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Choosing cell phone headsets

Kams(Kamrul) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 06:23:55 +0000

As the brand new state-wide law goes into effect @ California time for CA guys and ladies to get some wired or wireless Cell Phone Headsets.

Now whether you’re a fan or not, fact is that if you’re going to be talking on a cell phone call, then you need a headset. While I agree with that the law needs to be tougher, and goes worldwide. Though most big city in the world got big road sign saying don’t text or e-mail while you’re driving-but how many of we did actually look at those billboards. That’s just plain dumb, and you could end up in World’s most spectacular accident.

So whether you are living in California or Canberra- time to get wise and get yourself a headset-if you intend to use your phone while driving. Read on for some quick tips on searching for that vague new Bluetooth headset since I’m sure most of we are going to want to avoid the wires.

So there are thousands of reviews out there bashing different manufacturer’s Bluetooth headset, but to be honest a general consumer can’t afford to spend 48 hours searching reviews to buy a headset. First you need to know facts about Bluetooth-than decide whether it’s for you or not. Before you start talking, you do need to know a few facts. Bluetooth has a range of 30 feet (10 meters), and the devices in question must use compatible versions of Bluetooth. The majority of products currently in the marketplace work on Bluetooth 1.1. (Two previous versions, 1.0 and 1.0B, were plagued with compatibility issues and have since been discontinued.) As with any wireless device, Bluetooth has some some minor security concerns. The SIG (Special Interest Group) has admitted that bluebugging, where a hacker secretly accesses a phone’s commands (such as eavesdropping on conversations), and bluesnarfing, where a hacker can access a phone’s data–such as the contacts–are possible, yet the group downplays both actions. While they work through Bluetooth, they also require the hacker to use a PC and to be within range of the victim. To help combat both, Bluetooth devices can be locked with a code or simply turned off or put in Hidden mode when not in use.

Bluetooth headsets vary enormously in price. Some can be found for $30 or less, while others cost $300 and more. Cnet got some awesome aggregated reviews on headset, PC world as well got a list of Bluetooth headset-which will save you a lot of time and effort searching for “the one”. No matter what Bluetooth you buy, keep in mind these-

· Is your phone compatible with the headset you are buying?

· Ease of use

· Id the available features includes-Voice command, Call answer/end, Last number redial etc. Most commonly used commands.

· Is it comfortable even if it’s a long talk time

· Battery life

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GoogLife "Lively" isn’t quite ready

Kams(Kamrul) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 08:18:10 +0000

Google finally jumped on the Virtual World band wagon, by launching 3D virtual environment platform “Lively” on June 09, 2008. But before you started saying “Ah another Second Life” hold your horses, Google’s lively isn’t entirely a world, on the contrary it’s a virtual space/room, which you can embed to your own web page or blog or even on Facebook profile.

To run Google’s lively you should be running either Windows XP or Vista and your browser is IE or Firefox. The whole lively virtual space exists within your browser through a plugin provided by lively. The space and character visualization presents through Flash, so you will need to have flash plugin installed as well.

Unfortunately no matter how cool it sounds the virtual space take long time to load and the accessories for customizations is limited. And only windows user can enjoy the beta version, since no plugin for Mac OS or other operating system. Avatars don’t function quite right — for example, you can walk right through furniture. Avatars sitting down look miserable. Male character selection is horrible and limited. As i mentioned little room for customizations, once furniture is added to room-no way to remove that-Perhaps Google thought we will like one lousy couch for eternity.

Lively feels more like a Google Talk-powered chat room with 3-D camera controls than an impassive environment like Second Life. In part that’s a function of the small in-browser window that presents Lively’s various rooms — full screen graphics are inevitably more compelling.

Giving the credit to Google developer that they did created a virtual space that have lots of possibilities, but perhaps not yet-need major makeover and feature list to be added to lively, in order to get some juice out of it.

