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...