Disable Thunderbird 3.0 Global Seach and Indexer if you are already using Google Desktop search

Last week I have installed Thunderbird 3.0 and found that its memory foot print is way high than its previous version. After digging I figured out that the reason for this high memory foot print is because of the new auto indexing and global search features packaged with thunderbird 3.0. I have disabled that option and found that the memory foot print used by Thunderbird 3.0 is same as its previous version.

I suggest you not to use this feature in Thunderbird 3.0 unless you have some other global search options like Google Desktop search. Actually I recommend all to use Google desktop search for any kind of search options on the disk. When you are installing Google desktop search application be careful and do not select any option which may give Google  your  personal information and search details.

How to stop indexer in Thunderbird 3.0

Thunderbird 3.0 comes with a very nice and powerful global search functionality. For this when you fist start the thunderbird 3.0 after installation, it will try to index all the messages in your your inbox and folders, which will kill your machine and stop you from doing anything else on your machine. If you want to stop that and only want to run the indexer only when you are away from machine  then you can disable the indexing task by going to Tools-> Options..->Advanced-> Uncheck the box "Enable Global Search and Indexer", which will stop the indexing and global search functionality. Note that once the complete initial indexing is done, you don't have to disable this option as the thunderbird 3.0 just does the incremental indexing when ever there is a new mail.

Thunderbird 3.0 released

Long wait if over and the new version looks great and works great. Few things I notices after I started working on this

1) The UI and tabbed interface is much better than what I have anticipated.
2) The feature like "Show in conversation" you get as part "other actions" in message body is pretty good and at least very useful form me.
3) Search is pretty good and it has an option to search with in the body of the message, for which now I depend on google desktop search. But the indexing task of existing mails literally killing my laptop as the memory used by Thunderbird reaching 200 MB and there is no option to pause or stop indexing :(
4)  One thing I didn't like at all is there is no lightening add-on available for Thunderbird 3, now I am forced to use the nightly build. I really hate to use these nightly builds. But one good thing is the nightly build UI looks good and some how feel its faster than 0.9 version but takes too much memory, can't blame its after all a development build.
5) Thunderbird 2.0 tags and filters still work in Thunderbird 3.0 and that's a good new for me.
6) When indexing is running Thunderbird  3 is taking around 90 MB of main memory(RAM) which in my opinion is not good and hoping to see some fix in next releases.
7)Delete functionality still needs some improvements as I am still ending up with hung session when ever I try to delete more than 100 mails in single go.

Connecting two PCs with out switch or router

One easy way of doing this is by connecting two PCs using a Ethernet Cross over cable. I got this cable for 35(1 meter in length) from a local computer hardware shop. After connecting the two PCs change the network connection settings as given below

In the properties of TCP/IP portal
For the first PC give IP details as 10.1.1.1 and sub-net as default 255.255.255.0
For the second PC give IP details as 10.1.1.2 and sub-net as default 255.255.255.0

Wait for couple of minutes then try to ping second machine "ping 10.1.1.2", the ping should be successful.

Google Timeline

A nice video in YouTube about google's advancement from a search engine.

Create a single feed from multiple feeds

This is great online utility to combine multiple feeds into a single feed. When you do this you will get a URL which you can use to anywhere to show the feeds of your sites in a single place. Also you can get HTML case which you can get anywhere in a page to show the feeds. This is very cool you can try this by going to the URL

 

http://feedmingle.com/

 

I combining my blog and site feeds into a single feed. Try this

http://feedmingle.com/mingle/6940

 

Another cool thing is that, you will get the combined feed in three formats RSS, ATOM and JSON, which I think very cool.

A Visual Guide to Computer Cables and Connectors - Identify The Right Cable Easily

A Visual Guide to Computer Cables and Connectors

Computer cables can be confusing so here’s a quick visual guide that will help you quickly identify almost every cable that came bundled with your computer and other electronic gadgets. You may also refer to this guide for ideas on how to hook different devices using commonly available connectors and converters.

This article appeared on Digital Inspiration blog. It has lot of information related to

• USB Cables and Connectors
• Audio Cables and Connectors
• Video Cables
• Audio and Video Cables
• Data Cables
• Networking Related Cables

You can find the complete article on this link.

Live Writerfox :: Add-ons for Firefox

This is a nice add-on for firefox to post blog with the help of MS Live Writer. Check the below given link to get the add-on. At present this add-on only supports firefox 3.0 to make it work with 3.5 check this post on IndianHippy.

 

Live Writerfox :: Add-ons for Firefox

How to convert graphic files from one format to another format?

The common requirement for any graphics designer is to change file format from one to another with out loosing quality or effects got in the original format. There is freeware called XnView to do this same task very efficiently. This tool allows you to do the following tasks with minimum effort.

