Anjul Sahu

Current List of Apps

2014-06-19T11:41:00.003+05:30

Office 2013 Suite: Mainly excel, word, outlook and lync
Toad 12.5 DBA Suite: For Oracle DB administration
Notepad++: The only text editor I love. I have configured it to use multimarkdown
Cygwin: better than Microsoft terminal (cmd), it is configured with rlwrap to enable history/bash like auto-completion in sqlplus
Chrome: the only web browser you need

LastPass
Google Input Tools
Adblock
Hola
Pushbullet
Readability

Github: for code versioning
Evernote: for note taking.. Previously used OneNote but then moved on.
WriteMonkey: for zenware writing
Dropbox: everyone knows.
Others -Teracopy, 7-Zip, PDF Creator, AutoHotKey

Web Apps

Asana

Australian International Airshow 2013

2013-03-03T15:54:00.000+05:30

F18 Super Hornet Pilots sharing experience. Photo © Anjul Sahu

I have been living near MHOW (Military HQ of War) where I used to see some fighters getting transported on the back of truck. That was my closest encounter with this heart throbbing machines. Then I saw them flying around Tambaram airbase, Chennai during office hours. The power, speed, super sonic sound and ability to do massive destruction is what makes them interesting. Whenever I see them in Hollywood movies, I live a second life in my dream as an air-force pilot. Wearing an Aviator with dashing blue (or green sometimes) dresses leaves an inspiring and brave image. What a life!

Recently, I got an opportunity to attend Australian international air show organized at Avalon Airport near Melbourne to understand and see more about aviation closely. I was waiting for it since few weeks. On the photography front, I ordered a telephoto canon 70-200 F4 IS for this event but it couldn't be delivered on time by FedEx. I would curse FedEx for that - lazy service.

Aerobatic Solo Display. Flying few feets above the ground makes it a very brave act. Photo © Anjul Sahu

Many teams participated in the event like US Air Force (USAF), Singapore (RSAF), Australia, Japan, NZ and French Air Force showcasing F18 Super Hornet, F22 Raptor, Spitfires, F16s, C17 Globemaster, PC/9/A (Roulettes), Predator, Super Puma, Pilatus, Hawk 127 and many more. Full list here.

A military transportation plane taking off the runway and a security personnel looking at the crowd. Photo © Anjul Sahu

Air field attack demo by a small aircraft. Photo © Anjul Sahu

Four F18 Super Hornet display formation. Photo © Anjul Sahu

Team of Roulettes showing the combat split formation. Photo © Anjul Sahu

Since this was the first time I was attending such event, I didn't knew much about it though I read few articles as preparation but still there is some learning that I would like to share.

Do's and Don'ts

Pack up light and carry only important things. Do not carry which you thing that you will not probably not going to use.
Take sun screen (SPF 30+), dark sun glasses (with UV & Polarizer), Cap to protect yourself against the bright sun. Normally you won't find shades around the place where such event is happening
Take a folding chair so that you can relax on a long day. I really missed this thing during the second half of the day.
Take lots of food, water, juice etc to nourish yourself. You will always find food joints on such place but most of the time they are heavily crowded and there will be long line on each of them.
Take everyone in your family just like a picnic. You will enjoy more.
Now coming to photography, take out your biggest lens from the box to really get close to the flying planes. I would say best is 100-400mm range in telephoto and also take a moderate wide angle (24 - 35 mm) for taking the pictures of formation display. For a heavy lens, take a monopod for support.
Keep extra batteries and memory cards as you will be taking lot of pics in burst mode which will fill up very fast.
For normal planes, minimum shutter speed should be 1/500 sec and for super sonic fighters like F18 Super Hornet or F22 Raptor, pick 1/1000 sec or faster. You can break this rule to create awesome looking panning shots of flights moving on the runway.
I used single center focus all the time because it makes the autofocus pretty fast and I can track the subject very quickly.
Reach early to secure a good place near the runway and avoid the clutter in front of you.
If you can't bear the awesome super sonic sound, then don't forget to take the ear buds with you. This is essential for kids.

