tech·no·philes

Seems ages ago.. when I gave up on my 15 incher, dug deeper into my pocket and brought home the Samsung 955DF for around 13K (INR). Three years later I still do not have a reason to replace it. It's as good as new and seems to be doing better than when I first switched it on (thanks Displaymate!!). At 100 Watts/hr, this 23 KG giant still leaves me lots of room on my desk. Room for what??? Well that's when I got this crazy idea. Why not do away with application switching? I was hooked onto multi-monitor rigs from the days of Swordfish . Guess What! I plan to retire the 19" CRT and replace it with 2 x 20"/22" LCDs by end of this year. Currently I am watching LCD prices drop. I may not be able to duplicate what John did in Swordfish, but I do plan to have something like what Chris Pirillo has --> http://www.flickr.com/photos/lockergnome/454273055/

One of my fav. blogging website introduced me to the whole new world of Videopedia . Confused? Amazed? Don't worry, I have already experienced these in just 5 mins...... The website that confused me (and then amazed me) is 5min . It is a place to post/search short practical solutions. The whole idea is very simple: "We can explain any solution in just 5 minutes" . This website allows users to share their knowledge by sharing visual guides. The areas are Arts, Business, Sports & Health etc. Here is what 5min says about itself: - For starters, the Smart Player. To compliment the Videopedia vision and bridge the gap between textual and visual information, we developed a special player that allows viewers to watch the video in slow motion or frame by frame, zoom in and out, and more. - It gives the video creator the option to make a storyboard that helps others better understand the demonstration. - Each creator has a personal promotional Studio – a space to showcase t

Amazed with Sci-FI movies (I am talking about i-Robot, MI series & Minority Report)? Here is a big STEP in the way we communicate! NFC (Near Field Communication) from FINN Mobile gaint Nokia . NFC is a short-range wireless technology mainly aimed to be used in mobile devices. With NFC we would be able to use our mobile phone as e-money (bye-bye to credit cards), e-tickets & smart wallets.... Wanna know more about NFC? Here you go: http://www.nokia.com/A4305081 http://www.nfc-forum.org/home

LeeKoo of CNET started an interesting poll couple of weeks back. We discussed boot times and how h/s-ware config changes it. That's when I got out my stopwatch and timed mine. From push-on power to a usable desktop took under 60 seconds. If I used hibernate instead, the lag went down to 35 seconds. Am pretty satisfied with my results. Only the quad-cores seemed to do better ;) Of the many postings made, one I found really interesting. It was by Lenny. And he says.. ... But no matter what I'm doing, whether it being booting up or a project, I have a strict rule: NEVER sit and wait for the computer! It needs to be a tool, not a black hole for my time. What are your boot times?

..not because their ads are crap! But coz they had the nerve to charge me for it. How else can I explain the price of a 2.4 GHz AMD dual core, half of that of Intel. Granted that Intel C2Ds are clocking better than AMD X2s, but to me its just throwing good money away. (Intel E6600 is about 11K while AMD X2 4600+ is 6K). I don't consider myself a power user. So now I'm on the AMD bandwagon and loving every moment. The upgrade was flawless (thanks to a colleague). The performance has been more than what I would have expected out of a 6K CPU. Dual Core really works!!! ;) Part of the credit goes to the ASUS M2N-VM DH mobo (which actually cost me more than the CPU). It has a built in WiFi and turns my rig into an AP allowing my wife to share the internet connection wirelessly. I've also hooked up a 8 port switch for times when my system isn't on. With 6 channel sound, DVI-D, RAID and a plethora of connectivity options & feature - this is one mobo I would highly recommend

@AOL.in rare email IDs are up for grabs! I got mine yesterday. They have a clean mail interface and some really neat options I dearly miss in Y! & Gmail. AOL US & UK provide IMAP access, but that would be expecting too much considering the service is free.

