Acrobat failed on me ... Linux products seem like social service !

Well after a 40 day happy uncrashed sessions on ubuntu 8.04, my ubuntu started crashing (thank god, not on its own) , but when i open a pdf and then another pdf, which is a bit large (not that much though). Yes, it kills ubuntu, and it restarts ! Too bad .. Gnome doesnt even let me save my work etc .. its just blank screen and then dead ! Anyways that made me look back to my vista partition again, though i never liked to be on vista, but thank god it hasnt as yet crashed on me while working. It did sometimes no respond, when it came back from sleep and all that .. but atleast it didnt die due to a bad application.

The problem is the fact that product companies, have considered windows as mainstream for a long time and now its osx thats also getting its share of importance, thanks to some vista issues. Linux for lack of a powerful company backing it, creates marketing issues, and product companies either dont release products for linux or even if they release, they release it as though they are doing some social service ! I guess with mainstream companies like google and amazon using linux on their desktops, its time they contribute to it .. instead of considering it as an alternative !


Anyways i was able to do everything without issue on Linux, though i think frankly its being treated wrongly ! Anyways now I am back to vista, and i am pretty much happy. I am certainly not going to use OSX, since i think apple is too closed, and they are certainly not doing the right thing forcing people to buy the over priced mac laptops !!!

I Hate - Jenny Craig Ads / valerie

i dont know why ! but i hate it ... it seems too fake. moreover they do operations and say it because of exercise. now see queen latifah is struggling, soon she will undergo a secret operation to keep up jenny's name ... its fake.

Interesting problems !

What constitute interesting problems ? Interest is relative and hence we cannot generalize interesting problems isnt it. For someone working with large data sets, interesting problem would be faster execution with multiple processors/machines. For someone working on a thick client interesting problem, could be related to UI transitions, etc. For someone working in a garbage disposal industry, interesting problem would be how to recycle efficiently.

I would say, people generally test others with problems they consider interesting to themselves, which might not be globally interesting or challenging enough.

www.glassdoor.com

interesting website ! Sort of peek into companies, something always desired but it wasnt there free anywhere. Just that such things are risky as its though to validate the information. Anyone can write bad about any other company, just for fun ! So there needs to be some validation i guess, otherwise it will be a playground of spammers !

Piclens might come for Linux !!!

Just waiting for it .. its a great way to browse through videos/images or actually it can be applied to anything . I hope its incorporated into expedia searches, so that searching is more intutive !

Well done for the tool .. but bad that its not cross platform !

Here is what i found from the FAQ, the website is www.piclens.com

Will PicLens support Linux anytime soon?

Our ideal plan is to eventually make our Firefox version work cross-platform, but its timing is not yet clear due to our current resource constraints. We're trying to make sure our currently supported platforms are fully stabilized and robust before supporting other platforms. We appreciate your support and understanding.

Netbeans 6.1 ... for linux ! Yippie

Well just installed Netbeans latest version from www.netbeans.org, and it works great ! on Linux its fast and excellent .. thats my first impression. Lemme run it for a few days and see ! Go ahead and try its a great way to do everything in Java including Java ME, J2EE , SOA and it also has embedded application server, tomcat and open ESB.


Update - IT shows 700K ram being used !!!! well is that good ? Anyways it didnt lead to any performance degradation of my linux system, so i guess its fine .. (i have 2gb ram FYI on my lappy)

Firefox plugins (addons) !

Well i was just trying to add something (better Ctrl-Tab kind of tabbing between tabs !) , i realized there are so many great addons out there ...
Website is https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/recommended

I installed some interesting ones, and they are great ! Things like an addon that changes the color of the tab based on its age.

I liked this one http://www.piclens.com , check out this website... you can also get in the addons site ( unfortunately its not available for linux, had to check it on a windows system) !