Overall it was a great experience which makes me think that I should attend such event again. I would like to see Indian aerobatic team Suryakiran performing in future.

Failure

2012-08-24T20:08:00.003+05:30

“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all - in which case, you fail by default.” ~ j k rowling

Before Buying Your First SLR Camera

2012-03-13T13:22:00.001+05:30

If you are planning to purchase DSLR camera then this article is for you. If you are serious about photography then only you should consider it otherwise my advise would be taking a better point and shoot with creative controls (Tv, Av, M modes) and with 10x or more zoom. Often I have seen many people take SLR and they don't shoot because the camera is too big to carry, or they don't want to go beyond the kit lens and hence limiting their shoots. Nowadays, there are good point & shoot cameras that perform very fast and effective.

Few questions that can decide your purchase.

Which Brand? There are many brands available in market, some are them are quite famous since the beginning of photography like Nikon, Canon, Pentax, Olympus, Fuji and few of them are new like Panasonic, Sony etc. I would suggest you to opt either from Nikon or Canon because these companies have been spending lots of money in research and development in the field of camera and lenses and other accessories. Many third party manufacturers like Sigma, Tamron, Zeiss, Zuiko etc also creates product for Nikon or Canon but not for other companies. You will never get short of choices in Nikon or Canon. Both cameras are equally good and there are some pros and cons. This is a famous classical question btw discussed many times over the web. Good photographers will suggest you to go either of them as it doesn't matter much. It is individuals preference to select one brand. Note that you can't mount Nikon's lens on Canon or vice versa. So once you decide your brand, you have to struck to it for a long time because it is a kind of investment and it is very difficult to switch between them as you will be building your kit. Read more from experts here - Ken Rockwell or Photo.net or Digital-Photography-School and there are lot more when you google :-)

Nikon gives you bolder colors and it is quite fast in performance.
Canon gives you more natural and saturated colors, its autofocus system is faster than Nikon usually.
In the low end, Nikon has sturdy build than Canon but as you go higher in the ladder, the difference is negligible.

What type of photographer am I? What would I will be shooting? Depending on subject you should consider your purchase. If you are going to do product photography or advertisement photography or journalism which requires faster camera will bold colors and depth and sturdy build quality then you should pick Nikon. If you are in to Nature or Wildlife photography or Sports or Wedding/Portraits then go for Canon. But I again like to say that both can be deployed to any type of work and it will just work. This divide is just based on the observation of photographers's exif and their work. But it is not a rule.
How much I am willing to spend? Both camera manufactures have good range of cameras in all segments so it should not be a major factor in deciding your pick. Spare some money for lens purchases also and also think of replacing the kit lens with some good lens.
Future plans and upgrades? There are two types of SLRs - full frame (35 mm censor) or Crop (1.5x or 1.6x of 35mm). So basically it is the coverage of your sensor which is going to record image. With same lens, a full frame camera will have more coverage over frame and it will be true focal length. So suppose if you have taken a picture with 50mm lens on full frame, effective focal length is 50 but on crop sensor it will look like a 80mm (50mm x 1.6). Many lenses are only compatible with crop sensor camera and they won't work on full frame. Plan your lens purchase accordingly.
Which lenses should I purchase? You can read more about Canon lenses here, here and Nikon here.

Best combination on full frame camera is 24-70 f2.8 and 70-200 f2.8, it covers almost every situation.

I hope you will focus more on photography than your camera or lens. There is no rule in photography, shoot directly from your heart and enjoy it.

Some great sites that you should visit before your pick.

Wish you good luck and Happy Shooting. Please join me on Facebook.

World Wetlands Conservation Day (Feb 02)

2012-02-05T21:54:00.000+05:30

First of all those who don't know about Wetlands, I would like to quote its formal definition.

