The Modern Grail

Ubuntu Studio - Starting the musical journey

2011-10-09T11:58:00.000-07:00

I have been waiting to do some kinda midi based recording/playing for some time now. I have a good keyboard with midi capabilities in Yamaha PSR-730 and considering that my first attempt in getting things sorted out 4 years back ended in disarray with me destroying my then ubuntu linux installation, I had decided that midi and stuff are as such off my limits. Till I decided to try my hands with ubuntu studio like a week ago out of curiosity.

Don't know what is different from my previous attempt, but this time I could see a lot of help post in internet for configuring the various softwares in ubuntu studio and a lot more assisting people in trying out the midi playing and recording stuff which I feel is showing what linux as a whole entity is doing to the Music Production industry. Probably this was the little help that I needed during my last attempt.

Nevertheless, overwriting my current ubuntu 11.04 installation with a ubuntu studio 11.04 installation roughly took me an hour at most and certain things struck me visibly, which I think would require me to go for a new post which I'll do if I get some time in the near future.

For people out there deciding to try ubuntu studio, request you to go through some of the steps that were in place before the current graphical installation engines came long. Extreme knowledge would not be needed as most of them will be self explanatory during the installation.

Once I got the ubuntu studio installed, I still didnt know how to check if I had setup properly or not. For this I needed knowledge of the following important factors and once I started putting them in place, everything started looking and feeling right.

First, a little bit of knowledge about how things work in a normal music studio outside as in the equipments that you use to the way you feed the output from your system to a sequencer, stuff like that. For a guy like me with absolutely no knowledge of that, things like Jack, Virtual Keyboard, QSynth, Ardour everything looked out of sorts.

Jack:

It is like a virtual feed manager. Similar to the way you would take the feed from your keyboard to an amplifier. It lets users link their instruments(virtual or real) to any other software as such. and it is designed in a way to make sure the end user feels the links are not slow and all the softwares in the link recieve their input with very minuscule time differences like something in milliseconds. In simple words, its a server that is used for monitoring existing feeds between softwares and for creating new feed links.

QSynth:
It is a synthesizer very similar to the real world if one has used it. Note: I had only got the opportunity to look at those things in a studio during field trips. Ok, coming to their functionality, they can do stuff ranging from simple functionality like adding effects to the incoming feed to creating customized instrument sounds for incoming midi triggers. In linux software scenario, all midi instruments feed need to be given to a synthesizer before one can get the sound from the instrument because all that your midi instrument does in real send trigger events and information about instruments to be used with them. And your synth takes care of putting the appropriate instrument for it or the ones that you select in the synthesizers. In QSynth though it can work in sync with another synth/virtual instrument and directly produce the sound from it and for this it needs .sf2 soundfont files - files containing information about instruments. A lot of sites allow downloading these files and all you got to do is let the qsynth know of where to locate these files.

Another useful synth that I personally like and the one that I started with was ZynAddSubFX. It comes with both an inbuilt basic keyboard and instrument bank. I still have to check the possibility of creating customized instruments though with it. For starters, It would be great to start with ZynAddSubFX before moving on to QSynth and understanding the concept of how it works.

Virtual Keyboard:
As the developers of the software have put in their sites, this one cannot produce sound on its own, It needs to work with another synth so that the synth produces the sound for the trigger it gets from virtual keyboard. Though I found that by installing some instrument soundfont files in QSynth, it was able to recognize most of the instruments in virtual keyboard and produce the corresponding sound for them. Unlike ZynAddSubFX where in I had to select an instrument that had to be synthesized. So still trying to understand the entire picture of how QSynth works. If I can get the exact sound from my keyboard in Qsynth, it would be super great. Will post more on that If I find anything good in the coming weeks.

Hydrogen:
It is a drum sequencing application and one of the few to directly work with the ALSA sound engine without the need for me to set the link up in JACK. A Simple one in terms of design and a very well advanced one when it come to loading instrument libraries, I simple loved it from word go. First I didnt had to put in the hours as in to understand the Jack, Synth etc. Suggest this for anyone starting with music production in linux. Will help to get the picture of what is in store for aspiring musicians and people thinking about switching to linux.

Ardour:
First let me admit that I didnt know a thing about how it worked. During my first attempt 4 years back, I had to tryst with rosegarden and to say the truth, have still not understood that one well. So Me having to tryst with another software that I had no idea was sending some shivers through me. Ok, to start of with, If you understood jack well enough, Ardour works in a similar way.

2 important things though are the buses and tracks. Remember the following concept that I learnt and it could help you a lot. First Track is something that lets you record music from another bus.
Bus lets you route another instrument like hydrogen or synths feed into ardour.

For each track that you select and for each bus you select you will have to define the input/output sources and once you have done that all that is left is to record some funky tones and see how things turn out.

Since ubuntu studio comes in a 1.5 gig dvd you might think that you will also get the standard linux software like openoffice with it, which is not the case. Be ready to download some seperately. And for people out there still wanting the old gnome interface back, ubuntu studio wouldnt be all that different.

Folders opening in new window - vista & IE 8

2009-11-29T11:12:00.000-08:00

This fix is for the vista sp1 update that includes IE 8. Once IE 8 is installed, the folders open in new windows even though the 'open each folder in the same window' option is selected.

This can be corrected by running the IE 8 in administrator mode just once. This will fix the issue. The reason for the issue is still unknown. I'll update it once I get the reason.

(I tried everything to fix this. So thought I could share it with everybody.)

Life on the changing path - World in front of a computer

2009-11-29T04:02:00.000-08:00

Its been a really really long time since I blogged.

I don't know if it is just that I don't get time to blog or am I being consumed in this fast moving world?. Usually Saturdays and Sundays were the boring days of the week as I didn't have anything to do. But now it seems that they are the most important things that I wait for when each week starts as I can take rest only on those days. Before I stepped out into this world, I used to have time to think. I used to play around with different technologies. I used to watch movies as they release. Now I don't even know what movie in the theater near my house. I used to have dinner before 9:30 at night. But now even that is not starting before 11 at night. I don't even know what dress my father is gonna wear for office? or what dish my mother is gonna cook?. I'm can see that I'm changing and the worst part is my health. I used to be one of the bulky boys of the class weighing in the mid 80's. Now I find it hard to believe that I weigh a little over 60 kgs. My food habits have changed and So have I.

Is this change good for me?
Is this the change I longed for during my engineering course?
Is this the change my parents wanted for me?
Is this the change that I supposed was gonna make my family happier?
Am I still suppose to be the guy who enjoys everything as it comes?

or

Have I become the personification of everything that one doesn't want to be?

IT has changed India and Indians and I now understand how much?
I suppose there are people out there who would agree with my view.

As I write this, I'm struck by the fact that I have to complete some important documents for some project related work tomorrow. I'm not sure that I'll be able to continue on blogging as I used to. But I'll try doing whatever I can.

Wish someone could foretell my future. Atleast I'll prepare myself for it.

Brawn GP - A team to look out for this 2009 season

2009-03-28T01:44:00.000-07:00

This season's F1 had speculations all over it, with the FIA, the Governing Body bringing several changes to the format. They brought back the slick tyres, which was probably a good move. But the change in the specifications of the wings and the highly complicated diffuser seems to have sparked of some heat between the teams.

Brawn Gp Team Formerly known as the Honda, are one who have got nearly everything in the right place for the starting race of this season. Their performance in the practice sessions was excellent, and going by what I have seen for the Qualifying sessions, they are eyeing the Constructors as well as the Driver's championship this year for sure.

Who would have bet their money on a team running into crisis,going up for sale and probablyhaving 2 of the oldest drivers for this season to back so much punch in their maiden run?. Jenson Button and Rubens Barricello(One retired as many thought of him) have come back like veteran tigers with a vengeance to show others of how good they really are. Rubens has oen more time to roar loud, I would say. Going for experienced drivers was more than a boon I would say. Ross Brawn is surely someone who has to be congratulated for his brave initiative.

Sir Richard Branson has already set the limelight on the team and their future, coming out to openly sponsor the team with his virgin brand. This team sure has something in it. Well, something , that could shake the very foundation of this racing world as we know it. Today, they were probably within breaking shumi's 1:24 barrier within 500's of a second.

Wait a second where did the other teams go???
Mclaren - could only get till the Q2, with Hamilton not even coming out for a run in Q2 and Heiki struggling to get anything out from his car.

Renault - Alonso atleast got till Q2, Piquet couldn't even get their.

Ferrari - They must thank god for being in the Top 10. Surely their drivers did something more than what the car could do to get to that spot.

Well, going by the first qualifying sessions in 2009, I would rather like to bet my money on the minnows than go for the Big boys. But you never know, "this is one crazy world!!!".

A.R. Rahman bags 2 oscars

2009-02-22T20:17:00.000-08:00

A.R. Rahman bags 2 oscars and sets India on the global movie map. He has won the oscars for the best score and song for the movie "the Slumdog Millionaire". Though this should have been awarded a long time ago, I think this is one that Rahman truely deserved.

Thanks for making India proud!!!!!!!!!!

Wish you get many more in the forth coming years!!!!!!

ShopWiki - one stop for the world of e-shopping

2008-10-15T01:55:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time, we used to walk up stairs and for miles to the shop and then sit their arguing with the shop keeper there for some price bargains. If the purchased item was sold for a lower price at another place or a better product for lower price then we ponder over it. All this are things of past, as now that everything has come to the stage of e-shopping. People have to sit at their houses before their laptops or computers and place orders for the things they want and they are delivered to their house right away.

Internet is not a small place and finding the right stores with the right products at the right price can be very hectic for a normal user. Thats where ShopWiki comes into the picture allowing people access to thousands of stores online where the relevant products are for sales. How they do it? By crawling internet for relevant stores selling relevant products just like your favorite search engines such as Google or Yahoo do. As such they are able to provide the exact results, you as a customer would be looking for with all the options available to you in exactly one place.

They also provide comprehensive analysis of products , thereby providing you with valuable advise that would help you choose between products. For me, I had confusion when buying my laptop. I didn't have much people around me to help me decide whether to go for laptop or a PC upgrade. But I decided to go for a laptop just based on instincts and hurray, it is one of the best decisions I made. I know there are many people out there, who might be in the same situation as I was and might be looking for some assistance. You can look at their wiki page for laptop/computer support here. Well, I wished I had someone who had given me such details when I bought mine. It has every details for a person buying computer or any other related accessories.

Their wiki is one of the best for people who have just set out on buying a product they don't know about or one they feel, they could have further understanding. Well, as I mentioned in the blog title, they are undoubtedly going to be the revolutionary complete guide to e-shopping for guys like me.

Debt Consolidation - The need at this crisis time

2008-10-15T00:38:00.000-07:00

With the world economy now in shambles after the US financial crisis and Lehman Brothers break down, the world has come to realize the importance of avoiding/minimizing unsecured debts especially through credit cards. Credit cards allow one to purchase any item on a credit basis and many people who don't know much about the legal obligations and penalties involved if one doesn't pay these debts in time are lured into it by smart bankers. Only when situation gets out of hand, do they go about pondering the mess they have got themselves into.

Most people go on purchasing items not just with one credit card but with multiple credit cards that the cumulative effect makes them pay huge sums and huge interests that could be avoided if one has proper credit consolidation advisors by their side. My Debt Consolidation Advice is one such agency that has come to the rescue of such people by offering them valuable advices and also helping them clear/cumulate their debts. They offer non profit debt consolidation which has helped many consolidate their debts by huge sums. They also help you to clear your debt and cumulate it so that you need not worry about it in future. This works by allowing you to take a consolidated huge loan, thereby you are able to convert all your small loans with huge interest rates into one with smaller interest rate.

Debt consolidation has become a serious social problem for people especially in US with the current crisis. They are a non-profit, licensed and bonded organization and offer 24/7 support for helping you. A recent survey has shown that the average U.S. family is in debt to over $9,000 with unsecured debt (i.e. credit cards). They are here to help such people consolidate their loans and reduce their interest rates. In modern times, finding such people to help out others and that too on a non-profit basis is simply amazing and appreciable.

Getting wireless to work in Ubuntu/Kubuntu 8.04 with atheros wireless card 5007EG - III

2008-10-05T00:40:00.000-07:00

Getting WIFI Led to work:-
In this post, I'll describe on how to get the WIFI LED, if any on acer laptops to work. The ndiswrapper driver I used would normally not give a working LED or might be it would work with very low intensity.

The following method involves editing a file associated with the ndiswrapper driver installation and cannot be used for the madwifi installation. If I find any useful information on how to get the LED working in madwifi, I'll try posting that too.

First type the following command from command line and check for the output:-

xxxx@yyyyyy-laptop:~$ ndiswrapper -l
net5211 : driver installed
device (168C:001C) present (alternate driver: ath_pci)

here (168C:001C) means my device is listed under this sub-driver. Then you have to travel to /etc/ndiswrapper/net5211/ and check for the filename like 168C:001C.5.conf. Yours would be different as per the output of the "ndiswrapper -l" command.

Then open the above file as root from terminal by using the following command in case of ubuntu:

sudo gedit /etc/ndiswrapper/net5211/168C:001C.5.conf

and the following command in case of kubutu:

sudo kate /etc/ndiswrapper/net5211/168C:001C.5.conf

The file will look something like this:-

sys_files|ar5211.sys
NdisVersion|0x50001
Environment|1
class_guid|4d36e972-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318
driver_version|,07/25/2007,5.0.3.67
BusType|5
SlotNumber|01
NetCfgInstanceId|{28022A01-1234-5678-ABCDE-123813291A00}

..................
..........
DriverDesc|NDIS Network Adapter
................

The (........) only means that other lines might be present. Please don't go about adding ....... to your file.

