Recently we had a small workshop at our college teaching some basics of Adobe Flex. Two people from Adobe, Sujit Reddy and Prashant were there to tell us what flex was all about. And I must say, I am impressed the way they carried out the workshop.

Actually, I tried my hands on Flex last year too referring to the documentation. But it is way too confusing for a beginner. Actionscript, MXML, Designer, Debugger…phew ! who will deal with all that in first go. Anyways, here is screenshot to my first App. This application takes data from an XML file, and compare different mobile models. It has a login screen too with some cool wipe out effects. Everything was made in under 1.5 hours referring to document given by them. A person who know flex properly could probably make it in 10-15 minutes.
Continue Reading »

Twitter is a free micro-blogging platform. With a worldwide traffic rank of 29 and improving, it is the next big craze on the internet. It was hardly noticed till the end of 2008 since its creation in 2006. Even I signed up long ago but had difficulty understanding the concept. But now even I catched the twitter flu.

Anyways, my views hardly matters on this topic. There are already lot of them out there. Just want to share few add-ons, videos etc. about twitter.  I am still a newbie on twitter, so nothing hi-tech here.

Continue Reading »

I was trying out this OpenID thingie yesterday and finally now using my homepage ( http://ankitaggarwal.me ) as my OpenID. Looks pretty cool .

OpenID is kind of a common and unique ID ( similar to e-mail id ), which can be used to login to various OpenID Enabled sites without going through their Sign-up process. Also, we don’t have to login again and again to different sites if they are in Approved list. Only login to main service povider is required ( mine is myOpenID.com ) and its done. Isn’t it great. Big names like Facebook, Google, Yahoo have also adopted it which I guess is the main reason for its popularity in recent months.
Continue Reading »

All of you must be aware of Rapidshare. It is a one-click web host and offers both free and premium downloads. I currently have a premium account and want to share some of my experiences with you.

The stuff available on Rapidshare is just awesome. Search for the sources on Google. As an example check this link for movies : http://deejam.folderland.com/ . If you need more websites, leave a comment with your e-mail and I’ll mail you some. For some reasons I cannot post links to those sites on my blog.

OK. Coming back to the story – This is the 3rd time I’ve bought an account, and according to some its a wastage. Well, its not. I am on BSNL broadband, with speeds upto 2 Mbps. I am on plan 500( free downloads from 2am – 8am in morning). First check out my usage, then I’ll tell you rest of the story. (Green bars are under free usage)

My ISP impose a download limit of 2.5 GB (excluding free time), still I download 100+ GB a month. Here is the approximation of whats downloaded by me so far : 180-200 Documentaries and movies, 5 Operating Systems (all DVDs), Softwares (Mostly DVDs), HQ Graphics and some “time pass” stuff.

Another thing you need is a good Download Manager and automatic scheduler which can connect to internet automatically at 2 in the morning, otherwise you have to start it manually. Mine have inbuilt scheduler (DAP). For those who want to experiment, there are software available which can automatically start CPU at set time (not recommended). As you gain some experience you will invent new methods to save time. There is a software CMS Grabber (not sure about name), which will convert dozens of free links in premium in one go (need premium account).

Done some calculation on broadband speed available in india.

Comparison with the amount of data downloaded with BSNL in 6 hours (averaged – 3.5 GB)

All approximations :

Airtel (64 Kbps) – Will take 6 days (144 hrs)

Reliance (300 Kbps) – Take 2 day (48 hrs)

Connect (512 Kbps – Not unlimited) – 1 day (24 hrs)

right now downloading at speed of 120 KBps (1 Mbps). Aajkal thodi kam aa rahi hai speed lagta hai BSNL ko meri usage ka pata lag gaya hai.

Continue Reading »