http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/images/mgzblog.gif http://www.mgzhome.com/blog http://www.mgzhome.com/blog My take on technology, php, stuff about me, etc Tue, 06 January 2009 2:09:11 EDT en-us Mayank Gandhi (mayank[at]mgzhome dot com) http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/images/mgzblog.gif http://www.mgzhome.com/blog http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/view/id,,28/l,,index.html http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/view/id,,28/l,,index.html#comments Sat, 31 July 2004 2:42:38 EDT Technology (http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/index/cid,,4/l,,index.html) http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/view/id,,28/l,,index.html , the guyz at Wi-Fi Toyz have been able to setup a bluetooth connection from a distance of 1 km (a new high), using Sony Erricson T610. ]]> Mayank Gandhi (mayank[at]mgzhome dot com) http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/images/mgzblog.gif http://www.mgzhome.com/blog http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/view/id,,27/l,,index.html http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/view/id,,27/l,,index.html#comments Wed, 28 July 2004 1:55:09 EDT Technology (http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/index/cid,,4/l,,index.html) http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/view/id,,27/l,,index.html Albinator about a year ago which was network independent. Well it seems like i got one before Y! did ]]> Mayank Gandhi (mayank[at]mgzhome dot com) http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/images/mgzblog.gif http://www.mgzhome.com/blog http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/view/id,,24/l,,index.html http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/view/id,,24/l,,index.html#comments Mon, 19 July 2004 23:59:57 EDT Technology (http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/index/cid,,4/l,,index.html) http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/view/id,,24/l,,index.html IDEA 2004 Design Exploration Gold Award. The product i am talking about is the new and very innovative concept by Kang-il Chung from Samsung Electronics who has presented a unique and a practical solution for portable printing, The Circular Printer. Now going around in circles, is worth it. ]]> Mayank Gandhi (mayank[at]mgzhome dot com) http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/images/mgzblog.gif http://www.mgzhome.com/blog http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/view/id,,21/l,,index.html http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/view/id,,21/l,,index.html#comments Mon, 05 July 2004 23:35:47 EDT Technology (http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/index/cid,,4/l,,index.html) http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/view/id,,21/l,,index.html 1000 MB.", hmm wasn't Gmail supposed to be 1 GB ? = 1024 MB. Though Gmail has never mentioned 1 GB in its storage space offer (accept in the invitation mail), and I am sure I will not be needing the last 24 mb as yet ... but still technically speaking ... ]]> Mayank Gandhi (mayank[at]mgzhome dot com) http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/images/mgzblog.gif http://www.mgzhome.com/blog http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/view/id,,20/l,,index.html http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/view/id,,20/l,,index.html#comments Fri, 02 July 2004 0:52:06 EDT Technology (http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/index/cid,,4/l,,index.html) http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/view/id,,20/l,,index.html technical preview of its new search technology. As per MS there are about 1 billion Web pages in the index. The search preview is purely for beta testing and doesn't guarantee speed or any other performance level. Yea, I agree it took about 3 secs to find my name itself. Though with another keyword it was lightning fast. I guess it is really in Beta or my name is getting some weight after all ...

It will be replacing the existing MSN Search, I liked the options, though bare minimum ... Will keep checking it for updates. ]]> Mayank Gandhi (mayank[at]mgzhome dot com) http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/images/mgzblog.gif http://www.mgzhome.com/blog http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/view/id,,19/l,,index.html http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/view/id,,19/l,,index.html#comments Sun, 27 June 2004 7:26:51 EDT Technology (http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/index/cid,,4/l,,index.html) http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/view/id,,19/l,,index.html beta test something which eventually will be free of cost", asked my yet not so geek friend. Well, I had no answer but that's been the case for most geeks out there (ahem, including me, ahem). A recent article at Wired.com, My Left Arm for a Gmail Account, says it all about the Gmail craze. As someone posted on Slashdot, "its a way for the net dorks to get revalidated...", really, is it just that?

Now that Yahoo and Rediff have started giving comparable storage space accounts and MSN will be joining them soon, then why is the Gmail craze still on. Well, the key thing here is that they all have their existing users, who have already taken almost all possible combinations of a human name. After all 99% of us don't have unique names. I am pretty sure Osma Bil Laden won't even get his choice email id now.

