I'll be back

No ... seriously !

Apple launches ipod nano and the Motorola ROKR

So all the rumours were true ;) (As if I didn't know :) )

Apple has released a new ipod called the Ipod Nano and a new co-branded itunes enabled phone with motorola called ROCKR

I'm surprised this hasn't made slashdot yet !!

Tags: Apple,iPod

GNOME 2.12 release

Check the Start page at:

http://www.gnome.org/start/2.12


GNOME,Linux

Apple special event

Ok. So this one might prove that I was right with my earlier post. Apple is apparently organising an invitation only special event and the invite says, "1000 songs in your pocket changed everything. Here we go again."



Yipppee again !! I wish the phones supports Edge networks. Moto Rockr its called, apparently !

Tags: Apple,iTunes

Apple/Motorola Launching itunes phone

Ok. So far from what I've read/seen, there have only been rumours about this one. And this is the first confirmation. Apple and motorola have been jointly working on an itunes capable phone since quite sometime and the phone is ready for launch. I got a mail from an apple dealer on a mailing list I subscribe to and here's what he has to say:

"Actually I am looking out for a new phone and a new service provider. I am testing out Reliance for the last one month for their billing since I am supposed to be on a better plan. If I am happy, I will be going in for the 6255. If I had it with reliance, I will be probably going in for IDEA and probably buy the Apple iTunes iPhone also called as the MOTO ROCKR from Motorola. The worldwide launch is set for a few hours from now!"

Read the last line carefully. Apple is set to launch the phone is a few hours from now. I'm in India so I'd guess that means the launch would be on 6 Sep in the US.

It seems that I'm the first one on the internet reporting this :)

the itunes phone is a reality ... yippeeee

Tags: Apple,Motorola,iTunes,iPod,Mobile



Update: Ok. I was wrong about being the first one to blog about this, but no one else has an authoritative quote from an apple seller himself ;)

MS Plans on better Unix integration with 2003 Server R2

Microsoft plans to increase Unix interoperability with the upcoming release of Windows server 2003 R2. MS plans to add support for a number of unix services like the Network File System (NFS) client, NFS Server, User/Name Mapping, Telnet Server & Client, Password Sync and NIS Server.

Can't say if this is Good news for Windows or Unix or maybe bad news for both !! But Microsoft sure is learning from its mistakes. Unix would now in one way or the other be present in all the current commercial OSs: OS X, BSD, Linux and now Windows. I remember a quote by one of the unix designers who when asked where do you see unix in 2020 has mentioned that he doesn't know where unix would be but it would still be called unix :)

Tags: Unix,Windows,Microsoft,Linux

IBM Sponsored study claims Linux has lower TCO

Yet another IBM sponsored study claims that Linux has lower TCO than windows or unix. Meanwhile, the OSDL CEO says that Microsoft will eventually has to accept linux !!

Well Well !! Does it even matter anymore. People who use linux are moving to OS X and those who use windows are either sticking to windows or moving to linux/BSD/Unix/XXX. The point is that people use what they're confortable with and these TCO studies that claim linux is 40% cheaper than windows do nothing to change the people's opinion. And moreover, have you ever wondered why studies sponsored by companies like IBM, who publicly support linux anyway, always say that linux has lower TCO, while studies sponsored by microsoft and its allies always say that windows has lower TCO. So who should we believe !!

I bought an apple ibook a couple of months back, btw, in case you need to know my stance. I still use linux at work, though :)

Tags: IBM, Microsoft, linux

Free Opera web broswer registration

On eve of completing 10 yrs, Opera is giving free registrations.
Check out: http://my.opera.com/community/party/
If you miss it, here are the codes which I got.


Windows
w-pB3Vc-FU8Ch-AwAuU-AuPHJ-tsCVd

Linux Intel
u-KRJVc-SuTCh-EKiuU-pU4HJ-xTQVd

Linux PowerPC
p-XpPuf-tSkai-mKBCT-CdCeM-N4Kte

Linux Sparc
k-Vx48e-vK7ui-pBpWT-AmQSL-QTxMe

FreeBSD
f-EPWie-YnSWi-7Sj8S-EK34K-6KPif

Solaris
s-eJkWe-LUpji-EMEMT-hjMJL-xRuCe

Mac
m-jzEVc-YdQCh-sweuU-H87HJ-LaUVd

Tags: Opera,Legal, Free

Microsoft Releases WinFS Beta 1

Microsoft today released Beta 1 of their new product named WinFS. And yes, WinFS does not stand for Windows File System. It stands for Windws "Future Storage". So what is so futuristic about WinFS. Nothing, if you ask me !!

