Wired News

Hindustan Institute of Technology & Management

2008-10-22T12:00:00.000-07:00

It’s been almost a year now. I was busy with a lot of things all this while but Hindustan Institute of Technology & Management(HITM) has been the most important one. This year, we (my family) started a new project - Hindustan Institute of Technology & Management (HITM), an engineering college in the District Ambala, Haryana (India). Though it was always under the plans but then it materialized only this year.

Presently, the college is offering B.Tech. course in 4 streams namely - Information Technology, Computer Science, Electronics and Mechanical with 60 seats per course with a total of 240 seats. Further, we are planning to start a management course as well by next year.

We started the project around January’08 with the construction of the college and completed Phase I of the construction after 7 months by August’08. Soon after the college construction was completed, we started the first batch of the college. The first day of the college was quite an event with lot of students, parents, university officials and the press people. All the people who were present that day appreciated the college for its strong and stable infrastructure. The college is fully air-conditioned with 100% power backup, Wifi enabled campus with unlimited Internet, an extensive library with more than 6000 books and subscription to journals and magazines and Transportation facilities from/to neighbouring cities.

For more information, have a look at the college website here: http://www.hitmedu.com

On the whole, it will take us another 3 years to complete the construction of the college. It’s a long time but I guess that’s the pace of such projects.

Configuration of Gmail on Gnus/Emacs (Ubuntu Gutsy)

2008-01-09T09:56:00.001-08:00

I tried configuring Gnus/Emacs to send/receive mails through Gmail using IMAP/SMTP protocol on my Ubuntu-Gutsy Linux Box.

Emacs Version: 22.1.1
Gnus Version: 5.11

I performed the following steps:

I had to install sendmail and starttls programs using apt-get first and start sendmail service.
Enable IMAP support for your Gmail account online as described here :
http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=77695
Create a file named .gnus.el in your home directory and copy the configuration as given below:

;; Configuration of ~/.gnus.el;; Customize the next three lines with your ISP information. (load "starttls") (load-library "smtpmail")(setq user-mail-address "username@gmail.com") (setq user-full-name "User Name");; Configure incoming mail (IMAP) (setq gnus-select-method '(nnimap "gmail" (nnimap-address "imap.gmail.com") (nnimap-server-port 993) (nnimap-authinfo-file "~/.imap-authinfo") (nnimap-stream ssl)));; Configure outbound mail (SMTP) (setq smtpmail-starttls-credentials '(("smtp.gmail.com" 587 nil nil)) smtpmail-smtp-server "smtp.gmail.com" smtpmail-default-smtp-server "smtp.gmail.com" send-mail-function 'smtpmail-send-it message-send-mail-function 'smtpmail-send-it smtpmail-smtp-service 587 smtpmail-auth-credentials '(("smtp.gmail.com" 587 "username@gmail.com" nil)) smtpmail-debug-info t smtpmail-debug-verb t ) (setq smtpmail-local-domain nil) (setq gnus-permanently-visible-groups "gmail") (executable-find starttls-program)

Create another file named .imap-authinfo in your home directory with the following line:

machine imap.gmail.com login username@gmail.com password my_password port 993

Now, start Emacs, and type M-x gnus to launch Gnus. Gnus should automatically check for email on Gmail.com. After a while, when gnus process completes it displays a list of subscribed mailboxes. By default, you are subscribed to nndoc+gnus-help:gnus-help mailbox only.

To add your Gmail INBOX and other Gmail Labels you need to add them as mailboxes. Type 'U' in the Gnus Group Buffer and type the name of the Gmail Label or type INBOX to subscribe that Label to Gnus. You can also use auto-completion feature here to list all labels.

Now, you should see the subscribed Mailboxes in the Groups buffer. You can press 'Enter' on any mailbox to read mails under that label.

To send an email, type 'm'. You should get a buffer to send email. Remember here that it will prompt you to enter your password to send emails every time. If you wish to skip this step, change the value of smtpmail-auth-credentials variable in .gnus.el file you just created :

smtpmail-auth-credentials '(("smtp.gmail.com" 587 "username@gmail.com" "password"))

You can change the permissions on the file .gnus.el and .imap-authinfo to restrict the access to your username only.

chmod 700 ~/.gnus.el ~/.imap-authinfo

All the above steps must configure Emacs to send and receive email using Gmail successfully. Hope this helps!

Ubuntu Gutsy - Microphone Issues on Dell Inspiron 1520

2007-11-03T12:57:00.001-07:00

Please go through the previous post, in case sound is not working correctly for you on Feisty/Gutsy. First you need to setup the sound card correctly.

I was facing problems with Internal Microphone on Ubuntu Feisty, so when Gutsy was released, I upgraded to it. Status did not change even after upgrading to Gutsy. Anyway, I tried reinstalling ALSA, but it did not help either. For Gutsy, there are not much different solutions available. So, I tried various settings in the Sound Mixer again. Finally, I got the Internal Microphone working. I used Audacity/Skype to test the microphone. Those facing the same issue with similar hardware (Sigmatel STAC9205), may try the same settings. It might help. Attached is the screenshot of the gnome-mixer settings that worked for me.

Ubuntu Feisty Installation - Dell Inspiron 1520

2007-10-09T09:43:00.000-07:00

It’s been quite sometime that I installed Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn on Dell Inspiron 1520. My experience with this Ubuntu installation has been good and I have got Compiz Fusion working this time (something I could not do before).

Installation was slightly problematic with Feisty, since the Live CD did not boot at all. It failed after I pressed “Enter to Install” and I had to search for available solutions for this problem. I solved the problem by following the steps provided here. The workaround provided helped me out and I could boot using Live CD and installed Ubuntu Feisty subsequently. No problems after the boot process. Installation was simple and straightforward and completed in 18-20 minutes.

Now, since many essential features were missing, so first thing I had to do was to install those missing packages. So, I needed to update the packages list or apt-get should I say. But I did not choose apt-get, instead I selected Smart Package Manager this time. I have had a very good experience with smartpm previously, so decided to try it out this time on Ubuntu as well. I haven’t faced any problems till now, in fact I’m impressed with Smart Package Manager. I find it better since as per my experience, it resolves package dependencies better and I never faced any version conflicts which I faced otherwise with apt-get at times.

Here’s how you can configure smart package manager to add apt-get channels available in default sources.list file:

Issue all these smart commands as root.

smart channel --edit

Now add the following repositories:

[aptsync-a30ca3197e720a6180d50388c93162f8] type = apt-deb name = feisty - free non-free baseurl = http://packages.medibuntu.org/ distribution = feisty components = free non-free

[deb-sys] type = deb-sys name = DEB System

[feisty-backports] type = apt-deb name = feisty - backports baseurl = http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ distribution = feisty-backports components = main restricted universe multiverse

[feisty-main] type = apt-deb name = feisty - main baseurl = http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ distribution = feisty components = main restricted universe multiverse

[feisty-security] type = apt-deb name = feisty - security baseurl = http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu distribution = feisty-security components = main restricted universe multiverse

[feisty-updates] type = apt-deb name = feisty-updates baseurl = http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ distribution = feisty-updates components = main restricted universe multiverse

[medibuntu] type = apt-deb name = medibuntu-updates baseurl = http://medibuntu.sos-sts.com/repo/ distribution = feisty components = free non-free

After adding all the sources, I updated smartpm using the following command:

smart update

First, I installed envy to fetch the Nvidia Graphics Driver. Envy worked extremely smoothly and setup everything automatically without requiring any manual edit of xorg.conf file. So, I got the wide screen 1440×900 resolution setup correctly. Later, I used the Amaranth repository to setup Compiz Fusion on the system. But I had to remove the other 3D desktop packages like Desktop effects, beryl before that. Then I followed this link to install the Compiz Fusion package and it worked without further issues. Here are some screen shots: Screenshot 1, Screenshot 2, Screenshot 3

Smart worked well for the installation of other essential packages as well; you can refer this page for the list of essential packages like DVD support, Multimedia audio codecs, mplayer, banshee, flash plugin, java plugin, vlc, rar archives: http://ubuntuguide.org

One problem that I noticed on Ubuntu Feisty is that I get less battery life for my laptop using the same settings (screen brightness, hdd activity) that I have on Windows Vista Premium. Another issues is the alsamixer, bluetooth and the microphone. Even when I plugged in the headphone, sound used to come through speakers, so I had to upgrade ALSA manually as instructed at this link.

Sound problem was resolved, but the bluetooth and microphone are still not working. Moreover, there is a problem with the power management functions. If the system goes into sleep mode, it does not resume, you get blank screen. I could not find any solution for this problem.

Otherwise, it’s a nice distribution over all.

Dell Inspiron 1520

2007-09-14T21:08:00.000-07:00

Yes! I bought a laptop for myself, the Dell Inspiron 1520 (Black). Must say, it’s quite a beauty with the matte finish.

Though delivery time was a bit long (13 days), I got it finally with all the accessories as mentioned in the order, so no surprises. I bought the following configuration :

Windows Vista (with Aero) runs fine, although I don’t see much difference between Vista and XP. There are some unrequired features that you may want to turn off. See this link for some help.

All the hardware components, like Bluetooth, Camera, Touchpad, DVD Writer were configured properly. So, there were no glitches with the default installation. Speakers in the front performs well and battery performance is quite good as well.

But there are some other nuisances, I must say when you decide to change the partitioning, either reducing the size of C drive or installing another operating system.

I must say that partitioning scheme is crazy. I had 140-145 GB as one partition, C: for Windows Vista. Then there was one recovery partition taking around 10GB of space. And there is also a 2-3GB space allocated for Dell Media Direct.
Now, since I wanted to install Linux along with it, but I couldn’t due to this partitioning scheme. All these partitions were primary. So, I needed to delete a partition (basically C:) and repartition the whole system. Anyway, I had to do that. Installed Dell Media Direct also, but lost the recovery partition.
Hard Disk is another disappointment. It makes a irritating crackling sound already (typical Seagate HDD!). Though otherwise, it works fine. I kept the laptop running for 10-12 hrs, doesnt get too heated. Works fine absolutely except the irritating HDD noise. I think I need to get it replaced to a non-Seagate drive.

The next step is to install Linux (Ubuntu most probably).

DB2 decimal to varchar conversion issue : leading zeroes

2007-07-02T00:17:00.000-07:00

Recently, I came across this problem, someone faced while casting a decimal datatype to varchar data type in DB2.

Here’s the link to the whole thread :

db2– Decimal to Varchar without leading zeros

So, the idea is to replace the 0’s with spaces and convert them back to 0 with second replace. I’ve already explained the reason for this double-do for both replace and rtrim/ltrim functions instead of a single trim, strip functions.

Targetized

2007-03-09T02:40:00.000-08:00

After a period of 18 months approximately, I made first job switch of my career. I separated from my previous company - a IT Company (probably the biggest) to another big company, although in a different industry (Retail).

Last working day was quite eventful. At office, I spent the whole day managing the separation process & said good-bye to everyone. At home, all 3 of us (my 2 room-mates and myself) wished each other Good Luck. One of my room-mates got a job, other one was going abroad. Next day, I left Pune for my home at Delhi and stayed there for a week before taking up my new job at Bangalore. I did nothing at home except relaxing and partying, that was the objective anyways.

Next week I went to Bangalore and joined my new company.

My job change was actually a Career Shift. I've changed my role from pure technical to that of a mixed one. My current role requires both technical skills as well as functional knowledge. It was a personal choice for me, so I took this decision. I wanted to gain business insight in my work so as to feel excited about it and my new role offered exactly same thing; so I didn't mind _relocation_ pain also.

When I joined the new organization, I also observed the difference in working culture of a relatively smaller and non-IT organization with my previous company. Smaller organizations are less process oriented when compared to the big shots of Technology arena where you need to follow process for everything, right from requesting stationary to separation (except going to the loo - as mentioned by another professional from similar organization). Too much process-orientation is a pain especially when you don't achieve much benefit or efficiency from it. Processes are beneficial only when they are practically followed.

Since it's not an IT organization, the objective here is not to achieve ultimate & ace technical solutions. But to use technology to make accurate business decisions smartly. It makes sense for them since their primary goal is to conduct business efficiently rather than implementing latest technology solutions.

I got started with my project work on the 3rd day. Since, it is a new field and role (requiring functional knowledge) for me, I'm having a tough time to learn the business concepts and processes. It's actually analyzing the business & helping in decision support. Even the technology is a bit different as I have to work here on a Data Warehouse whereas I worked as a PL/SQL Developer previously.

Oscars @ home

2007-02-24T05:46:00.000-08:00

Yes, I am feeling exactly this at the moment.

As I mentioned already in my last post, work pressure is not much these days at office so I started feeling a little too idle to spend time when you’re all alone in a new city. Moreover, there is not much to discover in and around Pune, or maybe I’m just not interested. I’ve already visited the city landmarks.

Then it came to my mind, let’s watch movies & spend some quality time. Let me confess in advance that I’ve very little knowledge & exposure to movies. I know that doesn’t make me a lesser audience but I mentioned it just to make sure you’re not surprised about my selection, pick of movies.

Actually, I was thinking how to get information about a movie relating to its cast, plot, ratings, reviews & other credentials. I stumbled upon these 4 major resources :

Usually, I watch one movie in say 1-2 months, but now as I’ve got enough time; I watched a little more during this time, namely :

[Well dont make opinions, I am just another fan of her]

Planning to watch some more, I’ve got - The Thin Red Line, The Shawshank Redemption, Children of Men, The Illusionist, The Pursuit of Happyness, Music and Lyrics.

I also found certain other resources offering movies’ scripts and subtitles as well - DivXMovies, IMSDB etc. which are quite useful when you’re a little more interested in a particular movie.

Any resource you feel is worthy to improve the experience of selecting or watching a movie, be it Reviews, Storyline, Cast, Subtitles or Scripts then please contribute.

Pune Vol. 2

2007-01-28T22:04:00.000-08:00

Being idle for quite a long time in my organization, I was offered my next assignment in Pune. Though I didn’t want to, but still I had to go. So on Jan 8th, 2007, I came back to Pune. Last time when I was here, I had a brief and not so nice time in Pune.

Anyways, I reached the official guest house after arriving in Pune and rushed back to the office immediately. I met the contact person in the office. By the grace of God, I got a desk here unlike my previous project where I worked for around 8-9 months without a desk. But then, it was still a minor issue there. After some initial frequent changes, I was finally assigned to a project. For the rest of week there was nothing to be done, as everyone was new to this project.

During the first weekend, I went out and looked for accommodation and other things, I needed to arrange. I couldn’t find much options near the Office. I moved around the city to re-discover the landmarks (according to me). Prabhat Lodge on J M Road, Garware Chowk, Kamath & Prithvi restaurants near Kothrud, all of them still exist. Pune has not changed during last 15 months. Roads, Transport, Food options are same as before. I arranged the accommodation with help of a good college-time friend, thanks a ton to him.

I also visited M G Road and had Vada-Pao near J J Garden. Surprisingly, Vada-Pao didn’t taste bad this time & Lime Juice was just too good. Walking Plaza on M G Road is a nice concept followed on Sundays.

Another week passed on in office without much of activity, but during the weekend, I shifted to my flat and started setting up things. Though, I was alone, it was not a problem this time to set up. Mainly it’s a furnished flat and market is nearby; food is the only issue. Anyways, experiences cum adventures I’ve had at Bangalore were helping!

What’s more in store for me at Pune, I’m yet to discover.

Reunion of Batch 1999, Ramjas School - Pusa Road

2006-12-25T05:06:00.000-08:00

After a long time, due to sincere efforts of few enlightened a.k.a connected people (people in touch with old pals), Reunion of Batch 1999, Ramjas School - Pusa Road happened.

Time & Venue : Dec 17th, 2006 11 A.M. @ Cafe Coffee Day, Connaught Place - New Delhi

Well, I reached the venue quite late. Reason being, I was searching my wardrobe specifically for a Yellow pullover, which took me sometime. Although, experts from textile industry didn’t appreciate really; I guess they’re learning about the fashion trends

Anyways, when I reached the venue I welcomed other late comers. Another surprise was the strength of this reunion, must say. Big round of applause for friends who organized this affair. I believe the attendance achieved was worth the ordeal for them.

People from all streams (Science, Commerce, Arts) were present. Since, not everyone knew everyone else, we all introduced ourselves. We discovered people coming mainly from IT industry (quite obvious), Textiles & Banking industry. Rest are doing their family/own business.

I met everyone although I didn’t know all of them well. But then that’s the reason for a reunion, so that person like me can benefit from it.

Thank you Sumita, Sherry for organizing the reunion.

Ubuntu 6.10 Edgy Installation

2006-11-24T05:10:00.000-08:00

I installed ubuntu 6.10 using net-install method, and it was a no-problem installation.

After the initial installation, I’d to install several small packages for essential features like MP3 support, jre & flash-plugin for firefox, mplayer. I followed the instructions at the link : http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu_Edgy

The link provides all the information required to do all such configuration/setup tasks. But I had 2 problem relating to keyboard and sound card.

