My New XPS 1210

I finally got my own lappie after long years of yearning and many weeks of waiting after placing the order.

My notebook (Dell XPS 1210) is of lower (budgetary) configuration with the following features.

Processor - Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T5500 (2MB Cache, 1.66GHz, 667MHz FSB)
RAM - 1GB, DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz
HDD - 120 GB, 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
Display - 12.1" Wide Screen XGA display with TrueLife
Chipset - Intel 945GM
Ports - Firewire port; 4 USB 2.0 Ports, Bluetooth, SD/MMC Card reader
Battery - 9 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
DVD Drive - 8X RW+/- Combo Drive with dual layer write capabilities

and finally with Windows Vista Home Premium Edition.

I liked the whole package especially the compactness and the tech-savvy features, but only concerned about the keyboard. The keys sometimes gets stuck when I am in full sway.

Regarding Vista, it seems Microsoft has worked more on security apart from the customary UI upgrades. The UAC (User Account Control) window pops up, when any third party or critical application is executed. If you get frustrated, check out this help to disable the pop up.

However, uncommon bugs such as these have been left off for users to keep longing for the service packs, which may be as late as September, 2007.

I wanted to create multiple partitions on my Primary partition. However, I am unable to comprehend why Windows restricts me from creating partitions of my required sizes. The built-in Disk Manager though a nice feature challenges my comprehension. I did try out other partition softwares but none of them helped my work. Users on many sites suggest to use gParted Live CD. I felt lazy and didnt feel to push my lappie under the knife so early in its life.

If you too have been hit Vista problems or would like to find out exciting vista stuff, check out these websites.

vistarewired.com

Coming back to the theme of this entry, my notebook should now allow to blog frequently, may be once a week. My new work in a SSL based company is didactic. I am learning newer technologies and applications and more content to blog on.

Heralding new Technologies

Technology seems is racing time in heralding newer (and better) techniques of doing simple things. I am referring to the new beta Google Web Desktop . Looks like, Google shall allow the user to customize his content preferences and for this to be implemented, RSS shall be the tool to carry data from the source to the user.

New Look

I am back with a new look and a fresh mind. I have changed the skin of my blog courtesy: Blogger Templates to reflect my dynamic state of mind. I have been always fascinated with space and the celestial theories of stars, planets, asteriods, black material .... Last week, I learned the use of Gamma Shift technique to determine the width (or length !!) of the universe. Though not technically qualified to appreciate the technique, I can extrapolate my ideas to measure the vastness of the universe, (mis) understand the secrets of evolution.

Bug in Google???

Using Google, when I try to calculate the result of a mathematical operation such as
2147483647 * (13 times) * 17. I get some result, which i presume is the correct result.

But for any number greater than the above query (try to increase the last factor 17), then I am redirected to indexed web pages rather than showing me the actual result.

1. Type Google.com in ur browser
2. Copy and paste the following

2147483647 * 2147483647 * 2147483647 * 247483647 * 2147483647 * 2147483647 * 2147483647 * 2147483647 * 2147483647 * 2147483647 * 2147483647 * 2147483647 * 2147483647 * 2147483647 * 2147483647 * 2147483647 * 2147483647 * 2147483647 * 2147483647 * 2147483647 * 2147483647 * 2147483647 * 2147483647 * 2147483647 * 2147483647 * 2147483647 * 2147483647 * 2147483647 * 2147483647 * 2147483647 * 2147483647 * 2147483647 * 2147483647 * 17

The result of the above query is the maximum limit that Google calculator can calculate and any factors greater than the above is not calculated but searched in the indexes.


Try increasing the last factor (17) to say 20.
Now, instead of calculation, I get a result of indexed pages. Here an error/warning is displayed

Error/Warning message:
["*" (and any subsequent words) was ignored because we limit queries to 10 words. ]

The error message must have been displayed for the above query as the calculator module failed to compute the value and query was redirected to indexed page search, which shows the
quoted error.

Try to reduce the number of factors (words) to 12

For example: the following query doesnt generate any errors 2147483647 * (12 times) * 17

But as you expect, there is no error displayed, but the calculated value is displayed.

This should be considered as a bug. Right !!!!!

For an end user, the interface must be transparent to both calculator interface and indexed page search interface.

Do you have anything to say ???

Interesting Stuff!!!

The next generation Google sort of search engine is under development. This technology should help capture all those handwritten letters, documents, snail mails, ....


And, If you thought Binary numbers are only for computers think again. Geeks like you and me can count in ones and zeros using our hands. Check it how.

Here is a new format for Slide show documents. Keep informed !!

If you want to be abreast of security related issues on Unixes, here is Matt's page.

Hey!!, Google is back with a new service. The scholar service. Very useful for students, developers, .....


>>>>>>>> Enjoy

Modelling Virtual machines has been a popular option for many software inventions. Sun's Java Virtual Machine is regarded as benchmark implementation of virtual machines.

However, you can find many VMs being developed based on Sun's implementation. IBM's Jikes VM is a popular implementation of Java Virtual Machine, which has been completely written in Java language. There are many papers explaining the implementation and design prinicples. (more)

Check out this, virtual machine viewer. Basically it is method, instruction tracer.

And finally, if you are suffering from threadaches, Sun has prescribed this article for all its developers.

Debugging

How marketable, am I ??. That's question that constantly flashes in my mind and so in many other developers too. Being in the volatile intellectual world, requires each of us to be on constant move. "The Vociferous will survive".

To answer my question, I feel only the programming skills alone wont pay you forever. Each of us, have to build the knowledge - application skills, abstract problem solving skills and develop into a troubleshooter rather than a "passive - geeky - thick spectacled" programmer.

Debugging skills should be part of every developer's armor. Troubleshooting software systems can quite be complex task and mastering them can make u, your manager's favorite.

Well, my set of debuggers include dbx, gdb and host of tools from sysinternals.

I read a joke sometime back. It said a good pretence is sufficient to get over any interviews. Meaning: Though I do not really have a good knowledge of some topic, my selection in the interview depends how good I pretend in the interview.

You will find hundreds of such pretenders (read predators) as your colleagues, seniors and even friends. I dont try to sicken our confidence, but try to understand our obnoxious world.

Your trouble-shooting skills can help you stand above them. Hone ( read: own) them.

Well, what is Google doing these days???. They are into building "Amazing marketable service"

Solaris Command

I am not a researcher or computer scientist (wish to be !!!) to put **my** information in my blogs, but i do surf lot of pages related to research.

So u can expect url or summaries in my blogs.

For solaris developers, the following list of commands can help you.

Command : Brief Description (Solaris 8)
apptrace : Trace library calls
crash: Examine core memory
cputrack:
cpustat:
devattr: Get Device Attribute information
dispadmin: Configure process scheduler
gcore: Get Core dump of a given process
ipcs: IPC status viewer
kstat: Kernel Stats Viewer
lockstat: Get locks information
mpstat: Get Processor information
(P-Commands, P for Process)
pmap:
pstack:
pflags:
pfiles:
ptree:
psig:

prstat: Processess Stats ( similar as top)
psrinfo: Processor Info
truss: System Call tracer
vmstat: Virtual Machine status viewer


Refer to man pages for switch information. FYI, many of these commands have owners ( from sun) who provide extremely useful information.


If u are working across multiple Unixes, this command equivalence chart can help u. Courtesy Chandu

More later!!