Import about 400 graphic file formats

Export about 50 graphic file formats

Multipage TIFF, Animated GIF, Animated ICO support

Image IPTC, EXIF metadata support

EXIF auto rotation support

IPTC editing

Resize, rotate, crop support

Lossless rotate & crop (jpeg) support

Adjust brightness, contrast...

Auto levels, contrast

Modify number of colors

Apply filters (blur, average, emboss, ...)

Apply effects (lens, wave, ...)

Fullscreen mode

Slide show with effects

Batch convert, batch rename

Create WEB page easily

Screen capture

Create contact Sheet

Create or edit Multi-page file (TIFF, DCX, LDF)

TWAIN & WIA support (Windows only)

Print support (Windows only)

Drag & Drop support (Windows only)

Compare image side by side

Filmstrip layout You can download the tool from here. Few screenshots from the official site.

Wishlist for Google chrome

This is my wishlist for google chrome next versions

 

1) In built support for RSS feeds and ATOM feeds

2) Proper XML and XSL viewing support

3) Full support for viewing the office documents

4) AdBlock support

5) Improved javascript debugging and error messages display(like in firefox)

6) Built in form fill wizard like in opera.

7) Built in google mail alerts.

8 ) Minimal image editing capabilities

9) Allow more customization options for the “New tab” page.

10) Not but the least add-on support.

Windows XP users cannot upgrade to Windows 7

Microsoft revealed the upgrade path of Windows 7 operating system

Windows XP and below users are out of luck. You must have Windows Vista SP1 or newer to upgrade to Windows 7.

You can't upgrade to Windows 7 from Windows Vista Starter Edition.

If you're upgrading from Windows Vista, you must upgrade to one of the standard Windows 7 SKUs (meaning you can't upgrade to Windows N, Windows K, Windows KN, or Windows E.)

Windows Vista's "Business" SKU is now called "Professional" in Windows 7. Don't be alarmed when you can't find Windows 7 "Business" on the shelves.

Also Microsfot revealed minimum requirement details

• 1 GHz processor (32- or 64-bit)
• 1 GB of RAM (32-bit); 2 GB of RAM (64-bit)
• 16 GB of available disk space (32-bit); 20 GB of available disk space (64-bit)
• DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver

Below is the table showing how windows growing on its requirements from version to version

Firefox 4.0 mockup just looks like Chrome

Mozilla released firefox 4.0 at first glance I felt it exactly looks the way google chrome looks. Below are the few images given in Mozilla wiki. The other feature mentioned in the WIKI is about combo stop/refresh/go button which comes at the end of the address bar.

 

Audio file formats explained

Recently I found this very nice article in MakeUseOf.com, I am pasting the same below

Almost everyone is familiar with the most commonly used file formats – for music, mp3 and wmv, for video, avi and mpeg, and for images, jpeg and gif. Unfortunately, these common formats are not the only ones we run into on a daily basis. On any given day, we are likely to also see .flv on Youtube or .pdf while opening documents.

It seems as though there is an unending list of file formats that accomplish the same task – saving a bunch of data. What is the purpose of the existence of these seperate formats, and why do they extend the list of available formats to “Save As…“? Is there any real difference between which extension a particular file is saved as, as long as it’s appropriate for the media being saved? Why, why, why do they plague me with their endless resistance to conversion?

The list of questions could go on, pretty much for the length of this article, but I believe I should provide some answers, since the questions are probably what led you here in the first place. So here goes nothing – a guide to the inner workings of the common, but still unusual file formats.

Technical Jargon:

File Format: a specific way to encode data that is to be saved as a file. Please note that the file format does no encoding on its own – the encoding is left up to the codecs.Codec: a program/algorithm that encodes/decodes data to convert a file between different formats. The popular media codecs are generally for shrinking file size. Laurence did a post on codecs last year.

Lossy Codec: refers to a codec that sacrifices file quality for the sake of compression.

Lossless Codec: does not destroy any data, regardless of whether or not the data is necessary for the file’s integrity.

Metadata: information about the file that is stored within the file itself – for example, when a picture was taken and what type of camera it was taken with, or the artist of an audio track. Karl has done a post on how to remove metadata from photos.

Container: a file format that concerns itself more with how data is stored, and not necessarily coded.

Bitrate: the number of bits processed per second. To put things into perspective, mp3’s generally have a bitrate of 128 kbit/s, while CD’s generally have bitrates of around 1.4 Mbit/s.

VBR/CBR: the difference between variable bitrate and constant bit rate is just that – VBR uses a higher bitrate to encode (and thus, allocates more space to)  more complex parts of the audio file.

Audio File Formats Explained

.aiff /.wav

.aiff /.wav – These are both uncompressed, lossless formats, which means it takes about 10MB to save a minute’s worth of music. aiff was developed for Apple’s OSX, and wav for PCs, although both formats are compatible with both operating systems.

