Topic of the Day: Virtual India

Apologize. It is out of the topic for this blog but I found that I should share this.

Microsoft is never shy to copy & yet bold to call it their research. In this case they copied Google Earth technology,extended it to be multi-lingual and call it Microsoft Virtual Earth technology. Virtual India is built out of this (copied??) technology with Govt of India. The map is now online & currently supports street level searches for Bangalore city alone. Still in proto-typing phase. Yeah copying without patent violation takes time.

Tip of the Day: New feature of netstat command in XP

If you have never heard or used netstat command before see here. There is a cool new option to show name of the process associated with the connection or listening port. Here is how to use..

C:>netstat -b



This option will display the executable. If the executable is an host then the components associated with connection or port is displayed. A cool feature of trouble-shooting network related in distributed systems. I previously had to use a seperate application for this purpose.

Tool of the Day: AVG AntiVirus

A free anti-virus software.VB(Virus Bulletin) has given it 100%, ICSA certified & so thought it should be good. My pc-cilin has expired on my stand-alone home PC and was looking for a good GNU anti-virus software & found this one. My guess was right. It is a good, simple & effective tool. The installation was smooth. The updates & scanning could be done only once during a day in the free edition but could be scheduled. I used it for a week and all of the updates & checks were successful. I tested with couple of viruses & worms (old though) and AVG was quick to catch them :-) Would definetly recommend.

Read & follow the license agreement. AVG free edition is allowed ONLY for stand-alone home PC & is not for commericial or office use.