Date: 08/28/06     Keywords: no keywords

I am happy to see Pluto demoted from planet status. Pluto is not only smaller and much less massive than any other planet but it is even less than 0.2 lunar mass. It is also smaller and less massive than seven moons: Ganymede, Titan, Callisto, Io, Earth’s Moon, Europa and Triton. If Pluto could be [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/sayonara-pluto-happy-to-see-you-go/

Date: 08/28/06     Keywords: no keywords

The spare processing power of Sony’s PlayStation 3 (PS3) will be harnessed by US biologists trying to understand the cause of diseases like Alzheimer’s. Sony has teamed up with US biologists who already run the distributed computing project, folding@home (FAH). The project harnesses the capacity of thousands of PCs to examine how the shape of proteins, critical [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/playstation-3-well-help-study-alzheimers/

Date: 08/27/06     Keywords: web, hosting

In two simple steps: 1. Login as root. You can also su from your non-root login. 2. Run: yum update openssh openssh-askpass openssh-clients openssh-server openssh-askpass-gnome BTW: Self-managed dedicated web hosting sucks unless you have a great sysadmin.

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/how-to-update-openssh-on-redhat-fedora-core/

Date: 08/27/06     Keywords: mysql, sql

Suddenly my Hard-disk & MySQL Server had gone read-only, thereby making this blog (because it is cached) and other sites inaccessible, including ssh access. Do you have any idea why this could have happened? A hard reboot rectified the error for now. But I am concerned about what caused this in the first place. Any ideas? Any [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/help-hard-disk-mysql-server-suddenly-read-only/

Date: 08/26/06     Keywords: software, yahoo

FairUse4WM can be used to strip Windows Media DRM 10 and 11 (i.e. PlaysForSure, but not WM DRM 9). Music providers like Napster and Yahoo Music Unlimited provide subscription service for unlimited access to Windows Media DRMed files. However if you stop paying the fee you stop getting access to the files. This software allows [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/how-to-remove-windows-media-drm-10-and-11/

Date: 08/26/06     Keywords: yahoo

Today I received a 419 scam email with a difference. It speaks of “genuine love”. I continue to be amazed by their innovative techniques of scamming. Enjoy! Here is the email in full from CYNTHIA TOMSON [cynthia_tomson220@yahoo.com]: My name is Miss Cynthia Z,I am single, not yet married fair in complexion , 5.8ft tall, How are you [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/419-nigerian-scam-with-love/

Date: 08/26/06     Keywords: software

Chief executive Jacob “Kobi” Alexander, who turned fugitive, has been tracked down in Sri Lanka by a private investigator based on a one-minute Skype call he made from Columbo. Alexander, aged 54, faces fraud charges over a stock options scandal involving the voicemail software firm he founded, Comverse. He became the target of a worldwide manhunt [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/fugitive-ceo-tracked-down-after-1-minute-skype-call/

Date: 08/26/06     Keywords: no keywords

When I observe standard mobile-phone behavior among the natives of most Western nations–from France to Italy to the U.S.A.–I can’t help but think of arctic wolves prowling the tundra, peeing on shrubs. On the other hand, in Japan, the creatures that come to mind are prairie dogs ducking into burrows and tabby cats lurking behind [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/study-on-mobile-phone-users/

Date: 08/26/06     Keywords: no keywords

Forbes editor Michael Noer has a very interesting article, based on scientific studies, why it is a very bad idea to marry career women. Why? Because if many social scientists are to be believed, you run a higher risk of having a rocky marriage. While everyone knows that marriage can be stressful, recent studies have found [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/dont-marry-career-women/

Date: 08/26/06     Keywords: no keywords

Venezuelan Government accused US Embassy in Caracas of importing cargo illegally which included parts for military aircraft ejector seats and 80 kg of chicken meat in non-diplomatic packages. Washington officials said that the cargo, which was delivered by a US military plane, included replacement ejection seat parts for Venezuelan combat planes but no weapons or arms. Interior [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/us-diplomatic-cargo-contains-cartridge-devices-detonator-fuses-and-rocket-motors-accused-of-smuggling/