Since wav is the native file format for store bought audio CD’s, it is also the format preferred by PC wielding audiophiles; mac users generally rip CD’s into the aiff file format. There are codecs like FLAC and WavPack that will compress .aiff and .wav files, although the resulting file will still be huge compared to the ubiquitous mp3 format. Simple Help has a great tutorial about playing .flac files in iTunes here; it is for Mac OSX users only.

.aac

.aac – Apple’s default audio format, AAC is a lossy compression scheme that was developed to replace mp3, but never achieved the prominence that mp3 has with listeners. Some argue that AAC produces the same quality audio at 96 kbits/s as a mp3 does at 128 kbit/s, but with the recent developments in mp3 codecs (particularly LAME), mp3s have performed far better in listening tests against AAC than in previous years. Nevertheless, when it comes to a sound quality to file size ratio, AAC beats MP3.

.ogg

.ogg – Vorbis, which is the name of Ogg’s audio format, is an open source lossy compression format that is favored by developers of free software for its patent-free nature. Despite its claims of being able to produce better sounding music at smaller file sizes, Vorbis is not widely used because of its slow encoding time and the lack of native support from popular music players such as iTunes and Winamp.

However, many video game makers and programmers have begun using Vorbis because it is open source, and thus does not demand licensing fees like mp3 and aac do. If you are interested in testing the sound quality of Vorbis yourself, try the aoTuV modification of Vorbis and install the XiphQT plugin for iTunes.

Conclusion :

If you’re willing to sacrifice the storage space, and have ears sensitive enough to tell the difference between a CD and a ripped track, go with .wav or .aiff. Otherwise, .aac and .mp3 encoded at bitrates above 256 kbit/s are indistinguishable from CDs for the average person.

Vorbis performs the best at low bitrates around 64 kbit/s, whereas the LAME encoder for MP3 performs better at higher bitrates. Regarding VBR and CBR, the general rule of thumb is that VBR will produce better sound quality at a lower file size than CBR can.

Ultimately, it is up to your own ear to determine which codec to use, and which format is best for you. Perhaps you’d like to perform your own listening test, to determine how picky your ear is. If so, try WinABX, which is a program that performs double blind listening tests. When you finally decide which format and bitrate is optimal for you, get yourself a codec pack, and convert your music with the multitude of audio converters that are out there.

Not to ignite a flame war, but which format/codec/bitrate do you use? Do you think AAC or Vorbis will ever gain the type of popularity that MP3 has right now? Leave your opinion in the comments, and stay tuned for Part 2: Video!

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

Apple.. we want a E-book reader

First it was mac then IPod and then iPhone. With every new product Apple revolutionized the entire industry. May be now its time to bring Apple Electronic book reader. Existing products like Amazon Kindle, and Sony Digital reader. Recently there was some news about the same. Hope we will soon see a apple e-book reader soon.

Firefox 3.5.1 is out

I just updated my firefox version from 3.5 to 3.5.1 hope fully this fixes the crashes I am seeing.

Firefox 3.5.1 fixes the following issues:

• Several security issues.
• Several stability issues.
• An issue that was making Firefox take a long time to load on some Windows systems.

Solution for firefox 3.5 crashes

The suggested solution is creating a new profile. Because while updating firefox to 3.5 there is a possibility of corrupting the existing profiles. If your next question is how create a new firefox profile please read on.

Execute to this command in run box firefox –P.

The command will show you a box like this here you can create a new profile. After creating new profile you can migrate configuration from old profile to new profile. 

Google going to launch Chrome OS

Today google officially declared that its going to launch and new light weight and open source operating system with the name Chrome OS. First they are targeting this OS for notebooks.  The code is going to be available to all in the later part of this year and you can buy a notebook with chrome OS in the second part of 2010. As per the Google official blog, they redesigned and reinvented the OS concepts with this and they are providing minimal functionality and lots of security with this OS. The goal of this OS is just provide a platform to run your machine and connect to internet, everything else you can do it on web. So lets wait and see :)

Gmail exits beta

Good news is that gmail, google docs and calendar are no more betas, today google remove beta tag from the logo. Though we don’t get something new because of this. Just something to feel happy.

Open Web Tools Directory

Via: Mozilla Labs

There are an immense number of tools that have been created to help web developers. Unfortunately, you might never know this; there’s no central index of these tools. It turns out that keeping up with all the development in this space is really difficult–even for folks like us who have been tracking it every day for years.

As we’ve explored different tools we could create here as part of the Developer Tools Lab, we’ve come to the opinion that in addition to creating new tools, one of the best things we could do is help developers understand the broad universe of tools that already exist and expose some of the fantastic and amazing work that’s being done.

We’re launching today a first step in this direction: an Open Web Tools Directory.

