Microsoft – Tech Stuff

MSN Crawlers Pawned

Kulbir Saini — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 12:15:17 +0000

After seeing the way MSN crawled my last post, I just realized why Microsoft could never do good in Search Engine Market

I wonder why MSN would crawler same page from two different machines. I wonder if a single page can be divided further for crawling. Checkout the screenshots below

A few minutes later. Three Microsoft machines were crawling the same page

I have conformed using ARIN that all these IPs belong to Microsoft

Humour: Ubuntu is Costlier than Microsoft Windows XP

Kulbir Saini — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 20:11:30 +0000

Dell started selling their new Dell Inspiron Mini 9 series yesterday as informed by slashdot article. Lately I have been looking for a mobile solution which should be easy to carry and have enough computing power to meet my expectation. I liked the SSD concept replacing the mechanical hard disk. I just moved over to Dell website and tried configuring one for myself (go here to configure them yourself). I am an open source addict but I am not an Ubuntu fan but still going with ubuntu sounds better than going with M$ stuff. So, started configuring the Ubuntu machine and pushed everything (main memory, hard disk and other components) to maximum. A few minutes later I realized that the Ubuntu model’s price is more than the equivalent config with M$ Windows.

Below is a table comparing Windows XP and Ubuntu model of Dell Inspiron Mini 9 series. The differences are highlighted in red color.

Ubuntu 8.04	Microsoft Windows XP Home Premium
$494	$479
My Components
Obsidian Black	Obsidian Black
Mini OS powered by Ubuntu 8.04	Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition
1GB DDR2 at 533MHz	1GB DDR2 at 533MHz
16GB Solid State Drive	16GB Solid State Drive
Built-in Bluetooth 2.1 capability	Built-in Bluetooth 2.1 capability
Integrated 1.3M Pixel Webcam	Integrated 1.3M Pixel Webcam

My Service
1Yr Ltd Warranty and Mail-In Service	1Yr Ltd Warranty and Mail-In Service

Also Includes
Intel® Atom Processor® N270 (1.6GHz/533Mhz FSB/512K cache)	Intel® Atom Processor® N270 (1.6GHz/533Mhz FSB/512K cache)
Glossy 8.9 inch LED display (1024X600)	Glossy 8.9 inch LED display (1024X600)
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 950	Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 950
Wireless 802.11g Mini Card	Wireless 802.11g Mini Card
32WHr Battery (4 cell)	32WHr Battery (4 cell)
Base LCD Assembly	Base LCD Assembly
Base LCD Assembly in Black	Base LCD Assembly in Black
No Installation	No Installation
	Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 8.1, English
	McAfee SecurityCenter 30-day Trial
	Microsoft Works 9 DOES NOT INCLUDE MS WORD
	No ISP requested

According to the above table Ubuntu alone is costlier than Genuine Microsoft Windows XP Home Premium + Adobe Acrobat Reader 8.1 English + McAfee SecurityCenter 30-day Trial + Microsoft Works 9 (MS Word Excluded). I am not sure if Dell is trying to promote Microsoft by selling Windows XP model at a lower price or they are generating more revenues for Ubuntu by selling it at a higher price or they are just fooling the customers. Below are the picture proofs if Dell changes the prices.

Bye Bye Windows

Kulbir Saini — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 20:37:49 +0000

A ruff day again … but a day I think I’ll remember for long or may be forever … the day of change … the day you grow up and take decision not to mess up your life anymore …

well, ORB posted some pics of a game here (intranet link) and I just asked about the minimum hardware configuration for running the game. His reply was “minimum requirements for u is first start using windows“. well, I use linux most of the times but I have windows xp as well, though sitting idle on my hdd. I didn’t a expect a comment like that.

As I am leaving for home on 10th of this month, I switched to windows. I started writing some data onto DVDs for taking them along with me. While writing the first DVD, it failed at 95%. Suddenly, I got an idea that I would take my hard disk instead of writing the DVDs this time. I’ll buy a SATA to USB converter and transfer the data through USB. So, started collecting the data. While downloading a movie from some ftp, a virus came over and attacked my pc. Strange virus!!! whenever I open any window with title having any of the words task manager, antivirus, virus, norton, symantec, mcaffee etc., it just minimize the window and kill the process immediately. ohh !!! I tried all the ways I know or I could have, but in vain.

So, thought of formatting my windows partition and reinstall the windows. Booted from the xp cd and …. and black screen …. ohh god … i have got this SATA-II hdd. shit!!! Technology is just to fool humans not to help in the real sense. The windows xp doesn’t install on sata hard disks.

To get through, I had two ways … either I go by the long, irritating way of patching the xp iso with sata drivers or format the entire hdd and create one single partition using Partition Magic and then install the xp. Tried patching first … long long process … gave up early … and there is not point in formatting the entire hdd for the crappy os. The best thing is that Fedora 7 is out with a great support for virtualization.

So, I have finally decided to kick windows out of my hdd forever or as long as possible and keep only Fedora. I will really miss AOE but I can’t live with the threats anymore.

I remember a line from one of our English books “Calamity will come and teach them by torture.”. I think this is going to happen to everyone sometime down the line.

So, from now on, I am totally free and secure.