Topics

1

General Software Discussion / My fingers are burnt - this is too hot!

« on: May 07, 2007, 07:28 AM »

See this:

http://www.gravityzo...oducts/overview.py#1

ThinClient/GridComputing + distributed executable components + distributed scalable on-the-fly-modifiable network-wide storage !!!!!

This company is up for grabs.
Who's got more cash - Google or Microsoft?

Massive. Really really massive.
 

All of it is not new (Sun - Network is the computer)

The distributed storage part is new, and the idea of using clients as distribution nodes, a la Torrents, for programs and data, is new.

ISP caches becoming part of the official platform?

And now, the part that is relevant to us: Openoffice.org, online, free:
http://www.openoffic...=dev&msgNo=19660

Wham! M$ take that! God save M$ from all this!

So, there's much much more than meets the eye to the $3 announcement for Windows Vista for kids in schools and the Windows Vista for OLPC

It wasn't the OLPC alone. It's much more than that. Then, there is EyeOS and Xcerion.
Microsoft will have to do something really really quick to actually wave off this huge thing.

If and when Google pick up this company, or release their own "super-thin-client" OS, M$ will be ..........

I'm strangely getting feelings of sympathy for Microsoft. That's new. I'm feeling bad for them suddenly.
And this isn't M$-bashing. Just how are they gonna cope?

That is why probably the XBOX, the media content, the DRM stuff and the "youth development centers" all over the third world and the multi-faceted pressure on governments to choose Microsoft products for e-governance.

They've been forced to come out of their palatial mansions on to the road and shout out loud "choose us, we are the best" ........... whatever the technical facts of the matter

opinions, criticisms, rants welcome.

2

General Software Discussion / FOSS and cakes

« on: May 07, 2007, 02:50 AM »

This is a nice piece explaining what FOSS is, to the layman or the newbie:

http://www.freesoftw...anding_free_software


Do have a look.
PS: it could also make you hungry

3

Found Deals and Discounts / blumentals software - webuilder bundle discount

« on: May 06, 2007, 12:36 PM »

See: http://www.blumental...et/order/special.php

Edit HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, ASP within single program

4

Developer's Corner / another good software blog site

« on: May 03, 2007, 02:47 PM »

Hi all,
this site: http://www.shlomifish.org/
belongs to an Israeli opensource evangelist I know.

In particular, this is a nice article about IT management and procedures:
http://www.shlomifis...t/end-of-it-slavery/

Worth a good read, IMO.

Other articles are also good, pertaining to humour, and general observations on industry.

PS: Folks, did you know that the makers of PHP (actually they rewrote the PHP-FI parser of Rasmus Lerdorf) Andi Gutmans and Zeev Suraski are Israeli?
Now they run Zend (= ZEev + aNDi).

5

General Software Discussion / Free wordpress installation service

« on: May 01, 2007, 12:03 PM »

Hi all,

See http://install4free.wordpress.net/

Its very nice to read. it is spread over 4-5 pages, so if you don't have the time, bookmark it for later.

But do read through.

HTH
-2stepsback

6

General Software Discussion / Tell them to look for it - allth.at

« on: April 29, 2007, 04:36 PM »

Hi all,

Here is another gem :

http://allth.at/home/welcome

You enter a few terms that you want to search, tell them where you want them to search, then go off to your work or to bed. come back later and find it nicely ranked and listed.

Custom search made fresh for you *after* you told them what you want to look for.

superb concept!

And, I tried, it is awwwwwwessssommmmmmeeeeeeeee!

All this started with grokker.com, IIRC.

They came up with this non-linear search and semantic search and stuff.
It still looks pretty good.

HTH
-2stepsback.

7

General Software Discussion / If you dont see this.......

« on: April 29, 2007, 04:22 PM »

I dunno what to call you   

http://www.infactsol...ects/coghog/demo.htm   -> 

8

Living Room / Workrave - Repetitive Strain Injury prevention software

« on: April 21, 2007, 04:09 AM »

First see: http://en.wikipedia....titive_strain_injury
Then see workrave.org

It's really useful for chaps who tend to get very involved in work.
Workrave sort of gives a 30 second countdown timer and then locks your input devices so that you can see the normal screen but nothing works.
That's a "microbreak" - the default is one every three minutes!!
A rest break is about 5 minutes long and can be set at particular time intervals
You can also skip or postpone the break notifications

And then there is a set of pictures of a (virtual) young girl showing you various exercises. You simply have to do as she does, so you get time to give your brain a break.
See http://workrave.org/screenshots/windows/

very very useful for everyone.

