Last year around this time, microsoft started a aggressive campaign against linux called getthefacts.com. The biggest and the most important “fact” was the London Stock Exchange article, which showed how the trading company choose Microsoft over Linux for “scalable, reliable and high-performance” solution.

Monday was supposed to be a big day at the LSE. The U.S. government had announced on the Sunday before that it was coming to the rescue of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Trading would have been extremely brisk, but then, at 9:15 AM, to the horror of all the traders at NSE the whole NSE system and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange just crashed. Connectivity errors were everywhere. It took 6 hours and 45 minutes to get the system back up. As Reuters reported, “We have the biggest takeover in the history of the known world … and then we can’t trade. It’s terrible,” one trader said. Billions of dollars lost, who’s to blame?
The sytems run on a .NET framework with backends running SQL 2000 and SQL 2003. The system was designed by Accenture. Although NSE was quick to come out with a statement saying they dont blame Accenture, as it was not a software problem but a network one.

So what really happened? I doubt we’ll ever get a detailed, nitty-gritty explanation, but googling around people have always complained about the slow system at NSE, and experts have doubted if it would be able to handle pressure.

Last few weeks has seen new versions of all the major browsers. My work revolves around a browser, So I decided to take all of them for a run and check how they compete against each other. The big news coming out was from Google. Now the initial surprise has worn off, it’s time to ask the big questions about Google’s new browser: is it any good? And how does it compare to its rivals? Google knows how important the browser market is and how hot the competition is, so everybody was expecting a solid product.

I decided to download Firefox 3.1 beta becasue it includes the new TraceMonkey Javascript engine, Since chrome claims to have the fastest javascript engine out there, it was only fair to test it against the new Tracemonkey Engine. IE8 also has some exicting new innovative features, which have been discussed below. Opera and Safari have their fan following. So we Get, Set, Go….

IE8

Microsoft has been under great pressure to release a better browser after firefox showed the world, the browser could be better. IE7 made some noise, but it was essentially a catchup with current technologies. IE8 s Microsoft’s chance to innovate, and it has. IE8 includes Accelerators .Accelerators are plugins that essentially bring the power of web services to the context menu so, for example, if you right-click on a link you can choose to blog it, email it, translate it and so on. It’s context-sensitive, so some content will give you the ability to define text with Encarta or map an address with Live Maps. For some reason for me the Accelerators only show up after the page has been fully loaded, which is not good, since a lot of web pages continue downloading data even after the visual site has been loaded. Also its disappointing to see only Microsoft products as accelerators options. Perhaps more will show up as the browser makes its presence felt, but we will have to just wait and see.

The next new feature is the InPrivateBrowsing. This is something that is quiet cool. You can switch your browser to a private mode, after which it will stop saving cookies and browser cache. From the IE8 homepage “ Now you can shop for that special gift with confidence knowing your family won’t accidentally find out.” Pretty sure its going to be used for lot more than shopping for special gift
Note : Safari had had this for quiet some time.
There are a few more features like web slices, which are an extension of rss feeds with images and videos and compatibility mode, which fixes sites that don’t show up correct. Nothing to be too exited about I guess. IE8 broke my companies hosting website, It works in the compatibility mode and it does not work on Linux. So grrrr….
Website designers are not going to like the browser if it continues to break websites, its already a pain to make the site compatible in all the browsers available in the market.

For testing javasccript performance I used the SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark. It gave IE8 a not impressive 7919.4ms +/- 2.8%
It is sad to see such a bad performance from the company that virtually gave the internet ajax and worked on javascript for years before any other browser.

Detailed result

I give IE8 a 6 out of 10 for mediocre performance

Next up Firefox 3.1

(more…)

Its a smartphone, does not have 3g, no bluetooth sharing, no a2dp, no copy paste, no video recording, locked to your cellular operator, loads of problems with overheating and bad data network, non impressive 2 MP camera without a flash, no replaceable batteries, has awkward keyboard to type and costs Rs  36k. You might think I am talking about a failed product, but surprise surprise I am referring to the most admired and sought out product human race has ever seen. The Iphone. Only an Ipod comes second to the hype that iphone has generated.

So Fianlly the iphone makes its entry into Indian markets (well legally). Airtel and Vodaphone will be selling it initially for 31k(8 GB) 36k(16 gb). Its not yet clear if these companies are willing to sell iphone with any of their plans or if they have a special contracts (read more Rs.) that has to be purchased with Iphone. Two things are clear, you can use your existing number, atleast with airtel and India does not have 3g networks, so you will have to live with GPRS and if you are lucky EDGE. I have closely studied the iphone 3g, the phone needs a good internet connection to work correctly and show off its awesomeness. Without an internet connection the phone is a brick using which you can only pick up and answer calls.

Although I really admire Apple for what it has achieved in the last one year, from a company that never build phones managed  to build the most popular phone ever. wow. hats off to that. Some say the cellular companies are charging too much for the Iphone. Well the fact is Airtel of Vodaphone does not decide the cost of the Iphone, Apple does. Although people are people are probably never going to realize this and will blame the cellular operators for cheating them. Besides the Iphone in US is not cheap. They have a brilliant business plan that if applied in India, people would cry foul and go on a hunger strike. The iphone 3g sells for $199 in the US, but you cant just buy the iphone, even to power it up, you need a data plan from AT&T. So $199 for the phone plus 18 months x $59 equals $1261. So eventually the iphone costs $1261 since a 18 month contact is compulsory and they charge a hefty fees if you want to cancel the contract!  and they have loads of restrictions like 200 sms per month and what not. In India the fees is being charged upfront. And besides the prices will come down eventually, so don’t be surprised if Apple puts on an Indian turban and decides to celebrate this Divali with a hefty discount.

The iphone has a great and a revolutionary interface, and although very limited, its actually great for what it can do. So all hail the IPHONE which will cure the world of hunger and bring peace and prosperity to the world.  Amen.