Randomized Anjul

Links for 2009-11-02 [del.icio.us]

2009-11-03T00:00:00-08:00

Mommy, I found it! — 15 Practical Linux Find Command Examples
very important commands (keep it handy)

Getting things done - TODO list and task management

2009-11-01T19:23:00.000+05:30

I work with a very big team spread across onshore and offshore working in different time zones. My work is related to infrastructure like Unix and Databases where high availability of services is of main concerns. This generates many ad-hoc and unplanned request everyday and due to which I sometimes forget or skew myself from the planned tasks and priorities.
Recently I went through various task management tools like SimpleGTD, Remember the Milk, Gmail TODO etc. out of which I am using simpleGTD and Remember the milk in my daily work. Microsoft Outlook tasks is complicated and if you are not using it for Email then it is not worth using it only for task management though it provides various features.

Getting things done (GTD) is a management idea from David Allen which is traditional time management approach in addition with prioritize, organize and review the work concepts in timely manner. Based on this workflow, such tools are designed which we will be reviewing here.

SimpleGTD - It's main feature is its simplicity and in-frame editing. Also some of you might like its one page view which is divided into various action items categories such as personal, work, agenda etc. Also supports printing just like RTM.
Remember The Milk - This is the most famous and favorite application of 2008 according to RWW readers. This is an from Australian startup and now it is available for iPhone also. The feature I like here is smart keyboard shortcuts and symbols for definition within the task text. Interface is awesomely designed. It supports creating weekly printable task lists.
TODO in Gmail - This is simple todo list but really handy as it is integrated tightly with gmail, google calendar and iGoogle. This feature came last year officially. I recommend this to use if don't want to jump into fully rich separate application just for managing tasks as Gmail todo is very light weight.
Sticky notes and classical pen and paper - This is the oldest and still very popular way of managing personal tasks on day-to-day basis. On every desk almost we can find this easily even when you are disconnected from cyber world. Use your creativity at fullest to design your own todo lists. You can also get some printables here or may be online GTD printable generator here
Create printable checklists - a very simple and quick tool indeed. Put your tasks online and print. That's it. [lifehacker review in detail]
Hipster PDA -it's a popular technique given by 43folders (why 43, 12months+31days=43). Get some hPDA printables here.

I hope the above tools and method will increase productivity if used consistently. Please let me know if you know any other good tools. I would love to see your comments.

Interesting query to spell numbers in Oracle

2009-10-28T23:28:00.001+05:30

I was surfing through tkyte's blog and found this query to spell the numbers in oracle.

SQL> select to_char(to_date(19994,'j'),'jsp') from dual;

TO_CHAR(TO_DATE(19994,'J'),'JSP')

------------------------------------------

nineteen thousand nine hundred ninety-four

Lets look little close to this.
inner query: select to_date(19994,'J') from dual;
It is basically used to convert number to date and 'J' signifies Julian date format.
outer query: select to_char(),'JSP') from dual;
It is SPELLING out Julian date. J-SP means Julian Spell.

The above query may fail for very large numbers. So a better solution by Tom is here.

Links for 2009-07-26 [del.icio.us]

2009-07-27T00:00:00-07:00

:: Anand Sharan ::
Photography Master

Links for 2009-07-17 [del.icio.us]

2009-07-18T00:00:00-07:00

Hard Drive weight increasing?
One of the funniest discussion

[Windows Tip] Create virtual drives for any path or directory

2009-06-25T23:41:00.004+05:30

Here is a tip which I explored today during my experiments with command prompt. You can create or say map a virtual drive to any directory in Windows Vista. Suppose you may want to create a short mapping for a long path such as D:\Users\s\game\dir1
C:\> SUBST Z: D:\Users\s\game\dir1
C:\> Z:
Z:\> "This is pointing to the above directory"
To remove the mapping, use the following option -
c:\> SUBST Z: /D
This is like mount points in linux/unix which are basically pointers.

