GreySquare Blog

Demonoid Offline

// November 10th, 2007 // 1 Comment » // General

The CRIA, Canadian Recording Industry Association, took down Demonoid. It seems they threatened the company providing the Demonoid servers so they had to take the site down. Note that previously in September Demonoid was offline for a few days and then they were back again saying they were blocking Canadian traffic due to some legal issues which was CRIA. But this time I guess they are gone till they find some hosting company with some guts.

This is what you get when you go to Demonoid.com →

The CRIA threatened the company renting the servers to us, and because of this it is not possible to keep the site online. Sorry for the inconvenience and thanks for your understanding.

The message on the Demonoid IRC channel says that the tracker is still running and that we should expect the site to return soon. What is wrong with these guys?
RIAA, MPAA, CRIA

Fedora 8 (Werewolf) Released

// November 9th, 2007 // No Comments » // General, Linux, Tech

Fedora 8 released today minus the ‘core’ mid word which has been dropped after Fedora Core 6. Fedora Linux has been my fav even though many flavours of linux like Mandrake, SuSE, Redhat and Ubuntu have come and gone. You can view the complete release notes here: http://docs.fedoraproject.org/release-notes/f8/en_US/

Same of the Latest Features that everyone should be excited about:

• Fedora 8 features a 2.6.23 based kernel.
• NetworkManager 0.7 provides improved wireless network management support. It includes support for multiple devices and provides the capability of system-wide configuration, among many other enhancements.(Yay! More wireless support. They always say ‘improved’ but never things like complete wireless support)
• PulseAudio is now installed and enabled by default. PulseAudio allows for hot-switching audio outputs, individual volume controls for each audio stream, networked audio, and more.(One of the first linux distributions to use PulseAudio by default)
• CodecBuddy is now included, and promotes free, superior quality, open formats to end users trying to play multimedia content under patent encumbered or proprietary formats.
• Compiz Fusion, the compositing window manager that re-merges Compiz and Beryl, is installed by default. To enable Compiz Fusion in GNOME, use the System → Preferences → Desktop Effects tool.
• Bluetooth devices and tools now have better graphical and system integration.
• Laptop users benefit from the “quirks” feature in HAL, including better suspend/resume and multimedia keyboard support. The pam_console module usage has been removed in favor of access control via HAL, which modernizes the desktop.
• Security: A brand new graphical firewall configuration tool, system-config-firewall, replaces system-config-securitylevel. This release offers Kiosk functionality via SELinux, among many new enhancements and security policy changes. A new PolicyKit authentication system that makes secure authority escalation possible for individual operations rather than for the entire program when required.

 Loading ...

New Gmail is Counterproductive

// November 8th, 2007 // No Comments » // General

I finally got the New Gmail today. But it did not make me all that happy. The first thing that annoyed me was that when you log into the New Gmail the chat is enabled by default and you are logged in without your consent. Ok, I signed out of Gmail and started looking for the “standard without chat” option as it was in the Old Gmail.

Its not there! I search the settings for chat, not there either. I don’t know whose big idea it was to remove this great feature, surely not everybody uses chat in their email accounts. The New Gmail has only the option of “turn off chat“.

I prefer the desktop client where you can log in when you want instead of people seeing you online whenever you log in to check your mail. I keep my Gmail logged in as long as I’m on my PC. And you don’t even have the option of hiding the chat box when it is turned off.

The chat box just stands there without any function taking up precious screen space. You can either move it above or below the Labels box but never remove it entirely. One important they should have done is to do away with the “Invite a friend” frame. Since now almost everyone can register for a Google Account its a vestigial application.

Windows Live Writer: Out of Beta

// November 7th, 2007 // No Comments » // General

The one good blogging platform I like, Windows Live Writer is out of the Beta. This was posted on their blog 7 minutes ago. It seems over 1.5 million downloads were recorded for the last beta release. The previously Windows Live Writer is now named “Windows Live Writer 2008 (version 12.0.1366.1026)”. I don’t know why they HAD to add that 2008. Looks like Microsoft is superstitious about adding release years into product names.

The new writer offers spell checking in four languages:

1. English (US, UK, Canadian)
2. French
3. German
4. Spanish

Installation on Windows Vista x64 is now fully supported. But there seems to one little snag with the whole affair. The download button on the blog redirected to some Windows Live Page while I was trying. I think its fixed now. You can download the new Windows Live Writer by clicking on the link below.

Check this link too for direct download: Download

Update: Windows Live Writer is no longer under beta. You should be able to directly download it using Windows Live Essentials pack.

Apple Tablet Mac

// November 7th, 2007 // No Comments » // General

Asus we hear is helping Apple build a Tablet pc. It seems a fully functional prototype is already under testing. A customized version of Leopard runs on tablet. Some of the features include touch input interface methods with multiple fingers, gestures and motions. Even some methods to visually display and manipulate aspects of UI.

Apple has filed multiple patents in the past leading to rumors about this tablet pc. But atlast I think this news is for real. Though no official announcement has been by apple, I would like one soon. I’m now considering waiting for the tablet instead of buying my first mac. I just hope it doesn’t cost the moon.