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ICANN is planning to shake up your dot

Kams(Kamrul) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 10:37:45 +0000

No matter how well you do domain hack, ICANN defined top label domain name (TLDn) is still adequate and does not reflect uniqueness. It’s estimated that only 17 percent of the original four billion domain addresses remain, and will be depleted in the next five years. So the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a non-profit organization that oversees the Internet’s top-level domains, planning to open up registration of generic top-level domains (gTLD) to anyone who can afford it. Imagine reaching the Apple store at an .apple or .mac Web address, or finding auctions on .ebay. Certainly a lot of we are looking forward to ICANN’s decision to vote on a motion that would allow generic top name domains to be opened up to a mass of alternatives.

For the last few years, businesses, organizations, and the general public have been paying a few dollars per year for a domain name under one of the more popular web suffixes including .com, .net, .org. But if ICANN votes in favour of a new policy, those who can afford to pay around 30k to 350k for a top level domain will be able to register their own dot suffix.

Well if you are a spammer or crook planning on something, if the high price don’t discourage you there is some other issues too. ICANN considered this kind of possibility may rise, so ICANN is setting up guidelines and plans to review applications to prevent any abuses like trademark infringement, which is why the organization may also require a business plan/registration in addition to the hefty fee. Well nothing definite yet, what will be the guidelines are? Guess soon we will know about that.

If the new vote goes in favour of ICANN’s proposal, companies will be able to use their names as top level domains (such as .ebay, or .msn), cities such as Milan and New York to have .milan or .ny become available. On the contrary to existing gTLD’s any personal use will be restricted, to avoid abuses.

According to AFP news, by 2009 top level domain extensions like .bank, .tech, .love, .hate or .city will be added to the existing 20 generic top-level domains available, and may even introduce domains in different character sets for Arabic or Chinese web addresses.

If ICANN can swim ashore after battling political, cultural complexity, this new proposed TLD system will opens up new possibility, hack I am guessing even new hype,domain selling business and new .~~com~~ .company/.brand boom. Can’t imagine what .iphone or .google or .windows will cost

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Firefox 3 launch day set

Kams(Kamrul) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 11:17:42 +0000

Download Day 2008 is just around the corner, are you ready for it? After a series of beta and 2 (3 for Mac) release candidates, finally Mozilla decided to announce the Firefox 3 release date, which will be this Tuesday, June 17, 2008. Well many of you maybe already Firefox users and have seen all the Firefox release closely, but expect this one to be something totally rocking. It took nearly 34 months in development time, which expected to mark a major milestone not only for Firefox but as well as for any open source programme out there.

Firefox developers and fans are eagerly anticipating the new browser. The launch is dubbed as Download Day 2008 in an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the largest number of downloads in 24 hours. To get a jump start on their headcount, they’ve been registering users who pledge to download Firefox 3 when it’s released. But hey registering your pledge will not do the magic; you do have to download the Firefox 3 tomorrow, in order to contribute your effort to the history

To celebrate this glorious day Firefox fans around the globe has arranged number of “Birthday party/Download party”. Why not head to “Firefox party page” and see if there is any party around you, even if there isn’t any why not register a party-where you and your friends hosting a “Download day celebration”.

Question - is it worth such big bang? Is Firefox 3 really worth all the noise? The truth is Firefox isn’t the top browser in count of browser share (where IE still rules), but it is also a fact that Firefox is gaining its share dramatically every day. I have used all the beta and RC editions of Firefox 3, and quite frankly already got used to with them. I found Firefox 3 and its components seriously improved and user friendly than its predecessor I have on my desktop- so definitely I would say Firefox 3 worth the noise. Even if you still fan of other browser, Firefox deserves a tryout.

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Fight spam at server level: GFI MailEssentials

Kams(Kamrul) — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 10:34:13 +0000

For a person, email spam may be just another day of 21^st century where most well known email clients can keep the danger level well under control. But when it comes to server level spam protection, you really have to seat on the edge to keep up with the spammers. With fraudulent, inappropriate and offensive emails being delivered in vast quantities to businesses every day, spam protection is a vital component of your network’s security strategy. Spam wastes network users’ time and network resources, and can also be dangerous (especially since now days crooks deliver financial Trojans through mail- which can bring you down to your knees overnight).

