31 Jul 2005

Windows Article: Running Windows with No Services

Its been quite a while since i dived down into windows internals. However, i do make regular trips to sysinternals to keep myself updated. I came across this interesting article - Running Windows with No Services

30 Jul 2005

Article: Migrate apps from Internet Explorer to Mozilla

With more and more people embracing the mozilla firefox browser everyday, looks like its time for web developers who wrote IE specific pages to take a second look at their pages.

IBM developer works recently published this article titled "Migrate apps from Internet Explorer to Mozilla" which discusses this very activity. Personally, i believe it would be a better idea to make these web pages W3C compliant so that tommorow should we have an even better version of a browser (swoon!) the migration shouldnt be required (of course, a *better* browser would be W3C compliant right?). To check whether your web page(s) are W3C compliant (which in simple terms means it sticks to the norm rather than using g browser specific HTML tags), run them through W3C Validator. There's one for your stylesheets as well.

For those who are still going to stay with IE, think of this, your web pages are not going to render correctly for IE7 either. As Molly says "Thats Why its called Beta" - To begin with, there’s the not-so-small fact that in a standards compliant environment, browser sniffing of this nature shouldn’t even be necessary.

Firefox look-and-feel week

Cute MenuThis week was undoubtedly that of firefox.

For one, i discovered a new theme. For me, thats a BIG deal! I usually dont switch away from the default firefox theme. Sure, couple of weeks ago i ran into the Cutemenu extension that adds some great looking icons to firefox menu's (see image on right)- but that was as far i went.

But all that changed when i ran into Charamel. I was blown away! Today, charamel has replaced the default theme as my favourite. A quick search took me to 'Creating a skin for mozilla'. The more i learnt about how to make a skin, the more i realized that this was not something one could code. Sure, i managed to create a theme or two within the first 10 minutes of the tutorial, but it didnt come close to charamel. It was then i realized, that what was missing was creativity! Look at what they've done to my preferences box. I rarely come here, except for an occasinoal tweak, but not i come here just to look at it. Groovy work! Kudos to the Charamel team!



And since i am ranting about look and feel of firefox, i might as well mention Well-rounded, the extension that converts the square address bar, search bar and other boxes in firefox into rounded ones. Looks pretty good :-)

Like i said, this was a firefox week :)


Microsoft Genuine Advantage Cracked!

Microsoft's recent Genuine Advantage program that checked for a genuine copy of windows before letting users download security updates was cracked within 24 hours of its induction.

Boing-Boing has an article that says how.

29 Jul 2005

I have been GeoURL-ed!

Today, i discovered GeoURL.org while upgrading my greasemap script (which they've recently upgraded to use google maps api). I used google earth to find out my location coordinates, google maths to calculate the decimal equivalent, modified my blogger template (a google again) and added my site to geourl. To my surprise, I discovered quite a few people living near me.

Try it out yourself!

23 Jul 2005

Presentation: Why i hate Apache?

Here's a slightly funny but absolutely valid (PDF) presentation from the Apachecon Europe. For anyone who's used and configured Apache Webserver, several feeling will strike a chord.

Its someone's way of expressing his frustrations over the Apache Config. Expect sentences like 'Does anyone even know what that does?' quite often ;)

19 Jul 2005

Utility: RSS aggregator for Outlook

Like i said in my previous post, i am a syndication junkie. I've got quite a few RSS and Atom feeds in my bloglines account. However, if you are looking for an aggregator which gives MS Outlook the ability to start processing RSS/Atom, then here's RSS aggregator for Outlook. It looks a lot like NewGator, which is a paid-for software. But this is free.

I havent used it, but would sure like to know when anyone else who has.

Interesting Read: RSS 2.0 vs. Atom 1.0


The little orange button has become almost omni present on most good websites. I have been a syndication junkie for quite some time now. However, the exact difference between the two popular formats - RSS and Atom has been always been unknown to me. All i've heard is that Atom is supposed to be new and better, but RSS started it all and has the bigger following. Frankly, most readers that i've seen support both and so as a user i am impervious to the difference.

However, it was nice to know the difference. Here's Rss20AndAtom10Compared - Atom Wiki with the article. For anyone who holds an interest in various applications of XML, this is a must read.

Device of the near future: Optimus keyboard

credit: www.artlebedev.com/Here's the Optimus keyboard scheduled to release in 2006. Whats is about? You mean other than the cool look - well, its got keys that can change with the application you are running (see shot), animated keys, open source SDK and what not!

See the Optimus FAQ for more details.

15 Jul 2005

Microsoft Certified at 9!

Arfa Karim Randhawa at the age of 9 became the worlds youngest to be microsoft certified.

14 Jul 2005

Firefox plugins: Grease Monkey and Platypus

PlatypusI feel in love with the grease monkey plugin for firefox, the first time i used it. For a script-lover like me, the ability to use or even quickly write scripts that will change the way my not-so-favourite websites look or behave was mind-blowing.

Just when i thought it couldnt get better, i ran into Platypus, another firefox plugin that lets you do away with the 'scripting bit' by letting you visually make changes to a web page and then save it as a grease monkey script. See Using Platypus page for more details. What more could you ask for!

My kudos to the ingenuity of both the plugin writers! Watch this space for my humble contribution in form of some scripts :)

11 Jul 2005

Google Language Tools slipping?

Of late, i have started noting slips in the google product line. Local search for example, has started producing occasional irrelevant results. I dont have examples right now. But an example of one more such slip is in the google translation tool.

Today, i tried translating a german page on ebay in an effort to understand his terms and conditions. Funny though, google didnt translate a single word! Not doing anything wrong - am i?

9 Jul 2005

FlickrGraph

I ran into this wonderful application called flickrGraph which actually lets you .. umm. Tell you what! Why didnt you take a look at it yourself ;)

Here's a screenshot:

6 Jul 2005

Google release Google Maps APIs

The net has been strife with examples of highly innovative google map hacks. Here's how you can make you own version as well. However, Google has been shutting down a few of them siting their Terms of Use.

However, as if to display its intention of letting such innovations flourish google has announced an official way of programmatically harnessing the power of google maps - Google Maps API. There's a API discussion group as well.

Wifi Toys.

Here's an article on how to turn yourself into a walking wi-fi hotspot. Its from a site called Wifi Toys . All it takes (as in the picture above) are some solar panels, a portable power source and a junxion box. Quite exciting for a geek like me :)

5 Jul 2005

Article: Anatomy of a Hack

Here's an interesting article on how a hack attempt looks like - from the inside. Its actually an excerpt from the book Protect Your Windows Network: From Perimeter to Data.

Here's an extract:

Although attacking networks can be fun and informative—not to mention illegal if you do not have all the proper permissions—the fact remains that the vast majority of us do not need to know how to do so. Frankly, becoming a good penetration tester (pen tester) takes more than a week-long class. It takes commitment, dedication, intuition, and technical savvy, not to mention a blatant disregard for the rules and the right way to do things.


Read the entire excerpt here..