Seagate has developed a full disk encryption technology called DriveTrust, which automatically encrypts all the data written to the disk, making it inaccessible to anyone who doesn't have the correct password when the computer first boots up. Designed to make life tougher for computer thieves and makes our life more safer. >>

CNN has listed down the top most frightening technologies for this Halloween season. The list consists of ghastliest gizmos, scariest software [windows vista], Sony lithiumion batteries, VoIP and most terrifying technologies of the year. Good listing. >>

According to a survery, More than one in five workers are using iPod in workplace to listen to music at their desks. About 22 per cent of employees use their iPod or other digital music player for up to three hours a day in the office and 30 per cent of British firms have banned the devices. I think listening to music will improve the producivity to some extent. >>

NTT DoCoMo, from Japan has introduced a new mobile phone which recognize its owner and automatically locks when the person gets too far away from it and can be found via satellite navigation if it goes missing. The P903i, comes with a small black card about the size of a movie-ticket stub. If an owner keeps the card in a bag or pocket, the phone recognizes when the card moves too far away and locks automatically to prevent someone from making a call. The user can choose to have the phone lock when it is 26 feet, 66 feet or 130 feet away. Most wanted feature in India. >>

The Latest Ubuntu 6.10 Ubuntu Edgy Eft, release comes a whole host of excellent new features. Improvements have been made all around such as faster system boot up times, faster GNOME start up times, improvements to the user interface, a shiny new optimized kernel, GNOME 2.16, and much more. Checkout this simple tutorial on how to upgrade from Ubuntu Dapper to the latest Ubuntu Edgy Eft.>>

Just checkout the 7 simple question to find out, what is the level of Blogger you are. Are you a life or pundit blogger :) ?. >>

Sun President and CEO Jonathan Schwartz said at the Oracle OpenWorld conference, that Sun Microsystems is set to announce the open-sourcing of the core Java platform within 30 to 60 days. The core platform encompasses the Standard Edition of Java, and it will be offered via an open source format under an OSI. Java Enterprise Edition, already are available via open source, with the GlassFish application server constituting the open source enterprise variant. >>

Microsoft Internet Explorer Team has sent a cake for the release of Firefox 2. Think Microsoft now feels the power of the Firefox and Open Source Communities. >>

The Mozilla Corporation has officially released Mozilla Firefox 2 for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. Firefox 2 now with a refreshed user interface, anti-phishing protection, improvements to the built-in search feature, tabbed browsing changes, the ability to restore an interrupted session, better support for Web feeds, inline spell-checking, support for microsummaries and a number of other enhancements. Get it now!! >>

Researchers warn, men who use mobile phones could be risking their fertility. A new study shows a worrying link between poor sperm and the number of hours a day that a man uses his mobile phone. Those who made calls on a mobile phone for more than four hours a day had the worst sperm counts. Doctors believe the damage could be caused by the electromagnetic radiation emitted by handsets or the heat they generate. >>

Ubuntu is known for having the funkiest release code names. The official name of an Ubuntu release is "Ubuntu X.YY" with X representing the year (minus 2000) and YY representing the month of eventual release within in that year. Checkout how it got code names like Dapper, Warty, Hoary, Hedgehog and their history. >>

Google has launched Google Custom Search Engine, which allows to create highly specialized Search Engine that reflects our knowledge and interests. We can place them on our website and and specify or prioritize the sites we want to include in searches. We can also change the look and feel and also name the search as we wish. >>

If you are one of a Sudoku addictive and never can be without it, then Sudoku Toilet Paper is just for you. They are imprinted with Sudoku puzzles, so we can spend our time usefully in the toilet :). It consists of approximately 240 sheets per roll. >>

Google Earth has launced a new election mashup application to displays information about candidates about the congressional races in US. The map has stars for each of the 436 congressional districts, which display information about the candidates and voting information. Good job google. >>

JavaCompiler helps to easily compile Java code to binary executables for Linux and Windows platforms. The process is provided with a simple to use GUI and the created executable has an acceptable size. It has a built-in support for all Most of the GUI frameworks like SWT, JFace, AWT and Swing. >> More Info

Blake Ross, one of the Co-Creator of Firefox, explores the challenges ahead for browser users, like the need to better manage the multiple sites they access at once. According to him the browsers will never reach the finish line, because as the basics get easier, people will adopt more complicated usage patterns that themselves will need to get easier. >>

Ubuntu is a one of the popularly used open source GNU/Linux operating system with a wealth of features and programs. To help out the new Ubuntu users, ubuntuclips.org site provides short video clips that highlight Ubuntu's features and demonstrate how to complete common tasks using Ubuntu. The video clips are categorized to various levels like desktop, install, music, photos, web. >>

I wish you and your Family a very Happy Diwali :)


This Diwali will bring you M O R E joy, light and sweetness to your life.

