November 2006

Here is an video showing a unique way of controlling your computer using the camera !

The guy explaining the technology is Andy Wilson from Microsoft Research. If you want to watch the complete video from Scoble, click here ! (Note its a 50 min video :) )

The integration of Google Talk within Orkut has been in news from quite some time. However unlike other Google products, there isn't an official blog for Orkut which raises questions on Google's commitment to this product ! One reason might be the lawsuit on Google by a small company which alleges that the Orkut developer Orkut Buyukkokten illegally took the code that he had written for the company ! Also Orkut is the only Google product I guess, clearly showing a Microsoft Technology (ASP) being used ! Anybody noticed that ? From the past few months there have been some constant updates on the User Interface front like Message Handling, Reply to Scraps etc ! Also Google ...

Over 1,800 Flickr users have supposedly posted their favorite wallpaper photos here:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/wallpapers/pool/

And yes, most of the photos are tagged, so if you are looking for something specific, you can always use the search feature :)

And don't miss the Top 5 tag listing at the bottom of the page ...

Suse Linux 10.1 is a mammoth 3.5GB installation. I spent almost 30 hours downloading it via the torrent and I should say it was worth that effort. I had Suse 10.0 installed previously. SuSe 10.1 has lot of improvements in terms of installation and hardware drivers. For the first time I could install any linux distro with ACPI enabled ! For the first time I was able use hibernate on Linux For the first time I didn't have to struggle configuring the graphics card and monitor. For the first time a linux distro detected my ATI Mobility Radeon X700 Graphics card. For the first time I am able to set a wide screen resolution (16:10 aspect ratio) in a linux distro. For the first time I had no trouble setting up the wireless connection

Google Reader, the online RSS reader from Google had a major upgrade some time back. Check this post to know more about Google Reader.

Mihai Parparita, one of the lead developer of Google Reader has written a Greasemonkey Script to add Reader into GMail. The script added a "Feeds" link within GMail as shown below:

Winston has written another Greasemonkey script to integrate Reader into GMail. Some of the new features are:

With the advent of DSL, Internet access speed in India has improved a lot. There was a time when I used to download files at 1/2 KB/s and now with my 256kpbs broadband connection, I can get a maximum of 30KB/sec.

The best connection a normal consumer can get as of today is the 512kbps connection which translates to around 60KB/sec download speed. Airtel and BSNL are the major players in the DSL arena.

However from the past few months many are finding it difficult to get a DSL connection and both Bharti and BSNL are saying that they are upgrading their infrastructure to support more users.

This post in Hindu gives a good analysis of what the

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One of the nice feature of Firefox Web browser is the ability to add new features via extensions.

Extensions are small add-ons that add new functionality to Firefox, from a simple toolbar button to a completely new feature. They allow you to customize Firefox to fit your own needs and preferences.

Note that extensions shouldn't be confused with plugins, which perform a specific function like playing multi-media files etc. Acrobat Reader, Flash Player etc are some examples of plugins.

There are thousands of extensions available via Firefox. Even though the extensions are categorized, the sheer number makes it very difficult the find good, useful extensions.

However with the

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Gliffy is a free web-based diagram editor. It is being touted as the online visio killer.

The client application is built using OpenLaszlo.

OpenLaszlo is an open source platform for creating zero-install web applications with the user interface capabilities of desktop client software.

OpenLaszlo programs are written in XML and JavaScript and transparently compiled to Flash and soon DHTML. The OpenLaszlo API's provide animation, layout, data binding, server communication, and declarative UI.

Snapshot of the Gliffy UI

The following types of diagrams are supported: Flow Chart UML Diagrams (I tried to write a sequence diagram; was kind of painful ! ) User Interface Diagrams

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Scrybe, the online organizer is now open for Beta invitations.

Scrybe™ is a groundbreaking online organizer that caters to today´s lifestyle in a cohesive and intuitive way.

Check this official video, you will definitely be tempted to use it.

Scrybe is a Flash based organizer and off late I am seeing lot of flash based web applications including Gliffy and Laszlomail.

Again the above two app's are developed using Openlaszlo which are written in XML and JavaScript and transparently compiled to Flash.

Checkout the complete video and if you are impressed signup for the beta here !