Bill Gates turns 51

Happy Birthday Bill Gates - You Rock!

William (Bill) H. Gates (born October 28, 1955 in Seattle, Washington) is chairman of Microsoft Corporation, the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential. Microsoft had revenues of US$39.79 billion for the fiscal year ending June 2005, and employs more than 61,000 people in 102 countries and regions.

Forbes magazine's The World's Billionaires list has ranked him as the richest person on earth for the last thirteen consecutive years. According to the Forbes 2006 magazine, Bill Gates's current net worth is approximately $53 billion.

Earlier in June 2006, Microsoft announced Bill Gates transition plans. Refer my earlier post here.

Bill Gates staff will be missing his birthday gift, getting him a new operating system. Windows Vista is nearly done and should be in the hands of businesses in November and consumers in January, according to the company's schedule.

That's not soon enough to give the Microsoft chairman and co-founder an operating system that's been a long time coming. Windows XP launched Oct. 25, 2001, several days before Gates turned 46.

Gates, a Scorpio, turns 51 Saturday. So if not a new version of his company's flagship product, just what do you get the richest man in the world?

Official Bill Gates Bio

India - Cellular World

The India-Cellular website has done a good job by consolidating the Number of Cellular Subscribers all over India. This information is as of 30-Sep-2006.

Click on the Image below to see the complete view.



Also, available is the Price List of Mobile Handsets in India at this link.

How Google Engine Works

Found this interesting piece of article about Google Engine:



Thanks to Anil Raj for hinting me about this.

Original Source: Chicago Tribune

Diwali Greetings - 2006

Wishing all the readers of my Blog - A Happy & Prosperous Diwali 2006.



Diwali (also called Deepavali, दीवाली or दीपावली in Hindi) is a major Hindu, Jain and Sikh festival/celebration. Known as the "Festival of Lights," it symbolises the victory of good over evil, and lamps are lit as a sign of celebration and hope for mankind.

The festival marks the victory of good over evil. The Sanskrit word Deepavali means array of lights that stands for victory of brightness over darkness. On the day of Diwali, many wear new clothes, share sweets and light firecrackers.

Wiki

Bangalore Bundh - This time for a long period

Well, this is very much true for me these days. Reason - I got infected with Chicken Pox and cannot go out for a weeks time untill it gets cured completely. I am taking traditional medicines and noticing heeling signs to some of the boils.

I am on strict diet and taking complete rest at home. Spend time sleeping, watching TV and in betweens checking the mails. Thanks to the broadband connection at home, which is keeping me entertained.

I heard that Chicken Pox is caused by infection with the varicella zoster virus. Chicken pox is contracted by touching an infected person's blisters or anything that has been contaminated by contact with them. Adults usually have higher fevers, a more severe rash, headaches, and muscle aches, and they take longer to recuperate than children. Recovery from all symptoms takes ten days to two weeks.

Hoping to get back well soon and goto work :-)

McDonalds - £10,000m - I'm lovin' it

Belgian Marco Parra-Martinez, who ordered a burger from a McDonald's restaurant, was in for a surprise after he found £ 10,000 in the paper bag.

When he opened the bag containing the burger, he was startled to find an envelope containing € 15,000, the equivalent of more than £ 10,000.

So next time when you visit McDonalds, do not forget to look into the paper bag :)

Full Story

SELF MASSAGE

Disclaimer: I am not the author of above 2 images. I just got it as a forward message in my mailbox and found it interesting to be shared in my blog.

Google launches Search Service for Computer Code

Good News for Software Developer. Google simplifies the codesearching, atleast to some extend. try it out... Google launches search service for computer code -

http://www.google.com/codesearch

Google Code Search, a site that simplifies how software developers search for programming code to improve existing software or create new programs.

