Slate PC

In the CES keynote Steve Ballmer explained the HP slate tablet are "more powerful than a phone and almost as powerful as a PC. Perfect for reading, surfing the web and taking entertainment on the go," Ballmer showed the HP tablet running Amazon's Kindle software and played a video on it. Microsoft adopted the name slate computer to distinguish it from the pen-and-screen dealy introduced by Bill Gates in 2001. However, its not the real name for the tablet PC. Lets wait for the Slate!!

Happy New Year 2010

Canon EOS 1000D DSLR

After spending nearly 3.5 yrs with my Canon Powershot A610, I ended up buying a Canon EOS 1000D last month. As I always like to think of Canon/Nikon for camera, this time I considered Nikon D60, Nikon D3000 , Canon EOS 450D and Canon EOS 1000D. Later, I decided to go in for a cheapest one as its my first DSLR, then I narrowed down to Canon EOS 1000D and Nikon D3000, and later I picked Canon EOS 1000D.

The reviews of Canon EOS 1000D from some good camera reviewing sites are listed down.

My favorite site : DPReview 

DCRP reviews
“Photo quality was superb. The Rebel typically took well-exposed photos, with pleasing, accurate colors. A few photos could’ve been a little brighter, and I noticed a little highlight clipping, but both were minor issues.”

CNET.UK reviews  
“The Canon EOS 1000D is a safe bet for anyone buying their first digital SLR, and it has enough features to satisfy those who want to get more heavily into photography.”

Steve’s reviews on Canon EOS 1000D/Rebel XS 
“With outstanding image quality, very robust performance, and loads of useful exposure options, the Rebel XS will make a great camera for anyone who is just stepping into the dSLR realm..Overall, I would highly recommend this model to anyone looking at purchasing their first dSLR. “

CameraLabs reviews
“The 1000D / XS. It’s a decent performer and sports all the features most new buyers will look for. The only real problem is its launch price, which at the time of writing in mid-2008 was higher than most rivals, and too close to the 450D / XSi for anyone to seriously consider it..”

Few Pics from my collection...

           

Worlds' widely used Free Software needs MONEY

Linux Foundation launches branded credit cards. I dont think this is just another marketing plan for Linux. Its their marketing strategy to get money..

For each Credit Card activated, the Linux Foundation gets $50, and some amout for each transaction in those cards... Many Linux enthusiast will apply...

Indian Students getting attacked in Australia particularly in Victoria State (in Melbourne Suburbs) is the news everywhere in the past weeks. And some people are blaming the Media for blowing this up.

I have couple of stories.

First one is mine happened last year. At this time I was in Melbourne. Melbourne Central Business District is a very small area which we can cover by an hours walk. Central Business District is the city part of Melbourne. The suburbs are surrounded as like other places. On 14th June 2008, a colleague of mine SenthilKumaran came back to India few days before me. I dropped him in Bus Depot to Airport with my friends Sudarshan, Bala and other Senthil and few more. Few of them had Australian PR too. It was midnight, I was coming alone to my Hotel by walk. Just near the hotel, I was about to cross the road and a car possibly a Toyota crossed very fast. A chewing white colored gum came out and fell near me. Someone from the car spitted a chewing gum and shouted something, due to the cars’ music system I couldn't hear what they said.

Second one, an incident happened few weeks back to my friend in Sheffield UK. When he was coming back to home in the evening few teenagers playing in the street shouted “Fu**ing Indian” and few days later one guy may be around 15 came and asked for some money to him. These things happened when he came via a dark road from the train station.

Coming back to the Australian Racism news… I just asked few of my friends in Melbourne and both of them immediately replied its just exaggerated. Even lot of  “Indians” in Australia in have mentioned the same.

So what's the big deal ? If we go out of our own country or area we must always try to maintain low profile and adjusting with the new community. e.g.., In the trams/trains/buses shouting in some Indian language calling or communicating with a friend who is sitting four or five rows after , when mobile rings, without putting it on mute, making it to sing the latest bollywood song and thinking whether to attend the call or thinking who it is…. etc are very bad. Things like this will irritate the people. It doesn't mean that is the reason behind all these attacks. Wherever we go, we can find few miscreants in all the community. My friends in Melbourne say its not Racism, its business. Its the business the media is oiling up… It is happening for years. Just Bing. You will then know whether its a business or the real Racism.

It doesn't mean that if it happens for years its not Racism. Its the matter of “blowing up”…

Even I do agree with my friends. Medias in India is as usual playing the game after the Election 2009.We are going abroad just to study or to work or get settled. But whatever we do, will be called “Indians” did. Everyone of us have a morality when we represent some community.

ie.., if you go abroad

# on a business trip, in your client place you are representing your company (“The Companies in India”) in the customer place,

#  to study, you are representing the “Indian Students” community &

# to settle we represent “The Indian Origins”.

So we must know the responsibility. Developed nations are not India. Shouting in a public place, cracking the rules etc will affect the whole big community called “Indians”.

Whatever the case may be, its our life, our near and dear ones are here in India looking for us. Even when we get attacked by words, its always better to leave the place as soon as we can. I do accept in few circumstances we cant do anything other than getting “attacked”, but lets be safe. We cant stop any unexpected happenings, lets only try to reduce that by not doing these mistakes which kindle those “miscreants” more….

WSS 3.0 SDK v1.5 released

The new version of Software Development Kit for WSS 3.0 is released today after 8 months of releasing v1.4 with OfficeServer SDK 1.4

[Download]

WSS 3.0 SP2 and MOSS 2007 SP2

WSS 3.0 SP2 & MOSS 2007 SP2 are expected in this month end….. Along with the update for all MS Office 2007 products...

Microsoft Office team has streamlined the release of Service Packs for all the MS Office products together, but what is the use in that ? Atleast server products and clients products can go differently ?

[Source]

Sharepoint Designer is Free now

Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2007 is now a FREE download. Just register and download a copy… Sharepoint Designer is the MS Office 2007 – version of Frontpage. No more frontpage, its only SPD.

Forget not to check the Related Resources section in the download page…

Sharepoint Designer Related Resources

1. Video of SharePoint Designer 2007 FAQ (6.2MB)
2. Video of SharePoint Designer 2007 FAQ (82.9MB)
3. Video of SharePoint Designer 2007 FAQ (16.8MB)

Service pack for Sharepoint Designer is also there… Download it…