Photo by Anonymous

LinuxGet Cerfified.

Linux is an OS that conjures up images of computer nerds hunched over their keyboards in the quest for digital divinity while following the doctrine of open source and free software for all. Such evangelistic ideals and hallowed images have often paved the way for computer engineering students to follow certifications such as the Microsoft series or even the vendor-specific RedHat certifications amongst those inclined towards certifying their skills in Linux.

What options does one have?

To be rather precise, the answer is five — CompTIA (Computing Technology Industry Association), LPI (Linux Professional Institute), SAIR Linux, Novell Corporation and Red Hat. If you are wondering whether you should go with “Eeenie Meenie Mynie Mo” to chart your career path, allow me to elaborate and educate you on your options.

The two roads

CompTIA, SAIR and LPI are professional/industry vendor-neutral certification programs. What that means is they are not tied to any particular Linux distribution unlike Red Hat which focuses entirely on its own distribution i.e. it is vendor specific. Similarly Novell’s Linux certification programs focus on the SUSE distribution.

Eenie Meenie Mynie Mo

Yes, sometimes believing in serendipity is a tempting choice but for those of you driven by logic and reason, read on. For those fairly new to Linux, try the LPIC Level 1 or CompTIA Linux+. Developing strong basics will establish your credentials and form the basis for expanding your resume. These exams are also more affordable than Red Hat certifications and are available through testing networks like Prometric and PearsonVue. Novell Linux certifications are only through Novell Partners. SAIR has been integrated into the Linux Professional Group and is keeping a low profile since. For advanced administrators, Red Hat’s RHCE requires passing a hands-on exam and challenges your technical skills. Though it is vendor specific most of it is true of many other flavors of Linux.

How long will it last?

There is no expiry date or continuing certification requirements for most certifications but the vendor specific ones are also version specific. However upgrading for new versions is not required to retain certification. As for the question of pursuing cutting edge technologies. The basics of Linux will continue to remain on the bleeding edge of technology what with embedded technologies adopting the Linux OS to power their appliances. Many animation studios like Dreamworks run their entire pipeline on Linux.

Do I have to go back to school?

Whether you are an experienced Linux Admin or a newbie gingerly stepping forth into the world of Linux, you will need to prepare. We all often become experts in whatever we use everyday, but the scope of subjects covered in the exam may encompass more than you know. Just reviewing the contents of the syllabus may do it for some but others will need weeks of even months of preparation. Going back to the classroom will provide a systematic and regular disciplined approach to the examination. They also provide hands-on practice and prove to be well worth the expense. Your instructor will also clarify any doubts you may have. However self-study books and on-line resources can do the trick if you are determined and self-disciplined enough to chart your own course through the deep waters.

So what are you waiting for? All the links you need to access and more at your fingertips:

• LPI Certification Self-Study Guide
• Certification Crazy
• O’Reilly Linux Resource
• Redhat Certification
• SAIR Linux
• CompTIA Linux+
• Novell Certified Linux Professional

Guest post by Ritesh Reddy. He is a dilettante who enjoys writing, ranting and ruminating about all and sundry. His natural habitat is in front of a screen that has him spell bound. He runs amok amongst various social networks and escapes from it all by scouring the beach for signs of life.

Photo by Zeusandhera

Windows 7What’s in?

If you’re an avid lover of Windows Live Writer and SnagIt – the two must have blogging tools to get things done, you got to be running a copy of Windows on your machine. I have always had a similar setup, as in a dual boot with Linux. There is nothing I’ve come across, that beats these tools in what they’re capable of.

If reviews are to be believed, Windows 7 has given its users a never before experience. For close to seven years, Windows XP has been an ardent resource to millions of users across the globe with around 71% users as compared to its successor, Windows Vista with a 19% share before Windows 7 was launched. This pretty much reveals the lack of interest that Windows Vista was able to create among the users in its short span of little below 3 yrs. Microsoft then came up with its latest offering in the Operating systems bandwagon – Microsoft Windows 7.

