Technology and You

Change of address - http://technyou.supersized.org

2006-03-31T08:42:00.000-08:00

I did my research, and I realized that Blogger is just not the place for me. The features that I want cannot be implemented and I really want to make this blog reach as many people as possible as soon as possible.

If you are not interested in reading this further, point your browser to http://technyou.supersized.org.

I did my research and found this blogging platform comparison. On studying all features, I decided to move to Supersized.org. Supersized runs the Serendipity blogging platform (also known as s9y). I can classify my entries, and tag them with images. The WYSIWYG editor is quite strong and the sidebar plugins provide all information required, including RSS feeds for particular categories (wow!).

Couple of down sides - the templates are non-editable, and the browser does not ping the server while I write/edit posts, which may cause a logoff while I am still writing and I might end up losing my hard written post.

However, I have found a template that is exactly what I wanted, and I have managed to get into the habit of saving my post every minute.

To see the results -> http://technyou.supersized.org.

IE7 Beta - Bugs galore

2006-03-28T04:19:00.000-08:00

You can download the beta version of Internet Explorer 7 here. Then again, you should not. I was quite excited to test this browser as it supports tabs (something that I appreciate), but was sorely disappointed.

Granted, it's beta. It's supposed to have bugs. But the kind of things that are not working are simply unpardonable. Here are two of my biggest peeves:

The back/forward buttons do not work across tabs.
The 'Add to favorites' option just does not work.

Microsoft has now created a bug reporting database (accessible through Microsoft Connect) that people can add to. I hope that Microsoft works towards addressing these bugs. If not, there's always Firefox.

Article category: Internetx

WiFi Phones

2006-03-27T21:37:00.000-08:00

Skype, in association with Netgear has announced a WiFi phone. Calls from mobile phones are only becoming cheaper. However, calling rates are reaching rock-bottom (the providers have to make *some* profit, don't they?).

The latest offering is that of WiFi-enabled phones. We have all, at some point or the other, used VoIP to talk to friends or family. You would probably have used a service such as Skype or Google Talk. The most recent addition is Yahoo Messenger. These allow you to make and receive phone calls from your PC. The rates are phenomenally low. For example, Yahoo lets you make calls at 2 cents per minute.

The Skype Netgear phone aims to leverage this cost arbitrage. The phone is operational near a WiFi hotspot. Calls are made through the Skype service. Therefore, calls to other Skype users (phone-to-PC) are free. Calls to phones are charged at SkypeOut rates. The disadvantage is that you need to be near a hotspot to make calls. The phone maybe useless in other locations (details not disclosed).

We should see a catastrophic drop in calling rates in case these phones and services reach mainstream communication.

Article categories: Internetx Mobilesx

McAfee's faux pas

2006-03-27T06:08:00.000-08:00

A very interesting thing happened recently. McAfee, a 'leading' anti-virus software developer, sent out updates that recognized major commercial software as viruses. For example, it marked MS Excel as a virus. Consequently, users that had selected 'auto-delete' as their default option, suddenly found that Excel and a host of other programs were not available.

This is professional hara-kiri for an anti-virus software. I use McAfee and I was afraid to log into the administrator account of my laptop (updates are only installed when you login as the administrator). To be honest, I still am. Thankfully, I did not have many programs installed.

I'm sure this has severely reduced the trust that people have on McAfee. Moral of the story: Always QC your deliverable.

More details of this can be found in this article from ZDNet news.

Article categories: Softwarex Antivirusx

RSA Challenge

2006-03-27T05:05:00.000-08:00

Want to make lots of money? Here's the key (pun intended). RSA is pretty much the de-facto standard for encryption used extensively in online secure transactions. It's what ensures that the credit card number that you enter while buying an airline ticket cannot be captured by fraudulent people (well, even if they do capture it, they will not be able to make any sense out of it).

RSA primarily uses large semi-prime numbers (you can read more in this Wikipedia article). A semi-prime number is a multiple of two prime numbers.

RSA Labs is running a challenge for finding the factors of some identified semi-prime numbers. The prize for factorizing the largest of them is, hold your breath, USD 200,000. Before you bring out your calculators however, here's a quote from factorizers of a semi-prime number from the list: The effort took approximately 30 2.2GHz-Opteron-CPU years according to the submitters, over five months of calendar time.

The next semi-prime that is to be factorized is (officially referred to as RSA-704):

740375634795617128280467960974295731
425931888892312890849362326389727650
340282662768919964196251178439958943
305021275853701189680982867331732731
089309005525051168770632990723963807
86710086096962537934650563796359 (212 digits)

Article categories: Encryptionx

Widgets

2006-03-26T12:19:00.000-08:00

You might want to check out 'Yahoo! Widgets' widget engine. Widgets are little modules that are placed on your desktop and give you access to little controls/pieces of information. You can check your free disk space, see your local weather forecast, tune into online radios, launch applications, read RSS feeds, etc. They might not provide any great additional functionalities, but they sure are good to look at (remind me to talk about 'The Chocolate Wrapper Theory').

I'd encourage you to check out the coding for these widgets. They provide a good and easy to understand example for XML, which seems to be the de-facto language for next-gen data representation and transport.

Windows Vista will have its own set of widgets in a 'Sidebar'. I guess with a widget engine built into the OS, the days of Yahoo! Widgets are limited.

If you really have the time, check out Kapsules, an alternate widget engine for Windows.

Article categories: Softwarex Desktopx

AJAX

2006-03-26T10:53:00.000-08:00

My first post is on the technology that is reconstructing the web. AJAX stands for Asynchronous JAvascript and XML. AJAX lets you scroll around the world using Google Maps. It saves your email as drafts automatically in Gmail. It completes your friends' Email address as you type in both Yahoo mail and Gmail.

AJAX moves the interaction between a web browser and the server into the background. So you don't have to wait for pages to load. Further, since the server only needs to send updates, and not the entire webpage, the interaction is much faster.

AJAX has now been used to create an online Word Processor, that is compatible with Microsoft Word - intuitively called ajaxWrite. AJAX will probably be the backbone for Yahoo's new mail interface (screenshot) that lets you organize mail just like MS Outlook (drag and drop, filter, rules, etc.). Just imagine, you'll be able to compose documents on ANY PC, regardless of the software installed. It's quite possible, that soon the only software required on a PC will be a web browser.

The biggest advantage is that new versions of software can be rolled out automatically and immediately. There will be no need for purchasing software as CDs. Plus, as the software are hosted online, inline advertisements could be served making their usage free.

Downside, an internet connection becomes mandatory.

Further reading:
A set of articles that provide an in-depth look at Ajax

Article category: Internetx

Introduction

2006-03-26T10:28:00.000-08:00

Hi.

My name is Rohan, and I know a thing or two about technology.

For example, I know that it helps in making life better. I also know that it can be daunting at times. So here I am, trying to make it simple for all of us.

Through this blog I'll try to translate things into normal parlance, so that you and me can make the most out of technology.

Hopefully, we'll also get to know each other better.