A brief history of Windows 7
Ever wondered why Microsoft named the latest Windows release as Windows 7? Microsoft considers Windows 7 as the seventh generation Windows OS. Following are the 6 previous generations of Windows Operating System,
1. Windows 1.0 – Microsoft released the first version of Windows in 1985 and it featured tiled windows. From the beginning Windows was designed as a multitasking system. It was more of a GUI for the underlying MS-DOS operating system. It is interesting to note that Microsoft supported this operating system for 16 years (till 2001)!
2. Windows 3.11 – The next major release of Windows was in 1993 named Windows for Workgroups 3.11. It included networking and truetype fonts. Within months of release it sold millions of copies and Microsoft was named as the “Most of innovative company in US” by Forbes.
3. Windows 95 – Released in 1995, Windows 95 cemented Microsoft’s position as the solid leader in operating systems business. Microsoft integrated MS-DOS into Windows effectively putting all other MS-DOS competitors out of business. Windows 95 also introduced Internet Explorer 1.0. For optimal use Windows 95 required 8MB of RAM. The basic UI elements introduced in Windows 95 remains even today in Windows 7.
4. Windows 2000 – Windows 2000 was released in 2000 and the primary market was business laptops and server machines. Windows 2000 includes NTFS 3.0 and introduced encrypted file system. Windows 2000 was marketed as the most secure operating system, but continues to receive security patches in short intervals. Windows 2000 is supported till July 2010.
5. Windows XP – Released in 2001, Windows XP is the most used operating system even as of 2009 with more than 60% of market share. It offered a fresh user interface and a number of performance and stability improvements. Windows XP is supported till 2014.
6. Windows Vista – Windows Vista was released in 2007 and was not adopted quickly due to its high system requirements. To get a decent performance it required 1GB of RAM (Windows XP required 128MB) probably due to the fact that its engine core components were rewritten (audio, display, networking etc.). However it does have over 20% of the OS market share as of 2009. Vista is also notorious for its high prices (Ultimate edition costs over $300 almost matching hardware price).
There are a number of other Windows releases which are not considered in the above 6 generations. These include Windows 2 and Windows 3, Windows 98, Windows NT and Windows Me.
And then in 2009, Microsoft launches Windows 7 as the seventh generation Windows operating system.
How to fix Apple iPod Touch 3.1.2 firmware upgrade issue
Apple has recently released iPod Touch firmware upgrade 3.1.2. This upgrade is essential to test your iPhone/iPod apps. It may seem funny that 3.1.2 is a bug fix release. There seems to be a bug in the iTunes download progam or Apple servers which prevents this firmware upgrade. What is more irritating is the fact that Apple charges $4+ for this upgrade, yet you can’t install it!
The error is not uniform. Sometimes you get no error at all, but still the 3.1.2 is neither downloaded nor installed. Sometimes it gives a message “Unknown error 2020″. I tried upgrading iTunes and it turned out that it is the latest. I also tried resetting the iPod firmware. Interestingly the original firmware was downloaded without any issue which indicated that this may not be a download server issue. Finally I found a workaround quite accidentally.
There is a simple workaround to get 3.1.2 firmware installed on your iPod touch. Just download a free app from the Apple iTunes Store. This download somehow triggers the iPod touch upgrade download! Initially a 0.4KB file is downloaded which triggers the download of 240MB iPod touch software upgrade.
Problems like these remind me of the good old days when you can do upgrade to a device simply by downloading a file manually. If the file is available for download, it is guaranteed to work. For upgrade etc. iTunes should be made optional. They should give a alternate download location from where the upgrade can be dowloaded and directly moved to the iPod/iPhone.
What is new in iPod Touch 3.1.2 firmware?
3.1.2 firmware upgrade is a minor bug fix release. It contains fixes related to video streaming and sleep issues.
How to deal with a telemarketer
For many of us unsolicited marketing calls is a big nuisance. There is really not much you can do to prevent these calls. However as the following video shows sometimes it is the telemarketer who is at the receiving end. Highly recommended for anyone planning to join call centre work! It is the funniest prank call I have heard 
Tom Mabe is telemarketer’s nightmare
It is hard to stop laughing …
The ridiculous pricing of Wolfram Alpha API
I am fan of the Wolfram Alpha right from the day it was released. The computational answer engine from Wolfram Research was one of the coolest things I have seen in a while. Wolfram is capable of almost all types of mathematical processing and in addition it is also capable of responding to natural language based queries. So it can not only give answer to questions like 20 * 30 = ? , but also respond to questions like "who is barack obama?". Check out the examples page for the kind of things Wolfram Alpha is capable of.
