Blogs on Me, Myself, and Technology

Home Lab with Docker

Fri, 28 Oct 2022 11:05:00 +0200

Docker is awesome, and you should definitely be using it in your home setup. I have a Synology DS918+ NAS, and it supports docker. In fact docker support was the first item on my checklist while looking for a NAS. Even though the Docker UI on DSM is pretty decent, I think this is an area where Portainer really shines! It’s essentially a Docker management UI. I have been using it for ages now, it it has been wonderful. You can find tutorials on how to get started with Portainer on your platform. All of the services running on my home network are all running as docker containers. Here’s the list of what I run:

Hosting your Hugo website for free on Cloudflare

Mon, 03 Oct 2022 11:05:00 +0200

You probably already know how big a fan I am of Cloudflare. So while looking around on the Cloudflare console, when I discovered Cloudflare pages, I was overjoyed! It took me only a couple of minutes to switch hosting this blog from DigitalOcean apps to Cloudflare pages. That’s the beauty of code driven deployments 🙂

I followed the very handy documentation here on the Cloudflare developer portal, and switching was a breeze! The only point to note is that by default Cloudflare uses an old version of Hugo, so your website may not compile. It’s a better idea to instead use the HUGO_VERSION environment variable and set it to the same version as what you’re using locally (you can get your local version by running hugo version).

Hosting your Hugo website for free

Thu, 29 Sep 2022 11:05:00 +0200

As promised, here I am with a blog post about how I shifted to Hugo from Wordpress. What we’ll achieve by the end of this blog post:

Migrating your data out of Wordpress (optional)
Installing Hugo
Creating a new blank Hugo website
Importing your wordpress content into your new Hugo site (optional)
Committing your new website to Github
Setting up a free account with DigitalOcean and linking your GitHub website repo to DigitalOcean apps to enable automated deployments
Setting up a custom domain for your website on DigitalOcean

Migrating your data out of Wordpress

I found the easiest way to do this is to use the WordPress Jekyll Exporter plugin. Just install this on your WordPress site, and download an export. Keep the zip file somewhere safe, we will need it later on.

Switched to Hugo

Wed, 21 Sep 2022 16:57:00 +0200

Static site generators have picked up a lot of steam in the past few years. This much neglected blog of mine was running WordPress up until now, and even though it was good enough for me (let’s face it, I wasn’t really doing much with my blog anyway), I wanted to play around with SSGs. The ultimate trigger for me was my host telling me that I’m running out on disk space, and needed to decide if I wanted to go to the next tier of hosting with them. I decided that I had had enough with WordPress, and started looking at alternate ways to host this blog. At first, I looked at Ghost, and even though it was very fancy and easy to use, it was overkill for me, and I really wanted to go database-less. Out of all the SSGs I looked at, I decided to use Hugo for the following reasons:

Seamless roaming on Unifi

Mon, 06 Dec 2021 18:02:41 +0000

So, in the past few months, I have overhauled my entire home network setup. The details call for a separate blog post at some time, I guess. But yes, I’ve switched to Unifi access points.

The one thing that took me a while to get right was the seamless roaming. I came to Unifi from Orbi, and man, Orbi worked awesome for seamless handoff between access points. On Unifi, it sometimes took ages before my clients switched to the nearest access point. After months of fiddling around, I think I’ve got it very close to how Orbi used to roam. You can follow the steps below to see if this works for you as well. These are all written according to Unifi Controller v6.5.53.

Running Windows Nano Server as an ECS host

Mon, 06 Nov 2017 15:23:16 +0000

Windows containers are still in beta state on AWS ECS, but it’s fun to try them out. AWS already has a Full Windows 2016 AMI with containers support. But I wanted to try something more interesting. Windows nanoserver is what I was looking at. It’s designed specifically for tasks such as running as container hosts in a cluster. AWS also has a nanoserver AMI, but I ran into issues very quickly.

Root for Micromax Canvas HD (A116), inclusive of CWM recovery

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 09:20:13 +0000

It’s been ages since I posted here, but I think this post will be worth it 🙂

What we are going to achieve with this:

Update your Canvas HD to the latest *official* ROM, which includes a fix for the Flipboard issue, and the G Sensor issue.
Replace stock recovery by Clockworkmod Recovery. This will make installing future ROMs very easy, and can flash all update zips.
Root your phone. If you don’t know what this is, you probably shouldn’t be reading this 😛

Disclaimer: I claim NO responsibility to what happens to your phone by doing this. You and you alone are responsible for the consequences.

My Twitter achive

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 14:44:40 +0000

Have set up an off-site backup of my tweets over here. Its fully searchable too 😉

Oh and yes, if you’re not following me on twitter yet, you’re losing out! Follow me @kalpik

JP6 De-deodexed and zipaligned ROM for GT-I9000 with Voodoo and 2e recovery!

Tue, 19 Oct 2010 11:32:34 +0000

NOTE: The ROM has a new home at XDA now. No updates/support will be provided here. Please check THIS POST on XDA.

Since Voodoo for Froyo is out, here I’ve packaged Doc’s JP6 rom (full, with fixed Swype) with Voodoo and Circle Battery Mod Version D.

Changelog:

19th Oct 2010: Initial release with Voodoo Pre3

20th Oct 2010: Updated to accommodate Voodoo Pre4 (which contains fixes for some rooting issues, and enables logging by default). For those of you who flashed the previous version, don’t worry, the rooting issues were already fixed in the ROM. So there is no need to update. For those who still want to update, you can get Voodoo Pre4 from here, and you will have to flash it via Odin as PDA, with no PIT and re-partition un-checked.

Weechat v0.3.0 released

Sun, 06 Sep 2009 17:46:23 +0000

So lately I’ve been using this awesome IRC client called Weechat! It’s minimal, yet highly configurable. It’s got me addicted to it! Weechat + Screen is the best combo! Anyway, a groundbreaking new version has been released today. And if you’re on an equally awesome distro (Arch), then you should have it ready in your repository 🙂

Updated to WP 2.8.4

Sun, 06 Sep 2009 17:41:03 +0000

Hmm.. So I’ve updated my blog to WordPress v2.8.4, in light of the recent attacks.. Have been negleting this blog a lot lately.. Let’s see if i can be regular here! To be honest, twitter killed my blog 😛

Online Petition against Airtel’s Fair Usage Policy

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 20:07:33 +0000

The members of India Broadband Forum have come up with an online petition against Airtel’s Fair usage policy. I urge all to sign it! It doesnt matter if you use Airtel or not!

http://afup.broadbandforum.in/

Airtel Caps “Unlimited” Connections

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 14:12:18 +0000

Last night i was following this discussion over at Broadbandforum.in. And it seems Airtel has put download caps on their supposedly unlimited connections. After you are finished with your quota, they throttle your speeds 😐 This is absolutely ridiculous! And before poeple try to defend by saying that speed caps are there internationally too, i say first match the kind of speeds they provide at the rates they provide it at, then talk about caps. Anyway, taken from a post from that thread:

Sametime (meanwhile) support in Pidgin on Arch Linux

Sun, 18 Jan 2009 16:50:40 +0000

We use IBM’s Lotus Sametime as our IM client at work. And i like to be signed in all the time even on my Arch machine at home. Pidgin does support sametime protocol, but through an external library called meanwhile. Although most popular distributions have meanwhile in their main repos, Arch does not. It has the meanwhile library in AUR. And due to this, the pidgin in Arch has meanwhile support disabled. But even so, the latest stable meanwhile library (1.0.2) has a nasty bug which does not report the correct online status of buddies. Most online buddies are shown as being offline. The problem has been fixed in the SVN version, but unfortunately ALL distributions carry the buggy version of meanwhile. It took me around 5-6 months to get to the root cause of this bug, and yes, i have managed to fix it in Arch. I’m providing here a compiled version of the fixed meanwhile library (64 bit). I’m also providing a complete tutorial on how to compile pidgin with meanwhile support on Arch.

New theme

Sun, 18 Jan 2009 12:19:59 +0000

Love it? Hate it? Let me know!

Kernel 2.6.28. Now with stable EXT4!

Sun, 18 Jan 2009 11:17:14 +0000

So.. A few days back, Kernel 2.6.28 was released. And amongst the many new features, the thing that attracted me most was stable EXT4 support. For those of you who dont know, EXT4 is the successor to the most widely used linux filesystem, EXT3. EXT4 boasts of being a hell lot faster than EXT3, and ofcourse with added features.

Archlinux just released Kernel 2.6.28 into it’s [core] repo a few days back, and since then im in a dillema whether i should switch to EXT4, or be content with my current filesystem, JFS. Switching to EXT4 means that I will have to re-install Arch, once the new installer CD with EXT4 support comes in (which should be soon). And configuring Arch _exactly_ the same way as it is right now will be almost impossible! I mean with all the small tweaks and configuration changes i’ve done over one year now! Will be a HUGE task! And nowdays, i really dont have time to mess with something that’s working absolutely the way i want it to work.

Flash 10 Native 64 bit for Linux!

