tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2059426880095217342024-03-05T21:16:24.402+10:00OmnipresenceTechnology plays a part in everything you do. Here, I'm trying to guide my fellow humans through this ever-changing realm.Ashley Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01962607557397439036noreply@blogger.comBlogger47125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-205942688009521734.post-72769868944745064652011-07-22T10:13:00.007+10:002011-07-22T16:04:00.521+10:00Proposal: Select Bootable Images from USB<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h2>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large; font-weight: normal;">Prelude</span></h2>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A major deciding factor for the size laptops is the types of media readers they possess. Storage media such as SD cards, optical discs such as CD / DVD / BD (BluRay Disks), and of course, hard disks. If some of them could be removed from the chassis, laptops could be made more portable. Card readers can be replaced by USB ports, as almost every modern media recording device comes with the option. Hard disks are harder to substitute, but solid state drives are a move in the right direction. That leaves optical media.</div>
<br />
<h2>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large; font-weight: normal;">Why Optical Media can't compete</span></h2>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I, for one, don't trust optical media for several reasons - They are:</div>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Non-reliable: They get scratched easily</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">A Waste of money: They are much costlier than hard disks per GB of storage</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Inconvenient: It's not easy (if even possible) to stop copying data to them once the process has started and then resume copying later. You can't rearrange files in it after you're done, either.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Non-Reusable: The most affordable - therefore popular - versions of optical media are read-only, and can only be dumped after their intended purpose. (You'd think there is a case for movie rentals - no, streaming is better. <a href="http://www.netflix.com/">N<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">ETFLIX</span></a> seems to understand the idea.)</li>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The only possible situation where downloads can't be used as a replacement for optical media is in the case of bootable devices. If you have a recovery program that creates bootable disks, how do you boot from it without an optical drive?</div>
<br />
<h2>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large; font-weight: normal;">Available Options</span></h2>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The only reason I use my DVD±RW drive has been to burn <a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/">Ubuntu</a> installer images onto CDs. Over the years, I've built up a whole stack of them. But recently, I stumbled upon <a href="http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/">UNetBootIn</a> which enables the creation of bootable partitions on USB drives. Now, there is a 700MB partition on my external hard disk which I can boot from, to install or try out Ubuntu. The drive letter associated with that partition was removed, so that the drive doesn't show up in my drives list or start auto-play every time I plug it into my computer.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
But there must be a better way than to have a dedicated partition for each image you want to boot from. Someone who happens to have a handful of bootable images shouldn't be forced to create dedicated partitions for each image. Given the delicacy required when changing partition tables, the chances of messing up are considerable. I should be able to plug in my hard disk, choose a bootable image from the disk, and boot from it!</div>
<br />
<h2>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large; font-weight: normal;">Software Emulator</span></h2>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
There are many ways to create multi-boot USB drives, such as <a href="http://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager.html">Plop Boot Manager</a>. However, they tend to be too complicated to set up. The simplest way of setting up a multi-boot USB hard disk that I can think of would work like this:</div>
<ol>
<li style="text-align: justify;">A software installer creates a small bootable partition on USB hard disk or thumbdrive,</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Reboot and choose the USB as the boot device,</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">A file browser window opens with which you can select an ISO file stored anywhere on the USB, the computer, or a local network share and add it as a boot option </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Reboot and select the option to boot from it.</li>
</ol>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<h2>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large; font-weight: normal;">Dedicated Hardware</span></h2>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A little more involved, but much easier-to-use way of doing it would be to have a USB bridge with software on it to emulate a bootable disk, with the option to browse for ISOs as before. This proposed device would look like a USB thumbdrive, but will have a USB port on it into which storage devices could be plugged in. An adapter, if you will. If you want to boot from an ISO,</div>
<ol>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Copy the ISO to a thumbdrive or an external/portable hard disk,</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Connect the drive/disk via the adapter to the computer,</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Reboot and choose the adapter as the boot device,</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Browse for the image and add it as an option,</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Reboot and select the option to boot from it.</li>
</ol>
<br />
<h2>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large; font-weight: normal;">End Notes</span></h2>
<ol>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Instead of a device, the circuitry and software could be integrated into the drives/disks themselves, but by using an adapter, the functionality could be used to boot from legacy USB storage devices as well.<br />
</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">A writeable virtual CD/DVD/BD burner would come in quite handy when dealing with software which directly write to the optical disks instead of giving an ISO you can burn yourself. The virtual disk driver should spit out ISO images, like how <a href="http://www.nitroreader.com/">virtual PDF printer</a>s spit out PDF files when printed to. Ever heard of one?</li>
</ol>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Do let me know if you have come across something that is as easy as (or better) than this idea.<br />
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<br /></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr />
<a href="https://plus.google.com/116473196700673168705/posts" title="Ashley on Google+">Add me on Google+</a></div>Ashley Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01962607557397439036noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-205942688009521734.post-45100160621127996662011-03-17T08:23:00.071+10:002011-04-04T09:33:54.424+10:00Free / Open-Source Software (FOSS) for Windows<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">List of Software I use on my computer. For an average computer user who only does these things, the list will give you everything you'll need -</span><br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Browse web pages</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Chat with friends (text / audio / video)</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">View / Touch-up / Manage Photos</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Watch downloaded/online movies</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Listen to music</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Create / Edit Office files ( Text files, SpreadSheets & Presentations - for you MSOffice addicts, that's .doc, .xls & .ppt :p )</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Other miscellaneous things which don't correspond to a line of work.</span></li>
