the most intersting thing than my girl

Ubuntu,Android, Facebook, My ex-gf all are very interesting, but I want to talk bout something more interesting :))

WebileApps

No, I did not get a job there.
Its not famous than Google or Microsoft.

The only reason why I want to talk bout it is, its my(our) company and I(we) started it along with Rajiv, Sandeep and Satya

I(we) need all your support more than ever to be successful, be with me(us) as always u have been.

Something Interesting is coming...

Guess whats this about!!

I wonder why I didn't write this blog earlier, I wanted to write this right after the blog on Google chrome.. some how it did not happen.. and I just lost an opportunity to tell myself how correct my prediction was...

and in case you are wondering what this is all about.. lets just play with what ur thinking..

If u r thinking it is about MJ.. Sorry!.. he is a great singer.. I love his songs.. but its not about him.
Well.. it could have been about Ubuntu 9.04 but sad that my system has an Intel video card (if u did not understand click here)

Ok..Ok.. sorry about all that crap.. lets get to the point.. this post is about the Google Chrome OS. (I guessed some time ago when Google released chrome something like this was coming..)

It is a light weight OS pioneered to run on net books, which boots in a few seconds.. has Google chrome as its primary browser.. but not restricted to it.. built on top of a Linux kernel..and most importantly Open Source.

It is not build using Android as previously rumored. Google has clarified that the domain of Android and Chrome OS is entirely different even though both share some ideologies.

One observation from my side is that even though chrome was released long time ago the reason why Google took some time to release the OS might be of the fact that it was waiting for the Linux version of Chrome to be released

For more information visit the official google blog

Chrome - Google's own browser.

Google the web giant is planning to launch its own browser in to the market. It has already made an announcement and discussed with users the features that will differentiate it from others. It is christened Chrome. While I am quite content with my FF 3, I would still love to see and use the google's browser. Google said in its blog that its browser's main features will be...

1. Reliability

2. Speed

3. Simplicity(ease of use)

4. Security

Google said that their browser is multi-process(not multi-threaded) based. So, separate processes render separate tabs. It solves the current problem where a single tab crashing due to some notorious javascript takes the whole browser instance with it. IE 8 I think is trying to implement the same feature too(my guess). Also chrome features a task manager which gives you an idea on which tab(website opened in that tab) is using how much memory and u can always close the hungry guy. Also, web kit(android too uses web kit) the open source rendering engine is used in chrome. Plus many more features never heard of before are being implemented in it.

Also, there are many other new very innovative features in chrome that I can't explain all of them in this single post (sorry for my haste as I am in my office and need to post it before my boss catches me posting). For more information see this and this.

Oh!! I almost forgot to say Chrome is Open Source.

Here's a screenshot on how chrome may look like(this isn't exactly how its going to look like but posts with images are always better).

How to boot an existing Linux or XP installation from virtual box

If you find the post below to be from mars then please read this article first

The easiest way to run an OS is to install it from the virtual machine. But this is not the case always. In my case I came to know about virtualization only after I had installed all my operating systems. My system config was something like this, I had three OS installed.

1. Windows XP

2. Ubuntu 8.04

3. Custom Built Linux.

My case was that I needed to boot into my custom built linux through Ubuntu using virtualization. Now I had to choose a Virtualization kit. I had three choices before me

1. VmVare

2. Virtualbox

3. Qemu

I did not try VmVare at all. But between Virtualbox and Qemu Virtual box seemed to be way better. I downloaded the virtualbox from the SUN's website. It had a binary for my Ubuntu 8.04. Two double clicks and it was installed.Now my problem is how to make virtualbox boot into my custom built linux or my existing windows xp installation. To achieve this you have two ways.

1. Create separate entries for each OS you want to boot or

2. Let virtualbox point to your MBR.

In the first case you will be booted into the OS os your choice, whereas in the second case when you start virtualbox you will be greeted with your own grub menu which you see every day when you start your system. It is dangerous to start your system in this way as the guest os(os you are going to boot from virtualbox) has all access to your hard disk and you may potetially damage your Host OS(OS on which virtual box is installed.)I found these methods from the following post

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=769883 any credit goes to him.

This is the best post for running an existing XP installation.

Caution:These methods require you reactivate your copy of windows. so please decide whether you want to really boot into existing windows installation using virtual box.Installing Guest Additions(tools that make the guest os run faster and smoother on virtualbox) for XP will not let you boot into your existing windows install any more. so proceed with caution.

