Archive for January, 2007

In any field of human endeavour there is no substitute for real talent. So for a talented artist, even Paint brush is more than what he needs to create stunning pictures!

Check out this amazing video, where using just Paint brush somebody draws a cool car!

Hell with splogs and feed pirates - I am going to publish full feeds from now onwards.
I just now noticed that I have also messed up the categories. I need to clean them up ASAP.

If you want to try out Wordpress or any other blogging software locally, the first thing you should have is the Apache Web server. In this tutorial I will show you how to install Apache Web server on Windows XP.

1. Download Apache Windows MSI (installer) file from http://httpd.apache.org/download.cgi. I have downloaded version 2.2.4 from http://www.devlib.org/apache/httpd/binaries/win32/apache_2.2.4-win32-x86-no_ssl.msi. This download is about 5MB.

2. Install Apache using the MSI installer. During installation fill in network domain, server name and email. These need not be valid if you plan to use Apache for local use. Note that I have decided to install on port 8080 and use manual startup. I want to start the server only when I need it. You may get an error saying the port is in use which means that something else is running on port 8080 or 80. Correct this by uninstalling or changing the configuration of the conflicting program.

In the next screen select “Typical” as the setup type. For destination folder I have used “c:\apps\apache”. You can decide to go with the default if you want - which is typically “C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\”

3. Run Apache from the program menu. By default this appears under Apache HTTP Server 2.2.4=>Control Apache Server=>Start Apache in Console. You may get an alert from your firewall program saying that a program is trying to listen to 8080. Allow apache to continue.

4. Open a browser session and point to http://localhost:8080/. You should see the following screen.

This file (index.html) we are seeing is located under “C:\apps\apache\htdocs” (note that you may have installed Apache somewhere else). If you edit this file and refresh browser, you will see the changes reflected!

Now you are all set with your Apache Server installation. In the next tutorial, I will show you how to install and enable PHP on Apache Web server.

Microsoft reports that IE 7 has crossed 100 million installations. It is also estimated that over 25% of Web visits in US are made using IE 7.0. That is a pretty good figure with all the Mozilla Firefox hype around!

Upgrade if you haven’t, it is worth it
Download IE 7.0

Well, in Cambodia upto 6 is not a problem

Anyone who has traveled in Southeast Asia knows that the motorbike is a form of ‘mass transit’….it is not uncommon to see three or four on a bike; sometimes five, as in the image below…..I kept wondering if I would be able to see six on a bike….finally in Phnom Penh I saw them coming and was appropriately acknowledged as the tourist I was by the young man in front….

Pretty scary!

There won’t be any Picasa referrals since it will be merged with Google pack referrals. But currently if you are using them, they will continue to be supported.

To make for an easy transition, we’ll upload new Pack referral options that feature Picasa. To transition to these new referrals, you should generate a new referral unit, choosing Google Pack as the product, and select one of the new Pack units that features Picasa.

Windows home server is an upcoming operating system announced by Microsoft at the 2007 CES. This is intended for homes with multiple PCs and will support file sharing, automatic backups, terabytes of storage(!) and connectivity to other devices such as Zune and Xbox.

Check here for some of the prototypes,

Over at the Microsoft press tent at the Consumer Electronics (CES) Show, Microsoft is showing off a few protypes of its just-announced Windows Home Server product.
Although there were rumors circulating over the past month that Windows Home Server would be based on Windows Vista, that’s not the case, said product director Steven VanRoekel.

More Info
Windows Home Server Homepage
What is inside Windows Home Server?

This confirms the fact - Majority of people on planet earth are crazy. Here are a bunch of them decorating a car with post it notes. Yes, you read it correct - They seems to have used over 14,000 Post-it notes to cover a Jaguar completely.

Now why would I say majority of people are crazy? Because it has become a major news item! Agreed, reporting it again makes me part of the crowd

Check out this hilarious CBS video where Craig Ferguson and Tim Meadows takes on the geeks at CES 2007 show in Las Vegas. Hmm, that is pretty shocking!

Note the cool scrolling - just like iPod. The photo zoom is bloody impressive and all that for $500!
Guys, you need to wait - iPhone is only available from June 2007. And yeah, I am still scanning for iPhone stuff

Ok, many of us were expecting the ultimate pocketpc, but the device turned out to be a mobile phone. But still it is pretty impressive.

The equation is,
iPhone = big iPod + mobile phone + Wifi browsing + some cool ideas

What is Good?

