Recent Posts

626

General Software Discussion / Re: Dot Net - a wrong step by MS?

« Last post by mahesh2k on August 04, 2011, 06:25 AM »

Microsoft seems to be following failed experiment pattern after every successful OS. e.g.
Win 98 (Hit)->Win ME (Fail)->Win XP/2000 (Win)->Vista (Fail)->Windows 7 (Win)->Windows 8 (erm fail?).

.Net framework managed to keep more developers and users on windows platform(desktop). Basically by limiting the developers to HTML+JS, they kicked many windows desktop dependent business developers. All the languages which were dependent on .NET with Iron tag are going to end. JS+silverlight is not powerful like vb/c# or java or python, if it was that powerful it could have been used already on linux or apple way before.So basically end of innovation for languages on microsoft platform. C#/VB for windows are going to end once 7's life cycle ends.

HTML+JS has benefit of limited security issues and the issues that comes with it are likely to be patched easily. But it gives less scope for developers for innovation. If they come up with app store for those apps then imagine 100k same and repetitive apps. Again there is going to be benefit of jumping early in this platform development to get some marketshare of new platform apps. Imagine writing JS based apps for finding files on hard drive(FARR?) and same type of app can exploit the system as there isn't anything to control these apps during initial framework. Then they'll launch some framework to manage and tight things up and developers and users will start from 0. Again if we assume that they keep C++ and WPF developers on this platform, still rest of the languages on new platform are equal to dead because all of them have to rewrite installers for current language distributions (like python, ruby etc).

I think of this as big change for developers moving to linux based desktop or even apple. My 2 cents.

627

General Software Discussion / Re: Google+

« Last post by mahesh2k on August 03, 2011, 11:30 AM »

Thanks let me check.

628

Living Room / Re: Intelligence and Internet browsers

« Last post by mahesh2k on August 03, 2011, 09:52 AM »

What would be fun is a money:brains ratio study to fund some more religious wars.

My imaginary friend has better IQ than yours, oh blasphemy your imaginary friend died for your browsers sins. 

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Living Room / Re: Why My Mom Bought an Android, Returned It, and Got an iPhone

« Last post by mahesh2k on August 03, 2011, 02:07 AM »

I've a touch screen phobia and i'm trying to avoid touch-screen based phones for next few years. (thanks to blackberry and sony erricsson and all those Quturee phones ). I guess 2012 will be the year when i'll not be touch-screen virgin. 

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General Software Discussion / Re: Google+

« Last post by mahesh2k on August 02, 2011, 09:20 PM »

I experimented with Google+ and here is what i noticed -

1. Anyone can follow any other profile in Google+ and you've no control over who can follow you. (This will kill twitter for sure if G+ takes off). In facebook you can choose folks to peak inside your profile,same with orkut.
2. No groups feature. Only group type thingy that you can create is with hangout and that too with limited set of folks. Hangout != groups in facebook or communities in orkut. So people who spend more time in forums are going to hate hangouts.
3. By default Google+ is sharing every post with public stream(even if you select particular circle). Bug ?
4. Sparks feature is not at all making sense to me. It looks like niche news board to me.
5. I didn't noticed any feature that tempts me to stick with G+ except people i follow on twitter are sharing more of their stuff on G+ now. 

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Living Room / Re: Intelligence and Internet browsers

« Last post by mahesh2k on August 01, 2011, 10:58 PM »

Judging intelligence based on browser is too much. But most of the staunch computer users are judging each other based on OS, applications and the gadgets all the time. If you're not using apple then you're cheapo blah and blah etc. By not using linux you're not geek, or by not using windows you're not getting things done for tasks that can't be done on other os etc. These type of things are all around us and if you're using PC for more than decade then you hardly pay attention to this type of teenager stuff.

