Anything & Everything

My New Blog

2008-12-16T13:05:00.005+05:30

It's been a long time since I've posted anything new in my blog. I was very busy with work and things were a little hectic. Now on I'd be posting in a new blog, hope to see you folks there. Here's the link to my new blog http://entrepreneurshipandbeyond.blogspot.com/

Dennis

The iPod Touch

2007-09-07T15:42:00.002+05:30

With the people going nuts after the iPhone, Apple’s next generation iPod’s looks are so like the iPhone. Infact for a moment when you look at it you would probably mistake it for the iPhone. The iPod touch was unveiled on the 5th of Sep 2007 & would be available in the US Markets by the 28th of September.

So looking more at what the iPod Touch got to offer?

The storage, it comes in two variants of 8GB & 16GB, Internally it uses Flash as the Storage Media.

The iPod Touch supports Wifi i.e. IEEE 802.11b/g. (Wonder why don’t people start having WiMax Support instead)

There have reports that the device supports Bluetooth, The reason why it’s not been issued as part of the specification is that the FCC has approved only the Wifi for this device. Probably the Hardware support for Bluetooth is available & would be activated in future software updates. ( Hacker’s got one thing now to start looking into )

The browser, Safari :-) That’s trademark Apple, I Hope it’s the patched version & not the one that was part of the initial releases of the iPhone.

The User Interface is a ditto of the iPhone, touch screen. Like the iPhone, it includes a physical home button separate from the touch screen. The home screen includes a list of buttons corresponding to the available applications: Music, Videos, Photos, iTunes on the bottom button row, and Safari, YouTube, Calendar, Contacts, Clock, Calculator, and Settings in the top.

The iPod Touch does have a drawback when the comparison is done on storage, but that’s because of the limitations in the flash memory. With Toshiba coming out with 32GB, it should not be long before we see the IPod Touch with similar or larger storage capabilities.

On the whole seems like a welcome break from the typical iPod which has been around for so long.

Google Sky

2007-08-23T10:57:00.002+05:30

Google Earth’s got something more !!!! It’s got the Sky in it too. The Latest Version of Google earth has a feature for you to look at the sky like never before.

You can look at a million different galaxies, constellations, stars, planets and lot more. Google has incorporated this new feature inside Google earth itself, so downloading the latest version of Google earth should give you on breath taking journey into the universe.

Google claims that it has not started this project to make money, but rather because some of it’s engineers were interested in this project. They have put together over a million different pictures to form the viewing experience that we wouldn’t forget in a hurry. The source of these images … Academia’s, Research Institutes & Space Agencies.

With about a hundred million stars and two hundred million galaxies, Sky in Google Earth lets you explore the heavens like never before.

So sit back, relax and let yourself glide through the Cosmos. Three cheers for Google. :-)

Have a look at this video, to experience more :-) Source Youtube

Look at the main page of the blog for more on Google & Other Cool Stuff, the link to main page is THIS

Toshiba announces 32GB, 16GB SDHC & 8GB MicoSDHC cards

2007-08-22T14:20:00.002+05:30

This Company Seriously Rocks !!!! They really seem to be revolutionizing the way data can be carried around. Yes you read the Title of the post right, Toshiba announces 32GB, 16GB High Density SDHC Cards. This is not all , they also announced a 8GB Micro SDHC card .

This is the world’s first 32GB memory card in this High Density. All the new cards meet the Class 4 specification in the SD Speed Class, enabling them to deliver the high level performance and functionality essential for advanced mobile phones and other personal digital products.

So when are they out in the market?????

The 16GB card would be making it’s rounds in worldwide from Oct 2007. The 32GB & the 8GB micro SD in Jan 2008.

The Key features of these cards are

SDHC Memory Card (High Speed Type)

>Realizes maximum write speed of 6 megabyte per sec (MB/s)3
>"Class 4" SD Speed Class, with a minimum sustained data write of 4MB/s
>Integrates highly secure CPRM4 copyright technology

microSDHC Memory Card

> Realizes large 8GB capacity in a microSDHC Card. It can store 139 hours5 of music at a bit rate of 128kbps6
> "Class 4" SD Speed Class, with a minimum sustained data write of 4MB/s
> Integrates highly secure CPRM copyright technology

Image & Product Sepecification Courtesy : Toshiba.com CLICK HERE To see the press release page.

Look at the main page of the blog for more on the Memory & Other Cool Stuff, the link to main page is THIS

Small Electronic Devices To Run On Power From Body Heat

2007-08-20T12:26:00.002+05:30

A group of really cool people have discovered a way to run small portable electronic devices with the help of Human Body heat. Amazing isn’t it ??? I was really astounded when I read about this.

Peter Spies , the Program head has said that this mechanism will not completely remove batteries from portable devices, but rather help in extending the charge of the batteries for a long long time without actually having to visit a electric plug point. Think of it … your smart phones on a recharge would probably last you a week !!!

So how does this mechanism work??

The difference in our body temperature to the outside room temperature is around 4 – 5 degrees typically. This when harnessed would be enough to generate up to 250milli Volts.

Now comes the problem, the typical batteries of portable devices have a voltage range between 1.8V to 3.6V. So how do these guys overcome the limitation of out body being able to produce so little power to what is actually needed?

Well Semiconductors these days has definitely come a long way. These guys have nicknamed their silicon, thermogenerator or something that sounds like that … what this does is that it keeps on accumulating the charge till it reaches a desired level & this is then sent across to charge the device.

So when is this expected in the market? No idea as of now yet … doesn’t really seem to have made it out of the lab yet. But this should be cool once we get to use it.

Anyways thumbs up for these folks, Great work & good going :-)

Motorola RIZR Z8

2007-08-03T11:07:00.002+05:30

The latest phone of Motorola is out. Announced in February 2007, the MOTO RIZR Z8’s got style I’ve gotta admit it, the Moto RIZR Z8 is one of a kind. The slider is unique; it opens at an angle that follows the contours of the face. I’ve never a seen a phone with a design like this. I give it 10 on 10 on the slider design.

So Motorola finally decide to get more phones running the Symbian OS. This is something that Nokia’s gotta be careful about. Most people love Nokia for the support of Symbian, so Motorola’s got them on this too. Motorola’s coming out most of its new phones running on LJ platform, i.e. the Linux – Java platform, this is also a break from the traditional Symbian OS on Smartphone’s. So I guess it should not be long before we some really cool applications for the LJ phones.

So what else is new with the Moto RIZR Z8??? The telegraph.co.uk describes that the Moto RIZR Z8 is the perfect phone for film fans on the go. Well I guess so!!! But I still prefer my PSP as the perfect portable entertainment system ;-)

Looking more at the specifications of the Phone,

The Network : It supports HSDPA / GSM 900 / GSM 1800 / GSM 1900,

The Weight : 112 g , Hmmmm … Slightly on the heavier side.

The Display, impressive 240 * 320 and 2.2 inches ( In league with most coming out now)

The Ring Tones : Polyphonic & MP3 ( What about real & wma ??? ) I know of a Symbian application called WMAPlus which is great codec to have on your phone, so proud RIZR Z8 owners, get it ASAP.

