Prakash Advani's Blog

Virus playing havoc with your computer?
Still using Windows? (Linux Users seldom have these problem).
Toasted your hard drive?

This article may help.

Hard Drive Data Recovery Guide

Also see Ultimate Boot CD

For those who are still struggling with Windows 🙂 Here is a list of 46 Freeware Utilitites to make your life simple.

Interesting article about digg.com:

Cheatsheet: What is Digg?

I have been following slashdot.org for a while and recently came across digg. I find digg to be having more articles of interest to me.

From the article on Eweek, open source tools are on the top. Some open source ones in the list.

PHP
Perl
Ruby and Ruby on Rails
Python

Happy coding 🙂

Interesting blog post.

I have been looking for tools which allows you to create cross platform applications as well as be able to host the same application on the Web.

I came across XAMPP which run on Linux, Mac, Windows and even Solaris!

Its a bundle of Apache, MySQL, PHP/Perl and other goodies to all these platforms. If you can do with Web based apps this would work. You can always use AJAX if you need more rich client experience.

This can be used to host applications which can be developed in PHP or Perl.

A big advantage of this is that you can use several of open source applications written for the LAMP stack such as Media Wiki, Drupal, etc. which can be used for creating intranets.

Disadvantage would be that this may not as portable as Java or Mono.

Check it out. – XAMPP.

Today governments in India are building software export zone and special economic zones to encourage trade and exports. The Biggest problem with these is even if to does manage to attract foreign companies to setup up shops, it does nothing to encourage them to move their people.

When organisations setup shops in India, the primarily objective is to reduce cost. They manage to reduce costs but are just not able to entirely replicate their businesses here. Organisations is about people and when the organisation setup shops, the most difficult thing for them is to displace their key people from their home country. Even if the people are willing to move, they find it difficult to adjust to the culture and lifestyle as they are used to a certain way of living and any change is painful. The end result is that the key person may get de-motivated and would want to return back orr you may not always get the best people to move. This results in Limited success and limits the growth of their business in India.

A solution to this is to build theme cities in collaboration with respective countries. For example a mega city can be build in India in collaboration with USA. India can offer land (which is in abundance), and freedom to build it the way they want it. The land can be offered in places where there is no development at all or is underdeveloped. If the US can convert a barren desert to beautiful city Las Vegas (a popular tourist destination and a huge economy in itsef) I am sure they can do the same to an undeveloped region in India.

Imagine a US like city being setup in India. This would borrow it name from a US region. Example Silicon Valley 2.0! It would have the Wallmarts, McDonalds, Pizza Huts and even the Hard Rock Cafe. It would have the roads and all the infrastructure such an airport similar to the ones in the US. It would have an international airport too so that a flight from the US can directly fly in here. It would have the apartments and perhaps its own little Disney land.

It would offer the partner country to have its own laws, rules and regulations. For example US companies may like their own labor laws. So even if they hire Indians, they may want to get their own managers easily (without having too much hassle for work permits) and may want a capitalist friendly labour laws.

This should be looked upon not only to attract investments but also as a tourist destination. Once this is successful, we can have other theme cities. How about collaborating with Japan, Germany, UK, France and even China? It would be interesting as Indians can experience other countries without even visiting them!

Wiki is a great way for multiple people to collaborate and work on documents. TiddlyWiki is a personal Wiki and is very easy to use. Here are some good features.

– Doesn’t require any setup to be done.
– Doesn’t require any hosting, anyone with a browser can use it.
– Supports most of the Wiki formatting tags.
– Open Source.

Support for a specific hardware on Linux has always been a concern , most Linuxers check for compatiblity before they buy the hardware. Here are some sites which has a compatiblity database which can be referred to before doing a purchase.

Phoronix.com

LinuxCompatible.org

I have used various mass transport systems such as trains and buses; cable cars, roller coasters at amusements parks and cars/taxis as well. Most of these have various limitations because of which not every one prefers to use them and prefer to take taxis or have their own vehicles.

The goal of the next generation mass transport system should be to provide a viable alternative to both existing mass tranports such as trains and buses and private vehicles.

Here are some thoughts on what an ideal mass transport system should be like.

The system should use tracks like trains, it should have small capsules like cable cars and should be designed in a way that each of the capsules can be used only when it is occupied by passenger/s.

It should be controlled centrally whereby the speeds, routing, etc. are all controlled centrally and fully automated with an option for the user to manually override, only in case of an emergency.

It should allow the flexiblity of taking the vehicle close to the persons home or work place rather than only going from point to point.

Advantages over cars/taxis

• The pre-laid out tracks would ensure that proper lanes and certain speeds are maintained.
• Being automated, it would reduce the chance of collisions. Most of the accidents that happen today, are due to human errors and this can be eliminated with automation.
• This can be build using zero emission fuels such as electricity thereby reducing the dependency of fossil fuels all together.

Advantage over trains and buses

• Today the trains/buses need to run even if there are just a few passengers. With this new system, the user can engage a capsule only when there are sufficient people to occupy it.
• Since the capsule can be small (to accommodate 2-4 people) it can be used optimally even if there are only a few passengers.
• Tracks for running a small capsule is easier than laying out tracks for a train to run as it can bend around roads much easily.
• This system offers a degree of privacy that a bus/train cannot offer because of which families prefer to use their own private vehicle.
• Like a taxi, a customer will be able to direct the capsule close to where he/she wants to go, unlike a train/bus which drops off only upto a certain point.

Limitations or disadvantages

• People today trust a vehicle being run by a driver, they may not trust a system without anyone visble to manage it.
• People may still prefer cars since they can offer more privacy, comfort and personalisation than public transport.
• People may feel insecure traveling alone all by themselves.

