Try google translate... http://translate.google.com

A superb tool from google, which it has a translage engine helps to convert the word, grammer, and flow a sentence from any language to any language. Its simply amazing... an opensource tool. Hats of to google.
I will write this review with detail on next post.

Making your mail ID anonymous...

Its my unaware to know that a precious kind of making our mail ID to more protective!.. Is there any possible way to map our mail id to an anonymous port? Such that the receiver couldn't see the mail ID.
Its more usefull for sending an emails. But it is an intermediate port use to send email but it wont receive and redirect. Its good idea! too any one tried? if yes please do comment on that... need to aware on that. Thanks in advance.

Aurora Browser - 2

Mozilla, a gaint of all opensource browser, fits into the research called Aurora, Aurora a future web browser allows you to

feel what is the reality on integrated web. This research team has colabrated with an adaptive path, who creates the concept

of aurora.They recently released a conceptual video, they presented in the way, their topics with full energy makes the

contributor to understand effectively.

Mozilla now forms the team, and started working on Aurora. First every opensource 3d based browser, not even proprietary

does. Now the world of open source is waiting for Aurora to release. They represents some features..

1) The drag and drop communication browser.
2) Cluster based history lists
3) 3d Clouds for recently visits
4) Suggestions on your given inputs

so and so...

How is it? ready for it? start your contribution now!

To be continue...

World's most Secured USB Pendrive

Enterprise Data on a USB Drive

IronKey's hardware-encrypted USB flash drives secure your most critical portable data.

* Secures your endpoints and helps prevent data leaks. No one can access the data on your IronKey if it is ever lost or stolen.
* Data is hardware-encrypted using AES CBC-mode encryption.
* Encryption keys are generated in hardware by a FIPS 140-2 compliant True Random Number Generator for maximum protection.
* Securely stores employee passwords
* Can safely tunnel through insecure wireless networks.
* Does not require software, drivers, or administrator privileges.

Self destructor program

If you do enter password for 10 times. This self destructor will activate and burnt your pendrive.

Mozilla's next step AURORA

Mozilla finalize its next step of browser called AURORA, highly interactive with userfriendly, no disturbances of tool bars, filemenu, scrolling touch etc. The HISTORY is high way of cluster based visualization feels so cool to navigate the websites.

Will discuss with you more in detail.

IMBOT research!

Any one who is interested in IMBOTS please do contact, i started a new opensource source community called CLOSEDLOGICS.

here we discussed about some main features

• Google Codes
• Google Android application development (An Open source mobile)
  
• LAMP

IMBOTS on google chat, jabbim, yahoo messenger

IMBOTS - Instant Messaging Automatic response from inbuilt programming autoresponse system.

To make them within a miniute

1) Goto IMIFIED.com
2) Signup there
3) After signup, visit myapplication link
4) In that page click +New Application button (Upto 3 application you can create)
5) Give the BOTname, BOT url -(Specify the address of the server program where it process)
eg(www.imb.com/control.php)
6) Describe about your BOT(OPT)
7) Describe the first step under help!(OPT)
8) Term your privacy! (OPT)

Enjoy...

Here is a simple program for im bots


switch ($_REQUEST['step']) {
case 1:
echo "Hi, what's your name?";
break;
case 2:
echo "Hi " . $_REQUEST['value1'] . ", where do you live?";
break;
case 3:
echo "Well, welcome to this hello world bot, " . $_REQUEST['value1'] . "
from " . $_REQUEST['value2'] . ".";
break;
}

?>

Using php! a simple helloworld program.
Save as filename.php
upload in any server say awardspace.com ( a free server to host php and mysql).

After upload provide the link in imbot settings.

ENJOY!

SMS Lab from google

When i come across orkut! i have joined a new community called chennai social service. Here they provided a link for sms subscription, the link has redirected to google labs. I was totally happy about an opensource program from google servicing a concept. This visit will help you to create sms servicing and sms blogging. A very good concept from GOOGLE. I really upricate google to maintain this.

Red Hat Partners With Amazon.com On SaaS

When I added Amazon.com to our SaaS 20 Stock Index, a few readers asked me whether the online retailer is really a software as a service (SaaS) company. My answer: Absolutely. And a growing number of tech companies agree with me.

A prime example: Red Hat has inked a SaaS partnership with Amazon.com to offer JBoss middleware as a hosted service. Here’s a look at the deal, and its implications for managed service providers.

At Red Hat Summit in Boston, the open source company disclosed that JBoss Enterprise Application Platform is now available within the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2). Red Hat claims JBoss is the first cloud-based application server.

For MSPs, the Red Hat-Amazon relationship is the latest example of open source software moving into the cloud. Red Hat Enterprise Linux was already available through Amazon EC2. And fast-growing open source databases and applications like MySQL and SugarCRM, respectively, are increasingly popular as hosted services, MSPmentor has noted.

The challenge for MSPs is trying to figure out whether to build out hosted data centers, or to leverage third-party hosted services like Amazon EC2 or Google Apps, or Master MSP hosted services from such companies as Ingram Micro Seismic and Do IT Smarter.

Even traditional MSP platform providers such as Kaseya say they will now offer network operation center (NOC) and hosted services, in an attempt to assist MSPs with 24×7 customer support and other gap services.

Right now, it’s sometimes easy to overlook how online companies like Amazon.com and Google are gradually moving into the SaaS worlds. But as SaaS and managed services continue to converge, MSPs will need to adjust their business strategies accordingly.

Women in Open Source

We here at Pingdom have been talking about why we don’t see that many women in Open Source, and were actually about to investigate it further and possibly write a blog post about it.

However, when we started to actually look around we were happily surprised. There are lots of women involved in Open Source! For some reason men just seem to stick their nose out more and put themselves in positions where they are seen (and of course there are more of them).

That said, women do seem to be highly underrepresented in the Open Source community. A study from 2006, Flosspols report, indicates that about 1.5 % of the Open Source community is female compared to 28% in proprietary software.

The Open Source community is large, though, so that 1.5% amounts to a fair share of women.

There are several different groups and websites devoted to just women and Open Source such as: LinuxChix , Apache Women, BSDChix, Debian Women, Fedora Women, GNOME Women, KDE Women, Ubuntu Women, PHP Women and Drupalchix.

