Host your own Instant Messenger! – Ajax im
Want to host your own Instant Messenger? Then you should try out Ajax im. This is very compact custom instant messenger which is based on PHP and AJAX. The complete download is less than 300kb! In order to host this on your server, you need a MySQL database and PHP support.
Since this is AJAX based, you can integrate this within your existing site. You can also host this as part of your intranet. It is not as sophisticated as any of the commercial ones, but still is good enough as supporting tool to your site. You can try out a sample implementation here.
Orkut Privacy – Keep your scrapbook access private
Recently Orkut is focusing more on the privacy options available for its users. They have announced a new feature while allows you to keep Orkut privacy options. This means that now you can ensure that your scraps, videos, feeds and photos are only visible to your friends!
To enable privacy option, go to your profile and click on "settings" link. Then click on "privacy" tab on the right top. Then restrict the access of your videos, scraps etc. to "friends" only.
But why do you need to take this precaution? The reason is this – Internet has shortage of stalkers and criminals. So it is very important that your personal information is kept private. Also ensure that you add only those people whom you know personally as friends. Otherwise turning on privacy will be of no use!
Many people tend to post private information such as email or phone numbers in the scrap. Some even go to the extend of publishing their address in scraps. So it is better to keep the scrapbook private.
Loose virginity now or suffer sexual problems later?
Every day you see crazy studies popping out from different so called "expert" institutions. One day you see that mobile usage can cause brain tumour and in the next month you hear that it is not brain tumour but tongue cancer! Never, I repeat, never believe in any of these studies. Most of these are done on a ridiculously small test data that you should be a perfect idiot to believe in them.
Now the latest in these studies is this one on sex and virginity. According to researchers in Columbia university, people who start sex at a later age appear to have more sexual health problems! According to them, people who started sex at 22 or later had difficulty in erection and orgasm!
Now here is the catch! It is not possible to determine cause-and-effect from the survey data, according to the researchers. Why? Young men with sexual problems may start having intercourse at a later stage, contributing to the link between sexual debut and sexual problems! Ha ha, really nice touch there!
Here is a counter proof I can offer. The guys at Columbia university used a sample data of 8000 US adults. In my counter proof, I will use a sample data of 1200 million Indian adults! In India, a significant majority of population engage in sex over 25 years of age. But we have the highest fertility rate and our population is exploding! Now eat that! 
Blogger to support OpenID commenting
Blogger OpenID support commenting for all blogs hosted. This means that if you have an OpenID setup, you can ensure that all comments by you on blogger blogs are genuine. No one can spoof you when commenting on a Blogger blog. This assumes two things – you use OpenID for commenting and others know that only OpenID based comments are written by you!
Another advantage is that your URL can be automatically inserted in the comment. For this to happen, use your blog or site as your OpenID identity. This doesn’t mean that you have to have your own OpenID provider. You can use other providers such as Verisign or Technorati and then delegate to it from your blog! This means that you can change your provider without affecting your identity (your blog).
Now it is not necessary that you should use a third party OpenID provider. You can be your own OpenID provider! For details, check Setting up OpenID.
How does OpenID work?
When you use OpenID, there are 3 players. You (Y), OpenID service provider(P) and the site you are trying to login(T) using OpenID. When you indicate your OpenID identity at the T, it will handshake with P to get a secret key. Then you are re-directed to the P’s Web site to login. After login, the same secret key is prepared using your password by P and it returns it to T. Now T can compare this with the original secret key. If they are same, that means you did authenticate at the P! Simple isn’t it?
How to select the best web hosting service provider?
Consider this scenario. You have been running one or more blogs/sites on free hosting providers such as blogspot. One day you decide to move your sites to a professional Web hosting provider. But the problem is which one to use?
Web hosting is a very competitive business and hence choosing one is not easy. Hosting providers do all kinds of gimmicks to lure you in. They have even gone to the extend of promoting sites which write negative reviews of other service providers! In this post, I will look at the key factors you should consider before purchasing your Web hosting.
Note that Web hosting is different from domain registration. It is possible to register domain somewhere else than the hosting provider. In certain cases it is better and cheaper to register your site with a different company.
