The Firefox O.S. – Mozilla’s latest thunder!

The Firefox OS, codenamed Boot to Gecko (aka B2G) has been launched quite recently and is a topic of speculation in tech-circles. This O.S. is uses a Linux kernel and runs HTML5 based apps (which couple up with the Firefox browser)

Firefox O.S. aims at controlling the hardware (integration) using JavaScript (now how cool is that!), and its basic reason for coming to existence is ‘to create a true OSS (open source) O.S. for which apps would freely be available on the Firefox Marketplace’.

The first Firefox O.S. based smartphones should be shipping as early as the the first half of 2013.

From the GSMArena -

Mozilla is officially launching their Firefox OS for mobile phones and are proud to announce that they have deals with 18 carriers, a partnership with Qualcomm to use their Snapdragon chipsets and four manufacturers - ZTE, Alcatel, LG and Huawei. The first two also showcased phones with Firefox OS at the MWC.

Also, as per the latest reports, Sony is planning to launch its own Firefox O.S. based device in early 2014.

This could be a game changer for next year’s mobile technology (imagine the app development scenarios!)

Only thing which remains to be seen is how fast can market penetration actually help Mozilla, and oh, there is the current popularity of iOS and Android to add spice to the ‘market dominance race’ too!

Technorati Tags: Firefox,Mozilla,Linux,kernel,JavaScript,GSMArena,Android,iOS,apps

Samsung Galaxy S4 Final Specs! Everything official about it.

Just the links here for the while -

Korean site - http://www.ddaily.co.kr/news/news_view.php?uid=101028

Translation URL – HERE

One confirmation is that Home button is there.

Will post when further details become available.

Get both JSMag & GroovyMag for Feb 2013, free!

That and the latest issues of JSMag and GroovyMag!

Get the latest JSMag issue where yours truly has a “good enough to brag” article on HTML5 and a write-up in the and GroovyMag’s Plugin corner too (both with my good Friend one who cannot be named*)

This is how you get it -

1. Register at the URL - http://www.jsmag.com/ for JSMag

2. Go to the CART option and use the following coupon codes –> rcmm9pb

3. Go to your account option to download and access your free issue of JSMag Feb 2013!

This is how you get it -

1. Register at the URL - http://www.groovymag.com/ for GroovyMag

2. Go to the CART option and use the following coupon code – 7p0d237

3. Go to ‘My Account’ option and select the ‘Review magazine purchases’ to download and access your free issue of GroovyMag Feb 2013!

Simple!

As of writing, this has only 20 uses left! So hurry up and get this while it lasts!

You can thank me in the comments ;-)

Technorati Tags: goovymag,groovy,plugins,JSMag,free coupon,HTML5

Links for fellow QAs… Contd.

Here is another good collection of QA related tutorials – QATutorial.com

Excerpt from the site itself-

…a website which provides essential Software Testing material for QA and Testing enthusiasts.

Here you would be able to find information on all the different stages and areas of Software Testing.

Some of the Priority Areas being,

* Manual Testing
* Software Test Management
* Software Test Automation
* Interview Questions
* Software Testing Templates.
* A Forum area for discussion.

Do post in your views and links, I will update them here.

So you are a QA? Oh wait, don’t answer that!

Life may turn on its boring face if you have been a QA analyst (in any software firm) since a while.

Because, well let’s face it, a QA’s job is never easy. He/She is the person without any real (or developer) friends and most of the times, if the poor QA is one of ordinary luck, he handles the repetitive job of manual testing rather than interesting and challenging stuff like automation and scripts and so on.

These poor souls are found going through the same application functionalities day after day (like a zombie), to catch that elusive but obvious bug, which has to rear its ugly head on the staging, and during the client demonstration too!

And yet, it is only a proper QA process which provides that level confidence to both the developers and their customer about the application’s robustness.

So dear QA’s, fear not, as starting today I will make some effort to scout the net and post in or blog here some interesting links on QA fundamentals and topics, which should help some of you get back that spark of self-confidence!

So here we start with the QA section in TheServerSide.

The server side’s QA section titled Software Quality Assurance, contains whitepapers with stress on App-DLC, and the upcoming changes in QA domain WRT the now prevalent mobile and portable platforms too. only caveat is you have to register for access, but this is easy and free too, and completely worth it.

And do get back to me with comments etc. if you want me to mention any specific sites which help you out in your daily QA activities.

Technorati Tags: QA,SQA,testing,whitepapers,SDLC

How To - Find GUID (Globally Unique Identifier) of installed programs!

