Techno-Freek

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Location: Hyderabad, India

7/31/2005

Video from Discovery's Solid Rocket Booster!

This video is not up on NASA's site yet, but it is at MSNBC. NASA attached a small video camera on one of the two solid rocket boosters launched with Discovery last week. The video, with sound, shows the separation from the shuttle and the booster's plunge back to earth. IE only unfortuantely :( Click here for video.

7/30/2005

Yahoo! Toolbar for Mozilla Firefox

Yahoo! Toolbar Product Manager Jon Granrose writes in with news that version 1.0 of the Yahoo! Toolbar for Mozilla Firefox is now available: "We just released the first non-beta Yahoo! Toolbar for Firefox. All the usual good stuff such as portable bookmarks, plus a resizable search box, right-mouse-click and open in tab for toolbar buttons, and support for trunk builds, among other things."

The official Yahoo! Search Blog has a post with more details about the Yahoo! Toolbar 1.0 for Firefox. As well as the new functionality that Jon mentioned, this latest version also adds several other new tools, including the ability to add RSS and Atom feeds to My Yahoo! using the Live Bookmarks icon on the Status Bar. It also retains all the features from the beta versions, such as new mail notification for Yahoo! Mail.

Yahoo! made their first beta version of the Yahoo! Toolbar for Firefox available in February. An April upgrade saw the Yahoo! Toolbar for Firefox gain support for Mac OS X and Linux.

Yahoo! rival Google released a beta version of the Google Toolbar for Firefox earlier this month, Amazon's A9.com search engine has had a Firefox toolbar since last year and Ask Jeeves started offering a toolbar for Firefox in March.

7/27/2005

Microsoft's Virtual Earth

Microsoft's Virtual Earth is really a competitor to Google Maps, Google's browser-based local information service. Virtual Earth does have some features that Google Maps doesn't, such as its "Scratchpad"--a place to store addresses that also lets you quickly e-mail them, or insert them into a blog on MSN's Spaces service. It also has Permalinks--the ability to create a URL that links to a local map with whatever businesses or other addresses you've added to it. But Virtual Earth's standout feature is Locate Me, which figures out where you are so you can start to look for local information without bothering to type in your address. I think Virtual Earth seems more like it should be called Virtual USA because outside US I only found high-up aerial renderings of other regions, not local info or street maps. Virtual Earth is available at virtualearth.msn.com.

7/19/2005

IBM moves into enterprise blogging

IBM is launching itself into territory popularized by the likes of Google -- the Weblog. IBM last week announced two blogging tools, taking advantage of a practice increasingly prevalent in the enterprise.

Weblog Preview provides the basic functionality usually expected of personal weblogs. For instance, Weblog Preview supports the posting of content in a journal format, emphasizing a personal point of view. The weblogs are public by default; that is, any authenticated Workplace user can read the blog. In addition, all authenticated users can comment on or link to the posts via "permalinks." The weblog owners, however, can restrict access to their blogs via the Workplace membership portlet, just as with any Workplace component.

Weblog Preview also allows bloggers to have a public list of favorite weblogs (that is, a blogroll) on their blog so that readers can see what the blogger finds of interest. Bloggers can put links to either external or internal blogs in their blogroll. In addition, Weblog Preview provides both an Atom and an RSS syndication feed format so that readers can subscribe to their favorite blogs in the feed reader of their choice.

How does it work?

Weblog Preview provides basic weblog functionality, but it is also a Workplace Business Component -- that is, it takes advantage of Workplace infrastructure. This gives the weblogs consistency with other Workplace components for a number of features important to the enterprise, such as
  • security
  • integrated search
  • awareness
  • roles and community
  • administration and policy
  • application templates

This preview requires IBM Workplace Collaboration Services 2.5.

7/16/2005

IBM to bury OS/2

IBM will stop selling the OS/2 operating system at year's end, marking an end of an era for Big Blue.

IBM, which made the announcement this week, said it will discontinue OS/2 products by Dec. 23 and withdraw standard support for OS/2-related products as of Dec. 31, 2006.