1. What is your traffic requirements? – This is something which you must evaluate carefully. Some Web hosts offer terabytes of data transfer per month, while some others offer only a few gigabytes. If your intention is to host a personal blog and you don’t plan to be an A-list blogger, few gigabytes per month is ok. But if you think you may have more than 1000 visitors per day, go with a service which gives you atleast 1 terabyte transfer per month. Another important factor to keep in mind is that this limit includes your uploads, downloads and user access to the site.
2. Do you need shell access? – Not all Web hosts provide shell access. In fact, very few provide shell access. But for certain things, shell access is a must. For example, consider a case where you want to configure your cron settings or sometimes you may want to install custom software on your server. But even when you have shell access, you may not be able to run all the applications. This is because there could be resource usage limits on CPU, memory etc. For example, Dreamhost provides shell access, but Godaddy doesn’t.
3. Dedicated virtual server or shared hosting? – Web hosting comes in different varieties. You can have shared hosting, dedicated virtual server or dedicated physical server. Dedicated physical server means you have a dedicated machine for your site. This gives maximum flexibility, but is very costly as well. Dedicated physical servers are needed when you have large Web applications which are resource intensive. Dedicated virtual server hosting provides a virtual machine which for all practical purposes behaves like a separate machine. This service used to be costly, but these days it is becoming comparable to shared hosting. Dedicated virtual server protects your site from other sites that are running on the hosting providers network. In shared hosting, resources such as memory and CPU are shared with other customers. Hence depending on the behavior of your neighbors, your site may go down!
4. Unlimited Emails, Unlimited Databases, Unlimited Domains? – These days a lot of Web hosts provide unlimited email accounts, databases and domains. For most us, unlimited doesn’t mean much since we probably need a few databases and domains. But before you purchase hosting, do check these. This is important since some of the providers charge you for additional domain hosting!
5. Server uptime requirements? – It is rare that you have 100% uptime for shared hosting. But some providers do achieve over 99.99% of uptime. If your site is critical enought that you can’t have even a minute of downtime, go with a provider who offers 100% uptime. But that is rare and in my opinion, go with a provider who is honest when something goes wrong (for example – dreamhost).
6. Server software requirements? – Some hosts don’t allow custom software installation. In that case ensure that the software they have on their server is what you need! For example, not all hosts provide Ruby on Rails support. It may not be easy to find out the server software versions from the hosting providers site, but take that extra effort to find it out!
7. Stick with direct hosting providers – A lot of Web hosting providers out there are resellers. This means that you get really cheap hosting service at the cost of reduced price. But I don’t recommend it. For example, I have seen 100MB bandwidth per month offered for $3/month. This is not worth it as you soon run out of bandwidth! So my advice is to stick with well known direct Web hosting providers.
8. Server robustness – This is the ability of the hosting server to survive sudden increase in traffic. This is very common when you get noticed at slashdot, digg or reddit. Some servers go down under this traffic, while some don’t. It is not easy to find this out beforehand. Research on the Web hosting providers if you think you might get a lot of attention among social bookmarkers!
Now even after evaluating all these parameters, you might end up with a Web host which is unreliable. In such a case, switch as early as possible and you may even be able to get a refund. This is another important reason why you should register your domain separately with a well known domin registrar (like godaddy or enom).
Also after you have decided on a host, look for deals. Sometimes deals can be found on the homepage, sometimes you will have to hunt for the coupon codes on internet. For example, if you use my coupon WEBSTUFFSCAN when you sign up with Dreamhost, you get a discount of $40!!
Here are some of the good web hosts I am aware of,
Godaddy
DreamHost (Recommended)
Globat
Hostgator
Happy Web Hosting!
Top 10 “unbelievable” rules still valid under British law
According to a survey conducted by UKTV Gold, following are the top 10 ridiculous laws still applicable in UK!
1. It is illegal to die in the Houses of Parliament
2. It is an act of treason to place a postage stamp bearing the British king or queen’s image upside-down
3. It is illegal for a woman to be topless in Liverpool except as a clerk in a tropical fish store
4. Eating mince pies on Christmas Day is banned
5. If someone knocks on your door in Scotland and requires the use of your toilet, you are required to let them enter
6. In the UK a pregnant woman can legally relieve herself anywhere she wants, including in a policeman’s helmet
7. The head of any dead whale found on the British coast automatically becomes the property of the King, and the tail of the Queen
8. It is illegal not to tell the tax man anything you do not want him to know, but legal not to tell him information you do not mind him knowing
9. It is illegal to enter the Houses of Parliament wearing a suit of armour
10. It is legal to murder a Scotsman within the ancient city walls of York, but only if he is carrying a bow and arrow
Journey of the human race – a visual guide
Bradshaw foundation has created an interesting flash video depicting journey of the human race. It looks at the way human population has spread from its early origins (150K years ago) to 6000 BC.
