custom-designed crystals, pre-assembled propellers - tiny objects with fantastical curves, interlocking parts and 3D structures.

iReady! Are you?

2005-08-05T12:11:00.000-07:00

Imagine a life where your refrigerator sends you messages on your phone when you run out of milk, or a cell phone that read lets you interface with your air conditioner.
Imagined? Now think of it as a near reality.

Japanese electronics makers Toshiba, Mitsubishi, Sharp and Sanyo will now be working Together on a system that they have named iReady.

iReady Is Targeted as a common standard that will allow home appliances to connect to the internet or a network, and interface with each other.
The reason for the tie up between these companies is to ensure the development of a Common standard that will allow for compatibility between products across manufacturers.

These companies have also has exhorted others manufacturers around the world to join in the development of the technology, so that it can be made available in others countries besides Japan.

The iReady System will work through special adapters that will fit into each product and you can expect to see the first of these somewhere next year.

PROTOCOL ENLIGHTENMENT:

2005-07-08T13:24:00.000-07:00

PROTOCOL ENLIGHTENMENT:

JUST AS IN THE REAL WORLD THERE ARE RULES EVERYWHERE, THERE ARE RULES IN THE VIRTUAL/DIGITAL WORLD TOO. IT IS A MATTER OF ENLIGHTENMENT TO REALISE THE NUMBER OF RULES THAT SURROUND US; RULES IN A HOUSE, IN RELATIONS, AT WORK, IN SCHOOL, COLLEGE, STATIONS, BUS-STANDS, ON ROADS, IN HOSPITALS…… THE LIST IS ENDLESS, BUT THE PROTOCOLS/RULES IN THE DIGITAL WORLD CAN STILL BE EASILY RECKONED, SO HERE IS THE LIST:

SIGNALING PROTOCOLS :-

H.323 - H.323

Megaco H.248 - GATEWAY CONTROL PROTOCOL

MGCP - MEDIA GATEWAY CONTROL PROTOCOL

RVP over IP - REMOTE VOICE PROTOCOL over IP Specification

SAPv2 - SESSION ANNOUNCEMENT PROTOCOL

SGCP - SIMPLE GATEWAY PROTOCOL

SIP - SESSION INITIATION PROTOCOL

Skinny - Skinny CLIENT CONTROL PROTOCOL (CISCO)

MEDIA PROTOCOLS :-

DVB - DIGITAL VIDEO BROADCASTING

H.261 - VIDEO STREAM FOR TRANSPORT USING REAL TIME TRANSPORT

H.263 - BITSTREAM IN THE REAL-TIME TRANSPORT PROTOCOL

RTCP - RTP CONTROL PROTOCOL

RTP - REAL-TIME TRANSPORT

SIP PROTOCOLS :-

SDP - SESSION DESCRIPTION PROTOCOL

SIP - SESSION INITIATION PROTOCOL

[Will cover the H.323 Protocols suite in the next post! I am feeling sleepy- (x|x) ]

How to keep your Optical Drive in good working order!

2005-07-07T03:47:00.000-07:00

I have been asked a few time about which Brand’s CD- Drives are the best performers, initially I used to give old hat advice that Sony’s optical drives are good, or Asus is the player in this category, with the opinions evolving in tandem with the Drive speeds and features as well as hear-say experiences. But then I realized that I have been using Samsung for almost 4 years without any problem and my brother uses Sony for almost the same stretch without a hiss.

While one of my friends’ new drive went kaput in just a few months of use, not that he burned more CDs per week than me; but because he never tried to maintain it, that’s it. Just like may of us do. So I discovered an urge to write some thing about it since I had received some requests by friends and my blog readers alike. So here are few tips and tricks:

Do’s

1. Always check the connecting cables inside your case.

(Take Precaution!! Get a certified workman for it if you are not sure and KEEP THE POWER SUPPLY OFF!!!!!)

