Suramya's Blog : Welcome to my crazy life…

July 28, 2006

Why can’t Microsoft make their messages more specific and meaningful

Filed under: Computer Software,My Thoughts,Tech Related — Suramya @ 3:03 PM

I don’t have anything against Microsoft. Their software has its uses and while I do use Linux on my primary system and on all the servers I run/manage I also have windows XP on one of my systems and on my laptop and am happy with it as It doesn’t crash as often as earlier versions of windows and mostly does what I want it to do. Now that being said, lets move on to the topic of my rant.

I was updating windows using the Windows update tool and I got the following message:

“To use microsoft update, you must first install the latest version of some Windows components. This will allow your computer to work with these new features on the site:”

(Emphasis mine)

Could they have made the message any more vague? Can you figure out what it wants to update? I couldn’t and guess what this latest version of some Windows component was? What, No idea? It was Windows Genuine Advantage(WGA) verification tool. Now my question is, why couldn’t they just say that you need to install WGA verification tool before you download updates? Why did they have to be so vague?

You know what the best part is? WGA is not a default part of windows, its a new software that MS is pushing out to detect pirated copies of windows, so doesn’t this make their message about it being the latest version of a windows component false and misleading?

Below is a screen shot I took of this interesting message and what was actually installed:

Vague Windows message
Vague Windows message

I have the same issue with other portions of MS update. They almost never tell what a particular update is for, I know they give the Knowledge Base number, but why can’t they tell you right over there exactly what issue a particular update fixes? Having that info over there would help me/other users decide if a particular patch needs to be installed immediately or can be installed later in a regularly scheduled update cycle.

Well this is all from my side.

– Suramya

July 5, 2006

Create Visio like Diagrams in your web browser

Filed under: Computer Software,Interesting Sites,Knowledgebase,Tech Related — Suramya @ 11:23 PM

This is a really cool flash application that allows you to create Visio like diagrams using flash. I tried it out and found the system to be pretty responsive. It allows you to share the documents you create for collaborative editing and if you like what you have you can export it as image files (jpg, png) or as SVG files that can be imported into Visio.

I like the idea and will probably use it for personal stuff, however I don’t think I would use it if I ever had to design some sensitive/confidential system layout. I searched for a privacy policy but couldn’t find any so don’t know what level of privacy are they offering. Without a privacy policy they can do whatever they want with your data.. Not saying that they will, just that they can.

Check it out: Gliffy.com – Diagram and draw in your web browser

Thanks to Adam Fields (weblog) for the link.

– Suramya

June 25, 2006

GimpShop Debian Installer Ver 2.2.11 Port Available

Created this a couple of weeks ago but forgot to mention it here. This is a debian package installer (.deb) for GimpShop Ver 2.2.11. I tried it on my system and it worked and I haven’t gotten any complaints so far… So I guess it works 😉 Let me know if you have some trouble with it.

Get it from: GIMPShop Debian Package Installer (Ver 2.2.11 Port) [Note: The package is not working at this time. Will fix it and update soon – Sur]

I am also in the process of updating the GimpShop installation guide (To install it from source) but you will have to wait for it a little bit longer…

– Suramya

May 10, 2006

Making Bootable Movies with eMoviX

Filed under: Computer Software,Linux/Unix Related,Tech Related — Suramya @ 1:57 PM

Now this is a really cool software/system that allows you to create a CD/DVD with video/audio etc on it that any system can boot off and play the video. So you no longer have to worry about sending someone the codecs to view a movie/video you created. No more worrying that you might have forgotten to include the codec’s on the CD you gave to the president with your brain wave etc. All they have to do is pop the disk in the drive and reboot the system (while you pray that the system is set to allow booting from the CD-ROM)

I havn’t tried it out yet but it looks good and easy to create.

From the Website:

If you are like me and do all your video recording in Linux, you may wonder how you can share the TV shows, personal videos, and other multimedia content with friends and family who don’t use Linux. How can you get the video from your hard disk to the people you care about in a way that you know they can play it?

Well, instead of just hoping they have a way to play your favorite video format, why not give them your home movie with a player that you know can play it? In fact, why not give them the whole operating system with it so you know that your player will run?

Complete Article: Making Bootable Movies with eMoviX

Thanks,
Suramya

March 11, 2006

Tools to check folder ACL’s in Windows

Filed under: Computer Software,Computer Tips,Tech Related — Suramya @ 11:30 PM

Tools to use that show “ALL” of the the ACL’s permissions that are on these network folders:

I haven’t tried any of these tools yet so I can’t vouch for them. However these were recomended by smart people that post to the Security Basics @SecurityFocus Mailing list so I am sure that they work ;).

Thanks,
Suramya

November 2, 2005

Network monitoring with Cacti

Filed under: Computer Software,Security Tools,Tech Related — Suramya @ 9:04 PM

Interesting software to try out for network monitoring. Hopefully it will be simpler to use/setup than some of the other software I have tried earlier.

Network monitoring with Cacti

October 31, 2005

Ajax Tutorial: Ajax What Is It Good For?

Filed under: Computer Software,Tech Related,Tutorials — Suramya @ 9:09 PM

Nice Tutorial on Ajax and what it is good for. Interesting read.

Ajax Tutorial: Ajax What Is It Good For?

– Suramya

October 16, 2005

Automating Diagnostic Tests with Ant

Filed under: Computer Software,Tech Related,Tutorials — Suramya @ 2:47 AM

Interesting article that explains how to Diagnostic Tests with Ant
.
Excerpt from the article:

Suppose you have developed your Java application and distributed it to your users. If all goes well, the application just works on every computer. But if there’s a problem, you have to begin troubleshooting. Users will call for all sorts of installation problems, expecting you to fix them. Moreover, the same problems will often come back: the wrong version of Java, a deleted file, too-restrictive file permissions, etc. Most of these problems can be solved by creating a checklist. However, instead of wasting time asking new users the same questions on the checklist over and over, you can create a diagnostic test that goes through the checklist, providing users with the information they need to solve the problem. If users can’t solve the problem themselves, they can show you a clear checklist, so you can take a look at what’s going wrong without asking a bunch of questions first.

– Suramya

May 5, 2005

Remove Backgrounds from images using GIMP

Filed under: Computer Software,Tech Related,Tutorials — Suramya @ 7:04 PM

Newsforge has a good article that explains how to remove the background from an image using GIMP.

Article: Remove Background from images

How to use Netcat

Filed under: Computer Software,Tech Related,Tutorials — Suramya @ 5:19 AM

Often referred to as the ‘Swiss Army Knife of networking,’ netcat is a tool that administrators can use to read and write TCP or UDP data across the network. In addition, it’s extremely useful for network debugging and testing. This article by Vincent Danen at techrepublic.com covers some of the uses of netcat.

– Suramya

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