tEcHrAjesH......tOdAy iN tHe jOurNeY oF LiFe

my days within and outside computers

2009-01-23T20:09:00.002+05:45

well...its been a while since i came up with any blog...days are rolling as usual with so many new things just hovering in the back of my mind. talking about the college, there are some best days going. am having four classes in a row without any sort of break or something...and then after classes, we have a small group discussion...on different topics and by the word "different" i really mean "D I F F E R E N T"...the topic of discussion ranges from everyday classes to non-veg discussion...along with that, samosa tarkari and tea adds more flavor to our gathering...these days, our group has been actively involved in the foss-informatics community...FOSS refers to "Free and Open Source Softwares", which basically relates to linux. with this, i am too much inclined towards the world of linux with the assistance of some of the very helpful guys out there in the college. the recently held workshop on gnu/linux at college was a huge success and a great platform for those who wanted to embrace the world of linux. people out here in the college are really showing interest in linux and open source which is a matter of pride for the entire FOSS family.
after college, i have to be involved in office works as bro's been abroad for business purposes....hope he arrives soon...
we guys are also planning to meet on weekends to uncover new things within computers...its a sort of discussion and experimenting with new things...this adds to another dimension in the context of learning new things...
so lot more to follow....with so many aspirations....
happy networking...
techrajesh

a nOtE fOr tHe nEw yEaR " " 2 0 0 9 " "

2009-01-01T09:42:00.003+05:45

first of all, warm and prosperous new year wishes to all of you....neW yEaR...yes...yet again this new year has so much to offer us...... 12 months, 365 days, 8760 hours, 525600 minutes, 31536000 seconds and all of above "ONE" complete year.....so why not enjoy each and every seconds of this year and LIVE it differently from what we have previously done......most of us aspire for some kind of resolution at the beginning of the year and for me this time, it has turned to be an exception....yeah...NO NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS this year....every year this resolution came to an end sooner or later and this year i have decided not to take one......what i feel is, feelings can never be confined by rules...be it good ones or bad ones....change can only occur from within us rather than by following some bullshit resolutions.......so my effort this year would be to enjoy each and very moments of these 31536000 seconds and make it a memorable one....by doing what i feel like to do....nobody has seen tomorrow...so guys the countdown has begun....

|| hAPPy nEw yeaR 2009 ||

cOuNtDoWn'S sTaRtEd.......

2008-11-15T14:48:00.002+05:45

well days are really going tough these days....with assignmens, projects and examinations just hovering in back of my mind...have left with only the distributed project and will be ready to go with the eggzaminations.....apart form all these, something new is going on....u know what?? i have decided to join the world of open source community..doesnt that sound really cool?? yeah...i have partially moved to the linux environment...and with the completion of this term..will fully migrate to the linux environment....and why not?? the linux has so much to offer...its far more excellent than the windows environment which i've been using ever since i first used computers....the transition will definetely demand some time...but am ready to accept it...
this much for now....
may be will rite next only after my internals...

fEsTiVaLs' oVer.....dEaDLiNeS aRRiVe.....

2008-11-01T09:50:00.003+05:45

yes the festive season has come to its end.....with a lot of masti, fun and entertainment....but now the deadlines for projects, assignments and examinations are just stepping in.........now really need to work very hard to meet those deadlines......now within 10 days.....i need to take hold of distributed database project, java software, and software engineering paper......this really will demand a lot of hard work and toil.......but the bottom line is, i need to overcome this......
so today is saturday and am planning to work on these targets....no more masti....no more entertainent.....only work and work and work.........sop...all the very best to myself...
happy hours studying...

cLosiNg tHe waShEd OuT dAsHaiN cHaPtEr.....

2008-10-13T09:32:00.003+05:45

well had a blast of the all awaited dashain this year.....like it slipped so soon off my hands that i didnt even realize that the dashain fever needs to be ended....for everyone dashain means eating, drinking and having fun and for me it was not an exception.....i dont remember even a day throughout the dashain that i dint get freaked out......forgetting the all that boring daily works and setting apart ur mind to a different ambience is altogether a different experience i had this dashain......be it college stuffs or office works.....i dont remeber reading a single page of my book nor i remeber spending that all tiring day at office....so u could imagine how fun it was....

but one thing i really regret about this dashain is that i missed flying kites this time and u know what it is two years in a row i dint.....i really wanted to but time really dint permit i must say...

this time i played a lot of cards......i loved the newly learned game...."dhumbal"........despite of playing cards....i ended up from where i started...that is no real big deal of profit or loss...heheh...freaking was another aspect of dashain which was something different this time....one day i remeber ...i think it was "dashami" and me n bro was wandering throughout kathmandu in search of a bar to sit and relax.....and finally ended up at punjabi restaurant at new road......there we drank with no limits....fast food was not that pleasing at all.....but u know everything goes in with the beverages.........

later that day at snooker we played cards and there it was a beautiful environment of drinking and playing....in excitement or unconsciouness i dont know...there was a cocktail of lown brau and tuborg that evening....and i was like totally gone.....i tell u one thing...tht cocktail i experienced that that was more stronger that any other whisky cocktail i remeber....and then u know the result later....ok forget it.....this and many incidents came by and was fun handling them all...

but the dashain fever has almost gone and back to normal life again...

enjoy the all new normal life.....

grTT!!!! saTuRdAY....

2008-09-27T21:39:00.003+05:45

well today was saturday and i thought it would be like just another saturday....since it is dashian rite now, the shops were open till late...at arnd 6:00 pm we closed the shop and went to sUi-mAi.........and then the real saturday was just arriving.....as usual daju-bhai.......u know what....today i drank upto my maximum capacity....arn 1 half....can u imagine?? even i dont...so am finishing this blog as soon as possible and going flat to bed...hmm downloading a movie called....cOlleGe...hopefully i would watch it 2moro....thats it for today man....i cant type anymore.....good nt techrajesh.............................happy networking.....and indeed a great saturday....................

bRo cOme sOOn....i aM fiNdiNg iT hEcTiC

2008-09-09T22:55:00.002+05:45

with the absence of bro, things are not going as usual...am finding it too tough these days....since dashain is imminent, am getting more and more involved in office works from morning through nite....can u imagine...no rest and all work...i even missed my college today as i had to deliver some orders of our customers...and then mahaboudha is a great deal to handle...and at the end of the day have to handle accounts of our both the departments....so no study dude ....
anywaz...things are always like this with ur absence bro...come soon am missing u....

cErTiFiCaTiOnS....mY wEaPoNs?

2008-09-05T21:23:00.004+05:45

well today was the final day for the ccna preperation classes....now just need to prepare for exams and take it asap!! though the classes are over, but need to work ver hard on it to get through...

nowadays, certifications are enticing me to a great deal....am thinking like, i'l finish this and that and blah blah....but all those are not that easy i bet.....i am just like building castles in the cloud...

anyways, college is going fair enough with the IADNC. no any cool stuffs to work on with the second year modules....java is quite okay, and then system engineering and distributed database are like, not of my type u know....all those bulky theories with very little to entice me up with any great deal. hmm thought advance networking would be quite interesting, but no great "advancement" in the so called "advanced networking"..i even had a class test on this module and ended up making a mess out of it.....so thts all about the college.....did u notice, i have taken FOUR modules this term...this means am gonna finish the second year even more fast.....hope this works for me....

so need to work more harder in the coming days...

and yes,,, bro departed for china tonite....am gonna miss u bro .....come soon hai....and then we'll have fun together...

thts it man.....go hard at studies and make real castles not in the sky but in reality man...

all the very best......

happy networking.....

rOLLinG with cCnA

2008-08-22T22:12:00.002+05:45

well these days....days are not the busiest as ever.......no great stuffs to work on the office....so i finally decided to go with the CCNA preparations........and so far so good..
u know what?? these days i wake up no before than 9 am and reach office only after 10.....that is very bad of me, isnt it?? this is why i am eagerly waiting for college to reopen....atleast i will have better stuffs to do atleast........
finally will be in the second year at informatics kathmandu...that first year slipped very very fast.....so ..all the very best rajesh with the IADNC.....
happy networking in days to come

happy birthday rAjEsH!!!