1. Make sure they are snugly fit.
2. Make sure they are of the proper rating; you don’t want your drive running at fluctuating voltage when burning data for your project.
3. Make sure they are properly ventilated.
4. Clean the cable contacts regularly with a soft brush, it really helps!

2. Use licensed software to burn your CDs and DVDs.
3. Make sure that the drive is properly mounted and does not loose ground (read shake) when working at high speeds. It is 7200 RPM and about after all!
4. Use proper CDs and DVDs; always check for warped or cracked ones, they might get fragmented while in the drive and spraying the interior of the drive with plastic shrapnel. That ruins your drive, dead sure!
5. Use the eject/retrieve button only. That is why it is there! Most users forget this and try to lush the door by themselves. Cant’ you see that BUTTON? Doing this will reduce the life of the drive tray or even misalign it.
6. Wait till the drive starts reading the disk. There is always a wake up track where the head starts so as to not scratch the disk but as the disk gathers speed it move a hair’s breadth away from the disk and the laser head reads (much similar to the hard disk’s functioning). Do not fret at the drive taking a few seconds to wake up; you do get up grumpy in the morning too!
7. Try out some good drive cleaning disks, I tried one and am pretty satisfied. (Take Precaution!!)

Don’ts

1. Do not use those cheap off the cart CDs and DVDs which cost less than that standard chocolate. They are often warped and misaligned (tick and thin at some random gradients).

2. Do not use bugged, unregistered software to burn your disks. They are not sometimes able to properly handle the power transmission while burning or reading the disks.

3. Do not use extremely scratched disks.

4. Do not use the drive in high humidity areas,
the components stick up.

5. Do not pull the drive door.

Take all these factors in mind when next using your drive. Keep it healthy and it will give you good returns for your investment. Then you will also realize that almost all the manufacturers make quality hardware for you and you will be happy telling others that all drives are good if you maintain them. Happy burning!!

[The guidelines are of suggestive nature and not certified help lines. Please contact your manufacturer for complete details on how to maintain your drive. No damadge responsibilities taken- use your common sense too!]

Take Your Time: Extra Second Will be Added to 2005

2005-07-06T05:25:00.000-07:00

An extra second will be added to 2005 to make up for the slowing down of the Earth's rotation, officials said this week.

read more | digg story

Microsoft Longhorn Screenshots

2005-07-06T05:19:00.000-07:00

New Microsoft Longhorn screenshots, for those who haven't seen them yet. Which is very suprising.

read more | digg story

Back to school

2005-07-05T12:57:00.000-07:00

Touted as the successor of the extremely popular SDRAM, “DDR-SDRAM” was merely an idea some years ago.

Intel had pitched their Rambus RDRAM as the future performance memory type and it seemed like DDR-SDRAM would remain an idea, sans big daddy Intel’s backing.

Now the super fast RDRAM (found in high-end P4 motherboards) is expensive, and has fallen out of vendors’ favor. Double Data Rate Synchronous Dynamic Ram, which costs less, is currently everyone’s favorite.

Fun Trivia

2005-07-05T12:34:00.000-07:00

“From Harry Potter to particle Physics … And everything in between!” That’s what funtrivia.com says about itself- with more than 658,000 questions online. The categories are innumerable. Quizzes are organized not only topic-wise, but also by difficulty. A must visit.

HOT-OR-NOT??

2005-07-05T12:20:00.000-07:00

HOT

Desktop search

Every one is making a tool for desktop search- Microsoft has launched a Beta tool; Ask Jeeves would have launched theirs by the time you read this; Yahoo! Has been working too!.

NOT

WinFS

Microsoft’s next generation file system which was meant to make searching for files and multimedia on your computer or a network simpler and faster has been pushed back to 2007.

Petabytes by 2008

2005-07-05T12:17:00.000-07:00

The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) of India estimates that the country will have 52.7 petabytes (a petabyte is a thousand terabytes) of storage capacity in the next four years, as against the current 5.5 petabytes!!

