My C: Drive

 

Who would have thought an harmless beer will be the cause of  the biggest tech leak in recent history .well that’s what happened to Gray Powell an engineer at apple, he had accidently dropped or left the next generation iphone in a bar after a binge session with his friends .

The iphone which was left behind accidently landed up in the hands of gizmodo a gadget blog under the umbrella of gawker media.firstly the iphone looked like a 3GS but later it was found out to be a incognito iphone 4g after further investigation, the specs and feature that were found in the iphone were a lot different then the ones that are found in the current generation 3GS.

Whether this incident is a PR stunt or really an accident is quite murky ,but on the other hand apple has a well established market so they have no reason to create a hype over their new iphone.

This incident also reminds me of  the next harry potter movie script which was left behind forgetfully in a bar in London.Apple is the kind of company which has a knack  of keeping its unreleased product on a tight leash so this leak would have been a honest mistake by Gray Powell.

Gizmodo has also posted a letter from apple’s legal department which asks them to return the iphone back to apple so this may have really been an  accident.

INTRODUCTION
While issues like Net Neutrality remain a hotly debated issue among us NetNerds™, there are the majority of "netizens" who aren't as tech savvy and couldn't give a damn about things like standards compliance, JavaScript load times and fancy page element Inspectors in their everyday browsers.

Which is why if one were to make a decision on which browser to use based solely on things like full blown detailed browser benchmarking, then one might as well buy a car based on the size of it's fuel tank.

So for the purpose of simplicity and ease of understanding, this browser comparison (for the Windows platform), is going to be on the basis of installation, ease-of-use, and other general parameters.

DISCLAIMER
At the time of writing the latest versions of the 5 most popular Windows browsers are as follows:

• Internet Explorer 8.0.6
• Mozilla Firefox 3.6.3
• Apple Safari 4.0.5
• Google Chrome 4.1.249
• Opera 10.51

NOTE: I'm not exactly biased toward any one browser, though as I say that, I'm writing this on Mozilla Firefox and I have been accused in the past of being an unabashed Apple fanboy. So if you find any bias in this review, well then, tough.


1: INSTALLATION


The Installation round easily goes to Google's Chrome. Unless you've had Internet Explorer 8 installed by sodding Automatic Updates (which I highly recommend you turn on, by the way), Chrome's super easy installation will delight the average user who couldn't care less about where the install directory could be or where he should save the installer file. That's because the Google Chrome Installer is actually a 500 something KB file downloaded to the user's machine which then phones home the Google servers and then downloads the actual Chrome browser. While this may infuriate advanced users who like having the entire setup file and have a severe hatred of anything that doesn't allow them to set the Install Path (Eg: C:\Program Files\), the average user I'm sure will appreciate the ease with which with a couple of clicks gets the browser installed and ready to go.

Second, is Mozilla's Firefox. A few clicks on Mozilla's home page will get you the nearly 8 MB Firefox Installer which then asks a few routine questions before quickly setting up your browser. If you're a novice user, you can simply check the Automatic Installation option and avoid being asked unnecessary questions like installation directories and such.

Third is Opera Software's browser. Third because it needs a couple more clicks on the Opera site to bypass accidentally downloading Opera Mini for your phone and also because the Installer is a little larger at 9.3 MB, but really I'm nitpicking here, because to setup it's almost as easy, if not easier than Firefox and requires even less supervision than Mozilla's offering.

The absolute travesty of an installer here, is Apple's Safari. Not only is the browser's installation file a whopping 31 MB, but if you want the ridiculously useless QuickTime for Windows with it, then the Installer bloats to a truly colossal (for a browser) 50 MB! Added to that, during installation, the browser automatically enables the option to install Bonjour (an unnecessary network file sharing discovery utility) and whether you like it or not, installs Apple Application Support and Apple Software Update as separate utilities.

