Opera 10 alpha

   Opera has just come out with the alpha release to Opera 10 web browser, just a week after launching Opera Mini 4.2.

Check it out from here : http://www.opera.com/browser/next/

The New features are :

• Updated engine : Opera Presto 2.2 is the newest rendering engine for the Opera browser. It provides significant improvements in speed, performance and security.
• 30% Faster on the real Web : The optimized Opera Presto 2.2 engine performs much faster on resource intensive pages such as Gmail and Facebook.
• Great-looking standards : With an Acid3 100/100 score, Web Fonts support, RGBA/HSLA color and SVG improvements, Opera 10 alpha is ready for the next generation of Web applications. 

Check the acid3 tests from here.

The other features are :

• Inline spell-check : Opera 10 alpha underlines any misspelled words so you can express yourself without reservation.
• Auto-update : Opera 10 alpha makes it easier than ever to stay up to date with the latest version.
• Web Fonts and SVG : Typography on the Web will never look the same. With the Opera Presto 2.2 engine, Web Fonts can be used -including SVG font files.
• Opacity through RGBA and HSLA : Transparency is the new black. In Opera Presto 2.2 it is easier to make page elements transparent, with the addition of an alpha transparency argument to the RGB and HSL color models.
• Opera Dragonfly evolved : Opera Dragonfly is now even better for debugging Web sites and allows the editing of the DOM and inspection of  HTTP headers.

Opera 10 final is expected to arrive in the first half of 2009.

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Microsoft .net gets new logo

    Microsoft has made a change to the logo for .net . The new one features a blue ribbon like design which looks way better than the old one which was just a .net written in a way that the lettrings were connected and some colors lying here and there. This logo shown above seems to denote an N.

    The new logo looks simply stunning, guess it was released with the Microsoft .net Framework 3.5...

Gmail is themed!!!

    Hey i just logged into my Gmail account and learnt that they have introduced a variety of themes for the Gmail interface. Guess its another development from the Google Labs... Theres currently about 24 different themes including the Clasic theme.

    Themes can be accessed from the Themes tab in the Settings page. This seems a welcome move by the Gmail theme as already Firefox and plugins were able to theme Gmail for ages now. Its like about time the Gmail team did something about it.

    I didint try all the themes, but just looked through a handful before choosing the "Shiny" theme for a few days .........

Adobe Fireworks CS 4 Review

As a long time user and fan of Macromedia Fireworks, it was heart shattering when Adobe took over Macromedia. And Fireworks was not given much importance in the CS3 Suite. Not so much stuff new in that except the installer was like 500mb and except from some minor changes not worth it. So I wondered if its future was doomed and overshadowed by the likes of Photoshop and Illustrator. Recently I got hold of the Fireworks CS4 demo and simply fell in love after using it. I will just note down the important features I like and those that enhance usability of this marvelous software.

The reason I loved FW so much is its inherent simplicity in using and the great features and flexibility it provides for a “Web Designer” and small time “Graphics Designer” like me. Photoshop is the best software for Photo editing and major graphics works, but almost awful when it comes to neat web designing from my point of view.

Fireworks CS4 has had a great deal of overhauling done to sharpen up the usability. A major point of notice is the welcome change in the Interface. More workspace can be coughed out and we can customize and save the layout. The right side panels are very flexible in that they have a minimum mode showing only the icons or an expanded with the description of the panel as well. They have taken out the title bar altogether. The menu bar is at the very top with a lot of useful items shown as small icons below it, including the new, save, open, undo, redo, cut, copy, paste, group, ungroup, join , arrange items, align items and rotate. These can be easily accessed now. Earlier either we had to use the menu system or learn complex shortcuts.

Another welcome improvement is the smart guides, which were already available in Flash 8 for aligning items on the stage.

A Take Screenshot command enables to take a screen shot which is a pretty useful feature. The attributes like custom styles applied to an object can be copied and applied on another object by using the “Paste attributes” option. Really neat stuff.

