TRICKS AND TECH NEWS

Monday, July 26, 2010

Why are you Scared of Linux?

Note: Before you read this Article I want to tell you that I am a big Linux fan and Linux being an open source Operating System is doing a Great Job.

Most of the people I know think Linux is very difficult for a layman to understand. They fear that after installing Linux they will not be able to do the normal tasks they do with Windows and thus they prefer paying money to Microsoft instead of even trying Linux.

There are lot of reasons behind this. Few reasons that I could figure out are:

1. Lack of Advertising about Linux compared to Windows. I understand that Linux is an open source product while Windows is Commercial but still I feel that there is lot of scope for advertising.

2. Lack of Awareness among the Retailers of Computers who advise the buyers to go for Windows instead of Linux. Some times its not just lack of awareness but also to gain more commission on the part of the retailer.

3. A very odd but a legitimate reason is that most of the time when people hear about linux is when a Geek is bragging about what he did on Linux last night and that layman will think “Man I don’t think Linux is for Guys like me!!”.

4. Most of the schools (atleast in India) teach their students Windows instead of Linux and thus the children when they grow up feel that windows is easy and safe to go with.

5. One reason for the Windows users not switching to Linux from Windows is that they are used to the working environment of Windows and So they are scared how they are going to do those regular task with Linux. Moreover there are many discouraging people around you who will be telling you stories of people who had to format their PC after installing Linux.

6. I also feel that the method of bring new versions every 6 months of different Linux distributions has many loopholes. First of all when a new release comes you are scared whether it is stable or not and whether his current apps will be compatible or not. So you wait for 1-2 months till you hear good reviews about it and just when you were about to feel that you got the one you can happily live with you hear about a new release which is better than that. Another reasons specially for Indian Users is that every time a new release comes out the user has to download it from net which is very time consuming considering the low internet speed in India.

7. The Last but the most important reason I feel why people don’t go for Linux is that the developers of Linux try to target more towards the technical guys instead of a normal user who is never going to code in his life. Linux only tries to compete with Windows in terms of a Better Development platform but it lags far behind from Windows in other areas. Though you may feel this reason to be invalid but this is what I feel.

I know a lot of Linux lovers will get hurt after reading this post and will be very angry at me but this is what is the harsh reality about Linux which can be changed if proper steps are taken by Linux.

Can you guys think of any other reasons? If so, I’d love it if you shared.

Note: The above written text are the author’s own views and they are not written to hurt the feelings of anybody.

Microsoft’s Web Platform Installer

what if as a developer you get a set of tools packed in one Pandora box waiting to be leveraged. This is your chance to do exactly that. Microsoft’s web platform is a tool that includes tools that have proved to be very handy to developers. Tools like SQL server management studio, .Net framework, Run time libraries, SEO tool and makes it easy to leverage widely used web applications tools like joomla, J query, wiki etc.

And above all it’s Free to use!!

check it out: Microsoft’s web platform

How to: Recover Important Data after your System is Crashed

Suppose your computer commits suicide by inviting the latest virus and you are not able to get it back up and running. As a last resort you decide to backup your important documents, photos that you took of your girl friend and the ASCII text file containing your passwords. Today I will show how to do this very easily.

Create a System Rescue CD
Use an uninfected computer and download the System Rescue CD ISO file (latest version) from sysresccd.org. Now burn this ISO to a blank CD.

Start the rescue
After the ISO is written to CD, take it out, pop the CD into the drive of the computer that’s busted. Set the BIOS to boot through the CD first, hard disk next. And allow it to reboot.

You should see this beautiful System Rescue startup screen. Type these options after the boot: prompt and press ENTER.

rescuecd docache dostartx dodhcp

The docache option allows you to remove the System Rescue CD after it boots up, so you can enter another blank CD/DVD and take backups.

The dostartx option starts GUI automatically.

The dodhcp opiton automatically configures the network and connects you automatically to the Internet after booting.

Load the appropriate keymap when prompted (or just select the default US keymap).