"Wetlands are areas where water covers the soil, or is present either at or near the surface of the soil all year or for varying periods of time during the year, including during the growing season. Water saturation largely determines how the soil develops and the types of plant and animal communities living in and on the soil. Wetlands may support both aquatic and terrestrial species. The prolonged presence of water creates conditions that favor the growth of specially adapted plants and promote the development of characteristic wetlands soils."
-- EPA, America's Wetlands: Our Vital Link Between Land and Water

To celebrate and to share awareness about the conservation of Wetlands, The Nature Volunteers group (TNV) organized a photo walk and bird watching camp at Sirpur Tank (is also a Wetland). It is important to save various species of plants, birds, mammals who survives just because of the condition provided by wetlands. Also it helps in maintaining our ground water levels and helps human population to survive.

Sirpur Tank, Indore

Currently most of the wetlands are in danger due to various reasons -
a) Land acquisition for real estate purpose & other monetary benefits,
b) Changing environmental condition,
c) Industrial pollution,
d) Use of plastics, polythene etc.

Each wetland is a home for variety of species and they are sometimes found only in that particular region. So think of loosing hundreds of species from Nature if you loose one of them. Its a very important channel to connect land and water. You can read more information here - http://www.defenders.org/wildlife_and_habitat/habitat/wetlands.php and http://www.wetlands.org/Default.aspx and take steps to protect the wetland near you.

Some birding spots near Indore area (List by Shariq Khan)

Lakes and Wetlands

1. Sirpur Lake, Dhar Road, Indore

2. Kishanpura Lake, Dhar Road, Indore

3. Yeshwant Sagar, Depalpur Road, Indore

4. Bilawali Tank, Khandwa Road, Indore

5. Pipliyapala Regional Park, Erstwhile AB Road Indore

6. Khatipiplya Village Pond and Buranakhedi Village Pond , Kanadia Road  Indore

Forest Plantations and Open land

1. Ralamandal Sanctuary, Near Rau-Dewas Bypass Road

2. Tincha Village and Forest Plantations, Near Simrol, Khandwa Road

3.  Telyakhedi Forest Plantations, Near Kampel

4.  Shivni and Banjari Forest Plantations, Near Double-Chauki, Nemawar Road

5.  Kajligadh Forest Plantations, Near Simrol, Khandwa Road

6.  Residency Garden and Indore Zoo

7.  Pitra Parvat, Indore Depalpur Road

Saleel Tambe - Wildlife Photography

2011-12-24T15:10:00.000+05:30

Yesterday, I attended a seminar "Keyword approach to Wildlife Photography" by Mr. Saleel Tambe who is a famous wildlife photographer, authored various books and had experience of more than 15 years. You can read more about him on his website. The seminar was more of a philosophical aspect of photography. He shared his experience and secrets which is not only specific to nature photography but as for all aspects of it.

The principles he follow is
OMG : C3
Where,
O = Observation
Seeking patterns, observing habits of the subject, knowing more about the subject and keen observation of anything around the subject with patience.

M = Moment and the tiMing
Wait for the moment that add more value to the photograph. Sometimes we just take the photographs which are not dynamic and doesn't show the USP of the subject.

G = Gears and Gadgets (Right gear, not only about camera or lens)
Not only about the camera's, lens etc but other available stuff which can enhance your shot, those stuff which can be helpful on fields to get more closer to subject.

C(1) = Conservation and Ethics
The most important aspect of nature photography is not to disturb the nature around us but the overall goal of photography should help in the conservation of it.

C(2) = Creative Vision
For eg. Instead of just clicking static pictures which doesn't add anything to the picture, try to capture motion , dynamism around the subject which others can't see.

C(3) = Craziness / Composition (i.e. breaking the rules, out-of-the-box thinking)
First follow the rules and then break it.

I like the quote from him - "Your camera should see that thing which our naked eyes can't see."

Thanks to him for being the guiding star & to Indore photography club for arranging this.