[Windows Tip] Quick launch shortcut keys

2009-06-11T22:21:00.004+05:30

Today, I discovered that on Windows Vista/7 you can select an application in quick launch bar by using the combination of Window key plus number. Suppose for the first icon (here command prompt), you can do Win key + 1, for next Win+2 and so on. This shortcut is very helpful and productive on netbooks and laptops which are compact in terms of ergonomics.
I have not checked it on XP machine whether it is working there or not. Please comment your experience on XP for the same command.
Keep on visiting this blog for such tips and random articles on technology. Thanks for your time and I hope it will be helpful in someways for you.

Links for 2009-05-19 [del.icio.us]

2009-05-20T00:00:00-07:00

55 Ways to Get More Energy | Zen Habits

erail.in – find your trains quickly

2009-04-23T23:21:00.002+05:30

The first look at erail is amazing, you would be surprise by its one page interface. Select your source, destination and date of travel. It will list down all the trains available and timings, availability against them in a matrix styled table. You can sort the result, can enquire anything you like very quickly.

The way of presentation of information is one of the best in its class. The feature I like the most are –

All information on one page, no more back and forward again and again.
Matrix style reporting - You can sort any column according to your need.
Fast and requires less number of clicks to get final information.
Non-clumsy interface, no ads in between the content to disturb you.

Finally but not the last, you can also search for buses here if your destinations doesn't have train route.

Oracle + Sun = Sheer RAW Power

2009-04-21T00:09:00.003+05:30

Oracle buy Sun

Surprise, the biggest enterprise software maker Oracle corp. is acquiring Sun Microsystem Inc. for approx. $7.4B after the failure of IBM-Sun deal. Now the #1 Relational Database giant will be not just more powerful by taking extremely widespread product ranges like Java/MySQL/SPARC Hardware Platform/Solaris but also it is going to be biggest in hardware market, database market and in enterprise software.

Microsoft's CEO Balmer is also shocked by this deal because currently they holds first position as enterprise software vendor, now their competitor is just get more power and force.

Other big impact will be in RDBMS market - already being number one will also have MySQL (choice of Web) as addin by getting Sun. Both database has its own features for which they stand up separate. Overall capability is now increase which will allow Oracle to fight it's top competitors - IBM's DB2, Sybase and MS SQL Server.

In hardware market, Oracle already has allied with Hewlett Packard and Dell to deliver computing platform to handle end-to-end data processing solutions. Now with Sun, and their Sparc architecture they will fullfill their wish to own hardware platform.

As an Oracle DBA, the following looks interesting to me -

The Sun Solaris operating system is the leading platform for the Oracle database, Oracle’s largest business, and has been for a long time. With the acquisition of Sun, Oracle can optimize the Oracle database for some of the unique, high-end features of Solaris. Oracle is as committed as ever to Linux and other open platforms and will continue to support and enhance our strong industry partnerships.

So we can expect a better and tightly integrated with Solaris release of Oracle database soon. :)

Sources:

1. http://www.sun.com/third-party/global/oracle/index.jsp

2. http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/press/018363

Protect Email Id from spammers

2009-04-18T19:59:00.000+05:30

You might have seen on several pages that people use to encrypt (not exactly) their email id in contact pages to hide it from spammers. But day by day spammers are also getting intelligent. They can decrypt your email id and challenge you.

Stop them now and use scr.im - a new service to share your email id. It is more like a mapping tool which will use one customized URL scr.im/[custom] which will point to your email id like this -
a...@g...l.com.

When someone click on this shared link, it will be asked for the captcha and ensures that only a human is accessing your email id not a bot. Thus keeping your mail id safe from bots, which means lesser spam.

Thanks to Shankar's Killer Tech Tips - which is one of the source of good information on softwares and Internet.

Check your Blog loading time

2009-04-11T14:52:00.001+05:30

It is irritating sometimes where your blog takes long time to load. This can adversely affect your readers because they get annoyed and they want to see without wait. Such people jump from one point in cyberspace to another very frequently if the response of the page they are visiting is slow.

Therefore this metric is quite important for bloggers so that they can optimize their blogs. One such good online tool is Stopwatch. It is a good habit to test your own blog against loading time and redesign accordingly.

