Do you see what I see...has Google changed their favicon across all it's services? I generally user Google Suggest for all my daily searches. But intrigued by its new favicon, I tried various services...but seems like only Google Search and Google Suggest have theirs changed. I have no clue why, do you any?
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Talking of Windows 7, I stumbled upon these neat slick wallpapers of same. The unofficial logo concepts and these wallpapers are created by Long Zheng of istartedseomthing and hosted at deviantART for public download. The download pack contains walls for most screen resolutions including widescreen. You can see a couple of them here...get tons of them here.
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Microsoft is mum about the much hyped Windows 7, but there are enough rumours flying around in circles. Windows 7 was formerly codenamed Blackcomb and then Vienna. As I could understand after reading through a few top-notched blogs, Windows 7 might end up just being a non-disruptive update to the groundwork laid by Vista! Readers please be advised that Windows 7 is not here until 2010, or at least till end of 2009. You can watch a video of Windows 7 (as claimed by the owner of the video) in one of my earlier posts.
an eye-catchy image of Windows 7 boot screen I found on the webCurrent news about Windows 7
- Milestone 1 (M1) is already made available to select partners. Microsoft's developer division is testing all teir builds against Windows 7
- Windows 7 will likely feature a more modular approach, Windows Server 2008 like architecture that lets developers install selective features while leaving the unwanted untouched
- Microsoft is looking for ways to tightly tie next-gen Windows Live Services with Windows 7, including ways to provide unique Live Experience for Windows 7 users.
- M1 testers report a new version of Windows Media Center adn support fro multiple graphics cards
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As a sequel to my earlier post on Google Talk's Language Bots, I found this interesting stuff on bots.
JBuddy Bot Builder is an integrated development environment (IDE) designed to make developing, testing and deploying interactive IM Bots and Text Messaging applications simple and easy. It is built on top of the JBuddy Bot Framework and JBuddy SDK with powerful public and enterprise IM capabilities and is cross-platform. This best of class solution is available as a FREE download and includes a FREE license to jump start your project.
JBuddy Bot Builder boasts of the following features:
- IDE for rapid bot development, testing, and deployment cycles
- WYSIWYG test chat windows for local online and offline testing
- Cross Platform (Windows Vista, XP, Mac OS X, Linux, Solaris, etc)
- Built on top of the JBuddy Bot Framework 2.0
- Leverages the IM capabilities of the JBuddy SDK 6.1
- Free 3 concurrent chat session license perfect for prototypes and occassional use
Only after a month of subscription to visitor maps, which are stabled at the footer of this page; I can see a lot of hits on my pages. Though I stand incomparable to Amit or Gina, not bad at all, I should say to myself. Most of the concentration is from the United States, Europe and India as you can see below for yourself, though there are finger number hits from the rest of the globe.
Below are the visitor locations on my blog in various formats. These were captured at 2200 hrs EST of May 18th.
Heat Map
Cluster Map
Day/Night Map
I didn't know till date that Google's instant messenger, Google Talk, more popular as GTalk, also helps to learn English language through its chat module.
Yup, you read it right. As of now, there are 10 language conversions available on GTalk. 9 of these conversions help converting a foreign language to English while 1 helps convert English to Chinese. If you already run GTalk, go ahead and test these language converters. Add these, what do you call these by the way...errrr...translators, language bots, transbots...sounds nice...add these 'transbots' to your buddy list and start chatting in foreign languages in no time...zip-zap-zoom!
- ENGLISH to CHINESE - en2zh@bot.talk.google.com
- ARGENTINA to ENGLISH - ar2en@bot.talk.google.com
- GERMAN to ENGLISH - de2en@bot.talk.google.com
- SPANISH to ENGLISH - es2en@bot.talk.google.com
- FRENCH to ENGLISH - fr2en@bot.talk.google.com
- ITALIAN to ENGLISH - it2en@bot.talk.google.com
- JAPANESE to ENGLISH - ja2en@bot.talk.google.com
- KOREAN to ENGLISH - ko2en@bot.talk.google.com
- NETHERLANDS to ENGLISH - nl2en@bot.talk.google.com
- RUSSIAN to ENGLISH - ru2en@bot.talk.google.com
- ENGLISH to ESPANOL - en2es@bot.talk.google.com
- ENGLISH to FRENCH - en2fr@bot.talk.google.com
- ENGLISH to ITALIAN - en2it@bot.talk.google.com
- ENGLISH to JAPANESE - en2ja@bot.talk.google.com
- ENGLISH to KOREAN - en2ko@bot.talk.google.com
- ENGLISH to RUSSIAN - en2ru@bot.talk.google.com
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Readers...wait a minute. I think I found a hack to the restriction levied by Google on its online payment processing service; Google Checkout. It just struck my little brain that this could be done. But let me check this myself before I throw light on my readers. Though it'll need spending a few bucks towards testing this hack, I'm willing to do it. I'm away trying to hack Google Checkout...will post my findings soon...Einstein at work ;)
A Quick Response Code, or a QR Code as it is usually addressed, is a matrix code (or two-dimensional bar code) that allows its contents to be decoded at high speed. This is somewhat similar to the bar codes we come across in regular life. One can see these QR codes inside the packages of electronic items bought at your local store.
