Wednesday, February 10

snippet : how Google Chrome was really born?

MUNICH, GERMANY - SEPTEMBER 06:  In this photo...Image by Getty Images via Daylife
Opera is famous for its speed and ACID support and at the same time infamous for its inflexibility.

Firefox is famous for its flexibility of so many types of extensions at the same time infamous for its memory leakage as well as other issues such as Flash plugin and in terms of speed, it's not yet no 1.

When Google saw this, they were thinking to produce something in between these 2, taking the benefits of both browsers. Google Chrome might be the answer because Chrome is fast and yet can support extensions, it also handles Flash plugin well and most importantly at all, it is not bloated with memory management (at least better than Firefox).

I been monitoring Chrome behavior real time using top and other process manager and come to conclusion as follows:

  1. Chrome does not require user to restart browser for install or uninstall extensions.
  2. Although Chrome utilize quite amount of memory but it does not slow down user experience, especially when come to opening few tubes and flash game at the same time. The moment you close a tab, the disposal of memory handle by the browser itself.
  3. Chrome out of the box is speedy, regardless in DNS lookup, redirect or screen drawing and it does not need any about:config and yada..yada..yada stuff.
A side note: I had found that software development cycle of Chrome is faster than Firefox in the following:
  1. Chrome has more frequent updates compare to Firefox if you follow Beta or Dev channel. Each updates has independent build for different platform, if you are not Windows Chrome users and there is a fix for Windows, you don't need that update.
  2. Chrome developers focus much on usability rather than new features.
So, the conclusion is the final round of browser war could be Chrome versus IE and Opera or Firefox might survived till semi-finals. May the community focusing more to build extensions for Chrome than Firefox.


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Tuesday, February 9

too many incidents happened within a day... i am confused with feelings

When the killer of the day tells you "everything will be alright"...

  • i am about to achieve something i wanted for long long time
  • i am about to lose someone that being very very kind and caring to me
  • i had received some compensation after a long long time remember its name
  • i had finally able to loose some responsibility that burdened me for the past 1 years plus
  • i heard bad news about a close friend's family news, condolences sent.
everything seems so rushing and all packed within a day or two, i am having hard time to digest all of these of a sudden.

where are the energy when i need them now?

where are my emotion control when i find them day by day?

fingers crossed, let's bite it and get it through, everything will be aright!

celebration of festive is around the corner, everything just went from color to black & white. grey to be exact.


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Sunday, January 17

8 Key Points to Watch in Smartphones of 2010

8 Key Points to Watch in Smartphones of 2010: "
Written by htcphones

The year 2009 marked the beginning of an era for Smartphone market. Apple’s iPhone continued its huge success and Google’s

Android revolutionized the smart phone industry and put the old players like RIM’s Blackberry and Nokia under extreme pressure. In

past, Smartphone Industry was dominated by phones like from Palm, Blackberry and Nokia. Their target market was professionals with

enterprise solution.

But Apple stepped into it by making Smartphone a device for everyone. Their step into Smartphone Industry was similar to that of their

revolution in PC. “Device for all” was the key motto and driver of the innovation. Apple’s bold step into bringing

Smartphone as a useful device for everyone and not just for corporate, proved a fruitful step.

Hence in the year 2009, Smartphone got more attention than any other devices because it became the device for laymen. This also meant

more innovations and growth in the Industry. In 2009, trends like Smartphone applications, App Store, Social Media Apps were the key

points of interest. Similarly Google’s Android has given the mobile makers a lot of flexibility to play with the apps.

Currently, iPhone is still leading the industry with their trademark form factor – large dominant touch screen. The question that needs

to be answered is what is going to dominate the year 2010? Below are the eight key issues or points which will be the key factor in the

Smartphone Industry.

1. Power Consumption


Efficient power consumption is the heart of any mobile devices. Today battery technology has come far enough

to provide lasting power for high-end devices like Digital Camera. Mobile Phones are still in their initial stage where its power

consumption cannot be approximated due to the rapid change in the technology.

Today, the overheating problem and power back-up of laptop still binds its mobility feature. Continuous power back-up is always

essential for laptops. Similarly, today’s new age Smartphone are quite power hungry. Apple’s iPhone can give power approximately

for 8 hrs but as the features and capabilities of Smartphone increase, efficient power plan is necessary.

Features like large screen, GPS monitoring, HD Video, TV connect, 3D games, Music and powerful multitasking will consume a lot of power.

Today these kinds of high-end devices are already in production and with this the issue of power will be the key points in the year

2010.

