ESXi 3.5 is VMware’s next-generation hypervisor technology, co-developed with Dell to facilitate embedded virtualization. Dell recommends evaluating embedded VMware ESXi 3.5 for simplified deployment and higher security in shared-storage environments. As the virtualization ecosystem is adapting to VMware’s new hypervisor architecture, the CD-ROM based VMware ESX 3.5 will still have the broadest compatibility with 3rd-party management tools and provide the most robust management environment.

According to Dell

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Hitwise released the data for the top 20 most popular website in UK for the month September 2008.

Note - the Hitwise data featured is based on UK market share of visits, which is the percentage of online traffic to the domain or industry, from the Hitwise sample of 8.4 million Internet users in the UK. Hitwise measures more than 1 million unique websites on a daily basis, including sub-domains of larger websites. Hitwise categorises websites into industries on the basis of subject matter and content, as well as market orientation and competitive context.

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It is one of the biggest and most controversial experiments to be carried out in recent times. On September 10, a machine costing a staggering $7.75 billion (Rs 31,000 crore) will be fired up to recapture conditions not seen since the birth of the universe almost 14 billion years ago. The machine, located at CERN, a Geneva-based nuclear research lab, will carry on the experiment inside a 27-km tunnel deep beneath the French-Swiss border.The news of the experiment has evoked resentment from some experts, who feel that such an experiment could cause the end of the universe. In fact, scientists working on to recreate forces that occurred immediately after the Big Bang have received death threats. The main thing is India’s contribution  in search of the universe’s missing matter by smashing particles like during the Big Bang is equally impressive. Around 200 of the 2,000 scientists doing the experiment are from India.

What is LHC: The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the largest and most complex machine ever made and the platform for what experts say is the largest scientific experiment in human history about 10,000 people working in 500 universities in 80 countries. the LHC is nothing like as simple as flipping a switch. A chain of smaller accelerators, built for earlier projects, are first used to speed up the proton beams to the point where they can be injected into the machine. The start of the process is a bottle of hydrogen gas no bigger than a fire extinguisher.Hydrogen atoms are stripped of their electrons to produce streams of protons that are fed into accelerators of increasing size.The last link in the chain before the LHC, the Super Proton Synchrotron, is itself buried underground and stretches for more than four miles. Timing between the Synchrotron and the LHC has to be accurate to within a fraction of a nanosecond. The £5billion collider is designed to smash sub-atomic protons into each other at energies up to seven times greater than any achieved before. At different points around the tunnel, the beams will be guided to cross paths, near four massive ‘detectors’ that monitor the collisions for interesting events. The LHC could help scientists explain mass, gravity, and the mysterious ‘dark matter’ that fills much of the universe.

What exactly the experiment is: The LHC is buried under 300ft of rock and straddles the borders of Switzerland and France between Lake Geneva and the Jura mountains.The beams of protons will be accelerated in opposite directions through the ring-shaped tunnel, which is supercooled to just 1.9 degrees above absolute zero (minus 271C), the lowest temperature allowed by nature.Reaching velocities of 99.99 per cent of the speed of light, each beam will pack as much energy as a Eurostar train travelling at 93mph.The particles will be brought together in four huge ‘detectors’ placed along the ring. Each detector is like a giant microscope, designed to probe deeper into the heart of matter than has ever been possible before.

Why we need this experiment:

• It could give the first evidence of extra spatial dimensions that have been hypothesised by physicists such as Stephen Hawking.
• The particle collider could provide proof of Stephen Hawking’s theory that black holes emit radiation.
• It could also give- Without the Higgs particle (Named after physicist Peter Higgs), electrons would have no mass and atoms wouldn’t stick    together. We would fall apart into piles of atomic nuclei.
• Most scientists believe is the only explanation of an expanding universe, should show how stars and planets came together.