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 21:02:09 +0000

Well, i know its kinda old news, but still im pretty excited that Adobe has released an alpha version of a native 64 bit Flash plugin for Linux! The best part is that Linux is the first platform that gets the alpha version, though Adobe says that it will ship the final version for Linux, Mac and Windows together. Thankyou Adobe for showering some of your love to us Linux users 😀

Google’s workshop on Social Web and Cloud Computing

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 21:27:52 +0000

Google conducted a workshop on their AppEngine and OpenSocial on 5th September at the Taj Palace, New Delhi. Im sorry i couldn’t blog about it earlier, to let all the Delhi readers know 😛 I myself was an unconfirmed guest at this event, but the people from Google were friendly enough to confirm my seat once i reached there 🙂

The event started with Rajdeep, Anash and Seshu going into the depths of the OpenSocial API and what it stands for. Anirudh, on the other hand, took us for a deep dive on the AppEngine. Their presentations covered everything from introduction to even code snippets. We also had presentations from Google’s partners for OpenSocial: Impetus and Satyam. They gave an insight on what they are doing with OpenSocial. I’m afraid, i still haven’t received any of the presentations from any of the presenters, although with a quick search on SlideShare, i was able to find some similar presentations. I’m embedding two of them here:

Google’s Web Browser: Google Chrome

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 00:33:32 +0000

Ok, this just in! Google’s planning on an open source browser based on the WebKit engine.

Via Googlesystem blog,

Google Chrome has been built in a time when browsers no longer render mostly web pages, but full-blown web applications. That’s why browsers need to be more powerful, more stable and more secure. One of the problems of the existing browsers is that a web page can lock the browser and there’s no way to isolate that tab and close it. Google Chrome uses a new process for each tab. “We’re applying the same isolation you find in modern operating systems,” says Arnaud Weber. Each process is sandboxed to prevent malware from affecting your computer.

Im back!

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 23:12:33 +0000

Hmm.. So i’ve been out of the blogging scene for quite sometime now. Mostly, i’ve been busy with work, and yeah, i’ve been spending all my free time watching F.R.I.E.N.D.S, just like Nidhi 🙂 Now that i’m finished with all 10 seasons, i think ill get some time to post here 🙂

So lets see.. What all is new.. On the linux front, i’ve migrated from Ubuntu to Arch Linux, which according to me, is the BEST distro out there! I love the fact how everything “just works” and how i have the latest software all the time. The best part is that its a rolling release, meaning no more waiting for updates or adding third party repos for new stuff. I evaluated Debian and Gentoo, before moving to Arch. Debian always had some or the other problem. It wasnt just stable enough for me. And Gentoo on the other hand was too time consuming and crude. Arch is gonna stay on my PC for a long, long time! 🙂

Latest Pidgin and Firefox repositories for Ubuntu Hardy

Fri, 23 May 2008 10:35:37 +0000

Ubuntu Hardy ships with Pidgin v2.4.1 and Firefox 3.0 Beta5, while the latest Pidgin is v2.4.2 and the latest Firefox is 3.0 RC1. Here are two repositories that would always contain the latest versions of Pidgin and Firefox. Just type “gksu gedit /etc/apt/sources.list” into the terminal, and add the following to the end of the file.

For Pidgin:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/pidgin-developers/ubuntu hardy main

For Firefox:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/mozillateam/ubuntu hardy main

After adding the lines, just type “sudo apt-get update” and then “sudo apt-get dist-upgrade” in the terminal (apt will give a warning about unauthenticated packages, but its safe to ignore the warning and type “y”). After doing this, you should have the latest versions of both Pidgin and Firefox 🙂

BarCamp Delhi 4!

Thu, 15 May 2008 07:52:52 +0000

Calling all campers! BarCamp Delhi 4 is just around the corner! Considering how much fun i had last time, ill definitely be present in this one! From the BarCampDelhi4 Wiki,

BarCamp Delhi is proposed to be a camp where we get together and discuss/rant/brain-storm/share opinions/information/wisdom about anything. Be it Web Technologies, trends, Mobile Internet, Hacking, Blogging, Vlogs, Social Media etc. that interests us.

The details of the event are:

Date: 17th May 2008 (Saturday).

Ubuntu to rename top level directories?!

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 23:47:55 +0000

Well, i just heard that Ubuntu is trying to rename all the top level directories! The proposed directory structure is:

/bin /system/executables
/boot /system/boot
/dev /system/devices
/etc /system/config
/lib /system/libraries
/home /users
/media /storage
/mnt /storage
/proc /system/processes
/root /users/Administrator
/sbin /system/executables/admin
/tmp /system/temporary
/usr /system/applications

Well, that’s just plain stupid if you ask me.. It will create unnecessary confusion and difference between various linux distributions! I think Ubuntu should strive to be “User Friendly” not “Idiot Friendly”. We dont want another case of the Windows do we? 😉

My New Rig

Sun, 16 Mar 2008 11:01:32 +0000

Well.. Not exactly *new*, its about a month old now 🙂 I still have my old pc, and have set up a LAN 🙂 Here’s the configuration:

Processor: Core2Quad Q6600 @2.4Ghz
Motherboard: MSI P35 Platinum
GFX Card: MSI 8600 GT (512MB)
RAM: Patriot 2x1GB DDR2 800 Mhz (matched pairs)
HDD: Western Digital 400GB HDD (16MB buffer)
SMPS: Cooler Master Real Power 550W
Cabinet: Cooler Master Elite
Screen: Viewsonic VX922 (19″)
DVD Writer: Samsung SH-S203D

Top 10 Reasons to use Linux

Sun, 16 Mar 2008 10:49:21 +0000

Hmm.. I’ve been out of the blogging scene for quote sometime now! Didn’t really get the time, or anything worthwhile to post. Well anyway, what better way to come back, then to list out the top 10 reasons to use linux! 😀

Â If youâ€™re a Linux enthusiast like me, youâ€™ve probably tried to convert a few people over to Linux from another operating system. Even though you succeed many times, there are always a few â€˜geniusesâ€™ out there who need some real persuading to switch over to Linux.

Yahoo censoring status messages?

Thu, 27 Dec 2007 22:24:00 +0000

I discovered this when i tried to set my status message to “Benazir Bhutto killed..” it just didn’t reflect. Then i tried Pidgin’s default away message “I’m not here right now” didn’t work.. But surprisingly “I’m not here right away” works.. Harsh confirmed the behavior. Seems as if yahoo is blocking some words such as “now” and “Bhutto” in various combinations in a sentence (“now” and “Bhutto” do work as status messages). At first i though it was a problem with pidgin. But then Ankur confirmed that these words were not working with even the windows yahoo messenger client! I really don’t know what yahoo is trying to achieve but its really irritating 😐

Latest Pidgin/Rhythmbox repository for Ubuntu

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 16:52:15 +0000

Here is a repository i use on my gutsy install which always contains the latest builds of Pidgin and Rhythmbox. So no more hunting for debs or compiling sources 😀

Steps to add the repository:

1. Open Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal)

2. Type “gksuÂ gedit /etc/apt/sources.list”

3. Go to the end of the file and add the following onto a new line:

## Latest Pidgin/Rhythmbox
deb http://www.telemail.fi/mlind/ubuntu gutsy main

4. Save the file and close Gedit.

My First BarCamp! BarCampDelhi3: AWESOME!

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 01:14:41 +0000

So.. I had wanted to attend un-conferences since a long time now, but didn’t really get to know the events on time, or the events were outside of Delhi/NCR. So this even was the perfect opportunity for me to explore! The even was held at the Noida Sector 59 office of Impetus Software, which was quite close to my own office, so i kinda knew the area a bit. The event was scheduled to start at 9:30 AM. I, along with Deepak, Prateek and Apoorv reached the venue around 9:15 AM. We did all the registration formalities, and then proceeded to the conference room. We were one of the first few people to arrive there. The first “known” person we met there was Amit. He greeted us with his usual smile (dunno whether he recognized me and Apoorv or not though 😛 ). Then we met this really friendly guy named Ankit, who had come with his baby daughter, who was later declared as the youngest attendee of the BarCamp 😀

08/12/07 – BarCampDelhi3

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 22:44:24 +0000

Heh, no its not a booze party 😛 From the BarCamp wiki:

BarCamp Delhi is proposed to be a camp where we get together and discuss/rant/brain-storm/share opinions about about Web technologies & trends, Mobile Internet, Hacking, Blogging, Vlogs, Social Media, … everything about the Technology that interests us. As said before, “It’s about geekery and having a focal point for great ideas.”

This would actually be the first time i’d be attending a BarCamp. Got to know about BarCamp last year through Amit of Uzanto, but missed it last year. Anyway, im surely attending it this time. Expecting to meet a lot of like minded people geeks 😛 I urge all people who can make it to the event, to register at the BarCampDelhi3 wiki page. As for those who would have to miss it, dont worry, many people would be live blogging the event. Ill also try and blog a bit about it, otherwise ill surely link you to the people who do blog about it in detail 🙂

Adobe Flash Player 9 Update 3, Version 9.0.115.0 for Linux

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 10:37:28 +0000

Adobe has released a shining new version of Flash Player for linux. This is a big release fixing a lot of stability issues and also adding a truck load of features!