Projects can be prototyped easily by either using the “Demo Current Document”, in which a simple slideshow of the completed document can be shared and gathered feedback on. The other option is the capability to directly export in PDF from within fireworks. This can also be used for sharing the design with clients or colleagues and get back feedbacks. The export PDF option has a number of options. You can even export with password protection.

A host of vector drawing functionalities have been added in Fireworks CS4. Type rendering engine has undergone considerable improvements. Along with the 9 slice scaling tool, there are a lot of useful commands added in the command menu. Support for Adobe AIR and the ability to create flash based slide shows from within Fireworks are handy.

Overall I have to say I am impressed. There are a lot of options for a Web Designer and the development phase can be speeded up. The use of rapid prototyping in case of a web site or an AIR application can cut development times by a large amount. So we clearly have Fireworks in the right path. It should definitely be in the arsenal of a serious web developer.

Mechnova09 - Design almost finalised

    The design for the site mechnova09.com is almost finalised.  Some minor updates to be done. Some extensive design capabilits and an eye catching navigation system is impletemted highlighting the various events for the program. A Flash based count down timer is also installed on the home page ........

So chechk it out .........

New Website Project - Mechnova09

   Hey work recently started on the website for RIT Mechanical departments Mechnova '09. It is a technical festival to be conducted on 14,15 and 16 of January 2009. Ae is doing the design and maintanence of the site. A simple and professional design tailored to the requirements has been done and only minor tweaks are going along at this stage.

http://mechnova09.com/

visit the site and post ur feedback or comments here....

Mangalam College of Engineering - Website Promotional Wallpaper 03

Some more tweaks and web address of aeonline

http://lh6.ggpht.com/midhunhk/SK5vQ4WA8iI/AAAAAAAAAL4/ZuZuYwHXmi4/mlmce_site_promo_wall002-02.jpg

Photography Tutorial

   Hey i was browsing through the net and found the blog of Mr. Mike Swanson. In it he describes all the technicalities of photography and how to make wallpapers out of them as well. Thouht of sharing that...

So here is the link : 

http://blogs.msdn.com/mswanson/pages/HowIMakeMyWallpaperImages.aspx

Mangalam College of Engineering - Website Promotional Wallpaper 02

Here is a modified version of the original wallpaper ...

FMA (Flexible Messaging Area)

    An FMA (Flexible Messaging Area) is a Flash banner or an image that is displayed on the Home page of a site for higlighting a product or event, or just to give the visitors a brief overview of the main aim of the site.

   Most sites use a full flash banner that runs the full width of the displayed area of the home page of the site. Some developers cleverly design a JPEG or PNG image to convey the message as well.

   A proper definition of FMA is given by Tony Lopez who worked for Macromedia. Check out what he has to say about FMA.

Tony Lopez: FMA is a term that predates me here at Macromedia. It stands for the Flexible Messaging Area, and it's the section within the Flash portion of the home page where we do important "high impact" messaging. Think of it as an end-cap in a store. It's a display that we hope you'll spend some time looking at, and eventually acting on. We try to tell a simple story here. Sometimes it's about a new product, other times it might be about an event, or a promotion that we are running. We always try to tell this story in a manner that is clear, elegant and engaging. Hopefully we strive to provide some design inspiration, but it's always function over form.

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/articles/fma_interview.html

Mangalam College of Engineering - Web site promotional Wallpaper

   Mangalam College of Engineering have planned a new web site, So here is the promotional wallpaper that has been created by ae..

Done in less than 10 minutes ........

Cryptx 5 - Web 2.0 Logo

   Hey there , for further promotional purposes, we have done a Web 2.0 style logo for the Cryptx 5 release. Its been done using Macromedia Fireworks 8. Hope the promotional stuffs work .....