After the "DriverDesc|NDIS Network Adapter" line add the following 2 lines:-

gpioPinFunc1|3
gpioLedCustom|4

If "gpioPinFunc1|3" is already present, then add the gpioLedCustom|4 line alone. In gpioLedCustom|X, the last X can be anything between 1 to 4, This only makes the LED blink at different rates when it is idle. When you connect to a network, it all changes to normal. Finally you need to unload and reload the driver to check the LED utility. This can be donw using the following commands:

sudo modprobe -r ndiswrapper
sudo modprobe ndiswrapper

Thereafter the LED should be working correctly.

In my next post, I'll discuss on getting your network to a higher level of security such as WPA-PSK/WPA2-PSK than WEP. I'll try posting about this in a week or so.

Getting wireless to work in Ubuntu/Kubuntu 8.04 with atheros wireless card 5007EG - II

2008-10-05T00:36:00.000-07:00

In this post, I'll describe about installing the madwifi drivers.

2)MADWIFI:-
This will surely be the future where further development will be made as it would seem. Though I dont think this is as good as ndiswrapper at present, this surely has loads of tools that made me enjoy tweaking with it. But I struggled to get it working though. You can try this, if the ndiswrapper method did not work or you don't want the word windows anywhere near you.

First go to System–>Administration–>Hardware Drivers” and disable by un-ticking the following option- Atheros Hardware Access Layer (Hal). Then Reboot your system.

sudo apt-get install build-essential in a terminal or using synaptic as you wish. Also install all the dependencies.

open the terminal from Applications–>Accessories–>Terminal and type the followind commands in the order given below.

wget http://snapshots.madwifi.org/special/madwifi-ng-r2756+ar5007.tar.gz
tar xfz madwifi-ng-r2756+ar5007.tar.gz
cd madwifi-ng-r2756+ar5007
make
sudo make install
sudo modprobe ath_pci
sudo reboot(or restart your system manually)

if wget command doesn't work properly, you can directly download the file from the given link above to anywhere on your system. Change to that directory using your terminal and execute the remaining commands.

That should do. Now your wireless should work without any problem, just like ndiswrapper installation. If I'm correct the LED will not work, even here(especially with acer laptops). But as far as I know, there seems to be no way of getting it to work with madwifi. If you are ready to do away with the led, then you could be having the best set of madwifi tools available.

So continue using your network, till my next post on how to get the LED working as well as getting your network to a higher level of security namely WAP-PSK/WAP2/PSK than just WEP.
My next post will be on how to get the wireless LED working(with ndiswrapper).

Getting wireless to work in Ubuntu/Kubuntu 8.04 with atheros wireless card 5007EG - I

2008-10-05T00:30:00.000-07:00

I did have some ..... well to say the truth, a lot of trouble in getting wireless to work in ubuntu. Mine being an atheros 242x 5007eg card kind of saved me from the hectic work as most of the nice people in the ubuntu development section had already put the critical code on how to get the WIFI up with ubuntu.

For a first time user, all those can be very hectic. I didn't understand what ndiswrapper was or what madwifi was. I went about reading lot of forums/posts to get an idea on how to go about them. And to say the truth, I'm happy that I did some reading because I have got nearly each and every component in my laptop to work - from the wifiadapter to its led. Explain the 2 major wifi drivers in linux in as simple terms as possible.

ndiswrapper - using a driver created by atheros/microsoft for windows operating system in linux using a wrapper around it to work properly in linux.

madwifi - Open source linux wifi drivers running on top of proprietary HAL(Hardware Abstraction layer). I got the above sentence from madwifi site. They are also working on the new drivers to madwifi namely the ath5k and ath9k. Go here madwifi.org to learn much more about the madwifi. There are some excellent madwifitools available that can be of extreme use to the users

Most of them have used both and feel that both of them are equally good, though I felt the ndiswrapper was slightly better and the faster method.

So what both the drivers do is to detect the wireless card on your system. It doesn't scan for networks automatically and connect to them and all. Just tell the OS that there is a wireless card in your system.

Here I'll try illustrating the step to get your wireless card to be detected in your system. I did use the ndiswrapper method, so I'll go about it first.

Ubuntu/kubuntu 8.04 comes with a version of madwifi installed that doesn't account for much. It didn't work for me. So I went for ndiswrapper, just because it was easy to install than madwifi. But still madwifi will be the future in linux.

1)NDISWRAPPER:-
First you have to disable the madwifi drivers from being loaded at startup as you are going to use the ndiswrapper. This can be done in 2 steps.

First, If you are using ubuntu, goto "System–>Administration–>Hardware Drivers” and disable by un-ticking the following option. Incase of kubuntu , goto "System->Hardware Drivers Manager" and do the same.
For making sure that the system does'nt load these drivers automatically at restart, execute the following command in a terminal or console.

echo “blacklist ath_pci” | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist
(enter your account password if asked to at this point)
The /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist is actually like a text file, so open and check whether the line "blacklist ath_pci" is added to it using gedit or kate.

Restart the system after the previous step.

Now you can install the ndiswrapper(with ndisgtk) in your laptop

Incase of adept manager in kubuntu, just search for ndiswrapper and ndisgtk and install the following packages:- ndiswrapper-common, ndiswrapper-utils-1.9 and ndisgtk. Incase of synaptic in ubuntu, you might have to enable the multiverse and universe repositories. This can be done by following the steps in this page in the ubuntu wiki - here.
After installing the above softwares, you'll get the "Windows wireless Drivers" menu either in "System->Administration" or "System" menu. Click on it. A window as below will open up.

In this window, click on "Install New Driver" and point to "net5211.inf". This file is one of the many files in a zip file that has to be downloaded from atheros directly if possible. The name of the driver file that worked for me was from acer site itself, the link was ftp://ftp.work.acer-euro.com/notebook/aspire_5110/driver/Wireless_Atheros_V5.3.0.67_XP_XB63_XB62(WHQL).zip unzip this file and traverse to "Wireless_Atheros_V5.3.0.67_XP_XB63_XB62(WHQL)/Drivers/XP-x32" folder in the zip file. There you can find the 32-bit wireless drivers i.e. net5211.inf file. If you are ot able to get this driver, the try getting an atheros driver that is atleast WHQL (that could do).select it and install the driver.
After installing, just check whether the line after the driver name in ndisgtk changes to hardware present is "YES". That means you have installed the right drivers for your wireless card. If it shows that the hardware is not present, then you might need to try some other drivers, or check for the correct wireless card in your laptop.

After installing ndiswrapper drivers, open a console/terminal check whether you are able to detect your network by typing the command

iwlist wlan0 scan
(it can be wlanX or even ethX or athX, you can check that by using the command ifconfig or iwconfig in a terminal/console to see the correct name of your wireless interface.)
If you are not able to see any networks, then try scanning again, after pressing any wireless button(if any present) that you use for turning on your wireless. For me (aspire 4720z), this button was at the top of the laptop keyboard. You should be able to detect some network like this:-

wlan0 Scan completed :
Cell 01 - Address: 00:1E:40:40:C4:36
ESSID:""
Protocol:IEEE 802.11g
Mode:Managed
Frequency:2.462 GHz (Channel 11)
Quality:96/100 Signal level:-34 dBm Noise level:-96 dBm
Encryption key:on
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s
12 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s
Extra:bcn_int=100
Extra:atim=0
IE: IEEE 802.11i/WPA2 Version 1
Group Cipher : CCMP
Pairwise Ciphers (1) : CCMP
Authentication Suites (1) : PSK

If you get something like the above that means, you are able to detect your network properly. If your network is unencrypted or uses WEP encryption, you should be able to browse right away using Network Manager in ubuntu or KNetwork Manager in kubuntu, after giving necessary ip settings and WEP passwords etc. I did prefer WIFI-Radar, as It did detect my network automatically and I was able to browse instantly.

All this time, the wireless LED, if any on some acer laptops would not have worked or worked with very little brightness. I'll explain on how to get that working in the future posts. Next I'll give an brief overlook of madwifi installation.

Installing GFX GRUB in Ubuntu - grub graphically reloaded

2008-10-03T15:46:00.000-07:00

Well, GRUB has grown and has grown to be more beautiful. The new GNU Graphics GRUB is the new improvement to standard GRUB boot screen that adds much visual appeal. To install GFX GRUB, the older GRUB has to be removed. (Warning:- removing grub is tedious. If you don't any idea please suspend this tutorial here itself.)

To remove GRUB, open a terminal and type the following command.

sudo apt-get remove grub

Download GFX Grub from here.

Before starting make a backup copy of your GRUB menu. goto the folder /boot/grub and copy your menu.lst file .

Now download some additional themes for GFX Grub Menu Click Here.

Now unzip the files and move it to /boot/grub .. Since it comes under root file system you need to gain root privileged to do that .. Type the following in Terminal

sudo su root

Enter password and then type this nautilus this will open a new Nautilus Window. .Navigate to /boot/grub through root nautilus window.. Copy all the message.xyz (xyz can be anything)file to /boot/grub.
Now since you have added theme .. Lets do final settings to make this GFX Grub work.. Open terminal and type this

sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

Add this line at the top of the Menu.lst file

gfxmenu /boot/grub/message.xyz # the xyz should be replaced with the theme name that you are going to use
Since you have removed you older grub you need to restore GFX Grub so that you boot through OS without any problem.. Open Terminal and do these
Type
sudo grub
find /boot/grub/stage1
You will get a output like (hd0,4) or other depending on you HDD partitions
Then type this

root (hdx,y)
setup (hdx)
quit

Where “x” represent the value of hdd sector in which you have installed grub.

The last thing you have to do is to install Grub MBR .

sudo fdisk -l

You will get an output like this

Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0×0dd6c6bd

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 3187 25599546 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 3188 8287 40965750 f W95 Ext’d (LBA)
/dev/sda3 8288 9607 10602900 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 9608 9729 979965 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda5 3188 5737 20482843+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda6 5738 8287 20482843+ 7 HPFS/NTFS

Look for the bold Entry and finally install MBR in Filesystem

sudo grub-install /dev/sdaX
Note : Replace sda by hda or anything else, if it is in fdisk -l output. If the grub-install fails you can try adding “–recheck” option to the command.
Where X represent the number of you Hard Disk sector in which you had installed Grub.

This is what my boot screen looks like:

That must do. If no error occured in any of the steps, Your gfx grub installation has gone well. If any error has occured, please re-install the grub from your repository and follow the final 3 steps (marked by bullets) completely to get working GRUB. and replace the backed up copy of the menu.lst file. I can in no way, help incase of error. Even my understanding of GRUB is minimal. Everything went well for me. So I have posted this here.

All The Best!!!!!!!!!!!

Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex beta released

2008-10-03T15:14:00.000-07:00

Ubuntu 8.10 aka Intrepid Ibex has been released for developer testing as on October 2nd and I'm waiting for any reviews about how people feel about the new release.
I'm using 8.04 on my acer aspire 4720z and have been looking for the new one to see if there is any support for my Atheros AR5007eg wireless card(inbuilt). I think I'll wait till the end of this month when they'll release the actual thing. I'm really waiting for that with lots of things to look upto.
I also want to see how kde4 goes about as well.

The countdown has started for the next release of the most popular linux distribution ever.

Nouveau Riche Real Estate Investment College

2008-09-23T13:31:00.000-07:00

With the world population, slowly rising at an alarming rate daily, the earth is starting to look too small. One business that has gained strategic importance over the last few years has been the real estate business. Though the word "Real Estate" might look very small, the strategies and the techniques involved behind the entire process is really big. In this place, I have to mention about the real estate college,Nouveau Riche University ,founded by entrepreneur Jim Piccolo, that trains entrepreneurs and small business professionals with the knowledge that could help them achieve greatness in their careers.

When it comes to real estate business, one has to select proper investment strategies, things that could very well cause the demise of your entire business, if not looked into properly. NRU concentrates on these basics and they also assist with what to do and not to do, when it comes to actual market environment. Their teaching strategy also is a popular technique, thats has been scientifically proven to be one of the best namely the Instructional System Design(ISD), where a pre-assessment is given to students before the class starts to understand how much the student knows about the subject. After the classes are over, a post-assessment is taken by the students to estimate their comprehension of the material. By comparing the two assessments, one can estimate the teaching capability of the staff. I have to say thats really something wonderful. I would even expect one such method for every school and college.

Their academic excellence not only comes from their teaching mechanism, but also from their contingent of hard-working staffs who have been appreciated by Jim Piccolo, for their enormous success. They have recently had a new addition to their contingent in the form of the well-known Dr. Laura Palmer Noone, former President of University of Phoenix, the largest private university in the world, as their new CEO. MarketWatch.com have also published the news on appointment of Noone as CEO of Nouveau Riche University .

They have also ventured on tapping the most potent real estate market in the world, Russia, with the setting up of a social network. Further news on this venture by Nouveau Riche University can be read at CNN.com. They have already rolled out more than 30,000 students educated in real estate investment and set to send out even more this time around.

Going by the trend now, real estate industry can only further bloom and having the strategies and the numbers on your side, will really help you get to the limelight. NRU helps you with it and stands by you, when you put your education into action.

Federer - He just doesn't fails to amuse

2008-09-12T12:00:00.001-07:00

I was awestruck by some of the greatest games ever played in this US open by the swiss maestro and I had to really pick myself up to write what I felt about it.