Unlike traditional search engine results, the Wolfram output is structured. This means that processing output from it is easy and is extremely useful in large scan data analysis. So an API interface from Wolfram Alpha was eagerly awaited and it was released last week. But the pricing of the API is one of the most ridiculous I have seen in a while. The following is the pricing for personal use (for hobbyists etc.).
What? $60 dollars for accessing Wolfram API for 1000 times? I can’t believe that someone in Wolfram could be so retarded to charge almost one dollar for 10 hobbyist requests for the API. Then you look at companies like Google and think – Man, these are angels from heaven!
Now checkout the terms of use section of API which is worse than many of the free online services(you thought paying through your noise would give you better TOS?). Some examples,
- Wolfram|Alpha reserves the right to terminate this Agreement or discontinue the Wolfram|Alpha API or any portion or feature thereof for any or no reason and at any time without liability to You.
- You are required to provide a hyperlink to www.WolframAlpha.com on every page with Results. All hyperlinks associated with data provided by Wolfram|Alpha must navigate directly to Wolfram|Alpha.
- utilize the Wolfram|Alpha API in association with, or as a component of, any website that in the sole discretion of Wolfram|Alpha is determined to be obscene or otherwise inappropriate.
Here is what I think is reasonable pricing,
- Up to 5000 requests – free
- Up to 25,000 requests – $50
- Up to 100,000 requests – $150
- Up to 500,000 requests – $500
- Additional request pricing – Below $2 per 1000 requests
So here is the one liner verdict – Wolfram Alpha API pricing sucks.
The strange case of SyntaxHighlighter WordPress plugin
From 2.7 version onwards WordPress supports automatic upgrade of plugins. Usually this is a good thing. Wordpress will inform you of any updates to the plugin and you just need to click on “upgrade automatically” to keep your plugin upto date.
But recently I realized that auto upgrade is not always good. I have been using the SyntaxHighlighter plugin from Erik on my blog and one day it showed that a new upgrade is available. I went ahead and updated the plugin and realized that it no longer worked. The problem was that the new version of SyntaxHighlighter named “SyntaxHighlighter Evolved” was a different version created by someone named Viper007Bond. But since he had the URL http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/syntaxhighlighter/, the plugin system of WordPress was identifying it as an upgrade of Erik’s plugin!
So I had two options left. Either update all my posts with the new plugin’s conventions or rollback to the old version by Erik. I prefered the second method(changing posts was too much work).
So if you are a plugin writer, ensure that you have the official WordPress extend entry for your plugin also. Otherwise people can hijack your plugin using auto-upgrade feature!
Chicken a la Carte – A short film on hunger
This is a short film which won the people’s choice awards on the theme food, taste and hunger. Directed by Ferdinand Dimadura, this film reminds me that there are still a lot of people in the world for whom food is still a luxury. The film also reminds us that over 25,000 people die every day due to hunger.
Who got all the AIG bonus money?
If you steal $100 from someone, you get enough jail sentence to repent all your sins. But if you steal trillions of dollars, you get millions of dollars in bonus as well! – first law of AIG.
Nick Vujicic on struggles in life – inspirational video
In the following video Nick Vujicic demonstrates why you should never give up when faced with challenges in life. Nick was born with no arms and no legs. He is a well known motivational speaker and spreads the message of hope & love around world.
LoseThos – 64bit open source free operating system
LoseThos is a small 64bit open source free operating system available for IBM PC compatible computers. It is written and released by Terry A. Davis 
and is an operating system developed from ground up. The primary focus of this operating system seems to be video games (really simple ones!) and is intended for "programming as entertainment". Interestingly it also introduces a new language very much similar to C/C++!
The latest version available as of November 11th 2008 is V4.19 and the ISO file is less than 20MB. The distribution is a "live cd" and you can boot into the OS by burning it into a CD. Since LoseThos is a pure 64bit OS, it will work only on those systems or virtual machines which support 64bit. For example, Linux qemu emulator is not supported.
What makes LoseThos interesting is that the whole of the OS is written by Terry over a period of 5 years. It has over 100,000 lines of code. Programmers may find LoseThos as an interesting toy! It allows complete access to all the hardware and there is minimal layering.
LoseThos Hardware Requirements
- IBM PC Compatible (EM64T)
- VGA Graphics
- Minimum 256MB RAM and a maximum of 128GB RAM!
- CD-ROM but no SCSI
- ATA/SATA hard drives
- Gameport Joystick/RS232 serial port but no USB
LoseThos is currently just a hobby OS which can be fun for programmers. But who knows, it might even inspire someone to create an exceptional 64 bit open source operating system in future!
