Flickr intros printing.

Flickr is introducing printing, though it is supported only in the US at the present.

Firefox crosses 100 million downloads!

My favourite browser Firefox has announced crossing a 100 million downloads. Way to go team Mozilla!

If you havent tried it already - here are a few reasons why. Get Firefox today!

Ubuntu 5.10 Released

It is a distribution that's fast gaining popularity. Ubuntu recently unveiled version 5.10. You can download it from here or even order the CD/DVD's *free* from their shipit facility. Some screenshots here.

Ubuntu also comes into two more versions - Edubuntu (for schools) and Ubuntu for servers.

JBidWatcher moves to 0.9.9

One of my favourite programs JBidWatcher has moved into version 0.9.9.

JBidWatcher is, according to its author, A Java-based application allowing you to monitor auctions you're not part of, submit bids, snipe (bid at the last moment), and otherwise track your auction-site experience. It includes adult-auction management, MANY currencies (yen, pound, dollar (US, Canada, Australian, and New Taiwanese), Swiss Francs, and euro, presently), drag-and-drop of auction URLs, a unique and powerful 'multisniping' feature, a relatively nice UI, and is known to work cleanly under Linux, Windows, Solaris, and MacOSX from the same binary.

What it does not say, is it is open source and one useful peice of software!

Other links: Developer Blog

India lags in product, technology innovation

They said it - India lags in product, technology innovation. I've heard it been said by anyone who's anyone, about India. Hopefully that will change one day.

Open Source Plugin helps bridge the gap between proprietary formats and Unicode.

A week or so ago, I got a mail from the author of a open source plugin for the Firefox browser, called Padma. What I believe it does is tries to bridge the gap between content developed using proprietary and public formats and Unicode - on Firefox.

Take the example of a regional newspaper - Sakal, which also publishes an online edition at esakal.com. A problem for a firefox enthusiast like me is that, it uses dynamic fonts. While, this is alright in Internet Explorer, its a problem in Firefox (see forum thread: Firefox does not support Dynamic fonts). In simple terms, I need to download and install one or more fonts specifically from the site, in order to see its contents.

Sounds familiar? I am sure it does. There are many such sites and content like that. This is the very purpose why some smart people came together and came up with Unicode (Universal/ Uniform Code?) This is exactly where Padma comes in. Until such time that these sites move on to Unicode, it will let you see these sites without having to download the font. Currently, this plugin has support for a small number of proprietary fonts and formats, but its growing. The Devanagari implementation for the above mentioned site is under works, but its looking good - see screenshot.

Do give it a try! And yes, the author is looking for all the help he can get to map more and more fonts. Do provide him with all that you can. Interested, do join the Padma mailing list and let him know you are. He will take it from there.

Tip: Padma = Lotus (in Sanskrit and its derivative languages).

Article: Pepping up windows using open source.

Here's a nice little article on improvising windows using open source softwares.