Auto Mount NTFS Drives in Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty

This is by far the easiest way to mount internal hard disks automatically every time you start Ubuntu. I'm assuming this works for all Linux distributions not just Ubuntu. This is copied and slightly edited from Ubuntu forums.

1. In a terminal window type "sudo apt-get install ntfs-config"
2. Unmount all manually mounted drives
3. Run NTFS configuration in the menu (System > Administration)
4. choose the drives that you want to be automatically mounted (all of them)
5. Put a check next to "Enable Write Support for Internal Drives"

Thats it. All your drives will be available to you at everytime you start the machine.
I wonder why this is not the default behaviuor in Ubuntu!

Finally A Usable iPhone

After watching apple's WWDC keynote, I can finally see an iPhone that I can use. Tomtom finally provided turn-by-turn GPS navigation application. The inclusion of copy/paste and MMS took some time but they managed to introduce these features. Official Arabic support, a plethora of applications and games, a faster CPU and an actual GPU. And don't forget zero configuration tethering.
Now I'm missing only two things, official carrier in Kuwait and a physical keyboard. I can manage without a keybord but I will only get an iPhone if its officially sim free or officially supported by a local Kuwaiti carrier.
Come on Zain, stop hauling in blackberries, where are the iPhones?

The Fully Automated Website

There are many strategies to monetize websites (making money out of websites). However, the most effective way is to make the website do all the work. Namely, automation.

Websites the likes of 6alabat.com and similar shopping and delivery websites are a good way to make profits. But you must provide services, maintenance and delivery operations, which are costly. This is not what I want. I want to make a website and totally leave it for years, while it continues to make profits. I can do that with scam websites, like registering the domain gogle.com (notice the missing 'o') and fill it with ads for all those who mistype the word google. But I don't want to do that also. I want people to benefit from it and that will make them come again and tell their friends about it. So it must be also useful.

Also, the last thing I need is a running cost for the website. Hosting the website and registering domains can be very expensive if I don't shop around for best deals. Never go to a local company for web hosting and design. They will charge huge amounts of money for few man hours of work with free open-source web applications, pre-made templates, and slow locally hosted servers. You can find online retailers who charge $20 for the whole thing but you have to do it yourself.

So the website must be automatic, useful, and cheap. Add to that some paid non-intrusive ads and a nice design and you're set to go.

We use automated website everyday without knowing. Fully automated websites require minimal intervention once its off and running. I strive to come up with ideas to develop such website. The kind of websites where you "set it and forget it." My first inspiration to this idea was Google News and then came Techmeme, a technology news aggregation website. The owners of these sites rarely even look at them once in a while. Techmeme recently hired the site's first editor, three years after launch! The editor's job is to visit the website once a day (from home) and promote news stories to the top of the page if he thinks they're important.

Techmeme attracts adds from companies such as Intel, Microsoft, and Adobe. The owners have three more similar websites aggregating politics, baseball and celebrity news, and I imagine more websites coming very soon. Because once you create an automatic website for a specific topic, you can copy it for other topics and attract even more people and serve more ads.

Step 3: profit!

Vague Google Searchs Improve Your Results

You can ask Google to search for synonyms very easily by adding a (~). For example, I was searching for a problem with my phone after upgrading its software. So I searched for: nokia 5800 firmware screen problem which gave me good results. However, changing the search query to: nokia 5800 ~firmware ~screen ~problem gave me a better result.

Why is this a better search? Google searches for the words in the query but also searches for their synonyms. Meaning that if someone wrote a very nice article on nokia 5800 software monitor issue, it wont show up in my first search and will show in the second search.

So help Google help you by using (~).

A Weekend Trip With Only Ubuntu 9.04

I took a leap of faith bringing only a fresh install of Ubuntu Linux with me on this non-business trip. It made sense as all I needed from my computer was email and web browsing.