This post is our contribution to the community to highlight some of the women in Open Source and to hopefully engage other women to join.

Mitchell Baker

Included in Time magazine’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2005. She is the Chairman of the Mozilla Foundation and Chairman and former CEO of Mozilla Corporation, the company that coordinates the development of Firefox and the Thunderbird email client.

Danese Cooper

Danese Cooper is an advocate of open source software and sits on the board of the Open Source Initiative. Previously she has worked at Sun where she created and managed the Open Source Programs Office among other things.

Kim Polese

Kim Polese is the CEO of SpikeSource, a provider of business-ready Open Source solutions. Previously she has spent seven years with Sun working as a Java product manager, and also acted as the president and CEO of Marimba during the dot-com era. She was included in Time magazine’s list of “The 25 Most Influential Americans” in 1997.

Margo I. Seltzer

Margo Seltzer was the CTO of Sleepycat Software prior to the acquisition by Oracle in 2006. She was the lead author of the BSD-LFS paper and is a director of the USENIX association while continuing to serve as an architect on the Oracle Berkeley database team.

Stormy Peters

Stormy Peters is a co-founder of the non-profit GNOME Foundation and frequently speaks about Open Source at major conferences. Stormy has also addressed the United Nations, the European Union and various U.S. state governments regarding Open Source software.

Mena Grabowski Trott

Mena Trott is the president and co-founder of the company Six Apart, creators of Movable Type and TypePad. She was named one of the People of the Year by PC Magazine in 2004.

Val Henson

Val Henson has worked at companies such as Intel, IBM and Sun. She is a specialist in file systems and was a key developer and architect for ZFS at Sun and is currently developing chunkfs, a new Linux file system.

Máirín Duffy

Máirín Duffy is a senior interaction designer with Red Hat and is the team lead of the Fedora art team. She is also involved in the GNOME project where she is working on the GNOME marketing team and has developed the GNOME brand book.

Allison Randal

Allison is the president of the Perl Foundation. She is a key figure in the Perl community and has been active in the Perl 6 design process since the start as a project manager as well as contributing code and design.

More women in Open Source

As you can imagine, we simply don’t have enough room in this blog to post about every woman in Open Source, but here are a few more examples of women who have made their mark in Open Source:

• Dru Lavigne, maintainer of the Open Protocol Resource, writer for the “FreeBSD Basics” column on ONLamp, and author of BSD Hacks and The Best of FreeBSD Basics books.
• Lynne Jolitz, an early BSD user and Open Source contributor and advocate.
• Machtelt Garrels, Linux veteran, member of the Linux Documentation Project and BSD Certification Group Advisory Board and founder of the OpenDoc Society.
• Pia Waugh, president of the organization that runs Software Freedom Day and the former president and vice-president of Linux Australia.
• Radia Perlman, a contributor to network security, strong password protocols, IPSEC among other things. Silicon Valley Inventor of the Year in 2004.
• Erinn Clark, a Debian developer as well as the leader and co-founder of Debian Women.
• Hanna Wallach, a GNOME and Debian developer who helped the GNOME foundation to get its Women’s Summer Outreach Program off the ground.
• Amaya Rodrigo Sastre, a Debian developer and co-founder of Debian Women, as well as conference organizer and evangelist.
• Celeste Lyn Paul, participating in the KDE usability project as well as a member of the HCI working group. She has worked on the KDE4 Human Interface Guidelines.
• Eva Brucherseifer, co-founder of KDE Women, the KDE Edu project and the KDE Solaris mailing list.

This list is of course nowhere near complete and is based on mentions in articles, blogs, mailing lists, etc.

A special thanks to ITtoolbox which had a blog post called Top 10 Girl Geeks in 2006 which acted as a starting point for this list.

We hope that this post has helped highlight some of the women in Open Source, and the fact that there actually are lots of talented women working with Open Source even though they often act behind the scenes.

Canadian Firm Shows Faith In Ubuntu Server

While most major server vendors take a “wait and see” approach to Ubuntu, a major Canadian Web host says the server operating system is ready for prime time. Indeed, Cirrus Tech is now offering Ubuntu on its server hosting plans. Here’s a closer look at Cirrus Tech’s announcement, and the state of Ubuntu on the server.

Cirrus Tech’s Ubuntu server move comes less than two weeks after I noted Canonical’s Ubuntu server push is progressing slowly. Still, a few more small victories resembling Cirrus Tech could help Ubuntu to gradually gain mind share — and market share — on servers.

In addition to Ubuntu, Cirrus Tech says it offers Fedora Core, CentOS and Debian as Linux server options. Cirrus introduced Ubuntu server support because customers have been requesting it “for some time now,” according to a prepared statement from Mani Aminian, a sales manager at Cirrus. Aminian adds that Cirrus has experienced no problems running Ubuntu on the company’s servers.

Meanwhile, most major server vendors continue to take a “wait and see” approach to Ubuntu servers. While Sun offers Ubuntu servers, rival hardware makers like Dell, Hewlett-Packard and IBM remain on the sidelines.

Sensing Opportunity

Smaller server vendors, however, are making progress with Ubuntu. System76, for instance, offers a range of Ubuntu-certified servers. And I’ve received dozens of inquiries from white box PC makers who are testing Ubuntu as a small business server.

Application providers are gradually climbing aboard as well. Untangle, an open source security specialist, now writes its applications to support Ubuntu servers, according to MSPmentor.

Still, Ubuntu’s momentum on the server remains a work in progress.

Microsoft IS Targeting Open Source Users

Much of the reaction from FOSS folks to news that Microsoft is joining the Open Source Census centers on concern that Microsoft is out to find open source users and what open source software they’re using. I think that may be exactly right.

However, I don’t think Microsoft has embarked on a SCO-style hunt for open source users it can cajole, threaten or sue for unnamed patent infringements. No, I think Microsoft has genuine interest in finding out how many open source software users are candidates for open source on Windows. I believe the company, which has changed, is aware of the scrutiny on it and its strategy with open source. Does Microsoft want to know exactly which open source software packages are most popular in datacenters? Wouldn’t you if you were provider of the most popular server/desktop OS in the world? Certainly Microsoft would rather see growth of its own products rather than growth of open source, but I believe it has accepted that it also has opportunity in open source that will be taken by others if it does not step up.

