Tech Freaks 4 You

I have used half a dozen of operating systems in the last few months and am now most comfortable with openSUSE provided by Novell.After using 10.3 for about 4 months I was waiting for the much hyped SUSE11.0. I had already croped up a lot of errers in the previous installations and the release of next ver was being delayed.All this made me more desperate to switch over to the next version. Finally openSUSE 11.0 was released on the 19th of june but could not get my hands on it for quiet some time(all because of two dead torrents and just a dialup connection at my place..),but not for long. Finally I have my copy of it and after testing it for erorrs I’am ready to install it on to my desktop(intel 945G,1.8GHz dual core,1Gb RAM,160Gb HDD).The istallation process is almost the same except the cool new interface.The process moves smoothly and it is ready to use without a reboot(unlike in the previous version).I prefered to use the KDE4 version(although it still offers KDE3.5 and the GNOME).The first looks of the desktop seem to be femiliar somethin like MS Vista.But soon on exploring the looks of KDE4 and compiz feel great.The desktop effects are absolute amaizing.There are 3 different places to acess and modify the effects and they even work without turning on the xgl.The deafult black theme looks more elegent then ever.The plasma is somewhat similar to the aero of vista.The widgets are cool and useful but more fearures could have been involved and hopefully they can be downloaded from net.The plasma dashdoard is an innovative and useful feature and seems to get more development in the future.The dolphin file explorer is good option.

Although there are a lot of new options to modify the looks but if you turn off the desktop effects,you are not left with much stuff.Such as I really miss editing the taskbar to make it transparent and using different wallpapers on all desktops.
Talking about the looks,some of the great options have been included such as image on the cube cap,skydome and controling all the features of the cube.The best part is that the cube can now be transformed into many more things such as cylinders and frustums(which i have not been able to do as yet),but it can be easily transformed by changing the number of sides(try having only 2 desktops and it looks like fliping a sheet of paper).The application switchers are of all the flavours(ring,covers…and the wow of vista is just another feature).The looks may prove to be irritating for the root as you have to turn them on each time when root login(not the same for the other users).
Putting all the looks apart,the latest versions of all(almost) applications have been included.The firefox3 could have been provided(despite of only 2 days difference in release dates,the beta is not much stable).Wine 0.9.64 is also unstable(0.9.61 was a good option) and there is very less backward compatibility(I could not involve much of packages from 10.3 dvd).

Apart from all this Novell still has not given full video support and one ends up searching for codecs or downloading vlc player(with its irritating one click install which takes a couple of hours on a shared connection..).I hope NOVELL looks into this matter soon.
Overall I would say that except all the great looks and softwares nothing much has changed and it happens to be quiet unstable(more KDE crashes than 10.3)making it merely a hype.A lot of work needs to be done for the next version 11.1 due later this year.
Despite all this,it gives me no reeason to switch over to anything else!!!

Gone are those days when we used to navigate through the computer screen using a keyboard.Here comes a new technology to make your navigation easier and user friendly.THE MOUSE……..!!!!!

Sounds like a 1990’s advertisement for a MOUSE….???

Yes, probably such a caption might have been used to advertise the arrival of the then new technology, the mouse.Initially when THE MOUSE entered the computer market, it became extremely popular due to its so called ease of navigation.Moreover the interface was extremely attractive and unimmaginable those days (Of course you would not have immagined a graphical user interface and a moving pointer to interact with the computer and instruct the computer what it has to do, those days!!!!!).This MOUSE may even now look attractive to those who work with the system just for few hours a day.But ask some computer addict like me who sits in front of the computer for 10-12 hrs a day holdoing the MOUSE to navigate through the screens….Man!!!it is a real nighrmare…!!Moreover when you work with documenting stuffs like MS word and excel, it considerably affects your speed and ease of work.So what is the solution??? Here comes the savoiur.Not a new technology, but the age old method….keyboard!!Yes, keyboard shortcuts are godsend to those who feel uncomfortable to navigate and work using mouse.Moreover the position of your hand while using mouse is not a healthy position for prolonged use.Of course there are some advanced features that can be accessed and navigated more easily using THE MOUSE.But, most of the basic operations needed for navigation can be made easier through keyboard shortcuts (Hmmm…..Not always do newer technology means increased comfort!!!)

So , to everyone’s surprise  infosys emailed back with acceptance of my application to extend my joining date which had passed ages ago [june 23rd] .. now seriously do i really want to be in Infy??