Protons have made their first complete lap of the world’s most powerful accelerator to cheers and high fives from assembled physicists.At 1025 (local time) scientists sent a single beam of protons in a clockwise direction around the full 27 kilometers of the Large Hadron Collider at the CERN laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland.The journey began at 09:30 when LHC project leader Lyn Evans and his team launched protons into the ring. Progress was made in short steps of a few kilometers, so that physicists could learn how to steer the beam, which is travelling at 99.9998% the speed of light.”We’ve got a beam on the LHC,” project leader Lyn Evans told his colleagues, who burst into applause at the news.The several hundred physicists and technicians huddled in the control room later celebrated loudly again when a particle beam completed a trajectory of the accelerator in one direction, a key step a CERN spokeswoman described as “fantastic.”

Particle physicist Dr James Gillies, a spokesman for the LHC, said:

“We have received a lot of worried calls from people about it.”There’s nothing to worry about, the LHC is absolutely safe because we have observed nature doing the same things the LHC has done. “Protons regularly collide in the earth’s upper atmosphere without creating black holes.”

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Google has celebrated his 10th anniversary yesterday, Here are some of the milestones with brief history:

1. Sept. 7, 1998: Google was co-founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were students at Stanford University and the company was first incorporated as a privately held company on 7 September 1998. Google Inc. is an American public corporation, earning revenue from advertising related to its Internet search, e-mail, online mapping, office productivity, social networking, and video sharing services as well as selling advertising-free versions of the same technologies. Sept. 21, 1998 Google hires its first employee named  Craig Silverstein.
2. 1999:  In February 1999 Google Opens first office in Palo Alto after several months operating from a garage. June 7, 1999  Google Announces first round of venture capital - $25 million from Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
3. 2000: Google becomes Yahoo’s default search provider. Yahoo and Google Inc. today announced they have entered into an agreement that makes Google, one of the fastest growing search engines on the Web, Yahoo!’® default search results provider. Under this agreement, Google will provide its underlying Web search engine to serve as a complement to Yahoo! popular Web directory and navigational guide. Introduce AdWords, an online advertising service that sets the stage for phenomenal financial success.
4.  2001:  Dr. Eric E. Schmidt, 46, named chief executive officer. Schmidt, who was appointed chairman of Google’s board of directors in March 2001, succeeds Larry Page, 28, Google’s founding chief executive officer. Page was named President, Products; and Sergey Brin, 27, the company’s founding president, was named President, Technology.
5. 2002:  In February of 2002, AdWords, Google’s self-service advertising system, received a major overhaul, including a cost-per-click (CPC) pricing model that makes search advertising as cost-effective for small businesses as for large ones. Google News launched in beta in September of 2002, offering access to 4,500 leading news sources from around the world.
6. 2003:  Google acquires Pyra Labs and become the home for Blogger, a leading provider of services for those inclined to share their thoughts with the world through online journals (weblogs), then launch Google AdSense program, Google Toolbar and Google Deskbar.
7. 2004:  Google Starts a new web-based mail service called Gmail, which at launch included a gigabyte of free storage for each user, highlighting its ambitions beyond search.announced. start market capitalization of $23 billion, transforming thousands of its employees into paper millionaires (or billionaires, in some cases). In just over three years, the initial share price of $85 soars to $741.79, before retreating.
8. 2005:  Google Releases aerial mapping service, Google Earth, gives users a bird’s-eye view of their homes. & Google Blog Search, a tool to help people find lively content as soon as it’s live on blogs around the world. Release Personalized Homepage on which you can add news headlines from any sources offering feeds, as well as stock quotes, weather, movie showtimes, even driving directions.
9. 2006:   A demand by the Justice Department for Google’s records for millions of search engine users becomes public, raising the concerns of privacy advocates. Google successfully wages a court battle to avoid handing over the information, also Expands offline by buying dMarc Broadcasting, a radio advertising company. The verb "Google" is added to the Oxford English Dictionary, a sign of how deeply intertwined the company has become with everyday life. Google announces plans to acquire YouTube for $1.65 billion.
10. 2007:  Fortune magazine names Google the best company to work for in its annual list & Viacom files $1 billion suit against Google that accuses it of allowing video piracy to flourish on YouTube, Announces $3.1 billion deal to buy online advertising service DoubleClick.
11. 2008:  Yahoo agrees to use some Google ads on its search engine, an acknowledgement that Google has won the search wars. The partnership, criticized by rival Microsoft Corp., which had attempted a takeover of Yahoo, is under review by federal regulators.

