Archive for November, 2006

Breast feeding is a crime? - Associated Press is reporting that a woman was kicked out from Freedom airlines plane (Burlington, US) (not the irony in the name - “freedom”) for breast feeding in public. The reason they have given is that the woman refused to use a blanket during breast feeding!

Ban girls to stop eve-teasing! - A school in Bhopal(India) decided to ban girls from coming to college. They said they want to protect girls from eve-teasing.

Christ! world is such a twisted place…

Files which have extensions such as *.bin or *.iso represent content of a CD or a DVD. It is simply a method of distributing the CD or DVD content in file form. For example, if you want to sent a CD to someone you can take a bin or ISO image and sent that over internet. The guy at the other side can then write the image to a CD or DVD to get an exact replica.

ISO files are standard image files and can be written to a CD directly in Windows XP. Bin files (along with an index file, cue) can be written by software such as Nero.

There are tools such as Daemon Tools which can act as a virtual CD ROM. Hence you can use the ISO file or Bin without writing a CD! Daemon Tools will display the ISO or Bin file as a CD drive in windows explorer.

More Reading
Daemon Tools
Wikipedia on ISO Image
Other disk image emulators

From today I am starting a new category “did you know this?”. Here I will be looking at things which are probably new for a lot of readers. I will also point to relevant resources for more reading.

What is coyote hunting?

Coyote is a north american predator similar to a fox. The coyote is faster than a fox and hence coyote hunting is difficult than fox hunting. Normally domestic dogs are used to start the chase. The thrill is obviously in the chase. Coyotes are either killed by the hunter using a gun or killed by the domestic dogs.

Over years coyote hunting has developed into a skill with its own vocabulary and practises. Coyote calling refers to making sounds to bait the coyote out from its hiding place. A wide range of weapons are also used for hunting.

There is strong opposition to coyote/fox hunting and is now controlled in many countries. Pro-hunting organizations claim that hunting is essential for predator control and is a livelihood for many.

More Reading
Wikipedia on fox hunting
Coyote Hunting
Varmint Al’s Hunting Page
BBC’s fox hunting wordwide

If you blog once in a while, interface provided by blogging tools such as Wordpress or Movable Type is ok. But if you are a regular blogger, this becomes tedious and slow. Saving the post obviously takes couple of seconds and soon gets irritating.

So recently I started blogging using w. bloggar which is a desktop based application for blogging. This tool allows you to directly post to your blog from desktop. You can also review your previous blog posts, edit or delete them. It is also possible to upload files or images to your site and then directly link to your post. All this is possible without leaving w.bloggar.

You can start using w.bloggar in 4 simple steps.

1. Download and install w.bloggar
2. Setup your account - Here you need specify your blog address, user id and password.
2. Setup upload properties (Under blog properties menu) - Provide ftp settings for your web site. Provide URL to Link if you put your images/files in a sub directory.
3. Setup preview properties - Specify you site CSS and other properties here. This will make the preview same as the actual blog output.

Other Desktop Blog Editors
Qumana
Ecto (contains thumbnail and scaling tools)
Perfomancing for Firefox (requires firefox)
BlogJet (commercial)
Zoundry (currently in beta)

Traffic in India is utter chaos. But at the same time it is quite efficient. For example, many roads which had smooth traffic suddenly had traffic jams when signals were introduced. Want to know why? Check out the following video.

Driving in India is an adventure sport. So if you are planning to visit India, add this as an adventure item. In fact just sitting in a taxi and watching the driver or road is going to be an unforgettable experience.

To many in west this video looks frightening. But for a resident like me it is daily life. The only problem is that you cannot be relaxed when you are driving. One thing this video doesn’t show is the pedestrian behavior (they can jump any second on to the road) which is much more frightening.

I am now looking for a laptop. The one I have is a 15″ monster size laptop which weighs over 3kg(6+ lbs). After carrying this for 2 years, the most important thing I look for in a laptop now is the size and weight. Everything else seems so less important!

Here is what I found in the smallest and lightest set of laptops. Going for the smallest laptop obviously will require some sacrifice such as doing away with an optical drive. An external drive can anyway be purchased separately.

I have only covered the top 5 smallest laptops. Note that only relevant specifications are mentioned. Things such as warranty, included software or support provided etc. can be found at the product sites mentioned. I may do a detailed review of each product soon.

[Obviously this list will get obsolete within a month. But I am planning to keep this updated.]