Google is always experimenting with new features aimed at improving the search experience. Check out the latest buzz @ http://www.google.com/experimental/index.html Good Luck!

I don't remember how I first heard about TOR. But then I was forced to use it. No! not because I wanted to send a threat mail to the govt, but because I wanted to download stuff off a web drive that refused me downloads due to my IP. Since TOR masks your IP (among other neat things it does), I guessed I could fool the download servers into thinking that I was someone else. IT WORKED!!! That's when TOR really got me interested. been using it since 2005 and am continually amazed at how the system works (thanks EFF!!). So here I share TOR with you today. While its a great system, I would discourage you from testing it on a Govt agency. I will not take responsibility if you get yourself implicated ;) So hHere's how TOR does its stuff Though it looks pretty simple, its not! The system is so secure that even a person running a rogue TOR node will not be able to track the origin of the request no matter how sophisticated packet analysis he is capable of. For a low-down on how this

VeriSign, Inc . the domain name registry that controls the .com domain (as well as .net and others), has notified all the registrars of the domain name fee change. VeriSign has announced a fee change for .com & .net domain names w.e.f Oct 15,07. For .com domain names new price would be $ 6.42 from $6.0. Domain registrars would be paying $3.85 for .net domain names. As per the last report, VeriSign has 65 million .com domain names registered worldwide. With this fee increase , VeriSign would have better balance sheets for 2007-08. For details: http://gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/archives/registrars/msg04682.html

Google Labs is back with a bang. A new product called Goog-411 into Google Labs today - a free telephone based information service that could replace toll 411 calls. Google Voice Local Search makes local-business search accessible over the phone in the easiest manner. We can do the following with this baby: search for a local business by name or category. get connected to the business, free of charge. get the details by SMS if you’re using a mobile phone. Goog-411 or Google Voice Local Search can be accessed by dialing 1-800-GOOG-411 . The product is completely automated and there is no way to talk to a human for additional or clarifying information. You tell it your city and state, and then ask for a specific business or business category. To know more Catch the Buzz @ http://labs.google.com/goog411/about.html

Zenzui (an independent Mobile Web company also), developed by Microsoft’s Redmond Research lab is a new mobile browser. This application aims to make surfing the web on your mobile device easier through widgets. It lets you surf over a 6×6 grid of website widgets by panning and zooming around the grid. To learn more check out this promotional video:

I just found a real USB Desk Lamp that is made in a more traditional fashion. I am so impressed with the concept that I have added this as my wishlist item. Called the USB LED Desk Lamp this gadget has a flexible neck, four LED bulbs and an on/off switch on the lamp so you don’t have to unplug to turn the light off. The lamp is about nine inches tall and works with and USB port. The biggest surprize that its cheap at $8.0. Read More: http://www.everythingusb.com/usb_led_desk_lamp_12187.html

News Corporation & NBC Universal would launch the largest Internet video distribution network ever assembled with the most sought-after content from television and film. This video-rich site will debut this summer with thousands of hours of full-length programming, movies and clips, representing premium content from at least a dozen networks and two major film studios. AOL, MSN, MySpace and Yahoo! will be the new site’s initial distribution partners. Their users, who represent 96 percent of the monthly U.S. unique users on the Internet, will have unlimited access to the site’s vast library of content. This media alliance will offer consumers free long- and short-form video and create a compelling platform for advertisers, targeting the rapidly growing audience of online video consumers. Charter advertisers include Cadbury Schweppes, Cisco, Esurance, Intel and General Motors . Google Team, here is the challenge for you! This may kill  YouTube ! Read More: http://home.businessw

Search Giant! Google has decided that it's going to start purging data in its search logs. Currently, Google indefinitely retains detailed server logs on its search engine users, including user's IP addresses – which can identify a user's computer, the query, any result that is clicked on, their browser and operating system, among other details. Even if a user never signs up for a Google account, those searches are all tied together through a cookie placed on the user's computer, which currently expires in 2038 . Read More: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/03/taking-steps-to-further-improve-our.html http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/03/google_to_anony.html http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/03/more_on_google_.html

