Hipatic

Tablets compared! Kindle Fire, Nook Tablet, ASUS Eee Pad Transformer , Acer Iconia Tab, Samsung Galaxy Tab and Apple iPad

2011-11-14T08:38:00.001-08:00

Kindle Fire:

Kindle Fire is to movies and rich media, what Kindle was to ebooks.

Kindle Fire
Spec	Details
Price	199 USD
Dimensions	190 mm x 120 mm x 11.4 mm (7.5" x 4.7" x 0.45") (H x W x T )
Weight	413 g (14.6oz)
Display	Size: 7" IPS multi-touch display. Resolution: 1024x600 169dpi
Storage	8GB fixed
CPU	TI OMAP 4 4430 (dual core)
RAM	512 MB
Battery Life	7.5-8hrs. (7.5hrs of video playback or 8hrs of reading.)
OS	Android 2.3 (Customized)
Connectivity	1.Wifi (No adhoc connection support) 2.USB
Additional Points	1.Amazon App Market2.Amazon Silk Web Browser

Kindle Fire is ready to be released for the holidays. Priced at less than 60 percent of the iPad and based on Google's Android operating system, the Kindle Fire is not a Kindle - the easy on the eye, e-ink based, month long battery wielding e-book reader. However, Kindle Fire is to movies and rich media, what Kindle was to ebooks.

Upside:
Price: Cheapest "mainstream" tablet (not counting fire-sale prices)

Downside:
Limited Storage: 8GB(6GB usable) storage may not be enough. Higher storage versions are not available at present.This may be to coax users to buy content from Amazon which gets stored for free on the cloud.

No Camera, GPS: No camera or GPS in this release, Kindle Fire 2 might have them next year.
Other points:
No Android Marketplace: Only apps whetted by Amazon's Kindle App Store/Market will be available. This may be a downer for both developer and consumer. However, this could prove beneficial for Amazon and offer better app-compatibility for users.Apps can
Custom Android OS: Kindle Fire is based on the Gingerbread Android OS. However it does not include Google's proprietary apps and does not support the Android Market. Android OS upgrades provided by Google may also not work and the Kindle Fire may have it's own upgrade schedule.

Nook Tablet:

Nook wins over the Kindle Fire in storage, offering a possible 48GB (16+32) of offline storage to Kindle Fire's 8GB.

Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet
Spec	Details
Price	249 USD
Dimensions	206 mm x 127 mm x 12 mm (8.1" x 5" x 0.48") (H x W x T )
Weight	399g(14.1oz)(0.88 lb)
Display	Size: 7" IPS capacitative multi-touch display. Resolution: 1024x600 169dpi
Storage	16GB. upgradeable with microSDHC slot
CPU	1GHz TI OMAP4 (dual-core) processor
RAM	1 GB
Battery Life	11.5hrs reading, 9 hrs video playback
OS	Customized Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)
Connectivity	1.microSDHC Slot 2.Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n(2.4GHz only) 3. Microphone
Additional Points	Barnes & Noble App Market

Nook wins over the Kindle Fire in storage, offering a possible 48GB (16+32) of offline storage to Kindle Fire's 8GB. Otherwise, it still has all the limitations of the Fire, a custom Android OS, custom App store, no camera, no GPS and no Bluetooth. Moreover Kindle Fire is priced at 50$ less.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 plus:

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 plus
Spec	Details
Price	399 USD(16GB) ?? USD(32GB)
Dimensions	193.65 mmx 122.37 mmx 9.96 mm (7.62" x 4.82" x 0.39") (H x W x T )
Weight	345 g (12.17oz) (0.76lb)
Display	Size: 7" PLS multi-touch display. Resolution: 1024x600
Storage	16GB, 32GB
CPU	1.2 GHz dual core
RAM	1 GB
Battery Life	8hrs
OS	Android Honeycomb
Connectivity & More	1.Bluetooth 3.0 2.Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n(2.4GHz,5GHz) 3.Wi-Fi Direct 4.Camera: Rear - 3 megapixel, Front - 2 Megapixel 5. HSPA/EDGE/GPRS 6. 30 pin connector with HDMI, USB or SD card adapters available as addons 7.A-GPS
Additional Points	Android Market

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1:

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1
Spec	Details
Price	499 USD(16GB) 599 USD(32GB)
Dimensions	256.7 mm x 175.3 mm x 8.6 mm (10.11" x 6.90" x 0.33") (H x W x T )
Weight	565 g (19.93oz) (1.24lb)
Display	Size: 10.1" Super PLS multi-touch display. Resolution: 1280x800 149ppi
Storage	16GB, 32GB
CPU	1 GHz nVidia Tegra 2 dual core
RAM	1 GB
Battery Life	9hrs video playback. 72hrs music playback
OS	Android 3.1 (Honeycomb)
Connectivity & More	1.Bluetooth 3 2.Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n(2.4GHz,5GHz) 3.Wi-Fi Direct 4.Camera: Rear - 3 megapixel, Front - 2 Megapixel 5. HSPA/EDGE/GPRS 6. 30 pin connector with HDMI, USB or SD card adapters available as addons 7.A-GPS
Additional Points	Android Market

ASUS Eee Pad Transformer:

ASUS Eee Pad Transformer
Spec	Details
Price	399 USD(16GB) 469 USD(32GB)
Dimensions	270 mm x 180 mm x 13 mm (10" x 6.9" x 0.51") (H x W x T )
Weight	680 g (23.99oz) (1.49lb)
Display	Size: 10.1" IPS multi-touch display. Resolution: 1280x800 160dpi
Storage	16GB, 32GB. microSD slot, SD slot(with Dock)
CPU	1 GHz dual-core nVidia Tegra 2
RAM	1 GB
Battery Life	9.5hrs to 16hrs(with Dock)
OS	Android 3.2 (Honeycomb). Upgradeable to Android ICS 4.0
Connectivity	1.Bluetooth 2.1 2.mini HDMI 1.3a 3.USB 2.0 (with Dock) 4.DLNA 5.Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n
Additional Points	1.Docking keyboard with 2 USB 2.0 ports, additional battery and SD card slot

The Eee Pad Transformer is another Android based tablet released in March 2011. A successor named ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime has been announced.

Acer Iconia Tab A100:

Acer Iconia Tab A100
Spec	Details
Price	349 USD(16GB) 329 USD(8GB)
Dimensions	195 mm x 117 mm x 13.1 mm (7.68" x 4.60" x 0.52") (H x W x T )
Weight	410 g (14.4oz) (0.90lb)
Display	Size: 7" multi-touch display. Resolution: 1024x600
Storage	8GB, 16GB
CPU	1 GHz nVidia Tegra 250 dual core
RAM	1 GB
Battery	1530mAh, 2cell Battery
OS	Android 3.0 (Honeycomb). Upgradeable to Android 3.2
Connectivity	1.Bluetooth 2.1 2.mini HDMI 1.3a 3.micro USB 2.0 4.Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n 5.Rear:5MP camera with Flash, Front: 2MP Camera 6.GPS
Additional Points	Android Market

Acer Iconia Tab A500:

Acer Iconia Tab A500
Spec	Details
Price	449 USD(16GB) 499 USD(32GB)
Dimensions	260 mm x 177 mm x 13 mm (10.24" x 6.97" x 0.52") (H x W x T )
Weight	730 g (25.75oz) (1.61lb)
Display	Size: 10.1" multi-touch display. Resolution: 1280x800
Storage	16GB, 32GB
CPU	1 GHz nVidia Tegra 250 dual core
RAM	1 GB
Battery Life	9.5hrs to 16hrs(with Dock)
OS	Android 3.0 (Honeycomb). Upgradeable to Android 3.2
Connectivity	1.Bluetooth 2.1 2.mini HDMI 1.3a 3.micro USB 2.0 4.Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n 5.Rear:5MP camera with Flash, Front: 2MP Camera 6.GPS
Additional Points	1.Dock available

Apple iPad 2:

Apple iPad 2
Spec	Details
Price	Wi-Fi:499 USD(16GB), 599 USD(32GB), 699 USD(64GB) Wi-Fi:629 USD(16GB), 729 USD(32GB), 829 USD(64GB)
Dimensions	241 mm x 186 mm x 8.8 mm (9.5" x 7.31" x 0.34") (H x W x T )
Weight	610 g (21.52oz) (1.34lb) 600 g (21.16oz) (1.32lb)(Wi-Fi only model)
Display	Size: 9.7" multi-touch display. Resolution: 1024x768 (4:3) 132ppi
Storage	16GB, 32GB, 64GB
CPU	1 GHz dual core Apple A5
RAM	512 MB
Battery Life	10hrs
OS	iOS 5
Connectivity & More	1.Bluetooth 2.1 +EDR 2.Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n(2.4GHz,5GHz) 3.3G GSM/CDMA as per model 4.Camera: Rear - 0.7 megapixel, Front - 0.3 Megapixel 6. 30 pin connector with HDMI/VGA/USB/Card reader adapters available as addons 7.A-GPS
Additional Points	1.Dock, Wireless Keyboard addons 2. App Store

Sources:
1. http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Fire-Amazon-Tablet/dp/B0051VVOB2
2. http://www.asus.com/Eee/Eee_Pad/Eee_Pad_Transformer_TF101/
3. http://www.barnesandnoble.com/p/nook-tablet-barnes-noble/1104687969
4. http://www.apple.com/ipad/
5. http://www.acer.co.uk/ac/en/GB/content/series/iconia-tab-a
6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASUS_Eee_Pad_Transformer
7. http://www.gsmarena.com/acer_iconia_tab_a500-3907.php
8. http://www.gsmarena.com/acer_iconia_tab_a100-3841.php

Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot on Acer Aspire One ZG5 AOA 150 ( with a gnome-shell workaround )

2011-10-16T16:59:00.000-07:00

We recently did a review of Windows 8 Developer Preview on Acer Aspire One ZG5 AOA 150. In a similar vein, we will be reviewing the October 13 release of Ubuntu's latest stable offering, the Oneiric Ocelot.
Ubuntu's dreamy cat-leopard is available as
1) Ubuntu Desktop 32bit and 64bit
2) Ubuntu Server 32bit and 64bit
3) Ubuntu Alternate installer 32bit and 64bit

The Alternate installer is for those who cannot run the desktop version of the installer or for those whose systems failed to login after installation due to driver or other issues using the default installer. The alternate installer has a text based installer.

For installation along with Windows, a WUBI installer is available.

Official Derivatives:
Ubuntu recognises 6 derivatives

1) Kubuntu - KDE desktop with Ubuntu
2) Xubuntu - XFCE desktop with Ubuntu
3) Lubuntu - LXDE desktop with Ubuntu
4) Edubuntu - Ubuntu for education with Unity desktop
5) Mythbuntu - Ubuntu for HTPC with XFCE desktop
6) Ubuntu Studio - Ubuntu for graphics , video and audio editing with XFCE

(At the time of writing this article, the Ubuntu Studio website has not put up a link for the 11.10 release)
These derivatives generally run different desktop managers and/or software but are based on the official Ubuntu release. You may choose to install a derivative directly or install Ubuntu and then install the required packages(eg. kubuntu-desktop, xubuntu-desktop or lubuntu-desktop). In the latter case, you can select,for example, between Ubuntu's Unity desktop or Kubuntu's KDE while logging on.

Installation:

The setup is available for download as .iso files of ~700MB size. DVD sized .iso files are also available which contain language packs.

New Installation:

Burn the iso to CD/DVD or to a USB and boot into it. The .iso file is a live disc and you can try Ubuntu before installation using it. Installation is straight forward and you can choose to download updates from the internet during installation.

Case Scenarios:
New PC:
The setup will guide you through the partition setup and create a base partition and swap partition.

Windows User:
If you wish to retain your windows installation, do not format your windows partition. Instead, create two new partitions. One for all your files and the setup. The other is a swap partition which should be around twice the size of your RAM. You can create additional partitions if you so desire.

Upgrade from Ubuntu:
You can upgrade, if you are using 11.04. If you are using a previous version, you need to upgrade to the following versions first.