Microsoft is indeed targeting open source software users. However, being in the cross hairs means being a customer and I highly doubt any of those customers will ever find themselves defendants against Microsoft. Will Microsoft use Open Source Census data to sharpen its focus on its own products that compete with open source? Sure, but whether Redmond is aware or not, the bigger opportunity lies in Microsoft’s own support of open source. Should Microsoft be precluded from obtaining information about how much and which open source is being used? That doesn’t sound like open source to me. Once again, we see that open source is increasingly being viewed not as a hobbyist fad, cheap alternative, or enterprise-limited. No, instead open source is being viewed and handled by Microsoft and most other vendors as a source of real rivalry and real opportunity.

Joomla’s Money Hungry “Open Source” Community

As some of you may know I have recently been designing a website for a client using Joomla’s Content Management Software. The reason I went with this software is because the old webmaster had designed the previous site using Joomla.

Had I known what I know now about Joomla, I would have stuck to WordPress and rebuilt the site from the ground up.

I was forced to rebuild the site anyway because of limitations of the existing site and requirements for the new one. I didn’t mind learning a new CMS. I actually enjoyed it. My only complaint was how Joomla seemed to “over think” simple things like inserting an image or link.

After 20 hours I had completed the site and now all I had to do was implement a new theme and some modules to finalize the project. Unfortunately I had waited until last to do this. This is where I ran into a very disappointing surprise regarding Joomla.

As I searched for themes, (templates) all the ones I came across that looked halfway decent were “Paid” themes that you had to buy ranging from $25 to $300 dollars depending on the site and the subscription. A lot of the modules I was looking at also carried a hefty price tag to use with this “Open Source” software.

I found some themes that seemed decent, but they were for old versions of Joomla and required you to enable a legacy plugin, which tends to break various functional parts of the site in the new versions of Joomla.

After looking around for awhile I decided my best option was to go the Legacy route and cross my fingers that I could find something that would work with the majority of the site I had created.

I decided I would change the images in the theme to give my client’s site a unique look. My eye twitched a little when I saw what a Joomla theme consisted of… 2 PHP files, a CSS file and an images folder.

So this is what people are charging for?

I have seen many AMAZING WordPress themes that blow this theme out of the water, and they are all FREE to use. Look at a theme like the “Options Theme” by Justin Tadlock, which he gives away for FREE and offers personal support and online documentation through his forum. That is what I love about the WordPress community, and unfortunately that is what I expected to find with Joomla. I was sorely mistaken.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m sure Joomla does has a great community overall, but the developers and designers out there that dominate the SERPs and monopolize on this open source software really make me sick.

For any future projects I do for clients, I will be going with WordPress installations hands down. I now understand why people say it’s such a versatile and easy to use CMS.

You can read about another users similar experience in this blog post at Smashing Templates

Greenie Linux 3.0.2H Released

Greenie Linux 3.0.2H, an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution designed for Czech and Slovak-speaking users, was announced by Stanislav Hoferek and its main goal is to provide a simple to use operating system for everyday tasks, targeted at beginners and advanced users at the same time. Greenie looks much better now, as it received some aesthetic improvements.

This release is based on the latest stable edition of Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) and comes with Mozilla Firefox 3.0 RC1 and Opera 9.50. The default movie player is now VLC, a cross-platform multimedia player and streaming server that allows you to play different audio and video formats, DVDs, VCDs and different streaming protocols. The default photo viewer is now gThumb, an image browser and viewer for the GNOME desktop environment. Moreover, Greenie's size was reduced so it can fit on only one CD, the Bash aliases were improved for easier command execution and The GIMP comes packed up with a few additional plug-ins.

Fans of the popular Battle for Wesnoth, the free turn based strategy game created by David White, Frets on Fire and MPlayer will be disappointed, because the developer decided to remove them from this release. Frets on Fire is a game written in Python where you have to play along with the scrolling on-screen musical notes to complete a song.

Besides the two already available desktop environments, GNOME and OpenBox, another one was added. LXDE (Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment), is now included in Greenie Linux 3.02H and was designed to be slim enough to keep the resource consumption at a low level. The components of the LXDE are independent and every one of them can be used separately with a small number of dependencies.

Download Greenie Linux 3.0.2H right now from Softpedia.

How to Buy a Flat-Screen HDTV

Introduction

Before you drop hundreds or thousands of dollars on the wrong flat-panel HDTV, read our comprehensive breakdown of everything you need to know. Our advice might just help you save some money.

The Big Picture

The supersizing of the American TV continues--but as screens grow ever bigger, tube sizes are going on crash diets. The once-popular 32-inch CRT-based set is a major hog, weighing well over a hundred pounds and requiring a couple of feet of space behind it. Today, thin is in, and flat-panel displays are your best bet for the best picture.

So which kind of flat-panel HDTV should you buy: a plasma model or an LCD set? Both technologies have made it possible to build very shallow, relatively lightweight TV screens with large picture areas. Both carry higher prices than their bulkier brethren, although the gap has shrunk over recent years. In the end, however, you must weigh the differences between plasma and LCD TVs, and determine which works better for your viewing conditions.

The first thing you should know, whether you look at plasma or LCD, is that almost all the sets on the market now are wide-screen models. Translation: Such sets have a 16:9 ratio of screen width to screen height (also referred to as the aspect ratio), which is the standard for HDTV and very close to the ratio used for most modern movies. As a result, the displays are more rectangular than the traditional, almost-square 4:3 sets of the past.

You can find the latest prices on both plasma and LCD TVs in PC World's Shop and Compare center.

Plasma

Essentially all current plasma displays offer HDTV resolution. Screen sizes begin at 42 inches diagonal and typically range up to about 70 inches (occasionally moving up to the downright ridiculous 150-inch sets that companies trot out for trade shows). Prices start at around $1000 and can reach about $15,000.

You get what you pay for in plasma, which means you can't expect to see the same picture quality from a $999 42-inch display that you would from a same-size model selling for $2000, a more typical price. The budget model will usually have lower contrast and poorer reproduction of black and of dark grays, yielding a picture with less punch and detail. A bigger problem with a bargain set is that it may do a worse job of upconverting regular standard-definition (SD) TV programs and DVDs to its native resolution. The resulting picture could look softer, coarser, or noisier than if it had better processing.

