PhaniJ's Blog http://phanij.com A lazy blogger on the block. posterous.com Mon, 18 Apr 2011 18:08:00 -0700 Ultimate setup for a safe home browsing experience http://phanij.com/ultimate-setup-for-a-safe-home-browsing-exper http://phanij.com/ultimate-setup-for-a-safe-home-browsing-exper

Almost everyone who reads this post might have a broadband connection at home. This post aims at securing day to day web access. Internet is filled with useful information and equally harmful threats that can involve stealing your personal information to crashing your personal computer. Earlier it was viruses now they disguise in the form of ads and hide in the form of tracker cookie and start sending information about your browsing habbits to the mothership. I am not personally against ads on the web, but I am against tracking. If I go on google/bing and search for information, I don't mind seeing relavent ads, but I do mind when a tracker installed by doubleclick follows my browsing patterns. So after doing my personal research I found a two pronged approach that can make home browsing experience much more safer.

Disclaimer: Before you try these setting at home, do try to understand what this is for and have a backup plan if something goes wrong. Don't blame me if your configs are messed up.

OpenDNS:

OpenDNS is a domain name resoultion system that is a good alternative for an ISP provided one. Apart from DNS, it gives its users content filtering, phishing protection and misspeled url corrections. 

Optional DD-WRT (with adblock):

DD-WRT is an awesome piece of router firmware that can turn even the oldest routers into superrouters. If you have a DD-WRT and hate ads on the internet, they can be blocked by setting it up in one place. The following blogpost has the information about how to do that [Blocking Ads using dd-wrt].

PS: Both these methods when used together can be quiet effective. Make sure you have sufficient information before jumping on the bandwagon. Ads and cookies can be blocked using browser extensions like AdBlock Plus and NoScript etc.

Adios.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/686202/profile_pic.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4wjLlakc4ETf Phani J phanij Phani J Sun, 13 Feb 2011 12:06:00 -0800 Dell Streak vs Motorola XOOM http://phanij.com/dell-streak-vs-motorola-xoom http://phanij.com/dell-streak-vs-motorola-xoom
Forget about XOOM vs iPad or near future iPad2. Today Motorola killed the Xoom by setting a $1200 price tag, which I found on engadget. One thing was not clear on how Motorola can set the price so high when Dell Streak 7 a very similar device can sell an unlocked tablet for $450. Let us compare the specifications now.

Motorola Xoom

Dell Streak 7
Processor nVidia Tegra2 - Dual Core @ 1Ghz nVidia Tegra T20 – Dual Core @ 1GHz
RAM 1 GB 512 MB
Storage Disk Size 32 GB 16 GB internal disk space
Graphics Accelarator Yes Yes
Screen Size 10.1” capacitive touchscreen @ 1280x800 7” Gorilla glass capacitive touchscreen @800x480
Front Camera 2 MP 1.3 MP fixed focus
Rear Camera 5 MP Auto focus and flash 5 MP Auto focus with flash
Operating System Android 3.0 Honeycomb Android 2.2 with 2.3 upgrade in the works
Gaming Console games type gaming..Huh Will it play Gears of War or Crysis2? I doubt it. I know that Angry Birds is possible.

Apart from the RAM and screen resolution, I don’t see much of a difference between them. How in the world can Moto rip its customers wallets when they are just assembling hardware and using an mobile OS developed and given for free by Google. Dell has a good chance here, but I think they will not take any chances. If they upgrade Dell Streak to use Honeycomb, they can rule the Android tablet space for a while.

My Rant:
This year will be the year of tablets. This is similar to the situation when all the junk touchscreen phones that got launched after the first iPhone. All serious tablet buyers should either wait till next year or just jump into Apple ship. The reason why I am saying this is simple:

  • All these Android tablet manufacturers are not serious about ecosystem.
  • They will scrap if they fail in the marketplace.
  • Forget about updates, if Android 4.0 comes, there will be new device for that.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/686202/profile_pic.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4wjLlakc4ETf Phani J phanij Phani J Sat, 02 Oct 2010 17:27:00 -0700 Glen Elis falls.. NH http://phanij.com/glen-elis-falls-nh http://phanij.com/glen-elis-falls-nh

Fall colors are still coming up in New Hampshire, but was still able to capture some nice pictures near Mount Washington. Enjoy one more HDR.

Creek_tonemapped

Adios

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/686202/profile_pic.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4wjLlakc4ETf Phani J phanij Phani J Thu, 23 Sep 2010 04:26:00 -0700 Sunrise shot from boardwalk http://phanij.com/sunrise-shot-from-boardwalk http://phanij.com/sunrise-shot-from-boardwalk

Sunrise2_tonemapped
Adios...