(Note: a modern browser with canvas is required to view this, like Firefox 3.5, Safari 4, Chrome 2, or Opera 9).

We went with a “space” theme to emphasize the sheer size of the tool ecosystem (though at the moment we only have a small fraction of the tools available listed). And, frankly, we just couldn’t do another table-based master/detail database application; we wanted a directory that would be fun to use (and perhaps a bit of fun to create as well).

So where do we go from here?

First, we’re putting out a call for folks to tell us about their tools. We’ve prepared a data entry form for you to use to submit a tool; please, help us fill up the directory with the hundreds or thousands of items we’ve missed! Your entries won’t go live immediately, but we’ll review them on a regular basis and get them added.

Second, let us know what features you’d most like in the directory. We’re exploring a few different concepts for how to display the entries in the directory. Here’s one of our ideas to add more detail to what we display about each entry:

We’re also exploring concepts for adding social participation features, like ranking the tools and commenting on them (though we’d like to have a good solution to astroturfing in place before rolling them out).

We also want to make searching the tools better. Right now, the search box at the bottom of the screen searches over all text fields and you can limit the directory to broad categories of tools, like “Debug”-related tools:

Finally, we’d like to make an accessible version of the directory, both for browsers without canvas support and for screen reader support. What should this accessible version be like?

We’re looking forward to evolving the directory and working with the web community to make it a vibrant resource for discovering and tracking the web’s amazing tools universe.

What do you think?

– Ben Galbraith, on behalf of the Developer Tools team

Sorry firefox I am leaving you for Chrome

I am a big big fan of firefox and I learned to write add-ons and created few of them. I was very very happy with you and every time you come-up with something new I tried be first in line to have it on my home and office machines. I used to hate IE and mock people who uses it. But after updating my firefox to 3.5, everything changed at the first look I loved you 3.5 as usual but after few hours I realized that I made a huge mistake by upgrading you to 3.5. The only reason you crashed so often and badly that I started feeling like why I am using you anymore. So I choose chrome and at times IE 8 at my work and home instead of you. I hate to say but I am sorry firfox I am leaving you.

Search Result Categorizer

I am creating a java swing based application, which categorizes the search results based on the user requirement and input. Check the screenshots below

In the below given screenshot the search string is java and I wanted get the first 200 results from google. In the second panel I have given java.com and sun.com,  also selected Only in domain. The meaning of this is I am searching google for java and getting 200 results and want to categorize these results bases on strings given that too only when when the given strings are in domain of the search results.

In the below given screen the search results are categorized based on the string values we have given in the above screen.

This application is still under development and I am hoping to finish it next few weeks and make available to you all. Any suggestions or feedback is most welcome.

Firefox 3.5 crashes

Today I have updated my firefox to 3.5 and was very happy with the new look and the page rendering speed. But to my surprise it crashed couple of time when I tried to open some web page embedded java applets. In the recent past I have not had any crashes with the last stable version of firefox. Not sure if these crashes are something to do with my machine or some issues with firefox new version.

Best Firefox add-on to take webpage screenshots

Today found this very interesting firefox add-on, which allows you to take the screenshots of the webpage just by clicking on a firefox menu item. Not only that you can also edit the screenshot with in firefox, this is the very good part of this add-on. Below is the sample I have created using this add-on. You can get this add-on by going to http://aviary.com/install/firefox. 

Its must have firefox add-on.

Google Chrome has problem with displaying orkut

Today I have observed that google chrome fails to show some pages in the orkut, its not showing me the details of the users who has subscribed to my communities to approve or reject. Below is the screenshot. Strange that google has not fixed their own websites to make them compatible with chrome.

 

Firefox 3.5 releasing on June 30th

Looks like its all set to release firefox 3.5 on June 30th. I guess they are just going to remove RC label from the last release candidate. So get ready to update your firefox.

Now google allows transliteration on any website

Now google launched a new transliteration bookmarklet which allows users to type in any language. If you have added this bookmarklet to your browser, then you can directly type in telugu, hindi, arabic etc languages directly in the web pages text fields, no need to use any customizaed editors or websites.

If you want to try, go and find how to use this bookmarklet

 

http://t13n.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/blet/docs/help_te.html#StoreFF

How Google voice works

 

Google voice is still beta and access by invitation. You can request for an invitation by going to https://services.google.com/fb/forms/googlevoiceinvite/

Choose what you want in future Firefox

Not sure if you know this summer Mozilla foundation invited people to submit concept ideas to redesign the browser tabs. Now the last date of these submissions is done, there are total 120 concepts were submitted and you and me can go and check also we can vote for the concept we like. So go ahead and choose want you want in your future firefox. Then what are you waiting for, go and vote.

 

Vote now!

