Anas Ismail Khan

The Singapore ministry of defense actually asked the M1 operator for camera-free iPhone devices.

Reason: This allowed the “military” to use the smartphone in areas where cameras are strictly forbidden in those areas for security reasons..

http://asia.cnet.com/hands-on-apple-iphone-4s-without-camera-62213320.htm

Two days back, I out of curiosity, fired up a terminal and typed in startx, with the hope that the UI would be reduced to naught but the _original form _of the X. At first it displayed an error, saying that i’m not permitted to. But then I tried again, and this time with a ‘sudo.’ The moment I _entered _my password, the screen went all dark, but only for a second, after which I was left with naught but a blank desktop, free from menus. Sensing failure, I opened another terminal and wrote ‘unity.’ Something similar happened, but this time, the title bar of the terminal kinda got stuck to the top of the screen. I tried the same command again, and this time, I was brought back to where i started. The terminal in which i had typed the startx command was still there, however i failed to notice that the user logged into it wasn’t my primary user account but root. I didn’t really notice anything unusual, except that the _settings _dropdown, present in the top-right, in the gnome bar, wasn’t showing up the options it ought to, so I restarted the computer by simply pressing the power button.

After the reboot, whenever I’d attempt a login, I’d be greeted by a dark screen, and after like a fraction of second, I’d be back on the Login Page. But the guest account seemed to work fine, so I logged into it and created another Administrator account, and on that one, I tried recreating the problem and was successful. _Okay, _now we might get somewhere…

Now what I did, that fixed the problem, was this:
I logged into the account, i.e the first one where i screwed everything up, via the tty1 terminal (Ctrl + Alt + F1), and ran the following commands:

sudo rm /home/anas/.Xauthority*
sudo apt-get install --reinstall xorg --fix-missing

The first one deletes the file, while the second re-installs Xorg. After this, I was able to login to the account again.

www.heydonworks.com/article/tetris-the-power-of-css

Do Give it a try….

Yesterday, when going through a list of updates that had to be installed, I noticed that the icon of the messenger had changed into a round-er, and light colored one, rather like the new icons in iOS7, this:

The icon’s what forced me into upgrading; _had to _try as it was bound to come with a number of new features and not just a change of icon. Well, I installed it, and ran it.

I was welcom-ed by a screen, all white (they dropped the light-blue background), which asked me if I was indeed ‘Anas Ismail Khan.’ As I proceeded, I was asked to confirm my number, which would ensure that people find me using my number, regardless _of whether or not I’m part of the friendlist, but, this is optional. The reason behind it, I guess, is that they are moving towards making it into an independent messenger, which combines the best of both Kik and whatsapp. It’s similar to whatsapp in the sense that just having your number might do the trick, however the _friendlist of course is still there, and thus the contacts list would consist of both your phone’s contacts and your Facebook Friends. However, due to privacy settings perhaps, usernames dont always work either, and just like the number _thing _this might be optional as well.

They also eradicated the ‘__sms integration’  feature. You can no longer use this app as your primary messaging app, though the changelog might say something similar.

A strange _con _of the app happens to be the fact that there is no _‘log out’ _option. On androids, clearing the app data does the trick though..

Now this guy, Taras Lesko, who’s known to have previously built a 7-foot high Gundam, is now making an Aventador  worth no more than $500, out of.. what shall i say? paper?

Click here.

I am a student, and every now and then I come across a term too complex for me to understand, (or perhaps not too complex but alien,) and thus I have to Google things a lot, and half the time its such terms. The results would of course direct me to some other site, and some of them would have stupid lag-gy popups, while others with flashy ads or too Bland an interface.

Wordo is free from all this. The interface is really clean and only that which is required is on the page. No ads, no popups, no surveys nothing to distract you, instead a huge mature font to provide maximum readability. Apart from that, the simplicity of the interface also ensures minimum lag.

To sum it all up in a single sentence, Wordo is a _true _dictionary, on which, the user’s activity does not extend beyond anything that he isn’t willing to do. Give it a try and you’d know…

If you happen to be a Linux user, you might, at the very least be familiar with the Desktop environments: GNOME, KDE, LXDE or XFCE. _Also, _you might have come across the names _OpenBox, X Window System _and _Window Maker, _and perhaps an implementation of more than one of these _together, _e.g. ‘Gnome/OpenBOX.’

Now the Question is, If they are all UIs, what exactly is the difference? And how can they all be working together at the same time? Because despite how similar they seem, each serves a totally different purpose.

To explain this, I’d take the example of layers. Imagine a stack of, let’s say, papers. The _Stack _represents a GUI Linux OS, and every individual sheet of paper represents a different component. Now assuming that the bottom section is dedicated to the GUI Components, the layer at the very bottom of this section would represent the X-Window System. It like forms the _base _of the GUI, and displays the information in a graphical way. Above the X, is a Window Manager, i.e. _assuming, _OpenBox. This Window Manager, as it’s name states, helps you _manage _them open windows. Menus, Taskbars, managing the look and feel, e.t.c. could be examples of what it might offer. Now a Window System, the X, may offer some of the functionality of a Window Manager, but still, they are two different things. In Simple words, a Window manager only enhances the Windows System.

Now the Desktop Environments are a bundle of Applications and tools, with their own UI, and built on some Window Manager, that provide the user with the essentials like a File Manager, Text editor, Browser, e.t.c.