Changelog:

New audio/video options

H.264/HE-AAC codec support
Flash Player 9 Update 3 includes H.264 video and High Efficiency AAC (HE-AAC) audio codec support that opens up a broad ecosystem and selection of standards-based video â€” up to HD quality â€” that developers can leverage in their applications. Supporting a subset of MPEG-4 Part 12 (container) and Part 10 (H.264), including baseline, main and high profiles, Flash Player can play back existing MP4, M4A, MOV, MP4V, 3GP and 3G2 content.

Improved Performance

Multi-core support
Speed the rendering of vectors, bitmaps, filters and video, including true 1080p video, with new multi-core support that takes advantage of up to 4 CPUs.
Hardware scaling
Improve the performance and quality of full-screen video through the use of hardware scaling.
Multi-threaded video decoding
The VP6 video codec now runs in a separate thread on multi-core systems, enabling true 1080p video. In addition, the responsiveness and decode blockiness of the VP6 codec is improved with this change.
Image scaling
A new algorithm for scaling bitmap images enhances the quality and rendering performance of downscaled images.
Flash Player cache
The Flash Player cache enables common components, such as the Flex Framework, to be cached locally and then used by any SWF from any domain. Use of the Flash Player cache can significantly reduce SWF file sizes and speed application download times.
Flash Media Server buffering
The stream buffer is maintained while a stream is paused.

Universal Reach

Full screen mode for Linux
Full screen mode with hardware scaling is now supported in Linux.
Accessibility support for the plugin
Flash Player 9 update 3 adds support for Microsoftâ€™s Active Accessibility (MSAA) API to the plugin, enabling consistent support across plugin-based and Internet Explorer browsers.
Mac Os X Leopard support
Flash Player 9 update 3 now supports the Mac OS X Leopard operating system.

Fixed in this version:

On Linux, modal dialogs displayed by Flash Player stay in front of browser windows but do not prevent interaction with the browser as they should. (191331)
On Windows Vista, Internet Explorer 7 Protected Mode may prompt users with security warnings when attempting to view Flash content after installing the Flash Player 9 (9.0.45.0) ActiveX control. Security warnings may also appear for users who choose to install the Google Toolbar from the Flash Player Download Center on adobe.com as part of the player installation process. This was fixed in an Internet Explorer update in June 2007.
On certain SUSE 9.2 installations using the standalone player only, trying to Open a browser from the standalone player with SeaMonkey open will cause the player to hang. (193383)
On Linux, networking operations in the standalone player are currently slow. (193158)
On Linux, when the mouse is hovering over Flash content, keyboard input is not sent to the browser. (194265)
Full-screen mode is not supported in the Opera Browser on Macintosh systems. (189140)
Full-screen mode is now supported on Linux.
Invoking document.write(..) method of JavaScript using ExternalInterface or FSCommand hangs Safari on next page load. This issue has been reported to Apple. (167996)
The Mozilla Plugin Finder Service will not install Flash Player 9.0.20.0 on Intel-based Macs using double-byte language modes. Users may either install from the Adobe Player Download Center or use the Plugin Finder Service in non-double-byte language modes. (180719)
The plugin version of Flash Player does not fire flash.events.Event.RENDER when wmode is set as transparent. (198515)
Full-screen can be used when wmode is set (202290)
Passing large amounts of XML through External Interface is significantly faster (206828)
ExternalInterface now works with HTML objects that contain dots within the object name (199614)

Here is the list of security updates.

I’m officially in Love!

Fri, 23 Nov 2007 21:27:06 +0000

Hehe.. With this car actually.. Audi R8

Some wallpapers.

Now to see if i can muster up the $109,000 to own it. And trust me, one day i will 🙂

Fedora 8 Released!

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 09:11:38 +0000

Fedora 8 has been released: “Announcing the release of Fedora 8 (Werewolf). This release includes significant new versions of many key components and technologies. Features: GNOME 2.20; Online Desktop; KDE 3.5.8; Xfce 4.4.1; NetworkManager 0.7 provides improved wireless network management support; PulseAudio is now installed and enabled by default; CodecBuddy is now included; CompizFusion, the compositing window manager that re-merges Compiz and Beryl, is installed by default; the completely free and open source Java environment called IcedTea is installed by default….” Learn more about all the features in the release summary and release notes. The installation DVD and live CD/DVD images are available for download via BitTorrent or directly from Fedora’s download mirrors. Quick links: Fedora-8-dvd-i386 (3,369MB), Fedora-8-dvd-x86_64 (3,800MB), Fedora-8-Live-i686.iso (697MB, SHA1), Fedora-8-Live-x86_64.iso (767MB, SHA1).

WordPress 2.3 Released!

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 09:05:36 +0000

And i’ve already upgraded! 😀

On Monday, September 24, 2007, WordPress version 2.3 was released to the public. For information on the changes and improvements in this new version, see Changelog for 2.3.

For Version 2.2, the database version (db_version in wp_option) is 6124.

Two of the top five ideas are implemented in this release: Plugin Update Notification (http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic.php?id=30&page) and Tags! (http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic.php?id=59), and another with very high rating Revamp the default blogroll (http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic.php?id=560).

AV-Comparatives antivirus test results

Sat, 01 Sep 2007 19:47:36 +0000

On this site you will find independent comparatives of Anti-Virus software. All products listed in our comparatives are already a selection of some very good anti-virus products. In order to get tested by us, companies must fulfill various conditions and minimum requirements.

This is one of the MOST respected antivirus tests on the internet! Do have a look! This times results might surprise you 🙂

AV-Comparatives

Introducing the Hardy Heron

Thu, 30 Aug 2007 08:59:17 +0000

From the Ubuntu Developer mailing list:

I am delighted to have the pleasure of announcing the Hardy Heron
(Ubuntu 8.04), the next version of Ubuntu that will succeed Gutsy Gibbon
(Ubuntu 7.10, due for release in October 2007). Not only will the Ubuntu
community continue to do what it does best, produce an easy-to-use,
reliable, free software platform, but this release will proudly wear the
badge of Long Term Support (LTS) and be supported with security updates
for five years on the server and three years on the desktop. We look
forward to releasing the Hardy Heron in April 2008.

Gutsy Gibbon Tribe 5!

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 19:03:32 +0000

Tribe 5 just hit the mirrors! Get it while its hot! This release includes a lot of new features like:

Gnome 2.19.90
Graphical Configuration tool for X Server
A new plugin manager for Firefox, which allows to choose readily used plugins such as flash, adblock, beagle plugin etc
A new printing system, with a default PDF printer being installed by default

I once tried Gutsy when it was tribe 2. Lots of things didn’t work, or were buggy at that time, so i went back to feisty then. But now i’ve been using Gutsy since tribe 4 and its been as stable as feisty! So all those people who like to stay on the edge, do try it out, as its completely usable!

Pidgin v2.1.1 Released!

Tue, 21 Aug 2007 08:52:03 +0000

No changelog yet, ill update this thread as soon as i get debs. Though, since a month now, i have shifted to Ubuntu Gutsy. 🙂

Get it here.

Kill Vista by pressing just two keys!

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 08:37:33 +0000

Windows Vista can be completely killed by pressing a simple combination of just two keys. All you need to crush Microsoft’s latest operating system and put the much-applauded Wow at an end is two fingers. This issue has been reported independently of Microsoft, and the Redmond company has failed to issue any official comment at the time of this article. The immediate question which comes to mind is if the problem is a security vulnerability or a simple bug.

Google Desktop for linux!

Thu, 28 Jun 2007 11:08:24 +0000

Google has just released Google Desktop for Linux! Get it here.

Sue me first, Microsoft

Sat, 09 Jun 2007 09:11:28 +0000

From Digital Tipping Point,

Hello, and welcome to our Microsoft lawsuit invitational. This page is intended to be a place where people would like to join together to invite a Microsoft patent infringement lawsuit. If you would like to invite a visit by Brad Smith, Microsoft’s head litigator, please feel free to add your name here. We are asking that people include their name, email address, version of GNU Linux disto(s) being used, and a short statement explaining why you are using that distro.

Fedora Core 7 “Moonshine” released!

Thu, 31 May 2007 21:34:29 +0000

The Fedora Project has announced the release of Fedora 7, code name “Moonshine”: “Howdy, cousins! Welcome to our little Fedora hollow, where we’ve brewed up some mighty, mighty Fedora 7 Moonshine for your enjoyment.”

The latest version of the popular distribution comes with a number of new features, including “spins”, or variations of Fedora built from a specific set of software packages, the latest GNOME 2.18 and KDE 3.5.6 desktops, fast user switching, improved internationalisation support, a new SELinux troubleshooting tool, significantly faster package management utilities, a new kernel-based virtual machine technology, and many other enhancements. Please read the release announcement and consult the release notes for detailed information.

AOL Active Virus Shield new release (now Vista compatible)

Wed, 30 May 2007 15:45:27 +0000

Was just trying out AOL AVS, and noticed something.. The file gets downloaded from this directory: http://download.nullsoft.com/avs/

And surprise surprise! Its got a new file there http://download.nullsoft.com/avs/AVS_v25.exe upon installing which, it says v6.0.2.621

Ss listed on http://www.kaspersky.com/productupda…pter=186435857

It is the LATEST version of KAV 6! And its vista compatible too! 😀

Gmail upgrades maximum attachment size to 20 MB!