Roger Federer has reached his peak form after winning the US open championship. He seems to have nearly recovered from the mono that affected him in the Australian open. I did suffer from it once and to say it takes longer than what most people would think to recover from it. But once someone recovers from it all other illness will be nothing for them. Federer still ain't that fit or shows any signal that he has recovered from it. He might have to build some muscles and do twice lot of exercises. But he has shown other the glimpses of what the comeback will be this time around. He played with utmost confidence and desperation as his opponents found it difficult to tackle his serves and volleys which he had nearly given up till this US Open. Federer is still making lots of unforced errors, something that could cause some eyebrows to lift. I feel sorry for Murray that he had to face a man who was getting to the point of desperation and was ready to do anything to get himself back again on the top.

Federer, though played some awesome strokes,But still has to do a lot to regain his full strength and most importantly his fighting spirit that he once had when he went about destroying Pete Sampras. I feel he was starting to become too sedate and numb for others and his liking. He might need to take something like the fighting attitude of Nadal into his game. He can still be the greatest player who ever played the Game.

Anyway on the match, the first set was decided when federer broke murray. Murray did not surrender the set, but he had nothing to do. Fed took the set away from him slowly. Murray did play some amazing returns from far corners. He did play mostly from the back line and didn't approach the net as much as Federer did. Federer showed why he retained the world number 1 for the longest streak ever. He might be showing others, why he still deserves to be playing tennis. In the second set, Murray exhibited some of the best tennis ever. To say it was even better than Federer's game, at some points. But FedEx did the trick on him, after surviving crucial break points and broke Andy's serve near the end to win the set 7-5.

Murray's confidence was battered as he really struggled to get back into the game with federer infact leading the 3rd and penultimate set 5-0 at a time. Murray did manage to stage a comeback, but all was lost as the swiss maestro took the match away from him on his second championship point of the match.

The match was over and Federer managed the fifth straight US open win. He became the only person to win both Wimbledon and US open five straight times. He stands one behind Sampras on the so-called unlucky 13 on the maximum number of grand slams won by a person. He will achieve it and many more for records to be written.

One worry that might still haunt Federer is the number of unforced errors he committed. He did loose the wimbledon with one such error and will surely be looking to minimize them as much as possible. With age comes wisdom and Federer is just showing others what it truely means. His olympic gold medal which he won with Wawrinka must have made him realise lot of things and given him loads of confidence . There was a subtle change in his game play as a result.

We might very well see a completely new Federer, the one from the past before he reached the world No 1, to take on the mantle of doing it again. This time though it could sound deadly for his opponents.

EZUnsecured.com - Business Loans

2008-09-07T20:41:00.000-07:00

Hi folks,here is the website which is known for Business Loans.The website is ENUunsecured.com.It makes unsecured financing wth ease.Financing is provided mostly for the Business Loan.The process is an easier one.The process of providing funds is much faster than the other sites.It provides an excellent service to small business people.Registration is completely free of cost.It also provide toll-free number for any inquiry.

For more details visit the site!!!

Google Chrome - Redefining Browsing

2008-09-04T07:21:00.000-07:00

First and foremost, I was and am a Firefox user till date on both my OS - windows and linux. But I feel Google Chrome is more than just a competitor for Firefox and IE. It surely looks like the next major development in browsing.

First IE redefined the world of browsing, then firefox with its imaculate features like multi-tab browsing, easy-to-use add-ons and other features. Well, so what is new about Google Chrome?.

I wanted to write my true feelings about using Google Chrome. So for the past few days, I decided to use it as my only browser. As a first time user of an entirely new browser, I felt it was good enough. I began getting a feeling that for non-flash websites that I mostly visit, Google chrome was lightning quick when compared to Firefox or even IE.

For a Firefox user like me, I found the add-ons feature of Firefox was something that I was really missing. In Firefox, I used FireFTP and stuff like that which I felt should have to be incorporated into google chrome as well.

I didn't face that many problems handling the new browser. On the whole things went well.

Errors and Possible problems for Developers to deal with in future releases:

Sometime the title of the tabs just crashed with just the word "Loading" on it. But when reloaded everything loaded perfectly.

Certain things did cause some doubts in me. The address bar is both the search bar and the address bar. When I tried searching for a valid keyword, I could see that the browser's identity was sent off explicitly to my liking. On the search query I could see a variable source-id which I felt could be used by hackers to spy on people using Google chrome or even used by Google to maintain a record of how many users are using there browser till date, which I could feel like invading my privacy.

Browsing was good enough and my problem with it started showing up when I tried opening many tabs that had flash pages. Half of the time, It just gave an empty page - Nothing loaded up.

(Solution Found:- Keep scrolling your mouse up and down and suddenly the page looks like it has been there normally for a long time.)

This I feel could not be due to the browsers design but with the flash player from adobe as I have been facing similar problems with their flash players in Linux. Might be Google could go for a light weight flash component, just like they did as in the case of Javascript VM.

Major problems or say the limitations, I felt were when I was making this post in blogger with my new browser. Image were not that easy to cut and paste in the desired places. You had to click and select the entire image from top to bottom - only then does it get selected for cut or copy.

I usually leave little notes in my mother tongue - Tamil ,which was easy with the same blogger page that showed up in firefox, but not in chrome. I felt sad that I could not even see the language select option here. Might be they have incorporated it yet into chrome.

Another thing that confused me was that there was no language checker as they did mention in the release notes. Nothing came up - not even a red line as in FireFox or IE to indicate the wrongly typed words.

I didn't face any sort of problems when accessing the Gmail or Google Docs for that matter as mentioned in the chrome forum.

New Features:

When a person right clicks on a page generally a pop-up menu shows up. But for none of the sites that I opened does the "View Page Info" option work - amazingly not even for google.

Thumbnails of recently visited sites were like a boon to me. I could just visit the ones that I had visited earlier. This could have been made better by making a scroll down list that grows for each site visited with its small thumbnail atleast for 30 sites. That could have been much more superb.

For a guy like me, just clicking on the tabs and moving them out so that they become a serprate window was a nice feature, which I feel they have got from Google Talk.

I felt like the "Inspect Element" feature was a really nice one and suited a part-time developer like me. Clicking on it opened a Google chrome inspector window. Moving the mouse through it changed the background of the element in the actual window over whose code the mouse was moved in the inspector window.

The taskman option was something similar to that of the Windows task Manager, but was limited to the browsers componenets alone. For a few websites that I found flash to be slowing me down, I ended the shockwave plugin and things normalised. Only a yellow warning came up on the top of the window saying that Shockwave Plugin has crashed. The browser functioned normally.

Incognito Window was something that I felt was good enough. Starting a new incognito window, started a page with google's custom message which said all that was about it as in the screenshot below:-

Much of the features till now has been mainly for developers. Future releases could hold higher potential.

I can see the potential of this browser in today's world wide web. Definitely Google could use this for more than just capturing the market share of other browsers. This brower could also indicate that google has the potential to look at the Operating systems market very soon.

Everybody knows Firefox will be the most affected one because of this new browser than IE.

But as for the rule of the earth and survival - "For achieving something, something else of equal importance has to be given up". That being Firefox or IE8 remains to be seen.

IE left the throne, after Firefox came in. Safari was never in the race other than for Mac. Opera and flock made some noises. Firefox rules the kingdom now. Got to look at what the prince Google Chrome can do in future. It's still a baby waiting to explore this world. I believe everyone have to wait for the actual release to see what features are actually available since this is only the beta.

Whatever happens Google has to realize the thing that is, has and will be bringing MS down - You have no right to force others to use only your softwares or things. Accept a open race/challenge and try to come as the first in there. Then you can survive in this world and will be respected.

I think Google has done half of it by making chrome open source. The rest remains to be seen in the long chain of events that are going to unfold in future.

India's historic AFC cup win & the pathetic condition of footbal in India

2008-09-03T13:04:00.000-07:00

India defeated Tajikistan in the AFC cup and booked a direct place to the AFC Asia cup 2011 to be held in Doha. Fittingly, the local boy, Sunil Chetri came up with a hatrick
to confirm India's win. This was historic event happened on August 13, just 2 days before our Independence day and 2 days after India's historic individual Gold medal win in the Beijing Olympics and I believe each and every indian football fan would have been proud of this historic win.

But it still seems that most of the country's popular game continues to be the one and only cricket. I'm really sad to see the way the country is still not able to recognize and nurture the beautiful game. Even worst is the way most of the media went about informing the news about the berth in the finals that India secured.

The following images have been sent to me by an Indian football fan and I think he has every right to get angry and let down.

Well, I think after seeing this images, even I was shocked. Might be the reporter could have thought that since India is in a finals, that has got to be cricket.Something that was satisfactory was that other news sites had the news printed under the right section though. But I feel dejected by this act of a notable and reputed media.

You can call India a formidable force in the cricketing world. But that has no right for anyone to undermine other games in the nation. Only if some big achievements are made by other sports people , are they recognized and rewarded. one example being the Great Indian shooter - Abhinav Bindra. How long are the so called sports reporters wear a band around their eyes and go on saying that cricket is the only game that people of India know, play and watch???

From another football fan who feels much needs to be done and that to soon or we could end up losing precious games in the limelight of one game's unprecedented supremacy.

Headlines Today - Turning News into Masala Entertainment

2008-09-02T22:30:00.000-07:00

I do watch news channels now and then for refreshment and I have to say that I have been really enthralled by certain news channels and the way they present important news and facts. Sometimes, even when a cricket match is going on, I usually tend to watch them. I do like NDTV 24x7, CNN-IBN and Times Now. Long time before what the present HT is, I even used to watch it. But now-a-days I think that HT is going far towards entertainment and that too masala entertainment aimed at catching low grade viewers. This is after seeing certain programs in HT a couple of days before.

Everybody watches news to get to the daily headlines as they break and to get some important facts happening around the world. By important, I mean something like a natural disaster or something that makes people understand the current world scenario from a broader point of view or a fair review of a new product from a customer's point with experts involved. News has to be unbiased, representing the true condition of a situation.

HT has gone too far in News. They have started telecasting old wrestling matches and wrestling news from the world of WWE!!!!!! Kane destroyed undertaker!!!!! oh...... I never knew that and that was like a decade ago. I need to tell them one thing. If I want to see wrestling, I can tune into the sports channel that telecasts it.

Well I do know that more than half the people in the world know that WWE is not real fighting. Half the fights are fixed and everything is really a drama. I really can't understand who was the brain who gave the idea of running these things on a news channel!!!! Any news must be such that they give out true events and not just entertainment. Entertainment can be a part only and not the main goal of a news channel.

I really tuned into HT to see the condition of Bihar floods and to know what was the situation(My worst situation was CNN was not coming at that time due to my STB problem). Though I wanted urgent news on the topic, I waited patiently to see whether these people will telecast anything about the floods or not. One of my fellow country man is suffering and these people need wrestling and other kachda vachdas.

And another worst news to be displayed in the waiting time, some actress has a crush on some actor and some actress going on date with some actor. Do you think that these things would attract any true news watcher??? I don't think so.

It was even worst when they did the aarushi incident.

Readers can read shekar kapoor's opinion on this channel here in his own blog. He has every right to be puzzled and angered by these programs.

They just don't have the technical expertiseor it seems that some formaer guy from a masala channel is preparing their program catalog.

At last they did put some news about bihar floods. It was worst than what even DD News had summarized.

They have lost their position as a respectable news channel with these kind of programs. It would be better for them to close this news channel and start a new channel called Gossips Today or Wrestling Today. At least, then they could make some useful profits.

Even NDTV has useful programs like Gadget Guru, a debate session on some topic. Even CNN-IBN have debates and other stuffs. They interview top leaders, national icons. HT has nothing of these sorts and everything they do has and is masala concerned.

Sorry to tell HT, but you have lost one true news viewer and will lose many more, if the programs don't change.

Phentermine review

2008-09-02T15:42:00.000-07:00

ConsumerPricewatch.net is a review site that specialises in unbiased reviews of best diet pills.Phentermine is a drug under the amphetamine and phenethylamine class. It itself is not an amphetamine. In 1959, the FDA approved this substance as an appetite suppressant drug and since then has been widely used to help obese patients to suppress hunger and lose weightIt is an effective Phentermine Review..Phentermine, like many other prescription drugs, is a centrally acting drug. This means that it works in the brain by stimulating neuron bundles to release a particular group of neuotransmitters known as catecholamines. These include dopamine, epinephrine, norepeinephrine. The catecholamines excite the sympathetic part of the nervous system-the fight or flight response. It revealed top 10 best diet pills on the market as well as review of various industry leading diet pillsThey rank all pills based on value, ingredient quality, safety, customer feedback, weight-loss potential, long term benefits, company reputation and product convenience. ConsumerPriceWatch.net has taken the guesswork our of the buying experience In turn, it inhibits the hunger signal causing a appetite suppression. also source the cheapest place online that you can buy the pills.There are 12 criterias which helps to rank the products:-
1. Value
2. Ingredient Quality
3. Customer Feedback
4. Safety
5. Company Reputation
6. Reorder Rates
7. Customer Service
8. Product Sensation
9. Packaging
10. Long-Term Benefits
11. Product Convenience
12. Weight-Loss Potential

Check out and have the pleasure!!!

Linux Distros for the weekend

2008-09-02T15:36:00.000-07:00

I have been using ubuntu and vista in my laptop for quite some time now. But I think it's time to try something new. So after all the initial research that I could do, I have decided to try 2 different Linux distro's for the time being.

Mandriva
First one is Mandriva. I have only heard of it before and to say the truth I have never actually worked with this one before. I did use fedora and knoppix but that was like centuries ago. So I think this will be something new for me. Well, getting the WIFI to work with ubuntu was the toughest thing I had to do. I just believe it wont be that bad in mandriva though. Well, everything is the basic linux kernel. So might be (only a chance) the same things also apply here too. I think it also has a live CD try only before install feature. I really loved that when it came to ubuntu.