hth
-2stepsback

Screenshots:

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9

Found Deals and Discounts / HTML/Javascript IDE Antechinus from c-point.com

« on: April 20, 2007, 01:11 AM »

Hi all,

Antechinus Javascript Editor has this discount offering: http://www.c-point.c...avascript_editor.php

That page itself has a lot of screenshots which are pretty self-explanatory.
I had tried an earlier version which was pretty good IMO.
They also have a volume discount option: http://www.c-point.c...ediscounts.htm#AAPRO
Finally there's an educational discount at: http://www.c-point.com/licensepolicy.htm

NOTE: I am registered as an affiliate via Share-it! and I'm supposed to earn something if you tell them my affiliate ID which is: 200055255. But my affiliate link is not working, neither is my ID. So chuck it, and no, please don't donate even if you find this post bringing you some value. (Because there's a twisted possibility in there ...)

The important thing is that the page says that April 22 is the last date for the part of the offer that says you can keep everything you made with the editor in the case of your not liking it and asking for a refund. BUT get it clarified before you decide. The April 22, 2007 date is mentioned in a corner.
So, confirm before buying.

hth
-2stepsback

10

Living Room / smallguyoftheday

« on: April 19, 2007, 03:53 AM »

Hi all,
(mouser especially)

Fill in the blanks:

1. giveawayoftheday.com
2. freedownloadaday.com
3. onetipaday.com
4. donationcoder.com
5. http://www.codinghor...archives/000735.html
6. featured blogger ( *ME* ........ .......... lol )

7.  ________________________ (  <-- what's next ?  )










smallguyoftheday.com !!

=>
Main Menu
+ who's he?
+ what does he do?
+ donate to him
+ send him a nice greeting (our *official* welcome and thank you letter )
+ send him a ringtone/message/swf/email/thankyou/greetings
+ "codingsnacks++" i want this product
+ we recommend one every day, as against them applying.

our strengths:
+ reviews
+ nice people
+ not professional coders to dislike this "non-macho" "publicity gimmick"
+ discounts

minus points
+ too much traffic
+ ads maybe....?
+ others.....

This one is social, not technical. so, please give me your inputs.
(er..... actually, I'm trying to apply for a job with an SEO firm and they've given me this as a challenge after I showed them that I was very good at SEO, so please just post anything, even a "boring" will do ... thanks.)

















( that SEO thing was a joke,in cse you missed it )
-2stepsback

[EDIT]
PS: I'm not planning to make it, lest you feel that I'm taking inputs from here and making it for myself..... it should ideally be a DC offshoot, possibly to get more people to see DC.

11

Living Room / Site for DIY pc building

« on: April 14, 2007, 07:05 AM »

Hi all,
for those of you who are truly geeky or macho, and want to build your PC from scratch yourselves, one site that gives such information is:

http://pcmech.com

(for newbies, DIY = Do-it-yourself )

They have a daily newsletter which also includes a lot of news, reviews, opinions and hidden windows tips, tweaks and tricks.

I've been a subscriber (free) for more than two years now and although i simply cannot read the mail everyday, every fortnight or so, i sit down and dig into the pile... if only to clear it

Inevitably some really useful tip about Windows comes along that makes you feel good that you subscribed to the newsletter.

Disclaimer: Although I've corresponded with the author before and we know each other (roughly), I do not gain anything from him or his site or the other way round - except that his site may get "DCoded"(TM) after this post

Definitely worth looking at.

-2stepsback

12

Living Room / firefox inside firefox

« on: April 12, 2007, 05:47 AM »

Hi all,
this one is fun:
http://seejay.wordpr...efox-inside-firefox/

Totally harmless. Really amusing.

Got it?

Now, try it recursively for a few more levels and then see the fun!
(Try more than one level only if you've got enough RAM (512 here) and you don't have programs running)

Finally, close the innermost window by pressing File->Exit and see the *whole* thing go ... poof!

Enjoy!
-2stepsback







(See the attachment)

13

Developer's Corner / Dynapi and X - veterans that standard out amidst the din of AJAX/Javascript

« on: April 06, 2007, 01:42 PM »

Hi all,
If you thought that all those smart javascript tricks that we see today on web2.0 are the product of the last two years alone, think again. A few Javascript libraries have had *Widgets*, effects and debugging support for quite some time.
Two such are:
[1] cross-browser.com - the X library (LGPL)
and
[2] dynapi.sourceforge.net (also LGPL)

Both are impressive and professional. 
It'll be a tough job deciding the better one. (My personal bias is towards DynAPI)

In particular, web2.0 frameworks from the "web2.0 hacker" community are in great need of documentation and organization. Not these two. Both are very very well documented.