Wed, 23 May 2007 11:34:34 +0000

YAY! This move is a lot better than giving us unlimited storage space! A boon for gmail drive and gmailFS users!

Source.

Install Pidgin 2.0.0 on Ubuntu Feisty (with all plugins)

Sat, 12 May 2007 22:51:34 +0000

You can easily get the vanilla Pidgin 2.0 .deb (installation file for Ubuntu Feisty).

The only thing i was missing badly were the plugins! I was really used to the libnotify and autoreply plugins. Anyway, so i’ve compiled a .deb here for the Purple Plugin Pack.

Plugins in the Plugin Pack

Edit: Thanks to Karthik, we have 64 bit debs for the plugin pack too!

Pidgin v2.0.0 released!

Sat, 05 May 2007 01:12:15 +0000

After a LONG wait, finally the day is here! Pidgin 2.0.0 goes final!

Pidgin (previously called Gaim) is a multi-protocol instant messaging (IM) client for Linux, BSD, MacOS X, and Windows. It is compatible with AIM and ICQ (Oscar protocol), MSN Messenger, Yahoo!, IRC, Jabber, Gadu-Gadu, SILC, GroupWise Messenger, and Zephyr networks.

Pidgin users can log in to multiple accounts on multiple IM networks simultaneously. This means that you can be chatting with friends on AOL Instant Messenger, talking to a friend on Yahoo Messenger, and sitting in an IRC channel all at the same time.

Free Joost invites!

Thu, 03 May 2007 10:10:27 +0000

Yesterday i got 999 invites on my Joost account! So im giving em away here! Anyone who wants them, please leave a comment here in the following format:

First Name:
Last Name:

No need to publish your email as i can get that from the admin panel.

Is DRM worth it?

Wed, 02 May 2007 20:20:40 +0000

So, you are the producer/publisher of a content. You want to make money of it. As much money as possible. You are wondering if you must use DRM or not.

First question

It might be obvious but, at first, ask yourself : “Why do I want to use DRM on my content ?”. To fight piracy or illegal copies ? Bad answer ! Your goal is NOT to fight piracy ! Your goal is to earn money. Lot of money. If you could make more money with the help of piracy, would you still fight it ? Of course not. So keep in my mind that you want to use DRM to make more money of your content. Nothing else.

HD-DVD encryption key out! Digg goes down

Tue, 01 May 2007 09:15:33 +0000

The HD-DVD encryption key was leaked over the internet yesterday. The source got dugg pretty hard! It was being dugg so hard that digg was seeing 40 digs per second on this story! Ultimately digg went down and was showing 404 errors on every story! It was really great to see how strongly people feel about DRM. This key actually enables people to decode legally bought HD-DVD movies on linux, though they are only supposed to be played on windows.

New Internet Data Speeds Set

Thu, 26 Apr 2007 08:30:43 +0000

A group of researchers testing out the so called Internet2 network said it had broken speed records by first sending data at 7.67 gigabits per second, and breaking it the next day with a data transfer rate of 9.08Gbps.

“These records are final for the 10Gbps network era because they represent more than 98% of the upper limit of network capacity,” University of Tokyo researcher Dr. Kei Hiraki said. “Through collaboration by a number of institutions, we have demonstrated the ability to overcome the distance and achieve this newest mark.”

Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn Released

Thu, 19 Apr 2007 23:15:27 +0000

Its finally here! And im running it 😀 Due to all the traffic rush, Ubuntu.com is down! On their homepage:

Thank you to everyone who has helped make Ubuntu 7.04 a reality. Thousands of you have helped code, test, translate and promote Ubuntu and everyone can celebrate today’s release.

If you are looking for general information about the Ubuntu project, the main site will be back shortly.

For official mirrors to download, please see the Ubuntu homepage.

Introducing the Gutsy Gibbon

Thu, 12 Apr 2007 23:12:37 +0000

From the Ubuntu mailing lists:

Folks, allow me to introduce the Gutsy Gibbon, who will be succeeding
the Feisty Fawn as the focus of our development love in a few short
weeks, for release in October 2007.

Hehe.. Funny name i must say.. But then i think about Warty Warthog, Hoary Hedgehog, Breezy Badger, Dapper Drake, Edgy Eft and Feisty Fawn.. Anyway, whatever the name may be, Ubuntu ROCKS!

Phoenix BIOS Locks out all OSâ€™s except Vista!!!

Wed, 11 Apr 2007 21:53:46 +0000

Taken from The Linux and OpenSource blog:

If youâ€™re buying a new computer in the near future, it may be a good idea to avoid systems with Phoenix bios on them. Thereâ€™s recent proof that their 2003 contract with Microsoft has born fruit in their latest bios versions which now prevent you from installing any OS other than Vista. Not only is this a really, really bad move by Phoenix, but itâ€™s also another strike against Microsoft as it seems to be trying to become uber monopolistic in the PC market again simply by locking out anyone and everyone they can. Thank goodness the open bios project is in full swing. We may need them in the near future.

Windows Vista â€“ the Last Big Windows Operating System

Wed, 11 Apr 2007 21:37:50 +0000

Windows Vista will be the last big Windows operating system. Further more, Microsoft is losing its grip on the desktop to business solutions built on SaaS, open source and virtualization. These are the conclusions put forward by analysts from Goldman Sachs.

Goldman Sachs’ perspective on Windows Vista is not singular. In fact, the view that Vista is the last client operating system from Microsoft has been perpetuating itself even before the product hit the shelves. In fact, back in 2006, Gartner analysts have also put forward the possibility that Windows Vista would be the last of its kind.

Is Wine really faster than Windows?

Tue, 03 Apr 2007 22:22:10 +0000

Would you believe that Wine, the open-source, program that enables you to run some Windows programs on Linux, is faster than native Windows XP on the same hardware?

I have trouble buying that one too, but according to the Wine crew’s latest benchmark runs, it’s true.

These were primarily graphic tests. Both systems, Windows XP SP 2 and Gentoo with Wine 0.9.5, were asked to show their stuff on a 3.8GHz Intel 570 Pentium box with an 800MHz FSB (front side bus), a gigabyte of 533MHz DDR2 (double data rate) RAM, and a 60GB IDE ATA100 hard drive.

IBM Series x3455 Servers

Sun, 01 Apr 2007 13:54:31 +0000

Hi! Many of you might be wondering why i was hardly online since the past few days. The reason was this 🙂 I was setting up 3 IBM Series x3455 servers for my company CSC. These are blade servers which are supposed to run Sourceforge Enterprise Edition have the following configuration:

2 x AMD Opteron 2.6 GHz Dual Core 64 bit processors (that’s 4 cores with 2.6 Ghz per core)
4 GB DDR2 667 Mhz RAM (ECC RAM)
2 x 160 GB SATA II HDDs
2 x 1GBps LAN cards

The servers came from Singapore with every component in a separate box! So they had to be assembled first over here. After assembling, RedHat Enterprise Linux v4 was chosen as the OS with the following partitioning scheme:

A Six-Year-Old Girl Hacks Computers

Wed, 28 Mar 2007 21:30:48 +0000

A UK Parliamentâ€™s computer was hacked by a six-year-old child after he managed to install a keylogger on the system. It was a part of a UK campaign meant to improve the security of the online activities using several experiments. The Get Safe Online program was started some time ago and is currently promoted through a website that presents useful statistics and number about the online security.

â€œA six year-old child has hacked into the UK Parliamentâ€™s computer system, installing a keylogger onto an MPâ€™s machine. As part of an experiment run by the UK campaign â€˜Get Safe Onlineâ€™, the minister agreed to leave her PC unattended for 60 seconds. In a quarter of that time, the schoolgirl had successfully installed an application that monitored every keystroke without anyone noticing. The keylogger, if left undetected, would have recorded everything the MP wrote on her PC in the next six months,â€ the same author sustained.

Ubuntu Feisty 7.04 Beta Released!

Sat, 24 Mar 2007 10:14:08 +0000

Ubuntu Feisty Beta hits the servers! From Official Announcement:

The Ubuntu team is proud to announce the beta release of Ubuntu 7.04.

Ubuntu 7.04 is the most user-friendly Ubuntu to date and includes a ground-breaking Windows migration assistant, excellent wireless networking support and improved multimedia support.

Ubuntu 7.04 server edition adds support for hardware facilities that speed up the use of virtual machines as well as other improved hardware support, making it an excellent choice as a web, database, file and print server, the fastest growing area of Linux server use.

WordPress 2.1.1 dangerous, upgrade..

Sat, 03 Mar 2007 10:31:13 +0000

Long story short: If you downloaded WordPress 2.1.1 within the past 3-4 days, your files may include a security exploit that was added by a cracker, and you should upgrade all of your files to 2.1.2 immediately.

Longer explanation: This morning we received a note to our security mailing address about unusual and highly exploitable code in WordPress. The issue was investigated, and it appeared that the 2.1.1 download had been modified from its original code. We took the website down immediately to investigate what happened.

Acrobat Reader Actually Reads, with Voice!

Mon, 26 Feb 2007 13:20:30 +0000

PDF documents are very familiar among the computer users especially those from the educational field. Sometimes, a large quantity of educational information is stored in this file format rather than the usual Doc or RTF document. In this case, working with Acrobat Reader has become mandatory. Being just a viewer, not an editor like Word, means that it should be easier to work with.