Data support : GPRS, EDGE , 3G, USB & Bluetooth. No Wifi though.

Camera : 2 Mega Pixles.

So this is what Motorola’s got to offer in the Z8 along with the usual set of features that most phones offers. The way Motorola’s coming out new and exciting phones, it looks like Nokia is in for one big slide in the market share.

Look at the main page of the blog for more on the Mobile Phones & Other Cool Stuff, the link to main page is THIS

Surface Computing And Microsoft Surface

2007-08-01T17:06:00.002+05:30

Imagine the table you have coffee, the surface of which can actually display photos, play videos, sync between your mobile phone your wireless cameras without any kind of explicit connection. In total your table is being your computer ???

Seems like since fiction just a few years ago !!!! Well this is reality now & the first commercial Surface Computers should be available sometime in November 2007.

So let’s get to the basics of understanding the Concept of Surface Computing.

What is a Surface Computer ?
It is the form of computing where a specialized GUI is used, where the traditional GUI elements are replaced by objects of everyday use, for ex your fingers, your mobile, your glass etc.

So how do I interact with the Surface Computer?
Simple, we use our hands :-) No more mouse’s & keyboards and all the other everyday Input devices. Your hand does the trick and of course a lot other everyday objects.

So how does the Surface Computer work?
It lets you access multiple points on the screen unlike a traditional mouse where only on point can be accessed. It has a set of Infrared cameras that literally allows the computer to see objects placed on it. This is how it interacts with the object placed on it.

Who are the people involved in Surface Computing?
Apple and Microsoft are the two giants who seem to take a liking in promoting this Technology. Microsoft seems like the one who is all set to finish production soon.

So lets see what can we do with this Technology ?
Imagine a traditional Photograph that you have, it’s a piece of paper on which the a image is printed, and a Photo on your Computer is a image on the Screen. So what could I do to brew a combination of both the traditional & electronic approach ?

I have to have a table on which I can keep my photograph (traditional), and then also be able to resize the image at real time, edit attributes of the image too (Electronic). So get your imagination running…. Imagine a photo on the table, which is actually your screen, you can move around the photo to any part of the table by just pushing it around (Like it’s a paper) and then you can hold your finger on the edges on the photo and stretch it & it actually stretches, to the actual size of the table. Then you keep your wireless mobile phone on the table and then you decide to move the photo in to it. You just push the photo towards the place where the mobile is lying on the table & viola it just disappears into your phone. I can presume it’s a little hard to imagine it, So I’ve got a link which actually shows you how the Surface Computer works

The link is THIS, it’s a video, a superb one, you would definitely love it. (Courtesy Popular Mechanics )

From Microsoft’s point of view, Microsoft Surface is essentially a Windows Vista PC tucked inside a black table base, topped with a 30-inch touch screen in a clear acrylic frame. Five cameras that can sense nearby objects are mounted beneath the screen. Users can interact with the machine by touching or dragging their fingertips and objects such as paintbrushes across the screen, or by setting real-world items tagged with special barcode labels on top of it. (Courtesy Wikipedia)

This Microsoft surface is designed to respond to 52 touches at a time. It is initially expected to be used in Hotels, reservation counters etc. The pricing a whooping 3000$ to 5000$ ( I could buy a small car with money in India)

So when will it be available to us folks ?? Maybe in 3 to 5 years for it to find a reduction in cost and a widespread use. Till then keep the imaginations running :-)

Look at the main page of the blog for more on the Surface Computer & Other Cool Stuff, the link to main page is THIS

pspWxp : Complete Guide

2007-07-25T10:48:00.002+05:30

1. Download pspWxp from this LINK

2. Extract the zip file that you get into a folder named pspWxp (Ideally it should not matter what ever is the name of the folder )

3. Paste this folder in the root of the Memory Stick. i.e. in the top most level. (not inside MP_ROOT) , this is because you don’t have to unnecessarily have to type in a long path in your browser.

4. Open your web browser.

5. Enter the address as following “ file:/pspWxp/index.html "

6. Load the page, this should begin running the pspWxp on your psp.

7.Press Triangle to hide the browser's toolbars (press triangle again to show it)

8. Their are points where you are asked whether you want to run the embedded plug-in in the page, say YES.

9. There is also a option in the pspWxp homepage, where a automatic installer is available, so you could skip step two by using this.

Instructions on using pspWxp, once loaded is as follows

For Opening a program on the desktop
--> Using the analog stick, move the cursor over the program icon
--> Press X

For Opening the Start menu
--> Use the analog stick to move the cursor over the Start button
--> Press X

For Opening a program or submenu in the start menu
--> Follow the steps above to open the start menue
--> Move the cursor over the program/submenu name/icon
--> Press X

Copyright © Dennis D Maliekal
Look at the main page of the blog for more on the PSP & Other Stuff, the link to main page is THIS

The iPhones’s are Vulnerable !!! Safari exploit gives hackers complete control over the iPhone.

2007-07-23T17:11:00.002+05:30

The most awaited phone of the year. People queued up for it, like they would never lay their hands on the gadget, if they weren’t the first at the crack of dawn to get hold of the IPhone ….

So what have we here???? The a vulnerable piece of hardware, whose creators boasted of more than 200 patents tagged to the device .. Mr. Jobs !!!! 200 !!! & of all things the Browser’s gotta give way

The vulnerability is thanks to the Safari Exploit, which allows the iPhone to run malicious scripts on the phone. The browser has a feature to automatically execute a file, when the extension of the file is “safe”. These files could be inside ziped archive. Now all the hacker does is rename his script to a .safe extension & viola the script is executed.

Once in the phone, the hacker’s got complete administrative access over the phone. Nothing seems to be safe once that’s been granted to the hacker. Robbing the phone of the SMS log, e-mail & other passwords stored on the phone, address book, the complete log of the Calls. Loads of stuff that I would not like someone to steal of my phone .

Apple’s been notified of this & we hope to get some response real soon .. Till then have a look at the safety tips that apple has posted when dealing with mail attachments. The link, CLICK HERE

Look at the main page of the blog for more on the iPhone & Other Cool Stuff, the link to main page is THIS

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows leaked

2007-07-18T16:35:00.005+05:30

Yup , it’s true a photographed version of the Deathly Hallows is out today on the net. I did read the entire copy, but I guess I’ll still buy the book this Saturday :-)

So the spoilers !!!! Naaaahh … I’m not going to tell you, I would be such a kill joy if I did. I guess you would never probably come to my blog again too if do mention it.

Some facts about the last book that’s been leaked.
-->> The size of the JPEG images is around 75 MB !!!

-->> The last word is not scar (or at least this is what I know)

-->> The last line of the book is this "The scar had not pained Harry for nineteen years. All was well."

-->> The First chapter is “The Dark Lord Ascending”

-->> Page 344 & 345 of the book talks about the actual scenario where James and Lilly Potter are murdered.

-->> The first line in Page 344 is “ Hold him off, without a wand in his hand! … He laughed before casting the curse …
“ Avada Kedavra…”

-->> Snape was never a bad guy ;-0

-->> Snape was deeply in love with Lilly Potter (Harry's Mother)

-->> The last Chapter before the Epilouge is " The Flaw in the Plan "

-->> Harry calls Voldemort "Riddlle" in the Final battle. Just the way dumbeldore addressed Voldemort.