</ul><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Note 1</b>: Win -> Windows XP/Vista/7, Lin -> Linux, any modern distro, Mac -> OSX 10.4 or later</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Note 2</b>: You may notice that many of these tools are from Google. I'm a fan, yes. But if you can find better tools, do tell me.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Note 3</b>: When installing any software, always choose the 'Custom'/'Advanced' option (where available) and deselect anything with the words 'toolbar', 'search' or anything else you didn't intend to install when you downloaded the software. However, always enable automatic update checks.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Basic List</span></b><br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Google Chrome - Browser - Win/Lin/Mac - <a href="http://www.google.com/chrome/">www.google.com/chrome/</a></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Google Transliteration IME - Type in Malayalam and/or other languages using chat-lingo - Win - <a href="http://www.google.com/ime/transliteration/">www.google.com/ime/transliteration/</a></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Voice & Video Chat in Gmail - Win/Lin/Mac - <a href="http://www.google.com/chat/video">www.google.com/chat/video</a></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Picasa - Photo Management & Basic-to-Intermediate Editing - Win/Lin/Mac - <a href="http://picasa.google.com/">http://picasa.google.com/</a> ( Mac version at <a href="http://picasa.google.com/mac/">http://picasa.google.com/mac/</a> , Linux version at <a href="http://picasa.google.com/linux/">http://picasa.google.com/linux/</a> )</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Picasa Photo Viewer (auto-installs with Picasa) - Photo Viewer - Win - (none)</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">VLC Media Player - Video CD/DVD/Stream/File Player - Win/Lin/Mac - <a href="http://videolan.org/vlc/">http://videolan.org/vlc/</a></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Windows Media Player - Audio Player (Can - but don't - use for Videos/Photos) - Win - <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/windows/mediaplayer">www.microsoft.com/windows/mediaplayer</a></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">LibreOffice - Productivity Suite (Create/Open/Edit Office Files) - Win/Lin/Mac - <a href="http://www.libreoffice.org/">www.libreoffice.org/</a></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">CCleaner - Maintenance tool - Win - <a href="http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner">www.piriform.com/ccleaner</a></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Microsoft Security Essentials - AntiVirus - Win - <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/">www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/</a></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Nitro PDF Reader - PDF Reader/Editor & Virtual Printer to create PDF Files - Win - <a href="http://www.nitroreader.com/">www.nitroreader.com/</a></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">WinRAR - Archive Manager (Compression/Extraction) - Win/Lin/Mac - <a href="http://www.rarlab.com/">www.rarlab.com/</a></span></li>
</ul><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Intermediate List</span></b><br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">IrfanView - Fast Image Viewer / Editor - Win - <a href="http://www.irfanview.com/">www.irfanview.com/</a></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">ImgBurn - CD/DVD/BD/DiscImage Burner - Win - <a href="http://www.imgburn.com/">www.imgburn.com/</a></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Everything - Search-As-You-Type file finder - Win - <a href="http://www.voidtools.com/">www.voidtools.com/</a></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Defraggler - Disk Defragmenter - Win - <a href="http://www.piriform.com/defraggler">www.piriform.com/defraggler</a></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Recuva - File UnDeleter - Win - <a href="http://www.piriform.com/recuva">www.piriform.com/recuva</a></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Handbrake - Video Converter - Win/Lin/Mac - <a href="http://www.handbrake.fr/">www.handbrake.fr/</a></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Miro - Video Downloader (Supports BT) - Win/Lin/Mac - <a href="http://www.getmiro.com/">www.getmiro.com/</a></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Mp3Tag - Tag Editor - Win - <a href="http://www.mp3tag.de/en/">www.mp3tag.de/en/</a></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">TrueCrypt - File/Drive/Disk Encryption with Plausible Deniability - Win/Lin/Mac - <a href="http://www.truecrypt.org/">www.truecrypt.org/</a></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">WinDirStat - Disk Usage Profiler - Win - <a href="http://windirstat.info/">http://windirstat.info/</a></span></li>
</ul><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Advanced List</span></b><br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">CrossLoop - Remote Support - Win - <a href="http://www.crossloop.com/">www.crossloop.com/</a> Note: Click on 'download' link at the top of the site to get the installer. You don't need to sign-up to use it - click 'skip' if it prompts you to, when run (after install).</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Speccy - System Information Tool - Win - <a href="http://www.piriform.com/speccy">www.piriform.com/speccy</a></span></li>
</ul><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Developer Tool</b></span><br />
<ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">PSPad - Code/Hex Editor - Win - <a href="http://www.pspad.com/en/">www.pspad.com/en/</a></span></li>
</ul><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">End Note: I do have much, much more. But this should get you started :)</span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr />
<a href="https://plus.google.com/116473196700673168705/posts" title="Ashley on Google+">Add me on Google+</a></div>Ashley Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01962607557397439036noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-205942688009521734.post-82546868585219523602011-01-27T09:16:00.001+10:002011-04-04T09:22:54.737+10:00[Wishful Thinking] The perfect mobile device?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">I want a mobile device (not just a 'phone') that: <br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Supports reception and transmission all radio frequencies used worldwide (that means WiFi, radio, all the mobile phone freq.s, all the data freq.s (2G/3G/3.5G/4G/LTE et. al.)</li>
<li>Captures 1080p ('Full HD') videos at 60fps and 12MP images with perfect low-light capture (output as clear as what a human eye could see at night), with extra bright flash (Infra-red capture? nah, v2.0, maybe),</li>
<li>Captures HD audio with background noise elimination,</li>
<li>Has fingerprint and retina scanners,</li>
<li>Is rugged enough to keep working from -100 to +120 degrees celcius or under water upto 100m under the surface and immune to household chemicals of any sort,</li>
<li>Has batteries that last 48 hours on a single charge on average normal use or 2 weeks on stand-by and charges from 0% to 100% in 2 minutes,</li>
<li>Has 400dpi, 4-inch, 16:9 multitouch display,</li>
<li>Can support up to 10TB of external storage (HDDs & such) through a USB (3.0) cable (For >64GB, may require connection to external power),</li>
<li>Has SD card support upto 256GB and internal storage of 64GB</li>
<li>Weighs under 200g and is less than 1.5cm thick</li>
<li>has Physical buttons for camera, volume, screen lock, silent mode, media playback - all designed to prevent accidental presses,</li>
<li>Has temperature sensor, accelerometer, gyroscope, proximity, ambient light, GPS, compass.</li>
<li>Supports all media formats used in more than 1 million files worldwide (that should cover everything you would ever use)AND,</li>
<li>Has hardware required to run all this fast and efficiently (at the same time, where applicable.)</li>
</ul><br />
<br />
Would you call it the perfect mobile device?<br />
<br />
</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr />
<a href="https://plus.google.com/116473196700673168705/posts" title="Ashley on Google+">Add me on Google+</a></div>Ashley Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01962607557397439036noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-205942688009521734.post-82866085961841428042010-11-13T07:45:00.012+10:002012-10-13T08:55:06.520+10:00How to Export Contacts from Facebook<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<b>Please Note: This post is almost two years old! In internet times, it's ancient, and thus, outdated. You may find newer links at this link </b>: <a href="https://www.google.com.au/search?q=transfer+facebook+contacts+to+google+plus">[Google Search]</a><br />
<br />
TechCrunch had <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2010/11/09/give-us-our-data-facebook/" target="_blank">an article</a> earlier this week, complaining how Facebook denies access to our friends' email addresses. Its true of course, and even its recently debuted tool to download information off the site doesn't include <b>email addresses</b>. (<span class="Apple-style-span">To use the tool, go to <a href="https://register.facebook.com/editaccount.php" target="_blank">FB Account Settings</a> and click the 'learn more' link next to 'Download your Information'.</span>) Without email addresses, the friends list cannot be imported into other sites, which means FB is making it hard for its users to move to a different site, taking their friends list with them.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
FB claims to be protecting our friends' privacy, but they actually have deals with Yahoo! and Microsoft to share exactly that so-called 'private information' with them! Talk about hypocrisy!</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
As a follow-up, TC <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2010/11/12/how-to-mass-export-all-of-your-facebook-friends-private-email-addresses/" target="_blank">is suggesting</a> that we can use the FB deal with Yahoo! to our advantage, by </div>
<div>
<ol>
<li>Creating a new Yahoo! Mail account,</li>
<li>Importing our FB friends' email addresses data on to Yahoo! mail, </li>
<li>Exporting that as a CSV file, and then</li>
<li>Importing the CSV into Gmail or Outlook or wherever.</li>
</ol>
<div>
Sneaky, yes, and its a middle finger to Facebook's so-called commitment to protecting users' privacy, but I think step one can be skipped.</div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Sign-in to your Y!Mail account - Y<span class="Apple-style-span">eah, I know, you've probably not used that crap for a while since getting addicted to the awesomeness of Gmail.. but at least its good for tricks like this!</span> </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Now, click this link: <a href="http://address.yahoo.com/yab-fe/?_src=&VPC=contact_import_landing" target="_blank">Import Contacts to Yahoo!</a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