Charlie Miller, an award winning security researcher said,

“Hacking into Windows 7 is a much more of a daunting task than hacking into Apple’s recently launched Snow Leopard.”

Windows 7 predominantly focuses on overcoming the flaws of its predecessor (Vista), and is widely perceived as a much needed upgrade to a resource hogging and sluggish Vista. After using it for more than a month, I decided to come up with its Good, Bad and Ugly:

• Design – The most obvious and noticeable change in Windows 7 is its new shiny and smart design. The taskbar is transparent and loses it Quick launch feature only to be replaced by a new feature which allows the user to pin applications to the taskbar. The taskbar also brings in a new feature known as the Jump lists, which allows user, an easy access to documents and commands that can run for a particular application. The show desktop icon on the far right does the obvious, but also hovering on this button makes all the open windows transparent allowing a quick overview, a feature also known as the Aero Peek.
• Install and Boot times – The installation time is not drastically reduced from that of Vista, but Windows 7 sure is lightweight and fast and can deliver on both 32-bit and 64-bit systems. The startup and shutdown time is definite improvement, making it a smooth & stable contender.
• Security – The Windows Security Center, now known as Windows Action Center in Windows 7 integrates both the system security and maintenance. Microsoft has worked on the User Account Control security feature to reduce the unnecessary security pop-ups that kept irritating a user in Vista.

Other notable features include improved touch and handwriting recognition, windows media center with improved extender functionality for game consoles and a neat virtual hard drive support. I typically liked omission of a certain features and services like – Windows Mail, Movie Maker and Live Photo Gallery.

One major qualm with Windows 7 is the hit that it takes in terms of performance in most aspects in comparison to the veteran Windows XP or Windows Vista.

A rather disappointing part about Windows 7 could be the fact that users currently running Windows XP, have to go for a clean install if they need to move on to Windows 7. That calls for a denial but many of them. The other fact is the price for upgrading from Vista to Windows 7. How many people who bought a Vista machine 6 months ago would be willing to spend another 119$ to upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium?

Microsoft’s efforts in plugging the holes created by Vista seems to have taken the right direction so far in the form of Windows 7.

How do you find your operating system – Good, bad or Ugly?

Written by Praval Singh, co-founder, blogger and social media evangelist at Media Redefined. Follow @Praval

Image from Apple

iPadApple’s “most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price.”

The wait is over. Steve did his job! After the much hyped event, we have a new product from Apple. It’s an iPad. Yesterday, we wrote about what to expect off the event. Steve Jobs made many souls happy!

Last night, we saw people storming onto social networks — Twitter, Facebook, Blogs and everything else they could to publish even the minuscule detail of the device as it got revealed by Apple. Many blogs were covering the event live via pictures and text updates. It was fascinating to see few blogs did a LIVE coverage without having a live presence at the event! All this indicates how social the brand Apple gets to be, despite their silence on the product until it was finally launched, yesterday.

Topics like Apple and iPad started to trend within minutes of the launch. Few websites had to face downtime as well. Thanks to the enormous load that the social network addicts passed on to them!

Just after the product was launched, we could see the bloggers with comments like – “No multi-tasking”, Does not have a physical keyboard”, “Expensive” and more. Something that was evident when Apple launched iPhone in 2007. With time and roll-out of this device, these bloggers would come up with posts like -”Why opt for 16 GB iPad than 64 GB iPod touch?”.

