JitNik's Tech World

Before getting into the actual process, let’s look at a couple of real-world situations that explain why you may want to turn your home computer into a web server.

Situation #1. Say you have music MP3s, documents and other important files on the hard drive of your home computer. If you turn this home computer into a web server, you will be able to access all these files from office or any other Internet connected machine including your mobile phone.

Situation #2. You have some personal photographs that you want to share with other family members. You can either upload these pictures online to a site like Flickr or better still, just convert the computer into a web server. Now you can connect the camera to the computer, transfer the digital pictures to some designated folder and they’ll instantly become available to your friends and family anywhere in the world.

Situation #3. You want to host a website on the internet but the web hosting jargon like FTP, DNS, etc. is way too complex for you. The workaround therefore is that you setup a web server on your home computer (it’s easy) and then host a website in seconds without spending a single penny on external web hosting services.

Now if any of the above reasons look convincing enough, here’s how you can convert your Windows, Mac or Linux PC into a web server in less than two minutes - no technical knowledge required.

Go to labs.opera.com, download the Opera Unite software and install it. Congratulations, you are now running a web server on your machine and just need another minute to configure local file folders that you want to share with others over the internet.

Here’s an illustrated screenshot of the configuration panel - nothing technical here again.

Start the Opera Web browser (yes, that’s also you web server now) and enable the Opera Unite service from the lower left corner. Now double click the File Sharing link and select the folder whose content you want to share on the web. Any file or folder inside this folder can now be accessed over the internet - you can either use a public URL or specify a password for private sharing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-omonwFkkrY

The following screencast video has more detailed instructions on how to get started with Opera Unite or you may refer to the User Guide if you get stuck somewhere.
Opera Unite looks pretty useful but there are other services around that can also do pretty similar stuff. For instance, both PurpleNova and Dekoh Dekstop enable users share content on the Internet directly from the hard drive without having to upload it anywhere.

Update: It’s important to note that your computer must be in running state and also connected to the Internet for others to download files and web pages since Opera Unite streams content directly from your machine - it doesn’t upload or caches anything to its own servers.

While there are dozens of online services and software tools out there that help you download videos from YouTube for offline watching, you don’t need their help anymore for downloading your own videos from YouTube.

That’s because Google now allows all video publishers to export their own video clips out of YouTube in MPEG-4 (MP4) format - you can directly play these downloaded in iPod or other video players without conversion.

To download any of your own videos from YouTube, go to My Videos -> Uploaded Videos and look for the "Download as MP4" button next to your video clips as shown in the above screenshot.

This is useful for offline backup of your video or even if you are planning to copy (or even move) videos from YouTube to another video hosting service but don’t have access to the source video files.

The only downside is that these video clips have a 480×270 resolution so they won’t match the quality of your original 720p HD videos.

Android is a mobile phone operating system developed by Google. Android is unique because Google is actively developing the platform but giving it away for free to hardware manufacturers and phone carriers who want to use Android on their devices.

Open Handset Alliance:

Google formed a group of hardware, software, and telecommunication companies called the Open Handset Alliance with the goal of contributing to Android development. Most members also have the goal of making money from Android, either by selling phones, phone service, or mobile applications.

Android Market Place:

Anyone can download the SDK (software development kit) and write applications for Android phones. Google doesn't screen developers or applications. Google doesn't even take part of the profits.
These apps can be downloaded from the Android Market Place.

Service Providers:

The iPhone has been very popular for AT&T, but unless you void your warranty to unlock it, you can only use an iPhone with AT&T. Android is an open platform, so many carriers can potentially offer Android-powered phones. That doesn't mean individual carriers won't lock the specific phone they sell you to their service, but even that may change as more companies offer Android phones.

Data Plan:

To use Android, you need a data plan on top of your voice plan. You can't even activate an Android phone without a data plan enabled.

Google Services:

Because Google developed Android, it comes with a lot of Google services installed right out of the box. Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Web search are all pre-installed, and Google is also the default Web page for the Web browser.

Touchscreen:

Android supports a touch screen. However, it does not include "multi-touch," which is an Apple patented technology for iPhones. This means you can use a single finger to move items around or select them, but you cannot re-size by pinching or spreading gestures with two fingers.

Keyboard:

The initial release of Android requires a separate keyboard. However, the next major release, code named "Cupcake," will feature an on-screen keyboard. Dialing numbers and using non-text portions of applications can all be done without the keyboard.

The Bottom Line:

Android is an exciting platform for consumers and developers. It is the philosophical opposite of the iPhone in many ways. Where the iPhone tries to create the best user experience by restricting hardware and software standards, Android tries to insure it by opening up as much of the operating system as possible

The organization behind Wikipedia is close to launching an editable online video encyclopedia to enhance the current textual one. The hope is to revolutionize the popular reference site and goad content providers--from public broadcasters to the music industry--into allowing more video to enter the public domain.


Later,Wikipedia plans to offer ways for users to search the entire Web for importable videos, and plans to provide tools to edit, add to, and reorganize the clips within the Wikipedia website, just as is now done with text.

"To have people be able to go in and annotate your video, edit your video, and improve upon it--in the same way people have been doing to your text posts--is pretty outstanding, and will create an audio-visual representation of our world that will rapidly become as definitive and collaborative as Wikipedia is in the textual world," says Peter Kaufman, executive producer atIntelligent Television, a documentary production company in New York City that works with cultural and educational institutions, helping them bring their works online. "That may just be the holy grail."