Some usual tips to reduce load time -
1. Reduce the number of images on the home.
2. Do not use images at full resolution - you may reduce to thumbnails if required.
3. Upload the images to your local web folder, don't rely on third party hosts.
4. Use CSS at the top of web page
5. Limit the number of posts to few on homepage say not more than 10.
6. Remove unncessary third party javascripts.

Foil thin speakers becomes a reality

2009-04-11T13:58:00.004+05:30

A team of engineers in University of Warwick UK have designed a foil-thin speakers (~0.25mm thick) and that too with better sound quality than traditional ones. It is flat, flexible and can be hung/sticked on any surfaces.

The most important thing is they are inexpensive to produce and very good for public spaces where it is an extreme requirement of crisp and clear audio.it is ideal for public spaces where it delivers planar directional sound waves, which project further than sound from conventional speakers.

This technology will help designers to workup on new designs of the surface as now they don't need to bother about the space required for sound output. Say in case of Laptop we have almost 1"x6" reserved for speaker panel, which can be put into the laptop surface itself with more aesthetic element in designs. more at BBC Tech.

Undo Send feature in GMail - Kewl

2009-03-20T11:54:00.002+05:30

GMail is back again with one new feature in its lab version after the reported outage that we have seen some days back when some of the users of gmail were not able to login.

Anyways,leaving apart they have introduced a very useful feature in mail service that you can actually hold your mail after sending for few seconds. Suppose you have missed out something in your mail and just after clicking the send button, you discovered, it will be a regret. Why didn't they had Undo feature yet?
Yes, They have introduced it now and its a unique feature. It will not exactly recall your message but it will hold your mail temporarily for 5 sec just after sending (though it is too less, but higher will be more frustrating), so that you can undo the request.

My Suggestion to GMail would be that this time should not be fixed to five seconds, a user must be able to set this according to her ease.

Links for 2009-03-16 [del.icio.us]

2009-03-17T00:00:00-07:00

Advice For Part Time Bloggers Juggling Blogging with Work, Family and Other Commitments

Innernet Again

2009-03-15T02:43:00.000+05:30

Those days are back when I was hanged up for hours with my computer and Internet. After a long settlement time in chennai, I am now really setting myself here so that I can live up the life. Developing the essence of homeliness in the house is the new goal, which I think is almost achieved.
Living far from home encourage us to to what we had intentionally missed at home due to our negligence and laziness. This is the time when you are being creative, act more matured and responsive and also starts taking more responsibility.
New things I started:
*Cooking - Yes, I started it not by hobby but for not having an option -
secret (my chapatis are never been in round shape).
*Increasing Social Network - just to get things done
*More regular lifestyle - it's the time which makes this happen
*Doing mistakes at work which I never did before. May be I am not habitual of doing mistakes ;)

Still I am not able to learn "to say NO when I should, and otherwise"

Six months without Internet!

2009-02-01T18:59:00.002+05:30

This blog is currently inactive because of limited availability of blogger, internet and time.(Aug'08 - Feb'08)

Why I am not paying attention to my blog since 180 Days?
On August 01, 2008 I left my home to join my job in Chennai. Since then I am busy with my office work and not yet completely settled. It has been six months, I am having very limited access to Internet. As most of the sites are blocked in the office, it is very difficult to communicate with outside world. Your social and professional network is ruined just because you are not inside the box for so many days.

What I did in past six months?
I am working on Oracle technologies and UNIX. I spent my most of the time on Oracle Administration and it's related products. It is really interesting to know how it works specially when its' purely technical stuff, the food for geeks!
Apart from technical stuff, I am enjoying traveling around Chennai. I visited Mysore, Ooty, Pondicherry and some places in Chennai in past few weeks. Going to beach is a weekly activity now.

My future plans for this blog -
Firstly, To make this blog more professional, I would like to purchase a domain name and web space to move this blog to a wordpress platform. Another reason for the upgrade is - most of the sites hosted on blogger & wordpress are blocked in office networks by firewall.
Secondly, I want to focus on some areas instead of writing personal stuffs and other non-aligned artifacts. A possible idea running in my mind is to divide it into three streams viz Programming /Linux/Unix, Oracle, and Digital Life (Stuff that is useful in day to day operations).

