Date: 03/09/07     Keywords: linux

I have been evaluating both Xubuntu and Fedora Core along with Cent OS (Open Source version / fork of Red Hat Linux Enterprise Edition). The key value and differences between these releases are: Xubuntu Xubuntu is definitely faster to use in general due to its light-weight Xfce desktop interface. The speed is very welcome on slightly low [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/xubuntu-versus-fedora-core-cent-os-as-desktop-os/

Date: 03/08/07     Keywords: no keywords

From the depths of MySpace I found this gem. Enjoy. Yoga Action Squad: Episode 1Add to My Profile | More Videos Yoga is not about mysticism. The theory is very simple and logical.

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/yoga-action-squad-defeats-dr-bad-vibes/

Date: 03/07/07     Keywords: no keywords

.flag { margin: 4px; } We are working on the new incarnation of a super exciting Translator Plugin. You can see it in action in our Job blog. It supports translation in 32 additional languages. Yep, it is not a typo. It has a new intelligent caching engine, designed from ground-up, which will drastically reduce your [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/wordpress-translator-plugin-of-the-future-translation-in-32-languages/

Date: 03/06/07     Keywords: no keywords

The VMWare Server is available for free download. However it requires a serial number. Unfortunately the serial number is hard to find. Fortunately it is free. After much searching I found that you can get it from here. I have just installed Xubuntu on Windows 2000 box. It is rather slow so I am not [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/how-to-get-vmware-server-license-keys/

Date: 03/03/07     Keywords: software, linux

In our effort to fully switchover to Linux as Desktop and Server environment, one of the biggest challenges is to find an alternative to OpenSTA, a popular and very capable open source distributed software testing tool for regression, load and stress testing. In other words OpenSTA is poor man’s alternative to LoadRunner & Silk. The best [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/opensta-load-stress-testing-tool-alternatives-on-linux/

Date: 03/01/07     Keywords: php

Most (well written) PHP programs recognize GET from POST requests and handle them appropriate. However most of them are not aware of HEAD requests and handle them identical to GET. This is a waste of resources and is in contravention to HTTP 1.1 protocol (RFC 2616). The HEAD method is identical to GET except that the [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/how-to-respond-to-http-head-request-from-php/

Date: 03/01/07     Keywords: php, programming

While programming in PHP often you will find that a simple echo or log statement is not sufficient. You have found out where a problem is happening but you have no clue why it is executing that code in the first place. This is where execution path comes in handy. With a simple call you [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/how-to-debug-execution-path-in-phpequivalent-of-printstacktrace-in-java/

Date: 02/28/07     Keywords: no keywords

You can access any blog / site under heavy load / attach / DNS resolution error by following one of the following four methods. For example here are four url’s by which you can easily access this blog at any time: http://blog.taragana.com.nyud.net:8080/ - Coral Proxy will display the original page without any changes. http://72.36.134.131/ - Direct IP [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/5-ways-to-access-blogs-sites-under-heavy-load-attack-slashdot-digg-effect/

Date: 02/27/07     Keywords: no keywords

DCA has generated quite an interest in patients with Cancer, many even contemplating self-treatment for cure. The key points we know about DCA so far are: 1. Dr. Michelakis and his team at the University of Alberta discovered a remarkable new method of treating cancer by reactivating the mitochondria of cancer cells using sodium dichloroacetate, [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/self-treatment-with-dca-for-cancer/

Date: 02/26/07     Keywords: no keywords

A hilarious video by Kirk Cameron, until I realized he was actually serious, attempts to prove creationism by showing how a well Banana fits into your hand (btw: and so does something else too) for eating. See Kirk’s video below: As many of you know that there is more to the story of banana than he [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/well-made-banana-debunks-evolution-or-does-it-kirk-cameron-makes-a-fool-of-himself/

Date: 02/26/07     Keywords: software

PBS is an old name in distributed batch processing circles. We had used it earlier in DoubleTwist for genomic annotations. Portable Batch System (or simply PBS) is a software job scheduler that allocates networked resources to batch jobs. It can schedule jobs to execute on networked, multi-platform UNIX environments (and widnows if you are using [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/micro-guide-to-distributed-batch-processing-with-pbs-portable-batch-system/

Date: 02/24/07     Keywords: no keywords

We recently purchased parts for a home desktop PC in India for the value oriented price sensitive segment (along with several new computers for office). My objective was to choose a solid home desktop personal comnputer with decent graphics, solid sound system and strong processor speed. There should be no compromise on quality and yet [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/recommended-value-desktop-pc-assembled-configuration-for-home-users-in-india/

Date: 02/23/07     Keywords: no keywords

An amazing video based on actual data showing how a 6 foot long DNA is tightly packed in a molecule and then in the second part you can see DNA replication machine via computer simulation.

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/how-6-foot-dna-is-packed-in-a-molecule-dna-replication-machine/

Date: 02/22/07     Keywords: no keywords

Harry Potter and The Order of Hackers Everytime a new Harry Potter book comes out there is an unannounced competition within hackers to be the first to scan it (ocr it) and post it online. Russian servers are an obvious choice as they are harder to track and shutdown. On the other hand Mrs. Rowling and [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/harry-potter-and-the-order-of-children-lessons-learnt/

Date: 02/22/07     Keywords: no keywords

Comment Guard 0.3 Beta is a bug fix release. Very occassionally the plugin would request a valid commenter to submit his comment again. We have fixed the issue. We will soon ship it to all of our beta-testers. Please update your blog with the latest version and let me know how it goes. So far we [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/comment-guard-beta-03-released/

Date: 02/22/07     Keywords: rss

This is a major list of Feed Aggregators / RSS Readers supporting HTTPS URL and/or HTTP Authentication. RSS Reader / Feed Aggregator HTTPS/SSL HTTP Authentification SharpReader Yes No NetNewsWire Yes Yes (through URL) NewzCrawler No Yes NewsGator Yes Yes AmphetaDesk No No FeedDemon Yes Yes (through URL) Radio Userland Yes Yes (through URL) Synderalla No No Can you suggest new entires for this list?

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/list-of-feed-aggregators-rss-readers-supporting-httpsssl-http-authentication/

Date: 02/19/07     Keywords: web, seo

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a subset of search engine marketing, and deals with improving the number and/or quality of visitors to a web site from “natural” (aka “organic” or “algorithmic” search engine) listings. In effect, SEO is marketing by appealing to machine algorithms to increase search engine relevance and ultimately web traffic. This is [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/what-is-seo/

Date: 02/18/07     Keywords: no keywords

The basic idea of RAID (Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks) is to combine multiple small, independent disk drives into an array of disk drives which yields performance and recoverability exceeding that of a Single Large Expensive Drive (SLED). Redundancy is also provided (unless RAID 0) which allows easy and often automatic recovery from hard disk [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/comparison-of-software-raid-on-windows-versus-linux/

Date: 02/18/07     Keywords: no keywords

GMail is now offering free accounts to Indians without any catch. GMail comes with 2.8 GB of space and increasing. It is a great free email account by all standards. To get a free account go here and apply. BTW: Please do let me know if this is available from other countries too.

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/free-gmail-accounts-for-india/

Date: 02/17/07     Keywords: linux

Traditionally companies choose Windows as their desktop environment and often for their intranet servers too. Windows is generally perceived as being easier to use and administer and mostly with good reason. And yet I selected Linux as the desktop and server platform for our massive (by our scale) infrastructure upgrade. In the following paragraphs I [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/choosing-between-windows-linux-for-workstation-servers-rationale-experience/