If everything is coming your way,
you're in the wrong lane!
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
SONY cybershot DSC-S60
Waiting is over... my SONY Camera came home yesterday. Although it was delivered to my wife's office at USA on 12th April, we couldn't find someone to bring it here until yesterday. (more than 6 weeks... price dropped by $40 during the time... sigh...).
The total package costs me a little bit more than $380. The camera is $249 and the rest is spend on 512BM memory stick pro and an accessories kit comprises of a cute carrying bag, a memory stick case and a battery charger with two batteries. I didn't have much time to play around with it but the initial photos impressed me very much. These are reasons made me choose this partcular camera.
Cost: The camera is not that expensive. Only $249.
Lens: Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar Lens. This is a high quality german origin lens which helps to produce crystal clear, sharp images
Real Image Processor: This dramatically improves the response time.
2" LCD: This is really impressive. Very large LCD screen.
5 area Multipoint Auto Focus:Focusing is easy.
32MB internal Memory: Can shoot even without a Memory Card
Better Battery Life: Can shoot upto 100 shots with its AA size Alcaline batteries or more than 300 with NiMH batteries.
4.1 Mega pixel: Well, this is not that high MP level but sufficient for my needs.
and other SONY gadgematics. Full specs here.
Hmmm... since I have a camera, why shouldn't I publish some pictures of my personal belongings on the web. Well, I'll open another blog for this and let you know the address when it is done.
The total package costs me a little bit more than $380. The camera is $249 and the rest is spend on 512BM memory stick pro and an accessories kit comprises of a cute carrying bag, a memory stick case and a battery charger with two batteries. I didn't have much time to play around with it but the initial photos impressed me very much. These are reasons made me choose this partcular camera.
Cost: The camera is not that expensive. Only $249.
Lens: Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar Lens. This is a high quality german origin lens which helps to produce crystal clear, sharp images
Real Image Processor: This dramatically improves the response time.
2" LCD: This is really impressive. Very large LCD screen.
5 area Multipoint Auto Focus:Focusing is easy.
32MB internal Memory: Can shoot even without a Memory Card
Better Battery Life: Can shoot upto 100 shots with its AA size Alcaline batteries or more than 300 with NiMH batteries.
4.1 Mega pixel: Well, this is not that high MP level but sufficient for my needs.
and other SONY gadgematics. Full specs here.
Hmmm... since I have a camera, why shouldn't I publish some pictures of my personal belongings on the web. Well, I'll open another blog for this and let you know the address when it is done.
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Google Tip:
Want some ebooks? Oh, yeah... google does that easily. Another power searching lesson coming right up.
Google: -inurl:htm -inurl:html intitle:"index of" +("/ebooks"|"/book") +(chm|pdf|zip)
What does all of this mean? The -inurl htm and -inul html is attempting to get rid of regular webpages and show just index pages. Looking for index of in the title is doing the same. Using the pipe ( | ) tells google to look for something OR something else. Here we are telling google to look for book or ebook directories... and we have listed several common ebook formats (zip, pdf, chf).
If you would like to look for a particular author or title just tack it to the end of your search.
Google: -inurl:htm -inurl:html intitle:"index of" +("/ebooks"|"/book") +(chm|pdf|zip)
What does all of this mean? The -inurl htm and -inul html is attempting to get rid of regular webpages and show just index pages. Looking for index of in the title is doing the same. Using the pipe ( | ) tells google to look for something OR something else. Here we are telling google to look for book or ebook directories... and we have listed several common ebook formats (zip, pdf, chf).
If you would like to look for a particular author or title just tack it to the end of your search.
Thursday, May 05, 2005
GATES VS. GOOGLE ... Search and Destroy!!!
Pretty good (and lengthy) article on how Microsoft might be in big trouble if Google keeps expanding at its current rate.
The full article is here and I've extracted some pin points.
The darling of search is moving into software—and that's Microsoft's turf.
Today Google isn't just a hugely successful search engine; it has morphed into a software company and is emerging as a major threat to Microsoft's dominance. You can use Google software with any Internet browser to search the web and your desktop for just about anything; send and store up to two gigabytes of e-mail via Gmail (Hotmail, Microsoft's rival free e-mail service, offers 250 megabytes, a fraction of that); manage, edit, and send digital photographs using Google's Picasa software, easily the best PC photo software out there; and, through Google's Blogger, create, post online, and print formatted documents—all without applications from Microsoft.