In my opinion, it is. However, many people do not feel too comfortable using Acrobat Reader and the pdf file format. Some complain that the loading time takes to much, other feel no confidence to work with a text document without being able to edit it and finally there are those who get confused when trying to download a pdf document using a web browser, find out that the document actually opens within the browserâ€™s window.

Windows Live Messenger Serves Malware

Wed, 21 Feb 2007 21:03:29 +0000

Microsoft has managed to put itself in an uncomfortable position after serving malicious code to Windows Live Messenger users via ads embedded in the instant messaging client. According to the Redmond Company, actions were taken swiftly in order to remove an advertisement banner featured for several days in the IM program that pointed to a â€œsecurityâ€ solution delivering anything but security.

â€œWe have learned that Microsoft was notified of malware that was being served through ads placed in Windows Live Messenger banners. As a result of this notification Microsoft immediately investigated the reports and removed the offending ads, as this is a violation of Microsoft’s ad serving policy. Microsoft can confirm that the ads are no longer being served by any Microsoft system,â€ said Whitney Burk, a company PR manager.

Enjoy 5.1 Surround Sound with Just 1 Speaker

Sun, 18 Feb 2007 15:13:44 +0000

The lack of personal space is something that affects us all, since the size of our houses, especially in crowded areas, is becoming smaller and smaller. And since Japan is one of the countries with the smallest living space (in square meters) per inhabitant, the people from Yamaha have come up with the very intelligent idea of creating a speaker that can take advantage of this situation, and use the walls in order to create a surround effect. Enters the Yamaha YSP-900 digital sound projector, a device that, according to its manufacturers, is actually capable of simulating different audio modes, such as 2.1 or 5.1, without requiring any extra-speakers.

Get Vista Features on Your XP

Mon, 12 Feb 2007 22:42:50 +0000

Windows Vista is on the shelves! Available for the general public, not only for enterprises, everyone can upgrade the current Windows XP or buy the brand new OS from Microsoft.

Due to different reasons like high hardware requirements, software incompatibility or the price, some people cannot afford to do the migration, at least not in the near future. Of course there are also the conservative users who attached themselves too much to the XP that now they hesitate to make the move believing in its endurance.

Kaspersky Reveals the Fundamental Vulnerability of Vista PatchGuard

Sat, 10 Feb 2007 09:42:23 +0000

Kaspersky regards the Kernel Patch Protection introduced in 64-bit Windows Vista as a joke. Alisa Shevchenko, Virus analyst, Kaspersky Lab, claims that PatchGuard can â€œhardly be viewed as providing serious protection against rootkits.â€ In this context, Kaspersky has revealed that the Windows Vista kernel, for 64-bit platforms only, is just â€œallegedlyâ€ immune to modifications.

â€œIt is, by its very nature, vulnerable, as is demonstrated by the existence of documented methods for disabling protection. The major vulnerability within PatchGuard is architectural: the code which ensures protection is executed at the same level as code which it is both designed to protect, and to protect against. This protection has the same rights as a potential attacker, and can be evaded or disabled. Ways in which PatchGuard can be exploited or disabled are already known,â€ explained Shevchenko.

Ubuntu CDs only Rs. 1500 per CD!

Sun, 04 Feb 2007 16:44:14 +0000

Taken from Mehul’s Blog.

I had almost given up blogging but came across this nice incident so had to post it.

This is a true incident that happened with my friend rahul, whoâ€™s been looking to try linux but heâ€™s a dumbhead when it comes to technology.

This dude, Utsav came on digit forum and announced that he was selling linux 10 cdâ€™s for Rs. 1500 each. But that thread was locked by the Admin before he could get to talk with the fellow

Google to Release Microsoft Office Alternative

Tue, 30 Jan 2007 19:44:26 +0000

Microsoft Office is surely the most popular office suite in the entire world, providing extremely useful applications such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access and many other tools that are making our computers work much easier. At this time, Microsoftâ€™s solution is challenged by a similar product available for free, OpenOffice representing a tool that is chosen by millions of users from all around the world.

Nowadays, Google owns the most powerful search engine technology in the entire world, being challenged by similar services provided by other companies. Microsoft is trying to win the battle with Googleâ€™s search engine by improving Live Search, a similar technology that allows users to search the internet.

Animated boot screen on openSuSE 10.2

Thu, 25 Jan 2007 10:05:29 +0000

Everyone who has used openSuSE 10.2 must have come across the animated boot screen. But the problem is that its not permanent. It comes sometimes, and doesnt come at other times. Im writing this tutorial for all you penguin lovers who would like to see the animated boot everytime!

1. In the terminal (from your home folder) type mkdir new
2. Type cp /boot/message new
3. Now type cd new
4. Type cpio -i < message
5. Dont close the terminal, and open the folder new in your home folder (from konqueror or nautilus) and edit “gfxboot.cfg” file in kwrite/gedit
6. Change “penguin=-1” to “penguin=100” and save the file
7. Now delete the message file in the new directory by typing rm message
8. Now type ls . | cpio -o > message
9. Now type sudo cp message /boot, enter your root password if required.

Frustrated with Hutch

Sun, 21 Jan 2007 12:17:05 +0000

My hutch connection was disconnected yesterday without prior notification on the basis of “verification”. I cannot make any outgoing calls and SMSs even though i have a balance of around 1800 Rs. Incoming calls do not show the caller ID. Now even though i have submitted the required documents (not that i didn’t submit them when i bought the connection, i did submit a photocopy of my Driver’s License!), my connection has not been activated. There are problems with the network too. Calls get dropped, network congestion. I cannot dial Hutch Care “111” from my mobile. It always shows network busy. So if i need to talk to customer care, i need to dial “9811098110” from my landline and pay for it while i listen to “you and i” for an hour!

INTEL Shows Off an 8-Core PC

Wed, 10 Jan 2007 09:20:07 +0000

INTEL has showcased at CES a system capable of hosting 8 cores onto a single motherboard. While many knew that this was actually possible, it is a surprise nevertheless. To give you some details, let me say that the â€œV8â€ platform that was showcased today is similar to the one that is being used in Appleâ€™s Mac Pro systems.

Last year when the Macs were launched, the idea was to offer real quad core systems motive for which two dual-core Xeons were used to turn the concept into reality. At the moment, quad-core Xeons existed only on papers but when they came out, users replaced the older dual cores with the newcomers and obtained eight-core home computers.

Windows Vista Ultimate Site

Mon, 08 Jan 2007 16:38:00 +0000

With Windowsultimate.com, a website dedicated to Windows Vista Ultimate, Microsoft is offering a life experience outside the box. â€œWelcome to the new website for Windows Vista Ultimate. This is a space where we, the people who make Windows Vista Ultimate and Ultimate Extras, can talk to you about what weâ€™re doingâ€, reads Microsoft’s welcoming message.

The Redmond Company informed that it plans to introduce a high frequency rate of updates to the website and therefore has made available an RSS feed that would enable users to stay up to date with Windowsultimate.com.

Happy new year!

Mon, 01 Jan 2007 22:37:48 +0000

Wishing all the readers of my blog a very happy and prosperous new year!

5 things about me!

Thu, 28 Dec 2006 21:00:16 +0000

Ok.. So i was tagged by my friend Manas. So here are 5 things about me:

1. Love technology and gadgets: Im the kinda guy who’d like to own the latest hardware/mobile phones, but alas my budget does not permit :p

2. Im an introvert: I get like at least 20-25 genuine emails a day (naah, not spam). And im a very busy person. The internet is my connection to the world. Im not the outgoing and mixing types 🙂 And i wont bug someone unless i really need some help from him. Live and let live 🙂
3. I dont keep people close to me: Hehe.. Its just that i dont keep anyone “that” close to me. And no one is that important for me. This is due to some past bad experiences i had with people really close to me. I have that “i dont care” attitude.

An AWESOME wallpaper site

Thu, 21 Dec 2006 10:06:29 +0000

This site has all the wallpaper is all the resolutions! You widescreen guys would love it! All wallpapers are extremely beautiful!

Check it out!

A Windows Vista Zero-Day Exploit Costs $50,000

Mon, 18 Dec 2006 22:43:13 +0000

$50,000 for a Windows Vista zero-day exploit. The 0-day exploits have not been released in the wild but are, instead, made an integer part of the underground Internet commerce. The Proof of Concept code for an exploit affecting Microsoft’s latest operating system can cost as much as $50.000.

As far, neither the exploit nor the PoC for Windows Vista have been submitted to an independent evaluation process. In this context, the authenticity of the Windows Vista 0-day exploit has not been confirmed from any sources aside from its creators. Microsoft has, as yet, failed to issue an official comment.

Hosting Upgrade

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 22:34:20 +0000

From my inbox:

Hello!

\n After the transfer the old cPanel shall remain \n accessible for 2 more weeks with the IP address.\n \n If you have any questions or face any problems, please \n do not open a support ticket. Kindly send an email to ",1] ); //–>. You are requested not to make any changes to your site after 15 December 7 PM IST. A complete transfer is likely to take about 48 hours, mainly due to DNS propogation.Quick FAQ

Call Center

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 22:22:30 +0000

After a LONG time, here’s some humour on my blog! Check out the call center movie here.
Its really hilarious! Its about the life in call centers! Do check it out and leave comments! Its HIGHLY recommended!

