These two choices for creating PDF’s and listening to Internet Radio are interesting because they are pretty good at what they do without all the bloatware from some of their competition and equally important - they are free! If you wanted to create PDF’s for your own personal use, now you can at an amazing price of free! CutePDF is a program which you can use for free for your personal use without any ads, popups, etc. Everyone cannot afford Acrobat Professional (but if you can its worth every penny), but this is pretty cool too. ...

The CLR team has a couple of slides from their roadshow where they talk about two tracks, one discusses what happens insight the CLR, if you have some of the books recommended in the presentation, none of this would be new to you. It covers things like the IL which is the abstract representation of an execution semantic and how that is represented using an abstract stack machine, where we consecutively execute each instruction, using the stack as the evaluation of that execution and how this stack abstraction works. And two, there is a discussion on perf engineering including the GC, costs and pitfalls, etc. ...

CNet is reporting that Microsoft said Thursday that it will introduce new XML-based file formats for its Excel, PowerPoint and Word applications when the company launches its Office 12 software package next year. Company officials said the move to replace Microsoft’’s traditional binary file formats with open-standards-based XML versions will allow companies using Office 12 to more easily access data across XML’’s various applications. Microsoft pledged that the shift to XML, also known as Extensible Markup Language, will decrease the size of many individual files and make documents created in its Office products more resistant to corruption. While Microsoft’’s Excel and Word programs already offer some XML compatibility, the new formats will bring those applications, and PowerPoint, into a “full fidelity” version of the standard, said Takeshi Numoto, senior director for the Microsoft Office System. The biggest advantage of the new formats, Numoto said, will be their capacity to allow workers to access data from various documents without opening individual files, and to allow workers to use that information in new ways. ...

I remember reading about this a little while ago and now ExtremeTech has a review. Ergodex has a fully programmable keyboard called the DX1 Input System. It is a USB peripheral device designed for users to arrange (and rearrange) an assortment of programmable keys anywhere on its 11-inch x 9-inch “DX1 Pad.” The concept is simple: You begin with 25 DX1 keys, place as many of them on the DX1 Pad in any layout you wish, and use the included software to assign functions to each one. ...

A tool provided by Microsoft could let people get around a check meant to prevent those with pirated copies of Windows from downloading additional software from the company, according to a security researcher. The threat is mitigated because the keys generated by the GenuineCheck tool expire “rapidly,” the Microsoft representative said. Consequently, it would not do anyone much good to put up a Web page with a list of keys. Still, somebody would be able to generate a key and use it immediately on a PC with a pirated copy, or pass it on to a friend. ...

ExtremeTech interviews Microsoft VP, Todd Holmdahl who is responsible for all the hardware development, hardware and semiconductor teams, manufacturing, and test teams for the XBOX 360 - pretty interesting insight on how MS developed this from the ground up with IBM and ATI and on what to expect from the new device on the hardware front. ...

But to get your hands on one you have to go to China … or ask someone you might know there…

At last now you can personalize the google home page - options include seeing your emails (from gmail of course), stock market, news (from Google New, BBC, NY Times, etc), Weather, etc. Interestingly slashdot features on the list - separately - which means *sigh*, more noise is now going to be generated there. Check it out here .

If you are a star wars then check out the Store Wars - hilarious. Thanks to Wai for sending this one over.

Thanks to Wai for passing this one. I think both my MS and Linux buddies will enjoy poking the penguin - you need to keep as it for a little while.

Now that Windows Mobile 5.0 is released, if you want to see how it looks then check out the screenshots . I don’t know if HP would be releasing the updates for my handheld for this as mine is a bit old now - but if they are I would surely be playing with this in the near future. ...

Two vulnerabilities in the popular Firefox browser have been rated “extremely critical” because exploit code is now available to take advantage of them. The cross-site scripting and remote system access flaws were discovered in Firefox version 1.0.3, but other versions may also be affected, said security company Secunia, which issued the ratings Sunday. One flaw involves “IFRAME” JavaScript URLs, which are not properly protected from being executed in the context of another URL in the history list. A second vulnerability exists in the IconURL parameter in InstallTrigger.install(). Information passed to this parameter is not properly verified before it’s used, allowing an attacker to gain user privileges. This flaw could allow an attacker to gain and escalate user privileges on a system. ...

