IT Masala

Wireless Hacks: 100 Industrial-Strength Tips & Tools
O'Reilly Media, Inc.; 1 edition | ISBN: 0596005598 | 304 pages | September 16, 2003 | CHM

It's an increasingly wired world, but many people are finding that the best way to get connected is to do away with wires entirely. From cable replacement to universal Internet connectivity, wireless technology is changing the way we connect to our machines and to each other. As with any new technology, buying your gear is only the first step. Understanding how to make the best use of it is another story. Wireless Hacks offers 100 industrial-strength tips about wireless networking, contributed by experts who apply what they know in the real world every day. Each Hack can be read in just a few minutes, but can save you hours of research.

Inside, you will find a wealth of useful techniques for making the most out of wireless technology, including:

Making sense of the alphabet soup of the 802.11 standards, and understanding which technology makes sense for your solving particular problem* Using Bluetooth, mobile radios, mobile data networks, and other exotic methods to keep you connected, no matter where you are
* Practical methods for detecting, analyzing, and monitoring wireless networks
* Extending the range of your network, and making the best possible use of the available radio spectrum
* Designing and building your own antennas
* Engineering long distance network links that span several miles
* Understanding the security issues of wireless networking, and protecting yourself and your users from unauthorized access and eavesdropping

Written for the intermediate to advanced wireless user, Wireless Hacks is full of direct, practical, ingenious solutions to real-world networking problems. Whether your wireless network needs to extend to the edge of your office or to the other end of town, this collection of non-obvious, "from the field" techniques will show you how to get the job done.

Download : Mirror 1  / Mirror 2 /  Mirror 3 

• Yahoo Health partners with educational video network [CNET]
  "HealthiNation to provide streaming video content to Yahoo's health portal."
• Vista Anytime Upgrade to become transferable [CNET]
  "Microsoft said late last week that it will make a change to the licensing terms for Windows Vista…"
• Alleged loophole lets users bypass Vista activation [CNET]
  ""A flaw in the product activation code for Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system makes it easy to bypass the registration process indefinitely."
• Blog Divulges Details About Next Windows OS [PC World]
  "Microsoft employee in Denmark places a presentation on the company's web site that divulges new information."
• Cell phones embrace Wi-Fi [CNNMoney]
  "Top-of-the-line cell phones may offer Internet access, but not even the do-it-all Apple iPhone comes with the ability to make calls over Wi-Fi."
• Yahoo's mobile search now available to all [InfoWorld]
  "Yahoo opened up its mobile oneSearch offering to anyone with a phone who can access the Internet."
• You Don't Know Jack is Back [Wired]
  "The popular '90s trivia-quiz video game is resurrected online, complete with Cookie, the wisecracking emcee."

Windows only: WordWeb provides definitions and synonyms with a click of the mouse.

This dictionary/thesaurus can look up words in almost any program. Just press the Ctrl key and right-click a word: this pops WordWeb (too fast) for you . WordWeb can also find sets of related words by pulling info from Wikipedia, Wiktionary and other sources. It'll even pronounce words for you.

Its far better than all the inbuilt dictionary we get with the Micro$oft Office ..etc.  WordWeb is free for personal use.

Happy vocabulary ! 

[ Download ] via [ WordWeb ]

PS : Sorry i forgot to put the link to download.thanks krishna for reminding. (see comments)

Apple has announced that it has now begun shipping Apple TV, a wireless device that allows you to play music, movies, photos and more on a widescreen TV.

According tp Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, “Apple TV is like a DVD player for the Internet age- providing an easy and fun way to play all your favorite iTunes content from your PC or Mac on your widescreen TV.” 

In the technology world, conventional wisdom says that we’ll soon be saying R.I.P. for the DVD. Internet downloads are the future, baby. No driving, no postpaid envelopes. Any movie, any TV show, any time.

Features: 

Apple TV has a 40GB hard drive, which can store up to 50 hours of video, 9000 songs, 25,000 photos or a combination of each. It is capable of delivering high-definition 720p output.

Apple TV iTunes 7.1 or later, running on a Mac with Mac OS X version 10.3.9 or later, or a Windows PC with Windows XP Home/Professional.

Apple ships with HDMI, component video, analog and optical audio ports. The Apple Remote ships with Apple TV at no extra cost. Apple TV can also auto-sync content from one computer or stream content from up to five additional computers directly on to the TV without any wires. It can do so using high-speed AirPort 802.11 wireless networking.

Pricing: Apple TV, which includes the Apple Remote will be available for a price of $299.

Mozilla Corp. late yesterday updated the Firefox browser to patch a single security vulnerability and fix several bugs it unintentionally introduced in earlier versions.

Mozilla currently supports two branches of the open-source application, and the upgrades — Firefox 2.0.0.3 and Firefox 1.5.0.11 — are now available, according to the release notes posted on the company's Web site.

New for Firefox 2.0.0.3 is a single security fix that patches up a hole in the browser’s FTP PASV functionality. A malicious web page hosted on a specially-coded FTP server could use this feature to perform a rudimentary port-scan of machines inside the firewall of the victim.

The main purpose of the update, however, was to fix several "regressions" — unintended flaws introduced by changes to previous versions. Earlier this month, Mozilla said it was working on a fast-turnaround for 2.0.0.3/1.5.0.11 to correct regressions in the browser's password manager, automatic security certificate authentication feature and other areas.