After all successes the journey is continue….

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Pingdom has published Google and Microsoft interview questions. Google and Microsoft interview questions are really interesting and take a lot effort to solve them. Pingdom also offer a free one year Pingdom business account that normally goes for $479 to the person who best answers these questions.

Questions by Google

1. How many golf balls can fit in a school bus?
2. You are shrunk to the height of a nickel and your mass is proportionally reduced so as to maintain your original density. You are then thrown into an empty glass blender. The blades will start moving in 60 seconds. What do you do?
3. How many piano tuners are there in the entire world?
4. In a country in which people only want boys, every family continues to have children until they have a boy. If they have a girl, they have another child. If they have a boy, they stop. What is the proportion of boys to girls in the country?
5. Describe a chicken using a programming language.

Questions by Microsoft

1. You have a bucket of jelly beans. Some are red, some are blue, and some green. With your eyes closed, pick out 2 of a like color. How many do you have to grab to be sure you have 2 of the same?
2. Pairs of primes separated by a single number are called prime pairs. Examples are 17 and 19. Prove that the number between a prime pair is always divisible by 6 (assuming both numbers in the pair are greater than 6). Now prove that there are no ‘prime triples.’
3. Imagine an analog clock set to 12 o’clock. Note that the hour and minute hands overlap. How many times each day do both the hour and minute hands overlap? How would you determine the exact times of the day that this occurs?
4. How much does a 747 weigh?
5. Imagine a disk spinning like a record player turn table. Half of the disk is black and the other is white. Assume you have an unlimited number of color sensors. How many sensors would you have to place around the disk to determine the direction the disk is spinning? Where would they be placed?

Source : Pingdom

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Today, I was going through my personal archive of technology magazines and blogs, to find out the best baby (hardware in geek’s lingo) for money, for my friend and owner of this blog. After searching for a while, I was able to make the list of A-things available in the market, that can help one do the basic computing tasks, and casual gaming with the ease. Soon enough, this idea struck to my mind, to share the same information with everyone, so that no one spend their money foolishly and end up with an idiot box instead of PC.

So, I started making out what are the general requirements of a beginner programmer, or for your grand-dad, or your mom, for a PC. I figured out that the basic work that everyone does is, watching movies or listening songs. Apart from that, maintaining tasks list, viewing photos, keeping documents, surfing are other few basic activities. A beginner programmer also needs to use Oracle 9i, or Visual Studio, or some JDK on their system. These programming requirements seems heavy and costly. But, after going through the requirement specifications of these development kits, I figured out that these tasks can be done easily on a basic PC too.

Also, as my friend stated, and every one else look forward to, is that whatever amount of money they are spending on hardware, doesn’t matter much. All that they need is a PC which is jack of all trades. It should be good looking, having better ergonomics (for keyboard, and mouse), and should also play all the latest games. So, obviously budget is supposed to be big enough. Although, if one is not interested in movies, and games, budget can be somewhere around 25000Rs., but since we are looking for a budget-do-all PC, I started off with a budget of 35000Rs., with a margin of 3k. And so, begins my hunt for the list of better hardware, and choosing the best buy. Since, we are on for a budget PC, I never opted for a better performance hardware, but for a best-bang-for-the-money baby.  And this is what I came up with:-

