ÎÜñ|‹ø\/\/ñ [ÐëÞrëçã†ëð]'s Blog

Next post in the interesting find series.

1. Speccy – an advanced and very cool System Information tool for your PC.
2. Channeling Earth – Rivers Seen From Space
3. The SSD Relapse – Understanding and Choosing the Best SSD
4. Turn off laptop screen – every machine does not have an option to switch off the screen (say at night) and this small app is perfect for those situations – very handy at night.
5. How to save and share ridiculously large files – well the name says it all.
6. SQL Server I/O Internals – if you wanted to know how SQL Server handles I/O then this is a very interesting read.
7. Clustered Tables vs Heap Tables – interesting to understand the comparisons in SQL Server (especially if/when you will be dealing with SQL Azure).
8. Cloud Computing footprint – is it time we started measuring our digital footprint just the same as we have our carbon footprint?
9. Zettabytes – Petabytes is so yesterday; hello Zettabytes! I wonder how one indexes that?
10. Let me Google that for you – perfect for when you get a question from a few lazy people.
11. Let me Bing that for you – same as above, except this uses Bing.
12. 15 RDP Solutions for Linux – good write up comparing the various options you have if you want to RDP to Linux from Windows/Mac.
13. Ninite easy PC Setup – Install multiple apps at once without toolbars or clicking Next. Quite handy if you have less-technical friends/family.

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1. InstEd It – an interesting tool that allows one to edit MSI files – handy when you don’t want to install the full Windows SDK just to get the Orca editor. (you can also just download the SDK samples and use that instead of the full SDK).
2. WHS backup to LAN – If for some reason you don’t want to use WHS’s built-in backup option and prefer to back it up to LAN
3. 10 Beautiful Login screen for Ubuntu – very nice themes to change your login screen.
4. Fast Car Wallpapers – name says it all.
5. Microsoft Pivot – Pivot makes it easier to interact with massive amounts of data in ways that are powerful, informative, and fun.
6. PlantUML – UML add-in (jar file) for Eclipse. You cannot draw a diagram, instead you describe it using a language.
7. Papyrus 4 UML – another UML add-in (also for Eclipse), which seems to be more professional looking than PlantUML. However this does not support Activity diagrams (yet), which PlantUML does.
8. Spinlocks, page frame number locks (and the meaning of life) – I don’t think any more needs to be said.
9. FlipText.net – write upside down (: sıɥʇ ǝʞıl.
10. Google Goggles – use pictures to search the web.
11. Haystack – very interesting idea which encrypts your data and then hides it in regular http traffic. Mainly used to help out the citizens of Iran, but useful elsewhere as well.
12. BeRTOS – a real-time OS hits a major stable milestone.

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The next post in the interesting find series.

1. Top 25 ‘most dangerous’ programming errors for 2009 – interesting read as always.
2. The 100 essential websites – from the Guardian.
3. Please Rob Me.com – the dark side of geocoding.
4. SSD Optimisation guide – a must read if anyone is thinking of buying a SSD drive.
5. 37Signals – simple web based apps (instead of bloatware) covering things like managing projects, tracking contacts, organizing your business, etc. (Not free in case you were wondering).
6. Never reboot Linux – even when updating the Kernel. When can Windows have this?
7. SSD Tweak Utility – if you still want to tweak more things after reading the SSD optimisation guide above.
8. FsUnit – Test F# with F# – I think the name says it all.
9. devZing – No hassle open source project management hosting (from $10 / month); though I wonder why you can’t use google for this.
10. Jollat – a cool GUI for you AWS (Amazon Web Services) which allows you to manage S3 and EC2 on Amazon – runs on Windows, Linux and Mac.
11. Podcasts from MS – the name says it all.
12. Digging for Sensitive information – how to get details on someone you know.
13. Panopticlick — How unique, and trackable, is your browser? My browser fingerprint appears to be unique among the 641,692 tested so far which is quite scary!
14. SideShow for Windows Mobile Developer Preview – only works with Win7.
15. Large Query performance stats from SQL 2K to 2K8 – quite interesting and covers both x32 and x64.
16. PresentationFx – provides free PowerPoint templates and artwork.
17. Making a cool Vista Screensaver – this should also work on Win7 (not tried this btw).

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Wow it has been a while since I posted an Interesting find and instead of the usual list I though I will keep this especially for timers. Timers Galore!

So I was looking for a simple countdown timer that I can run on my laptop to keep tracking of a few things and I found a few very interesting things.

If you prefer to download an app and run it from your desktop (Windows) then check out Timer from Orzeszek. There are a few other interesting dev projects there such as transferring large files over http.

If Windows is not your flavour of the day, or you don’t want to (or can’t) install an application and want to use a timer in a browser you can of course use something like online stop watch, but I suggest you check out e.ggtimer.com which is way cooler.

