Adobe

Adobe was named after the Adobe Creek in Los Altos, California, which ran behind the home of cofounder John Warnock.

Apple Computers

The first slogan of this company was “Bite into an Apple”, while its more famous slogan is “Think Different”. Probably thinking differently, the founder, Steve Jobs, named this company “Apple Computers” while he was driving along with Steve Wozniak between Palo Alto and Los Altos. Jobs and his friends used to work on a community farm cultivating apples while he was working in the Bay Area of San Francisco. Jobs was three months late in filing a name for the business, and he threatened to call his company Apple Computers if his colleagues didn’t suggest a better name. As you can guess, they didn’t come up with anything better and the rest is history. Other theories are that Jobs wanted his company to feature before Atari in the phone book, while yet another suggestion is that it was a tribute to Apple Records, which was the music label of the Beatles.

Cisco

Even though its current headquarters is in San Jose, California, this company was founded in San Francisco, [:D] California in 1984 and took the last five letters of the name of this city for the company name. This is the reason why the company’s engineers insisted on using the name in lower case as “cisco” previously rather than “Cisco” as it is now known. The company logo also has the stylized Golden Gate Bridge of San Francisco.

Google

The name of this company started as a jockey boast about the amount of information the search-engine would be able to search. The word “Google” is a misspelling of the word “Googol”, which means a number represented by 1 followed by 100 zeros. After founders – Stanford graduate students Sergey Brin and Larry Page presented their project to an angel investor and received a cheque made out to “Google”. The search engine of this company was originally nicknamed “BackRub” because the system checked backlinks to estimate the importance of a site and rank it in the search. Google’s history is highly amusing (not than Apple though) and it shares a great resemblance with Yahoo and Facebook.

Hewlett-Packard

HP or Hewlett-Packard got its name from the founders Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, but the story of its name is nonetheless interesting. Hewlett and Packard could not agree as to whether the company should be named Hewlett-Packard or Packard-Hewlett, so they decided to resolve the matter by tossing a coin. [were those guys serious? Yeah, they were] Packard won the toss and decided to name it Hewlett-Packard Company [ modesty ] in 1939.

Hotmail

The founder of this company, Jack Smith, came up with the idea of accessing email via the web from a computer anywhere in the world without having the prevailing restrictive system of having to use the email server provided by the ISP. When the other founder, Sabeer Bhatia [Indian, this has been framed as question in many wizs] came up with the business plan for the mail service, he tried all kinds of names ending with ‘mail’, and finally settled for Hotmail, as it included the letters “HTML”

[/source]

, which is Hyper Text Markup Language – the programming language used to write web pages. Launched on July 4, 1996, it was initially referred to as HoTMaiL with selective upper casing.

PS: In case you didn’t know, I am a ‘religious’ user of Hotmail, and on this 8^th October; my account became 1 yr old.. but evidently that day went in vain.

Intel

At its inception, founders Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore wanted to name their new company “Moore Noyce” but discovered that this name was already trademarked by a hotel chain. Also, they felt that it didn’t sound nice as the pronunciation was eerily similar to ‘more noise’, which is not suitable for a semiconductor company [clever indeed.. silicon and noice: weird network
combination]. They used the name NM Electronics for the first year before arriving at Intel, which is the acronym of INTegrated Electronics and that is how the company has been known since.

Lotus

Founder, Mitch Kapor, christened this company as Lotus, inspired by the “padmasana” or the yoga asana with a lotus position. The roots to this choice of name could be the fact that Kapor used to be a teacher of Transcendental Meditation of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

Microsoft

The word Microsoft is derived from the words Microcomputer and Software and it has an interesting history. Bill Gates used the word Micro-Soft in a letter he wrote to Paul Allen, the other co-founder of this company on November 29, 1975 and they later registered this company in this name on November 26, 1976. The hyphen was eventually removed and it came to be known from then on as Microsoft..

Motorola

This company started as Galvin Manufacturing Corporation in 1928 in Chicago, Illinois, manufacturing battery eliminators. Founder Paul Galvin came up with the name Motorola when this company started manufacturing radios for cars in 1930. The name is a combination of the word “motor” and “Victrola”, which was a popular radio company at the time. PS: It also belongs to IT Sector.