Well not really, to give microsoft its due, WinFS does have its advantages and its bringing to the desktop what Sun's Project Honeycomb aims to bring to the enterprise (Ok, OSX Tiger/spotlight already implements most of this stuff already, but we'll get to that later ;). WinFS is not a new filesystem. It does not replace NTFS. What Microsoft has done is basically used the core of SQL server and sandwiched it between NTFS and an upper layer API for developers to take advantage of the underlying engine. The implications of doing so would be that users would now be able to relate files with each other, probably by using tags or by using the SQL engine to form relations between files, much like an RDBMS. You can find more details here and here.

This concept isn't new. BeOS implemented some of these technologies successfully in its BeFS. OS X has done it in the recent past and Linux with Beagle is almost there. Oh Yeah, For Winduh !! users this would be a totally new and cool thing. All the best to them ;)

Tags: microsoft,WinFS,SQL,Linux,OS X

Linux Kernel 2.6.13 released

Kernel 2.6.13 has been released. A few new features/drivers including inotify support and new PCI code are the major changes in the new kernel.

Linux, Kernel

Gmail Finally open to the Public

Gmail has finally opened it's doors to the public, the US Public atleast ;)
Signing up requires you to give them their mobile number which they will use to send you a confirmation code and you enter it into their site and get yourself a brand new gmail account !! The referral based signup method is still there because the mobile service only works for US mobile owners right now. According to them, they're "working very hard" to include more countries on the list, but its gonna take some time.

Ok. How many of us actually type google.com in the browser sub-conciously ? I know I do !! And I know so do you, atleast a sizeable number of you anyway.

The google domination has begun !!


Tags: Gmail, google.

what does my birthdate say ?

Your Birthdate: October 16

Your birth on the 16th day of the month gives a sense of loneliness and generally the desire to work alone. You are relatively inflexible, and insist on your being independent. You need a good deal of time to rest and to meditate. You are introspective and a little stubborn. Because of this, it may not be easy for you to maintain permanent relationships, but you probably will as you are very much into home and family. This birth day inclines to interests in the technical, the scientific, and to the religious or the unknown realm of spiritual explorations. The date gives you a tendency to seek unusual approaches and makes your style seem a little different and unique to those around you. Your intuition is aided by the day of your birth, but most of your actions are bedded in logic, responsibility, and the rational approach. You may be emotional, but have a hard time expressing these emotions. Because of this, there may be some difficulty in giving or receiving affection.

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

Sun Grid Utility Service goes Live ... for Employees only

Sun Microsystems turned on its Grid computing utility, for hosting large ERP applications for its employees to test out the server infrastructure and user acceptance of the Computing-as-metered-utility model. General availability is scheduled for October. Sun is offering processing and storage in a pay-as-you-go arrangement of $1 per CPU per hour, delivered via an Internet connection. Experts quoted in the article wonder if Sun can make any money this way with the price of computing resources dropping each day. With linux and the beowulf project almost anyone can now create a cluster and have access to high quality free software for any kind of work. I wonder if the ASP model is even viable anymore !!

Tags: Sun, beowulf,Grid

Intel to port it's Developer Tools to MacOSX

Intel is porting its developer tools to MacOSX and should have the first beta ready by this year end. Apple revealed this bit information at the first ever session on Mac OS X at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco. Apple is currently working on its first intel based Macs, due sometime in 2006. Seems like true cross platform development is finally gonna be here, with unix/linux, windows and Mac developers being able to share the same developer tools and work on the same underlying platform, x86. I don't know about others but I would have wanted the Macs to retain the powerpc as a platform choice too. Choice is always good, right !!

Tags: Apple,MacOSX, Intel.

Google Talk Live

Google has just released a beta version of their instant messaging service called Google Talk. Users dont have to use their IM client for logging in to the service. They can use any jabber compatible client like gaim and start chatting. They will not be able to use the voice chat feature of the service, though, if they use anything other than the official google client.