Support for OS/2 will only be available under a service contract after 2006.

"We're making official what has been going on for quite some time," said Steve Eisenstadt, an IBM spokesman. "We haven't released a new version of OS/2 in nine years."

Big Blue is directing its OS/2 customers to switch to the Linux OS.

OS/2, which debuted in April 1987, struggled to gain the wide acceptance that Microsoft's Windows enjoyed. While OS/2 may have been considered technically superior to Microsoft's early versions of Windows, the operating system failed to prosper due to a lack of applications written for it.

Concerns about the future of OS/2 arose at least three years ago.

OS/2, which was the first Intel-based 32-bit multitasking operating system aimed at the PC market, currently has fewer than 80 customers that hold more than 10 licenses, Eisenstadt said.

7/15/2005

Google Extensions for Firefox

Google has released extensions for the Mozilla Firefox browser which i think are very useful. These exensions include :

Google Toolbar:

Google Send to Phone:

Google Suggest:

I tried the google toolbar and suggest extensions which are very good.

7/13/2005

Microsoft revs up Windows for cars

Microsoft today unveiled Windows Automotive 5.0, the latest version of its operating system designed for in-vehicle computers running navigation, entertainment and communication systems. Based on the real-time embedded Windows CE 5.0, Windows Automotive 5.0 has been designed to integrate with services offering real-time traffic updates, directions to the cheapest petrol in town, turn-by-turn navigation and more.

Windows Automotive 5.0 features enhancements including the Automotive User Interface Toolkit which enables the creation of 3D graphics and advanced navigation displays.

The platform's multimedia functions have been boosted with the addition of DirectShow which supports a variety of digital media including Windows Media Audio, MP3 and DVD.

Expanding virtual memory support to 96MB allows for larger and more sophisticated applications, such as improved speech recognition, better graphics and 3D navigation.

In addition Microsoft said that enhanced power management and faster cold-boot times have been added to the latest release.

The OS supports Bluetooth, 802.11, UPnP, USB, XML, Soap and other common connectivity standards.

"The release of Windows Automotive 5.0 marks an important step in the company's continued collaboration with the automotive industry," said Todd Warren, corporate vice president of the Devices, Services and eXperience group at Microsoft.

Windows Automotive 5.0 was co-developed by Microsoft teams in Redmond and Tokyo in an effort to meet the differing needs of the automotive industry worldwide.

7/08/2005

Opera Incorporates BitTorrent

Opera Software has launched a technical preview of the Opera browser for Windows, Linux and Mac that includes support for BitTorrent. Integrating this popular file-downloading technology in the Opera browser offers the end user a faster download process by utilizing full bandwidth and reducing the chance of in-transfer delay when multiple users download the same file. Christen Krogh, VP of Engineering, Opera Software, said, "While BitTorrent has been on Opera's radar screen for more than a year, the true value of the technology became evident when the company launched Opera 8 in April this year. The massive response, with more than 100 downloads per second, dealt a technical knock-out to Opera's servers. With BitTorrent, users would have had an alternative download mechanism." With BitTorrent, Opera hopes to make it easier for users to download the large amount of legal material available, such as Linux software and computer game demos. The Opera browser will also be offered for download as a torrent file. Opera already supports other file protocols such as FTP and HTTP, and BitTorrent is the logical next step in the company's strategy to make protocols available that increase productivity and the overall Internet experience for the end-users. The BitTorrent protocol differs from FTP and HTTP in that it makes downloading a large file more efficient, as individuals downloading the same file will assist each other in the download process. Opera emphasizes that the TP should be used for preview purposes only, and is available for download at the Opera site.

Support for OS/2 will only be available under a service contract after 2006.

"We're making official what has been going on for quite some time," said Steve Eisenstadt, an IBM spokesman. "We haven't released a new version of OS/2 in nine years."

Big Blue is directing its OS/2 customers to switch to the Linux OS.