The keyboard was not working properly, as in some of the keys like ” and ‘ did not work properly. I’d to use the following command :

sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

and change the keyboard configuration. I removed all the customizations displayed by the configuration script.

The other problem was that of sound card. I could access the sound card as root; but not as a non-root user. I resolved the problem by changing the permissions of the non-root user as explained below :

Go to : System->Administration->Users and Groups

Here select the non-root User and Click Properties. In the User Privileges Section:

Check the following :
Use audio devices Use CD-ROM drives

After that when I restarted Gnome; both keyboard, sound problems were resolved.

For performance enhancement I used prelink and added it to daily cron. Steps are mentioned at the following link:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1971

Ubuntu 6.10 is no doubt a great product. But I’m yet to install/test Mandriva One

Oracle Indexes

2006-10-10T05:12:00.000-07:00

Indexes are optional data structures associated with Database tables. Indexes are logically & physically independent of the data in the associated table. They are independent database objects created to reduce disk I/O & speed up execution of SQL statements on a table. We can create many indexes on a table given that each index points to different column (in case of a single column) or unique combination of columns from a table.

All Indexes offer complementary performance functionalities based on their structure:

B-Tree indexes : B-Tree Indexes are stored as a conventional binary data structure in the database. Each branch node contains a key prefix to make a direction between two keys. Each Leaf Node is at same depth from the branch node and contain complete key value for each row & ROWID.

Features :

All leaf blocks of the tree are at same depth, resulting same performance for retrieval of any record from the indexed table.
B-Trees are stay balanced automatically.
Excellent performance is achieved for wide range of queries and are generally suitable for both small & large sized tables without performance degradation.

Syntax :

CREATE INDEX last_name_idx ON students (last_name);

Bitmap indexes : Bitmap Indexes are space efficient indexes that represent trade-off between Disk I/O and CPU usage. A bitmap value is stored for each key value instead of a list of ROWIDs. Each bitmap corresponds to a possible ROWID. A mapping function returns actual ROWID at runtime in the form of a Row-ID list, and these ROWID values are directly used to access the data row. So, there is a trade-off between space (using compressed indexes) and CPU usage (for processing decompression).

Features :

Bitmap indexes are generally used in data warehouses for executing bulk data operations.
They are space efficient, but need higher CPU usage in comparison to B-Tree Indexes.
Bitmap indexes are not suitable for OLTP applications with large number of concurrent operations modifying individual rows of data. They are efficient in querying large data.
Bitmap indexes are not useful when performing comparison operations, instead use them for logical operations on data (viz. AND, OR, NOT) or equality queries.

Syntax :

CREATE BITMAP INDEX last_name_idx ON students (last_name);

Bitmap Join indexes : As the name suggests, Bitmap join indexes are bitmap indexes defined using an equi-join condition between two or more tables. In bitmap-join index, indexed values comes from one table (Fact table) but bitmaps point to another table (Dimension table). Usually implemented in a data warehousing environment, they have similar features to bitmap indexes. Additionally, following considerations must be taken into account :

Bitmap-join indexes take much more time to build than a conventional bitmap index for a join is performed and bitmap value is generated.
Bitmap-join indexes should be applied on tables frequently used in tandem (using joins) with each other.

Syntax :

CREATE BITMAP INDEX last_name_idx ON students (math.marks) WHERE students.pk = math.fk;

Index-Organized Tables : An index organized table has a storage organization that is different from a conventional (heap-organized) table whose data is stored as an unordered collection. Data for an index organized table is stored in a B-Tree index structure in a primary key sorted manner. Along with the primary key column data, it stores the values for the non-key columns as well.

Features :

Access to rows is defined using logical ROWID.
Full-Index returns all rows.
Avoid additional block fetch for accessing non-key columns’ data.

Syntax :

CREATE TABLE students (
rollno number,
first_name varchar2(20),
last_name varchar2(20),
CONSTRAINT pk_stud_iot_index PRIMARY KEY (rollno) )
ORGANIZATION index
TABLESPACE spc_example_ts_01
PCTHRESHOLD 20 INCLUDING last_name;

Function based indexes : Function based indexes are based on functions, expressions that involve one or more columns in the table being indexed. A value of the function/expression is calculated and stored as the value for the index. They can be stored either as a B-Tree index or a bitmap index.

Features :

Function based indexes are beneficial for evaluating queries that involve functions in WHERE clauses. Example :

SELECT * FROM students WHERE substr(stud_name, 1, 5) = "PETER";

It’s easy & provides immediate values for expressions.
It provides additional functionality with little cost, if expensive functions/expressions need to be evaluated regularly from the indexed table.

Syntax :

CREATE INDEX fb_last_name_idx on students (UPPER(last_name));

Oracle Collections

2006-09-04T15:04:00.000-07:00

PL/SQL Collections

Index-by tables (Associative Arrays): They are arrays with the only difference that we can use numbers, string literals for subscript values. Associative Arrays are sets of key-value pairs, where key can be an integer or a string. There is no limitation on the size of Associative Arrays.

Syntax: TYPE type_name IS TABLE OF element_type [NOT NULL] INDEX BY [BINARY_INTEGER | PLS_INTEGER | VARCHAR2 (size_limit)] ;

Nested Tables: They are single dimensional, array-like tables, that can hold any number of elements inside another database table and can be manipulated by SQL as other database objects.

Syntax: TYPE type_name IS TABLE OF element_type [NOT NULL];

Varying Arrays: As the name suggests, varrays (Varying Arrays) are fixed length arrays that use sequential numbers as subscripts. varrays need to be dense and we cannot remove/delete individual elements from the array. Length is defined at design time and can be manipulated at runtime subject to maximum length defined. They are suitable in cases where all elements in the array are accessed in sequence.

Syntax: TYPE type_name IS [VARRAY | VARYING ARRAY] (size_limit) OF element_type [NOT NULL];

Using PL/SQL Collections in SQL statements

NESTED TABLE

CREATE TYPE Courseslist AS TABLE OF VARCHAR2(50);

CREATE TABLE student as OBJECT ( roll_no NUMBER(2), name VARCHAR2(20), courses Courseslist) NESTED TABLE courses STORE AS courses_tab;

VARRAY

CREATE TYPE Courseslist AS VARRAY(50) OF VARCHAR2(20);

CREATE TABLE student ( roll_no NUMBER(2), name VARCHAR2(20), courses Courseslist);

USING COLLECTIONS IN SQL

DECLARE TYPE Courseslist is TABLE OF VARCHAR2(20); TYPE Courseslist2 is VARRAY(40) OF VARCHAR2(20); my_courses Courseslist; my_courses2 Courseslist2; BEGIN my_courses := Courseslist(’English’, ‘Mathematics’, ‘Science’); my_courses2 := Courseslist2(’English’, ‘Mathematics’, ‘Science’); INSERT INTO student values(12, ‘Ankur’, Courseslist(’English’, ‘Mathematics’, ‘Science’)); END;

Manipulating Individual Elements in Collections

Using subqueries within TABLE operator we can extract varrays and Nested tables from containing table and execute INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE operations.

Syntax:

BEGIN INSERT INTO TABLE (SELECT courses FROM student where roll_no=2) VALUES (’German’); DELETE TABLE (SELECT courses FROM student where roll_no = 1) WHERE course_strength < 5; END;

USING COLLECTION METHODS

EXISTS - Check if an element exists in the collection.
Syntax : IF courses.EXISTS(i) THEN courses(i) = new_course; END IF;

COUNT - Count the elements in collection
Syntax : IF courses.COUNT > 20 THEN...

LIMIT - Check the Maximum Size of a collection
Syntax: IF new_courses.COUNT <>

 FIRST and LAST - Retrieve the FIRST and LAST element from collection
Syntax: IF courses.FIRST = courses.LAST THEN ...
 PRIOR and NEXT - Retrieve Previous and Next element of an index in collection.
Syntax: courses(i) = courses.NEXT(courses.PRIOR(i));
 EXTEND - Append a null element at the end of collection.
EXTEND (n) - Append n null elements to the collection.
EXTEND (n,m) - Append n copies of element m to the collection.
Syntax: courses.EXTEND(2,1) : Appends 2 copies of 1st element of courses collection.
 TRIM - Remove the last element from a collection.
TRIM(n) - Remove n elements from the end of a collection.
Syntax: courses.TRIM(5) : Remove last 5 elements from courses collection.
 DELETE - Delete all elements from a collection
DELETE(n) - Delete nth element from an associative array with numeric key or a nested table. If key is string in Associative Array, element corresponding to the key value is deleted. If n is null, DELETE(n) does nothing.
DELETE(m, n) - DELETE elements in the range m-n from an associative array or nested table.
 Varrays are dense, therefore, individual elements cannot be deleted from Varrays.
 BULK BINDING
 Assigning of values to PL/SQL variables in SQL statements is called binding. Use FORALL statement for bulk-bind input operations before sending them to SQL engine. It improves performance by minimizing context switching between SQL Engine and PL/SQL Engine and passing whole collections to SQL ENGINE at a time during execution.
 Syntax:
 DECLARE
TYPE NumList is VARRAY(20) OF NUMBER;
courses NumList := NumList(10, 20, 30);
BEGIN
FORALL i in courses.FIRST..courses.LAST
DELETE FROM student where course_id = courses(i);
END;
 We can redefine the length of loop to execute the FORALL statement selectively. We may count number of rows affected, exceptions occurred in FORALL statement using SQL%BULK_ROWCOUNT, SQL%BULK_EXCEPTIONS attributes after the end of the loop.
 BULK COLLECT
 We use BULK COLLECT to bulk-bind output collections before returning to PL/SQL Engine as so to improve the performance, in a similar way, we used FORALL statement.
 Syntax: SELECT courses BULK COLLECT INTO my_courses FROM student;
 We can also use BULK COLLECT with cursors.
 Syntax:
 BEGIN
OPEN c1;
FETCH c1 BULK COLLECT INTO my_courses;
END;
 LIMIT clause to limit the rows fetched for a BULK FETCH Operation
 Syntax:
 BEGIN
OPEN c1;
FETCH c1 BULK COLLECT INTO my_courses LIMIT 10;
END;
 RETURNING INTO Clause
 We can use RETURNING INTO clause to retrieve DML results into a collection.
 Syntax:
 BEGIN
DELETE FROM student WHERE marks < 50;
RETURNING courses BULK COLLECT INTO my_courses;
END;
 We can use Host Arrays with Bulk Binds for output and input, as they are the most effective way to pass collections between database server and clients.
 Syntax:
 BEGIN
FORALL i in :lower .. :upper
DELETE FROM student WHERE roll_no := roll(i);
END;



Sites We Cant Live Without
2006-08-23T12:57:00.000-07:00
 Recently, I came across the Time.com’s list of 25 sites, We Can’t Live Without.
 I read it till the end to discover the new websites, I might be unaware of. I thought so because being a software professional, I spend much of my time daily browsing Internet. Not to my surprise, I came across quite a few websites, I had not heard of. More so, may be because I don’t need the services offered by them like one that’s selling shoes and accessories. But there were some websites, I was happy to browse.
 One of them is Craiglist, it’s more like Yellow Pages cum Free Advertisements that are bundled for free alongwith the Newspapers. I was surprised to see a separate section for Bangalore and that too quite an active one.
 Others in the list were mainly News-Related Websites or portals like Yahoo, MSN & AOL. Though they are not exactly comparable in terms of size and content, but that’s a broad category I’m putting them into.
 Drudge Report, Factcheck.org, National Public Radio and The Onion are the ones, which are mainly meant for reading news. Out of all of them, I found Drude Report quite unique. It’s like Bookmark folder in your browser, with links to almost all popular news websites and some other hyperlinks to the Breaking News of the day.
 Other than them, one of the interesting website, I came across is Netflix.com It’s an online movie rental website, with more than 65,000 titles - Classics to new releases. It offers free shipping, no late fees and free trial for new customers. Ultimate treat for movie buffs. A clean interface to browse the movie titles is appealing and little background about the movies is quite informative. A rating mechanism or a link to IMDB for that particular title would have been great   But I think the other website Rotten Tomatoes fills in that gap.
 Last category of websites was shopping websites like Shopzilla and Zappos. Shopzilla has quite a vast variety of products from different stores, zappos offers accessories mainly like shoes, handbags and apparels. Both of them are quite okay, as you can rate them after comparing the deals offered by them.
 Then, there were the giants like Amazon, Google, Yahoo etc. everyone knows, use and of course, we can’t live WITHOUT any one of them. In the end, here is a list of sites, I can’t live without - Amazon, Google, Yahoo!, Wikipedia, Blogger, Google News, ESPN, Ebay, Flickr, Apple Movie Trailers and The Internet Movie Database. 
 



Lyceum Installation
2006-08-09T11:19:00.000-07:00
 Lyceum is an extension of the popular Wordpress blogging software. While Wordpress is a single user blogging software, Lyceum is a multiple users blogging software. Under early development, read about it here
 I tried installing it on my Windows XP system, running Apache 2.0.59, PHP 4.4.3 & MySQL 3.23.42 and faced quite some problems, so thought to blog about it.
 Installation Steps
 Download, Install and configure Apache, MySQL and PHP on your Windows Machine. Download and Installation should not be a problem. For configuration, you may follow these links:
 http://www.thesitewizard.com/archive/php4install.shtml
 http://www.dmxzone.com/ShowDetail.asp?NewsId=6452
 After you’ve configured all the above 3 components, download Lyceum source from here
 Extract the source and place it under your DocumentRoot (). You should have the following directory structure.
  /lyceum
+  /dev
|  /doc
|  /src
|    + /bin
|    | /config
|    | /installation
|    | /lib
|    + /lyceum
+   /tests
 Before starting the installation verify the Apache configuration first. You must have mod_rewrite module enabled in your Web Server Configuration. Also in the  configuration part of your Apache configuration file, you must set the AllowOverride directive to “All”; that is, “AllowOverride All”
 Now, create a database in your MySQL server for lyceum as lyceum does not create the database itself.
SQL : mysql>CREATE DATABASE lyceum;
 In case you are using MySQL <>/lyceum/src/installation/) accordingly to remove the ENGINE directives from SQL statements.
 Modify wp-config-sample.php (/lyceum/src/config/) to create wp-config.php with modifications to following fields: 
     DB_NAME : Name of the Database you’ve created in MySQL.
  DB_USER : Database User Name
  DB_PASSWORD : Password for the specified Database User Name.
  DB_HOST : Server Name / Addresss (’localhost’ in case of local installation)
  WEBROOT : Location of /lyceum/src/lyceum on the server (Directory where portal.php is placed. Note: ‘no trailing slash after the path)
  MAINDOMAIN : 127.0.0.1 ( For local installation. Note: ‘localhost’ will not work)
 Start the installation from your web browser using the URL : <server_address>/<webroot>/wp-admin/install.php
 It should work fine. Comment if you face any issues. 
 



Single File Format
2006-08-03T03:17:00.000-07:00
Recently, I read this article, where in the Author has imagined interoperability of all files some way; where all possible file formats could be represented in a standard/single format, so as to ease the process of file editing/creating and parsing.