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/686202/profile_pic.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4wjLlakc4ETf Phani J phanij Phani J Sun, 05 Sep 2010 17:27:37 -0700 One more HDR http://phanij.com/one-more-hdr http://phanij.com/one-more-hdr 4960074358_581732c638_b_d.jpg

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/686202/profile_pic.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4wjLlakc4ETf Phani J phanij Phani J Sat, 04 Sep 2010 18:14:00 -0700 HDR Test with D700 http://phanij.com/hdr-test-with-d700 http://phanij.com/hdr-test-with-d700

Camera : Nikon D700

Lens: Tamron 28-75mm f2.8

Post Processing using Aperture 3 & Photomatix.

Update: This should be actually called an LDR.

Hdr_ny

 

Adios..

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/686202/profile_pic.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4wjLlakc4ETf Phani J phanij Phani J Thu, 22 Jul 2010 01:56:41 -0700 Confessions of an iPhone user and my new HTC EVO 4G http://phanij.com/confessions-of-an-iphone-user-and-my-new-htc http://phanij.com/confessions-of-an-iphone-user-and-my-new-htc Finally, I made the switch from the dark side to HTC EVO 4G. I generally consider myself technology agnostic, but I have a special bias towards anything that is open source. I don't think proprietary or closed source is bad or inferior but Open source always gives me thrill up my knee(taken directly from Chirs Mathews). The only reason why I like open source is it can be easily extended and hackers can have a free will on what they do and geeks like me like to try the latest and greatest tricks. I don't need to explain all this but after jumping from verizon ship into the iPhone 3G/ATT bandwagon, the thrill was missing. iPhone 3G was my first smartphone ever. I liked it because there was no other consumer friendly (not business friendly) smart device at that time in the market. With the introduction of Google's Android, Palm's WebOS and the coming Windows Mobile 7, I started to think about alternatives. Finally iPhone/iOS has met its worthy competitors. With iPhone 4 and the hegemony of Apple and Stevie, I decided I have to move away from this fruit cup before I get swarmed to the wormhole of a stupid apple fanboys.  The first thing I hated from Apple labs this year was the iPad which is a very inferior device. It is even weaker than iPhone 4, still iTrolls go and buy it. Starting with my countless argument with friends on facebook on iPhone 4 Antennagate, I wanted to stick to my word and I made the switch. The savior this time is Android. I switched to HTC EVO 4G. I switched because of the rate plan from Sprint and coverage and yes because it is not ATT and iPhone. So far my experience with my new shiny device has been smooth, so smooth that I don't miss iPhone nor do I have to take instructions from Steve on how to hold and use a phone. My Review:
HTC EVO iPhone4
OS Android iOS
Processor 1Ghz Snapdragon Apple A4
RAM 512MB 512MB
DiskSpace 8GB – 32 GB (microSD) 16GB or 32GB
Display OLED Retina Display (which is good)
Front Camera Yes Yes
Rear Camera 8MP 5 MP (takes pics better than EVO)
Video Conf Free to write an APP and use it on 3G. Comes preloaded with QIK FaceTime which you can use only on WiFi. Booooooooo big no..
Multi Tasking True mulititasking Bull crap multitasking.
GPS Comes with Sprint navigation and Google maps with voice directions Naaah
Apps I use only free apps iPhone has free apps but I don’t miss them.
Browser WebKit which is much better with Android. You can download files and even extract zip files WebKit . No iPhone cannot do that so Fanbois cry.
Tethering Unlimited .. yep no data limits from sprint New ATT Plan limits to the Max of 2GB. So good luck with it.
Widgets Yes a lot and they are great. Good luck with that, may be fanboys are waiting for Apple to implement in the right way.
I love my EVO, it is much better than iPhone 4 .

