tech

There are 188 posts filed in tech (this is page 17 of 19).

Rethinking Folders in iOS

When I first came across the Mac OS X, one of the reasons that immediately set it aside from other OSs I’d used was the way the UI was constructive towards doing work better. A simple example of that was the way I could scroll the window which was behind my work window without needing to click on the background one. This meant that I could refer to a document and type in my current window at the same time.

The other feature that really struck me was the concept of stacks in the Dock. The way stacks work is that I can choose recent documents, recent applications or just a list of favorite items to sit in the dock for easy access. That’s not all. The best feature of stacks is that they’re highly unobtrusive. Stacks don’t need a window for themselves, they’re just floating on the screen and as soon as your attention goes elsewhere and you click, the stacks disappear. That way they’re really hidden, but at our beck and call. Compared to a folder, that requires your full attention and even needs to be specifically closed when not needed, stacks are a great resource in the OS X. Continue reading →

Absinthe 2.0 and troubleshooting the Jailbreak

If you’ve been awake since the past few hours, you would have found out that french hacker pod2G and his dream team have released the latest jailbreak for iOS 5.1.1 on most devices. Those who have tried to jailbreak have also faced a couple of problems.

 

Simple steps to solve your issues for the jailbreak are –

1. Do a full restore of your iOS device from iTunes and do not put the data back into the device from your iTunes backup.

2. Try jailbreaking using Absinthe. If you’re on a Mac and you get stuck on the “Waiting for reboot…” screen, dump Mac and download absinthe for Windows and jailbreak on the windows device.

3. Be very patient. If your device has data on it, it can even take up to 40 minutes for the jailbreak to work.

 

I managed to jailbreak my iPhone 4S on iOS 5.1.1 today. All the best to you too!

 

 

 

Long Tweets from WordPress

Twitter is a great tool for interaction. However, it’s 140 character limit can often act as an obstruction in your thoughts. The stress is then on fitting the thought in the limit instead of getting the real meaning out.

WordPress, in it’s simple blog format, is a great blogging tool. You can quickly set it up for writing long blog posts with proper post title to get your point across. But some times, all you want to get across is a paragraph or a couple of lines. This model doesn’t fit in either WordPress or Twitter. What we need to do is to get WordPress to bend to the Twitter model yet remain a blog in a real sense. That way, we can post long tweets to your blog and have them reflect on twitter as well, driving traffic to your blog as well as getting your tweet across. Continue reading →

The Two Internets

Theories in Physics tell about the possibilities of infinite dimensions and infinite Universes. Compared to that, the fact that there are Infinite Internets within the same Internet is a reality we all face every time we login to our devices. Of these, I’d like to address two Internets – The Anonymous Internet and the Identifiable Internet. Continue reading →

India wants to control your Internet, Again

A few months ago, a report came out that India wanted to exert more control over the Internet, specifically social networking sites, in a bid to control the flow of discussion about it’s political leaders. A huge ruckus was created by the media, calling India the next China in Internet censorship. The whole ‘mela’ lasted a couple of months with wide online harassment of the political leaders behind this scheme. Then, the dust settled down and the Indian government got what they wanted. Facebook and Google agreed that they already regularly monitor and remove content that is negative towards famous people or towards religious sentiments of the people. They did not, however, as requested by the Indian government, hand over censorship controls to the Indian government, calling the idea outrageous and not feasible. (Further reading here)

 

This time, the Indian government wants to go one step ahead in their control of the Internet. According to this news report by the Indian newspaper The Hindu, the Indian government is pushing the United Nations General Assembly for government control of the task assigned to the non-governmental, non-profit organization ICANN. For those who don’t know, the ICANN is responsible for handing out IP addresses to websites so that they can operate on the Internet. Currently, this task is accomplished at lightening speed because of limited governmental intervention and bringing in government bureaucracy will only slow down the growth of the Internet. The task ICANN performs is vital because the impartial handover of IP addresses to those who require them is directly responsible for the free speech model of the Internet. If India has it’s way, all businesses will have to go to the government to get IP addresses, adding another layer of corruption to the already weak model of economic growth in developing countries like India. Also, such a move will allow the government to exercise undue control over the Internet such that it can threaten to cut off any website that it deems harmful to itself. The consequences to free speech are only one imaginative step away.

 

It is clear that when direct intervention failed them in the case against social networking sites as well as when popular social change leader Anna Hazare chose the Internet to channelize supporters, the Indian government chose to go behind the scenes in order to try and cut off their opponents directly by gaining control of the Internet. It is to be seen whether the leaders of the first world decide if this is a viable proposal on May 18th when the UN General Assembly meets in Geneva. With any luck, this proposal will be tossed out the window.