But the idea that Google will one day marginalize Microsoft's operating system and bypass Windows applications is already starting to become reality. The most paranoid people at Microsoft even think "Google Office" is inevitable. Google is taking over operating system features too, like desktop search. There are fewer uses for the start button in Windows now that Google's desktop search can locate any program, document, photo, music file, or e-mail on a computer.
Microsoft's ambitious new operating system, code-named Longhorn, is more than a year late, even after having been scaled back. Linux, the free operating system that Gates once scoffed at, is fighting Microsoft for share in both the server and desktop markets, forcing the company to do the unthinkable: offer customer discounts. Last year it had to spend $1 billion to rewrite thousands of lines of code to make its programs less susceptible to viruses. Its Xbox gaming console is winning raves from players but has yet to make serious money. Meanwhile, Apple has stolen the show in online music with its hugely popular iPod and iTunes Music Store. Plus, the recently released Firefox browser, which can be downloaded free, has forced Gates to reconstitute an Internet Explorer development team. Indeed, four years have passed since Microsoft released a piece of software that generated the kind of buzz Google seems to generate every month.
Every month it seems as if Google hires away one of Microsoft's top developers. Before Google's IPO last fall, Microsoft executives dismissed this brain drain as a function of greed. But when the exodus continued after the IPO—especially when Marc Lucovsky, one of the chief architects of Windows, bolted for Google—it was clear that Microsoft had a bigger problem on its hands. As of March, roughly 100 Microsofties had left for its search nemesis.
"the first question out of their mouths was 'You're not going to Google, are you?' "
many of the most influential people at Google are hardened Microsoft warriors. Schmidt battled Gates as CTO of Sun Microsystems and CEO of Novell in the 1990s. Omid Kordestani, Google's head of ad sales, was a top executive at Netscape. Three of Google's directors, Ram Shriram, John Doerr, and Michael Moritz, have been on the front lines of Silicon Valley's war with Microsoft over the years.
Microsoft has a long, dramatic history of being a fast follower, rarely first in a market but ultimately providing the most accessible and practical solution, then outmarketing competitors. The company hasn't always played by the rules, but when it has gone after a market, it has done so quickly and aggressively. Current and former executives of companies like Apple, WordPerfect, Lotus, Novell, and of course Netscape can attest to that.
Windows wasn't better than the Macintosh; Word didn't improve on WordPerfect, or Excel on Lotus. Even Explorer was only as good as Netscape. Microsoft's genius was integrating them seamlessly to make them easier for customers to default to, and then using its marketing, distribution, and pricing clout. It won by attacking competitors' business models, not their technology.
Microsoft's array of weapons has so far proved next to useless against Google.
All the same, Microsoft is taking longer to catch Google than anyone could have imagined—and it will take longer still. Unless it can deliver search that is plainly better, most users won't bother to switch, says Piper Jaffray analyst Safa Rashtchy. He adds, "Google is a huge brand. From where I sit, it's their game to lose." The competition could well test Gates' patience as never before. In spring 2003 he told one of his executives, "These Google guys, they want to be billionaires and rock stars and go to conferences and all that. Let's see if they still want to run the business in two or three years." Well, two years have passed, and so far, they sure do.
The full article is here and I've extracted some pin points.
The darling of search is moving into software—and that's Microsoft's turf.
Today Google isn't just a hugely successful search engine; it has morphed into a software company and is emerging as a major threat to Microsoft's dominance. You can use Google software with any Internet browser to search the web and your desktop for just about anything; send and store up to two gigabytes of e-mail via Gmail (Hotmail, Microsoft's rival free e-mail service, offers 250 megabytes, a fraction of that); manage, edit, and send digital photographs using Google's Picasa software, easily the best PC photo software out there; and, through Google's Blogger, create, post online, and print formatted documents—all without applications from Microsoft.
But the idea that Google will one day marginalize Microsoft's operating system and bypass Windows applications is already starting to become reality. The most paranoid people at Microsoft even think "Google Office" is inevitable. Google is taking over operating system features too, like desktop search. There are fewer uses for the start button in Windows now that Google's desktop search can locate any program, document, photo, music file, or e-mail on a computer.
Microsoft's ambitious new operating system, code-named Longhorn, is more than a year late, even after having been scaled back. Linux, the free operating system that Gates once scoffed at, is fighting Microsoft for share in both the server and desktop markets, forcing the company to do the unthinkable: offer customer discounts. Last year it had to spend $1 billion to rewrite thousands of lines of code to make its programs less susceptible to viruses. Its Xbox gaming console is winning raves from players but has yet to make serious money. Meanwhile, Apple has stolen the show in online music with its hugely popular iPod and iTunes Music Store. Plus, the recently released Firefox browser, which can be downloaded free, has forced Gates to reconstitute an Internet Explorer development team. Indeed, four years have passed since Microsoft released a piece of software that generated the kind of buzz Google seems to generate every month.