Read it here


Oracle Joins
2006-06-12T02:57:00.000-07:00
Definition / Concept If we need to retrieve data from more than one table we use JOINs. A join is a query, used to retrieve data from more than one table based on JOIN condition (Note: Same table can referenced more than once).
 Conditions
 In SQL terms, Join occurs when we specify more than one table in the FROM clause of the SELECT statement. Additionally, we also specify a condition in the WHERE clause to specify JOIN condition in the SELECT statement. Now, JOINs are conditions to join/compare two tables’ data retrieved from the selected tables’ columns based on JOIN Condition. Oracle combines the rows’ data to compare with other tables’ rows and evaulate the JOIN condition for TRUE/FALSE.
 We need to qualify columns having same name with table names/aliases to avoid ambiguity errors, for joins can be extended to multiple tables. In case of multiple joins extending to more than 2 tables, let’s say 3 for example, we create a recordset based on 1st join between 1st two tables & join the resulting recordset with 3rd table using 2nd Join.
 Table 1 +
        |
      (JOIN)--->Recordset I +
        |                   |
Table 2 +                   |
                          (JOIN)--- Final Recordset
                            |
                            |
                            +
                          Table 3
 Now, we’ve understood what are joins, their need & application, let’s see what are the different types of JOINs
available.
 SIMPLE JOIN/INNER JOIN/EQUALITY JOIN/EQUIJOIN
 All the above terms refer the same JOIN type. Let’s call them INNER JOIN for our reference. Inner Join have equality operator as the JOIN condition. So, INNER JOIN returns only those rows from two tables that have same data for the specified columns.
 Example:
 +--------+              +---------+
|   ID   |              |   ID    |
|  NAME  |              | SALARY  |
|  AGE   |              |         |
|--------|              |---------|
|EMPLOYEE|              | PAYROLL |
+--------+              +---------+
 We need to extract the salary of an employee from the payroll table. So, a INNER JOIN shall be created between EMPLOYEE
& PAYROLL table, using ID columns from the two tables.
 SELECT employee.id, employee.name, payroll.salary
FROM employee, payroll
WHERE employee.id = payroll.id;
 SELF JOIN
 If we compare the data of a table with itself, we create a self join. I’ll give here a classical example of employees & managers. Suppose, we need to know the name of employees’ manager from the employee table, we’ll create a self join. For example purpose, I modify the EMPLOYEE table.
 +--------+
|   ID   |
|  NAME  |
|  AGE   |
| MGR_ID |
|--------|
|EMPLOYEE|
+--------+
 SELECT e1.name EMPLOYEE, e2.name MANAGER
FROM employee e1, employee e2
WHERE e1.mgr_id = e2.id;
 CARTESIAN PRODUCT
 If there is no comparison condition specified in a JOIN condition, a cartesian product is returned. In such a case, every row in a table is joined with every row in the other table of the JOIN. Let’s say, if there are 3 rows in Ist table & 4 rows in the IInd table, 12 rows (3×4) would be produced.
 +--------+              +---------+
|   ID   |              |   ID    |
|  NAME  |              | SALARY  |
|  AGE   |              |         |
|--------|              |---------|
|EMPLOYEE|              | PAYROLL |
+--------+              +---------+
 SELECT employee.id, payroll.salary
FROM employee, payroll
WHERE employee.name LIKE 'A%';
 NATURAL JOIN
 In a NATURAL JOIN all columns with same names & datatype are joined from both tables. Here, we need to qualify the column name by table name or alias. All rows matching with the same column data are retrieved.
 +--------+              +---------+
|   ID   |              |   ID    |
|  NAME  |              | SALARY  |
|  AGE   |              |         |
|--------|              |---------|
|EMPLOYEE|              | PAYROLL |
+--------+              +---------+
 SELECT id, name, salary
FROM employee NATURAL JOIN payroll;
 OUTER JOIN
 Till now, all joins we’ve discussed retrieve all matching records from both tables. But sometimes, there is a situation when we also need to retrieve non-matching records from either one or both tables. For retrieving such non-matching records, we create OUTER JOINs. There are 3 type of OUTER JOINs based on from which side of the JOIN Condition we extract the non-matching records. We assume the following structure for our examples:
 +--------+              +---------+
|   ID   |              |         |
|  NAME  |              |   ID    |
|  AGE   |              |  SALARY |
| MGR_ID |              |         |
|--------|              |---------|
|EMPLOYEE|              | PAYROLL |
+--------+              +---------+
 RIGHT OUTER JOIN 
 As the name suggests, we extract non-matching records from the table mentioned on the right hand side of the JOIN condition. So, all the matching records from two tables, as well as non-matching records from the 2nd table (on right hand) are retrieved. NULL values are replaced for the non-existing values for columns extracted from table on the right hand side in non-matching rows.
 SELECT e.id, p.salary
FROM employee e, payroll p
WHERE e.id = p.id (+);
 LEFT OUTER JOIN
 In this JOIN, we extract non-matching records from the table mentioned on the left hand side of the JOIN condition in addition to the matching records. NULL value is displayed for the columns extracted from table on the left hand side in the non-matching rows.
 SELECT e.id, p.salary
FROM employee e, payroll p
WHERE e.id (+) = p.id;
 FULL OUTER JOIN
 In case of a full outer join, we extract matching records from both tables specified in JOIN condition, as well as non-matching records from both tables. Actually to create FULL OUTER JOIN, a UNION set is generated from both LEFT OUTER JOIN & RIGHT OUTER JOIN. NULL values are displayed for non-existing records of the other table in each non-matching row of either table.
 SELECT e.id, p.salary
FROM employee e, payroll p
WHERE e.id = p.id (+)
UNION
SELECT e.id, p.salary
FROM employee e, payroll p
WHERE e.id (+) = p.id;
 Note:
 SQL statements provided in the post were tested on Oracle 8 version only. Natural Joins don’t exist on Oracle 8
ANSI syntax has not been covered here.
     



Google Spreadsheets
2006-06-09T01:40:00.000-07:00
Google is launching web-based spreadsheet application called Google Spreadsheets.

Still under beta test, requiring invites to try out this new application; nothing much can be said about the application & its future as of now. But, as I was going through various news articles, people are already claiming that Google is seriously competing with Microsoft by launching this spreadsheet program. In my opinion, it’s just small view of a bigger vision.

For, I believe it’s not just about Google taking on Microsoft or any other XYZ Co., but what Google is trying to achieve is reducing the dependance of the users on an operating system largely.

When we observe the recent moves made by Google, we observe that Google launched Email, Instant Messaging, Calendar etc and now Google Spreadsheets, a spreadsheet application. The straight & obvious advantage of all such applications is availability on the web, so no matter where you are, you’ve access to your information everytime; no more dependancy on the personal desktop PC, that is. Whenever you need to search, share files; you can use Google Search, email/invite people & share the files.

The only skepticism would be the usability of such applications, as they are web based & security of the information. Usability I would define, how responsive the application is while the user is working on it. Well, a web based application is not that responsive in comparison to a desktop based application, but largely all such applications are usable as most of them are javascript based, which gets downloaded once the application is accessed through the Web Browser.

Regarding the security of the data, it’s as secure/insecure that your email account is. Since, it’s password protected, we can say the data is safe/secure till the time you’ve chosen a medium-to-high strength password. But then, most of the desktop pc’s are also not completely safe. It’s a debatable topic, for people also doubt the security/integrity of the provider of such applications.

So, I observe that Google is not competing with Microsoft by launching another Operating System, but they’re eliminating/diminishing the role of the OS itself for the users by offering web based applications & I agree that such approach is right & smart.

It’s hitting the market perfectly with every application it has launched. Now, all these developments could be labelled as Google killing Microsoft or killing similar desktop applications viz. OpenOffice Calc alike.


Get this tool for switching people from IE to Firefox
2006-06-09T01:38:00.000-07:00
A group of four full-time political activists have developed a portal to encourage Internet Explorer users to adopt Firefox Web Browser. They’ve launched their website: ExplorerDestroyer.com as an aggressive strategy to promote Firefox amongst Internet Explorer Users, as Internet Explorer is still the most popular Web Browser.

The group states : “Firefox is one of the most important software applications in the world because it can play a big part in determining the future of the web. It is crucial that an open-source, standards-based web browser becomes the most popular browser, and Firefox has a shot at being that. It’s the best product, and its popularity is climbing, thanks to amazing efforts by the Mozilla Foundation, the SpreadFirefox.org juggernaut, and many others.”

Apart from talking about the advantages of Firefox, they are promoting the use of Firefox, by advertising the Google Adsense program that pays $1 for each new Firefox user you refer. Also, they are offering ready-made code snippet on the home page that will display ExplorerDestroyer Button to promote use of Firefox on blogging sites.

The site announces “Your Mission - Get Under 50″ mission to reduce the number of Internet Explorer hits to less than 50 percent of all browser accesses & advocate the usage of splash screens advertising Firefox.

The group has also launched another website : killbillsbrowser.com. It’s a parody site with witty jokes about Internet Explorer nuisances, at the same time convincing people to switch to Firefox.


Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 update
2006-04-24T23:04:00.000-07:00
Microsoft released a new test release of Internet Explorer, the market leadingWeb browser facing stiff competition from smaller players like Firefox & Opera lately.

The new beta, available Tuesday for free download to English-language customers, includes fixes for problems that were causing Internet Explorer 7 to stop working.With the previous test version, the most common problems reported involved banking and news sites, in part because of security changes.

The new beta release is targeted at technology enthusiasts, after earlier versions of the browser primarily catered towards developers of websites and online applications.
Improving security can be tricky since any changes can cause legitimate Web sites to stop working, frustrating users.

“We want to get them to start using the product and get us some feedback,” Margaret Cobb, group product manager for Internet Explorer at Microsoft told vnunet.com. “We still have a few months before we release publicly and we want to make this the best experience possible.”
Microsoft also added more guidance to help people using IE’s new browser tab functions, which let a user view more than one Web site from within one window, using multiple “tabs.”

Microsoft also unveiled a new website where users can download so-called Internet Explorer Add-ons. The page is meant to increase the visibility of third party applications that build on top of the browser. Add-ons for the current version of the browser for instance enable a tabbed browsing capability for the software.

This is Microsoft’s third beta of Internet Explorer 7 made available to the general public, and Hachamovitch said there are plans for one more. The new version comes amid growing competition from browsers such as Firefox, which has long offered functions such as tabbed browsing.

The final version of Internet Explorer 7 is expected to be released in the second half of this year, around the time a version of Microsoft’s new Windows operating system is expected to be available for business users.
http://www.microsoft.com/ie


Microsoft Developing Photo Search
2006-04-17T04:25:00.000-07:00
Xie, a researcher for the Web Search and Mining group within  Microsoft Research Asia, is working on technology called Photo2Search, which is designed to provide information on the go for users of camera phones. “As the old saying goes,” Xie says, “a picture is worth a thousand words.”
 Maybe more, actually. Photo2Search gives users a way to search a Web-based database by using nothing more than an image captured by a cellphone equipped with a digital camera.
 “This technology,” Xie says, “aims to solve the problem of mapping a physical-world object to a digital-world object. You see an object in the physical world, and you want to know the corresponding information in the digital world - for example, its price on the Web, user comments, or Web sites. There are many different solutions. You can use a bar code or radio-frequency identification. But using a picture of the object is very convenient and very easy to deploy.”
 The easy part is the key. Camera phones are simple to use, but the process of text-based search on them is not. That realization provided the late-2004 genesis for Phone2Search.
 “At that time,” Xie recalls, “the idea was very simple: Use a camera phone to do a Web search. This is very interesting, because inputting images is much more convenient than inputting text queries on a small device.”
 Photo2Search works like this: Seeking information about something seen, a user takes a photo of the object and sends the photo, via e-mail or Multimedia Messaging Service, to a Web-based server, which searches an image database for matches. The server then delivers database information - whether it be a Web page featuring the object in the photo or information associated with the object - to the user, who can act on the information received: read a menu, enter a gallery, book a hotel room, make a purchase.
 Sounds simple, right? The devil, as always, is in the details.
  



Yahoo Plagued by Slow Email
2006-04-17T00:05:00.000-07:00
Dymeta Inc., a small security firm based in Bettendorf, in Iowa says it has discovered why Yahoo’s email is sometimes slow.An analysis of Yahoo Inc. mail servers found that they were only able to accept email about half the time on average, making it likely that email was taking longer than normal to deliver.
 “We’re not saying that mail isn’t going to get through, but it’s likely to take longer than normal,” Gillette said. “Normally, when you send email from one account to another, you can expect it to be delivered in minutes. With the problems they’ve got, it could take hours or even days to get through, or it could be bounced back entirely.”
 In testing 16 Yahoo mail servers found on average that the servers were unable to accept email 45 percent of the time, and the number of available servers ranged from as low as four to as high as 12, Aaron Gillette, chief technician for the company, said.
 Yahoo, among the largest Web mail providers in the world, sending more messages per quarter than the U.S. Postal Service, Federal Express and the United Parcel Service combined in a year, declined a request for an interview. The company, however, did email a statement that blamed its problems on fighting spam.
 “As spam attacks continue to hit all e-mail services at unpredictable rates, Yahoo is constantly enhancing technologies and improving operations in order to deal with the load,” the statement said.
 Dymeta conducted the analysis after receiving what it considered an unusual number of complaints from email administrators at a number of businesses. Dymeta embarked on the analysis out of curiosity and as an opportunity to test its new tool called Mail Server Profiler, Gillette said.
 In establishing a SMTP connection with Yahoo servers, the testing tool found that they were able to get a response only 55 percent of the time. The rest of the time, there was no response at all. SMTP, or simple mail transfer protocol, is the standard means for communications between mail servers on the Internet.
 The company posted its finding in its online publication Email Battles.



KKR Buys Flextronics Unit
2006-04-17T00:04:00.000-07:00
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. will buy Flextronics Software Systems for around $900 million. Flextronics International Ltd. is world’s largest producer of electronics for other companies. KKR is buying 85% of the Bangalore-based India unit of Flextronics and marks its presence in the region after it opened its office in Tokyo & Hong Kong last year. Flextronics said it would retain a 15% stake in the business that would operate as an independent software and solutions company.
 KKR last year bought Agilent Technologies Inc.’s semiconductor unit, whose operations are mainly in Singapore. Palo Alto, California-based Agilent is the world’s biggest maker of scientific-testing equipment.
 “Our investment in Flextronics’ software development and solutions business is an outstanding opportunity to create value in a high-growth sector,‘’ Adam H. Clammer, a KKR executive said in the statement.
 The Indian unit was formerly Hughes Software Systems, based in New Delhi, before Flextronics acquired it. Flextronics, which in June 2004 agreed to buy 55 percent of Hughes for $226 million, renamed the company after increasing its stake. Flextronics Software has a center in Bangalore focusing on development of software for the Internet, accommodating about 600 employees.
 Flextronics’ Indian unit develops software for high-speed mobile phone networks and calls made over the Internet for Motorola Inc., Sun Microsystems Inc. and other companies.
 Strategy
 Buyout firms typically finance takeovers by borrowing against their targets’ assets to augment their own funds. They then seek to improve profits before selling the companies within five years to other funds or through initial public offerings.
 Citigroup Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co. will arrange financing for the Flextronics purchase, the statement said.
 KKR hired Michael Marks, the chief executive officer of Flextronics to advise on Asia and technology investments, the firm said in a statement Dec. 7. KKR in October appointed Deryck Maughan, a former deputy chairman of Citigroup Inc., to supervise the buyout firm’s Asian investments.
 Flextronics is seeking to raise more than $1 billion by selling its software, network services and semiconductor units, Chief Executive Officer Michael McNamara said in the statement. It expects to gain $175 million after taxes from this deal.
 Flextronics is “focusing our efforts and resources on our core electronics manufacturing services business,'’ the company said in an e-mailed statement today.
  



Google Calendar
2006-04-13T01:26:00.000-07:00
Google Inc, the Internet Search Giant has finally launched Google Calendar, as discussed earlier.
  The Google Calendar service allows its users to see their friends' and family's schedules right next to their own; quickly add events mentioned in Gmail conversations or saved in other calendar applications; and add other interesting events that are found online.
  Calendar and Events can be shared with the public, invitations can be sent to invite concerned people, send reminders and keep track of RSVPs right inside Google Calendar. Organizations can promote events, too.
  
  You can set up automatic event reminders, including SMS notifications, and instantly bring up anything on your calendar with the built-in search tool.
  Google Calendar is the latest offering Google, which analysts have said is gradually replacing its search-only business model with that of a portal, or all-purpose Web site. Over the past time, Google has been catching up to rivals Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp.'s MSN by adding e-mail, news, photo sharing, instant messaging, shopping and mapping services and a finance section.
  Features

Calendar Sharing: Set up a calendar for your company softball team, and share it with the whole roster. (Your shortstop will never forget about practice again.) Or share with friends and family so you can view each other's schedules side by side.
   Invitations: Create event invitations, send them to friends, and keep track of people's responses and comments, all in one place. Your friends can receive your invitation and post responses even if they don't use Google Calendar themselves.
  
  Quick Add: Click anywhere on your calendar where an event belongs (or use the Quick Add link), and start typing. Google Calendar understands whole phrases like "Brunch with mom at Java Cafe 11am on Saturday," and will pop new events right into your agenda.
  Gmail Integration: Add your friend's Super Bowl party to your calendar without ever leaving your Gmail inbox. Gmail now recognizes events mentioned in emails.
  Search: Find the date of the Baxter family BBQ (you knew it was sometime this summer). Or, search public calendars to discover new events you're interested in and add them to your own calendar.
  Mobile Access: Receive event reminders and notifications on your mobile phone.
  Event Publishing: Share your organization's events with the world. Learn more with our Event Publisher Guide.
  



Firefox Flicks
2006-04-12T08:29:00.000-07:00
To help increase awareness of Firefox among this target audience, Mozilla has launched Firefox Flicks. They are high-quality, innovative 30-second ad that introduces Firefox to mainstream Web users.
  Create a 30-second ad, in any style (live action or animated,) that brings Firefox to life for the millions of Web users who have yet to discover Firefox and the better Web experience it delivers.
  Watch the Latest flicks here:
  1. Double Click Relief
  2. DareDevil
  3. Drama Queen 



Novell still running Windows
2006-04-11T08:02:00.000-07:00
Novell today admitted that despite Company's efforts to internally migrate to Suse & OpenOffice.org, more than half of its workers still have dual-boot installations with Microsoft Windows.

At a press event, Novell's president Ron Hovsepian told the project to migrate the remaining employees shall be completed over the next year or so. Hovsepian’s remarks indicate Novell will have only a few months’ experience as a complete Linux and open source desktop shop behind it when, according to the vendor’s predictions, the software starts taking off in the mainstream.