Sony UX series ($2000)

Specifications
Model : Sony VGN-UX280P
OS : Windows XP Professional (Service Pack 2)
CPU : Intel Solo Processor U1400 (1.20GHz, 2MB L2 Cache)
Chipset : Intel 945GMS, Bus Speed 533MHz
RAM : 1GB PC2-3200 400MHz DDR2 SDRAM
HDD : 40GB4 4200rpm Ultra ATA(Shock Protection)
Display : 4.5″ Wide SVGA LCD, Touch Screen (1024×600)
Graphics : Intel Graphics Accelerator 950 with 128MB

Connectivity: Intel PRO/Wireless(802.11a/b/g), Integrated WAN, Integrated Bluetooth, Ethernet 10BASE-T/100BASE-TX
Sound System : Built-in monaural speakers, Built-in microphone, Microphone jack, Headphone jack
Others : Memory Stick Slot, 1 USB 2.0 port, port replicator connector, DC-in (1), 2 Built-in Cameras (front: 0.3M pixels and back: 1.3M pixels), biometric fingerprint sensor

Battery Life : Lithium-ion, 2.5-4.5 hours
Dimensions : 1.2lbs (545g) and 5.91″(W) x 3.74″(H) x 1.27-1.50″(D)

Samsung Q1 ($1100)

Specifications
Model : Samsung Q1
OS : Microsoft Windows XP Tablet Edition
CPU : Intel® Celeron ULV Processor 353
Chipset : Intel 915GMS, ICH6M
RAM : 1 SODIMM 512MB
HDD : 40 / 60 GB (PATA, 4,200rpm, 1.8″ HDD)
Display : 7″ WVGA (800X480)
Graphics : Intel 915GMA 900, Max 128MB

Connectivity : 10/100 Ethernet, 802.11b/g, Bluetooth
Sound System : Intel HD Audio, 2 stereo speaker (2W x 2 speaker)
Others : 2 USB (USB 2.0), 1 Type II CF card, RJ45, Audio Jack, 2 Array Mic, VGA, DC-in

Battery Life : 3.5 hours
Dimensions : 1.27 lbs (779g) and (WxHxD) 227.5 x 139.5 x 24.5~26.5 mm

Raon Vega ($900)

Specifications
Model : Raon Vega
OS : Windows XP Home
CPU : AMD Geode LX800 - 500 MHz (L2 Cache - 128 KB)
Chipset : AMD CS5536
RAM : 512 MB
HDD : 30 GB (4200 RPM)
Display : 4.3″ XGA TFT 800 x 480 pixels up to 1920 x 1440

Connectivity : Free external Wifi
Sound System : RealTek ALC203
Others : USB2.0 x3; VGA x1; microphone x1; headphones x1

Battery Life : Enhanced Battery: 5.5 hours Compact Battery: 1.8 hours
Dimensions : 1.06 lbs / 480 g and 6.3 (W) x 3.1 (L) x 1.1 (H) [inch] - 160 x 80 x 27.5 [mm]

OQO 01+ ($1400)

Specifications
Model : OQO 01+
OS : Windows XP Professional
CPU : 1GHz Transmeta Crusoe
Chipset :
RAM : 512MB DDR RAM
HDD : 30GB hard drive (shock-mounted)
Display : 800 x 480 W-VGA 5″ transflective display (indoor/outdoor readable)
Graphics : 3D accelerated graphics with 8MB of video RAM

Connectivity : 802.11b wireless, Bluetooth wireless
Sound System : Microphone, Speaker
Others : 4-pin FireWire (1394), USB 2.0, 3.5mm stereo headphone jack,

Battery Life : up to three hours
Dimensions : 14 ounces(396g) and 4.9″ x 3.4″ x 0.9″

Asus R2H ($1000)

Specifications
Model : Asus R2H
OS : Windows XP Tablet Edition (English)
CPU : Intel Celeron 900 Mhz Mobile
RAM : 768 MB
Chipset : Intel 910 GML
HDD : 60 GB
Display : 7″ WXGA 800 x 480

Sound system : Built-in Speaker
Connectivity : RJ45 x 1, 802.11b/g Wireless LAN, Bluetooth
Others : Embedded GPS with North America Maps, 1 x Secure Digital Card Slot, USB x 3, VGA Out, Fingerprint reader

Battery Life :
Dimensions : 1.83 lbs / 830g

More Reading
Sony UX Series
Samsung Q1
Raon Vega
OQO 01+
Asus R2H

I was planning for a mini Christmas electronics shopping and came across this offer. Buy.com is now offering 20$ back for any purchase over 50$!. This is offered along with Google checkout which was introduced by buy.com recently. Now there is no need to login to buy.com. Obviously this tie up is going to give a lot of exposure to Google checkout. Already lot of online stores are supporting Google checkout (Starbucks, ToysRUs, Ritz camera to name a few).