Don’t waste your time trying to get this running on Vmware Workstation. After trying for a few minutes I realized that LoseThos uses non standard stuff and hence Vmware cannot support it. In fact I was also unable to get this running on my latest machine which is Intel Quad core CPU (Q9300).
How to play Divx videos on Windows?
DivX is so popular these days that almost all large videos and movies are published in DivX format. A movie which occupies over 3GB can be compressed to a 700MB DivX file without compromising video quality! Unfortunately DivX is not yet natively supported on Windows machines. You need download and install DivX audio and video drivers for playing these MPEG4 videos. I will show you how!
1. Xvid – DivX video driver – Xvid is an open source implementation of DivX standard on Windows. It can be used for both encoding and decoding DivX files. The best thing of course is that Xvid is free and there is NO adware packaged along with it. Once Xvid is installed, video players will automatically use it whenever a DivX file is opened.
2. AC3Filter – DivX audio driver – A large number of DivX movies are encoded with AC3 and DTS soundtracks. In order to play them you need a custom audio decoder. AC3Filter once installed will automatically decode AC3 and DTS soundtracks embedded in a DivX movie file. So if you are not hearing any audio while playing a DivX movie, don’t panic just install AC3Filter.
3. VLC Media Player – DivX video player – Why should you use a separate media player like VLC when you have Windows media player? Well, VLC Player has advanced features for DivX playback. For example, it is possible to download a subtitle file for your movie and then configure it in VLC player. The subtitle files have the extension .srt (you can search in Google for the subtitle file of a movie). Following screenshot shows how to configure a subtitle file in VLC media player. You can also control the appearance of subtitles.
Now you are all set to play DivX movies and videos on your Windows machine!
Google Chrome browser – first impressions
Google is again on the roll! The latest product from Google named Chrome is a very fast and compact web browser. From the first impressions, it seems that Chrome may attract a sizeable pie of the browser market in the coming months. Needless to say, this is surely will heat up the browser wars and Internet Explorer is going to feel most of it!
The Google Chrome initial installer is under 500kb and rest of the installation is done by downloading other components from the initial installer. On my 2mbps broadband line it took under 5 minutes for complete installation. The configuration took just the following step,
The Chrome user interface is simple, elegant and extremely fast. It is very unobtrusive, just what an ideal browser should look like.
Google Chrome is built from ground up and hence is able to address a lot of issues plaguing current browsers such as Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera. Here is a summary of major Chrome features,
1. Single text field for URL and Search – Type in the URL if you know it, else search the Web. The default search engine obviously is Google, but you can easily change it.
2. Browser tabs as separate processes – Instead of threads, Google Chrome uses separate processes and hence provides greater control of each tab and preventing possible crash of the entire browser due to a problem in a Web page in a single tab.
3. Enhanced developer features – This includes JavaScript debugging and control features, a task manager and a JavaScript console. The JavaScript console even provides auto completion. I guess this will be an area where we can find tremendous improvements in coming versions. Firefox Firebug, beware!
Why is Google going after the Browser market?
The majority of Google revenue comes from search and there is a risk that browsers such as Internet Explorer will try to divert users from it. Already IE sets Windows live as default search engine. The best way to fight this is to fight Internet Explorer itself!
Secondly an advanced browser provides an ability to roll out advanced features to Google products. Google can provide a degraded behavior to other browser users for their advanced product features. This enables Google spreadsheet and document editor applications to compete with Microsoft Office etc. Hence Microsoft can expect intense competition in this area.
My Verdict
I think it is too early to say how Google Chrome will evolve. But one thing is sure, it will soon take up a substantial pie of the browser market. Also I think in the long run, Chrome has the potential to host complex Web applications taking over a lot functionality currently provided by operating system and desktop applications. And for the Web developers, it may become a very good development tool for advanced Ajax based applications.
Further Resources
Fedora 9 code named sulphur is released – what is new?
Fedora is a linux distribution sponsored by Red Hat and supported volunteers. The latest release is Fedora 9 (code named Sulphur) and was released on 13 May 2008. Fedora 9 contains a lot of feature improvements and is now more user friendly than ever! Fedora features the latest Linux kernel (2.6.25) and hence can run on latest hardware.
So what is new in Fedora 9 (Sulphur) ?
1. GNOME 2.22 – New version of GNOME brings a number of features which includes performance improvements. UI improvements include an enhanced world clock with multiple time zone displays. This version also includes an updated display manager with features such as power management on login screen.
2. Linux Kernel 2.6.25 – Latest Kernel support means a number of core enhancements such as improved virtualization support, CPU "group scheduling", USB authorization and new wireless configuration interface.
