Treo 600 is going to stay and why T5 doesn't have WiFi

PalmOne announced T5 last week. But, many fans were dissappointed that it doesn't boast WiFi. These days any PDA without two most important wireless technologies - Bluetooth and WiFi - is not going to have widespread market.
PalmAddict interviewed president of PalmOne, Ed Colligan and talked about this issue and future Treo. It is interesting to note that PalmOne is not going to get extinct like past Treos. Looks like they are going to have multiple Treos.

Source: Slashdot

Beware HP iPAQ hx4700 buyers

Pocket PC Thoughts - The hx4700 has problems!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's a shame on HP's part. hx4700 is very well built iPAQ and it's first VGA pocketpc from a US manufacturer. Can't imagine they push buggy products into the market. I think they are getting very neglected in iPAQ department. Remember when Microsoft released WM2003 SE, HP refused to even upgrade the existing pieces. I think anybody who is looking for VGA pocketpc should wait for Dell's Axim X50. I'm sure Dell will price their unit's price lot less than HP's.

The most neglected part of India: North-East

N-E: The India we don't know (The Times of India)

Times News Network has got many facts why this part of India is ignored and what people from other parts think about it. "The first thing people must recognise is that the north-east comprises not one, but several cultures. Each state has its own rich and distinct culture. The rest of the country has still not awoken to the subtleties and nuances of it. There's no denying the undercurrent of alienation which springs from years of neglect," says Singhajit Singh, Manipuri dancer. The article has a valid point: It's a Catch-22 situation. To generate resources and jobs, states need economic activity. But private investment is not happening because basic infrastructure is lacking and there's a general feeling of insecurity because of insurgency.

Google Family Tree

Google Blogoscoped has come up with a new tool, Google Family Tree that gives you family tree of any famous personality. It uses Google web services to find the results. I found it interesting how they do it, though sometimes the results don't really match. Nevertheless, you should atleast try once to find some intersting facts. BTW, do you know that Shah Rukh Khan's son has "already been signed for a film to be produced and directed by hotshot director sooraj barjatya in 2020 ad"? And thought it's not true, see what happened to Amitabh Bachchan's wife.

Source: InsideGoogle

Safeguard your PC - Bookmark This

SANS Top 20 Vulnerabilities - The Experts Consensus

The SANS Top-20 is a living document. It includes step-by-step instructions and pointers to additional information useful for correcting the security flaws. We will update the list and the instructions as more critical threats and more current or convenient methods of protection are identified, and we welcome your input along the way. This is a community consensus document -- your experience in fighting attackers and in eliminating the vulnerabilities can help others who come after you.
This should have been done long back.... anyway, I think this is a good step towards protecting one's PCs.

Google SMS doesn't like Treo and Number Portability

Seems like Google SMS doesn't always work if you are using Treo or had Number portability. I can undersand about Treo, may be compatability issue. But, I can't quite understand about the number portability issue.

Thought it's not easy to get a job at Google? Think again

Solve the Equation, Get an Interview at Google (InsideGoogle)


Credit: Benjamin Tegarden and Kristina Chu
Source: NPR.org
I thought it was though to get a job at Google.... but, it seems it's tougher to get even an interview from Google.
InsideGoogle writes "It launched a billboard advertising campaign featuring a complex equation in front of the domain root ".com" -- making the puzzle’s solution a Web address. Candidates who made it to that page were asked to solve a harder second problem, which in turn guided them to yet another Web page that asked for their resume."
Looks like only people at bay area are blessed with this, as the billboards are put up over there. But, interesting way to recruit right people.

Spider bite kills kid

CNN.com - Coroner: Boy died from spider bite (CNN.com)

We have seen spider bite in Spiderman where Tobey Maguire becomes a spiderman. But, I guess everybody is not so lucky.

Is Firefox really secure?

Defending the Fox: Why it will remain secure

There is a good discussion going on regarding Firefox security. As omaryak said, Firefox doesn't use the monopolistic features like ActiveX and Browser Helper Objects that make IE open to security issues. I do agree that no browser is perfect, but atleast Firefox is opensource and the developers that fix the problem is much more wider than IE. This might bring "different fixes" for a problem and the Firefox people could choose which fix is more secure. As neven mentioned, opensource doesn't mean more insecure. It means the developers community is much much bigger than hacker community. And it seems like the people at Firefox are coming up with "Defending the Firefox" from version 2. This is awesome. This is mainly to make Firefox much more widespread and make webmasters aware of their "IE only websites".

