Firefox 3.0 - Initial thoughts

It has been a couple of days since Firefox 3.0 was released and I have been using it since the release. I was a big fan of Firefox, but stopped using 2.0 because of memory hog issue. This has been fixed and 3.0 is much better in terms of memory handling.

One huge improvement is the way it processes javascript. So if you are big user of web 2.0 apps (Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Google Reader etc), you will notice huge improvement in Firefox 3.0 compared to IE7. I use Google Reader several times a day and I was definitely impressed with the speed at which the pages were loaded in Firefox 3.0. Try it out and I am sure you will definitely notice the difference.

I think I might stay with Firefox for a while unless IE8 comes with a load of features.

Wipro to open a development center in Atlanta

Wipro Technologies is planning to open a development center in Atlanta and plans to hire 200 people to work at this center. It also plans to increase this number to 500 over the next three years. This is interesting because of the fact most companies shift the jobs to Asia to lower costs and Wipro is doing the opposite and this is what they have to say.

“The work we’re doing requires more and more knowledge of the customers’ businesses, and you want local people to do that,” said P.R Chandrasekar, President, Wipro Technologies Ltd. “The Atlanta center is an investment that will help Wipro’s existing customers as well as help address new business opportunities.”

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/08/28/ap4059658.html

Most Indian software companies already hire people out here, but those are for specific projects. I am not sure if any company has a dedicated development center here in the US. We will have to wait and see how this model works out for Wipro.

Google’s India special

I had written about a post that I came across in Google Blog gift to Indian users. Today, they revealed that.

It is basically a gadget for iGoogle that will let you type and search in 14 Indian languages using an on-screen keyboard. The languages supported include Hindi, Tamil, Telugu in addition to few more languages.

The Hindi transliteration was also part of this gift, which I feel is really cool.

थिस इस अवेसोमे… रेअल्ल्य गूढ़.

Check this out. Google Indic Transliteration. Gives the hindi word as you type in english…

just in case,  you don’t know hindi, the title of this post is “This is awesome… really good”. It is not a translation… just the same words represented in hindi language.

I am guessing that this might be the Independence day present that Google was talking about. I am not sure though.

Looking forward to the tamil version of the same.

Google’s special for India???

Came across this in the official Google Blog.

Happy 60th birthday, India! We can’t wait to celebrate, but we’re going to wait a few days for the formal unwrapping of our gift to Indian users. Check back and we’ll have news shortly.

Not sure what is it that they are talking about. “… gift to Indian users.”. Like they said, we have to wait and see.

Oh… no

Apple today released a whole lot of updates including iWork, iLife and already most of my feeds are bringing up this information and only this information. It is going to be apple.. apple.. for a couple of days now.

I was unable to stand it when it was iPhone and iPhone and nothing else for a few weeks before and after its release. Now it is going to be iLife, iWork etc etc for a couple of days. Hope it ends in a couple of days and doesn’t occupy the internet for weeks to come.

By this post, I am just adding one more junk post to the whole list that will be out there related to today’s Apple updates.

Launchy - Application Launcher

Launchy is an application launcher for windows. It is similar to Quicksilver for the Mac. Though limited in features, it offers a lot of stuff that most of us will end up using. If you are person like me who uses the keyboard a lot and prefers it that way, this is a boon. It definitely speeds up launching applications and opening documents etc. I have been using it for a while now and have really found it useful.

Here are some of the features of the application.

After installing the application, to bring up the launcher, just hit Ctrl + space. This just brings up the window that you see below right up front (on top of all windows that you have open now).

Type the name of any application that you want to open and it will display potential matches on the right side. Just hit enter once you are done and that will open the application. In the examples below, when I want to open MS Word, I just need to type word and it will display the match to the right and pressing enter opens up word. Likewise for paint too.

I know there are other ways to achieve the same functionality for opening up applications. You can setup the shortcut key for the application by editing the application shortcut. But this is just the beginning for Launchy.

You can also open up files and documents that you might have in various folders in your computer. This is where I use it the most. There are some files that I open very often and I don’t want to open up windows explorer and then navigate to the folder and then choose the file. The “Documents” option from the start menu only has a limited list of documents.

Let’s say I have a file called temp.txt and I need to open the file. Just type the name of the file and you can open it right away.

The application works like Google Desktop etc. It indexes the files/information from a set of folders that you specify. By default, the application indexes the start menu and hence all the shortcuts are available. You can also add folders to the list of indexed folders and also specify the file types that you want indexed. With that, you will be able to open up the specific documents that you would use regularly.

When there are multiple matches for the string that you type, Launchy displays a drop down with the list of all possible matches as below.

I will probably write another post about customizing launchy. You can also check out the site for more information. Meanwhile, here are some of the positive aspects of the application.

• It is very small in size - just about 1MB.
• The application is not intrusive.
• It does not sit in the application tray. This is something that I really like. I hate applications that sit in the system tray. Kinda makes me get rid of those ones right away….
• Does not take too much memory too. It was taking about 20 megs in my machine.

Is it time to reconsider Google?

Well… The article at CNET thinks so. The author comes up with a host of other sites/services that are better than that of Google.

The article mentions that Yahoo Maps, Microsoft’s Windows Live Local, Yahoo Desktop Search and searches from Ask.com are better than their Google counterparts. The article ends as follows.

“If you’re devoted to Google out of force of habit or some affinity to the brand, I submit that it’s time you re-examine your habits. Google is good, but it’s not worth unyielding devotion.”

I belong to the category of users mentioned above. I am used to Google so much that nothing else comes to my mind.

Google Calendar

Google finally released their Calendar app into Beta after weeks of speculation with leaked screenshots etc. As usual, the interface is sleek, straightforward and easy to use.

But when I used the app last week after it was launched, I noticed that it was very unresponsive. I ran into “oops… an error has occurred” several times within a span of minutes. Beta…. But it looks like it has been fixed and today it was a much better experience.

Two features that I think is great.

• Just clicking on a specific time slot pops up a box to add an event to that timeslot. It is that simple. 
• They also have built-in calendars for holidays in different countries, which can be added to your calendar’s view. Pretty neat feature especially if your work involves interacting with people from various countries.  

Overall, it is a nice app to begin with. But I am not sure where this app (just like several other Google apps) fits into the whole scheme of things for Google in the long run.

http://calendar.google.com

Run Win XP on a Mac

Apple today made switching to Mac OS much easier than it was ever before. Apple has launched Boot Camp (currently in Beta), which will enable the Intel Mac users to install Windows XP on a separate partition with ease. Boot camp enables the users to create a new partition and install the necessary drivers for windows.

(Image from apple site)

I am a die-hard windows user. But most people say that Macs are much better. But that did not convince me to switch because I like to tweak and upgrade my hardware which may not be possible in a Mac and ofcourse gaming !!! Most games are Windows only, though the situation is changing. I am still not sure if gaming might be possible in Mac using XP (thru bootcamp) because of the hardware config… we have to wait and see.

But I am guessing that this piece of software will definitely tempt several PC users who were thinking of switching to a Mac to actually switch.

Learn more at http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/