-->> The Epilouge is " Nineteen Years Latter"

-->> Lupin & Tongs are killed

-->> Harry Survies the Killing curse for the Second Time ( But that does not mean the third is safe ;-0 )

-->> I would love to tell you who died & how "HE" died... But noooo , i'm stopping :)

Ok lemme stop or I’ll end up spoiling the fun ;-)

Hold tight guys, 21 July is just 2 days away :-) You could just buy the book then :-)

Look at the main page of the blog for more on Harry Potter & Other Stuff, the link to main page is THIS

PSP Slim A.K.A PSP 2001

2007-07-18T12:38:00.002+05:30

I wanted to blog about this the very day the news was out, but then I decided to wait a lil longer to know more about the new guy in the block.

The PSP Lite … The name says it all. It’s the sleek, slim & sexy new version of the PSP :-) What’s new in the PSP Slim. It’s slim, that the new :-) Ok … So what else is new???

1) It’s got a less complex UMD door

2) The Wi-fi switch is shifted to the top (next to the UMD drive door)

3) It’s got a TV Out ( Now I love this device )

4) It’s probably gonna run the 3.60 FW version on it.

5) It's gonna be 33% lighter

6) It's 19% slimmer

7) It's gonna have 2 times the original RAM

8) A lot more colors to choose from

I had a chance to get my hands on the User Manual of the PSP Lite. Here’s the link [Click here]

It’s seems pretty much the same as the original PSP, except for the new features that I mentioned above.

Look at the main page of the blog for more on the PSP & Other Stuff, the link to main page is THIS

55 Ways to Have Fun With Google

2007-07-10T19:23:00.002+05:30

Google seems to be the essence of the life when it comes to searching on the web. I happened to have a look at this site, which has a book that gives you an insight as to how to have fun with Google.

Philipp Lenssen, the author has this to say on his site …

“You probably use Google everyday, but do you know... the Google Snake Game? Googledromes? Memecodes? Googlesport? The Google Calculator? Googlepark and Google Weddings? Google hacking, fighting and rhyming? In this book, you’ll find Google-related games, cartoons, oddities, tips, stories and everything else that’s fun. Reading it, you won’t be the same searcher as before!”

The best part about this book is the , PDF version is free to download. The link to the Site is THIS.

The Chapters of the book is as follows.
1. Egogoogling: Susan Is...
2. The Google Snake Game
3. Memecodes: Survival of the Fittest Web Pages
4. The Google Irritation Game, and the Google Image Quiz
5. Googling Proverbs
6. Browsing Images of a Site
7. A Brief History of Googlesport
8. What is Google, and what do people consider fun about it?
9. How Much Time Google Saves Us
10. Google Cookin’ a Lemon Chicken
11. Douglas Adams and the Google Calculator
12. Oops, I Googled Again
13. The Disappearing Google Logo, a Magic Trick
14. Fun With Google Maps, the Wiki Way
15. Dave Gorman’s Googlewhack
16. Google Q&A
17. Celebrate Google Non-Weddings, and More
18. Design Your SketchUp Dream House
19. Kevin Bacon and the Google Network
20. The Google Alphabet
21. Google Search Tips
22. Googlepark
23. Googleshare
24. The Shortest Google Search (and the One Returning the Most Results)
25. Google Rotated and Mini Google
26. The Google Quiz: How Much Do You Know About Google?
27. Recreate Google From Memory
28. The Strange World of Google News
29. Aliens Attack Google!
30. Top Ten Signs You Are Addicted to Google
31. Dig a Hole Through Earth
32. Googlebombing
33. Google Ads Gone Wrong
34. Life in the Age of Google
35. Google Hacking
36. Googlepolls: Ask the Crowd
37. Googlefights
38. What If Google Was Evil? Plus: Five Inventions of the Google Future
39. The Google Adventure Game
40. Egobot, Voice of the Web
41. Fun Google Gadgets
42. Forty-Two, or: A Science-Fiction Interlude
43. The Google Book of World Records
44. Spelling Errors Galore
45. Google Groups, Time Machine
46. Growing a Google Word
47. Most Popular Words, and PopSents
48. Create Google Poetry, Prose, and Collages
49. Funny Google Videos
50. The Realplayer Fish, or: Telling a Story in Synonyms
51. Google Parodies
52. The Google Images Prediction Trick
53. Fun With Google Translations
54. The Giant Google Painting
55. Googledromes

Have Fun Googling :-)

Look at the main page of the blog for more on Google & Other Cool Stuff, the link to main page is THIS

Multiple Instances of Google Talk On The Same Machine At The Same Time

2007-07-06T15:47:00.002+05:30

Google Talk allows you to run only one instance of it, at a time on a single PC. There are times when we have multiple Google accounts and basically wanna run 2 or more instances of Google Talk on the same machine.

The simple and effective way to do it is by not enabling a mutex when Gtalk is started in the first instance.

The method to do it

1) Left Click your mouse on the desktop to bring up the contextual window.

2) Highlight the new option.

3) A Sub menu comes up, where you would find a menu item called Shortcut

4) Click on it.

5) Now a window pops up & there would be a text field that you would need to fill, this basically is the location of Google Talk on your machine.

6) If you can find the exe on your machine great, or else paste the following text

7) "C:\ Program Files\Google\Google Talk\googletalk.exe" /nomutex

8) I am assuming that you have installed Google talk in the default directory.

9) Click NEXT

10) Now change the name of the Shortcut to whatever you feel like, Ex googletalk_multiple.

11) Click Finish

Viola, your done :-) Now every time you click the shortcut, a new instance of Google talk starts up, for you to login to as many multiple users as you need to.

Look at the main page of the blog for more on Google & Other Cool Stuff, the link to main page is THIS

Dark_AleX Has decided to quit :-(

2007-07-03T11:45:00.002+05:30

This is terrible news to the PSP Community. Dark-Alex Has decided to move out of the PSP HomeBrew scene.

This is what he had to say

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bye, scene.

I've decided to cease OE development, and leave PSP scene.
The reasons are various.
One of them is the time it consumes, which i'm losing from other things.
The other is related to my security. I didn't like Sony menaces to PS3 hackers.
I think it is better to leave now rather than end paying the consequences.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It looks like Sony means business. They don't wanna have the Great Ones working on things that they created. It really is terrible. I just hope Fanjita doesn't move out all of a sudden.

I have a feeling the reason why Sony decided to push Dark-AleX to the corner was because, in selling a PSP Sony actually makes a loss on the Hardware & the place they earn revenue is through the games that are sold. With people pirating games rampantly, the work of people like Dark-AleX and Fanjita are getting screwed.

I just hope he decides to come back soon. The PSP Scene is like half dead without him. The other half of the life is Fanjita. I just hope it doesn't turn out to be a completely dead platform.

I still don't get it with,what does he mean by saying " I didn't like Sony menaces to PS3 hackers ". What's with the PS3 Hackers and him ???? The Sony menaces, I guess is Sony trying to bring about a lawsuit against him, but if they had to they could have done it a ong time back. I guess it's with them threatening him. Blast those Japaneese Dorks.