I have often heard about people’s concern about how much information your bank/credit card companies knows about you. Friends has also questioned how much information Google knows about you. But the most information that anyone knows about you is the mobile service company.

Here is all the things they know about you:

The cellphone you use, how often do you change your handset and when.
Where you live, based on which cell site you connect to and where do you travel to everyday and how often you travel.
Where you went, which route you took and how much time did you spend there.
Who you called and how often. They even know who do you call most often. They can even listen to your conversation if they like.
They can build a social network based on this information on who calls who.
They can combine the location information with the who you called and get how often you met the person based on both people connecting to the same cell site.
If you always call a friend when you travel to a different city, they know that as well.

Has the mobile service provider provided a privacy statement that they will not disclose your information? If not, they can use all this information.

It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most
intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to
change.

– Charles Darwin

thinkexist.com is a good site to find your favourite quote.

Financial Times article talks about Oracle looking at buying a Linux company.

After Red Hat acquired Jboss, Elison feels that Oracle needs to fill in a missing piece by acquiring a Linux company.

So who will Oracle acquire? Red Hat or Novell?

My Friend Atanu Dey, introduced me to Freemind, a mind mapping software.

The software allows you to put your thoughts and ideas quickly together in an nice graphical way. What I liked about the software:

• Free and Open Source
• Cross platform – works on Linux, Windows and Mac.
• Extremely easy to use, you get used to it in a few minutes.
• Export your work has HTML files, Images (GIF, JPEG, etc), or even OpenOffice.org

A friend of mine was comparing all the phones, criteria was the phone should have the latest bells and whistles while it should be within an affordable Price Range: Indian Rupees 10-15,000 (US$250-300)

All phones have Bluetooth, MP3 and are CandyBar (Non-Clamshell) Style.

Here is a comparison:

Notes:

EDGE: Is an upgrade to GRPS providing highspeed data connectivity, depends on service availability in your region.
Push2Talk availability also depends upon your service provider and hasn’t yet become very popular.
Hot swappable Memory allows memory to be changed, without opening the phone.

Suggestions:

The Best value for money is the Samsung X700, has most of the desired features at a decent price.

If you want better quality camera and willing to spend a little more then SonyEricsson K750i is an option.

L7 is the best and sleekest looking one, so if looks matters to you, its a good one. It can also be charged using a standard USB cable.

Nokia 6230i is a decent phone for people who are already using Nokia and don’t want to move out.

Money is the basic need of every person, which is required to satisfy basic needs such as food, clothing and shelter. Lets take an example, when a person is earning 50,000 and his basic needs are satisfied with 40,000, he is happy that he is able to meet his basic needs, and is a happy person.

When the same person starts earning 100,000 then his consumption also proportionately increases. Economist call this “marginal propensity to consume“.

This gets the person into a vicious cycle where his needs starts getting into greed. His needs keeps increasing and then it become a greed.

This is the reason why you would find that people are never satisfied with money and as economist says “human wants are unlimited“.

To be satisfied with the money you have, you need to keep your needs limited or have unlimited money. But even if you have unlimited money, you would never be able to satisfy the unlimited wants.

Richard Stallman – Founder of Free Software Foundation, says I don’t like expensive luxuries. he often prefers to travel by the cheapest means of travel. He also calls kids as expensive luxuries 🙂

Once you get out of the vicious cycle you start enjoying life more. Rather than focusing on satisfying your basic needs you can now focus on bigger things that you always wanted to do. You are also able to dream and work towards achieving your dreams.

We often find Indians living in India are struggling with their basic needs but when the same person goes to the West, he/she is able to go beyond the basic needs. You find people writing books, becoming management gurus and achieving their goals. This doesn’t mean that the person can’t do the same in India but when you have millions of people around you which are competing to satisfy their basic needs, you get pushed into the rat race to earn more. Once you realise this, you are able to focus more on your goals rather than your basic needs.

The solution around this to keep your basic needs limited even when your income increases. This way you are not spending more, have more money than you need and money doesn’t become a concern anymore.

After releasing almost every software under the Sun as Open Source, Sun is now open sourcing its UltraSPARC T1 processor design. Now when is Sun going to release Java under an Open Source license?

Read more.

Don’t be surprised if some Chinese company starts manufacturing Sparc Processors.

Cnet did a 7 round testing on the Dual cores offered by AMD and Intel and finally AMD was awarded the winner.

Read the full review.

Also read previous Post which explains why:

Intel’s dual-core Pentium 4 a rush job

I hate it when colleagues sitting 5 feet away send an IM message, when they can just yell.

If you think that electronic communications (email, SMS, IM) is improving communications, think again. It is actually creating new barriers to communications and we continue to complain of the communication gaps in our various relationships.

As social interactions get more electronic, it loses its human touch. When you hear a voice you can feel the person’s emotions. When you talk face to face, you can not only feel the emotions but also see the person.

If you meet people who use a lot of email communication, you would notice that they have difficulty in communication in person or would speak very briefly on the phone. They have difficulty in being a social being. This also alienates them from communicating with everyone as they prefer only electronic communication which limits them to the people that they can talk to.

A few suggestions. Use electronic communication only when necessary or when it is the most effective way. For example if you want to let a group of people know something then email, SMS is easy to send out.

My preferred means of social interaction.

• Meet in person, specially when you are in in the same vicinity.
• If you can’t meet, call on the phone. In large cities, people are far away and commuting takes time, in that case use the phone.
• Email, SMS, IM only if don’t have a choice. Either you are too far away or you need to have an official commuication.