The Novell executive said in Australia the Suse Linux implementation had been missing some of the pieces enterprises needed, but said version 10 of the software would help the market for desktop Linux pick up.

Regarding his company's own Linux migration, Hovsepian said Novell had learnt a lot from the implementation, and overcome challenges involving, for example, porting macros from Microsoft Office to OpenOffice.org.

"We've had actually very good success with it," he said. "We learned a lot about migration tools, learned a lot about what the usability pieces are."

Developers' POV : Novell developers say that they need Windows machines to develop/migrate/test their softwares to run on Windows Platform, so running a dual-boot installation with Microsoft Windows should not be taken as a surprise, but as any other business requirement.


Microsoft launches Linux Site
2006-04-07T04:59:00.000-07:00
Microsoft launched a Web site to promote its Linux and open-source interoperability work, at the LinuxWorld exhibition in Boston.
 Port 25 -- the site's named after the port used to listen for SMTP e-mail traffic -- is an attempt to promote conversations about Microsoft, open source, and how the twain might meet. It is aimed at creating community for businesses and developers working with mixed platforms, mainly Unix and Windows, and also Linux.
 Sponsored by the Redmond, Wash. developer's Open Source Software Lab, the site will offer blogs and other content on the OSSL's efforts.
 "This will be the place we not only blog, but also where we put analysis from our OSS labs and also where we discuss and show other parts of Microsoft that we think are just plain cool," wrote Bill Hilf, Open Source Software Lab head. He was recently promoted, to manage all of Microsoft's open-source compatibility efforts, including its controversial "Get the Facts anti-Linux campaign" and its "SharedSource initiative", in which the company allows developers access to some of its proprietary source code.
 Opening-day content consisted of blogs by several Labs' researchers, and an article about the OSSL, which houses more than 300 servers running 15+ versions of Unix and 50 Linux distributions.
 JupiterResearch analyst Joe Wilcox wrote on his Microsoft Monitor blog "Overall, I am impressed with the concept (caveat: assuming Microsoft sticks with it). If Get the Facts is a stick, Port 25 is the carrot."



Yahoo Mail Beta
2006-03-29T23:02:00.000-08:00
I got the Yahoo Mail Beta Invitation today and there was no reason to skip/miss it.

It took some time to initialize, first time I launched, but since then it's been working blazingly fast, just a Desktop Application. Includes a Left Pane, where you got all the links to the Mail Folders, Calendar and Notepad. RSS feeds can also be added within in the mailbox only.


You click on a Mail folder and it is loaded in the right-pane of the Window, and that's where it is fast at. You can right-click on Mail Folders as well as on the messages to perform most of the tasks.


Double-click on a message in the list and it is loaded with full height, without a preview window. With Keyboard shortcuts similar to Gmail, the experience is much better and simpler.


Sign up for Yahoo Mail Beta here.

Those who've already joined Yahoo Mail Beta, can join this Yahoo Group


Alcatel Buying Lucent Technologies
2006-03-24T22:49:00.000-08:00
Alcatel is planning to buy the rival Lucent Technologies creating World's largest telecom equipment supplier with combined sales volume of $25.33 billion.

The talks revive the negotations that sparked off five years ago and fell over due to issues with structuring of the new company. This time, the 2 companies are talking about a "merger of equals" that would be "priced at market". Lucent chief Patricia Russo is likely to become the CEO when Alcatel chief Serge Tchuruk retires in June.

Pressure had been mounting on telecom equipment majors after the consolidation of telephone service providers that buy the gear. Major customers like AT&T have already been consolidating, with the latest move being the $64.5 billion AT&T bid for BellSouth; Cisco agreed in November to buy Scientific-Atlanta Inc. for $6.9 billion to enter the growing market of Internet TV.

After the merger talks, share prices of Alcatel & Lucent jumped to $3.05/share, 13.14 euros/share respectively.

Alcatel has a market value of $21.9 billion, and Lucent, the largest U.S. maker of phone equipment, is valued at $12.6 billion, based on closing prices yesterday. Their combination would produce a company with sales larger than the market leader, Cisco Systems taking telecom mergers to almost $200 billion in the past 18 months.


ATI Introduces 1GB FireGL V7350
2006-03-23T06:14:00.000-08:00
ATI launched first Graphic Accelerator card with the capacity of 1 GB memory. The graphics accelerator card features an extremely powerful ultra threaded, parallel processing GPU, and the famous ATI's Avivo video & display technology.

Featuring full Shader Model 3.0 support and a scalable ultra-threaded architecture with true 128-bit floating point precision, 8 parallel geometry engines, 16 pixel shader processors, and an ultra efficient 512-bit ring bus memory controller, ATI FireGL V7350 provides the graphics horsepower for today’s professional applications and tomorrow’s technology innovations.

ATI’s Avivo video and display platform brings an increased level of visual fidelity to theprofessional graphics market with features such as automatic gain control, gamma correction and increased colour bit depth. With a 10-bit per RGB component graphics pipeline, instead of the standard 8-bit, the FireGL’s colour palette increases to over a billion colours.

The result should be a finer level of detail throughout the visible spectrum, enhancing details in shadows and making highlights come to life. In addition, high-end displays supporting 16-bit per RGB color component can be fully utilized by the graphics cards. Two dual-link connectors also give end users the ability to drive multiple ultra-high resolution displays, yielding a massive desktop display over 5000 pixels wide.

Based on a cutting-edge 90nm process technology and a 512-bit ring bus memory architecture, the FireGL V7350 and FireGL V7300 are able to take advantage of higher speed memories and support 1GB and 512MB frame buffers respectively. The high clock rates of these new graphics cards, combined with full 128-bit precision and extremely high levels of parallel processing, result in floating point processing power that exceeds a 3GHz Pentium processor by a staggering seven times, claims ATI.


Fedora Core 5 released!!!
2006-03-20T06:20:00.000-08:00
Long awaited by FC users, Fedora Core 5 has been released. The latest release includes latest Gnome 2.14 and KDE 3.5 versions. XFce 4 has also been bundled alongwith.

Running on the 2.6.15 kernel, Fedora Core 5 disallows the loading of any non-GPL modules.

FC 5 offers the recent releases of other standard softwares like Mono, Java, Firefox and GIMP. It installs GCC 4.1 and tools built with it like Eclipse.

Yes, Mono will be installed by default now. The Gnome Menu is a little streamlined and needs to be adjusted for user-defined behaviour. Mono based applications like Beagle, Tomboy and FSpot have also been offered alongwith the distro.

New look package managers are available by the name of Pirut and Pup, with sleek interfaces, though YUM is being used at the command line. The new look GUI Interface based package managers are not much efficient at packages management.

FC5 is quite sluggish in performance with high system requirements. The release notes for FC5 suggest a minimum of 256 megabytes of RAM for a graphical system, and recommend 512. Even a command-line system requires 128 megabytes.

Screenshots


Mozilla Firefox 2.0 Alpha 1
2006-03-20T05:20:00.000-08:00
Mozilla 2.0 Alpha 1 is leaking out as an undeclared Tinderbox Build release available for download from the Mozilla FTP server. Tinderbox builds are released as intermediary versions to the final release, and are often quite similar to the official version release.

Downloaded it and installed this new release; feels a little faster, though most the extensions failed to work with it. Didn't find much of a difference in this release, except the close tab button available alongwith the tab name.

You can try it here:

Windows EXE - firefox-2.0a1.en-US.win32.installer.exe
Windows ZIP - firefox-2.0a1.en-US.win32.zip
Mac - firefox-2.0a1.en-US.mac.dmg
Linux - firefox-2.0a1.en-US.linux-i686.installer.tar.gz
Linux - firefox-2.0a1.en-US.linux-i686.tar.gz


Google Calendar Screenshots
2006-03-08T03:03:00.000-08:00
TechCrunch has released some cool screenshots of Yet-to-be-launched Google Calendar.

Google Calendar is supposed to be under testing by a closed-group of 200 participants, who are required not to share any details of the product with anyone.

Have a Look :)


Firefox 2.0 Alpha 1 release soon!!!
2006-03-08T00:37:00.000-08:00
Firefox 2.0 release shall be released in another 3-4 days, as per the minutes of the Status Meeting held on March 7, 2006 as per the given link .

The new release shall be incorporating the following features:
A new User Interface
Undo Close Tab Feature
Focus on performance, stability and toolbar drag & drop
Extensions' blacklisting
Spell as you type
RSS parser
Session Saver, and
Anti Phishing



AT&T Buys BellSouth
2006-03-05T18:40:00.000-08:00
AT&T is buying BellSouth Corp for 67 billion in stock, in a bid further expanding its reach in SouthEastern United States & acquire the rest of Cingular Wireless, it doesn't already own.

AT&T Inc. was formed by SBC's acquisition of AT&T Corp. in November. The deal added a substantial national reach to the former Southwestern Bell's local business, which is concentrated in 13 states, including Texas, California, and the Midwest.

Post merger, AT&T would reach out to 70 million local-line phone customers, 54.1 million wireless subscribers and nearly 10 million broadband subscribers in the 22 states.

The deal would substantially expand the reach of AT&T, already the country's largest telecommunications company by the number of customers served. AT&T currently owns a 60 percent share of the nation's No. 1 cell phone provider, while BellSouth has 40 percent.


NASA to complete International Space Station
2006-03-03T08:12:00.000-08:00
NASA alongwith its European & Japanese partners have set a new plan to complete the International Space Station (ISS) by 2010, earlier than originally planned to ensure they were functioning by 2010, when the orbiting space laboratory is to be fully assembled.

The new sequence moves up launch of Europe's Columbus module to the seventh shuttle flight and moves up launch of Japan's Kibo module two flights, to the ninth mission.

The first of three components for the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) – or Kibo – are slated for 2007, one flight earlier, during the eighth scheduled orbiter mission, said Keiji Tachikawa, head of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The remaining two components are set for the ninth and twelfth shuttle missions, he added.


Microsoft Origami Puzzle
2006-03-03T01:01:00.000-08:00
All rumours about the secretive Microsoft Origami Project might be clearing off by March 9, as per the latest update on the website.

To say the least/predict, Origami is expected to be the size of a paperback book, able to play music, games, connect to the internet and run software. Information from Microsoft on Origami is sketchy to say the least. Industry experts predict it is the Microsoft's long-awaited offering hoping to take a bite out of rival Apple's all-conquering i-Pod.

It may just be coincidence, but March 9 is also the launch in Hannover of CeBit, the world's largest annual trade show for the information and telecommunications technology industry.


Symantec to tweak its Security & Firewall products
2006-03-03T00:05:00.000-08:00
FYI : Those who don't know about IRC Chat, it's similar to the modern Instant Messaging Networks like AOL & MSN Messenger, it's more like an open chat/public chat room and has been in use much before the Instant Messaging.

Symantec is planning to tweak the behavior of Norton Internet Security & Norton Personal Firewall so that they are no longer vulnerable to Spybot Worm.

If someone types "startkeylogger" or "stopkeylogger" in an IRC channel, anyone on the channel using the affected Norton products will be immediately kicked off without warning.

These are commands typically issued by the Spybot worm, which spreads over IRC and peer-to-peer file-swapping networks, installing a program that records and transmits everything the victim types (known as a keylogger). Spybot is an annoying but otherwise harmless prank that "script kiddie" hackers have been using for the past week or so  to knock users off online chat channels.


AP & MSN launch Online Video News Service
2006-03-01T21:18:00.000-08:00
Associated Press (AP), World's oldest & largest news collaborating organization & MSN launched Online Video News Service today.

AP Online Video News network, powered by Microsoft MSN Video covered video stories of New Orleans cleaning up after Mardi Gras and a special section about the six-month anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the storm's legacy in the Gulf Coast region. AP will allow its clipping of news' videos for free to the Internet Users on the web & generate revenue in the form of online advertisements placed alongwith the news clips.

About 40 video clips a day produced by the AP will be included in the service, which will cover national and international news as well as business, technology and entertainment stories. 


Oracle 10g XE (Express Edition)
2006-02-28T08:07:00.000-08:00
Oracle today launched Oracle 10g XE,  a free version of its Database product-line. Available as a free download of 150MB download, it is intended for the Developers who want to test out their applications with the Oracle Database.

Ofcourse, there are some limitations in this free version. It can store up to 4GB of user data, use up to 1GB of memory, and use one CPU on the host machine, though Oracle Database XE can be installed on any size host machine with any number of CPUs.

Oracle has posed the biggest challenge to MySQL, after the Oracle's failed attempt to acquire MySQL failed. For we know, Oracle is a much serious database than MySQL.


Google Base
2006-02-25T10:52:00.000-08:00
Google Base provides data structure and distribution for a wide range of content and information, a subset of items are for sale. To help users more easily purchase and sell Google Base items, Google is planning to enable people to buy items on Google Base using their Google Accounts.

Many of you are probably already familiar with the Google Account. You use it to sign in and pay for a number of Google services, like Google Video and Google Earth. Now, Google is introducting similar functionality on Google Base.

For buyers, this feature will provide a convenient and secure way to purchase Google Base items by credit card. For sellers, this feature integrates transaction processing with Google Base item management.

Starting with a very small number of sellers and we expect to include more over the next several months. Sellers & people interested in getting an announcement when this feature is generally available, let us know. And if you want to know how this functionality relates to Google's broader work in payments, read this update.


Google Page Creator
2006-02-22T23:49:00.000-08:00
Today, Google launched Google Page Creator.

Google Page Creator is a free online tool that makes it easy for anyone to create and publish useful, attractive web pages in just minutes.

Just do a normal sign-in using your gmail user account, and start creating pages. You can edit your pages in the editor, using WYSIWYG editor, and the pages would be hosted at
http://yourgoogleusername.googlepages.com

You can choose from a number of pre-defined formats to alter the look of your web-pages and do all basic HTML stuff required.

Link: http://pages.google.com



Google Calendar
2006-02-20T05:39:00.000-08:00
There has been speculations for sometime now, that Google is developing a Calendar service likely to be called as gCalendar.

Another point supporting it is the case of gcalendar.com that was registered sometime back in 2004, owned by Data Docket Inc. which was affiliated with Google.

Now, there is a trusted tester program accessible through "http://calendar.google.com/tester". It points to the same place - that is not specifically for the calendar program, but as a general testing platform, that is generally developed by the companies for beta testing of the products, before they are launched into the market.

More Info on Google Trusted Tester Program is available at:

http://www.google.com/tester/faq

So, as I believe, and looking at the movements made by Google in the recent path, if Google Calendar is beta launched soon, it should not be received as an unexpected launch :)


"Gmail for your domain"
2006-02-14T00:26:00.000-08:00
As I posted earlier, now it's confirmed. Google is running a beta
program for the Gmail service to offer Google's webmail service to
every user on an associated domain. Gmail for your domain would be
hosted by Google, so there is no requirement of hardware/software on
part of domain owners.

This program is available as a limited beta, you can sign up for the program here


Microsoft Buys MotionBridge
2006-02-14T00:17:00.000-08:00
Microsoft bought the Paris-based mobile search company MotionBridge to
enhance the focus on its Windows Live Search Program.

Windows Live is Microsoft's initiative to provide Web-based consumer
services, including e-mail, messaging, local search, mapping and
classifieds. The MotionBridge move was one of two major announcements that Microsoft made as the 3GSM worldwide mobile technology conference in Barcelona, Spain, got underway. The other involved a push e-mail technology that many see giving Microsoft a greater ability to offer an alternative to Research in Motion's BlackBerry.

Windows Live Search for mobile devices lets users to use their mobile
devices to search the web on the go. It also lets you save the
results, find nearest food-joint/gas station, view a map to the
destination alongwith detailed driving conditions whatever.

The emerging field of mobile search is strategically important and
crucial to delivering on our vision for Windows Live of providing a
seamless and rich information experience for individuals and
businesses across devices," said Christopher Payne, corporate vice
president of MSN Search at Microsoft.


File transfer/Video Conferencing in GTalk
2006-02-09T22:17:00.000-08:00
Google today released an update to Libjingle. For those of us, who do not know Libjingle, let me
tell you that Libjingle is Google Talk's implementation of Jingle and Jingle-Audio (proposed extensions to XMPP) to interoperate with Google Talk's peer-to-peer and voice calling capabilites.

The notable changes in libjingle version 0.2.0 are build support for Windows using Visual Studio Express, TLS Support (used encryption of data), and a new "tunnel" session type, being the most important one.

This new "tunnel" session type can be used to reliably transfer a TCP-like stream of data over Jingle's peer-to-peer connections. That would directly mean, gtalk will offer video-conferencing, file transfer support shortly. voila!!!


What next for Gmail: Gmail for domains
2006-02-08T23:23:00.000-08:00
Google’s Gmail has been an innovative web-based email service, ever since it launched, offering unique concept of conversations, heavy use of AJAX based interface,  Intellisense for contacts while composing emails and last but not the least: the concept of filters to fill the huge 2GB mailbox.