I put this shiny new Ubuntu on my old IBM ThinkPad T43 laptop. It ran as if my laptop was this year's model. It is very fast and responsive. Actually it was faster than my brother's new Dell laptop running Windows Vista. I turned it off as soon as the installation and update process finished and packed my bags to leave for the airport.

Later that evening, in the hotel room, I turned my laptop on to read my email and some blogs. The desktop was clean, Firefox pre-installed and ready, it already connected to the hotel wireless internet, all that without me touching anything but the power button. If I remember correctly, windows required so much tweaking to reach this point! I read my email and was able to view PDF and docx attachments without installing additional software.

I couldn't sleep, so it was time to play some Counter-Strike on Steam. All I did was install wine and download Steam. With the fast connection in the hotel, I downloaded the entire game and was playing in 30 minutes. This game was not playable on the same laptop when it was running Windows XP. How ironic is that?

This experience amazed me because I was able to to do every I can do with Windows, without Windows. Even do things I couldn't do with Windows, like running games on old computers. What this means is that we, the people, have the option to work/play on the platform that we choose. This concept is strange to us now because we are used to accept the fact that all computers run Windows. Well, not anymore.

Edge Magazine

This is one of the best magazines with focus on the business and developer aspect of the games industry. Edge Magazine realized the grim future of print media and launched an online version of the magazine. If you are interested in the economy of game development, check this one out.

Geeks Talking

I enjoy watching what technology enthusiasts (also known as geeks) have to say about technology. They have a passion for what they do and it shows when they talk. Thats why I always search for videos of geeks talking and listen to what they say, and I always learn something new from every video.

I also wanted to embed these videos here but I didn't want to spam this blog. That's why Geeks Talking was created. It is a place to show interesting videos that I encounter daily. New videos will be linked on the left-side column.

Nokia 5800/E71, iPhone 3G, Blackberry Bold - Compared

I was asked to compare these four smartphones, so here we go. I wrote a much longer article but decided it was too long and rewrote it. This comparison is for me personally and I realize that most of you have different needs and uses for your smartphones. For me, I want a good web browser, camera, keyboard, connectivity, applications, and good looks.





iPhone:
Please note that this discussion is about hacked iPhones because if you're using iPhone in Kuwait, then it is hacked.

Apple created the iPhone so it must be cool and trendy, but that is not a selling point for me. To use the iPhone in Kuwait you have to hack it (or buy it pre-hacked) and that is not ideal because you can't update it with security patches until these patches are hacked as well, usually few days or weeks later.

I will not use a smartphone with outdated software, let alone outdated firmware. Talk to me when a Kuwaiti wireless carrier strikes a deal with Apple to carry the iPhone officially. Besides, this June Apple will announce a new iPhone with supposedly a better camera, true bluetooth, and "official" video recording.

And why on earth do I have to use iTunes every time I want to sync my music and pictures?

Blackberry:

Worst web browser in a phone, period. One reason is enough. But there are more reasons for me to stay away from this hype-ware phone. I'm not a corporate email fanatic and I can live without Blackberry messenger (I use MSN on my mobile instead or good ol' SMS). More reasons to stay away? You need a telecommunications engineer every time you want to change the settings in this thing. The settings interface is so bad, seems like only corporate IT people can set it up.

Face it people, there are only two reason you are using Blackberry:
1- Your company gave you one.
2- All your friends have one and you were missing out on the 24/7 free text party.

For the first group, tough luck! I know a guy who stashes it in the glove box.
For the second group, use any instant messaging software and stay connected with your friends, you are paying for Internet anyway.

Nokia E71 and 5800 Xpress Music:
Now these two have everything that I need in a smartphone. A browser that can open all websites, and play web videos, 3.2 MP camera, qwerty keyboard, a whole library of applications, and they both look good.

They are not as trendy, cool, and hyped as the other two, but their functionality (for my personal needs) is unmatched elsewhere.