• Monitor :- In case, you are not interested in movies, and gaming, you can opt for any CRT monitor of 15-17inches. I would recommend the LG e700sh - 17inch Flat CRT, which costs around 5,500 bucks. But, in case, you like watching movies, or want to play games too, then an LCD screen is the better option for good picture quality and lesser space requirement. I would personally recommend AOC 917VW - 19 inch LCD priced at 9,500Rs.
• Keyboard And Mouse :- No questions asked. Just one recommendation. Logitech Multimedia Combo priced at 800Rs. is the best choice considering ease of use, and sturdyness. I personally used it for 2 years, for all my gaming needs, before selling it for 500bucks. Seriously, best buy for your money.
• Motherboard :- The most important and most neglected component of your CPU. If you go ahead and buy the best processor and RAM in the market, but using an age-old motherboard, then you have got serious problems. Your best-in-class processor and RAM are of no use, in case motherboard is not good enough. So, save money for it, even if that means cutting costs on other components like RAM, DVD-Writer, etc. The other point to be considered is that we rarely upgrade our motherboard, atleast not more than once in 2 years. So, expansion slots, no. of USB ports and other slots are important aspect. Here, my choice is Asus M2N-MX, which costs a little less than 4,000Rs. Its good, having enough ungrade option to future proof your system, and is really dirt cheap.
• Processor :- So, we came down to the core part of the system. I preferred AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+, which costs 3,600Rs. Intel processors offer a lot better performance at this time, but considering the higher prices, they are a serious NO for any budget PC.
• RAM :- Considering the current scenario, and the upcoming trend, going for 2gb RAM is a good thing, if you can increase your budget by 2,000 Rs. Else, best choice is Kingston 1GB DDR2 800Mhz RAM. This sweet baby costs just under 1500Rs. which is quite a steal for the price, considering its performance.
• Hard Disk Drive :- Considering current memory space requirements of everything from your documents to games or HD movies, this is a major component to check out. Best buy would be Hitachi DeskStar 7K160 SATA, which costs just around 3,200Rs. People used to ask how does a faster hard disk can be useful. It really depends on usage, means the amount of data one used to save or load at regular intervals. The other point is that hard disk serves as a virtual RAM. So, all memory hungry processes like, Visual Studio, demands better hard drive. Although in case of very tight budget, you can opt for another brand or model, which may costs some 500rs less, but will decrease the performance by 10% too.
• DVD - Writer :- A faster DVD reader is a good choice. It rarely increases your budget by 200rs or so, but can dramatically affect the performance, in case of accessing DVDs for gaming or playing movies directly from the DVD. Although, it rarely counts, so to help reduce the budget, one can opt for cheaper ones, but at their own risk. I would personally prefer Samsung SH-203, which costs just 1,200Rs. Quiet cheap huh..
• Sound Card :- This one is simply an optional component. Only recommended in case you want to play games too, or in case you are a serious audiophile. For all others, onboard sound card is the best option. But in case, you love music, or gaming, and looking for a 5.1 speaker set, then Creative SoundBlaster Live 5.1 Card will be the best companion of your beloved speakers. But still its a matter of choice.
• Speaker set :- Now, this depends on a lot of choices. Are you ready to spend some extra cash,  for surround sound, or just happy with a 2.1 speaker set. Both has their own advantages. 5.1 sounds better, but needs better hardware and more space, and a whole lot of painstaking setup time. So, I selected the best buy in both segments. For 2.1 speaker set, one can opt for Altec Lansing BXR1121, which costs 1250Rs. and is a good choice. But if you love gaming, or if you have already opted for a sound card, then go for Altec Lansing VS3251 which is priced at 4,300Rs. Again a matter of choice.
• PC Case :- An equally important part of a good PC. If your system is running at 60+degrees, then you have got serious cooling issues to deal with. Also, performance will drop too, and chances are you may end up, harming other computer parts. Risking critical parts of your system for just some 500 bucks is non-sense. So, opt for one which provides better cooling options. Else you may have to look for aftermarket cooling solution to bring down the temperature below 50degrees. Zebronics Lava with 450watts power supply, is highly recommended.
• Graphics Card :- Kindly go for it. Although you can give it a miss, in case you are planning to stick with onboard GPU. But a drop in performance is obvious, and is much of an impact in case of watching movies. I would say, spend 2,000 odd bucks, and buy atleast the cheapest one, but go for it. Its worth every penny. For those who loves to do some casual gaming too, here is a choice. If you have opted for 17inch monitor, or low settings didn’t bother you much, then, you can opt for Sparkle GeForce 8400GS, which costs just 2400Rs. And the best thing is it can easily run Windows Vista with Aero and other effects turned on. But, sadly it gives just 5fps, in Crysis, and 9fps in NFS Prostreet, for medium settings and 1240p resolution. Although it can manage playable frame rates in lower resolution. But still its advisable to go for slightly bigger budget, in case you want the latest of the gaming action. I would recommend Asus EAH2600XT which is priced at 5600Rs, and atleast 2.5 times faster then the Sparkle GeForce 8400GS. It manages to get 26 FPS for Crysis with medium settings at 1240p resolution, which is best one can get for this price range.