2. Multi-tasking


Multi-tasking feature is totally dependent on the mobile’s

operation system. OS like Android is already boasting about its multi-tasking feature. Further Intel’s arrival in the

Smartphone’s chip technology (MooreStone) with its partner LG is already exhibiting the extreme capability to multi-task where you

can switch between watching a video, talking to friends and using other applications.

Multi-tasking will require break-through in mobile operating system and processor inside it. In both areas, Smartphone have come a long

way through research and development. Hence, the year 2010 will see more focus on the multi-tasking ability of Smartphones. This will

bring it very close to having functionality like that of laptops.

3. GPS and Augmented Reality


Smartphone was the first mobile device to exploit the presence of Global Positioning System. Today’s Smartphone has great

applications to locate yourself and your friends in the neighborhood.

GPS technology combined with mobile camera can do wonders in bringing augmented reality experience. There are many applications which

can interact with the video being streamed through mobile camera to the database present in the Internet about the location of the

mobile phone.

In the recent CES event, an application running on the iPhone demonstrated its ability to control a helicopter (Parrot AR.Drone) with a

camera mounted on it. This capability opens door for interactive games. There are applications being built which can show information

about the objects being streamed via the mobile camera, it’s just another example of augmented reality. Further, one of the most

powerful applications comes from Google’s Android where the phone can act like a street guide showing you the exact direction

towards your destination.

The year 2010 will certainly see a great integration between GPS system and online data repository bringing even more value to people.

4. Touch Screen Technology


Before the emergence of Smartphone, Touch Screen was a thing of fantasy and extreme luxury. Old

models of Smartphone were featured with a stylus by its side to use its highly delicate touch screen. Now touch-screen has become the

fundamental identity of a Smartphone. This is further enhanced by the multi-touch functionality which can track gestures of multiple

touches.

Recent findings of Apple’s patent demonstrated a new technology in material science which could merge screen and touch pad together.

Though this might sound simple, it has the capability of changing the form factor of Smartphone. Currently, a touch pad is layered on

top of the screen panel. Therefore the thickness of the phone is controlled by the thickness of these two sections. But once these

become a part of each other, the size is reduced making phones compact.

There are a lot of speculations regarding Touch Screen Technology due to the emerging interest in Tablet which is the laptop size screen

with multi-touch facility. The technology is also going to change the way we might design an interface for the Smartphone.

5. Mobile Ads


If you ask, what is the next business model to rule the internet space? Then the answer for

sure is Mobile Advertisements. People are spending a lot of time in social networking sites through their mobile devices. The growth of

Smartphone Industry and social networking sites go parallel because these two platforms work hand in hand.

In mid 2009, Apple and Google competed with each other to acquire AdMob (Mobile Advertisement Organistaion) but Google won the race.

Google already had a testing platform to integrate AdMob, their Android Operating System. By the end of 2009 Apple also acquired a

mobile advertising platform called Quattro.

These two acquisitions mean that Smartphone is going to see an innovation in mobile advertisement. Google is already pushing the

internet to its limit by trying to make every area a Wi-Fi zone. As the connectivity increases, Mobile Advertisement would be really

huge.

6. Mobile Operating Systems


In past, Mobile phones and operating systems were considered one entity. No one considered Mobile

operating system being an independent entity or a product. Most of the basic phones had Symbian OS, the Smartphone makers either had to

develop their own basic OS or partner with other providers like Microsoft. But the year 2009 witnessed a great interest in mobile OS.

The change occurred due to the arrival of Google’s Open Source Operating Platform Android. Android has every characteristic of being

a great operating system. It’s immense strength comes from its Cloud Computing and its integration to the Google Map. Currently,

Android is being widely adopted by other mobile vendors leaving out previous software providers like Microsoft.

Microsoft already has Windows Mobile 7 scheduled to launch by the end of year 2010. This will decide if Microsoft will be able to get

their lost market share. In today’s competitive market, Operating system has to be compatible with every hand held devices. Android

is being implemented in every short of mobile devices from phones to tablet. Hence, the year 2010 will be a critical point for the

market to decide the ruling Mobile Operating System.

7. Mobile Banking


On November 2010, Scotiabank announced a new partnership with M-Com, an international mobile

banking and payments solution provider, which will bring mobile banking to Scotiabank customers in the spring of 2010.