Most email server products provide limited monitoring, security, and anti-spam functions. In those that do, the feature set tends to be weak and seemingly implemented as an afterthought. However, the new GFI MailEssentials from GFI Software not only provides the most comprehensive anti-spam capabilities currently available, but also industrial-strength mail monitoring, the ability to add disclaimers to all outgoing messages, and more. Impressively, GFI provides many of the product’s best features as freeware, making GFI MailEssentials a must-evaluate product for administrators of both large and small networks alike.

GFI MailEssentials managed to bag over 60 awards to its name, and reported over 80,000 satisfied customers; well off course not to mention the lowest prices on the market. GFI MailEssentials is an anti spam filter that captures a very reasonable portion of spam and, since it is server-based, it eliminates the need to install and update anti spam software on each desktop. A majority portion of this category software relies on very common anti-spam capabilities in the form of keyword lists that needed to be manually created. While this method is effective for blocking spam messages that include offers of university diplomas, cheap mortgages, and a variety of free offers, the creation and maintenance of the keyword lists can be cumbersome, especially based on the increasing creativity of spammers in getting their messages through to end users.

Hack previously even GFI MailEssentials used to deploy same methods; but it seems that GFI has recognized the need for a much higher level of spam detection in order for their product to reach maximum effectiveness. Keyword and message header checking are still a central component, including a great default list that includes many of the most commonly used spam keywords. However, the use of blacklists and its patented whitelist is what really sets the new GFI MailEssentials apart from the competition.

GFI has put a great deal of time and effort into making GFI MailEssentials much more robust every update, useful, and intelligent application. Not only does it do a superior job of defeating spam compared to other spam blocker on the market, the additional features like Mail Monitor, disclaimers, exchange spam filter and the reporting capabilities combine to make it an unbeatable value for any network that includes its own mail server.

Beside all those lovely features and wallet friendly pricing—GFI MailEssentials surprisingly lacks of web based configuration/management, only MMC based-which is obviously not so flexible in terms of user friendliness. None the less, GFI MailEssentials still one of the best weapons you can armed with to fight Spam terror.

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Acrobat.com a glimpse of Adobe’s full featured online office suit?

Kams(Kamrul) — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 11:28:24 +0000

Not so sure if Adobe will push it through full featured online office suit, but surely the launch of Acrobat.com will make a lot of people worried. Adobe released today a free Web-based beta supplement called Acrobat.com for its popular PDF application. This Acrobat.com is a suite of hosted services available as public beta for free signup, bringing Adobe style RIA based communication, productivity, and collaboration tools right within a web browser.

This beta release supports basic Web conferencing (don’t forget there is desktop sharing) and limited free conversion of documents to PDF format. Acrobat.com works well with the beta version of Acrobat 9, which is schedule to ship on July, but as well have backward compatibility support. Though only Acrobat 9 users will have access to a "personal workspace in the clouds" that is available from virtually anywhere for working with others online.

Acrobat.com include Adobe Buzzword, a Web-based word processor was originally developed by Virtual Ubiquity, which Adobe acquired last September. Buzzword can be used to easily co-author and share documents for comment and review, creating high-quality print results and Adobe ConnectNow, a personal Web conferencing service that includes desktop sharing, video and voice conferencing and integrated chat. The sweetest of them all is availability of developer APIs for real-time collaboration, file sharing and conversion.

Buzzword’s access control feature is simply phenomenon. You can decide whether to share a document with anyone who knows its URL or to restrict access to specific Acrobat.com users. User rights–which the person who submits the document to Acrobat.com assigns–range from Co-author (full document-editing privileges) to Reviewer (may add comments only) to Reader (may read only). I love the import and export feature of Buzzword documents which allow other popular document formats including Word (.doc, .docx, .xml), .rtf, and .txt. You can also export to HTML or to PDF formats.

Those who already enjoyed the Adobe’s Acrobat Connect already know what to expect on Acrobat.com web conferencing. ConnectNow lets you share your computer desktop and collaborate on a document in real time. You may also take meeting notes in a notes pod, exchange text chat messages, or communicate via audio.

