Date: 08/21/06     Keywords: no keywords

I was just visting PodTech.net, Robert Scoble’s new startup. It was founded in 2005 by John Furrier in 2005. One think struck me most at PodTech.net. The site simply didn’t encourage me to listen to any podcasts or even browse. My eyes just glazed over. I looked again and here are 3 simple reasons why. 1. [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/podtech-is-good-example-of-over-crowded-website-in-klingonese/

Date: 08/21/06     Keywords: no keywords

SanDisk Corp. unveiled what is arguably the world’s largest capacity, flash-memory based MP3 player with 8 GB memory. Priced at $249.99, the new Sansa e280 is the latest MP3 player in SanDisk’s flagship e200 series. The new 8-gigabyte (GB) device features a microSD expansion slot, allowing expansion to 10-GB of music - or approx. 2,500 songs [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/worlds-largest-capacity-mp3-player-sansa-e280/

Date: 08/21/06     Keywords: no keywords

Shares of salesforce.com, which manages customer relationship data for corporations, jumped 19%, as the San Francisco-based firm beat consensus estimates across the board. This was despite reported profit loss of $145,000 for the second quarter. Revenue rose 64% to $118 million, ahead of the Street’s estimate of roughly $114 million. “The on-demand revolution that we have been [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/customer-relationship-software-provider-salesforcecom-shares-skyrocket/

Date: 08/21/06     Keywords: security

U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor said the spying program, which was authorized by President George W. Bush shortly after the 9/11 terrorism attacks but remained undisclosed until late last year, violates constitutional rights of free speech, privacy and the separation of powers. She ordered the U.S. government to halt the National Security Agency’s Internet and [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/us-government-ordered-to-halt-national-security-agencys-internet-and-telephone-surveillance-program/

Date: 08/21/06     Keywords: google

A Chinese blogger finds Google.com inaccessible around 60% of the time whereas Google.cn is perfectly accessible. Is it coincidence or intetnional? Is Google intentionally blocking Google.com in China and providing intermittent access instead of outright banning to prevent backlash from internet community & activists. If you are a Chinese blogger, I would love to know your experiences [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/googlecom-banned-in-china/

Date: 08/21/06     Keywords: no keywords

A new buttonless handset by Pilotfish and Synaptics heralds a new generation of mobiles which understands your signs and gestures and your cheek too. Onyx device understands signs and gestures, thanks to the sensitive touch pad covering most of its surface. It opens and closes applications when swiped by one or two fingers. The phone recognizes [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/revolutionary-buttonless-cell-phones/

Date: 08/21/06     Keywords: web

Times has compiled a list of 50 coolest websites for 2006 with some ridiculous entries like human clock, which shows a different photo for each minute of the day, being categorized under News & Information, instead of Time Wasters. The only information it provides is photos with specific time of the day. Not just the [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/50-coolest-websites-of-2006-and-5-really-cool-sites/

Date: 08/19/06     Keywords: java

I wrote about how I use a simple Java framework instead of ORM like Hibernate or Spring for effectively solving my data handling requirements. It has made me tremendously productive. It sparked a major debate in ServerSide. So I decided to provide more details about my ORM-replacement framework. My needs are simple and are likely [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/java-database-framework-orm-replacement-in-80-lines-of-code/

Date: 08/18/06     Keywords: database, sql, postgresql

Five reasons, without the satire, for using PostgreSQL open source database. Availability on multiple platforms PostgreSQL is available on every modern Unix-compatible operating system, windows, and ports are also available for Novell NetWare and OS/2. Professional development and administration tools The following list summarizes just a few of the tools available to PostgreSQL developers: Database modeling: Several commercial and open [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/five-reasons-to-use-postgresql/

Date: 08/18/06     Keywords: no keywords

Don’t you just love it when evidence emerges challenging unprovable religious preconceptions espoused by the Pope, the Roman Catholic Church, hardline Islamists, not to mention beloved President George Bush and his own fundamentalist Christian supporters. What they all believe is that at the instant when an embryo is formed by fertilisation of a human egg by [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/the-lies-of-embryonic-stem-cell-research-objections-or-one-woman-with-two-souls-ridicules-religious-zealots/

