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Showing posts from 2008

Working hard as ever

I have finally got some time after a really long time and working hard to complete a few tasks before this year ends. I have been busy with work and trying to give some time to my own personal project and hopefully after hanging there for the last 3 years it will finally see the light. I am still not very hopeful given the changes and the amount of work required to finish it. Also the features seem to come into my head every now and then. I am trying to move most of them to version 2.0 lets see if 1.0 will ever come out for now :P

Comics I read revisited

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I've been reading Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net for a while now. And its finally in my daily schedule. I have a list of comics that I read daily at http://comics.vivekjishtu.com and have finally added Cyanide & Happiness to it. Its risqué at best but has a few gems every other day. The other new comic to the list is Ask Dr. Eldritch . This one is also a bit risqué at times but one funny comic once you get a hang of it.

Google Clean search without searchwiki results

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If you want anonymous results from Google you can use this simple DNS hack to get the results from Google. Since you will never be logged in you will always get clean results and also no searchwiki results. Never realized how much cleaner the results are if you are not logged in. To get the cleaner results add the engine to Opera, Firefox, IE and Google Chrome. Its just a DNS hack so you still get all the results from Google. But its all anonymous since you never log in. All the traffic is sent to Google but the cookies are not set as you can never log in so more or less you can be anonymous. Its still a hack so it can be turned off by Google anytime. But its good while it lasts. This is what you see once you use Google Clean . You are never logged in so the results are anonymous and you will never get any SearchWiki results. You can always go back with a single click incase you want the SearchWiki results. Here is how you add it to Firefox. The search box should be a little blu

Acer Aspire One finally working

Before leaving for Oslo I had updated my laptop and the update screwed up the WiFi drivers and it was impossible to get online. I had to completely reinstall everything. I ended up spending the whole night trying to fix it. If you want to use anything besides the default settings you need to know a few shortcuts Alt + F2 is a life saver to start with. This will popup the run dialog and you can start bash in a terminal and move forward from there. Everything on Linux seems to be super sized. The default font size is 12px  nd that seems so weird. The next thing I do is do bring down the size to 8px and change the font to closely match Tahoma 8px. I am so used to it that anything other than this seems so ugly. Also not to forget the command " xfce-setting-show " which will enable the menu when you right click on the desktop. It will give you a menu like the start menu. You can also add/remove programs in the setting menu. For me the main application that I have to install is rd

Seth Godin the guru of marketing

Today evening I was listening to Seth Godin on YouTube . And most of what he said made sense and I got thinking about the thing about ideas. I've had various idea's at different stages of my life. Just that none of them get completed for one or the other reason and since most of them are personal tech projects. I would normally think of the technology and never really think much about marketing. That seems like the last thing on my mind. Technology is all about archiving something that others cannot even think about. The other thing is trying to get everything right from the word go. In the effort to get everything right in the first version it never seems to get delivered. Most of the times the features seems to keep creeping up and the project never gets completed. I've seen this happen on most of my personal projects. Since I am the one to decide I keep adding more and more features and the final project never seems to get completed.

Still clueless as ever - II

This post is again personal and has nothing to do with technology. Its been a while since my last post but I do have a few answers and more questions seem to have popped up into my head since then. I finally figured out that I am going through QLC but then again I am not looking for the meaning of life or anything of that sorts right now. Just need to figure out where I am heading and if that is the right direction for me. This post seems as vague as possible but this post if more for me a few years down the line when I come back and read it and laugh at what I was going through.

Still clueless as ever

This is a personal post and has little or nothing to do with technology. Its my 3rd week in Oslo and I still don't have any answers to questions I had in mind. I wanted a break and time to think and plan for what I wanted out of life. Have been really busy in the last 3 weeks and hardly had time to think or analyze anything. ... Will probably complete is some other time.... not sure when.. hopefully once I get some answers to things in my head.

Activate GPRS of PrePaid Airtel Punjab

I hate calling up the Airtel customer care and I try to find a solution online if I can. I've found two solutions to my problem but none of them seem to be working so I will have to call and spend the next half hour to get this information from a customer care executive. Anyhow these are the solutions I've found online. 1) Rs. 20 per day send GPRS to 56789 2) Rs. 75 per week send GPRS7 to 56789 3) Rs. 15 per day send GPRSACT to 511 to deactivate this service send GPRSDEACT to 511 4) Write MO and send to 52696 to activate n DMO @ same no. for de-activation I've tried all the solutions but without results. Let me know if you have a better way. Anyhow I better start calling, its going to take a while to get through. UPDATE : Anyhow I called them up and this is what I got. 1) SMS NOP to 52696 to activate the service. 2) SMS NOP to 52567 to get the settings 3) SMS DNOP to 52696 to deactivate the service. 4) Call 121443 and you will directly talk to the customer care ex

Whats up with Google Update?

