I studied Benoit's work when I was studying engineering and wrote C programs to develop Fractals. I was intrigued by the concept of finding pockets of order in a chaotic system.
Today I noticed his talk on TED.com. Could not resist watching it. If you do not know about fractals, nonlinear dynamics or Chaos Theory, you should watch this.
Showing posts with label software. Show all posts
Showing posts with label software. Show all posts
07 July 2010
04 April 2010
Crazy options for IM clients
On my work machine, I have the following IM clients:
The problem is my employer does not have its own internal IM. Most people use Yahoo. I think a tie up with Skype to provide IM and teleconferencing facilities would be beneficial. Especially considering Skype's international calling abilities.
At home, I have a Ubuntu machine which gives me the following options:
If I want, I have the option to use Skype for Linux but I do not have many contacts there so I don't use it. I also have Ekiga for IP telephony services if I want it at any time.
The problem I have is maintaining my status messages and icon between all these clients. I feel there needs to be a consensus some where.
- Yahoo
- GTalk
- Skype
- Digsby
The problem is my employer does not have its own internal IM. Most people use Yahoo. I think a tie up with Skype to provide IM and teleconferencing facilities would be beneficial. Especially considering Skype's international calling abilities.
At home, I have a Ubuntu machine which gives me the following options:
- Pidgin
- Empathy
If I want, I have the option to use Skype for Linux but I do not have many contacts there so I don't use it. I also have Ekiga for IP telephony services if I want it at any time.
The problem I have is maintaining my status messages and icon between all these clients. I feel there needs to be a consensus some where.
31 March 2010
CVS delete script
We come across situations when we download source from CVS and have to zip and dispatch it to someone. CVS clients add a 'CVS' folder to all folders to track changes. Manually deleting these is a daunting task.
I found this blog which has a windows batch script to recursively delete all these folders. Hope this helps.
I found this blog which has a windows batch script to recursively delete all these folders. Hope this helps.
09 February 2010
DataCrow - Media Manager
I have been looking out for a media manager which can manage my movies, Audio CDs, Books etc. I think I may have found a single application which serve my requirements. Its DataCrow, they refer to it as a 'cataloger'. I must say, I am pretty impressed with the interface considering it is based on Java.
As it is Java based, it works on Linux as well as Windows. Its sequential import of audio files is a little slow and interface can be made 'snappier'.
Overall, I think it serve my needs as compared to other paid products available in the market.
As it is Java based, it works on Linux as well as Windows. Its sequential import of audio files is a little slow and interface can be made 'snappier'.
Overall, I think it serve my needs as compared to other paid products available in the market.
29 October 2009
Accident sketch software
AccidentSketch.com a cool website if you have to draw a diagram of an accident scenario in order to explain it to insurance or others.
I drew a sketch of the scenario when recently a mini bus knicked my rear bumper. Here's the scenario graphically displayed. It does give you many options of cars, vehicles and pedestrians to use in the sketch.
It a module under development to file the accident report online directly from this website. Such a thing will take ages to come in India.
07 October 2009
Google Translate
While messing with Google Translate, I came across a small script to translate your website in other language. A little drop down appears where you add the script. When you select a particular language, your web page is translated. Pretty neat!
Not sure how Google wants to monetize this tool. I am not sure if I would pay anything such a service as the quality of translations is at times very crude.
An interesting thing to do would be to integrate this with Google Docs and get your documents translated into all languages possible.
Not sure how Google wants to monetize this tool. I am not sure if I would pay anything such a service as the quality of translations is at times very crude.
An interesting thing to do would be to integrate this with Google Docs and get your documents translated into all languages possible.
28 July 2009
GPS in India
GPS as a technology has failed to catch on in India for several reasons. Some of these are:
The last two can lead to a lot of trouble with GPS trying to lead you to your desired destination. Adding a spell-check and word suggestion system to the GPS software would help resolve many user complaints.
These are readily available in various technologies. They just have to be integrated and the correct search indexes developed.
I am eager for such technologies to be easily available in India.