Since we seem to be discussing mashups & search engines, it would be unfair if we do not showcase Krugle.com - A search engine for looking up code snippets. Its been ages since I've done any coding, so I can't really comment on its usefulness. All you programmers out there, lets us know if your found krugle helpful? Next: TOR

CrossEngine!! I would call this search engine as a mash-up of all search engines. CrossEngine allows us to search across a wide variety of search engines. Here is what I found intresting with this Engine: Clean & Intuitive Dashboard More than 300 search resources No internal ads from CrossEngine Team As per CrossEngine help pages, it was launched as MrSapo.com in Sep. 2004. This search mash-up is owned and operated by Intelways LLC, (Woodstock, GA) . One more intresting feature I found is website customization. We can coupled our website with CrossEngine . How? Try: http://crossengine.com/?window=http://www.msn.com And, you would be able to see the resulting page as your browser's default homepage. Enjoy!!

Powered by IBM OmniFind Yahoo! Edition enterprise search software, UFOCrawler ( http://www.ufocrawler.com/ ) is one of the new search bee! This has been launched Anomalies Network. The Anomalies Network is the world's largest online UFO and paranormal community. The Anomalies Network itself uses the CentOS Linux distribution, Apache, Tomcat, MySQL and PHP in addition to IBM OmniFind Yahoo! Edition . IBM OmniFind Yahoo! Edition is a no-cost, entry level enterprise search product with Web search services powered by Yahoo! that enables departments and businesses of all sizes to quickly and easily find, access and capitalize on information stored within organizations and across the Web. IBM OmniFind Yahoo! Edition can be downloaded at http://omnifind.ibm.yahoo.com . As of now, UFOCrawler still need to cover a long journey in order to beat other bigges in the Search Space.

This eye watches your PC tirelessly, without demanding too much of your attention, bandwidth and system resources. Over the past decade I've used and refused a plethora of AVs/Security Suites. Some (read free) are just not good at the basics, or even if they are would want you to shell out something extra to clean the infections (they call it subscription, I call it ransom!) Some guzzle bandwidth as if there's no tomorrow, downloading MBs worth of updated signatures. The worst of the lot are the ones that demand too much of processor attention. The top two security suites love keeping at least 10% of CPU time to themselves all the time!! That's when I heard about NOD32 (and I admit, I wasn't impressed by its name) on Leo Laporte's and Steve Gibson's podcast, Security Now! , my bible on internet/system security. Leo has been using this AV for a long time and highly recommends it. I installed NOD32 sometime late 2005. It's been faithfully protecting me sin

Feed43 (pronounced as “Feed For Free”) is an online service, which converts any webpage to a RSS feed.. To create and setup feeds using this service you should have any of these browsers: Mozilla-based browser (e.g. Mozilla, Netscape 7+;  Firefox 1.4+) Internet Explorer 5.01 + Opera 8 +   Konqueror 3.4.1 The procedure of setting up a feed has been mentioned in a very user friendly way at the following URL:    http://feed43.com/how-it-works.html So what you are waiting for? Go & explore this Free RSS converter!!!

Yes!! that's what the email, a colleague sent to me claimed. It had a link to this rather suspicious sounding application. KGB Archiver Call me a paranoid, but I did read my share of spy novels back in school. KGB , Mossad, CIA & MI6 they all were up to no good. I was pretty apprehensive installing it. What if it started sending my personal info to some twisted dude??? Anyways, I read some reviews, did a WOT check and decided to take the plunge. Here's the run down on this app. [readme_en.html says] KGB Archiver is the compression tool with unbelievable high compression rate. It surpasses even such efficient compression tool like 7zip and UHARC in terms of the abilities. Unfortunately although its powerful compression rate, it has high hardware requirements (I recommend processor with 1,5GHz clock and 256MB of RAM as an essential minimum). One of the advantages of KGB Archiver is also AES-256 encryption which is used to encrypt the archives. This is one of the st