Just checking with AutoRuns for Windows and Google Update almost feels like a spyware in every possible place. It acts as a service so when you turn on your computer it will make sure that its always on. If you somehow remove it as a service, it also acts like a BHO . The next time you start IE it will start. If for some weird reason these two failed its also in the scheduled tasks. Just waiting till it installs itself as a driver as well.

Mygazines - read magazines from around the world

Mygazines is like the youtube of magazines. It allows you to read and store your magazines online. But they are in a little bit of trouble with the copyright infringement notices flying across it right left and center. Its a really neat concept, as you can read magazines that you would not get in your local store. They post the complete magazine with all the adverts intact so that should in a way be good for the publishing house. In the long run if they survive they should only be like a repository of old magazines. In any case most magazines have a shelf life of no more than a month. If they start storing older magazines with all the adverts intact it should work in the favor of the publishers. Also people would be able to sample magazines which they would not otherwise. Its almost like online music. If someone likes the music they will pay for it. Same goes for a magazine. I loved reading the magazines online but for most other times I would like a physical copy, and I won't mi

Using Shozu on Samsung i780

I was using Shozu to upload pictures and videos to flickr and youtube using my Nokia E61i. It is a really cool application and I had talked about it earlier when I had installed it on my earlier phone. When I finally bought the new phone I was missing this application as currently the Samsung i780 is unsupported and I was unable to find a version that I could run on it. After trying out a few versions I stumbled upon the HTC Touch version and it works quite well on this phone. So if you have a Samsung i780 download the shozu application for HTC Touch and use it. Atleast till they provide support for this phone.

Auto disconnect GPRS/3G on Samsung i780

I recently bought a Samsung i780 which has Windows Mobile 6. There is a tiny bit of a problem specially with the GPRS connection. Everytime the mobile checked my email it would keep the connection alive and would not disconnect. Since it remains connected it drains out the battery. You will need a registry editor to make these changes. You can download a free registry editor from http://www.phm.lu/products/PocketPC/RegEdit/ . Download the Pocket PC 2002/2003 (ARM/PXA) version and install it on your mobile phone. To change the settings follow the detailed steps listed on this page . I have listed the steps in brief. You will need to use the registry editor to make the changes. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Comm\ConnMgr\Planner\Settings\ The 1st key is DWORD CacheTime the number denotes the number of seconds to wait before the auto disconnect, by default it is 600 seconds. the 2nd key is Multiline value / String SuspendResume which can have 2 values ~GPRS! :- 3G always On GPRS_bye_if_device_off

I iz watching zu

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You need javascript turned on for this to work. Just something really random that I came across just now. Not sure how anyone can exploit it but it can sure spook a few people out.

Next best thing since sliced bread

This has been a quite month not blogged much but have been twitting quite a lot lately. My pet project is still not complete have a few good ideas that I want to put in before I launch an alpha release. There is still quite a bit of work that needs to be put in to make it a little more functional. Have started a new blog with the site but still nothing written there. Surprisingly this month has been hectic and I've not been able to work on any of the weekends. The project seems stupid at most times but then again its taken me a little more than 2 years to get to where it is. Have worked with 10-15 concepts before deciding on it finally. Am still not sure if this is what I will release but till next time when I blog. Hopefully that post will be about the launch of an alpha that a few people might get to see. Tomorrow I leave for Thailand and will be there for a week and lets hope I relax my mind and body and hopefully complete the project. Regarding the project its got a lot to d

Link to switch to the new Yahoo! Mail interface

I still use the classic version of the Yahoo! Mail interface. Today I wanted to try out the new interface and I could not find the link that would allow me to switch. So just as a reminder in case I plan to switch again. Try it now!

Who is jpmogan on twitter?

There is an account on twitter http://twitter.com/jpmogan . He is following no one and has 8,358 followers as of now. Either its someone inside twitter or someone has been able to hack and find a way into getting people to follow him. I searched on summize http://summize.com/search?q=jpmogan and so far I only see a single comment about the user. Technorati Tags: jpmogan , twitter

Don't we all just love Adobe PDF Reader

Here are a few links to get you to install the latest and greatest version of Adobe PDF Reader . Incase you are still not using Foxit PDF Reader you need to read these reviews of the Adobe PDF Reader 9 . http://gusmueller.com/blog/archives/2008/07/adobe_reader_9_is_out!.html http://diveintomark.org/archives/2008/07/04/adobe-9 http://blog.micropledge.com/2008/07/adobe-reader-9/

Will silverlight make any impact on flash?

I was trying out Microsoft silverlight a few days back and compared to flash it actually rocks. Its light years ahead of flash with a choice of programming languages and the basic design. Also if Microsoft sends it out as an update it will be in at least 70%-80% of all machines in a few days time. Thats just one side of the story. Since most designers/developers who have mostly worked with flash would not want to change since there seems no valid reason to change. So probably Microsoft needs to make a killer application in silverlight that can really challenge flash. But given the kind of platform that silverlight is its not very difficult to build one. There is more to come on this topic as developers begin to see the technology and power of silverlight.