Dont be surprised if you see advertisements popping up on the screen in the middle of your conversation ;) Suppose you are chatting with a friend about foreign travel and google starts showing you travels ads, you are bound to be tempted enough to click on one of them. And help google make more money !! Sound like microsoft to me !!

Tags: Google

OSX book

I was browsing over at http://en.wikibooks.org/ and found that there is not a single OSX book there, so I've started one here. Feel free to add articles to the list. We really need a free resource to OSX.

Update: I did find an OS X Book at http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Mac_OS_X, but I still plan to keep contribute bits here and there to the book I've started. I'll probably change its name later. The objective of my book would be too document OS X from a more technical users perspective unlike the other book which focuses on new users.

Tags: OS X, Books

Bluetooth dongle

I finally found my little bluetooth dongle and so I'll have net at home today. I use the USB-bluetooth dongle to surf from my ibook using my phone's gprs. It really was annoying losing the dongle and not being able to find it .. Grrrr ... And guess where I found it ?? It was in the cramster saddlebag that I use to carry stuff on my bike. I mean, I have no idea how it got there and don't even want to think. I'm just glad I went on that panchgani trip because of which I found the dongle ;) Oh btw: I had fun on the trip without the dongle too :-)

Tags: Bluetooth, iBook, GPRS

Zeta OS 1.0 Review

Ars Technica has a fairly detailed and long'ish review of Zeta OS 1.0. Read it !! It might just make you move on from the other side.
BeOS

NetBSD on your toaster

For long NetBSD has been known as the most portable Unix like OS around. Some say that it can be ported to anything but the kitchen toaster. Not anymore !!

Technologic Systems has developed the world's first NetBSD Controlled Toaster.

"This toaster features a 4 line LCD, USB keyboard, 10/100 ethernet port and a RS232 serial port for the external console. The toaster's internal circuit boards have been bypassed and routed through the CPU board allowing NetBSD complete control over the toaster's features. A keyboard connects through a USB port on the side of the toaster and the 4x40 LCD displays a NetBSD/toaster login prompt. The burner element is also controlled by the TS-7200 via an internal relay. Unlike previous NetBSD toasters which were nothing more than a glorified PC case-mod, this toaster can actually toast bread!"

Technorati tags: Toaster, BSD, NetBSD

Aamir khan is blogging ...

... as mangal pandey.

Click here to go to mangal pandey's official blog. Can't believe this is happening. Bollywood has come a long way :)

Using gmail as webhost ?

I've been thinking about it for a while and actually think that using a gmail account as a file store hosting a site should be possible. There are a number of scripts, like this one, that already allow you to store your files online in your gmail account. Taking this idea further, we should be able to write a few scripts which would fetch and display files from the gmail account to our visitors. It would be good to try this with one of the free php space providers like Tripod UK. I would really want to use it to store my photos online without the irritating resizing which other providers like Yahoo! photos do.

Technorati Tags: gmail,yahoo, Tripod, PHP

Thank God I'm a Country Boy

Well, life on a farm is kind-a laid back
Ain't much an old country boy like me can't hack
It's early to rise, early in the sack
Thank God I'm a country boy.

A simple kind-a life never did me no harm
Raisin' me a family and workin' on a farm
My days are filled with an easy country charm
Thank God I'm a country boy.

Well, I got me a fine wife, I got me old fiddle
When the sun's comin' up I got cakes on the griddle
And life ain't nothin' but a funny, funny riddle
Thank God I'm a country boy.

When the work's all done and the sun's settin' low
I pull out my fiddle and I resin up the bow
But the kids are asleep so I keep it kind-a low
Thank God I'm a country boy.

I'd play "Sally Goodin'" all day if I could
But the Lord and my wife wouldn't take it very good
So I fiddle when I can and work when I should
Thank God I'm a country boy.

Well, I got me a fine wife, I got me old fiddle
When the sun's comin' up I got cakes on the griddle
And life ain't nothin' but a funny, funny riddle
Thank God I'm a country boy.

I wouldn't trade my life for diamonds or jewels
I never was one of them money hungry fools
I'd rather have my fiddle and my farmin' tools
Thank God I'm a country boy.

Yeah, city folk drivin' in a black limousine
A lotta sad people thinkin' that's mighty keen
Well folks, let me tell you now exactly what I mean
I thank God I'm a country boy.

Well, I got me a fine wife, I got me old fiddle
When the sun's comin' up I got cakes on the griddle
And life ain't nothin' but a funny, funny riddle
Thank God I'm a country boy.