2008-08-01T01:09:00.002+05:45

its 1:10 AM right now and the date is 1st of August, 2008. this completes my 21 years of life on earth.....yes this is my birthday!! was planning to post this right at 12:01 AM but got lost watching "WANTED"........great movie....worth watching.............
so things are going moderate for me and dont know whats packed in for the 22nd year. go dude go.....the journey is far away and yet to be completed!
all the very best !!

long time without a blog

2008-05-23T21:51:00.003+05:45

hello there!
well long time i had been without a blog to post and certainly today i realized, hey man i need to post something out there, its been too long!
okay let me start with the college! classes are becoming interesting with programming in JAVA!
hmm system administration is quite okay.....there are things most of which i have already been knowing! so the main thing of concern is developing an eye catching software with the Java. mm the days are quite conjusted and tightly scheduled these days as brother has been to china........need to handle most of the works at office.......................collecting payments is like GRRRRRRRRRR! and then returning home all wet and thrased with tiredness......anyways am starting to love this busy schedule though! it feels like am finally filled with lot of responsibilites and all that sort of stuffs! and you know what, atlast something is hovering and gaining my attention..............yes finally i am upto developing a website of my own.......doesnt it sound interesting?? a website of my own!! hmm sounds gr8!!
am working at it but will take some time though! so stay tuned dudes!!
happy surfing!!

jAvA aNd sYsTeM tHis tErM

2008-05-05T22:05:00.004+05:45

well i am taking java programming and system administration classes this term which is also the final term of my first year at Informatics. Java seems to be a bit interesting though i have never liked programming a lot. earlier i had taken C++ course outside which i abandoned on the half way run, this reflectes my interest in programming. but a little more to anticipate with the Java!
good news ahead! many congratulations to me!! i have scored all A's in my three modules which i had taken for the second semester. isnt that a great news! gr88888888 infact as i did only a part time study and full time work at office. anyways need to continue the same trend for this term as well with only two modules. regarding system administration, well have some idea about it but yet much to learn.
college is looking interesting these days. and yes looking to go for CCNA preparations this term. now this is a promise infact okay! i will try my best not to break this one though! hehe!
good going rajesh!
keep going :-)

a ReAL tiMe tOuR oF thE gOOgLepLeX !

2008-04-18T08:22:00.003+05:45

a real time tour of the Googleplex is no more a dream now. you no longer need to be an employee of the Google to hover around the fascinating walls of the Googleplex. The private tour of Googleplex is going for about $256 on eBay, which is actually for a charity purpose specifically for the Menlo-Atherton High School.

According to the auction description, winners get:
"Private tour for two of Google’s Mountain View campus . . . An insider's look at the 'best place to work'! Inspire your students or take this fascinating tour yourself. Includes lunch at the Google Café (known as 'Charlie's Place'). Date to be arranged with donor, weekdays only, two and a half hour tour, including lunch. This item is limited to M-A community friends & family. Value: Priceless Expires: July 31, 2008"

Google is, undoubtedly, an unusual workplace: Employees get free meals, free laundry, free massages, free buses and probably a decent supply of Google-branded tchotchkes. Who wouldn't want to be an employee of such a fascninating workplace? u don't need to pay atleast $256 bucks that way! sounds worthy!!
so when are you touring the gOOglepLeX? hurry up the deadline is 31st jULy

hApPY nEw yEaR 2065

2008-04-13T07:09:00.003+05:45

its new year here at nepal and a great time for celebration. this new year invites many reasons to celebrate! firstly our country is heading towards eternal peace and progress with a successful completion of the CA polls, this is one reason to celebrate. secondly maoists have proven victorious, this is another reason for a huge celebration (though i dint vote them, i was expecting and hoping Pranchanda babu to win). so lots of reasons for celebration for new resolutions of the country. atleast this year we do not need to search for excuses with so many reasons to enjoy!
so may this new year fill all our lives with joy and success in every field. let us give up the so called bad habits and embrace the good ones! let us promise to see a different "me" on the same day of the year ahead.
for me no great resolutions this year. this is because whenever i'd made any resolutions, that came to an end in the very first week from the date..........so this time i chose not take any new year resolutions!
the bottom line for me today is that, inspite of the new year, i am having my security paper today and cannot celebrate much today i suppose. this is my final paper for this term and celebrations will definitely kick off after the completion of my papers.
HURRAY! hAppy neW yEaR!! bInGo!!

mY fiRsT vOtE

2008-04-10T21:00:00.005+05:45

was a great experience today! i casted my very first vote today and it was a huge one as these votes are going to decide a new nepal. yes it was the constituent assembly elections today and it turned out to be a huge success at least in the valley if not in the entire country. it is really a big deal and a thing of pride to vote in such a great situation because not many get the opportunity to do so!
i felt completely excited to get such a chance and am feeling proud to be a part of this event. u know whom i voted? CPN-UML !!! i've always liked this party and think they can make a difference! anyways maoists also stand a good chance for proving victorious as there are tons of supporters out here for them. i personally have no discrimination for the maoists but still i chose not to vote them!
now when the election is over, everybody eyes on the results.....................ALL THE VERY BEST TO ALL COMPETING BODIES AND I BELIEVE AND HOPE THAT YOU GUYS WILL BUILD A GOOD AND PEACEFUL NEW NEPAL.

fiNaLLy sOmE rEsT dUriNg tHe eLecTiOns

2008-04-08T20:10:00.002+05:45

well this election is bringing a good rest and off days finally after a long period of working days...........yes offices will be closed for atleast 4 days here in Kathmandu. and this is very interesting. this was indeed needed, as i had to manage both office and college and now for the next four days, both of them are closed! a good nap of vaccation! finally i am getting some good sleep and a lot of rest!
talking about election, the excitement is building and is definitely going to reach its peak by tomorrow and after! all we can hope for is a successful completion of this huge event. this event is going to prove something which can create a whole different country. so vote sensibly dudes, and remember these votes are going to bounce back on you sooner or later!

go ahead and have fun!

nO iNterNet bLocKaGE duRinG tHe oLymPiCS aT cHiNa

2008-04-06T09:32:00.004+05:45

well this year the biggest event in the sports is going to be held..........yes it is the International Olympics 2008!! the countdown has just begun and it will continue till the count reaches 130 counts. well during the olympics, china has well assured that it will not block any kind of internet usage in the course of the grand event. After protest broke out in mid-march due to tibet-china mishaps, the YouTube site was blocked and people had no chane of accessing the website, but this type of blockage would not continue this time during this event. but china stated that it would broadcast the event with a short delay so that any mishap taken place durig the games wouldnt be broadcasted on televisions and other medias.

hmmmmm talking about china, our goodies from guangzhou china has just arrived yesterday (not all of them though) . so will be bg for some time now managing those stuffs. its taking a lot of time these days for the goods to arrive as the tibet-china protest mishap is still under the lens at nepal-china border at 'khasa" and tibet which is just above khasa.
also the daily protests from tibetans are easily seen outside the chinese embassy at hattisar kathmandu.
in my opn, tibetans are right and are actually revolving against the brute force against them form the chinese.
THATS ALL FOR THIS POST! MAY GOD HELP TIBET AND THE SUCCESS OF OLYMPICS!

tHiS vaCCaTioN pLaNs

2008-04-02T21:19:00.003+05:45

the exam are now finally at its end and vaccations are at the doorsteps. so am planning some good plans for this vaccation. the first thing am going to learn is the RHCE course. this is a Red Hat Linux course, and the good thing about this is that i am going to learn this course on myself. have already started collecting sources for this plan!! i am too curious to learn linux as this is one element in computers which has always made me excited. i am dying to learn the command line linux specially!!
lets see what happens with this plan with the course of time. the next thing am going to do is gain a little knowledge on the CCNA course! but this is going to be the secondary option infact.

so the second semester exams is also is at its final stage. this time i hope to get some good grades with 2 exams yet to be completed. am being optimistic!! good to see that!!

office days are passing as usual. not much excitement! but yes, there is some sort of excitement at roads these days as the constituent assembly polls are imminent. everybody are excited regarding this and expecting much from this. colleges are even giving leave for students for this polls! exception: "informatics" . how could informatics infact give the leave, isn't it?? afterall its not the singapore polls that are going to be held here!!

