Time Warp

Have you ever had a friend who say, "I use firefox cos its faster then IE"? Well i do. And in my experience i feel that this premise is not always true. I found that firefox is faster than IE when you open previously opened sites. sites like google, facebook etc. which i use on a regular bases. When a new site is requested for, i found that firefox takes a lot more time than IE.

/* time i'm referring to here is the amount of time that elapses from when the request is placed to the time when the first glimmer of response appears on the browser. */

not to rekindle the great browser wars.... :)



I tried to make sense out of the status reports that flashes in the status bar and sortof arrived at a conclusion: I feel IE paints the screen as and when a considerable amount of packets arrive. hence the page loads in parts. the text appears a lot before all the images load. firefox paints only when most of the response is aquired and the remaining is refreshed a short time later.

now, normally i would have let this go by but this bugs me when i stumble. when you stumble, you request for a lot of new web pages that, chances are, you have never seen before. ergo, firefox gets me waiting for a good 30 seconds before my enthu is back.

in my embargo to use Open Source Software as much as possible, i stuck to using firefox rather than IE. so i had to find a fix to this "time warp" that firefox creates.



feels this this wen we wait for a browser to react or to pick up a date or wen we sit in class... ;)

so; i did some research online and i found the following tweaks:

Reduce the amount of RAM Firefox uses for its cache feature

1. Type “about:config” (no quotes) in the address bar in the browser.
2. Find “browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewer”
3. Set it’s value to “0“;(Zero)

Increase the Speed at Which Firefox loads pages

1. Type “about:config” into the address bar and hit Enter.
(Normally the browser will make one request to a web page at a time. When you enable pipelining it will make several at once, which really speeds up page loading.)

2. Alter the entries as follows:
Set “network.http.pipelining” to “true”
Set “network.http.proxy.pipelining” to “true”
Set “network.http.pipelining.maxrequests” to some number like 10.

This means it will make 10 requests at once.

3. Lastly, right-click anywhere and select New-> Integer. Name it “nglayout.initialpaint.delay” and set its value to “0“;.(Zero)

This value is the amount of time the browser waits before it acts on information it receives. If you’re using a broadband connection you’ll load pages faster now.
Optionally (for even faster web browsing) here are some more options for your about:config (you might have to create some of these entries by Right Click –> New– > Interger or String

network.dns.disableIPv6: set “false”
“content.notify.backoffcount”: set “5“; (Five)
“plugin.expose_full_path”: set “true”.
“ui.submenuDelay”: set “0; (zero)

Reduce RAM usage to 10MB when Firefox is minimized:

This little hack will drop Firefox’s RAM usage down to 10 Mb when minimized:

1. Open Firefox and go to the Address Bar. Type in about:config and then press Enter.
2. Right Click in the page and select New -> Boolean.
3. In the box that pops up enter “config.trim_on_minimize”. Press Enter.
4. Now select True and then press Enter.
5. Restart Firefox.

This also comes in handy when you open 10 tabs across 2-3 windows. By tweaking the way Firefox handles some caching functions, you can dramatically improve page load speed and even prevent Firefox from hogging your system resources while minimized. just remember to restart Firefox when you’re done.

well, that's that and take care fellows... :)

Target: "Novice"!!!!

Note: This blog can be better appreciated when read slowly

A huge chunk of the IT industry revolves around "novice users". Trying to cater to newbies is what earns meals for thousands and thousands of people around the world. The trend is not only in the field of IT; it, actually , originated in the early 80's when a whole bunch of products was launched like the family car or the vacuum cleaner or the toaster. Consequently, new models of the same were also launched which made people choose on the bases of ease and comfort. These were all meant to be but one company took it to a new level: "Microsoft".

Microsoft and its products is the holy grail for novice software users. In true silicon valley style, Microsoft picked up the concept of user satisfaction from Apple, who first implemented the Graphical User Interface (Gooey).