Retain /home files only:

If you do not wish to retain your installed software and settings, and only wish to retain your /home folder. You can boot into the CD/DVD/USB and install into the existing partition, without formatting it first. (Alternatively, you should be able install into a different partition and then move your /home files as well)

Retain installed software, settings and files:

1. Upgrade Online: You can upgrade from the Update Manager which will download the required packages. You do not need an .iso file for this.

2. Upgrade using .iso file: You can upgrade using the Alternate installer. Download the Alternate 32bit/64bit .iso file. At the terminal type these commands

sudo mkdir -p /media/cdrom
sudo mount -o loop ~/Desktop/ubuntu-11.10-alternate-i386.iso /media/cdrom

Followed by

gksudo "sh /media/cdrom/cdromupgrade"

This will start the upgrade process.
You will be prompted for downloading updates from the insternet during installation, if you select "yes", only those packages which are newer than those on the disc are downloaded, thus saving installation time.If you select "No", the installer says it will not download any packages, but does so anyways for the other packages you may have installed. If you already have kubuntu-desktop or xubuntu-desktop installed along with Ubuntu 11.04, all those packages will be upgraded too.

Installation on Acer AspireOne ZG5:

Specs:
Launched: 2008
Atom N270 CPU
1 GB RAM
160GB HDD
Mobile Intel Graphics 945G Express

A Little Background:
The Acer AspireOne ZG5 ran Ubuntu 11.04 with Unity (3d), Unity 2d,Gnome Classic, Kubuntu and Xubuntu, without any problems. It also ran the Gnome 2.x shell which preceded the final Gnome 3 release

Gnome 3 fails to run on the Acer AspireOne ZG5. The problem is due to the inadequate graphic support.

In Ubuntu 11.10, Ubuntu has done away with Gnome classic(2.x) completely. You can still get Gnome 2.x '"like" behavior using the gnome-session-fallback which depends on gnome-shell, which is a part of Gnome 3.

Installation:

Upgrade was done with the alternate .iso file using the method elicited above.

Post Installation:

The login screen has been replaced by "lightdm", (The installation prompts you to select the default login manager lightdm, gdm, kdm etc if you have them installed)

Unity 3d : Fail. Desktop panel flash and then disapper. No desktop.
Unity 2d: Works. Cannot right click on desktop, no icons. Can set backgrounds.
Gnome:Fail.Cannot start gnome-terminal.
Gnome Classic: Fail. Panels flash and disappear. Can start gnome-terminal using shortcut Ctrl+Alt+T.
Gnome Classic (No effects):Fail. Panels flash and disappear. Can start gnome-terminal using shortcut Ctrl+Alt+T.
Xubuntu: Works.
XFCE:Works
Lubuntu:Works
LXDE:Works

(Xubuntu & XFCE are XFCE based desktop sessions available when you install the xubuntu-desktop package. Lubuntu and LXDE are LXDE based desktop sessions when you install the lubuntu-desktop package)

Hardware & Devices: Acer Aspire ZG5 Wifi, video, sound, MMC reader and webcam were all detected without issues.
Impression:
Gnome 3 does not work on the Acer Aspireone ZG5 because of graphics issues. Ubuntu 11.10's Unity is based on Gnome 3 and perhaps hence does not run on the Acer Aspire One ZG5's Intel 945 Mobile Express Graphics. Unity 2d on the other hand is based on Metacity and still works.

How to get gnome-shell working on Ubuntu 11.10 on Acer Aspire One ZG5?

When Gnome 3 was in the works, gnome-shell based on Gnome 2.x was available from ppa repositories for Ubuntu 10.10 and 11.04. As mentioned above, that gnome-shell worked fine on the Acer Aspire One. The command used to replace the existing window manager with gnome-shell was

gnome-shell --replace

We tried the same on Ubuntu 11.10.

As mentioned above, Gnome Classic fails to load on Ubuntu 11.10 on the Acer Aspire One, but only partially. One can still use the shortcut Ctrl+Alt+T to launch a gnome-terminal (Terminal emulator). Enter the following in the gnome terminal

gnome-shell --replace

Running "gnome-shell --replace" from terminal. Gnome shell UI is visible and somewhat usable, but will exit if you close the terminal. You can use nohup

The Gnome 3 UI is now visible and somewhat usable. Since we launched gnome-shell from the terminal without a nohop, the shell will close if you close the terminal. So, we hit Alt+F2, which brings out the Run Application, and type in the same command.

Run gnome shell again from Alt+F2. Also note, the absence of a desktop background

Alternatively you could have used nohup in the terminal to begin with.

nohup gnome-shell --replace

After Gnome Shell has reloaded, you can close the terminal safely.

In the above screenshot, you can see there is no desktop background. To setup a background, Press Activities(Or Win Key)>Type "Image viewer"> Open a image you would like to set as wallpaper>Right click on the image & choose "Set as desktop background".

Wallpaper set. Also note that the menu is missing the Switch User Option. Note also that the Unity Panel is visible. This is because gnome-shellwas launched after logging into a Unity 2D(Ubuntu 2D) session(More below)

The Gnome Dash. Press Win-Key or Move your mouse to the top right edge.

Shortcomings:

1) No Switch User(fixed aftter installing gnome) or Hibernate Option in the Notification Menu
2) Gnome based software like Gedit, Nautilus fail to run

$ gedit

Gtk-Message: Failed to load module "canberra-gtk-module"
Gtk-Message: Failed to load module "canberra-gtk-module"
gedit: symbol lookup error: gedit: undefined symbol: gtk_overlay_get_type

$ nautilus

Gtk-Message: Failed to load module "canberra-gtk-module"
Gtk-Message: Failed to load module "canberra-gtk-module"
Initializing nautilus-gdu extension
Initializing nautilus-open-terminal extension
nautilus: symbol lookup error: nautilus: undefined symbol: gtk_overlay_new

3) Cannot access or change System Settings.

4) Cannot right click on desktop. No desktop icons.

We followed this up by installing the "gnome" package.

sudo apt-get install gnome

After installation of gnome, a switch user option appeared and the Logout option started working. However gedit, nautilus and many other gnome based apps(including system settings) still do not work. One can use Kate instead of Gedit, and dolphin/konqueror instead of nautilus in this case, but system settings is still unfixed.

Creating a Custom User Defined Session to login to Gnome Shell in Ubuntu 11.10 on Acer Aspire One

On the login screen, a gear icon gives us the options to choose from multiple desktop environements viz Unity , Unity 2D, Gnome Classic, Gnome, Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Xubuntu etc, provided you have the related packages installed.

In the example above, we ran gnome-shell on Ubuntu 11.10 with some success. But to do so we had to type commands into the terminal after waiting for gnome classic to load (and fail). We can automate this process by creating a new User Defined Session and linking it to a script file.

Open a text editor.Since Gedit was not working on the system, we had to use Kate to do the editing. Run Kate as root

gksudo kate

Create a new file. Type in the following content

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Gnome Shell Custom
Comment=Custom Gnome Shell script
Exec=/home/username/.xsession

Save the file as custom.desktop in /usr/share/xsessions

Create a second new file.Type in the following content

#! /bin/bash

gnome-session --session=gnome-classic &
sleep 10
nohup gnome-shell --replace

Save the file as .xsession in /home/username/

Where "username" is your username. In the above example, we first create a custom.destop file to create a new User defined session. We link the file to a script which we place in the user's home directory. This script could have been placed elsewhere and the custom.desktop file could have been named anyname.desktop. We have named the new User Defined Session as Gnome Shell Custom.

Now Logout from Gnome shell. At the login screen, click on the gears icon and choose "Gnome Shell Custom", type your password and press enter. The script first loads Gnome classic(Gnome 3 with gnome-session-fallback which emulates the Gnome 2 look), this fails to load in Acer Aspire One ZG5/AOA 150.(This is exactly what happens when we selected Gnome Classic at the login screen). After this the script waits for 10 seconds(you can change this to a lesser or greater value. 5 seconds also seems to work.)After the waiting period, gnome-shell --replace is executed, which replaces the failed gnome-session-fallback with the Gnome shell UI.
The script was tried with only gnome-shell --replace, in which case the Gnome Shell UI appeared, but incompletely, there was no wallpaper, no notification icons and no favorite icons. The script was also tried without the waiting period, in which case too the Gnome shell UI was incomplete.

Limitations of this setup:
Gnome 3 based applications like Gedit,nautilus and multiple system settings applications are not accessible.

Alternatives for Gedit: Kate, Vim
Alternatives for Nautilus: Dolphin/Konqueror

Advantages of this setup:
You can use a semblance of the latest UI on your 3+ year old Acer Aspire One ZG5 AOA 150 netbook with tolerable performance.

Alternative Way: Use a new or Guest Account

If you are using a new user account or a guest account you can login to the default GNOME session from the login screen and get the gnome-shell as UI.

Alternatives to Gnome on Ubuntu 11.10:

As already mentioned above Kubuntu, Xubuntu and Lubuntu desktop environements work without a problem on the Acer Aspire One AOA 150 and can be used instead of Unity 3D/Gnome. Unity 2D also works on the machine.

Unity 2d + Gnome Shell:
If you login to a Ubuntu 2D session and then execute gnome-shell --replace, you end up with Gnome shell over a partly usable Unity 2D.

Unity 2D launcher panel with Gnome shell. GIMP 2.7 is running, while Gnome "alert" about Mozilla Firefox being ready is visible at the bottom.

Unity 2D Dash over Gnome Dash

Unity 2D on Acer Aspire One in Ubuntu 11.10

As previously mentioned Unity 2D works on the AspireOne but with exceptions.

Shortcomings:
1. Cannot right click on the Unity 2D desktop. No desktop icons.

2. Double Click and hold to activate menus in Unity 2D.

But Unity 2D might be the goto option for many AspireOne users because basic features like the Internet Browser, Media Player and LibreOffice work.

LXDE + Gnome Shell

Instead of logging into Unity 2D and then launching gnome-shell, one can also log in to Lubuntu/LXDE session and launch gnome-shell. In this case you get to use desktop icons and desktop right click.

Ubuntu 11.10 on Acer Aspire One for other users

For other users, a Lubuntu/Xubuntu/Openbox session maybe in order, due to performance issues. Of these Openbox loads the fastest, but offers not much of a UI. Lubuntu based on LXDE offers a decent UI but good load times. XFCE based Xubuntu has slightly longer load times, but offers a better UI.

Conclusions:

Linux distributions are known to run better on older hardware than their Windows counterparts. Such a comparison though unfair, is not unwarranted. In our Windows 8 Developer preview on the same machine, we saw that Microsoft's latest offering working(or gracefully fall-backing) pretty well. However, we do see that in this case Gnome 3 does not appear to do so. Unity 2D is the fall-back which Canonical offers for Unity 3D. The Gnome Shell workaround mentioned in this post is perhaps the closest one can get to a Gnome 3 experience on the Acer Aspire One AOA 150.

Sources & References:
1.11.04 - How can I add gnome-shell to the regular Ubuntu Natty login screen along with "Ubuntu" "Ubuntu Classic", maybe as "User defined"? - Ask Ubuntu - Stack Exchange
2.Run VirtualBox session directly from GDM session in Ubuntu | Quick Tweaks
3.NattyUpgrades - Community Ubuntu Documentation
4.Derivatives | Ubuntu
5.Alternative downloads | Ubuntu

Blackhole Exploit Kit threat surfaces at the Wampserver English Website

2011-10-14T00:19:00.000-07:00

AVG is reporting and blocking access to the website of Wampserver at wampserver.com/en citing a Blackhole Exploit Kit threat.The Blackhole Exploit Kit surfaced late in 2010 on file sharing websites under the guise of security software.

More about the Blackhole Exploit Kit at Websense.

New Look Blogger: Promising Dynamic Views lacks options for customization, third-party scripts and more

2011-10-04T04:34:00.000-07:00

Blogger released a Dynamic Views template recently. Dynamic Views is a set of seven(7) different ways to display the posts of a blog.