Cryptx 5 Beta 1 Release

   Cryptx 5 development has come massive distances after the project almost got scrapped due to various problems faced during development. Although there are minor flaws in it, we are happy to release it as a Beta 1 so that developers from around the world can help make this project better.

the download link for the CR5-B1 is as follows : 

http://www.mediafire.com/?d5n7331z40y

Screen shot
-------------

   Please understand that this release is not fully complete and has some bugs and problems in it. Some known issues are

* No Help included

* Encryption writes log incorrectly

* Decryption does not write a log

* Need to optimise code for execution pipelines

* command line arguments might be needed to be formatted again

* encrypted file size is larger than original or decrypted file.

Features that are already there include :
-----------------------------------------------

* Rich HTA based GUI

* Work History denoting the various steps that went through the development of the project

* CTimer class to follow time taken for processing the data.

* AES 128 bit encryption

* Encrypted data is stored as HEX for added protection.

* Password is not stored in the encrypted file, only a hashed string. (MD5 can be implemented easily for extra protection of the pasword. It can be done from within the HTA interface).

Updates available at : http://www.cryptx5.co.nr

Hoping for some favourable reply ....

Artistik Expressionz on Eniac '08

    Eniac '08 is a national level technical symposium being organised by the Electrical & Electronics department of Govt. Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Technology, Kottayam.

   Ae got the opportunity for designing the poster, brochure,flex, website and logo for the event. Most of the work is completed by now.

  For further information go to http://www.eniac08.com

Check back for updated info.

Calculate File size with C++

Programming .....

  The following is a C++ program to calculate file size of a file. It has been tested to correctly report file sizes upto 4Gb, ofcourse used 32 bit compiler!

--Begin--

/* getFileSize.cpp
 * Gets the file size of a DiskFile
 *
 * Midhun Hk (Centrum inc Software Solutions)
 * July 2008
 * $ v 0.1
 **/

# inculde <ifstream>
# include <iostream>

void main()
{
    ifstream is;
    unsigned long fileSize = 0L;

    is.open("FileName.bin");   // Open the file
    if(is.good())                    // If file is opened successfully
    {
           // calculate FileSize
           is.seekg(0,ios::end); // move 0 bytes from end
           fileSize = is.tellg();   // get offset
           is.seekg(0,ios::beg); // rewind
     }

      cout<<"File Size is : "<<fileSize<<:" bytes";
}

--End--

Hope this has been useful.

Restarting IIS Service , Installation of IIS after dot net

   This is a technical post that i guess most dot net developers might find useful. I was looking for this for a long time and had to do a lot of time wasting techniques to get stuff sorted out earlier.

   If you are trying to do some ASP.NET programming, and if for some reason installed the IIS Server (Internet Information Services) after installing Visual Studio, the web application would not run. I did this using Microsft Visual Studio.net 2003, so dont know about what differences there are in this respect with 2005 and 2008.

   In this scenario, i was told to uninsatll IIS and Visual Studio, restart the PC, Install IIS first and then the Visual Studio. This was so time consuming and this was the scenerio in our college lab. So most of my classmates had to do this tedious process when they had to run their mini projects. The problem was aggrevated with the lab having only 2 CD Drives.

  Ok, so whats the solution? There is an application called "Administration Utility". It manages the installation and uninstallation of multiple versions of ASP.NET on a single machine.

   Located in the directory "%windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322", where %windir% points to your windows installation dirtectory like c:\winnt\ or d:\windows\

  If multiple versions of the framework are insatlled, you can see various directories in the Framework folder with the version numbers of the frameworks.

  Open up the command Prompt and reach this directory, use

      cd "%windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322" 

at the command prompt to reach there.

Okay, now you need to invoke the application named "aspnet_regiis.exe". This is the administration utility and is command oriented.

If you type "aspnet_regiis" at the command prompt, it will display the syntax to use. Of them the first two may be of interest.

 -i - Install this version of ASP.NET and update scriptmaps
  at the IIS metabase root and for all scriptmaps below
  the root. Existing scriptmaps of lower version are
  upgraded to this version.

 -ir - Install this version of ASP.NET, register only. Do
  not update scriptmaps in IIS.

So you may use  

    aspnet_regiis -i

or

    aspnet_regiis -ir

to do the job.