This little news made me busybody .. churning out plans for future .. making call to friends about future “startup ” plans .. i mean , i won’t be lingering around in infy doing boring desk jobs , five years from now –> i won’t be doing a desk job .. i won’t be married [This is what i made clear to my family... being  Indian +Rajput makes it sort of compulsory to be married by age of 26 ...who gives it a **** .. i am not marrying till i am 30+ ] ,and i surely won’t in Infosys   ..whatever i would be doing it would be fun if it won’t ; i would just redefine fun ..

so that was little insight into what’s going through my mind…

and in latest news my dog “jax” got little hurt while i was in banglore.. no one is sure how..,,asking CBI probe seems to be in vogue  so i am also formally asking for  having a CBI probe of this matter

in case you are not Indian ..and you don’t know what’s CBI go here ..

P.S : part one of this post

An off track topic just to let people know that, I’m Alive!

So how to watch save *essential* youtube videos?

If you want it as a .flv file, you may get many tools. My fav. is using techcrunch.

But what if you wish to have an audio. Okay! One bad indirect way is to google a free convertor but for busy people like me, here’s the tool: VIXY

-convert a Flash Video / FLV file to MPEG4 (AVI/MOV/MP4/MP3/3GP) file online using a compressed domain transcoder technology . It converts FLV to MPEG4 faster and less lossy than a typical transcoder.

FLV to MPEG4 Conveter engine is now OpenSource. You can download the source code via subversion

Sorry But This Post is going to my personal rant on something i miss still today.. no technical thing this time but i make a promise this won’t ever become a habit ,,and i would surely post more interesting technical posts , once i get through my own personal blockades .

on side note ,, i wrote this post a hour ago and saved it as a draft ,, but when i reread it i found out the it was rather funny ,, so rather than changing the text i placed my comments on my own post ,, it’s kinda cool

i came to banglore for two things.. KDE-in hackathon & Job hunt [comment::third ulterior motive , Measuring IndexOfAverageBeautyLevel ,, if you know what i mean .[comment on comment :: If you didn't , you have just been spared of a very bad joke ] ] ,, KDe-in hackathon was sucess (thanks Geodesic , Atul , Shreyas and Pradeepto , this list also includes anyone who i might have forgotten),but despite that job hunt was failure .. i applied in many companies but none of them replied back ..i am sort of devastated and i am ready to face the music…but what i am not ready to do is give up .. so Be Prepared world..i would surely get a job..no matter what..

[comments:: Curtain drops and trumpets are blown ,, in background a very soft music is playing..end of ACT 1 Scene 1 ]

[comments:: isn't it kinda spooky, i am commenting on my own post ,, nevertheless :s ]

On some personal front..i have some cool banglore experiences which i will share some time later when i would be able to compile them into some really fun/funny story[comment::somebody told me i am quite good at that *wink* ]

i am[comment::make it "was" in next 12 hours] staying here with my old school friend,, i suppose our friendship dates more than a decade or so .. he knew every crush i ever had in school though that list isn’t very long and would more or less boils down to a single name . When i was in school i thought i loved her , when i grew up i laughed at it as a crush..Now after 7 years i can still tell you that though maybe i would never get her ,, she is / would be the only love of my life . [comment:: lately , I have started seeing a lot of romantic bollywood movies , and i need to stop , else most of my lines would be like this romantic crap]

maybe i can feel searing pain in my heart of what i lost or never had the courage / understanding to fight for. Most probably i would have to live my whole life making peace with the fact she is the only one i would love and won’t get [comment::this cheesy lines made some women existing purely in 14th dimension just cry ,women no matter what dimension they belong to are always more emotional ] and anything i ever did was for her..sometimes i feel just like Pip in Charles Dickens’s Great Expecatation who never got Estella . [comment ::Don't cry , my young padawan ,, you will still get Natille Portman at end of the movie ]

finally the secret is out and i feel much better ,, i had denied every existence of this feeling and had delegated it to some place with label “My Crush” , so coming back to story .. This label was recently revisited when my friend told ,,the girl , now a fine women .. had been attracted to me too …Who me ?? i am like the king of geeks[comment : Dude wakeup..don't act asif you didn't knew] .. or rather in school I Had PhD in Nerdiness.. i am still confused .. Looking back maybe my appearance has changed but my love hasn’t ,,and if the one who i stilll love ever reads this blog ,, This Geek [aka Shanky aka Shashank]declares his undying love for you using his Dual Core processor carrying laptop [who's battery will die out in five more minutes ] [ comment::couldn't think of a better cheasy line , i am not romanticist i used to be ,, ]

P.S : DiD i tell you today is my B-Day and i had planned to be in a pub for usual stuff ,, but f*****g banglore’s pub close at 10:00 pm in night ,,and i didn’t knew that.

/me is feeling drunk without even touching a alcoholic beverage..so absolutely don’t pay attention to lines written in green