Up until the launch of Windows Vista, programmers focused on User Interface (UI) to create the "awwww" effect in users. I remember when vista was launched, all my friends did was talk about how good the windows looked, the transparency, the AERO. Vista is the biggest flop after Microsoft Windows Server 2003. As attractive as Vista is, it is resource hungry. You can face speed issues with vista though your box has 2 gigs memory. You combine the greed for resources with the awful UAC, LoL :) , you've got a pig sitting or your drive. As the adage goes: "Every dark cloud has a silver lining", Vista introduced a revolutionary concept: "UX".

For those of you who don't know what UX is, all i need to do is: give you the full-form. UX stands for User eXperience. ;) How about that? This is the future of the industry. Any and all major releases now are centered around UX. Fedora, Solaris, MAC, windows server 2008 and its successors (Hyper-V, R2) have all ditched their believes and switched over to produce a decent UX.

The obese and lethargic vista is now receiving a huge make over that includes a tummy tuck and a face lift to emerge as:

"Windows 7"

(uuuuhuhuuuu)




Windows 7 (project: windows vienna) uses the same system architecture as vista but it is faster and better looking (atleast dats wot they say... pufff ;) ). Features like AERO Shake and a improved taskbar are set to captivate novice users and have them chatting for some time. But i'm really not impressed by this one bit. cos i'm not a noob ;) LoL..... What actually impresses my is MinWin and Libraries (google it... me too lazy to write) . Two extraordinary features introduced that helps me and other tech savvy folks in particular "programmers".

In terms of UX, i believe windows 7 is 7/10 (ironic?).... I'm still not convinced about the improved UAC.... talkin abt UAC, boy, was it a bitch in vista... puff :

Target: "Novice" is a fact. Programming is now the icing on a piece of cake. Jus ask my frens who hav been introduced to microsoft's latest tools.... UX in programming tools have now become common.... :)

This truly chucks the traditional approach of programming out of the window where employees were locked up in room and asked to tap away lines of codes while their bosses slid pizzas under the door.... :)

well, To sum up:

• Try to elevate from the state of being a novice to become a mature programmer.
  
• Learn and share tech info
• Do not depend on only easy tools. venture out to other areas like: openSource etc.
• i hav my viva tomo and hav not yet touched my books
• i make a lot of grammatical mistakes. also pardon my spellings :)
• Don't call me a geek
• As i sign of change, this blog was completely written using firefox and fedora10 as OS....
• take care and peace out \/m
  

Self Made Man

A very great man once said, "it is the risk taker who ends up with the best head-stone."

Allow me to blabber a lil :)

There are essentially two different and equally important kinds of people when we consider 'career' as a parameter. One would be the person who does a great job in college and reaches a point in life where she/he decides to get a decent job and stabilize their life doing what they do best - u know "taking instructions"; and then there are people who tend to take the extra step and say, "hey! wait a minute. lemme try and achieve a lil more than wot i have or can have". This is a person who probably one day will end up a billionaire and is a true self made man. When i say billionaire,believe me, i don't mean his bank balance, but the brand "Billionaire" - life in his control.

What i'm goin to express here may seem bizarre, but wot the hell! it's my blog... :)

The outcome of this 'trying to achieve success' embargo is totally immaterial. One may end up rich and famous, others may fail and screw up, but it's totally worth the shot cos if u end up where you want to be, there is nothing better. I would present the status of "Billionaire" to any person who even gives a shot at thinking out of the box and be something different. This gamble, if played intelligently, pays off and ultimately benefits the nation.

Let me assert that arriving at a conclusion as to who is going to be happier on their death bed is not ethical nor sensible as it is a matter of perspective. What I'd like to spread out is: do not try to judge a person based on the above. Being as diverse as they are, both, and i stress upon this point, are very very essential to this society as it introduces the great "producer-consumer problem".

As part of Bangalore's youth i urge people to try to take the extra step and make a name for yourself. Think of Sir Richard Branson, think of Dr. Vijay Mallya, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet (2nd richest guy in the world); we are proud of these modern marvels as they reformed and reshaped the world. These entrepreneurs, haven't become what they are over night, it takes some serious hunger for success, a lot of work and above all: GUTS!...

Here are some interesting insights from Mr Warren Buffet:

http://docs.google.com/Present?docid=dfv8mm9q_0f2b4r5ch&skipauth=true





In memory of Late L.Prasad (21/5/1956 to 7/4/2008) luv u dad!