Monday, July 31, 2006

Today's Special - My Favorites'

Hi People,

We'll I'm back after a long time. I have decided to dedicate my today's post to my all time Favorite's List. This List encapsulates (or atleast tries to ;) ) my all time favorites.


My Favorite Browser:

FIREFOX Rocks!!!! We'll no points on guessing correctly the winner in this category, Firefox wins Hands Down.

This browser is a clear winner because of its ease of use. It is expandable mainly due to the brainy little sweet nothings incorporated into it called as Extensions.

Extensions are small add-ons that add new functionality to
Mozilla applications like Firefox. They can add anything from a toolbar
button to a completely new feature. They allow the application to be customized
to fit the personal needs of each user if they need additional features,
while minimizing the size of the application itself.

The best part about this browser is the inbuilt stability that comes with Open Source Software. It is as stable as a bull, and as gracefull as an Arabian Horse.

A very good tutorial step-by-step article on how to install, configure and use Firefox is located on The Open Source Articles' Introduction to Firefox Page which can be found here.

You can download firefox from the Firefox Central Page here.

A List of the Most Popular Firefox Extensions can be found here.

A List of the Most Popular Firefox Themes can be found here.

A List of the Most Popular Firefox Plugins can be found here.

Firefox Extensions: As talked about before Extensions are nothing but small additions which add new functionality to the software. This is a nifty feature which helps in improving stability to the software.. Instead of bundling all the functionalities into one single file, what they do is add it to the software at run-time. so if in case there is a problem with a particular functionality or feature, then that feature/functionality itself can be simply removed or disabled till in the future a patch is made available.

This is more convinient rather than removing or not using the entire package itself.

Now that you all have been enlightened a bit as to what exactly extensions are lets get into the main issue of my favorite extensions.

  1. Greasemonkey - Greasemonkey is a Firefox extension which lets you to add bits of DHTML ("user scripts") to any web page to change its behavior. In much the same way that user CSS lets you take control of a web page's style, user scripts let you easily control any aspect of a web page's design or interaction. A list of greasemonkey user scripts can be found at Userscripts.org which boasts of a collection of over 2 Million (2,000,000) Nifty Scripts.


  2. Adblock Plus - Ever been annoyed by all those ads and banners on the internet that often take longer to download than everything else on the page? Install Adblock Plus now and get rid of them. Right-click on a banner and choose "Adblock" from the context menu - the banner won't be downloaded again. Or click Adblock Plus icon in the toolbar to see all elements of the page and block the banners. You can use filters with wildcards or even regular expressions to block complete banner factories.

  3. DownThemAll! - DownThemAll! is a download management tool that is fully integrated into firefox. Once installed the interface is quite simmilar to that of the popular Download Accelerator Plus. So if you have used DAP before you'll simply love this Extension.

  4. Fireftp - FireFTP is a free, secure, cross-platform FTP client for Mozilla Firefox which provides easy and intuitive access to FTP servers. The latest version is 0.94.

    New in Version 0.94:
    Added ability to keep directories in sync
    Greatly improved Directory Diff
    Greatly improved Drag and Drop support
    Greatly improved Cut and Paste

    Also recently new (since version 0.90):
    Added support for IPv6 connections
    Added Hash Computation (in Properties)
    Added Toolbar button
    Added Import/Export
    Added Save Temporary Accounts
    Added Create File
    And fixed crashing on uploads for all platforms!

  5. Performancing - Performancing for Firefox is a full featured blog editor that sits right in your Firefox browse and lets you post to your blog easily. You can drag and drop formatted text from the page you happen to be browsing, and take notes as well as post to your blog.

    Performancing for Firefox was developed by Performancing.com, the worlds largest organization of professional bloggers.

    The file itself was written by Jed Brown, and coordinated by Nick Wilson, both of Performancing LLC.

  6. Google Preview - This nifty little Extension inserts preview images (thumbnails) of web sites and Amazon products into the Google and Yahoo search results pages. This lets you like of you know "see" the web-page before you see it.

  7. Gmail Notifier - As the name suggests, if you have a Gmail Account then this tool updates you with the current status of the mail you are receiving in that account.

Favorite Email Client: Again here as I am a Open Source Freak I go the open source way with Thunderbird winning the category.

