Prakash Advani's Blog

[amazon_link id=”0470339454″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ][/amazon_link]Earlier Microsoft sued Android phone makers, now Oracle is suing Google for Android. Patents were to protect innovators instead its being used to stop innovation.

The big old daddies of the IT industry are going after the new companies.

The old ones have nothing new to innovate. Thy are too comfortable in their zone to make the big bold moves. These companies are eventually going to get extinct and are only resting on their past laurels. They are utilising their patent portfolios to make money and stop other companies from innovating.

HTC is paying $5 for every Android phone to Google Microsoft , yes Microsoft! Microsoft makes more money than Google on every Android phone for patents! The business models is similar to the Mafias asking for protection money. The patents hoarders are the new age Mafia.

If you don’t believe me they are going to be extinct? Do your maths. If you bought Microsoft stock 10 years back for $60, today it would be worth US$28. You would have lost more than 50 percent of your value in 10 years. This is for a company that controls the software on 90 percent of the computers.

Now Google is buying patents, not because they need them. But to have a defensive patent portfolio. You see in the tech industry the big 800 pound gorillas never get sued by other gorillas because they have a patent portfolio.

From Google’s Blog:

The tech world has recently seen an explosion in patent litigation, often involving low-quality software patents, which threatens to stifle innovation. Some of these lawsuits have been filed by people or companies that have never actually created anything; others are motivated by a desire to block competing products or profit from the success of a rival’s new technology. The patent system should reward those who create the most useful innovations for society, not those who stake bogus claims or file dubious lawsuits. It’s for these reasons that Google has long argued in favor of real patent reform, which we believe will benefit users and the U.S. economy as a whole.

Google wants to purchase patents from Nortel Network, a company now gone bankrupt (you cant live on patents for too long you see). Microsoft has a license from Nortel Network and fears Google may cancel their license.

Reuters:

Microsoft, which claims a “worldwide, perpetual, royalty-free license to all of Nortel’s patents” following a 2006 deal, said in a filing with a Delaware bankruptcy court that existing agreements should be transferred to any new owner of the intellectual property, which spans many fields.

Google has bid $900 million to buy more than 6,000 patents and patents applications belonging to Nortel, a once mighty Canadian network equipment maker that filed for bankruptcy protection in January 2009.

Glyn Moody says:

I mean, let’s be consistent here: if you want to abuse the patent system, expect to be on the receiving end of similar abuse. On the other hand, rather more laudably, why not stop abusing, in which case you can take the moral high ground when others start abusing the system to attack you?

Its high time we replace the patent system with open source and let the innovation happen again.

Hong Kong Broadband Network Limited is offering high speed 1Gbps Internet at Rs 900 only! at that price I get a 4 Mbps connection. What if we had such a high speed?

[amazon_link id=”B003QNLTLC” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ][/amazon_link]
Here is direct Torrent and download links for Ubuntu 11.04, have fun 🙂 I have provided both Torrent links (which I prefer) and directly downloads:

Note: With this release, the Desktop and Netbook releases are merges with a single Unity interface, hence there is no sepearate Netbook edition. If you want to Install Ubuntu on a Netbook, download the Ubuntu Desktop Edition. If you have any of the older Netbooks, pick the 32-bit version. Download the 64-Bit version only if you have a newer processer like the AMD fusion which support 64-Bit.

Other Downloads.

What is special about the Open-PC?

• Hardware and Software is selected by the Linux Community
• The PC is preconfigured and easy to use by everybody
• Telephone and Email support is included.
• Only free software is used, including the drivers
• Only fully documented hardware is used
• There are different manufacturers who build and sell the Open-PCs
• A part of the price is a donation to KDE
• Everything, including the software, is developed in the open. Everybody can contribute.

Open PC.

After Oracle’s acquisition of Sun, OpenOffice was forked to create LibreOffice. Since LibreOffice is derived from OpenOffice, they have all the feature of OpenOffice plus more.

Here is full list of features and few useful ones:

• Import SVG pictures* into Draw and edit them interactively.
• Import MS Works, Lotus WordPro and Wordperfect files.
• Presentation view extension bundled by default.
• OpenOffice quick start available. This loads the basic libraries in memories thereby speeding up startup time.
• And lots of language packs.

Ubuntu 11.04 will bundle LibreOffice.

This article has a nice list of 50 open source applications for science education.

