XP Sp3 Nvidia driver issue

Found that nvidia chipset drivers(graphics) do not work with windows xp sp3.I was trying to play "Rise of Nations",but it didn't load due to some graphics problem.Early,I had the issue with World of Goo,but I didn't know of that game's specs,so left it there.

Anyway,on checking the 'dxdiag' on the Video tab,Direct 3D was disabled.So I searched the net and found that indeed sp3 was the culprit,and the suggested solution was to download and use the latest chipset from nVidia.So,I downloaded the 84 mb driver and installed and restarted the pc.Voila,fixed.

Just came back after playing the game for a couple of hours(cheating of course,not bothering to play it fairly and slowly).

Yahoo! is bugging me ..

I wonder what has happened to Yahoo! services nowadays. None of them load properly for me all the time.
I use Mail,Answers and delicious.All three have been upset in some or the other way.
Logging into mail leads to many errors coming up as message boxes(strange enough that I suspect malicious activities..but even on Linux?) and finally leading to me opting for classic mail,which has no images or backgrounds and no proper ordering of contents..I didn't investigate what exactly is off,but then I am not pretty good with web stuff..

The above list of services is in the increasing order of usefulness and frequency of use for me...and hence the errors with Answers bugs me more than mail.It shows similar errors with only text showing up,that too one beneath the other and no horizontal spacing and all..I know I am not stating the correct technical terms,but I am helpless about that :) Sometimes,they even turn up errors that say 'Oops' ...

The most important tool that I use almost daily is delicious.With the new interface I found its use increasing for me...and now my earlier method of browsing the bookmarks via the web interface has to be dropped as it doesn't load in the new interface or as any interface..the links are listed vertically and that needs tedious scrolling..so I stick to logging in and using the integrated bookmarks using plugins in Firefox.

All these look like some rendering issues,so would I be right to think the issue is with FF3?But I couldn't find any article or issue of this form reported anywhere or never heard anyone talk about it..I wonder if something is off at the other side..Yahoo's web servers having issues of some kind?
Any idea?anyone?Its irritating for a pretty much used service from a company I had dreamed to join and prepared like hell for it turning up so bad...


Update:Finally,on whitelisting the site with Adblock,the problem seemed to be solved.But it exists even now,and doesn't seem to be going even after disabling Adblock.So,the issue persists....

Bootchart

This is about a new tool I started to use,bootchart.
As the name implies,it is used to make a chart of the booting processes.It gives CPU and memory usages at various stages of booting and also informs which processes are running and how much resources it uses.
The results are stored in /var/log/bootchart/ as .png files..so that we can view it as graph.

The tool actually runs ahead of init as a daemon bootchartd and hence is able to monitor all subsequent processes.
It is a nice tool that helps you analyze slow or abnormal boot times(though there are lots of other ways to find and solve boot issues).I cannot say if it is ultimate,but it is kind of user-friendly,as in no cluttering with jargon and information.I didn't take the time to read more on it,as I have an exam tomorrow.But I did do a search on Google,and found some of these..you may read through if you wish..

Home Page
Bootchart refresher course
Distro comparison
Linux.com article
Usage guide
Debian Article
Ubuntu Time Saving Tips from nixCraft

Double Bonanza

Yippe..just confirmed the news that BSNL is providing broadband at double the usage limits to users who have been subscribers for atleast 6 months...
I have now 5 gb as the limit...and I am at about 1.53g as I speak..so gonna do downloading in broad daylight (happens rarely)

I thank BSNL for bringing such a nice offer,hoping that this doesn't lead to any problems due to confusion and bring about huge bills next month.This news was confirmed by authorities when I called them up.It is an offer that lasts only for November...and it is gonna help in the project hunt.

Happy...

Flop Quiz

I was restraining myself from posting about this..but I guess I am doing the right stuff..

This is about the Free Software Quiz conducted by CUSAT during the Free Software Conference they are having over the weekend.The entire event is pretty large and well organized, with lots of dignitaries and loots of politicians pouring in...there is a good exhibition as well...featuring lots of stalls by companies,organizations,colleges etc for promoting free software related work...though I must mention my inability to understand how some of those stalls are even remotely connected software(free/proprietary).

The Quiz in itself is something to be mentioned.We were invited many times..lots of papers were circulated,we were even asked in person to register.So me and my friend Cijo, left the stall duties our juniors and came early for the prelims at abt 9..which finally began at 10.30 in a hall filled with only school students !!Later some college students also poured in..and the question papers were given.We were awaiting a standard type quiz on open source and free software movement,personalities,licenses,projects etc...but it turned out to be what I call 'Free' Software Quiz.It was like some school level paper on computers..definitely hard for the kids..but I finished it in 5 minutes,though not answering all questions correctly as they were very specific into technical details,nothing on the line of the entire Free Software Movement as a whole.We weren't allowed to leave the hall until about 25 minutes passed :(.Results were to be announced at abt 1.30 with finals at 2.

After leaving the hall..we were sure to get in..coz it was really a crappy paper.We went onto our jobs with stalls..until afternoon and finally at there Open Air Auditorium..the results were announced after some waiting.We were in first.Total 5 teams from junior and senior sections respectively were chosen.One junior team was from my school as well(10th std).