So, basically the only logical reason I can think of is that the rush to get a 1 GB email a/c with your name preference before someone else does. No wonder initially there were bids running into huge numbers at eBay for an early invite. Now as more invites pour in, that craze is cooling off, right? Yea, sure, there are still too many gmail-starved out there. These guyz are going crazy at Free Gmail Invite give-out websites. The webmasters of these sites are practically working full-time to be able to hold the huge traffic coming in. So I went and reviewed some of the most popular ones:

Gmail Swap

As the name suggests, its a place where you can basically put up anything for an invite. Developed by a dude named Sean Michaels, the site has offers from shining new digital cameras to simple a Christmas card every Christmas to the infamous, My left arm. Though on second thought I just might go for the card offer, i haven't received a real card since these ecard sites started. (P.S. before anyone mails me, i don't have any extra gmail invites yet).

Gmail Machine

A random number Lotto, gives out an invite to anyone who gets a specified number out 100,000 randomized ones. So basically the only skill you need to win here is to know how to hit the refresh button and basically have no life. Last week I tried my luck on the website and it was being practically hit by more than 1000s of visitors every second. Now there's a million dollar idea to boast the traffic of your site. Though these hits are kinda useless as most of them aren't unique, but I just think the guy who made this Site, (Scott) is a pretty intelligent being, as one thing is for sure, he is getting some real publicity and I won't be surprised if he is approached to put ads before the random number is displayed.

Gmail Chain offer

This one is the simplest, just plead or according to the site promise to beta test and create chain of gmail invites. But make sure you pass it to your friend to create a chain, or else!, well they can't do anything about it then . I posted a simple beta testing promise to check out what happens, well nothing has happened for about a week now. There were almost 500 posts above me, so I am expecting my invitation anytime around 2-3 months after Gmail's public release.


There are loads of other ones going up everyday, just try a simple search on google to be surprised. Contests ranging from Designing Templates to basic Beatles quizzes, there are just too many of them. The contests are easy and very frequent, though it seems getting a real invite might just not be.

btw, Sean, Scott, got any spare Invites for me? ]]> Mayank Gandhi (mayank[at]mgzhome dot com) http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/images/mgzblog.gif http://www.mgzhome.com/blog http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/view/id,,18/l,,index.html http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/view/id,,18/l,,index.html#comments Thu, 24 June 2004 23:52:06 EDT Technology (http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/index/cid,,4/l,,index.html) http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/view/id,,18/l,,index.html
Well thats old news, Gmail just is different, from Keyboard shortcuts to email remembering clues it has all the neat tricks for you to make a quick transition from your email client. Also, worth mentioning is the very innovative use of the classic threading display for their Chat like-arrangement for all the follow-up mails. Also, I like the way they display small quotes if your current folder is empty, neat stuff. ]]> Mayank Gandhi (mayank[at]mgzhome dot com) http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/images/mgzblog.gif http://www.mgzhome.com/blog http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/view/id,,16/l,,index.html http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/view/id,,16/l,,index.html#comments Wed, 23 June 2004 10:11:38 EDT Technology (http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/index/cid,,4/l,,index.html) http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/view/id,,16/l,,index.html
SpaceShipOne is the top among the 27 other teams still in the race for the coveted ANSARI X-Prize of 10 mil USD. Though the team is still quite far from the prize winning position of launching 3 people in the same ship and then performing the same feat again within 2 weeks.

Checkout some amazing pictures of the flight at Space.com. ]]> Mayank Gandhi (mayank[at]mgzhome dot com) http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/images/mgzblog.gif http://www.mgzhome.com/blog http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/view/id,,15/l,,index.html http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/view/id,,15/l,,index.html#comments Wed, 23 June 2004 8:06:46 EDT Technology (http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/index/cid,,4/l,,index.html) http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/view/id,,15/l,,index.html eBay has announced that they will be venturing into the Indian market by acquiring the current eAuction giant in the country Baazee.com. The US based world's biggest online auction site has agreed to pay 50 mil USD to Baazee. Recently ebay has been expanding their business in various countries purchasing the top web auction sites.

Baazee started in January 2000 by two Mumbai based gentlemen, Avnish Bajaj and Suvir Sujan, has more than 1 mil registered users in India. So what does it mean for an average user in India? Well, a big change, now users from the country can purchase from other ebay affliated sites world-wide, which untill now very limited. Personally I have purchased some stuff off Baazee and I would rate the experience pretty decent. Though I feel ebay has a much better approach to the concept.

