Welcome venukb.com

As mentioned in my previous blog, I moved my blog to wordpress. However later I found that the functionality provided in wordpress.com was very limited compared to functionaly provided by wordpress.org.

In wordpress.com, your blog is hosted free by Wordpress (like Blogger), but you cannot add extra themes or plugins. You can only select from the one's provided by wordpress. So in order to use the full functionality of wordpress you need to host it on your own server. From many days I was thinking of registering a domain. However the "cost" factor made me think many times.

So I decided to bear the "cost" and registered my own domain

www.venukb.com

Also I have used wordpress.org to host my blog www.venukb.com/blog

The setup of the site was pretty easy, the details of which will be posted soon :)

So go ahead and explore www.venukb.com , and don't forget to give your feedback.

Contemplating ....

I have stuck to Blogger for blogging for quite some time. Very few people know that I have a synchronized blog at venukb.wordpress.com. Now I am seriously contemplating on a move to wordpress due to number of reasons. Wordpress is pretty powerful and allows tagging and categorizing of blogs. And again if someday I have my own domain, wordpress provides a very convienient way to move the blog to my own server. And there is a nice search feature and I dont need to rely on google. I really think this search is needed as my blog grows bigger and bigger. I guess blogger was intended for people who dont anything about web posting. I guess its pretty good for a entry level. As now I guess I have entered the "intermediate" level and now ready to play with PHP :-) And best of all, it wordpress provides a import facility, which can import all the blogs+comments. Nice isn't it. So if your have this link in your favourites don't forget it to change to http://venukb.wordpress.com Categorizes should definitely help you in selecting the blogs of your interest :-)

Riya - Photo Searching Redefined

Few weeks back I blogged on "Photo Uploading" portals. Flickr was the best, however there was a upload limit in the free version and the number of albums you could create also was limited to 3. At that same time, the google search had come up with a link to Riya. The portal boasted of a photo search based on "Face Recognition". I tried to sign up, but I found out that it was still in developement and asked for people to register for beta notification. 2 weeks back Riya sent out the beta invitation to the registered guys. Infact now Riya is open to public. This is how Riya works 1. First thing to do is "Register" in Riya. 2. Then you need to download the Riya Uploader which is used to upload the photos (yeah you guys might say the name suggests that). However this uploader doesn't just upload the photos. There is a face recognition engine built into this uploader which recognizes faces/text in the photos that are being uploaded (The CPU usage does shoot up to max and you can make that out from the CPU fan sound :-) ) . Initially this recognition engine was built into the server, but later they found it slows up the portal a lot, and hence moved the processing to client side. 3. Once you upload the photos you should be able to see them in the "Albums" section. Now click on the photo and you should see riya marking the faces in the photo and asking "Who is this" 4. This is where you start training Riya to identify people. You train Riya to recognize say 15 photos, and from next time it will automatically recognize the face when you upload the photos. There are different kinds of training available. check this "Take The Tour" section for more details 5. There are other settings you can do, like make the album public or private and also share the photos with your friends. 6. And the search is not just limited to face, Riya can also read "Text" within the photos and users can search based on this text. There are host of other features like Calendar Search, training based on the email address etc. And the best feature of Riya is that its FREE. Yes, there is no limit on the number of photos to be uploaded and no limit on the number of albums. So go ahead and experiment with Riya ! Search for "Venu" and see what you get ! Also do check out CEO Munjal Shah's blog ! Worth Reading Other interesting links: About Riya Vision of Riya Jobs at Riya (Bangalore and California guys Check out !) Staff at Riya Official Blog of Riya

Operating System By Oracle !

Oracle was the first company to release a commercial database Oracle8i for Linux. Today, all key Oracle products are available on Linux. Now the database giant has more agressive plans and wants a place on the desktop PC. To counter Microsoft Windows' dominance among corporates, Oracle revealed plans to create and sell their own Operating System based on Linux complete with all required software. Infact, Oracle even considered buying Novell, which after Red Hat is the biggest distributor of Linux. Such a move would redraw the software landscape and open a new front in Oracle’s long rivalry with US rival Microsoft. It will also give a big boot to Linux adaption among the enterprise. Larry Ellison also told Financial Times newspaper that he was pushing Oracle further into hosting software on behalf of customers, relying on regular subscription payments rather than upfront revenue Source : FT

Calendar - Google Style !

Google has now introduced Google Calendar - a "google" tool that simplifies keeping track of events, special occasions, and appointments. Its integrated with Gmail and you can add appoinments directly from your Gmail messages. More information can be found on this link Now I can see one more features of MS Outlook being put on to web ! Next in the line might be : Google Notes This is the only one I find missing now in Gmail, and yes we definitely need a nice GMail client.

Sony Ericsson Rocks !

