kaputnik

Well I've never played AoW games but I do get one hell'a'va kick with Age Of Empires.. just can't seem to be able to wait to get my hands on Age of Empires III when it launches.. of course, when it does release, it'll probably be a few months delayed hitting the shelves here in India (like most new S/W is). However, I really do hope thay have a free trial or possibly a pay online and download version... Yummy.. that would sort things out.. :-) Used to get in on LAN parties while I was in university and they were a riot.. there's never any time to do stuff like that any more though..

MMM... now here's a great way to while away time.. I came across this site link which explains a lot about light, wave lengths and other optic stuff that's really easy to understand since all the writing has been done by a guy who started from scratch - understanding optics in layman's terms. The outline of it all is that humans and animate objects (even inanimate objects that trap heat during the day like buildings) do radiate infrared energy (heat). However, for all practical purposes, capturing these bands of IR is called thermal imaging, which is electronically or chemically differentiating between hot and cold. On the other hand, from the photography point of view, all objects (that do not absorb all IR) reflect the IR so it becomes visible through lenses that are designed to only allow such rays to pass through, or, by using special IR film (available at most photography equiptment stores) which will capture IR that is reflected off surfaces. Now, using either means will allow capture of IR (either digitally or through film); as long as there is a source that produces IR for the object being photographed to reflect. Yes, most dark fabric that absorb colours will allow a high amount of IR to reflect back through it, making the object being reflected from, for all practical purposes, becoming partially visible to an IR capturing and imaging device. Security devices such as this one at eBay utilize IR emitting LEDs to create IR that can be detected when reflected off objects in absolute darkness.

Hummm.. I got the very same mail on four different occasions during the course of yesterday myself. A friend of mine called me up long distance to find out what the FBI wanted with her too, so I told her to just send it to thrash. What I find quite amazing though is that this bit of spam managed to hit so many e-mail addressess so very quickly. And, I've scanned my computer for malacious code and adware since and come up zilch. Makes me wonder if I've got some sort of key logging software on my computer or maybe my browser history is being accessed and the e-mail is being sent to me by my own system. Now that's a thought..

Just went through the Plone site and I must say that although it looks simple, there's a lot to be said about it's functionality. Basically, it's looks great for uploading content into a preformatted display and looks to be customizable as far as the way the viewer sees the display. On the baseline though, it's a link management system leading to an organized way of displaying content. In most CMS, the stuff that really makes the package truely adaptable is add-on plugins that put in, enhance or adapt functionality. In the case of Plone, there are a group of developers who've massed together a few ready to go scripts and bundled them into a single download called the 'Plone Collective' which is available here.

Mmmm.. Google hasn't yet officially launched Google Base just as yet. All the hulabaloo started after they put up the Google base site to test it for about a day. That's when Google watchers realized that something was up and managed to get a few screen shots of the site, and, others managed to log in too. But, I actually look forward to Google launching the site, even if it's just to see where it all leads too and whether it half lives up to all the noise being made about it.

This does seem to be the direction that the net is headed towards. Soon enough, Google may just become all pervasive and have its tentacles spread into every facet of internet life. But I can't actually imagine having to go online to do all my work, everytime I need to draft out a massive execution plan or a large promotion strategy. In view of this, I do believe that Google may have a central application up it's sleeve that it may release sometime that will facilitate local computer work which is dynamically updated to it's DB servers everytime a person logs onto the internet. It would then become the ultimate tool for individuals to communicate with the world; in lines of what a large corporation would envision its ERP and CRM programs to be. One would have to tools to actually dedicate certain processess, right from ordering food and groceries over the internet and dictating what time it should arrive at home, to maintaining an online business consulting presence whereby a person can outsource his/her work from whereever in the world they may be, being paid with Google credits. Wow... I'm going to sit and really do some serious thinking on these lines.

When I first heard of this a few days ago, it struck me as another rumor about Google that may or may not make it to the frontline. But today, I've come across way too many references to let it aside. Google Base is supposed to be Google's brand new offering, all ready to hit the internet. So, what's it all about..?? Well it's supposed to be an online database, that is free for registered Goole users, to structure as they may please within a guideline of parameters, so that any kind of content that the user would like to share with the world becomes readily available, to be searched. And, the thing is, it'd already be in a structure that Google wants it to be for the optimum search relevance, to show the best results. Also, the databases would be accessable to your site, and possibly to other people's sites for them to use the content. According to a cNet article and some of the reader's comments, it may even be likely that Google akes the database accessable to users through all the other Google applications like Picasa and Google Maps, where you may possibly be able to make a table of your design and automatically upload content from each of Google's various applications, into specific tables, corelate them and make it available to whom you choose, or the world in general. Based on this thought, it may be possible that before long, we may have a single Goolge interface that supports all the various Google services right from the basic search - right up to Google Earth and possibly your calendar and E-mail. Here are some other articles on this (Article 1, Article 2) and a screenshot (posted at Flickr). MMMM.. I really wonder where this'll all land up... !!!

