Windows and me- an enduring relationship

Ever since i was a child, i have been dismantling things that seem nice due to my curious nature.There was not a single mechanical toy or watch that has not stopped working due to that. My love for computers started that time when in the early 80's i heard stories from elders , who refer it as "magic box" that have answers to everything! Being from a corner on India, where there is lack of everything - from human rights to water, life has not been easy for me to pursue my dream of my relationship with computers. With my education, i had learnt GWBASIC(BASIC - Beginners All purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) and we used to run on DOS with large floppy disks. It looked like building blocks on the screen with line numbers.

GWBASIC - command line interpreter

What is an interpreter?
- Well an interpreter in simple language is nothing but is program (midleman) that interprets commans given by humans into their own understandbale language called machine language. A command line interpreter is nothing but an interpreter that reads the human instruction line by line and not all at a once.Are you wondering if computers talk to each other in their own language? They do; in a network... well but at least they do not conspire to hurt a human!! Remember Matrix movie? (Thanks Anand for reminding about the GWBASIC).

BBC Computer

Imagine everything in GREY coloured text, mostly because of th Black and white screen we had at that time. Colored monitors were not even heard of, forget seeing it! The Black BBC computer was like a God that time.

I still miss the sound of the Computer whining as it reads the system files while booting from the floppy disks. All the computers that time did not have the idea of hard disk as we call today for storing the System files needed to boot,everything was hard coded in a large 5.25' Floppy disk with a large hole in the middle. 5.25' Floppy Disk

Floppy drive (with a dropping head)

After inserting the floppy disk, we have to turn down the tab on the floppy drive for the overhead head to read the contents of the floppy disk. Imagine 512 KBs only on the whole 5.25' floppy disk, as compared to today's mini USB drives!! If the floppy do not work, the computer cannot be started up!! And we had to run all commands line by line and not like as todays compiler does in a go, no GUI interface that time.Soon when Microsoft Windows came,life became easier.

Early Windows with GUI

As i did not have any PC of my own that time, i use to frequently visit my rich friends home to have a view of Windows and lay my hands on it. I wondered how Microsoft people managed to put all those thousands of codes away,we use to type while booting a PC as we used to do in DOS? PC whine lesser than it did when we ran DOS, and the most beautiful part was that it had DOS in it in the form of CMD. After computers, i fell in live with some girl...dragged on for few months..life felt like hell.

Still my relationship with Windows and PC (a term which came much later on, earlier we refered it as Computers only) ligered on. From DOS to Windows, from X286 to X386 then X486 machines and now..multi core machines.The transformation from the first version of Windows to Windows 98 was tremendous one, which till this date i feel indebted to Microsoft. Windows 98 is an amazing OS till now,with all customizations as per your wish. In fact, when i had bought the first PC in my life in Engineering days, with loan from my Junior, it was Windows 98 that i installed and kept fidgeting about. Thanks to that, i know the OS well now(though not inside out but to a manageable extent). When Windows launched Server and Enterprise Editions, i wished i could lay my hands on that to check out the OS inside out.At that time of my life, Server was a lingo ..some HI-FI stuff.

Then Windows Millennium came, yet i still preferred Windows 98.
That was a time when all people were running for the latest version of Windows and i was still hanging on with my old version, out of love and respect for the time i spent fidgeting and dismantling it all over!Over the times,many OS came yet the hands on experience that Windows provided at such a time when there was no GUI was un comparable with others.Many people have different views and reviews about Windows various versions,no matter what reviews they give - users can tell the difference. The version is an unending story, Windows XP, Vista and now Windows 9... the era will go on, the version will keep on changing. However the experience that i have shared with Windows is worth treasuring

Image courtesy:
Windows 3.0 www.intelliadmin.com
BBC Computer www.rakewell.com
Floppy drive http://technabob.com
GWBASIC http://g.virbcdn.com
Windows http://www.granneman.com/
Floppy disk www.blogitude.com

Historical experience of Personal Computer -Part 1

Ever since i was a child, i have been dismantling things that seem nice due to my curious nature.There was not a single mechanical toy or watch that has not stopped working due to that. My love for computers started that time when in the early 80's i heard stories from elders , who refer it as "magic box" that have answers to everything!

Note: This post was written long back in 25th Jan 2009, but publishing it today only. Shall update soon.

Recording Gtalk voice conversations

If someone ask me if it is possible to record and save the live voice stream of a chat partner on Gtalk. The answer is: yes, (and i came to know it recently). All you have to do is download Freebird's vEmotion with recorder, an excellent program to record an IM conversations. It is reporetd to be able to voice conversations on Msn, Skype, Gtalk, AIM .

Here is a screenshot image I have gotten from their website..



Install the program and start it up. In the user interface displayed in the above image, press down the last button on the toolbar to enable recording. Then start a voice conversation with your friends. The converation is recorded automatically. As you finish the converation, following window is displayed. It allows you to fill some infos for this new record.


In the above window, enter a topic for the new record, which will be displayed in the record list. And type anything you want to say about the conversation as "Comments". Also you can select more than one image to be stored together with the voice. One most exciting thisng is that by selecting a different audio frequency from the pull-down box which located directly beneath the text "Change Frequency", you can save the recorded voice with prefered frequency. After you are done with all of these, click the button "Save Record".

