Gadgets and You

Try Windows phone 7 OS on Android or iphone

2011-12-01T11:42:00.001+05:30

Ya, the post title is a little overstatement. You cannot literally install windows phone 7 OS on your android or iphone device. But you can try the basic features of it on your android or iphone/ipad device. You do not need to install the OS. You do not need to even install an app. Microsoft came up with a browser based simulator of their new OS. Just click this link in your phone to get a feel of it.

I liked the idea a lot. Its amazing. What else is a better way to give a taste of new OS to users using a different OS. I think this idea will bring down the resistence level of users to try a new OS. Traditonally approach will need the user have to buy a device to try out the OS. Or alteast try it in a store without actually buying. A different approach with much less resitance level could be to give an app which would simulate the OS. But this browser-based approach has almost no resistence from the user to try the new OS. I agree that the exposure to the functionality will be limited but atleast it gives a taste of it with just a click.

Kindle Fire's browser performance

2011-11-28T11:44:00.001+05:30

One of the touted features of the new kindle fire is its 'silk' browser. It claims that it boosts the performance of the browser by routing the traffic through the amazon cloud where some of the pre-processing is done. Also webpage caching on the amazon cloud would improve the response times of websites. All of it looks good in theory. What about the reality ?

Anandtech.com did a indepth benchmark on the performance of the browser. The results say that browser does not live up to its claims. Talking about the good things first, the bandwidth requirements will reduce. Instead of making request to different sites and processing the raw data, the browser will make reqeust only to the amazon cloud. It will get back pre-processed data which is lean and mean. This is definitely an advantage for the mobile world as it will keep the data plan bills in check.

But what about the performance ? It does not improve a lot. In some cases, it will perform even worse. The browser has an option to turn on/off the feature of routing the web traffic via amazon cloud (accelerated page loading). On an average, it turns out that the page loads slower when the feature is on. Funny!. Hopefully amazon will improve this down the line.

Now let us put an evil hat. Do you smell some conspiracy ?. Why would amazon go through such a task of routing you web traffic via its cloud ? Just because amazon loves you so much and cares so much about your browsing speed ? May be it does. But will it do this for free ? May be not. So, what is their incentive ? If you did not guess it yet, its all your browsing data. Now, amazon knows what sites you browse and your likes/dislikes. It knows you!.

Limitations of kindle fire

2011-09-29T05:28:00.000+05:30

Today Amazon released 3 new versions for its kindle device. A new kindle without keypad which is similar to the old one, a kindle with touch capability, and a kindle with color display and browser etc. The kindle with the color display is called "kindle fire". These 3 devices are very competitively priced. $109, $139, $199 respectively.

Out of the kindles, 'kindle fire' is the one of particular importance. People are comparing the kindle fire to an ipad and other tables. While it is true to some extent, I would not place it parallel to the ipad or other tablets because it is little short of a tablets. I do not think that it is an ipad killer. I would say it is large and more functional ipod. You cannot make any calls, not even skype calls over internet from it as it does not have a mic. I think that this is a serious disadvantage. It does not support 3G for conent delivery but this could be expected in the near future. It is mainly a device where amazon content could be delivered (like the normal kindle).

To go a little more technical...The OS is android based. But, it is forked from the main android development tree and customized to look different from the regular android. So, we may not get all the new developments of android's new features. And coming to the worst part, you cannot download content from the android app store. You have to download from the amazon app store only. Saving grace is that amazon app store has a lot of popular apps which are in android market. You may miss some of your favorite apps.

So, one should know what they are getting for the price that they are paying. The following are the limitations of the kindle fire.

Cannot make phone calls
No camera
No microphone
No 3G
No GPS
Cannot download apps from android store.
Only 8G memory without expansion slot
Not so bad, but only 7-inch display

Which memory card to use for digital cameras

2011-04-11T00:27:00.000+05:30

These days digital camera is a household gadget and more like a basic necessity. So, everyone ought to have a digital camera. When we are buying we invest so much time in researching which camera suits our requirement the best. Some go for DSLR, some go for big point-and-shoot, some prefer a compact one. I am sure that the decision is not easy as we are spoiled with choice. This article adds more to your camera buying woes.