HOPE TO SEE THE BEST RESULTS FOR THE POLLS AND FOR MY EXAMS TOOOO!
BINGO! BINGO!!

release of pressure

2008-03-30T17:33:00.005+05:45

well now the security exams are over and a little pressure is released. the exams went mediocore, not so good not so bad! need to tighten up in the external security exams which is due on 13th april. well for now, its time for preperation for the next examination i.e, wireless communications which is due tomorrow. because of this i even didn't went to office today. bro must be shouting at me! but exams matter more to me currently, isn't it?
anyways lets see what happens in the next examination!
all the very best!
BINGO!!!!!!

yet another day

2008-03-30T09:50:00.002+05:45

well its a sunny morning of 30th march and today i have security exams. although i had two off days for preparation, but am not quite well prepared. may be i am getting to much lazy these days. anyways, regarding content study, i have completed all of that, the only thing left is revision. lets see what happens after the exam and yes i will surely post about it!!
too much worry and anxiety within me at this moment and am waiting to release all of these as soon as possible!
all the best to me
BINGO!!

exam day

2008-03-27T22:01:00.003+05:45

well, i had an exam on network essentials. prior to exam, i was very much afraid and worried about the questions. having seen previous questions from earlier term, i was sure the questions would not be based on book. so when i had a look at the actual questions, they were more or less same to the past term questions. i did all the questions correctly as far as i know. all in all the first exam was a bingo!! now i have a network security exam this sunday (2day is thursday). it is one of the subject that has always made me curious. but when it comes to examinations, its always an altogether different thing. i am interested in the applications of this subject rather than the course contents. so this one is going to be a tough one for me as it consissts of the greatest course contents of all the three modules i am taking this term. the sorrows are not over yet. actually this subject's ebook is zipped in a software called chilkat zip 2 secure which doesnt allow to copy-paste text, neither does it allow print-screen facility. so i need to learn this entire subject in front of my laptop. what a great sorrow. my eyes are definitely going to worsen!!
all the very best to me!

aTLaSt iNterNeT's goNe wiReLesS fOr mE

2008-03-25T19:57:00.004+05:45

Finally i can access wireless internet at home. this is via a wireless router that i purchased yesterday. it is an INFOSMART wireless router which i had very difficulty in configuring. Finally i succesfully configured it today. also i have used a WPA protocol for security. BooM! BooM! u know what, i am having exams from thursday, 27th march. thank god this is an internal exam! date has not yet been uncovered for external exams. i have not yet studied anything. now time for some seriousness! so am having my dinner now and got to go for some serious study. so good nite for now all the tekno guys around this network.

hAPpY hoLi

2008-03-21T12:48:00.004+05:45

hey everybody!!
happy holi first of all whoever is here in blogging arena!
am with my laptop on, and everybody are enjoying holi there outside! music is loud and wild and its a very different feeling within me writing this blog!
i've already played holi and have already taken bath! thats all for this holi!
basically holi is a hindu festival of colour and fun, if someone doesn't know wht holi is!
so me already at the other side of holi while some are within it enjoying to their full extent.
now its time to have some drinks and "bhaang ko laddu" which is a must in holli! and nobody minds in doing so atleast in holi!
okay need to hang up now.
u 2 enjoy!

my first laptop

2008-03-20T20:42:00.000+05:45

Hello! Congratulations to me! I’ve got a very new laptop for myself and this is the first one! Its an MSI S300 core 2 duo 2.0 GHz 1 GB RAM.
I rather chose with the new model instead of the brand new models already available in the market such as Compaq, Acer, Lenovo, Dell. I’ve heard from different with sources that these models do not offer much support after the sales and the spares are not readily available. So I opted for this new brand such as MSI which is equal in performance and cheaper in cost.
Anyways, 3 cheers to me for this! this is so exciting.

Firefox Speedens

2008-03-13T09:15:00.002+05:45

Firefox 3.0 Beta 4, which Mozilla released late Monday, has been put through its paces by users and bloggers, some of whom have published the results of head-to-head benchmark tests between Firefox, Opera, Apple Inc.'s Safari and Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer. According to Percy Cabello, who posted his results on the Mozilla Links blog, Firefox 3.0 Beta 4 is 53% faster than Opera 9.5 beta, twice as fast as Apple Inc.'s Safari and three times faster than Microsoft Corp.'s IE7 on the SunSpider benchmark, which tests JavaScript performance.

"There are lots of ways to 'game' the system [in benchmarks], but what we're trying to do is speed up the things that enable people to run the really heavy-duty applications on the Web."
Saying that a browser is a browser is a browser when rendering basic Web pages, Schroepfer added that the challenge Mozilla took on was how to build a browser that performs well when asked to run much more complex Web 2.0-esque applications, such as Yahoo's Zimbra, the online collaboration and document suite.

Gates dethroned as world's wealthiest

2008-03-06T22:32:00.002+05:45

You knew this was going to happen eventually--Bill Gates prepares to step away from full-time work at Microsoft and suddenly he is on the slippery slope to the poor house.

Well, maybe not the poor house, but he has lost his position as the world's richest man, a title he'd held since 1995. The new world's richest man is Gates' friend and investment mogul Warren Buffett, according to Forbes magazine's annual ranking of the world's wealthiest people, which was released Wednesday. The magazine estimated Buffett's worth at $62 billion, and Gates' fortune not too far behind at $58 billion. But that doesn't mean he only slipped one notch: Carlos Slim, a Mexican telecoms tycoon, came in second with an estimated worth of $60 billion.

VISTA finally loosens money

2008-03-04T20:45:00.007+05:45

Microsoft finally is cutting down the prices of some retail versions of Vista effective only when it releases sp1 versions later this year. This is very exciting as this was totally unexpected. Vista's Ulmtimate will now only cost you $319 from earlier $399, this means a decrement of 80 raw dollars!! Whereas if you are seeking for a upgrade, it will only cost you $219 instead of $259.

Similarly, Microsoft has announced some cut off in other versions of vista as well such as Home Premium. Home users with XP installed on their machine will find this stuff pricey, they can finally now upgrade to VISTA!