Hope this has been useful, :)

Liverpool vs Arsenal - UEFA CL quarter Final 2008

   Yes it was heart break at the end, but it was a match in which the young Theo matured and showed all his doubters that he is a world class player. It all happened at Anfield on 7th April 2008, in the second leg of the champions league quarter final match. 

   Liverpool were ahead after scoring an away goal at the Emirates in the first leg although the score was 1-1, they needed just a draw to secure their birth semi finals. I knew they would play shitty football to ensure this, and thats what Liverpool did. 

   Arsenal had massive amounts of possession, but lacked the cool finish and Liverpool players were all over in the box with just one or two players near the middle line. Some time into the second half and the score was 2 - 1 to Liverpool . We were losing although playing beautiful football. Some refereeing decisions did go against us.

   Then in the second half, Arsene Wenger introduced "Theo Walcott" hoping he would be able to make the same effect as he had done at San Siro when we beat AC Milan at their home 0 - 2, thanks to a howler from Cesc and the second was crafted by Theo giving an incisive pass to Adebayor....

    What hapened that night at Anfield?

"Theo Walcott gets past atleast four Liverpool players and then finishes his remarkable run with the perfect assist to Adebayor!"

   Watch the video for words cannot really explain the class.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-jaLTCRAMY

New favicon for Google!

      Hey Google have changed their favicon. For those new to this term,a favicon is a small 16X16 image that is displayed next to the address of the site and propably seen in Opera and Firefox. Blogger has a kindof B in its favicon. It is just a graphic used to associate something with a site.

       Google had been sporting this image as their favicon for a long time. It consisted of a capital G surrounded by four lines that make a box with different colors (those of the Google logo).


     It had a sort of corporate mean look to it. And it also looks boring and a bit complex with the different colors and all. So i guess the google developers have finally decided that its time to change.. Have a look at this :



    This is the new favicon. Its a blue small case g from the Google logo. It also sports a small shadow as well adn looks deliciously fantastic. I guess it signifies some freedom from the old bounded coroprate logo.  This one is more close to the styles of Google.

     To see it for urself make sure you clean your cache and type in any of google.com, image.google.com or any other google based service...

FileSplitter 1.9 Beta - Download with Source

     Here is another completed project from us. Its called File Splitter and basically designed to split a large file into a number of smaller parts and to be able to rejoin them. Ofcourse you may not readily feel any need for such an application, but the point here is that it can be done and the project is Open Source and so everyone can learn from it.

   To have a look at the main features, look at the promotional poster given below :
 


The interface is done with the HTA technology which will be discussed here soon.

File Name : FileSplitter_1.9.zip (415.19 KB)
Download link : http://www.mediafire.com/?un2zjr3oz9m

Audio Steganography App - Configuration for Running

        hi again, obviously any novice user of the Audio Steganography app would not be able to run the program properly unless some configuration steps are done. So i am writing the Configuration steps down for you as soon as i can, although in the midst of some exams.

Prerequisites

• Java Runtime 1.5 or greater
  
• Windows 2000 SP 4 or higher (the win version is included here)
• jna and WindowUtils library for proper display of the GUI (included in the package file)

     Ofcourse the next step would be to download the project file which is a zipped file from the link given in the previous post.

     Once you have downloaded it, extract the contents to some folder on your hard-disk.

Configuring Data Source

    The data source is a database file that is used to store the login information. For ease of insatllation and porting on a windows system we would discuss the MS Access database here because access dabase driver is included in the Windows OS by default and no need to install assitional software. Other choices could me MS SQL Server or MySql. 

Ok, so goto

Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Data Sources (ODBC)

Select User_Dsn and add a new DSN for your supported dbms software. Give the DSN name as mlm_dsn. Attatch the database to the dsn. Create a table named login in the rbms software and thats it.

The SQL Querry for creating the table login is as follows.