Key to Wikipedia's video effort--funded partly by the Mozilla Foundation, makers of the open-source Firefox browser--is Wikipedia's insistence that any video passing into its pages be based on open-source formats. In the future, the offerings behind the "Add Media" button will include a search function for scouring the Web for video content. The hope is that this requirement will force content holders--motivated by the desire for exposure on Wikipedia--to put their material into the public domain. "Once people see how open-source video will get much more visibility on the open Web, it will motivate the content providers to jump on board--or miss the ship," says Michael Dale, a software engineer from Kaltura, a video startup based in New York City that is collaborating with Wikimedia on the effort.

Bad news seems to be flowing in for Yahoo users constantly. Yahoo recently shut down many services like Yahoo 360, Yahoo Geocities and Yahoo Jumpcut and now its time for Yahoo Gallery.

Yahoo Gallery is scheduled to be butchered on 14 July 2009. This service was used to showcase applications that were using Yahoo technologies like Yahoo OpenId service,Yahoo search,delicious etc. Yahoo Gallery was still in Beta stage and it never jumped into the market with the alpha version.



With the recent butchering of many services in beta stage, meaning of the term “beta” seems changing. Beta Software generally means that it is not a full production version and is still in development phase having some bugs. Beta stage is changing to somewhat like “The service provider may not have enough confidence on the service , they may also shut down the service without a decent notice as they are not sure how to monetize the service or don’t have enough funds to keep the service running”.

The recent closure of beta services brings another alarming question in mind “Most of Google services are in Beta, can they shut them down” . Google has already shut down many services which were in beta stage in early 2009. Can users live without Gmail,Google reader,Google docs is a big question as a downtime of only 18 minutes affected 5% of the internet how will discontinuation of services like Gmail, Google reader affect the world.

Why are providers like Yahoo, Google killing services:

Providers like Yahoo and Google are shutting down services one after another , How can one trust whether services which are now part and parcel of one’s life will survive long enough:

I can think of couple of reasons which led to shutdown of various services:

Recession - Everybody has to cut costs so they need to shut some things down.
Bad decision to start the service in the first place - Providers were not able to judge the market and requirements clearly and there was no clear path how the services will monetize hence they were killed as they never lead to any profits.
Whatever may be the reason of shutdown, one thing is clear providers need to think deeply before starting a service in the first place otherwise they will keep loosing confidence of the users denting their reputation in the long term.

Microsoft Corp in a quest to provide complete security to its OS users would soon be launching its own antivirus app Code named-‘Morro’. Microsoft also informed that the early version of the product is currently tested by its employees and would soon make a beta product available online before going for a launch at the end of 2009

Anti-virus app ‘Morro’ would provide full–time protection from several types of malicious software including viruses, spyware, rootkits and trojans .Although many are terming it as stripped down version of earlier shelved Live OneCare.



This news assumes significance as this antivirus would be completely free and would provide higher level of security due to close knit approach with Windows OS.Microsoft may be able to provide a great solution due to control over anonymous usage statistics of millions of PC’s.

This has sound alarms for commercial Anti-virus companies like Symantec,kaspersky and McAfee, earning majority of their revenues by protecting Windows PCs all these years. These companies also has significant presence in enterprise security market and attracts huge revenues from it.

Microsoft through this initiative is trying to ramp up confidence amongst its customers, at the same time opening up a new revenue stream in future.The move may be late timed but indeed serve great purpose for users craving about better anti-virus integration in windows OS.

The standard Google Translation service is pretty good for translating documents that exist on the web but if you ever need to translate Word files that reside on your local hard drive, the translator toolkit will come in handy.

It’s an online service where you can upload Word Documents or text files and translate them from one language to another instantly.
The document formatting is more or less preserved and you can download the translated files to your desktop in their original format like Word, OpenOffice or HTML. Unlike regular Google Translation which is read-only, here you also have the option to edit the translated version of the document in the browser itself.

The only condition is that the size of these individual documents, that you intend to upload for translation, should not exceed 1 MB.

http://translate.google.com/toolkit/docupload

Nokia's 8 MP N86 announced at the MWC at Barcelona earlier this year has started shipping globally.

"People demand mobile cameras that take excellent pictures in all light conditions," says Juha-Pekka Sipponen, Director, Nokia Nseries. "That's why the aperture of the Nokia N86 8MP is comparable to that of a high-quality, stand-alone digital camera. Whether it's running with the bulls in Pamplona or capturing the panoramic beauty of a sunrise over Sydney, the Nokia N86 8MP will take brilliantly clear, wide-angle images that are instantly geotagged to be uploaded onto sites like Ovi Share or Flickr."

The Nokia N86 8MP camera includes a wide-angle Carl Zeiss Tessar lens for panoramic pictures, shorter latencies and variable aperture for super sharp photos in challenging bright and low light conditions. A fast mechanical shutter will help ensure pictures with less motion blur. What could be construed as a disappointment would be the presence of a dual LED camera flash instead of a Xenon.

"When it comes to taking the best digital photos, it's the quality of the lens and the sensor that count, not just the quantity of pixels. The Nokia N86 8MP is the first mobile device with variable aperture, adding to the Carl Zeiss Tessar lens for excellent results. It has never been easier to capture special moments in such a great quality," says Helmut Heier of Carl Zeiss.

The handset features -

* 2.6 inch OLED, scratch resistant hardened glass display with a 240 x 320 pixel resolution
* Dual Slider
* 8GB of internal memory (microSD card support)
* HSDPA, Wi-Fi, EDGE
* Bluetooth with A2DP, USB 2.0 (micro)
* GPS with A-GPS support (Nokia Maps)
* FM radio with RDS and FM transmitter feature
* 3.5mm AV socket
* Rear kickstand

The Nokia N86 8MP estimated retail price of Rs. 23, 331 (EUR 375), before taxes and subsidies.