Each firefox tab as a process

The thing I love about Google chrome is, its capability to have a separate process for each tab we open. Simply saying we are starting a new process every time we open a new tab, but still able to manage them all as part of a single window. I heard even IE 8 has the same feature, I tried IE8, but rolled back to IE7 as lots of sites does not support IE 8 yet. Now the news is that even firefox is taking the same path and planning to create a new process for every new tab user opens in a window. This feature is not going to be there in the 3.5 which is due to release in few days(RC2 just got released).

 

[via Mozilla Links]

Miranda 0.8.0 IM released

As a regular user of pidgin and digsby for connecting to yahoo, gtalk and jabber. I am not very impressed with this IM client, but considering its small size and small memory foot print (it takes less than 10 MB, where as pidgin is taking 23 MB. Sorry I digsby you are not in this race), its not that bad either. You can download and try the latest version from FileHippo.

GMail improves contact list

At last Google gave a big boost to Gmail contact list by allowing users to group contacts and easily view and edit contact details. Considering the old contact management process, this is a big boost below is a sample screenshot.

 

Removing duplicate entries in an array

Below is the java code written to remove duplicate items from an array

 

import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.HashSet;
import java.util.List;
public class Simple {
public static void main(String args[]){
     String arrayAsStr="IndianHippy,IndianHippy1,IndianHippy2,IndianHippy1,IndianHippy2,IndianHippy3,IndianHippy";
     String str[]=arrayAsStr.split(",");
     Arrays.sort(str);
     HashSet hs=new HashSet();
     for(int i=0;i<str.length;i++)
     {
             hs.add(str[i]);
     }
     String arraystr1[]=(String[])hs.toArray(new String[hs.size()]);
     String updatedArrayAsStr="";
     for(int i=0;i<arraystr1.length;i++)
     {
         if(updatedArrayAsStr.equals(""))
             updatedArrayAsStr=arraystr1[i];
         else
             updatedArrayAsStr=updatedArrayAsStr+","+arraystr1[i];
     }
    System.out.println(updatedArrayAsStr);
}
}

Google Transliteration as Firefox toolbar

This new firefox add-on, which brings Google Indic Transliteration to firefox as toolbar. With this add-on, users can type in different indic languages directly on the toolbar with out any need for going to any website. Also users can use the typed indic text to searching google and use it for any other purpose. Now this add-on is added to mozilla add-on sand box and waiting for reviews. You can download try this add-on the below given add-on collection page.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/collection/indianhippy_s

 

or download from this website http://indianhippy.com/downloads/IndicGoogleTransliteration.xpi.

 

Your comments and feedback is most welcome :)

New in Gmail Labs: Multiple Inboxes

I’m seriously into filters and labels. All the email I get related to Flash goes under my 'flash' label, everything about paragliding goes under flying, and they all skip my inbox because that's how I like to stay organized. But when new email arrives I have to switch to the 'flash' label first, then click on paragliding, etc. I wanted a way to see it all at once. So when I heard about Gmail Labs, I started implementing a Labs feature in my 20% time that would help me (and you!) spend less time monitoring important messages that may end up getting filtered away. Starting today, you can try Multiple Inboxes, a Labs experiment which makes it possible to have more than one "inbox" in your default Gmail view.An image is worth a thousand words, so here's what my inbox looks like:

In addition to a quick view of my important labels, I also like to keep all my starred and draft messages in separate panels. After you turn on Multiple Inboxes from the Labs tab under Settings, you can configure what you want to see, as well as set the number of messages displayed and the positioning of your panels from the Multiple Inboxes section under Settings. However you choose to use it, let us know how we can improve the Multiple Inboxes experiment -- all feedback is welcome.

Newzie Newsreader : To watch Feeds and Feedless Pages

I am using RssOwl as my RSS feed aggregate and I likeed it better than Google Reader and Thunderbird, which I had used before choosing RSSOwl. Recently I come across this new free RSS aggregator Newzie with download size of 2.26 MB and easy to install and takes around 26 MB of your RAM(Main memory to run) almost double the space taken by RSSOwl. Below are the some intresting features I found.Newzie is more than a simple news aggregator. It offers different ways of monitoring things; it presents retrieved content in different shapes; it enables you to reach desired content fast. And all these interactions happen thru an exclusive user interface that you haven't tasted yet in any other software application. Lets go thru some of the features coming with Newzie.

Monitor Webpages Virtual Channels Word Watchdogs Bulk Channels HTML-based Reporting News Bar & Popup Notifier Highlights News Slideshow On-Fly Subscription Filtering Search inside Retrieved Content Post Sweeper & Automated Maintenance Tabbed Windows Color Coding Priority Levels Statistics

[Link]

Melt Mail: Quick and Disposable E-Mail service

Melt Mail is a free email forwarding service that creates a temporary email address that forwards all incoming mail to your real email address. To use it, just enter the email address you want messages forwarded to, select how long you want it to work, then hit Create. If you want to register into some spam likely sites, then go for it.

