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Issue:2 Date:30062003 TechMag Weekly By: Thejesh GN
Thankx
Thankx to Swaroop,Sandeep Patil,Sandya,Shibashis,Narayan(BTLITM) and all others for their encouragements…I will try to keep up to ur expectations..
Thankx Again,
Thejesh GN
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Simputer
What is Simputer?
The Simputer is a low cost portable alternative to PCs, by which the benefits of IT can reach the common man. It is an acronym for Simple, Inexpensive, Multilingual, People’s Computer.And simputer is more capable than Palm in terms of screen size (320×240), memory capabilities (32MB RAM) and the OS (GNU/Linux).
The Simputer specs?
Mentioning only the important specs
-CPU 32-bit Strong Arm SA-1100 RISC CPU running at 200MHz
- 32 MB of DRAM
- 24 MB Flash for Permanent Storage (DOC)
- Display I/F 320×240 Monochrome LCD Display Panel
-Touch-panel Overlay on LCD Display used with a plastic stylus (Pen)
- Speaker and MIC Jacks Smartcard Connector
- RJ-11 Telephone Jack
- USB Connector

Operating System: GNU/Linux
- Soft-Modem Algorithms V.34/V.17 Data/Fax Modem Technology
- Perl/Tk scripting environment
and – Internet access (Browser, Email, etc.)-MySQL Server and Client – Dhvani: Text-to-Speech Software – MP3 Player———–
in addition The Simputer is a full-fledged Linux machine, and hence can run standard commands. what else u need?
So what is there for us engineers?
Developeing your own applications to simputer will be a great Learning experience and it can help somebody too.
Application development for the simputer can be done on any platform: linux, windows, solaris, MacOS. This is because any simputer application can be viewed as a blackbox that reads in IML (Information Markup language) and outputs IML. Thus you do not need to own a Simputer to create applications for it. The basic Simputer itself is poorly suited for application development, since it does not have a keyboard or a large display.
Further, IML browsers can run on any linux machine or Windows machine at this time, and can be written easily for other platforms. If you hav such a browser, the application development can proceed without consideration of the underlying hardware.
In addition, any X application that restricts the display to 240×320 will directly run on the Simputer. For example, we have xclock, rxvt, xeyes and other standard applications already running.
Again USB interface gives u a lot of chances. Products like the M-Systems Disk-on-Key Flash Disk are now available on USB. They can provide reliable storage ranging from 16MB to 1GB in capacity.You can attach a key board or mouse to the usb port…………….everything is left to your imagination now……..You can have your own customized Simputer
For detailed specifications, and for other details visit: www.picopeta.com and www.simputer.org
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What is evolutionary computing?
Evolutionary computing harnesses the power of natural selection to turn computers into automatic optimisation and design tools.
The three mechanisms that drive evolution forward are reproduction, mutation and the Darwinian principle of survival of the fittest. In the biological world these mechanisms enable lifeforms to adapt to a particular environment over successive generations. The camel’s hump, the eagle’s eye, the dolphin’s sonar, the crafty human brain itself; all these solutions to environmental problems were generated by evolution. All bear witness to its power as a universal optimiser
Like evolution in nature, evolutionary computing also breeds progressively better solutions to a wide variety of complex problems.
Despite their superficial differences, the four main approaches to evolutionary computing share the same basic template. Whether you favour genetic algorithms, evolutionary programming, evolution strategies or genetic programming, you will have to start with a random or semi random population of candidate solutions and you will have to devise a ‘fitness function’
1. Genetic algorithms.
2. Genetic programming.
3. Evolutionary programming
4. evolution strategies.
Where can u use these algorithms?
1. Engineering Design.
2. Routing Algorithms designs.
3. Machine Learning & AI
4. Optimization
Interested Visit:http://evonet.dcs.napier.ac.uk
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where to get Indian Linux?
If u want Linux in indian language. And you expect it to support Indian Languages from a GUI/Application level as well as Kernel level. Then you will be interested to know IndLinux Hindi – Milan Demo CD 0.5 beta has been already released .
you can also support on going project of indianizing the linux by Involving in IndLinux project. The task of localization has several pieces that need domain expertise. Some examples are I/O modules, development of fonts, kernel enablement, word translation etc. The project is looking for experts and volunteers to champion the cause of Indian language computing.
Interested ? www.IndLinux.org

Contacts:gnthejind@yahoo.com or thejesh_gn@inf.com
For previous issues
DISCLAIMER:The ideas expressed in this newsletter are soley mine.While stating this i do not represent anybody.

Issue:1 Date:25062003 TechMag Weekly By: Thejesh GN

Editors Note:

Hai everybody,
I am Thejesh GN starting my first newsletter.
Since I am an engineer it is obvious that it will be a tech newsletter.
You can expect all types of tips, tricks, pointers to other sources etc here.
Even though this is not a full-fledged magazine,I will try to make it.
You have any suggestions plz send it to my mail id mentioned below.
As well if u have any interesting news or articles plz send. vinayind specially this line is for u.
I am sending presently this to all my friends, sorry if u do not like this. Just mail me. I will not send u in future Or in case any of ur friends like this pls forward or send his mail id to me And this Editors Note is not a regular feature.and u will get the Techmag on mondays.
Enjoy the first issue.
Thankx,
Thejesh GN

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Mozilla

Most of you are using IE now I will introduce to another exciting browser Mozilla.