This clearly shows the acceptance of Smartphone as a strong business transaction device and, not only as a communicator. The Senior

Vice-President of Scotibank told that with more than 22 million cell phone subscribers in Canada, wireless phones are among the fastest

growing consumer products in history. He also added that Canadians rely on the convenience of mobile devices to help them manage their

busy lifestyles, and having the ability to do their banking from their mobile devices will simplify their lives that much more.

As businesses and banks realize the potential of Smartphone and upgrade their business to fit into the eco-system, we will see more and

more banks creating a mobile platform for transaction. Though Scotiabank did not mention the Mobile platform, it is certain that in 2010

we will see applications for Blackberry and also iPhones to carry out your banking transaction. Mobile banking will be key to future

business transaction.

8. VOIP services , Apps


VOIP service utilizes the Internet as the carrier for phone calls by-passing the existing mobile network. Though

VOIP has been around us for more than 10 years, creating a VOIP service for phone is not as simple as it is for PC. But as the mobile

platform is changing, its more easier to develop a mobile application now than before.

The popularity of Google Voice created a lot of buzz over the existence of net phones. But many mobile carriers aren’t very happy

with it. The rejection of Google Voice Apps from the Apple store is one such example but we may see the change in 2010. Skype which is

the most popular VOIP service is already being accepted in the Windows Mobile platform.

The inclusion of VOIP service in Smartphone will also leverage other services like video phone which is already presented in many IM

chats in PC. Google has already launched its Google Phone and there is no way that it will be rejecting their own Google Voice App.

Currently, many mobile venders and mobile carriers are planning to promote Google’s Android. This means people will get to enjoy the

power and flexibility of VOIP services more efficiently in Smartphone. Net Phone or VOIP over Smartphone is a way towards new

communication platform.



"
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Saturday, January 16

12 Practical Business Lessons From Social Psychology

12 Practical Business Lessons From Social Psychology: "
Written by SARAH

It’s been said many times that business is all about people. That being the case, perhaps we should stop reading management books for advice and start looking at social psychology. Very simply, social psychologists study how people interact with others – their families, friends, and yes, business partners. Smart marketers and executives have been using the findings of this growing field for decades to close sales, hold effective meetings and get their way in negotiations. But rather than putting you through an academic psychology lesson, we condensed the most useful concepts into one article.

The Foot in the Door Phenomenon


Foot in Door

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The Concept: If you’re wondering how to convince superiors, employees or customers to do what you ask, try using the foot in the door phenomenon. This refers to the tendency of people to do something huge if they have already agreed to something much smaller. Your friend should be much more open to helping you decorate your entire house for a dinner party if, for example, he already helped you pick out decorations.

How You Can Use It: This handy principle has countless applications in the business world. Hand lotion and beauty supply kiosks at the mall use it all the time. If you can get a person to talk to you for a couple of minutes and rub some lotion on their hands, you’ve got your foot in the door, and they are much more likely to buy from you than if you had just screamed a sales pitch at them.

The Door in the Face Phenomenon


Door in Face

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The Concept: Another classic persuasion tactic is known as the “Door in the Face Phenomenon.” Using this approach, you make your actual request look reasonable by first making an outrageous request that the person will unquestionably turn down. When they turn you down, you then ask for what you really want, which now looks trivial in light of what you asked for a moment earlier.

How You Can Use It: Let’s say you want your company to approve funding for a team of five marketers to research a new advertising campaign. Rather than simply asking for this funding and risking being shot down, use the door in the face principle. Ask your company for twice the amount of funding for a team twice as big as what you need. This will almost certainly be disapproved, but don’t fret; you didn’t need that amount in the first place. Act like you’re really going to work hard on cutting the funding down to the bone and reworking your proposal. In a few days, come back and propose the funding request you wanted all along. It will look as though you found a way to accomplish the same tasks for half the price with half the personnel. Social psychology research states that you are much more likely to get what you want by doing this.

The Serial Position Effect


Serial Position

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The Concept: A truly sharp marketer should understand how our brains process information. The “Serial Position Effect” (developed by Hermann Ebbinghaus) assists by explaining how we remember items we see or hear in lists. Ebbunghaus discovered that things shown at the beginning of a list and at the end of a list are remembered best. This was later titled the “Primacy Effect,” and the “Recency Effect.”

How You Can Use It: This powerful concept can affect what the millions of people seeing your advertisements, listening to your radio promotion, or reading your sales letter, remember about your product. If you have five benefits that your product provides over the competition, think long and hard about which ones you want to stick deep into your audience’s memory. Place those items at the beginning and end of your pitch. This way, prospects will remember these benefits when they see your product on a shelf or think about the commercial they just saw.