[via Link]

[Link]

Foxit Reader 3.0 released

Foxit reader is an alternative PDF reader, which very light weight and takes less than half of the memory foot print taken by Adobe PDF Reader. This latest version allows users to open the PDF files directly in Firefox the same way Adobe reader plug-in opens.

[Link]

Lunascape - The 3-in-1 web browser

Lunascape is a web browser and the first one to use three different rendering engines, Trident (used by Internet Explorer), Gecko (used by Firefox) and Webkit (used by Google Chrome and Safari). The latest alpha release of the browser allows the user to switch between any of these engines during browsing. So instead of juggling between different browsers, in case some of the websites don't work with your preferred browser, you can use Lunascape.Lunascape has the looks of IE but with extra buttons thrown everywhere giving it a cluttered look. Nonetheless, feature wise it looks pretty good. There are plenty of features which you would expect in any modern browser. Some of the extra stuff that I noticed are a screenshot utility, bookmarklets and scripts. The bookmarklets are quite interesting. There are tons of them that can be used to perform tasks like showing passwords behind asterix, highlighting links, viewing HTTP headers, zooming into images, disabling CSS or DIVs and a bunch of other geeky stuff. The status bar gives quick access to certain controls like disabling videos, JavaScript, working offline etc. Lunascape also supports addons and skins.I think the ability to use Gecko or Webkit engines while having the familiar IE feel is a good plus point. Users who aren�t able to let go IE should give this one a try.

[Link]

Best Desktop based RSS aggregator

RSSOwl is the best desktop based RSS, ATOM, RDF aggregator I have used, I think its better than thunderbird though its on high side of consuming system resources(Uses around 50- 70 MB of your main memory). Its fast and easy to use with very usful built in browser. You can download this from http://http//www.rssowl.org/

How to add Google Gadget to your website?

The simple way to do this is to go to google gadget page and follow the steps. It has complete UI based gadget configuration, you just need to place the generated code in your webpage. You can see the source code of IndianHippy fun page for any clarifications.