Well, my fiddle was my daddy's till the day he died
And he took me by the hand and held me close to his side
He said, "Live a good life and play my fiddle with pride
And thank God you're a country boy."

My daddy taught me young how to hunt and how to whittle
Taught me how to work and play a tune on the fiddle
Taught me how to love and how to give just a little
Thank God I’m a country boy.

Well, I got me a fine wife, I got me old fiddle
When the sun's comin' up I got cakes on the griddle
And life ain't nothin' but a funny, funny riddle
Thank God I'm a country boy.

BeOS Revival ?

A company named yellowTAB has just released version 1.0 of their OS named Zeta. Zeta is based on the original source code by Be, Inc. OSNews has posted a review of Zeta 1.0 and it looks like it totally rocks ? If you're, like me, a BeOS fan, you should look at haiku-os.org. These guys are developing an open source BeOS lookalike which is binary and source compatible with BeOS r5. Seems like BeOS is indeed heading for a revival of sorts. I, for one, would love to atleast see the live queries functionality of BFS (BeOS file system) being incorporated in the current OSs. Apple has made progress on that front with spotlight and beagle on linux also looks headed on the same path.

Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959)

From Archive.org:

"Often billed as the worst movie ever made, and not entirely undeserving of the title, this is a masterpiece of Ed Wood's making.
Bela Lugosi was cast in the role of "Ghoul Man" but passed away before filming really started.
So what happens? The producer's wife's chiropractor (Mr. Reynold's was the executive producer) takes over as "Ghoul Man" and holds his cape in front of his face THE ENTIRE MOVIE.
Add to this numerous plot inconsistencies, horrid acting, and masses of stock footage - some of which we see several times and you have a terrible but funny movie.

A highly advanced alien culture is determined to destroy Earth before our scientists discover a bomb which will explode sunlight, the description Eros gives of this is quite funny.
In order to destroy our world, of several billion people, they raise three zombies from the dead. :-)"


The movie is now available as a free download

Tags: Movie

Scientific Toys

Found this excellent site with description on how to make some cool toys which utilize and explain basic scientific principles.

IBM officially kills OS/2

From slashdot: IBM says that all OS/2 sales will officially end on the 23rd of December this year, and support for the pre-emptive multitasking operating system will end on the 31st December 2006. There is also a migration page for helping users migrate from OS/2 to Linux.

Tags: OS, IBM

Web based ISP Control panel

Found this on freshmeat today:

http://www.ispconfig.org/

This is almost exactly what Arden wanted me and Dinesh to develop. I wish this was available then :( It would have been easier to customize this than develop something from scratch.

Half-blood prince leaked

About 15 copies of the new Harry potter book, Half blood prince, were accidentally sold at a canadian store. Get the story here.

Problems with make

Just saw a nice informed editorial on freshmeat about the problems with GNU make.

OS X Tiger

Yippeeee ... I finally got OS X Tiger on my ibook. I will definitely post a review soon. I know I know the ibook review is also long due !!

Use gmail as file server

Just saw this new open source project at freshmeat:

http://pgd.sourceforge.net/

This nifty php script allows you to upload your files to one (or more) gmail accounts effectively letting you use the gmail account as a file server. Neat !!

Technorati Tag: gmail

Download movies Before DVD

From slashdot:

Actor Morgan Freeman and Intel are starting a company that will sell movies over the Internet before they are released to DVD. "We're going to bypass what the music industry had to come up with, and that's to get ahead of the whole piracy thing," Freeman told reporters at Sun Valley after making his presentation, which was closed to the press. Wouldn't this just make it easier to pirate movies?"

Worse than Piracy ?

So you think piracy is bad ? Check this out. Apparently, it is possible to just purchase info about a person in Moscow as easily as its possible to purchase pirated software.

CDs with all kinds of information about persons living in Moscow are available for as little as $100 (canadian).