The official post about the launch of the new look mentions the following benefits

The Benefits:

1. Infinite scrolling:

Views: Classic

2. Images that load as you browse

3. Integrated search

4. Sorting by date, label and author

Views: Flipcard

5. Lightbox-style posts

Views: Snapshot, Flipcard and Timeslide

6. Keyboard shortcuts

7. One-click sharing to Google+ and other social sites on every post

Out of these features, the lightbox post view and keyboard shortcuts are new and interesting. Gmail shortcuts work, like j and k for previous and next post respectively. The Lightbox view is available in some views. Sort by date, label and author is available in the Flipcard view only.

Integrated Search(3), Infinite scrolling(1) and One Click sharing(7)

Lightbox style posts in some views

Sort by Date, Label and Author in Flipcard view

Note the grayed out Edit HTML and the missing Layout option in the sidebar

The Limitations:

The Edit HTML optioon for editing templates is not avaliable. Atleast as of now, the button is grayed out

The Layout option present for other templates is missing too.

Customization is available but with limitations:

Only the following are available

1. Background: Background image

2. Advanced: Add CSS

What you cannot do?

No third party scripts
No sidebar gadgets
No widgets
No Blogger plugins
No Subscrbe/ Follow gadget
No Google Analytics
No Disqus
Google Webmasters site verification breaks when using Dynamic Views

(The above points are redundant and basically stem from lack of any additional script support at present)

You cannot add third party scripts and other blogger layout scripts to your blog at present

Since layout is disabled and you cannot edit the template HTML , there is presently no easy way to add scripts to your blog if you want to use Dynamic Views.

A poor workaround can be adding the required script to the html of the post. If the script is for a tracking code like Statcounter/Goggle Analytics, you will have to place it in every post. Ditto for advertisement codes.

Blogger provides tracking using Blogger Stats. Adsense works too.

What works:

Google Adsense
Blogger Stats
A cool new template!

Good News for Adsense Users

If you are using Adsense, you can use the Earnings section to setup your ads.

Bad news for users of Google Webmasters:

If you were using META tag based or Google Analytics code based verification on Google Webmasters, the verification will now fail. You can still verify using the TXT record opton. Most registrars support TXT records.

My registrar does not support TXT records
If your registrar does not support TXT records, think about moving your DNS to a third party DNS service provider like commercial providers like DynDNS, Geoscaling(free to start with, Hipatic.com is using geoscaling now) or free ones like Namecheap FreeDNS.

Conclusion:

New HTML5 and AJAX based Dynamic template.
Offers Some customization like background & css
No way to add third party scripts(Blogger is working on plugin support)
Definitely Beta

The Design Views template goes to show that the Blogger team is working hard to bring out new features. Although, there are some limitations now, expect them to be remedied in the near future.

Drop Blogger a line regarding Dynamic Views

Windows 8 Developer Preview on Acer Aspire One AOA150

2011-09-25T14:27:00.000-07:00

Microsoft recently launched a Developer Preview for Windows 8. The MSDN website gives you 3 different iso files
1) 32bit Windows 8 Developer Preview.
2) 64bit Windows 8 Developer Preview.
3) 64bit Windows 8 Developer Preview with developer tools

Windows 8 is being seen as Microsoft's attempt at unifying their operating system offering. One OS to rule them all - PCs, tablets and phones. Windows 8 features the Metro interface and support for ARM processors(no developer preview is available for ARM processor based devices at present)

The Windows Developer Preview is a pre-beta release for developers.

Test Device: Acer AspireOne ZG5 AOA 150
RAM: 1GB
Processor: Atom N270 1.6Ghz
VGA: Onboard. Mobile Intel 945 Express Chipset

This 3 year old netbook meets the minimum system requirements for the 32bit install of the Windows Developer Preview.

Installation:
If you have Windows XP or 7 installed, boot into it and download the 32bit iso file from the MSDN website. After the download is complete, mount the iso using a virtual device manager like Daemon Tools(a free lite version is available).

Open the mounted volume and browse to the "sources" folder. In it run the setup.exe. Install Windows 8 Developer preview to a partition of your choice and select the Custom installation option. This will do a clean install of Windows 8 Developer Preview to the partition and after the install is complete will let you boot into Windows 8 Developer Preview.

The installation went smoothly on the AOA 150 and took about an hour to complete.

You can also create a bootable dvd or usb drive using the iso and boot from that to install Windows 8 Developer Preview.

Post installation issues:

1. Windows 8 did not detect and install the driver for Mobile Intel 945 Express Chipset, defaulting to the default VGA driver with a 800x600 resolution.

Solution: Downloaded the Windows 7 driver for Mobile Intel 945 Express Chipset from Intel's website

2. Tap to click and touchpad scroll did not work

Solution: Downloaded the touchpad driver for Acer Aspire One AOA 150 from Acer's website

3. Metro apps do not run on resolutions lower than 1024x768. The AOA150 monitor has a maximum resolution of 1024x600.

Solution: Windows allows you to use non-native resolutions by downscaling, using a registry hack. Open regedit and search for Display1_DownScalingSupported. The default value is 0, set it to 1. Restart netbook. Now right click on the desktop and select "Screen Resolution". You should be able to see two new resolutions 1152x864, 1024x768. Metro apps will run on a resolution of 1024x768 and above

Warning: Editing the registry incorrectly may cause your computer to become unusable.

With non-native resolutions the display is not very clear, but Metro applications can now be launched.

Performance:

Windows 8 Developer Preview runs surprisingly well on the Acer Aspire One AOA 150. Having tested Windows 7 Beta on this netbook before(a long while back), it can be safely said that Windows 8 felt either on par or slightly better than Windows 7. That said, it still runs pretty sluggishly when compared to Windows XP or Ubuntu 11.04, but that is expected.

CPU and Memory Load averages:

CPU usage at rest was 5% but would spike to 90% when applications were being launched. Memory usage remained around the 700MB mark out of the available 1GB.

Conclusion:
Windows 8 Developer Preview works on the Acer Aspire One with fixable driver issues. Metro applications however need a registry hack to run. For a 3+ year old netbook, the performance of Microsoft's latest offering is top notch

Nokia Keep MeeGo - Sign the Petition

2011-06-22T10:52:00.000-07:00

Nokia is planning to use the Windows Phone 7 OS for its future mobile offerings. That means no more Symbian and Maemo(and now MeeGo). While Symbian had its shortfalls and had a very successful run, Maemo had just started and was(or is) a lot more promising than Symbian and even comparable to other mobile OSes on offer. Nokia going the Windows way may even turn out to be the right decision for Nokia and Symbian might have just run its course, but nipping MeeGo in the bud seems hasty and cruel.(Nokia released N9 which runs a MeeGo instance)

Wish to support the "We want Nokia to keep MeeGo" petition over at twitition. Follow the link and sign in to support. Spread the message on twitter and facebook too.

How mflow can change the music scene?

2011-01-15T07:36:00.000-08:00

People have had enough of 30 second (90 seconds in some places) previews before deciding whether or not to buy a song. Unless the song is on radio, which most album-only songs aren't, chances are that the only place where you could legally hear the song before buying it is if you are lucky enough to have a friend who has already bought that song. Letting somebody else listen to songs you bought on your player, is that legal?(Well that is a completely different debate!)

Otherwise, let me list the sources where you could hear the song(Most common on top):
1. Youtube - Popular albums find their way to Youtube, with users uploading videos with lyrics. This is perhaps the most common place where people can listen to songs before they buy them. However, posting copyrighted songs on Youtube by third parties (users) is either a grey area in terms of piracy (at best) or blatant piracy. All most all get marked by Youtube as containing content from the particular artist, and some get removed(the video stays on with muted audio, if original).
2. Music websites - I will not name them, but you know what I am talking about here. There are multiple music search websites, offering mp3 search and most searched for songs along with links to material sourced from third party websites. Though the websites offering the content only act as a search engine, downloading songs that somebody else has wrongfully hosted may not be completely right.
3. Torrents - By Torrents I mean the illegal one's. Using BitTorrent Technology as a distribution medium is something that holds a lot of promise(I think it has delivered on that promise many times over already, however it still awaits adoption by the mainstream( The Humble Bundle uses it as an additional distribution medium.). Downloading the album from a torrent the day it hits the shelves without paying a penny(unless the artists don't want a penny(see 9 inch nails!)), is not fair to the artist.

I completely agree that the music industry has to change their revenue model. For starters, better rates and a better distribution system will help. For eg. giving off an album for an extremely cheap price, after it has hit certain sales targets is a good option, that way people would still be attracted to buy a certain album after the initial craze is over and the album has slid off the charts. Or try the reverse, give the first 100,000(can be 10,000 or a million too) copies of the album for an extremely low price, like 0.99$. Or make that price available for a limited time.

What does mflow offer that retails stores don't?
Retail stores like itunes,amazon have that give-us-your-money appearance, where the prices are in bold, buy buttons attractive (and patented) and songs available as 30s(or 90s) previews. While shoppers might still depend on the feel of these websites to satisfy their shopping urges, I have to admit that the casual look of mflow may be much more appealing to users who visit to listen to their favorites and then buy a song they just happened upon.

How does mflow differ from Last.fm
Last.fm is your new age radio. While you can select what type of songs(or group of songs) you would like to listen to, you cannot select a particular song. It appears that the kind of contracts that Last.fm has with the media bosses do not allow Last.fm to offer their users this freedom. Recntly Last.fm phased out the ability to listen to playlists and personal tags too. A lot of restrictions, yes, but age (and a lot of work by the developers) has given Last.fm the throne in the social music scene. Last.fm has a lot of active users who scrobble tracks from their players, an attractive feature. Last.fm clients are avilable for a range of mobile devices, multiplying its reach and appeal. I can't decide whether it's a positive thing or not, but Last.fm calls itself a music recommendation service(which it is) and does not attach a price tag to its songs, which actually means that other music services can add scrobbling tracks to Last.fm as a feature to their service and not feel that they are helping competition.

What is mflow?
Currently mflow is in beta, so what it will finally turn out to be is debatable, but as of now mflow looks like a good promise. It offers a library of 5 million songs, which can be played on demand and bought at competitive prices. As a promotional offer, they are giving away 10 tracks to users who recommend(flow, that is what they call it) tracks to their friends using the social trio(facebook, twitter and buzz(they are more of a duo IMHO)). So basically mflow is buying the best possible advertisements and making the users happy at the same time. The preview quality is probably at 64kbps or 128kbps, but not bad. The downloaded tracks are offered at 320kbps for a price of 0.99£ or 0.79£ a piece. mflow is available on HTML5 web browsers, so its future on mobile devices is pretty good.
mflow does not offer an API which developers can use at this moment to make apps to extend mflow, so that is an area where mflow can do better. mflow is promising more features as time goes, and we would surely like the option to make playlists(update June 2011: Playlists: Check!), add favorites and get song suggestions. A native player for our mobile devices will also be welcome.

Good:
Full Length songs
Competitive pricing
HTML5 compatibility
Actively developing

Bad:
No API
No native applications for devices
UK only currently

I've rambled a lot. How Spotify, Grooveshark, Rdio and others will influence the music scene is for another post.

Links:
1.mflow.com
2.Last.fm

Co.cc affiliate page labeled as Malware

2010-12-28T00:39:00.000-08:00

Recently affiliates of co.cc might have received a "Malware Detected" page on browsing to the Referrals section of the co.cc website.The screenshot attached is from Google Chrome.

On browsing to http://www.co.cc/affiliates/affiliates.php, the user is warned that the website contains content
from http://lookfeel-201002[dot]co(dot)cc
The link in question is used in a reference to an animated gif used as a display banner to promote co.cc on publisher websites. One of the embeddable links that co.cc presents on the affiliate page also includes the link in question. Apparently the website lookfeel-201002[dot]co(dot)cc that co.cc uses to serve the banner has been labelled as a site serving malware.

The Google Safe Browsing advisory report gives further details.It says that the site was found to host malware and infect a website 1 time in the past 90 days. It rates the website as suspicious.
If publishers have been using this embed link to promote co.cc, users to their websites too might get the same warning page. The other embeddable link which is a iframe, however seems unaffected.

