Monday, November 28, 2005

 

Paint.Net

I recently came across the painting software Paint.Net; this is like the next version Microsoft Paint found in the windows machines. It’s really impressive that this has been developed by Undergraduate Students of Washington State University.

“It started development at Washington State University as an undergraduate senior design project mentored by Microsoft, and is currently being maintained by some of the alumni that originally worked on it. Originally intended as a free replacement for the MS Paint software that comes with Windows, it has grown into a powerful yet simple tool for photo and image editing.”

It’s free and does not include very powerful features as compared to PhotoShop, but the tool is really good and efficient in getting your basic painting requirements done.

Thursday, November 24, 2005

 

FireFox 1.5

Sometimes you feel that why you said something, it becomes worse if you had written about something and had to contradict it later. Now I am in that awkward situation.

Let me say now, FireFox really rocks and is the best browser ever I had used so far.

My previous statement goes like

“Though I tried FireFox and thinking of using Opera for sometime, I think the native feeling of using IE, basically because of the fact that we have been using IE for long would make it really difficult to change from it to FF or Opera.”

I think FF has more features and reasons to move to it, than sticking to IE because of native feeling. I was playing with Opera and FireFox and was kind of bored with heavy Netscape and thought IE is the best among the lot, but then came FireFox 1.5, thought would give it a try with its beta and got hooked to it from then.

I was really happy that it allows maximum customization possible and Google Toolbar also supported. One FireFox addon which really made me happy was the inclusion of custom “Favourite Icons” ie Favicon Picker. If you have bookmarked some page you would see the small icon in the bookmark link, but this gets disappeared when you remove/clean the cache. I was surprised to see many users of web browsers were annoyed with this behaviour and Torisugari has provided an add-on in FireFox to fix this, it works really cool. So now I am more into FireFox and no looking back.

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

 

skype killer

I am really surprised to see a company had come up with a software named skypekiller, which does nothing but remotely removing the skype software installed on a network. Why would somebody want to do this, and they are targeting the corporate world saying that the software would help them as Skype can cause

Uncontrollable bandwidth usage
Uncertainty as to confidentiality
Potential security flaws
Productivity issues


BTW, this is a freeware. Hmm, somebody had really spent time to develop something like this.

Another interesting news with skype is that the have tied up with Radioshack to sell skype kits, that’s really cool. Probably would pick one for myself when I got to US the next time.

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

 

Videora

Videora is very good software which can download videos in the background to the local hard disk.

“Videora is the first personal video downloading program. Utilizing BitTorrent peer to peer technology and Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds, Videora automatically and intelligently finds and downloads video you want to watch. With easy to use features like Watch Lists and Season Tickets you will be able to watch your favorite video, no matter where you are in the world”

It’s interesting to note on how Sajeeth Cherian came up with the idea to write this software application. (Source: Om Malik)

OM: What prompted you to write Videora?
SC: My roommate likes to watch anime and constantly scours the web looking for his favorite anime to download. (Anime is the Japanese term for Japanese animation, cartoons that are broadcast in Japan and which are then subtitled into English by groups of volunteers or commercial companies). About once a week he would complain to me how he was wasting all this time searching for these shows. I think he was wishing that these shows would just somehow download themselves. Well after a few weeks I got sick of hearing his complaints so I decide to look for a solution to his problem.

Thursday, November 17, 2005

 

Analytics and Base from Google

Google has introduced two new services: Google Analytics & Google Base and had renamed the controversial Google Print to Google Book Search.

Well, I use Google Analytics to understand how people come to this blog and visit patterns etc, it seems to be really a very good and useful service. I also take proud that I did send a mail to Google team that they should come with this kind of tool some time back. Though I can’t take credit for the birth of this Analytics, at least it would have made them to think I guess. So instead of developing something new they went ahead and bought the Ulrich Live and renamed it to Google Analytics, the best part is it’s free for a total limit of 5 million web hits per month.

Google Base suggests that you can put/upload all your contents and Google will host it. I believe users would be interested to upload contents for which they would have some business (buying/selling) interests. So this means that this Base can be a indirect competitor to E-Bay.

I am wondering how many servers Google might have for all these data and how they really manage it. How they backup & manage redundancy. ?

Monday, November 14, 2005

 

Electronic Perception Technology


If you ever thought whether there could be a better way to type with your mobile phones then EPT is good news that you would love to know.

“Electronic perception technology is technology that permits machines, consumer and electronic devices, or virtually any other class of modern product to perceive and react to objects and individuals in the nearby environment in real time, particularly through the medium of "sight," utilizing low-cost, high-performance, embedded sensors and software.”

Canesta has announced the Integrated Canesta Keyboard™, the world's first fully-integrated projection keyboard capable of being integrated by OEMs into smart phones, cell phones, PDAs, or other mobile or wireless devices. When integrated with, you can enjoy big screen keyboard for your mobile like the displayed picture. How cool :-)

Sunday, November 13, 2005

 

Case Modder

Computer engineering is science and it becomes an art when you try your hands to become a Case Modder. The genuis of software engineering are called 'geeks' and the artists with excellent creativity becomes 'Case Modders'. The politically correct definition goes like

"Case modding or Case modification is the modification of a computer chassis (often just referred to as the case). Modifying a computer in any non-standard way is considered a case mod. Many people, particulary hardware enthusiasts use case mods to illustrate a computer's power, and for aesthetic purposes. Modified computers are often found at LAN parties where their owners display them. "

Check out these pictures, btw they are nothing but the computer chasis.











Monday, November 07, 2005

 

FolderShare

There used to be a service called xserver which allows uploading your local files to their xserver and enables accessing from anywhere using web browsers. Seems that company xserver.com no longer exists. But something similar and infact better is available. Check foldershare.

“FolderShareTM allows you to create a private peer-to-peer network that will help you to synchronize files across multiple devices and access or share files with colleagues and friends. You no longer need to send large files via email, burn them to CDs/DVDs and mail them, or upload them to a website. FolderShare allows you to share and sync important information instantly with anyone you invite, making it the perfect solution for personal or small business use.”

The system requirements are Windows ME / 2000 / XP / 2003 and supports all major browsers including firefox and opera. It’s a very cool utility.

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

 

Microsoft Windows Live

Probably this would have been the most read/talked about news on Nov 1st, Microsoft trying out Windows Live, the new strategic move from Microsoft. The reason being, Microsoft steps out from the pure PC tools/software mode to Web Browser tools/service mode. So far they have been concentrating only on PC centric softwares and services, but due to Yahoo and Google offering Web Browser centric tools and services they were kind of forced to join the race.

Some wonderful pictures from Nov 1st Windows & Office Live conference headed by Bill Gates at San Francisco’s Palace Hotel.(Uploaded by niallkennedy)

One of the Interesting things as pointed out by Om is the next generation Microsoft Messenger which integrates with address book, email, and VoIP calling. I am searching endlessly on where I posted my ‘predictions’ on “Microsoft would actually come out with something like this” some time back, but so far no luck

Some more interesting thoughts on this topic by Harry McCracken

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?