Mobile World-22: "High-Quality Videos on Mobiles!"

Soon mobile users will have the opportunity to stream high-quality video from sources like BBC. This has become possible due to the partnership of Canonical Ltd (sponsors of Ubuntu) and ARM (creators of core technology that drives a host of low-power and ultra-portable consumer devices. The latest version of Ubuntu 8.10 has become available for free download. The day is not far off for mobile users to enjoy the full functionality of the Ubuntu desktop.

Ubuntu is free and open source computer operating system. By the way 'Ubuntu' in Zulu means 'Humanity'. Ubuntu's objectives include providing an up-to-date, stable operating system for the average user, with a strong focus on usability and ease of installation. Ubuntu has been rated as the most popular Linux distribution for the desktop.

Source: 'Mobile ARM reaches out to popular Ubuntu' by Anand Parthasarathy in The Hindu, Madurai, Nov.16, 08.

Detailed Wikipedia article on "UBUNTU": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu

Grateful thanks to Mr.Anand Parthasarathy, The Hindu and Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Free Online Tutorials-3: "Blogging"

This is for people who would like to have a blog of their own, but do not know how to go about it:

Before you start the Tutorials, here is a brief introduction of blog and blogging. Blog is a contraction of "Web log". It is a website, generally sort of online personal/public diary. It may be maintained by an individual or group of individuals, companies, professional bodies and for that matter anybody can have a blog. There is absolutely no restriction but for the requisite that you must have a valid e-mail-id. The wonderful part of it is, it is absolutely free, yes, you don't have to pay for your blog; why if you want you can have any number of blogs. There are many hosting platforms who offer free space, guide you in blogging and provide many exciting facilities, all FREE! One who blogs is a blogger and when you operate your blog, you are blogging. The world of blogs is Blogosphere.

To me, the most attractive hosts are Blogger.com and Wordpress.com. If you go to their portal, they will provide you step by step guidance and in a few minutes you will have a blog of your own.

Wikipedia has a detailed article on "Blog", which if you want you can peruse. Just click:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blogging.

Now to the Tutorials. Any number of Tutorials are offered in the Net. I am providing links to a selected few, which you may make peruse and decide for yourself.

www.blogger.com
www.wordpress.com
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2004/11/19/free-blog-tutorials/
http://www.blogbasics.com/blog-tutorial-1-1.php
http://www.thesitewizard.com/blogging/index.shtml
http://www.wordpresstutorials.com/
http://www.blog-tutorials.com/
http://www.easywebtutorials.com/blogging-tutorial/
http://website101.com/RSS-Blogs-Blogging/

All the best!

Mobile World-21: "25 Million Mobile Phones to be disconnected!"

SiliconIndia News Bureau reports that the Dept of Telecommunication, Govt of India, has asked telecom operators to disconnect handsets that do not have international mobile equipment identity (IMEI) number. IMEI is a 15-digit code that identifies a mobile. About 25 million mobiles could thus be disconnected from January 6, 2009. Without IMEI, calls become unidentifiable. That is why terrorist groups use mobiles without IMEI for their criminal acts. Henceforth they will not be able to do this. Further, stolen mobiles can be deactivated, if the IMEI is known.

Detailed Wikipedia article on "International Mobile Equipment Identity":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMEI

Grateful thanks to SiliconIndia and Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Dotcom World-21: "Emergency Patch for Internet Explorer"

Microsoft had to issue to a rare emergency patch for its Internet Explorer browser after it was found that a flaw allowed attackers to take control of computers without the users having to download anything.

Courtesy: The Hindu, Madurai, December 18, 2008.

Detailed Wikipedia article on "PATCH":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patch_(software)

Grateful thanks to The Hindu and Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Free Online Tutorials-2: "Internet for Beginners"

Here is a useful Tutorial for Internet Beginners from About.com.

http://netforbeginners.about.com/cs/internet101/a/inet_handbook.htm

About.com says 80% of the surfers of the net do not have any formal training in surfing. One can easily understand what training, any sort of training for that matter, can really do for the surfer.

This Tutorial contains many useful tips, do's and dont's, by which we all can benefit.

They have also have a newsletter, Internet for Beginners, and anybody can subscribe to it and it is FREE.

Grateful thanks to About.com.

Digital World-6: "eWastes dumped in the coastal regions of India!"

A report says that about 50,000 tonnes of e-Wastes are dumped in the coastal areas of India by other countries.

Courtesy: 'Uyar Gnana Deepam', Tamil monthly, November 2008.

Detailed Wikipedia article on "Electronic Waste":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EWaste

Grateful thanks to 'Uyar Gnana Deepam' and Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Computer World-15: "Long Live the Mouse!"

Mouse, the pointing device, we use with our computer, is 40 years old today. This tool has been developed by Dr.Douglas Engelbart of the Stanford Research Institute, USA. It has gone through many advancements, making our life easy. So Happy Birthday, Mouse! and grateful thanks to Anand Parthasarathy for his nice article, "Happy birthday, mighty mouse!" in the Information Technology page of The Hindu, December 7, 2008, but for which I would have missed the news.

Detailed Wikipedia article on "MOUSE":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mouse_(computing)

Grateful thanks to Mr Anand Parthasarathy, The Hindu and Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Computer World-14: "End of Disk Piracy?"

The days of pirated CDs and DVDs are numbered, thanks to an optical technique developed by researchers in Spain that can differentiate pirated works from the original.

Courtesy: The Hindu, Madurai, ("Newscape"), December 7, 2008.

Article on "The Software Piracy" Controversy:
http://www.bellevuelinux.org/software_piracy.html

Software Piracy rate country by country:
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_sof_pir_rat-crime-software-piracy-rate

Detailed Wikipedia article on "Copyright Infringement of Software":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_Piracy

Grateful thanks to The Hindu, BellevueLinux.org, NationMaster.com and Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.