Update:
Co.cc seems to have corrected the problem, by skipping the page in question altogether. You are now taken to the login page directly and once logged in, you can see the sign up list upfront. This leaves the question,where do people get their banners from?

Will Wikipedia reach fundraising goal for 2011?

2010-12-27T23:48:00.000-08:00

Jimmy Wales and friends have been appealing to users of Wikipedia for donations to the Wikimedia Foundation to fund Wikipedia and sister projects through 2011.
Wikimedia Foundation runs various sister projects along with Wikipedia.For eg. Wikibooks is a free textbook initiative and Wikiversity is an interactive learning platform. For this Wikimedia employs 58 salaried staff.
To cover costs for staff and maintenance of the world's fifth largest web property, Wikimedia is aiming for 16 million USD in donations for 2011. The fundraising started on 12th November 2010 and so far they have collected 13.4 million USD.
To donate, you can goto http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate
Update(1 Jan 2011): The fundraising is over and the goal has been met. Jimmy Wales says thank you, but we say thank you Jimmy! More power to Wikipedia and people this new year!
Sources:
1. http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/FAQ/en
2. http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Special:FundraiserStatistics

Youtube to support longer videos for users with a clean track record

2010-12-11T08:28:00.000-08:00

Youtube will now allow users with a good track record to upload videos longer than 15 minutes. While youtube has been largely free from pirated movies and full length TV episodes (recently ofcourse), due to their Content Id system and the restriction of uploaded video length to less than 15 minutes by regular users, this move could really test the effectiveness of their Content ID system, because pirates will try every trick in the book to bypass the automatic content recognition and filtering system that youtube employs. This could also give rise to a large number of websites offering tricks to upload copyrighted movies, by altering the audio or the video to bypass the filters. On the positive side,you will not have to slice your home movies into parts of 14.59 minutes each.We can expect some full length movies from Shay and Co..

Firefox 3.6.13 released, still awaiting Firefox 4

2010-12-10T07:35:00.000-08:00

While Google's Chrome is blazing through version numbers, Firefox 4 has a drawn out roadmap ahead of it. On December 9 2010, Firefox released 3.6.13 update, with some security and stability fixes.
Firefox 4 Beta has been out from June 24 2010, with new features being added in every beta iteration till Beta 7. The beta 7 feature set will then be refined through beta 8 to beta 10. Beta 10 will be the last beta release and is expected in January 2011. The Firefox 4 RC is expected in early 2011.
Mozilla expects to give Firefox 4 a run of around 6 months before the final release candidate, exposing the browser to around 1M to 4M users. This should polish rough edges.
Using Firefox 3.6.12? http://getfirefox.com should give you the stable version.
Firefox 4 beta is available here as of now
Sources:
https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/4/Beta

Google +1: Screenshots and detaiils

2010-12-09T00:22:00.000-08:00

Various news sources are reporting about Google +1, Google's social networking tool, much like the Facebook 'Like' button. TechCrunch a screenshot of the currently confidential service, on it's website.
The screenshot is of Chrome browser on a Mac, displaying the Google News(http://news.google.com) page. A google accounts user is logged in and there a few additional buttons on the top-right area of the page. There is an additional link name 'Loop' on the top left side. The screenshot is probably from Nov 15 2010, based on the date on a News article.

There is a 'Confidential' label, which perhaps indicates that the service is in private beta. This is followed by a share button, not unlike Facebook's 'Like', followed by a google user thumbnail, and user name. The user logged in is a google.com user, probably indicating a Google employee, This is followed by a gray box with the number '0' in it, probably a score, followed by a Settings/Options icon.The top right section has a new link named Loop, probably a new social networking service offering.

Comparison with 'Like':
Facebook Like button shares the details on the users wall, and can be seen by friends in their Facebook News feed. This has good visibility to the shared content. Google Buzz suffered in this respect. The new share option might allow sharing through various services, which will be a plus or might allow sharing through some new Google social network, opinion on which will be premature now.

Sources:
1. http://www.techtree.com/India/News/More_dirt_about_Google_1_Uncovered_in_Screen-grab/551-113725-643.html
2.http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/07/google-plus-one-pic/

Google Chrome OS Cr-48: Predictions for the next version number, based on isotopes

2010-12-08T12:54:00.000-08:00

Google is giving out free netbooks running the Google Chrome OS as part of a pilot program. The netbook is called Cr-48.
The Chrome OS and the browser is based on a project called Chromium. Chromium is also an element in the periodic table, with Cr-48 or more appropriately ⁴⁸Cr being an isotope.

The most stable isotope of Chromium is Cr 50, with a half life of greater than 1.8 × 10^17 (10¹⁷) years.

The most commonly found isotope however is Cr 52, accounting for 83% of the world's Chromium.

Whereas Cr 48 is a less common isotope with a half life of 21.5 hours approximately.

Many Chromium isotopes have half lives in milliseconds eg. Cr 59, Cr 60, Cr 61.

The stable chromium isotopes with long half lives are Cr 50,Cr 52,Cr 53 and Cr 54.

Version Number/ Release Number speculation:

Nobody in their right mind should take what is written below with less than a large pinch of salt.

If Google is being inspired by isotope numbers to indicate the stability of a release, based upon the stability of the isotope, (i.e.,
Cr 48 (the isotope) has a half life of 21 hours(less than those of the stable isotopes, but more than that of Cr 59, Cr 60 which are highly unstable), similarly, Cr-48 (the netbook, which is a test version for beta testers)is expected to have less stability than the final version of Chrome (expected mid 2011), but have more stability than the preview Chrome OS that was shown sometime last year), then we may speculate that, the earlier preview versions of Chrome OS might have been labeled Cr 59, 60, 61 or perhaps their internal versions might have been labeled so.

We may also expect their final stable release to be labeled Cr 50 with a Ubuntu like LTS, followed by a feature rich Cr 52 which will end up having the most userbase.

Google Chrome OS Cr-48 Features:
12 inch screen
8 hours battery life
10 second boot up time.
Instant Sleep resume.
Wi-Fi + 3G
Webcam

What's Different:
No Cap's Lock key.
No Function Keys replaced by Multimedia Control Keys.

The pilot program is open for all US citizens.

Sources:
1.http://www.google.com/chromeos/pilot-program-cr48.html
2.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotopes_of_chromium
3.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromium

Image source:
http://www.google.com/chromeos/static/images/cr48-1.jpg as seen on http://www.google.com/chromeos/pilot-program-cr48.html on 9 Dec 2010.

Open Flash Charts 2 & individual clickable bars: How to add Links to bar charts

2010-12-06T01:16:00.000-08:00

Open Flash Charts is an open source, flash charting component built by monk.e.boy. It supports multiple languages including php, java, .NET and more. In the words of the creator, it was created because

"I could learn Flash and Actionscript and write my own charting component, release it as Open Source, host it on sourceforge and build up a community of helpful coders faster than they(company who sells proprietary flash charting component) can fix a single bug.
--From http://teethgrinder.co.uk/open-flash-chart/ "

Open Flash Chart released version 2 Lug Wyrm Charmer in July 2009, and sadly the project hasn't seen a newer version since then. The community however has modifications and patches for OFC2 which keeps the project alive.

I used OFC2 in a intranet project recently where I didn't want to use Google Charts. Tutorials on the OFC2 website made the setup pretty easy.

I used Bar Charts, which did not properly support click events. The fix was pretty easy and I am documenting the same here.

Sample code for Open Flash Charts 2 on how to add links to your bar charts.
Usage Example:
stats.php (source from OFC examples, modified code is marked.)

set_colour( '#ff0000' );
$data[4]->set_tooltip( 'Hello
#val#' );

//modified code starts
$data[4]->set_on_click("http://google.com");
//modified code ends

$bar = new bar_glass();
$bar->set_values( $data );

$chart = new open_flash_chart();
$chart->set_title( $title );
$chart->add_element( $bar );

echo $chart->toString();

Source Code Modification:
I was using the php-ofc-library, and had to modify the file ofc_bar_glass.
Find the class bar_value, and modify as below

class bar_value
{
/**
* @param $top as integer. The Y value of the top of the bar
* @param OPTIONAL $bottom as integer. The Y value of the bottom of the bar, defaults to Y min.
*/
function bar_value( $top, $bottom=null )
{
$this->top = $top;

if( isset( $bottom ) )
$this->bottom = $bottom;
}

function set_colour( $colour )
{
$this->colour = $colour;
}

function set_tooltip( $tip )
{
$this->tip = $tip;
}
//modified code start
function set_on_click( $onclick )
{
$tmp='on-click';
$this->$tmp = $onclick;
}
//modified code end
}

(Syntax Highlighting not available)
If you are new to OFC, you may have to look at the tutorials.

OFC2dz.com has a modified version of OFC, with a lightweight SWF file which I found very useful.

Google App Engine App Gallery shuts down, Reddit page to act as new gallery

2010-12-06T00:19:00.000-08:00

Google App Engine's(GAE) gallery of featured applications located at http://appgallery.appspot.com shutdown sometime in the month of November this year.

A visit to http://appgallery.appspot.com gives the following message

The App Gallery is no longer available. This page should redirect you to the App Engine docs. If not, please click on: App Engine Docs

According to a post on a thread on the GAE Google Group, Ikai Lan(Google Staff) clarified

... App Gallery was something that was really awesome in App Engine's infancy, but App Engine has since matured a bit and it's really not the best way to showcase App Engine's capabilities. We've decommissioned it. If you're interested in App Engine happenings, you'll definitely want to regularly check out our Reddit page:

The Reddit page is located at http://www.reddit.com/r/appengine

The gallery was apparently pulled down without prior notice and users at the thread can be seen voicing their dissent.

Hopefully, AppEngine won't suffer the same fate.

CPU Overheating: Symptoms, Causes and Solutions

2010-11-24T02:07:00.001-08:00

The most hit pages on this blog are the CPU Temperature Guides, so here is a comprehensive(work in progress) guide to everything(almost) related to CPU Overheating.

Symptoms of a Overheating CPU :

1. Random Crashes:
Your system may switch off or restart automatically while you are using it. And this may happen repeatedly. If the overheating problem is not severe enough, then your PC may only crash when you are running many CPU intensive applications or running a CPU intensive game. If your CPU temperature is very high, then the system may restart as it is booting up ending into a endless and dangerous loop.

2.Sluggish System:
An overheating CPU underperforms, result being a sluggish computing experience. The system may experience random lock-ups too.

Differential Diagnosis:
A PC may also crash due to RAM, Motherboard, Hard Disk & Power Supply Unit issues.

Causes of CPU Overheating:

1. Improper CPU + Heatsink installation:
If your system is new and you have overheating issues, or if you have recently installed a new CPU/heatsink or if you have fiddled with the system and have removed and replaced the heatsink, improper contact between the CPU & heatsink could be the likeliest problem for CPU overheating. A thermal grease or pad exists between the CPU and heatsink. Properly applied thermal grease ensure proper thermal contact and proper dissipation of heat that the CPU generates. Improperly applied thermal grease could make heat dissipation inefficient and thus CPU overheating.

2. CPU fan malfunction:
Most desktop environments have an active heatsink (with a fan). A CPU fan may malfunction due to dust, a faulty fan or a faulty power supply.

3. Airflow and Case related issues:
Proper airflow in the case is essential for the life of your computer. Dust clogging up the escape points in your case can impede airflow and increase operating temperatures. An uncleaned case may act as a completely sealed case which will shorten your computer's life. Some cases have a side fan and a malfunctioning side fan can add to your temperature woes. Check the heatsink, it might be clogged with dust bunnies.

Though a CPU's temperature will rise when processing demands rise, a CPU should not overheat in such conditions.

Solutions to an Overheating CPU:
Solutions will depend on the cause of an overheating CPU.

1. Improper CPU + Heatsink Installation:
Solution would be to unseat and reseat the CPU heatsink properly, reapplying the thermal compound
in the process. This can be risky and if improperly done could fry your CPU.

