Category Archives: Computer and Internet

Windows 7 – First Look

Posted on by
Reply

The new laptop that i bought for my fiancee was an HP Pavilion dv4 that was shipped with Windows 7. So i got to have a look at Windows 7.

Though a linux fan, i had to see what Microsoft was offering with its Windows 7. Well to start with it looks and feels like its older brother Vista. Oh ya, i remember someone telling me that Windows 7 is noting bug Vista with bug fixes. So here are some of the screen shots that i took.

icon smile Windows 7 First Look look at the IE8 image. It broke the Mozilla homepage, but FireFox displayed it perfectly.

Yahoo GeoCities Closing on 26th Oct 2009

Posted on by
1

Today morning, as it happens for all Monday mornings in office, the first thing i checked was XKCD. First i thought the site was hacked and i was too lazy to read the scrolling marquee ma geo 1 Yahoo GeoCities Closing on 26th Oct 2009

“GeoCities is shutting down today. To commemorate this, xkcd.com has been redesigned.”

So as of 26th Oct 2009, Yahoo GeoCities will be closed. So if you have an existing a/c with GeoCities, then you have the option of downloading you files into your system or opt for one of the options given here.

Read more about it here.

This is how the XKCD home page looked like on 26th Oct 2009.

Yahoo GeoCities Closing on 26th Oct 2009

Good bye GeoCities!!

Aravind Jose has a post up on Techie Buzz on the same. It was he who told me why Xkcd was having the new look and asked me to read the scrolling marquee. icon biggrin Yahoo GeoCities Closing on 26th Oct 2009

Twestival 2009 Bangalore – A walk through

Posted on by
3

badge Twestival 2009 Bangalore A walk throughThe Twestival 2009 Bangalore has been long over and i’m not going to report on the event. The event was fun all together. I was transferring the photos from my mobile and i stumbled up on the pics that i took during Image 067 150x150 Twestival 2009 Bangalore A walk throughTwestival. Added on some of the lighter moments of the event.

Twestival was organized for charity and i believe they did good. The highlight for the day for me was the free beer. Yes, free booze and i’m there. The first pint is free, the second drink onwards the money goes to charity. Pause!

The guy who runs TechBangalore, yes H. N. Prashanth, the guy who orders ‘ondu masala dosa, ondu cutting chai’, changed his order to ‘ondu masala dosa, ondu beer’. Yes! he drank for charity icon biggrin Twestival 2009 Bangalore A walk through

That was the effect that Twestival had on the twitterati.

It was a Saturday morning and i had promised Daaku, that i will join in for the Twestival. So got up, brushed, cleaned myslef, put on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt that had the IBM logo on the sleeve and RedBulls written Image 069 150x150 Twestival 2009 Bangalore A walk throughon the chest. Landed at the place for twestival and i realized immediately that i made a mistake with my attire. I wore a Halloween costume for a Thanks Giving dinner… oops!!! Worst of all, people miss took me for a guy from Red-Bull, didn’t they notice the ‘s’ at the end of the Bull, icon sad Twestival 2009 Bangalore A walk through

The most embarrassing part, that no one knew – Nakul Shenoy, yes the magician, the techie who only learned to do anonymous mem-reads on other unsuspecting people, was done with his show (which was brilliant btw), dressed up in plain formal attitre and came all the way to the place where we twitterers were having a merry time and joined us in tweeting. First thought that crossed my mind, ‘I have seen this guy somewhere… Where?… Have i met him before?’. It took me full 15mins to realize that it was the same guy on stage reading other people’s thoughts. (Hope he didn’t read my thought at that point)

Prashanth proved that he is a bigger techie, when i complained that i cant find a free wifi to connect to. He took out his Nokia phone and said ‘No problem, wait a few secs, i’ll connect via GPRS and make my phone a wifi hot-spot, then you connect to my phone..’. My jaws were on the floor … LOL

iPod Touch Headset Test

Posted on by
Reply

overview hero 20090224 iPod Touch Headset Test

(pic. courtesy © 2009 Apple Inc.)

Almost a month and a half back, i bought a new 2nd Gen. 8GB iPod Touch. Well i have to say that its one handy device and i look like a star (or atleast i feel so), given the fact that i mostly come in contact with people whose knowledge of technology is as good as my knowledge of politics.

On the internet you’ll find all sorts of tests that people do on the unsuspecting iPod, iPod Touch, iPhone etc. But did you really care to test the headset. No! none of them really did any of that. I’m into QA (quality assurance) and though my testing of the iPod headset wont do me any good. Also any expenses involved has to be from my account. No one will ever ever fund something like what i did…

Disclaimer: This is a seasoned experienced tester. Experiments like this can leave you broke. Please do not attempt this at home.

Cost of a brand new iPod headset – Rs 1’600/-

I didnt care to buy a new one. I just used the one that they shipped with the iPod.

Steps :

  1. Place the headset in a shirt pocket, preferrably with a button on top, so that the test-material a.k.a headset doesnt drop off
  2. Soak the shirt in a half a bucket of water, with 2 spoons of detergent ( Yes!!!)
  3. Wait for 12hrs
  4. Take the shirt (with the headset in its pocket) and dump it into a washing machine along with other clothes and do a dirt-run.
  5. Wait 1hr
  6. Pretend that you forgot about the clothes and the headset in the washing machine and wait for 1 more hour
  7. Take the clothes, put them to dry

Now, take the headset out, wipe it clean, give it CPR, plug it into the iPod and play ….

IT WORKS !!! icon biggrin iPod Touch Headset Test and here it is ladies and gentlemen, the headset that made it through, resting on my laptop

image 048 300x225 iPod Touch Headset Test

What is DataPower and Why DataPower?

Posted on by
8

Straight from the IBM site, this is the definition of DataPower -

IBM® WebSphere® DataPower® SOA Appliances are purpose-built, easy-to-deploy network devices that simplify, help secure, and accelerate your XML and Web services deployments while extending your SOA infrastructure.

Lets stop with that and talk a little bit about SOA, the current architecture and how DataPower fits in.

The middleware infrastructure of an enterprise need to support XML and Web Services, since its emergence and popularity. This meant that the ESB or enterprise service bus had to support the emerging technology. This was proving to be an problem because of -

  1. Traditional middleware installation has increased installation and maintenance costs
  2. Operational costs involved in supporting the new data format (XML) and the existing formats (flatfile, cobol copybook etc)
  3. Security – New forms of attack on the infrastructure

[1]DataPower SOA appliances address these three challenges with the creation of specialized, purpose-built, consumable SOA appliances that redefine the boundaries of middleware. As the “hardware ESB,” DataPower SOA appliances are an increasingly important part of the IBM ESB family.

As mentioned earlier DataPower is an appliance. So why exactly do we need an appliance what can it do?. Lets looks a typical infrastructure  – (this is not how it is but helps to explain the situation icon biggrin What is DataPower and Why DataPower? )

Continue reading →