Prakash Advani's Blog

The recent controversy about the AICTE offering about 7.5 million Office 365 accounts in Indian technical education institutions is based on the A2 plan, which Microsoft is offering free of cost. But then, what is the catch?

Reaad More.

Ubuntu 13.04.10 is here.  Torrent is the preferred method for me.

Other releases.

http://releases.ubuntu.com/13.04/ (Ubuntu Desktop and Server)
http://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/releases/13.04/release/ (Ubuntu Cloud Server)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/netboot/13.04/ (Ubuntu Netboot)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-core/releases/13.04/release/ (Ubuntu Core)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/edubuntu/releases/13.04/release/ (Edubuntu DVD)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/releases/13.04/release/ (Kubuntu)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/lubuntu/releases/13.04/release/ (Lubuntu)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntustudio/releases/13.04/release/ (Ubuntu Studio)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-gnome/releases/13.04/release/ (Ubuntu-GNOME)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntukylin/releases/13.04/release/ (UbuntuKylin)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/xubuntu/releases/13.04/release/ (Xubuntu)

As always Have fun 🙂

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Asus Cube (was earlier Qube), looks like an interesting device.

• 5″ Cube, not exactly small enough to fit behind your TV.
• HDMI in and HDMI out
• LAN and Wireless
• 2 USB Ports
• IR Ports for remote
• Remote with keyboard
• Android 3.2 with Google TV
• Streaming media: Google, Amazon and Netflix.
• 50 GB free cloud storage from Google.

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My friend Kiran from HasGeek has got coverage at the FirstPost.

The idea for HasGeek came to him after experiencing first hand the travails of sustaining community-driven events.

“Community events were just not sustainable. Proto, Barcamp, LUG (the Linux Users Group), MoMo (Mobile Monday) Bangalore and OCC (Open Coffee Club) were all community-driven events that died in one way or the other. Not because there was no need for them, because learning from your peers in a bottom-up, community-driven manner still has value. But because its tough for a few committed volunteers alone to keep organising those events year after year,” he says.

What if someone could take away the pain of actually organising the events, leaving the community free to learn from one another?

“I realised then that if you do these events as a full-time commercial activity, they can become sustainable. HasGeek came in not as a representative of the community, but as a “community service provider”,” he says.

HasGeek events are based on an unsubsidised user-pays model with prices ranging from Rs 1000-2000 per day of attending. Sponsors’ funds are used in non-core areas like T-shirts, swag or upgrading the quality of food served. “Doing this has freed us from being sponsor-driven, which is a radical achievement in the events space. For our last two major events, the majority of our revenue came in from participants, something unheard of,” says Jonnalagadda.

Read More.

From:  http://www.slideshare.net/blackducksoftware/the-2013-future-of-open-source-survey-results

Black Duck and North Bridge announce the results of the seventh annual Future of Open Source Survey. The 2013 survey represents the insights of more than 800 respondents – the largest in the survey’s history – from both non-vendor and vendor communities.

Netflix, the popular video-streaming service that takes up a third of all internet traffic during peak traffic hours isn’t just the single largest internet traffic service. Netflix, without doubt, is also the largest pure cloud service.

At the Linux Foundation’s Linux Collaboration Summit in San Francisco, California, Adrian Cockcroft, director of architecture for Netflix’s cloud systems team, after first thanking everyone “for building the internet so we can fill it with movies”, said that Netflix’s Linux, FreeBSD, and open-source based services are “cloud native”.

By this, Cockcroft meant that even with more than a billion video instances delivered every month over the internet, “there is no datacenter behind Netflix”. Instead, Netflix, which has been using Amazon Web Services since 2009 for some of its services, moved its entire technology infrastructure to AWS in November 2012.

Read More.

The Zotac Nano XS is a palm size PC. This can be used to build your own media center solution.

Size is 4 inches X 4 inches X 1.5 Inches and here is the rest of specifications.

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Despite everyone’s high hopes for Windows 8 reviving the slumping PC market, Microsoft’s operating system has exacerbated its losses instead. Windows 8 has been met with mixed reviews, and is often criticized for its steep learning curve and hybrid system of tiles optimized for touch-screen devices.

Bleak numbers from research firm IDC strongly suggest that the release of Windows 8 has contributed to the current free fall of the PC market. For the first quarter of 2013, IDC estimated that global PC shipments declined 13.9% year-on-year to 76.3 million units, worse than the 7.7% decline that it had previously forecast. U.S. PC shipments dropped 12.7% year-on-year. The Asia-Pacific region declined 10.3% year-on-year, with China and India posting the steepest drops.

