Rest in Peace, Steve. You have been an inspiration, an original innovator. Thanks for the good things you did for us..
Have you lost your computer’s service tag?
01
Jul
I had to rebuild my laptop recently and realized that I needed to download the drivers from Dell’s website. I started looking for the service tag at the bottom of the laptop but that was no use.. The label had fallen off. One way of getting that could have been a reboot of the laptop followed by an inspection of the BIOS setup information but I wanted to have something that would act as equivalent to dmidecode in Linux. Dmidecode is a simple command that provides a human readable view of the DMI data.
So, for Linux the command would be like; Read the rest of this entry »
Haskell gets backing from Intel..
07
Aug
We are witnessing a recent boom in parallel languages becoming main stream and more and more parallel programming libraries becoming commonplace in languages not considered as parallel programming languages. One such language which boasts fully functional programming is Haskell. It’s being considered as the next big thing for its ease of parallel constructs and genuine functional approach.
Intel has recently announced the first release of Concurrent Collections for Haskell. I believe it should be a real booster for the Haskell community.
For those of you who are new to Haskell, please take a look at the code below.
myStep items tag =
do word1 <- get items "left"
word2 <- get items "right"
put items "result" (word1 ++ word2 ++ show tag)
cncGraph =
do tags <- newTagCol
items <- newItemCol
prescribe tags (myStep items)
initialize$
do put items "left" "Hello "
put items "right" "World "
putt tags 99
finalize$
do get items "result"
main = putStrLn (runGraph cncGraph)
This short program is support to print out “Hello world 99″.
For more details please follow this link.
Google Analytics – Graph annotations
25
Dec
Google Analytics now permits one to annotate the points on the traffic gaphs and thus allows them to become more meaningful and useful. This means that people in the organization can add their part to the annotations and thus these graphs can mean more to the Read the rest of this entry »
An easy way to determine the best URL shortener
08
Nov
I had been wondering which of the URL shortening services to stick to/ I specially found Bit.ly to be very useful in terms of the stats provided on the hits received etc. Today I came accross an interesting quiz that interactively asks a few questions to intelligently suggest the best URL shorterning service for a specific set of requirements. The choices include things like the need for a custom short URL and whether an API is preffered. There was another question regarding the need for click stats for short URLs that I particularly find very useful.
Give it a try and see if you find it useful enough.
http://www.hunch.com/url-shortening-services/
My first C/C++ learning environment – Quincy
30
Oct
When I was about to start learning C programming back in college many years ago, I took a peek at what was about to come my way. I had some issues understanding the ‘cryptic’ syntax. I was familiar with Turbo BASIC from Borland Corp and could program quite well in it. I started looking around for some good book to learn C. I found a very nice book named ‘Al Stevens Teaches C’, it was an interactive tutorial that accompanied a C interpreter with it. This is the same Al Stevens who used to write great articles in Dr. Dobb’s journal. I enjoyed the way he took me through the core concepts and simplified approach to C syntax. The interpreter allowed very quick testing of the code I produced and it was pure fun.
You might be thinking why a post on such an old thing, well the interpreter created by Al was special, I loved it and I have recently been looking for it. I didn’t find the original text based version, but I was able to locate a newer GUI version that runs on windows or WINE on top of Linux. This specific version was produced in 2005 and works like a breeze. Its not an interpreter anymore. It is now more of an IDE built around the GNU C compiler. Its something nice for those who wish to No need for those bulky commercial compilers for newbies anymore, just get your hands on Quincy and get on with your learning with the power of open source.
By the way, I must mention that Quincy was named after the adorable cat of the author of the book, I wonder if the cat still lives? You’ll find a photo of her in the program logo.
You can download Quincy from this link.
http://www.uploadmb.com/dw.php?id=1255959978
More information can be found at http://quincy.codecutter.org
CMOS Fuel Cells?
16
Oct
A German microchip vendor Micronas AG has come up with something revolutionary. It is a chip that contains 42 micro fuel cells integrated on it. It ws created in collaboration with University of Freibur, Germany.
The power generated is regulated at a nominal voltage of 3.3volts by a regulating circuit that is powered by 4 additional fuel cells on chip. With a lifetime of about one year at nominal load in the triple-digit microwatt range, the device could eventually power smart autonomous systems in applications where no conventional power source is available. In the lead research scientist of the university Mr. Hoffmann’s view, energy harvesting devices and the chip-level fuel cell are not mutually competitive, but can instead be regarded as complimentary technologies, For instance, the fuel cell could be used as a power buffer for periods when energy harvesting methods don’t generate enough power.
An article detailing the research and device can be found here.
Does my processor support virtualization?
10
Oct
I was looking around for a comprehensive list or table that would tell what models of a certain processor support virtualization technology (VT) and I found this very nice interactive page on Intel’s website. Ofcourse it lists only the Intel processors. The link is given below.
This is how it works, you just select the processor family at the left of the page and you will be shown a table for VT support on the right. Match your processor number in the right pane and you’ll know if your processor supports VT or not. You can easily get the processor model for your computer from ‘My Computer’ properties on Microsoft Windows or using the ‘cat /proc/cpuinfo’ command on Linux.
http://ark.intel.com/VTList.aspx
The all new MySQL Librarian
13
Aug
MySQL Community just got a great a tool that allows then to systematically share the community knowledge about this amazing open source database server. This is just a short post to mark the introduction of this facility to the public. All you need is a valid user account on http://dev.mysql.com and you are done.
You can click here for further details.
Atmel’s advanced capacitive touchscreen technology – maxTouch
02
Aug
Imagine a touchscreen so friendly, it feels like the extension of your own hands… This is what’s promised by the revolutionary new touchscreen technology by Atmel. Now, you’ll be able to use multiple gestures and multiple touch points at the same time. And the maxTouch technology claims to be equally effective with dry and wet hands and weather. So, it ought to behave whether if you are in a dusty desert or in the snow of tundra… The demonstration video looks very impressive.
The new maxTouch technology makes use of a capacitive sensing methodology and booasts the following benefits over the ordinary touch screens..
- Unlimited touch
Unlimited touch provides you maximum flexibility in the human interface including the use of fingers, nails and stylus pen. - Precise
Excellent multiple touch adjacency and intuitive rejection of unintended touches. - Fast response
Atmel’s touch optimized AVR microcontroller combined with our patented touch technology minimize acquisition time and enhance the user experience. - Ideal for broad range of touchscreen applications
Supports a broad range of touchscreen applications including mobile handsets, netbooks, printers, GPS, digital cameras, portable media players and point of sale terminals. - Environmentally robust
Robust and resilient under harsh climate (hot/cold temperature), dusty and humid/wet environment. - Low power consumption
Atmel’s power-saving technology allows for extended battery life.
We’ll soon be seeing the maxTouch technology being used in new products, it is poised to be demontrated in September 2009. Well, I am waiting for the curtains to be drawn.