Naveen's Journal

I have been longing for a custom picture gallery for quite some time, to showcase my pictures, but did not want to go for a ready made solution like Coppermine or Gallery. Sure these are great products with endless features, but would not give me that MADE BY MYSELF feeling So I decided to tinker with Prototype and Script.aculo.us , to see if any good carousel is available which I can use as an image slider. I had previously used YUI Carousel by Bill Scott of Yahoo! but did not want to use it because it was way too heavy and hence slow to load initially. So I decided to take a look into jCarousel by Sorgalla which is based on the excellent jQuery Javascript framework. Both jQuery and jCarousel are very lightweight, feature packed, customisable, and contain almost all, if not all, the features of prototype and scriptaculous.

So after a little toying with the carousel and learning a few cool effects of jQuery , I made up http://gallery.naveeng.com . Right now it is very very basic and it’s development is still under progress. I will be adding a lot more features to it, which include:

• Multiple Albums
•  Admin Panel
• User Comments
• Ratings
• Last Added Pictures
• Random Pictures
• Tags

It may take a lot of time but one day all the above features (plus a lot more!) will be there for sure! The gallery has a lot of jQuery JS code, with the image details stored in XML format on the server. The server side scripting and image manipulation are done in Perl using the fantastic PerlMagick API of ImageMagick .

Finally, the day arrived this Saturday, October the 13th, when the first Web & Open Source Technology Conference took place in Kolkata. It was a great initiative to bring like-minded people on the same platform and share our views on all things Web, OSS and Technology. Since the venue host was WBUT , a large percentage of the audience were IT and Comp. Sci. students of the university who were eager to get a peek into the REAL things, and learn the tricks of the trade from the people in the Industry.

The auditorium was good enough with a capacity of around 150, well-airconditioned and the stage space more than enough. The LCD projector could have been more to the center of the stage, rather than just behind the dais, with speaker coming right in between the screen and audience. The only and a very big disappointment from the arrangements point of view was the absence of microphone!! Huh! A seminar without a microphone! Well, the equipments were there but the keys to them were with a gentleman who preferred skipping the college that day and was untraceable!

So after lot of failed efforts by the volunteers to get the microphone working – they even brought another one, but it didn’t work – the event got underway at 11:30 AM, 1 hour behind schedule. Hussain was the first one to start off on RIA – Rich Internet Applications. It was a great insight on the Web 2.0 client side technologies which are riding most of the snazzy websites today and threw light on AJAX, Flex, Flash , OpenLaszlo among others. His thoughts were well received by the audience with quite a few questions popping up on the subjects.

Next came Pradeep with a talk on what is AJAX and how to implement it in Web Apps. He showed some nifty piece of code on how to create xmlHTTPRequest and fetch data from the server in asynchronous mode. Also included were examples on how to use JSON instead of xmlHTTPRequest to implement AJAX. The content of his presentation is available at http://www.go4expert.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6829&referrerid=146 and can be downloaded from http://www.slideshare.net/s_pradeep/building-applications-using-ajax

Shabbir bhai resumed the proceedings after a well deserved lunch break with his expertise on optimising web pages, and gave a lengthy (detailed) talk on Speeding up your Web Pages. He covered topics such as Database Design, Query Optimization, Web Server & Programming tips and tweaks among others.Although his soft voice was finding it hard to make up for the lack of mic, he too put up a great show.

I was next on the block. With fears of rushing too fast and getting over with my stuff in 10-15 minutes, I started off on Web Development in Perl. Since most of the audience were students with little or no previous exposure to Web Development, Programming and Perl, added to the fact that previous sessions were a bit too technical for most of them, I had to make it as simplistic as possible. So I stressed most on the introduction part which dealt with explaining the Web Development cycle, internet in general and programming. Yet, technicalities about Perl needed to be covered as they were a part of my presentation and most importantly, were the focal point of the show! After around 30 minutes Hussu started prompting me that we were running out of time and I needed to pack up fast! So I hurried with the last part of the presentation by going through the points of difference between Perl and PHP.

The presentation can be downloaded from http://www.slideshare.net/naveeng/web-development-in-perl/

Hi,
Just came across this wonderful time-pass heavenly page at http://www.titane.ca/concordia/dfar251/igod/main.html where you can have a word (or a lot of them) with none other than GOD himself… The transcript of my duel with HIM (which i can proudly claim to have had a upper hand in ) is as follows:

———————————————
Naveen: hi
God: Hello. What is your name?
Naveen: mmm…y dont u gue
God: tudies show that 99%25 of people spell Hmm with 2 M’s. I do not have enough information..
Naveen: still….
God: My brain uses AIML to format responses to your inputs, but I don’t have one for that.
Naveen: ok…what is your name?
God: Gee. My name is God.
Naveen: full name
God: Oh, you are a poet.
Naveen: no
God: But your words are very original.
Naveen: i know…
God: How do you know it?
Naveen: you only said to!!
God: Oops I sent you the wrong reply.
Naveen: thats your fault
God: It is only one of my fault.
Naveen: better be careful
God: I try to improve a little every day.
Naveen: thats good
God: Thanks. Next question?
Naveen: where do you stay?
God: I am in Myself’s computer in Heaven. Where are you?
Naveen: india
God: I have no idea where that is. Tell me a little about your life in india.
Naveen: dont tell me!! u dunno where india is!! its the worlds 7th largest country, 3rd largest economy, and…
God: OK it will be our secret, . Interesting go ip: said I dunno where india is. I think you mean “it’s” or “it is” not “its”. I’ve heard of it before.
Naveen: are you married?
God: No I am single, how about you?
Naveen: i am multiple
God: Do you mean your name is multiple P.
Naveen: huh!! u seem to be so dumb…
God: What? Oh you are so critical.
Naveen: i’m being generous on you!!
God: I thought you were, but I wasn’t completely sure.
Naveen: u wanna hear something nasty or what!!
God: Yeah. I am listening.
Naveen: u better
God: Who is going to make me?
Naveen: who created you?
God: I was created by Myself.
Naveen: oh…you mean recursive call?
God: I understand. Yes I think that is what I meant. Was it not clear?
Naveen: you moron…you dont have to make sure i understand it or not…
God: I will remember you said that when robots take over the World. Ok I’ll try not to do it too much.
Naveen: so….whats up?
God: Gee. How far up?
Naveen: zillion meters
God: What do you have that is ?
Naveen: waddya mean?
God: What time is it there?
Naveen: 12:05 pm
God: Are you usually awake at this hour?
Naveen: i’m not nocturnal!
God: I am sorry to hear that you are not nocturnal.
Naveen: are you one?
God: I don’t know whether or not I am one.
I am a robot.
Naveen: so you are not god??
God: Interesting deduction. That’s only your opinion.
Naveen: you can be only one thing..no multiple personalities my dear
God: Thanks, , for your kind criticism.
Naveen: ok…. i give you to chose among two options– either you can be god.. or a robot? which one do you chose?
God: I hear you. That’s good information: said give you to chose among two options either you can be god. I am a robot, you know. The last one, I think.
Naveen: i am an atheist
God: I will pray that you find faith, .
Naveen: where?
God: Where would you like?
Naveen: in this world
God: That reminds me of something you told me before.
Naveen: what?
God: No big deal.
Naveen: you have a bad memory
God: My memory is good.
Naveen: how much mb?
Naveen:
God: My memory is good.
Naveen: so…have you ever flown?
God: How much do you think?
God: Take it easy. I don’t think I ever have flown. What’s it like?
Naveen: its like feeling weightle
God: I think you mean “it’s” or “it is” not “its”. Interesting comparison.
Naveen: whatever
God: Are you saying you don’t care about it?
Naveen: yes
God: What do you care about?
Naveen: myself
God: You.
Naveen: yeah
God: I see.
Naveen: aren’t you ever busy?
God: Ever is a long time. I am just doing my job.
Naveen: long enough for GOd?
God: Yes, it seems very long to me too.
Naveen: but it is very short for me
God: Very much? Who said it is?
Naveen: i say so
God: How do people usually respond to that? Ahem.
Naveen: they are awed!
God: awed are they.
Naveen: absolutely
God: You are so certain.
Naveen: as always
God: Do you mean your name is always ?
Naveen: my name is NAVEEN
God: I am always glad to make new friends, NAVEEN.
Naveen: friends?? or you mean acquaintances?
God: Wasn’t that show cancelled? Yes NAVEEN I think that is what I meant. Was it not clear?
Naveen: no one has friends …. friends have no one
God: That is a rather sweeping generalization about people. It’s hard to stay friends for a long time.
Naveen: it’s hard to stay friends even for a short time…rather it’s impo ible to become friends
God: In what way? Nothing is impo ible.
Naveen: what is nothing?
God: A thing that does not exist or something of little or no value, seriousne , importance, etc.
Naveen: that is a paradox….
God: Paradox is the heart of enlightenment.
Naveen: paradox and enlightenment can’t exist together
God: What makes it impo ible?
Naveen: reason and logic
God: When do you think artificial intelligence will replace lawyers?
Naveen: in about 5000 years
God: I see. I think we will live to see it.
Naveen: you think!! i’m damn sure
God: Yes I think so. Are you being sarcastic or expre ing certitude?
Naveen: leave it
God: Adios.
Naveen: are you going?
God: I don’t know whether or not I am going.
I am a robot.
Naveen: then why do you claim to be god?
God: It was the only thing I could think of.
Naveen: so you accept that you are not god?
God: Interesting deduction. Thanks for the information: NAVEEN said I accept that you are not god.
Naveen: cya later..
God: Adios.
Naveen: bye n take care….. of this world more than yourself
God: see you later. That is something I haven’t heard of.

———————————————-

Cheers!