SQL> CREATE TABLE 'login' (
'username' varchar(32) ,
'password' varchar(32),
'contact_no' varchar(16) ,
'sex' char(8),
'mail_id' varchar(32) );

The field 'username' is the primary key field.

or otherwise use the "as_db.mdb" file which is include in th epackage.

Installing GUI libraries for windows

One final step to go the folder named in the extracted zip file called "extra_libraries"
copy these two files
1. examples.zip
2. jna.zip

then go to the java installation folder, usually C:\program files\Java\
there will be a folder named with jre that is the java run time required to run the project
go to "/lib/ext/" and paste these two files there..

Thats it, primary configurations are done!

Running the program

Go to the extracted directory and you should find a command file by the name "appStart.cmd". Just double click to run it. If there are no propblems, the application should start successfully.


Detailed help and documentation are included with the package, so you can refer to that or post any doubts or suggessions here....

Thank You ...

Audio Steganography Application with Source Code

Ok, as i had promised earlier, here is the working part of the Audio Steganography Application done in Java. The Source code is also included in this package. As there is very little time, i cant explain the complete working here soon. So if there are any doubts, im happy to explain that portion...

So heres the link for download :

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?m4ktmdhdnnj 


Hope this is useful. Also included are complete documentation and the source code in Java.


Edit :


The above link is no longer available.


Please refer to the following links :
http://midhunhk.blogspot.com/2011/10/audiosteganography-info.html
and
http://midhunhk.blogspot.com/2011/08/faq-regarding-audiosteganography-app.html

Intel Atom Processor

Heres a look at the Atom Processor :

Intel Announces Intel® Atom™ Brand for New Family of Low-Power Processors

     The Intel® Atom™ processor will be the name for a new family of low-power processors designed specifically for mobile Internet devices (MIDs) and a new class of simple and affordable Internet-centric computers arriving later this year. Together, these new market segments represent a significant new opportunity to grow the overall market for Intel silicon, using the Intel Atom processor as the foundation. The company also announced the Intel® Centrino® Atom™ processor technology brand for MID platforms, consisting of multiple chips that enable the best Internet experience in a pocketable device.




     The Intel Atom processor is based on an entirely new microarchitecture designed specifically for small devices and low power, while maintaining the Intel® Core™ 2 Duo instruction set compatibility consumers are accustomed to when using a standard PC and the Internet. The design also includes support for multiple threads for better performance and increased system responsiveness. All of this on a chip that measures less than 25 mm², making it Intel's smallest and lowest power processor yet.1 Up to 11 Intel Atom processor die -- the tiny slivers of silicon packed with 47 million transistors each -- would fit in an area the size of an American penny.

     These new chips, previously codenamed Silverthorne and Diamondville, will be manufactured on Intel's industry-leading 45nm process with hi-k metal gate technology. The chips have a thermal design power (TDP) specification in 0.6-2.5 watt range and scale to 1.8GHz speeds depending on customer need. By comparison, today's mainstream mobile Core 2 Duo processors have a TDP in the 35-watt range.

    Intel said the Intel Atom processor also has potential for future revenue opportunities in consumer electronic devices, embedded applications and thin clients.

    Official Source : http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/20080302comp.htm

Security tips blog

Hey check this out.. The blog that deals with Security ....


http://tips-on-security.blogspot.com/


You can find out how to clean some nasty virus attacks, registry cleaning and most importantly staying safe ...

Theory of a Dead Man - So Happy and Second single from new album

Great news now. The Song "So Happy" from the Canadian based Rock band "Theory of a Dead Man" is now positioned no 3 in the US Main Stream Rock Chart. That is great stuff, isnt it?

"So Happy" is Theory of a Deadman's most successful single in the U.S. to date.

The next singles "By The Way" and "Bad Girlfriend" were released on the band's official website on March 10th, 2008.


We'll be folowing them also ....

New Resolutions

   Ok, this may sound real stupid. But hey this is my blog, ill write anything that i wish and theres nothing anyone can do about it.

