I came across another interesting and informative topic across Internet; I like to share with you guys. I have compressed this topic for a blog:-).

Many of us would have come across winzip, winrar, 7-zip and lots of compressing software’s. And we would have wonder how it compress the file of some 500kb to 50kb or much lesser .And we usually don’t know how it compress or what compression algorithm it is using. This topic will give some basics on how file compression really works. Hope it will be interesting.

 The first thing we must know is that most types of computer files are fairly redundant. That is the same information is repeated and listed over again and again. What the file compression program does is, it just get rid of this redundancy.

Consider the same example: “ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”

 It consists of 79 characters including the spaces, semi-colon and full-stop. Assume that one character takes one unit of memory. So this statement takes 79 memory units. As I mentioned earlier, we have here some redundancy. We see that the same words repeating again here. If you keep the thing before semi-colon as ‘first half’ and after semi-colon as ‘second half’, we see that the second half can refer from the first half. This is the very basic idea that leads to the idea of file compression.

Most compression programs or software use LZ Adaptive Dictionary based Algorithm to shrink files. Here LZ stands for Lempel and Ziv, the creators of the algorithm. Dictionary refers to cataloging pieces of data. Actually while compressing, a dictionary is made ready and is saved along with the compressed file.

Now let us see how to make a dictionary. The dictionary could be as simple as a numbered list. It is given as below:

 Our sentence now reads: 1 not 2 3 4 5 6 7 8; 1 2 8 5 6 7 3 4.

 Now this sentence takes 37 memory units and the dictionary that is saved along with this takes another 37 memory units (Words and Numbers). So the file size reduces to 74 memory units from 79. Of course, we have not reduced the file size much here. But this is just one sentence. Assume that we have a large document, then these words may repeat many times and using this idea we can reduce the file size to a greater extent.

 Actually the compression program sees it quite differently. It does not look for repetitive words, but looks for repetitive patterns. If we consider this then we get a different dictionary.

 Have you observed that the text files get compressed a lot and MP3 files won’t get compressed to a greater extent? Can you tell why?

 The reason is that we have a high rate of redundancy in text, while MP3 files don’t repeat many patterns. So text files compress well while MP3 can’t be compressed much. If you haven’t noticed this yet, you please try compressing a text file and a MP3 file. Then you will notice the difference in the file size reduction.

 If a file has a lot of repeated patterns, the rate of reduction typically increases with file size. Above we have considered only one sentence. So this is actually a small file and we get a little compression here from 79 units to 74 units. But as the file size increases, we will still observe more reduction. Also more effective dictionary results in more effective compression.

Please leave me your comments.

These sites will be really useful for those who want to have the important documents,files,photos etc.. online,so that they can access it from anywhere around the globe.

There are lots of website for online storage like Windows Live Skydrive,Dropbox,Esnips.I have chosen Windows Live Skydrive and Dropbox.

Most of them would be having one question in common:Is my data are safe and secure in these websites?

The Above two mentioned products uses SSL login and they are password protected. so only the authenticated persons will be allowed inside.

okay lets discuss about the portals.

Windows Live Skydrive

Windows live skydrive is a Microsoft Product.Today,Most of us are addicted to Microsoft products.I’m sure this wont be an exception.You need to have either Hotmail account or live ID for using this product.

Lets see the details of this portal.

1. It gives us a 5GB storage,so its like an online harddisk for us.
2.You can create folders and manage your files accordingly.
3.Most importantly,you can share your folders to whom you wish.
4.Interface is very easy to use.

I thought these are some of the disadvantages of the skydrive.

1.The maximum file size that can be uploaded is 50mb only.
2.Some of the functions are browser based, like Drag and Drop feature is not available in Firefox,Opera or Safari.
3.It does not integrate with other MS products like Windows Live Workspace.
4.You cant open the document directly,need to download to view and edit the file.

For more information regarding storage and access

https://cid-af172614a5200393.skydrive.live.com/home.aspx

Dropbox

This is another my favorite product for online storage.This works entirely different from MS skydrive.