Apple is by now, used to receive appraisals and criticisms alike. Sooner or later, the fan club shall only grow.

iPad: The features

• Half inch thin, slimmest Tablet
• 1.5 pound in weight (approx 600 gm)
• 9.7 inch diagonal screen IPS type
• Capacitive multi-touch
• 1024×768 display resolution
• 16 to 64 GB Flash storage
• 1 Ghz A4 Processor
• WiFi 802.11n Wifi
• Built-in Speaker
• Built-in Microphone
• Accelerometer
• Compass
• 10 Hours Battery with One Month Standby
• iPad 3G models are unlocked
• WiFi models shall be available in 60 days worldwide
• Comes with Wifi and / or 3G
• Sync with iTunes
• New GSM micro SIM for 3G data transmission

Price

• 16GB: $499 (Wi-Fi) & $629 (Wi-fi+3G)
• 32GB: $599 (Wi-Fi) & $729 (Wi-fi+3G)
• 64GB: $699 (Wi-Fi) & $829 (Wi-fi+3G)

Verdict

iPad is undoubtedly a masterpiece when it comes to read information, watch videos and use apps. That is what it is pretty much for. Expecting everything in sync with this slick device would just be a little injustice. However, with features like addition of a keyboard dock and introduction of multi-touch word processor, spreadsheet and presentation apps for $10 each would justify some needs.

It’s an iPad and not a netbook or a laptop, so let’s not expect it to do which it ain’t build for. It would be a great experience for Kindle lovers to try out this new device. We would be equally anxious to see Amazon’s take on this.

For now, it shall be to early to dig into the good-bad-ugly of an iPad. We shall wait to see one, rather use it. There is more to expect from iBookstore and iWork. Let’s not forget the App Store and the community of iPhone app developers. Let the applications developed specifically for iPad arrive. There is more to come in the ecosystem, for sure.

How many of you have already planned to buy an iPad?

Written by Praval Singh, co-founder, blogger and social media evangelist at Media Redefined. Follow @Praval

Photo from Notebooks Blog

Apple’s latest CreationThe wait is almost over.

Within a couple of hours from now, the curtain shall finally get raised over the rumors, discussions and debates which have lasted for a couple of weeks. The latest technology news that is coming out from Apple is shrouded with mysteries and confusions adding onto the eagerness of consumers, technology experts, media and press. Today, Apple fans might hear something that’s kept all of us anxious for past few weeks. Ones who were earlier saying that there is no fire to this smoke are now coming out with a viewpoint that something is there for sure.

There are so many things that people want to know about this much anticipated technology and once they are asked about it they come out with a complete lava full of questions. There are lot many things that are being used to filter the reality and rumor; some of these prominent ones are indirectly giving fire to this, if incase this all comes out as a rumor. The very first thing that has grabbed the attention is the name. With the name given to this Applet tablet as Applet iSlate and that Apple has presumably bought the domain name iSlate.com. According to the information that has been debated repeatedly on the web, the software that would be used on the tablet is called iGuide.

As the software used iGuide is a trademark name for these books, newsletters, magazines and journals, it is being said that this tablet is at least going to have an e-book Reader. If predictions are to be believed, this tablet shall have a virtual keyboard. Rumors are being spread that a special type of virtual keyboard is going to be used that will contain a mouse and a multi finger gesture interpreter. A lot of technologists say that irrespective of the technology it would come embedded with; its release would be a great experience to watch.

A famous analyst, Shaw Wu earlier said that it would be mix of an iPhone and Mac. Shaw said,

“It is not intended to replace a Mac but to be somewhat of a ’super’ iPod touch where video, gaming, web browsing, e-books, and the ability to run multiple apps, would be enhanced with the much larger screen”.

Apart from the tablet, there might be something in there for the iPhone lovers as well. We expect to hear about the features of iPhone OS 4.0 at the event. That somehow adds to the curiosity and excitement that has started to build across social networks, already.

So if, you’re already eager and excited to see what is Apple coming up with, watch it out tonight, 23:30 hours Indian Standard Time.

Written by Praval Singh, co-founder, blogger and social media evangelist at Media Redefined. Follow @Praval

With the end of Culture Unplugged’s film festival, Humanity Explored, they’re already on another one “Spirit Enlightened” — an Online Film Festival, exploring the consciousness, spiritual, humane, political, unplugged and shared by artists and evolutionaries.