Open Source: Astronomy and Space Exploration

1. Celestia

A perennial favorite, Celestia allows users to view the night skies from any point on earth at any time or to see how the sky would look from any point in the known universe. The interface is simple to use, and it uses real telescope imagery of stars, planets, asteroids, and other objects in space whenever possible. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X.

2. Stellarium

Stellarium is like having your own personal planetarium on your computer. In fact, it’s such an accurate depiction of the night sky seen with the naked eye or simple binoculars that it’s used by many planetariums. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X.

. KStars

KStars offers the same functionality as Stellarium, plus some tools for amateur astronomers, like an observing list, FOV editor, altitude vs. time tool, and more. It comes with a default catalog of all stars up to magnitude 8, but you can expand it with a catalog of stars up to magnitude 16. Operating System: Windows, Linux.

4. PP3

An excellent tool for teachers, PP3 creates star charts that are detailed enough for use in PowerPoint presentations or books. Note that in order to use it, you will also need LaTeX. Operating System: Windows, Linux.

5. Cartes du Ciel (Skycharts)

Another option for creating star charts, Cartes du Ciel uses data from 16 different catalogs. Don’t let the French name scare you off—there’s plenty of English documentation. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X.

6. Open Luna

If looking at pictures of the sky isn’t good enough for you, Open Luna is an open-source project dedicated to sending actual spacecraft into space and eventually the moon. The group’s first mission is scheduled to launch next month. Operating System: N/A.

7. DevelopSpace

DevelopSpace has an even more ambitious goal—developing the necessary technology to enable a one-way trip to Mars in the near future. Students and others who get involved can contribute directly to solving the technical challenges posed by a mission to Mars. Operating System: N/A.

See the complete list.

I went for a wikipedia meetup in Mumbai and learned a new way to create your own books. You can pick various articles on Wikipedia and create your own book. Very impressive I must say.

On Wikipedia:Bookshelf you will find all the books thats created.  Go to Wikibooks to create your own book, just like I created my first book 🙂

The HTML 5 standard is looking promising. Currently Crome and Opera  has very good support, Firefox has some support for HTML5, Firefox 4 will have complete support. Most of the browsers will be fully supporting it in the next 6-12 months.

HTML 5 will offer many features which today requires additional plugins like Flash.

Here are some of the key features:

• Direct support for video. HTML 5 has tags for running videos within the browser without the need for Flash. this will improve video integration and performance.  This requires your browser to support various codecs as well such as H.264  You can test if your browser already supports this: http://www.youtube.com/html5
• 2D drawings, so you can ask your brower to draw an image, and it will do it. Its vector graphics instead of raster graphics which is gif,jpegs, pngs, etc. Hence the files are smaller in size.
• Offline web-application support, so you can run web applications even if you are offline.
• Drag and drop support. you can drag files from your computer and attach to your gmail. You can try this if you have crome installed.

Aviary has launched an HTML 5 based photo editor, have a look.

If you are more interested, check the video on Introduction to HTML 5

Thanks to the efforts of the European Commission: Apple, Motorola, Nokia, Blackberry and Samsung will release phones with standard microUSB chargers.

This will make it easy for customers as one charger can charge all their phones, will reduce the e-waste and bring standardisation.

If you are in the market for a new phone, ensure that its using microUSB.

Read the complete article, if you are interested.

Now its time for notebooks and netbooks to standardise on a common charger. It should be 12 volts so that car batteries can be used in places where power is a problem.

Six months after the British Medical Association rubbished homeopathy as witchcraft with no scientific basis, IIT scientists have said the sweet white pills work on the principle of nanotechnology.

Read more: IIT-B team shows how homeopathy works – The Times of India

This is good news for people practicing Homeopathy. Many Homepaths just give medicines without telling you what it is. The important bit to remember is to find a doctor who prescribes you which medicine to take, so you know what you are taking.

In the recent past many of the Indian insurance companies have launched websites that offer term insurance at very lost costs.

They are able to offer low costs, as they have bypassed the insurance agents as you purchase them online. What they don’t realise that the agents do all the running around for the customer which now the customer has to do on his/her own.

Customers don’t mind doing it, if they are saving lots of money. But the biggest challenge that they will face is, that these web sites are very poorly designed. And to make things more difficult, they are only designed for Internet Explorer or Flash. Well the insurance companies should know by now: Internet Explorer is not the only browser around and definitely the most secure browser around.

People have moved on to either Firefox or now Google Crome/Cromium. Also people are increasing using devices which don’t even run Windows so they don’t have internet explorer around. If you are using Linux, Mac, sorry no insurance policy for you? What about people coming from phones such as Android, iPhones, they too can’t buy the insurance.

