Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Rockbox : Open Souce OS for mp3 players

Rockbox has released thier new version of thier product which will add the missing zest to all the old mp3 players, every mp3 player company release a new version of thier product, all the older version look pale in comparison. With Rockbox, we can add that missing spice.

Check out why you should use Rockbox at http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/WhyRockbox
Download Rockbox and also check if your mp3 player is compatible at http://www.rockbox.org/download/


Also read more on Rockbox at Mp3 Players: Breathe New Life into Your Aging MP3 Player with Rockbox

Friday, September 26, 2008

Google Phone

A new phone based on Android, Google's new cellphone OS was launched on Sep 23 2008.
T-Mobile has launched the G1, its priced at $179


Some of the features are
touch screen, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, slide your finger to unlock, icons
on Home screen, over-the-air downloadable App store and music store,
Google Maps, full-screen Web browsing, accelerometer that rotates the
screen when you turn the phone 90 degrees

Apparently some 30 Phone companies have said they'll adopt Android.

Steve and Steve (Jobs and Balmer) here I come says Google.

Amazon Web Services + Oracle

Now AWS, has offered Oracle products (Oracle Database, Middleware and Enterprise Manager products), with this Oracle customers can now either have new license or use the existing one on the AWS, AWS has many images which are bundled with Oracle products and within minutes end users can have thier Oracle system up and running without bothering about installation, configuration etc, this is defnitely a boon to all those companies who spend tons of money on so called administrators for doing simple things.

Amazon Web services(AWS)
is the web services platform, where one can request and use IT
infrastructure services which is scalable, reliable, secure,
cost-effective and is a comprehensive solution.

Using this service one pays for only what one uses, with no obligation
to stay forever, all you need to do is sign-up for the service, as and
when your IT demand increases you can keep adding more machines and
start disbanding them once the load decreases. For startups it makes a
lot of economic sense.

AWS is a collection of infrastructure services (Below excerpt taken from http://aws.amazon.com/what-is-aws/)
  • Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2™)
    – A web service that provides resizable compute capacity in the cloud.
    Configure an Amazon Machine Instance (AMI) and load it into the Amazon EC2 service. Quickly scale capacity, both up and down, as your computing requirements change. Learn more about Amazon EC2



  • Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3™)
    – A simple web services interface that can be used to store and
    retrieve large amounts of data, at any time, from anywhere on the web.
    It gives any developer access to the same highly scalable, reliable,
    fast, inexpensive data storage infrastructure that Amazon uses to run
    its own global network of web sites. Learn more about Amazon S3™



  • Amazon SimpleDB™
    – A web service for running queries on structured data in real time.
    This service works in close conjunction with Amazon Simple Storage
    Service (Amazon S3) and Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2),
    collectively providing the ability to store, process and query data
    sets in the cloud. Amazon SimpleDB is easy to use and provides the core
    functionality of a database—real-time lookup and simple querying of
    structured data—without the operational complexity. Learn more about Amazon SimpleDB™



  • Amazon Simple Queue Service (Amazon SQS™) – A reliable, highly scalable, hosted queue for storing messages as they travel between computers. By using Amazon SQS,
    developers can simply move data between distributed components of their
    applications that perform different tasks, without losing messages or
    requiring each component to be always available. Learn more about Amazon SQS
Read more on Oracle + AWS at
http://www.oracle.com/technology/tech/cloud/faq.html
http://aws.amazon.com/solutions/featured-partners/oracle/
http://blog.programmableweb.com/2008/09/25/oracle-moves-into-the-cloud-with-the-help-of-amazon/


Thursday, September 25, 2008

Mother of all Keyboards

This keyboard has tiny screens for each of the keys, one can change the font, color or even put in images for each of the keys
The keyboard costs a cool 1600$ and maybe is the future of keyboards, everyone needs customization and what better than able to customize 113 different way!


 

Check out the Video at http://www.expotv.com/videos/reviews/7/78/ART-LEBEDEV-OPTIMUS-MAXIMUS-KEYBOARD-11/274230

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Hotmail - Chrome needs upgradation

I usually use my firefox browser for accessing my hotmail account (yes I still have one, inspite of having a gmail account), recently after installing Chrome, I accessed my hotmail account, I was surprised to see a message asking me upgrade the web browser, does it mean chrome developers didnt take this into account?? or is this a way for MS to get back at Google for stepping into the browser territory :)

Friday, September 19, 2008

Is it 32bit or 64bit Windows OS?

I always had this question of how to determine if the Windows OS that you are running is a 32 bit or a 64 bit, everytime I used to google for the same and find the link, but then thought what the heck, let me blog it so that it would be useful for others, if there are any :)

Windows Vista

Method 1

1.Click Start Start button , type system in the Start Search box, and then click system in the Programs list.
2.The operating system appears as follows:
For a 64-bit version operating system: 64-bit Operating System appears for the System typeSystem. under
For a 32-bit version operating system: 32-bit Operating System appears for the System typeSystem. under

Method 2

1.Click Start Start button , type system in the Start Search box, and then click System Information in the Programs list.
2.The operating system appears as follows:
For a 64-bit version operating system: x64-based PC appears for the System type under Item.
For a 32-bit version operating system: x86-based PC appears for the System type under Item.

Microsoft Windows XP Professional

Method 1

1.Click Start, click Run, type sysdm.cpl, and then click OK.
2.Click the General tab. The operating system appears as follows:
For a 64-bit version operating system: Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition Version < Year> appears under System.
For a 32-bit version operating system: Microsoft Windows XP Professional Version< Year>System. appears under
Note <Year> is a placeholder for a year.

Method 2

1.Click Start, click Run, type winmsd.exe, and then click OK.
2.In the details pane, locate Processor under Item. Note the value.
If the value that corresponds to
Processor starts with x86, the computer is
running a 32-bit version of the Windows operating system.
If the value that corresponds to
Processor starts with ia64 or AMD64, the computer is
running a 64-bit version of the Windows operating system.

Microsoft Windows Server 2003

Method 1

1.Click Start, click Run, type sysdm.cpl, and then click OK.
2.Click the General tab. The operating system appears as follows:
For a 64-bit version operating system: Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition System. appears under
For a 32-bit version operating system: Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise EditionSystem. appears under

Method 2

1.Click Start, click Run, type winmsd.exe, and then click OK.
2.In the details pane, locate Processor under Item. Note the value.
If the value that corresponds to
Processor starts with x86, the computer is
running a 32-bit version of the Windows operating system.
If the value that corresponds to
Processor starts with EM64T or ia64, the computer is
running a 64-bit version of the Windows operating system
.

Above text is taken from this link : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/827218

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Learn how to draw

Never imagined that internet can reach to an extent that it would teach how to draw, I have to tell I am very impressed with the site http://www.learn-to-draw.com/, it starts with basics, it also has sections on how to draw people and also the caricatures.

I am trying my hand at drawing caricatures, this weekend have something real fun to do.

Give it a try, relive the pencil days :)

Cartoonize your digital picture

A cool online app to cartoonize the digital picture.
Its so simple, upload (desktop/webcam or url) and transform in one click.
Do some modification with the available tool online and bingo you have got a cartoon picture of yours.

I did my sons pic, it came out cool




Check it out here http://www.befunky.com/cartoonizer/index.php

Monday, September 15, 2008

Google Chrome Explained - The comic way

Google team which worked on Chrome has this well illustrated explanation of how chrome evolved and design idea behind it.
They have put up a nice comic for this, a must read for any technologist.
Google Chrome explained.