Open Expo 2009 Videos

This is a great collection of speeches about open-source software. These geeks can't stop talking about Linux and freedom of technology.

check it out: Open Expo 2009




Don't mind his Red Hat, pun intended.

Kuwait Minstry of Communications Blocks VoIP

It is understandable if the ministry block suspicious and x-rated websites and domains but it is reaally unacceptable to block major voice over IP providers like Skype and Fring.

Where I work I subscribed to a VoIP provider (which I will not name) and we are saving a lot of money on international calls and SMS. However there is no guarantee that the ministry of communications will block this provider as well. Therefore we don't buy annual VoIP packages, which should save us more money.

The only reason the government is doing this is to prevent illegal VoIP resellers inside Kuwait. You know, these places where Asians line up to call home for half the price of regular international calls.

The only way out of this dilema is to open up international calling and landline services to private companies, like every other nation in the world does. Saudi Arabia just launched a private landline company and mobile carriers over there carry their own international calls and their own competitive rates.

Open up international calls and unblock Skype and let us be open to new technologies, please.

Finally a google.com.kw

Google finally realized that Kuwait has internet and therefore launched a localized "Kuwaiti" version of its most common sites. I know for sure that this is the most expensive domain name google has ever rented. According to the ministry of information, .kw domains cost exactly 200 KD a month. Yeb, that's more than 20 times the cost of .com (or even .ae) domains.

Google creates local domains and servers in most countries to save money on international bandwidth usage. I don't know if they will break even with local domains as expensive as this.

Anyway check out www.google.com.kw.

BlackBerry Storm Trashed by New York Times

The New York Times just reviewed BlackBerry Storm and they think its awful. The main complaints are the missing keyboard and the need to press the whole screen to click or type. Imagine a device with one huge button that is the screen. They say it is easier to "click the screen" if you press on the edges of the phone but becomes very hard you need to click in the center.

I personally hate (not dislike, hate) all BlackBerries but don't take my word for it. Check out the NYT article.

Update:
This NYT story stirred a storm in the tech blogsphere. Check it out at Techmeme.

Folding Touchscreen

Can't wait to fold your iPhone and put it in your pocket and can't because OLED screens will not pend? Well, now they can!

Samsung has done it. And they have this (very shaky and blurry) video to prove it.



I'm waiting for official Samsung video/ad and waiting for the rest of OLED manufacturers to copy them.

Why Mainstream Users Won't Switch to Firefox

Straight to the answer: Because it does not LOOK exactly like Internet Explorer. And that includes good and bad interface "design."

For example, my brother wont switch simply because there is no Favorite star-shaped icon in the top-left of Firefox! Of all the features of Firefox and all the lacking of features in IE, the yellow star was the selling point for him!

Mozilla keeps on adding features and features to enhance its browser's speed and security and interface, thinking that this will attract more people to switch from IE, while actual "mainstream" users are just waiting for something as trivial as a button in a location they are used to.

Of course end-users can configure Firefox the way they want. But, lets face it, they wont.

What I suggest to solve this problem is to introduce a special Mozilla-made IE theme for Firefox that, unlike the current IE theme, not only copies the colors and buttons of IE but also copies everything in the IE interface. also introduce with it a new blue Firefox icon and name it "Firefox Internet Browser" as apposed to Mozilla Firefox which means nothing to the uninitiated.

This theme changes things that can't be changed with regular themes, thats why i called it a "special" theme. And no, i wont make it, so save your breath.

What do you think Mozilla?

Google is set to buy Valve

Someone cited some source that Google is set to buy Valve (famouse for Counter-Strike, Half-Life, and Steam platform). In other news, cows will fly!!

I think it makes sense for Google to buy Valve for its Steam platform, however I don't think it is a good deal for me as a gamer. Google are surely going to advertise inside steam games. Its how Google get their money. They will turn the focus at valve from developing better games and download service to developing better advertising model.

I would be more interested in playing innovative games than playing regular games with innovative advertising inside them.

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