The future of mobile Phone

The future of mobile Phone', 'The Internet has had an enormous impact on people\\''s lives around the world in the ten years since Google\\''s founding. It has changed politics, entertainment, culture, business, health care, the environment and just about every other topic you can think of. Which got us to thinking, what\\''s going to happen in the next ten years? How will this phenomenal technology evolve, how will we adapt, and (more importantly) how will it adapt to us? We asked ten of our top experts this very question, and during September (our 10th anniversary month) we are presenting their responses. As computer scientist Alan Kay has famously observed, the best way to predict the future is to invent it, so we will be doing our best to make good on our experts\\'' words every day. - Karen Wickre and Alan Eagle, series editors There are currently about 3.2 billion mobile subscribers in the world, and that number is expected to grow by at least a billion in the next few years. Today, mobile phones are more prevalent than cars (about 800 million registered vehicles in the world) and credit cards (only 1.4 billion of those). While it took 100 years for landline phones to spread to more than 80% of the countries in the world, their wireless descendants did it in 16. And fewer teens are wearing watches now because they use their phones to tell time instead (somewhere Chester Gould is wondering how he got it backwards). So it\\''s safe to say that the mobile phone may be the most prolific consumer product ever invented. However, have you ever considered just exactly how powerful these ubiquitous devices are? The phone that you have in your pocket, pack, or handbag is probably ten times more powerful than the PC you had on your desk only 8 or 9 years ago (assuming you even had a PC; most mobile users never have). It has a range of sensors that would do a martian lander proud: a clock, power sensor (how low is that battery?), thermometer (because batteries charge poorly at low temperatures), and light meter (to determine screen backlighting) on the more basic phones; a location sensor, accelerometer (detects vector and velocity of motion), and maybe even a compass on more advanced ones. And most importantly, it is by its very nature always connected. Project out these trends another ten years. You will be carrying with you, 24x7 (a recent study of Chinese mobile customers showed that the majority of them sleep within a meter of their phones), a very powerful, always connected, sensor-rich device. And the cool thing is, so will everyone else. So what are you going to do with it that you aren\\''t doing now? Here are some possibilities:\r\n\r\nSmart alerts: Your phone will be smart about your situation and alert you when something needs your attention. This is already happening today -- eBay can text you when you\\''ve been outbid, and alert services (such as Google News) can deliver news, sports, or stock updates to you. In the future these applications will get smarter, patiently monitoring your personalized preferences (which will be stored in the network cloud) and delivering only the information you desire. One very useful scenario: your phone knows that you are heading downtown for dinner, and alerts you of transit conditions or the best places to park.\r\n\r\nAugmented reality: Your phone uses its arsenal of sensors to understand your situation and provide you information that might be useful. For example, do you really want to know how much is that doggy in the window? Your phone, with its GPS and compass, knows what you are looking at, so it can tell you before you even ask. Plus, what breed it is and the best way to train him.\r\n\r\nCrowd sourcing goes mainstream: Your phone is your omnipresent microphone to the world, a way to publish pictures, emails, texts, Twitters, and blog entries. When everyone else is doing the same, you have a world where people from every corner of the planet are covering their experiences in real-time. That massive amount of content gets archived, sorted, and re-deployed to other people in new and interesting ways. Ask the web for the most interesting sites in your vicinity, and your phone shows you reviews and pictures that people have uploaded of nearby attractions. Like what you see? It will send you directions on how to get there.\r\n\r\nSensors everywhere: Your phone knows a lot about the world around you. If you take that intelligence and combine it in the cloud with that of every other phone, we have an incredible snapshot of what is going on in the world right now. Weather updates can be based on not hundreds of sensors, but hundreds of millions. Traffic reports can be based not on helicopters and road sensors, but on the density, speed, and direction of the phones (and people) stuck in the traffic jams.\r\n\r\nTool for development: Your phone may be more than just a convenience, it may be your livelihood. Already, this is true for people in many parts of the world: in southern India, fishermen use text messaging to find the best markets for their daily catch, in South Africa, sugar farmers can receive text messages advising them on how much to irrigate their crops, and throughout sub-Saharan Africa entrepreneurs with mobile phones become phone operators, bringing communications to their villages. These innovations will only increase in the future, as mobile phones become the linchpin for greater economic development.\r\n\r\nThe future-proof device: Your phone will open up, as the Internet already has, so it will be easy for developers to create or improve applications and content. The ones that you care about get automatically installed on your phone. Let\\''s say you have a piece of software on your phone to improve power management (and therefore battery life). Let\\''s say a developer makes an improvement to the software. The update gets automatically installed on your phone, without you lifting a finger. Your phone actually gets better over time.\r\n\r\nSafer software through trust and verification: Your phone will provide tools and information to empower you to decide what to download, what to see, and what to share. Trust is the most important currency in the always connected world, and your phone will help you stay in control of your information. You may choose to share nothing at all (the default mode), or just share certain things with certain people -- your circle of trusted friends and family. You\\''ll make these decisions based on information you get from the service and software providers, and the collective ratings of the community as well. Your phone is like your trusted valet: it knows a lot about you, and won\\''t disclose an iota of it without your OK. Now, if we can just train it to do your laundry ...

Electronic Paper(e-paper)

You might have heard of E-Paper, which is a coming up technology. Basically E-Paper is a display technology designed to mimic the appearance of ordinary ink on paper. In market there are few implications of E-Paper concept like Sony's e-Paper Book Reader. I feel this device is just the first step, here I am just trying to predict the possibilities. You might have seen the movie named Minority Report that movie shows a E-paper which looks very much like a normal news paper and connected to Wi-Fi or Bluetooth network to update the news. Isn't wonderful, to have a device like that in our hands to read personalized RSS news feeds, mails and books hell what not? we can do everything what we are doing now on our bulky laptops, but the difference is you can just fold it and keep it in pocket just like any other paper. With this technology the bulky books will be replaced with a small flash based memory chip, which can be red by a reader in your pocket and wirelessly transfer the data to the E-paper you are holding in your hands. This may look like crazy and fiction, but with emerging technologies like nanotech. One more good news is you may never have to buy a news paper once this technology comes to existence because I bet all the news paper vendors are ready provide you news feeds for free. On the other hand just imagine how much paper you are saving, which is directly implies to greener earth.

Statusbar stopwatch a Firefox extention

This is a firefox extention, which adds a stopwatch on the status bar of your browser. Extention allows you to stop/start and reset the stopwatch very easly by clicking on the icon. The stopwatch increments in 100 milliseconds at a time. Please let me for any suggestions and imrovements.
Link[This only works when you access this page using firefox, if you are not using the firefox "Save As.." from the context menu.]

Draw a graph for a java hierarchy using java2dot

This is a nice and simple tool to give diagram of java class hierarchy. You can find the details http://plindenbaum.blogspot.com/2008/10/javadoc-is-not-enough-java2dia.html

How to make add-ons compatible with new versions of Firefox?

