Cargo Cult: Electro-rock with a tribal, world flair.
I just bought Music after a long time. I havent heard the whole album, but I loved the 1st and 3rd songs so much, I just had to buy it.
The confused and horrified look on my friends face when I told him I had bought Music was worth the 5 bucks in itself!
:D
Saturday, July 31, 2004
Friday, July 30, 2004
System Administrator Appreciation Day
System Administrator Appreciation Day
An interesting comment I got pointed to from some blog! Sorry I lost the link of the actual blog.
An interesting comment I got pointed to from some blog! Sorry I lost the link of the actual blog.
I'm really satisfied with Suse 9.0 on Dell Latitude C600. I have everything working except one thing. Suspend doesn't work. Suspend is when you shut down the lid of the laptop, the machine should go into a state where only power to the RAM is kept alive. The time it takes for the machine to come back is minimal and fast. And you continue work from where you left of. Unfortunately this does not seem to work with the 2.4 kernel I am using with Suse 9.0.
Maybe a shift to Suse 9.1 would work, but its not a sure thing. I have read from all these various different places about people having problems with Suse 9.1 as well so I dont know. I'm torn between upgrading the system, or just putting up with having to shut down and restart whenever I am in Linux.
Maybe a shift to Suse 9.1 would work, but its not a sure thing. I have read from all these various different places about people having problems with Suse 9.1 as well so I dont know. I'm torn between upgrading the system, or just putting up with having to shut down and restart whenever I am in Linux.
Thursday, July 29, 2004
Wednesday, July 28, 2004
Tuesday, July 27, 2004
I've moved to using Bloglines as my news aggregator. It is easy to use, and can be used from almost anywhere. Now, I check my email, news web sites, and do my writing on the web through a web browser. Could Sun have been right? Is the network the computer? Are we not going to care what kind of terminal we are using in the future?
At least for now, tasks like listening to music, and software development need a proper computer. But for an average every day person who browses the web, writes a couple of documents, and emails, is the web browser all that they need? Will an appliance with a 200 Mhz processor that boots into an OS that is just a web browser all that they require? Is this the way to get computers into every home? Why has this concept not caught on? Will it?
The number of default tabs I have open in Firefox is also increasing. Now I have my blogs, bloglines, and gmail. The more web apps I begin to use, the more tabs I foresee.
Also, for my future applications, should I be moving to creating web apps, and move away from the idea of having stand alone applications? What do I use? Python/PHP/ASP.NET/Java/JSP? Maybe it is time I bought some server space, and actually began creating a web presense and creating programs that would run on those servers.
At least for now, tasks like listening to music, and software development need a proper computer. But for an average every day person who browses the web, writes a couple of documents, and emails, is the web browser all that they need? Will an appliance with a 200 Mhz processor that boots into an OS that is just a web browser all that they require? Is this the way to get computers into every home? Why has this concept not caught on? Will it?
The number of default tabs I have open in Firefox is also increasing. Now I have my blogs, bloglines, and gmail. The more web apps I begin to use, the more tabs I foresee.
Also, for my future applications, should I be moving to creating web apps, and move away from the idea of having stand alone applications? What do I use? Python/PHP/ASP.NET/Java/JSP? Maybe it is time I bought some server space, and actually began creating a web presense and creating programs that would run on those servers.
Monday, July 26, 2004
Adnans - Powered By Bloglines
Adnans - Powered By Bloglines
Umm.. the number of blogs I have seems to be growing rapidly. I wish the content was getting better as well with time! :)
Umm.. the number of blogs I have seems to be growing rapidly. I wish the content was getting better as well with time! :)
Friday, July 23, 2004
Thursday, July 22, 2004
GUI now too complex
The classic graphical user interface was well suited to an early Macintosh with 128kB of RAM that ran a few applications and about 50 files, �but it doesn�t scale�, says usability design specialist Don Norman.
With those few tasks the GUI was a boon. �You didn�t have to remember anything, because you could see everything. Now making everything visible doesn�t work. The space gets too crowded.�
As a logical consequence of this, the all-purpose computer should become obsolete, he says.
Hahahha... talk about a lack of imagination. That does not make sense. First of, just because they cant build a better interface into Windows it does not mean that Computers should become obsolete. Has Microsoft even experimented with new desktop paradigms? If they have, maybe they should try harder. I dont know how much better suns looking glass is going to be, but at least they are trying.
As I have said before virtual desktops or workspaces in WindowMaker are so much better, and allow me to organize my applications easily. It works perfectly for me, and the more work I am doing the better I can organize my work.
On the other hand, the hundreds of utilities (ok may be not so many) I have tried for Windows just cannot provide the same feel and ease that is provided by the virtual desktops in Windowmaker.