Most people do not care which memory card they buy for the camera. If you become stingy and buy the cheapest one for a given capacity(say 4GB), don't blame anyone else other than you if your camera is very slow at taking pictures. Basically, I want to make the point that the memory card plays a role in how fast you can click pictures in your camera. Also don't get the impression that memory card is the only factor. You camera could also be the reason.

These days the digital cameras can shoot at higher and higher megapixel densities. Did you ever wonder what this megapixel rating means ? A higher megapixel camera means that the camera stores lot more information than its poorer cousin which has lesser megapixel rating. This extra information will be useful if we want to have large prints. I do not want to digress but I want to advice you not to run behind higher and higher megapixels. An 8MP camera can store enough information to print the image on an A4 sheet. How often do we even print ?

Anyway, coming to our main topic...In a higher megapixel camera, large image files are created for the pictures. After clicking a picture, its corresponding image file should be written to the memory card before the next picture can be taken. So, your memory card also should be fast so that time taken to write the image file is less. The memory cards are rated as class-1, class-6, class-10 depending on the speed. for e.g. class-10 means that it can write at a guaranteed speed of 10MB per sec. Look for which class memory card you are buying and if it suits your needs and your pocket can bear it.

Not every photographer needs a fast memory card. It depends on the type of photography he wants to do. For something like bird/wildlife photography the speed at which you can click is very important as you may miss the best moment in a split second. And these kind of photographers tend you use the camera in burst mode where the camera may shoot between 3-8 frames per second. In these kind of scenarios the role played by the memory cards takes a very prominent role.

I bought a DSLR camera and did good enough research on the memory cards also. This link is a nice benchmark of different memory cards. Finally, I bought a Transcend class-6 memory card.

Convertor vs Transformer: Save yourself from burning your valuble equipment

2011-02-26T17:14:00.001+05:30

Most of you might be aware that there are generally two voltage levels followed by different countries. For e.g. 220v standard is followed by countries like India, UK etc. while 110v standard is followed by countries like US. The following article is relevant to you if you have bought electronic/electrical stuff from a country which follows one standard, but want to use it in a country with other standard. And more likely you will be reading this article if you had already bought an item and burnt it by not knowing that you should use a converter or transformer to make it work properly. It may also be the case that you used a converter or transformer but still burnt your device. Don't be ashamed, we both belong to the same community and there are many others.

Before telling if you should use a transformer or a converter, let me tell you that your device may work without any converter. Recent gadgets which are typically carried across the globe by the travellers are compatible with full range of voltage from 100v to 240v. They include mobiles, cameras, laptops, electric razors etc. But check the input voltage rating nonetheless. It should be printed something like "Input: 100-240v". The output voltage rating does not matter.

Now coming to the main point...You should be careful in choosing a converter or a transformer so that your device does not get fried. Most of you might be knowing from your electrical class that you will need a step-up transformer to increase the voltage and a step-down transformer to decrease the voltage. The output voltage of such a transformer should be compatible with the input voltage of your device. Having said that, you should know that there is a different type of devices called "converters" which also does the job of increasing/decreasing the voltage. "converter" is a loose word. They are more accurately called solid-state converters. They are also called SMPS converters. As opposed to the coil mechanism in transformers, converters use electronic circuits to change the voltage levels. The difference in the operation of transformers/converters may be suitable or not suitable for the device that you are using. A quick way to distinguish is that transformers are generally bulky and heavy, whereas solid-state converts are small and lightweight.

If I can to go into a little bit of technical details here, a transformer-based converter converts the voltage by elongating the sine wave of the AC current but still preserving the sine wave formation. On the other hand a solid-state based converts just chops off the sine wave to reduce the voltage, and hence the output current do not follow a sine wave formation. This kind of current is not compatible with all types of devices. But the pure sine wave form of current is compatible with most of the devices.