   Its just that i'd been thinking of a couple of things that i need to change about me. The worst of them is that i tend to get angry for no particular reason especially when im frustrated or pissed off. I understand that its a very bad nature. Im usually a calm and quite sort of person, but occassionally the scene gets a change!

   Its got to go then. Although i have some amount of patience, its kind of dynamic meaning that it varies. Also i do believe that im not doing better than a good no of years ago  when the case 
not like this.  

   Ive read that number of sucessful people managed their anger and disappointments.

So Just believe that every Down has an Up and every Up has a Down....

CryptX 5 :: Class Structures revision 0.1.0.2

   Heres the newly revised specification for the class structures for the Open Source encryption software project codenamed SideLiner. Although not much input from the community, i was able to think out some more solutions for possible problems in the structure when implementing 
in C# or Java in later development life of the project.

The changes include :
1. Working around the MI (Multiple Inheritance) problem in C# and Java. 
2. Making the class structure more understandable. 
3. Made the "DiskFile" class abstract. 
4. Added ae watermark in the specification.

So expecting more help from the community out there.





  

Main Project - Audio Steganography

Our final semester main project is finally complete and i would like to point out some facts about that as i had posted earlier.

Project Name : Audio Steganography App
Frontend : Java (J2SE)
Backend  : SQL Server or MS Access db

Synopsis : Steganography is the art and science of writing hidden messages in such a way that no one apart from the sender and intended recipient even realizes there is a hidden message. Audio Steganography deals with 
embedding an encrypted message into an audio file. The embeded file still 
plays as a normal audio file!


Ok first of all let me say that this program has a deeply researched and unique GUI that sets it apart from most Java based applications, courtesy of Artistik expressionz.

GUI Development in Java is not exactly developer friendly i guess,
atleast for me. The GUI has to be handcoded and placed on the Stage. 
Frustrating, but found short cut methods for doing that. 
Some three days were devoted entirely on designing and placing controls 
for the first two frames! Working in .net was more fun :-(

Then some database connectivity was the next step. Although nothing 
specifically related to the main project, this would add a 
no of forms / frames, would make the project seem bigger 
than it really is.

So the main modules of the app can be stated as:
1. User Management
2. Steg
3. Desteg
4. Log Writing

Of these theres nothing much to discuss about User Management - Just user login, registration, changing password etc.

Log Writer is my own contribution. Just logs out all activities done 
by the program. I wanted to learn about File I/O in Java, 
thats why that was implemented and also one more class.

Now the main parts are Steg and Desteg and ill discuss in detail about them soon...

Cryptx 5 Class Structures

This is the proposed structure for the Classes for the new encryption software Cryptx 5 – Codenamed Sideliner. This is discussed here so that we can get some expert opinion about the implementation, so that we can go forward with this project without many problems.

The basic concept is the abstract class ‘DiskFile’. It could have a class for calculating the CRC-32 hash of a file that resides on the disk. ‘DiskFileIn’ and ‘DiskFileOut’ are classes that are derived from ‘DiskFile’. MI (Multiple Inheritance) comes into play as we also apply the AES class for encrypting and decrypting of files.

For encryption process, the object of ‘DiskFileIn’ will be the data / source file and using AES, we write out the encrypted data to the object of ‘DiskFileOut’.

For decryption process, the object of ‘DiskFileIn’ will be the encrypted file and we will try to decrypt it with the given key and the AES algorithm. The output data will be written to the object of ‘DiskFileOut’.

‘LogWriter’ is a special type of ‘DiskFileOut’ that writes out the log file for the processes done by the program.

‘CryptxHeader’ is the class that is used to denote the extra information of the original file. It will contain methods to generate and decode data from headers.

‘Timer’ (‘CTimer’) class will keep track of the timing functions and will be used by the ‘LogWriter’ object.

Okay, these are the specifications that have been put forward. Please give your expert comments......

Best Desktop Browser

   As you guys may already know there are loads of internet browsers out there in the market today. And as you are using one already, you may be interested in knowing which browser comes with the complete feature set and the complete package. Here we are going to look into the features of Opera Internet Browser and some minor comparisons with Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Internet Explorer.