This might mean that Windows is obsolete, but it does not mean that the computer is obsolete.
The classic graphical user interface was well suited to an early Macintosh with 128kB of RAM that ran a few applications and about 50 files, �but it doesn�t scale�, says usability design specialist Don Norman.
With those few tasks the GUI was a boon. �You didn�t have to remember anything, because you could see everything. Now making everything visible doesn�t work. The space gets too crowded.�
As a logical consequence of this, the all-purpose computer should become obsolete, he says.
Hahahha... talk about a lack of imagination. That does not make sense. First of, just because they cant build a better interface into Windows it does not mean that Computers should become obsolete. Has Microsoft even experimented with new desktop paradigms? If they have, maybe they should try harder. I dont know how much better suns looking glass is going to be, but at least they are trying.
As I have said before virtual desktops or workspaces in WindowMaker are so much better, and allow me to organize my applications easily. It works perfectly for me, and the more work I am doing the better I can organize my work.
On the other hand, the hundreds of utilities (ok may be not so many) I have tried for Windows just cannot provide the same feel and ease that is provided by the virtual desktops in Windowmaker.
This might mean that Windows is obsolete, but it does not mean that the computer is obsolete.
ACM Queue - Virtually Yours - Virtual Machines are back in style.
ACM Queue - Virtually Yours - Virtual Machines are back in style.
With Virtual machines one of the most interesting uses is to run old and incompatible hardware/software. So why are todays operating systems so backwards compatible. They could be so much faster (BeOS) have a technically better software, and we could run all our old apps in a virtual machine.
Games are the only thing that stick out though. Running games in a VM would probably not work.
With Virtual machines one of the most interesting uses is to run old and incompatible hardware/software. So why are todays operating systems so backwards compatible. They could be so much faster (BeOS) have a technically better software, and we could run all our old apps in a virtual machine.
Games are the only thing that stick out though. Running games in a VM would probably not work.
Weird things u can see on a university campus
I work up on the 14th floor of the math and physics building. If you were to walk into the washroom right now, you would see one the grad students, standing in nothing but shorts, clothes hanging by the wall, busy scrubbing himself and bathing, in a public washroom. Its just amusing :)
Wednesday, July 21, 2004
Joel on Software - Monday, July 19, 2004
Joel on Software - Monday, July 19, 2004
One of the biggest weaknesses of Microsoft Outlook has been the search feature. It takes so long for Outlook to search that the feature is almost useless.
One of the biggest weaknesses of Microsoft Outlook has been the search feature. It takes so long for Outlook to search that the feature is almost useless.
Tuesday, July 20, 2004
Monday, July 19, 2004
Saturday, July 17, 2004
dropline-11.png (PNG Image, 1024x768 pixels)
dropline-11.png (PNG Image, 1024x768 pixels)
I dont know why people like GNOME. It seems so ugly to me. I guess beauty lies in the eye of the beholder. I much prefer the KDE interface, and the best is Windowmaker.
I dont know why people like GNOME. It seems so ugly to me. I guess beauty lies in the eye of the beholder. I much prefer the KDE interface, and the best is Windowmaker.
Thursday, July 15, 2004
InfoWorld: Inside the new Novell: July 09, 2004: By Neil McAllister : NETWORKING
InfoWorld: Inside the new Novell: July 09, 2004: By Neil McAllister : NETWORKING
�You don�t hear complaining about NetWare 6; you don�t hear complaining about ZENworks,� says Laura DiDio, an analyst at The Yankee Group and a longtime Novell-watcher. �Certainly eDirectory, from a technical perspective, is still more advanced than Active Directory. The issue, though, is that as Novell�s fortunes have waned, the developer community has pretty much abandoned them.�
Hmmm... interesting... eDirectory could be something like Active Directory for Linux. It seems to me that Novell is in a position where they have there own OS now, and there own Desktop software (Ximian) and once they can port all thier networking stack over to Linux, they will have an OS that will compete with Microsofts Windows Server line, and will have administration and networking utilities that will far surpass those offered in Windows, in terms of ease, stability and features. They have, after all, been working with Networking since 1983. All they needed was an underlying OS of their own, and they have that with Linux.
�You don�t hear complaining about NetWare 6; you don�t hear complaining about ZENworks,� says Laura DiDio, an analyst at The Yankee Group and a longtime Novell-watcher. �Certainly eDirectory, from a technical perspective, is still more advanced than Active Directory. The issue, though, is that as Novell�s fortunes have waned, the developer community has pretty much abandoned them.�
Hmmm... interesting... eDirectory could be something like Active Directory for Linux. It seems to me that Novell is in a position where they have there own OS now, and there own Desktop software (Ximian) and once they can port all thier networking stack over to Linux, they will have an OS that will compete with Microsofts Windows Server line, and will have administration and networking utilities that will far surpass those offered in Windows, in terms of ease, stability and features. They have, after all, been working with Networking since 1983. All they needed was an underlying OS of their own, and they have that with Linux.