I haven't seen Yahoo UI but I've heard that they've made it as close to C/C++/Java as possible so that moving to javascript becomes very easy.

(@mods: maybe this could go into a general board for Programming School ......)

UPDATE:
If you don't check this out, you're losing out on a lot:
http://dynapi.source...s/docs/examples.html

especially this flashy script
http://dynapi.source...api.fx.textanim.html

and this eye candy:
http://dynapi.source...nlayer-dragdraw.html

UPDATE 2:
Have a look at this: http://www.michaelbystrom.com/ios/ <-- but it's in flash

14

Developer's Corner / ch @ softintegration.com - multi-platform scripting in C/C++

« on: April 06, 2007, 06:26 AM »

Hi everyone,

Assuming C/C++ is the most used language by folks here, this:
http://www.softinteg.../press/20040928.html

should come as a handy piece of information.

let me quote a bit:

SoftIntegration, Inc. today announced the availability of Ch 4.7, Ch SDK 4.7 and Embedded Ch 4.7. Ch is an embeddable C/C++ interpreter for cross-platform scripting, 2D/3D plotting, numerical computing, shell programming and embedded scripting.

I jumped a couple of times 

Thirty-six new APIs are added in Ch SDK and Embedded Ch for easier interface with binary C/C++ libraries and embedded scripting.

Sounds good 

Ch and Embedded Ch toolkit provide a framework and development environment that enabled the development of an extremely flexible Automatic Test Equipment (ATE) environment.

and sufficiently sophisticated

Pricing and Availability:
Ch and Embedded Ch for Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris, HP-UX and FreeBSD are available. Ch Standard Edition is free for both commercial and non-commercial uses in all platforms. Ch Professional Edition is free for academic use and costs $399 for personal or commercial use.

Now they're talking! FREE!! 
However, I've not done any programming in Ch and it does not look all that great because you still have to write all the code that you wrote in C/C++. AND THEREIN LIES AN OPPORTUNITY!
1. See, there are a whole lot of libraries in c/c++ out there doing good things. They could either be used directly from inside this c/c++ thing. Or, they could be ported. That is one.
2. They have something like an ActiveX Control for deployment on web pages much like your traditional Microsoft ActiveX objects or say even Java applets. If you manage to get such controls into your web page you can develop Rich Internet Applications as well. I jolly well know that Java failed, but someone(not necessarily one of us) just has to hack Ch and get it to make digitally signable applets/controls and you can have an ActiveX platform for deploying RIAs.
3. There is integration with existing webservers like Apache (1.3.x and 2.x) to do.
4. Porting to .Net comes to mind
5. Porting to Mono follows
Opinions/flames/suggestions invited   

Best wishes,
-2stepsback

PS: some more links:
http://www.softintegration.com/demos/
http://www.softinteg...mos/toolkit/windows/
http://www.softinteg...s/toolkit/mechanism/
http://www.softinteg...mos/toolkit/control/

15

Found Deals and Discounts / free full license for beta testing help

« on: April 04, 2007, 11:07 AM »

hi all,

anyone interested in making complete PHP/Javascript web apps quickly without having to mess with html and css to get positioning of elements right needs to have a look at this product:
I found this a year or so ago, but their offer still stands!

http://turbophp.com/            search for "free full licenses"

So, if you beta test it well and they like it, use your feedback, you get a license free.

EDIT: Quoting right now from their forum:

Our users have posted a total of 379 articles
We have 2333 registered users
The newest registered user is 2stepsback

EDIT 2: CAUTION:
It seems their forum is spammed badly so i dunno whether the product is really very actively maintained....

16

Found Deals and Discounts / Java Sun Solaris Netbeans and Java Desktop System - all free

« on: April 04, 2007, 02:11 AM »

Hi all,
I dunno if anyone here is actually interested in this: but it sounds too big a freebie to ignore, so I'm posting it here:

http://developers.su...sunstudio/downloads/

In case you have not heard of it, Java has become GPL opensource - the compiler and the runtime. And Sun is madly pushing all their products - even the awesome Solaris, for free.

I don't think solaris is of any use to pc users but might be quite useful for small servers. at least good to be in the know of things.