Google Chrome: http://www.google.com/chrome
Mozilla Firefox: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/personal.html
Opera: http://www.opera.com/download/
Apple Safari: http://www.apple.com/safari/download/
Windows Internet Explorer: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/


2: USER INTERFACE

Unless you've been living in a hole or a third world country without Internet (which is pretty much the same thing) for the last ten years, then I don't have to explain in detail to you the basics of a browser's interface: There's the Back/Forward/Home/Refresh button set at the top left, then a large white text box called the address bar ("Awesome Bar" in Firefox) and depending on your browser, a little search box on the upper right hand side. No browser featured in this comparison appears to want to mess with this standard template; with the exception of Google Chrome's Address Bar/Search Bar rolled up into a single text box.

For the sake of simplicity, let's dissuade further comparison of each browser's aesthetics and leave it to individual choice to decide which one looks best. With the screenshots though are a few points to note about each browser's interface.

GOOGLE CHROME

• Simple, clean, bare-bones interface.
• Thin window borders maximize web page area.
• Intelligent "tabs-on-top design" removes need for a space wasting title bar.
• When maximized, tabs move to top of the screen to give largest screen space for the web page.
• Menu bar integrated into the two icons next to Address Bar.
• Windows Vista, 7 get full transparent window borders.

MOZILLA FIREFOX

• Another clean interface style that has Windows Native integration
• Tab Bar and Title Bar display same information and feel superfluous.
• Navigation section takes up more space and leaves less space for web pages (NOTE: Menu Bar minimized in Screenshot)
• Interface can be greatly customized with add-ons to be better than the other browsers.
  

OPERA

• Chrome-esque design is actually an evolution of Opera's own UI design.
• Menu bar options are neatly packed into red Opera logo at the top left of Title Bar (as in Office 2007 and Windows 7)
• Windows Vista, 7 get full transparent window borders that look great unlike the Windows XP version featured here.
• Speed Dial feature is native to Opera and a great innovation (Not pictured here)
• As in Chrome, when maximized tabs move to top of the screen to give large screen space for the web page.

APPLE SAFARI

• Interface, unusually for an Apple product, is lackluster and feels like a mash of Internet Explorer and Google Chrome.
• Cover Flow view, as in iTunes, feels completely unnecessary and overly superfluous to browse History and Bookmarks.
• Thin Navigation bar is a boon and gives center stage to the web page.
• The unnecessarily effects heavy features of Top Sites (Similar to Speed Dial) demand very high graphics capability.
• Inconsistent interface feels labored and slow to user response.
  

WINDOWS INTERNET EXPLORER

• Standard template of browser design used in latest Internet Explorer.
• Interface feels surprisingly nippy and is pleasing to look at.
• At the same time, there's nothing revolutionary about the UI.

3: FEATURES AND FUNCTIONALITY

I'm sorry, but Firefox wins this one without the race even starting. There's just no way for the other browsers to compete. The master stroke that Mozilla's baby pulls off here is that it's Open Source, which means anyone is free to add, modify the browser's code to extend or alter it's functionality. This means there are tons of, quite frankly, brilliant "Add-ons" for the browser which add features that can only be explained/experienced by heading over to: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/

Finishing second in this round is Google's Chrome. Chrome only recently acquired the "Extensions" feature which can change the browser's functionality according to the user's whim, but it's extension count doesn't even compare to Firefox. Yet. https://chrome.google.com/extensions

Opera is next up, and while it may not have any extensions to speak of, out of the box, it already possesses some really neat features like Mouse Gestures, Opera Turbo (which speeds up load time by compressing images and graphics) and a rather large amount of Appearance customizability.

Finally, in joint last place in this round, are Apple's Safari and Windows Internet Explorer. Both the browsers have absolutely no saving grace in feature list extensions. This despite Apple's bold claim that there are "over" 150 improvements in this version of Safari. The key I think to these browsers' failure is that they both come pre-installed with OSes (Safari with Apple's Macintosh OS X and Internet Explorer with Microsoft's Windows line). Consequently, these browsers haven't had to actually work for market share. As a result, they've become the fat lazy bloated pieces of software they are; Always in the protected patronage of their parent companies who hug on to their source code like little girls who're afraid of the dark and hug on to their teddy bears.


