Double Internet speed for free

....hehe, if you ended up here searching for those terms, you are out of luck mate. If you are from India.

I remember the days when we had pathetic internet connections - dial-up provided by the government. Now, we still have pathetic connections provided by big players like even Airtel! And Airtel wants some stupid "Fair - Usage" policy to be put into place. Why I ask? If I pay for the damned net connection, it gives me the right to use it! If I have a fast internet connection, I will want to use it. The service providers have to play fair!

And now I read an article off BoingBoing Gadgets that Comcast users in Pittsburgh, USA will get double Internet speeds for no extra cost. And what speeds you ask - well, hmm err, 15 MBps to 28 MBps.

News stories like this really piss me off. And I am posting this on an ultra-fast high end connection here in the Silicon City of India, Bangalore - a super-fast blazing connection of 512Kbps.

No fair play here!

Why I Hate proprietary software

Ok this post is not about why I like the Open Source Movement. Its the views of Eric Raymond, author of the awesome book, The Cathedral and the Bazaar. Its an interesting point of view. Not the usual geeky, kiddish ideas that say "I don't like Microsoft because of this blah blah blah". More militant in his views (as usual), Eric says how he felt like a slave when working with proprietary software and some people who have coded for a long time never realise that they are after all, slaves to the system!

"The stupid and the timeservers were lucky. It was the really bright, creative people among my peers that hurt the most. And we were all very young and malleable and eager to please; it took me years after I’d escaped to understand that I had a right to feel angry about how I had been used, and many of my peers never figured that out at all."

Interesting ideas and thoughts and if you are a coder, open your eyes and read the whole post here....

Download Firefox, help set a record

Yeah thats true. Firefox 3 is slated to be released on June 17th. Pledge to download on that day and set a record. But well, who cares if you don't help to set a record. Download Firefox 3 and enjoy a safer web experience.

Reliance Wimax on Ubuntu

I recently installed Ubuntu Hardy Heron on my PC and loved the performance even after it was installed using Wubi as an application within Windows. I then wanted to use the internet on Ubuntu. I have a Reliance Wimax connection (I have since moved to Airtel due to the lousy service Reliance gave me). When I checked the network configuration on Ubuntu, I saw that there was no network connection. Logged back into Windows and Googled for some information. Came across this information given by pk_rulz on the Ubuntu Forums. He advises that the problem was due to the avahi daemon assigning an IPv6 address to the eth0. He advises:

Bring down avahi daemon using
sudo /etc/init.d/avahi-daemon stop
then use
sudo ifconfig eth0 down
sudo ifconfig eth0 up - this is basically to restart ur eth0

I did the same and I am now able to use Reliance Wimax on Ubuntu. (Not anymore. Reliance Customer No Care has since made me so frustrated with their service that I have moved to another provider).

Wubi

Since my last update on the new computer and Ubuntu, I have done nothing about it except download and burn the new Ubuntu version Hardy Heron. Since getting the new computer might actually take some time, I am thinking of installing Ubuntu in the existing computer itself. This can be accomplished using Wubi - about which I have blogged before. What Wubi does is install Ubuntu on your hard drive, on an existing partition, just like you would any Windows software. The only downside being that disk usage would be high and accessing files would be a tad bit slower. But I think thats a sacrifice you can make for using some great bit of software!!. I also see that the new Ubuntu version has this bundled with it. You can actually install Ubuntu Hardy Heron directly onto the existing Windows partition. In fact, I am going to try that today. Lets see how the disk usage is going to be. Err, I also read that this type of filesystem is more vulnerable to power-shortages. Thats like pulling the plug if you do not have a UPS!.

Spread the.....love

Came across this actually from Planet Ubuntu...its actually from Cerebrosus Lens Geek. Beautiful....

Ubuntu and a new computer

Have been looking to get a new computer for quite some time. Due to some foreseen circumstances ( no money), I have been putting it off for some time. Now I think I can afford one. As usual, my CPU will be an AMD. Read up on the new Phenom processors and don't think they are that great a set of processors. Anyway, too costly. So am settling for the older Athlon core processors. Checking on the net, I also see that I can get a neat 19" Viewsonic LCD monitor for around 9000 bucks. Thats cool. Also saw that the prices of 250 GB Seagate hard drives are amazingly low. And the RAM - drool! drool! as cheap as 1000 bucks for 1GB and at 800MHz speeds. Awesome!!! So thats the basic stuff I need. Oh yeah and most important - the Motherboard. Planning to get an ATX MSI motherboard for close to 6K. Cool. Lets see if I can get it this weekend. And the best for last - install Ubuntu!!! Hardy Heron more specifically. Have already placed the order at ShipIt.