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/686202/profile_pic.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4wjLlakc4ETf Phani J phanij Phani J Sun, 28 Mar 2010 15:01:54 -0700 TwitChirp all the way http://phanij.com/twitchirp-all-the-way http://phanij.com/twitchirp-all-the-way Now a days I am little busy with my personal project called TwitChirp an Android based Twitter Client. My goal is to make it the best twitter app for android platform for free. I agree that the app is still buggy, but I am working on it make it the perfect application with all the premium features that others are charging and make it much better based on user feedback. I am working on some updates now. Adios.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/686202/profile_pic.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4wjLlakc4ETf Phani J phanij Phani J Wed, 10 Mar 2010 04:49:59 -0800 Android Game Creation Woes http://phanij.com/android-game-creation-woes http://phanij.com/android-game-creation-woes I am trying hard to understand OpenGL ES. Probably this is the first time I am hating programming. I need more details on the API before I can move. I would like to port tuxracer game to android mobile platform. It is giving me lot of grief, considering how easily it was ported on the iphone, it sends me endless spirals. I am not the one who says give up on things which I strongly believe I can achieve and one such thing is programming and gaming. I will eventually come out with a victory but it might take some time. Adios.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/686202/profile_pic.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4wjLlakc4ETf Phani J phanij Phani J Sun, 10 Jan 2010 15:31:05 -0800 Belated Happy New Year. http://phanij.com/belated-happy-new-year http://phanij.com/belated-happy-new-year Happy new year to all my fans. So far this has been a happy start. I am still continuing my android development. I see a lot of progress but end is not in sight. Having a personal hobby is so hard. I will finish it. I will update this post with the latest screenshot. Adios

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/686202/profile_pic.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4wjLlakc4ETf Phani J phanij Phani J Fri, 09 Oct 2009 03:37:29 -0700 More Photography http://phanij.com/more-photography http://phanij.com/more-photography I did a lot a test trials over the past few weeks. Unfortunately only a few came good. Until last week I was kind of awestruck when ever I saw a picture which has a dark or a bright background (marco pics). For a while I have been thinking about how I can get the same tone if I take a picture. Hence my quest for a DIY macro studio started. I stumbled across this site http://bit.ly/macrostudio, which gives the best details anyone can ever imagine. So before even trying to spend $10 on the foamboards, I wanted to implement a pilot with an old budwiser case some white papers that I use for the printer. To tell the truth the pictures came really good considering paper not being a good bouncing surface, thanks to my SB-600 flash.
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My next trial is on specs given in the DIY tutorial. The results are way beyond my expectations. I could have never asked for more the results speak for themselves. I only left out a few things from the tutorial- lighting, scales and tape. The foamboards and SB-600 external flash did the trick for me. I will try to build the macro studio as per the specs for my next blog but for now, this is more than I could have ever asked for.
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Adios for now but will try high key and low key pictures after my colleagues suggestion.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/686202/profile_pic.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4wjLlakc4ETf Phani J phanij Phani J Sat, 18 Jul 2009 03:17:22 -0700 Kodak ZX1 Test http://phanij.com/kodak-zx1-test http://phanij.com/kodak-zx1-test My new Kodak ZX1 HD camcoder rocks, atleast that is what I am thinking. I never had a Flip Mino HD or any other competing device so don't take any cues from this post and buy the device. There are a few reasons why I bought a ZX1 instead of its compititors. 1. Expandable Memory till 32GB 2. Replacable batterys. 3. Rugged feel with HDMI out (though I will never use it ;-)). I did like it mostly for outdoor usage. When using it for indoor video shoots, I observed grainy recording. This might be the only drawback. I honestly think that this might be the case with all the pocket hd camcorders. The digital zoom is ok but not great. I would have certainly appreciated a 3x optical zoom.

I don't have the hands of a videographer, so there is a lot of shake. Bare with my skills with the cam.
Adios.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/686202/profile_pic.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4wjLlakc4ETf Phani J phanij Phani J Mon, 06 Jul 2009 03:59:36 -0700 Finally able to get a few fireworks pics after trial and error. http://phanij.com/finally-able-to-get-a-few-fireworks-pics-afte http://phanij.com/finally-able-to-get-a-few-fireworks-pics-afte The following are not the best fireworks photographs in any way or form but definitely a new beginning for me.
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From Fireworks Pics
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From Fireworks Pics
Now coming to a few mistakes I made. Firstly being an amateur photographer, I did not pick the right spot and next I did not have the shutter release cable to capture the fireworks pics as I wanted. Hope I will not repeat the mistakes. Fireworks use the bulb mode in DSLRs and a shutter release cable to hold and release the shutter when you are done with it. Adios

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/686202/profile_pic.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4wjLlakc4ETf Phani J phanij Phani J Sun, 14 Jun 2009 13:39:31 -0700 No new trips http://phanij.com/no-new-trips http://phanij.com/no-new-trips Home sweet home * Laundry * Clean the closet * Game.. More to come.. (WAW, COD4 or Halo3)