(News) iPhone 2.0 - Breaking News

Well, now the question being, whats breaking in it. It was expected though.
Here are the features worthwhile
1. App store - Interesting enough, the mantra of modern world ! Create a platform, and let others build, something Facebook started. So all you have to do is give API's and SDK and thats it, the world will do you work !
2. GPS ! Well now start wondering what will happen to Garmin, Tomtom & Magellan ? Dont worry, i am sure they are more feature oriented, since they are specific to function as a GPS device. In a phone its a nice to have feature, which will primarly be used for presence features, that will help you be more locatable, for searching directions and also, things like pizza places around you ! where you dont need to worry about defining where you are, thats almost like a GPS in hand ! But then does it reroute, does it speak out directions, does it show traffic yes it does, it does show the speeds too (by color conventions). Interestingly enough, this is possibly the best feature for a 200$ phone !
3. 3G - How does that help us ? we are tied to the useless and costly AT&T, thats bad in US, mobile companies tie you in contracts ! India is better , your device is what you buy and then you choose providers ! I am sure i wont use this feature, unless i am in europe. I guess its primarly for the european buyers.

Everything else is the same old iPhone ! Well now the question is it a worth buy ? I would say the price of 200$ for 8GB seems attractive, but i might not yet buy, since i feel it seems bulky, and we are forgetting the basic reason for the device, we wanted a decent phone, everything else is anyways portable, with smaller and better laptops !

I would say, OSX should think about opening up to PC's. Anyways i would still say Linux is the best, i am using it and i enjoy it. Its come a long way, even though its just community supported ! But if there was no Vista, i would certainly say that XP did rule for quite a long time, and it still does, dont know why package XP add crap on it and call it Vista .. anyways that going to be another post ..

Sewing Machine !!

Well my mom had bought a sewing machine (Singer) that was supposed to be refurbished and on display, that was some 4-5 years ago ! That was a nice investment, supposed to be a fashion machine, that can do embroidery etc .. well interesting enough, that was for 5000/- , and it was pretty advanced. The salesman seems to have convinced my mom, especially when we see the difference between the original price and the sale price, it seemed like a steal. She did have a decent hand sewing machine, that has been working flawlessly for the past 20 years !
Now the true woes begin, it was a huge struggle, it kept failing and failing, finally my mom spends about 1500/- per year to maintain it .. (sometimes more). Sometimes that makes me think, refurbished products, sometimes don't work well ! or is it always ?

Here is what i propose, she should buy ..its a 2200/- USHA machine ! Simple mechanical sewing machine !

(News) - The series - The introduction

Here i will be discussing about the news that i feel worth discussing (or rather news where i have viewpoints on) ...

(Greeny) - The series - Introduction

Here i will be discussing about my thoughts on how to keep the planet green !

(People & Things I hate) - Introduction

Inspite of being controversial, i have decided to start this, where, every time i hate someone (mostly popular), i will rant about him/her here ... This will hopefully be a sort of mini series.

Flash and Silverlight - kill CPU's !!!!

Recently, i have been using Linux - (Ubuntu 8.04LTS) - (Story on that later) , but i have kept some applets that sense the CPU temperature, something i never bothered on XP or Vista, but linux gets the geek in you out !
Well i observed that if the normal operating temp for both the cores is around 108 F, whenever i start a flash or silverlight app (lets say i go to youtube) and in 2-3 mins of watching the temp reaches around 131F and over an hour it reaches around 151 F ! Its pretty much similar in Silverlight.

That led me to do some more research and on Vista too, i observed the same pattern. Therby, i concluded that its the OS at fault, but its the applications and their very way of rendering that is at fault. Typically if you write a program with an infinite while loop, you end up keeping the CPU busy and a busy CPU (at around > 60-80 % usage - average), it would cause the CPU to heat up.
A Flash application renders pixel, and i guess i had my hardware acceleration off (i would have to test with that on .. ) anyways i am sure i might have had the same effect. But the way pixels are rendered, it seems it keeps the CPU very busy ! There seems to be something wrong or non optimal in the way in which Flash and Silverlight have been able to light up the web - I think in future there will be better ways of doing these. It isnt optimal to have an application try to take 100% CPU for long time, any client or server application with a greater than 60% CPU utlization is very very bad in my opinion.