Spokn Internet Telephony Review

2011-12-19T11:21:00.000+05:30

Past one week I have been testing the spokn paid service to call International numbers. It is a VOIP telephony service of one of its kind started from India, similar to Skype but way cheaper than it. I am bit disappointed with the quality of call, it is not clear and latency is high. They have application on most of the platforms but not on Android which is unusual though they say it works with any SIP client (I have not been successful anyway).

Note the bug - do not enable call logging or diagnostics (Help -> Diagnostics -> Logs), it will eventually hung the application during the call and you might end up debiting from your account with no reason. I have experienced this on Window 7 32-bit, on the same machine where Skype runs beautifully.

Why would I use it?

For cheap international calls, no hidden fees like skype.
Availability on most of the platforms except Android which could be major disappointment for Android fans but it is also tested to work on iPod.
Lot of other features, one can call to their local land line numbers if there is no computer.

Why wouldn't?

Haven't got the quality like Skype
Some bug (tested on Windows) hung the application and you are billed.
No mute for microphone. This is very important if you are calling from noisy environment.
Not on Android

You can check spokn here

10 Amazing Life Lessons You Can Learn From Albert Einstein

2011-08-04T18:44:00.005+05:30

I received this in a mail from my boss and I found this inspiring.

Albert Einstein has long been considered a genius by the masses. He was a theoretical physicist, philosopher, author, and is perhaps the most influential scientists to ever live. Einstein has made great contributions to the scientific world, including the theory of relativity, the founding of relativistic

cosmology, the prediction of the deflection of light by gravity, the quantum theory of atomic motion in solids, the zero-point energy concept, and the quantum theory of a monatomic gas which predicted Bose–Einstein condensation, to name a few of his scientific contributions.

Einstein received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics “for his services to Theoretical Physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect.” He’s published more than 300 scientific works and over 150 non-scientific works. Einstein is considered the father of modern physics and is probably the most successful scientist there ever was.

10 Amazing Lessons from Albert Einstein:

1) Follow Your Curiosity

“I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.”

What piques your curiosity? I am curious as to what causes one person to succeed while another person fails; this is why I’ve spent years studying success. What are you most curious about? The pursuit of your

curiosity is the secret to your success.

2) Perseverance is Priceless

“It's not that I'm so smart; it's just that I stay with problems longer.”

Through perseverance the turtle reached the ark. Are you willing to persevere until you get to your intended destination? They say the entire value of the postage stamp consist in its ability to stick to

something until it gets there. Be like the postage stamp; finish the race that you’ve started!

3) Focus on the Present

My father always says you cannot ride two horses at the same time. I like to say, you can do anything, but not everything. Learn to be present where you are; give your all to whatever you’re currently doing. Focused energy is power, and it’s the difference between success and failure.

4) The Imagination is Powerful

“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions. Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

Are you using your imagination daily? Einstein said the imagination is more important than knowledge! Your imagination pre-plays your future. Einstein went on to say, “The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge, but imagination.” Are you exercising your “imagination muscles” daily, don’t let something as powerful as your imagination lie dormant.

5) Make Mistakes

“A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.”

Never be afraid of making a mistake. A mistake is not a failure. Mistakes can make you better, smarter and faster, if you utilize them properly.

6) Live in the Moment

“I never think of the future - it comes soon enough.”

The only way to properly address your future is to be as present as possible “in the present.” You cannot “presently” change yesterday or tomorrow, so it’s of supreme importance that you dedicate all of your efforts to “right now.” It’s the only time that matters, it’s the only time there is.

7) Create Value

“Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value."

Don’t waste your time trying to be successful, spend your time creating value. If you’re valuable, then you will attract success. Discover the talents and gifts that you possess, learn how to offer those talents and gifts in a way that most benefits others. Labor to be valuable and success will chase you down.

8) Don’t Expect Different Results

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

You can’t keep doing the same thing every day and expect different results. In other words, you can’t keep doing the same workout routine and expect to look differently. In order for your life to change, you must change, to the degree that you change your actions and your thinking is to the degree that your

life will change.