Google Code Search helps you find function definitions and sample code by giving you one place to search publicly accessible source code hosted on the Internet. With Google Code Search, you can:

Use regular expressions to search more precisely. Restrict your search by language, license or filename. View the source file with links back to the entire package and the webpage where it came from :

Code Search FAQ Link

Official News Link

Happy Birthday Amitabh Bachchan - 11/Oct

The Bollywood Super Star Amitabh Bachchan (a.k.a Big B) turns 64 years today. He is one of the ICON for many Indian's. Born on October 11, 1942 is a renowned Indian film actor, popular mostly in the Indian sub-continent and the Middle-East. Bachchan's acting career began in 1969, reaching heights in the mid 70-80s. After withdrawing from acting career, Bachchan returned in 2000 as the host of the television show Kaun Bangea Crorepati? on Star Plus. He is presently active in the Indian film industry.

Famous sand artist Sudarshan Patnaik worked for four hours on the sands of the Puri beach to carve an image of Amitabh Bachchan. Patnaik and his sand art students used 64 bags of sand to make it. Though, Sudarshan has never met his favourite star, he plans to send a photograph of the sand art as a birthday gift to Big B. Complete News at IBNLive.com.

I wish a Very Very Happy Birthday to Big B :-)

Amitabh's best Reference Guide can be found on Wikipedia.

Two aquisitions.... 09-Oct-2006

Google buys YouTube
On Valentine's Day a year ago, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen scribbled "YouTube" on a board in Hurley's garage, giving birth to an Internet video site that has become a cultural phenomenon -- one that Google said Monday it will acquire for $1.65 billion.


Oracle buys Sunopsis
Database software maker Oracle Corp. said Monday it is buying data integration software maker Sunopsis for an undisclosed sum.

Windows Vista RC2 (Build 5744) available for download

Microsoft released Vista RC2 (Build 5744) for Beta Testing on 06-Oct-2006. This will be the last build made available prior to RTM. This new build of Windows Vista offers users a higher level of performance and stability – improving what was established in Windows Vista RC1. There are thousands of quality improvements since Windows Vista RC1. You’ll probably notice improvements in performance, application compatibility, as well as fit and finish work.

The latest RC2 Build 5744 is available for downloaded from this link.

The last versions posted by Microsoft during September are RC1-Build-5600 and RC1-Build-5728.

Dengue Fever FAQs

Dengue infection is caused by a virus. It occurs commonly as dengue fever.

News Alert - Dengue claims 7 more lives, 87 new cases across India!!!

Awareness FAQ on Dengue Fever

Munna Bhaaaaai!

Part 1:
Hindi (Original) - Munna Bhai MBBS
Telugu - Sankar Dada MBBS
Kannada - Uppi Dada MBBS
Tamil - Vasoolraaja MBBS

Now, the Part 2 - Lage Raho Munna Bhai has released and made good success.

Its time to name the Part 2 remakes in different languages. How creative the South Indian Film Industry be!!! Can you guess the Part 2 Movie Title in Telugu / Kannada / Tamil? :-)

Leave your comments if you are aware of these upcoming remakes!

MS to lock up pirate Vista PCs; introduces Software Protection Platform

Microsoft has declared open warfare on software pirates, revealing that it intends to lock users out of PCs that don't validate that their computer has a genuine copy of the new operating system.

Users who install a copy of Vista will be required to validate that the copy is genuine within 30 days by activating it with a genuine product registration key. Until they do so, Microsoft will send them regular warning messages with increasing frequency, counting down the days until their period of grace is up.

If 30 days expires without users validating their copy of Vista with Microsoft, the PCs will lock users out of Vista and only access to their web browser for an hour before logging them off.

Complete News

Collectively termed the Microsoft Software Protection Platform, the new technologies will introduce improvements in how Microsoft software activates, is validated online and behaves when tampering or hacking is detected. The upcoming releases of Windows Vista and Windows Server “Longhorn” – code name for the next generation of Microsoft’s server software – will be the first two products to ship with the new technologies included, but eventually more Microsoft products will adopt the technologies.


Customers will be able to easily determine the status of their Windows Vista installations. In the System Properties panel of the Windows Vista Control Panel, Windows Vista will display the genuine status of the installed copy of Windows Vista. From there, and from any screen notifying users of a failed validation, a user will be able to obtain more information on why the copy of Windows is not genuine, as well as resources for getting a genuine copy.

Link to Official News

Windows Hibernate - What it-eeeez?

Windows XP is used as sample for this article.

What is Hibernate?