A very brief review of the javascript libraries

I've have never really liked any JavaScript library and i normally believe in writing my own code so that I know whats going on and where it is. But for a change with an open mind I began looking at the different JavaScript libraries that are available. I tried out the following. dojo ExtJS YUI JQuery prototype dojo This one is really extensive and tries to achieve anything and everything. It seems easy to grasp and I was able to get going in less than a few minutes. But given the fact that it is really extensive it also adds to the weight. I don't think I would be using the complete library in any of my projects but if used as a learning resource it can be really great. ExtJS This is one library I have seen from the very beginning I have always liked it. The toolkit is really professional looking and seems to fit the bill but the only hitch is the license, its under GPL3 . If you don't mind paying then you can get it with a commercial license. This is one of the best lib

Yet another interesting spam.

This is one interesting spam that landed in my inbox. United Nations Foundation, Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Suite 400 Washington, D.C. 20036 Dear Sir/Madam, UN Foundation Grant. This is to notify you that you have been chosen By the Board of trustees of the above International (Charity & Human Developmental) Organization, as one of the final recipients of a Cash Grant/Donation for your personal development. The UN Foundation was created in 1998 with entrepreneur and philanthropist Ted Turners' historic $1 billion gift to support UN Causes and activities. The UN Foundation builds and implements public-private partnerships to address the world?s most pressing problems, and broadens support for the UN through advocacy and public outreach. The UN Foundation is a public charity. The Secretary-General established the United Nations Fund for International Partnerships (UNFIP) in March 1998 to coordinate, channel and monitor contributions from the UN Foundation. UNFIP is the central adm

BREAKING NEWS: War for news

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With the launch of more than a dozen news channels in India there is a war for getting news on these 24 hour news channels. Since there is nothing better to put on air the channels have come up with these unique news items in the garb of breaking news. Here is a sample of screen caps I got in an email. Just shows what these channels have to come up with in the name of BREAKING NEWS . BREAKING NEWS :Kitty got stuck on the roof. BREAKING NEWS :Amitabh Bacchan (Bollywood actor) felt cold . BREAKING NEWS :Rahul Gandhi (an indian politician) had dal, poorie and subzi (menu of items he had for lunch). BREAKING NEWS :Commissioner found his lost his dog BREAKING NEWS :Commissioner found his lost his dog

I just got 5 dreamhost invites

I have got 5 invitations for dreamhost . If you use any of the invites you get will get the following benefits. * You will get four (4) times the normal disk and bandwidth! * If you choose the five-year plan, you will get $150 off! * If you choose the ten-year plan, you will get $200 off! You need to use the 12-digit code and use it in the "Promo Code" field when you sign up at dreamhost . Use one of the following codes when you sign up. 044477421482 , 168640837302 , 076190151113 , 744781327000 and 503827675414 .

Keeping up with the fitness regime - II

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I am really surprised at my resolve to get back into shape. In the last 6 months I have been able to shed 17 Pounds. I purposely wrote pounds and not kgs, just love the huge number. Anyhow even in kgs its still 8 Kgs. But now there seems to have been a little bit of hiccup in my fitness plans. The gym I was going to has planned to close down for renovation and am not sure if I will be able to wake up and still be motivated enough to continue with it. Thought I have lost weight I am still not in shape at least the shape I would want . So here is hoping that I continue with my walks. And now I also plan to run and jog instead of just walking. Here is hoping I can continue with my resolve to get back into shape.

The mystery project and article

Yesterday I had written about the project that I have been working on weekends. Its not a new search engine but think of it more like sliced bread. Its still bread but just sliced. A really simple idea that makes a lot of sense for me since I seem to use multiple search engines at a time. Actually more than what it is, I am trying out caching techniques and the site acts as the part of an article I am working on. Still not sure if I will ever be able to complete the article and release the project. Had written part 1 of the article two years back Speed up your AJAX based webapps but was never able to complete part 2. And the only valid reason for not completing it is that I am plain lazy . And since this project is just a personal project it does not get a very high priority. The project is trying to solve a problem that I seem to have everyday. The reason why it took me two freaking year was partly as I wrote my being lazy but also 'cause I was looking for a UI that really made

Have been working for a change

A project I was working for the last 2 years is finally turning out to be something. The idea has gone through half a dozen different versions and variations but I think I finally like what its turned out to be. Still need a bit of work to make it beta. Even if no one else uses it I think it does have the features I have been missing on most search engines. I started out with solving my own problem with searching and in the process have been able to work on tackling the search problem in a somewhat different manner. Given the fact that I don't have the resources or the skill to design a search engine I have tried to solve the problem with the existing search engines. I will hopefully release it in the next few weeks. Still not sure how the reception of this product will be.

