July 18, 2007

Britney Spears Throughout The Years

He he he.. I cant believe images of 2006 and 2007 are real..

 
 

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via A Welsh View by Robert Gale on Jul 18, 2007

[via]


 
 

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July 17, 2007

Children !! So cute..

Awesome pictures.. What do you think?

Children are really angels..

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Running Linux on Virtual PC..

I just came to know the technique (which I was looking for from a long time..) by which we can run Linux/Unix on Windows (through Virtual Machine 2007)..

You can download the ISO images for various linux versions from here,
http://www.linuxlinks.com/Distributions/LiveCD/

And configure the Virtual Machine to boot from these ISO images directly! Its easy and every good...

Right now, I am downloading ubuntu (to see why Dell started with ubuntu...) and going to see whats in there.

Stay tuned.. Wave

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July 16, 2007

Getting ready to fly off to USA..

When I was in college, many times I kept wondering, when will I visit USA !! Happy A wish from almost childhood (just like it was a wish to work at Microsoft!) And now, the wishes are being fulfilled (thankful to God for all these things!)

Right now, "Packing" is on top priority, leaving for US on Friday night. Very much excited to go to entirely new environment (many people have told me everything is totally same there, but I am feeling like, its all different there, they are very much developed people, and save much time doing daily jobs.)

Will return in around 10 days, after very short gap, going on VACATION (yes, Ahmedabad I am coming!!).. right now the situation is, I badly need a vacation (at least a short one!).. Don't know why, but missing home and family very big time.

Regarding experiences and opinions there at US, I will keep my blog populated.. so,

Stay tuned.. Wave

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July 15, 2007

The Wealthiest Americans Ever

Good one to have a look at..

 
 

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via A Welsh View by Robert Gale on Jul 15, 2007

The NY Times has an interactive chart showing the wealthiest Americans that have ever lived.


 
 

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Ford and Microsoft Windows Automotive comes with an awesome product!

Windows Automotive
See how the Ford Sync works, demonstrating some of the latest technology coming out of the Windows Automotive Business Unit.

Watch the video and say, Awesome Ford-Microsoft, this is what we have been waiting for !!

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Who Needs Keys? SmartScan Biometric Scanning Opens Doors to Our Future

 
 

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via CrunchGear by Nicholas Deleon on Jul 09, 2007

smartscannnn.jpg

Keys are so 20th century. Who has the time to reach into their pocket, choose the correct key, put it in the keyhole, turn the key and push the door open? I sure as hell don't. That's why, if I owned a house, I'd look at Kwikset's SmartScan biometric scanning door opening solution. (Everything's a solution these days.) With the mere swipe of your finger, the lock unlocks, allowing entry to your domicile. You can program SmartScan to work with fingers other than your own (your lazy kids' or your ungrateful wife's, for instance) or at specified times.

Such mind-bending technology will set you back $200. Rosie the Robot not included.

SmartScan [Kwikset]


 
 

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Wireless Plasma TV for Easy Wall Mounting

Cool isnt it?

 
 

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via CrunchGear by Doug Aamoth on Jul 12, 2007

wireless plasma

A wireless plasma TV? Now I've seen it all.

In actuality, I have not seen it all but this is the kind of innovation that makes a jaded old gadgeteur like me go from slouching to sitting almost upright in my chair.

The Samsung 94 Series plasma TVs feature a power cord and nothing else, enticing you to take the bullet train to Wall Mount Junction. A built-in 802.11n connection communicates with a hidden receiver located up to 200 feet away amidst a tangled mess of unsightly cords.

Rather than plug various home theater components into the back of the HDTV, such as Blu-ray/DVD players, home theater in a box systems and cable boxes, consumers can instead connect them to a receiver, leaving only the HDTV's power cable to hide. With a range of up to 200 feet, the receiver then wirelessly transmits the audio and video signals - up to 1080i HD resolution - directly to the television set. The receiver features a number of connectivity options for easy home theater expansion including three HDMI 1.3 ports with CEC technology. Over-the-air HDTV channels can be viewed with the built-in NTSC/ATSC/QAM digital tuner.

I'll never be able to afford this beauty but hopefully more TVs like this will trickle into the marketplace at much lower price points.

They'll be available in 50-inch and 58-inch varieties at the end of the year for a crotch-punching $3599 and $5299, respectively.

Samsung Wireless Plasma TV Press Release (PDF File)


 
 

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July 14, 2007

How to get started with Google Reader..

You might have heard a lot about RSS these days at many places, if you have not explored that area, I would say, its worth giving some time for it now. In a nutshell, RSS is a technology by which you will be able to find updates to website(s).

Say for an example, we have M.Sc.IT blog at, (http://blog.msc-cait.org) which you might want to watch for an update.. What will be the possible ways to do so??