Now, after integrating the Gtalk’s chat logs into the Gmail accounts as another label, Gmail is geared to go even further and all the more alluring.

If code is to be believed, found deep inside the javascript source, Gmail is all poised up to offer Gmail for domains. Hold your breath: Yes, Gmail for domains!

The following code snippet is suggesting this:

            function vJ(){
                if(uy){
                ;return''+"Manage this domain"+"  "}
                else{return""}}

Gmail for domains would mean that any user who owns a domain can utilized Gmail as a Mail Server for his domain in addition to just being a client. Unarguably, this would be one of the big challenges to its competitors Yahoo, MSN & AOL. Yahoo offers a similar commercial solution & Microsoft is offering this solution in the form of MS-Exchange Servers.

Let’s imagine how the domain owners could use this feature. First of all, the domain would have to be authorized by the domain owner to use Gmail as the Domain Mail Server through some verification emails. Once, the domain is authorized, there must be some link/tab in the administrator’s Gmail inbox to manage the domain.

That will directly mean that incoming emails need to be filtered for the users, most probably as labels, of course the limit of this solution would be limited to the inbox size of the administrator i.e. 2GB. But we can also expect Gmail to offer the features of sharing the contacts, building mailing lists, customization of the interface by changing the images/logos/colors etc.

I guess now the imagination is going wild, so we should restrain ourselves from that and wait till this feature is silently introduced in our inboxes sometime in future as another New Feature of Gmail.


View GTalk Chat in GMail
2006-02-06T22:43:00.000-08:00
Google, which is known for its simple way of searching the Web, is hoping that by embedding new instant messaging software it calls "Gmail Chat" into its existing e-mail service it can differentiate itself in a crowded market it was late to join.

The Mountain View, California-based company is struggling to stand out in an entrenched field. Instant messaging was pioneered by America Online more than a decade ago. It, Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp. now have tens of millions of users each.

Google is fixing a decade-old technical divide between the generic Web browser that can check e-mail, search the Web or perform a host of other activities, and separate software used to converse in quick back-and-forth messages with buddies.

"We are breaking down some of the artificial barriers between e-mail and Web browsing," Salar Kamangar, Google's vice president of product management, said in a phone interview.

"We observed by talking with our users that there is no reason to think of IM as different from an e-mail message."

Gmail Chat complements Google Talk, a more sophisticated program the company introduced six months ago that combines instant messaging (IM) with free Web-based calling features. By joining IM to e-mail, Chat can reach a wider base of users.

"This is training wheels for Google Talk," said Greg Sterling, an analyst with Kelsey Group. "It is a way to introduce a broader population to instant messaging and give them exposure to Google Talk."

Gmail Chat requires no special software download. It is available to any registered user of Gmail e-mail. Existing contacts within the more advanced Google Talk program automatically show up in Google Chat, the company said.


SeaMonkey 1.0 Released
2006-02-01T00:56:00.000-08:00
The SeaMonkey project is a community effort to deliver production-quality releases of code derived from the application formerly known as "Mozilla Application Suite".

This Mozilla.org's open source internet suite features a state-of-the-art web browser and powerful email client, as well as a WYSIWYG web page composer and a feature-rich IRC chat client. For web developers, mozilla.org's DOM inspector and JavaScript debugger tools are included as well. It also has a few nifty features, of particular interest: drag&drop reordering of tabs, support for a common inbox for multiple email accounts, SVG and phishing detection. Click here to Download


Microsoft Unveils IE 7 Public Beta
2006-02-01T00:50:00.000-08:00
Microsoft released Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 for Preview yesterday.

As propounded by Microsoft, IE7 includes some major enhancements that have already been widely discussed over the Web. Without diverging from its commitment, Microsoft has introduced a number of new features in this new version 7 of Internet Explorer, though most of the new features are already available in the popular rival Open-Source Browser, Mozilla Firefox.

Features like Tabbed Browsing, Integrated Web Search Toolbar, Shortcut for deleting Browsing History, Zoom with Mouse-Wheel and Integration of RSS Feeds are already available to the users with Mozilla Firefox. IE7 also offers similar keyboard shortcuts for tabbed browsing.
Major portions of the browser code has been rewritten in IE7. With a new Interface that is Cleaner and Sleeker than its predecessors IE7 offers Improved Security that help in removing Malicious software (Malware) from the system and Protection of Personal Data from Phishing through (Microsoft Phishing Filter), Security Status bar, Address Bar Protection, Advanced Printing Features and ActiveX opt-in, though Pop-Up Blocker is still a pain even at a High-Level Filtering.

Microsoft also released tools to support Web-Developers to take advantage of new Web Capabilities like Introduction of Windows RSS Platform, Improved CSS Support, Transparent PNG Support, OpenSearch and Improved AJAX Support.

Click here to Download IE7.


AT&T Aims To Be 'First Rate'
2006-02-01T00:45:00.000-08:00
AT&T touted all of that and more at its annual analysts meeting in New York on Tuesday.

What analysts liked the most, in the near term, was AT&T's announcement that it plans to buy back $2 billion of its shares in 2006. Shares in the new AT&T, created by SBC Communications' purchase of Ma Bell in November, have climbed 6% this year.

The AT&T purchase is expected to contribute to earnings in 2007, a year ahead of previous company forecasts. "Synergies from the AT&T merger will be larger, and they will come sooner, than in the outlook we provided a year ago," Whitacre said.

AT&T says it will soon begin selling Cingular's wireless phone services to large companies under the AT&T brand. That marketing tactic may not please BellSouth if AT&T targets companies within its BellSouth's nine-state home region, some analysts say.

On Tuesday, Cingular CEO Stanley Sigman disagreed.

"There has been a lot of speculation," Sigman said. "It's a strong relationship, it's a strong partnership. What's good for Cingular is good for both (AT&T and BellSouth)."


No Antivirus in Vista
2006-01-31T03:40:00.000-08:00
Microsoft will omit anti-virus protection in Vista, the next version of Windows, which it plans to ship late this year. As with previous versions of Windows dating back to Windows 2000 at least, Redmond is promoting Vista as a landmark improvement in Windows security.

For unspecified business (not technical) reasons, Microsoft will sell anti-virus protection to consumers through its OneCare online backup and security service.

Symantec, though its assisted enquiries from investigators, has said it would rather take on Microsoft in the marketplace than cry foul to regulators over Microsoft's entry into the consumer anti-virus marketplace. McAfee has made no suggestion it's about to object to Redmond's encroachment on it traditional turf, either. So it seems Microsoft has either decided anti-virus technology is better delivered as a service or else figured out that's a better business model to pursue.


Google updates toolbar
2006-01-29T22:52:00.000-08:00
Google is releasing new beta versions of its Google Toolbar for consumers and corporations. After Google Toolbar 4.0 is released publicly on Monday, new custom buttons will let people run search queries directly on any Web site from their toolbar.

People can easily create their own buttons from Web sites, and developers will be able to use a new XML application-programming interface to create more advanced buttons. Bookmarks can be saved to a user's Google account so they can be accessed from any computer.  The enhanced search offers query suggestions and spelling corrections. Users can send Web pages via Gmail or mobile text messaging or to a blog with the click of a button. The new enterprise edition lets administrators control which features to enable. Google Toolbar 4.0 beta for Internet Explorer will initially be available in English, and in more than 16 languages by the end of March. It runs on Windows XP.



Google in China
2006-01-29T22:41:00.000-08:00
At Google's Official Blog: googleblog.blogspot.con, Google expresses its helplessness at removing sensitive information from the search results.

Excerpts from the blog:

"Google users in China today struggle with a service that, to be blunt, isn't very good. Google.com appears to be down around 10% of the time. Even when users can reach it, the website is slow, and sometimes produces results that when clicked on, stall out the user's browser. Our Google News service is never available; Google Images is accessible only half the time. At Google we work hard to create a great experience for our users, and the level of service we've been able to provide in China is not something we're proud of.

This problem could only be resolved by creating a local presence, and this week we did so, by launching Google.cn, our website for the People's Republic of China. In order to do so, we have agreed to remove certain sensitive information from our search results. We know that many people are upset about this decision, and frankly, we understand their point of view. This wasn't an easy choice, but in the end, we believe the course of action we've chosen will prove to be the right one."


No to GPL 3 for Linux
2006-01-28T06:29:00.000-08:00
Linus Torvalds, the developer of the Linux kernel, has publicly stated his opposition to the digital-rights management (DRM) provisions that have been proposed for the new version of the GNU General Public License (GPL). The GPL is used by many open-source software developers.

The new draft for version three of the GPL prohibits the use of GPL-licensed software from implementing DRM copy-protection systems. Torvalds wrote in a posting for the Linux kernel mailing list that he does not expect the kernel to adopt the new license. His position, while not a total surprise, represents a significant rejection of the proposed draft.


Disney to buy Pixar for $7.4 billion
2006-01-24T21:43:00.000-08:00
The Walt Disney Co on Tuesday said it would buy Pixar Animation Studios in a $7.4 billion deal that gives Pixar animators creative control over the world's most famous cartoon studio and make Pixar CEO Steve Jobs Disney's largest individual shareholder.

Under the agreement, expected to close this summer, Jobs, who also heads Apple Computer Inc, will join Disney's board of directors.

Pixar's six films with Disney, including "Toy Story," "Finding Nemo" and "The Incredibles," have grossed more than $3.2 billion.

"As I considered the possibility of returning Disney animation to greatness, it was clear to me that maintaining a relationship with Pixar was essential," Iger told analysts on a conference call on Tuesday.

Pixar has over $1 billion in cash on its balance sheet, making the net value of the transaction about $6.3 billion, Staggs said.

Both boards of directors have approved the deal, which calls for 2.3 Disney shares to be issued for each Pixar share.

Jobs owns a 50.6 percent stake in Pixar shares, which would translate into about 6 percent of Disney shares after the deal. After the deal, Disney shares fell 9 cents to $25.90 and shares of Pixar rose $1.53 or 2.7 percent to $59.10 on Inet following the announcement.


IBM instant messaging links to AIM, Yahoo, Google
2006-01-23T22:10:00.000-08:00
IBM, whose secure messaging system is used within many of the biggest companies, on Monday said its customers would soon be able to chat with instant messaging users from America Online, Yahoo and Google.

International Business Machines Corp. said it plans by midyear to allow its Lotus Sametime corporate instant messaging system to work with the three consumer platforms, marking the latest move to break down barriers that have separated instant messaging audiences from one another.

Lotus Sametime counts 20 million users inside companies worldwide, including more than 25 companies with over 100,000 users apiece. IBM said 60 percent of the world's 100 largest companies use Sametime.

By allowing corporate messaging systems to work with consumer versions of IM, office workers will be able to communicate instantly with friends or family outside of work.


Google Talk Adopts XMPP, Jabber
2006-01-23T22:07:00.000-08:00
Google has announced that its Google Talk service is now fully interoperable with other communications services that support the server-to-server XMPP protocol.

This open interoperability, also known as federation, enables any communications service provider to connect to Google Talk, so respective users can talk to each other.

Many service providers world-wide support XMPP federation today, as also thousands of active XMPP-based communications services run by major corporations, ISPs, universities, and individual users. Some of these service providers supporting XMPP federation include Jabber.org, Earthlink, Sipphone's Gizmo Project, Chikka (Philippines), MediaRing (Singapore), Tiscali (Italy), and Netease (China).


Microsoft new tools aim to lure IBM's Lotus users
2006-01-18T03:35:00.000-08:00
Both Microsoft and IBM are vying for supremacy in the $2.8 billion corporate messaging market which includes collaboration tools such as e-mail, Web publishing, electronic calendars and project management systems.

To encourage customers to switch from their existing Lotus applications to Microsoft's platform, Microsoft said it would offer a tool to allow potential customers to identify and organize its most-used shared software. 

In market share terms, Microsoft had 32 percent of the 389 million users of e-mail and collaboration software, while IBM had around 24 percent, Radicati estimated.

By 2009, Radicati estimates that the number of Microsoft Exchange users will rise to 200 million users, or 37 percent of the corporate market. 

IBM Domino/Notes users will sink to 68 million, or 13 percent of the market, while IBM's new Workplace software will grow to 35 million users, or 6.5 percent of the market, meaning IBM's total share will amount to around 20 percent of the global market.


Radio Google
2006-01-18T03:31:00.000-08:00
Google is great at getting Web users access to information, and great at getting advertisers access to its Web users. So, what is it doing getting into the radio business?

Tuesday's purchase of radio advertising company dMarc Broadcasting for $102 million (and up to $1.1 billion more over the next three years) is just another step toward making the company a one-stop shop for advertisers.

It's not clear how much the dMarc deal will do for Google, which may be why the company isn't betting that much, comparatively speaking, on the acquisition. The reason: DMarc only gives Google access to a small slice of a contracting market. 

Up until now, dMarc's chief product has been a tool that lets radio outlets automate their operations, a tool used by some 5,000 of the 13,000 stations in the U.S. Of those customers, about 500 use another dMarc product, one that allows them to automatically sell leftover air time--"remnant" time, in industry-speak--to advertisers at a steep discount. "If you're buying that unsold inventory, you're expecting to get a pretty good price," says radio sales consultant Eric Ronning.


IBM Earns $3.19B in 4Q to Beat Estimates
2006-01-18T03:28:00.000-08:00
IBM said Tuesday that net profits rose 13 percent, although revenue was unimpressive in many areas and missed analysts' consensus estimate. Cost cuts and the sell-off of IBM's personal-computer business boosted profit margins, while positive trends in chips and mainframes helped the hardware division.

In the last three months of 2005, IBM earned $3.19 billion, or $1.99 per share, on revenue of $24.4 billion.

The results were pulled down 10 cents per share by a $267 million charge stemming from IBM's recent decision to freeze its pension plan for U.S. workers in 2008, and by 2 cents per share because of an accounting change.

Leaving those figures out, the $2.11 in earnings per share easily beat the $1.94 consensus of analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial. The revenue forecast was $25.5 billion.

In the same period of 2004, IBM registered a net profit of $2.83 billion, $1.67 per share, with revenue of $27.7 billion. However, subtracting the performance of IBM's personal-computer division, which has been sold to China's Lenovo Group Ltd., earnings would have been $2.77 billion, $1.64 per share, on $24.7 billion in revenue.

The results and outlook seemed to have a mixed message for investors, who bid IBM shares 15 cents lower in extended trading after the earnings report was released.

In all of 2005, IBM earned $7.93 billion, $4.87 per share, on revenue of $91.1 billion. In 2004, profits were $7.48 billion, $4.38 per share, on revenue of $96.3 billion.


SeaGate boosts Hard Drive Capacity
2006-01-17T01:53:00.000-08:00
Seagate Technology LLC has started shipping a notebook PC hard drive that overcomes an obstacle many feared would be a major roadblock to the further expansion of disk capacity and the overall growth of the storage industry.

With some drives now topping out at 500 gigabytes, the miniaturization is nearly at its limit. Made any smaller, the particles can begin to interfere with the magnetism of their neighbors. The result is disastrous for data.

The new approach that aligns bits of data vertically rather than horizontally enables Seagate — and other drive vendors — to further boost the density of drives without increasing the risk of scrambling data.

Seagate's new drive, the Momentus 5400.3, was being shipped as of Monday, the Scotts Valley, Calif.-based company said. The shift to perpendicular recording allows it to bump up the maximum capacity of its notebook drive to 160 gigabytes from 120 gigabytes. The 2.5-inch drive costs $325, compared to about $240 for the 120 gig model. Seagate plans to extend the new recording technology to other notebook drives, as well its 1-inch drives used in handheld gadgets and 3.5-inch drives for desktop PCs.



Five Things You Didn't Know About Windows Vista
2006-01-13T22:35:00.000-08:00
Microsoft's latest Windows Vista beta, in the field less than a month, has been getting a thorough going over from developers and early adopters.

Where are the games?

In a world where many PC users are heavy secret Solitaire players, curiosity abounds as to what games will come with Windows Vista. Two sites (here and here) have posted screenshots, apparently obtained at Microsoft's September 2005 Professional Developer's Conference, exploring this recreational angle.

Did you know that Microsoft isn't the only entity that's registered 'Windows Vista' as a trademark?

Microsoft is certainly covering all its legal bases when it comes to protecting the Windows Vista name. According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Microsoft has registered Windows Vista at least seven times as a trademark.

What's a quick way to learn to write Vista-aware code?

On his  blog, Tim Sneath, a Microsoft Windows Vista Technical evangelist, suggested setting up a series of developer challenges (essentially, coding tests), which would help programmer familiarize themselves with some of the different parts of Vista.

Want to work on Vista?

Like the Vista beta 2 so much you want to work on the OS for real? You're in luck. Microsoft's career site has posting for nearly 200 jobs which have at least something to do with Windows Vista. 

What's the official Windows Vista launch Date?

