Python - a comparison with C

Here you go..: http://blog.marcelotoledo.org/2007/08/10/how-to-write-a-spelling-corrector/

Here a spelling checker is implemented in Python and C. Python code is just 21 lines and C code is almost 190 lines. But for big dictionaries, C code performance is much better compared to Python version.

Loopt - Mobile social network

Today watched a video about loopt in youtube. I always felt that social networking sites like facebook, orkut are very powerful tools for connecting with people through internet. But this one seems to be even more interesting..

Loopt is a way of connecting with your friends through mobile. Loopt uses GPS and related data to display the location of a user’s friends along with their presence status (available, away, etc) on maps and lists. Users will be able to request alerts when friends are within a certain distance, send messages to groups of friends within a certain distance and soon will be able to tag and blog physical locations in a way that’s accesible to friends through Loopt.

This one is freely available with most of the carriers and devices in North America.

Read more about loopt and other players in this promising business arena in techcrunch.

Python programming in Windows

You can try Python programming in windows. It will be really useful for students started learning programming. I dont have much experience in Python. But seems like easy programming compared to C/C++ - not much syntax, extensive ADTs, a lot of useful libraries.

You can use Python in different ways - as a good programming language or scripting language.
The best thing is we can use python code embedded in to C/C++ code. You will get more information about this from here: http://www.python.org/doc/2.5.2/ext/contents.html

You can install Python in your windows machine by downloading windows installer for Python and windows extensions. More information here: http://www.cs.sfu.ca/~ggbaker/reference/modeling/wininstall

Three microsoft bugs..!!

These are some weired bugs in microsft products

1. Open a word document, type =rand (200, 99) and press ENTER.

Actually there is no significance for the numbers 200 and 99, say we are entering =rand(x,y) in word, it will create the sentence "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." y times in x paragraphs.

eg: if we are entering =rand(2,1) , the output will be like this

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

or some other "random" sentences.

2. Try creating folders named : CON, NUL, COM1, COM2, COM3, LPT1, LPT2, LPT3,COM1 to COM9 and LPT1 to LPT9. It will not allow to change the name of folder. But there are two ways to create these folders in Windows.

a) Go to cmd prompt and try the command md\\.\\c:\\con. It will create con folder inside C drive.

b) While naming the folder, type 'CON' and type c55 in the numpad holding the alt button.

3. Open an empty notepad file. Type "Bush hid the facts" (without the quotes). Save it as whatever you want. Close it, and re-open it.

Noticed the weird bug? Actually not only the sentence "Bush hid the facts"..but a lot of sentences have this behaviour. The first word with even number of letters and all other words with odd number of letters will create this problem..eg: try "rake did bad thing". It will just show 9 squares or some chinese characters..:).

But if we are saving the notepad using unicode encoding instead of ANSI encoding, there is no problem. Even opening the file with unicode will help.

OpenMoko Neo Freerunner

Openmoko is a project dedicated to delivering mobile phones with an open source software stack. Openmoko is currently selling the Neo FreeRunner phone to advanced users and will start selling it to the general public as soon as the software is more developed. In India also it is available through IDA systems. The price is high as of now. We can hope price will be reduced in the future.

Further details about this project is available here : http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Main_Page