If you log onto ebay, you'll find a bunch of hard drive cases (even for laptop drives). The regular sized ones are really cheap, and the laptop cases are just a Dollar or two more expensive. In most instances, you'll find the cases are manufactured with a USB interface so all you have to do is get yourself a HDD (again, by logging onto eBay, you can get yourself a really good deal); and, insert the HDD into the case, put in the 3-4 screws (depends on the type of case you get yourself) and you're done. It's all plug and play so, with Windows and Linux identifying and installing the drives automatically, you're ready to roll as soon as you have your pieces in place. If you get yourself an external case for a laptop HDD then you can manage a good 120 to 250 GB drive in the case and it'll be as big as your palm (and i've got a small palm) and as thick as a finger.Oh yes...!! while you're on eBay, also look out for a USB cable that has two male jacks on one end, so if you get yourself an HDD that has a high RPM then you'll need the second jack to plug in to draw more power from your computer.Here in India, it's a big hit, and most professionals are walking about with an external HDD in their pockets. I'm looking out for a good deal myself on a DIY kit. All the very best....

Now this has just got to be some kind of a coincidence for sure. I just finished a game on AoE II after not haing played it for about a year. Got all worked up and decided that it's one game I'm never going to uninstall. AND, lo and behold, I drop by at Xisto and learn of the excellent news about AoE III. The detail and graphics look just wonderful. If the animation during play looks half as good as the screenshots, I swear I'm going to be doing the sleeping bag rrick in front of the store a week in advance. They say a release is scheduled for the second half of 2005. If marketing strategy holds true, my bet is that the game's going to be launched over Christmas. Most of the marketing guys have 3 launch sections for fast moving shelf packages. Especially games and gadgets. Somehow, I get the feeling that as soon as I have myself a copy of AoE III, work is going to take a backseat for a few days. Another game that has some pretty cool graphics is Empire Earth. The only problem with that though is that the easy level is a bit too tough to start off with and the game gets too intense for the novice. Unfortunately Empire Earth was y first strategy game and I never seemed to get the hang of it because I kept loosing before I could really begin to appreciate the game. However, as soon as I tried AoE II, all that changed. I became a fan. Looks like I'll have to stock up the larder and fridge before game release.

Yup, I think I understood a good deal about the naming bit from m^e's post. I actually thought all this while that it was really inportant to put in the www before a web address. Although I have put in addressess without the www before, I'd thought it was because the browser remembers the address and points to the address automatically. Lo an behold, after reading the post, I'm now more educated than before and shall do away with religiously appending a 'www' before all the addressess I type in.

Where fact is concerned, it is true that in India (and even in other Asian countries like Malaysia, Singapore and now-a-days, even Korea), English is taught as the primary language in schools. A lot depends on the kind of school that one goes to though. For instance, within the freely available public educational system that teaches children through primary school, will usually teach subjects in the state's official language (https://a'>any of 22 official regional languages), leaving the national official languages of English and Hindi to be considered as second languages. However, for the larger part, most if not all public schools and board affiliated private schools teach all subjects in English, while also teaching Hindi as a second language; and, allowing for an option, open to the student to learn another third language (usually a fireign language like French, German, Spanish or even a regional language of India). The official https://l'>languages of India are English and Hindi, with most if not all central (federal) communication happening in English. Also, most legal communication is carried out in English, especially in the higher courts. Also of interest, is the increasing presence, of people from Asia dominating in spelling and knowledge driven areas. https://s'>link 1, https://l'>link 2. People from Asia generally put a great deal of emphasis on education (historically, only people of high standing were the ones who would educate themselves; this has lead to the common person aspiring to reach higher levels of social recognition through education).