Requirements:

1.You need install drop box client application(download size approximately 8 MB)
2.Need to create one Dropbox account.

How it Works: Once you install the Dropbox client application and configured with your account,it will create a My Dropbox folder in your system.So whatever file you place in that folder it will be automatically uploaded and get synchronized.

Advantages:

1.One account can be configured with many computers,So you can synchronize your Windows or Mac simultaneously.
2.You can also access your files in Web Interface too.
3.It will be uploaded automatically,so you don’t need to upload manually.
4.It gives an storage space of 2GB.
5.If you want you can upload manually also.
6.You can share your folder with whom you want.

DisAdvantages:

1.It needs a client application
2.You cant create folders.

You can start your storage at

http://www.getdropbox.com/home

Please leave your valuable comments below about this topic.

But I thought Freeware software’s too would be really useful for replacing licensed software’s.

We should really understand the difference between the Open Source and Freewares before using it.

Difference Between Open Source and Freeware

1.In open source you will get the source code of the application which you are using,but in freeware you will not get the source code of the application.

2.Open Source is owned by the community,but freeware will be owned by a Company or an organization.

3. In Open source you will get all the features but in freeware the features will be limited.

Let me get into the useful software that can be used.

Photo Editing Tool.

In photo editing tool the main player in the industry is Adobe Photoshop.But since it is not a freeware most of them will not be able use it.The ideal replacement will be Google’s Picasa.

Google’s Picasa is freeware photo editing tool and photo management tool.

Features:
1.Organize: It will organize the photo based on the date which it was taken.
2.Fixes: You can do some of the basic fixes on the photo like Crop,Removing the Red eye,Auto contrast,auto light and many more…
3.Share:Send photos via email,publish your photos on the web,sideshows and more..
4.Print :Custom and standard sizes are now fit to print at home or export pictures to popular photo processing websites
5.Backup: Burn to CD or create a network backup.
These are some of the feature even a lay man could use.

For more information and downloads http://picasa.google.com/

Web Browser:

The best freeware web browser that can be used is OPERA

OPERA 9.5

Opera is really a fastest browser in the browser’s market,It has a small download size,With its blazing fast to load the pages that could really challenge Mozilla and IE.It is much secure against Phishing and Malware.You can personalize the browser by adding the widgets.

It was the first browsers to pass the acid test3.

If you are looking to replace either IE or Firefox this would be a ideal choice.

To check whether your browser pass the Acid Test 3.Please check the link http://acid3.acidtests.org/

For more information and downloads http://www.opera.com/

Anti Virus:

There are three best freeware antivirus in the market Avira,AVG,Avast.

Out of the three,I personally feel AVIRA is the best because of its detection rate ,its scanning speed and its memory usage.

AVIRA

The best freeware antivirus which could really challenge Norton,McAfee,Kaspersky,Nod32.

Its has a better detection rate that could scan for rootkits ,virus and most of the Malicious codes.

It will be using a lesser RAM for running in background that could give u a real time protection against the malicious codes,and its interface will be good with the administrative tasks.

It uses a incremental updates so the update files are really very small ,the only drawback that i could see with this software is the update server will be busy most of the time.

Anti-Spyware

The best free anti-spyware  is Windows Defender,and its from the Microsoft Corporation.

Windows Defender

Recently they have released a stable version and it was really effective with high detection rate.

It uses a lesser memory for its real time protection.It will nicely integrate with your Internet Explorer.

We need a original Windows OS for installing Windows Defender.Before installing it will run the   Genuine Validation check.

For more information and downloads please check the link
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/defender/default.mspx

Firewall

If you are using Windows XP service pack 2,you will be having the Windows Firewall installed.But do think that’s enough?

Windows Firewall: It can handle only one way of traffic only,So if u have already have an infected PC,then there will be no use in using that.

So for our today’s world ,we need a software that could handle both inbound and outbound traffic.

The product that could be most effective would be COMODO and its a freeware with most of the features.