9) Knowledge Comes From Experience

“Information is not knowledge. The only source of knowledge is experience.”

Knowledge comes from experience. You can discuss a task, but discussion will only give you a philosophical understanding of it; you must experience the task first hand to “know it.” What’s the lesson? Get experience! Don’t spend your time hiding behind speculative information, go out there and do it, and you will have gained priceless knowledge.

10) Learn the Rules and Then Play Better

“You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.”

To put it all in simple terms, there are two things that you must do. The first thing you must do is to learn the rules of the game that you’re playing. It doesn’t sound exciting, but it’s vital. Secondly, you must commit to play the game better than anyone else. If you can do these two things, success will be yours!

The Meaning And Need of Circles in a Social Network - Explained!

2011-07-03T04:01:00.000+05:30

I am very much impressed by the presentation (by Paul). Though it's bit old but still valid. You can relate it with Google+ Circles. Why we need them?

The Real Life Social Network v2

View more documents from Paul Adams

The World Is Changing: From Blogs to Micro-Blogs!

2011-07-03T02:08:00.000+05:30

Most of the bloggers complaint that they are not getting time to update their blogs. That's is true because we are moving very fast in this information age. The flow of information is increased drastically. We need more knowledge per unit of Information not the number of words!! So if you can put the same knowledge in 140 chars instead a full length blog post, It is easy for writer and reader - both.

You would really love to consume small bites of knowledge rather than one big piece that is the reason we have got Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, Google+ etc. With this thought, I advise you to follow me on Twitter/Google+/Tumblr for more frequent updates. I will write here occasionally and whenever thoughts can't be fit inside micro-envelops.

Sensing Heart Beat Rate Through Phone

2011-06-27T14:24:00.000+05:30

Yesterday, when I was browsing in health and fitness section of Android Marketplace I found an application which captures your heart beat rate (HBR) through phone without the use of any external hardware requirement. I find this solution amazing as most of the hardware like ECG and electronic monitors are costly and it is nice to have one more feature in your phone for free. Instant Heart Rate is one such application which captures HBR through the touch of index finger on the camera phone. I was simply amazed by the technology involved and due to its simplicity I was in doubt that it doesn't work for everyone and for all age groups. So as a basic test I tried on few set of people with various age group. It takes 10 second to measure HBR <3. It was almost accurate and it works best with flash (or heat generated by it).

I was also curious to know the science behind how it works!! So in few searches I found this whitepaper at IEEE which talks about the measurement of HBR through optical sensing of blood flow through the index finger. I found it very useful for lots of people especially with cardiac problems so that they can monitor themselves without much expenses and efforts.

Really great to see the smart phones getting more smarter and this is how future computing devices should work.

Wish - I want to see smart phones perceiving/releasing odors also and that I can share it on Facebook or Twitter with my friends.

Financial Planning Before You Turn 30

2011-06-17T22:00:00.000+05:30

I am 25 and I don't have any debt and mostly I don't have much concerns about financial capacity at this stage but yeah soon I might need to do all this more seriously. There is an awesome post by TFB (www.thefinancialblogger.com) on financial planning for youngsters who are near to 30. You must not miss this.
Link: http://www.thefinancialblogger.com/30-financial-moves-before-30/

So after reading this I need more frequent promotions, world tours, I need to spend less seriously (already started planning to have Samsung Galaxy S2 this month and Canon SLR soon in coming few months :-D) . This is also the right time to plan retirement. Early is better.

When are you planning to retire?

Google Voice in India, finally

2011-03-22T12:13:00.001+05:30

India has waited long for Google Voice to get enabled for Indian continent. After its second birthday there are signs of testing being carried for selected accounts in India. From last two weeks, some accounts in India can see 'call phone' bot added to their Google talk list.