I scratched my head four times when I heard about TurboGears . Later, I regret for that scratching.... TurboGears is based on the agile, mature, cross-platform, well-documented, easy and fun Python programming language. We can create a database-driven, ready-to-extend application in minutes . The objective behind TG is to simplify and speed up the development of modern web applications written in the Python programming language. Python makes it super simple to get started with TurboGears , whether you're running Windows, Linux, Mac OS X or even a cell phone. I really liked this language at the first look. Kevin Dangoor developed TG for people like me who are in love with modern web applications written in old Programming Languages. After Ruby On Rails ! This is my new love in programming!!!!! Learn More : http://docs.turbogears.org/1.0 http://www.o3magazine.com/pastissues/issue5/

Yahoo! NZ has teamed up Xtra with New Zealand's leading ISP and a subsidiary of the national telecoms provider, Telecom . Want to check this out: Try Yahoo! Xtra Homepage: http://nz.yahoo.com/new/

I mean that's why they call them Viral. I just couldn't resist passing this on. Let me know if you're infected too. Here's more..

WOT's another reason to stay on the FireFox bandwagon. It's a free service that provides web site reputation information for users. You can download it as a simple add-on for your browser that determines the trustworthiness of websites based on direct testimonies from the users themselves. The testimonies are compiled into a general indicator of a websites trustworthiness, which you can easily view through a reputation icon on your browser window. It had these three easy to understand status icons. Been using it for almost 6 months now, and it keeps me out of all those shady alleys on the net. A must have if you are a www explorer. Find it at http://www.mywot.com/ Coming Soon: NOD32

Install GadgetTrak onto your USB device. If it gets stolen, when the "new owner" plugs it into his/her USB port, the device will call home. Essentially, users who fall victim to a gadget theft can flag the system to start tracking down any applicable IP information, location, usernames, and ISP deets that are found when the crook plugs your gizmo into their PC.

My latest love " Wordsource ". This would be my online dictionary and thesaurus from today. A very clean & ads free website that provides us the feature of checking words via URL directly. Confused? Type word.sc/confused it would give you the meaning of confused. Besides this, this also helps us to do advanced search via Prefix, Suffix, ZIP Code, City & Domains. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh! Web 2.0 would change our web habbits......

" Shelfari " a product from Tastemakers,Inc is an online bookshelves. It helps us to build virtual bookshelves and discover popular books in friends and critics. I found my first experience with Shelfari quite amazing. This website also allows me to Influence people by rating & discussing books online Participate in online book groups to further explore literature Interact with and learn from authors It also allows us to buy books online via Amazon.com . Adding to the above, I have also heard that Amazon has invested heavily in Shelfari . Learn More: http://www.shelfari.com/ http://www.techcrunch.com

I have been hearing about this book on Leo Laporte's podcasts. It's highly recommended both by Laporte & Steve Gibson of GRC Haven't found it yet. Author Peter F. Hamilton Country United Kingdom Language English Genre(s) Science fiction Publisher Macmillan Released 2001 Media type Print ( Hardcover ) ISBN ISBN 0-330-48006-5

Ever been a victim of a failed hard disk? I have .. and its not a pretty sight Had not my HDD monitoring s/w warned me about the impending failure I would have lost almost 8 years worth of data!! There hasn't been a formal study done (I don't trust the ones published by HD manufacturers) that anyone could call "truly comprehensive". What qualifies as comprehensive? A study collected from more than one hundred thousand disk drives, deployed in several types of systems. A combination of serial and parallel ATA consumer-grade hard disk drives, ranging in speed from 5400 to 7200 rpm, and in size from 80 to 400 GB in an active production environment. Who could do this better than Google. Read it and you'll be shocked! I've already started burning all my precious data onto DVDs. http://labs.google.com/papers/disk_failures.pdf