Anyways Thanks a lot Alejandro, the one & only Dark-AleX.

PS: I hope I'm not copyright violating by putting up the Logo of Dark-AleX's website. It's just that I appreciate all that he has done for us & it's a mark of rememberance.

Look at the main page of the blog for more on the PSP & Other Cool Stuff, the link to main page is THIS

XBOX Elite

2007-03-29T15:33:00.002+05:30

Microsoft’s never going to give up :-) The console war continues & the newest solider to enter is the latest version of the XBOX, the XBOX Elite which was confirmed by Microsoft. It’s planned to hit the Shelves by the 29th of April 2007.

So what’s new with the XBOX Elite???

Looks wise the XBOX Elite is awesome. The sleek black, give’s the Nintendo’s Wii a run for it’s money. I kind of feel that the XBOX Elite now looks more like a PS3? How many of you folks agree on that? Still gotta give it to Microsoft for the look it’s given the XBOX Elite.

The next important feature is the 120 Gig Hard disk. [This is the reason for the high cost of the Elite]. So that’s something that Sony had not anticipated, with the PS3 having a max of 60 Gigs to offer. So thumbs up Microsoft. :-) The 120 Gig Hard disk was also available to use with the XBOX 360, as a saperate accessory. Buying that along with the XBOX 360, costed as much as the XBOX Elite.

The third aspect is the introduction of the wireless controllers. The same as in an PS3.Can’t these console manufactures come up with something more innovative? Huh !!!

The 4th addition, a HDMI [ High Definition Multimedia Interface] output. At last it’s sunk into the heads of the makers of the XBOX Elite that people have started using HDTV’s.

So what is Microsoft actually targeting at? Nintendo’s Wii has been selling a lot more units than the PS3 or XBOX, doesn’t this really worry Sony or Microsoft. Well the Wii is targeted more towards being a Family oriented console & spokesperson’s from Microsoft say that once a Wii user turns 14 , he would be looking for something more & that some thing more is the XBOX Elite!!!! I have no clue how do they come up with these kind of statistics.

So how much does the XBOX Elite cost. 400 US$ that’s what been out in the news papers today morning. The Wii costs 1 quarter of that, no wonder they’re selling like hot cakes :-)

A survey conducted suggested that only 45 % - 50% of the users of the XBOX use it for gaming. The rest use it more for other media related activities. Sony’s PS3 & Microsoft’s XBOX Elite have been built, to suit the profile of a Media Hub, rather than a Gaming console. It’s like many companies trying to get out set top boxes, where everything in your house is connected to it & it’s behaves like the centralized Hub.

Overall the XBOX Elite looks like it’s going to have a big market, I seem to notice that Microsoft’s finally delivering what Hardcore Gamer wants, his console to have the looks, the style & of course better technology.

But there's this one thing that I cant understand is, Why is Microsoft trying to release the XBOX Elite, without adding the functionality of a HD-DVD player ??

So lets see what the XBOX Elite can really deliver, once we get our Hands on it :-)

Check out this blog, for more awesome images links of the Elite. http://metalmods.info/blog

Copyright © Dennis D Maliekal
Look at the main page of the blog for more on the Game Consoles & Other Cool Stuff, the link to main page is THIS

Blu-Ray Vs HD-DVD… The War Continues….

2007-03-28T16:52:00.002+05:30

In Jan 2007, Korean Electronic Giant LG decided to go for it, the Dual player that plays both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. So where does this really lead to? The end of the war, where the consumer finally is happy with something that supports both?

Well I see that this kind of a player will only help a small segment of undecided buyers. Most others have decided on what they really want, but since the new generation players a burn in the pocket, the consumer himself is playing a wait & watch game.

The dual players are again a lot more expensive? So how long are these players going to survive? Well the answer lies with what Movie studios & game developers decide. The final format that they think is the best one to support. The reason behind this is the huge storage needed now, is only for better quality movies & high graphics games. If it is for any other purpose, a DVD should really suffice when it comes to storage.

So when it comes to the wait & watch policy, who are the other electronic giants doing it? HP & Samsung seems to be the only other companies that have openly agreed to support both the formats. Ruling out HP as a "player" manufacture, but as only a Drive manufacturer, Samsung seems to be the next in the lead to make a dual player.

Are they going to make it? Well they are looking at LG’s success as a benchmark & would go on with it only if LG succeeds. So what the big deal with having both the formats on a single player? Nothing much for a consumer, except that you have a choice of buying what format you feel like.

How is it different for a retailer? Warner Chairman and CEO Barry Meyer stated in a press release that "The retailer wants to sell hardware and doesn't want to be forced into stocking two formats for everything". So what does Warner come up with a Dual Format Disc, which has Blu-Ray on one side and HD-DVD on the other. So all that the consumer has to do is pick up what he needs and play it on whatever kind of player he has at home.

Doesn’t all of these seem a unnecessary? Why cant we just have one format and get on with it? Well all I could think of with this is that Corporations have gotta make money & how best to do that? Force more on to the consumer. It’s us who finally pays :-|

I have no clue as to how long is this war's going to go. If Pioneer has their way with the UV Disc ( See my previous post). The Blu-ray & the HD-DVD both gotta did their grave.

Copyright © Dennis D Maliekal
Look at the main page of the blog for more on Optical Media & Other Cool Stuff, the link to main page is THIS

Ultra Violet Disc (UVD), The next Generation of Optical Storage.

2007-03-28T15:20:00.002+05:30

The Blu-ray Disc’s just out & it seems to be obsolete already???? Talk of the town, with the community who’s crazy with optical storage is the way Pioneer come out with their new disc called the Ultra Violet Disc.

So what’s so special about this circular chap, who stores data? Nothing much, all that it can do is store around 510 GB ;-) !!!!!!!

Yup, you read it right, FIVE HUNDRED AND TEN Giga Bytes of raw storage!!!!

The way that this is done is by using an Ultra Violet beam to read and write to the Disc, which basically can let you have pits & lands 20 times closer than what they are in a Blu-ray disc. The distance between the pits is around 70 nanometer, which is like a single hair split a thousand times. Boy that sure is small.

When is this dude hitting the markets? Well pioneer as of now says that this is available only in there labs in Japan. They are themselves not sure as to when it could be commercially possible for this to come out. This was a lot similar to the press statements in 2002 – 2003, when the Blu-ray was to be out too. So I guess another 2 -3 years from now… we have a 12 cm disc that store half a Tera Byte.

I actually vaguely remember reading about this disc in How stuff works (I was working on a technical presentation on the Blu-ray disc for my College Project), but they then were themselves (i.e. How Stuff Works) not sure of the technology.

Well anyways, let’s see what the futures got in store!! Till then, way to go guys who’re making it technology like this possible :-)

Look at the main page of the blog for more on Optical Media & Other Cool Stuff, the link to main page is THIS

PSP : Wallpaper With Waves

2007-03-24T20:04:00.004+05:30

Ever wondered how cool would you PSP look with custom wallpaper and with waves on it. As you see in the above pic, its my XMB(Home Screen) with wallpaper made by me. Now how do I have a wallpaper with waves ?
Its very simple, all you have to do is just make any of your favorite picture in a 480x272 size. You can use photoshop for doing this, its simplest in it. Now save the file with name '01-12.bmp' (without quotes). Now you are done with you wallpaper, lets flash it to the PSP then.