The last time the Firefox was updated was less than a month ago when 2.0.0.2 was released to address issues with AutoComplete, how the "Save" dialog box displays for known file extensions, a bug where a mouse's scroll wheel would stop working, two memory leaks and a number of security-related concerns.

Firefox 2.0.0.3 can be downloaded from the Mozilla Web site in versions for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux in 40 languages. Users can also update the browser using the Check for Updates command in the help menu.

[ Firefox 2.0.0.3 ] via [ Mozilla ] 

Some days ago there was some off by using the promocode for the tests by brainbench and now its FREE ! this is really cool..check it out.. 

Through March 31, over two-dozen Brainbench certifications are available to you at no cost!

These tests include:

• C#
• ASP.NET
• MS Excel 2003 Fundamentals
• Medical Transcription (US)
• Accounts Payable Fundamentals
• Macromedia Director MX 2004
• Network Technical Support
• Human Resources Concepts (UK)
• Listening/Reading Comprehension - Spanish
• and many more.

Typically $49.95, these tests are available to you absolutely free! Upgrade your resume - impress your boss - show off to your friends - and it will cost you nothing but your own time investment.

Get started today!

These free tests are only a sample of our 500+ certifications. Get unlimited access to all certification tests, practice tests, and career resources with a subscription!

via [ brainbench newsletter ]

Google Summer of Code 2007 is on! They are now accepting student applications. They have also published some additional web app documentation for mentors and organization administrators.

What is Google Summer of Code?

Its a program that offers student developers stipends to write code for various open source projects.

Who can apply ?

Students can submit their applications via the GSoC web app between March 14-24, 2007.

Deadline : March 14-24, 2007

Eligibility :

All college and university students around the world are invited to apply

Prizes to be won ?

Get paid $4,500 USD to work on your favorite open source project this summer. Its not just for $4,500 .. the real big thing is - the competition is conducted by Google and the award too.. ! what more does anyone want ? 

Apply Here :

Guide to the Google Summer of Code Web App for Student Applicants 

PS : WordPress is among the 131 accepted to Google Summer of Code, of more than 300 projects that applied.

Note : Google Summer Code is no longer accepting applications from open source organizations. 

[ Apply ] via [ Google Summer Code ] 

Indian youth are witnessing a mix of Indian and Western ways of life. Noticed this fusion of cultures lately? Show CNN what you've seen; Upload your videos/images on this fusion of Indian and Western styles; Share your experiences on the CNN  I - Report.

We want to hear from the youth of India. Tell CNN about the most important issues in your lives. Share your view points with us on being young in India, your opinion on arranged marriages, how important is religion to you. Click here to share your stories.

This event is organized by CNN in association with Aditya Birla Group,Kirloskar,Tata Consultancy Services(TCS) and ITC-WELCOME GROUP

What to do to Win Nokia N73 ?

Explore the youth's changing values and attitudes.

Upload your Videos/Images ( theme : Fusion of Indian & Western Styles )

Validity :  March 17th to March 24th 2007

YouTube has launched the first ever YouTube Awards. Nominees in 7 different categories will recieve awards for most creative, most inspirational, best series, best comedy, musician of the year, best commentary, and most adorable. Voting by users has started on March 19 at about 2 PM Pacific Time. Mashable appears to have blogged about the story first.(link not live as of Sunday night), according to various reports.

 This week viewers can vote to pick their favorites of 2006. It's kind of like the Oscars. Clicking on playlist shows a full listing of clips to vote.

There's much discussion highlighting that this isn't a new idea. In fact, the Vloggies did it last year and it was an complete excellent event organized.

Marshall Kirkpatrick from SplashCast has painstakingly taken the time to add all the nominated videos to a single SplashCast player, which I have embedded on the right side.. [via NewTeeVee] Video attached on the right..

This awards event should have taken place atleast in the first week of jan 2007 and not this late !! And I don't know why are they trying to make users vote again for the videos, already they have a rating system to vote for the best,by the users and even the editor's pick too.Dosen't it look unnecessary…. ..anyway ..who am i to comment on it !! go go.. Put your votes ..

Categories :

Most creative, Most inspirational, best series, best comedy, musician of the year, best commentary, and Most adorable.

What do Winners get ?

Winners of this year's YouTube Awards will receive trophies and special promotion on YouTube's front page.

(Any Cash prizes waiting ?? it would be good if there were some ..! )

Deadline : Vote now and vote often. Every hour you can rank your favorites until Youtube freezes voting on March 23, 2007, at 3pm PT.

via [ YouTube Awards ]

John W. Backus, who assembled and led the I.B.M. team that created Fortran, the first widely used programming language, which helped open the door to modern computing, died on Saturday at his home in Ashland, Ore. He was 82.

Fortran, released in 1957, was “the turning point” in computer software, much as the microprocessor was a giant step forward in hardware, according to J.A.N. Lee, a leading computer historian.

Fortran changed the terms of communication between humans and computers, moving up a level to a language that was more comprehensible by humans. So Fortran, in computing vernacular, is considered the first successful higher-level language.

“His contribution was immense, and it influenced the work of many, including me,” Frances Allen, a retired research fellow at I.B.M., said yesterday.

Innovation, Mr. Backus said, was a constant process of trial and error.

“You need the willingness to fail all the time,” he said. “You have to generate many ideas and then you have to work very hard only to discover that they don’t work. And you keep doing that over and over until you find one that does work.”

via [ nytimes ]