Yes, just putting in an addition formula in your column 3 to add column 1 and 2 would be the easiest way to add the forst two columns. Click on the column 3 frost row and type "=A1+B1" and hit enter Then get your mouse to the bottom right corner of C1 and click and drag. This should apply the formula the the entire column 3 on all rows through which you drag it. I looked up the help section, but I haven't come across any wat to do this entirely automatically as yet.

It seems that Siemens has pulled out one from the hat. Now, I've wondered what it would be like to be reading a news paper with video clips in it before, Siemens' researchers have gone and actually made it happen. According to this story the paper thin screens are able to project any form of recorded video content as available on our modern day monitors and t.v. screens with a little bit of hazyness. Seems astounding. The implications of this will be the slow loss of the written word. Imagine picking up a box of serials, with instructions of usage, on the back of the box playing a demonstration movie instead of having out a few paragraphs on the most enticingly mouthwatering way to eat your crunchies. Or, imagine handing out your business card with the rear face playing out a video of yourself making a presentation on your product or service. Now that really would make an impact. Someday you may just end up staring at someone while on the rapid transport system and the person being stared at would find it 'very normal' because he/she has regular TV broadcasting being played out all over the jacket. We'll just have to wait and watch out for the innovative ways this new material will be used in the future once mass production commences.

Rally an amazing development. HCL Infosystems, an indian firm has woken up to the fact that there are 1.02 billion people living in India alone. So what do they figure - computers in India cost anywhere from $1000 onwards and people in India (the general middle class - the major chunk of the buying populace earn between $200 to $300 a month. So it becomes a severely ponderable task for anyone to go out to the market and just pick up a PC, since it would involve months of saving and sacrificing other requirements. Agreed that, while the standard of living in india is dramatically low, the cost of living is pretty low too. For instance, I remember getting through my college days on about $70 a month which included my food, rent and petrol, with enough pocket money to teat myself to a movie or other goodies every now and then. But buying a computer is like making a major decision and an effort to actually go about saving cash, for the majority of Indians. But bringing the price of a computer down to the average one month salary of the masses of middle class India is a move in the right direction. On the economic front too it makes a lot of sence for HCL and AMD to bring about a PC, ready to go for $130. Even if thay make marginal profits on the units, the sheer numbers of units thay will sell will surely cover up for any shortcomings. Also there will be no real need to advertize very strongly, since the whole of India is extremely well networked. And, as soon as the first person purchases a unit, his/her whole neighborhood will know about it, and word will spread like wildfire. In India, we're all suckers for a good deal. In fact I think I may just invest in another computer, just to try out and improve on my Linux skills (since the new units will be sold with Linux as default OS). Another big boost will be to the education sector, where children (again we're talking about the masses) do not have access to computing or the internet. This will really assist in bringing the country about on the education front, not to mention the exposure it will bring to the young about world views, which will ultimately result in more broadened mindsets. More information on the launch along with the configuration of the basic models is available here.

At work we often have to use music in conjunction with video... and if at anytime we utilize commercial music, we pay a royalty to the production house that publishes the music on behalf of the artiste... Take into consideration what is acceptable in audio/video and what is not.. Eg. you've got a big now home theatre system and you call over a few friends to your home for a few beers and a movie/ listening to music.. you're absolutely free to play anything you want in your own home, for your own personal consumption as well as the private consumption to visitors to your home.. if however, a friend of yours pays you (for whatever it may be during the visit), it may be argued that there was a commercial transaction in the friend's visit to your home.. (of course nothing like this usually occurs but we may argue this).. so if there is a cash transaction, it may be argued that you're charging another person to provide entertainment.. since there's a transaction associated with the entertainment the audio/video used to provide entertainment (if commercial .. published/ purchased) then it becomes the entertainment provider's obligation to provide the artiste with royalty.. It's like when we head down to the local disco, the DJ is required to acquire the music he/she plays directly from the recording/ publishing studio since the entertainment provided from the music/video is not only for personal consumption but for the entertainment of people in a commercial establishment where monitary transactions are taking place in exchange for the entertainment provided. So, if in a video, we were to add music that was published for commercial purposes (sold by a publisher on behalf of an artiste) then if this music is not consumed after purchase by the individual buying the music and if there is a large audience involved (unrelated through friendship or otherwise to the person making the film with the movie with the commercial audio track) then the person becomes liable to pay a royalty on the music. Also, prior permission is required before introducing any audio into video which may be released for non personal consumption (to avoid the audio track being used for porn and the likes, by artistes that do not wish their image tarnished)... But like every aspect of royalty based products, it can always be argued about what is and what is not private consumption of audio/video.

