Foxytunes for IE!

The coolest firefox plugin is now available for IE7! Foxytunes is a browser plugin which allows you to control your media player (iTunes, WMP or WinAmp) from the browser. You can also find lyrics, covers, videos, bios and more. Go ahead and try it out:

sharing data between windows and linux

One of the problems most "linwin" users(users with linux-windows dual boot config..and who are new to linux) face is transfering data to and from the different filesystems. Thankfully, most of the distros now automatically mount the windows partitions. In Ubuntu 5.10 (the distro I use), you still can't write any data to your partitions. This can be solved by logging in root (you can do so temporarily by typing "su" in the console). Even after doing this, you won't be able to write to NTFS partitions. To do this, you must download and install a package called ntfs-3g. After that, you have to modify your /etc/fstab file. Just change the file system type under the file section from ntfs to ntfs-3g. Reboot your system to see the change.
Accessing your files in linux (in ext2 or ext3 partitions) is much easier. All you have to do is to download an application called Explore2fs. The current version allows you to browse your linux filesystem and export files to your windows filesystem. The latest beta does give an error message sometimes when you try to exit, but it should cause too much problem. This is particularly helpful if you are browsing a support forum using windows and you need to post a config file from linux.

What's wrong with Talk?

Have you noticed something? If you are logged in Orkut, you will have problems logging in Talk.. Its gets all confused and changes your display name a couple of times and even disconnects. I don't know about other connections, but it takes ages to sign in with my Airtel Mobile office connection... well much longer than Windows Live or Yahoo! Messenger.
Gmail has also become a slow recently. I know a couple of guys who have left GMail for some other provider.
Not something you would expect from Google. What's going on?

oops.. sorry

Now that's a shocker.. Check out what i read in Slashdot today..
VOIP to be Made Illegal in India.
That's surprising.. I can swear I read the news of Yahoo and BSNL starting VOIP(read the previous post).
what is going on??

VOIP in India

Well.. it seems Google's idea to integrate Google talk in Orkut is finally working. I never used to use Talk regularly before as most of my friends use MSN. But now, there are usually 4-5 people online on my Talk account at any given time. So Talk is finally gaining ground as an IM and VOIP platform.. but lets look what else is going on..
Yahoo! may have allowed users to add friends from MSN to their list but there was something more interesting in the news yesterday. Yahoo! has got permission to start providing VOIP services in India. BSNL, the PSU telecom provider is planning to VOIP calls to USA for as low as Rs 1.5 a minute.. which is the same roughly rate for calling a landline number from a mobile phone! AOL was also in the news recently as they are also planning to start IM and VOIP services in India in a big way.
So.. death of the landline phone? lets wait and see.