The most expensive plasmas in a given screen size are typically 1080p models, which offer 1920 by 1080 resolution. Whether this provides a visible improvement in picture quality over lower but more typical plasma resolutions, such as 1366 by 768 or 1024 by 768, depends on screen size and viewing distance. The smaller the screen, the closer you must be to it to see the benefit of a higher display resolution. For example, with a 50-inch screen you would have to sit within about 10 feet to perceive the difference between 1080p and 1366 by 768.

Like CRTs, plasmas use phosphors to generate light, which means they can be subject to "burn-in"--or, at least, the older plasma sets are susceptible. Burn-in occurs when a static image stays on the screen for a long time; for example, it could be the score box for a ballgame on ESPN, the health meter in a video game, or an annoying network logo that squats in the corner of your screen.

Fortunately, you can minimize the risk by keeping contrast and brightness settings reasonable (virtually all TV sets come out of the box with their contrast, brightness, color, and sharpness controls turned up too high) and by using stretch modes to fill the screen when you're watching 4:3 programming. And for the most part, today's TVs use pixel-shifting strategies that continually move the image on the screen in imperceptibly tiny increments to help prevent burn-in. Such technology should help--that is, unless you plan to watch NCAA March Madness nonstop. Then you have bigger issues.

One last thing to bear in mind with plasma sets is the audio. Most sets now come with speakers either built in or attached to the sides or bottom of the panel, but some remain strictly video displays with neither speakers nor any integrated TV tuner. In such cases you will need to factor those additional costs into your home-theater budget.

You can find the latest prices on plasma TVs in PC World's Shop and Compare center.

LCD

LCD screens range from desktop-friendly 15-inch models up to 70-inch wide-screen wonders complete with speakers and TV tuners. At screen sizes smaller than 42 inches, HDTV LCDs still come at a premium price, but the category is falling into a much more reasonable range. A 32-inch high-definition LCD, for instance, could cost anywhere from about $600 to $2000 depending on its manufacturer and features. (A 32-inch wide-screen display has about the same screen height as a 27-inch TV with a conventional 4:3 aspect ratio.) Once you start craving something larger than 50 inches, though, LCD shopping becomes a little more cost-prohibitive.

LCDs are continuing to play catch-up with plasma models in visual performance. LCD sets often come under criticism for having lower contrast ratios than their plasma counterparts do, as they have a tougher time reproducing deep black and dark grays. That's saying nothing of slower screen response times (aka the refresh rate), which causes on-screen blurring with fast-moving action scenes; sports and video-game fiends are the people most likely to find that problematic.

However, new advances in LCD technology are attempting to resolve the refresh-rate issue. We're seeing more models that refresh the display 120 times per second instead of the standard 60. Sets accomplish this by interpolating between frames to create new frames with pixels illuminated at levels midway between those of the preceding and succeeding real frames--in other words, by faking it. If you're buying a new LCD HDTV, make sure that it has this 120-Hz feature.

LCDs are often one to several inches thicker than plasmas and have a somewhat narrower effective viewing angle. (Plasmas, like CRTs, are easily viewable from well off to the side and do not exhibit any change in brightness as you stand up or sit down.) On the other hand, LCDs are completely immune to burn-in, are easier to view in brightly lit rooms, and more often include all the standard features of a conventional TV. LCDs also run cooler than plasmas, minimizing the need for potentially noisy cooling fans.

Another bonus of LCDs is that they give you the freedom to set them up wherever you please. LCDs work equally well in the dark or in bright-light situations. Or maybe you want to have your TV serve double duty as a huge monitor. LCD panels are light--way lighter than plasmas of the same size--and won't require a team of Clydesdales to haul between rooms.

You can find the latest prices on LCD TVs in PC World's Shop and Compare center.

The Specs Explained

Gone are the days when you figured out how big a screen you wanted, looked at some sets, and bought the one with the best picture that fit your budget. An options explosion has littered the shopping landscape with numbers, features, and terminology that even experts sometimes have trouble tracking (not us, though). We've cut through the chaos to give you the information you need to get up to speed. When you're finding your way in the high-def, A/V world, don't just go for the gaudiest numbers--sure, some are important, but others aren't. Let's quickly walk through a few.

Important: Contrast Ratio

Contrast ratio refers to the brightest and darkest light values a display can produce at the same time. All else being equal, the higher the contrast ratio is, the better. All else is seldom equal, however.

Pumping up the maximum light output, for example, will increase contrast, but it won't do anything to help pitiful black levels--that, in our opinion, is a much greater concern. LCDs in particular have a tougher time dealing with darks. So take contrast ratings as a very rough guide to be supplemented by eyes-on evaluation. LCD contrast-ratio specs start at about 600:1, while those for plasmas start at about 1000:1. Although ratings of 10,000:1 or better are becoming common for both types of displays, you should approach such claims with a healthy bit of skepticism. Trust your own eyes. Keep in mind that when you're on a showroom floor, you're checking out the HDTVs under the store's lighting conditions, not yours. Will you watch in a dark cave or in a well-lit, open space? Probably the smartest idea is to check the store's return policy before buying.

Important: Aspect Ratio

The aspect ratio describes the relationship of screen width to screen height. Conventional sets have a 4:3 aspect ratio, whereas wide-screen models are 16:9. Wide screens are the future. HDTV is a wide-screen format, for one thing. For another, DVDs usually look better on wide-screen displays because nearly every movie made in the last 50 years was filmed in an aspect ratio of either 1.85:1 (very close to 16:9, which is 1.78:1) or 2.35:1 (even wider than 16:9).

Important: Video Inputs

The number and type of video inputs determine which sources you can use with the display.

Composite video: This input type has the lowest quality but the broadest compatibility. Any device that has video outputs will include composite video among them. Connection is made with a single 75-ohm coaxial cable between RCA jacks.

S-Video: S-Video offers better quality than composite video does, and most video sources except standard VCRs now have S-Video outputs. Connection is made with a special cable and multipin sockets.