As soon as I get some free time, I will work on the above tasks. I would like to hear your ideas about my blog and what thing you would like to read. Please share your valuable tips and ideas in comments.

Thanks for patience,

Anjul Sahu

New SMSGupShup Looks Better And More Powerful

2008-07-18T02:20:00.000+05:30

SMSGupShup.com, One of the most popular Mobile SMS group service in India got updated. Now with various features like better streamlined interface, option of owing more than one groups, control panel for maintaining subscription are some newly added features that makes it better than other services. And another very important thing about this service is Reliability. With millions of users accessing its service, they served them almost in real time, not like Twitter (No Downtime) . There are more than 3 lakhs publishers using its platform and expanding the usage.

How it is helping small businesses in marketing?
Small Businesses which deals with large number of consumers are using SMSGupShup successfully. They use this service to broadcast their deals, schemes, updates etc and lowers down their cost of communication.

Taking an example of Chain-based company, before using this service they usually send schemes updates of their product to all the customer spread widely in the country by regular post which cost around 5 bucks for each customer. Now they are using SMS based group, by using which they not only saves 5 bucks per customer but also updated everyone within few minutes. So it is actually making a business grow by cutting cost.

Few Suggestions for this Service on the basic of my experience with it

Filter SMS with vulgar words, slang etc or introduce a way out to avoid such SMS to every group member by conforming his/her approval.
Devise a mechanism to send user created pic unlike your own pre-cooked gallery.
Connect it with major social networks like Orkut, Facebook etc and expand your connectivity with others IMs like Yahoo.

Links for 2008-07-16 [del.icio.us]

2008-07-17T00:00:00-07:00

Word AnyWhere: Hindi English and Other Indian Languages Dictionary
very useful dictionary English to Hindi or vice versa

orkut Blog: Making orkut more accessible

2008-07-15T03:05:00.001+05:30

Orkut finally added Shortcut key for navigating to Home, Scrapbook, Communities etc. Now you can quickly switch to scrapbook. Technically speaking, it is now using accesskey attribute in HTML. I also discovered a change in URL today - http://www.orkut.co.in/Main#Home.aspx

They are frequently updating the UI and Technology involved in Orkut by promoting dynamic AJAX based modules.

Other Social Giant Facebook has also changed its UI. Now, the messy things on Home is removed. One can access facebook via new.facebook.com.

Ghost Hunting

2008-07-14T01:04:00.001+05:30

Ghost Hunting
Originally uploaded by Njoule

Today, I and my brother Darpan had a great evening having lots of experiments with long exposure techniques on our cameras.
It was a real fun with long shutter speed of 6 to 15 seconds. It allow us to stretch our creativity in photography.
This photo was shot in Manual Mode with 6 sec Shutter Speed, ISO 100.

Where is a Book Library here? Try Burrp or Laila or JustDial!!

2008-07-08T23:42:00.008+05:30

If you are standing on a City Square and want to know where is the nearest CCD or where is the Salon nearby. Puzzled! There is no need to search a yellow pages directory for such daily life questions. Ask Laila or Burrp, yeah these are some of the local city specific search services. You can reach to site either by Web or my sending a query through SMS.

Such services are very useful in finding solutions of day to day life queries such as finding a grocery shop in the locality or to search a laundry service. Even they can hint you about the pricing of a restaurant, so that you can decide before moving.

There are few services which I think are worth to be used in India.