I remember the time I'd first started off with the internet.. it was distinctly a Yahoo experience.. my very first e-mail ID and then it was Yahoo chat... that was in around the middle of 1996, and the wires were buzzing.. My friends and I had just headed down to Pune (India's very best college town) for our college and the after our initial days of running around getting through with all the admissions related hulabaloo.. we all fell right into goose-step with the very latest craze to hit the city - Internet Cafes.. Other than food, rent and petrol.. every little bit of change used to be spent at these Cafe's .. and most of the time it was on Yahoo Chat.. discovering the world through the internet was exciting, and meeting people from varied backgrounds, ages and from different countries was excellent.. I was still using Yahoo chat till about 1999 by which time there was a whole bunch of spamming online and then there were the 'not so fiendly people' who'd discovered that they could curse a wider audience through chatrooms, when all the fun of being online on a chat went right out of the door. Even now, the thought of heading back to chat rooms seems, at the very best a lame task since I have the sinking feeling that the 'free' and freedom of using Yahoo chat is lost.. I will though give it a shot from time to time.. It's always good to make new friends..

17 million websites is surely a whole bunch.. first thing off is that it's a horribly frightening figure when you suddenly realize that there's all that information out there and most users that search for and utilize online resources only search for and go through about the forst 3 pages of search results... it's also pretty daunting that there must be all that information out there and so little time and life to go through as much as possible.. The really good thing though is that with all that content floating around out there, there's bound to be something for everyone's taste.. I mean that I can sit for quite a while at a computer and not get bored.. every day I seem to learn something new.. That's another great thing.. the more the information that becomes available, and the more people that begin to utilize the internet, the more intellegent and knowledgable the world's population will become.. what with the $100 laptops being researched by MIT for underprivilidged children and the really affordable computing becoming widely available, we can look forward to a world population that has a much more enhansed total knowledge base. And since there seems (in my way of thinking at least) that the more a person becomes aware of other peoples, places and ideas, the greater the persons acceptability of others; thus enabling a more peaceful world.the spread of information, information and knowledge is the key to world peace - it will enable people to find means of self development and thus bring about total harmony.. I'll drink to the boom in information on the internet through massive growth in websites that provide educative information (actually information of any sort is educative) - all depends on how information is used...!!

Just went through the news releases on the iPod Video player.. yes the screen does seem a little too small to get the complete effect of watching a movie, especially when one's very interested in the finer details of the video.. makes me wonder how successful the product really will be considering, at present a whole bunch of mobile phones have the capacity to payback video and it's pretty scratchy.. on the other hand, I do suppose it's just the ideal thing to have on you when you're spending long hour just commuting from home to work and back. In most cities around the world, commuting has begun to take on patience wrentching proportions.. I for example spend about an hour getting the 6 kms it takes for me to get to work, and if it's raining possibly double the time.. I hate to drive since it's no lonnger a pleasure to head out in a car and most likely take a cab.. would do a lot of good to catch up on a few movies - at least from the 'need to have gossip' point of view...what would really take off would be the ability of the iPod video to be capable of recieving streaming video or satellite TV.. now that would really take the cake.. perhaps even an attachment with a foldable screen which may simply be stuck (temporarily) to the seat in fron of you.. By mid- next year, most of India should have a viable WiMAX coverage (alongside the cellular network) which would be broadband and it would become instantly possible to recieve video transmissions over IP through this medium.. so anyone with a laptop or a WiMAX enabled gadget would be able to travel across a city (or whereever cellular network is available) and access the net and even streaming music and video... an iPod video which is WiMAX enabled and can access defined online video channels would be supreme

Well if you're interested in using PhpMyAdmin on a Windows platform then you ought to get yourself "PHPTriad". PHPTriad has Apache webserver (which runs on Windows), MySQL and PhpMyAdmin all bundled into one single installation. When I first started out with PHP and testing my very basic skills on it, PHP Triad proved to be of huge assistance. I still use it to test any PHP based program before uploading to a website. For Windows though, I'm yet to come across a 'ready to go' GUI based DB manupulation software other than Access. Should you want to download it PHPTriad is available here

