Computing as a Commodity

I just created a new post on my other blog on cloud computing. Please read it at http://danushka-menikkumbura.blogspot.com/2010/06/computing-as-commodity.html.

Windows Compilation Models for C/C++

ML (Default)
---------------
MFLAGS = -ML
Single-threaded, statically linked
Runtime library - libc.lib

MT
---    
MFLAGS = -MT
Multi-threaded, statically linked
Runtime library - libcmt.lib

MD
---
MFLAGS = -MD
Multi-threaded, dynamically linked
Runtime library - msvcrt.lib

Jeff Jaffe now W3C CEO

Ex-Novel CTO Jeff Jaffe is now the CEO of W3C. Read the full story here.

Funeral held for IE6

More than 100 people, many of them dressed in black, were expected to gather around a coffin Thursday night to say goodbye to an old friend of ours.

Read more here.

Less than one second Linux boot!

The following video shows an instance where Linux has been tuned to start in less than one second. Interesting!.

http://www.embedded-bits.co.uk/?p=213

How to configure Facebook Chat on Pidgin

As Facebook Chat now supports Jabber/XMPP, you can integrate it into your favorite chat client. I have been a big fan of Pidgin for more than three years now. Therefore I have mentioned the simple set of steps for setting up FB Chat on Pidgin.

1. Launch Pidgin, go to Accounts –> Manage Accounts and click Add… .

2. Fill in the Basic tab as shown in the following screenshot.

Please note that here the Username is your Facebook username.

3. You need to make sure you have unchecked all SSL options on the Advanced tab.

4. Click Add and you are done.

Getting your Huawei E220 Modem to Work on Windows Vista

    I had been using my Huawei E220 on Windows XP for a couple of years until I got my new Dell XPS with Windows Vista pre-installed. I could not wait to get my first Internet experience on Vista and plugged my HSPA dongle in to come online as quickly as possible as it used to be on XP. Then only I realized that my Huawei E220 mobile broadband modem was not working on Vista. Apparently the device driver was failing to detect the plug-and-play device on Vista.

    I started to Google looking for some solution and found that it required a firmware upgrade. An office colleague of mine also told me that he managed to get his Huawei E220 to work on Vista by doing a firmware upgrade. Yesterday I also managed to get my dongle to work on Vista after a firmware upgrade.

    This is how you go about doing this simple upgrade process.

1. Go to http://www.huawei.com/mobileweb/en/doc/list.do?type=-1&id=736 and download the file E220 Client Software WINMACB300D00SP02C03 (UTPS11[1].002.03.16.03_MAC11.201.01.00.03) for WinXP&2K&Vista & Mac.zip.

2. Fix your dongle into a 32-bit Windows machine (say Windows XP) and execute this file to do the firmware upgrade. Please note that your dongle can become completely unusable in case you disturb this upgrade process.

3. Once it is done, you can use your newly upgraded Huawei E220 HSPA modem on your Vista machine without any issue.

Happy upgrade and Good Luck !!!