Wiki says "QR was initially derived for tracking parts in vehicle manufacturing. Today, QR Codes are used in a much broader context spanning both commercial tracking applications as well as convenience-oriented applications aimed at mobile phone users. QR Codes storing addresses and URLs may appear in magazines, on signs, buses, business cards or just about any object that a user might need information about. A user having a camera phone equipped with the correct reader software can scan the image of the QR Code causing the phone's browser to launch and redirect to the programmed URL. This act of linking from physical world objects is known as a hardlink or physical world hyperlinks. A user can also generate and print one's own QR Code for others to scan and use by visiting one of several free QR Code generating sites."
Types of QR codes
Micro QR Code
Micro QR Code is a smaller version of the QR Code standard for applications with less ability to handle large scans. There are different forms of Micro QR Code as well. The highest of these can hold 35 characters.
Design QR
Design QR makes it possible to incorporate eye-catchy images of logos, characters, or photos into QR code, while calculating without losing any information of the code.
There are lots of application on the web that act as QR Readers. They allow users to scan the QR codes from mobile phones and get the response instantly. One of such applications is the KAYWA Reader that is available for download for free.
Below you can see the CR code for this blog's URL which when read through a QR Reader would display: http://dwineinsight.blogspot.com/. You can generate yours here.
This video from YouTube displays how to read a CR code on your mobile screen.
Can this be real??? Though it looks pretty impressive, I'm not sure how well Microsoft can retain their market share by the time 7 is released. I strongly support Linux, it really has been refining shape in the past few years. Ubuntu, Linux for human beings, has already kissed en mass. And by the time 7 is out, Linux will already have many more flavors, probably more closer to the humans.
For a start about the much hyped Windows 7, here's a video I grabbed from YouTube.
The Presurfer says "Names will be collected and placed onboard the LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) spacecraft for its historic mission bringing NASA back to the moon. You will also receive a certificate showcasing your support of the mission."
I got my name pinned to the list; and here's my certificate of participation. Get yours here.
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Wikipedia describes a CAPTCHA as "a type of challenge-response test used in computing to determine that the response is not generated by a computer." It is a contrived acronym for "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart", trademarked by Carnegie Mellon University. They are widely used everywhere on the web to avoid spamming.
Of lately, are these CAPTCHAs getting redefined, are they up for a face lift? Or have they already got it? If you've come across a CAPTCHA that needs you to make an effortless numerical adding up and supply the answer as the key, or answer a simple common sense question; you've just bumped into the fresh class of CAPTCHAs out there...the all new MAPTCHAs
or Mathematical captchas. MAPTCHAs are based on the principle of ‘Security through obscurity’, a principle related to security engineering. This principle is defined as ‘A system relying on security through obscurity may have theoretical or actual security vulnerabilities, but its owners or designers believe that the flaws are not known, and that attackers are unlikely to find them.’ Functionality wise; they are positively superior to their previous generations. Today we might already have smart spam bots (you can say smart enough) running around the web that could read and interpret the conventional CAPTCHAs which are mere images that are slightly tricky to understand. But MAPTCHAs are simply too much for them. The user essentially needs to be HUMAN to execute a simple math calculation or to be able to respond to a simple question. I don't see any way in for spam bots, at least in the near future.
Now the question is: are MAPTCHAs intelligent enough to understand the user answer? Say, a MAPTCHA on a web form says 'what is 3 + 5?’ The user in reality needs to supply the sum of 3 and 5 to clear the MAPTCHA. So does the user punch in '8' or 'eight' or 'Eight' or 'EIGHT'? If the MAPTCHAs was designed to accept '8', that's fine. If it were designed to recognize the answer in alphabets, which one of these is right: eight, Eight, EIGHT or something else? I don't think MAPTCHAs are intelligent yet like Google's 'did you mean'. Also, there is absolutely no hint which one to answer. With the intervention of a pinch of common sense, we presume the answer is '8', because the question in context was '3 + 5' and not 'three + five'. Correct me if I'm wrong. Trust me, I've tried all four mishmashes but it wouldn't allow me through. Frustrated I simply closed the web page. I knew I was bad at math right from my school days but definitely not terrible. Any thoughts or answers on this?
And if RSS is the way to go...this is what the near future looks like. Might sound crazy, but you can't rule it out! See what I mean...
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Found this interesting ebook on Youtube at Scribd...
The document "How To Do Everything With YouTube" has been ripped off from this post as a result of a third-party notification regarding a copyright infringement. Regret the take-down.
I found this really simple & explanatory video illustrating about RSS (Really Simple Syndication). This comes as a sequel to my earlier post featured on RSS. On the occassion of World RSS Day, I'd like to lend my support in heightening RSS usage around the globe.