But the bottom line is what actually is motivitaing Microsoft to cut prices? Is it the public demand or something else?? This remains a question...

gOOgLinG your Date

2007-04-12T07:13:00.000+05:45

CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Dating used to be largely a matter of spending time with a love interest, discovering the good, the bad and the ugly in person. If you were lucky, friends helped fill in some of the blanks.
These days, the Internet -- and the ability to check people out before they ever meet up -- has forever changed the rules.
For better or worse, "googling" your date has become standard practice.
"I often tell my friends that are still in the dating sphere to use the power of Google to their advantage," says Katie Laird, a 24-year-old Web marketing professional and self-proclaimed "social software geek" from Houston.
The results can be enlightening, surprising -- and sometimes, a little disturbing. So Laird's advice also comes with a warning: "Don't google what you can't handle."
Hers is the voice of experience. In her dating life, she regularly did online research on her dates and turned up, among other things, "bizarre" fetishes and a guy who was fascinated with vampires.
"Not my scene at all," Laird says, "and nothing I would've ever guessed over an initial meeting and beer."
She also had to contend with an on-again, off-again boyfriend who googled her on a daily basis to try and track her every move. The story did end happily, however, when she met her future husband online.
In some ways, having a social networking page -- or pages -- has become the new calling card. It's a way for people to check out photos and find out what they have in common, even when they've already met in person.
That was the case for Brad White, a 23-year-old recent college grad in Chicago, who met his current girlfriend through friends at a bar -- and immediately looked her up on Facebook. "The commonality of our music taste and friends is what prompted me to ask her out," White says, "obviously, besides the attraction."
The details people find also can provide a few talking points to get past the initial awkwardness of a first date -- though not everyone likes to admit that they've done their research.
"It seems like in contemporary dating, it's this elaborate dance between two people who already know a lot of what their date is talking about, but they can't admit it," says David Silver, an assistant professor of media studies at the University of San Francisco who studies online culture.
"You nod your head with curiosity, but you already know what they're going to say."
Even he is amazed at the level of information that can be dug up these days.
With a little creativity and Internet savvy, a person can find anything from blog postings to news stories that might include personal details -- and whether people are telling the truth about their age and where they've lived.
It helps to know some basic details upfront, such as an e-mail address that could help turn up an online nickname; some go as far as paying for an online background check.
Often, though, information is almost too easy to find.
MaryBeth Moore discovered that after she got a call from a guy her mother's hairdresser suggested as a good match. At first, Moore was game. But then she checked out his MySpace page and found photos showing him naked in a bath tub.
"Don't worry -- I canceled the date," says Moore, who's 24 and lives in West Palm Beach, Florida.
There's also the problem of mistaken identity.
Lisa Phillips, a 31-year-old San Franciscan, was not pleased, for instance, when a search of online images turned up photos of a porn star who shares her name. She can laugh about it now.
"But it's definitely NOT the first impression I want to make with my dates," she says. "Very embarrassing."
It's a big reason people should take the information they find online "with a grain of salt," says Dr. Paul Dobransky, a Chicago-based psychiatrist and author of "The Secret Psychology of How We Fall in Love."
He says there's nothing wrong with doing a little online homework -- but thinks the focus should remain on face-to-face interaction to make a final judgment.
"Our minds are more made for in-person, slow contact in getting to know one another," Dobransky says.
In the end, Danielle Martinetti says online research really only helps to a point, anyway. "The crazy stuff usually becomes apparent on the actual date," the 30-year-old New Yorker says.
"No amount of online searching is going to tell you that a person has issues with his mother, loves to be described as a George Clooney look-alike, has an overzealous obsession with hand sanitizer, or that he prefers to sit facing the door in a restaurant 'just in case."

iPod takes bullet for soldier

2007-04-06T07:45:00.000+05:45

Kevin Garrad of the 3rd Infantry Division looks to have gotten a little assistance from an unexpected source while on a street patrol in Iraq recently, when the iPod in his pocket got in the path of a bullet fired at close range, slowing it down enough that it didn't pierce his body armor. As if that wasn't a rare enough occurrence, as you can see above, the iPod in question was an HP iPod -- imagine the odds!

gMaiL Paper.....get uR cOpy fRee

2007-04-02T07:10:00.000+05:45

Google realized that paper is the best medium to read email, so they'll roll out a new feature called Gmail Paper that lets you archive an email to paper with one click. You'll get the paper messages in 2-4 business days and, best of all, the service is free."The cost of postage is offset with the help of relevant, targeted, unobtrusive advertisements, which will appear on the back of your Gmail Paper prints in red, bold, 36 pt Helvetica. No pop-ups, no flashy animations—these are physically impossible in the paper medium."Google also considered the environment issues and the "Gmail Paper is made out of 96% post-consumer organic soybean sputum, and thus, actually helps the environment".Related:Gmail to Fax (unlike Gmail Paper, this one is real)

Xbox 360 with a 120-gigabyte hard drive

2007-03-29T16:28:00.000+05:45

REDMOND, Washington (AP) -- Microsoft Corp. will sell a version of its Xbox 360 with a 120-gigabyte hard drive and a souped up high-definition video connection, in a bid to broaden the appeal of its popular console beyond video games.
Earlier versions of Xbox 360 came with 20 gigabytes of storage. But that filled up too quickly with movies, TV shows and games from the Xbox Live Marketplace online store, said Peter Moore, a corporate vice president in Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment group.
The new Xbox 360 Elite will sell for $479.99. Consumers who already own the $399.99 20-gigabyte model will be able to buy a snap-on 120-gigabyte hard drive for $179.99.
Both the new console and the drive are expected to hit U.S. shelves April 29.
Microsoft also added an HDMI connection, which sends high-definition content from the console to the TV without losing picture or sound quality, while also helping prevent piracy.
Xbox 360 was the No. 2 U.S. video game console after Nintendo Co.'s Wii in January and February, according to data from market researcher NPD Group. The Xbox outpaced Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3, a $599.99 console that plays Blu-ray DVDs.
Microsoft's decision to upgrade the Xbox 360 is the latest of many steps the software maker has taken to position its products at the center of home entertainment.
Microsoft has incorporated Media Center software, which can turn a computer into a digital video recorder, movie and music player, into all but the most basic version of its new Windows Vista operating system.
And Xbox 360 users can connect the console to their home network, then stream movies, music and other content from computer to the Xbox and television. Unlike Sony, Microsoft hasn't added a high-def DVD player to the console, but consumers can buy an external HD DVD player for the Xbox for $199.99.
On Wednesday, Microsoft also announced deals to bring new high-def video to the Xbox Live Marketplace, including New Line Cinema's film "Snakes on a Plane" and upcoming releases from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment's direct-to-video division.
Microsoft's focus on downloadable high-def video sets the effort apart from the competition, said Moore. He said the content fills a gap between cable companies' DVR services for fresh TV episodes, Tivo Inc. and Amazon.com Inc.'s standard-definition content available over the Web, and Apple Inc.'s recent move to send iTunes movies and music to the TV from a Mac.
At the core, though, video game players aren't going to choose their system based on its ability to play movies or television shows, said Anita Frazier, an analyst for NPD Group.
"To the extent (the consoles) do other things, it's great, but this industry is all about the games," she said.

YouTube award winning videos

2007-03-27T16:36:00.001+05:45

Google confident about copyright

2007-03-24T11:50:00.000+05:45

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Google is confident its popular video-sharing site YouTube and other Web services Google offers have strong legal protections under current copyright law, company attorneys said Tuesday.
Media conglomerate Viacom ended six months of thinly veiled threats of legal action against YouTube earlier Tuesday with a $1 billion lawsuit that accuses Google and YouTube of "massive intentional copyright infringement."
But Google and YouTube lawyers said their actions are squarely within the protections offered by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998 and they were prepared to defend the company aggressively.
The DMCA has served as the legal standard defining U.S. copyright law in the digital age. It limits liability for firms that act quickly to block access to pirated materials once they are notified by copyright holders of specific infringement.
"Here there is a law which is specifically designed to give Web hosts such as us, or ... bloggers or people that provide photo-album hosting online ... the 'safe harbor' we need in order to be able to do hosting online," said Alexander Macgillivray, Google's associate general counsel for products and intellectual property.
"We will never launch a product or acquire a company unless we are completely satisfied with its legal basis for operating," Macgillivray told Reuters in an interview.
Google's move to acquire YouTube for $1.65 billion in early October was preceded by a series of threats and at least one federal lawsuit filed against YouTube.
YouTube was sued in July 2006 by Los Angeles News Service operator Robert Tur for allowing YouTube users to upload and view his famous footage of trucker Reginald Denny being beaten during the 1992 Los Angeles riots.
In September, Doug Morris, chief executive of Universal Music Group, the world's biggest record company, accused YouTube and News Corp.'s MySpace social network site of being "copyright infringers" at a Wall Street conference.
David Drummond, the executive who spearheaded Google's $1.65 billion acquisition of YouTube last November, serves as both its head of business development and chief legal officer.
Responding to Viacom's suit, which also seeks an injunction that could lead to a possible shutdown of YouTube, Macgillivray said Google had done its homework.
"This is an area of law where there are a bunch of really clear precedents, so Amazon and eBay have both been found to qualify for the safe harbor and there are a whole bunch more," Macgillivray said.
"We will continue to innovate and continue to host material for people, without being distracted by this suit."
The attorney noted Google previously won dismissal of a lawsuit involving copyright issues filed by Nevada attorney Blake Field. The judge used "safe harbor" protections, among a series of grounds, in granting summary judgment to Google.