After the record is saved, one new item will be added into the record list in the user interface. Switch to "Call Records" window by clicking the tab. In the call record list, the newly recorded lies there.


Enjoy then playing around eh!!


Courtesy: Freebird's vEmotion

Recording Gtalk voice conversations

If someone ask me if it is possible to record and save the live voice stream of a chat partner on Gtalk. The answer is: yes, (and i came to know it recently). All you have to do is download Freebird's vEmotion with recorder, an excellent program to record an IM conversations. It is reporetd to be able to voice conversations on Msn, Skype, Gtalk, AIM .

Here is a screenshot image I have gotten from their website..



Install the program and start it up. In the user interface displayed in the above image, press down the last button on the toolbar to enable recording. Then start a voice conversation with your friends. The converation is recorded automatically. As you finish the converation, following window is displayed. It allows you to fill some infos for this new record.


In the above window, enter a topic for the new record, which will be displayed in the record list. And type anything you want to say about the conversation as "Comments". Also you can select more than one image to be stored together with the voice. One most exciting thisng is that by selecting a different audio frequency from the pull-down box which located directly beneath the text "Change Frequency", you can save the recorded voice with prefered frequency. After you are done with all of these, click the button "Save Record".

After the record is saved, one new item will be added into the record list in the user interface. Switch to "Call Records" window by clicking the tab. In the call record list, the newly recorded lies there.


Enjoy then playing around eh!!


Courtesy: Freebird's vEmotion

One more feather to Investment idea

I came to know this scheme a few days back through my roomie.
The scheme is available in all Banks and insurance agencies, but what marks the difference between this particular scheme and others ?? Read on..

Many might have come across "Whole Life Investment Plans" if you have are concerned with investment and insurance. But what i am referring here is Canara HSBC Bank plan for Whole life Investment plan. Other schemes have a minimum vesting period until the age of 50 years (most of them). So if you are aged 27 years, the minimum number of years you have to invet is 23 years.

In this particular Canara HSBC bank scheme, the minimum anumber of year is 5 years. That means that the scheme matures in just 5 years and not 23 years or more.

Here is a simple layout of what my friend had invested and the yield after 5 years.

Amount to be invested (annulay): Rs 50,000/-
Minimum number of years ( of investment) 5 years
Total amount invested: 5*50,000 = Rs 2,50,000/-

But upon maturity you will get an amount of whooping................................... 5 Lacs

That is double the amount you have invested. In other terms, if you have invested Rs 50,000 in a year, you are getting Rs 1,00,000 /- payable after 5 years time!
If the premium seems high for you to pay at a go, then heres a tip.

Tip: Go for a recurring deposit for say Rs 4200 per month for a year. While the term is over in a years time, you get the premium amount for the scheme, in return you earn the interest on the recurring amount.



Advantages:
1) Investment declaration
2) Can serve as both short term as well as long term investment, depending on ones terms
3) Might be the maximum yielding scheme known so far


Disadvantages:
1) Premium is high (50k/12 = 4167 per month)
2) You might need to open an account in HSBC Bank for beter transaction
3) Minimum balance for account opening/maintenance in HSBC is very high.
4) Tax deductible on interest amount

Courtesy: Room mate

Disclaimer: Please inquire the insurance agent before investing

One more feather to Investment idea

I came to know this scheme a few days back through my roomie.
The scheme is available in all Banks and insurance agencies, but what marks the difference between this particular scheme and others ?? Read on..

Many might have come across "Whole Life Investment Plans" if you have are concerned with investment and insurance. But what i am referring here is Canara HSBC Bank plan for Whole life Investment plan. Other schemes have a minimum vesting period until the age of 50 years (most of them). So if you are aged 27 years, the minimum number of years you have to invet is 23 years.

In this particular Canara HSBC bank scheme, the minimum anumber of year is 5 years. That means that the scheme matures in just 5 years and not 23 years or more.

Here is a simple layout of what my friend had invested and the yield after 5 years.

Amount to be invested (annulay): Rs 50,000/-
Minimum number of years ( of investment) 5 years
Total amount invested: 5*50,000 = Rs 2,50,000/-

But upon maturity you will get an amount of whooping................................... 5 Lacs

That is double the amount you have invested. In other terms, if you have invested Rs 50,000 in a year, you are getting Rs 1,00,000 /- payable after 5 years time!
If the premium seems high for you to pay at a go, then heres a tip.

Tip: Go for a recurring deposit for say Rs 4200 per month for a year. While the term is over in a years time, you get the premium amount for the scheme, in return you earn the interest on the recurring amount.



Advantages:
1) Investment declaration
2) Can serve as both short term as well as long term investment, depending on ones terms
3) Might be the maximum yielding scheme known so far


Disadvantages:
1) Premium is high (50k/12 = 4167 per month)
2) You might need to open an account in HSBC Bank for beter transaction
3) Minimum balance for account opening/maintenance in HSBC is very high.
4) Tax deductible on interest amount

Courtesy: Room mate

Disclaimer: Please inquire the insurance agent before investing