OK, so the list is done. Well, it is just 1k more than our budget. But as I said, if you opt for a tighter budget, the optional recommendations are also listed. And in case, you have way too tight budget, or you need it just for surfing and maintaining tasks list, and nothing else, then try Asus Eee PC, which is really a steal for the money.

Finally, I hope that this post would have helped you searching for the best components. If yes, then do comment, else kindly tell me what else you need to know. Also, if you can find something, that’s better than the listed items, then do tell me too.

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Well, fairly speaking its not an idea that struck my mind. I was surfing through archive of one of the programmer’s blog, and found this post. According to that post,

It’s unbelievable to me that a company would pay a developer $60-$100k in salary, yet cripple him or her with terrible working conditions and crusty hand-me-down hardware. This makes no business sense whatsoever. And yet I see it all the time. It’s shocking how many companies still don’t provide software developers with the essential things they need to succeed.

So true. I personally calculated myself, the cost of increasing infrastructure quality (read, better system, and better facilities) can be recovered in just a month, provided that it efficiently increases one’s productivity by atleast 10%. And then, the fact that better infrastructure leads to better state of mind, which means better productivity again. Not just me or other developers think this way, but whole gaming industry is running according to these principles. And no one can deny the fact that it is the fastest growing sector in IT industry.  I know it sounds ridiculous according to the managerial concept that those HR guys learn in their IIM classes. But sometimes you just have to think outta box to make sure you are the leader.

Anyways, to adhere to this bill, is totally a matter of choice of the HR. We can just hope for the same. By the time, we should just make a list of what changes can seriously affect the productivity and hence should be included in this bill.

P.S. - Few of them are my own thoughts and few are from other developers all across the world.

So, here is the list.