4: CONCLUSION

Personally, I think it's highly unfair and presumptuous if I were to pick a "best" browser out of the 5 contenders. More likely, I would pick the one "I" find best. So to simplify your decision, I'm going to categorize the browsers into the user group it's most likely to please.

If you're:

The discerning web user/developer who tears web pages apart by examining their each element and customizing it, dresses your browser up like a drag queen, opens 5 billion tabs at once and uses every toolbar known to man; you want Mozilla Firefox/Opera.

The novice who just goes on the Internet to check their e-mail, occasionally watch some YouTube videos and maybe glance at some photos online once in a while; you want Google Chrome.

The egotistic maniac who wants web pages to look good and yourself to look good while browsing them or if you have a penchant for ostentatious things or if you own a super car and have a supermodel girlfriend; you want Apple Safari.

The kind of user who doesn't know what broadband means, can't bother with things like installing and have doubts as to what you're doing on this page; you want (and probably have) Windows Internet Explorer.

So there you have it, My C: Drive's comprehensive guide to web browsers. Coming soon, a look at Mac and Windows applications on each others platforms.

 

 

HP the infamous company whose printer ink costs more than the  human blood has done something that would allow us to have a electronic brain in the near future.yeah it is called memristors(memory + resistor Duh…) such a thing was first  theorized by a professor called Leon Chua  in 1971,now HP has announced that they will be mass producing  memristors by 2013.HP had done significant research and announced that memristors can be created and used in various areas of application back in 2008.

So what is a memristor? well it is a special type of resistor which can remember the current that has passed through it ,so the electronic state is  retained  even if there is no power supplied .this phenomenon has incredible application in the field of micro storages and it doesn't stop there memristrors are expected to  potentially replace conventional transistors that are used in  today’s computer systems because they take up much smaller space and provide almost twice the performance .a memristor system can even be used to create a electronic brain if its potential is fully exploited!.

As the number transistors that can be placed on a chip is increasing exponentially we may soon  face a limit due to the  size of the component.memristors will allow chip making company’s to push past that barrier and create advanced chips which are capable of providing unimaginable computing power.what we saw in many sci-fi books,movies,TV shows is going to materialize right before our eyes pretty soon.

  Makes you shit bricks doesn't it !!!

Network Neutrality. familiar with the term ? you aren't!,then you sire have no right to call yourself a netizen ,shame on you!.seems a bit  harsh eh? well the reality is much harsher and here is why

For those who are oblivious to net neutrality it is kind of a principal which says that all the devices and users connected to the inter net should share its resources and what it has to offer with out any restrictions. suppose you pay 1000rs for a monthly inter net connection you have the right to experience the internet fully and this is where net neutrality comes into play.

As you know the amount of information that is being shared on the internet is humongous and the ISP who provides us with internet connection are saying that they couldn't handle the traffic and the sheer amount of data shared is putting a tremendous pressure on today's internet.that is why invisible data caps also called FUP(Fair usage policy) is set in place by the ISP’s in order to restrict the amount of data procured from the internet.this is already against the principals of net neutrality.

Do you remember when Comcast was restricting the bit torrent traffic back in 2008 but FCC(Federal Communications commissions ) stepped in and stopped them from doing so.well Comcast  took the case to the court and a ruling was made which gave net neutrality a severe blow,the court ruling was that  FCC cant restrict  com cast and they can do whatever they want.

So after all these years why should i be concerned ? you may ask .right now the scenario is going to change corporate ISP’s are planning to limit the amount of content that can be shared and viewed on the internet that is they are thinking about  laying out some plans which is like a DTH scheme that is watching specified amount of channels on TV for specified amount likewise visiting specified number of websites for specified amount.

So in the future you will be asked to pay extra amount of money if you are going to game online or do file sharing or worse get banned from doing both.so what can you do? well for starters you can visit  websites which allows you to contribute to the cause a simple Google search will yield you a lot of results on that .

Right now we are in the golden age of the internet. the scenario will definitely change in the coming years and we should be prepared for it .if one ISP start to cook up nonsense like this it wont be too long for other  ISP’s to follow the same suite.we should be aware of this matter and we should be prepared when shit hits the fan.