Global PC shipments have declined for four consecutive quarters. This was also the PC market’s worst decline since IDC started tracking the PC market’s performance in 1994. Total quarterly shipments, at 14.2 million, also dropped to their lowest level since the first quarter of 2006.

Read More.

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While looking for a 3G dongle, I came across the Huawei E355 and found it a very useful device. With this device you can share one 3G plans with up to 5 devices including tablets, laptops and phones there by saving on multiple 3G plans.

Here is what I liked about it.

• You can use any Unlocked 3G SIM inside and it just works. I tried with 2 different services providers and it configured on its own.
• Up to 5 devices can share the device through WiFi, if you include USB you can have 6. One laptop/notebook can use the device as a USB dongle.
• You can save money on your multiple 3G plans specifically if you are on international roaming.
• You can add a MicroSD card and it becomes a USB drive.
• The device size is a small enough, just a little wider than a USB dongle/pen drive.
• It has simple 2 LEDS one for WiFi and one for Mobile connection. The connection LED changes colour to denote 2G or 3G.

Here is what I find is the limitation.

• It doesn’t have any battery built in, however you can power it from any USB port on laptop or USB battery or a USB charger.
• It  supports only 5 devices. Which may be enough now, but if multiple users are sharing, then it is a limitation. 

Note: The default WiFi password is given inside. You need to slide open the cover to see. Once you connect, you can type 192.168.1.1 as the IP and change the default settings.

Available on Amazon and Flipkart.

Overall a good product at a good price.

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Was happy to see the Rasberry Pi available in India.

• Broadcom  700MHz  processor
• 512MB RAM
• Boots from SD card, running a version of the Linux operating system (supplied separately)
• 10/100 BaseT Ethernet socket
• HDMI video socket
• 2 x USB 2.0 sockets
• RCA composite video socket
• SD card socket
• Powered from microUSB socket
• 3.5mm audio out jack
• Header for GPIO and serial buses
• Header footprint for JTAG connector
• Connector for Raspberry Pi HD video camera
• Size: 85.6 x 53.98 x 17mm

Although the $25 computer is available for $65 (Rs. 3003500) with a casing, It is not that much more considering it comes to US$59 ($46 for the board and $14 for the casing) on Amazon with the casing and doesn’t include shipping to India.

Rs. 2950 Board only available from RS

Rs. 3500 Board with casing from Kits and Spares.

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Google unveiled a “patent pledge” that it hopes will shield cloud software and big data developers from the type of litigation that has engulfed the mobile phone industry. The pledge, which is like a non-aggression pact, covers ten patents related to Google’s MapReduce technology.

The pledge, which Google announced on Thursday, says that developers are free to use or sell the technology described in the patents without fear of future lawsuits. The shield applies, however, only to projects based on open source software that is available to all

The ten patents included in Google’s pledge include a controversial one issued last year that covers a form of parallel processing known as MapReduce. The patent gave rise to fears that Google would be able to monopolize tools like Hadoop, which is an integral part of the so-called “big data” revolution that is fueling a wide range of new products and services. Google’s pledge appears intended to allay that fear.

Read More.

Cloud computing represents a fundamental shift in the way technology services will be delivered to enterprises, forcing IT firms to re-look at how they operate now, according to Pat Gelsinger, chief executive officer of VMware, which provides software that enable creation of cloud computing infrastructure within corporate premises.

Gelsinger is convinced that not all major IT firms (including Indian ones) will survive this wave of technology transition. Change may mean sacrificing revenue in the short term said, Gelsinger, an Intel veteran rumoured to replace the retiring incumbent Intel CEO Paul Otellini, a rumour he denied.

Read more.

Do you want a better open source email client ? Do you like Shotwell ? Yorba, the organisation behind Shotwell is looking for raising funds using crowd sourcing to create their next generation email application called Geary . Yorba’s goal is to create world class open source desktop application. Go help them if you think they are doing the right thing. Even if you donate a few dollars that will help. They also have a PPA for an early version if you want to give it a try. Go for it!

Berlin filmmaker Sam Muirhead is attempting to live a completely open source life for one year. Here’s why.

The phrase ‘Open Source’, to many people, means ‘software you don’t have to pay for’—but really it’s so much more than that. It’s a way of thinking and working focused on transparency and collaborating with others. It’s about sharing ideas, plans, and developments for the benefit of the commons. And it’s definitely not just software.