Ask Laila - Available in metro cities of India, Here you can easily find events, restaurants, lifestyle services, shopping deals etc. On mobile, just SMS your query to 58969. Eg: SMS spa, south ext to the above no. You will get the result quickly. Or access laila using WAP m.asklaila.com
Burrp - burrp! local is available in more cities than asklaila, It covers Pune, Ahemdabad too. Two things I like about burrp are first its unique TV Guide and second, lots of reviews of local businesses. So there is a good chance that the returned search result is according to the customer feedback.
JustDial.com - A very popular local search engine which can be even accessed by a landline.
Zook.in - Zook is an online mobile search community. It works by community feedback mechanism. Zook on SMS: to 57575665
local.google.co.in - Good search engine for web but its not up to the mark for very local search as compared to what above sites can search. But it is good for local businesses.
in.local.yahoo.com - A local search engine by Yahoo!
ilaka.in - local search in major cities of India and have a directory kind of listing along with locality specific search. The good thing about this site I liked is an embedded MAP with the search result which is useful for locating the address.
Myquest.in - Best for Delhi-NCR region. Very detailed with lots of widgets. Nice!

So I hope you will now never get troubled anywhere. And I suggest you to submit entries on the above site if it is not available there. Be a responsible community member.

%^*&$!# SONY VAIO LCD SCREEN PROBLEM - UNRELIABLE SONY

2008-07-07T00:46:00.006+05:30

I purchased Sony VAIO for its class and reliability but now I am realizing it was a wrong decision. My laptop is having a series of problem since I brought. The biggest of them is in the LCD. It is showing a white line at a margin of 1 cm from top [shown in picture, click to enlarge]. And sometimes it also flickers. Which is absolutely ridiculous thing from a Brand like SONY.
Past few problems with VAIO [Model : FE-VGN48G/H]:

Sometimes mute button, volume control button doesn't work properly.
Slow on Vista as compared to the same configuration of other brands.
Harddisk stops working sometimes and lappy hangs on.
Battery life is around 70 minutes max. which is too less according to the Sony VAIO specification sheet.

I use my Lappy for around 7-8 hours daily. And till date I never gave a jerk or drop, so I am pretty sure that It's a electronics problem. I recommend don't buy a VAIO ever.

Help me out!! Suggest a solution to get rid out of this.

After writing an Email to Sony VAIO Support team about this problem, They suggested few steps to do:

Update your BIOS Firmware to the latest version.
Update your Graphic Card Driver [NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600].
Restart your PC and Check whether problem is solved.
If problem persist after following above steps, try Safe Mode.
Still in trouble, Go to Sony Service Centre with Warranty Documents.

So now I tried all of these steps, but that line is still there on my LCD. Huh? Very Annoying. :-(

Links for 2008-07-06 [del.icio.us]

2008-07-07T00:00:00-07:00

Now NCERT Books Goes Online
Free NCERT books
CyberSearch Enhance Your FireFox 3 Address Bar
Very useful plugin

CyberSearch Enhance Your FireFox 3 Address Bar

2008-07-06T22:23:00.006+05:30

The CyberSearch FireFox extension transforms your address bar into a dynamic configurable search bar. It searches Google, Wikipedia and more using AJAX. You can customize it fully and even define your own keywords for searching. Like there are few inbuilt keywords, gbook for searching books using Google Books, gloc for searching Local Businesses using Google Local etc. you can even create new keywords from plugin options.
Like I create ap as a keyword for searching in my blog http://anjulsahu.blogspot.com/ [shown in image]. Using cybersearch you can directly open the desired search link through the address bar.

The extension is currently under experimental mode at firefox addon site so you need to register there to install the extension. CyberSearch is free and saves our time of browsing. It should be noted that It works only with Firefox 3.

Here is a video demostrating the plugin.
CyberSearch [CyberNet]

Now NCERT Books Goes Online

2008-07-06T17:16:00.005+05:30

With the increasing usage of IT-based solution everywhere, Government organizations are also using it widely in educational systems. In the extension of implementations, NCERT introduced online books for all the subjects of all classes right from I to XII in PDF.
I find it very useful, because now most of the students are having computers with them and books in pdf saves cost and after all this comes for free so that's even great. Thanks to NCERT. :)

Protect your Pen Drive from being affected by Malicious Viruses

2008-06-15T19:55:00.001+05:30

Sometimes our computers in a public lab creates a havoc when you insert your flash drive in USB port. The host computer which is most of the time affected by lots of viruses, worms etc senses the drive and starts attacking before you can move your mouse. Sometimes your data is lost or corrupted, And you give a damn to that PC.