What is the catch in buy.com offer?

• Discount coupons are not eligible.
• Not all items are eligible for this offer. Only Google check out enabled products are available with this offer.

More Reading
Buy.com 20$ offer
Google checkout
Google checkout merchants

I was trying to capture a still from Windows Media Player and use it in one of my blog posts. What I got was a black square! Why did this happen? It seems this has something to do with video acceleration used in Media Player. I was able to find the solution while going through windows media player help file (search for capture).

The solution?
Very simple actually. When playing the video or when it is paused just press Ctrl and I button together (Ctrl+I). Windows media player then throws up a save as screen and you can save the screen shot as a JPEG file. Pretty neat!

I did a bit of further research and noticed this. If “use video mixing renderer” option under Tools=>Options=>Performance=>Advanced is checked then Ctrl+I works, otherwise plain old screen print works!

Consider the following scenarios,
1. Multiple blogs with shared content. You have couple of blogs and you want some common piece of information on all blogs(possibly on side bar, header or footer).

2. Single blog with multiple templates. You have a Movable Type installation and you want some common information across index pages and archive pages.

The commonly followed practice is to include the page fragment in all pages. This becomes a nightmare after a while. Whenever there is a change in the common page fragment you have to change all related pages.

Blogging tools such as Movable Type provides some mechanism to include other files. For example, MTInclude directive can be used to reuse page fragments. The problem with this approach is that you have to rebuild all the pages and for a large installation can take a lot of time.

The perfect solution to this problem is to use server side includes. For this your Web server must be configured for server side include (Most hosting providers enable this by default). For example in my Movable Type templates I have the following line,

...
<div id="banner">
<!--#include virtual="/navbar.html" -->
</div>
... 

In the above case note the virtual attribute in the include directive. This means that navbar.html is searched from the root of your web server. Another alternative is to use file attribute.

More Resources
Using MTInclude and PHP Include
Apache Tutorial on Server Side Include

Before you try out any of the methods listed here, I suggest you install Firefox browser. For faster and smoother internet access, Firefox is the best browser available out there. When you are accessing proxy sites or similar sites ensure that you use Firefox not Internet Explorer.

Internet censoring is now everywhere. In my office Orkut is blocked since there was an Orkut virus scare. Countries such as China, Saudi Arabia etc. routinely block many websites. Interestingly entire blogger.com and similar blog sites were banned in India not long ago. So it is no wonder that many of us are looking for ways to access blocked websites.

Last week I did an investigation into the various methods available for bypassing website access restrictions. I have shortlisted them below as ” Top 10 methods to access banned websites”.

Top Ten methods to access banned websites

1. Use IP address - This is the simplest way to bypass domain name based access restrictions. Instead of the domain name such as www.webstuffscan.com use the direct IP address. To find the IP address use one of the free host to IP online conversion tools such as this.

2. Use Google cache - If you are not bothered whether the content is latest on a site, Google cache is best. Do a Google search for the site and then click on the cached link below the search results.

3. Use an Anonymizer - In this method you access a third party site which in turn routes your request to the required server. Some services provide URL encryption also. The problem is that most of these servers are no longer free. Do a google search for the latest list as this is a very dynamic area Following are some services which still works(free!),

Daily Best Links - Hides original URL and provides an array of access of options. The is one of the best free servers.
Anonymouse - This works, but URL is visible and hence may be blocked by the filtering software.

4. Use Online Translation Tools - In this method, we can use the translation service as a web proxy. Following are the best links I know of. Again Google is your best friend for more resources.

Altavista Babel fish - In the above replace www.webstuffscan.com with the site you want. You can also visit Babel fish site.
Google Translate - Similar to Babel fish.

5. Use Google Mobile search - Google mobile search works, but output may not be optimal. This is very similar to using a Web proxy.

6. Use a public Proxy server - There are many free proxy servers out in the Web. Note that in order to use these you have to change internet connection settings in Internet Explorer or whatever browser you use. This is one such list.

7. Get web pages via email - This is useful if you need a single Web page. Obviously accessing large files is not possible. Given below are some examples.

You can use SEND http://www.yahoo.com/ in the body of the message and send it to agora@dna.affrc.go.jp to retrieve yahoo.com home page.
You can also check out services at web2mail which includes web page subscriptions.
G.E Boyd has an extensive list of servers. Note that many in the list are no longer working.

9. Use Tor Distributed Proxy - Tor is an advanced proxy server using multiple anonymous servers for a single Web request. This requires an application to be downloaded and installed.

