My New Notebook

During the last session break holidays I carried my 4 yr. old aging PC to home and after the end of the holidays I didn't bring it back with me to my college. So, I needed a computer badly. Most of my work was postponed because of lack of a PC. So, I decided to get myself a notebook. Why a notebook? Why not a PC? Ok, here are the points that forced me to prefer a notebook over a desktop computer despite the fact that the life of a notebook is far lesser than a notebook.

1. True mobility! This is the most important point to prefer a notebook. I can carry my notebook to college, to home, to delhi, to singapore, to bangalore, to bathroom, to a neighbouring girl's room(ROFL! just joking) or almost wherever I go. That means I can compute wherever I am. A desktop is restricted to the table on the other hand.
2. A desktop pc has to be shut down in 2 minutes after a power cut. If the UPS is new and good it can run for 30 mins. A notebook can run upto 3 hrs. so no hindrance in any work.
3. To use a desktop PC, I need to be in same posture for long. Its quite tiring if I need to work for long. There is no such problem in case of a notebook. I can keep it on my lap, on table, on bed while I can use it in sitting mode or lying on the bed or any position I wish any time.
4. After purchasing a PC I need to buy several addons like webcam, card reader, wi-fi card, bluetooth dongle etc etc. A notebook although costlier has all of these built in.

There are several more smaller reasons which are the consequence of first point, so I ain't gonna write them all.

On 4th September I went to buy a Dell Inspiron 14 with 320GB, 3GB and C2D 2GHz T series processor with 800MHz FSB and a rated battery backup of 3 hours. After searching a few shops in Chandigarh Sector-20C computer market and getting the price quotes I found out that the cheapest deal for that machine was at Rs.35.5K inclusive of all taxes, a mouse and a headphone. But I wasn't contented, dunno why. I needed something else. Then I stuck on a Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo Si 3655. It was small, with a 13.3 inch screen. And it was powered by a C2D P8400 running at 2.26GHz and an FSB of 1066MHz. Memory was 4GB and storage 320GB. It was available at Rs.37k for people with an student ID card. And it had a rated battery backup of 4.5 hours. I took a demo and it looked fine to me. It was real fast. It was churning the hell outta Vista. The size was small. White color I liked. And the configuration was cool. And the screen was brilliant. Also it boasted of Intel Centrino 2. I noticed that only problem with it was that it had only 2 USB ports opposed to other notebooks which generally have 3 of them. No problem for me. I performed some research on net on forums and when didn't encounter any complaints from Fujitsu, I settled for it and purchased it!
Here is the official page:
http://ts.fujitsu.com/home/products/notebooks/amilo_si_3655.html
Here are two pictures of it in action.



I am running Windows Vista Business on it. So far no problems. Working at dreamy blazing speeds. I had never before used such a fast computer. XP too wasn't this fast. The Intel GMA has a whopping 1.26GB of video memory!!!! So, I should be able to run any game on it without problems. But I haven't yet tested any game. No time for that now a days.

2 Months!

I posted here last over two months ago. The period in between, didn't let me have time/resource to post. There have been many updates in my life since then. One thing that I forgot to post here, that happened earlier than 2 months ago was the purchase of a TFT LCD monitor. It was a SAMSUNG 16'', I forgot the model number. I left it at home so can't check now. I had purchased it in 3rd week of June, for Rs.5350.
Other updates in my life include a personal one, and a few academic and some technical ones. A notable thing that happened to me was that my P1i fell several times on hard floor while I was at home and its side cover now tends to come out. Fortunately I did some extreme engineering and fixed the side covers in place by pasting them through FeviKwik!!!!! Hehehe
Another update is that I got a new notebook and purchased a Reliance Data Card for using internet. I'll post individually about them.
A yet another update is that my 6th Sem exam results have been declared and I got 76.44% marks. That is pretty much if I consider the little amount of time that I spend on studies! ROFL
So, now the bandwagon of my blog should carry on. I\ll post about my new notebook soon.

Transferring files over LAN - Part 2

Sorry, I had written in my previous post that I'll get back with the 2nd part of this tutorial tomorrow, but didn't actually get time. But now I'm free and here's the 2nd part that will show you the merits of client/server technology and TCP/IP protocol stack.
This one has one additional requirement and thats Apache Server Software. You may download it by clicking here.
Install it in the computer from which you want to serve the file to other one. Installation is quite easy. If you've some confusion in what values are to be filled in which boxes, then use these values:

Network Domain: localhost
Server Name: localhost
Admin Email: any email address

And check the box labelled: for All Users, on Port 80, as a Service


Ok, now you've installed Apache, lets make sure whether it is working correctly or not.
Open any browser window and type localhost in the address bar and press enter. If you see a white page with "It works!" written in large black font, that means you've done it succesfully!!!
But if not, then refer to the official documentation here or an unofficial nice one here.

Ok, so now we've finished installing the server software. Now lets proceed ahead and configure our LAN.

1. Follow the first two steps of the previous blog post i.e. http://p97.blogspot.com/2009/07/transferring-files-from-one-computer-to.html
2. Now in the server computer i.e. the one with Apache, right click your ethernet card in Network Connections, click Properties. In the box under "This connection uses following items", click Internet Protocol(TCP/IP) and click Properties command button below.
3. Now check the radio button that says "Use the following IP address" and enter 192.168.0.1 in the box, press "Tab" key on your keyboard, and the next Subnet Mask box will automatically be filled with 255.255.255.0. Now click ok and close.
4. In the client computer do the same but put the IP address as 192.168.0.2
5. Now navigate to the apache installation directory's htdocs folder and delete the index.htm or index.html files.
6. Copy the files you want to share, to this directory.
7. In the client computer open a web browser(I don't recommend IE!!!, use Opera or Firefox), and type 192.168.0.1 in the address bar and press enter. Viola!!! You can see the files that you copied to htdocs folder in the server computer. Just click any of it to start the download. You will get download speeds around 80Mbps i.e. around 10MB/s.