Wednesday, July 14, 2004
Oh boy, the moment you start doing some actual work on Windows, the interface becomes unusable. I want my WindowMaker.
RE: Open source may be free, but open sourcing is not
I read Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols column and I just can't leave it unanswered. Steven is entitled to his opinion, but alas, so am I. I think the tone of Steven's argument is rather school yard-like myself. I'd like to see you try to take me to the principles office :) I apologize for the size of this entry, but Steven hit a nerve.
Ok, time to get serious. First a correction, Sun does not position itself as the #1 contributor to open source. We give that honor to UC Berkeley. We position ourselves as #2, but do position ourselves as the #1 corporate contributor. Of course, it depends on how the contribution is being measured. One measure is by the amount of actual source code contributed. Basically, "cat http://www.sunsource.net | wc -l" to get some of our contribution in that regard. Sun has to be vocal of its contributions because we get knocked for not simply buying into Linux lock-stock-and-barrel. Linux is an open platform, but not the only open platform (Solaris is standards-based). We are not dumping Solaris just like IBM is not dumping its resale of Microsoft products. I'll bet that IBM sells more hardware with Windows pre-installed than with Linux pre-installed. Oh yeah, and we indemnify our Java Desktop System on Linux (as we do with all of our products). Our products run on Linux and we resell Linux. Sun and its customers realize that Solaris has some differentiating value. Plus, Sun just does not have the marketing budget IBM has to say how great Linux is. Sun realizes that sometimes open source is good enough. When I sell into customer accounts, I don't push technology until I understand the busines problem. At that point I'll make a linux/Solaris decision. And my customers trust me enough to consider my input.
Sun doesn't doubt IBM's involvement in open source and especially Linux. But as you know, open source != Linux. I think Steven simply slaps the face of many contributors by saying that Sun should open source something "serious". On the desktop, OpenOffice is serious. In the developer world, NetBeans is serious. In the grid world, Grid Engine is serious. Gnome and Mozilla are "serious" and we contribute to those as well. Not recognizing these communities is unfair to many contributors at both Sun and elsewhere and Steven has to put "serious" in context.
Speaking of open, I will *completely* disagree with Stevens assertion that open == open source. Perhaps in Steven's world, not in mine. Free speech doesn't mean giving books away. Does Steven write for eWeek for free? Only Steven can answer that one. Open Standards are a framework for many types of implementations. Proprietary implementation of an open standard is one business model. Open source is another. The models are not mutually exclusive.
Next, while open source code tends to be free, open sourcing technology is not free. We have legal agreements with licensees. We have IP. We have lawyers (and so does everyone else). We have stated intent and direction, but we will do it on a timeframe that meets our legal obligations and not on Steven's time frame. Regarding open-sourcing Java, see the discussion at day 4 of JavaOne (click here). Open sourcing a technology, as this discussion covers, is not as simple as Steven wants it to be. It's not a light switch.
Microsoft is not our new best friend. They are a partner, one of many. Don't paint them as anything more than that. Get over our past issues (we have). However, we are still competitors on many levels. Sun has the opportunity to leverage our partnership with Microsoft to help bring open source technology in the enterprise to the next level, including the desktop. And I will also argue that Sun has done more than any other company in general to bring Linux to the enterprise desktop. No, Sun was not the first, just as IBM was not the first on the server side. But Sun sure is a validation stamp to our growing number of Java Desktop System customers.
Regarding Steven's cobalt comments, I don't have much opinion there since I haven't been following it. However, using Steven's arguments, eWeek would be *much* more popular if Ziff-Davis simply turned eWeek into a wiki and blogging site, and provided free advertising. Yeah, open source eWeek too so we can get even higher quality content. Let the market decide.
Of course, I am being facetious. It is up to a corporation as to how they want to contribute to - and leverage - open source. It should not only be of interest to the community, but also to a company's shareholders. That is a balancing act every corporation has to do.
Finally, I find it ironic that as a Linux and open source advocate he is writing for a publication that uses Windows. OK, its a cheap shot, but Steven wasn't exactly pulling punches either.
[Via John Clingan's Weblog]
Just testing how posting through RSSBandit and w::Bloggar works.
Regarding this post, I've been wondering recently about a comment I read somewhere. A comment that said something similar to that Sun makes all the innovations, and others profit from it. For example, Java and IBM (Websphere?). And its funny that solaris 10 is going to be open source, even though it has some really cool (the blogs I've been reading say it, I really dont know much about dtrace yet!) technology. Other technologies of note by Sun... NFS, NIS, Java, and probably many more...