There are many add-ons available for firefox and thunderbird, but most them are never updated according to the new versions of product releases. If you try to install them you will see version compatibility error. There is a simple way to resolve this compatibility issue. Download the add-on by clicking “save as” in browser context menu, the downloaded file is with xpi file. Open the xpi file using winzip and find install.rdf file(no need to extract the zip file) and open it in any text editor. Search for “{ec8030f7-c20a-464f-9b0e-13a3a9e97384}” which is firefox id and for thunderbird “{3550f703-e582-4d05-9a08-453d09bdfdc6}” . RDF file is xml file under the id you should see\r\n\r\n<em:minVersion>1.5<//em:minVersion>\r\n<em:maxVersion>2.0.0.*</em:maxVersion>\r\n\r\nChange the maxVersion value to the version you are using. If you are using firefox 3 beta then the maxVersion should be 3.0b3 (remember from firefox three versioning has changed now on its going to x.0 only instead of x.0.0).

Tip #3:Using Firefox with multiple Profiles

What is a profile?  Its the place(folder) where firefox stores bookmarks, extensions,history etc. details. On windows OS the default location of profile folder is C:\Documents and Settings\xxxx\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\k450b1oj.default.How to create a new profiles and managing them? Execute the command \\"firefox -P\\" which will show a dialog box to create and manage profiles. After creating profiles we can create icons of these firefox by making target as \\"firefox -P -no-remote\\

Tip #2:How to uninstall Windows Desktop Search?

Yes, there is no direct option to uninstall windows desktop search, which is competitors for Google desktop search. I installed WDS with curiosity to know if there are any improvements over google’s desktop search, but to my disappointment its not that good. So I tried to uninstall to save some space and indexing cycles, but to my surprise there is no direct way to uninstall it, its not existing in controlpanel-> add or remove programs. I googled and found the below given command and it worked on my XP(SP2). Execute the below given command in a command prompt

Tip #1:java.lang.StringBuilder

Sun introduced the StringBuilder class in J2SE 5.0, which is almost the same as StringBuffer, except it\\''s not thread-safe. Thread safety is usually not necessary with StringBuffer, since it is seldom shared between threads. When Strings are added using the + operator, the compiler in J2SE 5.0 and Java SE 6 will automatically use StringBuilder. If StringBuffer is hard-coded, this optimization will not occur.

The next Internet

Historically, the Internet has been all about connectivity between computers and among people. The World Wide Web opened enormous opportunities and motivations for the injection of content into the Internet, and search engines, such as Google's, provided a way for people to find the right content for their interests. Of course, the Internet continues to develop: new devices will find their way onto the net and new ways to access it will evolve.In the next decade, around 70% of the human population will have fixed or mobile access to the Internet at increasingly high speeds, up to gigabits per second. We can reliably expect that mobile devices will become a major component of the Internet, as will appliances and sensors of all kinds. Many of the things on the Internet, whether mobile or fixed, will know where they are, both geographically and logically. As you enter a hotel room, your mobile will be told its precise location including room number. When you turn your laptop on, it will learn this information as well--either from the mobile or from the room itself. It will be normal for devices, when activated, to discover what other devices are in the neighborhood, so your mobile will discover that it has a high resolution display available in what was once called a television set. If you wish, your mobile will remember where you have been and will keep track of RFID-labeled objects such as your briefcase, car keys and glasses. 'Where are my glasses' you will ask. 'You were last within RFID reach of them while in the living room, your mobile or laptop will say.The Internet will transform the video medium as well. From its largely programmed, scheduled and streamed delivery today, video will become an interactive medium in which the choice of content and advertising will be under consumer control. Product placement will become an opportunity for viewers to click on items of interest in the field of view to learn more about them including but not limited to commercial information. Hyperlinks will associate the racing scene in Star Wars I with the chariot race in Ben Hur. Conventional videoconferencing will be augmented by remotely controlled robots with an ability to move around, focus cameras and microphones, and perhaps even directly interact with the local environment under user control.The Internet will also become more closely integrated with other parts of our daily lives, and it will change them accordingly. Power distribution grids, for example, will become a part of the Internet\\''s information universe. We will be able to track and manage electrical power demand and our automobiles will participate in the generation as well as the consumption of electricity. By sharing information through the Internet about energy-consuming and energy-producing devices and systems, we will be able to make them more efficient.A box of washing machine soap will become part of a service as Internet-enabled washing machines are managed by Web-based services that can configure and activate your washing machine. Scientific measurements and experimental results will be blogged and automatically entered into common data archives to facilitate the distribution, sharing and reproduction of experimental results. One might even imagine that scientific instruments could generate their own data blogs.These are but a few examples of the way in which the Internet will continue to surround and serve us in the future. The flexibility we have seen in the Internet is a consequence of one simple observation: the Internet is essentially a software artifact. As we have learned in the past several decades, software is an endless frontier. There is no limit to what can be programmed. If we can imagine it, there's a good chance it can be programmed. The Internet of the future will be suffused with software, information, data archives, and populated with devices, appliances, and people who are interacting with and through this rich fabric.And Google will be there, helping to make sense of it all, helping to organize and make everything accessible and useful.

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