To summarize: The general rule of thumb is most of the electronic equipment (gaming consoles, DVD players, speakers, mobiles, etc) needs a transformer based converter. Whereas, electrical appliances like motor-based appliances, irons etc can work with solid-state converters. Transformer-based converters can be used for long operating hours whereas solid-state based converts are for short-term use (typically 1-2hrs). When in doubt, it is safer to use transformer-based converters. Also make sure that the wattage(W) rating is compatible. It is safer if the wattage of converter is atleast 25% more than wattage requirement of your device.

Pointers: link1, link2, link3

Apple Peel: Use ipod touch to make calls (GSM).

2010-09-06T18:54:00.000+05:30

Please do not jump to think that you can make GSM calls by installing an application. That is not possible because the communication chip itself is not present on ipod touch. This is hardware + software solution. This solution is not like many other solutions which lets you make VoIP calls using ipod touch. This is a hardware accessory which you have to attach to your ipod touch, install an application, and then use for making GSM calls. There is a catch here that the iphone should be jailbroken for installing the application which is used for texting and making voice calls. Currently it supports only 2G.

As you will be adding new hardware, be ready to have a bulky iphone ;). Do not worry much, it will not look like an outgrowth or like an extra limb. The whole hardware is nicely packaged into a single unit with an extra battery, communication chip and a sim card holder. The product is still at a prototype stage. But the cost looks very promising at $57. Best part, no carrier lock!

source: link

Android on iphone

2010-09-02T19:02:00.014+05:30

You like both android and iphone and want both ?
Or are you irritated like me because of stupid restrictions put by apple ?
Or you just want to try something cool ?

There is a way to install android 2.2 on iphone. The best part is that it becomes dual boot supporting both iphone firmware and android. Iphone 2G, &3G are supported. It seems 3GS is not supported. There are some sites with paid software which claims that they support 3GS, but I am skeptical. I would not go for the paid sites. First the iphone needs to be jailbroken. There are many tutorial out there on the web. Here are few links. link1, link2, link3.

There is a simple automated process by the iphondroid software. This is supposed to be the simplest of all. There is an updated version of this software just yesterday (1st sept 2010) and it is a coveted as single click installation. But as far as I see, there is not windows version of the latest tool.

I am itching to try this. Will update you with my experiment.

Update (3-sept): r13h is the latest version of this tool. But unfortunately the windows version (r13g) does not support 2G. The website mentions that 2G version will be supported in next release. It is not clear to me if there is a windows version of r13h which supports 2G or not because when I try to download the 2G version from main page, it gives me r13f. I still searching where to find windows version of r13h.

Update (6-sept): It seems that there is some problem with the NOR backup utility which protects against bricking the iphone. The release of latest (r13h) windows version for 2G is postponed. I think its worth waiting for the protection.

Update (8-sept): There is going to be a new release (r13i) for 2G this sunday.

Update (13-sept): The new version(r13j) for windows is released. Here is the link. I am going to try soon and will update you with my experience.

Update (14-sept): After many bug fixing finally the r13m version seems to work. I am successful in installing android on my iphone. Though its not fully functional enjoying running android on iphone.See some of my pics.

Put your wii remote to a greater use.

2010-09-02T18:32:00.000+05:30

The following is a nice TED talk which demonstrates an wii remote hacking idea which extends the functionality beyond gaming. The speaker developed a freely downloadable software (his website) which uses the infrared sensing capabilities of the wii. In the talk he demonstrates few applications of the basic idea. He shows a infrared pen which uses the screen projection as white board. In another application, with two infrared devices, he creates two touch points which can be used as a multi-touch interface. But the best part is that the infrared device when attached to the head can be used as a head tracking device. The 3D projection keeps changing according to the position of the viewer head.