Component video: This high-quality option is the minimum standard for connecting high-definition cable and satellite set-top boxes and progressive-scan DVD, Blu-ray Disc, and HD DVD players. It requires three 75-ohm coaxial cables of the same type used for composite video.

VGA (Video Graphics Array): This high-quality analog RGB connection is used primarily for computer connections.

DVI (Digital Video Interface): One of the highest-quality types of inputs. This digital video connection can attach to devices with HDMI outputs (see below) by means of an adapter. It may also be used for computer connections. Requires a special cable and multipin sockets. Some displays with a DVI input may work only with computers, so watch out for that if you plan to connect an HDTV source, such as an HD digital cable box or a Blu-ray Disc or HD DVD player. Another thing you need for guaranteed HDTV compatibility is compliance with the HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection) system.

HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface): Also of the highest quality, this is basically DVI plus a digital audio and control link. The big draw here is that you get a one-wire setup that pumps HD content into your other home-theater components too. This connection is provided on almost all current HD satellite receivers, HD cable boxes, and upconverting DVD players (those that provide 720p, 1080i, or 1080p output from regular DVDs), and it is the standard video connector for Blu-ray and HD DVD players. The exact version of the HDMI input (for example, 1.1 or 1.3) is of little consequence on TV sets currently on the market. If you have, or plan on getting, a Blu-ray Disc or HD DVD player, it is desirable, though by no means essential, that the TV's HDMI inputs be capable of accepting 1080p signals (we'll get to 1080p in a second). Don't have HDMI components? Don't sweat it: Simple adapters turn HDMI into DVI connectors. Finally, for what it's worth, movie and TV studios love HDMI because it incorporates HDCP to combat piracy.

Somewhat Important: Resolution

Non-CRT displays, such as plasmas and LCDs, are fixed-pixel arrays, which means they have rows and columns of individual picture elements that turn on and off to produce the necessary patterns of light. Resolution is specified as the number of pixel columns by the number of pixel rows--640 by 480, for example, or 1280 by 720. Resolution and, to a somewhat lesser degree, contrast ratio determine perceived picture detail.

Digital content currently is delivered in one of five formats: 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, and 1080p. The 480i format is the same as that used for standard analog TV, and when programming originally in 480i is delivered by digital cable or satellite to your home, it retains that format. DVDs are sometimes mastered in 480p, but mostly they are 480i; a progressive-scan DVD player can deinterlace 480i DVDs to create 480p output, however. The 720p and 1080i formats are used by satellite, cable, and over-the-air-broadcast high-definition content providers, as well as some advanced DVD players that upconvert 480i and 480p content. Blu-ray and HD-DVD discs carry 1080p video, though their corresponding players can deliver the content in 1080i or 720p format for displays that do not accept 1080p input.

Generally speaking, a display is considered high-definition if it is wide-screen and has a total pixel count approaching 1 million. So 1920 by 1080 (1080p), 1280 by 720 (720p), 1366 by 768, and 1024 by 1024 are all examples of high-definition display resolutions.

Somewhat Important: Screen Size

Size matters, don't get us wrong. But just because you can afford a 65-inch monster doesn't mean you should buy one. You need to factor in the screen size and where you plan to watch the TV. Having your nose pressed up against the display in a broom closet of a room is hardly "ideal viewing conditions."

To determine the best viewing distance, and therefore how much space you'll need in your TV room, remember this simple bit of math: Note the screen size in inches and multiply it by 2. Calculators ready? Take, for example, a 52-inch set. The sweet spot for viewing is 104 inches away, or a little more than 8.5 feet from the screen (8.66666667 feet if you want to be nitpicky about it). You don't have to be exactly on target. Just bear this in mind as you plan where to place your new set.

Somewhat Important: Built-In Tuners

Most current flat-panel displays include a tuner for conventional analog broadcast and cable-TV reception and for broadcast HDTV. A few, however, are strictly business--they're monitors with no built-in tuner (more common for plasmas than for LCDs). That may not matter if you receive all your TV programming via satellite or cable, but if you want to watch broadcast TV over an antenna, be sure that the set you buy includes a TV tuner. Many sets also have built-in tuners for digital cable TV. Although such tuners have a standard for handling scrambled premium channels (for example, HBO), many sets do not support it, so be sure you know exactly what you are getting. If you want that capability, make sure the set you buy has a CableCard slot and that your cable provider can give you the necessary electronic ID card. Cable pay-per-view and satellite TV currently require external set-top boxes.

Minor: Comb Filter Type

Comb filters are necessary in analog TV to separate color and luminance information without losing too much detail, but that's not an issue in HDTV. The only time the comb filter comes into play is for analog TV reception or any signal coming in via a composite-video connection. For all other connections, it's out of the loop. In any case, the comb filters in flat-panel TV sets are routinely very good these days.

Flat-Screen TV Shopping Tips

All right, you've made it this far. Here are key points to consider before you take the HD plunge.

Consider the alternatives: If you can live with a tabletop set that's 10 to 18 inches deep rather than 4 to 7, LCoS (liquid crystal on silicon) and DLP (digital light-processing) rear-projection sets can deliver solid performance in similar screen sizes and at lower prices. You just don't hear about them as much because they're not as sexy.

To learn about other big-screen TV options, check out "How to Buy a Rear-Projection TV."

Think HDMI: If at all possible, you should get a set with an HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) input. This will ensure maximum compatibility with HDTV sources such as HD digital cable boxes, HD satellite receivers, and Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD players.

Compare displays using a variety of material: Just about any flat-panel display will handle HDTV and DVD signals well, but mediocre cable and satellite signals will give some of them fits. Don't make a buying decision based solely on pictures generated from pristine sources.

Look for good blacks: When you're comparison shopping, bring along a DVD of a movie containing some dimly lit night scenes. Use it to check for good black reproduction and ability to render detail in near-darkness.

Get to know the remote: A good remote can be your best friend, a bad remote your worst enemy. (Well, okay, we're exaggerating a little, but you get the idea.) Does it have backlighting or glow-in-the-dark buttons to help you see what you're doing when the lights are turned down? How easy is it to find commonly used buttons by feel?