Google Adsense

I have google adsense and adsearch configured now. The ads on the top of the page and the search box are because of that. I'll be refining this in the next few days. The end goal is to have this on my own site when I have it ;)

iBook G4 review

Its been about two weeks since I got my iBook G4 and I must say, I'm loving it. The ibook looks more like a toy than a 'real' computing machine and that would deter most 'corporate types' from using it. You, obviously, wouldn't want your boss catch you playing with a white thing in office. Geeks like me, on the other hand, should have a field day with this one. Apple has, in recent times, been working hard to change its image, as a company admired by the creative people, to one admired by the creative people as well as the geeks. And we all know, the world uses tomorrow what the geeks use today. The ibook and powerbook lines as well as the biggest draw of 'em all, Mac OS X, are excellent geek pullers and OS X in particular is what pulled me towards apple.

Let me tell you, though, that apple makes excellent hardware too and you would appreciate this only once you've actually used an apple machine. The ipods as well as all their computers are engineered almost perfectly. OS X does take the cake because, simply speaking, is the best looking Unix of them all. Yes, I said Unix. Apple is probably the first company to have released a commercially supported desktop operating system based on Unix, or FreeBSD, to be precise. I've used FreeBSD on the desktop earlier and have been dabbling with Linux since the better part of the last decade, so I'm not new to PC unixes. What's different about OS X is the way "It just works". Probably because apple has tighter control over the hardware that goes into those machines, but that does'nt make OS X any less 'cooler' than it already is. Finally I can get some work done, instead of trying to get some stupid hardware or software working with my system. And yes I did load up linux on it. I loaded up the latest darling of the masses, Ubuntu Linux, on the ibook and when I powered it up, it looked so pale and featureless in front of OS X that I couldn't bother touching it even with a 10 feet pole and so I'm back to OS X only on my lovely ibook.

Coming back to the machine that this review is all about - The 12" iBook G4. Not trying to sound like a paid reviewer, I must say I'm pretty impressed with the ibook, so far. Despite being as portable as it is, apple doesn't seem to have made any compromises in making this machine. Almost everything about this system is perfect - The size, price, features. The screen at 12" still manages to pack in enough pixels (1024x768) to be comfortable enough to use. And the slot loading combo drive makes me think, why aren't the PC notebook makers using it. Let me warn you that if you've never seen an ibook before this, you are going to get a culture shock, like I got. If you, like me, believe that a laptop is/should always (be) black, the ibook is going to give your ego a beating. The ibook is white. Pure, simple white and it shines too :) Atleast the Apple logo on the back does light up when the ibook is powered on, and it doesn't hurt the appeal of the ibook one bit ;)

The first thing I tried with the ibook was playing music and I was kinda surprised. The tiny speakers do have a lot of power in them and, though, not loud enough to make you do the macarena, the quality of the sound produced is pretty decent considering the small package they come in. I tried watching a Jimi Hendrix DVD on the system and it played flawlessly in the iDVD player which comes up as soon as the system recognizes that a playable DVD has been inserted. OS X also displays different icons when you insert a CD-R and a CD-RW. Though, a small thing, it does make the system much more pleasant to use.

Have you ever tried connecting a PC portable to a network socket and struggled with the location of the ports. Most, if not all, PC portables have all the ports at the back of the system which makes them pretty hard and difficult to reach to. The iBook has all the ports on the left side of the system and the optical drive and the power socket at the right side. Simple and neat and you don't have to lift the turn the notebook 180 degrees ever just to attach a network cable, Exactly like it should be.

One gripe I have with apple is that they still ship one button mouse/trackpads with all their systems. Maybe, its just their way of doing things, but I do miss the right mouse button at times. As of now, I'm still getting used to their ctrl-click combination in place of the right mouse button.

Symantec

We're symantec from today :)

My Shiny new ibook G4

I recently got myself an apple 12" ibook G4 and, need I say, it rocks :) Pictures and review coming up !!

New Year at Panchgani

A Very happy new year to you all. I went to Panchgani/mahabaleshwar for new year. Spent two nights/3 days in the hills there and had so much fun :) We stayed in tents and had bonfires and stuff and it all was kinda cool. Ah well ... I went on my bike ... that was the real fun part. Though the drive was a short 100 kms only I still got long empty stretches to kinda stress test my bike as this was more or less my first trip outside the city. The bike does 80 easily and I don't see any reason it won't go beyond that, but I did'nt wanna put too much pressure on the piston and all on the first ride itself, so I kinda held back and did'nt go beyond 80. Good fun and good ride nevertheless. Oh !! Btw, did I mention we were two people weighing about 80-85 each and had about 10-15 kg of luggage too :) So .. you all know now ... I LOVE MY BIKE :)