To use Acrobat.com you won’t be required to have any of Adobe’s desktop application installed. Acrobat.com will put lots of collaboration Software Company in deep troubling thought, since the document collaboration capabilities of Acrobat.com is far more superior than most of the well known collaborators. We will see some serious changes on document collaboration field next few months

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Google Earth’s 3D reality heads for the browsers

Kams(Kamrul) — Thu, 29 May 2008 11:08:53 +0000

The Google Earth team has announced yesterday (May 28, 2008) that it has ported the Google Earth desktop client’s 3D mapping technology into the browser. Paul Rademacher, Technical Lead, Google Earth Browser Plug-in stated on his release blog post—

Today, I’m happy to announce the release of the new Google Earth Browser Plug-in, which brings the full power of Google Earth to the web, embedable within your own web site. Driven by an extensive JavaScript API, you can control the camera; create lines, markers, and polygons; import 3D models from the web and overlay them anywhere on the planet.

This new browser plug-in allows a direct access to the Google Earth program from inside a web page. The plug-in features a similar Application Programming Interface (API) to Google Maps which permits developers to easily incorporate Google Earth into their applications. How this will give the developer edge over other existing web embedable mapping technology? Through this plug-in developers are now able to embed 3D maps, which can be modified using Google’s JavaScript API to add KML data, draw 3D buildings, attach callbacks and dozens more cool stuffs. Hack you can even overlay your content over different planets, stars, and galaxies by toggling Sky mode, letting you build 3D Google Sky mashups. Perhaps! Google should rename Google earth to Google Galaxy?

Well Google is not the first one to port 3D mapping to browser, arch rival Microsoft’s Virtual earth has been 3D mapping within browser over 1 year. But off course as you can guess, Virtual earth’s 3D mapping only works with Internet explorer and windows. Microsoft is so predictable

So what are your options if you are already one of the user of Google map API, wants to give your maps some #D makeover? Google did think out that possibility. Just add a single line of JavaScript G_SATELLITE_3D_MAP map type to your MapsAPI initialisations code, and you are ready to support Google Earth.

Google Earth API is a remarkable hook that web developers will appreciate. Unfortunately when it comes to searching map, we still have to go to Google Maps 2D interface, don’t you think we should see a 3D button beside all those —Map, Satellite, Terrain, Traffic, Street View?

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Are you ready for PHP6

Kams(Kamrul) — Sun, 18 May 2008 16:11:22 +0000

Though a lot of we are not yet getting a hang of PHP5, news around PHP6 is on the way. Hell i recall a lot of hosting company just recently upgraded their PHP to version 5. Seems like version 5’s improved class handling just came out yesterday, time really does fly. PHP’s upcoming edition, V6, includes new kick ass features and most awaited syntax improvements that will make it easier to use from an object-oriented standpoint. Other important features, such as Unicode support in many of the core functions, mean that PHP V6 is positioned for better international support and robustness.

Though judging by the snapshots of the new addition, this will be a pretty moderate upgrade. Version 6 adds built-in tools for working with XML and SOAP, support for creating custom namespaces for methods and classes. Apart from addition of new features, there will be some dumping scenario as well on version 6. Version 6 will ditch several infamous features that have caused problem in the past, like safe_mode, register_globals, and magic_quotes. I am sure I won’t miss them J So if I were you and have some coding using those ugly stuffs, I would have update my code to work without them. Oh two more, keep your eyes peeled for "continue" and "break" operators with non-constant operands.

Another need to mentioned thing is the shorter version of the PHP tags (

<% and %>

) won’t be supported on PHP6 as well as libraries like FreeType 1 and GD 1 will be obsolete.

Some of the features of upcoming version 6 have also been ported to PHP V5.3, which is scheduled to be released during the first quarter of 2008. You may want to upgrade to V5.3 and start using these features now, so that when you move to V6 of PHP, it’ll be less of a jump.

PHP is one of the most server side scripting language on the face of the planet, well at least on the web space planet: D. But PHP always lacked broader set of characters for international support. That’s one of the biggest reason developer’s forced to choose different language, such as the Java™ programming language for development, because it has better internationalizations (i18n) support than PHP. Perhaps version 6 appearances will be time to take another look at PHP when the support improves.

Are you ready for PHP V6? If you were upgrading tomorrow, would your scripts execute just fine or would you have work to do? Why wait go grab a development build from snaps.php.net and try it out.