Scene 1 Location: Gurgaon Malls (Haryana, India) Occasion: Out for a movie with my wife (tickets booked online for the 4:00 PM show) Time: 3:30 PM on a Saturday (the worst you could choose) Status: Basement Parking Full, Level Parking Overflowing, Traffic Police on the prowl - still looking for a spot at 4:45 PM Result: Imagine, Go Wild! Scene 2 Location: Gurgaon Malls (Haryana, India) Occasion: Out for a movie with my wife (tickets booked online for the 4:00 PM show) [Script Change Starts] Logged into http://www.parkatgurgaon.com, booked a slot from 3:45 PM to 8:45 PM @ Rs 20/hr paid in advance using the HDFC Netsafe Card [/Script Change Ends] Time: 3:30 PM on a Saturday (the worst you could choose) Status: Drove the dusty Zen into my reserved bay at 4:00 PM, was greeted by name & a smile At 8:30 PM came back to a spotless car Result: Imagine, Go Wild! Calling entrepreneurs with a vision: Do this guys and see how your stocks soar. --------------------------------------------------

Alienware's ohhhhhh! factor killed me almost. Alienware Area-51 7500 , is here to rule. This Intel® Core™2 Duo loaded desktop is best in its class. Some key features which I liked most are: Standard Intel® Core™2 Duo with Dual Core Technology Standard NVIDIA® GeForce™ 7950 GT512 GDDR3 dedicated video memory Optional Dual NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8800 GTX ( I choosed this one for my wishlist) Starts from $2,499 (:D) Standard High Definition Surround Sound Audio (Supports 8–channel 7.1 24–bit audio RAID: Options 0 and 1 Available for HDD Optional 2x Blu-ray Disc (BD-ROM) Reader / WriterEight Hi-Speed USB 2.0 ports (6 Back / 2 Front) See more: http://www.alienware.com/product_detail_pages/Area-51_7500/area-51_overview.aspx?SysCode=PC-AREA51-7500-R4&SubCode=SKU-B -Eye of the Tiger

A new item to my wishlist. Samasung 940UX , a 19'' monitor that simplifies connections by using USB. It is expected that @ CeBIT (is one of the world's most important computer expos), Samsung would introduced this cutieee. Hooking up my monitor with USB would be much easier for me ( USB are damn smooth to connect as compare to VGA connectors). Ahhhh! DigilAll world .

Just when I thought I had seen it all, my fellow blogger sent me this IM. I was in the middle of something important, but since he has this uncanny ability to come up with stuff that makes you look twice, I decided to check it out . Swarmthe?? The name lacks cool factor but thats that only thing about this site that isn't. You got to take a look for yourself to believe. It uses anonymous usage stats (remember that Google Toolbar option??) to show in real time who's visiting what and how!! Amazing!! right? I had to literally force myself to close it and get back to work. And yes, I posted this from home ;)

This is something that has been around for years and is a simple solution to avoid hackers executing code using buffer overflows/overruns. From the MSKB 875352 Data Execution Prevention (DEP) is a set of hardware and software technologies that perform additional checks on memory to help prevent malicious code from running on a system. In Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) and Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005, DEP is enforced by hardware and by software.The primary benefit of DEP is to help prevent code execution from data pages. Typically, code is not executed from the default heap and the stack. Hardware-enforced DEP detects code that is running from these locations and raises an exception when execution occurs. Software-enforced DEP can help prevent malicious code from taking advantage of exception-handling mechanisms in Windows. Software DEP is crap! You need to have a DEP at a processor/bios level. To check if you do, just try this little app by Steve Gibson. http

Awe---some !!! My first reaction when I checked Zilo for the first time. This website helps us to choose our own products (from ZiloShop) and earn commissions on each sale ! This venture has recently been launched in US by Centralcast (Owned by Jeremie Berrebi & David Levy). Zilo has already created a success story in France with its country specific website. I'm sure we would have a great time with this new kid on the block....... Realated URL: http://www.zlio.com/ http://www.zlio.com/?page=about http://thefrenchtouch.zlio.com/

Yahoo!'s Mixd (the group texting and photo sharing via mobile phone) is going down on 25th Feb. So far Yahoo! Mixd is only available for US phone carriers. But, I would prefer to see such services/projects (with Yahoo! Mobile) for other countries also.

