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Beta for the Beta

I got a copy of the Windows 7 Beta copy from my colleague and installed it on my Lenovo X61 tablet. The install went through pretty smoothly and . upon booting up the computer, me and my colleague had the following conversation..

Colleague : Thats a Beta!!

Me : Yes.. it is Beta..

Colleague : No.. No.. that”s a beta!!

Me : Dude.. seriously.. it is Beta.. I know it..

Colleague : (almost smacking me on my head) No..that is a Beta Fish!!

Looks like a smart programmer (or marketing person) put the picture of a Beta fish as the default background for Windows 7 Beta :-).. Here’s a screenshot.

Hopefully, Windows 7 will finally convince us XP lovers to upgrade. Vista is a failed operating system as far as I am concerned. Not in the league of “Windows Millenium“, but it is going to be shoved away into the annals of history soon if Windows 7 delivers as promised.

January 16, 2009 by Fun Technology Uncategorized Windows 3

Stomach Stimulus Package

I stopped at Hippos, a hot dog place in Elk Grove for lunch today. I was using the drive through and saw this sign on the drive through window

The owner put together a combo for $15.99, which will get you a meal for 4 people. The sign reads “Feed a Family of 4 for under four bucks per person!!! Times are Tough. Hippo’s will help you get through it with our stomach stimulus package.”

After I pay for my lunch, the hostess hands me an envelope which looks like this

Simple but brilliant marketing. First connect with your customers in this tough time.. then give them an incentive to come back.  I would go back to the place to check out if I won anything.. and guess what, even if I don’t win anything, I will most probably end up getting something to eat there. I am sure this joint is going to survive

January 13, 2009 by Management Uncategorized 0

Tools of the trade : Postfix Configuration

Good link with information on configuring a custom transport link in Postfix. A transport link in a SMTP server is a way to define a communiction/delivery channel with particular settings. Example, you want all e-mails for a particular domain to be sent to a particular server at a particular time.

http://linuxnet.ca/postfix/dedicated_transport.html

In this particular link, the author shows the steps to configure a transport link for sending e-mails to servers/domains with high latency.

January 12, 2009 by Linux Technology Uncategorized Web 0

Visual outlook of Kudithipudi.org

I ran across an interesting app called Wordle, that the BBC news service, used to show a visual representation of all the words president Bush used in his state of Union speeches (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7813432.stm).

Wordle (http://www.wordle.net/) take text or a URL as input and automatically generates a visual representation of the text based on the number of times a term appears. Very cool application of Web 2.0  technology.

Here’s how this website looks after wordle analyzed it.

Wordle is a “toy” created by Jonathan Feinberg. Here is a good interview with him regdarding Wordle and how he created it (http://domino.research.ibm.com/comm/research.nsf/pages/d.compsci.can_i_have_a_wordle_with_you.html).

January 12, 2009 by Technology Uncategorized Web 0

Why SouthWest gets it..

Another reason to fly SouthWest.. Look at the picture of the chairs they are providing their customers at the Midway airport in Chicago.

This is good marketing and customer care. Not only did Southwest take the time to put in comfortable seating at their gates, but also took the extra step to provide power outlets and listen to this.. USB charging outlets. How many of you have had to run around airports looking for a power socket to charge your dying battery? :-).. I am going to fly SouthWest moving forward.. whenever I can.

Yes.. that is my laptop getting charged :-).

January 9, 2009 by Rantings Travel Uncategorized 2

HOW TO : Configure AT&T 3G on Windows Vista without Communication Manager

This is a howto for the geek in you :-). You can easily configure a AT&T 3G Wireless card on your workstation using the Communication Manager software provided by AT&T.. But then I have always been against using bloated software for something you can configure on your own.

I recently got a 3G card at work and needed to install it on my laptop. I figured that the AT&T  provided software was just setting up a dial-up connection with specific settings. Guessing that some Linux geek might have already figured out what the settings where, I used the following search term in Google “Linux Ubuntu Configure AT&T 3G card”.. Lo and behold, the following link showed up http://redmonk.com/sogrady/2008/12/07/how-to-use-an-att-ericsson-f3507g-card-on-ubuntu-intrepid/.

Here are the steps, I follwed to configure the card in Microsoft Vista

  • Insert card into the laptop and use the “search online” feature for installing the required drivers.
  • Open “Network and Sharing Center”.
  • Click on “Setup up a connection or network”.
  • Choose “Connect to the Internet” option and click on Next.
  • If you are already connected to the Internet, you will get a message stating the same, but choose the “Setup a new connection anyway”.
  • If you already have existing dial-up or DSL connections, choose “No, create a new connection” and click on Next
  • Choose “Dial-up”
  • Choose the modem related to your 3G card.. For example, mine was “Sierra Wireless AirCard 875 HSDPA Modem”
  • Enter the following information in the ISP Information
    • Dial-up phone number : *99#
    • User name : *
    • Password : *
    • Connection Name : Whatever you want to name it

  • Click on Connect and enjoy the broadband speed without bloatware :-).
January 8, 2009 by HOWTO Uncategorized Windows 8

OverHeard : Comment about Software development

Comment by an esteemed colleague when discussing the need to purchase hardware to fix performance issues..

Software is like a gas.. it expands to fill all the space (capacity) available to it”

This is derived from Myhrvold’s law which states “As the software becomes more complex, the likelihood of problems tend to increase”. The original article is on Wired.com at http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/3.09/myhrvold.html.

January 7, 2009 by Fun OverHeard Uncategorized 0

Happy New Year – 2009

Wishing everyone a happy new year.. While 2008 treated me well professionally, it was a tough one on the personal end. If anything, it made me realize the importance of our near and dear ones. How much we take them for granted..

So let’s tip our glasses to the year of Ox. Hoping that this year will bring us peace, love and health..

Take a moment to say “hello” to those near and dear ones you haven’t called in the last few years :-)..

January 2, 2009 by Festivals Fun Uncategorized 2