Happy New Year 2007

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Do you want to view your Windows XP in Tamil ?

 

உங்கள் கணினில் அனைத்தையும் நீங்கள் தமிழில் பார்க்க வேண்டுமா?  இதை போல……

If you want your desktop (WindowsXP) to  look in your own language. Get Language Interface pack from microsoft.

Download it here (Tamil – தமிழ்), Also available for other languages – go here and get your language pack. It is currently available for 27 Languages including Hindi. 

Warning: Some of the shortcuts in control panel still display tamil names even after uninstalling the language pack.

If you want to decorate your office 2003 with language interface pack.. get it here(Tamil – தமிழ்), for other languages get it from here.

That’s it for now.

Free Download Manager

If you are using Internet Explorer you might be tired of broken downloads. On the other hand even if you have other browsers like firefox, there is in built download manager, but not quiet powerful and not actually fast enough.

So if you are the one to choose third party download managers there are many download managers. Most of them are sharewares. Sharewares contain ad supported banners or sometimes limited functionality. Some of them are

1. Download Accelerator Plus. Which is a shareware contains ad-supported banners, also has limitations with connections and minimizing to tray.

2. GetRight- It is considered to be best download manager. It is also a shareware and contains limited time functionality.

3. GoZilla – It is a shareware and ad supported banners.

and so.. on..

So at the end of the day, you end up in installing some adware stuff or a time bom which is going to stop working.

There is a totally free download manager, with no limited functionality and is also very powerful. I was using DAP (Download Accelerator Plus) and GetRight earlier. But now i am shifting to Free Download Manager. This is really nice and also has a community server where you can specify whether the file is supposed to be a malware.

 

Another very good point is it integrates with IE7 both in Windows XP as well as Windows Vista (I have tested on RC2 Windows Vista), and also with Firefox on both platforms. It runs without a single problem.

You can set maximum number of connections and is very much customizable.

So if you want cost free download manager and also powerful one, go and get it.. You can download it from http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/download.htm. Language packs are also available.

Check it out.

2007+ …. Is it going to be Adobe Vs Microsoft ?

The fight is going to get bigger and tougher between two Software Giants. There is no need for introduction about Adobe and Microsoft. Adobe is a leading product developer in Digital Media and Content Development Software’s such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Flash (Earlier Macromedia Flash), Adobe DreamWeaver (Earlier Macromedia DreamWeaver) and also Adobe Audition etc etc.

Adobe is the definitely and clearly market leader in above products and Particularly Adobe Photoshop is the standard professional photo editing tool,designing tool, Adobe PDF – defacto standard for document publishing/sharing. Almost many books are being published in Adobe Acrobat format.

Microsoft also has products like Digital Image Suite which is a photo album manager, photo editing software but does not have great professional tools like Adobe Photoshop.

Brief of Graphics platform: There are two types of imaging (Graphics) software’s. Vector graphics  and raster Graphics (also called as pixel graphics). Vector graphics does not store the actual drawing but stores the geometry (analytical geometry) of the drawing like x,y position, angle etc. When is called by drawing software it is redrawn based on co-ordinates (rendered). On the other hand raster graphics stores the actual pixel information of a given area. Though JPEG is a kind of representation of pixel and redrawn it still stores the pixel information and not geometry information.

Adobe Photoshop - is famous and professional standard Raster Graphics Editor

Corel Draw and Adobe Illustrator - are famous and professional standard Vector Graphics Editor

Now Microsoft is launching 4 new products.

1. Expressions Design

It is a vector graphics based Designing tool but is aimed not only at vector graphics but also on raster graphics. I am currently trying on CTP version of Expressions Design and i find the software is really excellent. I found in some blogs that Microsoft Expression design could not match Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop or Corel Draw. But it may not hold long, if Microsoft really pushes this as mainstream products.

• There is one negative point is that the controls are not well placed yet and not very clear.
•  Rather there are great plus points such as
  • You can create bevel and emboss being on vector platform.
  • You can alternatively have vector and raster layers.
  • Effect Lines, ultimately stunning.
  • Variable painting effects.
  • Free training videos and tutorials are available.
  • Above all you can use EXPORT AS XAML (The next generation standard for graphics rendering via .net Framework 3.0 WPF) to Expressions Blend or any other similar design software.

So this is a direct contender for Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator and Corel Draw.