COMODO:

Comodo is an excellent firewall software that could block the outside connections,It is a self learning application  that could learn by itself ,It will understand your computer setting and act accordingly.

If you are using Internet ,they this will serve you better.

For more information and downloads
http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/

Communication

It is a most important aspect in today’s world.There are many communication software’s like Google Talk,Yahoo Messenger,Live Messenger,But i felt Google Talk is a excellent software

Google Talk

I wonder with a 1.5MB software we could use most of the features that are needed for communication software and it is one of my favorite software.

Features:

1.Clean look (without any banners or ads)
2.Integrated with GMAIL,ORKUT.
3.Free PC-PC calls.
4.With Google talk Gadget you don’t need to download
and many more.

For more details and downloads,please visit the official link.

http://www.google.com/talk/

Google Pack

With the Google Pack you could get all the freewares for your PC.
1.Google Earth:To see the world.
2.Norton Security Scan:Antivirus with limited features
3.Google Desktop:To search your computer
4.Firefox with Google Toolbar:Web browser
5.Adobe Reader DF Reader
6.Skype(Communication and to call mobile and landlines)
7.StarOffice (includes Java™):Productivity Software
8.Spyware Doctor:Anti-spyware
9.Picasa hoto Editing Tool
10.Google Photos Screensaver:To create screen saver
11.Google Talk:Communication
12.Real Player:Multimedia

You can customize your downloads for Google Pack.

For more information and downloads,Please check the link
http://pack.google.com/intl/en/pack_installer.html?hl=en&gl=us

Please let me know your comments.

The main advantage of using the open source software’s are bugs will be fixed in the record time,We don’t have to wait for the service pack’s to be released.

I have listed some of the software’s that could really replace the licensed software’s.The first software which will strike my mind is Mozilla Firefox.

Firefox

Most of them would be aware of the Mozilla Firefox.This is the software which have ended the monopoly of Internet Explorer.Initially IE was having the browser market share over 95%,but it has been reduced to 74%.The current share of Firefox is 18.41%.
If you want the latest browser market share.Please check the below link.

http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=0

I have listed some of the great features in Firefox.

1.Stability (don’t crash like IE)
2.Security(Phishing,Virus,Malicious software’s are bay away from Firefox)
3.Blazing fast(almost 7 times faster than IE)

You can Download the the Latest Version of Firefox from

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/

Ubuntu

There are different operating systems in the today’s world,Basically to my knowledge Operating System are broadly classified into UNIX and Windows.

The ultimate replacement for the Windows is Linux,The main advantage of Linux is its Stability and security.The architeture of UNIX is known to every one not like windows.

There are different flavors of Linux like Ubuntu,Fedora,SUSE etc…
But I thought Ubuntu will be a better replacement for Windows XP or even VISTA.

Ubuntu is a community developed Operating System best for Laptops,Desktops,Servers,Ubuntu is and always will be free of charge. You do not pay any licensing fees. You can download, use and share Ubuntu with your friends, family, school or business for absolutely nothing.

You can even request a free CD form ubuntu or download the image for the site and burn it in a CD.

For more information on Ubuntu and downloads ,Please visit the website http://www.ubuntu.com/

OpenOffice

OpenOffice is the ideal replacement for the Microsoft Office products. Microsoft Office plays a major role in Microsoft’s total revenue.
We need to pay a large sum for buying the license for Microsoft Office(Approximately 12,000/- Rupees per user).If Microsoft office can be replaced then why we are still depended over MS Office .

OpenOffice Products:
1.Writer (replaces MS Word)
2.Calc(Replaces MS Excel)
3.Impress(Replaces MS PowerPoint)
4.Draw(Replaces MS Visio)
5.Base(Replaces MS Access)

Please check the official site for more details and download.

http://www.openoffice.org/

Thunderbird

We usually use MS outlook as our e-mail client in office or at home.MS Outlook will be a bundled software under MS Office,so the same problem LICENSING.

A complete replacement for Outlook will be Mozilla’s Thunderbird.
It is a product from Mozilla’s community.So its much secure and stable.