Date: 08/18/06     Keywords: technology

The ambitious One Laptop Per Child program, which began at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab, to provide low-cost laptop computers to poor children around the world is about to take a big step forward. More than 500 children in Thailand are expected to receive the machines in October and November for quality testing and [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/100-linux-laptop-to-debut-with-500-thai-children-1-million-in-thailand-only-by-2007/

Date: 08/17/06     Keywords: no keywords

We have developed a lovely free 3-column Wordpress theme for you, with fluid center column. Anaconda Theme for WordPress is a class by itself. It takes K2’s extensive functionality and makes them also available as WordPress widgets. It takes Mollio’s good looks and adapts it to WordPress environment with enhancements. Your search for good three-column [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/anaconda-3-column-wordpress-theme-sneak-preview/

Date: 08/17/06     Keywords: no keywords

Now that I got your attention what Apple is doing is almost as bizarre as the title. Apple has sent “cease-and-desist” letters to makers of unrelated electronic devices containing the word “pod”. Two companies have been asked to remove the word from their products. They don’t manufacture MP3 players. Profit Pod is a device that compiles [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/apple-warns-group-of-whales-from-calling-themselves-pod-almost/

Date: 08/17/06     Keywords: no keywords

Unisys is offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the recovery of a missing desktop computer that belongs to the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The computer, which contains personal information on 38,000 veterans treated at VA medical facilities in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, went missing from the offices of Unisys, the subcontractor hired to [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/50-000-reward-for-missing-computer/

Date: 08/17/06     Keywords: google

6 steps to setup your free online store using Google Base & Google Checkout. Click on the “Sign In” link on the Google Base homepage. Click on “Post an Item,” click the “Choose an existing item type” dropdown menu, and select the item type (”Products” or “Vehicles”). Fill in the fields on the “Edit item” page. The [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/free-online-store-setup-using-google-base-google-checkout-in-6-steps/

Date: 08/17/06     Keywords: java, google

Finally a clean-room implementation of Google’s Page Rank Algorithm in Java, reverse-engineered from their numerous commentary on Page Rank (or is it Pigeon Rank?). public static int getPageRank(url) { // start off with a random low PR int pageRank = rand.getInt(0, 3); if ( isHostedOn('google.com', url) ) [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/clean-room-implementation-of-google-page-rank-algorithm/

Date: 08/14/06     Keywords: no keywords

I am happy to announce that we have finally released Angsuman’s Translator Plugin Pro for WordPress blogs. It provides automatic machines translation of all pages of your blog in eight different languages - German, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean and Chinese. It is search engine optimized, supports WordPress widgets, nice permalinks and a [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/angsumans-translator-plugin-pro-for-wordpress-blogs-released/

Date: 08/13/06     Keywords: spam

LinkieWinkie is a nifty little site which throws back at you reciprocal link love. So when I link to LinkieWinkie, I can expect it to link back to me. Interesting social experiment. I expect it to be soon flooded by spammers.

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/understanding-linkiewinkie/

Date: 08/11/06     Keywords: security

The US Department of Transportation has announced that a Dell laptop computer containing names, addresses and social security numbers of 133,000 Florida residents was stolen two weeks ago. The information on the missing laptop included people in Miami-Dade County who hold commercial drivers licenses, Florida residents who have pilot’s licenses and people who got their Florida [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/us-department-of-transportation-loses-133-000-social-security-address-records-of-florida-residents/

Date: 08/11/06     Keywords: security

Rails has taken the right route and went for full disclosure unlike for example the WordPress team, who still believes in the flawed concept of security by obscurity. After a full assessment of the security vulnerability (details below) Rails team decided they needed yet another emergency patch to fully close the hole. With Rails 1.1.0 through [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/ruby-on-rails-releases-yet-another-emergency-security-upgrade-116/