Simple to use, powerful, and customizable, Thunderbird is a full-featured email application. Thunderbird supports IMAP and POP mail protocols, as well as HTML mail formatting. Easily import your existing email accounts and messages. Built-in RSS capabilities, powerful quick search, spell check as you type, global inbox, deleting attachments and advanced message filtering round out Thunderbird's modern feature set.

Some of its popular features include:
  • Built-in Junk Mail Features - Each email you receive passes through Thunderbird's leading-edge junk mail filters. Each time you mark messages as spam, Thunderbird improves its filtering so you can spend more time reading the mail that matters. Thunderbird will also use your mail provider's spam filters to keep junk mail out of your inbox.

  • Anti-Phishing Protection - Thunderbird protects you from increasingly common email scams—also known as “phishing”—which try to fool you into handing over your passwords and other personal information. Thunderbird will tell you when it thinks a message might be a scam.

  • Advanced Security - Thunderbird provides enterprise and government grade security features including S/MIME, digital signing, message encryption, support for certificates and security devices. Attachments are never run without your express permission, protecting you from many worms and viruses.

  • Automatic Updates - The new Software Update feature makes it easy to get the latest security and feature updates to Thunderbird. Thunderbird automatically downloads these small updates in the background and prompts you when they are ready to be installed.

  • Customisability - Select new button controls for your toolbars, install extensions to add new features, or change the look of your browser with themes—the way Thunderbird looks and works is under your control.
You can get your copy of ThunderBird from here.

Favorite Messaging Systems:

  • Yahoo! Messenger simply becasue it gives the best IM experience on the planet that I have come across.. You name a feature it has it. Be it conferencing, voice chat features, PIM. Best website integration I have come across. get your Yahoo! notes, mail, alarms, games, blog(360*), info and updates all seamlessly through Y! Messenger... To add to it they have now added support to add MSN Members into your yahoo client itself. so no more shifting between to clients. Just junk the other one... Another nifty feature that people do not use are nt more known to is the capability to send files via IMs that too upto sizes of 1 GB. It is more stable too. though the current beta does have some glitches and does act up sumtimes... but over all is far more better in features and usablity than any other IM client currently in the market.

Favorite Websites:

  1. Search:
    • Google - No surprises here... google is not the best search engine on the internet. Be it Blog Search - Find blogs on your favorite topics, a host of Web Search Features, Language Tools. It helps us search for a variety of things like Images, News, Google Group posts, Scholarly Papers, Book Texts. The list is virtually endless. The innovative way in which Google has evolved itself over the years is simply amazing. There is therefore no challenge to it as a search engine... however with the advent of its free email service Gmail it has completely revolutionised the way people check e-mail....

  2. Blogging:
    • Blogger - Again Google beats the competition here, by miles. It is by far (from what I have seen) the best Blogging site I have come across..


Now Since this post has gone a bit longer than usual I'll make this post a two part series.....

Till next time Ciao....

Tejas

Thursday, July 27, 2006

The last refuge of the truly bored

FUDDRUCKER Vs Briggster

The last refuge of the truly bored.


This is a must read for all those idiots who think they can get away with anything.. If you plan to become a sysadmin one day, you better learn to use your brains as well.

Or you'll find people like Mr. dirigibles who will make you feel really sorry for doing so.


HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Freaky Genious

Friday, July 21, 2006

UPDATE: Blogger now available in India

Hi Ppl,

Just seen it... it seems as if the Bans' been finally lifted... Hurray Fellow Countrymen (Bloggers to be more specific) we kicked sum a**.

The ISP's have had to eat their own words.... The word out is that the DoT never ordered to block the entire IP range of blogger.com which these morons went on to do.

Instead they should have complained to blogger instead about the offensive nature of the posts in the respective blogs... I'm sure blogger like most other major websites does put restriction the kind of content you're posting on you're blog. Almost all major websites have a comprehensive policy specified in their terms of use that forbids any racist or anti-national, anti-community kind of comments that are not in good taste and are written with the specific intention of causing trouble.

We'll all said and done, what matters is that the collective initiative of the Indian Bloggers which minced no words or actions to put things on the right track.