CPU lapping: (CPU lapping will void your warranty. Not recommended and proceed at your own risk.)This involves sandpapering away the surfaces of the CPU and/or heatsink, so as to achieve more surface to surface contact between the CPU and the heatsink.

2. CPU fan malfunction:
If the problem is dust collected between the fan blades, air dusting it might solve the problem. Be wary and careful while using a lubricant on a recently purchased fan, chances are you may not need it. If the fan still refuses to spin , ordering a new fan might be the only solution. While ordering a new fan you might consider heavy duty cooling fans like Cooler Master or try another cpu fan.

3. Airflow and case issues.:
There's almost nothing that a good dusting does not get rid off, when it comes to airflow issues in a case which functioned well when new. Regular dusting with compressed air is a good idea. If a cpu case fan is not working, you may want to replace it.

Apart from the aircooling the CPU with CPU fans, heavyduty users might want to look at liquid cooling options available.

Google Testing Previews in Search

2010-10-24T10:55:00.000-07:00

I recently noticed a magnifying glass next to google's search results, clicking on which showed a page preview of the page.
We have already seen page preview plugins for Wordpress blogs(see snapshot). Google has also revamped it's image search result display page and we all have experienced Google Instant by now. So while google might have changed a lot behind the scenes and added a lot of functionality, the general look of the website has remained consistent.(see archive.com : Google in the year 2000)

Searchengineland has an article dating back to 2009 which talks about Google apge preview with a different look. And as you can see in the images along side, techland and the register among others have covered the topic as early as 6th of this month.

The page preview highlights the lines which have the search terms, so you can decide if the page contains content you wish to view. While netbooks might find the feature taking too much real estate, the feature in general is a welcome one.

Google New Look: Google Looks Like Bing!

2010-03-13T03:55:00.000-08:00

Sometime back Google gave it's homepage a minimalistic look with a fade-in effect. That was OK.

Google also added a Search Options tab in the search results page. That was useful.

Now Google has added a More tab to the left with Images, Blogs, Shopping and what not as options. Most of these search options have always appeared at the top of the page.
Google has also brightened up the page and everything looks so 'brightly' blue.

All of that would have been ok too, but somehow these changes make Google look more like Bing!
More points for Bing or should Google do a rethink?

PS: The change has not spread everywhere. Most search pages return the default look

Verified by Visa (VbV) & Mastercard Securecode become mandatory for Indian debit cards

2010-01-02T16:21:00.001-08:00

Debit cards issued by Indian Banks can no longer be used on websites that do not support 3-D Secure. Registrations for 3D Secure(Verified by Visa, Mastercard Securecode) began on August 1st 2009, but cards were being processed properly by sites not supporting VbV/Securecode nonetheless. Starting December 2009 however, cards can only be used on sites supporting VbV/Securecode.
This doesn't bode well with users of websites like PayPal and Godaddy among others.
Credit Cards on the other hand continue to work as before.

CPU Temperature Guide for Intel Core i7 & i7 Extreme: Range of Normal CPU Temperatures

2009-02-09T04:37:00.000-08:00

Is your CPU Temperature too High? How high is high? Is 60 degree Celsius high enough or is 70 degree Celsius the threshold? Hipatic covers your temperature problems right here. Below we discuss Intel Core i7 & i7 Extreme
If your CPU is overheating, visit our CPU Overheating Guide and CPU Overheating: Symptoms, Causes, & Solutions

To measure CPU Temperatures you may need Real Temp

Intel Core i7 & i7 Extreme:

CPU Temperature Guide for Intel Core 2 Quad: Range of Normal CPU Temperatures

2009-02-09T03:31:00.000-08:00

Intel Core 2 Quad:

[Part 5] Setting Up Blogger with .co.cc domain: Ultimate Setup, Resolve with non-www and www versions of your domain name

2009-02-08T12:51:00.000-08:00

Part 5 (Final part!):

{

This article is the 5th part of a 5 part series on Setting up Blogger with a .co.cc domain: Ultimate Setup

Please read the series from the start as this article alone may not make much sense

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

}

In Part 1 you got a free .co.cc domain

In Part 2 you got a free Hipatic Hosting

In Part 3 you got the A name of your free hosting

In Part 4 you configured everydns.net

Now we will redirect non-www to www

i.e mydomain.co.cc to www.mydomain.co.cc

Once redirect is done all that the end user will ever see when he/she enters mycdomain.co.cc is www.mydomain.co.cc and your blog!

Remember your end user will never see the long myusername.hipatic.0lx.net

The method which we will follow is "Redirect using .htaccess" which is supported with the hosting that we have procured from hipatic.0lx.net in Part 2

Open notepad, copy the following into it, REPLACE MYDOMAIN WITH YOUR DOMAIN NAME. Change nothing else

RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^mydomain.co.cc

RewriteRule (.*) http://www.mydomain.co.cc/$1 [R=301,L]

Save this file as a.htaccess & select type as "All files"

Now open your favorite ftp client. We used CuteFTP. You can use your favorite ftp. If you are using Firefox you can use Fireftp addon available from Mozilla. or you can download the trial of Cuteftp from their website

Open your ftp client. Create a new FTP site. Enter the details from your mail which you received in Part 2

Note that the username is a series of numbers following 0lx_

The Host address may vary and will be included in the confirmation mail which you received in Part 2

After you have filled in the details, press enter and your client will connect to the ftp server

This is what you should see.

Open mydomain.co.cc (in your case you will see a folder named with the appropriate domain name which you used while setting up your free Hipatic Hosting in Part 2)

In mydomain.co.cc you will see a folder named htdocs open that.

Now browse to the a.htaccess file you had saved earlier on your pc and drag drop the file into your mydomain.co.cc/htdocs folder

This is what you should see

Now Rename the file

a.htaccess

on your ftp site to

.htaccess

as shown

Renaming...

In CuteFTP once you rename the file to .htaccess, the file disappears. Don't panic, if you followed the steps properly, your htaccess file is properly placed on your server

Now all your requests will be redirected to your www version which is pointing to your blog!

Synopsis:

How does this setup work?

when someone types in http://mydomain.co.cc,

1.the request is sent to .co.cc servers

2.Co.cc points the DNS of mydomain.co.cc to everydns.net

3. everydns.net resolves mydomain.co.cc to its A name

4. A name leads you to your free Hipatic Hosting website, which has a .htaccess redirect to www.mydomain.co.cc

5. This(www.mydomain.co.cc) is again resolved through Co.cc servers to everydns.net and this time everydns.net sends the user to ghs.google.com which finally points to your blog!

If you liked this series on Setting up Co.cc with Blogger, which we call (with our tongues firmly in our cheeks) the Ultimate Setup, please comment. If you find any errors please report. If you have any problems with the same, you can mail us at hipatic@hipatic.com

Back to Part 4

[Part 4] Setting Up Blogger with .co.cc domain: Ultimate Setup, Resolve with non-www and www versions of your domain name

2009-02-08T12:35:00.000-08:00

Part 4:

{

This article is the 4th part of a 5 part series on Setting up Blogger with a .co.cc domain: Ultimate Setup

Please read the series from the start as this article alone may not make much sense

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

}

In Part 1 you got a free .co.cc domain

In Part 2 you got a free Hipatic Hosting

In Part 3 you got the A name of your free hosting

Now if you remember in Part 1 we had setup your .co.cc doamin's DNS and pointed it to ns1.everydns.net, ns2.everydns.net, ns3.everydns.net & ns4.everydns.net.

In Part 4 we will setup your dns at everydns.net to respond to that.

Now goto http://everydns.net

If you are a new user, sign up!

Fill in the form with a proper email id. Press Sign Up. Follow the instructions that follow carefully.

Once you have created a account. Login with the username and password you specified while signing up at http://everydns.net

On your dashboard, you'll see something similar. Replace eg.: everydns.net with your .co.cc domain, eg. mydomain.co.cc or in our case hipatic.co.cc

And Click on Basic

On the next page, you'll see your domain name mydomain.co.cc.

Click on the domain name.

You'll be brought to a page with a CNAME entry and a A entry.with the adjacent form below it.

Fill up the form replacing www.hipatic.co.cc with www.mydomain.co.cc

Press Add Record

On the next page, replace hipatic.co.cc in the image alongside with mydomain.co.cc

Note that we are not using the www prefix this time.

Type in the A name you got from netcraft in Step 3 in the record value

This part is done!

Back to Part 3

Proceed to Part 5

[Part 3] Setting Up Blogger with .co.cc domain: Ultimate Setup, Resolve with non-www and www versions of your domain name

2009-02-08T12:26:00.000-08:00

Part 3:

{

This article is the 3rd part of a 5 part series on Setting up Blogger with a .co.cc domain: Ultimate Setup

Please read the series from the start as this article alone may not make much sense

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

}

If everything went fine in Part 1 & 2, you must now have a

1. free .co.cc domain like mydomain.co.cc

2. free Hipatic Hosting with a domain like myusername.hipatic.0lx.net

In this part we will use netcraft.com to know the A name of your Hipatic free Hosting

myusername.hipatic.0lx.net

Goto http://netcraft.com

Enter your myusername.hipatic.0lx.net free hosting site name. This is what you signed up for in step 2. (Replace test1 in the image with your username.) Press Enter

A new window will open with this report. In that look for the IP address which will appear in the place of the text Your A name will appear here. It will be in the form of xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx eg 202.76.213.2

Make a note of this IP address which we will use as our A name in the next step

Back to Part 2

Proceed to Part 4

[Part 2] Setting Up Blogger with .co.cc domain: Ultimate Setup, Resolve with non-www and www versions of your domain name

2009-02-08T11:43:00.000-08:00

Part 2:

{

This article is the 2nd part of a 5 part series on Setting up Blogger with a .co.cc domain: Ultimate Setup

Please read the series from the start as this article alone may not make much sense

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

}

Now you need to find a host. If you are searching for a free host, Hipatic is a Byethost reseller.

You can sign up at hipatic.0lx.net(down! try http://hosting4domains.info)

It provides php, mysql and most importantly ".htaccess" which is what we will be using for setting up our website.

Click on Sign Up

Fill the form. The Username is the name of the subdomain that you will get. Provide a real email id. Used for verification.

After Submitting, You'll be asked click me to continue and then a Image verification. Follow the steps accordingly.

After this you'll receive a confirmation email in your inbox. Check the Spam folder if you don't find the confirmation mail.

After you confirm, you will receive a mail with your login credentials and your cpanel link. Mostly http://cpanel.0lx.net. Check your mail for your cpanel link, username which will look like 0lx_########

and password. Also make a note of the ftp details, we will need that later.

Once logged in, find under Domains>> Addon Domains

Click!

On the Addon Domain page enter your .co.cc domain which you registered in the first step

Click on Create domain. Step 2 is done!

If for some reason the link hipatic.0lx.net did not resolve or if you faced an error while creating a domain please visit byethost.com and select free hosting. The steps and the result will be similar. (Thanks to ithiek)

If everything went fine you must have got a free domain name with a name like http://myusername.hipatic.0lx.net or http://myusername.xxx.xxx (xxx varies depending on where byethost sends you for free hosting sign up.)

where myusername is the username you provided while registering. We will use this address to know the A name of your host in the next step!

Back to Part 1

Proceed to Part 3

[Part 1] Setting Up Blogger with .co.cc domain: Ultimate Setup, Resolve with non-www and www versions of your domain name

2009-02-08T11:16:00.000-08:00

Part 1:

{

This article is the 1st part of a 5 part series on Setting up Blogger with a .co.cc domain: Ultimate Setup

Part 1

Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

}

We had an article on setting up .co.cc with blogger.
Although that is the easiest method, it has a serious drawback.

If you used that method, your site will resolve correctly if and only if the user types in http://www.hipatic.co.cc

If the user omits the "www" and types http://hipatic.co.cc he/she will get a 404 Page Not Found Error!

Your site would not resolve if you pointed your browser to say http://hipatic.co.cc simply because all that you had in your zone records was "www" on "hipatic.co.cc" pointing to ghs.google.com via a CNAME, i.e the server knew where to redirect http://www.hipatic.co.cc but had no clue about where to send the user if he/she requested for http://hipatic.co.cc

Here we try to explain how to resolve your website with both the www and non www versions of your site name.