This would be the second biggest International acquistion of an Indian founded dot com company, since the famous purchase by Microsoft of Hotmail.com (co-founded by Sabeer Bhatia) in December 1997 which was estimated to be around 400 mil USD. ]]> Mayank Gandhi (mayank[at]mgzhome dot com) http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/images/mgzblog.gif http://www.mgzhome.com/blog http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/view/id,,17/l,,index.html http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/view/id,,17/l,,index.html#comments Mon, 21 June 2004 4:52:06 EDT Technology (http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/index/cid,,4/l,,index.html) http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/view/id,,17/l,,index.html
Btw, I got my full name id . As per my initial review, ]]> Mayank Gandhi (mayank[at]mgzhome dot com) http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/images/mgzblog.gif http://www.mgzhome.com/blog http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/view/id,,14/l,,index.html http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/view/id,,14/l,,index.html#comments Sat, 19 June 2004 23:35:06 EDT Technology (http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/index/cid,,4/l,,index.html) http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/view/id,,14/l,,index.html last entry was about Yahoo! Mail's new upgrades to match to Gmail's 1 GB free email storage offer, well, add another contender to the list, Rediff.com, an India-based company (providing webmail and portal services) has also claimed to provide a GB email storage for all its users. Though functionality-wise it currently doesn't measure up to what Gmail offers, but it is still a big and an early claim to the GB compatibility standard that Gmail has set.

Bottom line, Gmail is very quickly redefining how webmail services will be offered from here on. It will soon be a benchmark for any webmail service to even stand a chance in this close race. ]]> Mayank Gandhi (mayank[at]mgzhome dot com) http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/images/mgzblog.gif http://www.mgzhome.com/blog http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/view/id,,13/l,,index.html http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/view/id,,13/l,,index.html#comments Fri, 18 June 2004 3:44:50 EDT Technology (http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/index/cid,,4/l,,index.html) http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/view/id,,13/l,,index.html Gmail Gmail, not even public yet and still impacting strategies from the Big Guns. Gmail (Google Mail) when released will be offering free email accounts with storage space of 1 GB, their motto, "Don't sort just search with Goggle and never delete any mail". Well sure you can say that when you have 100 thousand servers at your disposal. So is the commercial email industry doomed?

Well not quite, Gmail has its own problems to deal with, there have been frequent criticisms from privacy experts and a California state legislator, who have objected the company's plan to scan all incoming mails for keywords to serve targeted Ads.

But, still they are offering 1 GB in an age where getting 25 MB email storage forces you to shell out big bucks.

But, Yahoo! has the answer, they have recently increased their free mail account limit from 4 MB to 100 MB, where single messages can be upto 10 MB and are also offering 2 GB of storage space for paid customers at only 19.95 USD/year, now that's some fight back. In a recent presentation, Jim Brock, the company's senior vice president of communication and consumer services, said, "The objective here is to make storage quotas irrelevant to users". And I agree, but when Gmail is out, I doubt anybody apart from the existing users will be using Yahoo! Mail's free accounts, and to be frank I don't think anybody will be needing paid 2 GB storage just for their emails, when one can have a GB account for free. So how lucrative this offer is, only time will tell.

Though, I feel if Yahoo! combines this mail offer with some webspace offer by allowing users to use the same space for their website hosting too and if possible store all their address books, chat archives and everything related there itself, then I all I can say is, "Kaching", you have a hot selling cake in your hands (hmm, I wonder whether I should have posted this idea here and instead of sending it to Yahoo! in exchange of some paid a/c's ). Either way, Yahoo!'s shares just went up after this 100 MB offer and being an investor, I am all happy with the news.

I wonder what MSN Hotmail is planning ... ]]> Mayank Gandhi (mayank[at]mgzhome dot com) http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/images/mgzblog.gif http://www.mgzhome.com/blog http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/view/id,,12/l,,index.html http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/view/id,,12/l,,index.html#comments Thu, 17 June 2004 3:29:31 EDT Technology (http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/index/cid,,4/l,,index.html) http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/view/id,,12/l,,index.html Slashdot lead me to some really interesting facts about how energy is being wasted by our PC's. It relates to the findings of an article published in Scientific American that only 60-70% line AC voltage is utilized usefully by the power supplies installed in modern computers. If this claim is to go by, imagine the losses that occur every day, Huge!

Checkout the blog, Efficient Power Supply Contest ]]> Mayank Gandhi (mayank[at]mgzhome dot com) http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/images/mgzblog.gif http://www.mgzhome.com/blog http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/view/id,,10/l,,index.html http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/view/id,,10/l,,index.html#comments Wed, 16 June 2004 4:24:47 EDT Technology (http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/index/cid,,4/l,,index.html) http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/view/id,,10/l,,index.html The Mozilla Foundation (supported by AOL), have received various awards for their famous products, these include "Best of 2003, Web Browser" by PC Magazine and LinuxJournal Magazine, "Beyond Bliss" by Time Magazine and for FireFox the MAXIMUM PC Softy Award 2004.