FreeSpire
Well, I found this while just browsing through the net and I liked it from the first look on it. Then I did some browsing to find what others thought of it. Except for the CNR, that comes with this most people believe that FreeSpire is good. Some even thought of it to be better than ubuntu when it came to pre-installed features. Well, actually it seems that freespire is built on top of ubuntu with only some extra customization. So might be it could meet my needs. Further I think that this could even support the atheros wireless card in my laptop even without the ndisgtk or madwifi manual installation.

Well, whatever happens, I don't expect them to destroy my current ubuntu installation or vista installation in anyway.

So as far as that goes, I'm happy. well other distros, I don't think i'll try them for this time. Anyhow I'll enjoy playing with my laptop that already has 2 OSes. (Vista OEM home premium and Ubuntu).

EasyBCD - Removing Linux GRUB from a dual boot system and Re-Installing Vista/XP bootloader

2008-09-02T03:26:00.000-07:00

Personally, I didn't need this software as I wouldn't be uninstalling my linux installation ever.. But I see a lot of my friends who after installing linux ask me how to remove it, as they feel they don't want it. Well It would seem somewhat unusual to a linux person like me to do that. I generally advice them to go with the linux they installed. But they just wouldn't agree. So, I wanted to know whether there is any way to remove linux and its GRUB without affecting a vista or xp installation already on the system.

I found an interesting and one of the easiest answer in EasyBCD - a wonderful software made by NeoSmart Technologies.

The software itself does a lot of things. that could help a lot of persons - both windows and linux users. Stuffs like NeoGRUB in this software can help installing grub in a no GRUB found conditions,In situations where you have installed Linux first and then installing XP/Vista.

Note:- installing vista again on a linux hard drive will erase the GRUB installation and access to linux.

Well, the feature that I'm going to outline in this post is about how to uninstall linux without loosing your windows installation.This can be for a number of reasons such as people could be unsatisfied with the current linux installation or want to install a different one in future.

1)Just log into your vista installation and download and install the EasyBCD from this link here.

2) Then run the software and goto Manage Bootloader and select re-install the vista bootloader.

That should re-install the vista bootloader and erase the GRUB.
Then you can format the linux drive or do whatever you want(even install the same or another distro).

If you go by my advice, Linux is equally good, if not better than Vista. Learn using it and you'll like it.Please use this option under the unavoidable circumstances.

Pro360.com

2008-09-02T02:58:00.000-07:00

Hi friends,here is an interesting site which is about the online casino.The amount of online casino is popping out as fast as you can even count them.Some of them offers great services and fast payout but some does not.How do you differentiate the best of the rest?Pro360 aims to do that by filtering the best from the rest.Since 1997,Pro360 has been reviewing Online Casinoes.With more than 10 years in reviewing,they have derived on a formula which filter the thousands of online casinoes to form the very best of them and to lessen your risk of not being paid and increase the excitement and your money!
Factors such as :

Game experience
Trust score
Bonuses offer by casinoes

are some of the essential benchmark to judge whether an online casino is hot or not.Pro360 even provides a detailed review of every online casino which they highlighted to ensure that you,as the player will be sure of what to expect at that online casino.

Some of the games are :

Blackjack
Slot
Video Pokers
Roulette
Craps
Baccarat

to name a few.This ensure that you will find the best online blackjack casino for your desired games quicker and easier.

Abhinav Bindra - Golden boy with the gold medal

2008-09-01T23:39:00.000-07:00

"He paid a lot of attention towards physical training despite his back injury. He did tough commando training in Germany for three weeks prior to the Olympics," said a businessman.

This businessman is no ordinary person for he is the proud father of India's only individual gold medalist in the history of olympics till now. He is AS Bindra, proud father of Abinav Bindra, who has become the mantra for all Indians now.

The date of August 11 will be remembered forever for this boy(I cannot call him a man yet, he looks too young) who has not just made his family but an entire nation proud.

Abhinav Bindra was born on September 28, 1982. Right from his childhood, his family supported him with his endeavours. Important achievements had been expected from him for a long time.

At the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, he fulfilled the expectations bestowed upon him by becoming the first Indian to win an individual gold medal at the Olympic Games and first gold medal since 1980 for India by winning the gold in the 10 m Air Rifle event.

Abhinav won the gold for the Men's 10m Air Rifle final after shooting a total of 700.5. He scored 596 in the qualifying round and out-scored all other shooters in the finals with a round of 104.5.

In the finals, he started with a shot of 10.7, and none of his shots were below 10.0. Bindra was tied with Henri Hakkinen heading into his final shot. Bindra scored his highest of the finals - 10.8 while Hakkinen came with his worst performance of the finals (9.7) to settle for Bronze medal.
( in the middle of this the chinese was crying like a baby for not getting the gold...... )

"He paid a lot of attention towards physical training despite his back injury. He did tough commando training in Germany for three weeks prior to the Olympics," says the proud father.

In the qualification round, Bindra finished in joint fourth with Romania's George Alin Moldoveanu after the duo shot a score of 596/600.The golden boy, managed a series of 100, 99,100, 98, 100 and 99 in these rounds.

Meanwhile, Finland's Henri Hakkinen qualified first for the event with a score of 598/600 after shooting a series of 100,100, 99, 100, 100 and 99.China's Qinan Zhu was a point away of Hakkinen with a series of 100, 100, 100, 100, 99 and 98.

Bindra's mother said the family would visit Punjab's famous Golden temple and pay their debts to god for this achievement.

Well, now that this feat is over, we will definitely expect much more from him.

Chennai's Sister Cities

2008-08-30T19:23:00.000-07:00

I wanted to know which were the sister cities for chennai and found out some of the curious ones.

The first to become the sister city of chennai was Volgograd,Russia in 1966. This was during the time when Russia was involved in a strategic partnership with India during the period of cold war.

In the year 1984, Chennai became the sister to another major city. This time it was Denver, Colorado. Later in 2005, Frankfurt also became a sister city. Very recently in April 2007, San Antonio has also expressed its wish to become one.

I'm happy that my city is having so many sisters.

My Ubuntu Desktop

2008-08-30T01:21:00.000-07:00

I had recently installed ubuntu hardy heron 8.04. I learnt from my friends that I can customize it as I like it. So I searched for the coolest widgets for for my desktop. I stumbled upon two of my favourite things for ubuntu - Kiba Dock and screenlets.

I'm presenting my screenshots here. Hope you like it.

Installing NVidia & ATI graphic drivers in Ubuntu Hardy Heron 8.04

2008-08-28T13:09:00.000-07:00

For those who have used the previous versions, you might have found the driver installation easy with your driver being mentioned under the restricted drivers section(System->Administration->Restricted Drivers/Hardware Drivers). In Hardy Heron, I found a small problem in installing the nvidia drivers in my brother's PC. He has been using ubuntu from 5.10 and is a great fan of the XGL stuffs. I then searched for other stuffs and found Envy here.

It's a great product and I installed it and restarted the X server only to find that my X server was still not detecting my GeForce FX 5200 graphic card. Then I did some googling and some strange commands wit my OS. Then I found something out of my own interest. If you guys notice very carefully, the restricted-manager has been replaced with jockey-gtk in 8.04. I tried running it from the terminal and I noticed a strange error, before it came up on the screen.

sudo jockey-gtk

I got a list of four modinfo errors to be precise, saying files were not found. The files were:-

/lib/modules/2.6.24-16-generic/volatile/fglrx.ko /lib/modules/2.6.24-16-generic/volatile/nvidia.ko /lib/modules/2.6.24-16-generic/volatile/nvidia_legacy.ko /lib/modules/2.6.24-16-generic/volatile/nvidia_new.ko

These files are not only necessary for the jockey to reflect the Graphic card but also by the Xserver to correctly load the Graphic driver. After careful study and my confidence to experiment, I decided to re-install linux-restricted-modules-2.6.24-16-generic that comes with the Hardy Heron CD. I thought that the files might be available in the repository as they might have added it after the CD release.
Note:- For this, right click on the already installed and select mark for re-installation under Synaptic Package Manager.

After reinstalling the L-R-M, I found that I got the mising files in the respective directory. Then all I had to do was just go to the terminal and run the jockey-gtk again. It correctly detected my card and Bingo, I had Compiz running in no time.

You can also install the Nvidia driver using Envy after re-installing the L-R-M. It provides with higher options than normal. Envy is capable of loading the new drivers automatically from the nvidia or the ATI site. It can automatically overwrite the drivers installed by ubuntu by default.

All the Best !!!!!!!!! for the new ubuntu installation.

Note:- I installed from the CD, I got from ubuntu site. The new CD image in the site might be already fixed.

Sun Dth or SCV STB

2008-08-20T00:11:00.000-07:00

For the past one month I have been looking into each and every forum, trying to find which is better for an average Chennaite like me. In most of the forums,they talk from a view of quality or customer support. I have been living in Chennai and I feel the sun's cable service is not bad. Though they were the ones to bring about the CAS by pressurizing the then BJP Government. Even when CAS was suspended in the rest of the country after the initial failure, Chennai was the only place that continued to have CAS.

I was the most grieved person back then. The STB prices in the town were hanging around 3000-4000 Rs/-. Even the alternatives at the time, TATA SKY and DISH TV were at the same range. For a middle class person in India, its around 60% of the cost of a 21" TV.

At first I regretted the government's decision for bringing CAS. I lost most of my favorite sports channels and movie channels. I was not in a financial position for going for either the STB or DTH. I had to wait and have waited till now.

Now I have got the green signal for buying any of the one. I had to do a lot of groundwork and i believe my options between the two is equally confusing for me to decide.
Both are around same price:-
Sun Dth:- Rs 1100( for 2 months free usage) / Rs 1999( for one year usage)
SCV STB:- Rs 700(Set top Box + Smart Card) + activation charges for channels chosen

SUN DTH:-

To start with, as far as I know from the forums that I have read, its not that bad as they say it is. Its at its sibling stage and is sure expected to kick off at a rapid pace, once the agreement with all the channels have been finalized. As of now, they offer anywhere between 75 and 90 channels.
The problems I think that may creep up is with their available transponders. They have till date 6 transponders on INSAT 4B(each transponder is capable of handling around 20-25 channels). This means they will be able to broadcast nearly upto 160 channels. They are already some less viewed channels on their boutique like Angel TV, Amritha TV and lot more, which I believe will be utilizing otherwise useful transponder space that might be utilized by other channels to be added in the future.

Let me explain what this has to do. So maximum channel space left for Star, Sony, Zee, NEO and ESPNSTAR on Sun direct is around 70 - 90 channels. Star and Sony packages add up to around 50 channels. And Zee alone has around 30 channels. Sky network is also expected to start their service in India very soon. Therefore Sun will be suffering lack of transponder space. They have not officially released their package list yet.

The Number of Transponders of other DTH Players:-
TATASKY = 10
DISHTV = 8-10
RELIANCE BIGTV = booked 8 in INSAT 4CR launched last year(replacement for the failed INSAT 4C in 2006).

This could be a big problem for sun in the future.

SCV STB:-

Anyone living in chennai would know tht government has also started its Arasu Cable Corp. If anyone gets the belief that SCV is giving away the STB at throw away prices, BEWARE!!!!!

SCV had ordered thousands and thousands of STBs when CAS was first commisioned. They have not been able to sell not even half of it till date. They want to completely sell of their stocks to the Customer as quickly as possible, before the local cable operators jump to Arasu Cable Corp.
Even you can notice in SURYAN FM channel, where the advertisement is placed, that only participating operators can avail the offer.
I recently called up the Arasu cable corps office to find whether they will be able to support the STBs given by SCV. They gave a plain reply "NO". So for whom is buying this set top box useful?
For those who have confirmed with their cable operators that they are not jumping to the other side. For the rest................. Be patient till Arasu takes over.
From the list of channels offered, however SCV easily scores over Sun DTH. And the quality is even better than that of the DTH in certain areas.

So finally its up to the customer to decide which one to go for. I personally have decided to go for the DTH. Its slightly a dangerous decision as Sun might not add the channels. But I believe the Marans are not paying more than 7 Million dollars for the transponder rent, not to bring in the big players.

The war between the cable and the space will soon reach new heights.
Benefiting in both the situations : Customers.

"Only time will tell how things shape out."

Zebronics DJ Beta - My New Music World

2008-08-19T03:58:00.000-07:00

My Experience with other players before buying this player:-

I still use to play my keyboard that I learnt for over 8 years. So I used to listen to a lot of music with my then Music system with loud sounds. This did not go well with the flat system that I used to live in. So I first bought a Chinese made MP3 player. Got it as a 256-Mb player. Connected it to my system and the system made me format it and turned it into an 128-Mb player. Running on a AAA battery, I had lot of problems with repeatedly charging the battery then and again. Then I got myself a new cell phone with MP3 support- Motorola L7. Quite a nice phone and worth the money that one would spent for it. I liked it a lot. But then again, when I wanted to listen to one song, I had to switch on the music player appliaction, which would load right from the start. loading all the songs in the system right from the start, A really time taking thing. So recently, I decided to buy myself a internal battery operated MP3 player, that would have reasonable sound clarity.( I never liked taking the battery out and charging it repeatedly)

At the Shop:-
The thing that was actually in my mind was the clip-on kind of 1 Gb mp3 player that looked and resembled the Ipod shuffle. For this, I pested my father and madee him take to richie street( @ Narasingapuram street). We went there and to the shop that I usually but anything from. The shop owner was kind of a friend for us. He had assisted me when I bought my laptop, home theatre speaker set, graphic card, thumb drive etc., theoretically any electronic goods I bought till now. He was a nice guy. Well I listened to the 1 Gb player that I wanted , with his ( the shop keeper) permission. It was not bad at all. For a 850 Rs/- mp3 player. It had the features and the stuffing to really be good. There was FM, mp3 , voice recording. But I was slightly worried . The reason was that it was china product.