Check the video settings: Now that you have the remote, pull up the video-adjustment menu and look at the settings. If you thought the picture looked a little (or a lot) off on first viewing, try selecting the median settings for contrast, brightness, color, tint, and sharpness. Those probably won't be optimum, but chances are they're closer than what you found originally. A good display can easily look worse than a lesser one if it's poorly adjusted. Repeat your tests using a variety of sources, including a dimly lit movie, if necessary. Also keep in mind that you'll likely have to readjust the color settings for each source. Most HDTVs these days have input memories, so your set should keep the ideal settings for high-def movies on one input and your video games on another.

You can find the latest prices on both plasma and LCD TVs in PC World's Shop and Compare center.

TinyMe 2008

About a year ago we reviewed TinyMe when it was still in its beta and test stage. But a lot has happened in the past year, and all of it good. But what makes it so good? Well, in addition to fixing all the bugs and little quirks, TinyMe has become more stable and loads faster than it was in the early days.For those who are unaware of this distro, TinyMe is a slimmed down, streamlined version of PcLinuxOS, otherwise affectionately referred to as PCLOS. The biggest difference between PCLOS and TinyMe is that while the former is more tailored toward modern hardware, while the latter is better suited to to older and slower computers. Plus - TinyMe is also useful for people who have modern hardware, but want to have a system that is as screamingly fast and lean as possible. And that's exactly what TinyMe is.The install disk weights in at a lightweight 199mb. This includes both the full installer, and a complete and fairly well featured livecd component. When first booting the cd, you're given the TinyMe boot splash screen, and the now-familiar list of livecd, various safe modes, console, mediacheck, and memtest. (This distro also includes a "copy2ram" option, which not all do. If you have the memory to do this, I'd definitely recommend it. You haven't lived until you've run a linux distro entirely from RAM.) The system loads from the boot menu into the full desktop in a blazing 30 seconds. (Ok, 30 seconds doesn't sound fast, but when you're talking about livecd boot times, that's screaming.)Once you're done booting there's a simple screen that asks you about your keyboard, and after that the login screen. The login screen comes with two logins, "guest" and "root," that you can choose from. The login info is even conveniently displayed on the screen for you, so there is no scrabbling through README files or documentation to get in. Once you login, it almost immediately drops you on the desktop! If you've logged in as "guest," you get a little popup menu asking if you want to setup your system options. (This menu is bypassed if you login as "root," which is a bit curious, but I guess that's ok.)Once you close that, wandering around the desktop is fairly quick and easy, as the system is powered by the OpenBox window manager. This is a streamlined and ultra sleek Window manager that keeps things fast and simple. The desktop is populated by a group of icons that are ordered in a way reminiscent of Puppy, in the angled corner style. In fact, speaking of Puppy, a few of the utilities (such as Grafburn) have been ported over from puppy to TinyMe since they're so lightweight and yet powerful.One of the unique features of TinyMe is that it contains the TinyCC, a minimalistic control center, in addition to the fully featured PCLOS control center. It also includes GnomePPP for dialup, Audacious for music, MTPaint for drawing, Abiword for writing and more. There's even a couple of games to keep you entertained. The system also uses the Synaptic Package Manager for installing new ports which makes life so easy. Another interesting thing is that the livecd has Conky running on the desktop. For those unfamiliar with it, Conky is a real time system monitor for your PC. It tells you how much of each of the important elements of your PC (ram, swap, cpu, etc) are being used. If you don't like it, it's easy enough to remove with a little config file edit, not a big deal at all. The help files can walk you through that if you ever need to do it.TinyMe uses the PCLOS Draklive system installer to install TinyMe onto your drive. For the most part it's everything you would expect Draklive to be, but with a few minor twists just for TinyMe, such as the ability to install to a pen drive. The install to the system is very quick and easy, and only took a couple of minutes start to finish.Once you've installed the system and rebooted, everything you found in the livecd is present in the live system, save for two icons on your desktop, one for the help files, and one for the installer. The moving of the help files is not a big thing since those are still there, just in a different place. The system really does a splendid job of being a full featured workstation distribution while being as lean and trim as possible. It detected all of my hardware and set it up properly with zero issues, and no post-setup tweaks needed at all.While there are no video player applications installed with the system, installing one is pretty easy through Synaptic. One bump I found: TinyMe doesn't autodetect dvd's and cd's like I'd like it to. But the media players all seem to see them alright, so that's something I can overlook. One thing of personal preference I'd rather see in this system is the default use of Firefox as the browser rather than Opera. There's nothing inherently wrong with Opera, except that for purists, it's not truly open source (nor is it quite as good as Firefox).But other than that and the few other tiny quirks I mentioned before, I really have nothing bad to say about TinyMe 2008. It's a great OS: lean, clean, responsive and ready for newbie and experienced user alike. So if you haven't had a chance to check it out, I recommend downloading it. You can get it here.

Web's Designer Praises Online Collaboration

The challenge of the Web is to build a system that enables people to creatively solve problems that they couldn't solve on their own, said Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web and director of the World Wide Web Consortium.
Speaking Wednesday at the "Future of the Web Debate," at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's Tetherless World Research Constellation, Berners-Lee said one of the Web's key challenges is what he calls "connective creativity."
Creativity is that "Eureka moment," when a long-sought-after answer to a problem seems to come out of nowhere, said Berners-Lee, the senior research scientist at the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence.
"Creativity is what happens in one person's brain, when things start to click together because you have been consciously reading up about the problem and all the things you think would be relevant [to solving that problem], and quite subconsciously your brain has been fitting together a solution," he said.
Then the answer suddenly comes to you when you're in the shower or jogging, he said.
"That's an interesting thing that happens and it happens in just one brain," he said. "Now just suppose, given that we have those huge problems out there to solve in health care [such as ] looking for a cure for AIDS, or cancer, that part of the answer might be in my brain and another part might be in somebody else's brain. So how can we make the Web a substrate so that all those half-formed ideas out there [are connected]?"
In the future, the Web should be able to connect people's ideas in such a way that one person could store his partly formed ideas and leave a trail of his thinking for other people trying to solve the same problem, he said.
"How can we make the Web be an infrastructure that allows more than one person to think more effectively than one person can? There's no proof yet that for creative thinking we've done that," he said. "The challenge is to build a system that allows the formation of half-formed ideas and allows collective creativity."
His speech was also available via a live Webcast.