OS/2, which debuted in April 1987, struggled to gain the wide acceptance that Microsoft's Windows enjoyed. While OS/2 may have been considered technically superior to Microsoft's early versions of Windows, the operating system failed to prosper due to a lack of applications written for it.

Concerns about the future of OS/2 arose at least three years ago.

OS/2, which was the first Intel-based 32-bit multitasking operating system aimed at the PC market, currently has fewer than 80 customers that hold more than 10 licenses, Eisenstadt said.

|W|P|112152884327103820|W|P|IBM to bury OS/2|W|P|gsphanikumar@gmail.com7/15/2005 02:12:00 PM|W|P|Phani|W|P|Google has released extensions for the Mozilla Firefox browser which i think are very useful. These exensions include :

Google Toolbar:

Google Send to Phone:

Google Suggest:

I tried the google toolbar and suggest extensions which are very good.
|W|P|112141735819177469|W|P|Google Extensions for Firefox|W|P|gsphanikumar@gmail.com7/13/2005 03:18:00 PM|W|P|Phani|W|P|Microsoft today unveiled Windows Automotive 5.0, the latest version of its operating system designed for in-vehicle computers running navigation, entertainment and communication systems. Based on the real-time embedded Windows CE 5.0, Windows Automotive 5.0 has been designed to integrate with services offering real-time traffic updates, directions to the cheapest petrol in town, turn-by-turn navigation and more.

Windows Automotive 5.0 features enhancements including the Automotive User Interface Toolkit which enables the creation of 3D graphics and advanced navigation displays.

The platform's multimedia functions have been boosted with the addition of DirectShow which supports a variety of digital media including Windows Media Audio, MP3 and DVD.

Expanding virtual memory support to 96MB allows for larger and more sophisticated applications, such as improved speech recognition, better graphics and 3D navigation.

In addition Microsoft said that enhanced power management and faster cold-boot times have been added to the latest release.

The OS supports Bluetooth, 802.11, UPnP, USB, XML, Soap and other common connectivity standards.

"The release of Windows Automotive 5.0 marks an important step in the company's continued collaboration with the automotive industry," said Todd Warren, corporate vice president of the Devices, Services and eXperience group at Microsoft.

Windows Automotive 5.0 was co-developed by Microsoft teams in Redmond and Tokyo in an effort to meet the differing needs of the automotive industry worldwide.

|W|P|112124830481987456|W|P|Microsoft revs up Windows for cars|W|P|gsphanikumar@gmail.com7/08/2005 03:52:00 PM|W|P|Phani|W|P| Opera Software has launched a technical preview of the Opera browser for Windows, Linux and Mac that includes support for BitTorrent. Integrating this popular file-downloading technology in the Opera browser offers the end user a faster download process by utilizing full bandwidth and reducing the chance of in-transfer delay when multiple users download the same file. Christen Krogh, VP of Engineering, Opera Software, said, "While BitTorrent has been on Opera's radar screen for more than a year, the true value of the technology became evident when the company launched Opera 8 in April this year. The massive response, with more than 100 downloads per second, dealt a technical knock-out to Opera's servers. With BitTorrent, users would have had an alternative download mechanism." With BitTorrent, Opera hopes to make it easier for users to download the large amount of legal material available, such as Linux software and computer game demos. The Opera browser will also be offered for download as a torrent file. Opera already supports other file protocols such as FTP and HTTP, and BitTorrent is the logical next step in the company's strategy to make protocols available that increase productivity and the overall Internet experience for the end-users. The BitTorrent protocol differs from FTP and HTTP in that it makes downloading a large file more efficient, as individuals downloading the same file will assist each other in the download process. Opera emphasizes that the TP should be used for preview purposes only, and is available for download at the Opera site.|W|P|112081832708375389|W|P|Opera Incorporates BitTorrent|W|P|gsphanikumar@gmail.com7/12/2005 03:58:00 AM|W|P|Blogger Alex|W|P|Good post! I also wrote about that here!-->