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/686202/profile_pic.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4wjLlakc4ETf Phani J phanij Phani J Sun, 31 May 2009 05:50:17 -0700 Niagara Long weekend http://phanij.com/niagara-long-weekend http://phanij.com/niagara-long-weekend Some of the snaps out of probably 100 which I got perfect. Enjoy
Adios

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/686202/profile_pic.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4wjLlakc4ETf Phani J phanij Phani J Fri, 15 May 2009 00:08:39 -0700 Call of Duty - World at War or just WaW http://phanij.com/call-of-duty-world-at-war-or-just-waw http://phanij.com/call-of-duty-world-at-war-or-just-waw After a disappointing and depressing showing at online Halo 3 social slayer, I am trying my hand at Call of Duty WaW. I got a killer deal from craigslist for 30 bucks for a used game. The game is still selling for 60 bucks on the store shelves. I have to see how long I will be playing this game. On a side not my PS3 is collecting dust, will be watching DaVinci Code Blu ray tonight. Adios

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/686202/profile_pic.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4wjLlakc4ETf Phani J phanij Phani J Wed, 22 Apr 2009 13:33:03 -0700 IPL Woes and Fake IPL Player http://phanij.com/ipl-woes-and-fake-ipl-player http://phanij.com/ipl-woes-and-fake-ipl-player If not for KKR (Kolkata Night Riders), I consider this whole IPL 2009 season to be a disaster. It is not interesting and I feel watching batsmen wack bowlers for sixes in small grounds and batsmen friendly tracks without any timing and with only sheer raw power. This only proves one point that the organizers want to deliberately undermine the bowlers and want to make sure that the trolls in the stadium get fed with boundaries and lots of runs. IPL is nothing but a cash register. FakeIPLPlayer has been creating a lot of buzz this IPL season. He has some fancy nicknames for some players, owners and coaches. My personal favourite is Dildo for SRK. He acted like a dick ousting Dada from captaincy as soon as the base shifted from India to SA. By the way Amir is better than Dildo. In think fakeiplplayer is Amir Khan ;-). Hope KKR loses this IPL. I have no respect for those who disrespect Dada. He is the one who paved the win for this team to be on a winning path. I can say Dada did to team India what Border did to Australian cricket. This stupid dildo came from his Manat mumbai to just show that he has the power. Bravo fakeiplplayer. Kudos and continue the great job.  Adios.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/686202/profile_pic.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4wjLlakc4ETf Phani J phanij Phani J Wed, 08 Apr 2009 12:05:50 -0700 Florida Adventures - Weekend trip http://phanij.com/florida-adventures-weekend-trip http://phanij.com/florida-adventures-weekend-trip Last sunday we went to Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park. Here are armature snaps from a perfecto Nikon D80. Key Biscane sunset (noddy_nitsu hooked me up with sunset snaps).
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Lighthouse
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Wifey
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Adios PS: Still trying to understand my DSLR.
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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/686202/profile_pic.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4wjLlakc4ETf Phani J phanij Phani J Fri, 03 Apr 2009 02:31:08 -0700 New home and new life http://phanij.com/new-home-and-new-life http://phanij.com/new-home-and-new-life It has been a while since I blogged. This is my first post since I got married and took the role of real life Peter Griffen. I spent the entire last week on fixing bed which I got from Ikea (which is taking forever), buying stuff (like kitchen utensils, groceries etc). Being a family guy is difficult, that is the only thing I reailized. It took me more than a month to blog again. I can officially say that I am back and will try to blog often.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/686202/profile_pic.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4wjLlakc4ETf Phani J phanij Phani J Thu, 05 Feb 2009 02:47:10 -0800 Supercomputer and me http://phanij.com/supercomputer-and-me http://phanij.com/supercomputer-and-me Gazing through the vast information available on the Internet might not be good. This time I stumbled on an article on how to build a supercomputer  just by shopping online on ebay, newegg etc. The whole idea revolves around a supercomputer architecture called Beowulf. I will never be able to afford to build a supercomputer using beowulf architecture. So to make things easy for tech enthusiasts like me Joel Adams built Microwulf. My next project after returning back from my vacation will be to pool up some money to build a Microwulf based homebrew supercomputer. Two thoughts are going through my mind, either reduce power consumption by using Intel Atom based processors or go for just raw computing power using AMD 64-bit Quad Core processors. The reason behind chosing an AMD processor is to reduce the final price. I will try to look into other architectures but Microwulf can be definitely implemented with the documentation available on their website. Will be posting out more information soon. Adios.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/686202/profile_pic.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4wjLlakc4ETf Phani J phanij Phani J