There you can import contacts from FB, Gmail or Windows Live to your Y! account.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Update</b>: Looks like <a href="http://www.labnol.org/">Amith Agarval's Digital Inspiration blog</a> had <a href="http://www.labnol.org/internet/export-email-addresses-from-facebook/12970/">explained this trick back in March</a>! Totally unrelated, I swear! :)<br />
<br />
<b>Update 2</b>: (Related) <a href="https://plus.google.com/116473196700673168705/posts/RWieomGAL8i">How to transfer your Facebook contacts to Google Plus!</a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr />
<a href="https://plus.google.com/116473196700673168705/posts" title="Ashley on Google+">Add me on Google+</a></div>Ashley Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01962607557397439036noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-205942688009521734.post-3045408754844525512009-11-21T14:07:00.003+10:002009-11-21T16:02:35.795+10:00Google Chrome OS - First Impressions (or should I say, Disappointments!)An early prototype of the much awaited <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/introducing-google-chrome-os.html">Google Chrome OS was released</a> a couple of days back, and as expected of any product announcement from Google, everyone in the tech world was excited, including me. This is a very early version of the Operating System, and the initial demo wasn't that impressive, but I wanted to have a go at it. Following <a href="http://www.blogger.com/www.techcrunch.com/2009/11/19/guide-install-google-chrome-os/">TechCrunch's simple guide to install Chrome OS on a virtual machine</a>, I loaded it up yesterday in <a href="http://www.virtualbox.org/">VirtualBox</a>.<div><br /><div>The boot time of 7 seconds was indeed quite a feat (the intend to halve that by next year!), and I had no problems logging in with a Gmail/Google account (Warning: don't use your primary Gmail address if you intend to try it out yourself. Its a prototype, after all.). Chromium browser (the open-source counterpart of Google Chrome) loaded up, with a few changes to the UI to make it handle some things that traditional OSes have dealt with as a separate affair, like options to turn networks on & off, a rudimentary digital clock and a battery monitor.</div><div><br /></div><div>Here is what's different (or rather, missing) in ChromeOS, compared to Windows, Linux et al. :</div><div><ul><li>Cannot install applications; all applications are web services (websites)</li><li>Need Internet connectivity to even login, as ChromeOS uses your Gmail account for login and the app panel (its version of 'Quick-Launch' in Windows, and is like a tab inside the browser - but its not). Furthermore, as all apps are web apps, you can't do zilch without a decent net connection.</li><li>Does not (and will not) support existing desktops/ laptops/ <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netbook">netbooks</a>/ smartphones, and requires specialized hardware designed specifically to run ChromeOS. If you want to run it somewhere other than a virtual machine, you need to wait for year for ChromeOS to be released as pre-installed OS on specialized netbooks with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-state_drive">solid state hard drives (SSDs)</a>. ChromeOS is free, but the netbooks surely won't be.</li><li>There are no options to log out, shut down or restart, except using the power button. I guess logout is not really needed, all you have to do is logout of your browser session. But come on, a simple shut down button?</li></ul><div>On the plus side, you'll never need to update anything - everything is stored online, including your data & customizations/settings, and you can access your data and programs from anywhere in the world, provided you have a stable connection to the net. For example, the app panel required a google.com login when I tried it out yesterday. But when I opened up the OS today, they had switched it to a regular google account, which meant that I could login with my Gmail username and password instead. To update the UI, all they have to do is change it at the server, and all users will instantly be upgraded to the latest version.</div><div><br /></div><div><div>Some other things I noticed:</div><ul><li>The file manager, accessible through the browser's open/save dialogues, is a chrome-less window, and reveals the Linux file system, on which it is based.</li><li>No desktop, no icons. Well, there is the app panel. None outside the browser - which is the OS, by the way. Technically, no other OSes have icons or wallpapers outside the OS, so its a moot point. Its a new way to look at it. (Saying 'paradigm shift' is such a cliché :p )</li><li>If you close the last tab (the app panel is not really a tab, so it doesn't count), the whole browser restarts, reopening the closed tab.</li></ul></div><div>Its UI is also very choppy. I had given 1GB RAM to the virtual machine, with 128MB of video memory. But then, my hard disk is not an SSD, and the OS is not even at beta stage.</div></div><div><br />What I don't understand is, when you have free OSes like <a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/">Ubuntu</a> which works on every computer (at least every one of the dozen or so I've tried on), and features like hibernate which can reduce the need for a restart/boot to the rare occasions of a kernel/system update, what exactly is the need for such an OS? They are polished (unlike ChromeOS, in its current state), works with a huge number of devices (unlike ChromeOS), can be installed on any computer used today (unlike ChromeOS), and can choose from tens of thousands of applications to be installed on them, taking advantage of the local processing power.</div><div><br /></div><div>If you can suggest a valid reason why I should use this OS, please, enlighten me in the comments.</div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr />
<a href="https://plus.google.com/116473196700673168705/posts" title="Ashley on Google+">Add me on Google+</a></div>Ashley Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01962607557397439036noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-205942688009521734.post-44569078451666949672009-11-05T15:43:00.008+10:002009-11-05T17:52:58.248+10:00New Orkut design copies many of Facebook's features<img src="http://www.google.com/help/hc/images/orkut_163872a_icon_getstarted.gif" alt="New Orkut" /><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.orkut.com/">Orkut</a> has rolled out a new design to some users, and has given the ability to invite others to it, à la <a href="http://www.gmail.com/">Gmail</a> / <a href="http://wave.google.com/">Google-Wave</a>. There is <a href="http://www.google.com/support/orkut/bin/answer.py?answer=163871">an entry</a> in the Orkut Support Section which claims that the new interface is faster & simpler, and will make it easier to follow your friends' updates. From the listing of features, it appears that Orkut has copied many of <a href="http://www.facebook.com/">Facebook</a>'s features to make the UI more streamlined. And I'm glad they did!</div><div><br /></div><div>The upgrade adds the ability to comment on friends' updates, and to change the colour scheme of your profile page. But here is the most exciting feature that they are adding to Orkut : with the new version, you will be able to do <b>Audio/Video Chat</b> with your friends! This will probably require the installation of a plugin like the one used in Gmail. There is also the option to do a conference chat.</div><div><br /></div><div> (<b><i>Update</i></b><i>: The plugin is needed, but if you have it installed and working in Gmail, you don't need to do that again. It just works. No option to set status though. Only the pre-set statuses 'Available', 'Busy' & 'Invisible' and the option to sign out of chat are available.</i>)</div><div><br /></div><div>Orkuteers will be able to select multiple photos for uploading at once, and also rotate them if needed. All your contacts' activity notifications will be available through a unified <i>what's new</i> section, which will also have the ability to play the videos added by your contacts - exactly how Facebook's 'News Feed' works.</div><div><br /></div><div>The new version also adds a link header on top like the ones on top of Gmail & Google Docs, allowing users to navigate to other Google properties. </div><div><br /></div><div>It also looks like they are integrating the scrapbook into the home page, thus making it more like Facebook's <i>wall posts</i>, but I'm not sure about this. The help page says that "The 'scrap' feature lets you post directly to their profile pages". What exactly that means is yours to figure out; your guess would be as good as mine. (<b><i>See Update below</i></b>)</div><div><br /></div><div>As a web developer, I'm happy to hear that in the new version, Orkut has also joined the growing list of large sites which have stopped supporting the IE6 (Internet Explorer 6) browser. They suggest that users should "upgrade to a supported browser" by "download[ing] the latest versions of Google Chrome, Firefox or Internet Explorer 8".</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Update</b>: I'm in! Using the new design now. They have 'Ajax'-ified the interface, so all sections (scraps, photo albums, fav. videos, testimonials etc.) appear in the home page itself. The friends list and communities list are now scrollable, and shows all your friends/communities. You can also narrow-down the list with search-as-you-type. Aesthetics could have been better though.. I miss the old Orkut already.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Update 2</b>: Apparently, this isn't news. The orkut blog had announced it last week. Can't believe I missed that... :p</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr />
<a href="https://plus.google.com/116473196700673168705/posts" title="Ashley on Google+">Add me on Google+</a></div>Ashley Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01962607557397439036noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-205942688009521734.post-30361926121370685152009-07-17T18:19:00.002+10:002009-07-17T18:25:44.040+10:00Blog Upgrade!Hi all,<br /><br />Upgraded to New Blogger Template (Finally!), added a few widgets. Still have the same design, so yes, I was converting for the last few hours..<br /><br />Has Google FriendConnect enabled, so signup here if you like my posts..<br /><br />I've been on Twitter for a while now, so smaller updates are going up there instead of a full-blown blog post.<br /><br />Follow me on Twitter! <a href="http://twitter.com/lifenstein">@lifenstein</a><br /><br />P.S.: Will add more posts here soon.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr />
<a href="https://plus.google.com/116473196700673168705/posts" title="Ashley on Google+">Add me on Google+</a></div>Ashley Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01962607557397439036noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-205942688009521734.post-58789070824866753962008-01-24T03:10:00.001+10:002009-11-15T00:28:24.873+10:00[Video] Data Portability - An Introduction<center><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://www.vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=610179&server=www.vimeo.com&fullscreen=1&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=" height="310" width="550"> <param name="quality" value="best"> <param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"> <param name="scale" value="showAll"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=610179&server=www.vimeo.com&fullscreen=1&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color="></object></center><br /><br /><ul><li><a href="http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/141541/data_portability_reasonable_goal_or_impossible_dream.html">An excellent article at PC World about Data Portability</a></li></ul><br />Read more at <a href="http://www.dataportability.org/">DataPortability.org </a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr />
<a href="https://plus.google.com/116473196700673168705/posts" title="Ashley on Google+">Add me on Google+</a></div>Ashley Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01962607557397439036noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-205942688009521734.post-22166876647364211162007-12-21T13:23:00.000+10:002007-12-21T14:57:15.302+10:00Doing Your bit to reduce Spam - Using BCCIn 2001, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-mail_spam">spam</a> accounted for an estimated 5% of our email. In 2007, it clogs our inboxes* to the tune of 90-95% of all email sent, according to a new report released recently by <a href="http://www.barracudanetworks.com/">Barracuda Networks</a>. Barracuda, a leading vendor of spam filtering technology, based their analysis on the over 1 billion emails that the company's software scans each day.<br /><br />Spammers need email IDs to send the spam to, and there are many sneaky sites out there who collect addresses from visitors and sell them to the spammers. Email addresses are also collected by spambots, which crawl the web just like <a href="http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=70897&topic=8460">regular search engine crawlers</a> (like Google's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Googlebot">Googlebot</a>) , but looking for email IDs in webpages (say, in comments) instead of keywords.<br /><br />Another source of valid email addresses are, believe it or not, your own forwarded emails. Whether sending jokes, amaaaaaazing pictures, inspiring presentations, friendship quotes or, <a href="http://ashleyz.50webs.com/">the worst of them all - Chain Mails</a>, the way you send it could very well be helping spammers send more unwanted messages to your own friends, relatives & colleagues...<br /><br />As I mentioned in <a href="http://blog.liveash.com/2007/12/its-now-easier-to-locate-your-gmail.html">the last post</a>, when you put all the addresses in the 'to' or 'cc' boxes while forwarding an email, <span style="font-weight: bold;">the email IDs of all the recipients are visible to each other!</span>. The actual use of 'cc' is for intimating persons other than those whom the message is meant for about the email. For example, you want to let Archie know that you have sent the mail to Jughead, while the letter isn't actually meant for Archie himself. If you didn't want Jughead to know that, then you'd put Archie's email ID into the 'BCC' box instead. Since email IDs in 'BCC' aren't visible to any of the recipients, the addresses remain safely within your contact list, away from prying eyes.<br /><br />Another responsible thing you can do is to clean up the mail being forwarded before sending it across - remove the huge list of previous forwarders & forwardees from the mail. That isn't what you want your friends to read, right? You want them to see the contents of the mail itself. I have seen forwards with three to four PAGES of<br /><br /><blockquote> "Forwarded Message: Fwd:Fw:Fwd: Subject<br />From: xx32, To: yy1, yy2..... yy56, yy 57...<br />---------<br />Forwarded Message: Subject<br />From: zz20, To: xx1, xx2, xx3.... xx71<br />...<br />.....<br />...<br />......."<br /></blockquote><br />... followed by <span style="font-weight: bold;">a One-Liner Joke</span>. What gives?!<br /><br />Once I even got a mail with just the list; no content - it had been clipped due to the mail being too long.. ( In Gmail, you can view the full content through the 'Show Original' link in the Reply button drop-down. )<br /><br />Same thing with the Subject line as well - whatz with the 'Fwd: Fw: Re: [Groupkkk] Fwd [MailingList DingDong]....' ?? In Gmail, you should just click 'Edit Subject' link, clean it up so that just one 'Fwd:' & the Subject itself remains before sending it.<br /><br /><hr width="100%"><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Inspired by a post at <a href="http://ymailupdates.com/blog/2007/12/20/screencast-you-down-with-bcc/">Yahoo! Mail's blog</a>, where they explain the use of BCC through a screencast. The video itself isn't that impressive, so I'll just link to it rather than embed it here in the blog. > <a href="http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=1656228">Using BCC Feature (Yahoo! Video)</a><br /><br />* The part about 'Clogging your Inboxes' assumes that you aren't using <a href="https://mail.google.com/">Gmail</a> :D</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr />
<a href="https://plus.google.com/116473196700673168705/posts" title="Ashley on Google+">Add me on Google+</a></div>Ashley Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01962607557397439036noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-205942688009521734.post-27234356675680702572007-12-15T13:12:00.000+10:002007-12-21T15:07:57.830+10:00Its now easier to locate your Gmail contacts in Orkut. But...Orkut has just announced the ability to check whether people in your Gmail Address book are already in your orkut friends list. If they aren't, you are given the option to either add them (if they are already orkut members) or invite them to orkut.<br /><br />Original Post : <a href="http://en.blog.orkut.com/2007/12/im-feeling-serendipitous.html#links">orkut Blog: I'm feeling serendipitous!</a><br /><br />This would've worked out better, If only Gmail didn't add each and every contact you ever emailed - even just for once - to your address book! When I tried out the feature, I had to spend hours cleaning up my Gmail address book. Why? The sequence of mistakes are as follows:<br /><ol><li>A friend of mine gets a forward. He is compelled by the warning in the email to send it to all his contacts, because otherwise, he could die within a few hours!! (Have been receiving mails which ask you to forward them? They are called 'Chain Mails' - <a href="http://ashleyz.50webs.com/">click here if you have a minute to spare</a>.)<br /><br /></li><li>He puts his entire address book into the 'To' field when sending the forward. By doing so, he has just exposed all the email addresses in his contact list to the entire world - even company emails, private addresses which other people trusted him with.. each and every one. If only he had <a href="http://blog.liveash.com/2007/12/doing-your-bit-to-reduce-spam-using-bcc.html">put them in the 'bcc' field</a> - the email ids of his contacts would've remained hidden from all recipients.<br /><br /></li><li>When I got the email, I couldn't resist telling him the errors of his ways, so I told him the stuff I just explained in the last two steps through the 'Reply' button - but alas! I had used the 'Reply to all' button instead; my advice is now being sent to more than a hundred people - my friend's entire address book..<br /><br /></li><li>The last mistake wouldn't have been so bad as it was, if it wasn't for the Gmail feature I mentioned at first - all of the addresses which I (accidentally) just sent the email to were now in my address book as well! People I don't even know, haven't even heard of - were now in my Address book. Great. Just Great.</li></ol>So when I tried to use the new orkut feature, many of those contacts appeared in the list of prospective orkutians who aren't already in my friends list. Suffice to say, hours had to be spent cleaning up my address book before I could bring down the number to below 100.