3. Persistent Live USB Support – Live USB support is not something new. Knoppix was one of the early distributions which could run from a Live CD. As USB capacity increased, live distributions started appearing on it. But what makes Fedora 9 unique is that now Live USB can store user preferences! This means that Live USB can be used a sort of portable Fedora 9 machine! Wherever you go, you can plugin in the USB, work on the Fedora 9 and then save data on it!
4. Seamless Upgrade – Fedora 9 features automated and seamless upgrade similar to Windows update. The latest preupgrade software can even be used to upgrade from Fedora 7 to Fedora 8!
5. Latest Software (Firefox 3 beta 5, Pidgin, Gimp etc.) – Fedora 9 Sulphur features all the latest software including Firefox 3. It also includes Pidgin, gEDIT, GIMP, Perl 5.10.0 etc.
Other new stuff in Fedora 9 include ext4 support, improved virtual machine support, bluetooth enhancements, PackageIt front-end to yum, Font improvements and built in support for encrypted file system.
Fedora 9 screenshot,
Further Resources
Download free anti virus software – AVG anti-virus free 8.0
From April 24, 2008 AVG is releasing a free version of the popular AVG Anti-Virus. This version (8.0) contains both anti virus and anti spyware and is the best free option available in the market. Unfortunately the free version lacks proactive scanning of browsing links to block malicious URLs (which contain spam/keyloggers).
AVG free offers fast scanning since spyware/antivirus engines are integrated. Another good thing is that it has a low load on the system. It also comes with safe search – each time you search online, Safe Search checks the results on the fly to give you an immediate idea of which websites are safe to visit.
The limitations of the free version are,
- No real time link scanning.
- This cannot be installed on Windows server versions.
- No technical support
Death of captcha? – Hotmail, Gmail and Windows Live captchas hacked!
Captchas are images used by online service providers to prevent automated sign ups. Ideally characters in these images can only be identified by a human. Spammers have been working hard to created a program which can identify captcha characters. They can then randomly create email accounts and then use it for bulk spamming! Since the mail is a genuine email from a well known email provider(Gmail, Hotmail) anti-spam providers cannot block them.
Websense is reporting that spammers have finally managed to write captcha decoding programs for Hotmail which takes only few seconds to decode the characters! The success rate is over 10% and is good enough for spammers. Here is how spammers make money from this,
1. Spammer releases the automatic signup bot as a virus.
2. An unprotected machine on the Internet gets infected by this bot virus.
3. Bot creates multiple hotmail accounts from victim’s machine using captcha decoding logic.
4. Bot sends advertising messages to multiple mail addresses using the newly created hotmail account.
5. When millions for spam messages are sent, fairly good percentage of them brings business and spammer makes money through affiliate cut.
Whoever wrote this must be pretty good since the Hotmail captcha is pretty difficult interpret even for a human. For example, consider the captach (displayed on the right side) I got when I tried to signup to Hotmail!
Weak captchas have caused havoc earlier. For example, PhpBB forum software captcha was so weak that was hacked in a few days. So if you have a popular forum which is running on PhpBB 2.0, you will soon find majority of new users are from automated signups! It was complicated by the fact that a signed up account can have a live link in the profile.
I think one way to handle the bots will be to have very big set of different captcha styles which will reduce the success rate to below 0.01%. Another way will be to introduce new type of captcha every day so that any decoding program will become obsolete in a day!
Rapidshare.de or Rapidshare.com dilemma and rapidshare search tools
Rapidshare is a popular free/premium file sharing service. There are a lot of files available on Rapidshare and not all of them are legal. But what many don’t know is that there are two different sites which run with the Rapidshare logo. The original one is rapidshare.de and the new recently started site is rapidshare.com. Same people are behind both these sites.
But unfortunately if you take an account on rapidshare.com, it WON’T WORK on rapidshare.de and vice versa! Even the account pricing is different between these two sites. For example, rapidshare.de charges 9.90 euro for one month’s service while rapidshare.com charges 6.99 euro for one month.
So before you signup to rapidshare, decide which one you need. If you are looking for a lot of old files, rapidshare.de account is the one you need. But rapidshare.com is where all the new files are added!
Rapidshare claims that they have 220gigabit/s bandwidth and can host upto 5 petabytes of data!
Due to obvious reasons(rapidshare doesn’t support file meta data to avoid copyright issues), rapidshare doesn’t provide any search facility. But there are a couple of third party sites which allows rapidshare search. These sites store the meta data related to rapidshare uploaded files separately. Following are some of the tools you can use to search rapidshare file database.
Rapidshare search engine – This is a web crawler which collects rapidshare links. Not perfect, but useful enough for most searches. Supports ajax search.
RapidLibrary – This is much more precise than rapidshare search engine. Files are indexed from user submissions and also from web crawling.