Fools paradise:A total revelation
(Moving target: The disillusioned donkey -source : Bobanum Moli)So I would like you to join this investigation, to verify whether, this has some credibility or was it just another de-ja-vu
Firstly I started counting the ads in the magazine. Believe it or not, 26 % of this magazine is full of untargeted ads - which really makes one feel, you PAY your hard earned cash on some stupid ads? These are full pages ads and I have not included ads that cover up over half the page or even 3/4 rth of it.Counting these, would increase the toll to even unbelievable higher numbers
Note that,you may not get the complete picture of what I am saying if you have lot of cash, and have no idea on how to spend it or you do not have even the faintest idea of whats happening in the tech world. So lets proceed further.
Looking further, we can see that, there are over 38 pages of reviews of software and hardware, which may seem interesting at first. But looking closely, one can find that most of these hardware/softwares are not even close to the budget that the common computer guy can afford to.
Just check this out. To avoid randomness, I have included the review in a series (in the order, they appear in the magazine).
It doesn't matter what product they have reviewed(because I don't want to do that product's advertisement here, again !!) I have only included the page number as well as the price.
Page Price
115 Rs 17,500 (434.67 $)
139 Rs 8213 (204.00 $)
140 Rs 100,609 (2499 $)
141 Rs 26,128 (649 $)
143 Rs 40,219 (999 $)
the list goes on,
On an average, most of the products reviewed comes over 15,000 and buying a couple of products in this category is just unthinkable. They have also allocated 11 pages for Vista(still not widely adopted) and Mac(least minority users in India) and 18 pages of reviews for games on Xbox and PS3 - note that Xbox and Ps3 accounts to very negligibly small percentage of computer users in India
All in all a whopping 115 pages(68 %) of stuff, which you can't either use or afford to. Now someone may argue that you shouldn't be reading this magazine in the first place, if you cant shell out 30,000 - 40,000 a month and that too on proprietary software, I agree with you dude. But I just thought of sharing with you something, that I learnt, thats all.
Even with the 30 % stuff which you MAY find beneficial, some of them are targeted at enterprise users, some at home users and so on. So think again,what does all these really mean?
And unfortunately this is the same case with most computer magazines available in the market, But there are some exceptions like Linux Journal and Linux for you and Developer IQ magazines(Correct me, if I am wrong)
I have made of completing listing of ads, the product price as well as the page numbers that they appear. 68 % of stuff, which I have quoted earlier is also fully documented. So anyone who would like to verify could just mail me and I will be glad to send you the details. My email id is
j-u-s- t-i -n -c- s- 4 -@ - g- m- a-i- l - d- o- t - c- o- m (without spaces and hyphens)
So lets keep our eyes open on things that we buy and things that we really get.
And Keep clicking
This is where I shoud be
(courtesy, source :http://sh5.net/gallery/main.php/v/2003/100_0305.jpg.html)Just to look at the these clusters, being stacked up, is just a beauty(Correct me, if I am wrong). My heart is really at, working in a Linux environment with super computing power, but not those proprietary "Main-frame" stuff(Coders, switch to the mainframe. No skills?... no problem.)but rather some cool open source, hackable Linux clusters - I am looking forward for that.
Labels: cluster computing, linux, super computing
Results are out
Above: I have attached a newspaper clipping, that appeared today, announcing that the results for Bachelor degree in Computer Science has been announced. And one of my friends secured the highest marks in the university topping the rank list(her name has been highlighted in pink) Since the transcript is in Malayalam, I though of explaining it here ^^
Even my results are out, I secured 81 % aggregate in the Bachelor degree and 84 % in the final semester. So finally, I am a graduate now !
Most of my friends including Nandu, Vijay, Melvin and Nithin also secured very good marks. And most of them are very happy. Today WILL be one of the memorable days of my life.
Labels: special
Mozilla rules
(Graph of browsers that, visitors to this blog use)
About 84 % of visitors to this blog, use Firefox or Mozilla based browsers, while visiting this site. Firefox 2.0.x is the browser used by the maximum number(67.23 %) of visitors. The bar at the top(the longest one) depicts this.
These stats are generated, thanks to a free site called statcounter.com - and in just a few steps, you too can have your stats about your blog/site generated in real-time !
Labels: blog, firefox, statcounter
Flock rocks
(Screenshot of me using the latest flock browser)Yesterday I downloaded the latest version of Flock web browser from here. The new browser just looks awesome and it has some really cool features that will keep you glued to it from some moths to come!. It has instant blog option - that is, You can create you blog posts off line and save it in your pc- if you want to , and finally upload it to blogger with one single click.