Further Application Developers like me would be more interested because i need not go to a vector drawing software/raster drawing software and create images, export and import to my applications/ web applications, where i will use XAML to render my graphics direct.

(I will write a new post .net Framework 3.0 and its advantages to developing platforms)

2. Expressions Blend

This is not a contender directly for Adobe or any other graphics designer. But it is definitely there to steal away market share due to its tight integration with Microsoft Expressions Design software.

This acts like a Coding Environment + Design Environment for Front end/ User Interface components. It uses either C# or VB as coding language. It Generates Visual Studio Solution Files which can be directly consumed by visual studio, to make further work flow.

This actually increases Designer to Developer collaboration and productivity.

3. Expressions Web (Available Today)

This is again direct contender to Adobe. Expressions Web is a web designing tool which replaces Microsoft Front Page. This support all latest technologies such as ASP.NET, HTML and CSS. Adobe DreamWeaver is the best and considered to be standard professional tool to develop web pages. But it is said to have (read in blogs) problems/no support with ASP.NET 2.0.  This is big disadvantage when you are developing on asp.net 2.0 server. With this Microsoft Expressions web is going to stand as a contender to adobe.

4. Expressions Media

It is again a contender for adobe. To mention this product is already existing in the market and is a product of i-View Multimedia but is taken over by Microsoft. This is a contender in Photoshop Elements. To know more please visit the web pages. It has organizer, Photo Adjustments, RAW Image Editor etc.

So if you see the above products line up, we can assume that Microsoft is broadly trying to enter the space of Adobe. Above all these until now there is no equivalent tool to replace adobe flash. Even Microsoft Messengers, Microsoft presentations (in web), even MSN Soap Box all uses adobe flash/ flash player. It is because Flash player is cross platform and cross browser friendly. There holds the main success of it and also vector based animation tool.

There is answer to this also .. from Microsoft..

It is announcing WPF/E, which is a reduced code model of WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation), which is also cross platform and Cross browser friendly. You can create great animations with XAML or XAML tools and render to web using WPF/E. The user experience is unmatched by all existing rendering platforms. For more information see Microsoft Link or this BLOG.

Below is the transparent clock rendered using WPF/E using Firefox browser.

So we can expect wonderful web experience from days to come. We do not know how much bandwidth is required for it. But i am sure that since it is a XAML representation (similar to XML) this is going to be really good and exciting.

So is that all over from Microsoft.. Not yet..

XPS

For those who do not know about XPS, this is XML PAPER SPECIFICATION is a open document format developed by Microsoft which is similar to Adobe PDF. This also includes DRM (Digital Rights Management). This is also part of WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation). So if you have installed WPF/E component or .net Framework 3.0 (Which contains WPF), you can read these documents natively, which now opens in web browser. However a reader will be available by mid of 2007. Since the specification if open any body can incorporate and develop the reader. Further it can be used in applications and custom development environments.

Adobe PDF though is considered to be Open Format, is not, when Microsoft wanted to use in Microsoft Office, it was not allowed by Adobe and filed a law suit against it. So Microsoft now (Still supports as added plugin) removed it from exporting to PDF.

It is very difficult for XPS to replace PDF because it has already established quiet well and the BEST so far. But if adobe is raising voices against Microsoft then Microsoft will be answering it in a different fashion.

So there is a big excitement ahead in 2007. After Official customer launch of windows Vista, we should see forward how these technologies are adopted and how these products come out and more importantly at what price.

I would expect these products to come out fast, and give a good stable platform for developers to deliver best user experience.

Final words

Though it is a head to head competition, the final thought for all the products and companies is the consumer or customer. If a customer is going to be benefited then definitely we got to welcome those products. If it gives more productivity either it is Microsoft or Google or Adobe or who ever it is, they will be a winner among the crowd. It is always good to have +ve competition so that new technologies and best things continue to be available for consumers.

Good night.

thanks for Reading.

Please Write or Post your comments.

Think Before you Buy… How to choose a laptop.

 

Hey.. r u going to buy a laptop ?… Have u decided what to buy ? How did you choose ?

I recently went to a Computer (IT) Exhibition. There were so many booths offering very good value for laptops. My friends were interested to buy one and asked my suggestion. I told them few models and said these are good.

The pricing were very attractive and we were able to get Core 2 Duo based laptop with 1 GB RAM and other etc etc for a price of SGD 1700 (Singapore Dollars). There were other models which included AMD TURION X2 processors which were aT a price lower compared to CORE 2 DUO processors.