ZOHO is great !

Check out www.zoho.com, have been using it for quite some time .. it beats google docs and live office .. i am impressed ...

interesting date today ! 06/07/08

Well i guess such dates (x/x+1/x+2) occurs only once a year that also till 2014 ! then a long long wait !!! interesting ...

If I were Yang !

Well thought, i would put myself in Yang's shoes and see how he feels .....
If I were yang, i would do this
1. Make yahoo shareholders happy, by selling company, and since they are forcing sale, i would sell.
2. Build another company, and of course since i am yang ! i know what yahoo did ... I will pick my top 2-300 employees and ask them if they are interested in joining.
3. Rebuild yahoo from scratch, this time much better (like no yahoo 360 etc ;-)) , and keep it private.
4. Now wait for 5 years to see shareholders red eyed and red faced !

The best way to punish the shareholders is to show huge success even without them ! Yes its possible !!! I would love to see it .. then lets see what Ica"h"n does !

Leave Yahoo Alone !!!

I never had any opinion about this, but i was recently seeing the craze. Mark any blog or article, with tags like yahoo , google and microsoft ! You will see volume increase ! Well thats why i thought why not blog on this topic !
Here are my view points
1. Yahoo has done a lot good in the past , it needs time to recover and i would say shame on all the shareholders who are showing their greed and trying to break apart a company that has built its own culture in its own way !
2. What if google starts to fall, will people ask it to be merged with microsoft ?
3. What happened to people who used to consider microsoft evil ? Are they alive ? or evilness has become relative ... any company that grows big becomes evil ?
4. Software profits are paltry and its people who make a company popular, and it takes a lot of hard work to build , ship, market and reap benefits from a product. Why dont people look at oil companies if they want profits ?
5. My viewpoint, Live is crap, Vista is Crap, There are a lots of things that are visibly wrong with Live, i would say the biggest being the fact that i dont feel being on live for more than 2 mins, dont know if its the interface or what, but the huge AD that occupies 1/5th of the screen troubles me.

In short
1. MS should innovate and leave Yahoo alone, they have a huge difference in culture and technology and its a big company, integeration challeges will kill you.
2. Yahoo, shareholders, focus on yahoo to do better and not means of squeezing the max out of it .. who knows 2 years down the line you might be richer than what you are ... If you are impatient, please sell your stocks, and shut up.
3. All i can say is now I just pity yahoo's condition, and seeing people play with yang's baby ... well if I was in Yang's position, i dont think i would bear this ... .




ps : see i cleverly added interview in my keywords, since that would lead to search engines being bombed !

Blogato !

I always wonder, how people get time to blog ! its really not an easy task. Its a choice between work or internet. Yes Internet is great, but it does make you a controlled couch potato. I mean TV was blamed in the 1990's and now its certainly computers !

Gas Prices !!!

Now in US gas prices in my area (seattle) is just a cent or few short of $4. Where are we heading to ????

I would say everything else like BioFuel etc is crap, none of them are viable. Also Gas companies are sitting on Huge Huge profits ! What is happening. We first force people to get used to something, and then deprive them of that. Biofuel is depleting food ... and it requires the same amount of energy , which naturally comes from guess what ... "the same old fossil fuel we are trying to save " !!!

I guess the day is not far when we start to drink oil (if everything is biofuelized)...

Gmail Kills History

I just stumbled upon a bug !
Just check your mails (gmail) , go to any other site using address bar.
And yes keep clicking on new links.
Now use "Back" button, to go to your older pages. It will work fine till gmail is loaded again, at which time it clears history (atleast the forward button becomes disabled) ...


Irritating ...