Maduranga’s posterous

Sometime in recent history Wolfram launched “Wolfram Alpha”, which I first thought was a search-like thing, because back when it first launched it had one search bar like Google’s. I went there in anticipation when it first launched. Mathematica, Wolfram’s flagship product, also what Wolfram Alpha is based on, is an expensive commodity for someone like me who uses Matlab. I have never used Mathematica but it’s hefty price tag had left a superior impression on me. So naturally I was excited to check out Wolfram Alpha. I wen there, typed some words, did not get any answers, left there and did not visit ever again. Until today morning...
Read the rest in my blog http://www.technicaljar.com/?p=163

I will do a brief rundown on the books I have been using which I think are very good. This is sort of a book review. I am researching on the PHY layer of broadband wireless communications but these books are relevant to any engineering student working in the area of communications, signal processing, etc. I will be reviewing few books which I thought were really good reads and made things very clear. Sometimes you read books filled with equations but you really cannot grasp the idea. The books I will be talking about here are the ones which made me really understand things from the basics.
Check out the reviews at http://www.technicaljar.com/?p=138

Don’t panic. SSH is secure. But there is nothin wrong with being cautious.
Although Linux systems are inherently much more secure, it doesn’t hurt to add more security.

There are two basic things you can do easily:
1) Use RSA keys and disable password login
2) Restrict SSH connections to your computer

Read the rest of the article in my blog: http://www.technicaljar.com/?p=128

I first finished LPIC-1 and wrote an entry about it few days ago. My initial impression was (before doing) LPIC-1 is that it is harder and covers a much broader area than Linux+. And thought studying for LPIC-1 would automatically prepare me for Linux+. Although not entirely true, it is to somewhat. It is difficult to say one is a subset of the other. The two clearly has content that is mutually exclusive. But overall, my impression between the two is that, LPIC-1 is a little difficult than Linux+, but at the same time it also covers some contents in detail than Linux+. I have to disclose here that although I used a study guide to prepare for LPIC, I did not use one for Linux+. So I do not have an in-depth idea about what is covered and in what detail. But I did buy a practice question package from Transcend and it a lot of questions found on the internet and found lots of similar questions in the exam. So I guess I covered the contents fairly adequately.

Read more of the review at http://www.technicaljar.com/?p=102

Engadget (http://tinyurl.com/yc9bmva) reports of what could possibly be the first ever netbook with dual CPUs. This is two physical N270 Atoms in a netbook. The term netbook now gets thrown around easily everywhere. It seems that whatever device that houses an Atom gets called a netbook or a nettop and now tablets. There is no doubt Atoms made a complete turnaround of consumer/handheld computer devices. Last couple of years has seen a true paradigm shift in the way mobility and portability are integrated in to small-scale devices due to Atom. Atom powered devices have been swarming the mobile sector recently.

And more and more, the distinction between an nettop and a laptop are fast diminishing. Nettops used to be light-weight, low-power laptops with limited processing power that is supposed to do a limited amount of work, like checking your email, browsing the internet, watching a movie clip and occasional word processing. But the tables have turned a full circle now. Intel has been beefing up the Atom at a faster pace while Nvidia put a different spin to the Atom. Nvidia came up with the ION chipset, which coupled with a Atom will give it HD capability. I have never understood the need for a nettop the ability to watch HD content. In my opinion, HD content is supposed to be watched in high-def humongous screens. Does it really matter you are watching DVD quality or BD quality on your 10 inch screen? Are you really going to connect your $400 nettop to your $2000 full-HD TV to watch a move in 1080? Either I have completely missed something or is this really necessary?
www.technicaljar.com

It took me a while to take the SCJP. I finished Kathy and Berts study guide and was scoring in the 90’s in the practice questions. But I knew I wasn’t ready. Although I had taken platfrom 2 of SCJP about 4 years and did it quite easily, even with half of the Java knowledge I have now, SCJP 5.0 felt much harder. I wanted to write this small entry to discuss the path I took for the SCJP. The most important place to note is http://www.javaranch.com/. There you will find lots of information and hundreds of Java pioneers who are willing to help you. If you are studying for SCJP I’m sure you know about that place already.

There are lots of other preparatory sources available here http://faq.javaranch.com/java/ScjpMockTests. But what I wanted to write about was this exam simulator: http://www.examlab.tk/. It is free and does not contain any advertisements. Atleast it didn’t when I used it couple of months ago. Why I wanted to talk about this exam simulator is because it showed me a side of Java (or atleast SCJP part of Java) that I did not see with other materials. In Javaranch, this practice exams are recommended mostly as the final step before the exam. But in my exprience, taking this as the final step will prove it a really long step. Because you probably will not be able to zoom through this.

Read more at: http://www.technicaljar.com/?p=73#

Now it’s possible to highlight your PDF’s on SmartQ7. With the new firmware ver.5.0 comes with a Ubuntu repository and in there you can find vast amount of apps. Okular is one of them. SmartQ7 is ideal as a e-reader. But it would be great if you can make notes and highlight text in the pdf you are you are reading right? The default pdf reader that comes installed, Evince, will not let you do much except viewing it. But Okular lets you.
www.technicaljar.com

Flashed my SmartQ7 with the newest firmware, ver.5.0 and so far it is pretty good. It looks and feels much better than ver.4.0. This version looks more polished. The most important is run a Ubuntu Karmic Koala port meaning you will access to a large number of applications that are available for a normal Ubuntu installation.

Please hit this link for more photos and a brief review: http://www.technicaljar.com/?p=23

Today I received the Ethernet Shield for the Arduino kit I got couple of days back. Played around for a while. Please visit here www.technicaljar.com for a bit more information. And one more photo :)

So I finally was able to install Wordpress and get it up and running. I know it's not a big deal installing this, but the spare old computer I installed the server was not that forgiving to me. Anyways, it is up and running. Pay a visit here www.technicaljar.com. Your visits and comments will encourage me. The growing number of users to this Posterous blog was my main motivation to have my wn blog on my own server. So I thank you all.
I will be posting both here and there. Stay tuned.