The shop keeper told just this in tamil - " Once you buy the product and even turn back and IF the product doesn't work. Just don't come back asking for a replacement. You can check it any number of times here before buying it. "

I come from a middle class family. So I was tensioned because If my father buys me something, he expects me to use it for a long time. If something happens to the product that I buy with interest(with his money), there is no way he'll buy or repair me that thing again ever. My father was there with me, when I was buying it. He was also visually examining other mp3 players there. He saw something that was like a Ipod NANO. Even I thought that it was Ipod NANO. After getting the product from the shop keeper, My father asked to check it.

I started to turn it on. It didn't start at all after the loading screen. The shop keeper told us that he would order for another piece, If we assure him that we would but that. Well, we were really hasty at that point. We wanted good value for our money. Me and My father gazed the entire shop for any other player that would catch our attention. At one corner, there was a small mp3 player packed in a box that had the words - "Zebronics" on its top. I asked the shop keeper for that. He gave it to me saying it was a good player and that It would really be good. He even promised that If anything happened to the product within the 1 year warantee period, He would even replace it with a new piece.

Here I would start the actual topic - My Review of the new player that has turned my past week upside down:-

For a mp3 player, It was too small - Fitted into my palm quite easily. To say the truth, I didn't even want to operate this piece. I felt it was too small. Further the software resembled the chinese mp3 player that I had used earlier. All coupled together created a hate for this player at first.
The shop keeper's attitude towards this player was different from the previous ones he had shown. He talked so assuringly that my father too liked it and wanted me to try and operate it and wanted my opinion. After a minute or 2, I figured the way to get to the music directory. The player came with a couple of test music files. I plugged in the headset and started one of the test files, which was an explanatory file on the working of the sound in the device.

SHOCKED!!!!!!AMAZED!!!!!!!

There is nothing to reveal what I felt. I have used some of my friend's Ipod 80-Gb player. I knew the clarity at full sound. If someone was listening to it, They could in no way listen to anything that others say. It's that powerful. Till date, none of the mp3 players I listened to were even near to that kind of sound performance. That day, I felt I met a real competitor to it.
Amazing soung clarity!.( I felt it was even better than the Ipod Nano)

I heard no noise at all in richie street, I felt like only that explanatory sound was running. I could not even understand my father who was asking how good it was. Anyone who has been to richie street would know how trafficated and noisy it will be, especially on saturdays. I looked at my father and told "OK! buy it!!!!!".

Those words have turned my past week a real musical one. I have been listening to the mp3 player as much as I can. I really love the sound clarity that it produces.

Now for the components that came with the player:-

1) A cd that had some utility softwares and drivers you would need if you ran an OS older than XP.

2) A rubber cover that can be used to protect it against scratch.

3) A zebronics headset( loved its quality, even though my father says it is slightly bigger than his ears and is not fitting into his.)

4)A couple of those cotton coverings for your headset.

5)An adapter that had a usb 1.0 port on one side.( you can charge it even if you don't have a PC or laptop. I would advice a PC for charging it though.)

6)A usb type A port to mini usb port chord for connecting the mp3 player to the PC or the charger provided.

7) The box that the player comes in. It has a couple of magnets on its closing flaps that are pretty good. If you are travelling, the box can be used for carrying the accessories. Its good.

Well I would love to mention that this player comes with an internal Li-ion battery that charges itself once you connect it to your computer or the charger. The hassle of changing the battery or removing and re-charging it with a seperate charger is no more.

The features that comes are also good:-
A music menu for playing the mp3 songs, FM radio, recording and a mp3 player system menu.
The FM radio reception is not bad. For me, being in an area with low signal, I gave it up. Absolutely no reception at all. I have not tried the voice recording till now. But going by the review of the feature by others, it is excellent. The radio can be recorded in a 32k WAV format. This feature, I tried only once and it was great. Battery for me lasted for 4-5 hours. In future, I expect it to last for atleast for 3 hours. The 1Gb capacity is more than good for me. You can go for the 2Gb version if you want more memory.

Even as I'm writing this experience, I'm listening to the "Kadal onru allava" song by A.R. Rahman with the player. For anyone expecting an average mp3 player with good music playing capabilities and an average price, this would come as an boon with more than average performance. Finally an excellent mp3 player for an average price of only 1250 Rs/-.

ReactOS - a possible alternative to Microsoft Windows

2008-08-11T11:20:00.000-07:00

I was looking for an alternative to windows, but one that could provide me with the exact feeling of using windows. Recently I happened to come across a project called ReactOS, that has been devoted to recreating the Windows NT. Everybody knows that windows is proprietary. You have to always buy a version, inorder to use it. But what these guys have achieved is simply wonderful. They recreate the actual windows environment with all the support for fat16/32. NTFS support is currently under development. I'm really amused. They work in close conjunction with Wine development group. It's been a really very long project spanning over 10 years atleast. I have just added up some of the screenshots.

The first is a setup of openoffice running under ReactOS.

The second is a ReactOS running in QEMU virtual machine with another ReactOS as the host.

The third is accessing a windows remote desktop from ReactOS.

The fourth is a visual studio 2005 installation running under ReactOS.

The final screenshot shows a registry explorer in ReactOS and a small portion of the Desktop Background.

Well surely as you can see from the screenshots, ReactOS will be the only possible alternative to Windows. I myself have become a fan for it.

And for all those who worry about its size. It not even crosses 50Mb. This the alpha build anyway. The Live cd is just less then 27 Mb and the Installation cd is just 27 Mb. I sure hope that people start turning their attentions towards ReactOS.

People can try it at http://www.reactos.org. They also provide the OS Pre-installed with most virtual machines, which can be easily tried. I'm eagerly expecting a stable release.

India launches 10 satellites in a single launch vehicle

2008-08-11T11:03:00.000-07:00

The Indian scientists have created a world record by launching 10 satellites in a single-go with no Hiccups from Sri Harikota . This record involved launching of one indian mini satellite, eight foreign nano satellites and a remote sensing satellite. The entire launch was confirmed a grand success at the end of a 52 hour mark. They used a single PSLV Launch vehicle. Its the 12th successful launch of the PSLV. It has also carried the largest package of more than 800 kgs. This included the more than 600 kg remote sensing satellite - Cartosat-2A. The entire mass at time of launch was a 230-tonne, The highest ever by the PSLV.

With this lauch, Indians have proved their might in the field of astro science to the world. Indians are also in the process of sending a person to moon by 2010.

I'm really proud of my country!!!!!

EJB Stateless Session Bean Program using NetBeans5, Sun Application Server 8 and jdk1.5 under j2ee 1.4

2008-08-11T04:12:00.000-07:00

You need the netbeans, jdk and the sun app server installed and configured. Sun app server must be added to the list of servers in Netbeans. This can be done through the "Tools-> Server Manager" in the Netbeans menu.

After Configuring all those stuff, please try out the following procedure for creating the EJB's.

This procedure is for those who dont have JAVA EE 5 support. Its for j2ee 1.4 only.

1)First select "new project" from the file menuin netbeans.
Within the "Choose project" Dialog Box, Select Enterprise under Categories and "Enterprise Application" under Projects and click on Next button.

2)In the "Name and Location" DialogBox, Enter the name of the Project and select the Location. Make sure that "create EJB module" and "create Web Application Module" checkboxes are selected. Make sure that the JAVA EE version is "j2ee 1.4".

3)Netbeans automatically creates the Project files. Then right click in the "Enterprise Beans" within the "-ejb" part and select "New-> Session Bean".

4)In the "Name and Location" Dialog box that follows, enter the EJB name and the package name. Select Session type as Stateless. Select only Remote within the "Create interface" option.

5)It can be seen that the Bean's Bean, Remote, RemoteBussiness and RemoteHome classes are automatically generated.

6)Then edit the Remote Interface class to include the declaration of the function that you want.
like:-
public String sayHello() throws java.rmi.RemoteException;

7)In the corresponding bean class, implement the corresponding method declared in the Remote Interface.

8)Then right click on "Source Packages" within the "-war" part and select "New-> servlet".

9)In the Name and Location Dialog Box that follows, Enter the name of the servlet and the package for the servlet and click on "Next".
Then in the Next window, click "Finish" button.

10)Then right click within the code area of the generated servlet class file and select "Enterprise resources->Call Enterprise Bean".

11)Then a Dialog box comes up with the list of all the ejb's open in the current project. In that, select the Bean you created and click on ok.

12)It can be seen that netbeans automatically adds the following function to the servlet code.
private StatelessSessionRemote lookupStatelessSessionBean()

13)Now add the following line to the processRequest function after the PrintWriter creation line.
out.println(lookupStatelessSessionBean().sayHello());.

14)Now save all the codes and right click on the project and select "Build Project". NetBeans builds and links the project.Then right click on the project and select "Run Project". Netbeans runs the project and creates the browser page on completion.Add the "/servletname" to the address tab and press enter. It can be seen that the EJB function is called and the output is displayed in the servlet.

Superstar Rajini's New Castrol Ad

2008-08-09T00:07:00.000-07:00

I found this amazing castrol ad in my college senior's site. Found it really amazing, so re-posted the youtube video here too.

(from Nirenjan's Space)

Superstar - சூப்பர் ஸ்டார் தான்!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tamil Actress Birthdays

2008-08-03T09:17:00.000-07:00

Just had a curiosity and found out some of the notable Tamil actress birthdays. Had an amazing shock for me.

Namitha - 10 May 1981
Pooja - 25 June 1981
Sneha - 12 October 1981
Reema Sen - 29 October 1981
Shriya - 11 September 1982
Trisha - 4 May 1983
Genelia - 5 August 1983
Meera Jasmin - 15 February 1984
Sadha - 17 February 1984
Nayantara - 8 November 1984
Asin - 26 October 1985
Bhavana - 6 June 1986
Sandhya - 27 September 1989
Tamanna - 21 December 1989

I found that some of them were younger than I thought and some were much much older.

Tamil Historic Novels by Kalki

2008-07-30T04:04:00.000-07:00

Recently, I started reading tamil novels after finishing my college. Wow, I have never seen anything like that. The description of war, love, hatred......... My god, I have never seen such beatiful descriptions. My first encounter was with kalki's sivagamiyin sabatham. I kind of liked it. I then took on Ponniyin Selvan and finished the entire book in six days. I have benn trying to get my hands on other books by kalki. I got them all from projectmadurai - a venture to get all the nationalised tamil books on the net. For everyone's notice, Kalki's books have been nationalised. So any publisher can publish it. I have now started on Alai Oosai. I believe the following books will enthrall you as well(provided you know tamil). I haven't read any of sandilyan's works. But from the discussion on forums and other places, I think that they too are equally good as Kalki's. I post the following links for anyone wishing to read Kalki's great works. I'm expecting sandilyan's kadal pura. I think I'll be getting the actual book next week. Once I get that I think I'll get a taste of his style as well.I think the following books will help.

Ponniyin Selvan:- 1a 1b 2a 2b 3a 3b 4a 4b 5a 5b 5c 5d

Sivagamiyin Sabatham:- part1 part2 part3 part4

Alai Oosai:- part1 part2 part3 part4

Parthiban Kanavu:- part1&2 Part3

Solaimalai Ilavarasi:- part1

Read these great books and enjoy them!!!!!

தமிழ் வாழ்க ! தமிழ் மண்ணுக்கு பெருமை சேர்க !

Sun Java Certification - Tips and Study Materials

2008-07-30T03:07:00.000-07:00

I was good in Java and I have nearly worked with all of their technologies starting from plain command line java applications, applets to advanced servlets, EJB's etc. Recently I decided to appear for the Sun Java cetification exam. Till now, I had never concentrated on understanding the complex underlying difficulties(I mean the basics) in java such as to why certain compiler errors occur and stuffs like the range of primitive data types and all those sort of things. Especially, Threads, I never liked them even a single bit. But as it seems, they turn out to be the bulk of questions in the exam. So, I had to collect some preparatory materials to get myself back at the basics again. To my amusement, I have nearly gone thru all of them in a couple of days and I only have a final revision probably before the day of the exam. They are easy except that you got to understand certain concepts to the core. Those things can be achieved by attending number of mock exams and understanding why certain answers are like they are. Concepts are the major things that form the part of any question. I have tried a number of mock exams and seem to just pass them thru.But I do believe that the actual exam would be far easy than what I had to go thru here. I'm confident of clearing it at ease.

For persons starting to prepare for the exam, I will advise to take notes of each concept that you come across in a notepad as points. These notes can later be used to handle problems based on those concepts. Further you can only concentrate on these concepts before the exam.

Try attending as many number of mock exams as you can, to make sure you are upto the toughest level, so that you can clear the actual exam easily. I would like you guys to visit the following link:-

http://www.javacertificationexams.com/scjp-mock-exams.php

This link contains links to all mock exams for java on the net. You can daily attend 2 or 3 exams to check out your status. Well the most important thing that has to be taken note of is the time management. You have just 70+ and most of them are choose or drag and drop type and there is 2:30 hours. So make sure you manage your time well in the exam. At home, you might be able to complete all the questions in an hour. But make sure that you take your time in the exam. In addition, I got the following materials that could help you. Regarding study guides, you can go for the McgrawHill java 2 certification complete guide. And for the exams, you can purchase exams from troytec.com, testkiller.com, certkiller.com. They update their questions on a regular basis.

Following are some mock exams that can help you:-

MockExam1 MockExam2 MockExam3

All the Best!!!!!!!! for the exam and do reply on how you felt the exam. Please reply to me with e-mail for further materials.

