Posted: December 2nd, 2008 | Author: khosrow | Tags: iphone, jailbreak | No Comments »
This weekend I finally manage to jailbreak my iphone. The process is pretty painless, and is well documented on various sites; here, and here, for example.
The best part of doing this is that I can now unlock features of the iphone that would normally be closed to me. I can now record video with the phone, tether the phone to a laptop, and most importantly and ridiculously I can use the native terminal on the system. And a very cool side-effect is that I can now ssh to a remote host from my cell phone!
Dec 16, 2008 Update:I added a nicer screenshot of the terminal app to the above shots.
Posted: October 19th, 2008 | Author: khosrow | Tags: Design, Usability | No Comments »
I was surfing the web today, and stumbled on an article about various application icons and how effective they are in conveying the usage of the application. The comparisons mostly deal with Mac vs. Windows icons.
But he also brings Firefox and Thunderbird into the picture.
In the end it looks like the UI design team at Apple has given more attention to icons and their effectiveness. It’s no secret that the various design teams at Apple are very good at what they do, from the packaging of the devices to their OS, to the hardware design, but it’s interesting to hear it from a different point of view.
The Importance of Icon Metaphors [Louie Mantia]
Posted: October 13th, 2008 | Author: khosrow | Tags: desktop, linux, Technology, widgets | 2 Comments »
Back in 2003 when I still had enough time to follow up on the latest Linux applications, there was a new tool (or toolkit) developed called Karamba. It aimed to bring desktop widget functionality to KDE on Linux. Soon there was a new application called Superkaramba that improved on the old application and got a lot of attention. Curious as I was, I downloaded it, compiled it and was soon running it on my desktop.
Looks like the idea of using desktop widgets was catching on at the time. At the same time there was an application called Konfabulator (which got bought out by Yahoo and is now called Yahoo! Widgets). When I started working and was forced back on Windows, I started using konfabulator and liked it quite a lot. At around the same time Mac OS X had an application called Dashboard, which did all the things the other two were aiming for. With the release of Windows Vista, Microsoft entered the field and released native widgets called Gadgets. The final development – as far as my exposure lets me believe – was the development of Plasma in the new version KDE. There is also one other player in this game that introduced its own version of widgets. Google created the desktop search back in 2004, and soon after added a sidebar with gadgets and other plugins. As one would guess, these gadgets performed the same general tasks as all the other flavours and aimed to provide the same solutions.
I this article I will try and review each of these implementations both from a user perspective. Part 2 will carry reviews from a developer’s point of view.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: July 13th, 2006 | Author: khosrow | Tags: Life, Rants | No Comments »
I’ve been dabbling in high-level computing for a while now. My work doesn’t lead me to the guts of the computer. I don’t have to use
the command line to make my daily bread. I
am a suite! But I realized today how much I miss hacking around on it. There’s something about the black background, with white text (and some colored characters thrown in for fun) that’s intriguing and makes you want to explore. The Commodore64 was my first introduction to the command line – and in fact to computers – and I still haven’t overcome the mystery of those glowing characters!
Maybe it’s time I basked in that glow again!
Posted: August 13th, 2004 | Author: khosrow | No Comments »
and here’s my Raytracer project that I did for graphics. It is by no means complete, and I really want to make it into a really nice application.
Today was spent playing soccer, passing out on a friends couch after a good meal of pizza and wings, waking up shortly and playing networked computer games in a dingy basement!
Long live student life!!!