Every month it seems as if Google hires away one of Microsoft's top developers. Before Google's IPO last fall, Microsoft executives dismissed this brain drain as a function of greed. But when the exodus continued after the IPO—especially when Marc Lucovsky, one of the chief architects of Windows, bolted for Google—it was clear that Microsoft had a bigger problem on its hands. As of March, roughly 100 Microsofties had left for its search nemesis.
"the first question out of their mouths was 'You're not going to Google, are you?' "
many of the most influential people at Google are hardened Microsoft warriors. Schmidt battled Gates as CTO of Sun Microsystems and CEO of Novell in the 1990s. Omid Kordestani, Google's head of ad sales, was a top executive at Netscape. Three of Google's directors, Ram Shriram, John Doerr, and Michael Moritz, have been on the front lines of Silicon Valley's war with Microsoft over the years.
Microsoft has a long, dramatic history of being a fast follower, rarely first in a market but ultimately providing the most accessible and practical solution, then outmarketing competitors. The company hasn't always played by the rules, but when it has gone after a market, it has done so quickly and aggressively. Current and former executives of companies like Apple, WordPerfect, Lotus, Novell, and of course Netscape can attest to that.
Windows wasn't better than the Macintosh; Word didn't improve on WordPerfect, or Excel on Lotus. Even Explorer was only as good as Netscape. Microsoft's genius was integrating them seamlessly to make them easier for customers to default to, and then using its marketing, distribution, and pricing clout. It won by attacking competitors' business models, not their technology.
Microsoft's array of weapons has so far proved next to useless against Google.
All the same, Microsoft is taking longer to catch Google than anyone could have imagined—and it will take longer still. Unless it can deliver search that is plainly better, most users won't bother to switch, says Piper Jaffray analyst Safa Rashtchy. He adds, "Google is a huge brand. From where I sit, it's their game to lose." The competition could well test Gates' patience as never before. In spring 2003 he told one of his executives, "These Google guys, they want to be billionaires and rock stars and go to conferences and all that. Let's see if they still want to run the business in two or three years." Well, two years have passed, and so far, they sure do.
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
Hard drive gets all flashy
ElectronicsWeekly.com Reports
A hybrid memory system, combining a hard drive and flash memory, has been demonstrated by Samsung and Microsoft.
The aim is to combine the fast read/write access times of NAND flash with the storage capacity of a rotating hard drive.
By using the 1Gbit flash as a cache for the hard drive, the drive does not need to spin continuously. When the write buffer is full, the drive is spun up and data written to magnetic storage.
Boot up times can also be reduced, claimed the firms, by using the flash as a boot buffer during shut-down.
Microsoft calls the device a hybrid hard drive (HHD). It is designed to work with Longhorn, the next generation of Windows.
"Hybrid drive architecture... is an advancement that will improve the performance and reliability of any computer using the Windows Longhorn operating system," said Tom Phillips, general manager of Microsoft's Windows group.
A hybrid memory system, combining a hard drive and flash memory, has been demonstrated by Samsung and Microsoft.
The aim is to combine the fast read/write access times of NAND flash with the storage capacity of a rotating hard drive.
By using the 1Gbit flash as a cache for the hard drive, the drive does not need to spin continuously. When the write buffer is full, the drive is spun up and data written to magnetic storage.
Boot up times can also be reduced, claimed the firms, by using the flash as a boot buffer during shut-down.
Microsoft calls the device a hybrid hard drive (HHD). It is designed to work with Longhorn, the next generation of Windows.
"Hybrid drive architecture... is an advancement that will improve the performance and reliability of any computer using the Windows Longhorn operating system," said Tom Phillips, general manager of Microsoft's Windows group.
I, ROBOT
Spooner (Detective):
"Can a robot write a symphony?" "Can a robot take a blank canvas and turn it into a masterpiece?"
Sonny (Robot):
"Can you?"
I, Robot
"Can a robot write a symphony?" "Can a robot take a blank canvas and turn it into a masterpiece?"
Sonny (Robot):
"Can you?"
I, Robot
Thursday, April 07, 2005
Monday, March 28, 2005
Another Blog...
I am starting a new blog (http://jokesblog.blogspot.com) dedicated for Jokes and humor contents which I receive via Email. I think I will update this blog frequently since I get a whole lot of them daily. Hope you will enjoy it...