- High Cost (Its easier to ask someone along the road)
- Roads information is outdated and at time not available
- Non-uniform address format and
- Different spellings for the same location
The last two can lead to a lot of trouble with GPS trying to lead you to your desired destination. Adding a spell-check and word suggestion system to the GPS software would help resolve many user complaints.
These are readily available in various technologies. They just have to be integrated and the correct search indexes developed.
I am eager for such technologies to be easily available in India.
07 April 2009
Is the time of RDBMS up?
Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) have been around for quiet sometime. They came evolved the need to segregate flat file data into logical groups. Thus providing efficient storage and better search and query capabilities.
With the recent improvements in search tools and cloud based storage. Document Database management systems are gaining ground. All you have to do is create a logical document, ie. data populated in a group of fields. With the advances in search tools/ algorithms. You need not maintain referential integrity. Just save the document and run free text search tools to fetch necessary data.
With cloud technology gathering, large document databases can be maintained on several large clusters.
Its a way this is funny. First we had large mainframes where everythig was maintained in a flat file. Then we had relational databases where we split everything into denormalized tables. With documents DB we are going back to flat file storage.
This is very similar to the lotus notes technology being developed by IBM. RDBMS will continue for the simple reason that these can be quickly installed and maintained on standalone machines. We need to wait and watch how soon enterprises adopt this technology.
With the recent improvements in search tools and cloud based storage. Document Database management systems are gaining ground. All you have to do is create a logical document, ie. data populated in a group of fields. With the advances in search tools/ algorithms. You need not maintain referential integrity. Just save the document and run free text search tools to fetch necessary data.
With cloud technology gathering, large document databases can be maintained on several large clusters.
Its a way this is funny. First we had large mainframes where everythig was maintained in a flat file. Then we had relational databases where we split everything into denormalized tables. With documents DB we are going back to flat file storage.
This is very similar to the lotus notes technology being developed by IBM. RDBMS will continue for the simple reason that these can be quickly installed and maintained on standalone machines. We need to wait and watch how soon enterprises adopt this technology.
12 January 2009
K3B: Burning CDs/DVDs in Ubuntu
Ubuntu by default allows two software packages for CD/DVD burning:
- Brasero
- Through Nautilus
Windows based tools are fairly better than these. Brasero (v0.8.2) used to go into an infinite loop while erasing a disc. There have been some similar reported bugs on this. I was unable to find a better Gnome based alternative for the CD/DVD burning at home.
Nautilus based burning is good for simple burning needs. It does not give you a lot of options or a good interface.
Yesterday out of curiosity I tried K3B and was pretty satisfied with the functionality and performance. It has plenty of user options and prompts to guide you to correctly burn a disc.
It looks like Gnome has some catching up to do.
- Brasero
- Through Nautilus
Windows based tools are fairly better than these. Brasero (v0.8.2) used to go into an infinite loop while erasing a disc. There have been some similar reported bugs on this. I was unable to find a better Gnome based alternative for the CD/DVD burning at home.
Nautilus based burning is good for simple burning needs. It does not give you a lot of options or a good interface.
Yesterday out of curiosity I tried K3B and was pretty satisfied with the functionality and performance. It has plenty of user options and prompts to guide you to correctly burn a disc.
It looks like Gnome has some catching up to do.
06 January 2009
Tigo Tago - MP3 Tag Editor
As iTunes and Songbird use these tags to sort files in their library. It is important to maintain correct data in these.
Everyone has a problem when you rip some CDs and the ID3 tag cannot be found on CDDB. I use Tigo Tago update many simultaneously.
You see all supported files (MP3, AVI, WAV, WMA, WMV, ASF) in a folder in the application's central pane. I gives you options to update tags based on filename. You can define parsing parameters, using these ID3 tags are updated.
One thing missing was the ability to copy paste to multiple tag fields eg. paste a value in the Album name for all files in a particular folder.
They should also think of providing this for other operating systems viz. Linux.
Everyone has a problem when you rip some CDs and the ID3 tag cannot be found on CDDB. I use Tigo Tago update many simultaneously.
