Prakash Advani's Blog

Few things are more irritating than having to deal with a format that is incompatible with what you need it to do. It doesn’t matter if it’s a media file, document, or shoe size; it’s just plain frustrating. To make your life easier, check out this list of 101 tools that will allow you to convert just about anything.

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“India has two million gods, and worships them all. In religion all other countries are paupers; India is the only millionaire.”

- Mark Twain

Now you can save tons of money by setting up your own Home phone system using a PC, Linux, Skype and some off the shelf hardware. You can put an Old PC to some good use!

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“India is, the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition. our most valuable and most instructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only.”

- Mark Twain

See earlier posts

Mark Twain on India

Mark Twain’s Quote on reading

Mark Twain’s quote

If you are using low cost point-and-shoot Canon digital camera. You can turn on all sorts of features usually reserved for more expensive SLRs. That includes live histograms, depth-of-field calculation, under and overexposure highlighting, and hold your breath… shooting your pictures in RAW too.

Read this article for more information. This technique uses the freeware firmware CHDK.

From this article:

Market research firm ABI Research, in a late August press announcement entitled “Linux to Be the Fastest-Growing Smartphone OS over the Next 5 Years,” predicted a compound annual growth rate “in excess of 75%.” By 2012, this growth rate means that Linux will “account for nearly 31% of all smart devices in the market … representing more than 331 million cumulative shipments over the same period.”

From a PC World Article.

The Bhutan government liked its first taste of Linux so much that it has come back for seconds, releasing an updated version of its Debian-based operating system that it launched last year.

Dzongkha Debian Linux is a Debian-based Linux operating system built in and for the national language, Dzongkha. It can be easily installed on any PC or used as a Live CD.

Carnegie Mellon University has announced a $300 robot designed to easily enable people to create super-high-resolution panoramic pictures.

See some sample photos.

“There are some parts of the world that, once visited, get into your heart and won’t go.

For me, India is such a place. When I first visited, I was stunned by the richness of the land, by its lush beauty and exotic architecture, by its ability to overload the senses with the pure, concentrated intensity of its colors, smells, tastes, and sounds… I had been seeing the world in black & white and, when brought face-to-face with India, experienced everything re-rendered in brilliant technicolor.”

Keith Bellows, VP – National Geographic Society

Many people ask me if they should switch to Vista. After talking to many organisations which have tried to switch to Vista, I now know why Linux is a better option.

Organisations find that Vista’s hardware requirements is huge and you don’t get any great additional functionality so why spend so much more? The cost is not only in the software upgrades but expensive hardware upgrades. Often the PC may not be upgradable at all and would require buying a new PC.

This is a good opportunity to try Linux on the Desktop. Linux is mature on the desktop, hardware requirements are much lesser and yes now Linux too has all the eye candy that excite end users.

To know more, read this nice article: Five ways Linux is better than Vista

What common between award winning airlines such as Emirates, Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific Airways? They won the awards for the best in-flight entertainment system.

And guess what? Their in-flight entertainment system is powered by Linux.

Some other airline in-flight entertainment systems powers by Linux:   Qantas Airways, Delta and Continental.

These are the invisible Linux which touch people’s lives but you don’t see it.

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Came across this excellent article on How the Mind Affects Your Happiness. Must read if you want to be Happy, who doesn’t?

Be Happy

Related earlier post: The happiest man in the world?

Its a nice experience to get completely non-techy users to switch to Linux, specially your own folks. The main advantage is that if they often call you for computer problems then they won’t call you as often.

Hardware rarely fails, its the software which is a problem. With viruses and spyware infecting  Windows PCs all the time, switching Linux is a great choice.

Read this nice article for more reasons.