Milo and Kate : AI Game for the Xbox with kinect

2010-08-19T12:58:00.000+05:30

The following video of a TED talk is about a game developed for Microsoft Xbox with Kinect controller. The characters in the game are AI characters. The player has to interact with the character by playing, talking etc with the characters. At the end of the game, the developers say that, no two characters will be the same. Very interesting. This is nice mixture of both AI & Kinect controller.

In the video that author says that people did not believe when there was a video release of the game. I agree that it is really hard to believe. He gives a live demo of it in the TED talk.

Beware of goldrain (goldra1n) scam that claims to unlock iphone4

2010-07-08T12:52:00.000+05:30

There has be some articles (this, this) floating on the net that a tool named "goldra1n" can jailbreak and unlock any version of the iphone including the latest iphone 4. First of all, its a paid application. This is the first indicator that this is a scam as the tools developed by the elite iphone hacker groups (like iphone-dev team) are for free.

The goldrain tools is being marketed by a site named www.unlockiphoneus.com. When I last visited this site, it shows that it is suspended. But a new site "http://www.unlock-iphone.us/" popped up in that place. Beware of both these sites and do not get fooled. See the complaints on the site and discussions/updated articles(this, this) damning the tool.

How to find bootrom version of iphone 3GS (new bootrom or old bootrom)

2010-06-25T00:40:00.004+05:30

When the hackers released the pwnage(v4.0/4.0.1) jailbreak tool for iOS4, it is mentioned that the 3GS phones with the latest bootrom (iBoot-359.3.2) cannot be jailbroken. Only the old bootroom (iBoot-359.3) can be unlocked for now. So, now the big question is how to find which bootrom does your 3GS phone have.

The iphone week number will help as a thumb rule to find if your 3GS iphone is having old or new bootrom. The 4th and 5th digits of the serial number will tell the week number of the phone. If your iphone week number is <40, then you will definitely have old bootrom. If the week number is >45 then you will definitely have new bootrom. In between, we cannot say for sure.

The sure shot method to determine the bootrom is to use some tool like 'usbview' after putting the iphone in DFU mode (Connect your iPhone to iTunes, turn off, click power+home button for 10 seconds, leave POWER button after 10 seconds, holding HOME button). After putting the phone in DFU you can follow one of the following methods.

method-1
- put the phone in DFU mode
- run the application usbview
- check "config descriptors" and refresh
- in the left panel, click Apple USB device
- in the right panel, find an entry which reads iBoot 359.x.x

method-2
- put the phone in DFU mode
- In windows, got to Start > Control Panel > System > Hardware > Device Manager
- Find "Universal Serial Bus (USB) Controller" and go to Apple Mobile Device USB Driver.
- Right click and choose properties and go to details
- Select device instance path
- The end of the info string will tell the bootrom version

method-3
See this link to find one more method using forecast(f0recast) tool. This tool will give the final summary if your 3GS phone can be jailbreakable, unlockable. Note that this tool is not yet updated to give suggestions for iOS4. It can accurately tell if your 3GS phone is jailbreakable, unlockable only till 3.1.3 firmware.

Hackers release tools to unlock iphone os 4 (iOS4)

2010-06-24T02:00:00.004+05:30

Shortly after the iphone 4 is officially launched with the latest firmware iOS4, hackers released the tools to jailbreak & unlock the latest firmware on the 3G & 3GS phones. Though the hackers found the exploits during the beta of iOS4 & 3.1.3 firmware they did not disclose is because apple would close them in the main release. Note that 3G & 3GS iphones are supported on iOS4 but not 2G iphones. They updated the following tools:
pwnage tool - to jailbreak the new iOS4 firmware (redsnow should follow)
ultrasn0w tool - to unlock the baseband

The good news is that the updated ultrasnow tool (v0.93) can unlock all the basebands till the latest one (5.13.04). The new firmware updates that baseband (responsible for gsm communication) to the latest one but the latest ultrasnow tool can unlock it so that the phone can be used on other networks. So, even if you accidentally updated your iphone firmware to 3.1.3 version (which also updates the baseband to 5.12.01) which rendered the phone not usable on other networks this latest tools will be your savior. The users with jailbroken phones on 3.1.3 firmware can also use ultrasnow without upgrading to iOS4.