For 3.03Oe-C
Enter the recovery mode of you psp by holding R at startup. Go to advanced and then select toggle USB (flash 0). Now on you computer you should see the new device. Open up the drive which your computer assigns to your PSP (e.g. E:). Here you will see some folders, click on folder 'vsh'. Again you see some folders, click on the folder resource. Just copy the wallpaper you just made on this screen. Make sure the name of the file is '01-12.bmp'. Just make a back-up of your original file from psp and copy your custom wallpaper here. And that's it, you have a wallpaper with waves.

MY NEW BLOG

Look at the main page of the blog for more on the PSP & Other Cool Stuff, the link to main page is THIS

Free up your flash0

2007-03-15T13:08:00.002+05:30

Most you of you owning a PSP would have always wanted to modify the look of your XMB. Yes it is a very cool thing but if you are n00b, you would not be able to tweak your XMB completely. Reason is that $ony left only left around 200kb for you to play with. Now the actual capacity you can have to tweak is 2.5 MB!
That means almost everything to tweak.

Procedure of freeing up space in flash0:
All you have to do just the download the homebrew FlashAgent F4, and copy the folders according to your firmware. The first time you will run FlashAgent, it will automatically detect your free space and will ask you if you have to free up space in flash0. Just accept that and Voila! You have 2.5MB for tweaking.

Look at the main page of the blog for more on the PSP & Other Cool Stuff, the link to main page is THIS

Games & Gaming: The Past, The Present & The Future.

2007-03-12T17:10:00.004+05:30

The first video games that I used to play as a kid were on an 8 bit console by a Chinese manufacturer called the Dendy. The console had games where I could shoot aliens & it made all these jazzy sounds like a ping, pong, boom, and various other sounds, which mobiles in the early 90’s used to make. Games like BomberMan, Contra & Mario were my all time favorites. In fact the first time that I could finish Mario was a day of celebration. My friends were all there to cheer me, when I rescued the princess in the final level.
So what’s the difference between the games of then and that of today? And what will be the difference between the games of today & that of games released 7 – 10 years from now???

The biggest difference between the games that I play on my 6th & 7th Generation consoles vs. the 8bit console is the Graphics that are rendered in the game. The princess that I saved in Mario was more like a white patch on the screen with an orange tuft on the top portion of the white patch (the head & the body). Both the color patches put together looked vaguely like a character which was supposed to resemble a human. Compare it to the graphics that is delivered by the XBOX, PS3 or the Wii. This Comparison is like trying to compare the horseless carriages of 18th century & the Ferrari.

Game developers then avoided humans in their games. Designing human like characters required a lot of work & extreme programming skills. Game engines were science fiction then. That’s the reason game developers satisfied themselves with aliens as the villains and space ships that could shoot the aliens.

John Carmack, the developer of Doom, came up with the Doom Game Engine. This triggered a revolution. Id software’s Doom was a phenomenal success with it being a simply awesome first person shooter in that era of game development.Time flew by with game developers getting better at their programming skills & with better game engines coming into the pictures. Games in this stage of evolution had the PC as the primary market. Ken Kutaragi persuaded Sony to fund his research of the Super NES CD, which evolved into the PlayStation. This was a revolution in the hardware that was needed to play games. The release of the PlayStation in the Mid 90’s triggered a fierce competition between Sony, Nintendo & Atari, each trying to prove that their gaming hardware was better.

With dedicated gaming consoles where the graphics rendering capability was increased several folds further evolved the face of the gaming industry. Human characters were the central focus in the games being developed. It was times when we had a human hero fighting of battles against evil alien invaders & finally protecting dear old earth.

Gamers loved what these games had to offer, but want for more resulted in another breathtaking feature in the world of gaming. Quake was one the first FPS game to incorporate this feature. Games of today have this as an integral part of their structure. What are we talking about? The Multiplayer feature.
The multiplayer option is like a narcotic. Game’s which incorporate multiplayer option has always sold more & better than games which do not incorporate multiplayer. This is an addiction that game developers use to keep people hooked to their games. Why multiplayer? The simple reason, you’re competing against intelligence in the game, a human; unlike a CPU fighting against you. The fun’s so much different when playing against a human. Modern day game engines like Renderware, RAGE have great AI capabilities, but they still do not come anywhere close to what a fellow human offers. Games like Quake & Halo have not just followers, but cults which portray what the game means to them.

Microsoft sensing opportunity decided to enter this space. With the Japanese ruling the game market the entry of the American corporation was a relaxing break. With the XBOX, being backed by the mighty financial power of Microsoft, it was just a matter of time before it rose to really high pedestal of fame.

With the advancement in the Hardware for games, how have the games evolved? The games got more and more complex, no matter how advanced the hardware got, the game always needed more computing power. This was a boom for companies like Nvidia, AMD (ATI) they made & are making huge revenue selling graphic cards to the PC based game populace.

Today there are awesome games. Games that take you into a completely new world, where things look so real, that the gamer is so much in unity with the game which he or she is playing. But the question is, are the games “Really that Real”?
I would say definitely NO. So do the big folks form EA, Ubisoft, RockStar and all the other big gaming giants. So why is it not so real? The graphics look so real, the skin tones of the character is amazing, so much like mine. The clothes that the character put on are also so strikingly real.

So what then is the problem here?

There is nothing called a realistic emotion on the Characters face. The problem is something that everyone knows and it’s only a matter of time before the solution is out.

The lack of emotions makes game characters look so plastic, so zombie like. The Holy Grail that all game developers are looking at now is to introduce true emotion in the characters. Emotions just like what a human would exhibit. That’s what would be the Future. That’s what the next generation games & game developers are expected to deliver. This would be the next huge chunk of development in the next generation game engines, where emotions would of central focus.

There is an industry that’s already perfected this art of portraying realistic emotions on artificial animated characters. The industry is the Animation & Cartoon industry. Companies like Disney & Dreamworks.

The presumption as to why they can do it is because they have such huge computing power & memory to spare when developing these cartoons. Since they are pre rendered & does not require processing hardware at the display end it’s a easy task transmitting them (Processing as in computing & rendering the graphics). This of course is quite different with games. The rendering power that a developer has is the rendering power that the console has. This results in Console manufacturer researching and finding out how best they can incorporate the mechanisms that the animation industry is using into their hardware.

The next big thing that games in the future would have is involving a lot of the real world into the virtual world. This would involve game characters being able to shop on the net in game. This would be something like connecting to e-commerce sites to probably buy music or movies that can be watched or listened to as in game movies or music. The other use would be using VOIP or Internet Telephony within the game (Skype, Yahoo messenger), such that the character within the game can talk to another character in the same game on a different console within a network.

What we have been seeing now with consoles is the same thing that was implemented in the past but better. Look at the PS3 or the XBOX 360, they just do what their predecessors did better. Only the Wii seems to be different. Developers have to be innovative & come out with something new, not just the same thing better.
We traveled through how games have made it through time & what would possibly be in store for the future. But for now happy gaming with the what’s in the present :-).