Kudos to the Blogger's Collective Group which left no stone unturned to have this victory. Right from filing RTI's to getting in touch with the top level babus involved in the matter their timely action is commendable.

But I must add a word of caution here.....

We have just won the Battle, the War is yet to be conquered.

Lets just not stop this fight here. Lets continue this and make them answereable. Let us come to know as to why this happened in the first place... let the guilty be punished... lets not let them go scott free this time....

This is all I have to say. This is all I expect from them. And if in the course of this battle if they ever feel the need. I shall be at their beck and call. Just buzz me.

Blogger Buzz: Blogger in India

Tejas Thakker
a.k.a Devil's Advocate

Thursday, July 20, 2006

My Blogs' Been Blocked...

Hi ya ppl,

If you can see this then you definately don't live in india. Or maybe you do ... (hint: inblogs.net, pkblogs.com etc..)

The crux off all that blabber is that my blogs been blocked.. haven't been able to access it ....

Welcome to the real world, Neo. (a la Matrix). My due respects to the wachowski (or whatever it is!!!) brothers.

This is the begning of internet censorship in india..... or am I in china? chinese chow chow any one. ;)

Lets see where this will take us....

Till any further update, this is the Devil's Advocate signing off.

Ciao.

Friday, July 14, 2006

commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

My Thoughts on Reservation, Division by casts, and the Meenatai Thackeray Issue

Hi People we'll I'm back again...

The recent Reservation issue brought some thoughts to my mind, which I want to present before you.

Its quite conspicuous that how keen we are in making divisions in our community.. Everyone wants to divide it into narrower and narrower groups.. We (Indians) have been seperated as Hindus from the Muslims, Christains from
the Muslims (They follow the same god yet call him by different names viz. Christ vs Allah), Lower Cast from the So Called "Upper Cast", SC from the
ST, OBC Vanjari (all lower cast hindus) so on and so forth. the list is virtually endless.
I could go on with this for another hour but what would be the end result. Nothing but waste of webspace (for Blogger), Bandwith (your's as well as mine).

This is what is creating rifts between us and also allowing the filthy
politicians who are not even worthy of ruling their own homes get to
rule us with ease every 5 years.


Why cant we people stay united...as Indians, or maybe.... as one Humanity .. why do we like to create divisions?

Perhaps its not the fault of any one person or two.. this is in our history.. this is the reason why we have been ruled by outsiders for centuries.. because we are always ready to divide ourselves, for our minuscle benefits, without caring at all for the overall impact of our actions.. 



A case in point is the recent riots regarding the mud-slinging on the statue of Meenatai Thackeray. No-doubt the desecration of the statue of any person, whether of historical importance or not, is a despicable and horrendous act. It is an insult to the Deceased person himself and humanity too in general. But the acts that followed it were more despicable and worthy of anybody, even the Shiv Sena. Mr. Abu Azmi's retaliation to the comments of the Sena High Command regarding his alleged involvement also did not do any good, rather did more bad than good. I regret to say that but I presonally felt there was a Communal Tinge to the comments made by both the parties involved...

The Statement I feel given by the newly formed Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackery was more appropriate to the situation.. Though he voiced his concerns regarding the desecration of the statue he refrained from giving it any political or communal color. He said that his aunt was a preson of peace and would not have liked the Rioting that followed her statues' desecration.

Today's papers carry news giving pointers that certain elements who may be part of the Sena itself or its Close Allies may have been involved in Sunday's Incident. This if true, makes me feel that the nick I use for myself (The Devil's Advocate) is being fulfilled by these filthy politicians... Who else would stoop to such low levels to only for getting political mileage out of it. To show their useless display of muscle power, and falling flat on their face... What else can we call the bandh they called. I work at a suburban restaurant in mumbai.

The news reached the local Shakha at about 10.00 A.M. At 11.30 A.M. they came and asked us to shut shop. But by 4.30 P.M. the shops were all opened and resuming work.

If you call a bandh of two-four hours a show of power, Then I pity you. If that is all you can do.

The astute silence maintained by Sena Chief over the whole episode also threw in some pointers of the change of the Power Equation at Matoshree (The Sena Chiefs' Residence)

We'll that I think should be the end of my largest post till date. Please post back your views on the matter.


The Devil's Advocate