Linux ported to iPhone! Absolute Nirvana!

Absolute nirvana. hit to read the official post

Ok, we had been waiting for it, and now finally, our favorite OS, Linux has been successfully ported on the iPhone. Devteam member planetbeing has done a incredibly phenomenal job of reverse engineering Apple’s hardware drivers and has successfully ported Linux on 1^st and 2^nd generation iPhones and 1^st generation iPod Touch. Though it’s a bit buggy as of now (read: no touch screen, wi-fi, audio and cell radio support), it’s definitely a first step in the direction of absolute nirvana on Apple’s darling device. The team is hard at work and even looks to port Android (yippee! Android) to iPhone. Thing just can’t be any better.

So if any of you guys want to check it out, hit this link, and if possible, lend a hand to this project. Even if you don’t know Linux or can’t code, just spread the word about it. Blog about it, digg it… try to bring this wonderful project into visibility.

Cheers for open source! Linux rocks! Even better on iPhone!

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Linux through a browser? COOL!

I love the StumbnleUpon extension for Firefox and today i stumbled upon a really cool concept. It’s called workspot.com and aims to provide “a Linux desktop, through a browser”. Cool. I can now look and preview a distro before downloading it, and i won’t have to read reviews and user opinions to decide on a new distro.

It would be a great service for Linux enthusiasts as well as Linux newbies to help them decide which distro to decide upon. And it seems more convenient than downloading a live cd version of the distro and and then waiting for another 4 minutes for it to boot up.

The downside:

1) The site isn’t up and running yet, it just says “coming soon”.

2) There are just 5 distros to have a preview of (that’s what the image at the site suggests, though i have my finger crossed for more).

3) The user experience may vary on the browser being used to access the site (though most recent browsers would do the work well, but i have seen morons using IE4 and Netscape as well).

Anyhow, I am waiting for the site to get started. And a cool idea: you can bluff to your friend that you have five distros installed on your system and you can switch between then in just seconds. All you need for this trick is a fast internet connection and a decent browser in full screen mode.

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Your computer has a sense of humor!

Ok, so you thought that your computer was just a dumb electronic box. Well, you may be wrong (if you are a linux or unix user). Here are a few outputs that your unix or linux machine will give if you input the following commands:

The C shell

% rm meese-ethics

rm: meese-ethics nonexistent

% ar m God

ar: God does not exist

% “How would you rate Reagan’s incompetence?

Unmatched .”

% [Where is Jimmy Hoffa?

Missing ].

% ^How did the sex change^ operation go?

Modifier failed.

% If I had a ( for every $ Reagan spent, what would I have?

Too many (’s.

% make love

Make: Don’t know how to make love. Stop.

% sleep with me

bad character

% got a light?

No match.

% man: why did you get a divorce?

man: : Too many arguments.

% ^What is saccharine?

Bad substitute.

% man woman

No manual entry for woman.

% %blow

%blow: No such job.

% (-

(-: Command not found.

% sh

$ PATH=pretending! /usr/ucb/which sense

no sense in pretending!

The Bash shell

$ drink <bottle; opener bottle:

cannot open opener: not found

$ mkdir matter; cat >matter

matter: cannot create

Do you still believe that your computer is and idiot box? (Windows users: your computers are dumb, just because of windows, accept it).

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Want to go to Mars?

Ok, so the earth is now too overcrowded or just too polluted for your taste (or you simply want to go to a place where nobody can disturb you). Thank Google, for they (with virgin) have planned to move people like you to mars! This is what project Virgle is all about. So, starting in 2014, Virgin founder Richard Branson and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin will be leading hundreds of users on one of the grandest adventures in human history: Project Virgle, the first permanent human colony on Mars.

Oh, this is so cool! So are you wondering now how to apply for this? Just hit this link: http://www.google.com/virgle/application.html And Google has got everything planned out for you. They have a 100 years plan ready for you. And guess what, Google is intending to this project a totally open source one. So what are you waiting for? Go and get ready for mars. You little red planet, here we come.