Is piracy killing Vista?

Its been a while since I blogged, I was out of town last week and have been a little busy lately. Its just one of those spur of moment topics that comes up in my head. I think one of the reason why Vista is failing is 'cause of piracy. Not 'cause its being pirated but due to the lack of piracy :) All of the older Microsoft products earlier were easy to pirate so not only legit users, but also users who did not pay could use them. But as Microsoft started adding more and more weird ways of copy protection the users who could easily pirate are unable to do so. Since there is low penetration in the legit world no one even bothers to pirate it. If nothing else Microsoft should remove the strict copy protection from Windows 7 and they will see a good enough reception, not only from the pirates but also legit users who in any case would pay for it. Just read somewhere that they might be soon demoing windows 7, here is hoping that they remove the copy protection and also reduce the mi

Commercial games released as freeware

Wikipedia has a huge list of commercial games that have been released as freeware. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_commercial_games_released_as_freeware Also listed are Open Source game http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_open_source_games This entry is more like a bookmark so that I can come back and view it in case I am looking for a game.

Swinging with Java and Python

As always I am stuck with the option of developing the application in multiple languages. I still believe that application should be small with no bloat. Recently while testing I was amazed to see that a Java application can take as little as 1500Kb memory. So my next project is in Java and not Python as I had decided earlier. I was unable to find the libraries I needed in Python while I was able to find most of the things I needed in Java. Still not sure if this project will ever see the light of day but so far I've learned quite a lot about designing desktop applications in Java. And given the fact that JVM comes preinstalled on most computers be it a Windows based or a Mac it just makes sense to design the application using Java. Will add more once I get all the things in order. I've still not started the project so its still possible that it just might end up the the "Things to do".

Rendering HTML elements according to the system - I

I like things which look and feel like my OS. But I have rarely come across a site which looks and feels like an application running on my computer. Not like they are supposed to look like that but I have still been trying to figure out how they would look if the site could automatically change according to the user settings. In my quest to figure this one out, the first and the foremost thing to look at are the fonts. Most browsers have the magical property which allows you to get the font settings on the OS. This line should be in the menu font. This line should be in the caption font. On most browsers you should see the first line rendered with the font used in the menu 's and the second line rendered in the font used in the caption 's. Funny thing caption does not work in FireFox it works in Opera and IE. Getting down to the code its just a one line code. Just set the font property to menu or caption and thats all that you need to do. font: menu; font: caption; That is

Stunned by STUN using Python and Java.

Over the last two days I have been researching on P2P yet again :). Last time I was working on it I got stung by STUN . I just could not make head and tail of the RFC and I was unable to find any usable implementation online. Rather I never really searched hard enough and I left that project mid way. This time around I found a really clean implementation of STUN in python another in C# and one in Java. Sure found a lot of implementation and its quite simple unless you are on a symmetric NAT setup and that is where things start getting trickier. Also realized how simple or difficult it is to create a simple P2P application. Also read up stuff on STUNT, the extra T is for TCP. STUN works on UDP and not TCP.

Activate GPRS on Airtel Postpaid connection

This one works for Airtel Punjab not sure if it works for other states and territories. SMS GPRS299 to 121 and it will be activated in 6 hours. To deactivate it SMS DGRPS299 to 121 . To get the settings SMS MO to 52567 . The customer care exective I talked to also told me that if I deactivate it in 2-3 days I will just be charged for those days though I am not sure if was right about that.

Killing two birds with one stone

The thing I am working on today is more like killing 5 birds with one stone. Like I wrote last week I started with Python , but due to the work load over the last two weeks I could not do much. This Friday I got an invitation to Google App Engine and the only language they support as of now is Python. This in a way pushed me into learning python. Last month I had written about a bridge for Facebook and Open Social applications. With many new things I devised a clever plan I have started off with a facebook application for the open social platform in python using the google app engine. That is 5 technologies covered in one single shot. I started with PyFacebook but, soon realized that the library urlib2 uses sockets and PyFacebook won't work for me. I could start with a new library or hack PyFacebook and since I am an expert in Python (with less than 2 days of experience) I resorted to hacking the PyFacebook library. I have never really programed in Python and the fact that the li

Keeping up with the fitness regime

After finally deciding to do something about by increasing waistline I have been able to control a lot and in the last 3 months have got back into shape. Thought I am a long way from reaching my goal I am a lot better than I was just a few months back. I had no idea I would be able to get things under control and surprisingly I am surprised at my devotion. I started by walking everyday for a good 3-4 Kms and recently I joined the gym. I have a lot more energy and stamina. The best part is that I wake up at 5:30 in the morning and thats something I have been trying to achieve for a while. The last week was really hectic in every possible sense with just a few hours of sleep every night. I was trying to handle so many diverse things at once. I finally started learning how to drive :), I somehow could never get the reason to learn driving but I guess its time. Most of my day is jam packed and I like it. I hardly have time to do anything else. Thought the only problem I have faced is that

Can cellphones cause headaches?