Pamela gets the axe in The Apprentice

Hmm.... So, now one of the stongest contensant, Pamela, is fired.... this actually is going to benifit the men in the end. Now, there is no real contestant in women team as I see it.
Pamela was too bossy. But, I would say 90% of the times she was excellent, actually she did succeed in bringing some sort of management into the women team. But, the remaining 10% is what that cost her. She was really too bossy to Stacy. But, I don't think she is that a great competitor.
On a side note, I think George was not happy about firing Pamela, where as Carolyn was too happy about the decision. I think she doesn't like anybody instantly who cuts her while she is talking. We have witnessed this time to time.
I think the producers did bring some glamor into the show by having Ana Kournikova in the episode. Yeah, I know there are bunch of women in Apex...... but, hey they are not anywhere close to the first season's team.
Well, this leaves 7 men and 6 women for the job. So, the next task is going to be something to watch coz it involved Fashion, and women have advantage in this one. But, still my prediction is Mosaic (men's team) is going to emerge as a winner. Let's see who gets fired the next week.

Tailpiece: The next episode looks like a boon for those of us who get a kick out of Trump's two pals, Old Guy Flunky and Woman Flunky. Carolyn is shown laughing at something so hard she seems to be crying, and in another snippet, we're warned "Don't annoy George." (Courtesy: MSNBC)

Can't find on Google? List it here

Can't Find On Google

So, here comes a guy named Wayne Radinsky and try to list the things that we can't find on Google, well, with the help of others. I think this is neat idea... Google people may not see this.... but, hey who knows, one day this list could be so big that newsmakers may notice it.
What do you all say?.... should I put my weblog URL too, coz I can't find it on Google? Nah.... I don't think so, one of my regular "commenter" did provide some help..... So, I think I'll eventually be able to find this page on Google........ Meantime, don't forget to list your Google non-results......

Source: InsideGoogle

Google goes SMS

Get the 411 with 46645

Here we go.... Now, google does something that no other search engine started after a long time. Just as we thought Google is lying back while all other search engines are doing all the makeups, Google announced two new features - Google Print and 411.
Now you can get Business listings, Residential listings, Product prices, and even Definitions of words through SMS. Though we get all these things through WAP, not everybody have that service and SMS is faster than WAP.
Just when I was thinking of dropping my Text Message plan, Google gives me a reason not to drop it. Well, I can't imagine how I can spend time on web with out Google, now I think I will get used to "Mobile Google" too.
Google has put all the instructions on how to use it on it's help page. You can even get help on your phone just by sending "help" to 46645 (GOOGL). They even have put a Tips Sheet in PDF format on their help page, so you can just print it out and put in your wallet.

Been Busy

I'm not able to update my weblog for some time. I've been busy pretty much yesterday and may be most of today.

1st Test, Day 1 - Katich and Clarke piled up runs

So, finally the series began amid lots of speculation. Aussies started the innings very cautiously, something they are not known for. There was nothing to talk about the first session. No wickets, no banging. But, the second session saw some good play from Indians. Harbhajan got the break through for India in the form of Hayden. Though Katich and Langer tried to revive the innings, it didn't last long. Pathan strikes this time to get Langer out. Three wickets fell in the span of 25 runs. Martyn and Lehmann fell to Kumble. This brought Kumble's total victims to 399. He just needed one more to get to the milestone. Thankfully, he didn't have to wait for another day. Katich fell to Kumble, but not before steadying the innings with Clarke. If not their partnership of 107 runs, Australia would have been in trouble. Gilchrist joined Clarke for the last 10 overs of the day and did some banging in his usual style to score 35 off 34 balls. At the end of the day, Australia scorecard read 316 for 5.
For India, I think Pathan did very well. He just gave 39 runs of 17 overs. Those were some good figures. Though Zaheer seemed to give away lots of runs compared to Pathan, his figures weren't all that bad - 38 runs from 14 overs. Though Kumble was able to get vital breakthroughs with 3 wickets, he was at the receiving end most of the time, and so was Harbajhan though he got the first breakthrough for India.
India should hope to end the Australian innings during the first session tomorrow. Only then, they would be able to chase the Aussie score and take lead.

Gmail adds new features

Gmail is getting better and better. They added 4 new features today. The one that is obvious once you logon is managing contacts. Now, I can search for the contact and add notes and phone numbers in the contact list. I've used this and found quite impressive.
Like other web-based email services, you can save the composed mails as drafts and send them later. This was missing earlier in Gmail. The 3rd one is Gmail notifier. I'm not quite sure why they listed as new feature. This was there for quite some time. Well, I don't use this anyway, I use Gmail notifier extension within my Firefox browser and it's quite good. I don't need two notifiers.
The last one is big. NowI can forward all the incoming mails to any email address. I can create filters to select only few mails to be forwarded. I can forward to any number of email addresses. This is great. But, according to google, this feature is in "test" phase and it's free during testing. So, they might charge for this feature later. But, this means is Google going to charge for some features like Yahoo and Hotmail? Anyway, I don't think I'll use this feature even during the test phase. 1GB is big enough for me to store my mails in inbox.