This new version includes some great improvements, including:

- New Installer and Look/Feel updates for Linux/GTK2 users
- Extension/Theme Manager
- New Default Theme
- Comprehensive Data Migration
- Update notification
- A new online help system
- Improved Stability

For more on these features, check out their Press Release.

You can download the latest release from their Download Section. It's 4.7 MB for Windows and 9.7 MB for Linux. ]]> Mayank Gandhi (mayank[at]mgzhome dot com) http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/images/mgzblog.gif http://www.mgzhome.com/blog http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/view/id,,9/l,,index.html http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/view/id,,9/l,,index.html#comments Sat, 12 June 2004 8:27:35 EDT Technology (http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/index/cid,,4/l,,index.html) http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/view/id,,9/l,,index.html Sourceforge. It has been released under CPL (Common Public License).

"The Windows Installer XML (Wix) is a toolset that builds Windows installation packages from XML source code. The toolset supports a command line environment that developers may integrate into their build processes to build MSI and MSM setup packages."

So is this the change everyone was waiting for? Not quite. It may seem a major release and a certain change in MS's point of view towards Open Source but when analyzed closely, it's nothing too big, IMHO. As one of my veteran PHP colleagues said, "After all its still a tool to aid the .NET developers, what's the big deal if they are giving it free via Open Source, maybe its just a way of getting free work done ". Well I don't thing MS requires free work; but whatever people might say on second thought MS certainly have got the notice of the Open Source Community with this new release.

For new developments related to Wix and some very interesting entries, check out the Blog entries of Rob Mensching (Lead Developer, Wix Project). He is very optimistic about Open Source and MS. I feel a sense of confidence after reading his responses during an interview with OSDir.com. I for one seriously believe that MS can have a very possitive impact on the Open Source Develoment and the company should not be seen as an evil corp. trying to con eveyone.

My personal take on Wix, "Good work, keep it coming". ]]> Mayank Gandhi (mayank[at]mgzhome dot com) http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/images/mgzblog.gif http://www.mgzhome.com/blog http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/view/id,,1/l,,index.html http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/view/id,,1/l,,index.html#comments Thu, 03 June 2004 11:31:39 EDT Technology (http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/index/cid,,4/l,,index.html) http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/view/id,,1/l,,index.html Albinator is a web application for advanced management of multimedia content like photos, videos, cliparts, etc. Recently the top rated products in this field were reviewed by a popular German magazine, Digit, and Albinator was rated best of the lot in terms of features and its value for money.

Albinator offers easy navigation for browsing the content, grouping together of the photos and video into albums, editing of the images, thumbnail generation, watermarking, and other advanced features. Designed in PHP and MySQL, it offer value addition for your site as it can be easily integrated into popular portal software like PHP-Nuke, forum softwares like vBulletin, phpBB, InvisionBoard, etc.

View the complete Article (in German) ]]> Mayank Gandhi (mayank[at]mgzhome dot com) http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/images/mgzblog.gif http://www.mgzhome.com/blog http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/view/id,,4/l,,index.html http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/view/id,,4/l,,index.html#comments Fri, 28 May 2004 7:47:58 EDT Technology (http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/index/cid,,4/l,,index.html) http://www.mgzhome.com/blog/view/id,,4/l,,index.html Yahoo.com has released a new version of its popular messaging tool. Downloaded more by more than 1.5 mil users, the version packs some decent upgrades. The shining new version includes some neat features; Personalized and fully configurable Avatar creation (What you want to be?).

Now, pouring out insults is completely verbal, literary! Adding a new dimension to text messaging are the new Flirt and Taunt Audibles. Ranging from Insults to simple Hellos, the new version is packaged with numerous Audible categories. Existing features like the Address Book and IMVironment(R) are among the redesigned and upgraded ones. Though, the later doesn't seem have any structural upgrades.

The software comes with a major face lift to the overall appeal. Adding to the Y! Identity is now a rather cute looking smiley. The aesthetics are well balanced and gel in with most color schemes. It now integrates with Yahoo's other portal services, such as photo sharing, online games, etc; another step towards the complete Yahoo! experience.

I find the new face lifts to be a welcome change; Though, on another note, these changes seem a rather delayed attempt to catch up with the smooth looking versions from some prominent competitors, who came up with similar facelifts a few months back.

Overall, with numerous new gismos added, version 6 seems well-planned if not the best-timed upgrade. ]]>