<br /><br />One of the features I really wish Gmail had is the ability to combine contacts - I don't want to manually merge multiple entries into single contacts. But since I had to, I've already done that - just took me about three days... <span style="font-weight: bold;">:(</span><br /><br />I've also noticed another mistake some orkutians are making. They have multiple email addresses, like most of us do, say, tom@gmail.com & tom@yahoo.com. Lets say Tom created his orkut account using the gmail id (It was possible with any email id until Google integrated orkut into the Google Account). So when a friend searches for Tom with his yahoo ID, they may not find him.. Tom thinks, "Oh no! I don't want to keep my friends from finding me!"<br /><br />So Tom figures out a workaround - he makes a dummy profile in orkut with his yahoo ID, and adds himself as a friend to that profile. Now when anyone searches for him in orkut with his yahoo id, they'll come to this profile, notices his real profile in the friends list, and sends the friend request to that profile instead. Simple, right?<br /><br />No, its not, and there are two reasons: <span style="font-weight: bold;">One</span>, when we search for an email id in orkut, and if a profile with that address already exists, the orkut interface just gives us the option to add the friend; it doesn't show us the friends list of that profile. So, your friend won't even know that it was just a dummy profile. And <span style="font-weight: bold;">Two</span>, you could just add the second, third or even fourth email id to orkut's Contacts section in 'Edit Profile'. If you are signed-in to orkut, <a href="http://www.orkut.com/EditContact.aspx">just click here to get there</a>. All searches for any of the added addresses would lead the searcher to your profile.<br /><a href="http://en.blog.orkut.com/2007/12/im-feeling-serendipitous.html#links"></a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr />
<a href="https://plus.google.com/116473196700673168705/posts" title="Ashley on Google+">Add me on Google+</a></div>Ashley Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01962607557397439036noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-205942688009521734.post-7559078757520878952007-12-07T17:25:00.000+10:002007-12-07T21:16:45.260+10:00BREAKING : Get your @live.in email address right now!<div style="background-color:white; display:inline; margin: 15px; padding: 10px; float:right; cursor:pointer;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOCdvwIQ2MXgQM_nc9nxTcWZ7ECe9gohGvAL9QNxdLzUdIokKfpErm4C_6r8zfSbdiL97a3KilTBOme6Ifdwks5PIzPIBlduq88EC7yrLFtoHDVP9dn2tQI_Z1yOWE_tIW-1y8eZDtiZds/s1600-h/WindowsLive.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOCdvwIQ2MXgQM_nc9nxTcWZ7ECe9gohGvAL9QNxdLzUdIokKfpErm4C_6r8zfSbdiL97a3KilTBOme6Ifdwks5PIzPIBlduq88EC7yrLFtoHDVP9dn2tQI_Z1yOWE_tIW-1y8eZDtiZds/s400/WindowsLive.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5141139087167357170" border="0" /></a></div><br />Microsoft <a href="http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2007/11/livecom-email-accounts.html">enabled public signups to their live.com email addresses</a> exactly 1 month ago, but Indians couldn't sign up because it was only available from US locations. I tried a few URL hacks, but those <a href="http://www.labnol.org/internet/email/get-windows-live-email-address/1753/">didn't work.</a> Kept trying for weeks, but it wasn't working at all... until now!<br /><br />Okay, it isn't @live.com - but @live.in is even <span style="font-style: italic;">kewler</span>!! (As in, you know - <span style="font-size:85%;">LIVE IN</span>, like the Jeans Brand?) All you have to do is go to the <a href="http://get.live.com/mail/overview">signup page</a> and click on the 'Get It' button to signup. The best thing is, since this hasn't been announced officially (well, I haven't heard :D ), <span style="font-weight: bold;">virtually all email usernames are available for the taking</span> - I just got ashley[at]live.in!!! No need to add numbers & random junk to get an address you really want!<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Note: You have to access it from India to get the live.in address. Otherwise, it will be the country-specific <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TLD">TLD</a> that shows up. It is also possible that you get only a hotmail.com address as the option..<br /></span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">EDIT</span>: Forgot to mention, Microsoft already provides lots of custom domains for their 'Windows Live Hotmail' email services at <a href="http://www.coolhotmail.com/">CoolHotmail.com</a>, exclusively for Indians (Anyone can get it, but the domains are mostly India-specific: such as bangalorerocks.in, bornleader.co.in, chennairocks.in, clubaishwarya.com, clubasin.in, clubdravid.com, clubsachin.com, clubsrk.com, ilovebhavans.in & ilovekabbadi.com, to mention just a few.)<div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr />
<a href="https://plus.google.com/116473196700673168705/posts" title="Ashley on Google+">Add me on Google+</a></div>Ashley Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01962607557397439036noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-205942688009521734.post-26643567055922223762007-12-07T04:37:00.000+10:002007-12-07T05:05:31.975+10:00World's Tallest Building, Burj Dubai.Twice as tall as the Empire State Building, <span style="font-weight:bold;"><a href="http://www.burjdubaiskyscraper.com/">Burj Dubai</a></span> is destined to take the crown for "The World's Tallest Building" back to the Middle East, since the time of the Pyramids..<br /><br /><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://www.metacafe.com/fplayer/949045/worlds_tallest_building.swf" width="498" height="420"><br /> <param name="wmode" value="transparent" /><br /> <param name="movie" value="http://www.metacafe.com/fplayer/949045/worlds_tallest_building.swf" /><br /> <param name="flashvars" value="altServerURL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.metacafe.com&playerVars=showStats=no|autoPlay=no|videoTitle=World's%20Tallest%20Building" /> <br /></object><div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr />
<a href="https://plus.google.com/116473196700673168705/posts" title="Ashley on Google+">Add me on Google+</a></div>Ashley Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01962607557397439036noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-205942688009521734.post-65646814327260613142007-11-27T17:45:00.000+10:002007-12-07T04:56:22.455+10:00TechCrunch : While Live Documents Yaps, Zoho DeliversIndia and Silicon Valley based <a href="http://www.zoho.com/">Zoho</a> has launched full offline access for Zoho writer, based on the <a href="http://gears.google.com/">Google Gears</a> open source platform.<br /><br /><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/1ruzgY45cME&rel=1&border=0" width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/1ruzgY45cME&rel=1&border=0" /></object><br /><br />Read more at <a href="http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/26/while-live-documents-yaps-zoho-delivers/">TechCrunch</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr />
<a href="https://plus.google.com/116473196700673168705/posts" title="Ashley on Google+">Add me on Google+</a></div>Ashley Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01962607557397439036noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-205942688009521734.post-70984607410206138582007-11-26T17:05:00.000+10:002007-11-26T17:10:45.821+10:00Easy to use ExoSkeleton nearing completion<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="450" height="370" wmode="transparent" data="http://www.liveleak.com/player.swf?autostart=false&token=109_1195663753"><param name="movie" value="http://www.liveleak.com/player.swf?autostart=false&token=109_1195663753"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><param name="quality" value="high"></object><br /><br /><p>Just Imagine the possibilities.. I hope one day robots will fight our wars for us, away from living things - no more casualties, just scrap metal.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr />
<a href="https://plus.google.com/116473196700673168705/posts" title="Ashley on Google+">Add me on Google+</a></div>Ashley Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01962607557397439036noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-205942688009521734.post-81918137487134413272007-11-19T17:44:00.000+10:002007-11-19T19:09:49.282+10:00An Introduction to Feed Readers (aka Aggregators)<h4>What are Feeds?</h4>The Internet is a huge place. Literally billions of websites, and many of them keep changing day by day, if not minute-by-minute. How do you keep track of the latest things going on the websites / blogs we like? You can't possibly consider going to each and every site and keep hitting the 'refresh' button every now and then, can you?<br /><br />This is why RSS was introduced. RSS, or Rich Site Summary, is an XML output of the latest changes to a website's content. If the site is a blog, RSS will update itself each time there is a new post. The RSS output is called a feed, which will not contain any of the color information or javascript in the original post, but it will maintain the links. There is another feed standard, called Atom, which is usually shown as a second option when setting up a blog.<br /><br />All popular blogging platforms such as Blogger, Wordpress, Typepad etc. have feeds, and are turned on by default. Some platforms even have feeds for comments to a particular post. Many forum softwares also provide feeds for latest threads, replies to a particular thread, posts made by particular members etc. There are even search engines which provide feeds to the latest results to search phrases!