Ever weekend whenever I would woke up I normally had a headache and I could not see any reason why I had it. This would normally stay with me for nearly the complete day and inadvertently my weekend would end up sleeping. The funny thing was that this never seemed to happen to me on weekdays. The only reason I could see was that I slept late on weekends so possibly my sleeping for a longer time was 'causing it. Well coming back to the cellphone, I normally had it right next to my pillow when I sleep. I used it as an alarm and to see the time at night. About two weeks back on the weekend I forgot to keep the phone next to me and also for some reason I had switched off the WiFi in my room. The next morning I woke up fresh and had no headache what so ever even thought I had slept till late. I tried the same thing next day and I was again fresh this time around, with no signs of a headache. On Friday night this weekend I was expecting a call and I kept the phone next to my pillow. I ne

Getting down and dirty with Python

I have spent the better part of this weekend getting down and dirty with python . Also I found the GUI library I was looking for in venster . Last night I was reading about the different GUI GUI development options available for Python. There are the the usual libraries like wxPython, GTK, QT, Tk, FLTK, Swing, SWT, Swing and .net forms. All of them are good but the main problem with most of them is that they are huge and the others which are small don't look or feel native. Out of all of them I like SWT but then again if I am going to use SWT then why not just use Java. Venster looks like a very good project but seems to be dead for the last 4 years and if I can get some time I might want to work on it. The library is tiny and does not add much weight to the over all deployment package. But then again its still my second day and I've barely scratched the surface. The tutorial I was using was a little sketchy about classes in python so I still need another reference for classe

Finally learning Python

I've tried my hand with Python a couple of time but it could never really hold my interest. But over the last few years its matured a lot and its available on multiple platforms and also one of the only languages which seems to have a binding to nearly every new library that comes out. Lets see how far I go on this adventure. And for how long python will be able to hold my interest, will I go beyond the basic "hello world" programs.

Generating regular expression at runtime in javascript

I have never been good with regular expressions. I normally search for the regular expressions online and use it, I can never seem to get them into my brains. Lately I've been working on things where I've had to generate a regular expression at runtime. It is a trivial thing but I was unable to find it when I look for it. So in case you are looking for generating a regular expression at runtime this code snippet might help you out. var data = "This is a string and I want to replace all the a's"; var re = new RegExp("a", "ig"); alert(data.replace(re, "m")); This post is more like a reminder for me.

This time I can get Nineteen Million Five Hundred Thousand United State Dollars

As if the previous million dollars wasn't enough I have another 19 Million waiting for me. Well this mail landed in my Inbox and if I wasted 5 minutes going through it I normally put it on my blog as a reminder of wasting time, also this mail is funny with facts and fiction mixed together. Only read it if you have a lots of free time. Good Day, Thank you very much for your response, and your interest in this transaction. Let me start by introducing myself again.I am Mr. PATRICK K.W.CHAN I work with the Hang Seng Bank Ltd.Before the U.S and Iraqi war our client Colonel Sadiq Uday who was with the Iraqi forces and also businessman, made a numbered fixed deposit for 18 calendar months, with a value of Nineteen million Five Hundred Thousand United State Dollars only in my branch.Upon maturity several notices was sent to him, even during the war which began in 2003. Again after the war another notification was sent and still no response came from him. We later found out that the Colone

Open Social Container and my first Facebook Application

Its the last day of my easter vacations and five days of good work. I had initially planned to go out somewhere for these holidays but as nothing really worked out I ended up staying at home. So instead of wasting my time sleeping and watching TV (which I still ended up doing) I thought of finishing my ever growing list of personal projects. But instead of starting work on one of the pending projects I ended up starting yet another project. I searched around for an open social container and I found one but it was in Java and since I don't have any server which would allow me to host the project I ended up working on my own open social container. Well I worked on it for two days and it at least works with most of my samples I created for open social and also a few other gadgets. As of now its completely in JavaScript so in terms of security there is none to speak of, but by the end of it I did make a container and learned quite a lot. The code still looks way to hacked up to put on

Are you smarter than a 5th Grader?

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After writing about the Indian version of the show I took the test on the fox network site. And I have the certificate to prove it ;). Thought I don't live in New York and I took the test in 2008 and not 2007. Apart from those mistakes I am so much smarter than a 5th grader, or am I? Just made me realize how little I know or care about social studies and history. I always ended up taking questions about science and maths. The two three times I choose social studies or history I ended up giving the wrong answer. The concept of the show is nice and would go well with the Indian audience who seem to be having an overdose of the reality tv shows, and one more would not hurt.

Kya aap panchvi paas se tej hai?