Culture Unplugged launches “Spirit Enlightened” with over 400 documentaries and short films from 130 countries worldwide. The festival aspires to trace the spirit that has led the humanity through centuries and civilizations. The festival hopes to explore with you, ‘That’ which envelops to infuse and evolve the individual as well as collective being, expands our vision of time as well as place, enlivens our hearts, and enlightens our species to transcend the present state of being for the mystical new — the next state of supramental self. The festival hopes to spread and feel the divine/enlightened spirit in the moment of its performance, in the midst of humanity now and forever, through film-media.

Humanity Explored

The previous festival — Humanity Explored — drew over 3.2 million viewers from 220 countries and 14,500 cities viewed over 400 films, and have applauded the documentary and short film works of the diverse film-makers that address issues such as human rights, social development, war and conflict and many other social issues. The audience has rewarded some films among all participating in this festival.

The Winning Films Are:

• PEOPLE’S CHOICE (Most Viewed): Prayers Answered by Galek Palsang, United States
• POPULAR (Runner Up): Renita Renita by Tonny Trimarsanto, Indonesia
• VIRAL (Most Shared/Linked): Dying Symphony by Rana Akmal, Pakistan
• UNDISCOVERED (Must View): Think Peace – Portrait of a 21st Century Movement by Corey Ogilvie, Canada
• FILM-MAKER’S CHOICE (Best ART): Hummingbird by Holly Mosher, United States

Culture Unplugged

Culture Unplugged aspires to bring film-makers, content producers, writers, professionals from social/scientific arena and world citizens to a single platform to connect, communicate and collaborate in meaningful ways. Its aim is to cater to the innate quest of its audience in seeking cultural understanding and to transform and evolve the social sensibilities. It aspires to spawn awareness, expand the vision of the future and promote the collective contemplation and action over contemporary global/local challenges.

Culture Unplugged – by and for global community of conscious storytellers, culture explorers and world citizens, reflects on issues and life experiences in the contemporary world. We are a new media studio focused on promoting socially and spiritually sensitive stories/films that do not merely express but pulsate to energize, enchant, enlighten, engage and embrace the humanity in us all.

Culture Unplugged online venues cater to contemporary audiences plugged into global-net, who are world cinema-lovers with conscious sensibilities and enlightened curiosity to learn/understand foreign cultures, societies and our collective future.

Illustration from OnStartups

Google Chrome OSOne size fits all?

While Microsoft continues to dominate the operating system market, Google has a high heel with the search engine. There have been several notes where Microsoft and Google are not being mentioned in the same breath. Much has to do with the on going battle between the two in different walks of technology such as search engines, web browsers and the biggest of all the Operating Systems.

It’s no secret that Microsoft has dominated the Operating scene for decades now, and it seems like everyone wants to have a bite of the Operating Systems pie. Google foray into this Operating systems world is through the Google Chrome OS.

After a year of the release of Google Chrome, the web browser which has received mixed reactions from users, Google intends to bring up an operating system for the users living on the web. Computer users today have carried a large aspect of their work onto the web and extensively deal with various web applications. Google intends on revolutionizing the world of Operating Systems with their vision of a lightweight suite of Operating system working exclusively on the web – Google Chrome OS.

Google always pictured Chrome as a cut above the rest of the web browsers in the market with its simple user interface and its ability to run web applications optimized. It also saw a potential extension from just being a web browser. In a way, Google Chrome OS is an extension of the Chrome browser project. Few features that leverage Google’s idea of a web based Operating system and hence a hype include,

• Architecture: Google being an ardent supporter of Open Source has the basic architecture of Chrome OS is structured around the Linux kernel which reignites the tussle between old foes (Microsoft and Linux).
• Scope of Usage: Chrome OS is designed to run on both ARM and x86-based chips. Chrome OS scores over Microsoft in this aspect as Windows is not designed to run on ARM based chips. What looks to be initially targeted for netbooks usage, Chrome OS is designed for instant web access with minimal user interface to avoid any hindrance caused to the instant booting.
• Web applications: Some news for the developers to cheer about – With the Chrome OS, web applications may be developed using any web technology and they can not only be run on the Chrome OS but across all standard browsers on Mac, Windows etc.
• Security: Chrome OS predominantly being aimed at being an Operating system for the web, security features needs a special looking into. The security architecture of Chrome OS is completely redesigned, just as it was for the Chrome browser in order to provide the users a virus and malware free environment to work on.

