A wonderful post about technology

You find the beginning of the post here :

Technology: OK, but you will pay for me right?
Human: Sure! Will do.
Technology: Will you also update me from time to time?
Human: OK, I can do that.

............................................ read it here!

IE handles memory better than firefox?

As i was working in my laptop, i felt the system went slower. When I examined the task manager (windows), i found that the highest amount of memory was held by firefox (312 MB). I closed firefox and re-opened it. I wanted to examine how firefox gulps up memory - with zoho mail. Here is the result.

Note : zoho mail opens a new browser window for every compose. I used IE 7 and Firefox 3.

	Firefox	Internet Explorer
System memory before opening browsers	484 MB	484 MB
After opening browser	515 MB	506 MB
After opening zoho mail	546 MB	532 MB
After opening compose window	556 MB	542 MB
After opening compose window 2nd time	562 MB	543 MB
After opening compose window 3rd time	570 MB	541 MB
After opening compose window 4th time	583 MB	541 MB
...	...	...
After opening compose window for some more times	622 MB	541 MB

Enough care has not been taken in firefox to clear-up memory after a window is closed (or some add-ons should be causing this madness). When I tell 'firefox consumes more memory' or 'memory is not handled well in firefox', it is not a new story. But there was lots of buzz before the release of firefox 3 that lots of work has been done to handle the memory issues, but just not good enough. I use a laptop with 1 GB RAM. People using older laptops should suffer with firefox.

May be fast is not enough.

netbeans creates problem on system hybernation ?

1. When the system goes into hybernation for a long time say - around 7-10 hours, netbeans in my system begins to pixellate. When I scroll using mouse, multiple instances of the mouse pointer is seen on the screen and it persists (image shown). This was existing for a long time.


Another problem i noticed today made me write this post.

2. Even new files are not opening after hybernation.

Even netbeans restart is not a solution. I need to restart windows.

Is there others who are having the same problem? Or am I the only one?

Crimson text editor for windows - a free, feature rich, cool, simple editor

Crimson editor is a free, feature rich, cool, simple text editor for windows.

I am using only crimson editor to edit all text files like .java, .jsp, .xml, .bat etc.

It has many advance features like :

1. Macro recording and replay
2. Opening a remote file using ftp
3. Collective save

and so many other

User experience is made much simpler with say a [ctrl+X] remove the entire line if you have not selected anything in that particular line and many other similar features.

For example if you want .jspf files to follow the coloring format of jsp, you can specify so in Tools >> Preferences >> Syntax.

Explore it more for yourselves. It is available for free.

infoaxe and web memory

I read an article today in 'The Hindu' about a search engine : infoaxe.com - They are boasting about having got some of the top investors invested in them. The most highlighted feature of the search engine is something called 'web memory' thru which they track the sites the user is browsing and aiming provide the 'relevant' info to the users.

I wanted to visit the website out of enthusiasm. Not able to understand why they should use a tool bar to have the user's searches in their server (and why do it only thru a toolbar?). I found the following statement from their FAQ.

Your (web) memory is private to you and protected by your infoaxe account and password. This ensures that your web memory is private to you even when you share a computer with another user.

Is the login not enough to provide privacy?

I think google already does this thru its login. If you login into google before you search, all your search is maintained in the search history. (Look for the link 'Web History' on the right top when you search using google after logging in).

How many websites will I allow to create a toolbar in my browser? Am I not using a browser to browse many websites? If i have install a toolbar for every website that provides it, will they not fill my entire browser?

In my firefox, i would not want to have any toolbar exept my bookmarks toolbar. A web user would love a good browsing experience than infoaxe!

Emergence of online applications a good opportunity for linux

Windows has been ruling the roost since it is widely adopted by the developer, UI designer community and hence there was a situation where you cannot find many softwares for linux equivalent to the corresponding windows softwares. Apart from this, there are lots of installation problems when it comes to linux. The problem being basically the 'know how', there is a 'lot to know' when you have to install some softwares into linux. Also since there are inumerable versions and flavours of linux, it adds a lot to installation problems.