When your computer hibernates, it stores whatever it has in memory to your hard disk and then shuts down. When your computer comes out of hibernation, it returns to its previous state.

Hibernation temporarily 'freezes' the computer when the PC becomes inactive, so it won't work if you have tasks running constantly (eg downloading files). However it can be handy if you want the computer to sleep after a task has completed (such as creating a video).

OK, that's the role of hibernation - so what is the hiberfil.sys file and why is it so big? Hibernation takes everything in memory and writes it to your hard drive as the hiberfil.sys file. If you have 512MB of memory, then hiberfil.sys will be about 512MB. If you have 1GB, the file will be around 1GB. The important point to remember is that even if you don't use hibernation, hiberfil.sys will still take up this huge amount of disk space. The way to remove the file is to turn off the hibernation feature (by default, hibernate is activated automatically when XP is installed). Here's how to do it:



=> Open the Windows Control Panel
=> Double-click Power Options
=> Click the Hibernate tab, de-select the 'Enable hibernate support' check box, and then click Apply.
=> Restart your computer and hiberfil.sys will be automatically deleted.
=> If you change your mind in the future and would like to use hibernation, go to the Windows Help & Support Center and search for 'enable hibernation'. It should be the first result. The instructions detail some other steps you may need to follow to reactivate the hibernation.

SPLASH!!! Screen

Splash screen is a term used to describe an image that appears while a computer program is loading. Splash screens often don't cover the entire screen, but only a rectangle near the center. The splash screens of operating systems and some applications that expect to be run full-screen usually cover the entire screen.

Splash screens are typically used by especially large applications to notify the user that the program is in the process of loading. In other words, they provide feedback that a sometimes lengthy process is under way. A splash screen disappears when the application's main window appears.

Splash screens typically serve to enhance the look and feel of an application or web site, and hence are often visually appealing, and may also have animations, graphics and sound. However, since they may sometimes take a long time to load, they are not universally liked by users. Web splash screens are especially inconvenient for users with slow internet connections, as the first page takes longer to load.

When it comes to the Internet world(browser based application), then the Splash pages are the pages that the user sees before they actually get to a website; typically, they're flash and offer some kind of introductory animation. The user clicks "Skip Intro" or "Enter Site" and from there is taken to the site. Splash pages can also exist between pages on the same site.

You can find many good collection of Splash Screenshots at these websites:
VirtualPlastic.Net
GuideBookGallery.org

Okay, OK, ok, okay, okeh, okey, okie (okie-dokie)

The word "okay" is currently the single-most-used word on Earth, owing to its common employment in a vast number of cultures and languages.

Okay is a term of approval or assent, often written as OK, O.K., ok, okay, okee, or more informally as simply kay, k or kk. When used to describe the quality of a thing, it denotes acceptability. However, its usage can also be strongly approving; as with most slang, its usage is determined by context.

There are several theories about the origins of this word, some of them apocryphal and none of them conclusive, although the suggested origin as an initialism of oll korrect (a misspelling of "all correct") has relatively widespread support. Whatever its origin, the word spread around the world, the "okay" spelling of it first appearing in British writing in the 1860s. Spelled out in full in the 20th century, 'okay' has come to be in everyday use among English speakers, and borrowed by non-English speakers. Occasionally a humorous form okee dokee (or okey dokey) is used, as well as A-ok.

Next time, when you use the word "OK", do remember to count the number of times you have used it in a day or hour. OKAY? :-) Also look for the OK Button everywhere in your Windows Desktop!

More details on Wikipedia

India - Dasara 2006 Festival Greetings

The celebration of Dasara Festival is used in conjunction with many other events in India. These include Navaratri, 'Bombe Habba' in Kannada, 'Bommala Koluvu' in Telugu, Durga Pooja, Ayudha Pooja, Vijaya Dashami.

This day marks the triumph of Lord Rama over Demon king Ravana. On this day, Rama killed Ravana.

The wiki link on Dasara has some interesting information of this festival.

I wish a Happy Dasara 2006 to all the readers of my blog.

The 'Take It Easy' side of my blog - Modern Axe Effect Ad mimics Ravana :-)