Friday, March 11, 2005
Ten reasons why I am Blogging
Tim Bray from Sun Microsystems posts ten reasons why blogging is good for your career.
1. You have to get noticed to get promoted.
2. You have to get noticed to get hired.
3. It really impresses people when you say “Oh, I’ve written about that, just google for XXX and I’m on the top page” or “Oh, just google my name.”
4. No matter how great you are, your career depends on communicating. The way to get better at anything, including communication, is by practicing. Blogging is good practice.
5. Bloggers are better-informed than non-bloggers. Knowing more is a career advantage.
6. Knowing more also means you’re more likely to hear about interesting jobs coming open.
7. Networking is good for your career. Blogging is a good way to meet people.
8. If you’re an engineer, blogging puts you in intimate contact with a worse-is-better 80/20 success story. Understanding this mode of technology adoption can only help you.
9. If you’re in marketing, you’ll need to understand how its rules are changing as a result of the current whirlwind, which nobody does, but bloggers are at least somewhat less baffled.
10. It’s a lot harder to fire someone who has a public voice, because it will be noticed.
So go ahead... start your own blog. Try Google's blogger.com or MSN’s spaces.msn.com
(For those of you who don't know, Tim Bray is the father/co-inventor of XML.)
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
.NET
I stepped into the .NET arena completing my first "Hello World" project using vb.net. It is a sales order, purchase order processing and validating programme which is of the ideal size for a beginner. It took nearly a week (using my spare time) to complete but two days work for a veteran. At first, it was a nightmare to switch from VB6 to .net since the gap between the two was wider than I thought. But later on, when I got used to it, I felt that .NET is really cool and a powerful environment where you can do virtually anything you like. Well, I think, finally vb programmers will get some respect & recognition which they deserve since older days.
I didnt see much difference between VB.NET & C#.NET other than the syntax. The structure is the same and share a common set of libraries. Since I have some C++ & Delphi experience, it is not a bad idea to do the same project using C#. Now, where do I want to go today?
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
No more Spam...!
I was using Spartacus Spam Guard to filter spam mail with Outlook but it was successful somewhere around 80%. In otherwords, I get 10-15 spams everyday no matter how hard I trained Spartacus to diagnose them. I tried Spambayes a couple of days ago and the results were AMAZING... not a single spam in my Inbox. It's a FREE tool but does not support Outlook Express (sigh for most of you, I know).
Friday, January 28, 2005
Bye bye CDs.... & DVDs...??
DVD was introduced to the market in late nineties replacing CDs simply because of the storage capacity. (4.7GB single layer and 8GB double layer). Now the same thing is going to happen to DVD because of the latest revolutionary product in optical storage devices.
Blue-ray also known as Blue-ray Disk (BD) is the next generation optical disk format which can hold up to 27GB of data (single layer) and 57GB in double layer. BD players support CD & DVD as well. The best thing is it can write while reading…
Blue-ray also known as Blue-ray Disk (BD) is the next generation optical disk format which can hold up to 27GB of data (single layer) and 57GB in double layer. BD players support CD & DVD as well. The best thing is it can write while reading…
Google Browser
Hoooreh.... Google is going to develop a web browser . Seems to be its more or less like FireFox. Anyway, it's Google....
Thursday, January 27, 2005
FireFox…. Sets fire
OK folks… once again I switched my Browser… It’s Mozilla FireFox this time. (Hope this is the last one). I was using Opera for the last two months but some web sites didn’t appear well specially GMail which I use heavily. I had to use IE & Opera side by side which is irritating sometimes.
FireFox is good in every aspect when compared with Opera. It has almost all the features of Opera and more than that. (IE is not worth to mention even) Tabbed browsing, live bookmarks, integrated search, adding extensions, lovely themes and it is FREE…
The other reason I hate IE is, its vulnerability to spyware and adware. Both FireFox and Opera are free from those malicious software.
FireFox is good in every aspect when compared with Opera. It has almost all the features of Opera and more than that. (IE is not worth to mention even) Tabbed browsing, live bookmarks, integrated search, adding extensions, lovely themes and it is FREE…
The other reason I hate IE is, its vulnerability to spyware and adware. Both FireFox and Opera are free from those malicious software.
Monday, January 10, 2005
Tsunami… What next?