Java 6 Released

Wed, 13 Dec 2006 19:12:35 +0000

Java SE 6 is the current major release of the Java SE platform. Sun endeavors to foster the highest level of transparency and collaboration on the platform with the Java community through Project JDK 6, resulting in the following key features:

Get it here.

VideoLan Client 0.8.6 Final

Mon, 11 Dec 2006 01:08:15 +0000

Building on feedback from the 29 million downloads of VLC media player 0.8.5, we bring you version 0.8.6 with many bugfixes, as well as a couple of new features we think you will truly enjoy. Most prominent are probably Windows Media Video 9 and Flash Video. Other important changes are improved H.264 decoding, better Windows Unicode support, a Fullscreen controller and Apple Remote support for Mac OS X.

Have a look here for the full list of changes.

openSUSE v10.2 Released!

Fri, 08 Dec 2006 09:23:25 +0000

The openSUSE project is a community program sponsored by Novell. Promoting the use of Linux everywhere, openSUSE.org provides free, easy access to the world’s most usable Linux distribution, openSUSE. The openSUSE project gives Linux developers and enthusiasts everything they need to get started with Linux.

The goals of the openSUSE project are:

Make openSUSE the easiest Linux distribution for anyone to obtain and the most widely used open source platform.
Provide an environment for open source collaboration that makes openSUSE the world’s best Linux distribution for new and experienced Linux users.
Dramatically simplify and open the development and packaging processes to make openSUSE the platform of choice for Linux hackers and application developers.

AV-Comparatives Nov 2006 Retrospective Test

Wed, 06 Dec 2006 09:16:33 +0000

AV-Comparatives

On this site you will find independent comparatives of Anti-Virus software. All products listed in our comparatives are already a selection of some very good anti-virus products. In order to get tested by us, companies must fulfill various conditions and minimum requirements..

The following products were used in the last comparative (with best possible settings):
Look into the online results to determine the exact version number.
Avast! Professional Edition 4.7
AVG Professional 7.1
AVIRA AntiVir Personal Edition Premium 7.01
BitDefender Professional Plus 9.5
Dr.Web for Windows 95-XP 4.33.2
ESET NOD32 Anti-Virus 2.51.26
F-Prot for Windows 3.16f
F-Secure Anti-Virus 6.12
G DATA AntiVirusKit (AVK) 16.0.7
Kaspersky Anti-Virus 6.0
McAfee VirusScan 11.0
Norman Virus Control 5.81
Symantec Norton Anti-Virus 12.2
TrustPort Antivirus Workstation 2.0
VBA32 Workstation 3.11.0

Releases..

Wed, 06 Dec 2006 09:12:04 +0000

WinRAR v3.62 (Direct Link)
Yahoo Messenger v8.1.0.209 (Direct Link)
Adobe Reader v8 (Direct Link)

A 2,100 Years Old Astronomical Computer from Ancient Greece

Thu, 30 Nov 2006 17:31:53 +0000

A 2,100-year-old clockwork machine recovered from the sea has turned out to be the celestial super-computer of the ancient Greece.

The Antikythera Mechanism has puzzled academics for more than a century after it discovery. Latest technology revealed beneath the surface of the 82 encrusted gearwheels bronze fragments a mechanism that could predict the Sun and Moon trajectories over decades and calculate a lunar anomaly that gave headaches to Isaac Newton himself.

Vista Launched at the Burj Al Arab – Dubai

Tue, 21 Nov 2006 20:31:59 +0000

The most luxurious hotel in the world was the stage where Microsoft launches Windows Vista, the Office 2007 System and Exchange Server 2007. The three Microsoft products were released with both English and Arabic language support.

â€œWindows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office system are among Microsoftâ€™s most significant product innovations, representing years of research and development,â€ said Mr. Ali Faramawy, Vice President Microsoft Europe, Middle East & Africa and Regional Vice President, Microsoft Middle East & Africa. â€œThese products will help businesses overcome the challenges of our increasingly information-saturated world, enhancing the way people collaborate, communicate, protect and manage content, and find, use and share information.â€

300GB Holographic Disc Due Next Month

Fri, 17 Nov 2006 23:16:15 +0000

Hitachi Maxell acquired InPhase Technologies in 2000 and the subsidiary has been working on the development of holographic media ever since. The present 300GB holographic disc is called Tapestry HDS-300R. The new DVD-like medium is being demonstrated this week at the International Broadcast Equipment Exhibition in Tokyo. InPhase announced the technology breakthrough in holographic storage earlier this year. The first generation of holodiscs is primarily aimed at commercial users, but InPhase plans to release consumer-grade products over the next two years, when the format should be standardized, hopefully.

Kentsfield Will Cost Less than $1200

Mon, 13 Nov 2006 22:17:28 +0000

The retail price actually varies from $1020 to $1218 with a medium value of $1167 per CPU. That may not be as cheap as you would expect but it will surely turn out cheaper than the offer coming from Dell: $1234 over an E6300 Core 2 Duo, when you choose the CPU that will be mounted onto your new PC.

Dell plays it cool since it probably has a sufficient amount of QX6700 CPUs, unlike most suppliers who are almost out when it comes to Kentsfield. A quad core with no less than 8MB of level 2 cache is not an easy thing to find in stores. And the situation can only change for the better with the arrival of another CPU from the same family. Q6600 is set to come out in January and will have the same attributes as his older brother but it will work at a lower speed (2.4GHz). The price tag will be of $851.

WinDVD v8

Wed, 08 Nov 2006 22:07:47 +0000

The world’s #1 DVD and video playback software, with over 175 million copies sold worldwide. Enjoy crystal-clear, smooth playback of your standard and High-Def video and audio. Whether you’re a movie buff, frequent flyer, or just like to watch video clips, WinDVD 8 gives you the best digital entertainment experience.

More info here.

Core 2 Duo to Reach 3GHz

Tue, 07 Nov 2006 22:09:35 +0000

Take into account that there is still a large quantity of older NetBurst CPUs represented by the 900 series and only about 20% of the sales this year INTEL has made represent Core 2 Duo products. And thereâ€™s also the problem of availability, since high priced Conroes are pretty rare. And youâ€™d better remember this if youâ€™re planning to buy a new PC on Christmas, since youâ€™ll be lucky if you catch an Allendale CPU.

New phone Nokia N70

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 21:41:48 +0000

Finally after a month of planning, i bought the Nokia N70! Im *very* happy with it! The sound quality in the headphones is simply amazing! The camera is also of amazing quality! Hopefully this phone should satisfy my appetite for another 2-3 years 🙂

Tech Specs of Nokia N70

New releases..

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 21:34:01 +0000

Two new releases this week:

Nvidia Drivers v93.71 (Official)

Adobe Acrobat v8 (Reader, Professional)

Windows Media Player 11 Final Released!

Tue, 31 Oct 2006 08:10:14 +0000

So microsoft is on a release spree! First it was Internet Explorer 7 and now WMP11. And Vista is gonna RTM this month only! Anyway find out more about WMP11 here.

Need for Speed Carbon – Demo!

Sun, 29 Oct 2006 23:55:57 +0000

Need for Speed Carbon delivers the next generation of adrenaline-filled street racing and will challenge players to face the ultimate test of driving skill on treacherous canyon roads. What starts in the city is settled in the canyons as Need for Speed Carbon immerses you into the world’s most dangerous and adrenaline-filled form of street racing. You and your crew must race in an all-out war for the city, risking everything to take over your rivals’ neighbourhoods one block at a time. As the police turn up the heat, the battle ultimately shifts to Carbon Canyon, where territories and reputations can be lost on every perilous curve. Need for Speed Carbon delivers the next generation of customization giving you the power to design and tweak your crew’s cars in every way using the ground-breaking new Autosculpt technology. Represent your car class, your crew, and your turf in Need for Speed Carbon, the next revolution in racing games.

Nero CD-DVD Speed 4.7.0.0 released!

Sun, 29 Oct 2006 23:47:58 +0000

This is a small (just in size, not in features) tool bundled with the Nero Burning Rom application. It’s used for benchmarking and doing quality scans of the burnt media. A must have IMHO.
Changes

Added Advanced Disc Quality test for certain BenQ drives
Following parameters are measured:
CD: E11,E21,E31,E12,E22,E32,BLER,Jitter
DVD: 1-5 PIE,PIE,PIF,POE,POF,Jitter
Disc Quality test:
Jitter can be reported with recent LiteOn drives
Added CLV and P-CAV settings for BenQ drives (CD scanning)

Blog hozed!

Sun, 29 Oct 2006 21:00:34 +0000

Hi everyone!

As many of you know, i was hosting my blog from Zeeblo, and it has been down since the past 4 days now! I think its gone for good. So anyways, i’ve taken hosting and a brand new domain name http://www.kalpiknigam.com from Ashish. I know i’ve lost a LOT of data due to my carelessness (was too lazy to backup). Anyway i hope now since im on a paid hosting, ill have 99.9% uptime with regular backups. Inconvenience to everyone is deeply regretted and if anyone of you finds that a link to your blog is missing from my linkroll, do notify me and ill update it ASAP.