Attitudes Follow Behavior: Resolving Cognitive Dissonance


Cognitive Dissonance

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The Concept: Cognitive dissonance is a fancy term for when people have opinions, behave contrary to them, and change their opinion to fit how they acted. For example, if you normally despise handguns, but join your buddy at the shooting range one day, you might leave thinking about how “guns aren’t really that bad if you use them safely.” Simply by holding and shooting one yourself, your brain begins thinking positive thoughts about it. Similarly, a “boring” task might later be remembered as “not being all that bad” or even being “fun” because, after all, you did it.

How You Can Use It: What this means to you is that if you can get your customer to perform a small task, such as a little game or survey online, the customer may begin making some positive assumptions about what you sell. This especially works for businesses operating in controversial markets, such as gambling, tobacco or other vice-related products. If you can find a harmless and fun way for potential customers to get involved with your products and services they will be more likely to become loyal buyers down the line.

Two Routes to Persuasion


Routes to Persuasion

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The Concept: Not everyone processes information (including product demos and advertisements) the same way. Generally speaking, there are two types of audiences, depending on your product/service. Your audience is either attentively thinking about your message, or they are distracted. These two audiences take two different routes to understanding your message. The involved group takes what is known as the “Central Route,” meaning that they focus on what you are saying closely, develop counterarguments and respond based on what they eventually decide your product is all about. If your ad or pitch was strong and convincing, these people will probably buy. If it was weak or not convincing enough, there’s little hope of them buying.

How You Can Use It: The distracted audience takes a very different route to understanding your pitch known as the “Peripheral Route.” These people focus on irrelevant parts of the pitch that randomly interest them. The speaker’s good looks, for example might interest them more than the information in the pitch. Simple language is also important for this kind of audience. For example, if you’re selling a market research service, classic adages such as “look before you leap” will probably work better than “perform proper market research before investing.”

Perceived Expertise


Percieved Expertise

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The Concept: Let’s face it – most of us give more weight to what “experts” say than average Joes off the street. Most people would sooner listen to a warning about the health hazards of eating fast food, for instance, if it came from a renowned nutritionist than from a self-righteous teenager.

How You Can Use It: What makes someone appear to be an expert? One tactic that has been used by marketers (and politicians) is to begin your pitch with something the audience already agrees with. This makes the speaker seem intelligent and makes the audience eager to believe more of what he or she has to say.

Of course, being introduced as an expert never hurt either. A comment about an approaching asteroid from “Dr. Robert Kimmel, Chair of Astrophysics at Harvard University” will surely be taken more seriously than, “Robbie Kimmel, local guitarist and college student.”

Finally, social scientists find that speaking confidently greatly improves believability. A study performed by Bonnie Erikson in 1978 proved this by having college students rate the credibility of two supposed “witnesses” to an accident. One spoke very clearly and confidently and the other one hesitated and stumbled over his words a bit. One by one, each student said the confident speaker was much more credible. Perhaps it’s time to buy your TV or radio guy a course in effective speaking!

Perceived Trustworthiness


Percieved Trustworthiness

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The Concept: Trustworthiness of the speaker is another factor critical to any kind of visual marketing. No trust, no sale. Fortunately, how trustworthy you look can be controlled almost entirely by you.

How You Can Use It: Our outward behaviors have a lot to do with whether trust us or not. One behavior that seems to carry a lot of weight is eye contact. Researchers have found that if video-taped witnesses in court looked their questioner straight in the eye rather than down or around, they were seen as more trustworthy.

You can also appear more trustworthy by seeming like you’re not trying to influence an audience. “Hidden camera” TV commercials utilize this tactic all the time. Social psychology experiments have found that people who don’t think they’re being watched are comfortable being completely honest.

People also find others trustworthy when they argue against their own interest. Thus, a message about risks of cigarette smoking seems much more sincere coming from the tobacco companies than it would if were given by an anti-smoking politician up for re-election. People might link the politician’s anti-smoking speeches to his political agenda, whereas they cannot do this with the tobacco companies and are much more likely to absorb the message as true.

The Mere-Exposure Effect


Mere Exposure

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The Concept: Sometimes repetition alone can make a message more believable. Social research has found that people tend to eventually believe things they’ve been told many times, simply because they’ve repeatedly heard it. Studies show that people rate false statements such as “Mercury has a higher boiling point than copper” as true if they were made to read them a week before.