Lenin -The leader of the masses

2008-07-21T06:12:00.000-07:00

The great soviet leader, Vladimir Lenin died on January 21, 1924. But his body is till date preserved in the Lenin Mausoleum at red square, Moscow. I got a chance to look into the process of still preserving and cleaning his body in the mausoleum. It's amazing to even look at it. Russians are good at the mummification process, I believe. The link to the video is here.
The Sad news is that the Russian government is planning to bury him soon.

Hope the Indians could have mummified even Gandhi for us to have a look at him at the present.

FACT:- One other person shared the tomb with Lenin. Anyone knows who it is?
Joseph Stalin

Euro 2008 - schedule

2008-07-17T12:34:00.000-07:00

With the Euro 2008 less than a month away, all the football crazy funs must be running here and there. Even I was desperately in need of the games schedule for the Euro 2008. So I just did some Googling and came up with the schedule.

Saturday 7 June 2008

1 Grp A Switzerland vs Czech Republic - 18:00 - Basel - St. Jakob-Park
2 Grp A Portugal vs Turkey - 20:45 - Geneva - Stade de Genève

Sunday 8 June 2008

3 Grp B Austria vs Croatia - 18:00- Vienna - Ernst Happel
4 Grp B Germany vs Poland - 20:45 - Klagenfurt - Wörthersee

Monday 9 June 2008

5 Grp C Romania vs France - 18:00 - Zurich - Letzigrund
6 Grp C Netherlands vs Italy - 20:45 - Berne - Stade de Suisse

Tuesday 10 June 2008

7 Grp D Spain vs Russia - 18:00 - Innsbruck - Tivoli Neu
8 Grp D Greece vs Sweden - 20:45 - Salzburg - EM Stadion Wals-Siezenheim

Wednesday 11 June 2008

9 Grp A Czech Republic vs Portugal - 18:00 - Geneva - Stade de Genève
10 Grp A Switzerland vs Turkey - 20:45 - Basel - St. Jakob-Park

Thursday 12 June 2008

11 Grp B Croatia vs Germany - 18:00 - Klagenfurt - Wörthersee
12 Grp B Austria vs Poland - 20:45 - Vienna - Ernst Happel

Friday 13 June 2008

13 Grp C Italy vs Romania - 18:00 - Zurich - Letzigrund
14 Grp C Netherlands vs France - 20:45- Berne - Stade de Suisse

Saturday 14 June 2008

15 Grp D Sweden vs Spain -18:00 - Innsbruck - Tivoli Neu
16 Grp D Greece vs Russia - 20:45 - Salzburg EM Stadion Wals-Siezenheim

Sunday 15 June 2008

17 Grp A Switzerland vs Portugal - 20:45 - Basel - St. Jakob-Park
18 Grp A Turkey vs Czech Republic - 20:45 - Geneva - Stade de Genève

Monday 16 June 2008

19 Grp B Poland vs Croatia - 20:45 - Klagenfurt - Wörthersee
20 Grp B Austria vs Germany -20:45 - Vienna - Ernst Happel

Tuesday 17 June 2008

21 Grp C Netherlands vs Romania - 20:45 - Berne - Stade de Suisse
22 Grp C France vs Italy - 20:45 - Zurich - Letzigrund

Wednesday 18 June 2008

23 Grp D Greece vs Spain -20:45 - Salzburg - EM Stadion Wals-Siezenheim
24 Grp D Russia vs Sweden -20:45 - Innsbruck - Tivoli Neu

Thursday 19 June 2008

25 QF Winner Grp A vs Runner-up Grp B - 20:45 -Basel - St. Jakob-Park

Friday 20 June 2008

26 QF Winner Grp B vs Runner-up Grp A - 20:45 - Vienna - Ernst Happel

Saturday 21 June 2008

27 QF Winner Grp C vs Runner-up Grp D - 20:45 - Basel - St. Jakob-Park

Sunday 22 June 2008

28 QF Winner Grp D vs Runner-up Grp C -20:45 - Vienna - Ernst Happel

Wednesday 25 June 2008

29 SF Winner #25 vs Winner #26 - 20:45 - Basel - St. Jakob-Park

Thursday 26 June 2008

30 SF Winner #27 vs Winner #28 - 20:45 - Vienna - Ernst Happel

Sunday 29 June 2008

31 F Winner #29 vs Winner #30 -20:45 - Vienna - Ernst Happel

I'm Expecting to see my favourite stars in action especially Cristiano Ronaldo, Fernando Torres, Fabregas, Podolski, Toni, Gilardino, Henry. I'm sad of not having England. I'll definitely miss Rooney, Lampard, Gerrard. Anyway, the Euro 2004 was nothing short of a fantasy. I expect the Euro 2008 to be no less exciting.

Finally projects and reviews are over

2008-07-17T11:54:00.000-07:00

Finally I have finished my final year project with flying colors. I had my final presentation being made on the 16th of this month and I'm free from now. We had prepared for the project sincerely for three months and finally came out with the working solution last month. My pal had done the major part of the job and i had t just help him out in crunch times with my knowledge in the field of networking. It was something that we believed to be new. To say the least, even I didn't know what we were to expect of the final product. It was based on bringing up application and data mobility on a portable flash desktop. We succeeded in bringing up whatever we could do for the project to our level of expertise. Once the final review was over, We were really happy with our achievement.
Finally, We breathed in free fresh air.

Now we got to work for our exams staring from the 30th. Once those get over, I can hope for a sound sleep at last.

Computer Viruses - Steps involved in prevention and manual removal

2008-07-15T03:52:00.000-07:00

I have been suffering from lot of virus problems ever since the day i started using my computer. To say the least, I have got used to removing them as well in most cases. Well when it comes to viruses, th most general thing they do is replication. For this they generally, place a non-erasable piece of code in your system. This may be either a hidden superuser file or a short piece in the registry.

With vista though, the above things can be avoided by enabling User Account Control(UAC) in the msconfig. The major reason for viruses attacking any system is the user's negligence in turning off the autostart of CD's or running unwanted executables. Anybody running vista, might notice the "AutoPlay" option in the Control Panel. This can be used for preventing the CD's and thumb drives being autoplayed when they are inserted. Incase of XP, the Xp-Antispy can be used to disable the autostart and prevent unauthorised registry editing.

Now that you have completed the above steps successfully, you can be sure that future attacks are mostly prevented. Now I would prefer the following steps to remove the virus for each of the following symptoms:-

1)Each folder turns into an .exe with a folder like icon or New Folder.exe:-
This virus can be removed by following the following steps.

1. Kill the following processes and delete the files(If any present):-

•libedit.dll
• newfolder.exe
• shelliddono.dll
• srv0104.ids
• srvidd20.exe or any rundll32.exe(dont delete this one, just stop this i.e rundll32)

2. Delete the following registry entries(If any present):-

• Key: SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run for nwiz.exe
Value: @

• Key: software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\run\alchem
Value: @

• Key: software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\run\zzb
Value: @

SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run -
This location is mainly responsible for the programs that autostart when you start your computer. This can also be accessed using the msconfig. Make sure no wanted programs are present in this list. If any is present, delete them or stop them for starting at start-up. Make sure this is checked periodically.

3. Delete unwanted dll's and exe's in the System32 folder:-

The name of those executable's will be something like amvo*.* ,kavo*.* or tavo*.*(i.e. tavo.exe, tavo1.dll etc). These are the malicious files resposible for the replication process.

4. Delete unwanted autorun.inf & other files in the root of the drives:-
The autorun.inf files and files named like VirusRemoval.vbs,******.cmd, ******.exe, ******.bat show that the files are placed in the root of the drives, so that they autorun when you open the drives. you can check whether there are any hidden files like that in the specified location and delete them by using the command.

dir /ah - meaning display all the hidden files in the current location.

del /f /ah (filename) - delete the hidden file forcefully.

If forcefull deletion does not succeed, then try changing its attributes by using the following command:

attrib -a -h -s (filename) - to reduce the file privileges from a superuser file to a normal user file.

this command can also be used with the + instead of - if you need to promote your file to a superuser file privilege and as a hidden one.

then try deleting it again, after stopping any associated process mentioned as in step(1).

Note: Make sure that you dont use the explorer during the step as much as possible, try using the command line to naigate and check for hidden files and viruses. and directly access task manager for stopping any processes. Do this for all drives in your system( even include your thumb drives)

After doing all these, restart your computer and check that none of the malicious code is again running.

2) Not able to access the hidden folders:-

Each time you try to view the hidden files in your folder, it isn't shown. The tools->folder options-> View ----- show hidden files and folders can not be enabled. This can be due to the presence of a malicious code, like the one I mentioned above. Follow the above steps to remove them. Then to re-enable the viewing of hidden files, follow the steps:-

Run Registry Editor by typing regedit in run or command prompt.
In the Registry traverse to this path

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

Then double click the value Hidden in the right hand side pan
A dialog box pops up asking for the .Any virus would have changed the value to 0 which should be either of the following.

1 - Show hidden

2 - Don't show

These steps must restore the system to a reasonably good condition. Remove the replicated New Folder.exe and the rest normally by searching for them and deleting them.(Make sure you dont run them!!!!!!!! when deleting them).

You can change the hidden folders( by the malicious code) to normal ones, by using the attrib command mentioned above.

3)The CD/DVD drive opens and closes repeatedly, when system starts:-
This is caused by a simple VB script or any other script. Make sure you remove it when system starts from msconfig. and you can stop it from task man from stopping the appropriate script engine.

You must be able to enjoy your system happily from now on. If you do need any anti-virus, Please go for avast. It might slow down your system. but it does the task.

I have seen many other viruses that can show a open with dialog, when you double-click on drives in the explorer. But I have still not had a first hand experience with them yet. So i'll try providing the steps for those as well in the near future after I try them out. Once you have learned removing them, I believe you need not get annoyed with them, the next time they attack you.

In case of problems, please comment for me to help you.

Viruses were created for fun! So enjoy them!
They help you learn more about your system!

Acer aspire 4720z - My New Laptop

2008-07-15T00:11:00.000-07:00

I have been using a normal assembled system for a very long time. Now, I decided that the time has come to move to something bigger and better. Before I bought my laptop, I was very much interested in buying a HP or Compaq notebook. But once I entered the shop, it's owner Ali, who was my friend, advised me to buy the acer. He convinced me that this laptop not only is half the cost of a HP or Compaq with a similar configuration, but also the best he has ever used as he had already bought one for himself. The total cost for me came up to Rs. 29,400 inclusive of the taxes in chennai.

Now coming to the real thing and how it works.

This is the Hardware Configuration that the system comes with:

CPU: Intel Pentium Dual-Core 1.6 Ghz t2330
Memory: 1GB of DDR2 Ram.
Hard disk: 160GB SATA
Graphics: Mobile Intel Graphics Media Accelerator x3100

other configs:
RICOH 5-in-1 card reader
Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR
802.11 b/g wireless LAN
Inbuilt acer crystal webcam
Winbond CIR Transceiver
Atheros AR5007EG Wireless Network Adapter
Broadcom NetLink Gigabit Ethernet Adapter
DVD Super Multi
4 USB ports

The system's hardware config is good enough for running windows vista. But for some strange reason, it doesn't come with Vista. It comes with a command line version of linux called Linpus Linux. If Acer wanted to put Linux in it, they could have gone for some higher end version like Fedora or some Debian release.

I initially installed vista after I got my laptop. Installing vista was like walk in a park, with Vista itself detecting most of the drivers. However, it is recommended that you manually install all the drivers that comes with the Resource CD. Once all the drivers are done with, the laptop works out pretty well. I got a rating of 3.1 in Vista which is higher than what I got on my home system which was only 1.5 . Definitely, for a man working with a single core(no hyper-threading) processor , this was more than to ask for.

Everybody knows that Vista cannot be used without licensing. So I installed ubuntu, in a couple of days. Thats when the probs started showing up. First no sound, then no wireless, I felt I was in a no-where to go island. But thanks to Google and Ubuntu support forums, I got all fixed up.
For all users out there, who suffer from driver problems with ubuntu. try googling and especially goto ubuntuforms.org. They got step by step illustrations on how to get thru the installetion of sound and wireless in ubuntu. They work to some extent. One major thanks to ubuntu. It detected my bluetooth automatically.

Recently, I had a problem with my card reader and must really admire acer's customer service. They fixed my laptop back to factory condition in 2 days.

I love my Acer!!!!!

Emperor of Clay vs Emperor of Grass - Rafael Nadal vs Roger Federer

2008-07-10T22:09:00.000-07:00

I was not a great fan of tennis till the french open started. For unknown reasons, I didn't like to watch the nation's favorite game, even thought the much awaited IPL was starting up. Tennis had caught my attention. I loved the way Federer played and to say the least, he and Nadal were the only players I knew in the open, in addition to few others(say 2 or 3). I wanted to know why Federer struggled so much in clay and Nadal wasn't so much comfortable in grass (i.e. till he won the wimbledon). I was slightly trained in cricket and I know a little bit about body movements, shot power, points of maximum injury threat in our body etc. Even a normal sportsman who had observed their enthralling rivalry would find the reasons for each of their success in their respective empires.