You see all supported files (MP3, AVI, WAV, WMA, WMV, ASF) in a folder in the application's central pane. I gives you options to update tags based on filename. You can define parsing parameters, using these ID3 tags are updated.
One thing missing was the ability to copy paste to multiple tag fields eg. paste a value in the Album name for all files in a particular folder.
They should also think of providing this for other operating systems viz. Linux.
21 December 2008
Flickr-Piknik image editor
I have been using Flickr for the past 3 years and am very happy with their services.Yup, I am still to purchase a pro account as I am not such an avid photographer.
While preparing the header for this blog I chanced to used the photo-editor provide by Flickr. The earlier version was this was a very crude one with minimal features like resizing etc. Now Flickr has tied up with Picnik. This software allows you to edit pictures online.
It starts with a nice progress bar which displays a list of messages like "Planting trees", "sprinkling due" etc. It takes quite some time even on a broadband connection when it loads he first time. Successive loads are fairly quick.
You have access to basic image editing tools available to you. With these you can edit, crop and touch up images. You can zoom in and out using the mouse wheel.
You also have an option to take an image and apply some filters to it. Most filters here can only be available with a pro account. I doubt a pro-Flickr account also qualifies for a pro-Picnik account.
Picnik provides services with other online system also. Its a nice business model for an online product company. Picnik provides its services separately but it has also tied up with other companies to get additional revenue. A tie-up with the likes of Flickr and Facebook is beneficial from a marketing point of view also.
New age business models like the one Picnik is using are worth writing a book upon.
While preparing the header for this blog I chanced to used the photo-editor provide by Flickr. The earlier version was this was a very crude one with minimal features like resizing etc. Now Flickr has tied up with Picnik. This software allows you to edit pictures online.
It starts with a nice progress bar which displays a list of messages like "Planting trees", "sprinkling due" etc. It takes quite some time even on a broadband connection when it loads he first time. Successive loads are fairly quick.
You have access to basic image editing tools available to you. With these you can edit, crop and touch up images. You can zoom in and out using the mouse wheel.
You also have an option to take an image and apply some filters to it. Most filters here can only be available with a pro account. I doubt a pro-Flickr account also qualifies for a pro-Picnik account.
Picnik provides services with other online system also. Its a nice business model for an online product company. Picnik provides its services separately but it has also tied up with other companies to get additional revenue. A tie-up with the likes of Flickr and Facebook is beneficial from a marketing point of view also.
New age business models like the one Picnik is using are worth writing a book upon.
19 December 2008
Rickety Wickets
For the past few days I have been investigating Apache Wicket for use in a application we are going to develop.
Apache Wicket is a good framework. Y have to develop all view components in Java, t HTML page is rendered using these components. Developing the HTML pages is very simple. For those who know it, web development will be a breeze.
One thing I did find it lacking is good online documentation. More effort on this front would help getting more developers on this framework.
There are so many frameworks and technologies to choose from. Developers and decision makers tend to make decisions based on good marketing than detailed analysis. Estimates are are based on historical data. They fail to consider time to get accustomed to developing in a new framework/ technology. Once the developer becomes fluent, technology and frameworks change.
Dilbert :"My recommendations are based on an analysis of accountability. As a consultant, I'm not accountable to your stockholders. So I can recommend anything that amuses me."
Apache Wicket is a good framework. Y have to develop all view components in Java, t HTML page is rendered using these components. Developing the HTML pages is very simple. For those who know it, web development will be a breeze.
One thing I did find it lacking is good online documentation. More effort on this front would help getting more developers on this framework.
There are so many frameworks and technologies to choose from. Developers and decision makers tend to make decisions based on good marketing than detailed analysis. Estimates are are based on historical data. They fail to consider time to get accustomed to developing in a new framework/ technology. Once the developer becomes fluent, technology and frameworks change.
Dilbert :"My recommendations are based on an analysis of accountability. As a consultant, I'm not accountable to your stockholders. So I can recommend anything that amuses me."
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