Quick Links for Friday

by niranjanPosted on Posted in Admin, Links, Linux/Unix, Network, Random, Technology

Google Checkout is live. It’s a new service from Google that makes online shopping more convenient for shoppers and merchants. Shoppers can shop faster and merchants can integrate Google Checkout into their sites as an alternative payment processing method. Here is the quick video tour.

Royalty Free Stock Photography – Download 400+ quality royalty free stock photos for free. Note that these images range from 400kb to around 1.5mb, and are 1200 x 900 to 1600 x 1200. Very useful for web sites and blogs. You can post the photos without worrying about copyrights.

IP Subnetting made easy – a very good guide that explains IP Subnetting using simple graphical approach.

Learn Linux Command Lines and Shell Scripting – It’s a perfect guide for getting deeper into Linux command lines after my Getting Started with Linux Commands. This is what the author has to say about Command Lines:

I once heard an author remark that when you are a child you use a computer by looking at the pictures. When you grow up, you learn to read and write. Welcome to Computer Literacy 101. Now let’s get to work.

Beautiful Sunday

by niranjanPosted on Posted in Hong Kong, Life, Random

Yesterday was sunny, very hot, but clear and beautiful day in Hong Kong. We went to Lantau Island with our son where his school organized a Treasure Island fun day. He had a great time with activities like cooking for mum and dad, nature walk, silk screen and paint t-shirts and sand castle construction.

I took this photo on our way to ferry pier, usually it’s hazy in Hong Kong but I was struck by the clarity yesterday.

Click for large photo
Central-Small1-1

Basic Linux Networking

by niranjanPosted on Posted in Admin, HowTo, Linux/Unix, Network, Technology

After installing a linux server and playing with the basic command lines, the first thing we should be able to do is configure our network, without which of course there is no Internet. Most of the latest linux distributions ship with easy to use GUI for configuration and testing of the network. But here we’ll be using all command lines. Remember, these commands directly talk to the responsible programs without any intermediary (GUI), so obviously it’s fast, more powerful and have many options that are not available in GUI.

This guide will help you to configure your network and troubleshoot simple network problems using command lines.

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Dell laptop explodes

by niranjanPosted on Posted in Links, Random, Technology

Dell laptop explodes at a Japanese Conference. Luckily, it looks like nobody was injured. With more powerful features and faster CPUs the laptops are becoming increasingly hotter to handle. I’ve the first hand experience of how hot a laptop (MacBookPro) can be. So, think twice before putting your laptops on your laps :). The Inquirer reader who was at the conference says:

“The damn thing was on fire and produced several explosions for more than five minutes”.

Dell Banger1-2

Year 2012 – End of Time and Beginning of New Era?

by niranjanPosted on Posted in Buddha Boy, Life, Links, Random

Wayne Chen has created a web site 2012, which is about the events he believes will happen in the years leading up to 2012. Based on what happened to him (Dec 12 to 15, 2005), Buddha Boy (completes his meditation around 2012), Mayan Calendar (ends at Dec 21, 2012), and the predictions of Remote viewing Tibetan Monks, this is what will happen:

In 2012, the world will start plunging into a total destructive nuclear war.

And at that time something remarkable will happen, says, Buddhist monk of Tibet. Supernatural divine powers will intervene. The destiny of the world is not to self-destruct at this time.

Wayne has shared some of the details of what happened to him with me but I’m not going to write about it here because he wishes to keep it private. This is what he says in his site:

What happened to you?

It was bizarre and landed me in the hospital. Let’s just leave it at that. If you must know, buy me a beer if you ever bump into me – which your only chance will be is if you lose your pride completely and go traveling. Maybe by instinct you will find me. I am not stationary for long.

Looking at the current world events we’re looming senselessly towards war. In one word this is all because of PRIDE. Look at Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Taiwan, China, US, Israel and war on terrorism. Where is all this leading us? What happens when you cannot solve problems with talks and conventional wars? Nuclear war? All this seems too bizarre but still is a very possible scenario. There’s global warming, bird flu and many civil wars going around.