The bad news is that the pwnage tool cannot *yet* jailbreak the 3GS iphones with the new bootroms (iBoot-359.3.2). The iphone week number will help as a thumb rule to find if your 3GS iphone is having old or new bootrom. The 4th and 5th digits of the serial number will tell the week number of the phone. If your iphone week number is <40, then you will definitely have old bootrom. If the week number is >45 then you will definitely have new bootrom. In between, we cannot say for sure. The sure shot method to determine the bootrom is to use some tool like 'usbview' and put the iphone in DFU mode.

Tutorials:
jailbreaking 3G(mac, windows), 3GS oldbootrom(mac, windows)
unlock of 3G and 3GS

update(5-July): If you have the 3.1.2 SHSH blobs stored (not 3.1.3 shsh blobs), there is a way you can jailbreak the 3GS phone with new firmware. See this tutorial.This tutorial is not yet for the faint hearted. These steps were released for the advanced users as the tool development will take some time.

iphone OS 4 vs android 2.2

2010-06-08T11:06:00.000+05:30

The following is a nice link comparing the two latest OS. The highlights of the latest iphone 4 are the following.

Front facing camera for video conferencing
A4 CPU (used in the ipads)
Multitasking capability
Higher resolution display
5 megapixel camera (with flash) which can record HD video
Second microphone for noise cancellation
Thinnest smartphone with a glass body
Folders to group applications

Combining two or more boradband internet connections

2010-06-02T23:50:00.000+05:30

The other day my cousin asked me how to combine two internet connections and use both of them at the same time. As per my old knowledge, even if two ethernet cards are available on the PC, an application cannot directly use both the IPs, do load balancing, and pump up the overall speed. This is because a TCP cannot cannot be shared over two different IPs. Once a TCP connection is established, lets us say by a browser, it cannot switch to the other one on the same PC.

Having said to my cousin that this is not possible by default I explored and found some interesting stuff which proves me wrong (I am happy that I am wrong). I guess the technical word for the above is "Link Aggregation". This is also called LAN or NIC Teaming, multi-link trunking etc. Having said this, let me also say that you cannot achieve this with just having two ethernet cards and two internet connections. The LAN cards should be capable of providing this support and the OS should have corresponding drivers. I am not sure what kind of ethernet cards are capable of doing it. But read on...

There are ready made products to uncomplicate things for you, but they are a bit pricey as of now. They are called dual-wan routers. If I understand correctly, they do NAT translation internally and achieve load balancing and high-availability (failover support).

Links to related discussions: link1, link2, link3

Android OS on iphone

2010-05-24T15:54:00.003+05:30

One of the members of the iphone dev team, planetbeing, ported Android OS (from google) to the iphone. Binaries are available for both 2G and 3G phones (not 3GS). The best part is that the iphone becomes a dual boot. You do not need to completely remove your iphone firmware. However, there are some issues like bugs, performance issues, and power consumption issues. So, in the current state, this is not for the faint hearted. Here is the step-by-step guide to install Android on iphone from pcworld.

Fixing 169.254.x.x problem with network bridge

2010-04-19T23:13:00.007+05:30

You may get 169.254.x.x because of the Automatic Private IP Address (APIPA) feature of windows. The windows OS may assign a private IP if the network card is setup to get IP from a DHCP server and is not able to do so. This can be a generic problem and the solution will be specific to the problem. The above info should give you some pointer to explore further. One of the most common problems is that a firewall on you machine may be preventing your machine from getting the IP from the DHCP server.