Rafael Nadal:-

The boy wonder of tennis is really a great player and has excellent physical strength to play the game over long period of times. He maintains very good concentration on the game rather than thinking about his opponent, which I believe is giving him the recent edge over his broken opponents. The boy has a profound skidding action specially suited for clay where one can easily skid around and reach the ball without using much of his energy. But when it comes to grass, the skid is not useful on a much more rugged surface. So he has got to move here and there against a opponent like Federer, who is good at getting into good positions. He also has an excellent, if not wonderful backhand and top-spin shots. Those are pretty tought to get away on any surface whether grass or clay. His movement is quick even without the skid. He runs here and there and reaches balls that others would rather give up. Coming to his physical strengths, He has well-built muscles to help in long rallies. Those on the forehand and along the wrist area are very much necessary for shot accuracy and strength. Those who watch cricket might know this. It's in a way similar to the Helicopter shots that Dhoni plays. Even they require a lot of wrist power. I like one thing about him and that is his ability to adjust to grass so quickly. His legs are also well-built. For a boy who comes from the clay courts of Barcelona, It is a really great achievement. But his attitude towards the game can be little like what the Australians have in cricket. You cannot complain about it. But it somewhat hurts your opponents. He always keeps his back to his opponents, when he is getting the ball or for that matter using his towel and that too after his opponents have lost a point. He is a way cheeky. He intimidates you without you understanding that he is and by the time you have nearly lost and fallen, you lose your thought of winning the match and a thought of nearly giving up comes up in your mind. Otherwise, He is a sweet boy off the court and also does a little bit of charity from what I have heard of him. Would like to see a player who can challenge him in his empire.

Roger Federer:-

Federer, I would say is a touch artist. His movement across the court looks majestic and awful (when he is allowed to). His strengths are his Forehand passes and the second most toughest serve in tennis, only next to Roddick. Unlike Nadal's liking towards the Topspin and the powerful forehand , backhand shots, Federer relies heavily on the drop shots and the volleys. His forehand could generate much power even than Nadal's when hit with the accuracy.If you guys observe him, you might notice he has a skipping action. He skips between shots instead of moving on a flat like what Nadal does. That accounts for his major wins in grass and also his major losses in clay. His backhand was once a formidable shot to handle in the game. But I believe he has lost a bit of muscle in the body that doesn't let him play wide back hand passes that well. Those who know him well and follow him around, would notice the changes he has gone through from being a slightly chubby person to a skinny one. He has lost much of his strength and in a way he is losing his patience and joy of playing the game. When Nadal loses a set or a point, he moves with much of confidence, that could shake the opponent into believeing that the boy is capable of running over you, and so you start playing shots with lot of care. When Federer loses a point, he shakes his head like everything is over and moves to his place so slowly and with such a heavy look, that even his opponents get encouraged by it. Federer loses mentally and that reflects in his game. If Federer stops giving away his emotions and starts playing game with a lot of joy, even if he wins or loses, he could run over Nadal on any surface. His shot accuracy is way over Nadal's on his day. He just needs to get a little bit of aggression and joy into his game. If he does it, He will reign supreme again. Well when it comes to physical strengths, Federer could be compared to be on the scale at 10 to a 100 of Nadal. Federer has lost lot of his physical strength. He is looking a lot puny. I believe he is suffering from a wrist and back injury, which is further bringing his morale down. If he gets back into shape and form, It could mean the odds in the battle could again swing his way. He does a lot of charity and has even helped the tsunami victims and had come here to Chennai. His attitude off the court, could be the one he might need to inject back into his game.

Whatever mentioned here are my sole opinion and might not necessarily reflect others. I still like Federer to Nadal. I'm expecting a better fight atleast in the olympics. There is saying in the chinese.

"If you know yourself and enemy, you need not fear the results of a thousand battles. If you know yourself and not your enemy, for every battle won, there will be a loss. If you know neither, you'll lose always. "

Nadal has learned it well. Federer might only be half complete with regards to this statement.

EJB Stateless Session Bean Program using NetBeans5.5, Sun Application Server 9 and jdk1.6 under JAVA EE 5

2008-07-08T03:48:00.000-07:00

First for starting up you need the netbeans, jdk and the sun app server installed and configured. Sun app server must be added to the list of servers in Netbeans. This can be done through the "Tools-> Server Manager" in the Netbeans menu.

After Configuring all those stuff, please try out the following procedure for creating the EJB's.

1)First select "new project" from the file menu in netbeans.

2)Within the "Choose project" Dialog Box, Select Enterprise under Categories and "Enterprise Application" under Projects and click on Next button.

3)In the "Name and Location" DialogBox, Enter the name of the Project and select the Location. Make sure that "create EJB module" and "create Web Application Module" checkboxes are selected.
4)Netbeans automatically creates the Project files. Then right click in the "Source Packages" within the "-ejb" part and select "New-> Session Bean".
5)In the "Name and Location" Dialog box that follows, enter the EJB name and the package name. Select Session type as Stateless. Select only Remote within the "Create interface" option.

6)It can be seen that the Bean's Bean and Remote classes are automatically generated.

7)Then edit the Remote Interface class to include the declaration of the function that you want.

8)In the corresponding bean class, implement the corresponding method declared in the Remote Interface.

9)Then right click on "Source Packages" within the "-war" part and select "New-> servlet".

10)In the Name and Location Dialog Box that follows, Enter the name of the servlet and the package for the servlet and click on "Next".

11)Enter the Servlet name and URL Pattern in the "Configure Servlet Deployment" Dialog box and click on finish.

12)Then right click within the code area of the generated servlet class file and select "Enterprise resources->Call Enterprise Bean".

13)Then a Dialog box comes up with the list of all the ejb's open in the current project. In that, select the Bean you created and click on ok.

14)It can be seen that netbeans automatically adds the following line to the servlet code.
private Remote ;

15)Now add the following line to the processRequest function after the PrintWriter creation line.
out.println(.function());.

16)Now save all the codes and right click on the project and select "Build Project". NetBeans builds and links the project.

17)Then right click on the project and select "Run Project". Netbeans runs the project and creates the browser page on completion.

18)Add the "/" to the address tab and press enter. It can be seen that the EJB function is called and the output is displayed in the servlet.

I used Netbeans 5.5 and sun server 9 for doing this project. jdk1.6 is required for installing and running Netbeans 5.5. Please make sure to have the neccessary software installed before trying out.

connecting 2 computers to Internet using Airtel with Beetel 220bx

2008-07-01T23:52:00.000-07:00

This is mainly for those who have a couple of computers at their house and feel they can use only one at a time for accessing the net.The procedure might slightly differ with respect to those of the bsnl routers. But they all are basically the same.

I have enumerated the steps based on my modem type which is Beetel 220bx adsl2 + modem. The procedures for your modem might differ.

1. The very first step will be to make sure of the method you guys might be using to access the net.If you guys are using a dial-up facility and u feel u want to access the net as you switch your modem or you r able to connect to the net directly but you r not able to connect two systems simultaneously. If dialup then you can follow the steps from first.

First access your router/modems advanced setup home page. Incase of beetel this is http://192.168.1.1/main.html and not http://192.168.1.1 because the default redirects to the basic setup page, which is http://192.168.1.1/index.html. The defualt user name and password is "admin" and "password".

In that select Advanced Setup tab, and navigate to LAN page. Check whether the DHCP server is enabled and the LAN ip range has been correctly setup.This will be something like follows.

2. Then goto the WAN Page. In that page, A table must show up. In that please check whether there are the following details.

VPI/VCI - 1/32
con.Id - 1
category - ubr
service - br_1_32
Interface - nas_1_32
protocol - bridge
igmp - n/a
QOS - disabled
state - enabled

If your interface is ppp_1_32_1 and protocol is pppoe, then that means that you got to edit only certain parameters. Follow the steps carefully from now.

3. Then click the edit button in the table, Let VPI and VCI be 1 and 32 or the ones already there. These are identification numbers specific to the ISP provider. Then click next.

4.Then in the next page select the Connection type as PPPoE or PPPoA. This depends on your ISP. If you have any doubts here, ring up your ISP. by default for those under airtel, this will be PPPoE. Select the encapsulation mode as LLC/SNAP-BRIDGING. In this some routers, this option might also be given as Link Layer.

5. In the next page, specify the default dialup username and password provided by your ISP. Enter the service name as airtel or anything that you want. Select the Authentication mode as AUTO. I think the default is PAP. Leave it as AUTO.Leave the remaining options as given in the screenshot.

6.In the next page, select the Enable IGMP Multicast and Enable WAN Service. Then click on next.

7.Finally click on the save/reboot button. Wait for some 2-3 minutes, till your router/modem restarts. From now on, you must be able access net from both computers without dialing up.

NOTE:- If you have more than 2 computers as in the case of Beetel 220bx, Then you might be adviced to go for a router or hub. The cost of a 8-port hub in chennai as of today is 700-750. so go for it. Otherwise, you should be able to connect atleast 2 systems one using USB and another using normal ethernet cable.( incase of beetel 220bx).

After following the steps listed, you should be able to connect to the net directly without dialing.

The steps I have listed are only for accessing the external net. If you have an internal server in your network and you want that to be accessed by an external computer, then you must add those settings to the Virtual Server under NAT under Advanced Setup.

All the Best.

ManU - Eyeing a dual title

2008-06-27T12:31:00.000-07:00

With Arsenal well out of their way, Manchester United are nearly assured of their league title. Their only threat is the renewed Chelsea with the super energized Nicolas Anelka. If ManU defeats Chelsea at Stanford Bridge, they will be completely confirmed of their title.

If anything is not to change, their form this season could event get them closer to their dream of winning the champions league along with the EPL title.

GO FOR IT DEVILS!!!!

Java Robot Class for accessing your system from a mobile phone

2008-06-19T11:01:00.000-07:00

I was doing a simple program for my friend, when I came up across the Robot class in java. His project is accessing a system from a mobile phone. So he needs to get the screen shot, move mouse and right and double click mouse buttons. Just the Robot class is enough for this purpose.

There are methods like mouseMove, mousePress and even for getting screenshots of the system.
Once I complete the coding, i think of releasing the software as a complete package.

I decide to use Tomcat for acting as server and a j2me program for doing the job in the mobile phone.

Below is the code:-

Tomcat web pages for Screenshot, Mouse move and mouse clicks:-

Screenshot:-(mapped as screenshot.html inside tomcat)
import java.io.*;
import java.util.*;
import javax.servlet.*;
import javax.servlet.http.*;
import java.lang.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.image.*;
import javax.imageio.*;
import java.awt.geom.AffineTransform;

public class screenshot extends HttpServlet
{
public void doGet(HttpServletRequest req,HttpServletResponse res)throws IOException,ServletException
{
res.setContentType("text/html");
PrintWriter pw = res.getWriter();
try
{

Toolkit toolkit = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit();
Dimension screenSize = toolkit.getScreenSize();
Rectangle rect = new Rectangle(0, 0,screenSize.width,screenSize.height);
Robot robot = new Robot();
BufferedImage image = robot.createScreenCapture(rect);
File file;
int w = 220;
int h = 280;
BufferedImage image1 = new BufferedImage(w, h, BufferedImage.TYPE_INT_RGB);
Graphics2D g2d = image1.createGraphics();
double xScale = (double)w / image.getWidth();
double yScale = (double)h / image.getHeight();
AffineTransform at = AffineTransform.getScaleInstance(xScale, yScale);
g2d.drawRenderedImage(image, at);
g2d.dispose();
file = new File("C:/Tomcat-4.1.31/webapps/ROOT/screen.jpg");//root folder of the server
ImageIO.write(image1, "jpg", file);
pw.println("ok");
}
catch (Exception e)
{
pw.println("error");
}
}
}

//Here i have tried to reduce the screenshot size to the standard mobile phone screensize

MouseMove:-

import java.io.*;
import java.util.*;
import javax.servlet.*;
import javax.servlet.http.*;
import java.lang.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.awt.image.*;

public class MouseMove extends HttpServlet
{
public void doGet(HttpServletRequest req,HttpServletResponse res)throws IOException,ServletException
{
res.setContentType("text/html");
PrintWriter pw = res.getWriter();
try
{

int x = Integer.parseInt(req.getParameter("x"));
int y = Integer.parseInt(req.getParameter("y"));
Robot robot = new Robot();
robot.mouseMove(x,y);

}
catch (Exception e)
{
pw.println("error"+e.toString());
}
}
}

MouseClick:-
import java.io.*;
import java.util.*;
import javax.servlet.*;
import javax.servlet.http.*;
import java.lang.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.awt.image.*;

public class MouseClick extends HttpServlet
{
public void doGet(HttpServletRequest req,HttpServletResponse res)throws IOException,ServletException
{
res.setContentType("text/html");
PrintWriter pw = res.getWriter();
try
{

int x = Integer.parseInt(req.getParameter("x"));
int y = Integer.parseInt(req.getParameter("y"));
String mode = req.getParameter("type");
Robot robot = new Robot();
if(mode.equals("right")){
robot.mouseMove(x,y);
robot.mousePress(InputEvent.BUTTON3_MASK);
robot.mouseRelease(InputEvent.BUTTON3_MASK);
pw.println("ok");
}
else if(mode.equals("left")){
robot.mouseMove(x,y);
robot.mousePress(InputEvent.BUTTON1_MASK);
robot.mouseRelease(InputEvent.BUTTON1_MASK);
pw.println("ok");
}
else if(mode.equals("left-double")){
robot.mouseMove(x,y);
robot.mousePress(InputEvent.BUTTON1_MASK);
robot.mouseRelease(InputEvent.BUTTON1_MASK);
robot.mousePress(InputEvent.BUTTON1_MASK);
robot.mouseRelease(InputEvent.BUTTON1_MASK);
pw.println("ok");
}
else
{
pw.println("error:wrong mode");
}
}
catch (Exception e)
{
pw.println("error"+e.toString());
}
}
}