Here are the problems that I found with some of these popular online insurance websites. Some were serious compatibility issues with Firefox and Crome browsers, while others had poor usability. The biggest pain point was the option to purchase insurance online was hidden somewhere deep inside in some of these websites, so it took time to first find the option.

• ICICI Pru Life: They have one of the better websites, easy to use. Its flash driven, works on Internet explorer only. The first page loads perfectly and then it goes to the second page to ask to fill up all your personal details. If you are using Firefox or Crome, you only discover this, after you fill up the entire form, you hit on the submit button and nothing happens. And yes, if you want to cancel your application, you can’t do it online, you have to visit the branch, fill up a form and then you get your money back.
• Kotak Life Insurance: This is a tad better, if you use Firefox, you can’t buy any insurance. It tells you:This site can only be viewed in Internet Explorer 6.0 and above sorry! go away 🙂
• Metlife: You cannot get past the first page. The drop down for Duration of the term of the insurance doesn’t work on Firefox. I also installed Firefox4.0 Beta and it still didn’t work.
• Aegon-Religare: I was able to get past the first screen. The first screen asks you to put in your expenses and works out your insurance for you, didn’t find a way for you to change your insurance and it re-calculate your premium.
• HDFC Standard Life: Had no option to first calculate your premiums. You are first expected to input all your personal details include 3 phone numbers before you can get past the first screen. I finally added all the details. After inputing everything, it didn’t go further as the check box for “I accept terms and conditions” did not work. I tried even with Firefox 4.0, but no luck.

None of these websites were standards compliant, what these companies don’t know that the internet was built on open standards and by breaking standards, they are loosing customers. What I last heard was even, being much cheaper, the percentage of people buying online insurance was very small. No wonder.. God bless these insurance company, they need serious help!

Came across this interesting list of:

50 Awesome Open Source Apps You’ve (Probably) Never Heard Of

Note: Most of the apps are Windows based..

Malsow’s 5 Hierarchy of needs is commonly know to people, this was updated to 8 a while back.

1. Biological and Physiological needs – air, food, drink, shelter, warmth, sex, sleep, etc.

2. Safety needs – protection from elements, security, order, law, limits, stability, etc.

3. Belongingness and Love needs – work group, family, affection, relationships, etc.

4. Esteem needs – self-esteem, achievement, mastery, independence, status, dominance, prestige, managerial responsibility, etc.

5. Cognitive needs – knowledge, meaning, etc.

6. Aesthetic needs – appreciation and search for beauty, balance, form, etc.

7. Self-Actualisation needs – realising personal potential, self-fulfillment, seeking personal growth and peak experiences.

8. Transcendence needs – helping others to achieve self actualisation.

I found the 8th one inspiring and probably answers one of the reasons why people create open source software. It further says:

Inherent in the nature of humans is the desire to improve and better ourselves. This process of going  beyond our current limitations is often referred to as “self transcendence.”  Self Transcendence can apply to any aspect of our being; the physical self transcendence of running faster; the mental self transcendence of going beyond our purely egoistic thinking.

However at the heart of self transcendence is a spiritual concept that we are growing into a more illumining nature and gaining a wider perspective of our true self.

Self transcendence is not competing with others. Self transcendence is a personal journey of self discovery. To practise self transcendence we need personal effort, willingness to change. However self transcendence needs to involve an awareness that our success doesn’t just involve our “little I”, but also the universal self (or bigger  “I”).

Spiritual seekers have experienced self transcendence as the grace that allows them to be aware of the infinite consciousness of inner delight. In this spiritual self transcendence the different religions and spiritual practises converge on the common teaching of going beyond the limitations of the ego and being aware of our higher Source. This Higher Self is called by many different names, but ultimately is beyond any metaphysical concept.

The practise of Self transcendence is not limited to those who are overtly religious. Any human being who strives for greater perfection and a higher perspective is practising a form of self transcendence, and it is this self transcendence that gives us joy.

Here is the above Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs diagram in OpenOffice format if you need to edit.. If you make it better, send it back to me.

The US Department of the Interior is looking for a mailing solution for its 88,000 employees.

Their tender asks for “Microsoft’s Business Productivity Online Suite-Federal (BPOS-Federal)”. They justify by saying:

“Based on extensive market research, the Department determined that although many companies can provide messaging services in general, they either cannot provide services that address the complexity of messaging requirements within DOI, or they could not meet the degree of security required by DOI”

Google points out that BPOS-Federal is a new product, and that there are no case studies or known customers who have implemented this product. In addition, BPOS-Federal has not been properly certified by any government agency at any risk level. Despite all this, the DOI still demands this tool.