The problem that we are going to solve today is when this problem may happen because of network bridge. A network bridge is typically used to share the internet between two network devices. One of it could be a wireless device and the other a wired device. The exact problem that I am facing is as follows:

I have a network bridge between my wireless device and my ethernet card. When I connect to internet using LAN cable between the ethernet port of my PC and router, I could share the internet on my LAN with the devices connected to my wireless. Also, if I do not have the network bridge, I can connect to the internet over my wireless. But while having the network bridge, if I try to connect to the internet over wireless, I am not able to do so. I get the 169.254.x.x IP which is not in the range of my router's IP. The fix is as follows:

Open the command window (from Run->cmd.exe or programs)
Issue the command "netsh bridge show adapter"
See the id of the adapter that is not working
If the "compatibility mode" is not enabled, you should force it
Issue the command "netsh bridge set adapter id forcecompatmode=enable" (Replace "id" with the number of adapter id)
Run the command "netsh bridge show adapter" and verify that it is enabled.
Issue the command "ipconfig /renew" to renew the IP and then issue "ipconfig".
You should see an IP that is in the range of your router's IP address.
Enjoy!

Source: Microsoft Knowledgebase

Fix for DFU or Recovery mode problem after unlocking iphone 3GS on 3.1.2 with redsn0w or blackra1n

2010-03-26T14:20:00.011+05:30

Currently, there are two alternatives for unlocking 3GS running 3.1.2 firmware. The tools are
redsn0w(0.9.2): Only for jailbreaking
blackra1n(RC3): For jailbreaking + unlocking
blacksn0w: Only for unlocking

The two alternatives are
1. Use redsn0w to jailbreak followed by blacksn0w to unlock
2. Use blackra1n only

Now coming to the problems, various users reported that unlocking with blackrain followed by installation of some software (like SBSettings) from cydia lead to a condition where the phone is constantly in a recover mode loop after every reboot (reboot loop). I did not face this issue first hand as I did not install any software from cydia after unlock. I tried both the redsnow & blackrain approaches on different 3GS iphones. (Update: See the comments to this post which suggests a fix)

While the above condition might be true in some cases, I think that most people are missing one important point. If they jailbreak latest(>week45) 3GS iphones on 3.1.2 firmware using tethering (via USB), they have to use tethered boot also. This point is clearly mentioned in the redsnow software at the step after loading the 3.1.2 firmware.

They should use the same software everytime they have to reboot their 3GS iphone. After the unlock they would see the normal screen with the applications. But after reboot, it will go into recovery mode (screen showing itunes and USB cable). This is not DFU mode but people are using this term interchangeably with recovery mode. So, lets us ignore the terminology for time being and focus on how to fix it.

blackra1n:
1. Boot the phone. It will show screen showing itunes logo and a USB cable.
2. Just run the blackra1n software and click "Make it ra1n".
3. It will show a screen showing geohot's face.
4. Just wait, it will come out of it and will show the normal screen with icons.

redsn0w:
1. Boot the phone. It will show screen showing itunes logo and a USB cable.
2. Launch redsn0w and select the 3.1.2 firmware and click next.
3. It will show a warning screen. Click yes or no, depending on your iphone week number.
4. If you had already jailbroken, it will just show two options
5. Select "just boot tethered right now" and click next.
6. It shows a screen asking to hold the power & home button, but it is not needed. Do not do anything.
7. It shows the same recovery mode screen for some time and then will come out of it.

Happy unlocking!

Trendalyzer (Motion Chart Gadget): Nice trends analysis tool by visualization

2010-03-07T11:20:00.004+05:30

The other day I was seeing this nice presentation by Hans Rosling where he is presenting the different statistics of the developing world and how they changed over time. See his other talks on various topics.

I was largely impressed by the tool that he used in the presentation. It has a great visual appeal. It can represent different dimensions at the same time in the 2-D chart. Other than the regular X,Y axis it uses color, size, time to represent the other dimensions. The way one can drill down further into the statistics in a visual manner is very nice.