If you are like me and when running meetings or presenting tend to get too excited and run over, then maybe NextUp is the thing for you.

And if coffee is your not cup of tea (groan! ) then check out Steep.It which is claims to be the simplest internet tea timer ever – telling you how long to steep your tea to get your perfect cuppa.

And if you are old school and prefer .ini files (whoa! programs still use that?) then check out eggtimer.

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1. Cloud vs. Cloud – guided tour of Amazon, AppNexus, GoGrid and Google. Azure is missing but given its late-alpha/early-beta state not surprising.
2. SheevaPlug Development Kit – this is a development platform targeted for use as a plug computer, and designed to run network-based software services and has a embedded Marvel Sheeva CPU core; quite interesting.
3. Office 14 – next version of Office will have “online versions”.
4. Loopa Bowl – the link has all the details; buy it here (in the US).
5. KidsMenu – an OS for Kids – seems to be a shell running on Windows.
6. Boogie – an intermediate verification language.
7. New windows mobile ads – I do feel like throwing the phone sometimes.
8. MachineIP.com – name says it all – pretty cool. Of course nothing new but makes it easy in situations where you don’t have access to the tools or the non-techy friends/families you have out there.
9. Microsoft Web App Gallery – cool, open source tools build on MS stack.
10. Resetting your Admin pwd in Vista – quite scary actually. (via The Dogmatix).

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Been missing in action for a while – been extremely busy.

1. Dropbox – store, sync and share your files online via Amazon’s S3.
2. OAuth – open protocol to allow secure API authorization in a web/fat clients. About time we got the Facebooks and Twitters of the world start implementing this (more details on that another time).
3. Scott’s ultimate developer and power user tools – the name says it all – very cool.
4. Microsoft Tags – transform physical media (ads, billboards,product packages, information signs, in-store merchandising, video images, etc.) – into live links for accessing information and entertainment online.
5. Cucku – another service which backs up your data to the cloud. I personally use WHS + Amazon’s S3 – got about 40 GB on it now.
6. App Store – view Apple’s app store in your browser instead of iTunes.
7. Quidco – an ad-free cash-back cooperative that passes on all referral commissions in exchange for keeping £5 a year as an admin fee. Seems to be quite cool.
8. CloudBuddy – extend you desktop to the cloud (Amazon S3) – in addition to documents you can also use this for Outlook including your calendar, tasks, etc.
9. Cool Machine Names – I will certainly be looking at this whenever I get my next machine.
10. gScreen – dual screen laptops; it sure is cool, but is too heavy to be a “portable”. Maybe vaporware as well? If you are skeptical like I am, maybe MaxiVista is the way to go?

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1. Crime Mapping for London – cool.
2. EnvMan – easier way of managing environment variables.
3. Hit Me Later – snooze your email – pretty cool idea; not sure of privacy related issues though.
4. SimplyNoise – white noise generator which helps you find the comfort Zen and either work (blocking distractions), aid sleep, soothe migraines, etc.
5. Pushing the limits of Windows – with 2 TB of RAM running on a 64 proc machine – sweet! I wonder what would the size of Minidump will be on that?
6. Windows Performance Toolkit (WPT) – allows you to capture and analyse traces and state transitions to help improve the performance of Windows. I personally am quite interesting in making my tablet boot faster.
7. Cuil – new search engine; though Google might be safe (for now). Not sure how it searches but searching for this blog interestingly does pick it up, but also picks up some obscure links such as my Oxford page.
8. London Free School – hmm … weird! {via Karan}
9. AutoCollage 2008 – MSR project which helps celebrate important events and themes. Pick a folder, press a button, and in a few minutes this presents you with a unique memento to print or email to your family and friends.
10. Moonsus – cool laptop bags – is it good enough to make the wife forget the stupid bags?
11. Full of Kittens – showing off how to use Silverlight and DeepZoom – if you not sure what you are looking at double click on the image and shift-click to zoom out.
12. Midori – a componentized non-Windows Microsoft OS; quite interesting reading talking about a asynchronous-only architecture that is built for task concurrency and parallel use of local and distributed resources, with a distributed component-based and data-driven application model, and dynamic management of power and other resources.