Therein lies the apparent seeds of Microsoft's "Guess the Launch Date Contest" contest. Unfortunately not open to U.S. residents, it's hosted on Microsoft's EMEA site and is aimed at residents of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Winners get a trip to the international Vista launch event in the USA, whenever and wherever that may be, along with three nights in a four-star hotel. Interestingly, second through fourth prize winners might consider themselves even luckier, since they win a new Xbox 360 system.


Macworld 2006: Intel based Macs Launched
2006-01-11T22:20:00.000-08:00
Apple has released Intel-based laptop MacBook Pro and iMac powered by a Dual Core Processor with clocks of up to 1.83Ghz at the currently running MacWorld Conference and Expo.


iNtel iNside

Apple claims that the Dual Core Processor will deliver up to four times the performance of the PowerBook G4. The new MacBook Pro, the first Mac notebook based on an Intel processor, features a stunning aluminum enclosure just one inch thin, weighs only 5.6 pounds, includes a built-in iSight video camera for video conferencing on-the-go, and the Apple Remote and Front Row software for a simple, intuitive and powerful way for users to enjoy their content wherever they go.

Apple has also unvield the new iMac which is powered by the Intel Dual Core Processor which is twice as fast as the previous iMac. The widely praised iMac design now features a built-in iSight video camera for video conferencing out-of-the-box, and the breakthrough media experience of Front Row with the Apple Remote for a simple, intuitive and powerful way for consumers to enjoy their content from across the room. Starting at just $1,299, every new iMac comes with iLife® ’06, the next generation of Apple’s award-winning suite of digital lifestyle applications featuring major new versions of iPhoto®, iMovie® HD, iDVD®, GarageBand and introducing iWeb, a new iLife application that makes it super-easy to create amazing websites with photos, blogs and Podcasts and publish them on .Mac for viewing by anyone on the Internet with just a single click.


IBM, HP, Sun Show Unity In One Way: Belief In Unix
2006-01-10T22:13:00.000-08:00
Sales for servers running the decades-old Unix operating system aren't growing as quickly as those that run on Microsoft's Windows and the open-source Linux. But recent maneuvers by large server vendors show that Unix is still a big business -- and showing new signs of life.

The $16 billion-a-year market, which comprises everything from workstations to high-end servers, has long been a three-way race between Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard and IBM. The contest intensified over the last year as Sun tried to keep its footing, HP held its own and IBM gained.

Who's Crazy?

Now all three vendors are looking for signs that recent bets they've made -- gambits the other two rivals call crazy -- will pay off this year:

IBM is counting on its Power line of chips to provide better bang for the buck than rival vendors. The firm controls every part of the process, from chip design to manufacturing. Rivals say IBM can't afford to do this for long.

Sun also designs its own chips, called Sparc. But it has been shifting some of that burden to partner Fujitsu to cut costs.

Also, it's giving away its flavor of Unix, called Solaris, including a version that runs on cheap Intel-compatible machines. It's a bid for market share, which it hopes will spur hardware and service sales.

HP is touting gains for servers powered by Itanium, a chip it developed with Intel. The chip is widely mocked by IBM and Sun, but HP says it's gained quickly on Sun's Sparc and IBM's Power families in several key measures.

"The Unix market is still a very competitive market," said Don Jenkins, who heads HP's Unix strategy.

This market is a confluence of two separate technologies: the Unix operating system, created by Bell Labs in 1969, and the RISC, or reduced instruction set computer, chip design created by IBM in the 1970s.

"When I started covering this space in the mid-1990s, there were almost 15 Unix vendors," said Jean Bozman, an analyst with International Data Corp. "Today, it's down to a top five."

She adds that the top three -- IBM, HP and Sun -- account for 90% of the business.


Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2006
2006-01-07T22:16:00.000-08:00
If Internet is incomplete without Google, so is the case this year with Consumer Electronics Show 2006 and High-Def DVD Players, offering the final component to replicate the movie theater experience at home.


Among the more interesting gizmos on display at the show, which ends Sunday:

• The Inno, a portable combination XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. receiver/MP3 player with 1 gigabyte of internal memory.

The device, from Pioneer Electronics, allows users to store songs taken from their own CD collection, as well as 50 hours of XM programming. Playlists can combine songs from both sources.

Users can also bookmark songs they hear on XM, then buy the tracks for 99 cents from Napster. The device will be available in March and retails for $399. A boom box and car kit are also available.

• Samsung Electronics Co. also announced a line of portable satellite radio/MP3 players.

The Helix XM2Go player is similar to the Pioneer Inno and will also sell for $399 in March.

But an even smaller Samsung player, called the Nexus, works along with a portable XM antenna/receiver called the Passport. The Nexus receives satellite radio signals when connected to the Passport and can record XM programs along with a listener's own music collection. Removed from the dock, the Nexus plays back the XM tracks recorded earlier.

A player that stores 25 hours of music will sell for $199 in March, while the larger player that holds 50 hours will sell for $249.99.

• Several new handheld video options included the Gigabeat player from Toshiba, one of a series of devices running Microsoft Corp.'s portable media center software.

The device comes with either a 30- or 60-gigabyte hard drive and can store hours of music, videos, and TV shows and other content. The device displays the video on a 2.5-inch color screen. It also has a built-in FM tuner.

Both models will be available in March, with the 30 GB player selling for $299 and a 60 GB model retailing for $399.

• GPS devices were another hot item at the show. The units, designed chiefly to get drivers door-to-door on unfamiliar roads, are expanding to include DVD players and music files.

The AVIC-Z1 from Pioneer has a 30 GB hard drive, using two-thirds of that space to store navigation information and the rest to hold as many as 2,500 songs ripped from CDs.

The system also plays DVDs on its 7-inch screen and, with an adaptor, can be used to control an iPod music player.

The system includes voice recognition, so a command such as "Go to LAX" will produce a detailed map to the Los Angeles airport. A user's entire address book can be transferred to the device from a cell phone or PDA wirelessly using Bluetooth and can be accessed via the touch screen.

The AVIC-Z1 will be available in April at a cost of $2,250.

• New technology is also updating an old habit — reading.

Sony is betting more on a smaller number of key products, including its electronic book reader.

The slim device can store hundreds of books in its internal memory and boasts a long battery life, which the company claims will allow a person to read "War and Peace" without a recharge.

The screen is not backlit so it doesn't flicker. And the size of the text can be changed to accommodate aging eyes.

Sony will be selling books for download on its Connect online service. Users can also display their own documents on the device, making it an efficient place to store files for long business trips.


Intel Centrino Duo Platform
2006-01-06T06:09:00.000-08:00
Intel Inc. has officially introduced their Centrino Duo Platform today. With dual-core capabilities, power saving features to improve battery life, Wireless connectivity and Advanced Graphics Media Accelerator, Intel has made a strong waves into the market.

Hardware Benchmarking Sites like AnandTech have already reviewed the notebooks based on the Centrino Duo Platform and the results are pretty impressive. They compared one notebook based on the Centrino platform with the one based on Centrino Duo Platform. The Centrino Duo Platform based machine performed better in terms of speed and lasted 30 minutes of battery life more.

Intel is also offering Comparison and more detailed features of the Duo Platform on their Website.





IBM to Freeze $48B Pension Plan in 2008
2006-01-05T23:51:00.000-08:00
International Business Machines Corp. said Thursday it will freeze its $48 billion pension plan in 2008 and instead enhance its 401(k) benefits for its 125,000 U.S. workers.

Nearly all IBM's U.S. employees - everyone hired before Jan. 1, 2005 - have pension benefits accruing under a traditional annuity-like plan or a cash-balance plan, which gives workers interest-bearing funds that they can take with them if they leave the company.


Industrial giants such as IBM and airlines that still carry pension obligations say the costs and complexities hamper their ability to compete with younger, more nimble rivals that aren't saddled with pension obligations.

Beginning in 2008, then, IBM workers' pension benefits will be locked in place, based on salary and length of service. The accrual of benefits will stop, meaning future raises or additional years with the company will not signify bigger pension checks upon retirement.

Instead, IBM will increase its contribution to its 401(k) plans, in which workers get a defined, predictable amount from the company that they're responsible for investing. IBM will double the percentage of employees' contributions that it matches, to 6 percent of salary; certain employees will be eligible to receive more.

Current retirees will see no changes.

IBM executives said that by no longer having to account for pension accruals that would have mounted after 2008, the Armonk, N.Y.-based technology giant will save between $450 million and $500 million this year alone and up to $3 billion from 2006 through 2010.

However, the change will result in a $270 million charge in the just-completed fourth quarter of 2005.

The action mirrors steps IBM has already taken in other countries, and follows IBM's decision to offer 401(k) plans only — no pensions — to workers hired after Jan. 1, 2005. Similarly, rival Hewlett-Packard Co. decided last year to offer only a 401(k) plan to U.S. workers hired this year and beyond.

Patrick Kendall, a pension expert at Diversified Investment Advisors, a consulting firm specializing in retirement plans, said the "hard freeze" IBM announced Thursday was almost inevitable considering the company's earlier "soft freeze" of closing the plan to new employees.

Pensions have been a touchy subject for IBM, which was hit with a federal lawsuit — settled for up to $1.4 billion — filed by employees who contended that IBM committed age discrimination when it shifted to a cash-balance plan.

Randy MacDonald, IBM's head of human resources, said the decision was unrelated to the lawsuit.

"It's all about cost-competitiveness, so that we could continue to be the financially viable company that we are," he said.


Google's Low Cost PC
2006-01-03T21:45:00.000-08:00
 Google Inc. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. may be preparing a low-cost PC that runs an operating system created by Google and could be announced as early as Friday at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.

A Wal-Mart spokesperson called the report “strictly a rumor without any truth to it at all.” A call to Google was not immediately returned. 
Google has long been rumored to be working on its own operating system, possibly based on Linux, as well as its own Web browser. Screenshots purportedly from an in-development Google operating system were circulated on the Internet in September, but were later discredited. 
Bear Stearns released a report last month speculating that consumers would soon be able to see “Google Cubes” -- small hardware boxes that would allow users to move songs, videos and other digital files between their computers and TV sets. 
In recent months, Google has also unveiled services and software delivered through the Internet that go beyond its core Web text search engine and match features provided by Microsoft applications. 
But Michael Gartenberg, a consumer Internet analyst with Jupiter Research, said that while Google has done a good job of “co-opting the Windows desktop away from Microsoft,” it faces an “astronomical challenge” if it wants to replace the OS itself.Wal-Mart has sold low-cost PCs running desktop versions of Linux such as Linspire, Xandros, Novell Inc.’s Suse and Sun Microsystem Inc.’s Java Desktop System. The Bentonville, Ark. retailer started in 2002, though it has restricted such sales to its Brisbane, Calif.-based Web store only.  Wal-Mart.com currently offers a Microtel-branded PC with a 1.5 GHz Sempron 2200+ AMD processor that runs Xandros Linux for $288. That computer does not have a monitor.



Huge virus threat rocks Microsoft
2006-01-03T21:24:00.000-08:00
Report says a newly discovered flaw could expose hundreds of millions of Windows PCs to virus.
January 3, 2006: 11:08 AM EST

http://money.cnn.com/2006/01/03/technology/windows_virusthreat/index.htm?section=money_latest

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - The new year is off to a rocky start at Microsoft, where security experts are scrambling to confront a potentially massive virus threat to Windows PCs.

According to a report Tuesday in the Financial Times, the latest vulnerability involves a flaw which allows hackers to infect computers using programs inserted into image files. The threat was discovered last week. But it mushroomed over the weekend, when a group of hackers published the source code they used to exploit the flaw.
What makes this threat particularly vicious, according to the Times, is that unwitting victims can infect their computers simply by viewing a web page, e-mail, or instant message that includes a contaminated image. That differs from most virus attacks, which require a user to actually download an infected file.

"The potential [security threat] is huge," Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at F-Secure, an antivirus company, told the Times. "It's probably bigger than for any other vulnerability we've seen.

"Any version of Windows is vulnerable right now," said Mr. Hypponen, including every Windows system shipped since 1990.

Microsoft (Research) said in a security bulletin on its Web site, "we are working closely with our antivirus partners and aiding law enforcement in its investigation."


Office 12
2005-12-29T05:10:00.000-08:00
Yahoo News:

When Microsoft says that the next version of Office is the most important revision in over a decade, it's not kidding. Both new XML-based default file formats and a major interface revamp are intended to make the market-dominating productivity suite more flexible and accessible than ever. Veteran users may find the changes in the new version, code-named Office 12, unsettling, but they seemed well worth the adjustment in my tests of the first beta release. The final edition is slated to ship sometime in 2006.

A New Look

Even before the technical beta's limited release, Microsoft had previewed Office's startling new interface, which all but does away with drop-down menus and toolbars in most of the suite's applications. Instead, users get a set of tabs atop what the company calls the "ribbon"--an inch-high toolbar that displays various functions relevant to the selected tab. Click on the Write tab in Word, for example, and the ribbon presents you with font and formatting options as well as the familiar cut, paste, and find/replace functions that used to live in the Edit menu.

New File Formats

But lurking behind the scenes is a change that may ultimately prove even more significant than the interface makeover: Microsoft's replacement of its current proprietary default file formats with new compressed XML-based file formats, denoted by the addition of the letter x to traditional file name extensions (.docx instead of.doc,.xlsx instead of.xls, and so on).

These new Office Open XML formats improve on their predecessors in several ways. For starters, they are more compact: When I saved an unchanged Word 2003 file as a.docx file, it was less than half its previous size. And since Office XML formats are based on both XML and Zip formats, they should be more universally accessible to other applications--even those in other operating systems--as developers begin incorporating Microsoft's XML schemas (which provide the programming details for interpreting XML documents) into their software. The company has already published draft versions of these schemas, and it has also proposed Office XML to the Ecma International standards organization as a royalty-free, open standard.

Office 12 still lets you read and write to Office 2000-2003 default formats--and, for the first time, it permits you to save files as read-only PDFs. Conversely, Microsoft says it will offer free downloadable extensions allowing users of Office 2000-2003 to create, open, edit, and save Office XML files. When users of the legacy versions try to open an Office XML file, they will be directed to the download site.

Zipped Components

Because each Office XML file is actually a zipped collection of component files (text lives in one component, style attributes exist in another, reviewer comments are in a third, and so on), you can easily alter these attributes by changing the Office XML extension to.zip, opening the file using any unzipping utility, and removing or substituting component files. For example, you could quickly swap in a new style subfile (created by programmers, or simply copied over from another Office XML document) without making changes to the text.

Initial Confusion

Chief among the additions is the live preview capability. As you hover the mouse over a format--for example, a new font or paragraph style--in the ribbon, the change shows in your document before you commit to it. This time-saving feature is available across the suite for a variety of options.

One downside: The ribbon does cut into your screen real estate, and the ribbon's size is not adjustable--the larger your monitor screen, the better.

Another significant interface change in Word: The Status toolbar at the bottom of the window, which shows the number of pages and the current page of a document, now also displays a running word count and a sliding zoom bar for adjusting your view from the default 100 percent.

An equally welcome addition to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint is the Document Inspector (under File, Finish), which searches for hidden text that you might not want others to see--comments, the document owner's name, and the like--and offers to remove any or all such material.

The improvements in Excel 12 include enhanced help for beginning users, beefed-up capacity (worksheets can now handle up to 1 million rows and 16,000 columns), and easy-to-apply cell designs.

An Excellent Excel

Excel's conditional formatting function lets you liven up your spreadsheet with colors and effects based on the contents of the cells.Excel's conditional formatting function lets you jazz up your spreadsheet with colors and effects based on the cells' contents. For example, you can create thermometer-like color gradients depending on the numerical values contained in a group of cells.

I particularly liked Excel 12's formula-writing help: In past versions, you had to type in the exact name of a formula. Now, as you start typing, a pop-up menu shows all formulas that begin with the letters you've typed, and each formula has its own tool-tip definition. As you continue typing, Excel narrows your options accordingly.

Petite PowerPoint

Quick-change artist: Applying new styles to presentations takes only a couple of clicks using PowerPoint 12's Design ribbon.Office XML's file-shrinking magic is particularly striking in PowerPoint 12. A single slide containing a photo and graphics that took up a hefty 5MB in PowerPoint 2003's default file format shrank to a modest 610KB (about 0.6MB) in the new.pptx format.

PowerPoint 12's use of the ribbon provides a sense of control lacking in earlier versions. For example, by clicking on Effects in the Design ribbon, you can turn a rudimentary bulleted list into a logical diagram--and then quickly spruce up that diagram with a 3D or glow effect using other options on the same ribbon. In previous versions of PowerPoint, these options were buried in a labyrinth of multiple menus.

Outlook Update

Looking ahead: The new To-Do Bar on the right of the Outlook 12 window shows all pending tasks and upcoming appointments.Office 12's interface consistency breaks down in Outlook, however. No ribbons here--just the same old drop-down menus. What is different is the new and potentially useful To-Do Bar. Similar to the task pane found in Word or Excel 2003, it appears on screen right and is supposed to display all pending tasks and upcoming meetings.