The software tool is developed by him and his colleagues at his non-profit organization "Gapminder". It was initially called Trendalyzer. Then google later bought this tool when the google founder saw this TED talk and was impressed by the software. Now, this software is available as a free gadget in spreadsheet in online google docs. Here is a tutorial on how to use this tool in google spreadsheet. Here is one more tutorial.

Cubestormer: rubik cube solving robot

2010-02-20T14:15:00.005+05:30

Here is a robot that can solve rubik cube in less than 12 seconds. This robot is built from lego mindstorm kits. The speed at which it solves the cube is pretty amazing. I think having 4 arms to hold and twist the cube is really smart idea that will help in solving the cube quickly overcoming the mechanical speed limitations.

I have worked with lego mindstorm kit when I was doing my masters. It was great fun. We could replace the default firmware on the controller with a firmware which can be programmed in C/C++ language. I forgot the details, but I think we used the legOS firmware and a cross compiler for esterel. It was a simple project. We did a light seeking robot and a line tracing robot. I will write about it some other time.

Avatar iphone ringtones (and mp3 also)

2010-02-12T16:29:00.003+05:30

I love the soundtrack of avatar movie. I generated some ringtones for my iphone. I would like to share these with others. I have both mp3 & iphone ringtone versions. Enjoy!

Mp3 Ringtone

Iphone Ringtone

Tutorial to unlock 2G iphone running 3.1.2 firmware on windows (link)

2010-02-08T16:21:00.003+05:30

Here is the link to the article that was published last week from iclarified.

I had been waiting for this article for a long time. Though apple released 3.1.2 firmware long back the windows users are not blessed with the latest version of redsnow. The mac version of pwnage came almost two months back. Here is the link if you are interested.

I am currently having unlocked 3.0 firmware. There are some connection issues and call related issues. I am not very happy with 3.0 firmware. So, I want to upgrade to 3.1.2 firmware which reportedly fixed these issues.

3G: This is the tutorial for unlocking 3G phones having 3.1.2 firmware.

How does Firefox make money ?

2010-01-31T17:16:00.005+05:30

Firefox makes money from the in-built search bar in the browser. It gets paid for every sponsored link displayed in the search results when the search bar in the browser is used. See the second question in this link for confirmation. I am bit surprised to see that it made around $50 million in 2005 from this. Also see the blog of chairman of mozilla about 2008 financial results. The revenues are around $80million.

They really deserve it. It is really good business revenue model by being open source at the same time. No wonder how they managed to continuously come up with nice products and features. On the other hand, I appreciate Wikipedia also a lot. It has a very small team which manages the infrastucture. The organization is run entirely on donations. But I sometimes feel pity when they request for money. I could easily make $100 million a year if they place one ad per page. I appreciate their noble intentions.

Today I installed firefox 3.6 after spending a long time with my 3.0. I feel that it had lot of improvements especially the speed. I feel that there is a noticeable difference in the speed. Mozilla claims that there is 3 times improvement in the speed but I cannot quantify that. The responsiveness is also better. However, its consumes 300-400MB of main memory. Overall, I liked the new 3.6 browser.

Fix for itunes not grouping the same albums together

2010-01-16T16:43:00.000+05:30

Sometimes it happens that even though a set of files has the same album name, they are not grouped together. This becomes a bigger problem when they are transferred into the iphone/ipod. In the iphone, they will be presented under different albums and hence with different covers. So, the nice cover flow feature of the iphone becomes ugly. Stupidly, even though the same album is shown with different covers, the list of songs under each cover will be the same. For me, this is an irritating problem.

After some googling, I found that itunes does not use just the album name to group the songs. It uses other fields like artist name, album art etc to group it. So, the fix is to have the same artist name, album artist name for the entire album. Even the album art does matter. If you want to be religious about the artist name do not want to change it, you still have a way. You can group them under a single compilation. See the discussions here, here, and here to get more details about the fix.