It has the cool features which IE doesn’t. instead of opening new pages in separate windows you can have them open in tabbed pages of the same browser window. If you have multiple pages you want the browser to open when you launch it, just make a group of tabs your startup group.

Whereas IE has a global setting for remembering web page passwords, Mozilla lets you specify web pages for which you want it to remember passwords and you can use the password manager to remove remembered passwords at any time. Add in a built-in download manager, integrated e-mail client, multiple profiles, a built-in chat program, integration with popular search engines, and the distance between Mozilla and IE starts to look impressive.

However, Mozilla really shines when it comes to annoying web sites. It includes a built-in popup manager where you can configure popup filtering on a site-by-site basis if you desire. It has a cookie manager you use to block cookies, also by site if you want, and to view the cookies that have been dropped on your system. You can also configure Mozilla’s behavior when it comes to images. Most sites that have obnoxious banners pull the graphic files from external sponsor sites and you can configure Mozilla to ignore external images, again, site-by-site if you want. Finally, a nice visual touch is Mozilla’s skinning support, with numerous skins freely available

For more details visit: (http://www.mozilla.org)
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Knoppix

KNOPPIX is a bootable CD with a collection of GNU/Linux software, automatic hardware detection, and support for many graphics cards, sound cards, SCSI and USB devices and other peripherals. KNOPPIX can be used as a Linux demo, educational CD, rescue system, or adapted and used as a platform for commercial software product demos. It is not necessary to install anything on a hard disk. Due to on-the-fly decompression, the CD can have up to 2 GB of executable software installed on it.

What software is installed on the KNOPPIX-CD?

1. Linux-Kernel 2.4.x
2. KDE V3.0 as the standard desktop with K Office and the Konqueror WWW-browser konqueror
3. X Multimedia System (xmms) an MPEG-video, MP3, Ogg Vorbis Audio player and xine
4. Internet connection software kppp,pppoeconf (DSL) and isdn-config
5. Gnu Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) Version 1.2
6. utilities for data recovery and system repairs, even for other operating systems
7. network and security analysis tools for network administrators
8. OpenOffice(TM), the GPL-developed version of the well-known StarOffice(TM) office suite
9. many programming languages, development tools (including kdevelop) and libraries for developers
10. in total more than 900 installed software packages with over 2000 executable user programs, utilities, and games

What are the minimum system requirements?

1. Intel-compatible
CPU (i486 or later),
2. 20 MB of RAM for text mode, at least 96 MB for graphics mode with KDE (at least 128 MB of RAM is recommended to use the various office products),
3. bootable CD-ROM drive, or a boot floppy and standard CD-ROM (IDE/ATAPI or SCSI),
4. standard SVGA-compatible graphics card,
5. serial or PS/2 standard mouse or IMPS/2-compatible USB-mouse.

For more details visit: www.knoppix.net
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What is Bochs?

Bochs is a program that simulates a complete Intel x86 computer. It can be configured to act like a 286, 386, 486, Pentium, or Pentium Pro. Bochs interprets every instruction from power-up to reboot, and has device models for all of the standard PC peripherals: keyboard, mouse, VGA card/monitor, disks, timer chips, network card, etc. Because Bochs simulates the whole PC environment, the software running in the simulation “believes” it is running on a real machine. This approach allows Bochs to run a wide variety of software with no modification, include most popular x86 operating systems: Windows 95/98/NT, all Linux flavors, all BSD flavors, and more.

who should use?

Bochs has many possible uses, and different people use it for different things. Many people use it to run applications in a second operating system without needing two different computers or dual-booting. Running Windows software on a non-x86 workstation or on an x86 UNIX box are common uses. Also, because every hardware instruction and every line of simulator code is accessible, Bochs is used extensively for debugging new operating systems. If you were writing boot code for your home-brewed x86 operating system and it didn’t work right, booting it in Bochs could give you great visibility into what is really going on. The Bochs debugger lets you simulate quickly or slowly, pausing whenever you want to look at the contents of memory or the CPU registers. Or, if you wanted to study which parts of a program take the most time, you could use Bochs to measure how often certain pieces of the code were executed.

Bochs has been used as a teaching tool in Operating Systems classes, in which students used and modified it to learn how the PC hardware works. As a final project the students had to add a new peripheral device, so they had to learn all about I/O ports, interrupts, and device drivers. In industry, it is used to support legacy applications on modern hardware, and as a reference model when testing new x86-compatible hardware.

There may be as many uses of Bochs as there are users. Do you want to run your old DOS games? Or learn how to program under Linux, without leaving your Windows desktop? Or reverse engineer your printer driver? You decide.