UPDATE: You can play the game online at http://www.fox.com/areyousmarter/features/ . I played it and here are my results . कया आप पांचवी पास से तेज हैं? / Kya aap panchvi paas se tej hai? is an Indian version of Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader? and would be hosted by Shahrukh Khan. Now I am not really talking about how great the program is going to be or going to harp about the host. I just like the clever marketing technique by the company developing the show in India. In most states in India lottery is illegal, but paying money using premium SMS is not. These days they have this clever little advert on the Star Network channels which asks users to SMS the answer to a simple question to get on the program. Now the adverts been playing for a month with a new question everyday. And they entice you with a million dollar prize. You need to send the SMS on a premium number, so its almost like an underground lottery with dreams of a million dollars. Even if they get a million SMS's

A better alternative to window.onload

This code can be used as a better alternative to window.onload . We use main as the function from where the execution begins. We also have a __app_started varible which tracks if main has been called so that it is not called more than once. Basically by this technique main gets called the moment body has been completed. If you use window.onload it waits till all the images and CSS have been loaded and in most case that can really be a while. var __app_started = false; if(document.addEventListener) document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", main, false); else { document.write("<scr" + "ipt id=__ie_onload defer src=javascript:void(0)><\/scri" + "pt>"); var script = document.getElementById("__ie" + "_onlo" + "ad"); script.onreadystatechange = function() { if(this.readyState == "complete") main(); } } window.onload = main; // If all else fails function main() {

#include or include a file in javascript at runtime

I had written about require or #include in javascript and it works but sometimes you don't want it to be added it using DOM. This function uses DOM incase the body has been loaded or uses document.write to load the file. function $include(url) { if(document.body) { var script = document.createElement("script"); var head = document.getElementsByTagName('head').item(0); script.src = fileUrl; head.appendChild(script); } else document.write("<script type='text/javascript' src='" + url + "' ></sc" + "ript>"); } If you look carefully the name of the function is $include . It just makes it stand out other than that you could name it whatever you want. This just makes the code really clean and no more messy html files with 10 script tags to load all the files. It just makes life simpler if you have too many script files to load.

"Hello World" ruby and python on dreamhost

After having dropped all my plans for a vacation I have nothing better to do so I started with the stupid idea of trying to run different languages on my dreamhost account. Let me start with ruby first. Open up your favorite editor and copy paste the code below. Save it as testruby.cgi on your server. Change the permissions for that file to chmod 755 testruby.cgi . #!/usr/bin/env ruby require "cgi" cgi = CGI.new("html3") cgi.out("text/plain"){"Hello World"} If all goes well you should see hello world. I tested it here . Once you've tested it out you know that your account supports ruby. Now moving on to python. Copy paste the code below to a file testpython.py and change the permissions for that file to chmod 755 testpython.py . #!/usr/bin/env python import cgi field = cgi.FieldStorage() print "Content-Type: text/plain\n\n" print 'Hello, world!\n' If all goes well you should see hello world. Here is my python hello world

Let me decide what WFM

Its really rare to see anyone who can actually think out of the box without their fixed set of ideas. If a person knows a "x" language or technology making that person think beyond it seems like an effort. Specially when you look at technology of any kind we have the language nazi's who will make every effort to protect their language as if they would die without it. So lets take an example of a Java programmer programming in JavaScript he/she will try and make sure that JavaScript works and feels like Java. There is no harm in it as long as that is not being preached as the only way of working. I tend to do that a lot (program like "x" language in "y") but I will never say that this is the only way of doing it. It just WFM , and I tend to learn from looking at other peoples code and changing my practice whenever I see something that I feel is better. Then we have the Mac, Linux and till a certain point Microsoft fanatics. They seem to have their fixed

There is always so much to learn

After every few years I feel I know everything there is to know but along comes something new and my myth is shattered and I come back down to earth. In most cases its not even something new just something I've never bothered to look but something which actually changes my perception. Most of the times I work on multiple projects at a time and in the end the result seems to be zero. There is always that one thing that seems to hold back the complete project. Be it something small or something really big. But there is something bigger than these projects that I seem to get out of these personal projects and that thing is experience. I end up learning things that I normally think I know or seem too trivial to learn. This weekend I was working on CSS and trying to get a native look and feel on a web page. I searched all over the net. But in the end the whole information was sketchy at best. I ended up learning a lot and finally figured out how little I knew about the topic and how li

Just an ordinary day

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Today began as just another day and somehow is ending that way. Nothing exciting or interesting, still have my TODO list which never seems to get completed. Just hoping that tomorrow might turn out to be a little more interesting. The last two weeks have been hectic in every possible sense. First was my birthday which is normally a non event but this year for a change went out with friends and had a lot of fun. The photograph was clicked at the lake which I went last week. Have also been busy at work with tons of work to complete and somehow did complete it by the end of the week.