Bill Gates the dropout to receive honorary Harvard degree, will finally be able to do something with his life

2007-03-24T11:42:00.000+05:45

Bill Gates, a true inspiration to college dropouts the world over, is about to crown his academic career with the ultimate irony by receiving an honorary degree from Harvard, the very school he ditched his Junior year to get Microsoft going. Harvard is handing him the degree to thank him for doing this year's upcoming commencement speaker gig at the school, as they do for all commencement speakers, and won't announce what the degree is for until then. (Hint: probably not Phys Ed). We haven't the foggiest what Bill Gates will have to say to the youngsters, other than to make fun of them for working hard these past four years while he's been busy earning billions of dollars, getting knighted and even being interviewed on the hallowed pages of Engadget.

Windows Tips for Everyone

2007-03-24T11:33:00.000+05:45

Whether you've jumped to Vista or are sticking with XP, our tips will make your computing faster and safer--and even a little more stylish.

Right out of the box, Windows is just a so-so operating system. It doesn't really reach its potential until you've cracked it, hacked it, and otherwise bent it to your will.
Whether you want to speed up XP, customize Vista's Aero interface, manage your disk partitions, or do quick-and-dirty photo editing, our Windows projects will show you how. We start off with some performance boosters, and then move on to cover file management, interface tweaks, network and browser options, and Windows Media Player.
The work isn't done until you plug Windows' many holes, which we cover in "Tweak Security Settings in XP and Vista." If you're switching over to the new OS, see our tips in "Make the Move to Vista," and then try our Vista alterations in "Change Vista's Defaults."

Apple TV early review roundup

2007-03-23T12:40:00.001+05:45

It's still a bit early yet for all the reviews to hit the internets, but peeps fortunate enough to have snagged an Apple TV early -- namely the WSJ, PC Mag, and The NY Times -- have already passed judgment. What do they think? Well, no one was without their niggles regarding the unit: Walt seemed bummed about the lack of photo streaming, Pogue chides Apple for not supporting HD downloads or TVs without high def inputs, and PC Mag had some problems playing iTunes video content back (although it was home video footage). The Xbox 360 receives frequent mention as the Apple TV's one true competitor right now, but the differences in the products and approaches still cause a rift, and it's hard to keep the parallels going for too long. But the one thing they can all agree on is their appreciation for the unit's simplicity, design, and ample ability to tackle digital video in the living room. (Yeah, watch out for our own Apple TV review shortly, we know you're all frothing at the mouth to learn the Engadget take.)

SHUTDOWN day almost here!

2007-03-23T12:35:00.000+05:45

Shutdown Day almost here Be a part of one of the biggest global experiments ever to take place on the internet. The idea behind the experiment is to find out how many people can go without a computer for one whole day, and what will happen if we all participate!

For more information log on to SHUTDOWN DAY

First Xbox 360 Elite pics?

2007-03-23T12:31:00.000+05:45

We can't guarantee that any black Xboxen from here until the launch of the Xbox 360 Elite won't just be shots of the original 360 dev kit that was sent around, but we've already got our first batch of "confirmada" Elite pics that sprung up. Let's be honest here -- the only thing that's gonna be different is the black plastic (which we've been seeing for a while) and some new box art. The real and important differences, friends, will be under the hood, and it's those things we're stoked to find out more about.

Update: Our trusted source that confirmed the Elite let us know that these shots are quite fishy; they don't have the same plastics details as the real Elite, nor does the retail box match up. Sorry folks, chalk this one up to the usual group of bored, fanatical photoshoppers.

Google has been named one of the best place to work in the entire America. Watch out this amazing video to know why!!

2007-03-23T12:13:00.000+05:45

courtesy: YouTube

Computing pioneer John Backus says goodbye to world

2007-03-21T10:06:00.000+05:45

John Backus, whose development of the Fortran programming language in the 1950s changed how people interacted with computers and paved the way for modern software, has died. He was 82.
Backus died Saturday in Ashland, Oregon, according to IBM Corp., where he spent his career.
Prior to Fortran, computers had to be meticulously "hand-coded" -- programmed in the raw strings of digits that triggered actions inside the machine.
Fortran was a "high-level" programming language because it abstracted that work -- it let programmers enter commands in a more intuitive system, which the computer would translate into machine code on its own.
The breakthrough earned Backus the 1977 Turing Award from the Association for Computing Machinery, one of the industry's highest accolades. The citation praised Backus' "profound, influential, and lasting contributions."
Backus also won a National Medal of Science in 1975 and got the 1993 Charles Stark Draper Prize, the top honor from the National Academy of Engineering.
"Much of my work has come from being lazy," Backus told Think, the IBM employee magazine, in 1979. "I didn't like writing programs, and so, when I was working on the IBM 701 (an early computer), writing programs for computing missile trajectories, I started work on a programming system to make it easier to write programs."
John Warner Backus was born in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1924. His father was a chemist who became a stockbroker. Backus had what he would later describe as a "checkered educational career" in prep school and the University of Virginia, which he left after six months. After being drafted into the Army, Backus studied medicine but dropped it when he found radio engineering more compelling.
Backus finally found his calling in math, and he pursued a master's degree at Columbia University in New York. Shortly before graduating, Backus toured the IBM offices in midtown Manhattan and came across the company's Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator, an early computer stuffed with 13,000 vacuum tubes.
Backus met one of the machine's inventors, Rex Seeber -- who "gave me a little homemade test and hired me on the spot," Backus recalled in 1979.
Backus' early work at IBM included computing lunar positions on the balky, bulky computers that were state of the art in the 1950s. But he tired of hand-coding the hardware, and in 1954 he got his bosses to let him assemble a team that could design an easier system.
The result, Fortran, short for Formula Translation, reduced the number of programming statements necessary to operate a machine by a factor of 20.
It showed skeptics that machines could run just as efficiently without hand-coding. A wide range of programming languages and software approaches proliferated, although Fortran also evolved over the years and remains in use.
Backus remained with IBM until his retirement in 1991. Among his other important contributions was a method for describing the particular grammar of computer languages. The system is known as Backus-Naur Form.

gOOglE phoNe oN thE waY?

2007-03-20T11:51:00.000+05:45

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -- Google Inc. is developing its own mobile phone, according to industry insiders and analysts, while a Google official in Spain last week acknowledged the company is "investigating" such a project.
Google isn't commenting directly on leaks from Europe and the United States which describe a low-cost, Internet-connected phone with a color, wide-screen design. Newspaper and blog reports in recent months have Google shopping its phone design to potential mobile phone manufacturing partners in Asia.

