Prakash Advani's Blog

Nice article.

Five crucial things the Linux community doesn’t understand about the average computer user

Most digital cameras especially SLRs are now using RAW file format which retains all the details unlike jpg file formats which is a lossy compression.

Now Linux users can also use RAW. You can use the UFRaw, which can also be used as a plugin for gimp.

We often see when a customer is stuck with a problem, hardware guys blame the software guys and software guys blame the hardware guys.

Now Microsoft is using the same tack ticks, they blame Windows crashing to Memory! Now can they explain why Linux doesn’t crash on the same hardware?

Read More.

Phishing sites are sites which claim to be a popular site but in reality they are trying to steal you credit card data or worse still,  transfer money from your bank account.

To protect you self, you can use the Netcraft Anti-Phishing Toolbar.

I have used this on Firefox and it works well and blocks all the dangerous sites even if you accidently click on them. It also shows a risk rating for any web site you visit.

Its a must for every for every web user.

PC World has an interesting article on why the days of Shrink-Wrapped Software’s are Numbered.

Software is facing the same fate as the hardware industry, Lane said, in which profit margins shrank from 70 percent at its peak to about 20 percent today as hardware became a commodity.

Getting your webcam to work on Linux, used to be tricky but one mans effort has changed all this.

Michel Xhaard decided to go ahead and write Linux drivers for 235 USB webcams. Well writing a Linux driver is not an easy thing and writing 235 of them is a lot of work!

If you are looking for a Linux driver for your web cam, you can directly head to his web site. If you find his drivers useful, you are also encouraged to donate some money or even a web cam which doesn’t work on Linux will help him.

Linus Torvalds once said:

“We’re back to the times when men where men and wrote their own drivers”

Now if you that inspired you to show your manhood ) not that I am not biased towards women and women are encouraged too.

Here is a tutorial on how to write a Linux device driver.

After using Nokia 6230i for a while now, I was wondering if I should switch to a new phone. After some investigating, can’t really find something that fits into my needs.

I am looking for something that has the following:

• 3G support or atleast EDGE.
• WiFi
• Smart Phone capabilities.
• Candy Bar, I don’t like flip phones as flip phones are not very easy to operate with one hand.
• Support for MP3 and stereo bluetooth.
• Decent Camera atleast 3 MP, not that I use my mobile camera much but having a camera which can be used when you need to take a quick picture and don’t have your digital camera, helps.
• Expandable Memory
• Uses standard SD/Mini-SD memory.
• Reliable OS, preferably Linux.

After searching on GSMArena.com I found that very few phones actually meet my requirements.

- Some Nokia do, but their OS Symbian really slows down things.

- Sony Ericsson meets some of the needs but uses a proprietary memory card (Memory Stick).

- Many Windows Mobile phones have all these, but Windows is very unreliable and can’t imagine a phone OS crashing.

- Palm Treos are decent and meets most of my needs but looks like they are going to launch Linux ones by year end. They don’t have Wi-Fi though.

Palm chief executive, Ed Colligan said the introduction of Linux would “improve the reliability and performance and stability” of Palm products.

Thats good news, as Palm really understand how to make good pda+ mobile phones. They also have the largest number of applications, which they are planning to create a kind of Palm OS emulation on Linux so you can run them.

So time to wait?

Using Wordpress 2.1 and above?

Check out this article on  Advanced WYSIWYG in Wordpress 2.1

Alt-Shift-V in Firefox for Linux shows Advance WYSIWYG features in Visual editing.

You can use this site to generate a Wordpress theme. This can be done without any knowledge of web publishing.

For those who came in late. What is Wordpress? Its a popular web blogging software, also this site uses wordpress.