BROWSER WARS

When it comes to choosing a Web browser today, we're spoiled for choice. Major new release Internet Explorer 9 and Firefox 4 have brought these two big name browsers to near parity with upstart Google Chrome, which though a relatively new entrant into the browser market has taken the browser industry by storm.
The current crop of surfing software all include plenty of speed, minimised interfaces for a better look at that site you're browsing, and support for the emerging HTML5 standard markup language. Each brings a unique twist, though. The new browser from Microsoft Internet Explorer 9, adds hardware acceleration for graphics-intensive sites and arguably the best privacy tool to prevent tracking of your Web activities by marketing sites. Firefox offers a Panorama view of your tabs and a refreshed version of what's still the most powerful set of customizations, along with the ability to sync bookmarks, history, settings, and more. 

Google Chrome 10 : 

Chrome Instant means your Web page is ready to read before you finish typing the address. This, its speed, minimalist design, and advanced support for HTML5 have deservedly been attracting more and more users to the browser. The latest version adds an improved settings interface, and even more speed and security.

Internet Explorer 9 :

Microsoft's new browser is faster, trimmer, more compliant with HTML5—a major improvement over its predecessor. It also brings some unique capabilities like tab-pinning and hardward acceleration, but only Windows 7 and Vista users need apply.

Mozilla Firefox 4 :

Firefox 4 gets Mozilla back into the game. This lean, fast, customizable browser can hold its own against any competitor, and it offers graphics hardware acceleration. My favourite OpenSource Browser. It has some cool features like in-private browsing and has Chatzilla add-on that allows you to attach yourself to irc-network.

• The Firefox project has changed its names several times. It was renamed from “Phoenix” to “Firebird” because of trademark issues with Phoenix Technologies. Mozilla Firebird then became Mozilla Firefox on February 9, 2004.
•  There is an on-going belief that “Mozilla” and “Firefox” are the same.  And as we discussed a while back, Firefox, adopted its name in 2004.  Mozilla on the other hand, is the one that represents the company, Mozilla Corporation which develops both Firefox and the Mozilla Suite.  The development of the Mozilla Suite ended in 2005 and is now known as the Sea Monkey.
• As an open source, the Mozilla Firefox is not entirely free as other would presume.  Some of its elements are covered by EULA (End-Users License Agreement);

 Now its time for some Internet Explorer jokes (The Beating Bag of Browser)

     

 

So it seems that Open-Source softwares Chrome and Firefox have beaten Internet-Explorer black and blue. Finishing on a lighter note, I came

 across a funny T-shirt, which said :-

                                      and all i could do was, just smile :-)

Downloading videos from You-tube/facebook ubuntu/windows

Having installed Ubuntu, the first thing you would realise is that your beloved .exe file,you use to install applications in windows, doesn't work for linux. Ubuntu uses .deb extension packages to install applications as binaries. Deb stands for debian, which originates from the name "Debra", who happened to be the girlfriend of debian founder Ian Murdock. Debian packages are  Unix archivers that include two zipped archives: one that holds the control information and another that contains the data.

So lets install the first software in Ubuntu, so to install vlc-player you can do either of the following things :-

1.  Open Synaptic application
     Click on System ---> Administration ---> Synaptic Package Manager.
     In Settings ---> Repositories, make sure you have an universal repository activated.

     Search for vlc and install it

2.  Or you can go to the Command line interface and type the following

     commands :-

     % sudo apt-get update 

     % sudo apt-get install vlc

And it should install vlc player for you.

Now having downloaded vlc-player, its time to download some videos too, without using any third-party softwares, now if your browser plays a video, it would have to be downloaded somewhere too, so open YouTube videos in Ubuntu (in any browser), let the video buffer/load completely. Afterwards in your file browser, browse to the /tmp directory.

Now in the /tmp directory, you will have the YouTube video you just saw. Simply copy paste the file to some other place other than the /tmp directory, say Desktop, for example. REMEMBER, you will have to copy-paste the file before closing the browser tab that contains the YouTube video. Closing your internet browser would automatically delete file in the /tmp folder.

But this method doesnt seem to be working, for Ubuntu 10.10, so for this, go to the browser cache "/home/.mozilla/firefox/cache" and you will find the video.

Similarly, for Windows you will have to open explorer and navigate to the following location:

C : Users "USERNAME" \AppData\Local\Temp. Enable 'show hidden files' Option in the Folder Options. In the temp folder look for file which has the name "fla*Some_Number*.tmp". The fla*.tmp file is video that was downloaded to your local cache. Copy the file to another folder and rename it to "Myname.flv ".

Now having learnt to download the video, have fun !!!!!!!!!

                                                          IMAGE OF THE WEEK

       

                      "Software is like sex: it's better when it's free.” - Linus Torvalds

Sony Vaio TouchPad not working Ubuntu 10.10

First things first, there is no point learning things, about Open source, if you can't experience its complete power. My preferred Linux distro is Debian based Ubuntu. I recently upgraded my Hardy Heron to Maverick Meerkat, for all those wondering what I am talking about. I am talking about various Ubuntu Versions. Hardy Heron happens to be Ubuntu's version 8.04 Long Term Support (LTS) release version, so when its support ran out, I thought that I should go for an upgrade instead, I was already late as I missed Lucid Lynx, version 10.04 by 7 months. So i thought may be I should go for Maverick Meerkat 10.10 instead. And that is when I committed a blunder (Topic of my numerous Blog-posts).

Ubuntu, makes two releases every year, using the year and month of the release as a version number. So a version released in October 2010, is called 10.10 and so on..... it uses an adjective and an animal with the same first letter (e.g. Maverick Meerkat). With the exception of the first two releases, code names are in alphabetical order,

As soon as I upgraded my system the first thing I observed was that, my Touch-Pad stopped working....
Now it seems that, I would have to myself add this parameter  to the grub.

Hmmmmm...... so I switched to windows again, did a bit of googling and came up with this solution......

So go to Application ----> Accessories ----> Terminal and type the following commands:-

1.  gksu gedit /etc/default/grub

2.  Edit /etc/default/grub to include GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="i8042.reset i8042.nomux i8042.nopnp i8042.noloop"

3.  Run: sudo update-grub


4.  Reboot  your system

And voillaa ... the Touch-Pad was up and working again.....

Now since your Touch-pad is up and running, go and figure stuff yourself.....