Mobile is an important area for Google," Google spokeswoman Erin Fors said Friday. "We remain focused on creating applications and establishing and growing partnerships with industry leaders to develop innovative services for users worldwide. However, we have nothing further to announce."
Gadget enthusiasts who only two months ago were obsessed with the potential revolutionary impact on the phone industry of Apple Inc.'s iPhone device -- due out in June and at prices starting at $500 -- have shifted their attention to whether Google is developing an even lower-cost phone. "We obviously need another mythical mobile to drool over and speculate about -- and the natural candidate is, of course, the so-called Google phone," geek hardware site Engadget wrote earlier this month.
To be sure, feverish speculation about Google products has been wrong before. Google (Charts) was widely reported to be building its own line of personal computers a little over a year ago. What in fact materialized was a set of free software programs designed to make any existing Windows PCs easier to use.
But Richard Windsor, a phone analyst with brokerage Nomura in London, told clients late last week that unspecified Google representatives at a major European conference in Germany had confirmed the company is working on its own phone device.
"Google has come out of the closet at the CeBIT trade fair admitting that it is working on a mobile phone of its own," Windsor said in a note entitled "Google Phone: From myth to reality."
"This is not going to be a high-end device but a mass market device aimed at bringing Google to users who don't have a PC," he said.
Over the past year, Google has branched out beyond computers to bring Web search, e-mail, mapping and other Web services to millions of new and existing phone browsers worldwide. Rivals Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc. also are racing to run Web services on mobile phones.
Simeon Simeonov, a Boston-based venture capitalist with Polaris Venture Partners, said in a March 4 blog post that an "inside source close to the company" had informed him that Google was developing a "Blackberry-like, slick device."
The device Simeonov describes could handle voice over Internet phone-calling. He said it is being developed within a 100-person mobile phone group at Google that includes Andy Rubin, the creator of Sidekick, a popular phone/Internet device that he developed at a prior company he founded, Danger Inc.
Lending further clues, Isabel Aguilera, head of Google's Iberian operations, was quoted last week in Spanish news site Noticias.com as acknowledging the existence of a part-time project by some Google engineers to develop a mobile phone.
In her interview, translated from Spanish, the Google executive said her company "has been investigating" developing a mobile phone that works both as an Internet access device and as a way to extend Internet use to emerging markets customers.
In January, Engadget circulated a photo purporting to be a prototype Internet phone with a wide, color screen designed by Google and built by Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. This unconfirmed report replaced an earlier theory published by The Observer in December that Google was working with Taiwan's High Tech Computer Corp. on a mobile phone.
A source at a rival Internet company who has talked to the same mobile phone manufacturers said Friday that "Google is going to build their own phone, whether it is with HTC or Samsung or some other ODM (original device manufacturer)."
Windsor, the London-based Nomura analyst who tracks mobile phone handset makers like Nokia of Finland, argues that a Google Phone "will meet with limited success and lose money" because it lacks the necessary phone industry relationships to reach the massive scale needed to compete.

YouTube aWarDs

2007-03-20T11:37:00.000+05:45

NEW YORK (AP) -- Lonelygirl15, OK Go and other YouTube sensations will get an opportunity to walk down a virtual red carpet.
The video-sharing Web site announced Monday that it will hold the first YouTube Video Awards to recognize the best-user created videos of 2006.
The awards will be handed out in seven categories: most creative, most inspirational, best series, best comedy, musician of the year, best commentary and "most adorable video ever."
The nominees, picked by YouTube, are compiled in a gallery at www.youtube.com/YTAwards.
YouTube community members can vote on their favorites beginning Monday and concluding on Friday.
The winners, as chosen by the community, will be announced March 25. Each will be prominently featured on YouTube and receive a trophy, the design of which will be revealed later.
Success on the site has previously been defined largely by rankings of the most-viewed or most-discussed videos.
"We wanted to call out some of the most popular videos and let the users choose which ones deserve some additional recognition," said Jamie Byrne, head of product marketing at YouTube.
The vast and varied world of online video has gradually formed styles all its own, which figured into the formation of the categories.
"We looked at the genres of content that were the most popular last year," Byrne said. "We've seen and continue to see exciting new developments in the online video space where genres are being created."
Among the nominees are noted "vloggers" Paul Robinett ("Renetto") and Peter Oakley ("Geriatric1927"). The comedy of Barats and Bereta, and Smosh, is also nominated, as are series such as Lonelygirl15's and "Ask a Ninja." The power pop band OK Go is perhaps the most professional of the nominees; it's nominated for the famous treadmill-choreographed music video, "Here It Goes Again."
Whether the YouTube Video Awards becomes a permanent, annual affair is likely, Byrne said, but it will depend on how the first awards are received.
"We want to see how the community responds to it, but we can see this being something that grows as we continue to grow and becomes a bigger and more exciting event in the future," Byrne said. An in-person ceremony is possible in the future.
Google-owned, San Bruno, California-based YouTube Inc. was founded in February 2005. Last week, media conglomerate Viacom Inc. sued YouTube for $1 billion, claiming the site infringes on copyrights on a "huge scale." Several other media companies have reached agreements to supply YouTube with clips.
According to comScore Media Metrix, YouTube attracted 133.5 million visitors worldwide in January.

Study: Racing games may spur risky driving

2007-03-20T11:33:00.000+05:45

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- People who play car racing video games may be more prone to drive recklessly and get into accidents, according to a study that adds to evidence that video games can influence the behavior of some players.
The study by German researchers published on Sunday examined the effect these games, featuring realistic driving environments with players often racing through city and suburban traffic, affect people who play them.
"Driving actions in these games often include competitive and reckless driving, speeding and crashing into other cars or pedestrians, or performing risky stunts with the vehicle. In short, most actions in racing games imply a very high risk of having an accident or severe crash in a highly realistic virtual road traffic environment," the researchers wrote.
The researchers first questioned 198 men and women. Those who played the games most often were more likely to report engaging in aggressive and risky driving and getting in auto accidents. Those who played these games less often reported driving more cautiously, the researchers said.
The researchers then studied 68 men and found those who played even one racing game took more risks afterward in traffic situations on a computer simulator than those who played another type of game.
Then the researchers had 83 men play either a racing game or another type of game, and found that those who played the racing game reported more thoughts and feelings associated with risk-taking than the others.
"Risk-acceptance is one of the most prominent and important factors in the discussion of the origin of accidents caused by young drivers," Joerg Kubitzki of the Allianz Center for Technology, who conducted the study along with researchers at Munich's Ludwig-Maximilians University, said by e-mail.
The researchers cited previous research involving the "shooter" genre of games, in which the player shoots at adversaries, that found an increase in aggression-related thoughts and actions among people who played these games. But they said little had been known about the influence driving games might have on actual driving behavior of players.
"The question of age restrictions, legally or voluntary, should be discussed not only for 'shooter' games but also for this kind of games, which have an impact on traffic safety," Kubitzki said.
The study appeared in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, published by the American Psychological Association

Study: Playing Video Games Improves Eyesight

2007-03-19T12:02:00.000+05:45

Playing "Gears of War," "Lost Planet," "Halo" and other action video games that involve firing guns can improve your eyesight, new research claims.
Sedate games like "Tetris" don't work.
A group of 10 male college students who started out as non-gamers and then received 30 hours of training on first-person action video games showed a substantial increase in their ability to see objects accurately in a cluttered space, compared to 10 non-gamers given the same test, said Daphne Bevelier of the University of Rochester.

Most aspects of vision have to do with the size of one's eye and the thickness and shape of the cornea and lens. But some visual defects are neural in nature, said Bevelier, author of the new study on vision and video games published in the journal Psychological Science.
First-person action games helped study subjects improve their spatial resolution, meaning their ability to clearly see small, closely packed together objects, such as letters, she said. Game-playing actually changes the way our brains process visual information.
"These games push the human visual system to the limits and the brain adapts to it," she said, in a prepared statement. "That learning carries over into other activities and possibly everyday life."
The finding suggests that playing first-person action video games could be a useful rehabilitation therapy for people with certain vision problems, she said, such as amblyopia (or lazy eye) and the simple effects of aging.
Another study has showed that playing certain virtual reality games that involved physical motion helped stroke victims improve their ability to walk eventually

The Web smiley's motto: Grin and bear it

2007-03-19T11:43:00.000+05:45

Author Vladimir Nabokov said in a 1969 New York Times interview that "there should exist a special typographical sign for a smile--some sort of concave mark, a supine round bracket."