Step 1:

(Hipatic is an affiliate of Co.cc and the id=148231 is Hipatic's Affiliate Id )

If the website is available for free sign up. You'll be taken through a series of steps and will be asked for a email address to verify your identity. Once the verification and initial steps are complete, you may have to login to your account.At the home page of http://www.co.cc

click on Returning user, sign in here

Select your ".co.cc" account

This screenshot is from Hipatic's account. You will see the name of your domain instead of hipatic

In the following page, click on the "Set up" button

Select "Manage DNS"

Enter the following nameservers

ns1.everydns.net

ns2.everydns.net

ns3.everydns.net

ns4.everydns.net

Click on "Set Up"

Blogger Setup:(Is the same as explained in Blogger Setup)

Go to your Blogger Blog dashboard.
Select Settings
Select Publishing
Select Custom Domain
Select Advanced Settings
Type in the name of your domain, eg www.mydomain.co.cc
Type in the Captcha & Press Enter !

Proceed to Part 2

CPU Temperature Guide for Intel Core 2 Duo : Range of Normal CPU Temperatures

2009-01-11T01:13:00.000-08:00

Is your CPU Temperature too High? How high is high enough? Is 60 degree Celsius high enough or is 70 degree Celsius the threshold? Hipatic covers your temperature problems right here. Below we discuss Intel Core 2 Duo.
If your CPU is overheating, visit our CPU Overheating Guide and CPU Overheating: Symptoms, Causes, & Solutions

To measure CPU Temperatures you may need Real Temp

Intel Core 2 Duo:

Setting up EveryDNS.net with byet.org, byethost, 07x.net or any other website

2009-01-02T13:48:00.000-08:00

If you tend to goof up, setting up EveryDNS.net as your DNS host can be a difficult task.
We sum up the basics you should follow to host your website's DNS on EveryDNS.net successfully.
What is EveryDNS.net?
To say the least, it is a website which manages your website's DNS requirements.
It can act

as a Primary DNS or
as a Secondary/ Backup DNS or
as a Webhop/ URL forwarding service

Why should you use EveryDNS.net?

Firstly follow this motto when maintaining a website.

DO NOT put all your eggs in one basket

which means

Do not use the same service provider to manage your Domain Name, Website Hosting and DNS

For example if you have bought your domain from GoDaddy, try hosting with a different service provider.

Point of the Post:
Let's learn with the help of an example.
1. Domain name bought from a registrar eg. GoDaddy
2. Hosted for free at a free hosting provider like Byet.org or at a reseller of Byet like 07x.net
3. DNS to be managed by EveryDNS.net
Before Migrating to EasyDNS.net:

The site eg. mywebsite.com has been hosted on 07x.net
(I presume you have added mywebsite.com as a add on domain on your free 07x.net hosting account.)
The NameServers (NS) on GoDaddy have been changed to point to
ns1.07x.net
ns2.07x.net
After 24-48 hours of NS change, your website is working perfectly fine.

Why Migrate your DNS to EasyDNS.net?
07x.net and most hosting companies handle your DNS requirements quite nicely. Then why change? Because these sites are not specialists. And if your hosting goes down, so do your nameservers! If you switch your DNS to a third party like EveryDNS.net, you still have working Nameservers in case your hosting goes down! You can serve error pages or you can redirct traffic.

Migration to EveryDNS.net:
To begin with Create a free account at EveryDNS.net & add your domain mywebsite.com
1. Change the NS at Godaddy to
ns1.everydns.net
ns2.everydns.net
ns3.everydns.net
ns4.everydns.net
(if your provider gives you only two slots for NS go for ns1.everydns.net & ns3.everydns.net since at the tie of writing this article ns2.everydns.net was down)
2.
Go to your EveryDNS.net account & select mywebsite.com
delete both entries present by default
add the following entries
1.www.mywebsite.com
(or mywebsite.com)
Type: A
Value:209.190.24.9
(This is for ns1.07x.net)

2.www.mywebsite.com
(or mywebsite.com)
Type: A
Value:209.190.24.8
(This is for ns2.07x.net)

DONE!

You might add

www.mywebsite.com
Type: CNAME
Value:www.mywebsite.com

but we have found that websites work even without this setting.

What if my host is not 07x.net?
In that case you will have to find the A Record IP of the given host.You may ask your hosting provider for the A record value or search the Internet or do what is given below:
If your service provider provides you with a free subdomain address along with the hosting(many do) eg. example.07x.net or example.myisp.com, then register a subdomain
Then Goto: Netcraft.com
Lookup your subdomain address, eg www.eample.07x.net or example.07x.net
Netcraft will give you the details of the website, including the IP.
Use this IP as the A record value
You may also use any other website hosted similarly and look it up on Netcraft to get the IP value.(Do not confuse this with the IP returned when you ping a name server, for eg. when you ping ns1.07x.net you get IP 209.190.16.82, but the IP returned by NetCraft which you will use as the A record value is 209.190.24.9)
for different hosting providers like 110mb, A record value changes from Box to Box! you will have to get the specific A record value for your Box Number.

That's it!

Sites similar to EveryDNS.net:
ZoneEdit.com
EditDNS.net

Check your site status for errors with:
checkdns.net

Further Reading:
http://byet.net/showthread.php?t=6755

Bookmark this page(Press Ctrl+D) or Subscribe to the feed or subscribe via email to follow the post as and when it gets updated!

CPU Temperature Guide for Intel Core 2 Extreme: Range of Normal CPU Temperatures

2008-12-26T21:01:00.000-08:00

Intel Core 2 Extreme:

(If you wish to access the PDF related to your processor, please first follow the link given under sources at the end of the article instead of directly accessing the pdf link given under each sub heading. This will help you access the latest information on your processor from Intel's website & will also prevent hotlinking.)
1. Intel® Core™2 Extreme Processor QX9000Δ Series and Intel® Core™2 Quad Processor Q9000Δ and Q8000Δ Series
Intel ® Core™2 Extreme Processor QX9770 Thermal Profile
Range: 37.8 degree Celsius (Power - 0W) to 55.5 degree Celsius (Power 135W)
Source:http://download.intel.com/design/processor/datashts/318726.pdf Page : 77 Table: 5-2
Intel ® Core™2 Extreme Processor QX9650 Thermal Profile
Range: 42.4 degree Celsius (Power - 0W) to 64.5 degree Celsius (Power 130W)
Source:http://download.intel.com/design/processor/datashts/318726.pdf Page : 78 Table: 5-3
Intel ® Core™2 Quad Processor Q9000 and Q8000 Series Thermal Profile
Range: 44.8 degree Celsius (Power - 0W) to 71.4 degree Celsius (Power 95W)
Source:http://download.intel.com/design/processor/datashts/318726.pdf Page : 79 Table: 5-4

2. Intel® Core™2 Extreme Processor QX9775Δ Range: 35.0 degree Celsius (Power - 0W) to 63.0 degree Celsius (Power 150W)
Source:http://download.intel.com/design/processor/datashts/31912801.pdf Page : 77 Table: 5-2

3. Intel® Core™2 Extreme Quad-Core Processor QX6800Δ Thermal Profile 130 W Processors
Range: 37.9 degree Celsius (Power - 0W) to 54.8 degree Celsius (Power 130W)
Source:http://download.intel.com/design/processor/datashts/318726.pdf Page : 73 Table: 25

4. Intel® Core™2 Extreme Quad-Core Processor QX6000Δ Sequence and Intel® Core™2 Quad Processor Q6000Δ Sequence
QX6850(3GHz), QX6800(2.93GHZ), QX6700(2.66GHZ)[775_VR_CONFIG_05B] 130W Processors 42.4 (Power - 0W) to 64.5 (Power - 130W)
Source: http://download.intel.com/design/processor/datashts/31559205.pdf
Page: 73, Table: 27

Q6600 2.40 GHz 775_VR_CONFIG_05B 105W Processors 43.3 (Power - 0W) to 62.2 (Power - 105W)
Source:http://download.intel.com/design/processor/datashts/31559205.pdf
Page : 74, Table : 28

775_VR_CONFIG_05A Q6600 2.40 GHz / Q6700 2.66GHz 95W Processors
44.4 (Power - 0W) to 71.0 (Power - 95W)
Source: http://download.intel.com/design/processor/datashts/31559205.pdf
Page: 75, Table: 29

5. Intel® Core™2 Extreme Processor X6800Δ and Intel® Core™2 Duo Desktop Processor E6000Δ Sequence

775_VR_CONFIG_06
Intel® Core™2 Duo Desktop Processor E6x50 Sequence and
E6540 with 4 MB L2 Cache
(E6850 3.0 GHz
E6750 2.66 GHz
E6550 2.33 Ghz
E6540 2.33 Ghz)
Range 44.7 degree Celsius (Power - 0W) to 72.0 degree Celsius(Power - 65W)
Source:http://download.intel.com/design/processor/datashts/31327807.pdf
Page:81 Table:28

Intel® Core™ Duo Desktop Processor E6000 Sequence with
4 MB L2 Cache
E6700(2.66Ghz), E6600(2.40GHz), E6420(2.13GHz), E6320(1.86GHz)
Range 43.2 degree Celsius (Power - 0W) to 60.1 degree Celsius(Power - 65W)
Source:http://download.intel.com/design/processor/datashts/31327807.pdf
Page:82 Table:29

Intel® Core™2 Duo Desktop Processor E4500 and E4600 with
2 MB L2 Cache
E4600(2.40GHz), E4500(2.20GHz), E4400(2.00GHz)
Range 45.3 degree Celsius (Power - 0W) to 73.3 degree Celsius(Power - 65W)
Source:http://download.intel.com/design/processor/datashts/31327807.pdf
Page:83 Table:30

Intel® Core™ Duo Desktop Processor E6000 and E4000
Sequence with 2 MB L2 Cache
E6400(2.13GHz), E6300(1.86GHz), E4400(2.00GHz), E4300(1.80GHz)
Range 43.2 degree Celsius (Power - 0W) to 61.4 degree Celsius(Power - 65W)
Source:http://download.intel.com/design/processor/datashts/31327807.pdf
Page:84 Table:31

775_VR_CONFIG_05B
Intel® Core™2 Extreme Processor X6800(2.93 GHz)
Range 43.2 degree Celsius (Power - 0W) to 60.4 degree Celsius(Power - 75W)
Source:http://download.intel.com/design/processor/datashts/31327807.pdf
Page:85 Table:32

Sources:
http://www.intel.com/design/core2XE/documentation.htm

CPU Temperature Guide for Intel Pentium 4: Range of Normal CPU Temperatures

2008-12-26T20:49:00.000-08:00

Is your CPU Temperature too High? How high is high? Is 60 degree Celsius high enough or is 70 degree Celsius the threshold? Hipatic covers your temperature problems right here. Below we discuss Intel Pentium 4.