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1. Shared View from Microsoft – a fast, easy way to share documents and screen views with small groups anytime, anywhere and works across physical boundaries, through firewalls, and down to the smallest details.
2. Switcher – gets Expose (from Mac) on Windows very cool! (you need Vista + Aero)
3. VS.NET 2008 SP1 likely to come later this year adds a lot of new stuff.
4. SMS things (only if you are in the US)
   • SMS411 – helps you send SMS to phone's on specific carriers in the US.
   • Teleflip – goes a step further and automatically figures out the carrier (also only for the US).
5. TFS Admin – seems to do a few interesting things if you admin TFS (I have not used it first hand so can't say).
6. Many Books – offers thoughts of free eBooks in many formats for your PDA, iPod, or eBook reader.
7. Hadoop – is a framework for running applications on large clusters built of commodity hardware; it is effectively a grid application which under the covers uses a DFS and can supposedly scale up to reliably store and process petabytes.
8. Invisible Computing – research prototype for making small devices part of the seamless computing world. It consists of compact middleware for constructing embedded web services applications and a small component based Real-Time Operating System with TCP/IP networking to make middleware run straight on the metal on several embedded processors.
9. Chumby – seems interesting concept – but I get all that on my phone and will it work in the uk?
10. Delta Copy -  robocopy on steroids; this on copies the sectors that have changed. So if you have a 2 gb PST file – only the new sectors are copied instead of the whole file. Note – there as issues with Vista!
11. pptPlex – allows you to present PowerPoint using a zoomable canvas instead of slides – quite interesting.

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1. Search of Forever
2. ZuneThings.co.uk – for those in the UK wanting a Zune + Accessories, etc.
3. Cozi – new way busy families stay organized, manage schedules and coordinate with each other.
4. Browsershots – test your site among a host of browsers and see how it prevails; so how well does my blog do?
5. Ask the Admin
6. How to hide an airplane factory?
7. Bill G's history from MS; and his emails.
8. Windows 7, not that far off.
9. CooTek – alternative keyboard for Windows Mobile phones.
10. Pandora – free Internet radio but only for the yanks.
11. Pex (Program Exploration) – a MSR project that from a parameterized unit test automatically produces a traditional unit test suite with high code coverage.
12. Gmap Pedometer – excellent if you are a runner or just want to find out how long your walk is. Thanks to the lovely Meenakshi for this.

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Pure coincidence that #13 is posted on Friday the 13th!

1. Goosh – the Unofficial google shell (very cool)!
2. Zamzar – free online file conversion.
3. FlashEarth – switch seamlessly between Google maps, Microsoft Virtual Earth, Yahoo!, etc.
4. SiteAdvisor.com – McAfee's free offering that automatically alerts to Web sites that use or have links to spyware, adware, spam and other nasties.
5. Live SysInternals – all of SysInternals on your figertips. e.g. in a DOS prompt enter: dir \\live.sysinternals.com\tools
6. Windows Search 4.0 – new and improved? Only time will tell.
7. TFS does not have any features for gathering requirements, but if this is something you prefer then check out Caliber RM and TeamSpec. Rosario though might have these out of the box – but only time will tell.
8. BizTalk dev tools – it is almost an year old, but still a very cool list of tools if you are using BizTalk.
9. Xobni (mirror of Inbox in case you did not notice), is Outlook add-on which helps you deal with emails better.
10. Office Search Commands – helps you find commands, options, wizards, and galleries in Office 2007 Word, Excel and PowerPoint; check this out if you are wondering the rational behind it.

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1. .NET v3.5 Product Roadmap
2. Information overload in Outlook? Check out ClearContext and Jello.Dashboard
3. Nokia's nano-technology based Morph Concept – very interesting on where we might be heading! Oh how I am envious of our future generation.
4. Although SQL 2008 benchmarks are out and quite impressive; if you want to run the CTP before March, it seems you cannot – lol!  What is MS thinking? Duh!
5. C5 – Generic Collection Library
6. Visual Studio themes; I personally like a few of the dark themes.
7. Migrating to gmail becomes easier from Outlook, PST files, etc.
8. However, if you want to backup your gmail (why you would want to do in the first place is besides me), and want want to use G-Archiver, then do so at your own peril!!!
9. Tools galore – check out Hanselman Ultimate Tools List

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1. Squeaky Geek to Silicon Saint; number 5 is my favourite.
2. Bar da Boa – wait for the flash to finish loading (be patient); enter your First and Last names and click on "Visualizer" – lol.
3. MSR's InkSeine – which allows you to find stuff with ink, seems quite handy if you use a tablet; some videos here; you can get it here.
4. TSA is blogging – now you can vent your frustrations!
5. In case you ever wondered, how ASP.NET uses memory? Especially handy when one started running out of memory.
6. Xperf – a new tool in Windows SDK.
7. Feeling nostalgic? Check out ScummVM.
8. Sony Ericsson's new Windows Mobile based phone – quite cool.
9. Apparently, multi-functional printers are the latest security threat.
10. Apparently quite a handful of people have had Vista wifi issues whereby a laptop resuming from Sleep/Hibernate cannot connect to the wifi; resetting the wireless card does not help and only a reboot fixes it. It might not be baloney and there is some truth to the matter.
11. Reading these real world examples of online data loss (HA! it was online so you thought you won't lose it), makes me feel quite smug about my WHS.

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