Using Google Voice, you will be able to dial to US/Canada for free. You can also add credits in multiples of $10 and then you can call to other part of world in nominal rates. I tried a US number and it was working :-). But why don't they offer similar free calls within India?

Though this service is not officially deployed by Google so sometimes this bot disappears sporadically and comes again (may be because of some kind of testing being done).

Overall it is a good news for many Indians whose friends and family are living in US. Enjoy!

Update: Since few days, I am unable to see the Google Voice bot in my contact list. Not sure what Google is doing with it.

Random Password Generator - The easiest one

2011-03-19T18:12:00.001+05:30

After a long time, I had my hands on Java and came up with a random password generator. This simple tool gives you ability to generate complex password between 5 to 10 character long. Just by scrolling the mouse, you can generate hundreds of password and copy to system clipboard. Try it and let me know your thoughts.

Download (Zip, 150kb)

What is beneath Wordpress.com?

2011-03-13T03:16:00.000+05:30

I was going through Matt (founder of Automattic - the company behind wordpress.com) blog, and found some interesting facts on the infrastructure specification of wordpress.com. It is actually quite amazing figure

We'are having 8,921 CPU cores across 2,475 physical processors, 8,200 gigabytes of memory (RAM). We’ve changed how we’ve done storage, but now that layer includes on its own 1.3 terabytes of RAM, 1.3 petabytes of storage, and 8.9 terabytes of solid state disks. (Plus Amazon S3, which we use as backup to our internal systems.) - Matt said.

That's crazy for running one site but still they are getting DDoS attacks and site is facing issues serving the requests. So what is the next to keep such site running and keeping uptime close to 100%? Can that be catered through cloud computing?

On the similar lines - I recommend http://highscalability.com/ to you, they write about highly scalable architectures and system around the world.

Bangalore (24-30 Jan)

2011-01-27T00:00:00.001+05:30

First of all, Happy Republic Day to every Indian out there. I am currently busy in Bangalore - the silicon valley of India. Came here for the first time & staying at Whitefields. City looks much more advanced, clean & disciplined than other cities I have seen. Though I didn't had chance to explore in detail, hence observation might be skewed. Hopefully, I will be active from next month.

P.S. - Just saw an update on Poorvi's blog that she has been selected as surprise winner for IndiBloggers' Akshay Patra contest. Congratulations to her. Also met my best friends - Akshat & Piyush today and had a good holiday.

2011 Resolutions

2011-01-03T14:09:00.000+05:30

Everyone busy writing their new year resolutions for 2011 and I am not different. Few people don't write because they never keep themselves aligned with what they thought. But still I prefer writing it down so that I can see again and again and keep a mind on it.

Health & Happiness

30-60 minutes of walking everyday in a park
Wake up before 8am everyday except the day you sleep after 3am.
Take meals in reducing quantity that is maximum in morning and minimum in night.
Meet friends every fortnight.

Work

Get Oracle certifications
Don't overwork, take more time for other activities
Dedicate 20% of your time on innovating something new and writing papers

Passion

Give dedicated time for photography every weekend
Join photography club and attend meet ups
Invest in equipments seriously
Increase number of posts on this blog

Education

Search and enroll for the right master program

That's it for my resolutions, adding more will not make it SMART so just want to keep them attainable.

Happy New Year!

Cheers,
Anjul

Excellent Resource for Microsoft Excel Tricks : chandoo.org

2010-12-05T02:28:00.000+05:30

Here is an excellent resource to learn Microsoft Excel and to efficiently use it. Thanks to Chandoo - the founder of blog chandoo.org/wp "become awesome in excel".

Ban on Wikileaks: Death of Openness and Transparency

2010-12-05T01:30:00.003+05:30

Wikileaks which doesn't need an introduction which has disturbed the sleep of big brother and various other governments whose confidential documents are published by this non-profit organization. This has already boiled up government who want to hide their wrong acts. Recently Wikileaks was forced to be removed from their web host, Amazon, DNS service provider, ~~EasyDNS~~ EveryDNS [Corrected after EasyDNS send notification and update] and the payment gateway Paypal after getting pressure from US govt. Now it is fighting for its survival.