And the j2me program:-
SM1.java:-

import javax.microedition.midlet.*;
import javax.microedition.lcdui.*;
import javax.microedition.io.*;
import java.io.*;
import java.lang.*;
import java.util.*;

public class SM1 extends MIDlet implements CommandListener {

public Command exitCommand;
public Command ScreenCommand;
public Command MouseCommand;
public Command MPressCommand;
public Command MRClickCommand;
public Command MLClickCommand;
public Command MLDClickCommand;
public ntclient nt = null;
public MouseClient mc = null;
public Command BackCommand;
private Display display;
public TextField tx;
public TextField ty;
public Form displayForm;
public Form MouseForm;

public SM1() {

display = Display.getDisplay(this);
exitCommand =
new Command("Exit", Command.SCREEN, 1);
ScreenCommand =
new Command("ScreenShot", Command.SCREEN, 1);
MouseCommand =
new Command("Mouse", Command.SCREEN, 1);
MPressCommand =
new Command("Move", Command.SCREEN, 1);
BackCommand =
new Command("Back", Command.SCREEN, 2);
MRClickCommand =
new Command("RightClick", Command.SCREEN, 2);
MLClickCommand =
new Command("LeftClick", Command.SCREEN, 2);
MLDClickCommand =
new Command("LeftDoubleClick", Command.SCREEN, 2);
}

public void startApp() {
displayForm = new Form("Exchange Rate");
displayForm.addCommand(exitCommand);
displayForm.setCommandListener(this);
displayForm.addCommand(ScreenCommand);
displayForm.setCommandListener(this);
displayForm.addCommand(MouseCommand);
displayForm.setCommandListener(this);

display.setCurrent(displayForm);

}
public void pauseApp() { }
public void destroyApp(boolean unconditional) { }

public void commandAction(Command c, Displayable s) {
if (c == exitCommand) {
destroyApp(false);
notifyDestroyed();
}
else if(c == ScreenCommand){
nt = new ntclient(this);

}
else if(c == MouseCommand){
MouseForm = new Form("Mouse Movement");
tx = new TextField("Enter x","",4,TextField.NUMERIC);
ty = new TextField("Enter y","",4,TextField.NUMERIC);
MouseForm.append(tx);
MouseForm.append(ty);
MouseForm.addCommand(BackCommand);
MouseForm.setCommandListener(this);
MouseForm.addCommand(MPressCommand);
MouseForm.setCommandListener(this);
MouseForm.addCommand(MRClickCommand);
MouseForm.setCommandListener(this);
MouseForm.addCommand(MLClickCommand);
MouseForm.setCommandListener(this);
MouseForm.addCommand(MLDClickCommand);
MouseForm.setCommandListener(this);
Display.getDisplay(this).setCurrent(MouseForm);
}
else if(c==BackCommand){
Display.getDisplay(this).setCurrent(displayForm);
}
else if(c==MPressCommand){
mc = new MouseClient(this,"http://127.0.0.1:8080/MouseMove.html?x="+tx.getString()+"&y="+ty.getString());
}
else if(c==MRClickCommand){
mc = new MouseClient(this,"http://127.0.0.1:8080/MouseClick.html?x="+tx.getString()+"&y="+ty.getString()+"&type=right");
}
else if(c==MLClickCommand){
mc = new MouseClient(this,"http://127.0.0.1:8080/MouseClick.html?x="+tx.getString()+"&y="+ty.getString()+"&type=left");
}
else if(c==MLDClickCommand){
mc = new MouseClient(this,"http://127.0.0.1:8080/MouseClick.html?x="+tx.getString()+"&y="+ty.getString()+"&type=left-double");
}
}

String getViaHttpConnection(String url) throws IOException {
HttpConnection c = null;
InputStream is = null;
StringBuffer str = new StringBuffer();

try {
c = (HttpConnection)Connector.open(url);
String type = c.getType();
is = c.openInputStream();
int len = (int)c.getLength();
int ch;
while ((ch = is.read()) != -1) {
str.append((char)ch);
}

} finally {
if (is != null)
is.close();
if (c != null)
c.close();
}
return str.toString();
}
}

class ntclient implements Runnable{
private SM1 parent = null;
public Thread processorThread = null;
public ntclient(SM1 parent)
{
this.parent = parent;
processorThread = new Thread(this);
processorThread.start();
}
public void run(){
try
{

String result = parent.getViaHttpConnection("http://127.0.0.1:8080/screenshot.html");
if(result.indexOf("ok")>=0)
{
parent.displayForm.append("screenshot " + result);
System.out.println(result);

MyCanvas canvas = new MyCanvas(parent);
Display.getDisplay(parent).setCurrent(canvas);

}
else
{
parent.displayForm.append("error taking screenshot");
}
}
catch (Exception exc)
{
exc.printStackTrace();
}
}
}

class MouseClient implements Runnable
{
private SM1 parent= null;
public Thread pThread = null;
public String url = null;
public MouseClient(SM1 parent,String url)
{
this.url = url;
this.parent = parent;
pThread = new Thread(this);
pThread.start();
}
public void run()
{
try{
String result = parent.getViaHttpConnection(url);
parent.displayForm.append("MouseEvent "+result);
}
catch(Exception e)
{
System.out.println(e.toString());
}
}
}

class MyCanvas extends Canvas implements CommandListener
{
private Command exit;
private SM1 parent;
private Image image=null;
private Display display;
public Image getImageFromUrl(String url)
{
InputStream is = null;
HttpConnection hc = null;
Image img = null;
try {
hc = (HttpConnection)Connector.open(url);
if (hc.getResponseCode() == HttpConnection.HTTP_OK) {
is = hc.openInputStream();
int len = (int)hc.getLength();
byte[] data = new byte[len];
int actual = is.read(data);
img = Image.createImage(data, 0, len);
}
} catch (Exception e) {
System.out.println("IO Exception+"+e);
} finally {
if (is != null) {
try {
is.close();
}
catch (Exception e) { }
}
if (hc != null)
{
try {
hc.close();
}
catch (Exception e) { }
}
return img;
}
}
public MyCanvas(SM1 parent)
{
this.parent = parent;
exit=new Command("Exit", Command.EXIT,1);
addCommand(exit);
setCommandListener(this);

try
{
image = getImageFromUrl("http://127.0.0.1:8080/screen.jpg");
}
catch(Exception err)
{
Alert alert=new Alert("Failure","Can't open the image file",null,null);
err.printStackTrace();
alert.setTimeout(Alert.FOREVER);
Display.getDisplay(parent).setCurrent(alert);
}
}
protected void paint(Graphics g)
{
if(image!=null)
{
g.drawImage(image,0,0,Graphics.TOP|Graphics.LEFT);
}
}
public void commandAction(Command command,Displayable display)
{
if(command==exit)
{
Display.getDisplay(parent).setCurrent(parent.displayForm);
}
}
}

/*by Arun Srinivasan*/

Hope to finish this one day.

IPL battle begins

2008-06-15T12:11:00.000-07:00

The Indian Premier League(IPL) is starting from the 18th. I support for the chennai team. I do have one of my best friends - R. Ashwin playing there. I'm really excited. The first match is to be between Bangalore Royal challengers and the Kolkatta Knight Riders. On paper, the Kolkatta team has the stronger batting line up with Ganguly, Ponting, Gayle, Hafeez, Butt. But the match is not won or lost in paper. Considering the present scenario though, the Bangalore team is suffering from more injuries. Their star player kumble is likely to miss the first match. Their batting aso lacks explosiveness with only virat kohli, cameroon white to provide them with the fire power. Kallis, Dravid are expected to provide for stability in the middle of the innings. Their bowling heavily banks on steyn. So I now go for Kolkatta Knight riders to walk thru the match, if not, Storm thru it.

The Costliest Phones in the World

2008-06-15T03:45:00.000-07:00

The mobile phones have become an important part of our daily life. The following are some of the costliest ones ever.

Diamond crypto smartphone

This phone is designed by Peter Aloisson and costs a whopping $1.3 million. It has 50 diamonds of which 10 are the rare blue diamonds. It also has powerful encryption technology to provide higher security. It runs on Windows CE Operating System and can store 4000 phone book details.

Diamond Embedded Motorola KRZR
This phone comes after the diamond crypto smartphone. Its Price depends on the number of diamonds you want on it which is customizable. It is available in 3 designs - White, Leopard and Roma.

Piece Unique

This is one of the three phones created by Swiss company, Goldvish. One of them was sold for a record price of 680,000 pounds to a Russian Millionaire at the Millionaire's fair at Cannes. The other is owned by a Hong Kong business man. The third is up for grabbing though!!!

Motorola V3i Stainless Steel/Gold with 855 Zirconia Diamonds

This phone is from the same person Peter Aloisson who designed the Diamond Crypto Smartphone and the diamond crusted Motorola KRZR. This one has been designed for the rappers. This comes with AAA grade diamonds and costs $10,000 for the Gold version and $2000 for the Stainless Steel version.

Vertu's Signature Cobra

This phone costs $310,000 and is made from one pear-cut diamond, one round white diamond, 2 emerald eyes and 439 rubies with all the rich stones by French jeweler Boucheron. A low end version is available for $115,000.

Vertu's Diamond

This phone costs $88,000 dollars and is made of 18 carat yellow or white gold set with pave diamonds as well as a platinum handset with a .25 carat solitaire diamond. Each handset takes seven days to complete because the craftsmen have to arrange more than 700 diamonds by hand. A pink variant has also been released.

Vertu's Ascent Ti

This phone is one that was launched in India and costs Rs3,26,000 or $8150. It is cheaper comparing the other models from Vertu. It has a backup utility which stores your data to a remote Ex- military server, thereby even if you loose your mobile you can get a new one with all your data.

My phone in comparison to all the above cost me just $120.

Problem facing India in IT Field

2008-06-14T07:27:00.000-07:00

India could very well be left out of the list of countries that most of the US companies outsources to. The scenario is something that has to be looked in with much of facts. The main reason that US was interested in outsourcing to East Asian countries was with the low cost of labor here. But it might soon end if government doesn't decide to act soon. Indian Rupee has been gaining in value against the Dollar and all that made the US companies to feel comfortable with low cost high labor seems to be eroding. Recently, TCS has thrown out 500 of its employees and with other companies expected to follow in line, the situation looks grim not just for the experienced employees but also for the newbies placed in those companies. Even the government has been trying to keep the Rupee - Dollar in check by doing various things, but all in vain.

I fear about the students who have been placed in those companies. They might be forced to work for extra hours with practically no or little improvement in pay. It's hard to say but I'm among those newbies placed in one of the IT Companies.

I hope that something well happens soon.

world's biggest dogs

2008-06-13T07:28:00.000-07:00

The World's Biggest Dogs in action

Flash AS3 based Web Browser

2008-06-09T06:36:00.000-07:00

Flash has been slowly and steadily incorporating many new features day by day. Considering the wide range of support available for flash, One could expect a lot of internet and system applications in it. The initial Support offered by flash for making html request was limited to methods like LoadVars() and Load().

With Flash AS3, they have added an important class for making and handling HttpRequest. The class is URLLoader(). I tried to get the html contents from a html Page using the following bit of code. and to say the least it succeeded, quite nicely. At the next stage, I'll be trying to create a renderer in flash. This I believe will be the toughest part. This is the initial bit of code.

import flash.net.*;
import flash.display.Sprite;
import flash.events.*;

var loader:URLLoader;
var loadeddata:String;

stop();

//handling a button click event for clicking the go button
function handleGoClick( e:Event ):void {
Text1.text = "";
Status1.text = "";
Status2.text = "";
loader = new URLLoader(new URLRequest(Address.text));
loader.addEventListener( Event.COMPLETE, handleComplete );
loader.addEventListener(ProgressEvent.PROGRESS, handleProgress );
loader.addEventListener( HTTPStatusEvent.HTTP_STATUS, handleStatus );
loader.addEventListener( IOErrorEvent.IO_ERROR, handleIOError );
};

function handleIOError(e:IOErrorEvent):void {
Status2.text = e.text;
};

function handleProgress( e:Event ):void {
var percent:Number = Math.round( (e.currentTarget.bytesLoaded /
e.currentTarget.bytesTotal ) * 100 );
Status2.text = "loaded " +percent+ "% of "+Math.round(e.currentTarget.bytesTotal/1000)+ " KB";
};

function handleComplete( e:Event ):void {
Text1.text = loader.data;
};

function handleStatus(e:HTTPStatusEvent) :void {
if(e.status != 404)
Status1.text = "File Found:" +e.status+ " ";
else
Status1.text = "File Not Found:" +e.status+ " ";
};

ButtonGo.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, handleGoClick );

I have uploaded the files here :-

Flash Browser

Hope one day I can have a complete flash based web browser

You might need the latest version of adobe flash player for running the swf!!!!!

Cable War between Hathway and SCV

2008-06-07T00:27:00.000-07:00

Now Its the best time for people in Chennai. Both Hathway and SCV are offering free Set Top Boxes. So the customer has to pratically pay only the subscription charges.
The SCV was the first to announce to give away STB's at Rs. 499 (actually it was 500 + 200 + subs fees). Then Hathway announced free STB's just after rumours came that it has been bought by the government run Arasu Cable Vision. SCV in its turn, now has come up with free STB's. So chennaiites can hereafter be happy.

An Indian's Aussie Campaign

2008-06-05T22:18:00.000-07:00

My friend Deebak used to be playing a cricket selector game named "captain of captains". To mention, he is a very very good left handed batsman. At first, I thought it was useless and he was wasting his time.

But today he has shown me, that I was wrong. Just not before a month, he topped the game's initial season as the winner and won an all expenses paid trip to Melbourne to watch the Boxing day test match between India and Australia. Now even I have started playing it with much interest and even take his advice on everyday teams.

He is a good pal of mine. Hope even I could do something like him and probably win in the next season!!!!

My encouraging words for him:-

"All the best for next season pal!!!!!!!!!!!"

My First Post

2008-06-03T10:03:00.000-07:00

For long has the thought of having my own blog crossed my mind..............

So today I'm starting on it..........

"thy who shall not seek the grail shall have its pride"