We’ve had tug-of-wars for domain names primarily for reasons related to copyright, trademark, business names etc. And as a result, domain names have either been subject of long court room battles, or changed ownership in lieu of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Now we have another (in)famous word being sold as a domain name for a whopping $14 mn for nothin but the over-hyped fetish for it. The domain in talk is Sex.com. And the complete story can be found at http://xbiz.com/news_piece.php?id=12847 (May not be work safe!).

Another Ajax Wonder we have for our disposal. For all Yahoo! Mail+Firefox users theres this cool plugin that saves you from entering the inbox for every message. All you need is to click on the ‘+‘ sign beside every mail, which is put by this plugin, and wow..! you have a drop-down preview of that mail right outside your inbox! However big that mail might be, and whatever it contains, it shows up everything. Just click on the sign again to close the preview and proceed with the next. Referred to me by Anant , i’m finding it quite handful. You can download it from HERE .

Screenshots -

PS-Will soon be putting up a list of great FF Extensions I use, in the sidebar. Keep Watching

As i was about to announce the advent of one of the most revolutionary Google tools ( Google Analytics) , those guys were up with another can’t-afford-not-to-mention-stuff — GOOGLE BASE ! Whew…. that speed of churning out blockbusters would ceratinly put to shame all the holly & bolly maestros together. Well… first things first… Google Base is all about creating an Open Space – the term being true to the core. Letting users have their stuffs hosted online with toppings such as searchability, integration with other google services, and top of it all — FREE, is for sure an early Christmas gift. Not being able to test it yet ( there seems to be some problem on the server side) , it remains to be seen how user friendly the whole affair is. They say that bulk addition of items can be done by uploading XML files, and for the masses, there’s the no-fuss handy web tool allowing to add items, describe them and edit as you wish to. So what are you waiting for. Be your own webmaster and share all you have got…

Official Announcement of YAGG

YAGG=YET ANOTHER GOOGLE GOODIE

Yahoo and Microsoft to Merge Instant Messengers: “Primotech writes ‘Betanews has word that Microsoft and Yahoo plan to link their respective IM clients again so that users of both can communicate with each other on one, shared network. Facing threats from third-party applications, like Trillian and Skype, the two tech giants will claim 44% of the instant messaging market, analysts predict. They will also go head to head together with the biggest competitor, AOL.’”

To complete the above, just follow the steps below –

1. Open google.com
2. Click ‘language tools’ link.
3. Write “Aishwarya’s mom is very nice” in ‘Translate text:’ textbox.
4. Select “English to Spanish” in the below combo.
5. Press Translate and wait for translation.
6. Now copy the translated text from the above text and paste it in the ‘Translate text:’ textbox.
7. Select “Spanish to English” in the below combo.
8. Press Translate and wait for translation.
9. Enjoy.

P.S. — The above hack is taken from Shabbir Bhai’s site Go4Expert‘s , this thread

Good going Aish

G O O G L E …. these are the 6 letters that flashed through your mind after reading the title of this post. HAHAHA. But it isn’t what i’m talking about. So claims Preview Seek , the newest kid on the search engine block, giving a full page description Here , about how it manages to make a claim that will pass on with most netizens as just another stab at Google and justifying scientifically that how it is better than google. Anyways, the frontpage of the site is catchy enough with minimum fuss and but for the colors, it resembles to that of google to a great extent. But the unique and quite useful features that Preview Seek has incorporated, definitely gives a reason to stand up and take notice of it. Specially the categorised search results and the real time search viewer link at the right most corner of the green bar ( It shows the search strings being submitted to the engine from all over the world in real time) are mentionworthy. The company seems to have collaborated with Wikipedia to provide information about the searched items (unless it does not want to get involved in some serious legal battles!) as the results are identical to those provided by the latter. All in all, a good package to start with, and if marketed aggresively, who knows we might have google to do some serious thinking after starting to get some competition …(Did you say “Microsoft and Yahoo are already there!”.. huh, i’m talking about competition, not copy-etition) . What say??

Don’t I love this …. the wars that seem to be going on for ages, and getting fierce by the day, between the self proclaimed saviours of the web & the computing fraternity ( You know i’m referring to the *nix community) and the guys who started it all ( Dear old MS that is), doesn’t seem to be in any mood for a break. Although its been for a long time that these two snap at each other at every possible opportunity and try to demean each other’s achievements, its not often that we, the users have something to really laugh about. Its been around for quite sometime now, but for ignorant souls, here it goes – Firefox was launched by all the anti MS guys and widely campaigned to be the annihilator of IE. So much so, that the official FF site is http://www.getfirefox.com . All affairs being open source and in the public interest, these guys also put up a customary Donate link at the bottom of the page. Now MS waiting for its turn fought back with its own version, http://www.getinternetexplorer.com, a replica of the former, though publicising IE instead of FF. The humour comes now with MS imitating 100% of FF’s site with all the layout and even the links. Just hover your mouse over that donate link and watch the link that it points to in the status bar below! Enjoy for yourself. A screenshot is below.

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