1st method -- pointing to existing linux installyou need to download and install a package called mbr.
run the following code in your linux terminal

sudo apt-get install mbr && mkdir ~/.VirtualBox && install-mbr ~/.VirtualBox/myboot.mbr --force

the above command mirrors a copy of your MBR onto a file called as myboot.mbr. we will be using this myboot.mbr in our virtualbox.

Then run the follwing command to create a virtual disk that fakes your current hard disk state - Partitions, grub everything.

VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename ~/.VirtualBox/linux.vmdk -rawdisk /dev/sda -partitions 2 -mbr ~/.VirtualBox/myboot.mbr -relative -register

/dev/sda -- should be replaced with the device of your choicepartitions 2 -- the number 2 should be replaced by the partition number where your linux is residing.to know what is your existing setup from the terminal type

fdisk -l.

Then replace the entries. if it is /dev/sda1 where you want to boot to then your command should be like

VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename ~/.VirtualBox/linux.vmdk -rawdisk /dev/sda -partitions 1 -mbr ~/.VirtualBox/myboot.mbr -relative -register

this method may fail in some cases and you just cant boot into the existing installation. then u need to follow the second method .

The second method worked for me.

Method 2 point virtual box to your hard disk.

VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename ~/.VirtualBox/SystemHD.vmdk -rawdisk /dev/sda -register

this creates a virtual disk called as SystemHD. Just create a virtual machine that uses this HD. Your work is done start the VM and run the OS of choice.

Virtualization

Everything is virtual now a days, we see virtual worlds on the internet, we see second lives(as if first is not enough and a third is bad). I wonder how far this is going to go but as far as computers are concerned this is one darn hot technology.

We the end users use the system to access various programs for example a word processor to write documents or the browser to post this blog entry and every program needs access to the hardware. For example, to get this post going I had to make use of the key board and the mouse. So how did the key board know what I was typing should appear in my browser. Did I make friends with my keyboard or did I bribe it. I tell you my key board is very unfriendly, it never talked to me directly inspite of all my valiant efforts to make it talk. So, there should be some mechanism which facilitates this communication between my browser and this key board guy. This is taken care of by the Operating system or to be very precise the kernel. The kernel has exclusive rights to all our hardware or in other sense only one kernel can run at a time. Imagine if there were two kernels and one keyboard this would be a triangular love story , where each kernel is fighting to win the heart of the keyboard meanwhile the poor guy the end user who is me in this case will never understand why the hell his key presses dont appear on the screen no matter how hard he hits the keys. What does this love story indicate. It says with all dignity that only monogamy is possible or only one operating system can run on your system at any given point of time.

And my friends this Virtualization is a technique which breaks the barries of monogamy, it breaks all your religious laws about computing, ah yes! you have guessed it right we can finally run more than one operating system at the same time. When I first heard about virtualization 6 years ago I thought that these people might have gone crazy otherwise how can one run two operating systems simultaneously and even if this was remotely possible only guys who never cared about their data or who loved reinstalling their OS to the point that their installation CD could no longer bear it and died a fiery death would only do it. And after 6 years I'm fully convinced this is possible and very reliable too and all my asumptions are wrong(all, about the data, the CD and monogamy).

Virtualization is a technique where the virtual machine (a program which runs on your Host OS) allocates system resources to the Guest OS. Here the system resources are Hard disk Space, RAM, Processor etc. The virtual machine tricks your guest OS into beliving that it has access to all these resources. Whereas in reality the virtual machine allocates these resources to our guest OS, the virtual machine inturn requests these resources from our host operating system. So, the virtual machine and the guest OS running inside it is nothing but another process(an open window that can be closed by clicking the 'X' button located at the top right corner) on our host OS.

This is what virtualization has achieved and I wouldn't be surpirised at all if the future of all Operating Systems depends on virtualization.

There are many virtual machines available out there like

1. VmWare -- the first and the most successful company to invest in virtualization.

2. Virtualbox -- a very lightweight VM now owned by SUN.

there are many other opensource VM's available too. I have tried virtualbox and it is pretty robust. In my next post I'm going to show how you can setup virtualbox on your Linux machine.

Ruby On Rails

I am relatively new to RoR as I did much of my web programming on PHP. Having used PHP extensively I know that PHP is one of the most easiest to learn languages. It is also in fact one of the best languages novices can use for web programming. PHP has a very active community behind it and help is always readily available. Having said so much about PHP you would be wondering why did I name this post Ruby on Rails instead of PHP, well if I wrote this article 2 weeks ago I would have definitely titled this post PHP, but as you know things never happen the way we want, my new project was to be coded in RoR much to my dismay. So, I started learning about RoR and in just 15 min I was convinced that this is no ordinary language(web framework or whatever you want to call it), RoR was a revelation, it is so easy to code in RoR that I am planning to teach my grandma to code in RoR so that she can cover me up when I am busy, yes , I mean it coding in RoR is that easy. Ok, why should you believe me ?? If you don't have faith in me at least believe someone without whom I may have never posted this and you may have never read this.