Now, nearly four decades later, there is just such a typographical symbol-- :-), or :) for the minimalists, and it'd be tough to find a tech-savvy person who hasn't leaned on it. There's also a special typographical symbol for a frown-- :-( -- and one for a cool dude in sunglasses -- B-) -- and one for a wink -- ;-). There's even a typographical sign for wearing a baseball cap-- d=D.
These are emoticons (or emotive icons), the arrangements of letters and symbols that have been inserted into e-mails, message board posts, and instant messages since the fledgling days of the Internet. "Fledgling days," in this case, refers not to the mid-'90s when people were beginning to learn what AOL was, but to the early '80s, when accessing the Internet was largely limited to research universities and defense contractors.

But the Internet is changing, and typing is no longer the only way to communicate online. With the onset of new technologies that facilitate, for example, a more graphic representation of moods, tone and inference, it's arguable that there could be frowns in the emoticon's future.
After all, the phenomenon is about to turn 25--a dinosaur in Web years. The origin of the ASCII smiley face is typically traced to September 1982, when Scott Fahlman, a research professor at Carnegie Mellon University's Department of Computer Science, suggested that the :-) symbol be used in the subject line of an online bulletin board post to denote a humorous or non-serious topic.
"Nobody ever guessed that this would catch on. I certainly didn't," said Fahlman, who is still on the faculty at Carnegie Mellon. But as he recounted, the trend spread, initially to other Internet-pioneering universities like Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and then beyond.
"As the Internet grew, it escaped this little closed community of computer scientists and made it into first other universities, a much larger group, and then out into the general public," Fahlman said. "It's been interesting to see (smiley faces) trickle from place to place, and now it's showing up in postings from Russia and China and all over the world. It's been fun to watch that."
Essentially, the emoticon proliferated along with the Internet itself.
"For people who first get into it, it's like they know the password to the secret club," Fahlman said. But now that emoticons have spread into every niche of Net culture and morphed into myriad (arguably irritating) spinoffs, that sense of exclusivity has lost some of its luster. "It's kind of pathetic when the 'in group' is sort of half the world," Fahlman observed. "But originally, people were using these because it was some cool thing and it showed that you were a real expert user of the Internet, that you knew the secret language."
Of course, the vicissitudes of human taste have it that there's almost guaranteed to be a backlash against any trend, and emoticons were no exception. "I tried to fight (using emoticons) for a long time," confessed C.C. Chapman, vice president of new marketing at the new-media marketing agency Crayon.

"Then I just realized it was easier to showcase emotion (with emoticons)...Sometimes tone, and sarcasm especially, can be taken completely wrong in e-mail depending on who's reading it," he said.
Nevertheless, Chapman acknowledged the presence of emoticon overkill. "I'm glad the super-customization of them went away," he said, referring to the extensive lexicon of representations for hangovers, black eyes or Elvis haircuts. You don't see those used a whole lot these days, Chapman said. "It's reverted back to the simple smiles and frowns."
While simple frowns, winks and smiles have proven to have lasting power beyond their more complex counterparts, emoticons have nevertheless evolved. Most message board and instant-messaging client features now automatically convert them into cartoons or animated faces. AOL, which inaugurated its Buddy List feature in 1996 and the free AOL Instant Messenger software in 1997, has been converting ASCII emoticons to cartoon smileys since 1998, according to spokeswoman Erin Gifford.
"I kind of hate to see that," Fahlman mused. "I think it kind of destroys the whimsy of the original."
Indeed, despite the conversion features (which IM and message board users can, and often do, turn off), the sideways emoticon has become a cultural icon of sorts. In the United States, the smiley is now such a recognizable phenomenon that marketing campaigns have begun to take note. Last year, the Milk Processor Education Program (MilkPEP), famous for the "Got Milk" ads, incorporated a "branded emoticon" into its latest youth-oriented media strategy. It's a smiley face with a milk mustache, or :-{).
"We created a MySpace page that we used to launch our celebrity mustache ads," explained Victor Zaborsky, assistant director of marketing for MilkPEP. "Of course, MySpace allows you to have friends, so we e-mail our friends when a new celebrity (ad) is launching...and then we sign off with the emoticon."
Zaborsky is uncertain as to whether MilkPEP's emoticon campaign will expand its reach beyond teen-oriented online channels--currently its only medium. "It's really hard to tell," he said when asked whether it would expand into offline media or target a wider demographic. "The emoticon (campaign)'s only about a year old...It's just a way to fit into what they're already doing and be part of their world."
Funny how a 25-year-old piece of Net culture is still considered the stuff of youth marketing.

Google's Blog Software Hijacked by Scammers

2007-03-17T10:35:00.000+05:45

Google's blogger.com is being hijacked to spread malware through fake blogs, a security vendor has warned.
According to Fortinet, Genuine-looking blogs on topics as wide-ranging as "Star Wars, school, furniture, Christmas, cars and girlfriends" are now being created to host a variety of script-initiated malware. It would be impossible for visitors to spot the danger of these sites, which now number in the hundreds, the company said. Although they look genuine, it appears that all the sites have been specially crafted to fool visitors.
Fortinet gives examples of the sites, including one for a supposed fan of the Honda CR450 motor car, which attempts to infect visitors with the Wonka Trojan. In another, the fake blog redirects visitors to a store front purporting to be Pharmacy Express, a phishing site that has turned up in many spam emails distributed by the Stration worm.
"These are not legitimate blogs that were compromised. They appear to be deliberately set up to promote phishing, which is against our terms of service. We are investigating, and blogs found to include malicious code or promote phishing will be deleted," Google said in a statement to CNET.
The fake blog scam is another example of social networking sites - the Internet's big growth area - being exploited for gain. In recent times, MySpace and YouTube have all been used to host or redirect to malware. Last October, MySpace was used as the lure for phishing, while earlier in the year its users were infected with adware from the site.
In November, it was the turn of another Google company, YouTube, to play host attempted redirect scams, this time using fake porn videos as the bait.

World's smallest PC

2007-03-17T10:12:00.000+05:45

It’s only 2×2x2.2 inch! It’s called the Space Cube and it’s supposed to be the smallest personal computer in the world. It has a built-in 300MhZ processor and it’s also equipped with 64MB of SDRAM. There are a bunch of ports visible in the picture, such as USB, Ethernet, Flash memory, a monitor output port, serial connection and even a microphone slot.
The monitor is capable of displaying up to 65k colors at a resolution of 1280×1024 pixels. Less than a year ago, this fancy piece of equipment was retailing ~$325/piece. Isn’t that cool?
Supposing I’d posses ten of these beauties, I would be running a LAN party from a small cardboard box

How to run Vista legally without activation ... for at least a year

2007-03-16T11:10:00.000+05:45

Microsoft calls it a 'hack,' researcher, a 'documented feature'

Windows Vista can be run for at least a year without being activated, a serious end run around one of Microsoft Corp.'s key antipiracy measures, Windows expert Brian Livingston said today.
Livingston, who publishes the Windows Secrets newsletter, said that a single change to Vista's registry lets users put off the operating system's product activation requirement an additional eight times beyond the three disclosed last month. With more research, said Livingston, it may even be possible to find a way to postpone activation indefinitely.
"The [activation] demands that Vista puts on corporate buyers is much more than on XP," said Livingston. "Vista developers have [apparently] programmed in back doors to get around time restrictions for Vista activation."
Microsoft promptly labeled the registry change a "hack," a loaded word that is usually synonymous with "illegal."
"Recently it has been reported that an activation hack for Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system has been identified," said David Lazar, the director of the company's Genuine Windows program, in an e-mail. "Although these reports are purely speculative at the moment, we are actively monitoring attempts to steal Microsoft intellectual property."
"This is not a hack," Livingston shot back when Lazar's e-mail was read to him. "This is a documented feature of the operating system." To back up his view, Livingston pointed out links to online support documents where Microsoft spells out the pertinent registry key. Nor is it speculative; Livingston demonstrated the procedure live via a Web conference session today and claimed "we have run this dozens of times."
Livingston last month revealed that a one-line command lets users postpone Vista activation up to three times. Combined with Vista's initial 30-day grace period, that meant users could run Vista for as long as 120 days before they had to activate the OS. At the time, Microsoft seemed unconcerned with the disclosure and flatly stated that using it would not violate the Vista End User License Agreement (EULA).
"The feature that I'm revealing today shows that Microsoft has built into Vista a function that allows anyone to extend the operating system's activation deadline not just three times, but many times," Livingston said.
Microsoft documented the key on its support site in a description of what it calls "SkipRearm". In it, Microsoft explains that "rearming a computer restores the Windows system to the original licensing state. All licensing and registry data related to activation is either removed or reset. Any grace period timers are reset as well."
By changing the SkipRearm key's value from the default "0" to "1," said Livingston, the earlier-revealed "slmgr -rearm" command can be used over and over.