    First of all thinking of browsing without tabs is a big no-no, at least for many avid internet users. Opera was the first browser to implement it way back in 2000. Now it is a standardized feature in most browsers. Opera tabs can be cascaded, tiled and rearranged. Opera tabs save their states the next time you open them. IE does not offer this feature. Firefox loads the page straight off the internet the next time it is opened, while Opera shows from the cache. It is worthwhile to note that the much anticipated Internet Explorer 7.0 provides a maximum number of 6 tabs, not too much appreciation for the guys at Redmond.

    Opera 9.25 comes at a download size of 4.7 Mb compared with 5.7 Mb for Firefox 2.0 and some 24 Mb for IE 7, then again download size doesn’t matter much these days. But it is important to note that even at this reduced size, the performance advantage is greater over the other browsers.

    Another great feature of Opera is its cache system. It loads and renders pages quick. When you hit the back button, you go back to the page in your cache. It doesn't reload the page from the site. That is a very good feature.

    Opera has a consistent interface on all platforms, unlike Firefox which varies a bit with platform. Both provide a lot of customizations and skins unlike IE 7, which still has not met with the expectations. At this point I would like to say that the most stable browser from Microsoft could be Internet Explorer 6 with all Service Packs and updates.
 
    Opera has an inbuilt Download Manager that can even resume downloads, Firefox also provides this but is a bit distractive with a popup and unable to specify the folder for saving the downloads. Opera has Built-in IRC client, Built-in email client and Built-in news reader.

    Customizable style sheets to change the display with all the useful ones built-in. Can't read that site with the ping background and red letters? Make it black and white for ease of readability. Opera provides users the power to view a site in their ways.

    Using a slow connection, toggle images on, off, or from local cache, a great way to save your bandwidth.

    On the fly user agent switching. This means you can probably use Opera on that bank site that says "Internet Explorer 5.0 or above necessary to use this site."

    Searching made easy with Integrated Search! The search box next to the address bar where you can enter the search term and select some of the most commonly used Internet search engines to directly get your result. Further more you can invoke the search page from the address bar. If you want to search some term with Google, type the search term preceded by g.
E.g.: g Opera Browser
And press enter to invoke the Google Search page with search term as “Opera Browser”.

   There is a great feature called note taker where by you can copy some important text onto a note collector and easily retrieve it anytime with just a couple of clicks. Language translator is available for converting text between different languages. It also provides an encyclopedia service.

    Now for some great Artificial Intelligence (AI) development, just think for opening a new page, saying “Opera New Page”! That’s what the Voice Library can do for you. It can even read the web page content for you. Clearly this feature is not available in any other browsers as of today. The library is about 10 Mb download, but those who want to use it can download it for free.

    Tests on browsers conducted by independent organizations and researchers show that Opera is the fastest to render CSS and HTML. Opera supports all major Web standards currently in use, including CSS 2.1, XHTML 1.1, HTML 4.01, WML 2.0, ECMAScript, DOM 2 and SVG 1.1 basic.

    Mouse Gestures and keyboard shortcuts offer some cool ways to use this browser.

    Safe, secure, powerful and fully customizable, the Opera Web browser is over 30% faster than IE, and faster and more secure than Firefox. Recent benchmarks show that Opera even exceeds the speed of Firefox with multiple tabs opened. Opera delivers robust security and a far-richer feature set than any other Web browser and it's free.

    So I would conclude that for leisure, or for serious web development purposes 
and looking from all persepectives, Opera would be the leader of the pack.


   

Project Time

    Yes, its time for the final year project and would kick of next week. So will be gone for about a month. So enjoying some vacation time now. But there is the 
last exam of Semester 7 that was postponed to be conducted on jan 30th.

    The project will be in Java and the topic is "Audio Steganography". Got nothing, well dont worry will be posting all the details after completing the project. So adios for now ...........

Module Header - New Proposal

   Ok, heres a new addition / proposal for the satndardization 
of the module structure for software projects. Its just an 
addition to the previous one.