Presenting you -Evan Williams, Creator of Blogger and ODEO

“After researching the market, Ruby on Rails stood out as the best choice. We have been very happy with that decision. We will continue building on Rails and consider it a key business advantage.”

If that's not enough try this,

“Rails is the most well thought-out web development framework I’ve ever used. And that’s in a decade of doing web applications for a living. I’ve built my own frameworks, helped develop the Servlet API, and have created more than a few web servers from scratch. Nobody has done it like this before.”
-James Duncan Davidson, Creator of Tomcat and Ant

Finally, to everyone who is new to RoR dont forget there is somebody to guide you when in trouble. yes, yes somebody's me(remember enrique). Just leave a comment I ll be more than eager to help.

--naz.

my website

me and friends have created a website , its innovative, its cool, above all its free.

i ll give u the details in a few days, meanwhile have a look at the site and please give your valuable suggestions.

the link to the site is www.kanopia.co.nr

My presentation on GIMP

Somethings in life just happen and you don't realize their importance much later.. this is one incident exactly like that!

It was on 3rd and 4th of March 2007, I was invited as one of the speakers at the National Conference on Free and Open Source Software, organized by the Free Software Foundation - Andhra Pradesh Chapter -- India. Here, I was asked to talk about GIMP. My presentation was in the noon and I started with a few slides of Scooby Doo, Titanic, Stuart Little, Harry Potter, Fast and Furious ......
the audience were really puzzled by this !!

Their interest in the presentation started to grow, they were just curious to know what on earth a talk on GIMP had to do with all these Hollywood characters.

I gave them the answer they(and may be u) were looking for -- All these characters were created using GIMP!! (I know its ur turn to be surprised)

Later I touched other aspects of GIMP like,

MDI (Multiple Document Interface),
Script FU,
Plug-in Management Interface,
and all other crap(imp features)

And then it was time to end!:(
I wanted to make the end as interesting as the Start -- So I made use of my favorite " (quote) something which I coined during my early days of using Linux

" Best things in life are always FREE"

I conveyed this feeling and truth to the audience with the help of a few slides

1. the first slide features a couple who are in LOVE
2. the second slide features friends who are HAPPY
3. the third slides features a man who is in deep SLEEP
4. the fourth slide features the AFFECTION of Mother on her child
5. the fifth child features the logos of Open Source and Free Software Foundation.

Love, happiness, joy, sleep, affection, Free and Open source Software -- aren't the best things in life always free?? Agreed ??

The History -- My Dive into Linux

I am Mir Nazish Hussain fondly called as naz by my dear ones.Right from my childhood from the age of 12 I have been using linux. It has been a tough path for me getting used to Linux. Nearly 10 years ago Linux was nothing but a piece of code which hackers could mould into the way they wanted , it was only meant for the elite group who were born and brought up with computers, who knew the internals, the kernel and all the jargon. My first Linux distribution was ulinux(micro Linux) a CLI based Linux distribution. My enthusiasm to learn new things drove me to learn more about Linux. At that time it was just a hobby. I bought the book 'Using Linux' which gave me my first Complete Linux Distributions. I first tried to install Debian/GNU Linux whose installation was a way bit complicated for me as a novice, then I tried Caldera Open Linux which had a nice graphical Installer Lizard but installation failed due to some hardware problems. Then I finally tried Red Hat Linux whose installation went on flawlessly and in less than half an hour I had a Linux system up and running. I logged in and was welcomed by the boring CLI. I knew I was just 1 step away from the GUI, the startx command did it all, I booted into the default Desktop environment for Red Hat the GNOME and I will never forget the first login -- it was Love at First Sight, My hobby then turned into a passion that still drives me. Things were slowly changing and then RED HATemerged as the first recognized hero of the Linux community (many people in the Open Source community may now differ in their assessment of Red Hat’s contribution to OSS). Whatever be it Red Hat for then was the distribution that first brought Linux to the masses -- the desktop’s. Since then I have seen many stages in the development of Linux like the separation of Linux into two streams the Red Hat and the Debian group. The RPMs and the deb’s , the GNOME and KDE, the Beryl and the Compiz..... all these things pointed to one thing that LINUX IS NOTHING BUT ALL ABOUT CHOICE.