Everybody is more concerned about natural disasters these days. We see a lot of new faces in media lecturing about Tsunamis, Earthquakes, Hurricanes, inside out. Thanks to them, now we can sit even for a PhD examination. But, I didn’t hear much about what measures we must take before, during and after an earthquake. I doubt the awareness of these things among the general public. I found this earthquake safety guidebook which is distributed in schools at California and why shouldn’t we? We must act before something happens.
Meanwhile, some predict earthquakes using occult methods (scientifically, no one is successful in predicting earthquakes). Last week, a person gave a call to our office saying that he predicts an earthquake in this month. He has come to this conclusion by examining soil taken from various places in the country. He wanted to put his predictions on a web page. My boss explained him the procedure he must go through in order to create a web site but he was in a hurry to put his information right that moment. There was no any other option than putting it on someone else’s web site and my boss asked me whether I can put it in my blog.
But I had other ideas. We created a new blog for him and posted the first entry just like he wanted. For some reason, he didn’t give us the exact date or a place where it might happen which made his information utter useless rubbish.
Meanwhile, some predict earthquakes using occult methods (scientifically, no one is successful in predicting earthquakes). Last week, a person gave a call to our office saying that he predicts an earthquake in this month. He has come to this conclusion by examining soil taken from various places in the country. He wanted to put his predictions on a web page. My boss explained him the procedure he must go through in order to create a web site but he was in a hurry to put his information right that moment. There was no any other option than putting it on someone else’s web site and my boss asked me whether I can put it in my blog.
But I had other ideas. We created a new blog for him and posted the first entry just like he wanted. For some reason, he didn’t give us the exact date or a place where it might happen which made his information utter useless rubbish.
Friday, January 07, 2005
Prince of Persia – Warrior Within…!
The newest in the Prince of Persia series, Warrior Within, with more blood, more gore than ever. I still remember how I played Prince of Persia V1.0 in my XT (8086 processor) with 640kb RAM, low density Floppy (no hard disk), sound came from PC speaker but it ran without a glitch. That was a long time back, early nineties. It took me more than three moths to complete the whole mission of saving the Princess. Then came Prince of Persia 2, Prince of Persia 3D, Prince of Persia the Sands of Time. Warrior Within is the latest. It needs GeForce 4FX Graphics and lots of processing power, surely has come a long way.
The story line is deviated from saving the princess to eliminate Dhaka, an immortal power. And the prince is more acrobatic and can handle two weapons at the same time but easy to control, what they call “Free form Combat”.
Don’t know much about the game yet, still in the first two levels. Got to go now… Have to kill the bad guys….!
The story line is deviated from saving the princess to eliminate Dhaka, an immortal power. And the prince is more acrobatic and can handle two weapons at the same time but easy to control, what they call “Free form Combat”.
Don’t know much about the game yet, still in the first two levels. Got to go now… Have to kill the bad guys….!
Thursday, December 30, 2004
Tsunami…!
12/26, 9.0, the mass destruction in the history…. you name it… Lucky to be in one piece. On that day, I was at Galle (my home town), fortunately, at a safer distance. I was lucky enough not to suffer from any losses to my family members or close relatives but I know, thousands of people are not that fortunate. We were stranded at Galle b’cos there was no fuel and to make it worse, food supplies were scarce. This was nothing to be compared with what happened to the other people. So I leave this note in memory of all those lives we lost. May you all attain 'Nirvana' and rest in peace.
Thursday, December 23, 2004
Sunday, December 12, 2004
Browser war, which one?
Tired of using IE? Try Opera ...It’s a feature rich sophisticated web browser with pop-up blocking, tabbed browsing, integrated searches, POP E-mail, IRC chat and protection against ad-ware, spy-ware and viruses. When I first open the program, I was stunned by its cool, professional appearance. Now I can open so many browser windows without cluttering the task bar, thanks to the tabbed windows. It remembers the current session so that I can continue browsing on the following day. (pretty cool eh?)
For the con side, the free version includes a banner ad up on top which is practically unnoticeable. (I’ve got a serial number for the registered version, if anyone interested, throw an E-mail this way...)
Though, it’s too early to make a decision, I feel, this is the browser for me. (at least until Google develop a web browser...)
For the con side, the free version includes a banner ad up on top which is practically unnoticeable. (I’ve got a serial number for the registered version, if anyone interested, throw an E-mail this way...)
Though, it’s too early to make a decision, I feel, this is the browser for me. (at least until Google develop a web browser...)
Friday, December 10, 2004
Google AdSense makes sense (cents?)
Mmmm… not a bad idea to have some Google Ads in my page, since I’m paid when you click on them. So, go ahead, make me rich… (Sshhh…. It’s illegal to ask someone to click on ads though...)
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