It displayes the latest images from flickr and videos from youtube and also update you on the latest news from various domains from several website. Adding your own content to these sites is also very easy -with just one click!. All these are available from the "My world" button(see the pic)
It has so much features, that you need some time to get used to all its features. Even for beginners, the browser offers a lot than just surfing the sites. Anyway, I consider it as a "Must-download" for any tech enthusiast :)
A "PC world " note
(PC world magazine with all the free goodies)Two days back I bought the latest edition of PC World computer magazine. Since they would be completing 1 year in India, they had lot of free goodies with this month's issue, Including 6 free booklets and a DVD with 12 softwares worth Rs 24,000 (596.12 $) ; FREE.
They also had this neatly published at the back of the cover in which the magazine came(see below) - that they are giving these softwares, costing so much, just free with the magazine. Great!!
But it made me wonder, whether anyone one of us really bother to see the value/cost/effort behind any one the free and open source softwares that we use and those that are taken for granted .....
Consider the softwares that we use daily including the Firefox, GIMP, Thunderbird, OpenOffice and java and thousands other such software;including the Apache, which powers most of the websites(66 million of them- source:netcraft) that you visit. People rarely publicize about the value and power of these softwares.
Imagine one of the computer magazines(substitute your favorite magazine here) decides to give away Vista with their magazine!!(I know its never going to happen!) and consider how much they would advertise, publicize to let everyone "know" that they are giving Vista with their magazine.
Now consider this, imagine how much this same magazine would publicize/advertise if they decide to give out a cool new Linux distribution with their magazine....
I think you get my picture, a stark contrast between the free world of open source /free softwares and that of proprietary software - In my humble opinion, one of the main issues that needs to be addressed.
Share your thoughts here.
As a side note, i decided to add a list of "Top 5 Free/Open source Applications" in my blog.
bye
Labels: free software, open source, pcworld
Java : System properties
While reading discussions in comp.lang.java.programmer(accessed via google groups) I came across a thread relating to finding user's home directory in Java. As I read further, I came across a link for most system properties in Java.
An idea came to my mind, as how to, develop a system anaylysis program in Java that would present to the user, his/her complete system specification - including what processor is used, how much ram etc. Just a passing thought, and I hope it will get some form, in the coming days.
Your comments on the same, are heartily welcome
Currenlty I am gazing through various rooms in irc.freenode.net, namely ##linux, #apache, ##c, ##c++, #python, #mysql, and #ubuntu. All these rooms seems to be pretty interesting and with less trash/filthy talk compared to other such providers.
Oh, its getting time, to leave for the classes at NIIT, and we have been informed that classes would be from 1:00 to 5:00 today, because we are having exams in the next week at NIIT. So me, looking forward for an interesting session on XML, today afternoon.
bye guys
Justin
An idea came to my mind, as how to, develop a system anaylysis program in Java that would present to the user, his/her complete system specification - including what processor is used, how much ram etc. Just a passing thought, and I hope it will get some form, in the coming days.
Your comments on the same, are heartily welcome
Currenlty I am gazing through various rooms in irc.freenode.net, namely ##linux, #apache, ##c, ##c++, #python, #mysql, and #ubuntu. All these rooms seems to be pretty interesting and with less trash/filthy talk compared to other such providers.
Oh, its getting time, to leave for the classes at NIIT, and we have been informed that classes would be from 1:00 to 5:00 today, because we are having exams in the next week at NIIT. So me, looking forward for an interesting session on XML, today afternoon.
bye guys
Justin
Labels: google groups, IRC, java, usenet
New IRC servers
Note that I came across a another cool irc server, related to linux and technology, namely
irc.oftc.net So from now on, if I came across new IRC servers, it would posted as comments to this post.
Readers of this blog, are welcome to post thier favorite IRC servers too as comments to this post.
Bye
irc.oftc.net So from now on, if I came across new IRC servers, it would posted as comments to this post.
Readers of this blog, are welcome to post thier favorite IRC servers too as comments to this post.
Bye
Labels: IRC
Joining IRC rooms
(IRC room of php in Pidgin)Now after successfully logging into irc.linuxchix.org IRC server and getting into a few rooms, I then, tried out to google for more IRC servers and rooms, but could not find much. Suddenly, I realized that, I had overlooked the default server name that appears, when I choose IRC protocol in Pidgin, namely
irc.freenode.net
I just logged in and it had thousands of rooms(yeah, u heard it right)And I first logged in to two rooms, namely php and centos.Now, note that sometimes, the nickname that you use might have been used by someone else
so issue the command:
/quit
then go back to Pidgin, and change your nickname to some "not-so-common" ones;Come back again and try to join the room. If it is accepted, then issue the command
/register your-password
and viollaaaa, you are IN
IRC rocks
(Pidgin to the rescue again)
I have been using Pidgin for a long time now to chat with my friends both in Google(gmail) as well as in Yahoo using this single super cool client. The usual trojans and boot-ins, that is so common among Yahoo messenger users, wont simply, just work in Pidgin, and thats the beauty of it.