I had a low opinion of Sun, but after realizing the above, I have a new image of sun... the creative genious who needs someone with better marketting skills...
Why in the hell should Sun open-source all the stuff that they come up with... they have to earn a living somehow... I mean demanding a company to open source its intellectual property that it developed after hard work is asking too much. How in the world are they going to pay their employees?
(BTW, I'm just a student, I dont work for Sun)
My Way News
My Way News
Toshiba Corp. plans to announce a new laptop model next week that allows users to watch TV on it without having to boot up the computer's Windows operating system - the first in what analysts say will be a new crop of multimedia notebooks to come.
Toshiba Corp. plans to announce a new laptop model next week that allows users to watch TV on it without having to boot up the computer's Windows operating system - the first in what analysts say will be a new crop of multimedia notebooks to come.
Tuesday, July 13, 2004
Fortune.com - Fast Forward - A PC Pioneer Decries the State of Computing
Fortune.com - Fast Forward - A PC Pioneer Decries the State of Computing
If business users were less shortsighted, Kay says, they would seek to create computer models of their companies and constantly simulate potential changes. But the computers most business people use today are not suited for that. That's because, he says, today's PC is too dedicated to replicating earlier tools, like ink and paper. "[The PC] has a slightly better erase function but it isn't as nice to look at as a printed thing. The chances that in the last week or year or month you've used the computer to simulate some interesting idea is zero�but that's what it's for."
If business users were less shortsighted, Kay says, they would seek to create computer models of their companies and constantly simulate potential changes. But the computers most business people use today are not suited for that. That's because, he says, today's PC is too dedicated to replicating earlier tools, like ink and paper. "[The PC] has a slightly better erase function but it isn't as nice to look at as a printed thing. The chances that in the last week or year or month you've used the computer to simulate some interesting idea is zero�but that's what it's for."
As much as I would hate a services based future, where we rent the processing power we need, I have to admit its upon us. All my email is actually located on servers that I have no control over. I cant even download most of it for archival purposes anymore. I have the following accounts:
1. Gmail (Now my primary)
2. Hotmail (Secondary)
3. Yahoo (for mailing lists)
4. Work email
Of the four, only two can be downloaded on to my local machine. The work email can be accessed through POP and IMAP, and Hotmail which can be downloaded through Microsoft Outlook. I rarely find the time now to start up the email client, so most of the time I am just using the web browser to check my email and then signing of. And as it is my use of Windows is infrequent, since I use Linux at work, so hotmail cannot even be downloaded usually.
The work email is easily accessible through pine over ssh, which if you think about it is still very similar to the web interface. You just do it over a different medium but its still accessing email remotely. Nothing is on my local PC. Thats so sad, its not even funny. And I'm not the only one. There is an alternate web based way of accessing work email as well, which most people around me tend to prefer. People who use POP and IMAP are dropping down, and I can see that in my server logs. The future, at least for email is through web based remotely accessible email.
However, there is still hope. For RSS I still prefer to use clients like RSS Bandit and SharpReader, so maybe the future isn't all web services based. I certainly hope its not.
1. Gmail (Now my primary)
2. Hotmail (Secondary)
3. Yahoo (for mailing lists)
4. Work email
Of the four, only two can be downloaded on to my local machine. The work email can be accessed through POP and IMAP, and Hotmail which can be downloaded through Microsoft Outlook. I rarely find the time now to start up the email client, so most of the time I am just using the web browser to check my email and then signing of. And as it is my use of Windows is infrequent, since I use Linux at work, so hotmail cannot even be downloaded usually.
The work email is easily accessible through pine over ssh, which if you think about it is still very similar to the web interface. You just do it over a different medium but its still accessing email remotely. Nothing is on my local PC. Thats so sad, its not even funny. And I'm not the only one. There is an alternate web based way of accessing work email as well, which most people around me tend to prefer. People who use POP and IMAP are dropping down, and I can see that in my server logs. The future, at least for email is through web based remotely accessible email.
However, there is still hope. For RSS I still prefer to use clients like RSS Bandit and SharpReader, so maybe the future isn't all web services based. I certainly hope its not.
Monday, July 12, 2004
longhorn and Unix
Microsoft is set to include its Services for Unix (SFU) add-on for Windows as an integral part of the next major release of the Windows server operating system, codenamed Longhorn and expected in 2008
2008?!?
The release of longhorn just seems to get further and further.
Microsoft is set to include its Services for Unix (SFU) add-on for Windows as an integral part of the next major release of the Windows server operating system, codenamed Longhorn and expected in 2008
2008?!?
The release of longhorn just seems to get further and further.
Sunday, July 11, 2004
Saturday, July 10, 2004
Tuesday, July 06, 2004
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