What followed later on in the name of Free Software Quiz was the biggest flop quiz I have ever seen...off the topic...too complicated and into internal details of specific linux flavours...asking unrelated questions on some god-knows-what technology and many more on exact dates and years!!! In addition to all this...they repeated many questions which were answered earlier by either participants or the crowd(still some didnt answer those..wonder why).The quizmasters themselves having no idea on the topic relied on a guy called the 'judge'.. another fellow who wanted answers by the way it was written down!

After the juniors' quiz came ours...almost on the same lines..asking unknown details of unknown stuff...RNDC,how many mails can be sent by qmail(wtf)..and asking abt configuration files that exists in fedora only and not in other flavours like the common Debian(anyway the entire quiz was off track from being a free software related one to one which was half cooked and some tech stuff added to maybe increase difficulty just for the sake of it)..and again asking questions asked to and answered by junior teams over and over and even mixing tough ones with very simple ones like GNU's full form..blah
We had discussed two things before coming stage..one abt Mark Shuttleworth of Ubuntu fame and about the year Linux came out( I said '91,Cijo corrected me as '92).The first question was asked and I got it correct after it was passed by other teams.The second one was asked in a rapid fire round at last ...where I said '92 and ans turned out to be '91.:D The team from MES got away with first prize as they ans one question more than us(they were at tie before that) which was full form of GNU!!! Can u believe it..I can't ..this could be the crappiest quiz I have ever participated or even seen in my life..that too conducted by BTech students of CUSAT...to say the truth..I feel sorry for those guys..so I didn't criticize them there...and the prize didn't involve any money..so its all the same for us.. :D

Anyway it was a funny incident ...we r still trying to put the blame on each other for not winning this crappy quiz...
Site for the conference

BOSS is here

Today I got a copy of BOSS( Bharat Operating System Solutions ) from the CUSAT stall of C-DAC, after a fierce argument.
I hadn't been interested in this flavour since it time of release,because I didn't see any real enthusiastic support for it from the community in any forums..so I thought it must be really crappy..used for Indian govt offices and all...

Today the major attraction at their stall was a distributed system they call 'Chinnu' that performs heavy tasks using a Message Passing Interface(MPI)..just learnt in the paper AAP( :( )...BOSS was apparently near there and they started explaining..I caught off the difference between this and Debian Malayalam..they couldn't clarify my doubts..not only because I was not sure about the topic...they weren't the actual people who had developed that..this is what I understood.

Anyway..the DVD wasn't given away to many people from the stall..so I decided to try it on the laptop that was taken from college for the stall.I booted it up..and observed a pretty good bootscreen.....nice graphics...
The loaded Desktop looked very much like the normal debian with a blue wallpaper..looked good.


I just checked out all the menus and options..it looked much more like Ubuntu than Debian..even had customized icon set..with compiz fusion and k3b (among other extra apps) pre-installed. So, I just checked out if it played all media formats and fired up an mp3 from my usb...and it didn't play as expected and gave the similar sequence of steps as Ubuntu does( to search online for packages).So far so good..I have only checked it out for few minutes..not bad.

Only problems faced are the sluggish control..but then it is normal when such heavy stuff run on 256mb ram...and it couldn't even mount the Debian partition on the hard disk citing permission problems..funny!

I checked out their site,registered and travelled here and there...checking out content..not bad..but they seem to be giving too much credit to themselves for the quite simple tasks they seem to have done..and this has been confirmed by our Free Software puli Sarath Lakshman of the 'Slynux' fame.He says BOSS and his group i.e the Swanthanthra Malayalam Computing are engaged in some fight.He accuses BOSS of removing credits of many softwares and using wrong usages and principles over the entire OS.
May be this is the reason to the lack of enthusiasm among many people for the distro..anyway its not such a bad distro.I might try it for some time before coming back to life using a normal distro than a pseudo 'live' one...
Frankly I am fed up of the live cds..running on different pcs..exotic ones especially..and especialllllly.... gOS and SliTaz..crappy ones ..nothing big to explain about for a whole day.I have got nothing to say about Jacklab Audio Distribution...its pure waste as far as I am concerned..but Backtrack and Geexbox rule!!!
Tux Rules...!!

Google Introduces Video Chat

Wow..google comes up new feature.just saw..lets see if its good enough..hm..clicked the link and reached the site..
As usual.the beautiful page that google always sports...with the same type of buttons( of chrome and lively fame) and owww..hm..they have kept that same thing over these three products...crap...

It's free and installs in seconds
System requirements: Windows XP or later

Why only windows xp...?why not Linux..why don't they ever release products for Linux anymore..I would love to see chrome get more add-ons and a Linux version...they are using the beta excuse over the line..
Hm..and ya ok..whatever..lets see what they have to offer...clicked 'Learn More'
and hehe...and what awaits is...ads from Buy.com for web cams and also a link to Google's product search for webcams..so this is just an ad gimmick..not focused on the technology it seems..

Feel lil bit sad after learning Pagerank for IR today( easy paper..:) )....hm..have a stall at a Free software national conference at CUSAT tomorrow..got some work also..