P.S. – this was an April fool joke!

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Best Geek Pranks

April 1^st is upon us – it’s the April fool day. And it’s the perfect day to show off your geeky skills by playing some geeky pranks. Here is the list of the coolest geeky April day pranks:

1. The easiest and perhaps the oldest one: take a screenshot of the victim’s desktop and apply it as wallpaper. Then hide the desktop icons (right click on an empty area on the desktop – arrange icons by – untick show desktop icons). Don’t forget to put the start menu bar to auto hide as well.
2. Install the BSOD screensaver (the nasty blue screen of death you got when your system hanged) on the victim’s pc. It’s a free download from Microsoft (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897558.aspx). Your friend will go nuts.
3. Download the cracked lcd wallpaper and set it as a desktop background. Hide the desktop icons and set the start menu bar to auto-hide.
4. Install VNC on your friend’s computer and then remote control his pc. Then disable the taskbar icon of VNC and have fun controlling his pc remotely as your friend scratches his head ion confusion.
5. If your friend uses an antique ball mouse, just hide the mouse. It sounds far too simple to actually fool anyone, but you’ll be amazed at how long people will curse and slam their unresponsive mouse onto the desktop before actually flipping the thing over.
6. If your friend has an optical or laser mouse, just stick some tape over the sensor and watch the mouse movements go haywire.
7. Use the autocorrect feature of MS Office. Try adding substitutes to commonly used words or the name of the person who uses the system (It would be really funny if someone types his name and sees something like Mr. Dumbass on the screen).
8. Switch the keyboard layout to Dvorak. This will change the layout of the keyboard to an almost alien layout. To switch a keyboard layout in Windows XP, go to the Control Panel (make sure it’s in “Classic View” mode) and click on Regional and Language Options. Under the Languages tab, view Details. Click on Add and find “United States-Dvorak” in the list. Now you’ll see Dvorak show up in the drop-down menu of default input languages. Choose it and click Apply. Mac OS X is much easier: Go to System Preferences, click on International and select the Input Menu tab. Click the checkbox next to Dvorak. You might also check “Show input menu in menu bar” at the bottom of the window. A tiny icon menu will appear in the top right corner (next to the clock), allowing you to switch between keyboard layouts with a single click.
9. If the Windows Messenger Service is active in your environment, write a small batch file that will broadcast a message to a colleague a few hundred times using the “net send” command. Then, watch in amusement as the target keeps on clicking OK on the hundreds of message box that appear on his screen. (Don’t forget to disable your Messenger service after; the victim will likely want to play the same trick on you!).
10. Another simple trick: switch the keyboard and/or mouse cables or two nearby or back to back pcs. And then watch the fun!
11. Modify commonly used desktop shortcuts (like that of MS Word) to point to some objectionable site. Or set them to shutdown or restart the system. Here’s how:

    First: choose a program your coworker/friend uses often. Back up the icon somewhere.

    Right Click on Desktop

    New > Shortcut

    For target type “shutdown -s -t 00 -f”

    Type the name of the program you chose (e.g. Microsoft Word)

    Finish

    Right Click on shortcut > Properties

    Change Icon > Choose icon of chosen Program (e.g. If you chose Microsoft Word the path would be “C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OfficeXX\WINWORD.EXE” Where XX is the number based on the version of Office)

    You can also copy the comment of the original icon to the shutdown button, so it is even more unnoticeable. Warning: this will cause the victim to lose ALL unsaved changes.

If you have ideas for more pranks, feel free to add them to the comments. Have a happy April fools day.

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What do you use: OS X, Vista or Linux?