Oracle

Lord Larry Ellison and Bob Oats were working on a consulting project for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) while at Ampex Corporation. The code name for the project was called Oracle, because the CIA saw this as something like a system to give answers to all questions much like the mythical Oracles of the ancient world.

Red Hat

This Linux distro that released in 1994 has an interesting history. Marc Ewing, who created this distro (linux distribution) had been given the Cornell lacrosse team cap (with red and white stripes) while at college by his grandfather. However, he lost it and despite looking for it did not find it. The information is revealed in the manual of the beta version of Red Hat Linux, which had an appeal to readers to return his Red Hat if found by anyone. Interesting, isn’t it?

Sony

Formerly known as Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo K.K., the co-founder of this company, Akio Morita realized that Americans had difficulty pronouncing this name while on a business trip to the US. He therefore tried to find a Romanized name for this company, which would be appealing to Americans and would also embody the spirit of the company. After trying out different names, they arrived at a decision to use “Sony” as the name. This word has been derived from the Latin word Sonus meaning sound, and Sonny a slang used by Americans to refer to a bright youngster. They chose this word as this did not exist in any other language. Another theory suggests that the name was derived from the word Sun, because Japan is known as the Land of the Rising Sun and also the place of origin of this company.

Yahoo!

Originally named “Jerry and David’s Guide to the World Wide Web” (think of typing this url at your address bar!), this company was renamed to Yahoo! in April 1994. Yahoo is the official acronym of “Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle” and it is also a word invented by Jonathan Swift and used in his book Gulliver’s Travels. It represents a person who is rude, uncouth and unsophisticated, something which Yahoo! founders Jerry Yang and David Filo considered they were.
Ah.. just remembered, I’ve still not got invite to Yahoo Meme and Google Wave.. L .

All those who actually read this post, please Comment.

Information and idea gathered from trending topics.

Due to study load on my back, I’m unable to come out with interesting posts.. Blog will be in it’s full flow after few months.

But meanwhile, I can’t resist informing about various Techy Tales around.

The list follows:

• Facebook is second most visited site in the world, Orkut is 139th. (Credit: Aditya Salapaka’s feed)

• Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala scheduled at end of October, eagerly waiting for Koala,

  personally think that it’s time to upgrade my Intrepid IBex.

• Gmail gets Push Mail Support
• Google’s Real Time Search Option Unveiled.
  

  Expanding this a bit:

  If you have experienced Twitter, you must have wondered about it’s buggy but useful ‘real time search’ that keeps tab on every trending topics. This gives a brief and perfect picture of current topics and about its latest surf across that.. Now, coming to Google, till now it was not possible to find it out at Google, but not it is..

  Across this page you will find something like:

  http://www.google.co.in/search?hl=en&rlz=1C1GGLS_enIN291IN304&tbo=1&tbs=qdr:d&q=Microsoft&btnG=Search&meta=&aq=undefined&oq=Microsof

  

  Showing Real Search Option in search

  Just search anything in that search box for Real Time Search. It’s great thing for use.. ain’t it? (Provided: You know how to use if ‘effectively’).

• Yahoo Meme to set competition for Twitter.

Ankur Goel

Just after update in Gmail’s tag configuration, finally removing ‘beta’ from its product, Google has came up with one more buzz through it’s Official Blog post. They have almost finally announced the release of Google Chrome OS.

As they say themselves that Chrome OS will be faster and more reliable then any other OS (Windows, Linux, Mac OS etc). OS is an interface between user and machine to work as per user wish. The main thing they are featuring is that almost every work will be done through web-based applications. It means as Ankur Banerjee mentioned: ‘Google Chrome OS (not the browser) is based on the concept of having a minimal interface with every work being done using a web application. Want to create/edit documents? Use Google Docs. Want to edit a picture? Do it online.’ I am certain that no one will wish to read up their ebooks (or pdfs) through web-based applications. Google is introducing Chrome OS through Netbooks, which are meant for surfing and internet purposes. So visions like ‘Windows Vs Chrome OS’ is unjustified in itself.

Chrome OS and Windows

Hoping that this product will give good turn out.
-Ankur Goel

Many a times you must have got need to operate your system remotely or probably felt a necessity of working ‘calloborately’ haven’t you? But all these thoughts go in vain while thinking about the solution to do so.. I mean operating the system at long distance is not an easy task afterall. Personally, commanding anyone to operate creates lot of hurdles.
Well there is a solution, an easy and effective one. TeamViewer, a small and interactive application to operate another system quite easily, just like virtual machine in your system itself. You will get this more clear if you will see this:

This is how it creates interface.