Main features of Thunderbird:
1.Advanced Folder Views
2.Message Tagging
3.Phishing Protection
4.Robust Privacy
5.Cutting Out the Junk
6.Open Source, More Secure

For more information and download ,please visit the official website.

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/

Please let me know your comments.

For example, you may upgrade the amount of RAM in your system from 128 MB to 256 MB, but there is only 256 MB of swap space. It might be advantageous to increase the amount of swap space to 512 MB if you perform memory-intense operations or run applications that require a large amount of memory.

You have three options:

• create a new swap partition,

• create a new swap file, or

• extend swap on an existing LVM2 logical volume.

It is recommended that you extend an existing logical volume.

1.Extending Swap on an LVM2 Logical Volume

To extend an LVM2 swap logical volume (assuming /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01 is the volume you want to extend):

1. Disable swapping for the associated logical volume:

# swapoff -v /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01

2. Resize the LVM2 logical volume by 256 MB:

# lvm lvresize /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01 -L +256M

3. Format the new swap space:

# mkswap /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01

4. Enable the extended logical volume:

# swapon -va

5. Test that the logical volume has been extended properly:

# cat /proc/swaps # free

2.Creating an LVM2 Logical Volume for Swap

To add a swap volume group (assuming /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol02 is the swap volume you want to add):

1. Create the LVM2 logical volume of size 256 MB:

# lvm lvcreate VolGroup00 -n LogVol02 -L 256M

2. Format the new swap space:

# mkswap /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol02

3. Add the following entry to the /etc/fstab file:

/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol02 swap swap defaults 0 0

4. Enable the extended logical volume:

# swapon -va

5. Test that the logical volume has been extended properly:

# cat /proc/swaps # free

So I thought of taking the Three leading Productivity software in the market and compare each other.
Google Docs,Microsoft Office Live Workspace,Adobe Buzzword and some more like ZOHO.
In the three products Microsoft needs client application to be Installed.

Interface:

The three word processor have the same goal to collaborate online,Google will be having a clean interface which will be perfect for making simpler and professional document.
Microsoft will be having the same interface of Office 2003 or 2007.We will see a professional Look and feel in Microsoft with lots of additional options.
Adobe Buzzword is a  Flash based application.Adobe will be having cool interface(black color) for the People who needs something different from others.

Usability:

Now most of them will be aware of the user friendly nature of microsoft. Google Docs is also very much user friendly,people can adapt to it very easily,But with Abobe Buzzword is not much userfriendly as the counterpart,It will take some more time to adopt.

Online Colloboration:

As part of Google Docs We can publish the document and We can invite people as collaborators or viewers.
Adobe Buzz word is also similar . Microsoft can also collobarate the document but not much effective as Google.

Cost

Google Docs is free and you don’t need a single penny out of your pocket.Since microsoft needs a client application,you have to spend a large amount for purchasing and licensing.Adobe Buzzword is also free.

Offline Storage:

Google docs stand tall in this feature, It can can be stored offline using Google Gears,It will sync up once we online. This feature is not present with other Online productivity suits.And it take advantage over others.

Formats

Google Docs can export the file in different formats including PDF,Which is not present in other products.

Additional Products:

In Google we are having products like Spreadsheet and Presentation.
In Microsoft we have Task list,Contact List,Event List,Workspace

Conclusion:

People who want to work both offline as well as online should be going for Google Docs.

All the three Products have both Advantages over other.

The Windows version of the Information Server and DataStage 8 are out now. No sign yet of the version for other platforms.
DataStage Versions

DataStage 8 can only upgrade a DataStage 7 server, it cannot upgrade previous versions of servers though it can co-exist with previous versions. DataStage 8 can however import and upgrade export files from earlier versions of DataStage. I don’t know how far back this support goes.
All the DataStage 7.x versions are available in version 8:

• DataStage Enterprise Edition: Parallel, Server and Sequence Jobs
• DataStage Server Edition: Server and Sequence Jobs
• DataStage MVS: Mainframe Jobs
• DataStage Enterprise for z/OS: runs on Unix System Services
• DataStage for PeopleSoft: 2 CPU limit with Server and Sequence jobs.