There is no denying the fact that Chrome OS has been developed with a very bold futuristic vision and promises to deliver, but there are potential short comings too like the fact that it is only netbook focused, which certainly is expecting a major shift in the netbook markets, even though Google could potentially do the needful. Also one needs to wait quite a long period of time before they could lay their hands on one of Chrome OS powered netbooks as it has been set for unveiling somewhere in the middle of 2010.

Written by Praval Singh, co-founder, blogger and social media evangelist at Media Redefined. Follow @Praval

Photo by Anonymous

ShellCommunicate to the Machine.

Almost everyone who switches on a computer today expects to see a tiny button at the bottom left of the screen that says ‘Start’. Apologies to Mac users and Linux aficionados of the Gnome and KDE camps, but the truth remains that majority of computer users are still Windows users. Let’s get back to the basics and get shell shocked!

A shell is an interface for the user to communicate with the machine. Wikipedia says the name shell originates from shells being an outer layer of interface between the user and the innards of the operating system (the kernel). Let’s explore some CLI OS shells. Linux offers many choices for shells.

Discounting the fact that there are as many if not more flavors of Linux, here’s a short list:

1. bash: The GNU Bourne Again Shell (bash) is based on the earlier Bourne shell for Unix. It is the default shell for user accounts in Linux as well as on Mac OS X.
2. bsh: The Bourne shell upon which bash is based also goes by the name bsh. Not often used in Linux, the bsh command is usually symbolically linked to bash.
3. csh: The original C shell is rarely used on Linux, however for most csh users, Linux offers a fine substitute in tcsh.
4. tcsh: The earlier C shell (csh) serves as the basis for this shell. Not a default shell for most distros out there, it is operationally different from bash especially while assigning environment variables.
5. ksh: Now take the best of the Bourne shell and the C shell and take it a step further and voila! you have the Korn shell (ksh) which has its own dedicated fan base amongst Linux users.
6. zsh: The Z shell (zsh) like the alphabet signifies, evolves further incorporating features from older  shells and developing from there.

In Linux, bash is default. Other OSs use csh or tcsh as the default, so use your keyboard for more than just chatting and filling online forms and explore. Shells need not be limited to OS interface as I have just explained but also for programming languages. There are shells for Java, Perl, PHP or even Ruby. Also I would be limiting the definition of a shell if I said it’s all about the command line.

GUI shells abound for Windows as well as the X Window System. Even Windows Recovery Console is a shell, albeit a CLI. Want to have fun with shells ASAP? Fire up your browser and go to goosh.org to test-drive Google Shell or goosh, an open source browser based command line shell that is actually a front end for Google search. Imagine typing out commands, keywords and search strings to search. Shell shocked?

Guest post by Ritesh Reddy. He is a dilettante who enjoys writing, ranting and ruminating about all and sundry. His natural habitat is in front of a screen that has him spell bound. He runs amok amongst various social networks and escapes from it all by scouring the beach for signs of life.

Photo from Apple

Apple iPhoneHow about a Flash game?

Yesterday, while the world saw the launch of Nexus One, the perception that Apple’s iPhone is one of the most sought for and a part of the Wishlist for a lot of gadget lovers, did not change for many.