The truth be told.. I tried out Linux for 6 months because of a whole bunch of hiccups with my Windows.. but during those 6 months I wasn't able to do much constructive production on my comp. Functionality is the key, and, for a normal person who has a moderate degree of computer usage, I'd say that multimedia, office utilities and products and graphics are pretty essential. I found it easier to use KDE because of the inbuilt functionality. Unfortunately, I shifted to Redhat, where I lost out on a whole bunch of packaged programs. Installing programs from scratch was a tedious process and re-learning (often unlearning) my basic computing tasks was taking more time than I had available. The little I managed to use was a great experience. KDE was a lot more simpler than Gnome as far as user friendliness was concerned.Now however, I've moved back to Windows because I could not ever confidently bring work home because of my inability to learn under Linux fast enough. Windows is very much plug and play. Linux is mind over matter (unless one's been brought up on it). I do believe that most GUI in Linux have a bit of simplifying to go through before the masses take to it. In India, now, acer has launched notebooks and PCs with Redhat for under INR35000/- ( USD780/- ) which has become immensely popular at the grass root levels. Default GUI on these machines is KDE.

It surely is a fascinating idea.. the romance of the unknown is forever reaching out to us. Back in the old days.. there would be tales of sailors seeing mermaids.. a story that has yet to be proven for or against conclusively. In the future, once space flight reaches the level of technological ability to traverse between planets, and the masses take to it, there will be tales of a similar nature from the space farers. But for now, the Loch Ness Monster is very dear, great for bed time stories. However, the technology will soon come into play where satellites will scan into water bodies like Loch Ness and even the deepest reaches of the ocean and 'see-all'.

This dows look like the Outlook interface.. I do believe that the paned interface will provide a more comprehensive overview of the mailbox as well as other related features. What does seem surprising though is that Hotmail has always responded slowly and has usually been trailing in feature implimentation. It seems like there's just a handfull of dedicated staff on the Hotmail rolls who're there just to look after the service and upkeep of the current site. But the above statement of mine may not hold water if it turns out that Hotmail is one of the most secure sites/ the template is rich in its simplicity itself. In the early days of Hotmail, the servers were pretty slow and they'd only buckled up and worked on correcting the problem once they noticed a considerable shift towards users migrating to other web-mail services like Yahoo. Overall, Hotmail and MS as a whole has had a history for being reactive instead of pro-active in development. This may result in someone coming in someday with a well rounded package of a complete computing solution, for a much lesser cost along with a great interface that may result in the demise of Hotmail and other MS harboured products.

This is most interesting.. A GUI operating system inside of a 10 mb download.. oh yes.. very very interesting... The ideal OS in my book would be one that is able to run both Linux, windows and Mac based programs. Now, that would surely be something to look out for. The reason WIndows and to a cirtain extent Mac does so very well is the ease and simplicity of use. My own grandmother took to using a computer a few years ago and finds the more basic computing tasks pretty simple to accomplish. However - when it comes to installing a program or conducting any other tasks like making out settings... all the magnificance of computing comes to a full stop. In the office too, I've found that most of my co-workers manage to utilize all the basic tasks - web browsing and any of the MS Office products, but anything that requires learning something new is where the line is drawn. Even installation of programs that require the user to just click the next button after reading through the screen seems daunting. I do believe that it may be some time, maybe an entire generation, before users are more willing to experiment with computers and different OS's. I mean there's already a huge following for opensource but it's hardly enough. Simplicity of use is the key to mass appeal.

I'd second that.. I'm not really into graphics, but I do have a huge requirement to make out templates for all the presentations I keep making. The GIMP has sorted out all my hassles with the more complex graphics software. It does have all the functionality of Photoshop and I'm lead to believe that of Corel Draw too (although I can't verify this one). The GIMP is so great because, nearly every function you'd want to play around with on any layer is available on a right click. That makes it a very user friendly software. It's a blast to learn, and my experimentation days really paid off in the fact that I can not make out moderately decent templates for my presentations. All the best with the GIMP - go for it. I'll drink to Open Source ware next time out at the pub.

Personally, I think that a good mix of information is what keeps people coming back to the website.. of special importance is news - updated on a daily basis from some sort of feeder service and technology, specifically new gadgets.. people just can't seem to get enough of new gadgets. Other than that - personal pictures updated on a daily basis (assuming there's enough of space on the server) will surely get people visiting very often. Also, if the website deals in specific information, of a speciality product.. or information which is very unique, there's bound to be a good deal of traffic. But in most instances, for a site to become extremely popular, it's just got to have a bit of every thing, just enough to satisfy everyone without bunching up too many links and making the 'home' page too cluttered.