There is a common perception that if the price of a product is less then the product is of inferior quality. This I found with my friends said that AMD Laptops will not be good and thus they are offering at a low price. I tried to explain to them but still they are not convinced. They argued with me “then why other Intel laptops are out selling even though AMD price is less…” and so on.

Here is the reality.

Intel core2 duo processors definitely have higher performance when compared to AMD Turion X2 processors. This is true. While going through many sites which offers benchmark details over Intel Core2 Duo and AMD Turion X2, I find the performance difference is not much. Also When you are buying a higher end Core 2 Duo Processors the difference is more obvious than a lower end Core 2 Duo Processors. Thus when it comes to buying a laptop for normal use (other than Extreme Gaming/ Extreme Encoding / Heavy Multitasking) many of us will choose a entry level laptop, also to take price advantage.

Here is a Architecture brief of AMD Turion X2

It is will very deep to go and explain into the architectural benefits.  See the Tom’s Hardware guide for in depth review. The conclusion however says AMD Turion X2 is a second choice. Definitely I too have to agree on that because once AMD has lost the performance crown back to Intel it has become a second choice.

However there is no one point you got to consider while choosing a notebook (laptop). There is one more Tag associated with it, the Price. Undoubtedly AMD has always been offering best PRICE / PERFORMANCE.

For instance one of my friend bought a laptop around $1200 which is a AMD based system (Compaq Presario Series) (not Turion X2/Turion), where as I bought a system (Compaq V2000 Series) for $2550 (All prices in Singapore Dollars) which is a Intel Centrino system (Dothan). I went for Intel because I will be doing DivX encoding, Photoshop, Visual Studio Development etc., sometimes simultaneously and thus i needed a bit a high performance stuff. Though I aimed doing all these stuffs in my laptop, i do not definitely comfortable in doing these stuffs in my laptop, rather i do it on my desktop which is a faster and better system. Mostly i use my laptop for backup (emergency), or during roaming. So i had spent around twice the money but i did not utilize any thing on that. Now after Turion X2, the performance difference is only in heavy multitasking (Refer to Tom’s Hardware Benchmark) and that also is not easily identified by the user as the system normally responds to keyboard inputs and does not perform slowly. But Turion X2 laptops are giving good price bargains when compared to Intel Core 2 Duo Processors.

When you use your Laptop for Normal purposes such as Word/Excel/PowerPoint or for Movie watching or Chatting/Web/Email you are not utilizing any power of dual core (or n cores which may come tomorrow).

Here is a new Deal. In January 2007 windows Vista is about to be launched. Windows Vista hardware requirement is quiet high. Most of the laptop sold today are Vista Capable. There is a hinch, Vista Capable means it can load Windows Vista and Run Windows Vista, but may or may not support all features. If you need a best performance out of windows vista you must have a dedicated graphics adapter which supports pixel shader 2.0 and directX 9 Capable.

So if you are buying a new laptop, it is better to have a dedicated graphics adapter, if you consider upgrading to windows Vista.

There are few points we have to remember.

• Intel Lost its crown in Processor Technology to AMD when it introduced Athlon 64 and AMD was the technology leader and worlds fastest desktop crown holder for past 2 years.
• Intel took back the crown by beating AMD after introduction of its core Architecture.
• AMD Architecture is still scalable and Athlon Still Remains while Pentium is Dead or About to Die.
• Intel has superior industry support and manufacturing technology is already on 65nm process where as AMD has less support in industry and is getting better support these days (but still not as good as Intel)
• There is a market BUZZ that Intel is always the BEST. (Which is not always true)
• Turion  and Turion X2 are 64 bit processors,Core 2 Duo is 64 Bit and earlier are 32 Bit.

So finally the deciding factor…

If you are a power user and if you expect heavy performance out of your laptop and cost not issue and need pure performance then the ultimate choice is Intel Core 2 Duo.

If you are a normal user and if you use normal, normal heavy applications and concerned of cost and saving money, then choose AMD Turion X2 laptops.

Today’s fastest processor is going to become slowest processor in few days/months. It is matter of seconds that bothers you or the Money.. you got to choose…

The ball is in your court..

thanks for reading..

References: www.amd.com, www.Intel.com, www.anandtech.com, www.tomshardware.com, www.notebookreview.com