Nov 23

Google is a great company. It sure is. What ever Microsoft has done to IBM twenty years ago (I’ve no clue about it as I was three years that time, but I read this a lot of times whenever I read about Google. Being a hardcore fan of Google, I believed it) Google has done to Microsoft few/five years before. Now, Google is the same awkward position in which Microsoft was(is). Google has lost its “That Company” tag among the Great Engineers and others of the IT world. Now, its not the hottest/coolest place for those great guys to work. Welcome the the new kid in the block, who is becoming Google’s Google - Facebook.

I saw an article in TechCrunch - Facebook stealing Googlers at an alarming rate. Facebook knows the best place to get engineers just like Google knew when it was growing from 100s to fifteen-thousand. It has recruited much talent from Microsoft, and now, its losing talent to Facebook. Here is a note from Justin Rosenstein telling that Facebook is “That Company”

A couple of months ago, after three years as a Google product manager, I decided to leave for Facebook. I am writing this note to spread Good News to all the friends I haven’t already overwhelmed with my enthusiasm: Facebook really is That company.

Which company? That one. That company that shows up once in a very long while — the Google of yesterday, the Microsoft of long ago. That company where large numbers of stunningly-brilliant people congregate and feed off each other’s genius. That company that’s doing with 60 engineers what teams of 600 can’t pull off. That company that’s on the cusp of Changing The World, that’s still small enough where each employee has a huge impact on the organization, where you think about working now and again, and where you know you’ll kick yourself in three years if you don’t jump on the bandwagon now, even after someone had told you that it was rolling toward the promised land. That company where everyone seems to be having the time of their life.

I’m serious. I have drunk from the kool-aid, and it is delicious. Facebook is hiring ambitiously across the organization. If you’re an engineer, UI designer, product manager, statistician, bizdev god, general entrepreneurial badass, whatever, and you would even consider considering Facebook as your new place for hat-hanging, please send me a Facebook message. We can have lunch, or I can give you a tour, or we can go kick it with Mark Zuckerberg — whatever it takes.

Well, yeah. <sarcasm>So true. Facebook is the best company to work for</sarcasm> There are two things to consider here as reasons. One is money, second is passion. Money is the obvious reason for many guys to switch a company. Facebook is a hot company right now and its going to become public, and its offering stock options - any guy with working brain can see lots of potential money in front of him. So, they are switching to Facebook. There is another interesting version of reasoning and it is “it’s not just about the money. Entrepreneurs want to work at the hottest place on earth and right now that’s Facebook.” Well, as always, for any story, there will be “My Version”, “Your Version” and “The Truth”.

Here, the possible truth could be the combination of money-factor, hottest-place-factor and not-a-big-company-factor, as many intelligent people prefer to work for themselves or a small company rather than a big company. Google is no-more the new kid in the block, its been nine years and is fifteen-thousand-employees in size. Microsoft did a big mistake when Google was small, it should have acquired it. When, Google became big, it was nothing but a search-engine, now its competing with Microsoft in all possible fields. Right now, Facebook could be just a social-networking platform, but who knows what it got in its bag for us in the future.

Oct 12

Tribe 3 is on the move now to become Gutsy Gibbon next Thursday, which actually managed to impress most of the people out there. Gutsy Gibbon is coming; with lots of hopes on its shoulders.

If you are thinking what the hell is this ??? Well, never mind, I’m talking about the new release of Ubuntu Linux Distribution. Probably, you want to read about Vista rather than this ;)

If you are wondering, what is Gutsy Gibbon bringing with it; It’s bringing hopes of several Linux lovers of Linux becoming a desktop ready OS. Dell and some other vendors are already selling some of their Laptop and PC models with Linux pre-installed in them. But, the present day situation is little different that Linux is not really so friendly that any one can just start using it as simple they use Windows.

If you are probably a Linux user already, the features worth looking forward in Gutsy Gibbon are

  • Faster Desktop Search
  • Compiz Fusion by default
  • AppArmor security framework
  • Improvements in Firefox plugins
  • Better support for audio/video codecs
  • Graphical configuration tool for X.org
  • Faster User Switching in shared machines
  • Printer auto-detection
  • Better handling for commercial drivers
  • Better support for NTFS

What is Gutsy Gibbon doing to Linux ?

Well, Ubuntu is just one flavor Linux, and it’s giving it’s best to take Linux one step ahead of becoming a Desktop OS.

What is so good about Linux ?

This question surprises me a lot. To be very clear, everything is great about Linux. It’s got a sexy interface, if you don’t trust me, take a look at what Compiz can do. If you don’t want any GUI interface, you are TEH GUY for Linux, it welcomes you with a very useful shell. It’s got almost every tool you use on windows, check LinuxAlt for more information. It gives you more control on your computer than windows. It lets you do MORE useful stuff with your computer rather than burning your computer cycles for checking those stupid commercial DRM rights. If you are a casual user, you need not spend thousands of your hard earned money just to buy one crippled OS which never gives you for your money.

Is Linux nearly a step ahead of becoming Desktop OS ?

Well, the answer is not with just me. It depends on the “particular” user. A user like me will be comfortable with Linux obviously coz, it does everything what windows do, but, if you are some games freak or if you need Photoshop, well, Linux can’t help you much other than giving you some decent alternatives.

What does it mean if you are still reading this post ?

It means nothing that you are little bored of your Windows, and you are little scared of trying/buying the new OS from Microsoft - Vista. And, yes, you are thinking about something good. Just, grab your LiveCD from Ubuntu, and pop the CD and reboot. Ubuntu will boot from the CD without installation. If you like it, you can install it beside your “windows” installation without doing any harm to your files.

You can download the ISO of the CD from Ubuntu site or order a free copy of Ubuntu from its “ShipIt” service.

Aug 26

Before firing up my fox, I want to write few lines about the synonym of internet - Internet Explorer

MSIE has been the most widely used browser. It had usage share of about 95% in 2004. The share was very high coz of few reasons like … Most of the desktops run on Windows. IE is the default browser in Windows and most of the users dint give a damn about what they are using as long as it finishes their work. Opera was an alternative but wasn’t free. Netscape navigator became one “buggy” product without any innovation which was a super hero among browsers in 90s.

But, in the second half of 2004, a new kid of entered the scene and started to take over the screen. Name was Phoenix, Mozilla Phoenix. Later the name was changed to Mozilla Firebird then to Mozilla Firefox coz of trademark issues. It decreased the usage share of MSIE from 95 to 86 in 2 years !!!

Firefox is considered as the best browser by many companies but not limited to Forbes, PC World. Firefox dint become a great browser all by itself, but by the features as well as the big developer community which develops plugins for it to do various tasks. Well, now we will see how to Fire UP our Firefox to do various tasks.

  • NoScript - Extra extra Java Script protection for your firefox
  • Greasemonkey - Customize the way your webpages look with thousands of free scripts from userscripts.org
  • Adblock plus - Get rid of all those ad banners
  • FoxyTunes - Control any media player and find lyrics, covers, videos with single click
  • Fasterfox - Tweak performance of Firefox
  • FireBug - Web development evolved ;)
  • Themes - Make your great browser look great ;)

You will certainly feel that Firefox is 200% better that IE6/7 with all the extra added security as well as features. BTW, take a look at new product based on Firefox, Mozilla Firefox Campus Edition