<br /><h4>How do we read the feeds?</h4>"<i>Ok</i>", you'll say, "<i>there are no more websites to check, but what do we do now? Open the feeds and keep hitting refresh button for the latest changes?!!?</i>" <b>HELL NO</b>. There are dozens of online (web-based) and offline (desktop) softwares called 'Feed Readers'.<br /><br />NewsOnFeeds.com has a <i>huuuuge</i> <a href="http://www.newsonfeeds.com/faq/aggregators">list of offline and online feed readers</a><br /><h4>Feed Readers</h4>If you are using a desktop-based (offline) feed reader, they'll register the <i>feed://</i> protocol to themselves, which means that (if all goes well) when you click on a link to a feed, the feed URL (usually ends with <i>.xml</i>, some times its a query string such as <i>?output=rss</i>) will be directly passed to the reader.<br /><br />In case you are using a web-based reader unsupported by your browser, you'll have to manually copy-paste the feed URL into that site.<br /><br />Whichever the case, the reader then lets you tag the feed with keywords of your choice, for categorizing. Now, whenever you fire up your offline feed reader (or open/refresh the online reader's page), the reader will check all the feeds for updates, and shows you the content of the latest posts in a neat, single scrollable list.<br /><br />Most readers let you search posts you have read in the past, star posts for later reference, email a post to your friends etc. Imagine searching all your favorite sites for a post, and you'll see how helpful this can be..<br /><br />The good thing about online feed readers is that there is no installation to be done, which means you can use the site from public cafes or at a friend's computer, without changing anything. Just sign-in, and your own <b>Personalized Newspaper</b> is right there waiting for you.<br /><br />Some bloggers / websites prefer to share only a portion of their posts via feeds, so that a feed subscriber who reads the summary (first few lines) of the post (or some times just the post title - as decided by the blogger), and finds it interesting, will visit the original site and <b>see / click their ads</b>. Oh I forgot to mention - <b>feeds by default don't have ads</b> - unless they are manually put in by the content owner.<br /><br /><a href="http://reader.google.com/" target="_blank">Google Reader</a> is the most popular feed reader worldwide. Head over to the site, and if you are not a user yet, they'll give you a quick intro as well.<br /><h4>How do I know whether my favorite site has feeds?</h4>Sites with feeds usually display the orange feed icon (See <a href="http://www.feedicons.com/" target="_blank">FeedIcons.com</a> for multi-sized samples), clicking on which you'll see the feed for the site. Some blogs show a list of feed readers, each with dedicated buttons which let you subscribe to their posts via specific readers in one click.<br /><h4>Browser support</h4>Modern Browsers (<a href="http://www.opera.com/">Opera 9</a>, <a href="http://www.mozilla.com/firefox">Firefox 2</a> & <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/ie/getitnow.mspx">IE7</a> do, I'm not sure about older versions.) will display the icon at the right end of the address-bar itself. Click on the icon to see a preview of the current feed listings.<br /><br />If you are using Firefox 2.0 or above, it will show you a list of supported readers, from which you can set one as default, if you want. I've chosen Google as the option, which means that each time I click on a feed icon, a page asking me to choose either <a href="http://www.google.com/ig">iGoogle</a> or <a href="http://reader.google.com/">Google Reader</a> shows up.<br /><br />Latest versions of IE, Firefox & Opera have inbuilt feed readers, albeit simple ones. (Firefox's reader is called Live Bookmarks)<br /><h4>Feed-related Services</h4><b><a href="http://www.feedburner.com/" target="_blank">FeedBurner</a> </b>(now owned by Google) helps you monetize your feeds, as well as provide a permanent feed URL. You'll be able to change blog platforms without changing your feed URL. My feedburner URL, for example, is <a href="feed://feeds.feedburner.com/liveash/blog?output=xml" target="_blank">feed://feeds.feedburner.com/liveash/blog</a> (the part after .com is customizable.) The monetizing part comes only after you have about 50,000 subscribers, so don't expect to make a quick buck just yet!<br /><br /><b><a href="http://pipes.yahoo.com/" target="_blank">Yahoo Pipes</a></b> is a bit more complicated service; it lets you create <a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=define%3Amashup">mashups</a> of feeds. That is, you can combine different feeds programmatically (with if/else , for/while loops and much more) to create a customized feed.<br /><br /><h4>List of Geek Feeds</h4>To help you get started, here are a few (geeky) feed URLs which I have subscribed to:<br /><style type="text/css">.geekfeeds li {margin: 10px 0;}</style><br /><ul class="geekfeeds"><li>Digg / Technology > <a href="http://www.digg.com/rss/containertechnology.xml" target="_blank">http://www.digg.com/rss/containertechno<wbr>logy.xml</a></li><li>Digital Inspiration (Famous Indian Blogger, Amit Agarwal) > <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/labnol" target="_blank">http://feeds.feedburner.com/labnol</a></li><li>GigaOm / Web (Om Mallik, a US-centric Indian Tech Blogger) > <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/gigaom/software" target="_blank">http://feeds.feedburner.com/gigaom/soft<wbr>ware</a></li><li>Google Blogoscoped (All things Google, and then some!) > <a href="http://blogoscoped.com/rss.xml" target="_blank">http://blogoscoped.com/rss.xml</a></li><li>Guardian Unlimited: Technology blog > <a href="http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/technology/index.xml" target="_blank">http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/technology/<wbr>index.xml</a></li><li>TechCrunch (Michael Arrington, one of the most respected tech bloggers, posts here) > <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/Techcrunch" target="_blank">http://feeds.feedburner.com/Techcrunch</a></li><li>Lifehacker - They cover a lot of topics, so you better go to <a href="http://lifehacker.com/about/#5" target="_blank">http://lifehacker.com/about/#5</a> and choose a feed that suits your needs. They provide multiple feeds for each tag, for each author etc.</li><li>Official Google Blog > <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/atom.xml" target="_blank">http://googleblog.blogspot.com/atom.xml</a></li><li>Mashable! (A bit too geeky, newcomer) > <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/Mashable" target="_blank">http://feeds.feedburner.com/Mashable</a></li></ul><div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr />
<a href="https://plus.google.com/116473196700673168705/posts" title="Ashley on Google+">Add me on Google+</a></div>Ashley Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01962607557397439036noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-205942688009521734.post-5993527978074739532007-11-16T13:11:00.000+10:002007-11-17T20:32:24.801+10:00Gmail Tip : Access your Addressbook in One ClickAll of my contacts are stored in my Gmail Contacts list : emails, phone numbers, addresses, IM usernames (available in Gmail 2.0). The advantages of having a central access point available from anywhere is a great advantage, but getting the info quickly has been quite a pain. Waiting for the full-fledged Gmail UI to load is quite time-consuming - even for getting a single email address, you have to wait several seconds.<br /><br />Not anymore! The new Contact Manager, available in Gmail 2.0 (The new version of Gmail, with preloaded messages, attachment icons etc..) can be accessed via its own URL. Just bookmark the link below.<br /><br />Gmail Contacts Manager : <a href="http://mail.google.com/mail/contacts/ui/ContactManager">http://mail.google.com/mail/contacts/ui/ContactManager</a><br /><br />Of course, you'll have to be logged into your Google Account for this to work.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Update</span>: The <a href="http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2007/11/5-little-known-gmail-features-you-may.html">Official Google Blog has a post</a> with a few tips as well.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr />
<a href="https://plus.google.com/116473196700673168705/posts" title="Ashley on Google+">Add me on Google+</a></div>Ashley Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01962607557397439036noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-205942688009521734.post-38444934662546215812007-11-05T18:48:00.000+10:002007-11-05T19:25:05.058+10:00Yahoo! KickStart - Social Network to connect Employed Alumni with StudentsHere comes <a href="http://kickstart.yahoo.com/">KickStart</a>, a new service (now in testing phase) from Yahoo! to form a professional social network for Students & Alumni, which helps you find inside contacts in companies they aspire to join. Looks like <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/">LinkedIn</a>, in some ways..<br /><br />Excerpts from some technology sites' reviews:<br /><br />"...give users profile pages which are focused on the user's resume..." - TechCrunch<br /><br />"...Yahoo Kickstart may never see the light of day: it's still a concept in testing with college students. But if the tests are a success, Yahoo will roll out the network officially" - Mashable<br /><br />"...network for recent graduates looking for a fast track to viable employment. The concept certainly sounds good — particularly the idea of connecting graduating students with alumni who want to help them get an in with companies. " - Wired News<br /><br />"...endeavours to help recent college graduates find jobs using social-networking features. It will allow students to connect with fellow classmates, alumni and companies who may be able to help them with their budding careers." - Indiatimes Infotech<br /><br />Check it out at <a href="http://kickstart.yahoo.com/">http://kickstart.yahoo.com/</a><br /><br />( Detailed review at <a href="http://blogs.cnet.com/8301-13515_1-9768418-26.html">CNET Blog</a> )<div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr />
<a href="https://plus.google.com/116473196700673168705/posts" title="Ashley on Google+">Add me on Google+</a></div>Ashley Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01962607557397439036noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-205942688009521734.post-51617046905096366392007-10-04T00:50:00.000+10:002007-12-07T04:56:56.371+10:00Zoho does it again!The tech-blog world is buzzing today with posts (saw <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/164643890/">here</a>, <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/readwriteweb/~3/164680108/zoho_db_online_database.php">here</a> & <a href="http://mashable.com/2007/10/03/zoho-db/">here</a>) heralding the arrival of another killer online-office app from <a href="http://www.zoho.com/">Zoho.com</a>, called <a href="http://db.zoho.com/">Zoho DB</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.demogirl.com/">Demogirl</a> has created a screencast for us, explaining the features of this online database tool, which is embedded below.<br /><br /><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://www.viddler.com/player/e44afb46/" width="437" height="370"><param name="movie" value="http://www.viddler.com/player/e44afb46/" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /></object><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Note</span>: <a href="http://www.zoho.com/">Zoho</a> is an Indian company, which seems to be beating the almighty <a href="http://www.google.com/about.html">BigG</a>'s <a href="http://docs.google.com/">offerings</a>, at least on the Online Office front.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr />
<a href="https://plus.google.com/116473196700673168705/posts" title="Ashley on Google+">Add me on Google+</a></div>Ashley Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01962607557397439036noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-205942688009521734.post-68012480596454090212007-09-22T20:17:00.000+10:002007-09-22T20:22:14.965+10:00Stanislav Petrov : The Man who saved the World<blockquote>Without knowing on the cold Moscow night back in 1983, a badly paid 44 year old military officer saved the world, and made himself one of the most influential persons of the century in the process, saving more lives than anyone ever did.</blockquote><br /><br />Read the whole story : <a href="http://maltastar.com/pages/msfullart.asp?an=15214">maltaStar.com</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr />
<a href="https://plus.google.com/116473196700673168705/posts" title="Ashley on Google+">Add me on Google+</a></div>Ashley Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01962607557397439036noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-205942688009521734.post-10915566695594344592007-09-06T11:27:00.000+10:002007-09-07T13:21:37.374+10:00Apple cuts 8GB iPhone price to $399, Early Adopters of $599 phone left crying in streets.Just after two months of its release, Apple has cut th price of the most hyped cellphone in the history of technology, the iPhone, by 33% from $599 US (~24,500 INR) to $399 US (~16,300 INR). We all know that technology gets cheaper with time, but this is ridiculous!<br /><br />Those who were having second thoughts due to the high price tag of the iPhone will surely be much more willing to get one, but people who waited outside Apple stores for days on end to be the first in line to get one could be feeling ripped off.<br /><br />Indians won't get to have one at least until a couple of years (unless they can get from the gray market). However, Rs. 16k for a touch-screen cellphone with an in-built iPod, not to mention dozens of high-profile websites having custom versions for just this phone, is as much bang-for-the-buck as it gets!<br /><br />Source: <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/05/apple-cuts-iphone-price-to-399/">Engadget</a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Update:</span> After receiving 'hundreds of' emails from upset customers, Apple has decided to offer every iPhone customer who purchased an iPhone from either Apple or AT&T, and who is not receiving a rebate or any other consideration, a $100 store credit towards the purchase of any product at an Apple Retail Store or the Apple Online Store. In an <a href="http://http//www.apple.com/hotnews/openiphoneletter/">open letter</a> to all iPhone customers, Steve Jobs justifies the price drop, saying that Apple is using the price drop to 'really go for' a wider customer base this holiday season.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr />
<a href="https://plus.google.com/116473196700673168705/posts" title="Ashley on Google+">Add me on Google+</a></div>Ashley Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01962607557397439036noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-205942688009521734.post-23167788574802611152007-08-25T22:30:00.000+10:002007-09-01T13:19:18.453+10:00New Domain, update your bookmarks!I'm starting a new website at <a href="http://www.liveash.com/">www.liveash.com</a>, and am moving this blog to the new address, <a href="http://blog.liveash.com/">blog.liveash.com</a>. Haven't thought of what to put on the main site yet, but will figure out eventually.<br /><br />Please update your bookmarks and/or feed URLs to point to the new domain.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr />
<a href="https://plus.google.com/116473196700673168705/posts" title="Ashley on Google+">Add me on Google+</a></div>Ashley Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01962607557397439036noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-205942688009521734.post-85428346115161899852007-08-08T11:33:00.000+10:002007-11-05T19:26:52.772+10:00Aug. 7, 1991: Ladies and Gentlemen, the World Wide Web<div style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 15px; float: right; width: 130px;"><img src="http://lh3.google.com/ashleyvjc/RrkhB0XunbI/AAAAAAAACNc/C5YXlwic09E/WWWlogo.jpg" alt="WWW's historical logo designed by Robert Cailliau, Courtesy: Wikipedia." style="margin: 5px;" border="0" height="88" width="120" /><div style="margin: 5px; font-size: 85%;">WWW's historical logo designed by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Cailliau" title="Wikiepedia Entry">Robert Cailliau.</a><br />Courtesy: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/" title="Editable Online Encyclopedia">Wikipedia.</a></div></div><br />The World Wide Web turned 16 yesterday.<br /><br />No, not the 'Internet', which is an interconnected worldwide network of networks through which users connect to (and via) <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FTP">ftp servers</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMTP">smtp servers</a>, http servers etc. WWW comprises of the interconnected web pages we visit every day; just one of the services of the Internet, provided by http servers (a.k.a. Web Servers). The basis of the WWW (or 'Web') is the Hyper-Text Markup Language, HTML.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007/08/dayintech_0807">The Wired News Article</a> is being copied here:<br /><br /><blockquote><p><strong>1991:</strong> The world wide web becomes publicly available on the internet for the first time.<br /></p> <p>The web has changed a lot since <a href="http://www.time.com/time/time100/scientist/profile/bernerslee.html">Tim Berners-Lee</a> posted, on this day, the first web pages summarizing his World Wide Web project, a method of storing knowledge using hypertext documents. In the months leading up to his post, Berners-Lee had developed everything necessary to make the web a reality, including the first browser and server.</p> <p>His historic post appeared on the alt.hypertext newsgroup, ending a journey that began back in 1980, when Berners-Lee was at CERN, an international particle physics lab located near Geneva, Switzerland. There, working with collaborator Robert Cailliau, Berners-Lee began the Enquire project, the forerunner to what would become the web.</p> <p>The project, which made hypertext a chief communications component for the first time, was intended to facilitate the sharing of information among researchers across the <a href="http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Internet/2002/Web_vs_Internet.asp">broader internet</a>.</p> <p>Today's web is far more powerful and sophisticated than the research tool developed by Berners-Lee and Cailliau but continues operating on basically the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_page">same principles</a> they established a quarter of a century ago.</p></blockquote><div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr />
<a href="https://plus.google.com/116473196700673168705/posts" title="Ashley on Google+">Add me on Google+</a></div>Ashley Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01962607557397439036noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-205942688009521734.post-80822485379631428442007-07-17T13:18:00.000+10:002007-09-06T14:02:44.279+10:00My Favourite Web Services, and why I prefer them (Part 1/2)Everyday, we use many online services for keeping our data accessible from anywhere, anytime. And each time a new service finds success, others are sure to follow. I have my own reasons for choosing some over others, and even though its mostly a personal preference, the reasons might help you choose a better service. As you'll see, I'm a fan of Google's offerings :)<br /><br />The good thing about using personalized online services from a single provider is that you only need to sign-in once to access all the services, and there aren't many (if any) companies which can match Google at the number of services provided.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;"># Webmail ( Online Email )</span><br /> I don't think many will object to my choice of <a href="https://mail.google.com/mail/">Gmail</a> in this space. Google started it out as an invite-only email service with a previously unimaginable, humongous storage of 1GB. Later, the quota was increased to 2GB and it keeps on rising as we speak. Many competitors followed suit with GB-sized inboxes, but there are certain features that kept users glued to Gmail :<br /><ul><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">(<span style="font-style: italic;">Nearly</span>) 100% spam protection</span> - Web users used to be afraid of posting their email ids on any forums or giving to websites for subscribing to services, due to fear of spam. The amount of spam has <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-mail_spam#Statistics_and_estimates">tripled in the last two years</a>, but Gmail inboxes remain clean. From the days of using '<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spamtrap">honeypot</a>' email addresses for possible spam, Gmail has taken users to the state where they can post their primary email address anywhere, and still feel confident that spam will never reach the Gmail inbox ( I did see <span style="font-style: italic;">one</span> get past Gmail's spam protection yesterday, but that was in more than three months! )<br /></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Conversation View</span> - Google's novel idea of grouping related messages together was a boon to frequent email users. Before it, we would quote the original message thread in every message, increasing the size of mails being shuttled back and forth, thus increasing latency. Now, we can just type-in our response and send the email on its way without having to worry about losing track - as long as the subject line remains the same (even if 'fwd:', 'fw:' or 'Re:' are prefixed), Gmail will organize our mails for us.</li></ul>There are many more things that users love about Gmail. The use of labels instead of folders, ability to preview pdf / ppt / pps / jpg /gif / bmp files, integration with <a href="http://docs.google.com/">Google Docs & Spreadsheets</a> to view doc / odf / xls / ods / csv / rtf / sxw files , inbuilt chat etc are just a few examples.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;"># RSS (Feed) Reader</span><br /><br /> <a href="http://www.google.com/reader/view/">Google Reader</a> is what I use, being a simple and easy-to-use service. It wasn't the first service I used, but it is the only one I've used more than once. Even though it is a beta product (as with most of Google's services), it has been quite stable. The recent addition of <a href="http://gears.google.com/">Google Gears</a> brought offline functionality to <span style="font-style: italic;">GReader</span>.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;"># Word Processor / Spreadsheet App.</span><br /><br /> Simply because I don't have to sign-in to one more service, I use <a href="http://docs.google.com/">Google Docs & Spreadsheets</a>. Features include collaboration with simultaneous edits, ability to publish documents, inbuilt chat with people currently editing the document, tagging etc. Competitors in the field include the <a href="http://www.zoho.com/">Zoho Suite of products</a>, which was recently in the news for bringing offline functionality to the browser using Google's own 'Gears' technology to its range of products, before Google could implement it in its own Online Office suite. Zoho does have a much wider variety of offerings, all of which are listed at <a href="http://www.zoho.com/">www.zoho.com</a><br /><br />If you have better suggestions, lets hear it in the comments.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr />
<a href="https://plus.google.com/116473196700673168705/posts" title="Ashley on Google+">Add me on Google+</a></div>Ashley Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01962607557397439036noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-205942688009521734.post-48670735372033540462007-06-07T02:34:00.000+10:002007-06-07T02:36:54.589+10:00New Design - Do you like it?Thanks to <a href="http://blogger-templates.blogspot.com/">Blogger Templates</a> blog for the new design.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Do post your opinion in the comments..</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr />
<a href="https://plus.google.com/116473196700673168705/posts" title="Ashley on Google+">Add me on Google+</a></div>Ashley Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01962607557397439036noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-205942688009521734.post-39196730696357162612007-05-27T01:50:00.000+10:002007-08-08T12:37:12.986+10:00Geni - Make Your Family Tree, as easy as 1-2-3!I have been putting this off for a long time; been using Geni more than a month now - So here it is: A review for <a href="http://www.geni.com/">Geni</a> : The flash-based, easy to use family tree service.<br /><a href="http://corner.50webs.com/blog/labels/geni.html"><img src="http://imgred.com/http://www.geni.com/images/GeniBeta.jpg" style="border: 0pt none ; margin: 10px; float: right;" height="58" width="158" /></a><br />Geni is not the first team to venture into genealogy, the study of pedigree (ancestry); which deals with the bloodlines which connect you and me. Others, like <a href="http://www.ancestry.com/">Ancestry.com</a>, <a href="http://www.familysearch.org/">FamilySearch.org,</a> <a href="http://www.genealogy.com/">Genealogy.com</a>, <a href="http://www.genealogy.org/">Genealogy.org</a> etc. have been in the field for many years (See for yourself if you want; the basic services are free for all.), but Geni steals the prize by being simple.<br /><br />Just seven weeks after <a href="http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/16/geni-launches/">going public in January this year</a>, Geni caught the attention of hundreds of thousands of people through a simple, intuitive interface which far surpassed the interfaces of the competitors. Another major reason behind its popularity is its viral nature : you invite, say, 10 relatives, they invite 5 each, and so on - soon, your tree will contain hundreds of members you've never even heard of!<br /><br />The service caught my sight when it was mentioned in <a href="http://www.thinkdigit.com/">Digit Magazine</a> as a free service for building family trees. I was actually looking for a way to re-connect with my family members; its quite hard for me to remember the exact relationships when meetings are quite rare with distant relatives - sometimes, even close ones. So I didn't waste a minute and jumped online to <a href="http://www.geni.com/">www.geni.com</a>...<br /><br />Needless to say, I was instantly <span style="font-style: italic;">Hooked</span>! Hectic days of compiling relations ensued, and within just 3 days I had added <span style="font-weight: bold;">500+ relatives</span> to my tree (<span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >Yeah, I'm impulsive like that</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 102, 0);font-size:85%;" >:)</span> ), thanks to my parents who helped a lot by making dozens of phone calls to get names & long-forgotten bloodlines. (You don't have to do all the work yourself; inviting relatives to join is the recommended way to compile the tree.)<br /><br />Here is a screen shot of the tree view:<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://lh4.google.com/image/ashleyvjc/Rlhi3KyHQXI/AAAAAAAABY0/ZotkpkybFxY/s400/Geni-Tree.jpg" alt="Geni Screenshot" style="margin: 0pt auto;" height="327" width="400" /></div><br />You can add more members to your tree yourself, or can invite relatives to join the tree. Only those you invite to your tree will be able to see it, so there is no privacy threat. If a member joins Geni through your invite and chooses a password, their profile will become un-editable by others; otherwise you can edit any profile in your tree.<br /><br />Every member gets a photo album by default. Uploaded family photos can be tagged with the names of those who are in the photo, which will automatically add the photo to their profiles. For example, if I upload a photo of my cousins, and tag it with their names, all the cousins' profiles will have the picture in their album. Nice!<br /><br />Recently they added the option to invite your family friends to Geni, which will enable those who join via the invitation to see your profile and your immediate relatives (but not their profiles).<br /><br />In the true spirit of Web 2.0, Geni carries a 'beta' tag; they are still working on many of the features frequently requested by users, such as ability to import trees from other genealogy programs, an option to merge trees, exporting the entire tree as a GEDCOM file (industry standard for genealogy information) etc. Expect much more, soon.<br /><br />So why wait? <a href="http://www.geni.com/">Go to Geni.com</a> and start your tree - maybe one day you'll beat the old-school members of ancestry.com, with over 30,000 relatives(!!) in their trees...<div class="blogger-post-footer"><hr />
<a href="https://plus.google.com/116473196700673168705/posts" title="Ashley on Google+">Add me on Google+</a></div>Ashley Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01962607557397439036noreply@blogger.com0