Samsung Shows 256GB SSD, Plans Launch This Year

Samsung Electronics plans to launch within this year a flash memory-based solid-state disk that boasts a 256GB capacity and high-speed interface, it said Monday.
The drive, which was unveiled in prototype form at a Samsung event in Taipei, has the same form factor as a 9.5-millimeter high 2.5-inch hard-disk drive for which it is designed to be a drop-in replacement.
Solid-state disks (SSDs) are an emerging type of storage device that use flash memory chips in place of the spinning magnetic disks used in hard-disk drives. The memory chips mean the drives are more sturdy and typically have a higher performance but the per-byte storage cost is also much higher, so they are generally more expensive. That has largely restricted them to niche applications but as flash prices come down they are expected to become more widely used.
Samsung, which is one of the world's largest makers of flash memory chips, is eager to see the drives become popular as their widespread use will represent a big new market for its chips. The company has showed prototypes of the technology for several years.
The prototype drive announced today by the company has a read speed of 200M bytes per second (Bps) and a sequential write speed of 160M Bps, said Samsung.
Samples of the drive will be available to customers from September with mass production due by the end of the year.
A version with a similar form factor to a 1.8-inch drive is also expected to be available in the fourth quarter of the year, the company said.
The drive isn't the first SSD launched at this capacity. Last month a competitor, U.S.-based Super Talent, began sales of a 256G byte SSD but that drive is thicker than Samsung's at 12.5 millimeters. It has a SATA I interface, which means read speeds of 65M bytes per second and write speeds of 50M bytes per second.

Firefox 3 to Launch With a Bang

After an extensive beta program and two release candidates (or three, if you use a Mac), the final version of Firefox 3 is now officially set for release. The Firefox developers insisted they would only release it "when it's ready," and now the word is that it will be ready at last on Tuesday, June 17.

Expect this release to go off with a bang. Firefox developers and fans are eagerly anticipating the new browser, and they've already cooked up a number of ways to celebrate.

As has been reported previously, the Firefox team wants to set a new Guinness World Record for the most software downloaded on a single day. To get a jump start on their headcount, they've been registering users who pledge to download Firefox 3 when it's released. If you do register, however, don't forget to actually grab the software on Tuesday!

As an additional incentive, once you've downloaded your copy, you can expect more than a pat on the back. As they have in the past, Firefox fans are planning a number of birthday parties for the browser at various locations around the world. You can RSVP for one near you on the Firefox party page hosted by the Mozilla organization; or, if you don't see one in your area, you can register one yourself.

Of course, the lingering question that remains is whether all this hype is actually worth it? How big a deal is Firefox 3, anyway?

The short answer is a rhetorical question: How important is your Web browser to you? With more and more of our computing moving online, the browser is arguably the most critical piece of software on our desktops. Everything from e-mail to enterprise applications uses it as a client these days, so it only makes sense to take advantage of the most up-to-date version.

I've been using the beta editions of Firefox 3 for a while now, and while some new features take a little bit of getting used to, it's a definite improvement over the previous version. And, while with early releases I had to hack my browser to get some of my most-beloved extensions to work, the majority of them have now been updated for Firefox 3 (Google's extensions still, alas, excepted).

Are you planning to update your Firefox on Tuesday? Or is Internet Explorer still your browser of choice? Sound off in the PC World Community Forums -- and if you're planning to attend a Firefox 3 release party, you can let other PC World community members know about it here.

Google and Yahoo to Partner on IM

Most of the attention to the recent Google/Yahoo partnership has focused on the two companies' search advertising plans, but the deal has implications for instant messaging, too. "In addition," reads the companies' press release, "Yahoo and Google agreed to enable interoperability between their respective instant messaging services, bringing easier and broader communication to users."

So far, exactly what that means is anyone's guess. But the IM market could certainly benefit from a little more interoperability. Despite the fact that IM use is on the rise among home users and businesses alike, each separate IM network remains a walled garden, independent of all the others. Getting them to work together -- similar to how e-mail works -- would benefit everyone.

There are a number of IM clients available that can connect to multiple networks at the same time, including Adium, Pidgin, and Trillian. But these clients still require you to have your own account on each network in order to talk to other people on that network. What would be better would be the ability to talk to anyone on any network from a single account.

For its part, Google has already demonstrated an interest in IM interoperability. Its own Google Talk IM network is built on an open, standards-based IM protocol called XMPP, which in theory allows communication between IM servers, although that feature hasn't been used so far. Connecting the Google Talk servers with Yahoo's own messaging servers would be a great first step.

Unfortunately, in light of all the other talk surrounding Google and Yahoo's partnership, few details have emerged to explain exactly what form the proposed IM interoperability might take. In other words, we'll have to wait and see. But any way you slice it, this is encouraging news for the increasingly commoditized IM market

The Inevitability of Open Source Windows

The FOSS (Free/Open Source Software) Community knows, thanks to leaked Microsoft internal documents, that since about 1998 Microsoft has been in a sort of war against them. Because of this, it is not surprising that the FOSS community has looked at Microsoft with suspicion and has vilified it to no end. But, is Microsoft really evil?

The reality is that Microsoft is just a company. It is a company that was at the right place at the right time (when the PC was created) and this brought a lot of success. Of course, there was a lot of hard work and good talent involved. In some respects, Microsoft may have even been a positive force in the world, since it was instrumental in bringing down the price of computing at a time in which this was very expensive. However, with that success came a lot of power.

As we all know, power can be a good thing, when used wisely and benevolently, or can be a bad thing, when used shortsightedly an selfishly. Unfortunately, corporations are, by their very nature, selfish and shortsighted. I am not saying that all people inside of Microsoft are bad people. I am sure that, for the most part, most people at Microsoft are just your average, mostly honest, hardworking people. But, it is not in the best interest of “the company” to be generous and meek. So, management has sometimes seen fit to use their power in ways that benefit “the company” at the expense of every one else.