Pentium 4 Processors:
Temperatures Specified are Maximum Processor Case Temperatures(Tc). For details refer the sources given.
For 65 nm Process in the 775-land LGA Package supporting Hyper-Threading Technology and Intel® 64 architecture

Thermal Profile for 775_VR_CONFIG_05A Processors
Range 44.3 degree (at Power - 0W) Celsius to 69.2 degree Celsius (at Power - 86W)
Source: http://www.intel.com/Assets/PDF/datasheet/310308.pdf Page:77 Table:28

Thermal Profile for 775_VR_CONFIG_06 Processors
Range 43.6 degree (at Power - 0W) Celsius to 64.1 degree Celsius (at Power - 64W)
Source: http://www.intel.com/Assets/PDF/datasheet/310308.pdf Page:78 Table:29

For 90 nm Process in the 775-land LGA Package supporting Intel® Extended Memory 64 Technology & Supporting Intel® Virtualization Technology
Thermal profile for processors having PRB = 1 775_VR_CONFIG_04B
Range 44.3 degree(Power - 0W) Celsius to 70.8 degree Celsius(Power - 115W)
Source: http://www.intel.com/Assets/PDF/datasheet/306382.pdf Page:77 Table:5-2
Thermal profile for processors having PRB = 0 775_VR_CONFIG_04A
Range 43.9 degree(Power - 0W) Celsius to 66.6 degree Celsius(Power - 84W)
Source: http://www.intel.com/Assets/PDF/datasheet/306382.pdf Page:78 Table:5-3

3.80F GHz, 3.60F GHz, 3.40F GHz, 3.20F GHz on 90 nm
Process in 775-land LGA Package and supporting Intel®
Extended Memory 64 Technology2 for single processor
servers and workstations(Intel Pentium 4 Processor Supporting Hyper-Threading Technology )
Thermal Profile for Processors with PRB = 1
Range 44.0 degree(Power - 0W) Celsius to 72.8 degree Celsius(Power - 115W)
Source: http://download.intel.com/design/Pentium4/datashts/303128.pdf Page:74 Table:5-2
Thermal Profile for Processors with PRB = 0
Range 45.9 degree(Power - 6W) Celsius to 67.7 degree Celsius(Power - 84W)
Source: http://download.intel.com/design/Pentium4/datashts/303128.pdf Page:75 Table:5-3

Intel Pentium 4 Processors 570/571, 560/561, 550/551, 540/541, 530/531 and 520/521 Supporting Hyper-Threading Technology† Datasheet: On 90 nm Process in 775-land LGA Package and supporting Intel Extended Memory 64 Technology
Thermal Profile for Processors with PRB = 1
Range 44.0 degree(Power - 0W) Celsius to 72.8 degree Celsius(Power - 115W)
Source: http://download.intel.com/design/Pentium4/datashts/30235104.pdf Page:77 Table:5-2
Thermal Profile for Processors with PRB = 0
Range 44.2 degree(Power - 6W) Celsius to 67.7 degree Celsius(Power - 84W)
Source: http://download.intel.com/design/Pentium4/datashts/30235104.pdf Page:78 Table:5-3

Intel Pentium 4 Processor Extreme Edition on 0.13 Micron Process in the 775-Land Package
For Core Frequency 3.46
Max Power: 110.7W Min Temp 5 degree Celsius Max Temp: 66 degree Celsius
Source: http://download.intel.com/design/Pentium4/datashts/30235002.pdf Page:70 Table:5-1
For Core Frequency 3.40
Max Power: 109.6W Min Temp: 5 degree Celsius Max Temp: 66 degree Celsius
Source: http://download.intel.com/design/Pentium4/datashts/30235002.pdf Page:70 Table:5-1

Sources: http://www.intel.com/design/Pentium4/documentation.htm

Creating a Firefox Extension in 3 Easy Steps

2008-10-22T22:10:00.000-07:00

We recently created an extension for the Hipatic website.

Here is how to create the most basic extension in 3 easy steps!

Step 1:
Create files & folders.
Name it myfirstextension@mysite.com
Inside this folder create files named chrome.manifest & install.rdf
Inside the same folder create a folder named chrome
Inside the folder named chrome create a folder named content
Inside the folder named content create a file named sample.xul

Step2:
Filling up the files!

open install.rdf and copy the following code



<?xml version="1.0"?>

<RDF xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
     xmlns:em="http://www.mozilla.org/2004/em-rdf#">

<Description about="urn:mozilla:install-manifest">
  <em:id>myfirstextension@mysite.com</em:id>
  <em:version>1.0.0</em:version>
  <em:type>2</em:type>

  <em:targetApplication>
   <Description>
    <em:id>{ec8030f7-c20a-464f-9b0e-13a3a9e97384}</em:id>
    <em:minVersion>1.5</em:minVersion>
    <em:maxVersion>3.0.*</em:maxVersion>
   </Description>
  </em:targetApplication>

 <em:name>My Very First Extension</em:name>
 <em:description>My Very First Extension</em:description>
 <em:creator>Me</em:creator>
 <em:homepageURL>http://www.hipatic.co.cc/</em:homepageURL>
  </Description>      
</RDF>

Open chrome.manifest and fill in this


content sample chrome/content/ 
overlay chrome://browser/content/browser.xul chrome://sample/content/sample.xul

Finally open sample.xul (which is in the folder chrome/content/) and copy the following


<?xml version="1.0"?>
<overlay id="sample" 
   xmlns="http://www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there.is.only.xul">
 <statusbar id="status-bar">
          <statusbarpanel id="my-panel" label="Please visit www.hipatic.co.cc" tooltiptext="Visit www.hipatic.co.cc" onclick="window.open('http://www.hipatic.co.cc')"/>
 </statusbar>
</overlay>

Step 3:
Zipping Up & serving the file!
Zip up the contents of the folder(don't zip the folder, zip it's contents!) you created myfirstextension@mysite.com Using Windows/Winzip/WinRAR. Make sure the format is ZIP in case you use WinRAR. Rename the archive thus created from .zip to .xpi . Now drag the .xpi file you have cretaed to your fiefox browser window. An installation window will pop up. Install the etension and restart the browser! Hurray, you have created your first extension!!

PS:
Modding your first extension:
In the file sample.xul
instead of


<statusbarpanel id="my-panel" label="Please visit www.hipatic.co.cc" tooltiptext="Visit www.hipatic.co.cc" onclick="window.open('http://www.hipatic.co.cc')"/>

you can write


<statusbarpanel id="my-panel" label="Please visit My Website" tooltiptext="Visit My Website" onclick="window.open('http://www.mysite.com')"/>

or you can append javascript files for more functions(More of that later!)

CPU too Hot. CPU Temperature above 60 degree Celsius?

2008-10-11T11:55:00.000-07:00

Introduction:
Is your CPU temperature high?
How high is high enough? Hipatic covers your processor's temperature problems right here in a series of articles.

For Temperature Ranges:
1. Intel Pentium 4
2. Intel Core 2 Duo
3. Intel Core 2 Quad processor
4. Intel Core 2 Extreme Processor

Yes. That is what I found when I returned home after 2 months. My PC was being used now and then by those at home but was not being cleaned. When I came back my pc restarted a few times on its own while playing a movie. I opened the box and started cleaning the case inside out. Now this PC of which I am talking of is situated near a window. So it accumulates a lot of dust and whatnot in a pretty short period of time.
I removed the cpu fan & heatsink only to realize my mistake minutes later. The thermal grease had come off on removal of the fan & heatsink. I don't normally keep a tube of TC 1996 thermal grease at home, so I tried re-installing the heatsink as it was. I shouldn't have tried, but nevertheless here's what happened.

With Dust(Before removing the heatsink):
PC booted. I entered BIOS and went to POWER> Hardware Monitor to check for CPU temperature.
CPU temperature = 60-70 degree Celsius
Continued loading windows. FAILED. PC reboots. Vicious cycle.

With improper Thermal Grease:
PC booted. I entered BIOS and went to POWER> Hardware Monitor to check efor CPU temperature.
CPU temperature = 55-60 degree Celsius
Continued loading windows. Success. But ASUS Probe II warns about high temperatures continually. PC sluggish(My subjective feeling?).
I downloaded trial versions of CPUidle & Speedfan.
CPU idle gave temperatures 50-55 degree Celsius, but temperatures shot to 75 degree Celsius on launching any decent application. Way too dangerous for any CPU!

While I could've continued using the PC for a couple of days more(after which my CPU would have fried for sure), I set forth to the nearest techshop(which was a good hour away from where I stay) and bought myself a TC 1996 thermal grease injector(DOW CORNING with Trade secret ingredients!)
I returned home & applied around 1-1.5cm(two rice grains) of the grease from the tube on the heatsink and clamped it down on my LG 775 socket based CPU.

After TC 1996 thermal grease application:
PC booted.
CPU temperature 35-40 degree Celsius.
Continued into Windows. CPU temp 37-43 degree Celsius.
Peak temp[erature on launching video or other applications 50 degree Celsius.

Hurray!

Checklist:
If you are facing a heating problem. Please check:
1. Is the CPU fan working?
-Look for dirt/anything else obstructing the motion of the fan blades.
-Check CPU fan power cable
-If the above points are ok, your CPU fan maybe dead and you may need a replacement

2. CPU fan speed
- Can be checked with naked eyes. Is it too slow. Does it stop intermittently and then start again? There might be an obstruction or your fan might be faulty. Replace.
-Can be checked from the BIOS(Under Power Management> Hardware Monitor [Location varies according to BIOS]) or can be checked using various third party applications viz. Speedfan, ASUS PC Probe

3. Case Temperature. Should be less than 38 degrees Celsius(Intel)

4. CPU Temperature: You might want to check CPU temperature with a direct probe.

5. Extra Fans. Installed or not. If yes are they correctly placed? Place one fan at the front end with an incoming airflow and one at the back end with an outgoing airflow.

6. Heatsink: Properly Clamped or not. If the heatsink is not properly clamped on to the CPU, the CPU will die in no time. It is akin to having no fan at all!

7. Thermal Grease: Should be evenly applied on the under surface of the heatsink. If disturbed. Clean both contact surfaces(heatsink & CPU) with soft cloth and/or isopropyl alcohol(gently), Dry and apply a little quantity of TC1996 thermal grease on the heatsink undersurface & properly clamp down the heatsink on the motherboard. Do not apply excess grease it might spill over and damage/ short circuit your motherboard. (The DOW CORNING grease that I bought had instructions to use the entire tube contents in one application! The quantity in one tube should suffice for 4-5 applications)

8. If all else fails take a small table fan and direct it towards your open case.

9. Do not keep the CPU in direct sunlight!

DO NOT:
Remove your processor from the socket especially if it is a LG 775 socket based one. You might damage the pins.

Sources:
1.http://heatsink-guide.com/content.php?content=maxtemp.shtml
2.http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/sb/CS-012552.htm
3.http://www.intel.com/design/Pentium4/documentation.htm
4.http://www.intel.com/design/core2XE/documentation.htm

Disable Windows Key

2008-08-26T03:27:00.000-07:00

Ever wanted to disable the windows keys because they get pressed accidentally and ruin your game or because the key has got stuck in your keyboard which dates back to the previous millenium(mine does!). Here's a way to do it.

To disable the Right Windows Key


Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout]
"Scancode Map"=hex:00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,02,00,00,00,00,00,5C,E0,00,00,00,00

To disable the Left Windows Key



Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout]
"Scancode Map"=hex:00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,02,00,00,00,00,00,5B,E0,00,00,00,00

To disable Both Windows Keys


Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout]
"Scancode Map"=hex:00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,03,00,00,00,00,00,5B,E0,00,00,5C,E0,00,00,00,00

Restoring Your Windows Keys



Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout]
"Scancode Map"=-

For the .reg files visit(& for the source of this article):
http://johnhaller.com/jh/useful%5Fstuff/disable%5Fwindows%5Fkey/

Another Webmaster Tip: How to Setup a Multi Lingual "Custom Error Page"

2008-08-23T11:47:00.000-07:00

What do you do when your server is down or under maintenance? Here is what google does on Adsense - It puts up a multi language page apologizing & stating that the page is currently unavailable.
You can use it too. Just replace the < insert your website name here> with the name of your website!

Code:

The < insert your website name here> website is temporarily unavailable. Please try back later.
We apologize for any inconvenience.

< insert your website name here> の web サイトは一時的にご利用いただけません。後で再度お試しくださいますようお願いいたします。
お手数をおかけいたしますことをお詫びいたします。

Die < insert your website name here> -Website ist vorübergehend nicht verfügbar. Bitte versuchen Sie es später noch einmal.
Wir entschuldigen uns für eventuell enstandene Unannehmlichkeiten.

Le site < insert your website name here> est temporairement indisponible. Veuillez réessayer plus tard.
Nous vous prions de nous excuser pour le désagrément occasionné.

El sitio web de < insert your website name here> no se encuentra disponible en estos momentos. Por favor, inténtelo de nuevo más tarde.
Disculpe las molestias.