Now to sum it all up, take the example of UbuntuGnome. The Ubuntu Gnome uses the X Windows System as the display server, but on top of it is the Openbox, and the Desktop environment is Gnome, which comes with its own set of Applications like the Nautilus File Manager, Gedit(text-editor), Rhythmbox Music Player, e.t.c.

Couple of days back, Microsoft announced the ‘coming’ of the new Microsoft Surface 2 and the Surface Pro 2; the former being the successor to Surface RT, while the latter of course succeeds the Surface Pro.

So, what else did Microsoft say about the two? and what new features do they pack?
First off, to the new and similar ‘features’. Both of them now come with a, what they call, “dual-angle Kickstand” , that can be adjusted to meet your requirements, so called improvements in battery life, ‘faster’ ‘than ever before,’  HD Screens, and support for USB 3.0. With both, you get about 200GB on SkyDrive free for 2 years, along with an year of ‘unlimited free voice calling to landlines in over 60 countries’, and ‘free Skype Wi-Fi at over 2 million hotspots worldwide.’

Now to the DIfferences.
The Surface 2 comes pre-installed with Windows RT, and touch optimized Office RT, to which, the addition of Outlook has been made. Battery life of about 10 hours, and the NVIDIA Tegra 4 processor ensure that you work ‘faster’ and ‘longer’ 😛

The Pro 2 would come with Windows 8.1, packs an Intel Core i5 Processor, and about 512GB of Storage. They also say _that they’ve _‘taken advantage of the latest processor technology to provide longer battery life on a single charge.’ _Apart from that, it has its own stylus i.e. the _Pro Pen, and a ‘ brilliant 1080p widescreen display.’

Accessories include a Docking Station, Wireless adapter for type-covers, the touch/type-covers of course, and the Surface Music Kit (similar to the covers), an Arc Touch Mouse, and a car charger.

With the passage of time, as ‘everything is moving to the cloud’ (pardon my _excessive _use of this quote, but it does really sum things up), the use of cloud storage is becoming common, and there are dozens of such services on the cloud each with its own uniquity, now the questions that arise are, “which one of them is the best?” “which one should i go for?” “can we really trust them with our data?” e.t.c. So, in this post, I’m going to talk a bit about the most popular (or at least the ones i prefer) cloud services on the web.

Microsoft’s Skydrive(formerly Windows Live Folders): Microsoft’s own cloud, that offers about 7GB of free storage. Apps are available for Windows, MacOSX and Mobile Devices i.e. Android and iOS. These apps are well integrated once you fully install them and do offer a Sync feature, but the best thing about SkyDrive is that it serves well as both: “_access-through-browser__” _service and when installed, it can sync files between your PC and SkyDrive very well too. The Web Interface is what most people love about Skydrive, and you can also create and to some extent, edit documents e.t.c. It has this own great photo viewer, e.t.c. So on the whole, Skydrive isn’t too bad.

Google Drive: Taking into account the factors stated in the description of skydrive, Google Drive is perhaps the only other such service that’s in any way close to Skydrive. Google however offers 15GB, and, the photos and documents don’t take up storage space on the google drive, so it doesn’t really matter, and in fact, the later feature is good. About the Document thing, they can be created through Google Docs. Interface is good and clean and it too offers applications so that you can sync between PC and Drive.

Ubuntu One: Ubuntu One, my favorite, unlike the above two, has apps for all three platforms, offers 5GB of Storage and has an awesome Sync. Despite how lame the phrase ‘awesome Sync’ sounds, i really mean it. I never really could ever make efficient use of cloud services until i tried Ubuntu One. Google Drive can be troublesome when installing and Skydrive’s Sync features were kinda limited to special folders back then, and neither offered the speed and everything that Ubuntu One did. It merely flows, but the major drawback about it is that the Web interface doesn’t really go beyond listing the files and offering a few basic features like ‘delete’ and ‘download.’ And you might find that it doesn’t run as smooth on Windows as it does on Ubuntu itself, but then that’s what it was made for.

Bitcasa: Bitcasa offers about 10GB of free storage, and has a nice and clean interface. It too offers applications for Windows, Mac, and phones, but my usage of Bitcasa never went beyond creating and account and installing its chrome extension. I never really tried its apps so i cant say much about it. However I created the account in order to use it like a DropBox, where i can throw files when i have to. However what I liked about BitCasa was it’s Chrome Extension that allowed you to directly download stuff to your bitcasa drive, and thus beside ever download button is a ‘download to bitcasa’ button.

Flickr: Flickr is a photosharing website, backed by Yahoo, which, according to what it says on its home, offers about 1TB of free storage space, which you might not ever run out of. So if you have to store huge masses of pictures. Go for Flickr.

CloudApp: CloudApp is the best cloud service that exists. It’s quick and amazingly user-friendly, but it’s only available for MacOSX.

****These  were the cloud services I normally use and prefer. As for the Question about _‘trust’, _well, all i can say is that Microsoft are what _brought _computers to us, and thus have been in the game for ages. So i doubt that they care about what a single user from millions in his 196th country is storing on their servers, and as for Google, well, you trust google with quite a lot already + you use their email services. Clouds like bitcasa _can _be a problem, as even I didn’t really hear anything about it. I just came across it somewhere and liked it; tried it. Flickr’s Yahoo’s.