For example, lets take the case of the Linux operating system. With the advent of the Internet, creating a powerful high quality operating system through collaboration is now possible. People from all over the world can now cooperate to create a software pool that everyone in the world can benefit from. Because it is freely available to all at no cost, poor people can more easily afford to own an up to date computer for their computing needs. Since the code is open to all and there are no hidden APIs, companies can build programs that run on that operating system knowing that they are competing on a level playing field. Knowledge is available to all and passed on to new generations rather than locked-in within a single increasingly more powerful corporation. Doesn’t this sound like a good thing for mankind?

But, the above is not in Microsoft’s best interest as a company. Therefore, Microsoft has been fighting tooth and nail the growth and adoption of Linux. Is Microsoft evil because of this? Well, lets just say that, while Microsoft’s success was due in large part for being at the right place at the right time, it now finds itself in the way of progress and the betterment of mankind. Worst yet for Microsoft is that, as time goes on, the inadequacy of its proprietary model, for a world in which technology has become so intertwined with our lives, becomes more and more evident. Computers and the internet are the railroad and freeways of today, except that what is being moved are ideas. Everyone needs computers (increasingly so) and therefore everyone has a stake. Too much control by one company is not in everyone’s best interest.

This realization seems to be very widespread now. The European Union competition commissioner, Neelie Kroes, is pushing hard for Europe to get out of the proprietary treadmill. I remember when, in 2002, the FOSS world rejoiced at seeing a congressman from Peru very clearly articulate, masterfully really, the advantages of “free software” over proprietary software in a response to a letter sent by the General Manager of Microsoft in Peru. That letter must have sent chills up the spine of Microsoft’s management. I can only imagine what they must now be thinking about Mrs. Kroes position expressed publicly at a recent a conference in Brussels. If this trend continues, and there is no indication that it won’t, it seems that Microsoft is due for being replaced outright as the primary provider for the world’s operating systems and basic business applications. Is there anything Microsoft can do to avoid this?

There are several strategies Microsoft has been implementing to stem the growth and adoption of FOSS (For example, see here, or here). All of them, however, have proved to be only temporary stop-gaps, with very limited success. Even the threat of patent warfare seems to be a strategy that is not expected by Microsoft to be overly successful, otherwise we would be hearing a lot more about it. So, what can we expect Microsoft’s next big move to be?

Microsoft is going to become an OSS company, not a FOSS company. (See what the “F” stands for here.) We are already seeing the early signs of this. They have created a couple of open source licenses and have submitted them for approval successfully with the Open Source Initiative. Microsoft has pledged to become a more open company. Although the said pledge has been received with a lot of skepticism, I think they really mean it. They have to. Microsoft is now hard at work trying to convince the world that they really have changed. Is all this going to be enough? I don’t think so. They have to still go a little further. Lets see why.

What are the advantages that FOSS is offering to the world?

1. A level playing field for software vendors. No hidden APIs. Everyone gets the updates and information about new features at the same time. Everyone has the same documentation and the same access to the OS developers.
2. The possibility of accessing the code by the user. This is especially important when the user is a government, sometimes for security reasons. However, it can also be important in the context of education. This also allows the user to choose who to receive support from.
3. An expanded potential for innovation and software improvement. This is because, since everyone has access to the code, innovations, fixes, and improvements, can come from anyone in the world, sometimes from the least expected places.

So, can Microsoft match that? Well, what if Microsoft offered Windows, or a version of Windows, as an open source product? They already have open source licenses that they feel comfortable with (albeit not definable as free software). They would of course retain the copyright and trademark. “But, but, then other people can compile the Windows source code and bypass purchasing it from us”, I hear Mr. Ballmer say. Yes, but Microsoft could still sell proprietary add-ons and applications since only the base OS needs to be open. They would retain the advantage of being the company most familiar with the code and the maintainers of the standard implementation, which would make them the premier company to offer support for it. They could offer money to those that contribute code to the Windows base. In one fell swoop Microsoft would eradicate some of the most important advantages Linux has over Windows as far as governments, third party software developers, and the general public goes. What does Microsoft loose in doing this? They loose some advantages over third party vendors that used to give them an edge. They would have to rework their way of making money from Windows around support. But, at least they are able to stay in business and are not tossed out altogether. I think it is only a matter of time before this happens. What do you think?

KOffice 2.0 Alpha 8 -Released (LINUX)

The KDE Project today announced the eighth alpha release of KOffice 2, a technology preview of the upcoming version 2.0. Work continues in the same vein as before, with a strong focus on finishing and polishing our new features that will set KOffice. This is a work in progress, showing the changes that have been made over the last month by the KOffice developers. Most features that will be part of the final release are present now, and bug reports are welcome for the more stable components.

OpenDocument Improvements

One of the highlights of this release is the work on saving and loading Open Document Format documents, especially for the text shape, thanks to the sponsoring of Girish Ramakrishnan by the Dutch NLNet organisation. Girish has added scores of tests to check for ODF compliancy.

It is also worthy of note that now KOffice is able to load and save images in text and presentation documents. Shapes can now be animated and associated with events such as sounds.

Multiplatform

Importantly, for the first time, KOffice is released simultaneously for the three main platforms: Unix/X11, Windows and Mac OSX. KOffice is the only office suite that is available for all three platforms using a single codebase.

Early testers

While KOffice applications, generally speaking, are not ready for bugs reports, some applications are more ready than others. The developers of KSpread, Krita, Karbon and the report component of Kexi welcome user feedback. The season is open for bug reporting!

TINY ERP

Tiny ERP!, is an ERP tool helps to develop Enterprise resource packages... on the platform of LINUX. Mysql is a powerful background that supports the ERP's Front end inputs. Service servers can also comes as free under the GPL (General Public Liscence)...

Apache can play an important role for ERP tool. This ERP tool has less memory space to occupy. This can overcome the SAP packages in the future.

Microsoft's LINUX

Microsoft linux, seems to be more comedy, but its true, microsoft is gonna release their Open source Operating system. They are mainly concentrating to place their names in open source also. They are develping their package on the platform of Python,PERL.. which both are the opensource languages.

They will give development environment on PHP/Mysql with that OS. The developing package looks exactly like the .NET environment... Interesting...

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About the blog!

This blog was created on interest to collect the information on latest information technology, this deals with the software updates, latest software in the market, the known and unknown procedure and tips to carry. The main motive is to spread the unknowns on some exitinction of computer technology. We will discuss, and gives you a full analyze on the system that release latest.

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