Google Upgrades Blogger Service

2007-03-16T10:36:00.000+05:45

Google upgraded its Blogger service from the beta that had been in place. There are new security upgrades to the service that give users more options in restricting visitors -- catching up with many competing blogging applications. Also, Google said the new changes work better with its other services, such as AdWords.Google upgraded its Blogger service from the beta that had been in place. The new Blogger is still only available to a select user group, with Google planning to make the upgraded version generally available in the future.
Now, though, "New Blogger" -- as the application is called -- is only available to users that log in via a Google account. Other bloggers can still access the application through "Old Blogger."

In general, the changes implemented smooth the user experience with new tools, such as better drag-and-drop capabilities, the ability to tag posts with keywords -- as users can in Gmail -- and new support for RSS 2.0 and Atom 1.0.
There are new security upgrades to the service that give users more options to restrict visitors -- catching up with many competing blogging applications. Also, Google said the new changes work better with its other services, such as AdWords.
Tying It Together
It is understandable that Google would link Blogger to other products in its platform, Charles King, principal of Pund-IT Research said. "It increases the quality of other Google applications as well as the Google brand," he told TechNewsWorld.
Linking Blogger upgrades to Google e-mail accounts should also increase Google's traction in the blogsphere -- not that Google is in serious need of exposure, he added. "If the only way to get the new features is to become a Gmail user -- which is free -- more people will sign up just for that reason," he explained.
The Beginning of the End?
Google is rolling out its upgraded application amidst speculation that blogging is about to peak as a pastime. Gartner (NYSE: IT) recently predicted that 2007 would be the year that blogging begins to level out with about 100 million blogs remaining active. Thus far, the consulting firm noted, some 200 million bloggers have discontinued or abandoned their Web journals.
Few, though, expect to see blogging disappear completely anytime soon. "Blogging is a strange phenomena," King said. "Its popularity is undeniable, but where it sits in the marketplace and among consumers is unclear."
Indeed, blogs are as diverse as their writers, focusing on just about any subject imaginable for any motive possible. Political blogs, for instance, have been credited with playing significant roles in the past two election cycles. Corporates blogs are becoming popular, as well. Then there are the countless individual blogs that have gained a significant readership.
This diffuse model is another reason for Google to link Blogger to its larger platform, King claimed. "It is smart to link its incremental improvements to its other services rather than emphasizing it as a stand-alone value point."

gOOgLe promises more privacy

2007-03-16T08:44:00.000+05:45

SAN FRANCISCO, California -- Google Inc. is adopting new privacy measures to make it more difficult to connect online search requests with the people making them -- a thorny issue that provoked a showdown with the U.S. government last year.
Under revisions announced late Wednesday, Google promised to wrap a cloak of anonymity around the vast amounts of information that the Mountain View-based company regularly collects about its millions of users around the world.
Google believes it can provide more assurances of privacy by removing key pieces of identifying information from its system every 18 to 24 months. The timetable is designed to comply with a hodgepodge of laws around the world that dictate how long search engines are supposed to retain user information.
Authorities still could demand to review personal information before Google purges it or take legal action seeking to force the company to keep the data beyond the new time limits.
Nevertheless, Google's additional safeguards mark the first time it has spelled out precisely how long it will hold onto data that can reveal intimate details about a person's Web surfing habits.
While Google will still retain reams of information about its users, the changes are supposed to lessen the chances that the company, a government agency or another party will be able to identify the people behind specific search requests.
Privacy experts applauded Google's precautions as a major step in the right direction.
"This is an extremely positive development," said Ari Schwartz, deputy director of the Center for Democracy and Technology. "It's the type of thing we have been advocating for a number of years."
Google is tightening its privacy standards a year after it became embroiled in a high-profile battle over the control of the user information that it had been stockpiling.
While gathering evidence for a case involving online pornography, the U.S. Justice Department subpoenaed the major search engines for lists of search requests made by their users.
While Yahoo Inc., Microsoft Corp.'s MSN and AOL all complied with parts of the legal demand, Google fought the request to protect its users' privacy. A federal judge ordered Google to turn over a small sampling of Web addresses contained in its search index, but decided the company didn't have to reveal the search requests sought by the government.
In another demonstration of the privacy risks posed by search engines, Time Warner Inc.'s AOL last summer released 19 million search requests on the Internet as part of a research project. Although only sets of numbers were attached to the requests, the information was used to identify some of the people behind the AOL searches.
AOL subsequently apologized for the lapse, which triggered the resignation of its chief technology officer and the firings of two other workers.
Google and its rivals all say they keep information about their users so they can learn more about them as they strive to deliver the most relevant responses.
By purging some of the personal information from its computers, Google warned it might not be as effective at improving some services as it has been in the past. "But we believe the additional privacy provided by the change outweighs the benefit of the data we are losing," Google said in a statement to The Associated Press.
The privacy safeguard also could make more people feel more comfortable about relying on Google, an advantage that could help the company widen its already formidable lead in the lucrative search engine market.
Protecting the sanctity of search requests should be a search engine's top priority, said Kurt Opsahl, staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an online civil liberties group. "You are talking about a potential treasure trove of information," he said. "A person's searches reflect their dreams, hopes and fears."
Under its new standards, Google will wipe out eight bits of the Internet protocol, or IP, address that identifies the origin of specific search requests. After the IP addresses are altered, the information will be linked to clusters of 256 computers instead of just a single machine.
Google also will depersonalize computer "cookies" -- hidden files that enable Web sites to track the online preferences and travels of their visitors.
Despite its privacy breach last year, AOL believes it is a step ahead of Google because it doesn't store its users' IP addresses and encrypts whatever personal information that it does collect, spokesman Andrew Weinstein said. AOL keeps the encrypted data for only 13 months, a change prompted by the backlash to last year's mishandling of search requests. Time Warner owns AOL and CNN.
As the owner of the Internet's largest search engine, Google has been under growing pressure to adopt greater privacy controls. Regulators in Europe have been particularly vocal about their concerns.
The new measures pleased Billy Hawkes, Ireland's data protection commissioner.
"It's a very welcome development," Hawkes said. "Personal information should be held on to no longer than it has to be."
Hawkes and other privacy advocates are hoping other search engines will follow Google's lead.
Yahoo, which runs the second largest search engine, was vague about how it might respond.
"Protecting our users' privacy and maintaining their trust is paramount to us, the Sunnyvale-based company said in a statement. "Data retention practices depend largely on the diverse nature of our data as well as the practical considerations of storage costs and processing system requirements."

Larry and Sergey you rOcK

2007-03-13T15:33:00.000+05:45

Hey, I read a book called "The Google Story" and trust me my fellow computer lovers, you will definitely get inspired by knowing more about the Google Gurus!!
I strongly recommend you to read this book atleast once! For more about the book and its author visit www.thegooglestory.com
ENjoY ! ! !

anonymous

2007-02-19T14:36:00.000+05:45

Hey everybody. wassup??
This is my first ever blog!! Just giving a damn try!! haahahahahha