It should start GUI automatically. In case it doesn’t, type startx at the command line and press ENTER.

Your desktop should have a terminal with a yellow background. We need to mount the partition and then do the backup.

Your Windows partition will most likely be located in /mnt/sda1 or /mnt/sda2. To check the partitions, run this:

fdisk -l /dev/sda

It should show you the partition names.

Then, to mount partition 1, run this:

ntfs-3g /mnt/sda1 /mnt/windows

If it mounts correctly, you should be able to see the files in your C:\ directory when you type:

ls -al /mnt/windows

Backing up your data to a CD/DVD
Now, to begin backing up your data, type this:

xfburn

The Xfburn program will show you a list of your partitions. Browse to the Windows partition(s) using the Filesystem menu option on the top-left and select all the files you need. Click on New Data Composition. Insert a blank CD or DVD and allow to burn all your data to the CD/DVD.

Backing up your data to a remote location
This is easier if you love using the command line. First, make sure the network is up by pinging to google.com

ping google.com

If it throws up an error, you have to run this to configure your network interface:

net-setup eth0

If you want to transfer the files in the directory C:\work to your remote server myremoteserver.com as user hungryhackers

The directory C:\work would be located in /mnt/windows/work. This command will transfer the directory:

scp -r /mnt/windows/work tricksandtech@myremoteserver.com

Enter the password for user hungryhackers and the file transfer will begin.

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Firefox Speed Tweaks

Yes, firefox is already pretty damn fast but did you know that you can tweak it and improve the speed even more?

That’s the beauty of this program being open source.
Here’s what you do:
In the URL bar, type “about:config” and press enter. This will bring up the configuration “menu” where you can change the parameters of Firefox.

Note that these are what I’ve found to REALLY speed up my Firefox significantly – and these settings seem to be common among everybody else as well. But these settings are optimized for broadband connections – I mean with as much concurrent requests we’re going to open up with pipelining… lol… you’d better have a big connection.

Double Click on the following settins and put in the numbers below – for the true / false booleans – they’ll change when you double click.
Code:
browser.tabs.showSingleWindowModePrefs – true
network.http.max-connections – 48
network.http.max-connections-per-server – 16
network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy – 8
network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server – 4
network.http.pipelining – true
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests – 100
network.http.proxy.pipelining – true
network.http.request.timeout – 300

One more thing… Right-click somewhere on that screen and add a NEW -> Integer. Name it “nglayout.initialpaint.delay” and set its value to “0”. This value is the amount of time the browser waits before it acts on information it receives. Since you’re broadband – it shouldn’t have to wait.

Now you should notice you’re loading pages MUCH faster now!

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18 Tips to Improve your Apple iPhone Battery life:

The iPhone is a great device for performing a wide variety of functions, like sending email, watching a movie, getting directions to a destination, playing games, surfing the internet, or of course, making a phone call. One thing that hampers the iPhone’s ability to be a worry-free productivity device is its the battery life. It can vary widely depending on how you use your iPhone. So here are few Tips that will definately increase your battery life in your iPhone (They are also applicable to your iPod. Not tested on iPad but you may try it).