How to market Firefox

Unique way to spread Firefox - Spread Firefox

I thought that was hilarious way to spread firefox, though the poster forgot to mention the source. I couldn't imagine somebody can do that. I liked it so much that I just wanted to put this up in my weblog. I think firefox guys should come up with some sort of competition to comeup with these kind of marketing stuff.

The Apprentice - Episode 5

Lights! Camera! Transaction!

The task facing the remaining 14: sell products live on QVC. The men have pricing problems, and the struggling women's team endures a new project manager whose tactics, they feel, involve irreverence and arrogance.
I think the lack of leadership is going to cost women agian. They definitely have attitude problem. The always get paired up depending on the situation and change parties.

Why Google doesn't show my weblog?

Earlier today, I posted an article where I said I love Google, and I'm missing the makeup features that others are offering. But, just now I realised Google doesn't list my weblog in search results. But, both Yahoo and Vivisimo does list my weblog. I don't understand how come Google, who owns blogger deosn't show it's own page and others show it. Here are search results from these three seach engines:
Google
Yahoo
Vivisimo

I didn't check on other search engines like MSN and Ask Jeeves. But, this was enough for me to be atleast little anger towards Google.

Yahoo! Search goes personal

Yahoo! Search blog: Personal Search: My Yahoo! Search Beta

See, this is what I was talking about earlier. I love Google, but it's getting behind with everybody coming with some sort of "makeup" to the search. Yes, Google does come up with the results that I'm looking for, but it would be better if it also come up with some sort of makeover. The searching experience didn't change much since they started. But, I guess it's high time they do comeup with "personal search". I know, I can use A9 to make my Google search personal. But, the "searching experience" is not going to be the same. Being a Googler myself, I don't want my favorite search engine to be behind everybody.
I did try Y! personal search myself for a while, and I must say it's awesome. The searching experience is great. Now, I can take my searches anywhere. I need this kind of experience while I'm Googling. Am I asking for too much?

On the Eve of most awaited Test Mach

The Best Sport Coverage From Around The World (Sky Sports)

I'm sure this is the one every cricket fan is waiting for everywhere around the world, irrespective of weather he is an Indian or Australian. This is the grand sporting event.
No doubt, Aussies are the best in the world of cricket. They are unbeatable anywhere in the world. But, Indians are no less match to them. Though it will take an enormous effort on their part, it's not impossible for them to win this series. Anybody would accept that India is just second to Australia in cricket. But, the rankings don't reflect this. Currently they are placed 4th behind the world champions, England and Pakistan. England moved to 2nd spot thanks to their recent summer performance in West Indies and England. They definitely made a strong position. Pakistan has also had recent good times, thanks to their performance at home. But, this is the chance for India to climb to 2nd spot. Just a series win will take them to that position, it doesn't matter by what margin they make it (Source: Cricinfo).
Though Ricky Ponting is not playing the first two matches, the Aussies don't have anything to miss. They are great team. They play as team. But, that's not the same with Indians. They rely on 2 or 3 players to do wonders. They forget that every little wonder by each player in the team count towards the result. This has been repeated often in media. But, the performance on ground remains much to be desired. Though I wish India to win the series, I wouldn't be surprised or loose interest in Indian cricket if they lose to Aussies. Again, my best wishes are with India.

Gudumba "Pathetic" Shankar

I watched Gudumba Shankar yesterday. Many people warned me not to watch it. But, I cared less about that. I wanted to see it because I liked earlier Pawan Kalyan's movies. But, it was just during the first song that I regretted my decision.
How worse can this movie be made? Almost everything went wrong. One thing Pawan Kalyan made clear from this movie is that he never acts, he just "overacts". Almost all the first half looked cheap. Why don't he just concentrate on his acting and not put his hand in other technical stuff? It might have went well in Kushi. That doesn't mean it will work all the time. Honestly, I felt I can watch Johnny again after watching this piece of shit. In my opinion, Johnny was atleast better than this crap.
He should take a lesson or two from Chiranjeevi. He knows his fans pulse. But not this guy. If not for Chiranjeeevi, Pawan Kalyan would have ended up in the league of Srikanth and Jagapathi Babu. It's just that Chiru's fans are blindly following Pawan. I'm a great fan of Chiru, if not a blind fan. That doesn't mean I should like whatever monkey acting Pawan does on screen. I felt Rajanikanth's dancing skills in "Thillana Thillana" (Muthu) were lots and lots better than Pawan's in "Le Le Le".
We have seen lots of movies from Shah Rukh Khan in Bollywood similar to those of Gudumba Shankar, thought they were class movies (class as oppossed to mass). This movie could have been made lots better had he concentrated on comdey and not overacting. I'm willing to bet his next movie is not going to be any better.
Even the songs..... Manisharma worked really hard and came up with excellent songs. Not even a single song is worth "seeing". I don't recommend this movie to anybody.

