ShinyDiscoBall

Blog moved…

shinydiscoball — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 14:16:15 +0000

After some careful thought I moved this blog to Blogger platform. It can now be found at http://blog.shinydiscoball.net

See you on the other server =)

Google maps vs. Live maps for Sri Lanka

shinydiscoball — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 12:31:20 +0000

While browsing through GoogleOperatingSystem blog today I was excited to find out that they had added Sri Lanka to Google maps (http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2007/09/google-maps-covers-54-new-countries.html). I was thinking finally there’s a way to automatically route to destinations within Google maps. This excitement was short lived to find out that they have only included the main A class roads.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=sri+lanka&ie=UTF8&ll=7.85794,80.930786&spn=3.210122,5.987549&z=8&om=1

Meh…. My fault really, I shouldn’t have expected something like the Australian maps when it’s the same case for Indian maps.

Still Microsoft Live maps have the most detailed mapping of Sri Lanka. Although it doesn’t include detailed roads, unlike Google maps it includes names of a lot of towns and localities.

http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=7.838205~80.855936&style=r&lvl=8&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&encType=1

cpu overheating? all you may need to do is some dusting…

shinydiscoball — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 14:33:25 +0000

Now the summer is just around the corner an old demon of my PC started to show it’s signs. Overheating! Usually in summer when I push my CPU to it’s limit it most definitely goes over 60C. This is not surprising since I am running an Intel 2.8Ghz HT processor with it’s stock fan. What surprised me this time around was that it was going over 60C even in idle mode. Seeing things are definitely out of hand, and the unbearable noice of the cpu fan revving at 5000rpm I decided to replace my stock fan to a some sort of a fancy over clocker’s outrageous looking heat sinks. Cheaper than installing AC!

Usually I do my homework before buying any tech equipment but I was in a rush needing to get some work done very quickly. So I ran to my usual computer shop and asked for a decent socket 478 heat sink. I was given a Thermaltek Goldern Orb II heat sink/fan and I took it home. Only to find out the damn thing didn’t fit my motherboard! Arrghhh.. I basically pulled apart my whole PC for nothing! Disappointed I decided to put my stock fan back in with a good clean up. I was rather surprised to see the amount of dust collected within the heat sink metal plates and also underneath it around the CPU. See below. Mind the quality of the images, I took them with my N73 and I have notoriously shaky hands.

My god! How in the world did my motherboard avoid a short circuit? So I gave everything a through vacuum including the heat sink and put it all back together. Voila the temperature went down back to good ol 40C in idle mode. All that was causing that extra heating was the layers of dust stuck inside.

Articles of interest

shinydiscoball — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 14:54:06 +0000

Google reader is my new favorite web application! This has impressed me more than when Gmail made it’s debut. However I have to show gratitude towards Gmail for forcing other stingy free email providers get it’s act together for the 21st century. But Google reader really has done a mighty good job getting the whole world of syndication into one true “inbox for the web”. Desktop RSS clients never really did it for me. Google reader is fast and it’s available anywhere! Very handy at work. My favorite feature is the ability to share articles. One click and you can share articles of interest to you with others on a public web page. Niceee. Just added the link to my public page under the Blogroll section – “Articles of interest“. Finally the new search functions just elegantly completes this service eclipsing any desktop or web RSS reader. Nice one Google.

what powers my blog or rather should i say web site!

shinydiscoball — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 10:41:45 +0000

Now that I am finally getting my blog in neat order (there’s still more to do and lack of time) I thought I should show some gratitude towards technology and services that make my site/blog look so cool and fast at a next to nothing cost.

1. WordPress – I do not need to reiterate the excellent FREE service WordPress offers for amature bloggers like my self. Wow and I love the templates! It certainly beats templates offered at Blogger. I am still new to WordPress and I will glorify this service as it continues to impress me.

2. Google Apps – The new domain name http://www.shinydiscoball.net was registered for just $US 10 via Google Apps and partner Enom. I know this is the standard price for a domain name these days but…you get a pretty sweet deal for that price registering through Google. Essentially it’s a FREE service! First of all you don’t just get a domain name with empty spaces to fill in DNS entries but a fully hosted solution with moderate web space and most of all Google powered and hosted mail! Which means I can have anyaddress @ my domain as my Gmail. Sweet huh?

I have to mention that Enom (the actual domain registrar) offers better features than GoDaddy. I have not-for profit web site powered by Google Apps but domain registered with GoDaddy. I was highly disappointed when I realised that they don’t have sub domain forwarding with URL masking? Why?? Enom certainly has this feature and I’m glad Google randomly picked Enom as the registrar. Other thing I noticed was the domain parameter change response time. I was simply amazed by how quickly when I make a change to my domain via Google or Enom settings how quickly it came to effect. Split second after registering the domain it self I was able to access it via my web browser. Maybe my ISP has super sensitive DNS resolvers.. lol back in the days what ever DNS changes you make you’d have to give an hour at least to be safe.

3. Windows Live Writer – Still in Beta, this nifty little FREE (i love free software) tool by Microsoft is THE blog publishing tool. Not too complicated like a web authoring tool or a word processing tool. Simple, elegant, user friendly, only essential features and most of all it works! Still haven’t had any connectivity issues (touch wood) and the publishing aspect is just so seamless.

In summing things up I will be able to have a kick ass looking blog with minimal efforts at publishing as long as the above 3 services continue the way it is =) Long live WordPress, Google Apps and Windows Live Writer… and of course the Internet!