As for the point of guy sitting behind behind computers screen or watching tv learning about all these things -you're missing one point here that we're animals with both introvert and extrovert behavior and learn things by observing and to large extent by copying from our own species.Large number of introverts who are FAIL in social life lurks on the web. There are extroverts who FAIL in tech stuff get kicks. There is always conflict between social and less social folks and they judge each other based on their REAL/Virtual life stuff. Web is the medium where often street smarts and book worms have conflicting debates. There are both good and bad examples of people following habits from each other. If you're saying X type of crowd which learns stuff by watching computers/tvs and makes foolish judgment then you're on another side of fence which judges folks based on some other criteria (offline social life success+ other stuff)which may also appear foolish. You're just passing your judgment just like these folks who claim IE users are dumb only in manner in which the tribe around you thinks right.

Not getting into religious rant but when someone puts word in my mouth for religious argument, by calling me un-intelligent we have similar argument on our sides to test their depth of intelligence. Same is the case of political arguments or side picking arguments.

Intelligence sometimes is about standing up to correct something(or someone) and sometimes it is about letting things go no matter how worst things are. There is no easy way to define intelligence. We usually put people into thought boxes or tribes and then judge them based on limits of the box or tribe and when two different thought boxes or tribes come into conflict we have such odd copy-writing titles with some random test results that catch attention.

Back to coffee 

 

632

Living Room / Re: Anyone have an old mac mini or macbook with intel chip they want to give me?

« Last post by mahesh2k on July 31, 2011, 10:19 PM »

Another better option- get old mac mini ofcourse intel based (i do see deals at cost 200$).Not sure how much shipping and other stuff will go in united states. Why ? here.

633

Living Room / Re: The social network icon flood is getting crowded

« Last post by mahesh2k on July 31, 2011, 05:34 AM »

I good rule is to add a social network button only after some visitors came from that network without having the button.

I like this approach. If user is from google+ then ask him to like FB or Tweet. If he's from facebook, ask him to +1 on g+, tweet and others.

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Living Room / Re: Flash TD Game of the Month: Kingdom Rush

« Last post by mahesh2k on July 31, 2011, 05:27 AM »

  I wish i could download that for offline play.

635

Living Room / Re: The social network icon flood is getting crowded

« Last post by mahesh2k on July 31, 2011, 05:13 AM »

Addthis, Sharethis, Onlywire are adding clutter too. Besides some of them do have security issues as well.

http://www.addthis.c...is-wordpress-plugin/

http://wordpress.org...isks-with-share-this

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Living Room / Re: The social network icon flood is getting crowded

« Last post by mahesh2k on July 31, 2011, 02:08 AM »

I don't have icons on my site. I noticed speed increase when i removed that. These sharethis, diggthis or social icons make more external HTTP requests which increases the load time. So i simply removed it. One more thing, people hardly share using these icons.

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Find And Run Robot / Re: FARR and Indexing Option - Feedback Requested

« Last post by mahesh2k on July 27, 2011, 07:36 AM »

@yjs14, I use FARR for file searching and it works just fine on my old FAT 32 file system.

638

General Software Discussion / Re: Google Apps vs. MS Office 365: Your Choice

« Last post by mahesh2k on July 27, 2011, 07:26 AM »

Zoho office is much better for personal use(free) and if you're business user then they do have affordable plans. Considering the regular anti-spam outage of google, it's risky to use their service. If anyone is inch serious about their business then they'll think thrice before hosting data with google. Google has 50$+ additional charges per user for extra mailbox (above 7 GB) and other services. As per my observation zoho and hyperoffice are enough for most cloud office tasks. I'm sure there are folks who don't mind office 365 fees, compared to Google, atleast MS is reliable about data on their cloud.

639

General Software Discussion / Re: Why crack offered for freeware and tiny app uploaded on Megaupload ?

« Last post by mahesh2k on July 25, 2011, 09:39 PM »

There are folks who are making money from content locker and downloader sites. For example, if your app is popular then placing it on filesonic or similar sites will bring them revenue of few bucks per thousand downloads. I guess that or some people simply want to distribute viruses/bots through such archived files.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Google+

« Last post by mahesh2k on July 25, 2011, 09:15 PM »

Most sites where you upload stuff to have it shown to other people have something along those lines in their legalese

Point is google is not just another site with such TOS. Google is search engine with bot that can crawl almost any site on web unless asked not to. Google has search dominance because it can crawl plenty of stuff from the web without notifying the original authors. They make money from this by showing ads and redirecting users to sites while tracking their search pattern. Most of other sites are restricted within their own domain name for business. There is no such limitation for google because they have bot to crawl web and use that data to attract users to their search engine.