Here are some images to help you if you get stuck somewhere.

Transferring files from one computer to another over LAN

Many of my friends who're not directly connected to computers have asked me ways to share files between two computers. For most of them I've done that myself physically and for others, for whom my physical presence isn't feasible, I'm posting this one.
I'm assuming you've Windows XP running on both the computers and drivers for LAN cards are installed.

Additional Requirements: A CAT-5 Ethernet Crossover Cable(thats technical name, common name is LAN wire cross waala)

I will discuss two ways to do the same. One is a primitive simple way to share files. Other one is a bit geeky, and you'll probably feel proud of yourself doing that :)

Ok, so simpler one first.

1. Insert both the ends of the cable's RJ45 connectors to both the PC's LAN ports.
2. Open "Network Connections" from Control Panel or from Start>Connect To>Show All Connections. There, in both the machines, make sure the ethernet cards under "LAN or High-Speed Internet" category are enabled. If not enabled then right click over the corresponding icon and click "Enabled"
3. Now in both the computers right click "My Computer" in start menu and click "Properties". In "Computer Name" tab, click the "Change" button. Now put different names for both computers and in the bottom below "Member of" label select the radio button labelled "Workgroup" and put any name there. But make sure this workgroup name should be same in both the computers. Now click ok. And restart both the computers.
4. After restarting, open "My Network Places". Oh, where is it??? lol if you can't find it, just open "My Computer" and in the left pane i.e. Tasks Pane you'll see "My Network Places" under "Other Places". Click that. In the tasks pane of "My Network Places" click "View workgroup computers" and you'll be able to see the other computer.
5. Ok, now they're networked. Ok? So how to transfer the files? Easy!!! In any computer right click any file/folder/drive which you want to share, click properties and in sharing tab enable sharing.m Thats it!!! You can see that file/folder/drive on the other computer when you double click this computer's name in its my network places. easily copy the files.

The other(geeky) method, I'll post tomorrow.
Here are some images.


Thats a caT-5 cable with Rj45 connectors on both ends.

Download 2+MB through Airtel NOP

Am gettin bored lyin on da bed tryin 2 sleep but sleep is milez away 4m my eyes. Ok, so empty brain is devilz worksop! So, I think of postin sumthin 2 ma blog n an idea popped up, n thatz 2 post da 2+MB download trick 4 NOP victims!!! Yes, victims! Many peepz hav askd me dis n I've repeated 1 less than a million times da same procedure. Dis 1 is da millionth tym n aftrwards I'll always point every1 2 dis blog. Ok, so lets start! And hey, 1 more thing. I'm makin dis post 4m my bellphone, oh pardon, cellphone, so I ain't using da 4mal english. Just compressin everyfin lyk n sms. So lets get ahead. 1st thing 2 know is d requirements. U need ne opera mini mod that has d download manager. All mods above ver2 have da d'load manager. And 2nd thing u need is a fone wid Airtel NOP connection. And hey, da phone shudn't be a Nokia s40 cuz s40 bricks don't allow java apps 2 connect 2 net thru NOP. Prefer an SE phone or an s60 symbian os 8 or above phone. Apart 4m d above 2, u need an average IQ 2 understand actually what's going on. Ok, now launch opera mini mod n open da site from where u wanna d'load da file. Click the link. A Download page will popup. Press the left softkey twice 2 get da download setup page as the screenshot given here. In this page scroll down 2 da checkbox labelled 'Loading on positions beginning-end'. Check the checkbox n in da input box below enter '0-2048000' without d quotes off course.
Leave everyfin else untouched n press d left soft key twice 2 start d download.Aftr d download completes repeat same steps again but this time in the input box '2048001-4096000' and below select the radio button labelled 'Resume Interrupted' instead of 'Auto Rename'. Repeat until you've downloaded the whole file in fragments of 2MB. You've 2 repeat d steps ceil(filesize in mb/2) times. Share d trick wid ur frns n enjoy downloading large songs thru NOP. Cheers!

Cricketing Preamble of India

I made it up in a hurry. Suggestions or mods for improvements invited :)

We the people of India looking forward to solemnly resolve and constitute an unbeatable, unchasable, highly coveted, venerable, valorous, united, consistent Team India securing all her fans
WINS, series, tournament, trip;
CONSISTENCY to continue the triumph for eternity;
STABILITY in the team and UNITY among the inmates

Btw, for the unfortunate defeat of the team in T20WC2K9, the whole credit goes to Dhoni. I request Dhoni to die!!!! I curse you Dhoni! You will die of leprosy!

Computer geeks are best lovers!!!

A survey performed among IT professionals in U.K. revealed that computer geeks/fanatics/enthusiasts prove to be best lovers in their real lives!!! pmpl!
It further revealed that computer nerds are selfless and adventurous and can do things different from the world, for the person they love. 82% people in the survey accepted that they value their partner's preferences over their own. It was also brought into focus that people who are always worried about their fitness were selfish.
Well, it is just another survey and I generally don't believe in survey reports done in U.S/U.K. by a bunch of people who don't have anything else to do. But from my personal life experience, I've felt that the survey report in the above one is true to an appreciable extent. My two best friends who are computer experts, are really selfless, good natured, monogamic and passionate about their love.
Whatever be the truth, who cares? I just wrote this up because it is related to the lifestyle of computer lovers and this blog is primarily a technology blog. So some of the readers may have some interest in it.