Well, this is for something my friend needed @ work.

Fire up either the local command prompt (start –> cmd) or the PowerShell prompt (for O.S. > Windows 7) – start –> Windows PowerShell

and then on the CLI, just this -

wmic product list

This generates a list of all programs on your computer with their “Globally Unique Identifiers” listed as well.

Will take some time, so be patient!

The PowerShell though, will give a better formatted output than the plain cmd one.

For even more, refer -

wmic product get

and better still save it somewhere like -

wmic product get > C:\ProgramGUIDList.txt

Simple!

 

Technorati Tags: GUID,windows,powershell,howto

Samsung Galaxy S4!

The rumored specs -

- Exynos 5 Octa (8-Core) CPU,
- Mali-T658 (8-Core) GPU,
- 4.99″ SuperAMOLED Full HD Resolution Display,
- 2GB of RAM,
- 13 Megapixel Rear facing Camera capable of shooting 1080p Full HD Videos at 30FPS,
- 2 Megapixel front facing camera capable of shooting 720p HD Videos
- Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean out of the box.

The launch date -

The preview -

The Benchmark (IDK!) -

And SamMobile says….

THE DISCLAIMER -

**I do not know if the above is real! So ARM your OWN BS meters!**

And it never ends…Samsung Galaxy S4!
Yeah you wish.

UPDATE: It seems something is actually going to happen as GSMArena is covering the same speculations…Maybe it is sooner than we expect.

Technorati Tags: Samsung,Galaxy,S4

Internet’s sad day…

It is a sad day for progress…a rising star is forever extinguished.

Aaron Swartz was a computer programmer, a writer and a fighter. He co-pioneered the RSS 1.0 specification of RSS at an age when other kids have different interests.

He is responsible for Infogami and also helped make Reddit what it is today. His group Demand Progress was one of the first ones to campaign against SOPA and was also a member of Avaaz. I do not know exactly why he took such a step… but I guess his legacy should bring on the changes he so desired in his lifetime.

Rest well champ, for us toiling hands, you will be remembered forever as the harbinger of progress.

Peace.

What do you want to do with your life?

Life… if it actually was that easy! If only our day to day choices weren’t governed by that single most important factor…! Yup, money!

But wait. There is some hope, still.

This below, is an info-comic by Zen Pencils…with words and thoughts of Alan Watts.

I hope this helps us all understand the importance and need of self-actualization vs. the artificial stuff which is actually running our lives for us today.

From the Zen pencils site -

Alan Watts (1915-1973) was an English philosopher and writer who played a large part in popularising Zen Buddhism in the west. He gained a wide following after moving to the United States where he published numerous books on Zen and Eastern philosophy. During the 60s and 70s he toured extensively on the college lecture circuit and became a celebrity among the growing youth movement. Watts had over 25 books published and recorded over 400 lectures, many of which have found a new audience on YouTube.

It surely depends on what you want Vs. what you need, but ultimately if what you do makes you happy, it will eventually help you pay your bills and more…

Technorati Tags: actualization,zen,life,money,importance

2012 in passing…

2012 was a mix bag. Mostly sad with many (good) people passing. Many precious lives cut short.

Many world-changing-events happened, but some heart & faith wrecking actions hit us closer to home (it actually could be the Biggest Tragedy of 2012 in India or The Humankind).

Only thing is that its outcome may have a profound effect on the times to come.

For the other parts of the world, Google has it’s own news.

I for one hope that the humanity works out its internals first rather concentrate on getting achievements on the outer..

Humanity needs to be more humane now more than ever. As someone mentioned it quite aptly, ‘With great power comes great responsibility’. And in these changing times, it seems that power comes easier but no one wants any responsibility. We as the current generation have this as our responsibility.

Always remember: No sacrifice should ever go in vain, or we will surely run out of heroes one day. Never forget.

Peace.

2012 in Science–The best in scientific break-through and achievements.

 

Everything happened in 2012.

The world not ending was a personal disappointment though (Dam’n you NASA!, better luck next time). Wikipedia gives us many forthcoming calendar dates to mark though. (Happy Happy!)

Ahh! Scientific achievements! Some discussed them in journals and some good Sci-fi movies imagined them correctly, but 2012 is almost gone, and many weird stuff is now real.

io9 covers it here in The Biggest Scientific Breakthroughs of 2012 and WIRED has its Top Scientific Discoveries of 2012.

Technorati Tags: 2012,2013 science,breakthroughs,higgs,DNA,mars,wired,io9,Sci-fi,NASA,end of world