Look at the main page of the blog for more on Gaming , Gaming Consoles & Other Cool Stuff, the link to main page is THIS

Hello

2007-03-09T12:34:00.000+05:30

Hello All,
Well this just an introduction for me. So here I go.
My Name is Bhrigu, I am a 15 year old living in delhi. Currently in class X. I am currently owning a 3.03 OE-C psp. I will try to feed as much info. as possible.

Cheers,
Bhrigu

I would like to Welcome MAX Bhrigu to Anything & Everything. Bhrighu would contirubte towards more extended knowledge on the PSP. It would be tricks, Hacks, loads of stuff that you could do with the PSP.

Welcome Bhrigu, Happy Posting :-)

Dennis D Maliekal

Windows Vista

2007-03-05T12:34:00.002+05:30

Microsoft’s done it again!!! The latest & the newest version of windows is out…. Windows Vista :)

So what’s new in it? Do I need to switch from XP to Vista??? Well knowing Microsoft’s style of correcting bugs, security issues, and all kinds of problems, only much latter down the line after they release their OS to the market. I guess I’ll just wait for a while before I switch to this new OS from Microsoft.

I’ll try writing about a brief overview about Vista & also listing what’s new in the OS.

Well Windows Vista definitely Microsoft's latest Graphical Operating system. [How can we ever forget DOS :)] When Microsoft first decided to come out with this OS, they made their codename for the OS, [Longhorn] really popular on the web. I at times actually thought that they would eventually name the OS as Longhorn, cos it’s seldom that Companies make their code name public.

So why Vista anyways??? Microsoft definitely has to make money, that why ;-) But then again in their press comments, they say they wanted to go ahead and fix a lot of security issues. Win XP was criticized beyond measure for the security flaws in it!!!!

So Microsoft finally did the unveiling on the 30th of Jan 2007, with it being available for worldwide release from then.

Microsoft claims that loads & loads of new features have been added into Vista. The claim seems to be close to 150 new features. Well then again, I’ve don’t really have the patience to go ahead and check whether they really have introduced so many features.

But I found a few prominent ones and they are as follows

1. Their GUI nicknames Windows AERO, this is definitely going to the universal selling point of vista, with the GUI being so much more nicer & more pleasing to view & deal with. Icons, thumbnails all being animated, instead of the traditionally still ones. You’re also able to control the transparency too!!!!

2. The Windows Sidebar, which is basically a transparent bar on the side of the screen where users can place something know as desktop gadgets, where these gadgets are nothing but applets used to show the user info about things like the weather, time form different time zones etc.

3. The Internet Explorer 7, well so typical Microsoft, they come out with a new browser, release a beta version of it for their current OS, then finally incorporate it as standard feature in their new OS. IE 7 is something that I have been using for a long long time on XP, I don’t really know why they bother calling it a new feature, huh!!!! The great thing’s about IE 7is, they’ve just very nicely mimicked FireFox, Ha ha ha :-D Tabbed browsing, more security fixes!!! Nothing more. Oops or is it, Of course not, they have a new look & feel too, but nothing out of the ordinary.

4. Windows Mail, this basically a replacement for Outlook express, with a few additional features & a better GUI. This sure is a relaxing break for Outlook users. [Not that anything was wrong with Outlook Express!!!!, it’s just that you need a change once in a while right :-) ]

5. Media Player 11. Once again very much like IE 7, where they release it out for XP & now integrating it as a standard feature in Vista. WMP 11, definitely has a better UI. It also incorporates support for a lot more codec’s , so basically can play more formats, without going through the pain of downloading codec’s on the net. I personally felt that the processing of the audio is better, with better Bass, treble & a great focus on the Midrange too :-)

6. Games & Game Explorer. This is a feature that has been put in to show what the Vista is really capable of delivering. Better Graphics!!! A new Games Explorer special folder will also hold shortcuts and information to all games on the user's computer.

There are also may other features that interests me, like the enhanced speech recognition software, Hard drive partition utility, system performance assessment etc. Me writing about all of these would unnecessarily make the post really long. The other reason, I’m writing about them is because, these are features that all of us have used via a third party software at some point of time.

Microsoft is definitely doing a great job on advertising Windows Vista in India. There’s a demo or a ad of the OS in most places where people hang out [Like malls, theatres, coffee shops, blah blah blah ….] I’m wondering how is it in most other countries??? Sharing it via replies would definitely be welcome.

Overall I think that the Vista is a great OS, but would definitely recommend you to wait a little longer before getting a copy of it, cos we want to make sure that Microsoft’s done their home work on fixing some amount of the bugs that is surely incorporated in it.

Look at the main page of the blog for more on Operating Systems, Technology, Gaming Consoles & Other Cool Stuff, the link to main page is THIS

ISO to CSO conversion. A complete Guide.

2007-03-01T18:39:00.005+05:30

I have UMD’s, but then again it’s a pain carrying them at all times. There are times when the stupid plastic jacket around them snaps & I’ve got to go through the pain of gluing it together again. :-(

The problem, I want my games to run of my memory stick. The second part of the problem, I want these games to be small. The solution, convert your legal games into ISO’s and further compress these ISO’s into CSO.

Now how do I do that ???? Not to worry :) There’s a great tool called the UMD Gen

The picture shows you how it looks.

Now lets say you have a ISO of a legal copy of the UMD you own, you’ve to convert it. I have described the steps, as how to do it with illustrations.
[Please do not Pirate Games, gaming companies will then stop making them for us ]

1. Extract the ISO using Winrar. You would get a folder called PSP_GAME & a file called UMD_DATA.bin.

2. Now open the the PSP_GAME Folder. You would find a 2 directories & a few file.

3. One of the directories present would be named SYSDIR.

4. Open it.

5. You would find a directory called as UPDATE & 2 files called BOOT.bin & EBOOT.bin

6. Delete the UPDATE Directory & the BOOT.bin file ( look at the Images below)

7. DO NOT DELETE EBOOT.bin

8. Traverse back to the directory where you extracted the ISO.

9. Now drag & drop the PSP_GAME folder & the file UMD_DATA.bin into the UMD Gen tool. ( look at the Image below)

10. Click on the save button & select the CSO option. ( look at the Image below)

11. Chose the path where you want to save the CSO file & name the file whatever you want to.

12. On clicking save you will get a Window as show. Don’t change any of the value & leave the compression value as 9 for the best possible compression.

13. Click on Continue

14. You would see a progress bar. ( Look at the image below)

15. Once the progress bar disappears. Go to the saved location & Viola your CSO is ready :-)

I emphasize again , please do not make copies of the UMD’s that you do not own.

The value used for the compression, 9 is the highest compression level. If your game jerks after compression , reduce the value & make a CSO, usually 5 is a good bet !!!