WinRAR 3.60 Beta 3 relased

Mon, 08 May 2006 22:23:26 +0000

RAR is a general purpose archiving and compression program competing with/replacing programs such as PKZip, ARJ, and others. It offers significantly improved compression ratios, easier use and a cheaper price as well as supporting long file names, disk spanning, and self-extracting file creation.

Latest Changes:

Previous beta version could create duplicate copies of same file when updating an archived file with high ASCII characters in file name
SFX module crashed if single string length in “License” or “Text” block exceeded 4096 characters

They are recruiting software professionals. I’ve joined their mailing lists so ill keep you updated.
Get it here.

Sony Will Ship Blu-Ray Media

Mon, 08 May 2006 22:21:40 +0000

Sony Electronics announced that it had begun to ship its single-layer blank Blu-ray optical media and that it would start delivering dual-layer discs at the beginning of June. The company also confirmed the rumor saying that the manufacturer plans to equip its computers with Blu-ray disc drives.

Sony is shipping 25-GB BD media, which will retail for about $25 each disc. The 50-GB versions

It seems that, later this year, Sony will also release the internal BWU-100A drive, which will be able to handle both 25-GB and 50-GB discs, burning a full 25 GB disc in about 30 minutes. Retail pricing for the BWU-100A drive will be available later this year.

VideoLAN Player v0.8.5 released

Sun, 07 May 2006 09:54:26 +0000

VLC (initially VideoLAN Client) is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, …) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network. (business web hosting).
Release: VLC media player 0.8.5 (2006-05-066 May 2006) This new Release features many improvements, including MacIntel support, a statistic system, the support of DV inputs on Linux, improvements in the Audio CD playback (CDDB), many new and improved video filters, a new AJAX HTTP interface, Winamp 2 Skins support, a Mozilla plugin on Mac OS X (PowerPC only), a new default skin..

My New DVD Writer!

Sat, 06 May 2006 10:37:46 +0000

Just bought a brand new BenQ DW1650! Its an amazing DVD writer. Im getting a Quality Score of 97 in Nero CD/DVD Speed! Im now sooo close to fulfillment. Hope this one lasts long (unlike my Sony CRX320A 😛 ). Got an amazing deal Rs 2470/- inclusive of taxes from Mr. Anish Soni of Mass Computers Limited, 102 Manjusha, Nehru Place, Delhi. nevada corporation Now im thinking of joining some call center services to make up for the money 😛

Mozilla Firefox v1.5.0.3 released

Wed, 03 May 2006 08:21:35 +0000

The award-winning, free Web browser is better than ever. Browse the Web with confidence – Firefox protects you from viruses, spyware and pop-ups. Enjoy improvements to performance, ease of use and privacy. It’s easy to import your favorites and settings and get started. Download Firefox now and get the most out of the Web.

Firefox 1.5.0.3 is a security update that is part of our ongoing program to provide a safe Internet experience for our customers. We recommend that all users upgrade to this latest version.

Top paying keywords on adsense!

Tue, 02 May 2006 14:34:43 +0000

Here’s a list of the top paying keywords on google adsense. The prices are in Canadian dollars.

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$30.34 oregon personal injury attorney
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$29.86 pleural mesothelioma
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$28.76 massachusetts personal injury lawyers
$28.74 florida personal injury attorney
$28.67 asbestos claim
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$28.65 mortgage loans
$28.36 [mortgage financing]
$28.34 syracuse new york real estate
$28.31 los angeles attorneys
$28.17 los angeles lawyer
$28.10 new york moving companies
$27.91 individual health insurance new york
$27.82 allstate new jersey insurance
$27.81 san diego personal injury lawyer
$27.78 equity mortgage calculator
$27.74 san francisco insurance
$27.55 tampa personal injury lawyer
$27.42 lasik financing
$27.38 new york city personal injury lawyer
$27.06 term insurance
$26.90 liposuction new york
$26.76 insurance companies new jersey
$26.73 lasik kansas
$26.71 insurance companies in new jersey
$26.56 new york city personal injury lawyer
$26.39 lasik hair removal
$26.32 [w hotel san francisco]
$26.30 lasik surgery milwaukee
$26.28 lasik vision
$26.22 michigan personal injury lawyer
$26.21 equity loan information
$26.06 california personal injury attorneys
$26.01 equity mortgage rates
$25.91 equity lenders
$25.78 new york auto insurance
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$25.63 2nd mortgage loans
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$25.40 california personal injury lawyers
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$25.21 no equity loans
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$25.11 insurance
$25.02 auto insurance in new york
$24.94 california personal injury lawyer
$24.77 asbestos survey
$24.77 florida personal injury lawyer
$24.77 lasik kansas city
$24.73 refinancing a mortgage
$24.72 new york city personal injury lawyer
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$24.56 mortgage companies
$24.50 lasik oregon
$24.49 lasik boston
$24.33 new york state car insurance
$24.32 san jose lasik
$24.23 asbestos lung cancer
$24.05 [countrywide mortgage]
$24.02 low mortgage rate
$23.96 lasik cincinnati
$23.92 lasik san francisco
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$23.70 allstate insurance
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$23.63 asbestos lung
$23.51 renterâ€™s insurance new york
$23.47 abatement technologies
$23.37 mesothelioma law
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$22.89 life insurance
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$22.85 mesothelioma lawyer texas
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$22.81 dallas personal injury lawyer
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$22.66 invisalign
$22.56 mortgage rate quote
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$22.35 chicago lasik
$22.34 texas homeowners insurance
$22.27 california mortgage rates
$22.26 [homeownerâ€™s insurance]
$22.15 lasik center
$22.02 asbestos lawsuit
$21.97 pericardial mesothelioma
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$21.93 boston personal injury attorney
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$21.80 low cost health insurance new york
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$21.71 lasik eye surgury
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$21.48 lasik surgury
$21.48 mesothelioma settlement
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$21.30 [house insurance]
$21.28 lasik doctor
$21.27 mesothelioma memorial scholarship
$21.27 utah personal injury attorney
$21.20 los angeles asbestos
$21.17 dallas personal injury attorney
$21.10 laser eye surgery
$20.95 homeowners insurance new jersey
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$20.72 lasik surgery
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$20.61 san francisco party bus
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$20.54 utah mortgage
$20.52 homeowners insurance new york
$20.46 [mortgage lenders]
$20.32 mortgage rate comparison
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$20.27 lasik eye surgery washington
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$20.17 wavefront lasik
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$19.91 connecticut mortgage rates
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answering service

Source

Free Download Manager v2.0 build 423 released

Tue, 02 May 2006 12:07:25 +0000

Here’s the best FREE download manager. This is the download manager of my choice. It has every feature of paid counterparts and more..

Free Download Manager (FDM) is a full-featured download accelerator and manager. It is absolutely free! Using this software product you can easily download a list of files and whole web sites from any remote server via HTTP, HTTPS and FTP. With FDM the downloading process will be as easy as never before!

100 Amazing Facts!

Mon, 01 May 2006 09:52:45 +0000

1. The speed of light is generally rounded down to 186,000 miles per second. In exact terms it is 299,792,458 m/s (metres per second – that is equal to 186,287.49 miles per second).

2. It takes 8 minutes 17 seconds for light to travel from the Sun’s surface to the Earth.

3. October 12th, 1999 was declared “The Day of Six Billion” based on United Nations projections.

4. 10 percent of all human beings ever born are alive at this very moment.

KAV/KIS v6.0.1.309 beta released

Sun, 30 Apr 2006 22:56:39 +0000

Seems to be a fixed build.

Changelog:

Build [309]:
Kaspersky Anti-Virus 6.0
09069 ODS: “Run task if skipped” option sometimes work incorrectly
10000 ODS: Missing an alert “Active Threat Found” if the product started from a network share
10118 Crashes upon first product startup, on build 308

Kaspersky Anti-Virus 6.0 FS
06626 Trusted Proc: Proccesses added from a different computer are not properly trusted

Build [308]:
New:
1. Settings for ABS on all tasks for ODS (On Demand Scanner)
2. Setting “don’t display icon in the main window”
3. Support tab is now customizable via the Admin Kit
4. Wizard for On Demand scan task creation

Making Winamp sound better

Sun, 30 Apr 2006 16:28:05 +0000

Though Winamp has by default a very good mp3 decoder, it lacks many features such as replaygain, resampling, higher bit-depths, etc. Here is where the mpeg123 input plugin by Otachan comes in. This plugin is considered to be the best decoder for mp3 so far. The sound quality is crystal clear. The main plus point is that it supports ReplayGain. ReplayGain is used to make the volume of all audio files equal. I recommend MP3Gain to analyse your MP3 collection. MP3Gain will store the ReplayGain information into the ID3 tag.

85% of the Internet Could be Destroyed

Sat, 29 Apr 2006 22:02:23 +0000

The Internet is extremely vulnerable because of the chain of dependencies between the computers that hold different parts of net addresses. As a result, this main characteristic of the so called web could lead to several hacker attacks, it is said in a study of the Department of Computer Science at Cornell University.