Licensing issues allow limited number of MS Office installations. Online office portals are very popular and till now I hadn't come across anything close to Google Docs. Enter EditGrid It allows online collaboration that I dearly used to miss in Google Spreadsheets. Other USPs are: 1) User Contributed Templates 2) Chat 3) Remote Data (pull data from other sources) 4) Add-ons and many more... Here's how the workspace looks like: Please do comment about it.

I've come across many home-office setups that I drool over, but this one took the cake. I came across Stefan Didak's HO setup on one of Chris' feeds. And there started my next quest. I'll try a multi-monitor setup at home. Check-out the link and you'll fall in love!

My excitement about Yahoo! pipes took a beating for the first few minutes. Reason? Internet Explorer 6.0. Yahoo! Pipe pages do not render correctly, some options are not visible and the worst part, I cannot save a pipe!!! Recommended Browser : FireFox Happy mixing!

Yahoo has decided to make a solid comeback in 2k7. After Yahoo Our City , we have a new RSS feed remixing tool Yahoo Pipes . Yahoo Pipes is a free online service that lets you remix popular feed types and create data mashups using a visual editor. You can use Pipes to run your own web projects, or publish and share your own web services without ever having to write a line of code. It's a beta service from Yahoo Team and the name seems to be inspired from Unix pipes. Good Luck My Old Champ "Yahooooooo"

Chris Pirillo. The creator of Gnome Dex and self inspiring, self made man. He used to host "Call for Help" I have been getting the Lockergnome newsletters for almost three years now and I've recently started getting Pirillo's Picks . I discover something everyday, something worth sharing with others. So I guess its time I shared Pirillo's Picks with you. This is what you need to do to subscribe: 1) Send an email to: picks@lockergnome.com 2) Add the feed at : http://feeds.pirillo.com/ChrisPirillo to your RSS reader/browser

Yahoo OurCity (India) is a new launch from Yahoo India team. Our City is a dynamic representation of content created for DELHIets (& Banglorians also). There is a lot to Explore and learn on this website. Currently, Yahoo OurCity offers information about Delhi & Banglore (Indian Silicon Valley) only. Hope Yahoo would be able to tap more Indian web surfers with such concepts. Good Luck Yahoo Team.

Did you run out and get Windows Vista today? Well, even though I can't recommend the upgrade with enthusiasm, I can give you ten reasons why you might care to give 'er a go at some point in the near future. I'll be slamming these points into a :30 video clip tomorrow morning - in an effort to do a better job than Microsoft at marketing Vista to potential users: 1. The new Start Menu can help you find things faster 2. Fast USB sticks can speed up your system instantly 3. Program-independent volume control will keep your sounds in check 4. The Windows Explorer exposes tons of file metadata 5. Parental controls will keep Mom and Dad happy 6. Checking for updates and problem solutions has never been easier 7. Guided Help takes interactive learning to the next level 8. Both wired and wireless network management are smarter 9. There's an infinitely more stable video driver model in place 10. Hardware-accelerated eye candy on the desktop is awesome And here's a slick Vista