Since its inception, the iPhone has always found ways to impress users around the globe, be it through its exquisite touch screen experience or the simple fact that it graced the stables of Apple. Although iPhone stands out as the mother of all smart-phones with suave looks and flashy functionalities, users always had this qualm that it did not support the very essential Adobe Flash.

Flash player, more often than not plays a substantial role in a lot of websites, it being one of the most preferred platform to deploy animations, advertisements, games and other apps. However, Apple banned Flash player from being used in the iPhone citing performance as an issue and blocks any kind of runtime code to execute on the iPhone according to its SDK license terms.

This brings us to the fact as to what has changed now. Apple has finally given in to the relentless pursuit by Adobe and all it world wide users by allowing developers to build flash iPhone apps using the new Flash Professional CS5. This has seen the addition of a few new iPhone apps such as Just Letters, Finger Paint, Chroma Circuit, and many more into the Apple store developed using a private beta version of Flash Professional CS5. 

Flash Professional CS5

• Native apps: Although Apple has given the green signal for the development of flash apps for iPhone, it still restricts the use of an interpreter which is very much essential for loading the Shockwave Flash [SWF] files. For this very reason CS5 houses a Low Level Virtual Machine [LLVM] compiler to understand ActionScript 3 which in turn generates a native ARM assembly code which is run as a native iPhone app and does not include any runtime interpreted code.
• Ease of Use: Although Xcode, Apple’s premier development environment offers a powerful platform for creating interactive contents, it is very complex in nature whereas Flash is a very easier and widely accepted platform for doing the same. Along with this CS5 also allows Flash developers to export files across various platforms with ease definitely adds to the features bandwagon.

Having said all this Adobe had to shed some features such as Embedded HTML content, Pixel Bender, to name few, from flash due to the fact that Apple did not provide access to most of it public API’s and also because of the amount of work involved in building a platform adhering to all the constraints specified in the SDK license terms.

Concerns

• Performance: Probably the biggest concern of the Flash apps on iPhone would be its performance. Even though these are early days it is necessary foresee issues that may crop up with regards to caching, distorted animations or even the footprint of the apps that are being developed.
• Support for iPhone features: The apps that maybe developed using Flash would not support some of the iPhone features such as Camera, Maps, Contacts, Photos in the File System and a few others which adds to the downsides along with the fact that there is no room to accommodate a webkit to embed any kind of web content into the apps.

Also this comes in the backdrop of a survey conducted by Society of Digital Agencies [SoDA] regarding the most sought after skill set in Digital Marketing, and Flash and ActionScript skills take the honors as the most in demand skill set for this market as opposed to other some big players such as iPhone SDK, AJAX, ASP.net and many more.

The Apple Store has served as a huge money making portal for developers who can earn hundreds of dollars independently by getting their apps on to the Store. Flash developers were never bestowed with such opportunities as a result of a limited market for Flash apps. Nevertheless this surely comes as great news to all the Flash developers looking for new avenues to exercise their skills and add to the huge portfolio of apps that reside on Apple Store and make some bucks for themselves.

It is clear by now that these workarounds by Adobe and relented approval by Apple are leading to something big. Surely Adobe wants to improve its hold on the Web world and Apple definitely wants to be the next big name in every market technology has to offer. Having said that this is clearly not how Adobe had planned on getting access to the Web content on Apple iPhone’s mobile browser Safari. Apple still wouldn’t allow flash content to run on the iPhone citing sluggish performance as the reason, although Adobe have staked a claim that Flash 10.1 is a slick performer which will fully support Apple iPhone’s competitors in the smart-phones arena.

Written by Praval Singh, co-founder, blogger and social media evangelist at Media Redefined. Follow @Praval

Image from Adobe

InDesignThe foundation for dynamic publishing — in both print and digital media.

Pondering over a topic for an article on Adobe, I found myself rejecting ideas one after another only to be left with none! Now it’s not that Adobe has no arrows left in its quiver for me to play with, truth be told I’m gonna write about one particular arrow that is quite under utilized and almost unknown in Indian print circles. Yes, I’m talking about InDesign; Adobe’s publishing software that claims to break the barriers between online and offline publishing.