Now the IRC story
I had heard about IRC, a long time ago - the intial impression I had was that, it was a place where hackers met. And 6 months back, one of my friends namely Mr.Manu Unni - who was chief project lead in localization of Open Office in Malayalam, again told me about the great world of IRC and told me to look our for my Linux queries there. As soon as I came back home, I installed a shareware IRC client, but to my dismay, found it rather intriguing and not so easy to use and I gave it up altogether.
Fast forward to today, I just Googled for IRC, came across an wiki entry on the same. But it was pretty boring(its not usually like that,though - wiki entries are one of my best sources of info), but I got a pretty interesting link referring to rfc(Request for comment) of IRC. Next I got a list of free IRC's from wiki. And i was surprised to see our dear own Pidgin there.
I googled for configuring Pidgin and IRC and got these links
- IRC for beginners : Just beginner stuff, to get you started
- Aussie Linuxchix : Joining the IRC channel - a nice guide to installing and using Pidgin
- The IRC Prelude: A detailed view, on IRC communication, including jargons and ways to talk and so on.
Currently I am logged on to the server irc.linuxchix.org and its really cool feeling to know that, you are part of a whole new world of gurus and students alike.
Rather that just burst in, I plan to learn the netiquettes of IRC cha tfirst and then proceed further.
It worked !!!!!!!
As mentioned in my previous(last) post, when disabled the feature - "turn off usb device on standby" , I am able to connect to the Internet even after the pc is back after a stand-by session. Hooray!!
(Before I had to log-out and then log-in after each standy!!)
Labels: hacking, internet, IRC, modem, net connection, pidgin
Well, I am back
(A snap taking during our way to Pune )
A small note about the photo
The snap was taken using my c653 easy share kodak digital camera. I had taken this photo while peeping out of the window in the train that we were travelling. Note that, the photo has NOT lost any details, even though the train was travelling at over 100 kilometer per hour (62.13 miles per hour)
(Note:The date in the photo had been mistakenly set wrong)
Trip to pune
The trip to Pune was really cool, and I got really excited about sytem and security testing, that I found myself reading some really good books/blogs on the same, after coming back. Some blogs that worth checking are :
- http://softwaretestingguide.blogspot.com/
- http://software-quality-testing.blogspot.com/
- http://www.opensourcetesting.org/
Brother also gifted me 5 cool books : 3 on java, 1 about google and one on software testing. The one on testing, really caught my attention, and I haven't laid down the book ever since. I've completed 5 chapters on the same: Software Testing by Ron Patton.
Strange modem not connecting problem
I have been a facing a starnge problem recently. Its like this. I connect to internet using Scientific-Altanta WebSTAR DPC2100R2 Cable Modem throgh my usb. I use for a while, and when I take leave and come after, say an hour, the computer would be in stand by mode.
When I return, i wont be able to connect to internet. I recently learnt that it could be that, usb goes to standby mode. This can be disabled as follows: Right click on my computer. click on properties. Click the hardware tab, and click on Device manager.
From the list, select USB serial bus controllers, select USB root hub. Double click it.Select the power management tab and uncheck Uncheck Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power I think, that must fix the problem.
I haven't tried out yet, and whatever may be the outcome, i will post it here. I got the result by googling for "standby XP modem problem" (without quotes)
Path to hacking (not cracking)
I feel one can learn a lot about security features, and various exploits in a software, if one has good grasp over software testing. And as I could learn from the recent past, people just not stumble across exploits or back doors in softwares;(although, some rarely do) But they systematically work out possibilities, leading to the security breach, and publish it in bug-forums where they could be rectified in future release.
As a side note, I happened to hear last week that, famous security related bugs are being auctioned off, for cool hard cash. Strange indeed!!
Labels: bugs, hacking, modem, net connection, pune, software testing
Off to Pune
(A typical Indian train)Tomorrow me and my family would be leaving Trivandrum by train to visit my brother and his wife @ Pune. Pune is approximately 1850 kilometers(1150 miles) from the place where I stay. So I may not be able to post for the next one week or so. In between, I will try to access net from Pune and type in a few posts.
Another cool thing is that I added "feeds" to this site(Look at the right, link named - "Subscribe to my blog")So anyone can subscribe to this blog and read them using their favorite news aggregator(like rssowl) I added this cool feature using feedburner- which is free and very beginner friendly.
Shopping at Pune
Over there(at Pune) I would love to shop for the following things
- A can of spray paint - to try my hands on PC modding
- Some nice t-shirts for going to martial arts class
- Probably some good books on meditation, Kung Fu, Tai-chi etc
- A mp3 player ?? (Not sure though)
well, the list goes on, and I better end it here ;)
So bye guys
