Laptop MCE?

If you have not got an MCE yet and are thinking of a small factor (like a laptop), check out Toshiba’s new Qosimo’s - drool! I have seen the old version in the stores and they are an absolute dream, the screen is just awesome and now they have improved it!

June 16, 2005 · Amit Bahree

One man's feature is another man's bloat - The Java Performance Debate

Firstly this is not a Java bashing and I don’t preach to say .NET/C++, etc is faster. However, based on what I have seen it sure is slow - slow like a snail. Maybe its the time that takes to load the VM or maybe it Swing - gurk! I like how Andy puts it - “One man’s feature is another man’s bloat”. He has a very objective article on the area which are slow, what Sun is doing to address it and what the main issues (with the developers) are - who don’t know how to use it....

June 14, 2005 · Amit Bahree

Monad - what is it?

Recently there has been a lot of hype and talk about Monad Shell (a.k.a MSH), not sure why, but such are the state of things. What is Monad? Simply it is the new command line interface to the Windows Server OS and is code named Monad Shell. It is fairly powerful and has its roots set in VMS and AS400 environments. I would check out the quick demo (15 mins) thats shows the power of the shell - very exciting and interesting....

June 13, 2005 · Amit Bahree

Tor: Anonymous Internet Communication – Feedback?

Well I have been thinking of something like this and stumbled across Tor: An anonymous Internet communication system via /. Has anyone used this? What do they think? What is it? Tor is a toolset for a wide range of organizations and people that want to improve their safety and security on the Internet. Using Tor can help you anonymize web browsing and publishing, instant messaging, IRC, SSH, and more. Tor also provides a platform on which software developers can build new applications with built-in anonymity, safety, and privacy features....

June 11, 2005 · Amit Bahree

Input Alternatives

If you are worried about repetitive-strain injuries, then check out a few alternative devices that you might find more comfortable.

June 10, 2005 · Amit Bahree

DBCS attachment file names are not displayed in Rich Text e-mail messages after you install security update MS05-012

Meenakshi encountered this on her laptop at home and had to install the hotfix. Be aware that after you install security update 873333 (MS05-012), you may find out that DBCS attachment file names are not displayed in Rich Text e-mail messages and you may receive a “Generic Host Process” error message (if you are on XP sp2). You may also find that File names are not displayed in e-mail messages (where the format is Rich-Text) that include file attachments when the following conditions are true:...

June 9, 2005 · Amit Bahree

Feedback on Yahoo! Music Unlimited?

I am thinking of joining up Yahoo! Music Unlimited - quickly while they still have the promotional price - and its cheaper than Napster and Raphsbody, has anyone signed up? What is your feedback?

June 9, 2005 · Amit Bahree

Google changing their login

<p> <figure> <img src="images/google_login.png" alt=""/> <figcaption>Google Login Screen</figcaption> </figure> </p> Google it seems since yesterday changed their login screen and you need to validate - is there some phishing stuff going on which is why they introduced this? Also I had to clear out my cookie before I could login to gmail, as it did not like it. Check out the screen shot.

June 9, 2005 · Amit Bahree

Update on ClickOnce

<p> <img src="images/clickonce_options.png" alt=""/> </p> Well it seems I stand corrected (sort of), and these are rare moments so enjoy it.. *grin*, seems like it was a user error (again sort of - in a minute on that) when I talked about the issues with ClickOnce earlier. The problem there was that the installation can only be supported via http and not using ftp (which I have chosen), once you change it to http you are golden....

June 9, 2005 · Amit Bahree

ClickOnce Bug (in Beta 2 of Whidbey)?

Last few days I have been messing around with the Beta 2 edition of Whidbey (now its called VS.NET 2005, but I still prefer Whidbey). If you recall my previous post about ClickOnce , my experience so far has not been good. I imported my clock applicaton (more on the issues importing it at another time) to Whidbey and tried to deploy it but for some reason it did not work and get a non descriptive error saying:...

June 8, 2005 · Amit Bahree

Storage storage storage

Storage is one thing which is never enough, yes even that terabyte of space you have sitting at home! (You do have that much right?). Anyways, all is not lost. Check out the Silicon Image/Hitachi Storage demo which puts 2.5TB of storage in a tiny package, connected to the system by SATA 2.0 interfaces capable of 300MB/sec transfer rate. Or how about Sapphire Technologies Blizzard , which is a liquid metal cooled X850 XT using technology developed by Nanocooling....

June 8, 2005 · Amit Bahree

Update on Screamer Radio

If you saw my previous post about good free software one feature of Screamer Radio I forgot to mention is that is can save your stream you are listening to as MP3’s - and you have full control over the bit rate, file names, etc. Want to check out some samples? Well I recorded two songs from the Australian Station called Nova at 256 kbps; you can download the mp3s from here (6....

June 8, 2005 · Amit Bahree

Excellent free Software - PDFWriter and Internet Radio

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....

June 6, 2005 · Amit Bahree

CLR: Under the Hood

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....

June 2, 2005 · Amit Bahree

XML Based file formats in Office 12

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....

June 2, 2005 · Amit Bahree

Your new programmable keyb

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....

May 25, 2005 · Amit Bahree

Bypass for Windows piracy check

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....

May 24, 2005 · Amit Bahree

Insight into the XBOX 360

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.

May 24, 2005 · Amit Bahree

Revenge on the Sith available on DVD

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

May 22, 2005 · Amit Bahree

Personalize Google home page

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 .

May 21, 2005 · Amit Bahree

The Store Wars - a must watch for Star War fans

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

May 17, 2005 · Amit Bahree

Poke the Penguin

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.

May 12, 2005 · Amit Bahree

Windows Mobile 5.0 Screen Shots

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.

May 11, 2005 · Amit Bahree

Exploit code chases two Firefox flaws

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....

May 10, 2005 · Amit Bahree

Stand Up (New Album) feedback?

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

May 10, 2005 · Amit Bahree