  • You go everyday to particular web-site and see if there is any update. (of course, this is not at all good way to get updated.. Its called pull method..)
  • Another method is push where somebody in the cloud works for you 24 hours a day and keep searching for updates on website(s) you are interested in and when something is updated you get it right there!! (either through email or at some web-interface!)

So, this Push technology looked promising and industry leaders came to conclusion about making a standard to get this thing going.. And what they came up with is RSS.

So, What is RSS?

RSS is just an XML stream. It will be respective web-site's responsibility to update that XML stream immediately after making any changes.

  • So, its like, when M.Sc.IT blog is updated, M.Sc.IT servers will update that XML Stream (called RSS, and RSS has a location/URL e.g. our blog has URL http://feeds.feedburner.com/mscit?format=xml for raw XML stream about latest updates). This is one side of the story.
  • Another side is, we need something (some tool or website or server) who keeps on fetching for this particular RSS feed and when something is found different (than the previous fetch) it shows you alert saying "Boss, something is updated on the site, that you might want to look at.."

So, Now, lets concentrate on "Another side".. What are various options available for us to fetch (or say keep fetching) RSS stream..

  • Desktop Softwares:
    • This is somewhat middle way between Push-Pull methodology (its a matter of debate what it is..) because though we are using RSS streams to get updated about various websites, desktop softwares will fetch the RSS stream only when we ask them to do so! (or say when automatic timer hits)
    • Example of such softwares is, FeedDemon (From BradSoft - now NewsGator)
  • Web Tools:
    • This is real Push technology where some website keeps on fetching RSS automatically every 5 minutes (or some other interval) and if update is found, it would list the update in its own interface. So, what it means is, you even dont have to go to website to read what content is updated, you can read that thing right away over there only. Cool, isn't it?
    • Example of such websites is, Google Reader (Of course, from Google) Happy
    • Personally, Both of these (feeddemon and google reader) are THE BEST tools I could ever find in last 1 year.

So, I hope you have now got some idea about how RSS works. Now, How can you use Google Reader.. So, below is a nice demo about Google Reader by Robert Scoble (so called "Blogger")

So, what are you waiting for? Start building your Feed Repository and regularly visit google reader for getting updated Happy

Something personal: I have around 285 RSS locations added in my feedDemon/Google Reader and I give almost 1.5 hour everyday to reader.. Happy There is a lot happening there every moment, getting ourselves updated sometimes helps a big time.

In case if you have any questions or need any help or wish to discuss something, don't hesitate to leave comment..

Stay tuned.. Wave

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July 13, 2007

Animator v/s Animation..

Cool, isnt it?

Stay tuned.. Wave

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July 11, 2007

Microsoft market cap up by 5 billion in a month

Microsoft is steadily coming up in Search !!

 
 

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via Channel 9 by anand.t on Jul 11, 2007

So seems Live search just jumped 5% due to some reasons including me using it :P and also some give aways for Americans.


(http://www.liveside.net/blogs/main/archive/2007/07/11/live-search-market-share-surges-according-to-compete.aspx)


So a 5% increase in market share means an increase in 5 billion market cap.
http://dondodge.typepad.com/the_next_big_thing/2007/05/why_1_of_search.html

Comscore also validates it


http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/11/could-microsoft-knock-off-yahoo-to-become-googles-biggest-competitor/

So live's formula seems simple pay 1 billion to lenovo, give aways worth nothing like vista ultimate and boom 5 billion. This is some crazy money

EDIT: even after removing the live search club it seems that live search is still up.


http://blog.compete.com/2007/07/11/june-search-share-update-msn-live-clublive/

 
 

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July 7, 2007

No iPhone For 64-Bit Windows

Intersting..

 
 

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via Slashdot by kdawson on Jul 01, 2007

Mizled writes "After buying a new iPhone yesterday and bringing it home to sync and activate it, I found out that Windows 64-bit is not supported. Neither XP 64-bit nor Vista 64-bit works with the iPhone. I called the Apple support line and the rep said I needed to downgrade my computer from a 64-bit operating system. I also posted about my concerns on the Apple iPhone discussion forums, but my post was quickly removed."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.


 
 

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MSDN Bot and Encarta Bot for Messenger

Nice one!!

 
 

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via Channel 9 by Vasudev on Jul 06, 2007

I recently came across this cool stuff and I also posted in my blog.

Its about MSDN Bot.
Just add MSDNBuddy[at]hotmail[DOT]com to messenger contact list and get started with IM. You can get all your search query from MSDN right into your messenger.

Also there's one more Bot I came across ,about which i have put here Encarta Instant Answers.

Just add encartaAT]botmetro[DOT]net to your Messenger's contact list and start putting your queries to it. So you'll get Encarta info in messenger.

Nice stuff !![H]

 
 

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