PS: you need to register - it's totally free - to complete the download - and let me assure you , SUN doesn't behave the way Microsoft does with your registration information. No nags, arm-twisting, nothing.

hth

17

Found Deals and Discounts / one free webhosting account on purchase of one (1 + 1 free)

« on: April 02, 2007, 01:53 PM »

see
http://www.freewebdot.com/

03/23/2007
FREE 1+1 For each website your order at FWDC you will get one website FOR FREE!

maybe someone gets a good deal

the idea is we ( = interested people ) pair up and buy a single account - get the other free.

PS: i got it from sharptoolbox.com which is worth visiting. ( there's also the sister site javatoolbox.com)

also,
aspnetpro.com is doing a survey for the best tools and sites in the .Net world

http://www.aspnetpro.com/readerschoice/

It is extremely useful to take that survey, if only to see just how many top products are there in every category - it's a "diverse and complex ecosystem" out there

Save the names of all those contestants and you get enough material to make a "list of freeware/shareware" page of your own

This is the full list put up there:

MaximumASP
DiscountASP.NET
midPhase
AspSpider.NET (free)
Webhost4life
FREEWEBDOT.com (free)
ORCS Web
myhosting.com
Brinkster (free)

free = free asp.net hosting in some way or other

hth

18

Living Room / This is different - visibone printed paper cheatsheets for web design reference.

« on: March 29, 2007, 05:43 AM »

Hi,
while trying to look up HTML/CSS references, I came across this interesting site full of webdesign cheatsheets : http://visibone.com.

The author, Bob Stein, has put some good webdesign reference information online like:
"The 216 color webmaster's palette"
"The world map with internet country codes"
"hexadecimal HTML color codes"
"JavaScript a free online quick reference"
and more:
Color Lab  Swatches  Color Codes  Color FAQ  Color Wheel  Color Blindness  Popups  Font Survey
HTML Tags  Style Sheet  Characters  JavaScript  Regular Expressions  Country Codes  Typing Tutor

The most important part however is that he has made cheatsheets in print form for easy reference to carry around with you. The rationale is stated like this:"It's not what you learn. It's what you remember."

I believe complexity is best mastered by seeing the whole picture in rich detail; that expertise consists mainly of vivid mental pictures; that working knowledge is best aided by precise reminders within view or reach. I've tried to give you both extremes, the totality at a glance, with as much useful detail as can fit.

And so, he's crafted near works-of-art - printed cheatsheets made with great attention to detail like colors, contrasts, layout, sizes, fonts, etc. to display HTML color codes, fonts, layouts, contrasts - the standard HTML/CSS references. The cheat sheets are not limited to that. There are others for MySQL, Characters, JavaScript, Regular Expressions, Country Codes etc.

NOTE: the site may appear amateur at first glance, but you'll find it's not, when you realize that colors and layouts are his forte, he probably knows best how to arrange those around the page.

So, if you have the liking for offline references, visibone is for you.

Also, you can vote for which cheatsheet he should work on next at his survey page:
http://www.visibone....lorlab/labright.html

Hope that helps,
2stepsback

19

Site/Forum Features / Feature request for DCPostNotifierLite

« on: March 28, 2007, 01:51 AM »

Hi,
For some time now, I've been noticing that there is one hell of a lot of good information stored in the forum posts over the past two years. But it only comes out in the open when somebody searches for a particular feature and clicks on a search result and finds an entire thread where the idea is well-discussed already. That's a pretty poor way of accessing such good information I suppose

So, a few new features come to mind (feasibility not investigated) :

1. DCPostNotifierLite should have a menu item which says "Keep showing me random old posts over past year, past two years, entire history, this quarter last year, first/second/third quarter last year" etc.
Or an elaborate screen for all those options.

2. Tagging of thread/posts

3. Interlinking ThreadM.PostN with ThreadP.PostQ in an indexing operation, and then a small floating tooltip comes up when a '*' button is pressed showing the list of links that are "similar" or "related" to this post. Much like Google's "Similar pages"

If it is not too much work, do look into it.

TIA,
2stepsback

20

Living Room / cheap domain name with private registration

« on: March 27, 2007, 02:14 AM »

Hi all,

I'm looking for a domain name service which satisfies the following:

1. domain (1 year) + *private registration*, totally under USD 15 - I know there is 1and1 but they allow only US/Canada/UK

2. should have *nothing* to do with GoDaddy <-- this is far trickier than you think, for eg:
 a "chain-whois" search (an intelligent manual operation, not a technical term) reveals this:
 rochenhost.com -> dotster.com -> imagesofwnc.com (64.94.117.196) -> interland.net -> interland.net.sftaxiart.com -> registrar.godaddy.com (64.226.28.33)
(chain of resellers, basically)

I have nothing against any of these professionally. They are pretty good hosts, AFAIK.