Birthday blues and all that crap

Wow its the third post in the series . I am always grumpy on my birthday. So for a change this year I want to be optimistic and hope for the best in the coming year. I have had some good and different experiences this year. The one good thing that I realized is that I always seem to underestimate my self in a certain area. And over the last few months I have been proven wrong and that is one good thing I have learned. In terms of programing I am leaning towards Java and have written or at least started posting links of whatever I am searching for these days. That should give you some idea of what I have in mind and what I could be working on these days. On the other hand I have also been working on a project and wanted to launch it today on my birthday but I guess it will have to wait for another few days before I can launch it. Its just a little over midnight and have to wake up early and probably go out for a walk. At least I want to try to go out but not sure how well it will work o

Thank the lazy people for the progress.

Today a friend sent me a SMS, a quote by Henry Ford , " Progress is not made by early risers or hard workers, but by LAZY people, trying to find easier ways to do the same. " That just makes a lot of sense. Most of the inventions we see today are built out of necessity. Which in most cases is about doing the same job in a more efficient way.

Affiliate link comment spam on my blog

I got a comment on my blog post " Futurebazaar sucks big time " and this person was defending futurebazaar as if he was part of Future Bazaar. I have nothing against that 'cause maybe someone actually got a good service and wanted to defend them. The whole comment smelled fishy with an affiliate link http://s2d6 .com/x /?x=c&z=s&v=762451&r=[RANDOM]&k=[NETWORKID] pasted at the end of the comment. If you read the comment it sounds like one bad infomercial . I searched for this guy and I found one of his site filled with the same affiliate links all over. Sorry dude you are not getting any traffic from the spam comments you left on this blog.

Java beans, activex, flash and .net interportability

I was searching for a way to make Java inoperable with .net and activex on windows. Here are a few links that you might find interesting. Hosting .NET Controls in Java Hosting .NET Controls in Java (Print Edition) Java Native Interface (JNI) - adding an ActiveX to a Canvas Hosting ActiveX/.NET controls in a Java Application. Making Native Windows API calls from within a Java Application Make a Window "stay on top" The last two links shows you how to get the hwnd of a window and make it stay on top. The DJ Project allows you to mix heavyweight and lightweight components. so you can actually use flash animations in your Java project.

Syntax highlighting java component

I was looking for a way to syntax highlight text in a Java and here are some links that might help you out. Compiler Tools has some cool code snippets here which might help you in syntax highlighting. I also found a Java Bean at jedit.org that might be interesting to look out for.

JavaME based open source projects

I have been looking for some good softwares in JavaMe and luckily I've found a few good links. These links are more for my own reference than any other reason. JavaME based open source projects API ME J4ME ME Application Developers Project

Finally laid my hands on the Asus EEE PC

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I got to lay my hands on an Asus EEE PC. Its tiny and surprisingly usable. The boot up speed is awesome to say the least. The default Linux installation seems and feels really basic. The keyboard feels a little cramped at first but one can easily get used to it. The screen is bright and readable. Its really light and you have to see one to believe how small it is. The integrated webcam really works well.

Vivek sucks tops on google results

After all the ranting this was bound to happen, I wrote about how future bazaar sucks , airtel gprs sucked and a couple of other rants about products or services that were not up to what I expected them to be. I was going through Google analytics and wanted to know where the traffic was coming to my website. There were the usual search terms that are there normally but the one search term that really caught my eye was " vivek sucks ". I tried it on google and behold the first result was one of the posts on this blog. I could not help but laugh at the irony but I am still hoping it was some other Vivek that this person was searching. Meanwhile the search term " Vivek " which I have been trying to target for a while dropped to page 6 on google. I hope it comes up to the point of Vivek Sucks some day :) So next time if you want to visit the blog and you don't rememeber the url to the blog just search for Vivek Sucks on google.

Finally made changes to the blog

After waiting for ages to change the template and get this blog in order I have finally been able to do something today. So the only person who actually visits this blog should comment on the new look and feel of the blog. I also took a look at all my previous blog posts and made sure that all of them have been labeled. So now searching things should be a lot more simpler. In the last few months I have not written much in the tech section and now hopefully will be adding a lot more articles and posts on JavaScript. I will be working on my website and hopefully you will see a lot more JavaScript at work on the blog here and also on the main site .

Blogging at a new address

I finally moved my blog to a new address http://blog.vivekjishtu.com/ . The old address will automatically redirect you to the new address. So the only person who actually reads my blog can now change his/her bookmark. I wanted to change the address for a while but was a little worried about the google pagerank but I doubt it no longer makes sense to target it. In any case its a brave new attempt in loosing my page rank. I will also try and revamp the look and feel of this site but not sure when that will happen. I have been trying to bring all my sites under one theme and merge them and make the whole structure a little more manageable. The main site http://vivekjishtu.com will have links to my " life " (of whatever little I have). Links to my profiles on all the so called Web 2.0 sites. I have a really neat plan to merge my complete online world under one domain. Lets see if I can get this done this month.

