What is a computer?

Bit wondered with the title kya?. Its been a long time since I visited my home, so I decided to go for Ugadi vacation. My Idea pad accompanied me. After 12hrs of journey from Bangalore, I reached Nandyala and it is still 15km far from my lovely home. After reaching home, I opened up my idea pad in front of my father, then he asked me what is it? I said it is laptop. I also said it is smaller version of computer which you observe in banks. Then he asked what does it do? I said it can do anything. He again asked what does it do? I have given the same banking example and started explaining about different applications (confused face) with which we can chat, email browse, watch movies, listen to songs, play CD/DVD etc. Out of which I am sure, he would not have understood anything except CD/DVD playing. I also said if we have Internet, we can do anything.

BTW, my father is a retired head master who taught English and maths to Higher Secondary School Students. I am postgraduate in Computer Science and Engineering.

So how would you explain what a COMPUTER is to a layman? If you have any better answer.........plz do send me.............

Evolution of Web Design

I am completely changed and I am growing exponentially guess who am I??........You spend lot of time with me everyday!!!!!!! Didn't get yet........I am your dearest web..........since my birth to Internet........people have been relying more on me these days than the olden days.......and so my evolution..........

Following is my evolution stages in simple understandable form...........

The Evolution of Modern Web Design

Year	Coding style
1999	The Nightmare: A jumble of content, scripting and formatting information
2002	The Advance: Formatting (CSS) is separated, but content (HTML) and scripting (e.g. JavaScript like 'onclick') are still tightly interwoven.
2005	The Future is Now: Behavior (JS), formatting (CSS) and content (HTML) are easily managed from entirely separate files.

• HTML
• GreenCSS
• OrangeJavaScript

Courtesy: Sitepoint.com

Domain Hacks

Have ever tried the following web sites?

1. http://del.icio.us
2. http://blo.gs
3. http://doma.in/
4. http://einste.in/
5. http://adm.in/
6. http://fami.ly/
7. http://the.unique.name/
   

8. Vis.as

9. http://3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375105820974944592.com/

and even the following mail-ids?

1. d@v.id
2. j@m.es
3. w@y.ne
4. eg.ch@irman.net

They are called domain and email hacks respectively.

Try your hands at http://xona.com/domainhacks/suggest/ (Domain Hacks) to find your name as domain without top level domains. Look at this also http://websear.ch/

There are Perfect domain hacks like http://del.cio.us and minor domain hacks like http://dr.phil.com/ (Dr. Phil) or http://j.ames.com/ (James)

Isn't funny..............

RSS - What is all the Fuss About?

RSS Stands for Really Simple Syndication. It is used for the specific purpose or conveying information that a website or blog has been updated. It is a standard for publishing regular updates to web-based content. And for the technical, RSS is a Syndication Standard based on a type of XML file that resides on an Internet server. It answers the question "What's New?" for a website or blog.

We can find RSS feeds on almost every website that is updated very frequently. The following logo is almost standard to indicate RSS feed.

Here is a Perl Module to create, read RSS feeds.

For Web masters

You can create RSS feeds for your websites in simple way. You can do it either automatically by a program or manually creating adhering to RSS file format.
More information can be found at the following links:

1. http://www.rss-specifications.com/steps-create-rss.htm
2. http://www.rapidfeeds.com/
3. http://www.feedyes.com

Test your RSS against a validator to make sure it's well-formed XML.

• Feed Validator for RSS and Atom
• RSS Validator (UserLand)
• Experimental Online RSS 1.0 Validator

For the End User

If you are an end user, and wants to read the RSS feed available on the net, you can do it so by using feed reader. Feed readers can be either web based or stand alone applications. The following are the webbased applications to read RSS feeds.

• Bloglines - Specializing in blogs, naturally
• Fyuze - Sign up and see what's new on your favorite sites
• Google Reader
• Gregarius
• My Yahoo - Lets you add RSS feeds to your custom page
• News Is Free - Register and make a customized page of feeds
• Rocket RSS Reader (RocketNews)

The following are the standalone applications that can run on your desktop

• Aggie
• Ampheta Desk - Puts feeds in your browser
• Awasu - My favorite, so far
• Feed Demon
• Feed Reader
• Headline Viewer
• News Gator - Integrates with Microsoft Outlook
• Newzcrawler
• Radio UserLand
• Syndirella
• Wildgrape NewsDesk

Ok lets not get into the geeky world of downloading installing ..blah..blah......blah....So you are a naive user......you can find sites that aggregates the RSS feeds from different sites in different categories..............You can search for desired RSS feeds in the following websites.