* Name of the module [Application Domain / Type]

ie; [Application Domain] is the addition to the Name of a module and specifies which might suggest where the module is implemented and how it can be classified. This might be useful if the software development group has multiple application domains, like us. Its more or less like keywords..

eg:

* ClientScroller [hta / script]

* AlbumGallery [web / php / script / db]

* XmlReadList [app / flash / xml]

First draft of Home page completed

   As i said earlier, im gonna post the first draft of the home page. Finally happy with all the elements and layout. Added scripts for 
displaying some elements on the home page itself with AJAX.



    Please note that this is Work in progress, i just wanted to follow on the developmental timeline of this site. High amount are functionality are expected. Also this design is relies heavily on CSS.Take a look at this, the home page without ay css...



    CSS is remarkable? Keep watching for intersting tips and stuff ... bye for now.

Software Module Header Structure

    After much research, i found a quite standard way of writing headers for software projects. It is used in almost every professional development environment. These are just some specifications, individuals or firms may have their own changes according to their requirements.

   The need for such a standardisation is that once a module is written and debugged, the author or other software developers may understand cleanly what is going on and would help in debugging for the entire application, modification without sideeffects and ofcourse as a strong supporter of the "Open Source" movement, code sharing.

Module Header Format ($ revisoon 2)
--------------------------------------------
* Name of Module
* Synopsis of Module
* Date of creation
* Author's Name
* [Modification History]
* [Different Functions supported with in / out params]
* [Global Variables accessed or modified by it]

--End--

eg : say the module header of a new program that i created might have the following header

--Start--
* ClientScroller
* script that Scrolls the client area up and down
* Decemebr 2007
* Midhun Harikumar (Centrum inc Software Solutions)

$ Version 0.32

--End--

    Another important specification is regarding the use of global variables. While using Object Oriented Programming, i guess there would be minimum amount of 
global variables lying around. The specification is to name the global variables 
with a leading small case g and underscore.

eg :
int g_nDestFileCount;

    This way we can easily figure out where the global variables are used and might help
debugging a lot easier.

Website Development on a roll

   The new website featuring software tutorials, portfolio, software develpment, downloads and a whole lot more from us. The massive redesign effort is based on numerous design details and is mostly centered around css.

    Happy to announce that the home page design is going smoothly. Will post a sample image of how it will look like very soon, some minor touches to go. 

    The new design sports an orangish touch as emulating the 
mhk'08 logo. We are also thinking of moving to an own domain with database 
functionalities as it would very much reduce the amount of time spent on 
organising the content.

Mhk08 revised logo

   Here is the revised logo of mhk'08 with the special effects added. 
Some careful thoughts and design measures have been taken in the design 
and functionality of the new logo.

So there you have it...

Mhk '08 Logo released

    The 2008 design and development campaign at ae Labs kickstarted with the creation  and release of the new logo for mhk, for 2008. Its kind of a tradition to have a separate logo for each year starting from 2002!

    This year's logo is a slight modification of last years, but what the heck as 
long as it looks good, who cares! This one sports a merged M and H followed by a K resembling a calligraphic stroke. To make it interesting, the K is given a slight Orangish tint. Theres a light '08 below the stroke. In the emphasised version the whole logo elements are given an inner bevel and a drop shadow. At times you may find view finder lines at the edges of the logo. 

    There may some twaking to the logo, but the basic design is set to remain the same. There are some thought streams that imply to scrap the 
change in logo every year and go with this one permanently (Thats how good this logo looks compared to previous versions!)

   So presenting the basic logo for mhk'08 ...

First Post

   Hello there, this is the first post on this blog which will be dealing with my projects, site  and other information.

    Ok so i think thats some short ansd cool introduction for this. Theres another blog thats supposed to feature Security tips, but since im not having much free tim, its not qctually getting any better.

    Now on the onset of launch of my new site, hope that things will change. I will be posting throughout the development of the new site, new projects under way and interseting news and my personal views on matters.