DataStage Addons

The DataStage Enterprise Packs and Change Data Capture components are available in version 8 as shown in the version 8 architecture overview:

Enterprise PACKs

• SAP BW Pack

BAPI: (Staging Business API) loads from any source to BW.

OpenHub: extract data from BW.

• SAP R/3 Pack

ABAP: (Advanced Business Application Processing) auto generate ABAP, Extraction Object Builder, SQL Builder, Load and execute ABAP from DataStage,    CPI-C Data Transfer, FTP Data Transfer, ABAP syntax check, background execution of ABAP.
IDoc: create source system, IDoc listener for extract, receive IDocs, send IDocs.
BAPI: BAPI explorer, import export Tables Parameters Activation, call and commit BAPI.

• Siebel Pack

EIM: (data integration manager) interface tables
Business Component: access business views via Siebel Java Data Bean
Direct Access: use a metadata browser to select data to extract
Hierarchy: for extracts from Siebel to SAP BW.

• Oracle Applications Pack

Oracle flex fields: extract using enhanced processing techniques.
Oracle reference data structures: simplified access using the Hierarchy Access component.
Metadata browser and importer

• DataStage Pack for PeopleSoft Enterprise

Import business metadata via a metadata browser.
Extract data from PeopleSoft tables and trees.

• JD Edwards Pack

Standard ODBC calls
Pre-joined database tables via business views

Change Data Capture

These are add on products (at an additional fee) that attach themselves to source databases and perform change data capture. Most source system database owners I’ve come across don’t like you playing with their production transactional database and will not let you near it with a ten foot poll, but I guess there are exceptions:
Oracle
Microsoft SQL Server
DB2 for z/OS
IMS
There are three ways to get incremental feeds on the Information Server: the CDC products for DataStage, the Replication Server (renamed Information Integrator: Replication Edition, does DB2 replication very well) and the change data capture functions within DataStage jobs such as the parallel CDC stage.

Removed Functions

These are the functions that are not in DataStage 8, please imaging the last waltz playing in your head as you peruse this list:
dssearch command line function

dsjob “-import”
Version Control tool
Released jobs
Oracle 8i native database stages
ClickPack
The loss of the Version Control tool is not a big deal as the import/export functions have been improved. Building a release file as an export in version 8 is easier than building it in the Version Control tool in version 7.
Database Connectivity
The common connection objects functionality means the very wide range of DataStage database connections are now available across Information Server products.
Latest supported databases for version 8:
DB2 8.1, 8.2 and 9.1
Oracle 9i, 10i, 10gR2 not Oracle 8
SQL Server 2005 plus stored procedures.
Teradata v2r5.1, v2r6.0, v2r6.1 (DB server) / 8.1 (TTU) plus Teradata Parallel Transport (TPT) and stored procedures and macro support, reject links for bulk loads, restart capability for parallel bulk loads.
Sybase ASE 15, Sybase IQ 11.5, 12.5, 12.7
Informix 10 (IDS)
SAS 612, 8.1, 9.1 and 9.1.3
IBM WS MQ 6.1, WS MB 5.1
Netezza v3.1
ODBC 3.5 standard and level 3 compliant
UniData 6 and UniVerse ?
Red Brick ?
This is not the complete list. Some database versions are missing, more databases can be accessed through the ODBC stage and there may be some databases missing.
New Database Connector Functions
This is a big area of improvement.