The fact that Adobe has created a cross-over product of sorts offering everything from newspaper and book publishing for the presses to interactive flash magazines and e-books for the web. Now in India, everyone and their dog uses CorelDraw to create everything from business cards to hoardings and all other sizes in between. So what then warrants the use of a lone wolf like InDesign in a country of 1.2 billion. Okay, I know the exact number of computer users is way less but you get the drift. I’ll outline the salient features that will have you all reconsidering your choice of design software next time you are out there creating outstanding productions.

My discovery of this brilliant program began when I started chalking out my first book production project. As I was already familiar with CorelDraw, I didn’t think beyond but being an open-minded person, I gave InDesign a fair shot.  Not only did I enjoy the test-drive but I decided to drive her all the way to town. Considering the making of a book in InDesign, I start by creating a long document that allows me to create individual chapter files which can then be organized into a “book”.

So the book is merely a file that links to multiple InDesign documents. Which makes life so much easier than juggling a 400 page document. Now that we have a book, let’s populate it with chapters, shall we?

To do that I start by defining a template to ensure all the pages of my book look consistently the same. So essentially by creating a template, I ensure that the settings for my styles, layouts, images/graphics and content is uniformly defined and centrally located. To list it simply, I create a template by setting up styles for characters & paragraphs and headers & footers in your master page.

Now that I have a spanking new InDesign document, I will proceed to import the text I scribbled down in Microsoft Word. Using Word’s built-in default styles, I’ve set up similar sounding styles in InDesign so I can then import styles automatically. Magic isn’t it? When it comes to adding text, you would want it to flow i.e adding as many new pages as it takes to flow in all your text. InDesign allows you do just that. Now I proceed to load my chapters in the book document. I can now sort out the page numbering for individual sections like the Table of Contents apart from the chapters. The advantage of using the book project allows me to make certain changes to the styles of one chapter and then have it synced similarly to all other chapters in the book.

Now that I have all my chapters down pat, my book needs a ToC or Table of Contents to guide people through the encyclopedia I have just created. This is as simple as adding a page and using the built-in tool to add the paragraph styles that I choose to include such as Heading 1, 2, 3, etc. You then format it to your taste and voila! your new book has a roadmap to guide your readers.

InDesign also allows you to add topics directly in the Index palette . When you add an entry, InDesign by default creates a topic. Also if you are creating a series of similar books, topics can be imported from another file. Keyboard shortcuts can be used to add topics to the index while you are going through the book too. Support for both nested as well as run-in indexes is provided. InDesign also makes it easy to troubleshoot problem entries and regenerate the index. If you think that you are done, think again. Yes, the index is the last thing in a book, but I like saving the cover for the last.

So here it is. The face of your book. For this you can use a template provided by your publisher or create one to your own specifications. Either use an online spine generator to calculate spine width or again call your publisher for precise measurements.  Now you can wrap up your project because Adobe has turned the idea of a pre-flight on its head. Traditionally a process that is kicked in gear at the fag end of a design process, pre-flight now goes live with InDesign continuously alerting you to potential production problems in real time allow for trouble-shooting on the go directly during production. So that wraps up our project.

So especially for all Mac users who have been ignored by Corel for years now, InDesign is the way to go. All you die-hard Corel users, give it a test-drive. You may be surprised by the results.

Guest post by Ritesh Reddy. He is a dilettante who enjoys writing, ranting and ruminating about all and sundry. His natural habitat is in front of a screen that has him spell bound. He runs amok amongst various social networks and escapes from it all by scouring the beach for signs of life.

Photo by SOCIALisBETTER

ResumeLet’s do it the other way.

Many people have written enumerable articles on ‘Resume writing tips and tricks’ and the internet is abundant with a plethora of resources on how you can land a job with a sparkling brand new resume. So, I won’t be emphasizing on the methods and ways to fool recruiters and your prospective employers with spiced-up resumes but would rather try to address some concerns we faced recently while trying to recruit new interns.