Microsoft says that when used on a corporate network, the To-Do Bar will display meetings assigned through other networked Office system applications, such as Access and OneNote. You can adjust the size of the pane, but I didn't find that it made the screen feel cluttered.

Until you mark a task done, Outlook will keep it in the To-Do Bar. To reserve time to complete a To-Do Bar task, you can simply drag it over into your calendar (by default the program will schedule a 30-minute appointment).

Easier Access

For many who use Office, one component--Microsoft's powerful database program, Access--has always seemed impenetrable, especially compared with the more user-friendly FileMaker Pro. Access 12 adds features that make the software more, well, accessible.

Getting-started templates, presented visually in the ribbon, guide new users through the creation of databases for specific uses--for example, tracking a collection or organizing an address book. The new version also makes it easy to reformat database reports on the fly: You can now edit each database field from the report view, a major improvement. And simplified query tools will help you extract the data you need without having to learn any special jargon.

Final Thoughts

Like its predecessors, Office 12 is a mammoth program suite, and most folks will never use all its features. I would have liked having the option to revert to the old interface--but the new design has its advantages, and the move to XML is clearly a good one.

Along with a host of less dramatic but potentially useful new features, these major innovations--at least as introduced in the beta--make for a more powerful and helpful productivity package.


Top 50 Websites for Year 2005
2005-12-28T21:58:00.000-08:00
Time:

Time Magazine has published a list of top 50 Websites for the year 20005. The list is grouped under various categories including : Arts & Entertainment, Blogs, News & Information, Shopping etc.

A must visit link.



Gaim Beta 2.0 released
2005-12-22T04:56:00.000-08:00
AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo continue to push out new versions of their respective instant messaging clients with added features like voice and video. But the open source community has been making progress with a client of their own: Gaim. Gaim 2.0 hit beta over the weekend after 15 months of development.

Gaim 2.0 Beta 1 features a rewritten status system, smooth scrolling, support for advanced MSN Messenger features like nudges and Yahoo Doodle, improvements to file transfer under AIM and ICQ, support for Apple's Bonjour, and even voice over IP capabilities. Downloads of Gaim 2.0 are available for Windows and UNIX systems.


Seagate Buys Maxtor for $1.9B
2005-12-22T04:38:00.000-08:00
Rivals stand to gain $300M in savings in first year of the merged entity’s operation.

Hard drive manufacturer Seagate Technology said on Wednesday it will acquire rival Maxtor for $1.9 billion in stock.

Maxtor shareholders will receive 0.37 shares of Seagate stock for each Maxtor share they own. Seagate shares opened at $19.60 on Wednesday, while Maxtor shares opened at $4.52. That means Maxtor shareholders will get $7.25 per share, a 60 percent premium on their Maxtor shares.

The boards of directors of both companies have approved the proposed deal, which will give 16 percent of the combined company to Maxtor shareholders. Seagate shareholders will own 84 percent of the company.

Maxtor of Milpitas, California, manufactures hard disk drives used in PCs made by manufacturers such as Dell and Hewlett-Packard. The company also has a very strong retail presence. Its drives can be found in a number of consumer electronics products.

Savings on Expenses

The combined company expects to gain approximately $300 million of annual operating expense savings in connection with the transaction after the first full year of integration.

“We believe that there is significant cost savings available here,” said Seagate CEO Bill Watkins. “It’s about scale on both the operating and engineering sides. The intent is to maintain all of the revenue as it is and take advantage of future growth.”

The merged company will take the Seagate name, and the current Seagate management will run the company. Dr. C. S. Park, Maxtor’s chairman and chief executive, will become a director of the new Seagate, which will continue to head operations from Scotts Valley.

The transaction is expected to be completed in the second half of calendar 2006, subject to obtaining shareholder approvals and regulatory approvals. There is a termination fee of $300 million payable to Maxtor under certain conditions. The transaction is intended to be tax-free to Maxtor shareholders.


IBM to Buy Micromuse for $865M in Cash
2005-12-22T04:36:00.000-08:00
International Business Machines Corp. said Wednesday it agreed to acquire Micromuse Inc., which makes software that manages video and voice traffic on computer networks, for about $865 million in cash.
Under the definitive agreement, Armonk-based IBM is paying shareholders $10 for each Micromuse share, almost a 40 percent premium to its closing price of $7.21 on Tuesday. Micromuse shares surged $2.71, or 37.6 percent, to close at $9.92 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The stock had previously traded in a 52-week range of $3.97 to $8.13.
 San Francisco-based Micromuse's software is used to monitor and manage network traffic by about 1,800 clients such as Time Warner Inc.'s America Online, E-Trade Financial Corp., Verizon Communications Inc. and other corporate and government customers.
 Consumers ultimately benefit when telecommunications carriers and other companies are able to use Micromuse's software to detect and diagnose problems, said Steve Mills, a senior vice president for IBM's software products.
 Such tools are increasingly crucial, he said, as Internet technologies become the basis for phone calls, voice mail services and even video programs.
 "There's a clear growth in network convergence," he said. "It's an important space for our customers, and it's an area where we've had gaps."
 The acquisition boosts IBM's software portfolio as the company increasingly turns its focus to business services. Revenue from Micromuse's customers grew 10 percent to $160.8 million in fiscal 2005.
 After the transaction is completed, Micromuse will operate within IBM's Tivoli software division, and its products will be incorporated into IBM's software and hardware offerings.
 The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of next year, pending regulatory and shareholder approval, IBM said.



Google Buying Stake in AOL for $1 Billion
2005-12-19T04:02:00.000-08:00
Google Inc. is buying a 5 percent stake in Dulles-based America Online for $1 billion as part of a far-reaching business and advertising partnership that will link the two companies in many ways and will greatly enhance AOL's financial prospects, according to people familiar with the agreement.

The deal between Google and AOL is a setback for Microsoft Corp., which had sought to replace Google as the search engine on the AOL service and had been in talks with AOL's parent, Time Warner Corp, since January. Google is the leader in search, followed by Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft's MSN Search, which is a distant third.

"This is our dream come true," one source familiar with AOL and Time Warner's strategy said. "Our fates are intertwined."

AOL is already the largest single source of ad revenue for Google, generating about 10 percent of its ad dollars, according to public filings. AOL's business strategy under its chief executive, Jonathan Miller, is to garner more of its revenue in the future from rapidly-growing online advertising.

As part of the new agreement, AOL gains the right to sell Google-generated, text-based ads that appear on the AOL service. This change will enable AOL to sell all forms of online advertising itself to any company.

In addition, AOL's video service will get special promotion as part of Google's video offering. And AOL will have graphic ads that attract attention and appear alongside the text-based ads Google traditionally has displayed to the right of its free search results.

AOL will also be given a substantial fixed-dollar budget from Google to purchase advertising to promote the Internet service. Google's free search results, based on math equations that rank them according to relevancy, will not be changed as a result of the new partnership, sources said.


Honda Robot : Busy with Work
2005-12-13T21:14:00.000-08:00
TOKYO - The walking, childlike robot from Honda Motor Co. can now serve tea, push a mail cart and gallop along at twice its previous pace — the latest in the Japanese automaker's quest to replicate human movement.

The 51-inch talk, bubble-headed robot named Asimo has already shown it can jog, walk up stairs, wave, avoid obstacles and carry on simple conversations. But in a demonstration Monday at Honda's Tokyo head office, a new version of the robot showed off new skills its maker hopes will make the robot more handy around the office.

Honda illustrated how Asimo might serve as a receptionist of the future. Equipped with a sensor that can read microchips in identification cards, the robot recognized a woman approaching from behind, and turned to greet her by name.

It then demonstrated further potential as a host by taking a tray of coffee cups from the woman with its own hands and carrying it to a nearby table where it set the tray down for imaginary guests. It also pushed a four-wheeled cart around on stage.

Later, Asimo — whose name is a play on the Japanese word for "leg" or "ashi" — sprinted back and forth for reporters at 4 miles per hour, double its previous gait of 2 mph. The new technique demonstrates improved balancing technology because both the robot's feet are airborne at the same time in mid-stride, Honda said.

Honda began dabbling with humanoid robots in 1987 and now has 40 Asimos worldwide.

The company plans to start using Asimo's new receptionist functions at Honda offices early next year. The new robot is also available for lease for 20 million yen ($170,000) a year.

 - Associated Press


Man Apologizes After Fake Wikipedia Post
2005-12-12T01:14:00.000-08:00
A man who posted false information on an online encyclopedia linking a prominent journalist to the Kennedy assassinations says he was playing a trick on a co-worker.

Brian Chase, 38, ended up resigning from his job and apologizing to John Seigenthaler Sr., the former publisher of the Tennessean newspaper and founding editorial director of USA Today.

"I knew from the news that Mr. Seigenthaler was looking for who did it, and I did it, so I needed to let him know in particular that it wasn't anyone out to get him, that it was done as a joke that went horribly, horribly wrong," Chase was quoted as saying in Sunday editions of The Tennessean.

Chase said he didn't know the free Internet encyclopedia called Wikipedia was used as a serious reference tool.

He also said he doesn't support more regulations of the Internet, but he said that he fears "Wikipedia is inviting it by its allowing irresponsible vandals to write anything they want about anybody." Chase said he created the fake online biography in May as a gag to shock a co-worker who was familiar with the Seigenthaler family. He resigned as an operations manager at a Nashville delivery company as a result of the debacle.



Security Fix for Gmail
2005-11-19T09:03:00.000-08:00
Google Inc. has quietly patched a security bug in its Gmail service, but the company is downplaying the severity of the risk to its users.

Google confirmed that it made "modifications" to Gmail to cover an attack vector that allowed malicious hackers to take complete control of a victim's Gmail account.

The elhacker.net advisory described how a Gmail user token could be used in conjunction with other hacking tricks to take control of the victim account.

However, Google spokesperson Sonya Boralv told Ziff Davis Internet News that a successful attack would require the victim to open up an authenticated token and willingly give it to the attacker.

The risk of an actual attack is so slim, she said the company did not consider it a security vulnerability. Boralv said the authentication token is totally encrypted and cannot be sniffed by an attacker.

"Nevertheless, we have made some modifications to Gmail to mitigate these kinds of issues in the future," Boralv added.

In the face of concerns that Google never notified users of the Gmail issue, Boralv insist that the company follows security best practices.

"We take security very seriously, investigate vulnerability reports immediately and resolve them with highest priority. We looked into this issue and learned that it can only occur if a user knowingly provides their authentication token," she said.

To avoid this problem, Boralv said, Google tries to educate its users not to provide sensitive information to unidentified individuals. Google also provides anti-phishing guidance to its users.

"All Google products are put through a rigorous security review process to identify security issues and fix them before the product is released. If security vulnerabilities are identified after the product is available, we fix them immediately and automatically update the service for our customers," Boralv said.


Google - Web Traffic Analysis
2005-11-14T10:48:00.000-08:00
Google has officially launched Analytics, a robust new web analysis system that provides site owners with traffic metrics and massive amounts of useful marketing data. Based on technology originally developed by a Californian company called Urchin that Google acquired in March, Analytics integrates with Google's popular AdWords system, and will vastly improve the quality and quantity of data provided to existing AdWords users. Those of you that don't use AdWords can still use Analytics by adding a simple javascript snippet to your web site.

Analytics features an elegant user interface that leverages modern web technologies like Flash and DHTML. Although it seems a little rough around the edges (the Flash components don't display correctly in Firefox on my Linux system) the service is moderately impressive. It can export data in several formats, including XML and CSV. With Analytics, you can determine where your visitors are coming from, which links on your site are getting the most hits, how long the visitors spend on various pages of your site, and more:

Although it may not be especially useful compared to some of the critical features, the geographical map overlay is probably one of the coolest features. Analytics will generate a Flash-based map of the world that shows you which regions your traffic comes from. You can click individual regions to get additional statistics, and you can use Flash's built-in zoom feature to get a closer look at specific locations. The site overlay mechanism is one of the other particularly interesting features. It will superimpose click statistics on top of your actual page so that you can (hypothetically) see what people are clicking just by browsing your site. During my experiments with Analytics, I had some trouble getting the site overlay feature to work correctly. Clicking the individual links in the site overlay caused the Analytics start page to load in the iframe rather than the actual content. 



Google Offers Free Wi-Fi Internet Service in Silicon Valley
2005-11-10T23:48:00.000-08:00
Search Engine giant Google, is offering free wi-fi Internet service called Google WiFi in a limited way to two public sites near the company’s Mountain View, California, headquarters -- a pizza parlor and a gym -- located in the heart of Silicon Valley.

The company has already launched a sponsored Wi-Fi "hotspot" in San Francisco’s Union Square shopping district in April with a start-up called Feeva.

"Google WiFi is a community outreach program to offer free wireless access in areas near our headquarters," the Google Spokesman described. The service is still in development stage and the company is collecting the feedback from the users.

With the offering of WiFi service, Google expands to another competitive market of Internet Service Providers and telecommunication companies all the more since it introduced an instant messaging and Web telephone calling service called Google Talk in August.

Google has submitted a bid to offer a free WiFi Internet Services across the city of San Francisco in 2006. Google spokesman Nate Tyler said "It is also an opportunity to make San Francisco a test-ground for new location-based applications and services that enable people to find relevant information exactly when and where they need it. We anticipate that the services we develop on this network will ultimately benefit end users and Google partners."

A similar offer was made by Google for Mountain View as well. Mountain View, with a population of about 70,000 people -- about one-tenth that of San Francisco -- would be the first city to be converted to a free wireless Internet zone by Google.


Suse Linux Founder Exits Novell
2005-11-09T23:54:00.000-08:00
Suse Linux founder Hubert Mantel announced his resignation from Novell Tuesday in a mass e-mailing.

Mantel said in a brief letter, sent to recipients in a Suse mailing list, that he could no longer work for the company, which acquired Suse in January 2004.

"Too late for me. I just decided to leave Suse/Novell," Mantel wrote. "This is no longer the company I founded 13 years ago."

Mantel's exit is the latest executive departure from Novell’s Nuremberg, Germany-based Suse unit. In October, former Novell EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Asia) and Suse channel chief Petra Heinrich announced her exit and took a new position at Open-Xchange, an open-source e-mail company based in Germany. And in May, former Novell EMEA president and onetime Suse president Richard Seibt left Novell.

Mantel said Novell likely will fill his role at Suse, which was similar to those of Linus Torvalds and Andrew Morton in the development of the Linux kernel. Mantel also indicated that he sent his letter of resignation to Novell's upper management.

"I have been the maintainer of the Suse kernel for more than a decade now," Mantel wrote. "I'm very confident the Novell management will find a competent successor very quickly. After all, there are lots of extremely skilled people over there in the Ximian division."
Links
 Novell Channel Chief To Leave Company

Novell Layoffs Cast Cloud Over Big-Business Linux

Novell Names Hovsepian President, COO

Novell To Slash 600 Jobs, Sell Celerant Consulting



Microsoft sees up to 3 mln early Xbox 360 sales
2005-11-09T02:44:00.000-08:00
Microsoft Corp. on Tuesday said it expects to sell as many as 3 million Xbox 360s in the first three months after its launch -- a strong start in its battle to dominate the market for next-generation gaming consoles. Some big retailers in the United States have stopped accepting early orders for Xbox 360.
 The company set that target nearly two weeks after trying to play down industry expectations. At its latest earnings announcement, it warned that initial Xbox sales might not be as high as some in the gaming industry have expected.
 "In GameStop stores, the reservation process is closed," said Chris Olivera, a spokesman for GameStop Corp., the biggest U.S. video game retailer, adding that advance orders at GameStop's recently acquired Electronics Boutique stores were due to close "relatively soon."
 Best Buy Co. Inc., the No. 1 U.S. electronics chain, said on its Web site that it had stopped taking orders for the Xbox 360.

Lee, the CFO of Microsoft's home and entertainment group, declined to say how many consoles would be on retailers' shelves on November 22 when the Xbox 360 launches, saying that Microsoft would have enough machines for a solid release and steady supply thereafter.
 Microsoft has contracted with three electronics manufacturers to build the Xbox 360: Flextronics International Ltd., Wistron Corp. and Celestica Inc. The Celestica plant is expected to come online in early 2006.
 Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft's Xbox 360 will debut at least three months before its main rival Sony begins selling the PlayStation 3, the gaming industry leader's next-generation console.
 Current-generation Xbox sales have slowed ahead of the launch.
 Microsoft had cautioned on October 27 that early Xbox 360 sales would not be as high as expected. And Microsoft's shares initially sold off on the news.



IBM releases software to promote Cell
2005-11-09T02:39:00.000-08:00
IBM (NYSE:IBM - news) on Tuesday launched a set of software tools it hopes will spur wider interest in its upcoming Cell microprocessor that is key to the computing giant's return to profitable chipmaking.

International Business Machines Corp. has developed Cell jointly with Sony Corp. (6758.T) and Toshiba Corp. (6502.T), for use in Sony's PlayStation 3 video game console due out next year.

