whistler’s blog

Since this information is available no where on the Internet I decided to put this here so others can benefit from it before this page gets updated. Here is how to install a PC-Tel modem on Fedora 4, if you have anything other than that check out the link above.

1) Download the file http://linmodems.technion.ac.il/pctel-linux/pctel-0.9.7-9-rht-4c.tar.gz
2) Put the attached file pctel-4c-01.patch into the same directory
3) Execute the following commands:

A very good software is out for the J2ME mobile phones, Opera Mini. Although I in no way like the desktop Opera browser which I used a few years back, I found this to be the best web browser freely available for Java phones. Opera Mini outperforms others because it uses a gateway which processes the pages before serving them, it scales images to a suitable size for mobiles, compresses the text and removes ads. The result is fast web browsing over a slow GPRS connection.

The browser takes reasonable time to load, not instantly, but better than what most J2ME programs take. It has a user friendly interface. I particularly like the bookmarks feature where the favicon is also saved along with the URL, and links to several of the popular sites comes preset in the bookmarks, you can simply select the link instead of typing in the URL even when you use the browser for the first time.

Yesterday I came across a wonderful site 43things.com, it was not the first time I had been there but this time I got registered there and started creating my list of things which I want to do in life in doing so I also got help from the other peoples’ lists. The good thing is that you can see entries by other people who are doing the same thing, you can also ask questions about a particular topic, but most importantly your list reminds you of all the things to do in the world and take time out of your routine to do them, of course completing everything in the list would be rare unless you work really hard on all you want to do, still creating the list clarifies your aims in life.

After reinstalling windows i wanted an office package on my computer, but as now I was tired of all the problems caused by MS Office on my machine I decided to use something other than that. I found a very good open source alternative, in which i am currently writing this text. The 75MB Package that I downloaded proved to be worthwhile. Not only is OpenOffice fully compatible with MS Office documents, its user interface is also very similar to MS Office, which makes the transition very easy. One of the best features I liked is the ability to save the document as PDF. But sadly this package did not include Bluefish, the web designing tool like Frontpage in MS Office.

Today a friend sent me an email saying:

EMERGENCY!!!

Ahsan Ali

I have had Linux on my PC for almost three years now, but some characteristics make Windows a better choice, thats why I have to dual boot Linux with Windows.

The main problem with Linux is that it does not support Windows programs very well, although there are substitutes, many the games available can not be played on it and what if you want to use the latest official MSN Messenger, with all its cool(but resource consuming) features? It wont be able to run it.

The second thing is that most of the Linux distributions are not as user friendly and straight forward like windows, the pros call it more features, beginners call it confusion. Running a Windows installation removes all the non-Microsoft Operating Systems, whereas Linux asks what exactly you want to do. Plus partitioning the hard drive during installation also confuses the beginners. Apart from the installation all the Windows stuff is considered standard, so Linux file hierarchy would look alien, so would the user interface and users would have to search where a particular option is located. Plus installing new programs is mostly not as easy as downloading a single file from the Internet and pressing the ‘Next’ button again and again till the installation is complete.

Browser: Mozilla Firefox

Satellite imagery has always fascinated me. A long time back I downloaded images from http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov, where I was able to locate my neighborhood. Then I got software called

A few days back I received an email from a friend, seeing from whom the mail was from I happily opened it (I was expecting a party invitation), only to see that it was a message saying that your MSN account will be terminated if you do not forward the message to 18 people.

Instant Messengers are very popular on computers, now with the advancement of cellular technology it has become possible to connect to MSN, Yahoo!, ICQ and other instant messenger services through mobile phones. The internet and Java enabled mobile devices make Mobile Instant Messaging a reality. The only major problems are the small screen and the input of messages as only a few can type in messages very fast. However there are phones with large screens and QWERTY keypads. Here are the few of the free services available today to do this. However keep in mind that you will still be charged by your service provider for the internet usage on your mobile. Agile Messenger the most widely used software for this purpose, however it required Symbian OS and is not a freeware anymore.