Now almost, the problem doesn't exist. Many applications come online, particularly office, business apps.

You can even create your own form based utilites 'online' using tools like zoho creator. (Yes, you can even prefer to write code in zoho creator to create complex, powerful applications - lots of help for the same is available via forums and developer community).

Then ... why still keep paying to Microsoft [I respect microsoft so much, for the revolution it has created in the computer, software industry, still no one need to remain loyal to them, they have earned enough from all of us.] when linux can do sufficiently well enough for you? Explore!

When you use online software, you dont
1. install the software
2. maintain the software
3. upgrade the software (everyday as you check the app remains updated to the second).

Instead
1. The usage of your application is not limited to the computer/system at your home/office - online apps can be used whereever you are, at any time, provided you have internet connection (Any office still lacking an internet connection these days?).
2. Your applications and data are safer and secure since they are maintained by experts.
3. You pay only less (on demand basis) for using your apps. Most of the online softwares comes free. Many online softwares comes free for basic usage and charging nominally for usage on demand (no need to pay when you dont use, pay again when you want to use again - yes your data is retained for free when you dont use the app), thus giving you financial flexibility. You will find many such apps in www.zoho.com

Just a few points on thinking about using a free Linux instead of a costly Windows.

Google chrome - user's delight

Google chrome is yet another proof that google riegns usability.

One main thing that i observed in google chrome is, it tries to give maximum viewer space for the web content reducing, hiding the browser features. The following points explain this very clearly.

1. Tabs have been moved to the titlebar to achieve this.

2. Even no space as been alocated to show the chrome logo at the top-left as in any other windows app.

3. Page loading information comes and vanishes away.

Gmail loads lightening fast (may be needless to say), unlike in other browsers.

May write more as i observe more.

Firefox 3 could not install firebug 1.2

Here is the error message I got when I tried to install firebug 1.2 in Firefox 3.

Firefox could not install the file at

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/downloads/file/30423/firebug-1.2.0b3-fx.xpi

because: Unexpected installation error
Review the Error Console log for more details.
-203

firefox 3 faster

Two main things that you wanted in a browser were speed and good memory management.
Firefox 3 has them, as far as I have seen.
Happy browsing with firefox 3, 'the best firefox yet'.

One of the other things that firefox can look into is 'text and image rendering', IE (Internet Explorer) seems to be better at that still. Things look more pleasant in IE than firefox. In this aspect even Opera is better than firefox.

why both interface and an abstract class

An interface can have no implementation.

An abstract class can have some implementation as well as abstract methods which doesn't have implementation.

We have abstract classes to have the benefit of both the interface and a class.

In an abstract class, functionalities common for a module can be implemented in the methods, at the same time the methods that must be implemented by the classes specific for an operation can also be specified/enforced.

So an abstract class is an additional facility rather than a necessity, a nice to have feature in any OO language like Java.

Mint.com - online personal money management site

Mint.com is a free online personal money management website.
It has a cool and a very simple UI.
The weakness is, this being an online tool, this is fully pre-customized for USA.
You cannot add your own account, you have to choose from the types of accounts given there.
mint collects information directly from banks and other financial institutions -- the user has to provide the credentials - username, password etc.... -- so that the user need not re-enter data (which cannot be done if the user enters his own account). Cool. Still if the user does not belong to any of these institutions, he cannot use the site, till either mint adds the users institution or the user joins one of the institutions which mint has in list.
This could have been kept optional so that the user can use the tool like he wants.
Since this requires the tie ups with the corresponding institutions, this blocks other nationals from using this site, thus the site looses a world touch .... I feel mint has made things mandatory that are to be given as an option to the user.
Otherwise this should have become a well used tool online -- something like ... GMail.

Open in a new tab

I use internet explorer 7. It gives two different for options to open links.

1. Open in a new tab (IE's new facility - looks like the big M was compelled to copy from other browsers).
2. Open in a new window (yes, it was already existing in IE).

The response to both these options is same. The link gets opened in a new window. wow.

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