It seems that all simple attacks combined could lead to the take-over of 85% of the Internet, because of the huge number of computers that have to be consulted in order to trace the exact location of a web site.

Moving Servers

Sat, 29 Apr 2006 21:27:08 +0000

Hi!

I’ve moved to a new server and a new domain name 😛 Couldn’t post all day because of the shifting. Sorry! Now this will be my permanent home. Please update your bookmarks to http://www.kalpik.co.nr

Semester Exams Here!

Fri, 28 Apr 2006 16:21:34 +0000

Datesheet for my 6th Semester exams has been released today. Now i got to be DEAD serious about studies 😛 Exams start 16th May, and end on 26th May. Wish me luck 😛

KGB Archiver

Fri, 28 Apr 2006 15:51:52 +0000

KGB Archiver is the compression tool with unbelievable high compression rate. It surpasses even such efficient compression tool like 7zip and UHARC in terms of the abilities. Unfortunately although its powerful compression rate, it has high hardware requirements (I recommend processor with 1,5GHz clock and 256MB of RAM as an essential minimum). One of the advantages of KGB Archiver is also AES-256 encryption which is used to encrypt the archives. This is one of the strongest encryptions known for human.

Bit Comet v0.66

Fri, 28 Apr 2006 06:03:35 +0000

BitComet is a p2p file-sharing freeware fully compatible with Bittorrent, which is one of the most popular p2p protocol designed for high-speed distribution of 100MB or GB sized files. BitComet is a powerful, clean, fast, and easy-to-use bittorrent client. It supports simultaneous downloads, download queue, selected downloads in torrent package, fast-resume, chatting, disk cache, speed limits, port mapping, proxy, ip-filter, etc.

Changelog:

v0.66 2006.4.27

Core Improved: more program run-time error can be detected by the crash report
Core Bugfix: fix the bug that the sometimes program will crash when display chat message

Avoiding “FORMAT C:”

Fri, 28 Apr 2006 01:57:58 +0000

This is the worst nightmare for any of us. Having to Format and re-install windows. And no matter how careful you are with installing software, a time comes when some software does not uninstall properly, or messes up your system, or even a virus attacks windows! There are many cases where Formatting is the only option left. Formatting the PC takes at least around 2 hours to get back everything to normal working conditions, as in re-installing all software, setting them up, just the way you like it. But here, im gonna tell you a trick which does all that within 5 minutes! Interested? Read on! We will use disk imaging to create an image of our windows partition. But its just not that! The key is to create a good image, and keep it organised. A list of software we would need:

Nero v7.2.0.3b released

Fri, 28 Apr 2006 00:43:30 +0000

Ah! Another release! Now i gotta download it again 😛 Still, NO official changelog!

Get it here.

Google unleashes new tool!

Thu, 27 Apr 2006 16:20:21 +0000

Hmm.. Google is one company which is known for innovation and uniqueness in their software.. The latest offering from the Google stable is Google SketchUp! Google SketchUp is an easy-to-learn 3D modeling program that enables you to explore the world in 3D. With just a few simple tools, you can create 3D models of houses, sheds, decks, home additions, woodworking projects – even space ships. And once you’ve built your models, you can place them in Google Earth, post them to the 3D Warehouse, or print hard copies. Google SketchUp is free for personal use. No registration is required.

New P2P Virus

Thu, 27 Apr 2006 15:26:14 +0000

Win32.Polipos

SYMPTOMS:

Size of executable increases with about 60-70 KB.
There could be detected unusual network activity.
Suspect activity for the running processes (searching and modifying executable files).

TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION:
Win32.Polipos.A is a dangerous, polymorphic file infector, with a worm-like spreading capability. It’s targets are EXE and SCR files.

It is a memory-resident virus, because once executed, it injects code in the running processes. The first files it infects are those located in %ProgramFiles% and %WINDIR% directories. But it hooks imported functions for the infected proceses, so that all executables accessed by those processes will be infected.

Nero v7.2.0.3 released

Thu, 27 Apr 2006 14:13:21 +0000

A new version of nero has been released. Version number has gone up from 7.0.8.2 to 7.2.0.3. Seems to be a major update. No official changelog as of yet though. I didnt find *much* difference as usual 😛

Get the update here.

Michal Zalewski Announces A New Bug for Internet Explorer

Thu, 27 Apr 2006 10:08:32 +0000

Michal Zalewski, the researcher who announced in March an Internet Explorer vulnerability whose exploitation could crash the browser, has some news for Microsoft and the companyâ€™s security experts wonâ€™t be too pleased with them.

The bug comes not long after Microsoft plugged numerous security holes with the April patches.

Secunia has rated the bug as being â€œhighly criticalâ€ (the last but one alert level used by the security company) and has warned that its successful exploitation could compromise a system.

New Bluetooth Virus

Thu, 27 Apr 2006 10:03:59 +0000

A newly detected mobile phone virus is charging mobile phone users $5 to send a premium rate SMS message, security experts warned today at Infosec Europe 2006.
F-Secure explained that this type of attack had been reengineered to make money illegally from mobile phone users.

F-Secure warned that users are still leaving their mobile devices and laptops open to attack by using unsecured Bluetooth connections, despite the company’s warnings at trade shows such as CeBIT.

Yahoo Messenger v7.5.0.811

Thu, 27 Apr 2006 09:58:37 +0000

The much awaited yahoo messenger v7.5 is finally out of beta! Grab it here!

Online Malware Scan

Thu, 27 Apr 2006 09:53:30 +0000

Just thought i’d let you know about this site, http://virusscan.jotti.org. Its a site using multiple anti-virus scan engines (15, as of yet, new engines being added regularly!) to scan files uploaded by users from across the globe. If you are suspicious of some file, and you think your current anti-virus is not detecting it, you can upload it to this site to get a second review on it! Basically, i just love it for the live stats it provides. The stats update every minute or so, depending on the activity on the site. Great effort Mr Jotti!

Birthdays and Characteristics!

Thu, 27 Apr 2006 09:39:06 +0000

January 01-10 ~ Dog
January 10-24 ~ Mouse
January 25-31 ~ Lion
February 01-05 ~ Cat
February 06-14 ~ Dove
February 15-21 ~ Turtle
February 22-28 ~ Panther
March 01-12 ~ Monkey
March 13-15 ~ Lion
March 16-23 ~ Mouse
March 24-31 ~ Cat
April 01-03 ~ Dog
April 04-14 ~ Panther
April 15-26 ~ Mouse
April 27-30 ~ Turtle
May 01-13 ~ Monkey
May 14-21 ~ Dove
May 22-31 ~ Lion
June 01-03 ~ Mouse
June 04-14 ~ Turtle
June 15-20 ~ Dog
June 21-24 ~ Monkey
June 25-30 ~ Cat
July 01-09 ~ Mouse
July 10-15 ~ Dog
July 16-26 ~ Dove
July 27-31 ~ Cat
August 01-15 ~ Monkey
August 16-25 ~ Mouse
August 26-31 ~ Turtle
September 01-14 ~ Dove
September 15-27 ~ Cat
September 28-30 ~ Dog
October 01-15 ~ Monkey
October 16-27 ~ Turtle
October 28-31 ~ Panther
November 01-16 ~ Lion
November 17-30 ~ Cat
December 01-16 ~ Dog
December 17-25 ~ Monkey
December 26-31 ~ Dove

KIS/KAV Beta v6.0.1.307 released

Thu, 27 Apr 2006 09:20:30 +0000

Changelog:

Build [307] Resolved:

Kaspersky Anti-Virus 6.0 FS
06273 Missing functionality for server connection for the user
08884 Events: Incorrect event type
Feature Corrected locking when modules load
Feature Exceptions around AV signatures code are removed for diagnostics

Build [306] Resolved:

Anti-Virus 6.0
04777 ODS: Progress bar is not correct for “StartUp” object scan
09039 Crashes when working Quarantine files
09399 ODS: Delayed cure is reported as “Logical sector” and not as “File”
09851 GUI: Incorrect protection status reporting in SecurityCenter
09932 Exceptions are broken in Trusted Zone
09941 ODS, GUI: Alert “Active Threat” is not coming up again
09954 OAS: WIN98 File-Antivirus does not start
09958 GUI: From OAS a tab with new settings is missing
09965 GUI: Unloading KAV from OAS, schedulling settings are not remembered

My Rig

Thu, 27 Apr 2006 05:55:56 +0000

So.. Here’s my PC configuration..

AMD Athlon64 2800+ (754 pin)
MSI K8NM (nForce3 250) Motherboard
1GB DDR400 Kingston RAM (Timings: 2.5-3-3-7)
Nvidia FX5700LE Graphics Card with 128MB RAM (Gainward)
Maxtor 120GB 7,200 RPM SATA-1 Hard Disk
BenQ DW1650 DVD Re-Writer
Sony CRX-320E DVD Combo Drive
ViewSonic E70f 17″ True Flat CRT
350W SMPS (Mercury)
Samsung Multimedia Keyboard
Samsung Optical Mouse (800 dpi)
3,600W (PMPO) home theatre system
5.1 Audio on-board
Airtel 128kbps *unlimited* connection
APC 500VA UPS
24 hour power backup via 2.5KVA Genset 😛