For all users using shiny apple Macs, there is a little bit of nasty news. There was a contest organized, named PWN 2 OWN by the organizers of the CanSecWest security conference. It asked the attendees to show off their hacking skills against Vista SP1 (fujitsu laptop), Leopard 10.5.2 (Macbook Air, and Ubuntu 7.10 (VAIO). The first hacker to take down any of the three systems would get a cash prize of $20,000 along with the victimized laptop. Nobody managed to pull down any of the systems on the first day, as for the first day contestants were told to use only network based attacks. The second day, they were allowed to use web and email based attacks. And guess what, the Macbook Air was hacked down in 2 minutes flat. The attacker used a website holding malicious code and targeted Safari as its victim.

Ubuntu 7.10 was the only OS to remain unscathed. This proves a lot of things. First of all, Linux still rules in matter of security. Microsoft has been (shamefully) forced to make its OS secure. And while Apple may taunt about its OS being most secure, it is not the truth. The truth is, Mac OS X has a smaller user base. And so the hackers are not interested in attacking an OS having a smaller user base. And it is to be noted that OS X and Linux have the same roots. Now the question arises: why did Apple fiddle with an already stable base? Not only this, the attack was pulled off using Safari as its target. It’s the same Safari that Apple has been trying to install on our systems using Apple software update.

So, if you are a Mac user, beware. You are at a security risk. Avoid visiting suspicious sites. And windows users – DON’T USE SAFARI. Use Firefox or Opera instead (IE still has numerous security loopholes). Or do the best – switch to Linux. Linux users – rejoice. Time has again proved that you are using nothing but the damn best OS of this planet (I wonder what people on other planets use as their browsers, though).

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Three cheers for Wubi!

Ok, so you are a pc user who wants to try out Linux but haven’t tried out Linux yet just because you didn’t knew how to install a Linux distro (or were just afraid of your hard drive getting wiped out during the installation), it couldn’t get better for you. There is a new application which is built just for you and it is named Wubi. What it does? Well it’s a windows application (surprise!) and it lets you install Linux just as you would install a windows based application. Cool, isn’t it?

Here’s how to proceed: you download Wubi off the internet (or get hold of it from somewhere else), launch the application and tell it the location of the Linux disc image. Then it asks you a few questions: on which partition you wish to install, your username and root password etc. Then you sit back and watch Wubi do its magic. The next time you reboot, you get to see a multi-os boot loader with both windows and Linux options. It can’t get any easier.

For now, Wubi works only with Ubuntu. But I would like to see future versions of it working with other distros as well. It is a great product. Worth praise, indeed. Innovative software. I just hope that the open source world continues to see such innovative softwares.

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Apple: What are you doing?

If you have iTunes installed and you chose to use apple software update to update your copy of iTunes to the latest version, you are in for a nasty little surprise. Guess what? Apart from getting a updated version of iTunes, you find safari in the list of installed applications (even if you have not installed it yourself). Now this is really unfair. People use the update software to update the software they have installed themselves, apple. It’s not fair to shove unwanted software through a backdoor. No matter how good software is, no software company has the right to force it down to a user’s pc. This is unfair advertising.

If apple really wants people to use safari, it should make it good enough so that people go and download it themselves. Just like Mozilla Firefox. Your safari for windows is buggy, has multiple security loopholes, and uses its own font smoothing technique that makes the text look worse than original. And the worst of all: it misses a “add new tab button” – an absolute shame in my opinion. Improve safari first, and don’t even think of installing softwares on a system without its owner’s consent. You are a big company and have a cult following. You shouldn’t do acts like this that may cause your reputation to dive down. You are known as a innovative brand. So innovate. Don’t use cheap means.

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Sony ultimately gives you a fresh crap-free pc

Read my last post about Sony’s generous offer of charging $50 for giving you a crap free pc? Well it seems that Sony got ashamed when the press criticized its generous offer. Here’s the good news: they are ready to give you a crap free pc for FREE now. Yeppie! Here’s what the official statement says:

“Starting March 22, Sony will offer Fresh Start free of charge. We want VAIO users to have the best experience possible with our PCs, and we believe Fresh Start will help ensure that happens right out-of-the-box.”

Let’s just hope that other pc manufacturers follow the same. Till then, cheers for Sony (and apple)!