Basically google is crawling web to make index, show ads based on available data, track user activity on search results, IP and respective behavioral tracking and use it for commercial purpose. The reason scroogle, duckduckgo and other privacy based search engines exist is because google is yet to officially offer such service. SSL version of google still has tracker code that tracks the source in first query.

Explanation given by ryan doesn't address these issues at all. Nowhere google is offering any official view of "do not track" and "privacy filter". Besides if we connect this piece of puzzle with ryan's defense of google, it doesn't make sense at all. That type of writeup works on people who have no clue about SEO, "DNT" and "Privacy Filter".

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General Software Discussion / Re: Google+

« Last post by mahesh2k on July 25, 2011, 02:57 AM »

In case of google, data is available in search engine results and ads are likely to be presented on that data. They're also forcing webmasters to have real profile on G+ in order to have their website results linked to their profile(referring to author=rel). In case of facebook, data remains inside the network and if set can remain private (friends only). So personal information is tracked for ads and similar interests from both networks but only one network makes it public and lets other find and manipulate it the way they want (which is the point of concern).

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General Software Discussion / Re: Google+

« Last post by mahesh2k on July 25, 2011, 12:04 AM »

G+ is creating special business pages and for that reason they don't allow business names on G+ as of now. Few blogs got their profiles deleted for the same reason. But this is not the case with facebook, that is why they're allowing pseudonames for business purpose(pages/groups) or ad campaigns. You can have "Tech Media Brian" or "Net.tv Andrew" with different account owner(or multiple admins) inside facebook page.

Google's TOS is actually better (last I checked) than Facebook's as far as ownership and re-use of copyrighted material.

Is there anything like "we have right to sell/use/modify your information as we please" from facebook ?

You're right, it asks for mobile phone number if there are more profiles login from same IP. If there is only one profile logged in from that ip then creating second or third doesn't trigger mobile number requirements(or maybe they allow to skip it). I am not sure how much is the limit before it asks.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Google+

« Last post by mahesh2k on July 24, 2011, 11:32 PM »

I'm using fake profile name for about 2 years or so on FB. This is for facebook ads campaign. They know this already and allow that on their site. They're only deleting profiles which seems to be somehow threat to their system. Afterall there are hackers monitoring security of facebook.

As for google and privacy, check out their TOS.

11. Content license from you
11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in the Additional Terms of those Services.
11.2 You agree that this license includes a right for Google to make such Content available to other companies, organizations or individuals with whom Google has relationships for the provision of syndicated services, and to use such Content in connection with the provision of those services.
11.3 You understand that Google, in performing the required technical steps to provide the Services to our users, may (a) transmit or distribute your Content over various public networks and in various media; and (b) make such changes to your Content as are necessary to conform and adapt that Content to the technical requirements of connecting networks, devices, services or media. You agree that this license shall permit Google to take these actions.
11.4 You confirm and warrant to Google that you have all the rights, power and authority necessary to grant the above license.

I wonder why they ask for mobile number while signing up to their system these days. Not to recover account or something, but to create bubble around profile with real name and mobile number.

Compared to google, there is no such strict policy from facebook(as of now but soon there will be with SSL certificate on pages) and you can easily use their services for commercial reasons with pseudo-name.

Google is not only deleting bots on their G+ but also some genuine users for some random reasons with no explanation than "violation of services".

http://consumerist.c...tal-life-shrugs.html

http://www.twitlonger.com/show/bsdnia

644

Living Room / Re: PHP... is the name self-realizing?

« Last post by mahesh2k on July 23, 2011, 02:58 AM »

My 2 cents on web dev langs.

