Hawkeye :: Murali’s Blog

Neat bits of advice here :

• Don’t make users login with an Account number – names are simple & easy to remember
• Don’t enforce complex passwords requirements – unless you have confidential data stored
• Don’t make them confirm their email address – just to get started … there is enough time for that
• Don’t make them ‘Opt out’ form being spammed – that is pure evil !

All you Product Managers & Developers out there … take it easy folks and make it easy for your users to use your site !

The top 4 things you should never do to your users : Codeulate.

Blogroll product, Technology, web

In case you have not heard of Skype Prime yet, it is a service which lets people accept calls and charge the caller either a fixed rate or on a per minute basis. This simple feature, in my mind opens up a huge array of possibilities for Skype and for all manner & purpose could create the next big services marketplace (eBay, the owner of Skype is ofcourse the world’s largest marketplace for products)

So, if you are an expert with time on your hands and want to make money, put your services up for hire on Skype Prime

Skype Prime

Uncategorized Technology, Web 2.0

I have got a couple of invites for the Venice Project – the Internet TV solution from the makers of Skype. If you want one, please leave a comment and I shall send it out to you. All I ask for in return is that you smile at someone today

The Venice Projectâ„¢

Uncategorized Technology, TV

Wow ! This is something of the nature of a big find ! I dont see the the famouts obidos thing in the Amazon URL when I search, looks like some BIG change has happened at Amazon. Ever since I have searched for products online, I remember seeing this obidos thing in the Amazon URLs … this is cool

Techcrunch » Blog Archive » Amazon Is Down
Read more…

Uncategorized Technology

Is it time for Linux on the Desktop ?

Apologies for asking the question that perhaps would make it to the top of the most debated by yet unanswered questions of the modern age …

Having used Linux for about 5 years (on & off and not quite on a dedicated basis, with distros ranging from Red Hat 6.0 +, Mandrake 7+,, Slackware, Debian, Fedora and a few more that I may not remember), though I was rather passionate about this entire Open Source, Free as in Freedom & Beer, Anti-Microsoftish attitude that permeated the tech industry in the late 90s and early 2000s, I still remember that getting these distros to work without having to resort to any sort of command line magic was next to impossible. Installing and using a Linux distro meant that you were a geek (or something very close to it) and new your Hard disk partitions, Network settings, ext2 vs ext3 etc etc. And lets face it, an overwhelming majority of the Universe didn’t

Thus, much to the angst of Linux-lovers, it remained largely in the data centers, powering millions of servers and hardly made a dent in the desktop (Novell not withstanding)

A couple of weeks ago, I managed to lay my hands on Ubuntu Linux (Dapper Drake), which has been catching a few headlines in the non-Linux web world too. I started off my desktop, slipped the disk in and whoom … it got on … booted up my machine (using the Live CD) and gave me a neat looking Gnome desktop (I am a Gnome lover forever) with an Install icon !

I said wow ! now that is surprising … and I clicked on the Install icon, Went through the regular language, keyboard layout, time zone, user inputs (& I thought, OK … here we go, another of those distro installs that is going to be a challenge). Partitioning the hard disk was a but of a challenge (but nothing out of the world, given that I had done this before) & then it started installing the packages … I was a bit miffed at not seeing any indication of the time left for this to complete, but in a few minutes time I realised why this wasn’t all that required. This bloddy thing had finished installing Dapper Drake on my desktop in about 5 minutes and was ready to reboot !

Holy Smoke … that was bloddy fast. I have never seen a Linux distro install of this kind. I am so sold on Ubuntu Linux now … this is cool

In case you are considering it, go for it. The CD’s for FREE ! Check here for more details

It looks like Linux is almost ready for the desktop !

Blogroll Linux, Opinion, Technology