"We view this as the jumping-off point where communities of interest can get started surrounding Cell and people can explore the full power of the architecture," said Ted Maeurer, head of the Sony Toshiba IBM Design Center in Austin, Texas.

IBM is banking on the chip to help revive its flagging microchip division, which has lost more than $1 billion since 2002.


Nintendo Gaming Remote Control
2005-09-17T10:19:00.000-07:00
This Friday, Nintendo revolutionised the Gaming Industry by launching an unconventional Game controller aptly named "Revolution" console. Nintendo President Satoru Iwata launched it at the Tokyo Game Show. The controller is similar to a conventional TV Remote Controller, that has a Motion detection Sensors, allowing players to move and swing it around like an actual Sword, Gun, Steering Wheel or a Baseball Bat and more depending upon the game.

The Nintendo launch was the biggest buzz at the Game Show, and is expected to attract 150,000 people. The Revolution is available in bright red, black, silver, white and green colors. It can also be fitted with a joystick add-on. Also, people can use it with much ease, just like a TV Remote, so gamers can adapt to use quickly.

The Virtual Reality that it creates in the minds of players while holding the controller in hands is the biggest advantage. Players can handle it like an actual handheld during their games. It adds a lot more real experience to the game and extends the effect to near reality. Nintendo calls this motion sensor based technology as a "direct pointing device".

Nintendo is dominating the market for the handheld game machines with its Game Boy, while Sony leads the home game consoles with the PlayStation. Nintendo has sold 66.79 million units worldwide, while Sony has sold 91 million PlayStation2 consoles worldwide over the last five years, 21 million of them in Asia, although more than 100 million of the original PlayStations have been sold worldwide.

Further, Nintendo snatched the limelight from Microsoft XBox 360, scheduled to be launched in November. Microsoft is strongly pushing XBox360, learning from the past failure of the original XBox. Microsoft sold 21.9 million XBox consoles worldwide during 3 years, but it failed miserably in Asia, including Japan, where Sony PlayStation dominates strongly.

Microsoft is trying hard to appeal Japanese consumers by signing on designers popular here to make games exclusive for XBox 360, such as "Final Fantasy XL" and "Ninety-Nine Nights". Microsoft has partnered up with all the industry's leading games developers -- including Electronic Arts, Activision and Ubisoft -- and plans to develop games specifically for Japan.
But Sony is confident that the PlayStation3 will be a hit. The PS3 will be equipped with the world's most advanced Cell processor, which is 35 times as powerful as the PlayStation2. None of the "Revolution" and "PlayStation 3" are expected to arrive before XBox 360, so Microsoft needs to play really safe to dominate the market and stand competition when Nintendo and Sony start selling their products.


Yahoo's New Web Mail Service(Beta)
2005-09-15T00:48:00.000-07:00
Yahoo Inc. told to upgrade its Yahoo Mail service, the most popular Web-Based Email Service, making it more efficient and fast like a desktop application. The New Web Interface is a look-alike of Microsoft Outlook program and provides features like drang-n-drop, autocomplete, right-click menus that are generally available on desktop programs.



Yahoo Mail upgrade has quickly followed AOL Mail's improvements meant to make its e-mail service quicker and easier to use. The new Interface is based on advanced technologies like DHTML, XML and SOAP and AJAX eliminating the need to refresh the browser to load new page/data. It sounds similar to the Interface that is currently provided by Gmail.

The Yahoo Mail upgrade was expected after Yahoo acquired Oddpost Inc. (a company that provides Web-based e-mail applications) in 2004. And after the war of storage capacities, that Google started with Gmail, now, the fight is turing for the best Interface of these Email services.

Further details can be found at http://whatsnew.mail.yahoo.com


Oracle To Buy Siebel
2005-09-13T00:33:00.000-07:00
It seems all big companies are on a shopping spree. Continuing the trend, Oracle has bought Siebel to become the number one CRM applications company in the world," as told by Larry Ellison, the Oracle chief executive. The deal comes after nine months of Oracle's PeopleSoft acquisition, one that took nearly two years to be completed amid a flurry of lawsuits and anti-trust investigations.

Oracle is offering $10.66 per Siebel share, 16.8% more than Siebel's closing share price on Friday. While Oracle shares rose 1.6 percent to 13.49 on the news while Siebel shot up 12.7 percent to 10.29.

After the acquisition of Siebel, Oracle has got a leg up with its rival SAP, the German Software Giant in the business management applications field. The purchase of Siebel is likely to help Oracle achieve its stated goal of 20% long-term annual earnings growth. Also, Oracle is now the second largest software group in the world after Microsoft.


eBay To Buy Skype For $2.6 Billion
2005-09-12T00:15:00.000-07:00
eBay Inc. is buying Skype - the Internet Telephony Company in a $2.6 bn deal.
Skype, founded by the creators of Kazaa, the file-sharing program that riled the music business gives away software that allows people talk for free over the Internet using computers and microphones . A paid version, SkypeOut, allows those calls to be connected to regular phones. Similarly, SkypeIn is a real phone number your friends can call and you pick in Skype.

eBay is buying Skype to speed up the communication between the buyers and sellers instead of the current method of exchanging messages.

Skype has 53 million registered users, including more than 2 million who pay for its premium services. In 2004, Skype generated about $7 million in revenue, which it projects will snowball to $60 million this year. eBay said it would pay an additional $1.5bn to Skype over the next three years , bringing the total size of the deal to $4bn.


iPod nano
2005-09-08T01:27:00.000-07:00
Apple Computer Inc. today introduces "iPod nano", the pencil-thin incredibly small music player. Soon after the launch of the iTunes mobile phone Rokr, the company has introduced iPod nano.

Steve Jobs, CEO intoduced the iPod nano at a concert calling nano as "the biggest revolution since the original iPod". Surely, as nano is extremely thin, less than a pencil, almost one third of iPod size, a completely new design and posesses an elegant look(hmm...Apple is eying ladies to buy nano...lol).

iPod nano is available in 2 models as of now, a 4 GB model that can store around 1000 songs and a 2GB model with a half-capacity of storing 500 songs are available at $249 and $199 respectively. The player is based on flash memory instead of hard drive and has a color screen that shows photos. Usage of flash memory also made the player lighweight at 1.5 ounces approximately.

It holds up to three days’ worth of music. It plays for up to 14 hours between battery charges.
It displays the color album art for the song you’re listening to right now. It carries your photos(25000), podcasts and audiobooks(11000).

There are host of other features: Click Wheel, Calendar and Contacts, World Clock, Customizable menus, PC Sync with iTunes - Automatic Transmission, addons with iPod accessories (Armband, Lanyard Headphones, Tubes, In-Ear Headphones, Dock).


Apple introduces iTunes phone from Motorola
2005-09-07T11:57:00.000-07:00
 Apple Computer Inc. CEO Steve Jobs today introduced Apple iTunes phone, based on Motorola "Rokr" phone model. The cellphone runs the popular "iTunes" Software from Apple Computer Inc. and can play music songs similar to the iPod shuffle player, the best-seller item from the Apple's stable.

The cellphone can store around 100 songs and users can transfer songs from/to PC's through USB-Data Cable. The music stops when a call is received, so you don't miss your calls.

A product like this was in demand for quite sometime, and Apple only recently gave hints about the release of such a gadget only lately. After riding on the huge success of the iPod, the company can expect to unwind another craze amongst the consumers to buy a musical phone similar to iPod music player.

The phone is currently available via Cingular phone service only and company expects to boost sales and legal music downloads as well through iTunes.

More details are yet to come :)


Sony PSP breaking sales records
2005-09-07T06:20:00.001-07:00
Sony PSP is breaking sales records with it PlayStation Portable (PSP) to become the fastest-selling games console of all time in the UK, according to figures. It sold more than 185,000 units since its launch in September 1. That is more than double than Nintendo's DS (87,000 at launch), and it became the most successful hardware launch in UK history ever.

24 games were available at launch, the largest for any console, with 20 entering the All Formats Top 40 and 9 games breaking into the Top 10. Games were priced at £34.99 with the console itself retailing at £179.

The software for the PSP is also selling well, though no singular title stood out particularly in terms of sales. Ridge Racer recorded the most sales, at 37,000 units sold. Other hit titles include Wipeout Pure, Virtua Tennis and Metal Gear Ac!d, for a total of 20 PSP titles entering in the U.K. top 40.

The Sony PSP and Nintendo DS have fought for supremacy in every country they've been released and the recent UK launch comes as a defeat for Nintendo. Still, the Nintendo DS has outsold the PSP in Japan. And in the United States, the PSP had a stronger launch but Nintendo still claims better numbers overall for its DS.


Microsoft Visual Studio - Orcas
2005-09-06T03:41:00.000-07:00
Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference is expected to be a coming out party of sorts for the next version of Visual Studio, code-named Orcas.

Primary among the new features in and new direction for Orcas will be advances in how the toolset handles data, sources said. Sources said "The future 'Orcas' release of Visual Studio aims to unify the programming models through integrated query capabilities in C# and Visual Basic, a strongly typed data access framework, and an innovative API for manipulating and querying XML."

As both its PDC and the launch of its Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005 products loom in the next few months, Microsoft is working on delivering technology to eager users, prepping to RTM VS 2005, deliver a release candidate of the technology and provide a third beta version of a key component. Microsoft will officially launch both Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005 on Nov. 7 in San Francisco.

Link


Court Orders Kazaa to Stop Pirates
2005-09-06T03:35:00.000-07:00
A federal judge on Monday ordered distributors of the popular file-swapping program Kazaa to alter the software, which millions have downloaded, so it can no longer be used for music piracy.

Hailed as a victory by the recording industry that brought the suit, the decision has implications well beyond Australia, where Kazaa executives are based, because Kazaa's users span the globe.

The ruling released late Sunday night held liable Sharman Networks, the Sydney-based company that has owned Kazaa since early 2002, as well as its chief executive, Nikki Hemming. The Sydney federal judge also found that a Sharman partner, Altnet, violated Australian copyright law. The ruling applied to Altnet's parent company, Brilliant Digital Entertainment, and its chief executive, Kevin Bermeister. Legal scholars said the decision may ultimately lead to the demise of Kazaa, just as a similar injunction by a San Francisco federal judge in July 2000 hastened the death of  Napster, the pioneering file-swapping service.

It gave Kazaa two months to include filters to prevent the trading of copyrighted music and tossed out record industry claims of contravention of the Trade Practices Act and conspiracy.

Ruling Text

Links


SAP focuses on Banking Sector
2005-09-06T03:25:00.000-07:00
SAP, Europe's biggest software maker is focussing on Banking Sector as one of the cores areas for expansion, SAP head Henning Kagermann told Handelsblatt. "We see a lot of opportunity for growth -- mostly organic but we will make fill-in acquisitions if we need to buy in certain expertise," Kagermann told the Financial Times.

The market for SAP has the potential of "around 9 billion euros per annum" for SAP according to Kagermann. SAP currently has a market share of less than ten percent in the banking sector.

The modernization of some 4500 banking systems, the paper writes, will cost some 100 billion euros according to the extrapolations of experts. And the market experts at Forrester Research say that less than half of this has already been done.



OpenSSH 4.2 released
2005-09-05T22:20:00.000-07:00
OpenSSH 4.2 has just been released. It will be available from the mirrors listed at http://www.openssh.com shortly.

T-shirt, poster and CD sales directly support the project. Pictures and more information can be found at:
      http://www.openbsd.org/tshirts.html and
   http://www.openbsd.org/orders.html

Changes in the new release includes:

Added a new compression method that delays the start of zlib compression until the user has been authenticated successfully. Another round of proactive changes for signed vs unsigned integer bugs has been completed, including changing the atomicio() API to encourage safer programming.

Support for the improved arcfour cipher modes from draft-harris-ssh-arcfour-fixes-02.
The improves the cipher's resistance to a number of attacks by discarding early keystream output.

Increase the default size of new RSA/DSA keys generated by ssh-keygen from 1024 to 2048 bits.

Many bugfixes and improvements to connection multiplexing and Portable OpsnSSH: Support for long passwords and Unixware 7.


Google losing ground in China
2005-09-04T22:54:00.000-07:00
Google is losing market share in China to primary rival, Baidu.com, according to a survey by a Chinese internet research group.

The survey, conducted by the Beijing-based China Internet Network Information Center, reported that Baidu.com Inc. boosted its market share in Beijing by 10.8 percentage points to 52 percent. Google Inc.'s share was at 33 percent, as the American Internet search engine kept its customer base steady while the overall market grew, said the survey, seen Tuesday on CNNIC's Web site.

China's Internet population hit 103 million by June, second only to the United States, according to CNNIC. Google owns 2.6 percent of Baidu, which recently went public.


Meanwhile, U.S. Internet giant Yahoo! held only a 3.7 percent market share overall, with smaller Chinese rivals Sohu.com and Sina Corp. claiming a 4.6 percent and 4 percent share, respectively.

Google has long been popular with Chinese Web surfers, but has suffered from a lack of brand recognition.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based company only recently set up an office in Shanghai in preparation for a belated expansion in China and obtained a Web address under the country's China domain, http://www.google.com.cn

Google bought 2.6 percent of Baidu.com last year in a move outsiders thought might lead to the American giant taking over the tiny Chinese startup. But Baidu.com has stayed independent, striving to become Google's Chinese-language equivalent.

Six months ago, Google held the largest market share in the three cities covered by the survey, which was conducted earlier in August, the report said, without giving specific figures. Microsoft Corp. is getting ready to launch a Chinese version of its MSN portal through a joint venture with Shanghai Alliance Investment Ltd.


NASA's Marshall Center Supports Hurricane Katrina Relief Efforts
2005-09-04T08:00:00.000-07:00
Nasa's Marshall Center at Huntsville, Ala is supporting NASA personnel, their associates and two Agency facilities recovering from Hurricane Katrina.

The Marshall Center is working to restore communications and power to both facilities, and to deliver supplies to recovery teams and on-site personnel.

The Marshall Center also is partnering with Huntsville City Schools to enroll children of impacted NASA employees in local schools, and also will partner with the City of Madison and Madison County Schools to accommodate additional children of displaced employees.

NASA has designated a telephone number (877/470-5240) for displaced employees to call for assistance and to advise NASA of their whereabouts. Family members also may use the number to inquire about employees and others sheltering at Stennis and Michoud. For contact information for employees and contractors, or for general public information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/eoc

In addition, NASA has established a toll-free number (888/362-4323) for recorded updates about general conditions at Stennis and Michoud. For updates on the Web, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/hurricane

For information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/home

Inquiries From the Public

NASA is also taking email inquiries about personnel sheltering at Stennis and Michoud. Use "Assistance – Katrina" in the subject line, and send email inquiries to:

public-inquiries@hq.nasa.gov

 - SpaceRef.com


Hitachi to Introduce Tiny Drive
2005-09-04T07:54:00.000-07:00
 Hitachi Ltd. announces today that it has matched Seagate Technologies with what it says is the smallest drive on the market, a one-inch-diameter hard drive that holds eight gigabytes of data.

Its product is distinguised from the Seagte products' with the technology that detects when the hard disk is being dropped.

Prices of the new devices were not disclosed. But the price for storage has been dropping so steadily that it is now measured in pennies a megabyte - the equivalent of about one million characters. (A gigabyte is 1,000 times that.)

- New York Times


Wi-Fi Enabled Cameras From Nikon
2005-09-04T03:43:00.000-07:00

Nikon this week announced two WiFi-enabled digital cameras, the Coolpix P1 and P2. The new Coolpix 8 megapixel P1 and and 5 megapixel P2 digital cameras from Nikon have built in 802.11b/g WiFi capabilities that enable the camera to send pictures wirelessly back to a computer running a new version of Pictureproject.




Analysts said the Coolpix eight-megapixel P1 and the five-megapixel P2 are indeed the world's first digital cameras with built-in WiFi capabilities. Kodak had announced a WiFi digital camera at the last Consumer Electronics Show that would do far more than Nikon's model, but has not yet brought the camera to market.

The only significant difference between the two cameras is the resolution at which they take pictures. The P1 is an 8-megapixel camera while the P2 is a 5-megapixel model. In practice, this means full-resolution images from the P1 are 3,264 pixels by 2,448 pixels and those from the P2 are 2,592 pixels by 1,944 pixels.


 
  It takes about eight seconds to transfer a full-resolution image from the P1 and about four seconds to do the same with the P2. 



Google branches out with print ads
2005-09-04T03:36:00.000-07:00
Google's foray into offline advertising came in the form of full-page ads in PC Magazine and Maximum PC.

In this latest move, Mountain View-based Google is betting it can exploit its relationship with hundreds of thousands of small businesses that already advertise online by its search results. The idea is to help advertisers gain exposure in the offline world at cheaper rates, or with less effort, than they otherwise could have.

All of this will help Google act as a conduit for content and advertising delivery and distribution, analysts said. They said the deal reflects Google's strategy to offer a one-stop shop for advertising.