If you are a High Def freak and want to calculate the video bitrate of your video file, have a look at this Blog. It's Really cool

Look at the main page of the blog for more on the PSP & Other Cool Stuff, the link to main page is THIS

10 July 2007:

Well there a certain searches on Google that are like figuring out how to change a CSO into a ISO & they land up here. The first thing is I am wondering why they would want to do this. The probable reason is that, they have downloaded a CSO & it looks like the game’s jerking & they figure out the compression level is very high. So probably make it back into a ISO and play the game or probably re-compress the ISO back to a CSO with lesser compression level.

So to convert a CSO to an ISO, the change in the above mentioned steps (i.e more specifically in step 10) would be to save the resulting file as an ISO & that would give you an ISO, which would run smooth on your PSP.

Play Station Portable (A.K.A) Possibilities Unlimited !!!!

2007-02-22T16:34:00.003+05:30

SONY, the name says it all!!! Or does it? That’s something that’s always debatable.

The PS1 really brought about a revolution in the world of gaming, but then Man always wants more and better. So out came the XBOX, whoop!!! And did Sony stop, no way out came the PS2 (I just love this console. It was only after I bought this marvel did my pocket feel a lot better, cos I never did need to constantly keep updating my computer to play the latest games :) ) Microsoft decided to give it right back , and Bang !!!! XBOX 360, It’s still being constantly update, to fight back against Sony’s PS3.

That’s a brief glimpse of the console war between Sony & Microsoft ; Or is it ??? I did miss out on Little chap, who came out somewhere in between the PS2 & the PS3. All of you put your hands together for the Play Station Portable ( PSP).

This device is seriously a marvel. My salutes are all directed towards Shin'ichi Ogasawara, the subsidiary of Sony Corporation, who first designed the PSP. The PSP is a perfect & complete personal multimedia device that one can dream off.

Things it can do, Loads of stuff!!!

Play Video’s and full length Movies
Play high quality audio, supporting the MP3 & WMA formats.
A great album to view digital photos.
Record Video
Click Photos.
Play Flash Files
Browse the net
Use it as a GPS
And of course, as the name says it, PLAY Games :)

I’m sure with the constant firmware updates, the possibilities seem infinite!!!

I simply enjoy watching movies when I am lying on my bed in the night, it’s so comfortable & so personalized. I feel like it’s my own theater. The music being awesome, with a FM transmitter attached to the earphone jack, my car rocks with the beat of the music, when I tune to the frequency of the transmitter. If I do need to buy a new GPS receiver for my car, that a whooping 10000Rs for me. The PSP lets me use it as a GPS with an small additional accessory that costs me less that 2000Rs. The games are awesome. GTA tops my list of favorites. Thanks so much Rockstar.

There is one thing that makes me really irritated with the PSP. Any guesses ??? I’m sure any PSP user would share this with me about what I hate about it, The UMD. Sony’s once again done it, made a fool of itself, introducing a new standard of storage & then keeping it closed. The format seems to by dying a slow but steady death. They are exorbitantly priced, and when it comes to movies on the UMD, a DVD’s seems to have everything that the UMD has to offer & more. The only advantage that I see is the portability that it offers.

Mem sticks Pro duo, are so expensive, it seems crazy that these guys offer you a optical drive & don’t give you media or a burner to burn your music & pictures on it Huh !!! Probably some Japanese marketing strategy that they have up their sleeve. Most stores in the US have already pulled off UMD movies from their shelf & the ones that still have them, seem to have offers where , you buy one & get the other one free !!!!

Well I don’t really wanna go on criticizing the UMD on & on, cos I’m quite sure there is loads & loads of stuff on the net with criticisms heaped on the UMD, that if I had to make one straight line with all the criticisms, then probably the circumference of the earth would seem microscopic :)

What about homebrew & iso’s??? Well that’s something that quite sensitive, that’s better left alone. Cos if I do support it or not, there goanna be a lot of comment s both in favor of it & against it.

I personally feel that both Sony & people who’ve made homebrew possible ( Dark_Alex, Noobz & all the other great ones) deserve a huge applaud. Progress is going to be there only if there’s a challenge & that’s what the great ones give Sony :)

Other things that I don’t really liked about Sony & really appreciated with Microsoft, was their target for the market in India. There are loads of PSP freaks here. Thanks to once again Sony’s dumb marketing strategies, people in the subcontinent are forced to buy their consoles from markets in US, Europe & Japan. Infact Sony India’s website, which hosts the section for gaming is so slow to even open, that makes my blood boil. The XBOX’s there in every store in any mall that you can enter. (I probably may just switch to a XBOX if Sony does not change it’s marketing strategy in India)

There is a great site called http://www.yourpsp.in/ for people in the subcontinent. I am quite sure that its way more organized and dedicated to the console than Sony’s website itself.

Well to conclude it all, the PSP is one awesome marvel that truly a great mastermind comprehended & made it a reality in time!!!!

Copyright © Dennis D Maliekal

Look at the main page of the blog for more on the PSP & Other Cool Stuff, the link to main page is THIS

Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows

2007-02-21T17:06:00.000+05:30

The names out, the dates out!!!! So what’s gonna be happen in the book???? I’ve been a dedicated follower of the Harry Potter books for nearly 7 years now. The 7th book is something that every die hard Harry Potter fan is not talking about, not discussing about; It’s something that we are dreaming about, breathing about, wondering about.

What’s gonna happen? Is Harry going to see his last daylight by the end of the book ? Will it be Voldemort and Harry reaching for final breaths of their life together ? The answer …..

J.K Rowling :)

All I can say is what I think would be possible in the book, the probability of things happening in way that would bring a smile on every Potter fan’s face, but then again Rowling’s got a uncanny way of twisting things beyond what most people could imagine. Look at what happened to Dumbeldore in the end of the Half Blood Prince, Sirius black in the Order Of The Phoenix.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Voldemort as the survivor in the final battle ( most of you would hate me to have said that ) but that’s what Rowling seems given us in the past 3 books. DEATH!!!! Death of people that we least likely expect to die.

Now what would happen in the 7th book? I guess that it might start of somewhere in Hogwarts itself, with Potter, Ron and Hermione returning back to the Burrow. Things seem to be in hustle bustle cos everyone’s preparing for the wedding (Bill and Fleur). Their will still be very tense moment during all the preparations.

The members of the order, would come by every now and then, report of weird disappearances, murders, everything that makes my skin creep!!!!

A chapter that would be dedicated for the wedding , The wedding goes on , with all the lovely couples dancing and making merry , Potter’s gonna go for Ginny again ;-) .

Everything seems to be going well and all of a sudden their’s commotion, blood curling screams and panic everywhere. The death eaters are here. Voldemort now knows for sure, that there is no great power called Dumbeldore to protect them, and on his command the death eaters attack. MadEye, Lupin, Tonks all the Aurours are at battle, with some of them creating port keys for the safety of folks attending the wedding ..

Harry is yakend away by one of the aurors to escape using a port key, but Harry is all set to get Ginny and only then leave. So there is a near miss for his life, but he eventually escapes.

The minor battle is done and then it’s time for Harry to visit Godric hollow, where everything began. He by chance find’s a Hocrux in the ruins. Viola, Destroys it, but then again this is not so easy a task, cos Voldemort would have taken a lot of care to hide the part of his cursed soul !!!!