Pretty big and impressive display at 3.5 inch - Apple utilized maximum space for display. This will substantially improve video playback and browsing experience.

Wifi support and the multi tasking support - Yes, Wifi support is basic now. Still I would rate it as one of the best features.

Advanced sensors are pretty interesting! - The proximity sensor detects when you lift iPhone to your ear and immediately turns off the display to save power and prevent inadvertent touches until iPhone is moved away.
An ambient light sensor automatically adjusts the displays brightness to the appropriate level for the current ambient light, thereby enhancing the user experience and saving power at the same time.

What is Bad?

But there is one feature which is disappointing. The built in camera is only 2 Mega pixels. I don’t think anything below 3.2 Mega pixels is good enough now. I hope they will upgrade it to 3.2 soon! Then probably I will buy it
Complete specifications,

Screen size - 3.5 inches
Screen resolution - 320 by 480 at 160 ppi
Input method - Multi-touch
Operating system - OS X
Storage - 4GB or 8GB
GSM - Quad-band (MHz: 850, 900, 1800, 1900)
Wireless data - Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) + EDGE + Bluetooth 2.0
Camera - 2.0 megapixels
Battery - Up to 5 hours Talk / Video / Browsing. Up to 16 hours Audio playback
Dimensions - 4.5 x 2.4 x 0.46 inches / 115 x 61 x 11.6mm
Weight - 4.8 ounces / 135 grams

Wordpress is the most popular blogging platform out there. One of the things that made Wordpress so popular is the availability of hundreds of cool plugins and themes(most of them free!).

But plugins come with a price. Since plugins are developed by third parties, not all are very reliable. A single bad behaving plugin can bring down your entire blog! So install only necessary and useful plugins on your Wordpress installation.

I have a very limited set of plugins installed on this blog. To me, one of the most important plugin is the Related Posts plugin. Whenever you write a blog entry, this plugin automatically finds related previous posts which you can display anywhere. In my blog, you will find related entries on the right side.

Installing related post plugin is simple,

1. Download Related Posts plugin from here. If the site is down (500 error on his Wordpress installation!), direct download is here.




2. Upload the plugin file (related-posts.php) to your /wp-content/plugins/ directory and activate it.




3. Once you have activated it, a new option “Related Posts Option” will appear under plugins tab. In that you need to click on “run this script” link at the bottom. This modifies Wordpress table wp_posts to enable FULLTEXT indexes.

This should setup the Related posts plugin. But on certain Web hosting platforms I have found that “run this script” fails. This is because of the MySQL engine settings.

Following is the error I got on Globat host (on dreamhost it works fine),

#1214 - The used table type doesn’t support FULLTEXT indexes

This means that wp_posts table is NOT using MYISAM engine which is needed for FULTEXT indexes. To solve this problem run the following SQL on your PhpMyAdmin SQL console.

ALTER TABLE wp_posts ENGINE = MYISAM;

And then you can run the following SQL to configure FULLTEXT indexes.

ALTER TABLE `wp_posts` ADD FULLTEXT `post_related` (
`post_name` ,
`post_content`
)

Now you are all set. To display Related entries you can put <?php related_posts(); ?> . You can also control how the related entries should appear on your blog (For more details see Related entries readme file).

If you still face any issues, feel free to write to me.

I am always fond of geeky looking clocks. Today I came across this cool atomic clock with temperature sensor for $20. Considering the features below, I think it is good deal.

• Sets automatically by radio signal to atomic clock for time/date accuracy
• Reports indoor/outdoor temperatures in Fahrenheit or Celsius plus current moon phase
• 12- or 24-hour time mode; dual LCD screens; alarm with snooze
• Covers 13 different time zones from GMT to -12 GMT
• Wall-hanging or freestanding; 12 by 1-1/4 by 8 inches

I noticed a rather strange behavior recently in my Adsense reports. The impression count displayed on the overview page was different from the monthly report. The monthly figure was more than what is shown on the overview page for “this month”.

I thought this is because the monthly figure database was updated first and later overview database was populated. But sometime later I found that overview page showed bigger page impressions than the monthly report! When I checked about 5 minutes later both counts were same!

It is a small thing, but when you are checking your reports check monthly and all time reports as well. One of them might give you the latest view of your Adsense account!

I came across this rather weird keyboard on flickr. No idea what it is! Anyone got any clue?