LOB/BLOC/CLOB Data: pictures, documents etc of any size can now be moved between databases. After choosing the LOB data type you can choose to pass the data inline or as a link reference.
Reject Links: optionally append error codes and messages, conditionally filter types of rejection, fail a job based on a percentage threshold of failures.
Schema Reconciliation: where the hell has this function been all my life? Automatically compare your DataStage schema to the database schema and  perform minor data type conversions.
Improved SQL Builder that supports more database types, although if you didn’t like the version 7 one you wont like the 8 one either. (Kim Duke, I’m looking at you).
Test button on connectors. Test! You don’t have to view data or run a job to find out if the stupid thing works.
Drag and drop your configured database connections onto jobs.
Before and after SQL defined per job or per node with a failure handling option. Neater than previous versions.
DataStage 8 gives you access to the latest versions of databases that DataStage 7 may never get. Extra functions on all connectors includes improved reject handling, LOB support and easier stage configuration.
Code Packs
These packs can be used by server and/or parallel jobs to interact with other coding languages. This lets you access programming modules or functions      within a job:
Java Pack: produce or consume rows for DataStage Parallel or Server jobs. Use a java transformer.
Web Service Pack: access web services operations in a Server job transformer or Server routine.
XML Pack: read, write or transform XML files in parallel or server jobs.
The DataStage stages, custom stages, transformer functions and routines will usually be faster at transforming data than these packs however they are useful for re-using existing code.
New Stages
A new stage from the IBM software family, new stages from new partners and the convergence of QualityStage functions into Datastage. Apart from the SCD stage these all come at an additional cost.

• WebSphere Federation and Classic Federation
• Netezza Enterprise Stage
• SFTP Enterprise Stage
• iWay Enterprise Stage
• Slowly Changing Dimension: for type 1 and type 2 SCDs.
• Six QualityStage stages

There are four questions that have been asked since the dawn of time. What is the meaning of life? What’s this rash that comes and goes? If you leave me can I come too? How do a populate a slowly changing dimension using DataStage? The answers being 42, visit a clinic, piss off and use the new SCD stage.
New Functions Existing Stages
Complex Flat File Stage: Multi Format File (MFF) in addition to existing cobol file support.
Surrogate Key Generator: now maintains the key source via integrated state file or DBMS sequence.
Lookup Stage: range lookups by defining checking high and low range fields on the input or reference data table. Updatable in memory lookups.
Transformer Stage: new surrogate key functions Initialize() and GetNextKey().
Enterprise FTP Stage: now choose between ftp and sftp transfer.
You can achieve most of these functions in the current version with extra coding except for in-memory lookups. This is a killer function in DataStage 8.

Platforms

These are the platforms for the released Windows version and the yet to be released Linux/Unix version along with the C++ compiler that you only need for parallel jobs that will use transformers. You do not need this compiler for Server Edition.

Windows 2003 SP1

Visual Studio .NET 2003 C++

Visual Studio .NET 2005 C++ or Visual Studio .NET 2005 Express Edition C++

AIX 5.2 & 5.3

XL C/C++ Enterprise Edition 7.0, 8.0 compiler

HP-UX 11i v1 & v2

aC++ A.03.63 compiler

Red Hat ASE 4.0

gcc3.23 compiler

SuSEES, 9.0

gcc3.3.3 compiler

Solaris 2.9 & 2.10

Sun Studio 9, 10 , 11 compiler

Database Repository
Note the database compatibility for the Metadata Server repository is the latest versions of the three DBMS engines. DB2 is an optional extra in the bundle if you don’t want to use an existing database.

• IBM UDB DB2 ESE 9-IBM Information Server does not support the Database Partitioning Feature (DPF) for use in the repository layer-DB2 Restricted Enterprise Edition 9 is included with IBM Information Server and is an optional part of the installation however its use is restricted to hosting the IBM Information Server repository layer and cannot be used for other applications

• Oracle 10g

• SQL Server 2005

If you are a cheapskate and you really don’t like DB2, in fact you would cross the street if you saw it coming in the other direction, you might be able to load the repository into a free (express) version of SQL Server or Oracle, however you might hit a problem with the DBMS license CPU restriction. If you get this working drop me a comment.
Languages
Foreign language support for the graphical tools and product messages:
Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Czech, Danish, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Swedish.
Commiserations to the Welsh. For the Trekkies out there keep the writin campaign going, it is only a matter of time before they add Klingon. It is on the product path right after High Elf.