We can do the same thing intelligently :-) So What you need to do for safeguarding your data on flash drive?

The answer to this very important question can be: Before plugging the drive, disable the writing mechanism first so that no program can change the bits on the drive.

How to disable the writing mechanism?

Step 1: Open the Registry editor. you can do the same by "regedit" command on Run or command prompt.

Step 2: Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies\WriteProtect

Step 3: Flip the bit to Enable Read-Only mode

Note: Make sure you undone the changes in registry after your work.

Though this method is not checked up to forensic level but it works at least logically.

If you're not a geek and no idea of registry editing and have a fear of doing the above things wrong, Don't worry we have a small application, Thumbscrew which do the same thing by a simple toggle switch.

del.icio.us Tags: viruses,windows,flash drives,Thumbscrew

How to track someone's gtalk status updates

2008-06-15T12:25:00.005+05:30

I was searching a way through which I can track the updates of gtalk status of a person who is not in my friend list. Here is the way, But firstly you must need Google/gtalk ID of your friend.

Step 1: Login to FriendFeed, and Navigate to "Friend's Setting" on the right side up on the home page.
Step 2: Add an Imaginary friend (you will find this option through a navigation tab in the menu).
Step 3: Select gtalk icon to get its status feed

Now, it creates a virtual friend who can be tracked by you. Whenever they updates their status, you will be notified through FriendFeed updates. This method also works with various other social networks on which you're not present but you want to keep yourself updated.

How to update ID3 tag Information directly from Window Media Player

2008-06-07T20:35:00.003+05:30

I am a great music fan and I like to know complete and correct information about the songs. Like most of the time we don't have complete information of songs like their genres, artists, composers, year and lots of other information.

To update song information directly from Window Media Player is very simple. Follow the given steps -

Open the library in WMP
Right-Click the song you want to update song information and select Find Album Info.
WMP uses Web services based architecture which first intelligently try to guess album/artist information from the partly given information.
Search the album or artist or If it is automatically searched then select appropriate song information from the given search result.
Match the tracks with the obtained tracks.

Now you have updated the song information.

Pros & Cons of this technique

Pros -

The whole process of updating information is very quick and can be done during the playback of the song.
No need of any other software or third-party plug-ins.
My Experience with this feature is wonderful, I found most of the song information.
It is quite intelligent enough to guess the Album information correctly.

Cons-

Sometimes WMP is not able to make connection with the web service.
Not able to find information for less popular, specific geographical constrained songs.

Now you can enjoy the songs with complete information so that you can do research on your own music taste and likeliness. And it also help in managing your music library.

If you like this article then please subscribe to my RSS feed or get articles directly to your inbox.

del.icio.us Tags: window media player,tips

Microsoft Advisory : Threat due to Safari on windows platform

2008-05-31T20:16:00.005+05:30

If you have installed Apple's Safari web browser on your Windows machine then this Security Advisory from Microsoft meant for you. According to this publication, there is a threat which allows remote code execution on windows platform through Safari. Currently the threat has not been exploited by anyone, but it is vulnerable.

How to avoid such exploitation?

Uninstall Safari from Windows until Microsoft delivers security update for this problem.
Or change the default download location of safari.

Don't Panic:
If you have changed the default location where Safari downloads the content.

Related: Safari sucks memory on Windows Vista

Technology.People.Fun.: Set a Guinness World Record, Download Firefox 3

2008-05-31T00:29:00.000+05:30

Technology.People.Fun.: Set a Guinness World Record, Download Firefox 3

Safari Sucks Memory on Vista

2008-05-30T01:47:00.003+05:30

I experience the worst memory eating software today, and the surprizing thing is that it's one of the popular browser by Apple, yeah I am talking about Safari!!

Can you believe, Safari ate my 300 MB of RAM and slowing down other processes. It sucked memory like anything and almost hanged up my notebook. And if you think I browse too many resources, Nope!! I had opened around 7 tabs. Is this too much to handle?? check the screenshot and If you feel it's a problem caused by any other process, or event then please share.