• Every programmer shall have a bigger workspace :- Well, easily this is one thing that can radically change the time required to search for a pad or pencil, while you are busy discussing the issues with your clients. It happened to me a lot of times. Dropping the pad, while looking for a whiteboard marker is not something that’s rare.
• Every programmer shall have two monitors :- Although increasing the number of monitors, reduces the amount of free space available on your desk. But it really helps to open multiple windows at times, and thus can save the time used for switching to help window every now and then, and coming back to code window. Also, it helps decreasing the frustration of accidentally closing a window while minimizing it.
• Every programmer should have better PC :- Programmers deserve the rights to work on best in class hardware, as they are the persons using computers for half of their life. And other point is that no one loves to wait for a program to compile or for a application to load, looking at those silly progress bar or status bar.
• Every programmer should have comfortable chair :- I should say I personally prefers bean bag, but if chair is comfortable, that’s good enough. After all, we have to sit on that chair for too long, and I don’t think your brain will work, if you are feeling pain in your arse.
• Every programmer should get enough of coffee and snacks :- Every other day, a programmer works for more than usual time schedule. So, enough of coffee, and snacks can always help him keep going for hours. Oh yeah, if s/he is a smoker, providing enough of smokes can be a good option too.
• Every programmer should get better mouse and keyboard :- At work, I just like most of the programmers, use a sticky keyboard, and a scroll mouse, and I really feel this is an important point for consideration.
• Every programmer deserves his own space :- What if some one keep on nitpicking on your just-a-draft webpage, saying that it doesn’t look cool? No one likes it, right. So, does the programmer. But, sadly managers just don’t understand. They keep on asking you to tell them how much percentage of task you have done to complete the homepage structure of the website. It simply hurts.
• Every programmer should have fast Internet connection :- In case, you don’t have offline help, its very important. I can still remember those days, when I was stuck on some stupid syntax error, and googling for same, took 15 minutes of my time, thanks to that silly 54kbps connection I have got at my desk. Just by increasing the speed to 256kbps, this time could have reduced to 5 minutes. And if you consider the fact that you encounter same situation every hour, that accounts for 15% of your productivity.
• Every programmer should have rights to ask “Why?” :- How many times you have felt as a programmer that something you are working on is not properly justified? That the spacing between two textboxes can be decreased by 10% to make the page look better and to fit more information? I felt it almost every day when working on a enhancements project. And then, you have got no right to ask why you just can’t do it. Is it because, some stupid jerk called Business Analyst didn’t thought of it first. I know it sounds crazy. People who have got no idea about coding, defines the way we should code, and we can’t even argue on that.
• Every programmer should have access to all the documentation, books and Google :- Why does the managers think that being a programmer, you should know every thing about your programming language, and environment used? Why can’t I just use Google to look for an answer, when I am stuck?  And do you know about any manager who have crammed every single management principles,he learnt from the business school?
• Every programmer should be given full right to wear any outfit :- I am never able to understand how can one’s outfit affect his work. One reason is that I have to wear professional outfits for those daily meetings, I may attend. But then, if I am supposed to attend those meetings, why the hell we need those managers for?

So, here is the list of points what developers think, should be included in their rights. I would definitely love to hear about other points that you think, should be a part of this bill. Well, till that time, I am off to file a petition to the programmer’s union about this bill. Oops, i forgot, i don’t even know about any union as such. Do you??? Do you even care about your rights????

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Google once again tops the top web brands in United Stated of America. Google attracted more then 120 million users while Yahoo holds the second place with approximately 113 million users.List of top 10 brands is as follows

1. Google.
2. Yahoo.
3. MSN/Windows Live.
4. Microsoft.
5. AOL Media Network.
6. YouTube.
7. Fox Interactive Media.
8. Wikipedia.
9. eBay.
10. Apple

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New figures from Net Applications shows that Microsoft’s Windows Vista shares in last one year leaped more then 355% and in the same year Apple’s operating system share gained more then 32% of operating system market share. Net Applications reports that the Mac had 7.94% market share in June, up from 6.03% a year ago. Going from a little more than 6% to just under 8% may be a big gain when measured as a percentage of growth. But when seen in absolute numbers, it’s not particularly impressive.

Vista, by way of contrast, showed far more explosive growth. In June, 2007, it had 4.54% market share. In June, 2008, it had reached 16.14%; more than a 355% gain. Those numbers are substantial not just in percentage terms, but in raw terms as well. Apple would sell the first-born children of most of its employees if it could ever get to a 16% market share.

For a chart of overall operating system trends, according to Net Applications, click here. For a chart that includes version numbers, click here.

Source: PCWorld.

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According to Top500, More then 85%  of world’s supercomputers run on Linux operating system. The open source operating system powers no less then 427 supercomputers of world including the world’s fastest supercomputer. Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 and Windows HPC 2008 (which have now reached Release Candidate 1 stage) combined account for just 1% of the Top500 supercomputers, running on just five systems.

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