Samsung shows off giant plasma screen

2005-07-05T12:14:00.000-07:00

December 16,
Samsung unveiled what is possibly the world’s largest plasma monitor screen – a 102 inch high density panel codenamed “Atlas”.
The resolution is only 1920x1080, but the contrast ratio is 2000:1- enough to leave the most of us drooling…@@@.

1.7 Crore luxury Sedans in India!

2005-07-04T03:20:00.000-07:00

Well, yes. they are here! 1.7 to 2 Crore Luxury Sedans are being introduced in India. It seems like the Japanese investments in India are already working around in the economy.

INFORMAL INTRO TO BLUETOOTH

2005-06-05T05:50:00.000-07:00

WHAT IS BLUE-TOOTH?

Bluetooth is a short range communications standard for wireless data communications. it works in the 2.45 Ghz band, and allows various devices to connect wirelessly. BLuetooth technology was concieved by Ericssion, but founded and developed by Ericsson, Nokia, IBM, Intel and Toshiba.

THE MOST USEFUL SITE OF THE POST:

2005-05-30T03:34:00.000-07:00

http://www.generation.net

ERROR Messages:

Add this site in the favorites of your browser! Just what you need, when you get an error message on Windows and you are stuck. Did IE say anything like ‘Mprexe Caused an Invalid Page Fault in Module Kernel32?’ On this site, you will find a link to the MS knowledge Base article with details about the error and how to solve it.

Jumbo DVDs coming!

2005-05-29T04:34:00.000-07:00

Size Does Matter' — if you want to be pack leader in the optical storage business. And the latest contender for the title of `Digital Godzilla' has just stomped into the arena, promising a jumbo-sized offering that dwarfs all rivals in the field. United States-based storage player Iomega, has announced, it has been granted two optical storage patents, that if converted into a production process, can turn out Digital Versatile Disks (DVDs) with a mind-boggling 850 giga bytes (GB)capacity — that is 850 billion bits of information. This will make the devices about 100 times bigger than the biggest DVDs available today — and with at least 20 times more capacity than the next-generation high-density formats being readied for year-end availability.

Ironically, to achieve these huge storage capacities, Iomega engineers have exploited nano technology — the science of very small particles, touching atom sizes. In its patent document, released by the U.S. Patent Office, Iomega calls its technology ``Nano-Grating'' — encoding data on the surface of the DVD, using nano-sized particles.

Experts believe the transition from patent to product could take anything from two to five years. Today's 4.5 GB DVDs (9 GB, double sided) are set to be replaced by the high-density formats expected by end 2005. Unfortunately the old VHS-versus-Beta videocassette format wars of the 1980s seem to be replaying: Two rival camps have emerged in the high-density DVD business. One — Blu-Ray — is backed by Sony, Hitachi, TDK, Panasonic and others. The other — HD-DVD (for High Density DVD) — is supported by Toshiba, Sanyo and NEC. The formats which will increase today's storage capacity at least ten-fold, are incompatible and will force customers to make a choice between two types of disks and players.

The heads of Sony and Toshiba recently announced that they would meet soon and try to end the deadlock. But both camps have raised the stakes, with 'macho' announcements. Last week, TDK announced a 100-GB Blu Ray DVD — with an eye on the huge market for Sony PlayStation players.

THE BROWSER WARS!

2005-05-29T04:11:00.000-07:00

To the average user, Microsoft’s recommendations to either uninstall the Netscape browser or fix a specific code in the registry makes no sense.
Most computer users have no idea how to install or even uninstall software. Trying to fix something foreign such as the registry is like reading Greek in Latin.

Then again, those who have downloaded the Netscape browser are not your ordinary users; They are on the cutting edge, the cusp. They are also the real minority.
According to figures from w3schools.com which is a site frequented by the Browser elite, Netscape is not even a pimple on a mole. For them, the real browser battle is between Microsoft IE and Firefox. Microsoft makes up 65% of use while Firefox is now up to 25%.

FULL STORY LINK..