Update on the Ubuntu installation - have already downloaded the Ubuntu-8.04-desktop-amd64.iso. Found it easier to do than wait for the CD to come through. Downloads fast also, using a BitTorrent client.

Whats the world coming to?

Damn!! Today, this. Tomorrow what??

Reliance Wimax Broadband

Well, a lot of blogs and sites have trashed Reliance's Wimax service and there have been a lot of comments on these sites from existing users pouring out their woes. But since this is the only option I had to get an internet connection from, I opted for the same and applied. All they needed was an address proof (original copy. I gave my mobile bill), Identity card copy and a local cheque for 500 bucks. I had also checked whether my area was covered and was told it was. A little skeptic, I gave the documents to the guy and also was told that it would take 2 weeks since their equipment was out of stock. I didn't mind and said that was fine. But you gotta appreciate them, I got the equipment in a week and it was fixed the same day. And I checked the connection. Damn, beautiful I must say. Neat speeds and a very steady connection. I get a normal speed of 40KB/sec, which is even better than Airtel I must say.

I have always been a little skeptic of Reliance all these years. I think this started with the lousy tinny ringtones you used to get on old Reliance CDMA mobiles. Things have changed and the Wimax seems to be a winner!!

Opera Mini 4

Damn, I just love this new version of Opera Mini. Its got some really neat features. The one I love the most has to be the option where you can view the page in landscape format!!. Another nifty feature is that you can zoom out on the page and use the pointer as a mouse. Once you navigate to that part of the page that you want, you can then zoom in. Amazing!!. Yet another feature is the custom search function. Simply click on the search field that you want to grab on a web page and then choose "Create search" within your menu alternatives. Then you can enjoy making frequent searches without having to type in the site link again. For a complete list of the new features, read up on the Opera site.

Paypal

Yeah...you all must know about it now. In case you don't, here goes. Now Paypal allows you to directly transfer money to your account in an Indian bank. And its pretty cheap. AFAIK its only 50 bux. So rock on!

Update on own domain

Thanks to Anwin, I have validated my new domain name using Google WebMaster Tools and also seen to it that Google crawls my new domain. Have also added a sitemap using the feed. So Google should be updating itself with this info and hope to be getting Smorty back up.

My own domain

Well, I finally decided to get it. My blog is hosted on http://www.naveenroy.com now. Looking good. Though I don't want to go through the hassle of getting space and moving my blog somewhere etc. As it is, I have some tweaking to be done already.

Simons new domain

Simon, who has been blogging for some time now, has finally bought his own domain. Eggburji it is!! His blog is being hosted there at the moment, but I am sure he will be buying space etc in the near future. Rock on dude...

This has inspired me to also get a domain of my own...lets see how that goes...

Microsoft fucks up!! - AGAIN!!!

Microsoft allowing PC makers to offer XP downgrade from Vista...reports DownloadSquad.

Too many complaints from the users of the most secure operating system in the world??

Pirate Flickr

Whats this new logo I see when I log into Flickr??

Google Reader Update

Ok, this ones for real!. Theres this new feature thats been added on Google Reader. Another touch that was missing for a long time. This nifty new feature gets you more area to read your articles as the frame on the left side (where the RSS feeds are shown) can now be turned off. It can be turned on (!!) by clicking on the arrow again!.

Google Reader new feature

Until yesterday, when there are more than 100 unread items in Google Reader, it used to show it as All Items (100+). But good that they have changed that now to show the accurate no of unread items. Now it shows as All Items (345). Was looking for this feature change for a long time and had even written to Google about it.

Student builds supercomputer

Wow...came across this bit of news from Slashdot

SCO loses......Linux wins!!

Woohoo....news just in I guess. Got this from Aaron Toponce's blog!. The courts have finally ruled against SCO and said that "The court concludes that Novell is the owner of the UNIX and UnixWare Copyrights". To read on the complete story and know why this is so important a news, visit Wikipedia's article on SCO-Linux controversies.