8. Your own proxy server - This is an advanced technique and is probably the best. This requires your own proxy server hosted either at your home or at a hosting service provider. You can enable SSL encryption and prevent any snooping on the content as well. Also put some access control, otherwise someone can find the service and misuse it (Trust me, there are many who are looking for such an opportunity!).

Use Apache Web server as proxy server - A bit complex setup.
Use Privoxy - - This is the recommended approach. Please see this page for more details.
Use PHPProxy as a Web Proxy - You can use PHPProxy to setup a Web proxy.

10. Use alternate content providers - When everything fails, you can use alternate service providers. For example if Gmail is blocked at your place, you can take another obscure mail address and enable email forward at Gmail.

Important!
Be careful when you are using public proxy servers. It is possible for the guy who is hosting the service to snoop on the data that is passing through. So I wouldn’t recommend putting any important information such credit card details when you are using public proxy server method.

update 1 (Nov 26) - Sharjeel has got an impressive list of 300+ web proxies.

update 2 (Dec 22) - Check out my latest how to on running your own windows Http proxy server.

update 3 (Feb 01) - Please see comments below for some good tips. Also some of the sites mentioned in the article are no longer working.

JBuilder from Borland is a complete suite of tools for enterprise Java development. JBuilder 2007 was released this week by Borland. As promised earlier this is based on Eclipse platform and can be extended by open source plugins and tools. Also included is a migration wizard which can port earlier JBuilder projects to new Eclipse platform. JBuilder 2007 is available in 3 flavors namely Developer,Professional and Enterprise. Professional contains optimizeIT for profiling and debugging, while Enterprise is for distributed teams and complex projects across multiple locations.

Key new features of JBuilder 2007

• Java EE 5 compliance and supports EJB3.0 specification. Also contains a new visual EJB editor.
• LiveSource support from together suite. This technology keeps models, design and code in sync. This is now extended to Web services as well.
• Team collaboration tools such as Team Insight and Project Insight.
• OptimizeIT profiler for memory profiling and debugging.

JBuilder 2007 Enterprise Edition is priced $2000 per user, down from $3,500. A developer version priced around $500 per user.

If you are in London and roam around at late night, one of the familiar sights is the public urination by male drinkers. This has been a major headache for the police and shop owners in many European countries. Even closed circuit TVs haven’t been much of a use. What drinkers want is a quick way to pee!

So there you go, you have a business opportunity. A company called Urilift is capitalizing on this opportunity by bringing out a high tech Urinal system. This will be installed underground and will be lifted up during night. There will not be any doors and 3 guys can use it at a time. Man, the price tag for this urinal system is $75000!

Check out the following video for complete details. It is hilarious!

More Resources
Urilift International Products

Missing persons, persons in need for urgent money etc. are favorite scam and spam subjects. I am getting a lot of spam mail is generated on these topics. Recently I came across a mail which pointed to help Pooja find her parents Website. Interestingly this is for real!

Someone has put up help Pooja find her parents website for a missing girl. She is 4 years old and was kidnapped by a beggar. She was rescued by police in Kerala, India. She is now in Nirmala Bhavan, an orphanage run by Sisters of Charity. But unfortunately police is unable to find her parents.

The above site has spread through email forwards across India. It has even been picked up by some of the local newspapers. Unfortunately no success so far. I think success is possible only if main Indian newspapers also pick up the story.

[Update on Nov 22, 2006 - Pooja was handed over to foster parents in Trivandrum. She will remain with them till her parents are found.]

RSS Aggregators are used to collect multiple RSS feeds from web sites and then publish it as a logical group. Check out LinuxChix for a sample use.

Are you looking for a good RSS aggregator which can handle a large number of RSS feeds? The best aggregator I have come across is the Planet Planet Feed Reader. It is fast and has a good template system as well.

Planet uses a config.ini file for the list of feeds and various aggregation options. The actual output can be configured using *.tmpl files provided. Templates provide simple conditional statements also (TMPL_IF for example).

For this to work as an offline feed aggregator you need to be able to put the aggregator in the web server cron job. Unfortunately most of the hosting providers don’t give such a facility. If your site has fairly good traffic, an alternative is to use Pseudocron.

Note that planet aggregator requires python 2.2 or above installed on the web server. In my case I tried installing it on my server hosted by globat. I got the following error (The BSD module is broken?)

ImportError: No module named _bsddb…..

The guy who is running http://www.geekproject.com/ uploaded his son’s laughing video to youtube. It is pretty funny and you are sure to laugh with him!

The video got a lot of attention and is getting featured all over the place including Swedish papers. Now the father is attending all the radio and TV shows

Don’t miss this video!