Shyam K’s

I have been wanting to download and install Windows 7 right from the moment it was released as a public beta. Time has just arrived for me. Just before i started my way to the office, i started the download for Windows 7 from http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/beta-download.aspx I just couldn’t stop thinking about it right through my day at office. Some busy moments in my office kept my thinking at bay. I finished my office and my way back home, i just kept thinking about it again. Various questions came to my mind to avoid any kind of disappointment, “would the download be successful?” Keeping myself in a positive mind frame, I was hoping to have a taste of Windows 7.

When i came home, i saw my PC still running. It was relieving. Straight away i turned my monitor on and i was happy to see “ Download Complete”. The next moment, i burned the ISO image on to a DVD. It took about 10 mins to complete the process. I did have a spare 40GB HDD with me that i could use for this purpose. To be frank, I did not like the installation part of Windows 7. It was a bit slow than expected. It took about 35 mins for it to load everything. The next thing to happen is the best part of Windows 7. I did not have to install a single piece of driver software. Unbelievable it was. It picked up my Video card, sound card, Norton IS install was a breeze, Nortel VPN client was easy to install. It was a pain to find specific softwares for Vista.

I am more than happy with the way things have worked with Windows 7. I still have a few more test that i need to perform for it to be described as the trouble free OS. Fingers crossed that it keeps working like this right throughout my testing phase. I will be testing it in the next couple of days and will give my verdict! So far so good.

I have been a very big fan of Firefox, simply for the reason I love Firefox. I have been  using Firefox for more than 4 years now, no other browser impressed me as much as Firefox. Extensions is the keyword. Gone are the days when you just used browser for reading content through internet. Today people use internet as a medium to socialize with people. A web browser plays a pivotal role these days. Wonder what could not be done with it? Everything… I mean EVERYTHING. Listening to radio station, IM’ing, one click access to your blogs, social networks, weather report and what not! It is amazing that technology has made the world small enough and make me wonder what else they can invent. Firefox amazes me so much that I haven’t had problems as i did with Internet Explorer and no more “ Internet Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close” issues.

It’s been a smooth transition so far. Firefox keep improving their product so much that the spreading of Firefox is gaining fast momentum. You can download the new version of Firefox 3 from here. They have heaps of extensions and I just love it. The best add-on so far has been Adblock plus. What a wonderful add-on it’s been. I am just literally annoyed by the ads that are posted and hate to see them on websites. Install this add-on and I assure you that you will start to adore this fox. Recently, Firefox launched a website called Fashion your Firefox http://fashionyourfirefox.com It has the best of add-ons that you want. Just give it a try and I am sure you’ll love your browser.

I was just browsing a website and came across this all in one IM. Quiet surprising! For all those who stay online IM’ing I would say, this would be the best app overhauling Yahoo, MSN and Gtalk messengers. Launched as a private beta version ,Digsby has shed this tag since then. Being a freeware, it has fared much better than Trillian and Pidign. It integrates well with facebook, MySpace and Twitter. The new version includes audio/video chat with the help of Tokbox . The latest update brings the list of supported instant messengers to:

• AOL 
• MSN
• Yahoo!
• Google Talk
• ICQ
• Jabber
• Facebook

You can even add it as a widget to some of the social networking website’s. It also has e-mail notifications that appear neatly at the left hand side of the screen. You can add e-mail accounts such as AOL, MSN, Yahoo! GMail. You can configure Digsby to display a pop up alert every time you receive an email, every time a friend sends a message via Twitter, or every time someone changes their MySpace or Facebook status.The application is available for Windows XP and Vista. It is going be on my watchlist. I really love this Instant messaging application.

Visit: http://www.digsby.com/