PrintFu - On demand PDF printing

http://www.printfu.org/ Give us your PDF and a couple days later, you’ll have a black and white, printed and comb bound book on your door step. Damn, this is something I have been looking out for ages! How I wish somebody offered such a service in Delhi! 😞

Nice short intro to Bazaar

Edd Dumbill has written a real nice short intro to the Bazaar - a reimplementation of GNU Arch revision control system. I have been getting tired of keeping up with new Subversion revisions and the mod_dav/mod_dav_svn module that I need to keep updating. By contrast Arch allows read only archives using plain HTTP. Most importantly it supports distributed repositories - this allows me to maintain a repository of system config in the servers that I manage, and sync them when I want with my home machine.

Free Java and Free Flash

Three important projects for creating Free alternatives of these major and popular proprietary technologies.

Configuring Linksys WRT54G Wireless Router for my home

I bought my first wireless equipment a couple of days back - A Linksys Wireless-G router model WRT54G. I had selected this model after spending a number of days poring through online reviews of various routers. The Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G router The box cost me Rs. 3550 (with bill) in Nehru Place. I immediately started working on how to place it in my network. Finally an hour back, I could figure out the right way to configure it.

Microsoft vs. Google

A great article on the online tussle between Microsoft and Google. For anyone who has been watching Gates over the years, the idea that an upstart like Google could so flummox him and his fierce company takes getting used to. But Google is a rival unlike any he has faced in a long time. In previous battles, Microsoft always had a powerful trump card: It controlled the Windows operating system. That meant that when consumers bought a PC, Microsoft had a powerful say in what products and services they saw first.

Am I an Electric Human?

For quite some years now, I have been having an odd problem. I seem to get charged up with static electricity very frequently. As many of my friends and relatives would testify, they have suffered many painful and shocking handshakes with me. Then there are time periods when this problem becomes especially acute, and touching anything from door curtains to basin knobs to car doors gives me shocks. Sometimes I can even see a blue streak of electricity zapping across my hand to a door handle I am about to touch.

Google Calling my Firefox a Spyware?

WTF? This is from my Firefox 1.0.2 on FC3. UPDATE: Hmm. I read this post and it seems that others have found this problem too couple of months back. This got to do with some anti-virus search filter used in Google to prevent the Santy worm. But I wonder what is triggering this web page for me. I am not searching for anything remotely connected to php or phpbb.

IBM’s Double Face on Patents

IBM recently caused a lot of cheer when it announced that it is lobbying for patent reform. Apart from this, IBM has also pledged 500 U.S. Patents to Open Source recently. This post by Greg Aharonian - a person from the field of patents, calls IBM’s bluff and explains how he thinks it is probably only a well publicized corporate tactic by IBM to make it more difficult for new entrants to get into the patent game.

Net4domains Goes IE-Only

Net4domains control panel on Firefox Today morning when I logged in my net4domains control panel, I was shocked to see the control panel missing. I tried to login using one of my end-user accounts (I am one of net4domains’ reseller), I couldn’t see the user control panel either. I use Firefox on Linux. The webdeveloper extension showed that there was a javascript error. So I opened up the Javascript console, and I found it full of errors about an IE-specific javascript extension("document.

Bitkeeper plays spoil-sport. Linux looking for a new SCM

Amidst controversy over work done by Samba developer Andrew Tridgell, Linux is (about time) moving out of Bitkeeper, and looking for a new SCM. The short story is this. Background: For some time, Linux has been using the controversial Bitkeeper SCM tool for managing its source code. This was a completely closed source product, which was trying to bypass FLOSS arguments by offering a free hosted solution. For all this while, the proprietary Bitkeeper hosting the source code of the most popular FLOSS operating system - Linux, has been the biggest ironies of our times.