Let's make search a better experience . This seems to be the motto of Kartoo . KartOO is a metasearch engine with visual display interfaces. In other words, you would have eye catching search results page. For newbees like me "MetaSearch engines a type of search tool that will allow a user to conduct a search across 2 or more search engines and directories in one go. These engines don't hold an index of their own but are programmed to search across many of the top search tools simultaneously." KartOO search engine is a product of KartOO S.A. (Worldwide leader in Cartographic visualization). I played with this search engine for 20 mins. My verdict: Don't compare it with Google! Enjoy a fresh search experience. Find more about Kartoo: http://www.kartoo.net/a/en/aide01.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kartoo

After bearing the bungling blues & complicated codecs, I finally managed to get my copy of Nero 7 Premium Edition today (600+ MB). I upgraded Nero 6, crossed my fingers and dumped 4.4 GB of data onto a blank DVD. Screen Capture: Nero 7 Premium It was beautiful, no SCSI error, no over burning, no buffer underruns!! I played with this amazing s/w for an hour discovering some great apps esp to author DVDs. Verdict: It's a must if you don't want to get into the innards of DVD writing. It makes things much simpler and it comes with its own little player that happily decodes DVDs with no additional effort. I uninstalled all DVD utils except PowerISO. I have dozens of .BIN images that Nero ImageDrive cannot mount. So goodbye dVd desperation and hello burning bliss :)

Thanks to my online newspapers (I checked International Herald Tribune), I came to know about Big Blue's new venture. IBM has released a new social networking suite, called Lotus Connections . As per "International Herald Tribune": Lotus Connections has five components — activities, communities, dogear, profiles and blogs — aimed at helping experts within a company connect and build new relationships based on their individual needs. The profiles component, for example, lets users search for people by name, expertise or keyword. The program then not only provides contact information and reporting structure details, but also lists blogs, communities, activities and bookmarks associated with the person. With IBM's quarterly profit rose to 11 percent, Big Blues is seriously looking to make waves once again. http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/01/21/business/ibm.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/ibm_enterprise_social_networking.php#more

Been ages since my S200 died on me. (sniff). I loved it. It was my first digicam and I took some great pictures with it. The S200 Now its time to move on. I read scores of reviews and narrowed down to the 350D. But it's still a wee bit expensive for me right now. But it definitely is on my shopping list. The EOS 350D Detailed review on: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos350d/ BTW this is a great web site for an indepth analysis on digicams!

I just bought my second Motorola in six months. This time it is the Motofone F3 It looks "WOW" and would set you back by a mere 1600 rupees!!! Yes, you guessed right, its a basic phone that does what phones were actually meant to do. It takes some getting used to, but once you do, its a breeze to use. I also had an unfair advantage of being the first to lay my hands on it. So it managed to gather a small crowd wherever I went with it. Most believe I am lying about the price :) Rest are pestering the person who got it for me from UP where its currently available. I believe would be placing an order of a dozen F3s sometime soon... I rate it a: 3.5 on 5 for usability 5 on 5 for looks 5 on 5 for value for money 5 on 5 for robustness (throw it, kick it, the F3 would come out unscathed - I threw it onto the floor couple of time to prove it to my audience. Note: we have wall to wall carpeting ) Verdict : Its a good second phone for people like me who can't carry a camera phone

Yeah, I watched almost half of "Fast and Furious" again. I've lost count of how many times I have done that. I never seem to be able to completely watch any movie. Something always comes up! This time its a "Burning Issue", literally. Problem 2 of Chapter 1 was that Windows XP Pro doesn't support burning DVDs the way it does CDs. I did some research and found that: 1. Win XP Pro can burn DVD RAMs [microsoft technet says] Windows XP introduces native support for reading and writing to DVD-RAM drives using the file allocation table (FAT) or FAT32 file systems. It can also read Universal Disk Format (UDF) version 2.01, a superset of UDF 1.02, which is the current standard for DVD media, including DVD-ROM discs and DVD videos. Further, Windows now makes it possible to burn your own CDs conveniently and efficiently with mastering technology built directly into the operating system. 2. Good ol' Nero 6.0 terminates burn after an "SCSI command aborted...&