Ballmer, CEO of world's larget thief community

'iPod users are music thieves' says Ballmer (Silicon.com)

I don't understand this guy. He is the CEO of Microsoft, atleast 75% of the Windows computers contain some sort of stollen software installed. Even their operating system is pirated and sold. And this guy doesn't know how to stop that. Then he calls iPod users, not even iPod maker, as thieves. This guy is so cheap. Yikes......
iPod has become a status symbol in many metros and so is OS X by Apple. How can he call himself a CEO when he acts like a monkey in public. Click here to see what I'm talking about. On top of that he brings his 12-year old son into this. Ballmer, back up your statement with strong point and bring it on to the table. Until then, shut up.
I'm an XP user myself, and Ballmer, you made me feel a big time thief.

Australia in India - History

A history of Australia in India over the years (Cricinfo)

I'd say the most unfortunate miss for India was in 1986-87. If only Maninder could stick around for just one run for a great win. Anyway, that was a great 3 test series. But the real promise was shown by Pataudi and co in 1969-70 series. A great win would have complemented their efforts and that to scare Australians was no less feat.
How can one forget the 2000-01 series when India totally controlled the last 2 matches both with bat and ball. May not the the 2nd match in full. But, taking control the last 2 days and win the test after being followed-on was a spectacular effort. I wouldn't give the full credit to Laxman for the turning point of the match. Rahul Dravid complemented him every moment during their partnership. I wouldn't lose hope as long as Dravid is in the middle. But, let's not forget Bajji for his great bowling efforts to steal the match and eventually the series from Aussies. He is one of the best spinners we have.
Let's hope Indians will surpass their own efforts four years ago this time. I wish the team good luck.

Is the browser war really back?

In my first post, I mentioned that I've been using Firefox for good amount of time and will never go back to IE. No, I didn't go back to IE. But, I've been thinking about this so-called browser war. Honestly, I don't think Firefox is really a great threat to IE. Now, any windows computer is going to come with IE by default. So, IE is ready to use out-of-the-box. But, to use Firefox, one has to install it and add few extensions to really see great features that boasts it. The reason why I said Firefox is not a real great threat to IE is that it's not widely well known.
If one has to use Firefox, they have to get to know about it either by some news source or by word of mouth. Now, how many people bother to read news about Firefox online? Even if some people read about it, not even 50% of them will be willing to try it out. Now, the word-of-mouth campaign is very strong as it is from a person "known" and trusted.
Yes, I know this is just a beginning. Even if few hundred people try Firefox a day, eventually Firefox will have significant market share. But, hold on. This is will true if and only if, and mark my words, Google is not coming up with Gbrowser. There are many people who are as much loyal to Google as Firefox. I'm sure all the users of Firefox are Google fans. Even the developers at Firefox have integrated Google features into the browser. So, now if Google is really coming up with Gbrowser, then the real looser will be Firefox. It would be very difficult to say if the Firefox users are going to stick with their browsers are going to switch to Google's.
But, yes, one thing I can definitely say is that the real browser war will begin with Google's entry. IE's market share will dramatically be reduced then. Until then, let's say Firefox has long way to go and be qualified as a real contender.

Ganguly ignites the fire

Aussies bring out the best in us, says Ganguly (Cricinfo)

This is the most awaited series both for Indians and Aussies. I don't know if Aussies bring best in Indians, but they definitely bring best in VVS Laxman. Even McGrath and Wanre are said to target Laxman more than Tendulkar. I personally feel the batting in the Test series mainly depend on Laxman and Dravid. If these two guys click, then India definitely has more chances to win the series. But, the main strength for Aussies is that they don't depend on one or two guys to click. They perform as a team. Two or three players always click for them to win a match on any given day. That's why they are the best in World. It takes a huge religious performance on part of Indians to defeat Aussies. I wish them good luck.