I’ve been following open source closely over the last few years, but as a filmmaker, I never felt like I had skills to contribute to the movement’s development.

But then I realized that everyone, whether librarian, beekeeper, or mechanic, everyone can use the abilities they have in some way to make the world a little better, to help out a cause or an interest they feel is worthwhile. I felt sure that open source could use a filmmaker.

So I’ve started a somewhat insane plan to spread the word about open source, to get others thinking and talking about these ideas of collaboration, transparency, and modification—to show how far open source has come and how far it could go. This will be my Year of Open Source.

For one year I am trying to go as open source as possible, in all aspects of my life—the shoes I wear, the phone I use, even how I get around. I’m not buying any proprietary or traditionally copyrighted products unless all other options are exhausted. I’m looking for and switching to more open, transparent products which are replicable by others, trying to highlight the benefits of treating others as collaborators rather than competitors. I’ll be investigating how the open source philosophy might apply to different areas of life, where it fits well, and where it might not work. Is anybody working on an open source microwave? What would open insurance be like?

Follow his progress on his site.

Free online courseware is the best thing to have happened to learning. Many leading universities have started offering their courses online, mind you these are high quality content from leading institutions around the world.

If you are motivated enough and have the time, there is no limit to your learning.

onlinecourses.com  makes it easy for you to search for you favourite courses across Yale, MIT, Stanford, Harvard and others. It also allows you to track your progress.

With Windows 8 pushing a “touch-first” desktop interface—Microsoft’s words, not ours—and with Valve’s Steam on Linux beginning to bring much-needed games and popular attention to the oft-overlooked operating system, there’s never been a better time to take Linux out for a test drive.

Dipping your toes into the penguin-filled waters of the most popular open-source ecosystem is easy, and you don’t have to commit to switching outright to Linux. You can install it alongside your current Windows system, or even try it without installing anything at all.

Ubuntu is the most popular Linux distribution for desktop and laptop Linux users, so we’ll focus on Ubuntu throughout this guide. For the most part, Ubuntu just plain works. It sports a subtle interface that stays out of your way. It enjoys strong support from software developers (including Valve, since Steam on Linux only officially supports Ubuntu). And you can find tons of information online if you run into problems.

Read more.

Businesses will double the amount of data they send across networks in the next few years. In the US, that means greater use of managed IP. Australia, though, like a lot of countries, is heading in the opposite direction.

Cisco’s Virtual Networking Index provides sophisticated forecasts of how we will use networks over the next few years. It estimates that the amount of data transferred by businesses will increase from 6 trillion gigabytes last year to 12 trillion by 2016. Or, if you prefer, 12,051 petabytes.

Read More.

Since the Ubuntu phone has been announced, many people are getting eager to give it a try. The Ubuntu Touch Developer Preview, which allows you to get a peak into Ubuntu phone and tablet is available for download. Images are available for the following:

Phones: Google Nexus, Nexus 4

Tablets: Nexus 7 and Nexus 10

Please read the disclaimer before you begin:

It is an experimental development snapshot that can potentially brick your device. It does not provide all of the features and services of a retail phone and cannot replace your current handset. This preview is the first release of a very new and unfinished version of Ubuntu and it will evolve quickly.

This process will delete all data from the device. Restoring Android will not restore this data.

Grab your bits here.

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While Samsung is busy launching the Galaxy Grand and Micromax the A116 Canvas HD, Karbonn has launched the S1 Titanium.

All of them are big screen phablets (phone+tablets) and here is what is common and whats not.

• Dual Sim
• 1GB RAM
• Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean)

Here is the difference, Lets see which one rocks.

Micromax has the best display, while Karbon has the snappiest Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. The Karbonn is the best value for money. The price difference of Rs. 4000 for Micromax is huge, Expect them to drop prices even before it is launched. If the price of Micromax is dropped to around Rs. 13,000 it would be worthy paying the extra over Karbonn.

Samsung has launched the Galaxy Grand while Micromax has launched the A116 Canvas HD. Both are big screen phablets (phone+tablets) and here is what is common and whats not.

• 5″ Screens
• Dual Sim
• 1GB RAM
• 8 Megapixel camera
• Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean)

Here is the difference, Lets see which one rocks.

The Micromax has better specifications at a lower price and seems to be better value for money. The Micromax has a better display, Samsung Galaxy Grand has a newer generation processor and hence should give comparable perforamce to Micromax’s Quad Core.