--
Balakumar Muthu

Japan's largest Mobile operator KDDI, has opened its Designing Studio in Tokyo's Harajuku area, sort of a ground zero for teen girls interested in fashion. With their Life Pod with RFID chip, the phone downloads information from the kiosk and uploads it to a personal blog. The phone also posts information about time, date, location and more. Life Pod is still in the experimental phase. Check out what's more amazying mobile phone trends japan is going to have.>>

Even before the release of the final version of Firefox 2, developers at Mozilla are already asked the community for suggestions on features they'd like to see included in the next version of the browser, Firefox 3.0. It's goal is to create a single index that lists what sorts of things we're thinking of doing, with links to more detailed ideas about implementation specifics or concerns, and targets for inclusion in the project. Got any ideas for Firefox then drop in your suggestions for the Future Firefox. >>

Some of the most important timelines of Open Source Software Movement, during last century :


1969 : First Version of UNIX



Ken Thompson, a researcher at Bell labs, develops the first version of Unix. A multi-user, multitasking operating system, Unix becomes popular in universities and research labs, and its source code is distributed freely.

1971 : From 'Free' to 'Open'


Richard Stallman, a pioneer in the open source movement, joins an MIT group devoted exclusively to free software.

1979 : Emergence of the Open Software Foundation

AT&T announces plans to commercialize Unix, and in response, the University of California at Berkeley creates its own version of Unix, called BSD [Berkeley Software Distributions] Unix. BSD Unix is adopted by vendors such as DEC and Sun. AT&T and Sun later agree to merge their version of Unix, which prompts competitors [DEC, HP, and IBM] to form the Open Software Foundation.

1983 : GNU Project


Richard Stallman established the GNU project to promote the free software model, applications and programming tools. GNU establishes the General Public License [GPL], better known as copyleft, which becomes the model for many open source projects.

1986 : PERL created


Larry Wall creates PERL[Practical Extension and Report Language], a CGI [Common Gateway Interface] scripting language, which is one of the standard means of delivering more dynamic content on the Web.

1987 : Minix is distributed with code


Developer Andrew Tanenbaum released Minix, a version of Unix for the PC, Mac, Amiga and Atari ST. It comes with complete source code.

1989 : Linux Born


Aiming to exceed the capabilities of Minix, a student at the University of Helsinki, Linus Torvalds, releases a new Unix variant, Linux. Three years later, Torvalds copylefts Linux.

1993 : FreeBSD


FreeBSD 1.0 is released, based on BSD UNIX, Free BSF includes networking, virtual memory, task switching and large filenames.

1994 : Linux goes Mainstream

Marc Ewing forms Red Hat Linux with an aim to simplify Linux usage. Red Hat Packages Linux with third-party applications, documentation, and initial technical support and starts sells their version. Same year, Bryan Sparks founds Caldera with backing by former Novell CEO Ray Noorda.

1995 : A Patchy Server


The Apache Group builds a new Web Server, Apache based on the National Center for Supercomputing Applications [NCSA's] HTTPd 1.3 and a series of patch files. The free Web server becomes one of he most popular HTTP servers.

1998 : OSS Revolution



Netscape announces it will not only give away Communicator 5.0 but will also release its source code.



Corel Computer Corporation announces Netwinder, an inexpensive network computer that uses Linux as its production OS. This is the first major, conscious adoption of what is called the widget-frosting model by an established business outfit. Corel also announces planes to port WordPerfect and its other office software to Linux.



Sun Microsystems makes Solaris available under a free license to individual users, also to educational/non-profit/research institutions.



IBM announces that it will sell and support Apache as part of its WebSphere shite. The trade press hails this as a breakthrough for Open Source software.



Oracle and Informix announced that the will port their database to Linux.


Steve Ballmer, Microsoft President admits, " Sure, we're worried about Apache and Linux", and says Microsoft is considering disclosing more Windows source.

Any other important timeline of Open Source Software sagas, I have left ?