Go to Wayne’s 2112 site, it has loads of information and links. If you ask me whether I believe all this? then short answer is – not sure, but It has made me seriously think about where all the recent events are leading us.

Watch the World Cup Live Online – PPStream

by niranjanPosted on Posted in Hong Kong, HowTo, Life, Random, Technology

In Hong Kong you can watch the world cup only if you’ve subscribed to Cable TV. They’ve signed an expensive and exclusive contract with FIFA some 4 years ago. Unfortunately me and many of my friends were not aware of this when we subscribed to NOW Broadband TV. I went out to my friends place and bars to watch the earlier matches (which was fun, but not possible everyday for this whole month). The good news is – I’ve found www.ppstream.com, which streams many different channels online and CCTV-5 is one of them, which broadcasts World Cup Live. It is using P2P technology.

One problem however is that the site is in Chinese and you’ll have to download and install the player (which is also only in Chinese). I’ve downloaded the player and installed in my Windows XP machine and enjoying the matches from yesterday (the commentary is in Chinese. So, I watch the game and listen to music :)). If you want to give it a shot; here’s how I did it.

Note: I don’t understand Chinese so, I’m just guessing some of the stuffs here :). Don’t blame me if your computer CRASHES or if you have other problems. It works for me and hopefully it’ll work for you too. GOOD LUCK 😉

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20 things everyone needs to know

by niranjanPosted on Posted in Body, Mind & Spirit, Life, Links

A very useful guide from experts on issues like how to sleep, how to listen, how to negotiate, how to shave, how to apply lipstick and so on. These are the 20 things everyone needs to know (link to mirror). Here is the original link to the article (requires registration).

I think I need to follow the advice on how to sleep :). I’m getting around 5 to 7 hrs. of daily sleep but feel it’s not balanced. Last night was an extreme case. Watched the World Cup opening match between Germany and Costa Rica till 2:00am and then Kasauti (Indian tele-serial that never ends and my wife loves it) till 3:00am. So, I’m planning to make a fixed 8 hrs. sleeping habit. Also here’s a link to a study, which finds that sleep deprivation costs Japan’s economy 30 bln dollars a year. Talking about sleep; here’s an excellent suggestion from Steve Pavlina on How to Become an Early Riser and his follow up article, with extra details How to Become an Early Riser – Part II.

IIS gaining web server market

by niranjanPosted on Posted in Linux/Unix, Technology, Windows

Netcraft’s June 2006 Web Server Survey finds that Internet’s growth was strongest last month due to the explosion of blogs and free web sites. Also, IIS is continually gaining web server market share from Apache.

FTP Demystified

by niranjanPosted on Posted in Network, Technology

Everyone knows what is FTP. But there’re few things that even confuses smartest geeks. Steven Frank has written an excellent article; FTP Demystified, which explains the most confused stuffs in FTP Like:

1. What is the difference between FTP, FTPS, and SFTP?

2. What is "passive mode"?

3. What is the difference between ASCII mode, Binary mode, and Auto mode?

Getting Started with Linux Commands

by niranjanPosted on Posted in Admin, HowTo, Linux/Unix, Technology

Ubuntu , SUSE , RedHat , Xandros and Linspire are doing a great job with Linux Desktop. But they’ve a long way to go, with more than 90% of Windows and around 5% of Apple only a small bite is left for them. However, the power of Linux is already proven in the server arena, currently it is powering many mission critical servers all around the world. It’s free, it’s reliable, it’s rock-solid and most importantly it’s open source. When I just started to work as an IT Engineer, I was a Windows guy. The word Unix/Linux used to scare me. Fortunately I was given a chance to learn and manage Linux Server in production environment. I was thrown into real life usage of Linux servers with live services like email, ftp, web and databases. From my experience I can say that it’s not as scary as it seems in the beginning. With some minor efforts it can be learned by any Windows users and admins.

I’ve written this guide to help beginners who’re interested in getting started with Linux. This should give you an overview of Linux and it’s basic commands.

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