The whole act led to very important questions i.e. Will the Internet remain free, open and transparent platform? Can any government blocks our freedom of expressions? Don't we owe the right to express a truth against the powerful? Can services like Amazon or Paypal differentiate their clients due to external pressure?

Govt has a responsibility to stop those who are against country, or who creates potential threat on the basis of religion, caste, color or sex. But who will take care of governments, Media? Yeah they should be. It's their duty and this is what I think Wikileaks is doing.

Not sure, for how much time Wikileaks will survive, but it has raised a question against a closed system which should be forwarded and democratically solved.

It would be nice to hear your comments. Please share your thoughts on this.

Updates

Correction: It was EveryDNS (and not EasyDNS) service which was involved in Wikileaks case, thanks Mark.
Twitter might also take down Wikileaks account but not yet confirmed, reported Techcrunch.

Latency Issues while Browsing - Resolution

2010-11-13T04:01:00.001+05:30

Everyone loves speed and when browsing if page takes lot of time to respond, getting irritated is natural. Today after browsing for more than 13 hours continuously I see suddenly that my ping to the server was taking long time and it was quite variable. There is one fact that many of us doesn't know that response time from any website is very critical factor in measuring speed & not always the bandwidth is the prime factor.

Following are some troubleshooting steps you can try out -

Ping to your IP gateway - Check for the response time from the server. If it is fluctuating & taking upto 1 or 2 seconds then there can be issues with routers, your network card or even with the gateway itself.

Flush the DNS & renew your IP settings - As shown below, use ipconfig /flushdns command to clear the DNS cache. If the problem persist, restart your network adapter or router (Control Panel > Network & Sharing Center > Network Connections) by disabling & enabling the device.

If the response time to Gateway looks okay then try to use services like PingTest.net to see the response time to server or try ping -t www.google.com . You should look for consistent response time to conclude the problem is no more.

DNS Tweaking

Another service which can improve your DNS query performance is openDNS which was discussed earlier. More details on opendns here.

Other Sensible Options You Can Try!

Use ad blocker plugins like adThwart in the browser to stop loading unwanted, byte crunching data & animations.
Use of caching softwares like squid speed up your browsing capacity by efficiently using bandwidth.
Cleaning your browser history. Recommended : Store only 1 day of history in your browser.
Stop using Google toolbars or similar toolbars which consumes bandwidth in background.
Apply the latest updates provided by software vendors.

If nothing work out, call your ISP to check modem settings and other network equipment settings.

Facebook Titan - Full Featured Mail Server

2010-11-12T21:36:00.000+05:30

All who loves news between Facebook & Google,

Here is another competitive feature coming to Facebook to drain Google's Gmail. The project code name is Titan as per TechCrunch which was first came in news in Feb 2010. This will be full featured mail service just like Gmail which will keep you struck to Facebook .

Recent Gmail issues related to slowdown will also encourage users to switch to Titan.

So lets wait until Monday to hear something new, may be I will get anjuls@facebook.com soon. :-)

The First Wireless Charging Prototype

2010-09-14T12:11:00.000+05:30

Fujitsu Research has broken the ice and published the first working prototype demonstrating wireless charging for this cable-tangled world. This technology has a great potential for our ubiquitous devices like mobiles, tablets, ipods etc.

Source: http://www.fujitsu.com/global/news/pr/archives/month/2010/20100913-02.html

Bypassing Authentication in Cable Internet System

2010-08-22T11:57:00.002+05:30

I have been using Internet through cable since many years. Sometimes I feel very bad about the network speed, access control by ISP and other limitations though there are various advantages. Few of them are using peer computers contents which are open, sharing content with friends assuming they are on same network.
As popular quote says, need is the mother of invention. I always try to find loop holes & tricks to increase the performance of browsing. And in this journey I learnt about my network, its component, structure and how to bypass systems which are there to put us in a jail.