How You Can Use It: This concept is why companies run the same advertisement three times during a one-hour television show. The first time the audience sees the ad they might just ignore it. However, a week later they may have seen the ad 20 times, and by that point they have begun to accept its message and view favorably the product it advertises.

Distraction Disarms Counter-arguing


Distraction

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The Concept: Audio and visual messages are much more effective when the audience can be somewhat distracted by background clutter just long enough to inhibit counter-arguing. Mild distraction often preoccupies the brain just long enough to stop it from inventing a reason to say “no.”

How You Can Use It: Many radio commercials utilize this tactic. The words promote the product being sold while background music or intermittent comedy distracts us from thinking too deeply about the words. Be careful not to distract so much that ad is not processed, however. Extremely violent or incredibly sexual advertisements are often ineffective because the audience is simply too distracted by what they’re viewing to pay attention to the message. They key is to strike a balance such that your message is understood, but not deeply analyzed or argued by the audience.

The Self- Reference Effect


Self-Reference

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The Concept: Remember – a marketer’s job making sure the audience understands and remembers the sales pitch. One handy way to achieve this is known as the “Self-Reference Effect.” The Self Reference Effect refers to the tendency of people to effectively recall information about themselves. Most people are primary concerned with themselves. Thus, memories pertaining to what we think about the most, (ourselves), are held longer and recalled easier. Studies have shown that, when asked to compare ourselves to a short-story character, we remember that character better than if we compared them to someone else.

How You Can Use It: When planning a new marketing campaign or presentation to the board, it is important to keep this principle in mind, as it can greatly influence what your audience walks away remembering. Try focusing on the basic lifestyle and personality traits of your audience. Once you have these squared away, design your new message to match these traits. This makes your message personally meaningful to them and boosts their chance of remembering what you said.

Priming


Priming

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The Concept: Priming is when various stimuli (sights, tastes, smells) automatically trigger thoughts of similar stimuli. The smell of crisp fall air, for example, might trigger thoughts about the holiday. As a result, simply smelling the fall air might make you crave pumpkin pie or apple cider, even though no food is in front of you.

How You Can Use It: Priming is a classic sales tactic that has been used for decades, and you can put it to use for your business immediately. The key is to find some kind of neutral stimulus that is clearly related to your product. A perfect example of this can be found at any movie theater. As soon as you walk through the door your nostrils are overcome with the smell of buttery popcorn. Without even seeing the popcorn or being asked to buy it, you find yourself making your way to the concession stand because you suddenly feel like the movie wouldn’t be the same without the snacks. This is classic priming, and all five senses are susceptible to priming by intelligent marketers and businesspeople.

Prevent Employee Social Loafing


Social Loafing

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The Concept: Have you ever noticed, perhaps in college or around the office, that when groups are assembled to complete a task, it always ends up that a couple of members do most of the work while the majority of members do almost none of the work? This is a social psychological phenomenon known as “Social Loafing,” and it happens everywhere and in absolutely every profession. Social loafing is defined as the tendency for people to put less effort into a task when they are in a group than when they are alone.

How You Can Use It: Social loafing can seriously drain a team’s performance. The good news is that the causes of social loafing are known and consistent. Social loafing happens when no one is personally accountable. When the group is judged as a whole no matter what its individual members do, loafing is almost sure to occur. The sure-fire way to make sure that all of your employees are contributing equally to the task at hand is to assign them to groups, but assure them that they will be personally monitored and evaluated on their contributions to the group. The more someone thinks they will be judged personally, the less social loafing you have. This allows you to make the most of the talent you have on staff and almost always produces stronger results than the vague “group evaluation” does.



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Tuesday, January 12

kamoso: kde webcam capture program

Apple iSight camera (correct orientation)Image via Wikipedia
for Mac users, they have iSight and Cheese; for Ubuntu users they have Cheeze and for Kubuntu introducing Kamoso.

Kamoso is an application allows take pictures and videos using your webcam. The application also allow features to upload these pictures and videos to social services such as Youtube and Facebook.

For some reason Kubuntu Karmic Koala 8.10 ships with version 1.04 that will crash the application after first launch. Should you visit Kamoso website, it does not have debian package for you to use their latest version 1.05.

After some google, I had managed to found 2 packages of Kamoso 1.05 that made for next generation of Ubuntu -- Lucid in launchpad repositories and after tested myself using these packages (amd64 only), here I wanted to share with the rest whom using Karmic Koala:

1.05 amd64 package -- clicks here

1.05 i386 package -- clicks here

other distribution for Mac OS X and IA64 also available.
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