Asus Eee PC goes on Sale from 2nd Feb 08 in India

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The ASUS Eee PC is going on sale in Chroma stores. Not sure when it will be launched in north India but finally they are launching it. I just got a mail today and as of now there is no mention of whats the magical figure they are expecting for the sub-laptop. The price point according to the so called speculation (the stock market is really having its effect on me) would be 13K-16K. In terms of looks the EEE PC looks a lot better than its rivals. Thought not the best looking thing but its still a lot better than its rivals. If by some chance they set the price at 13K it will be a fitting reply to the HCL MiLeap X series laptop. The HCL MiLeap in my opinion looks fugly but then its my own personal opinion. It has a screen which is 7" but if you look at the extra border it will be almost as big as a 12-13" laptop which makes it a little impractical. Had apple designed such a product it would be 8" at max but thats another thing that it would cost at least 7-8 times mor

The season of a new beginning

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I was out of town this weekend to get my driving license renewed. I went to Shimla on Sunday and caught up with my relatives and my cousins. I had planned to stay there for a day and it turned out that I had to stay back for 3 days. To top it all I was unable to get my license renewed so all was in vain but if nothing else I caught up with my cousins and also I got a brief vacation. I might have to go back this weekend or maybe next week. I can see that the next few weeks are going to be hectic in more ways than one. Have to attend a few weddings in the next 2 weeks. They are people who I have grown up with and to see all of them settle down seems kind of intimidating. It almost feels like yesterday when we were in school or in college and today they are getting ready for a new beginning. Its at time like these when I really want to understand what I really want out of life. Here is wishing for a great new beginning to my friends who are soon going to tie the knot. Will try and post

The new HCL MiLeap X/Y

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I was really excited to hear about the new ultra portable laptops which HCL is coming up with. Now I have not been satisfied with the kind of products that HCL makes. But given the fact the EEE PC will take a while to launch in India I was really excited to hear about this news. I was searching for a picture of the MiLeap and I came across this blog post where I saw these pictures. They really have the target audience as kids for the 14K laptops. I was hoping that it would look something like the palm folio. But if this is what it really looks like I would have second thoughts about buying it. I was so looking forward to buy a sub laptop. The 29K laptop at least looks decent but given the price I would buy a full laptop rather than think of buying a sub laptop which seems underpowered. Now all I do is to wait for the launch of the EEE PC . Or the other better option is to just hope for a miracle that the final 14K product does not look like this picture . UPDATE: While surfing I f

Instant Communication - II

Anyhow since I've just posted the first version let me just give you a low down on the results of my social network test. All I was looking was how much effect does social networks have on my personal life. That is if I even have a personal life to talk of :), but then thats another story altogether. I had just thought that I would not check any of the following sites netvibes , techcrunch , digg , reddit , flickr , facebook , orkut and some more sites. I had also planned that I would not check my personal emails. But only after a day I thought I had to check my emails, I checked my emails and I had emails from orkut and facebook and ended up visiting the sites. I had also got a mail for some activity on flickr and I ended up visiting that site as well. Guess I am addicted to these sites, that is not something very good. Though I just checked the sites once but I still feel I need a little more of a life to stay away from this so called virtual life. I still don't understand

Instant communication

This is a post I had posted from my mobile. But unfortunately the body never went through. I told a couple of friends about what I was writing about but no one seemed interested. So I don't think it made no sense what so ever to write anything on this topic. Just to recap a bit I was really sick and tired of the social networks and just wanted to know if I could live without it. Thats more or less what this post was about.

Music I am currently hooked on

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Breathless by Shayne Ward I liked the way this guy screams, literally screams. It was annoying at first but its like an acquired taste. I have this song on a loop and lets see till when I keep liking it. [ On YouTube ] [ FullScreen ] Change by Sugababes This song is different, not too different from their other songs yet different enough to be liked. [ On YouTube ] [ FullScreen ]

Sifting through my past

I was going through my past posts and it really feels strange reading the posts. Some of them seemed so funny and totally stupid to say the least. I was compiling the list of posts that get the maximum traffic from google. And the winners are.. The best mobile development platform for hobbyist programmer After trying my hand at every possible mobile platform this was supposed to be a rant and unfortunately got featured on slashdot. This was a classic case of a stupid article getting attention. It was half written and there were a few things missing at the time it hit slashdot. I really wish I had completed it before it was on slashdot. Speed up your AJAX based webapps This one was written keeping in mind something new and happening and today nearly every webapp that I can think of follows it in some way or the other. If nothing else I did start something interesting. Till then none of the webapps were using these caching techniques. I really wish people followed the topic a little more

Weight loss adverts on my blog

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This has got to be one funny thing to start in the new year. So finally Google also knows about my " exercise " schedule. I have no plans of reducing my weight but just staying a little more fit. UPDATE: After posting this post all the ads are for weight loss products. Fun times :)

Happy New Year 2008

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The new year is here and hope you have a great year ahead.