• Java - too much clutter with frameworks and hosting is expensive too.
• ASP.Net - It's hard to find linux host with asp.net support and most of the time you're stuck with windows hosting. It's quick for development but problem is again with hosting and finding clients. My experience with asp.net sites (corporate) erm they're damn slow.
• Php- works with eclipse, php designer, notepad (or with any text editor). Works on cheap linux or windows hosting with postgresql and mysql or any other online db. Many frameworks to waste time and plenty of projects and clients to get from any random freelancing site.

There is ruby and python to experiment if you want but expect steep learning curve while deploying them on server. Cpanel based hosts are not friendly for python and have complicated instructions for deploying ruby on rails projects..

645

General Software Discussion / Re: Google+

« Last post by mahesh2k on July 16, 2011, 04:08 PM »

Maybe that has been your experience, but it sure isn't mine. I probably have more real friends online than in meatspace, and more virtual friends long before I ever had access to an internet connection.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

You need the internet for your real friends?

2 cents.
My best friends are not in country anymore and there are no meas to contact them other than internet/phone. As for other friends, they judge you based on your income, physical appearance, religious belief, political inclination, lifestyle and geographical location. Maybe that i've such materialistic friends here but the reason i prefer virtual friends over materialistic one is that- they don't expect anything from me. That means a lot to me. Some of my friends in real life are completely different in persona. They try to portray their image as *cool* on FB when in reality they're totally different. So it's good to keep such friends in FB instead of wasting time with them in real life being part of their judgmental conservative cult.

646

General Software Discussion / Re: BrowserID - Mozilla's solution to the password problem

« Last post by mahesh2k on July 16, 2011, 11:48 AM »

Flaw : Even if we use 'Do not Track' feature then using BrowserID will make geo-targeting/cookie behavior for ad networks simple. They don't even need IP of the computer because it is like SSN no matter where person moves he/she is identifiable for the advertising+browsing behavior based on browserID.  I don't know if browserID expects personal information name/age/gender in their profiles or account but if they do then chances are there that the flaw which i mentioned is going to pop up in future.

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Living Room / Re: Am I alone in not using or wanting to use the "Cloud" ...

« Last post by mahesh2k on July 16, 2011, 09:27 AM »

Those who are using low speed internet connection feel the same. I don't want games, audio/graphics apps/notebook/wordprocessor apps and files on cloud. I wish to keep that data on my HD. But i do think cloud storage is good option for website backup, online radio etc.

648

Living Room / Re: I am so sick of google's search result urls with tracking info

« Last post by mahesh2k on July 14, 2011, 12:49 PM »

Duckduckgo and scroogle can replace google for you. Owner of duckduckgo always listens and is active on community forums so you can request features you want on their official forum. Google+ pretty much turned me off their search engine so using bing and DDG these days. :-)

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General Software Discussion / Re: Google+

« Last post by mahesh2k on July 12, 2011, 10:19 AM »

It's not limited to social network anymore, they're extending it to webmasters/writers/authors using rel=author tag. So if mouser wants to rank higher for doco then he needs to use rel=author with his real picture in google profile. If he fails to do that then chances are there that people who rank for the keyword (donationcoder) are going to be verified profile owners. If your online income is dependent on search engine traffic then staying anonymous is going to hurt for sure. This whole social search is overkill IMO.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Google+

« Last post by mahesh2k on July 12, 2011, 08:58 AM »

Check post by Pierre Far

https://plus.google....86/posts/GpKh6iDE4ci

Also to take it from a searcher's perspective, authorship is a way for us to communicate to the searcher that "person X is the author of this search result, and here is their photo". In this situation, the searcher is best served with a photo of a person, not , for example, a cartoon or a car or, like me, my cat. In short: it's your content and we want your photo next to it!

I'm sure anonymous affiliate marketers, web site owners are now forced to sign up with google plus for rel=author thingy and for the better search engine listing. This is like taking over the web by google because large percentage of web users using google and advertisers and other publishers having no alternative than revealing their strategic sites or products tied to single profile. I'm sure there are many other issues with using real picture or attaching google profile to rel=author tag.