Syncing bookmarks with XMARKS

Recently I found this useful tool to sync my bookmarks between multiple computers with the same identity.   It can sync your bookmarks across different browsers which includes Firefox, Chrome and IE.   I found it extremely useful between office and home whenever I don't carry my laptop.   Apart from bookmarks, you an also sync your history and open tabs which I haven't used.

For more info - you can visit www.xmarks.com

(Un)Conventional Railway Bell

(Un)conventional Railway Bell @ Hosur Station

I was waiting for a train at Hosur Railway Station (Southern India).   The train was late (as usual!) by 35 minutes.    Just then,  I heard the automated computertized voice announcing that "Train No. XXX, abc express will be arriving on platform number YY at 6:30 pm".   This was repeated several times in 3 different languages which got the message right into everyone's brain.    Just then, I saw a old lady with an iron rod in her hand next to me.   I wasn't sure what she was upto using the rod.    After a few minutes, I heard a very strong bell poking my ears making me half deaf.    That was the magic of the old women with her iron rod hitting it strongly against an iron bar hanging next to me.   After some enquiry, I got to understand  that the bell sound was to alert the public that a train will be arriving soon.    Something which was already announced few minutes back using the public address system.    What was the need to bang the bell when the public address system was already in place ?   This is something that I could never get an answer.

Thanks to the modern system with (un)conventional wisdom!

The Ubiquitous Linux Desktop !

The Linux Desktop has been around for some time now, but yet has not taken the desktop world by storm.   People still perceive it to be suitable for a techie person and not for the common man.   That is actually not true any more.    I have been using Linux desktop in form of OpenSuSE for more than 3 years now with no major glitches.   To be honest, I won't call myself too techie,  yet, the Linux Desktop is easy to install, configure and use.    As easy as the Windows Desktop.    

However, one thing that I found most of the people switch back to windows desktop is for want of Microsoft Project,   Outlook email client and MS Office.     Some people install a Windows desktop as a guest OS on a Linux host using VMWare, XEN or VirtualBox, but many of them switch back to Windows as that is an easy route.   For such users, I do have the following recommendations

a.   MS Project  :     Indeed I needed one for my day to day project tracking.  I use OpenProj http://sourceforge.net/projects/openproj.   Using OpenProj,  you can import an mpp and after that you don't need MS Project at all.  It has got almost all the features that any project manager uses in MS Project.

b.   MS Office :   The best alternative is LibreOffice - http://www.libreoffice.org/.  Its free.  It has document writer,  spreadsheet (like excel)  and presentation (like powerpoint). 99% of MS Office users just use the basic features and very very very few use the advanced features.    In my  opinion, its criminal waste.   Switch to LibreOffice and you can do everything simple that you have been doing with MSOffice.  
Still, there are quite a few excel programmers who use macros heavily.   A friend of mine is brilliant in excel macro programming.    He does everything using excel using simple VBScripts.     I am not sure if all of them would work flawlessly in LibreOffice.

One alternative is to try running MSOffice on a Linux Desktop!   
Wine (Windows Emulator)  can be used to do this.    I could successfully install and run MSOffice 2007 on my OpenSuSE 11.4 desktop.   See the below (my Linux desktop screen shot)

The same way using wine, you can install and run Outlook too.   

Linux is stable, secure, powerful, reliable, free, highly customizable and yet simple to use.   I have no reason to switch over to an expensive windows desktop.   

Moved to GNOME 3 ...

I was experimenting with GNOME 3 over the weekend on my OpenSuSE 11.4 Desktop.  First I tried the One-Click install which actually screwed up my desktop completely.   After analyzing little more and studying various forums on the internet, I opted the 'zypper'  approach which worked great for me.

I used the GNOME 3:Stable repository thru zypper to install GNOME 3 on my OpenSuSE desktop and this is what I got.   It looks beautiful and appealing.   My first experience has been pretty smooth.   In minutes I was able to get my applications configured against the new scintillating desktop.    My first view ... "GNOME 3 is a completely new approach to desktop users"  - far better than Windows 7 and its predecessors.   GNOME 3 is going to be default with next OpenSuSE community edition (after 11.4) - but I am taking an early look at it and is planning to file some defects to improve the desktop computing exprience.

If you are a serious desktop user, I urge you try this.....I am sure you would love it.

Kudos to the GNOME community !