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The ultimate marketing strategy!

You go and buy a branded pc. And the generous manufacturers give you a lot of trial softwares and games pre-installed with it. I prefer to call it crapware. You ask why: it helps to run your brand new shiny pc slower out of the box. Nobody likes these crappy pieces of software (except the Mac users, and I agree with them), and the companies know that we don’t like them. So here is the ultimate marketing strategy: charge you for giving you a fresh pc (i.e. pc free of the ruddy crappy softwares). And this is what Sony has exactly done. Here goes the generous offer: you pay $50 and they give you a clean pc. Or you end up getting a pc that is $50 cheaper but has a ton of crappy software bundled with it. That’s so generous of you, Sony! Thank you very much. This offer is valid just for TZ200 but I am sure that Sony will be very eager to bring this generous offer to their entire lineup of systems.

I just hope it was the opposite way: you get a $50 discount for giving you a fresh pc with just the OS and drivers. Can’t these guys take a leaf out of apple’s books? Just look at the superb bundle of software they give with their systems. Either give us decent softwares that are not crappy trial versions but good licensed versions or just give us a damn clean pc. Your VAIO laptops are anyway expensive enough, Sony. But then, can I charge Sony $50 for not buying their systems?

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What a gamer should buy?

Nvidia is going to launch a new graphics card – the 9800xt. And as usual Nvidia will proudly show off its “phenomenal pixel processing power” that enables “cinema quality realism” in your games. While this is true in its eternity, wait just four months and Nvidia will launch another graphics card that will offer “never seen before realism. And since all the new games launched after that would be built to the standard of the newest card, you will be left with two options: either upgrade if you want to play the new games or just stick with your current games. And the worst part: if a new DirectX standard comes, your graphics card is “aged”. And then comes a time when to play a new game you have to upgrade your configuration. And unless you have inherited a lot of cash from your ancestors, you are out if luck.

This brings me to happy part of the gaming society: the people who are proud owners of gaming consoles. You buy a console, pop in a disc, and you are ready to smash your foes. It can’t get any easier. And you don’t have to worry about upgrades (and drivers and viruses). Even your 4 year old brother (if you have one) can operate a console. Gamers couldn’t ask for more.

So, if you are an insanely rich gamer, go and upgrade your pc every four months or so. If not (just like me!), then you have the option to sell one of your kidneys. Or you can just buy (or beg or steal) a console and make your way to gaming nirvana.

P.S. – If you want to see a gamer happy, please donate. I am planning to buy a PS3 (:->) but I don’t have enough greenery in my wallet. (:-<)

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Apple iPhone SDK: I’m (not) happy

Apple launched the iphone sdk on the 6th. And I, as an iPod touch owner, left me with mixed thoughts. Apple never fails to surprise me and this time it was no difference. The iPhone and iPod touch are already wonderful devices and the upcoming 2.0 firmware will make them even more capable and powerful.

The iPhone will truly trash the competition as push E-mail and Calendars, Activesync and Exchange Support is coming to iPhone. It had already smashed the combined sales of windows mobile devices + Motorola in the 4Q of the last year, and now I can safely tell that RIM has got a reason to worry. It is going to be a true enterprise level device. And there are going to be multi touch games and applications. All this is going to make the iPhone a really cool gadget.

Though the feature additions are impressive on the iPhone front, all the iPod owners can do is curse Apple. Reason: you will have to spend more of your hard earned cash to get the installer application installed on your iPod touch. And guess what excuse apple says for that: “accounting reasons”. That sounds hilarious to me. And the iTunes store is not yet available for my country. It means that I will not be able to get third party applications on my iPod touch until apple starts the iTunes store service for my country (the iTunes app store is going to the exclusive place to get the apps – DAMN!).

So what I am going to do is to continue using my jailbroken iPod touch. At least I won’t have wait till June (when the 2.0 firmware arrives) and the best part: all the apps via installer.app are free of charge.

Somebody has fairly said “sometimes the best things in life are free”.

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