Hello all,

A week ago, Wordpress released a patched version of version 2.3, which included a couple of security patches. Its highly recommended that you update to Wordpress 2.3.2 if you’re running on 2.3.1.

WordPress 2.3.2 is an urgent security release that fixes a bug that can be used to expose your draft posts. 2.3.2 also suppresses some error messages that can give away information about your database table structure and limits and stops some information leaks in the XML-RPC and APP implementations. Get 2.3.2 now to protect your blog from these disclosures.

Go to the Wordpress blog announcing the release for more information. To download, go to the Wordpress download page. Additionally, you can also view the list of fixed bugs, and changes introduced from 2.3.1 to 2.3.2.

Since this is a security release, its highly recommended that you update to the latest version. You might find the Wordpress Automatic Upgrade plugin useful

Technorati Tags: wordpress, wordpress upgrade, security release, wordpress automatic upgrade, wordpress 2.3

Hello all,

I’ve often been asked which was my favourite AV player. Five years ago, I used to respond with "Winamp" or "Power DVD". But now, I should say, my opinions have changed. And thats why I laugh when people say that their favourite player is Real Player, or QuickTime. Right now, after having used most of the available audio/video playing software, I have formed a few of my favourites. And I thought that I would share them with you…

# 1 - Mplayer

Mplayer - an audio/video player for Linux, comes in as my all time favourite AV player. It can play as many video or audio clips as you want simultaneously. It has never crashed for me. It can play semi downloaded files, files with the wrong extension, and once, it has even played a zipped file! Any file with an audio or video track can be played with Mplayer. On Windows, you need to do a manual install, with a Send To shortcut to make it work. It does not have a GUI, but its amazingly powerful. Visit the Mplayer website for more information. Information on how to install and use Mplayer in your Windows system coming up in my next post.

# 2 - VLC Player

Almost as powerful as Mplayer, with a neat GUI, ladies and gentlemen, in second position comes VLC Player. Cross platform support and freeware - 2 words which make VLC magical! It can, like Mplayer, play isolated DVD files, all sorts of music and video files. But sometimes, especially in case of a defective DVD video file, your system hangs. If you like power, and no fancy stuff, but still a GUI, go in for VLC Player.

# 3 - Windows Media Player 11

Stylish and hot, WMP 11 creates a whole new AV experience for Windows users. Free to install for "genuine" Windows users, this awesome looking player is a complete package for any home user. Vista looks, audio/video tweaking, library feature, sync with music players, stable performance etc. are the main features of WMP 11. It comes in as # 3, even above iTunes, because of its fast and stable performance, cool looks, and easy to use sync feature. You can download WMP 11 from the Microsoft website.

Yes, thats my top 3. I hope that you’ve found this post useful. And no, Real Player, QuickTime etc. are not among my favourites. In fact they feature at the end of my favour list… Just below my top 3, comes DivX, iTunes, Powe DVD etc.

Technorati Tags: top 3, audio video players, audio players, video players, audio software, video software, av software, top 3 audio video players

Hi all,

The Online Games blog has listed a very good list of the top 10 3D Linux based games in a blog post which came up today. Typically, like these Top Blah Blah stuff get top clicks in socially promoted content, like in Digg, reddit etc., this Top 10 also got featured on the Digg front page. Owing to the fact that he/she’s hosted on Blogger, ths site hasnt crashed yet. The images are on flickr, so we can expect the blog to withstand the Digg effect.

Anyway, the reason why I point to this post is that, unlike all other Top 10 stuff, this post seems to be written with more than one aim.

• One aim is definitely to get onto Digg and receive a lot of Digg Juice
• Another aim, which I feel is relevant, is that everyone was downtrodding Linux for the fact that Linux didn’t have many good games to play. This seems like a plea from the heart of a hardcore Linuxian that Linux isn’t all bad.

The post was an eye opener for me. I, like many others, had believed that Linux didn’t sport many good games. But after seeing games like America’s Army and Nexiuz on the list, I’m forced to change my opinion. I never knew that these were available for Linux!

Ok, so I’m not a certified Linux geekie. I love my Photoshop and Dreamweaver and Flash and so on and so forth. I can’t part with all these… And GIMP is a substitute for MS Paint, not Photoshop!

But I don’t have anything against Linux, and I have Ubuntu on dual boot back home. But still, I never knew that there were such good games available for Linux.

So by this post, this guy got on the Digg front page, and enlightened 20,000 Digg visitors about the best games available on Linux. Keep up the good work buddy!

Technorati Tags: linux games, 3d games, 3d linux games, games, linux

Hi all,
    The PCWorld reports that a faster version of the Universal Serial Bus ports are on the cards… Intel, spearheading the movement, along with other companies, are working together to promote USB 3.0.

    USB 3.0 is said to deliver 10 times the speed of USB 2.0. The data transfer rates for USB 3.0 are charted at 4.8 Gigabits per second (Gbps) (the speed of USB 2.0 being 480 Mbps).

Intel stated that the USB 3.0 specification would be optimized for low
power and improved protocol efficiency. The USB 3.0 ports and cabling
will be designed with both copper and optical cable capabilities,
meaning even higher speeds will be possible in the future.

    Intel has already unveiled a Wireless USB transfer format, operating at 480 Mbps.

    These improvements, as usual, will mean a lot of implications…

• USB 2.0 obsolete
• USB 2.0 cheap as hell
• Increasing dependency on USB… Maybe even for local networking?!!
• Damn fast pen drives!!!

    Hopefully, we’ll see USB 3.0 by next year. Cheers

Technorati Tags: USB, USB 3.0, Universal Serial Bus, speed, fast pen drives

Hello all,
    Associated Computers International Asia Ltd (ACi), which had earlier given a shock to the Indian tech community by introducing notebook PCs for Rs 20,000 ($500), is now all set to shock it yet again, by bringing out an ultra budget laptop for as low as Rs 15,000/- ($375 USD)! They are preparing to raise their current production to 1,00,000 pieces a year. They are also planning to start retail outlets all over India, and to tie up with major computer outlets to reach to the common man.

    They are planning to go into production early next year. The secret behind the low costs lie in the novel-aluminum body which ACi laptops sport, unlike fibre or plastic frames used by the other laptop manufacturers.

    Will we see yet another landslide of laptop prices? I don’t think so. The laptop prices right now, and here to stay, with maybe a decrease of another 5-10% in the next one year. And they’ll stay that way until they become obsolete. Laptops promoted by ACi, OLPC and Asus are low cost, low quality laptops, which will have a maximum life of around 2 years, with its best periods of life over in 1 year.

    Lets wait and see…

Technorati Tags: ACi, Associated Computers International, 5 laptops, notebooks, low cost notebooks