Power-cycling the iPhone: A good place to start out is by power-cycling the iPhone. You can do this by holding down the power button on the top of the iPhone until you see the “Slide to Power Off” screen. Once the iPhone is off, go ahead and push the power button again to turn it on. Use the iPhone as you normally would and see how the battery life is lasting.
Drain the battery fully: Go to Settings -> General -> Auto-Lock and set it to Never. This is to wear the battery down. After the battery discharged and it was shut down for a few minutes push the home button to ‘revive’ it. Once the battery sits a moment it can pull some reserve power. Do this repeatedly until the screen displayed an empty battery image and it wouldn’t stay on for more than a second. Now charge it completely. Now your battery is as good as new.
Power-cycling the iPhone: A good place to start out is by power-cycling the iPhone. You can do this by holding down the power button on the top of the iPhone until you see the “Slide to Power Off” screen. Once the iPhone is off, go ahead and push the power button again to turn it on. Use the iPhone as you normally would and see how the battery life is lasting.
Drain the battery fully: Go to Settings -> General -> Auto-Lock and set it to Never. This is to wear the battery down. After the battery discharged and it was shut down for a few minutes push the home button to ‘revive’ it. Once the battery sits a moment it can pull some reserve power. Do this repeatedly until the screen displayed an empty battery image and it wouldn’t stay on for more than a second. Now charge it completely. Now your battery is as good as new.
Avoiding the Extremes: If you want to enhance your iPhone battery lifespan remember to avoid temperature extremes. Avoid using your iPhone at temperatures higher than 95° F (or 35° C) and in very cold environments. Using the iPhone in very hot conditions can inflict permanent battery damage whereas cold temp usage causes temporary battery performance degradation.
Regular Updates: Keep your iPhone software constantly updated to ensure your phone has the latest battery performance maximisation technology.
Optimise the Settings: Some apps are battery draining like viewing videos, gaming, email and so on. Just remember the following battery tips to maximise its life.

Minimize use of Location Services by using it only when needed or disabling the location services option.
Set your Fetch New Data options to hourly or fetch data manually. Frequent use of mail client only drains the battery faster.
Disable your Push Mail client when not needed to avoid receiving mail as they arrive.

Limit Third-party Application Usage: 3 rd party apps like games prevent auto power saving options like screen dimming or switching off hence the battery is constantly at peak performance.
Turn off Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 3G: When not in use switch off these apps to conserve battery. Also note using Wi-Fi to access the net instead of the cellular network service requires less power.
Use your iPhone regularly: It may sound weird but its true that not using the iPhone for long time at a stretch decreases the battery life. Use it regularly and charge the battery at least once every six months even if you don’t use your iPhone regularly.
Turn off keyboard clicks: If you frequently use your iPhone’s keyboard, navigate to the Sounds pane of Settings and turn the option for Keyboard clicks off.
Connect iPhone directly to computer to charge: If you are connecting your iPhone to a computer instead of a wall socket to charge it, don’t connect iPhone to your keyboard or another USB hub/bridge. Make sure it is plugged directly into one of your computer’s USB 2.0 ports.
Turn off 3G: If you’re really low on battery, and are willing to do whatever it takes to keep the phone alive for emergency situations, then go and turn off 3G. Hey, EDGE sucks, but it still works.
Turn off EQ: Applying EQ settings to your iPhone apparently drains extra battery. If you’re planning on keeping your phone alive all day, turn the EQ settings off.
Turn Off Vibrate in Games: A lot of games have very frequent vibrations, which drain battery life. If you can, turn them off in the game’s settings.
Don’t download from iTunes or App Store wirelessly: Downloading apps and media is hard on the battery. Just wait until you get home and use your computer.
Turn SSH Off: SSH runs is background and drains battery, this can be turned off from the application BossPrefs OR from default SSH service icon. This runs in the background to detect any network activity and this is the main cause of poor battery time for all jailbreak iPhones.
Turn off Auto-Brightness: Auto brightness changes the iPhone’s screen brightness on the basis of surrounding light which consumes battery through auto brightness process and changing from low brightness to high brightness level. Turing off this process will stop a back end process and constant brightness level will not consume more battery due to change in brightness level.Lower the Brightness: More screen brightness requires more battery. A reasonable brightness level is between, 25% to 30% which will brighten up the iPhone screen display good for both day and night
Use your discretion: You understand what’s bad for battery life – doing things that look like they would take a lot of battery life. Just be reasonable. Plan ahead. When you know you won’t charge your phone for hours, don’t go playing games. Resist. Don’t pass your phone around to your friends who say “Oohhh iPhone lemme play.” Don’t take the smart out of smart phone.

Kerala Entrance Results: RESULTS OF FOURTH ALLOTMENT PUBLISHED

RESULTS OF FOURTH ALLOTMENT PUBLISHED