Recently I happened to see a flash of the new Sony Ericsson mobile phones displayed in CeBIT2006. I also happened to see a program in CNBC where the CeBIT was covered. The host of the show checked the nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson booths. His final verdict was “Sony Ericsson Rocks !”. He thought that the best phone in the show was the Sony Ericsson W950

I have stuck to the view that Sony Ericsson makes the best mobile phones and my Nokia buddies have always begged to differ. Agreed Nokia does bring out with a new phone “every day”. But the features build and most important the cost to feature provided by Sony Ericsson is amazing

Check out some of the other phones (which I liked)

Google Talk - Updated !

Goolge has release a new version of Google Talk ! Download the latest from http://www.google.com/talk/ Now you can add pictures (as you do in Yahoo or MSN) and also change the appearance of the chat session. Check this official googletalk blog for more details

Google Romance

One more beta out from Google... It called Google Romance..Read on for more details !! Google Romance, a beta product currently incubating in Google Labs, uses cutting-edge personal search algorithms to help you find your soulmate, then sponsors your first Contextual Date with said soulmate-to-be in exchange for showing you highly relevant advertising that just might help Cupid's arrow find its mark. Does it really work? Yup it does ! The tour is pretty extensive ! Do read it before doing the search for your soulmate I used the search facility and the results were mindboggling ! Check it out without fail !

Multiplex in Mysore Infosys !

Wish we had something like this in our office !

Back it up !

Today I found 2 tools which help in backing up your data at the expense of Gmail !. One shows the gmail as a drive in windows explorer, the other shows the gmail as a ftp host ! Read on for more info .... GSpace This extension allows you to use your Gmail Space (2 GB) for file storage. It acts as a remote machine. You can transfer files between your hard drive and gmail. This extension allows you to use your Gmail Space (2 GB) for file storage. It acts as a remote a FTP host and you can upload and download your files. You can downloaded the firefox extension from download.com. Gmail Drive GMail Drive is a Shell Namespace Extension that creates a virtual filesystem around your Google Gmail account, allowing you to use Gmail as a storage medium.

GMail Drive creates a virtual filesystem on top of your Google Gmail account and enables you to save and retrieve files stored on your Gmail account directly from inside Windows Explorer. GMail Drive literally adds a new drive to your computer under the My Computer folder, where you can create new folders, copy and drag'n'drop files. However there is a disclaimer saying that google can block its use at any time.

After you upload, the files land in your mailbox as a mail from yourself (sender is 'me'). Create a label say 'backup' and create a rule to label and archive such messages automatically :-). I found the first one easy to use and no "disclaimer" like GDrive. Please note that in both the tools you might get error initially while logging in. Try again and you are logged in successfully ! And those who don't have a gmail id , let me know, I have a "few" invites left !

Some more googl photos

Found some more google photos Check out...

Googl

I discovered few months back that you could type in a stock "code" in google search it shows up with the latest stock quote as the first search result. For e.g. If you search GOOG in google, the first result will be the stock quote of Google !. It also sets up link to Yahoo finance, MSN money control etc. Last week, google added its own finance portal finance.google.com. It gives you the latest news and how each news item affected the stock price. And there are other standard sections such as company summary, company facts, financials etc. The management section is interesting, it has links from which you can check up their compensation and the trading activities. I began to think that if Google is listed in Nasdaq, it should have a corporate portal which should provide information to the investors as well !. When you go to google.com there is no link for the corporate site !! Finally I searched in google iteself for the corportate web site and it gave me : http://www.google.com/corporate/ The information here is again typical google style. The milestones section was pretty interesting. Do read it completely !

I searched for some nice company pictures and found none. Again I used google search to find some googleplex pictures. I found a lot of picutres..embeeded a few down here:

All about positioning !

For those who dont know, I commute to my office at ITPL by bus :-(. However I should accept that it has been a fine ride till now. The ride is more than "fine" if you get a "comfortable" place to sit.This comfort is dictated by your neighbour,I mean the person sitting next to you in the bus. Of course, the size of your neighbour does make a lot of difference, but there are few guys(even skinny ones) who just think that they have come from some other planet ! Some guys just spread their legs and have no care in the world.Some of them even use your leg as a resting place. This is no way a new experience to me. I travelled by bus for 4 years during engineering and had similar problems even then. The way it was dealt at that time was either through a warning tone or a humble request and when both didn't had to resort to physical force. (I am sure our mysore group has some valuable comments on this :-)) Anyway I am going to deviate from this and explain how I take my position in the ITPL bus while coming back home. Most of the ITPL buses are 3+2 seat type. My algorithm for a "comfortable" place is this:

Status main(Bus b)
{
Status twoSeatStat,threeSeatStat;
/* Search for 2 seaters first */
if((twoSeatStat = search2Seater()) == FAILURE)
Status threeSeatStat = search3Seater()    ;
else
return twoSeatStat;

/* check the status of 3 seater search */
if(threeSeatStat == FALIURE)
/* go on searching the next bus..hmm might cause a stack overflow */
return main(NextBus)
else
return threeSeatStat;
}



Status search2Seater()

{
for(every 2 seater in the bus)
{
  if (both seats empty)
  {
      /* aisle is definitely not recommended, since you cant predict
who your neighbour is going to be */
      occupy the window place;
      pray for a skinny guy/gal:-) to sit next to you;
      if(skinny)
      {
          if(gal)
          {
              return LUCKYDAY;
 /* haha my wife is going to kill me seeing this scenario
 and return value */                                                              
          }
      else if(guy)
      {
          return HMMMBADLUCK;
      }
/* wondering why this check.. see the next return statement */
      else
          return GODSAVEME;
  }
  else /* not skinny */
  {
      if (gal)
      return CANMANAGEIGUESS;
      else
      return GODSAVEMEAGAIN;  

  }
} /* no 2 seater with both seats empty :-( */
else
if(single seat is available)
{
  /* this is definitely subjective */
  if( checksize(neighbour)!= too much)
  sit next to him/her;
  return CANMANAGEIGUESS;
}

/*no 2 seater , guess need to search in a 3 seater*/
return FAILURE;
}
}

Status search3seater()
{
for(each 3 seater)
{
/* I am already exhausted writing up to here..so i am keeping the flow SIMPLE :-) */
if(all 3 empty)
{
occupy the window seat;
pray for skinny neighbourS;
return PRAYFORTHEBEST;
}
else
/* assuming the guy/gal is sitting in one corner */
if(only 1 is occupied)
{
occupy whichever corner seat is available;
pray for a skinny guy/gal for the middle seat
return PRAYFORTHEBEST;
}
/* man! left with the last option before searching the next bus */
if(corner seat available)
  go grab it;
  return CANMANAGEIGUESS;
else
if(middle seat available)
{
if(both sides gal)
    return AIN'TILUCKY;
else
if(one side guy and one side gal)
   return BETTERTHANTHENEXTCASE;
if(both sides guy)
 if(checksize(neighbourS) != too much)
   grab that place;
   return HOPEFORTHEBEST;

}
/* return FAILURE so that I go search in the next bus */
return FAILURE;
}

I am definitely not expecting any bug related comments in the above logic, I used the above approach, because it saves me the time of typing the scenario in detail.... I am sure other people's logic in a similar situation will be different and the return STATUS will definitely be different ... do post ur logic and your "STATUS" values in the comments section...will be interesting to see how the other minds handle the same situation. And somehow I am still not convinced with the title of the blog .. Please do suggest some nice titles also :)

Jana Change Keltha Idhare !

Made some changes to my blog..

• Picked up some nice template from blogger templates (which also is a blogspot !) .. made some changes to the template. Expecting your valuable comments on the template.

• Added a nice SMILING photo :D

• Also based on feedback from the few readers of my blog, have decided to write on topics NOT related to computers :-)

• Also added a hit counter.. to check the popularity of this blog

Games Games Games !!

I never seem to be done with these strategy games, they just keep you hooked on to ur PC. 2 days back downloaded the trial of Age of Empires 3 and Civilization 4. A03 sucks and somehow didnt like the look and feel, the gameplay hasn't changed much other than the addition of home city concept. I feel AOE2 was much better than this. Anway need to get the full version before delivering the final verdict. I played the civilization for the first time, never had a look at the older versions. Took a little bit of time to understand the turn based approach of the gameplay, the tutorial was pretty decent, however the bad part of the trial was that after 1hr of gameplay, the application automatically closes and the browser pops asking you to buy the full version :-( So I went back to my older favourite games Caesar 3 and Rise of nations. Caesar is an amazing game and it just keeps you hooked on.. rise of nations is also pretty cool and one of the creators of this game is also involved in Civilization !

Photo sharing sites

Finally i decided to upload my digi cam photos to the internet. The motivation for this came from the unlimited broadband access i took from airtel. So I began searching for a good photo sharing portal. First I uploaded all the photos to www.flickr.com. However later I realized that in order to create more than 3 albums I had to pay money :-((27$/year). Also there was a download limit/month in the basic version. So I switched to kodakgallery. However in this kodakgallery sharing of photos is a pain. You need to invite friends while sharing the photos. I liked the flickr way of sharing where you just set a name and you have a dedicated url to view the photos like www.flickr.com/photos/venu_priya Next I need to check up snapfish and yahoo photos (Incidentally flickr has also been bought by yahoo !)