3. service should be good as much as to reply within a 3-4 days via email.

Actually, #3 can be relaxed a bit

Yes, I know ESR's "How to ask questions the smart way", but after searching online for about 6 days and spending about 20 USD exclusively on excess bandwidth bills (I'm Asian, remember), I've realized that asking other knowledgeable people is the smarter way.
Especially when I've been forced to visit an opthalmologist for eye drops and get a spectacles-upgrade totalling about 20-30 USD more on all of that exclusively due to excessive web host searching!!

In addition, I plan to make available a few *bland*, *imageless* and easy-on-the-eyes user CSSes to use within Opera (Firefox later) which people with dial-up or limited broadband connections can use. I've attached a screenshot of a *bland* one which is not yet out of beta. It's more like "yuck!" or "ugly!" but my eyes aren't complaining

oh yes! "accessibility"!!

I also invite others with similar constraints to do the same if you can. It's very simple really. More later.

CAUTION:
After seeing the chain-of-resellers concept, you may be shaken out of your ignorance.
DON'T go investigate *your* host. Ignorance *IS* bliss.
Actually it doesn't matter really. But don't tell me that I didn't tell you!

21

General Review Discussion / quintura.com - super fast super easy web search

« on: February 27, 2007, 12:07 AM »

Hi folks,
Want to see what "usability" and "it just works" mean?

see http://quintura.com   

it explains itself quite emphatically.

So, this thread is for reviews/opinions/cheers/flames for quintura.com

I've fallen in love with it, just that it has to mature a bit.
-2stepsback

22

Developer's Corner / Some ideas for programs, websites, mashups and software projects

« on: February 24, 2007, 07:21 AM »

Hi all,
since Redhat mentioned that he sort of liked one particular blog post of mine at http://2stepsback.wordpress.com, I've got some confidence to post some ideas which *may* (a 1000 strings attached) eventually end up giving you income of some kind.

Anyway, enough rambling and onto the ideas:
1) Generically, every good, well-thought-out IDE grows a community of plugins and programs (naturally therefore programmers and users) around it.

Some such populous software ecosystems are :

Eclipse.org (EPIC, YOXOS/Innoopract, EasyEclipse, lots more....)
Chami.com HTMLKit (440+ plugins, plug-in generator!! )
Wordpress (my fav)
Movable Type,
Earlier Mambo, now forked to Joomla!(1400+ plugins and themes. like wow!)

This page gives a list of top ten PHP frameworks: http://www.phpdeveloper.org/news/6787

Now the fun part: all of those things need translations, plugins to manage common non-core tasks like
mailing-list-management,
shopping-carts,
blog tools,
image galleries,
forums,
live chats,
SMS integration,
MMS/Skype/GoogleTalk/Gizmo/(VOIP in general) integration,
talking characters,
flash animation frameworks,
javascript effects,
AJAX-ification,
VRML - 3D graphics modules

LOADS and LOADS of interoperation and interconversion with and between existing formats like pdf, png, bmp, tiff, jpg, doc, docbook(linux), XML, sql, etc

then there are multiple databases between which the sql formats are not compliant, so you need converters, patches, etc.

Looks like a lot of opportunity to me.

Specifically for web2.0, start here:
http://programmableweb.com

will put more into this list soon

-2stepsback

EDIT: changed the title for SEO. Shameless. I know. 

23

Living Room / Promoting DC

« on: February 19, 2007, 09:55 AM »

Hi all,
IIRC, mouser recently mentioned promoting DC (which should really be done by every member, IMO, this model of running a business is pretty cool).

So how about these ideas:

1. First see http://en.wikipedia....g/wiki/Crowdsourcing

Don't you think that the "Types of crowdsourced work" section at http://en.wikipedia....of_crowdsourced_work desperately needs a mention of DonationCoder, MicroCredits and Coding Snacks.

2. Also, nice threads and pages could be marked at digg / del.icio.us/furl/etc. The more the merrier :-)
 
If you're not in the know of tagging, see http://en.wikipedia....g/wiki/Tag_(metadata) and http://en.wikipedia....i/Social_bookmarking

My two cents,
-2stepsback

24

Living Room / We all need to do some ground work for DC

« on: February 19, 2007, 04:01 AM »

Hi all,
Mouser (& Team) has written a nice FAQ at

1. https://www.donation...r.com/Help/entry/23/

and

2. https://www.donation...r.com/Help/entry/26/

I found them really nice, well-balanced and pretty ethical.

So I've rated them "Useful" and commented on one.

Everyone else's turn now.

- 2stepsback