The book would be about the search for horcrux, with a lot of near death experiences. The probability that either Ron or Hermionie or Ginny sacrifice their life in order to save Harry’s is also workable. Snape would eventually die at the hands of either Harry or Wormtail, cos wormtail is somebody who was treated real bad by Snape and also maybe he would have a change of heart and avenge Sirius’s death!!!! He also owes Harry for sparing his life in book 3.

The final battle would probably be at Godric’s Holow, cos that’s where it all started, that’s where it should all end. A lot many deaths, a lot of sadness. I’m sure of one thing, that the world water level would definitely increase on the day the 7th book comes out, cos a lot many die hard potter fans would shed tears for the slain hero, who’d die as someone who conquered the Dark lord!!!!!!

PS: The curious ones about the Photo at the right. J.K. Rowling , the great one who's imagination triggerd my Imagination to write this article.

Please Post A Comment If You Liked The Post :)

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The Reason Why High Octane Fuel Gives You Better Mileage !!!

2006-11-22T02:03:00.002+05:30

Wondered why the high octane fuel gives you a lot better mileage than the normal fuel . I guess this must be a insult on the intelligence of a lot many people reading this , cos it’s pure common sense and reasoning that would give you this answer … well but then again lemme just put it out, just incase one of you wanna let that brain of your’s laze around a bit :)

Hmmm … How do I start??? Ok lemme say that you are a person who loves driving, and somebody who really is not a speed freak. You love cruising at lets say 50 Kmph and don’t really wanna get your engine to roar a lot.

So now in order to maintain the speed , your gonna increase the throttle till you reach the speed your comfortable with and then the throttle is steady. Let’s say that you are using a bike & your throttle can turn from a range of 0 degrees to a max of 180 Degree corresponding to the min to max value, & the max value of 180 Degrees makes you rip at 120 Kmph & 0 Degrees stalls you to 0 Kmph.

Now to remain at 50 Kmph , you will have to turn your throttle to 80 Degrees. So this regulates the fuel inflow into the engine & your speed is maintained. Lets assume that this is the case for a Normal Fuel.

Now when you use high octane fuel, the same amount of fuel used in contrast to the normal fuel, gives you a lot more energy !!! [Duh !!! Common Sense :-) ] So now for you remain at 50 Kmph, you may need to move the throttle to a much lesser angle, lets say just 50 Degrees.

The lesser is the angel of rotation, the lesser is the fuel consumed!!! So it all boils down to one simple thing , better Mileage !!! ( That’s what makes my pocket happy )

But if you are a speed freak … you would still hold the throttle at 80 Degree & race the wind :) Geediup horsie !!!!!

Look at the main page of the blog for more on technology and Other Cool Stuff, the link to main page is THIS

Overcoming the limitation of download slots for a country in Megaupload

2006-08-29T19:55:00.002+05:30

Overcoming the limitation of download slots for a country in Megaupload

It’s a common problem that many of us face when we need to download from Megaupload & we see that really stinky message (It goes something like this ) “ All download slots (300) assigned to your country (Your Country) are in use.Please try again later “.

Oh Boy this sure boils my blood !!!! I search for hours & hours on the net to find these links & those folks just slam this message at my face .. Huh !!! Terrible , Atrocious, Sick … Well I’ll absue them latter :-)

Now how do I overcome this ??? I figured out a way :-) Hooray :-) :-)

What do I need to get over this problem ??? Hmmm … a few simple ingredients ( Man now I’m feeling hungry :-) )

1. Mozzila FireFox Browser

And then I’m ready :-)

Just follow the following steps and your all set to download

1. Open FireFox.

2. Go to tools  User Agent Switcher  Options  Options & Click it

3. Now in the new window that comes up, highlight the User Agents options

4. Click on the Add Button

5. In the Description Box, Type MEGAUPLOAD

6. And in the User Agent,Type
“ Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; Alexa Toolbar) “

Please not DO NOT include the quotes & type it in a single line.

7. Click Ok

8. Click Ok

9. Now paste your link & press enter

10. You get that stink message again

11. Go to tools  User Agent Switcher & click on MEGAUPLOAD

12. Now press reload again

13. Presto !!! You get the counter ticking & you start downloading :-)

I Have added screen shots of how to do it , have a look at it for further help

Disclaimer : Use your Prudence when using this method. I don't take any responsibility whatsoever for any misuse done !!!

If you found this useful, please post a reply :-)

If you do not have Fire Fox & would like to download it, please do it so from this site. You will not be loosing anything, but i would recieve a small contribution from fire fox for your download. Please find it download link at the top of the page.

11 July 2007 : An Update : I have received mails telling me that this exploit does not work for some people. I haven't actually had the time to check and see what the problem was. But yeah there's an alternative :-) !!!!

There's this great plugin that you can install on FireFox called the Megaupload SxV3.2 by PBreak. It's simply fantastic !!!! Install the plugin & enable it and Boy megaupload seems to work like heaven :-)

The link to the Plugin is " https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3843 "

For the lazy one's who don't wanna copy paste the URL in your browser, Click Here

Look at the main page of the blog for more on the megaupload and Other Cool Stuff, the link to main page is THIS

DVD's Not Recognized On DVD Combo Drives In Windows

2006-08-29T10:29:00.000+05:30

DVD's Not Recognized On DVD Combo Drives In Windows !!!!

This was a interesting problem that i faced for quite some time. CD’s seem to work perfectly fine , I could even burn CD’s , but then DVD’s  :-( I even called service center and told them that I had a problem & needed a replacement.

On one fine day, I decided to install a Linux on my PC & surprisingly the DVD combo worked just fine, with it recognizing DVD's very well .. Whoa !!! Time out ... This is cannot be true,works on one OS & not on the other ??? I switched back to windows, the same old crap .. DVD's .. they seemed alien to the drive !!!

That's when it flashed to me, the engineers in Microsoft with their Abundant intelligence when they developed windows.. ( As Usual ) never bothered to correct the bug ( I Just hope those guys have seen my blog to know that the a problem like this exists  :-) ) Well this is nothing close to a problem in Linux Though :-D

The solution to this problem is very simple, make sure that if your Combo drive is connected to your PC, it’s a master drive.

I had it as a Secondary slave all the time & that’s why I had to go through this entire nightmare  I switched it to be a seconday master & viola it worked :-D !!!!!!

If you guys ever faced this problem & you found this solution helpful, do post me back a reply :-)

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Look at the main page of the blog for more on optical drives & media & Other Cool Stuff, the link to main page is THIS

Why Anything & Everything ????

2006-08-28T19:52:00.000+05:30

" Think of a name for your blog ", that was something that got me up straight and wondering !!! What the heck! I think of so many goddamm things & this is something that really got me into a tizzy !

I wondered & thought of a lot, of fancy stuff that would show what I really wanted in the blog ... But then I realized I'm not a machine, programmed and limited to one line of thought with definite boundaries to stretch my imagination.

I am " Only Human " a well said statement in most fictional works, where there's a Android or a Terminator(That's what it's know as more popularly)kicking the crap outta me; Human, that's what makes me so unique , that my boundries are only limited by imagination... nothing stopping me to go beyond more than what i have already come along on ... That's why the

" Anything and evrything "

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