• http://www.feedster.com/
• http://www.newsonfeeds.com/faq/aggregators
  
• http://www.rssmicro.com/
• http://www.syndic8.com/
• http://www.search4rss.com/
• http://www.plazoo.com/

ABC of Web 2.0

Buzz word of geeks in the modern era of technology. I happened to read book on web2.0 while downloading e-Book. It is not a single technology like .NET or Java. It is collection of technologies to give a beautiful look to Web and be able to create rich applications. The following are the three layers that constitute the Web2.0

1. Social Layer
   
2. Architectural Layer
3. Technical Layer

1. Socal Layer: The social layer of Web 2.0 is about making the Web a read/write web again. For some, this goal is motivated by philanthropic or political reasons: everyone should be able to express his or her ideas. For others, the motivation is financial: if the growth of the number of web readers is deemed to slow down, the growth of the Web can only be fueled by the growth of the number of people that create content on the Web. The business models of Web 2.0 sites differ on the way to convert content into actual revenues, but they share the fact that their content is created by their users, and this is the most distinctive characteristic of a Web 2.0 site.
2. Architectural Layer: The ability of using the Web as a platform can be seen as the architectural layer of web2.0. This is the consequence of the Social Layer; if you want to give write access to all your users you can’t rely on anything that isn’t installed (or installable) on any platform they might be using. That limits the prerequisite for Web 2.0 applications to a relatively recent version of a web browser. Furthermore, due to most needed security constraints, web applications have very limited access to files and data stored ontheir users’ computers. That means that Web 2.0 applications have not much alternative to considering that the platform on which they run is the Web! This has made Web2.0 to deliver everything throught browser (Web). Examples of them are Google Docs, Live Office, YouOS etc...
3. Technical Layer: This layer of web2.0 decides the richness of your application on the web. This layer mainly consists of three parts. First thing is about client side programming, nothing but the browser where most of your web applications are visible. The second part is nothing but the underlying protocols that makes it possible to communicate with the others on the web. The third part is the server side processing, ultiamately this is where client requests are processed :). HTML, XHTML, DHTML, CSS, Javascript and AJAX constitute first part of the technical layer in web2.0. SOAP, REST, HTTP-PUT are second part of technical layer. Creating webservices, mashups, serving XML over HTTP etc constitute third part of technical layer of web2.0.

This is just an overview of what I understood about Web2.0.

LAME...................

I am not lame. This stands for Linux Administration Made Easy (LAME). I have gone through that link to explore more deep about Linux and its administration. Things I have gone through are

1. Setting up TCP/IP on the system
2. Setting up Routing table/ Gateway
3. DNS
   
4. Firewall using iptables (net filter)
5. Setting up Network Information System (NIS) for hosts, passwords
6. Setting NFS server/client
   
7. Bit about sendmail

all complex things.

After networking has come into Computer Science field, things got much more complicated. Now everything you do require to set up network first and then do the rest.

Trying to learn more about them practically.

Will get back to you with more details about them....................

Leslie Lamport's how-tos

• How to Present a Paper
• How to Write a Proof
• How to Write a Long Formula
• How to Tell a Program from an Automobile
• How to Make a Correct Multiprocess Program Execute Correctly on a Multiprocessor

Leslie Lamport's home page

Technology ahead.............

Have come across these things till now.

http://ebuddy.com
http://meebo.com
http://www.thinkfree.com
http://www.writely.com
http://www.zoho.com
http://spreadsheets.google.com
and finally
http://www.youos.com

If you have observed the above sites, only one common thing you can find in those sites. All of their aim is to run applications on the browser itself. It has been tried to the extent that even an OS can also be run from the browser!!!.

Lets wait for changes in technologies.........njoy them.........Appreciate them.........possibly think innovative ideas..............

Wanna be a WebAdmin..............???

DOS Lab unique in its management and administration. Students are the solo administrators of the Lab. Different types of administrations are:

• System administration
  
• Website administration
• Library administration
• Seminars Co-ordninator etc

Among the above listed ones, I am participating in Website (core) as well as system administration. Managing a website is not an easy task as it is seen by entire world with the internet. Some of the questions that you could possibly think of before /after choosing the web administration job are:

1. First know the different concepts and technologies which can be used to set up an website?
   
• What is OS platform, webserver, different languages and/or scripts??
• First two will predominantly determine your next options.
  
2. Some common problems that you may face are:
• How do you avoid listing directories in the website?
• How do you avoid using frames in the website?(as they have their own disadvantages)
• How do you password protect one folder with Apache Webserver?
• How do you disallow some IP address from visiting your website?
• How do you keep track of visitors to your website?
• How do you create Login authentication system for you portal/system?
• How do you facilitate search option for you website?
• How do you make your site look and feel good?( CSS)
• How do you display your website contents independent of browser?
• How do you access database from scripting languages?
• How do you populate the data from databases into the webpages?
• How do you create a blog for your website?

For the above questions I will post answers........wait till then.........