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CodeGear’s Delphi for PHP IDE get niche enhancement

Kams(Kamrul) — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 16:09:19 +0000

CodeGear, the developer tools subsidiary of Borland Software, has released second version of its tool set for PHP developers (Delphi for PHP 2.0). Announced Delphi for PHP 2.0 is an IDE (integrated development environment) for rapidly building interactive Web applications using visual drag-and-drop design capabilities. This new version comes with a number of enhancements geared to make PHP developers more productive. But off course this new release is also a move to keep on fighting the growing competition with Zend, PHP’s lead commercial sponsor, and the maker of Zend Studio IDE.

Delphi for PHP 2.0 features several enhancements, the key enhancements are following:

HTML templates with embedded dynamic PHP
Ddatabase support for MySQL, CodeGear InterBase, Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, PostgreSQL, IBM Informix and DB2, and Sybase’s SQL Anywhere
The ability to build rich data-driven Web applications without requiring database connectivity coding
New expanded and faster VCL (Visual Component Library) for PHP with support for popular PHP packages and libraries including the Zend Framework from Zend Technologies
Productivity and performance enhancements including new error insight and source code formatting
The whole new PHP debugging features and integrated PHP performance profiling and tuning.

Version 2.0 of CodeGear’s Delphi for PHP follows the launch of Zend Studio for Eclipse and Zend Platform 3.6 in January—which signalling the growing competition on PHP developer tools arena, as enterprise adoption for PHP continues to grow.

Some experts view this release as Borland’s smart move, which represents a positive development for PHP. PHP Delphi for PHP 2.0 actually integrates the Zend Framework into the IDE. Zend Framework is an enterprise-class deployment framework for PHP that has the backing of Microsoft, Google and IBM, among other big-name IT vendors.

Delphi for PHP 2.0 is available for an introductory price of $249 through June. Afterward, it costs $299. Upgrades from version 1.0 cost $179. Indeed this is the first tool to deliver a Visual Basic-style designer for PHP, where you can drag-and-drop components on a design canvas, and as well less expensive than its rival Zend studio. But question remain can it fight back the dominant and popular Zend Studio?

Disclaimer: Personally I use and endorse Zend technology for my clients and company’s PHP needs.

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Intel pulling out from Philippines?

Kams(Kamrul) — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 18:00:07 +0000

What could have been worse for Philippines’ tech industry than Intel Corp., the world’s top chip maker is considering pulling out of the country. Intel’s factory in Cavite which employing more than 3,000 people, is Intel’s second offshore assembly operations centre in Asia and also serves as a test site.

According to Intel source, they invested around 1.51 billion dollars in the country while high power costs are a problem in the Philippines. According to many industry experts this is part of an eventual pullout from the Philippines.

Though according to Intel spokesman it will take at least six months for Intel to decide whether to keep on running the factory, but as you can guess there is nothing for certain here. Intel is one of the biggest investors in the Philippine electronics industry. Electronics are the country’s top export, accounting for two-thirds of goods shipped overseas.

Rumours have been circulating 2005 that Intel had already made a decision to pack up and leave the Philippines after the year 2010. The rumours started to turn into reality in 2006 when Intel inaugurated a US$605-million test and assembly plant in Ho Chin Minh City in Vietnam. And also when Cavite plant didn’t receive any part of Intel’s US$1 billion investment plan for Asia in 2006, you can start to get the feeling.

In an interview Intel Chairman Craig Barrett said the company considers "political stability" as a major factor when making investment decisions and singled out Vietnam as a favourable investment climate.

So as you can see Intel’s pullout will be caused for two reasons-(1) for god forsaken high energy cost (2^nd highest after Japan) (2) Philippines political rumble.

If Intel does finally pull out from Philippines this will be huge blow to the Philippines, where the electronics market, which encompasses semiconductors the country’s largest export earner. Other foreign companies such as Texas Instruments who followed Intel into Philippines might as well follow out of the country.

So more unemployment, export earning lost, lost foreign investment while countries politicians busy interchanging mud at each other or smoking Cuban cigar seating on their fat arse.

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Bloggism.net

Choosing cell phone headsets

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