< insert your website name here> 网站暂时无法浏览。请您稍候再尝试。
对于造成您的不便我们感到抱歉。

Il sito < insert your website name here> è temporaneamente non disponibile. La preghiamo di provare più tardi.
Ci scusiamo per il disagio.

De website van < insert your website name here> is tijdelijk niet beschikbaar. Probeert u het later opnieuw.
Onze excuses voor het eventuele ongemak.

< insert your website name here> Sayfası geçici olarak hizmet dışıdır. Lütfen, daha sonra tekrar deneyin.
Bu geçici sorundan dolayı özür dileriz.

O site do < insert your website name here> não está disponível no momento. Tente novamente mais tarde.
Pedimos desculpas pelo inconveniente.

The < insert your website name here> website is temporarily unavailable. Please try back later.
We apologise for any inconvenience.

Witryna programu < insert your website name here> jest chwilowo niedostępna. Prosimy spróbuj później.
Przepraszamy za wszelkie niedogodności.

Веб-сайт < insert your website name here> временно недоступен. Попробуйте, пожалуйста, еще раз через несколько минут.
Мы приносим свои извинения за причиненные неудобства.

< insert your website name here> webbplats är för tillfället inte tillgänglig. Försök igen senare.
Vi ber om ursäkt för eventuellt besvär.

< insert your website name here> -webstedet er ikke tilgængeligt i øjeblikket. Prøv igen senere.
Vi beklager ulejligheden.

< insert your website name here> 웹사이트를 일시적으로 사용하실 수 없습니다 . 나중에 다시 시도해 보십시오 .
불편을 끼쳐드려 죄송합니다 .

< insert your website name here> -webområdet er midlertidig utilgjengelig. Prøv igjen senere.
Vi beklager eventuelle problemer dette medfører.

< insert your website name here> 網站暫時無法瀏覽。請您稍候再嘗試。
對於造成您的不便我們感到抱歉。

A < insert your website name here> oldal jelenleg nem elérhető. Kérjük, látogasson vissza később.
Elnézést kérünk az esetleges kellemetlenségekért.

< insert your website name here> –sivusto ei väliaikaisesti ole saatavilla. Yritä myöhemmin uudelleen.
Pahoittelemme tämän aiheuttamaa hankaluutta.

Stránka < insert your website name here> je dočasně nedostupná. Zkuste to později.
Omlouváme se za způsobené nepříjemnosti.

Stránka < insert your website name here> je dočasne nedostupná. Skúste neskôr, prosím.
Ospravedlňujeme sa za spôsobené nepríjemnosti.

< insert your website name here> sučelje trenutno je nedostupno. Molimo Vas pokušajte kasnije.
Ispričavamo se za neugodnosti.

إن موقع < insert your website name here> غير متوفر حاليا. يرجى تكرار المحاولة لاحقا. نعتذر عن أي إزعاج.

אתר < insert your website name here> איננו זמין כרגע. אנו מצטערים על אי הנוחות. אנא נסה שנית מאוחר יותר.

< insert your website name here> уебсайта е временно недостъпен. Моля опитайте по-късно. Извиняваме се за неудобството.

End of Code.

Here is a link to the original page
http://www.google.com/errors/asfe/system_down.html

Setting up Blogger with a .co.cc domain. Get a short & COMPLETELY FREE DOMAIN!

2008-08-22T11:05:00.000-07:00

Note: What follows is probably the most simplest of ways to use co.cc and blogger together. However, this method has its drawbacks. For a advanced method of Setting up Blogger with Co.cc Read our 5 part Series on the Ultimate Setup!

Why am I talking about this? Because, I recently switched to http://www.hipatic.co.cc myself.
I had already used hiptic.co.nr and other url forwarding domains(like .tk )
The problem with them was that Google did not index my new flashy short domain. I had to setup hipatic.blogspot.com with Google Analytics & Webmaster. In addition to that visibilty factor was extremely low. You type in hipatic.tk and press enter and whoosh! you have hipatic.blogpot.com in the address bar. So the next time the user hardly remembers your short name & has to forget your long name too.

Hope google and you guys like my new name!

If you want to get a free domain name too, get one here . It's COMPLETELY FREE!

How to: Step 1:

Visit http://www.co.cc, and sign up for a free .co.cc domain with FREE DNS, MX AND CNAME
(Now that means all the power you need from a domain name!) Even paid domain registrars sometimes don't offer complete access to DNS, MX & CNAME, like .co.cc does.
It is like a functional TLD!

Step2:
Set the CNAME of your domain to ghs.google.com

Step3:

Wait for 1-2 days. Now go to your Blogger Blog dashboard.
Select Settings
Select Publishing
Select Custom Domain
Select Advanced Settings
Type in the name of your domain, eg www.hipatic.co.cc
Type in the Captcha & Press Enter !
You are done
You can Select the Redirect option, enter Captcha and press enter if you wish to!

Sources:
Blogger Help &
http://trick-blog.blogspot.com/2008/07/setting-domain-blogspot-with-cocc.html

Firefox 3.0 RC 2 v/s Firefox 2.0.0.14.

2008-06-05T14:31:00.000-07:00

The numbering pattern for Firefox 2 (2.0.0.xx) made me think that there might be innumerable versions before we get to see Firefox 3.0. But thankfully Firefox has been working on betas for version 3 for long and we have seen some of the features meant for 3.0 enter the stable versions too.
After Firefox launched the second release candidate,
(news:
http://tech.slashdot.org/tech/08/06/05/115210.shtml
http://www.webuser.co.uk/news/257843.html)
I ran a test to see if there is a difference in memory usage.
Now this test should be flawed because of many many reasons, but still here it is.
Firefox 3.0 RC2
1. Just Loaded: Memory: 29K
(I was typing start in the address bar, which might hav caused a slight spike, but the memory was near 29K before I began typing)

2. 10 Start Tabs: Memory: 33K

3. 10 Start Windows(from the earlier 10 tabs, 9 were closed and 9 more windows with home page were opened ); Memory:44K

4. Back home after closing the other 9 windows:Memory 36K

5.Searched for a video on youtube.com. Let it load fully. Then Played. Memory:50K

Firefox 2.0.0.14
1. Memory: 21K

2. Memory: 25K

3. Memory: 35K

4. Memory: 29K

5. Memory: 39K (Spiked to 50K while the movie was loading, but came down afterwards. Both rc2 and 2.0.0.14 were tested after the movie loaded completely!)

Now a million of such tests should have been run. Plus more scenarios should have been tested. Then a mean should have been drawn to interpret the results. But since I didn't do that. here is a comparison

Step No. Firefox 3.0 RC2 Firefox 2.0.0.14
Step 1: 29K 21K
Step 2: 33K 25K
Step 3: 44K 35K
Step 4: 36K 29K
Step 5: 50K 39K

All readings in KB
Conclusion: Don't worry about the memory(It's cheap anyways!) Firefox 3 looks better and they say that it has electrolytes!

For serious people: Acid3 test results for Release candidates have been good
( >70/100 ). I didn't test one myself, but I did test my 2.0.0.14 got a 54/100.
Test your browser too
http://acid3.acidtests.org/
(PS: I tested my IE7. The test result was incoherent(even after enabling activex)!Perhaps acid is for Firefox only)

GMail for Mobile

2008-05-28T23:56:00.000-07:00

Here's a link to Unofficial GMail
http://gmobile.sayni.net/
I have been using it for the past couple of years, when gmail didn't offer an option to login using a cell phone, and i should say it is kinda good for most basic tasks. I never had a problem with logging in and noticed that the site was regularly updated, patched etc.
So, try it out the next time you want to send / receive mail with your mobile!

Criss Angel & breathing Underwater

2008-05-27T08:37:00.000-07:00

Most of us know about Criss Angel and his Mindfreak show. Before coming to conclusions I would like you to read the following post, which I got from a discussion thread on Criss Angel. Magicians do not reveal their tricks, Criss is no different.

He has revealed some of his less curious tricks from time to time on TV,in books etc. However his bigger tricks like the one in which he cuts through himself in full view of public(or "inside" outsiders) have people scratching their heads because there is no room for logic(they didn't show the cut parts clearly and there should have been a lot of blood). Actually speaking even his simpler tricks have no logical basis(and that is essential too for Mindfreak)
Now people have two general views on this,one who believe it is fake. Second a small minority who believe it to be magic(I don't believe in Magic. There is NO MAGIC!). Mind over matter are the words they use. A unified theory goes into the following post:

The Magician - A following story will explain how these disciplines can interact and why the word illusionist applies to the master painter as well as the best magicians. Early this century a magician was sent to North Africa to quell a rebellion. He came on stage with a large wooden chest which he placed in the center and asked for the strongest man in the audience to step up. After some coaxing a warrior champion, a lumbering ox of a man was propelled up on stage. The magician told him not to fear but to lift up the simple wooden chest. The man did this with consummate ease.

Next the magician told the audience he would steal the giant’s strength and render him as weak as a kitten. He clicked his fingers and asked the man again to try and lift the chest. Now the strongman strained and pulled but could not move the wooden chest, even an inch, and finally gave up. To prove he had taken away the man’s power the magician asked his assistant, a slightly formed young boy, to prove he could lift the chest - which he did.

There was much consternation which the magician stilled by suddenly announcing he could restore the former strongman's strength. Then after asking the audience if that was what they wanted, and with another click of the fingers, he did. Finally, upon ordering the strongman to lift the chest for a third time the man raised it with his former ease.

The chiefs gasped and the rebellion was quelled for who could oppose such power?

Of course a steel plate in the bottom of the chest and an early electro-magnet under the stage was the simple cause of the phenomenon. But what is important is the story. It was the magician's manipulation of the minds of the audience that was the real magic. That is the art of the illusionist. Not the trick. It is the same with a painting or a play. A good painting will make you believe what you are seeing has a reality in time and space even though you know it is an illusion, merely a picture on a wall.

source:http://www.geocities.com/~jlhagan/advanced/intro.htm
&
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread155962/pg4
Conclusion : entertainment!

Second part of today's post sprung from Criss Angel too
the initial pages of the discussion link above hada post by someone who said something about what liquid can on breathe. I googled it and found this.
from:
http://www.frca.co.uk/article.aspx?articleid=100112
image: http://www.frca.co.uk/images/clark_leland_blood.jpg
Abstract:
The first real success in fluid breathing came in 1966, with Dr. Leland Clark's "liquid-breathing-mouse" experiment. Dr. Clark (inventor of the Clark electrode) realized that oxygen and carbon dioxide were very soluble in fluorocarbon liquids (like freon). Assuming that the alveoli of the lungs should be capable of drawing oxygen out of the fluid and replacing it with carbon dioxide, Clark suggested that these fluorocarbons should support respiration of animals. Performing the first tests on anaesthetized mice, Dr. Clark temporarily paralyzed each intubated animal, inflating a cuff inside the trachea to provide a seal and ensure that no air entered the lungs, and no solution leaked out.

After bubbling oxygen through the fluorocarbon, the oxygenated fluid was pumped into the animals' lungs, and recirculated (about 6 cycles of inhalation and exhalation per minute). Most of the animals who were kept in the fluid for up to an hour survived for several weeks after their removal, before eventually succumbing to pulmonary damage. Autopsies uniformly revealed that the lungs appeared congested when collapsed but normal when inflated. Some of the early problems Clark encountered seemed to be due to the size of the animals' airway. The tiny size physically limited the amount of fluid that could get into the lungs. For that and other reasons, carbon dioxide tended to build up in the system: it simply couldn't be removed fast enough.

This photograph demonstrates a living mouse breathing in the liquid, while a goldfish inhabits the water floating on top.

Wow! Talk about Gillyweed!

Viral Expansion Loop

2008-05-18T15:36:00.000-07:00

Read this article on rediff.com
http://specials.rediff.com/money/2008/may/14ning1.htm

It talks about Viral Expansion loops, how it differs from Viral marketing and how google doesn't have much about the term Viral Expansion Loop

Last time i googled there were 2600 results. lets see if this post gets added to the list.

Update 2011: Hipatic appears on the first page, and the term is now mentioned over 20K times.