This is a good move, it will encourage the US and other  government to consider open source and stay away from proprietary solutions. To find an 800 pound gorilla [read Microsoft] , you need an elephant [Google] 🙂

Q: Why is an elephant big, grey and wrinkly?

A: Because if it was small, white and hard it would be an aspirin.

Read more on OS News.

Buddha, one day, was in deep thought about the worldly activities and the ways of instilling goodness in human beings. The following is the text of conversation between him and his disciple.

One of the disciples approached him and said humbly “Oh my teacher! While you are so much concerned about the world and others, why don’t you look into the welfare and needs of your own disciples also?”.

Buddha: OK…Tell me how I can help you?

Disciple: Master, My attire is worn out and is beyond the decency to wear the same. Can I get a new one please?

Buddha found the robe indeed was in a bad condition which needed replacement. He asked the store keeper to give the disciple a new robe to wear on. The disciple thanked Buddha and retired to his room.

Though he met his disciple’s requirement, Buddha was not all that contended on his decision. He realized he missed out some point. A while after, he realized, what he should have asked the disciple? He went to his disciple’s place and asked him “Is your new attire comfortable? Do you need anything more?”

Disciple: Thank you my Master. The attire is indeed very comfortable. I need nothing more.
Buddha: Having got the new one, what did you do with your old attire?
Disciple: I am using it as my bedspread.
Buddha: Then…hope you have disposed off your bed spread.
Disciple: No…no…Master. I am using my old bedspread as my window curtain.
Buddha: What about your old curtain?
Disciple: Being used to handle hot utensils in the kitchen
Buddha: Oh…I see…Can you tell me what they did with the old cloth they
used in Kitchen?
Disciple: They are being used to wash the floor.
Buddha: Then, the old rug being used to wash the floor…????
Disciple: Master, since they were torn off so much, we could not find
any better use, but to use as a twig in the oil lamp, which is right
now lit in your study room….

Buddha smiled in contentment and left for his room.

Ubuntu 10.10 is finally here. This new release is more  consumers focused and does numerous usability improvements.

Here are the download links. I have provided both Torrent links (which I prefer) and directly downloads:

Other Downloads.

Ubuntu 10.10 Videos demonstrating what’s new.

Smooth-Stone, a chip startup company is coming up with low powered ARM processors to power servers.  ARM processors have been very successful in smart phones consuming less than 1 watt at its peak and still running at upto 1 GHz. They have now started moving into tablets (iPad), Netbooks, Plug Computers, personal servers and more. It is interesting to see how  they stackup in terms of processing power per watt.

The news was that Facebook is  planning to use this in their upcoming data center which Facebook denied, however low powered server  is still interesting.  Good news for the environment.

HTC Android phones: Wildfire, Legend and Desire http://bit.ly/do43VC

For a while now, many of the leading institutes of the world have released all their courseware under and open license. Which means anyone can download them and use them.

OpenCourseWare Consortium has a list of all courseware and institutes that are participating.

Some of the well known institutes:

• IIM Bangalore
• MIT
• UC Berkeley
• And many more.

Happy Learning 🙂

What is Positive affirmations?

Its a positive thought that you say/write/think.

How do I create one?

• It has be present tense.
• It has to be positive.
• It has to be personal.
• It has to be specific.

Why present tense?

Because you want to start working on it right away, you want to send a message to your inner conciousness that thats want you want to focus your energy on.

Does it work?

Yes it does, Most successful people do it, those who tell you that they don’t do it, don’t want you to know.

Scott Adam of Dilbert fame, did it! He wrote his goal 15 times a day.

I’ve often written about my own experiences with affirmations, the practice of writing your goals 15 times a day. It seems to work much of the time, at least in my experience, but presumably not because of any magic. At least one probable explanation for its perceived effectiveness is that focusing on goals changes the person who is doing the focusing.

Read his blog post if you want to know more.

How often do I do it?

Everyday preferablly, multiple times a day if need be.

Example of usage:

If you always think you are poor, you have no money, its not going to help. Its best to do a positive affirmation like this.

I am rich. I have all the money that I need. New sources of income open up each day.

To be specific, you can say: I am rich by xyz date.

Don’t say: I want to be rich, cause affirmation has to to present tense..

See this site for examples of positive affirmations and to manage your affirmations.

Bmindful.com