You can use itunes to change the properties of the music files. But, if you manage your own mp3 without itunes, it may be a good idea to use a tool to do batch edit of ID3 tag names. I use a software named "Media Monkey" to do this. Its a nice and feature rich tool. You can apply tags to set of files at the same time. Previously I used to use "ID3 TagIT". When you use a different tool other than itunes, you should remember that you should delete the files from itunes and reload them. Removing form the playlist is not enough, it should be removed from the music library also. Or else, if you place the files in the playlist, it will still retain the old tags. (I faced this problem first hand ;) )

Fix (Summary):
- Make sure that the artist name is the same
- Make sure that the album artist name is the same
- Make sure that the album art is the same
- Optionally, Try to group them as single compilation
- If you are not using itunes to change tags, remember to remove songs from itunes library (not playlist) and reload

Uninstalling/Removing Groove Monitor (Folder Sync)

2010-01-04T12:06:00.000+05:30

What is groove monitor ? First of all, dont worry. Its not a malware or spyware. It comes with microsoft office 2007. You will start noticing a "Folder Sync" button in the explorer. It is a collaboration tool that helps people working in teams. One can create groove workspace which is used to share files between people working together. Once you update files on your machine, the latest version of it can be seen by your teammates. See this link from Microsoft for more info.

Not everyone who works with office 2007 will want to share documents. I do not understand why this feature is being forced on people. This gets installed by default when upgrading to office 2007. Nothing comes for free. The corresponding process (groovemonitor.exe) occupies 30K of memory. Moreover it creates panic in the users. First time I started seeing the "Folder Sync" on the explorer, I was suspecting that its a malware/spyware.

I searched on how to remove this from running. There are many sites which suggested to disable it in the startup programs by running 'msconfig'. But that solution did not work for me. The process kept on coming back and the "Folder Sych" button did not go away. Some sites even suggested to remove the exe file which I think is not a good solution. Finally, I found a neat way to remove it.

1. In control panel, go to "add or remove programs"
2. Choose "Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007" in the list
3. Click "Change". (Do not click "Remove")
4. Three options will be presented.
5. Choose "Add or remove features" and click "Continue"
6. A list of features will be presented
7. Click on box beside "Microsoft office groove" and select "Not available"
8. A small red cross will appear on this feature.
9. Click "Continue" and let the office 2007 uninstall the feature for you.

Hacking amazon kindle

2009-12-25T19:58:00.006+05:30

"Kindle" is Amazon's e-book reader. Its making lot of news these days. Amazon recently slashed the price of the device to $259. e-books can be downloaded over GPRS/3G/wi-fi networks and cost of each e-books is fairly valued. Users need not pay for the wireless charges, they only pay for the downloaded books. The latest version of kindle is supported in many countries. The features supported in countries other than US are a bit limited. It seems that there are some charges for wireless connectivity in other countries. Wireless transfer of e-books is not mandatory as they can be transfered from USB also.

The content in the kindle is believed to have strong DRM protection. In other words, its belived that the content downloaded by paying the price once, cannot be shared with other people. Amazon distributes the e-books in its proprietry format wth .azw extention. It has DRM protection which is tied to security key of the kindle hardware.

But this is not deterring the hackers. Two independent hackers are able to crack the code. So, one can convert the content of the e-book into a PDF file and can share it. Please be warned that its illegal and will be considered piracy. Converting to a PDF and keeping it for your own use should be OK, but I am not 100% sure. These two hackers go with the screen names "Labba" and "I [heart] cabbages".

"Unswindle" is a program developed by "I [heart] cabbages" which can convert the contents of the ebook into different movable format. Here is the link to his blog wich talks about this tool.

Sources:
http://www.crn.com/security/222100097;jsessionid=KC1EOI3I43IM1QE1GHOSKHWATMY32JVN
http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/security/0,39044215,62060167,00.htm?scid=rss_z_nw