Recently, we decided to try out interns and were even prepared to train them and groom them. We were mentally prepared that the new interns will have zero industry knowledge and have lowered our expectation denominator to sub-zero. Even so, we’re yet to be tickled, leave alone getting excited.

Today, I’m laying some basic bare-bone hints on how to have a simple, honest and to-the-point content for your Resume. I’m quoting lots of excerpts from a colleague, b.ghose who wrote a nice message to the subscribers of Techstart.in mailing list.

The resume is the most important means of attracting a prospective employer. It can literally make or break your career. Hiring is a very boring, tiring and unscientific job. The aim of the applicant should be to help the hiring manager in every way possible by creating a nice, legible and articulate resume.

Cover Letter
Specially for first timers, freshers and for those who need to prove to the employee that they’re something, a nice covering letter serve a long way in garnering interest to your resume. Talk a little about what you know about the employer and why you are interested in working in that company. Cite relevant experience, if any. Show that you are passionate about what you do and the products the employer makes. Don’t just demand a job; prove your worth.

Clean, clear and crisp format
If you cannot do it yourself or are too lazy to learn the basic formatting of Microsoft Word (OpenOffice or otherwise), please get a professional do it for you. Pay for it, if you have to and get copies. Bad formatting shows that you’re not particular about the details of your work. There are plenty of resources on-line where one can find sample resume formats. For instance, Emurse provides an easy to use interface for creating resumes. Use that to create and manage your resume.

Spelling
Almost all post world-war text-editors have Spelling and Grammar checks, please use it.

Do Something
Focus on Industry experience, specially the one you’re applying for. Do something, program a demo, build a site. We seriously don’t care if you were a genius in your 10th, 12th and you topped in every knitting competition, made the best gazaar-ka-halwa or ran the fastest in your school’s marathon. Please let us know you tried doing something outside of your monotonic academic pseudo-projects.

Subject
Do not forget to write the subject. No bloody FWD. Please shed that habit of forwarding those hoax, virus, medications and lottery winning FWDs.

All-in-one
Why do you think we’re morons, trying our best to out-hire you from our competitors. No need to send an All-in-one emails addressing all the available jobs email addresses.

Tailor your resume to the requirements of the employer. What works for a company like Infosys will not work for Paisa, for example. We can immediately figure out if you have sent us the same resume. Read the requirements of the job, note the position you are applying for and then customise your resume to reflect those requirements.

Give a name to your Resume
Do the home-work yourself and don’t let people do the hard-work of figuring out the right resume. “balsubramanyam-krishna-venkateshwara-resume.pdf” would be much better than “bkv.pdf” or “resume.pdf”

Keep it Short and Simple
One page is enough for your resume. Removing “hobbies, passport, PAN, dog’s name, neighbor’s hot chick you’ve a crush on” and keeping just the experience, technology, etc should do the trick.

Be Honest
Your resume is being scanned by people who’ve been in the industry far earlier than you. Do you think we won’t know when you lied about your expertise in RedHat Linux 9.0? We’ll know, if not, our friendly Google will instantly tell us that you’re lying. RedHat Linux 9.0 is a vintage release and there is no way one is using that release today. Just be honest, don’t lie. Its OK to accept that you know nothing about Linux and you’ve been using Windows all along.

Where can I read more?
Link to your blog, LinkedIn, StackOverflow profile. If you don’t have one, it’s time you invested some energy in building those. We would like to hire people who dabble with technology even outside their jobs. Proof of participation in relevant on-line communities is always useful. And no, the message you sent to your college group on Orkut do not count. In fact, make sure you don’t indulge in any stupid message exchange in a public forum. If you have a Twitter account, keep the postings sane. A lot of people have been fired over a mere 140 characters of madness. Be careful about that.