Creating a patch and using a patch

Create a patch:
diff -Naur oldDir newDir > patchfile

Use a patch:
cat patchfile | patch -p1

Delete all unread messages in the inbox of gmail

http://www.emaildiscussions.com/showthread.php?t=56319

Linux has huge privacy issues

I knew for long back, but this hit me just now. In Linux, anybody can list processes of any other user. This is a big privacy issue. What is worse is that, you can even see the arguments passed to each of those commands.

iTunes crashed!

I thought it would be interesting to post a picture of how it looks when iTunes crashes. Here is a picture of it:

Shazam helped me find that music I was looking for all these years

Shazam is awesome!

My interest in Hip-hop started when I watched the movie "Save the Last Dance". I had listened to hip-hop music earlier, but I didn't like them. But this movie had some really good songs, which I actually liked. I listened to some more hip-hop songs, but none were like the ones in the movies. I tried to get the full songs for the songs in the movie by searching for "Soundtracks of Save the Last Dance", but didn't get anything on Google and I gave up years ago. But that desire was still there to get the original and complete version of these songs.

Here is a clip from the movie with my favorite song (this video might get deleted from youtube):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-smmusd9qg

Finally, Shazam helped me track down this song to its original and full version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6auk1TkGtVQ

Shazam rocks!

Why does Apple makes nice looking crippled products

Mac, iPod, iPhone, and now iPad.

According to Apple, iPad is supposed to be the best device for browsing Internet, watching TV shows, etc.

It can't display any shows from hulu.com, from Amazon Video on Demand, from ABC TV videos, ... the list is endless. Apple has made iPad crippled deliberately so that you buy your videos from Apple's iTunes store.

iPad would have been a great device to use Skype to do video chat. Unfortunately, it does not have a webcam. It does not even have a microphone. Even a $299 netbook will have all these.

How do you send messages on iPad - be it text chat, voice chat, video chat, email, facebook, whatever... no video input, no audio input, and for text input - no keyboard, all there is a on-screen keyboard. There is not even a digital pen or stylus so that you can just write on the screen. All netbooks are equiped with keyboard, mic, and webcam for any kind of input. And all tablet PCs support writing on the screen. Effectively, iPad is not for taking input, and mostly a viewer.

Even as a viewer, its capability is limited. It can display photos, music, and videos only from iTunes software and store. It can't display photos or videos from your SD card, or xD card or whatever card you have. Most netbooks and Windows laptops can read the card from your digital camera or camcorder or cell phone. iPad is useless for online music and videos since it doesn't have flash. For stored music and videos also, it can play only limited formats.

I have to say a $299 netbook is a lot lot lot better than $499 iPad. And that netbook will have 160 GB harddisk intead of 16 GB harddisk, plus software-wise it can do everything a PC can do.

iPad is just one more crippled product from Apple.

Printing on a remote printer through SSH forwarding

Scenario:
The printer I want to print to is on a subnet and my laptop is connected to a wireless network which is outside of that subnet. The only way to access any machine on the subnet from my laptop is through SSH to the gateway server.

Steps:

Forward ports:

• Windows+Putty: Forward local port 9100 to 172.19.0.28:9100 (This is IP address of our pritner, select the IP address of your printer).
  Now connect through Putty to the gateway machine.
  
• Linux: ssh -L 9100:172.19.0.28:9100 username@gateway_machine
  

Laptop with Windows (I have listed the printer which we have, you should select driver for your printer):

• Control Panel\Hardware and Sound\Devices and Printers
• Add a Printer
• Add a Local Printer
• Create a new port
• Type of port: Standard TCP/IP Port
• Hostname or IP Address: localhost , Port name=PrintSrv
• Select Custom Printer
• Select driver for 'Ricoh Aficio SP 8100 DN PCL'

You should be able to print from your Windows laptop.

I don't know how to do the later part of the setup on Linux. If you know, please let me know and I will post here.

Searching for a ruler in this high tech world

I needed to measure the size of my photos for some government documents. I couldn't find any ruler in my house, no ruler in the office. I checked with office secretary, she had a ruler, but the markings were gone. This is where I found a good ruler:
http://www.vendian.org/mncharity/dir3/paper_rulers/

This is the one I used:
http://www.vendian.org/mncharity/dir3/paper_rulers/UnstableURL/ruler_foot.pdf

Finally, I was able to find a ruler in this high tech world, but only on Internet.