Date: 08/26/06     Keywords: no keywords

A US businessman, Javed Iqbal, has been charged with offering broadcasts of Hezbollah’s al-Manar satellite television station to customers in the New York-area. Javed Iqbal, originally from Pakistan, is accused by prosecutors of doing business with a terrorist entity. via BBC. “First they came for the Muslims, but I did not speak out because I was not a Muslim Then [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/poem-on-lost-freedom-of-press/

Date: 08/26/06     Keywords: no keywords

Comprehensive List of WordPress 2.x Rewrite Rules: Note 1: The built-in rules are provided to guide you in writing your own fancy rules. Note 2: In case you are wondering anything before and including the ‘?’ is ignored in match. They whole match is actually stored in a variable which is never used. So you can [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/list-of-wordpress-2x-rewrite-rules/

Date: 08/25/06     Keywords: no keywords

Plextor launched what it claims as the world’s smallest DVD writer, a slim external unit aimed at notebook users. It weighs 250g, 1.6cm high and barely bigger than a CD. The PX-608CU supports all DVD recordable and rewriteable formats, including dual-layer media. Speeds range from 4x to 8x. It burns CD-R/RW discs at 24x and has [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/worlds-smallest-dvd-writer-launched/

Date: 08/25/06     Keywords: web

Wget is a super-useful utility to download pages and automate all types of web related tasks. It works for HTTP as well as FTP URL’s. Here is a brief tutorial on how to use wget through proxy server. To get wget to use a proxy, you must set up an environment variable before using wget. Type [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/how-to-use-wget-through-proxy/

Date: 08/23/06     Keywords: google

Search engines like Google often fetch your site description from ODP (Open Directory Project) description instead of fetching it from the site content or meta-tags. This may not always be desirable as it may not represent your site properly. However luckily you can specify whether search engines can use ODP titles & descriptions. To prevent [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/how-to-prevent-search-engines-like-google-msn-search-from-using-odp-title-description-for-site/

Date: 08/23/06     Keywords: php, java

Three lessons I learned the hard way while developing a PHP based product, Translator Plugin Pro for WordPress. Let me know if you find them useful. 1. PHP is no Java. I don’t intend to be sarcastic. In reality I sorely miss the comfort of Java in more ways than one. PHP lacks several built-in checks of Java [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/3-php-lessons-for-product-developers/

Date: 08/23/06     Keywords: yahoo, google

It may be inconceivable to many but Google has actually lost search market share by one percentage point while Yahoo gained in July. ComScore Networks said Google’s share of all searches dropped a full percentage point to 43.7% during the month of July, while Yahoo’s share increased by 0.3 percentage points to 28.8%. In June, ComScore said [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/google-loses-search-market-share-sign-of-omnious-future/

Date: 08/23/06     Keywords: google

Overview I am trying to find a long lost friend, C. S. Srinidhi, who graduated from IIT Kharagpur in 1995 (Civil). I first tried locating him in my email archives. It was unsuccessful as I had changed several computers since then and not always the arhcives were transferred over. Next I tried Google, but his name [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/search-for-a-friend-by-six-degrees-of-separation/

Date: 08/23/06     Keywords: web

We will release 3 Column Anaconda Theme for WordPress 2.x blogs next week, most likely on Thursday. In the meantime we are adding few more features to it and cleaning up the website for the release, 12 more bullets (of todo items) on my list to be precise. I promise it will be worth your [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/anaconda-3-column-theme-release-schedule/

Date: 08/22/06     Keywords: no keywords

We released Angsuman’s Translator Plugin Pro for WordPress 2.x blogs on August 14th, exactly a week back. I am very happy by the positive response from the community and feedback we received. Subsequently we released a mini-update this weekend to allow users to use their own set of flags. However we are still not fully [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/wordpress-translator-plugin-update/