Has anyone checked out Dave Mathew’s new album called Stand Up ? If so, any feedback, how is it?

If you recall my previous post , I wanted to get you a quick update since then - seems like Google has stopped this for the time. If you get to the site it tells you the following message: Thank you for your interest in Google Web Accelerator. We have currently reached our maximum capacity of users and are actively working to increase the number of users we can support. ...

Well, all I can say is enjoy…. http://madbean.com/anim/totallygridbag

I stumbled across an interesting blog - all written in Hindi - and boy is my Hindi rusty! But this is an excellent example of the usage (and limitations) of a UNICODE implementation. Not sure of the content of the blog itself as it will …. ahem …. take me a little while reading up and understanding. Flame mails awaited eagerly. ...

Well not sure what Google plans to do with this, but they just released something called a Web Accelerator that is designed to work with broadband connections and supports both IE and Firefox. What is it? Per Google it is an application that uses the power of Google’s global computer network to make web pages load faster. Google Web Accelerator is easy to use; all you have to do is download and install it, and from then on many web pages will automatically load faster than before. ...

Well, in addition to the antivirus issues with Windows x64 bit, if you upgrade in most cases you could void your computers warranty - this varies from manufacture to manufacture of course. If you know the advantages of 64 bit and are one of the early adopters (or in other words a geek), then you are OK as you probably don’t need the manufacturer’s support (except if they need to switch hardware when it gets fried). ...

Yes, I know, I have been harping about XP 64 bit and how you can upgrade to XP 64 bit for free , but you might want to rethink for in the short term (for about 6-12 months). Why you ask? Well in addition to the drivers (remember your 32 bit drivers will *not* work), the two biggest Antivirus solutions (Norton and McAfee) are not available and they don’t have any plans till 2006. The corporate versions of these could possibly start rolling out, but I am not sure if the home users will have the muscle to buy those. ...

Got this via Karan. Firstly, I am not suggesting you try this, and secondly it is probably a hoax; but I did come across this site which claims for a couple of grand or so (e.g. MCSD.NET $2,800), you can get certified in any of the MS and CISCO exams without sitting for any one exam. This sounds like one of those too good to be true stories and does not seem legit at all. Does seem quite hilarious… ...

Thanks to Sanjay who pointed this out. Now that the elections are looming here in UK, the JibJab guys are at it again creating a very hilarious GBJab - you have to check it out . You can also download the Windows version or the Mac version . Make sure your speakers are on! ...

In the Beta 2 version of the .NET Framework 2.0 product, there are various APIs that have been added in since V1.1, but are marked obsolete. All of these APIs will be removed from the product at V2.0 release. These are APIs which were added during the beta cycles of the V2.0 product lifetime, but as a result of design changes and/or product feedback, have subsequently been replaced, or will simply be removed. It is paramount for your ability to easily move forward to the final V2.0 release of the product that these obsolete APIs not be referenced. This list is the APIs which will be removed before the final release of V2.0. ...

Google has a new service called Ride Finder which you can search for taxis, limousines and shuttles and make better decisions by seeing the exact location of vehicles in your area. Just enter a zip code, the name of a city or even a specific address. You will get a map showing the companies and where their vehicles are located. ...

CIOInsight has an article discussing the rise of blogs on how they are being embraced by the corporate world and in other cases they are not including some best practices (most of which is common sense) on what you as an individual should or should not do. Also has a few examples from big corporations around the world and their IT Managers to CIO’s. Since you are reading this, obviously this is no new news to you…. :) ...

I was playing around with Whidbey (finally), the Beta 2 drop and decided to check out if Entlib compiles. After converting the project (ping me if you need screen shots), there were a whole bunch of errors. Well, in reality not errors but warnings. Since, by default VS.NET 05 treats warnings as errors, the build fails miserably. Once I got around to setting ignore warnings, it did compile, but I have not gotten much further with it yet due to lack of time - more playing around with that this week. But almost all the failures were due to stuff being deprecated in .NET 2.0. I have both the logs - where things were failing and then the one where I ignore the warnings . ...