It is interesting to note that civilization in India is pretty old dating back to 80,000 years. But it was almost completely wiped of by the eruption of Mt. Toba around 74,000 years ago (probably reducing the population to as low as 10,000!!)
Yes, this may not be 100% accurate, but is backed up with the data we have so far.
Jugglery by Peter Irish
Ever wondered what happens when somebody has a lot of “free time”? If you don’t, check out the following video. In this, Peter Irish presents some amazing jugglery!
Now you know why he is known as the “Master Juggler!”.
Ahmadinejad at Columbia University Q&A session video
Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was invited by Columbia University for a Q&A session recently. Check out the videos of this session below.
Ahmadinejad may not be a very nice person, but he sure is intelligent. He even raises some valid points during the Q&A (on capital punishment and nuclear weapons) and did a small blunder in proclaiming that there are no gays in Iran!
how to improve Windows Vista performance – top 10 methods
Last week I wrote a post on how disabling search indexing can boost Windows vista performance. In this I will look at various methods which you can use to drastically Windows Vista performance.
Ok. You just bought your brand new laptop which comes pre-installed with Windows Vista. But unfortunately your new laptop performance looks worse than your pretty old laptop! Is there any way to improve it?
Well, as an operating system, Windows Vista is stable and I think it is just a matter of tuning to get it performing. Before I go into the methods, here is a word of advise. Get your machine atleast 1GB of RAM since Vista is really memory hungry!
1. Remove all junk software from your PC – Most of the online stores (Dell for example) bundle a lot of software when they sell a Windows Vista installed laptop/pc. You don’t need many of these software and hence removing them can substantially boost Windows Vista performance. First thing to do when you get your PC/Laptop is to remove everything except the bare minimum you need!
2. Disable Windows Defender – One of the biggest complaints about Windows operating systems was its vulnerability to viruses. To address this issue, microsoft added a lot of stuff into Vista, essentially making it bloated and cumbersome. Windows Defender is one such feature. If you are a power user who knows what can cause virus infection or security problems you don’t need Windows Defender.
To disable windows defender, go to control panel->administrative tools -> services -> windows defender and stop it. Also change the startup type to manual.
3. Disable UAC (User Access Control) – This is one of the most annoying features. Whenever you click on anything which affects system configuration, a popup comes up asking whether you want the operation to be executed! Of course, I want that, that is why I clicked on it! For a power user this is the first thing to disable.
To disable user access control, go to control panel->user account->turn user account control off.
4. Use ReadyBoost to extend RAM – If you have below 2GB or below, you can use readyboost feature of Vista to improve performance. For this, you will need a high speed USB 2.0 memory stick (flash drive). Vista will use this as an extension to RAM. This improves system performance and also reduces load on harddisk there by extending its lifespan.
5. Reduce graphics and other UI features – Windows Vista by default has a pretty jazzy user interface. If you are a power user, you rarely bother about these UI features. Disabling these features will dramatically reduce load on your processor and memory. This is one method sure to speed up your experience on Windows Vista.
To optimize system configuration for maximum performance, go to control panel->performance information and tools->advanced tools (on the left menu)->adjust the appearance and performance of windows->Select Adjust for best performance radio button and press Apply.
6. Remove unnecessary startup programs – You might have couple of startup programs configured. Remove all the unnecessary programs to reduce startup time and to improve overall system performance. Anti-virus programs are notorious for reducing system performance and increasing harddisk load.
You can check out startup programs using regedit command (use with caution!). Find all the startup programs under computer->HKEY_CURRENT_USER->Software->Microsoft->Windows->CurrentVersion->Run. (User can also use Windows Defender for this)
7. Disable unncessary services - Your system might have a lot of services which you may not need. But identifying them may not be very easy. Open up control panel->administrative tools->services and stop/disable services. Some of the services I disabled are Windows Search, Windows Defender, Windows Cardspace etc.
