The Web as random acts of kindness

Amazing Talk..

Ideas

Microsoft Office Online

Microsoft makes storing and sharing documents online (just like Google Docs). It says 'FREE' in bold, all-caps.

But when I try to access it using my Firefox from Linux, it give me:

To use Microsoft Office Live, your computer must meet one of the following requirements:
* Microsoft Internet Explorer 6, 7, or 8 running on Microsoft Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, or Windows Vista. You can download Internet Explorer from the Internet Explorer page.
* Mozilla Firefox running on Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, or Mac OS X 10.2.x and later. You can download Firefox from the Firefox download page.

If the suit is web-based, then why is it accessible from Firefox running on Windows and not from Firefox running on Linux? It's the same Firefox, isn't it?

Dear Microsoft, when you say 'online' and 'free', what do you mean by that?

Google is entering Operating Systems..

Google announced Google Chrome Operating System today, which they claim to be Open Source, Light weight, Simple and Secure. Check Out the announcement!

"It's been an exciting nine months since we launched the Google Chrome browser. Already, over 30 million people use it regularly. We designed Google Chrome for people who live on the web — searching for information, checking email, catching up on the news, shopping or just staying in touch with friends. However, the operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web. So today, we're announcing a new project that's a natural extension of Google Chrome — the Google Chrome Operating System. It's our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be." -Google Official Blog

It will hit the markets in 2010.

"Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We're designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don't have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work." -Google Official Blog

Google adds that the OS will be “running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel”.

"We hear a lot from our users and their message is clear — computers need to get better. People want to get to their email instantly, without wasting time waiting for their computers to boot and browsers to start up. They want their computers to always run as fast as when they first bought them. They want their data to be accessible to them wherever they are and not have to worry about losing their computer or forgetting to back up files. Even more importantly, they don't want to spend hours configuring their computers to work with every new piece of hardware, or have to worry about constant software updates. And any time our users have a better computing experience, Google benefits as well by having happier users who are more likely to spend time on the Internet." -Google Official Blog

I think this can be a game changer. We might be seeing a major shift to lighter, more web oriented operating systems, keeping all major software on the cloud and giving you a faster, more responsive UI - specially when doing most of our work on the browser.

I also wonder whether Google OS can take on Windows? So far Microsoft is eating the most of the OS market. Even Apple cannot stand against it (with a less than 10% share). Yet Google has been the one company to present a serious challenge to Microsoft to-date, especially on the Web. Let's see what "don't-be-evil" can do here.

Leave your comments!

Next Generation Gaming ..

(Project Natal from Xbox 360) Check out the videos..

Google wave Preview

Watch it fully.. it's awesome..

How To Prove a Theorem ..!

This list has been compiled by Dana Angluin and was originally published in SIGACT News, Winter-Spring, 1983, Volume 15 #1.

The following methods have been used successfully and have been consequently submitted by fellow readers and members.

1. Proof by example
   The author gives only the case n=2 and suggests that it contains most of the ideas of the general proof.
2. Proof by intimidation
   "Trivial"
3. Proof by vigorous handwaving
   Works well in a classroom or seminar setting.
4. Proof by cumbersome notation
   Best done with access to at least four alphabets and special symbols.
5. Proof by exhaustion
   An issue or two of a journal devoted to your proof is useful.
6. Proof by omission
   "The reader may easily supply the details."
   "The other 253 cases are analogous."
   "..."
7. Proof by obfuscation
   A long plotless sequence of true and/or meaningless syntactically related statements.
8. Proof by wishful citation
   The author cites the negation, converse, or generalization of a theorem from the literature to support his claim.
9. Proof by funding
   How could three different government agencies be wrong?
10. Proof by eminent authority
    "I saw Karp in the elevator and he said it was probably NP-complete."
11. Proof by personal communication
    "Eight-dimensional coloured cycle stripping is NP-complete (Karp, personal communication)."
12. Proof by reduction to the wrong problem
    "To see that infinite-dimensional coloured cycle stripping is decidable, we reduce it to the halting problem."
13. Proof by reference to inaccessible literature
    The author cites a simple corollary of a theorem to be found in a privately circulated memoir of the Slovenian Philological Society, 1883.
14. Proof by importance
    A large body of useful consequences all follow from the proposition in question.
15. Proof by accumulation of evidence
    Long and diligent search has not revealed a counterexample.
16. Proof by cosmology
    The negation of the proposition is unimaginable or meaningless. Popular for proofs of the existence of God.
17. Proof by mutual reference
    In reference A, Theorem 5 is said to follow from Theorem 3 in reference B, which is shown to follow from Corollary 6.2 in reference C, which is an easy consequence of Theorem 5 in reference A.
18. Proof by metaproof
    A method is given to construct the desired proof. The correctness of the method is proved by any of these techniques.
19. Proof by picture
    A more convincing form of proof by example. Combines well with proof by omission.
20. Proof by vehement assertion
    It is useful to have some kind of authority relation to the audience.
21. Proof by ghost reference
    Nothing even remotely resembling the cited theorem appears in the reference given.
22. Proof by forward reference
    Reference is usually to a forthcoming paper by the author.
23. Proof by semantic shift
    Some of the standard but inconvenient definitions are changed for the statement of the result.
24. Proof by appeal to intuition
    Cloud-shaped drawings frequently help here.
25. Proof by lack of imagination
    How could a life form not be carbon based?