These service providers gets a dedicated link from a parent service provider which is usually having a Internet backbone at wider level. And they uses subscription and billing application to design plans and users/machines/bandwidth management.

Common Network Architecture

There are various subnets named subnet A, B etc. Subnet is logical grouping of network components for better manageability and control. Each subnet has a server installed which is also your IP Gateway.

This server is responsible for user authentication and bandwidth management using a web based software.

Each subnet is then connected to its parent server from where the Internet bandwidth is allocated. To improve the performance of browsing and optimize bandwidth, all the servers are equipped with Squid in transparent configuration for content caching.

Now Suppose, the parent server has a link speed of 12 mbps which is further divided for each subnet. Let's consider subnet A gets a total of 3 mbps shared. Thus total usage of all the workstations in this subnet has to share this 3 mbps and overall speed will be very cumbersome.

Hack

You have to find a way in your network such that you bypass the authentication system of your local subnet and configure your system to use proxy of the parent server of your network (marked with static IP). Usually the proxy is configured on port 80 to provide transparency.

Now question arises how to bypass the security mechanism. Now this could be a loophole in the network or the network user is a leased line user with no binding with a particular machine.

Login to your subnet server using ssh or telnet. Usually the password of these consoles are not changed. It will be by default admin/admin.
Add yourself to leased line user through the console or use any already configured IP
Use the proxy (using IE options or Individual software settings): set IP as that of parent server and port 80
The key is to use all the bandwidth that is going to be distributed through out the subnets.

You may wish to use nmap to discover network or wireshark to analyze your network and to identify plain text passwords flowing between workstation & subnet server or any other opensource software you wish which can do the same thing.

Note - Speed is a function of squid performance, its caching efficiency and the overall link speed & load on network. So sometimes you will find it very fast and sometimes very normal just like you are going through official way ;-).

P.S. This is not targeted to any company and the above said configuration is an ordinary configuration used by service providers. This may not be applied in all cases. If you have any questions or facing difficulties in understanding the above pointers or just want to add some more things, please feel free to comment.

Search Books Faster (in India)

2010-07-23T22:16:00.002+05:30

Animesh Jain, an entrepreneur and avid programmer who has already running a cool photo shop itasveer.com has introduced a search engine which is aggregating result from various online book sellers.
Currently he is targeting four book stores viz. Flipkart, Infibeam, Pustak and IndiaPlaza. I like his idea because of following reasons -
1. Minimalist UI - just like how Google started out on. One logo, text field and Hit! button. so eye-pleasing.
2. Concurrent & Independent Search - even if one of the vendor is unable to provide result in the given time, it will gracefully hide the result.
3. Speed - I tested out the speed for few books and result were satisfactory for current scale. It needs to be validated at higher scale.
4. Best Deal - It also show the best deal in the result to quickly find out the eye-candy.

As per my discussion with him, he is planning to roll out some UI changes this weekend. And also his next target is to include other vendors increasing more options for consumer. I hope this is the unique application available in this category especially when we see Indian market.

Update: 13/11/2010 - UI has been changed. Read Here.

sine wave of recession

2010-07-14T00:35:00.002+05:30

From the above graph it is very much clear that all companies follow the same pattern if analyzed for longer durations (here I have taken 5 yrs in account). If you see during late 2007 the recession was first observed when it started hitting grounds and then in 2008 Q4, everything was looking unstable during that time however Accenture and IBM were able to handle the dip and remained sound at less margins.
This was the time when I started my career. I saw some tricky game plays by HR when they changed their policies to withstand market condition. Since then there is a growth trend which indicates better job opportunities, more projects and no waste of time simply.

Overall perspective to last 5y market of these companies suggest that the amplitude of Indian MNCs are higher during the sine wave of recession while the global MNC were able to keep it low.

P.S. - This is my personal perspective to market trend and it doesn't show any relationship with any company discussed here.