8. Disable Windows Search Indexing – As i have written earlier, disabling Windows Search indexing may improve performance substantially, especially when you have a new system.
9. Monitor tasks running – Monitor your task manager regularly. Look for any processes which hogs memory/processor resource. Also monitor for programs which may be accessing harddisk frequently. Find out the real use of resource intensive processes and if not required, remove them.
10. Buy a new PC/ upgrade RAM – If your system performance is still low, you probably need to buy a new PC to run Windows Vista. Also remember to have atleast 2GB RAM for optimal performance!
Boosting Windows Vista Performance – disable search indexing
I recently bought a new laptop with Windows Vista pre-installed. It is a dell machine and I had to spend around one hour to remove all the junk. This machine has 2GB RAM and surprisingly I saw that the harddisk light is lit almost continuously. My earlier old laptop with Windows XP had much better performance even though it had only 1GB RAM. Also the internet access (using a USB mobile network – Reliance NetConnect) was also much slower in Windows Vista.
I was wondering what the heck is going on! You buy the latest stuff and it appears everything goes back in time. Then I decided to find the real problems behind this performance issue in Windows Vista.
Here is the first important tip. Disable File Search Indexing (which includes processes – SearchProtocolHost, SearchFilterHost and SearchIndexer) in Windows Vista to substantially boost performance. This is a windows service which runs in background always accessing harddisk and network resources. If you disable this, windows search may not be accurate, but that is something I don’t care.
Disbling Windows Search Service is simple. Open up Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Service. Find a service named Windows Search. Stop this service and change its startup type to manual. If you want, you can manually run the service when you are not using your system.
Once I disabled this, I found that harddisk access reduced substantially and also my internet connection was running in top speed.
You can also explore Google Desktop Search which seems to be gentle when it comes to system performance.
Misuse of power – Tasered for asking a question
Andrew Meyer, a student tried to ask John Kerry a set of uncomfortable questions in a Florida University lecture. For his behavior, he was tasered with an eletric stun gun by the police. Check out the following video,
It seems that Police is increasingly using Taser gun as a toy. Devices such as this should only be used while dealing with a violent criminal, not when somebody asks a question! If you check the video, you can see that Andrew could have been taken out of the hall without using any taser gun. I am not saying what Andrew did was right. But clearly tasering should have been the last option, not the first!
Harddrives out – solid state drives are in!
One of major design issues in laptops is the harddisk reliability. Since people can run around with laptops while the machine is on, it is very important to build some disk crash protection in laptops. Laptops typically handle this situation by switching off harddisk when it detects any movement.
Solid state drives are here (which don’t have any moving parts) which eliminates this problem! Today I came across an Alienware laptop advertisement which features a 64GB solid state drive! The good thing is that it consumes 50% less power and is supposed to be faster than an ordinary harddrive!!
Yeah, this thing comes with a price. The Alienware configuration section gives an additional $1100 for a 64GB solid state drive ($500 for 32GB). I think the best option will be to use 32GB solid state drive with a portable harddisk for your long term storage needs.
The main advantages of solid state drives are,
1. No moving parts and hence highly reliable.
2. Faster booting time (2x faster than fast harddisks)
3. Power efficient and increases battery life.
4. Quiet operation.
I think we can soon see other brands (dell, thoshiba etc.) coming up with solid state harddisks. Well, I won’t be buying this until the extra price comes below $100.
World’s smallest international bridge? – Zavikon Islands
Zavikon Island probably has the smallest international bridge in the world. It is only thirty-two feet long and connects a Canadian island and an American island. The boundary agreement in 1793 between the American and Canadian governments decided that no island would be split in two. Two-thirds of the islands are in Canadian territory, but the total area of the Canadian and American islands is roughly equal.
Theoretically the second island is in US, but both are considered to be part of canada. Local guides and tour operators definitely want this to be known as “shortest international bridge”
Found via deputy dog..
Proof: beauty and brains won’t go together – Miss Teen 2007
Check out this funny video below. In this, Miss South Carolina 2007 is answering the simple question – “Recent polls have shown a fifth of Americans can?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t locate the US on a world map. Why do you think this is?”
This clearly proves that beauty and brains won’t go together I am still wondering where Iraq came into all this!