Operating the application. Click to ZOOM

Wholla.. Result is out.. Click to ZOOM

How it actually helped me?
Well, this software has helped me greatly to help few buddies in their machine’s and softwares problems, it is to be mentioned that it allowed me to use Microsoft Maths in others computer while I was having XP SP 1.

So guys, what are you waiting for?
Download this software simply by clicking here:

Download

Last year S.Chandra with an un-necessary bargain agreed to tell the secret behind .tk , actually he made a blog with blogger (which he managed religiously for 2 days) and named his blog as www.schandra.tk ( I think ). I was a bit surprised how he did that. Then after few rounds of convincing he told about dot.tk .

Click to zoom

It is a site from where one can easily rename a long URL to a website like domain ( just like bit.ly, tr.im etc etc). Specialty of this site is that from this you can have a domain like name (example: www.ankur.tk) for your website / page. I used it too and renamed many URL’s. Earlier I used it on a blog and recently ( 5 months earlier ) I used it for renaming a long URL of ‘free’ ebook’s site . As far I know there is no difficulty to understand that site coz it’s hardly made of 2-3 pages. But still one can ask any query here in comment section.

Visit site now

Ankur

Comments are invited

I am subscriber of Hindustan Times newspaper and thanks to Jesus its’ authorities are not fond of showing crappy news. Once in a week, they give some technological tips (some of them are already known, but some are not). Recently I got through an article for blending of sounds under a techo. title featuring Audacity. Read it and then surfed it on net. What all i got from their official site is:

A fast, cross-platform audio editor

Audacity is a multi-track audio editor for Linux/Unix, MacOS and Windows. It is designed for easy recording, playing and editing of digital audio. Audacity features digital effects and spectrum analysis tools. Editing is very fast and provides unlimited undo/redo.

Supported file formats include Ogg Vorbis, MP3, WAV, AIFF, and AU.

The first thing that sounded good was: its’ free open source software Wow!. I am thinking to download it very soon ( MTNL’s connection is fluctuating, that’s why I couldn’t be online for long ) .

So review is coming soon

Till then you can experience it yourself and comment how did you like it.

Download (Windows users)

Linux users

System requirements

PS: Linux users should prefer ‘Add/Remove Programs’ to install Audacity

Installation in Ubuntu: Linux

I'm on the third bench (1st row from right) in green blazers... Schandra beside me

This pics are not clicked by any of my acquittance, I got it from the official site of DPS RKP’s Exun Group

2nd bench right side.. hm.. not at all visible though, I myself noticed it one minute before

Finale theme

Hey everyone (who may ‘mistakenly’ reached here),

From the time I came to my school (class 9th), I spent my X class participating in Web Designing competitons, winning most of them ( not 9th because I was new kid at bloke, and there was rarely anyone who knew me). But since when I came to class XI, becuase of class preferences in most of the school, legitimately I was not permitted to participate in HTML events anymore so at that time only way out was participating in Quiz competitions (not C++ because XII class fellows were aligned to participate there and they were really capable to win), I started preparing myself for quizzes with few of my fellows.

The first event I participated was of JKPS , “TECHEEZ 2008″, I participated in that event with S.Chandra. Got there, qualified for finals and then lost it. No regret though, it was my first new event to participate and I was a bit slow to response. @prateekvijay (from New Era Public School) also paritipated in that event and he won that too… and really he deserved that, I saw him answering to manmeet and confusedforeternity. (hosts of quiz)

So here is those question of finale which I got from Manmeet.

Techeez 2008 JKPS Download (ppt)
(odt version)

Do comment

Ankur

I just spotted Google’s new logo (for the day) on Google’s site. Google’s documentation for this is as follows:

Tama/Getty

The 47 million year old fossilized remains of a primate is seen at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

Feast your eyes on what a group of scientists call the Holy Grail of human evolution.

A team of researchers Tuesday unveiled an almost perfectly intact fossil of a 47 million-year-old primate they say represents the long-sought missing link between humans and apes.

Officially known as Darwinius masillae, the fossil of the lemur-like creature dubbed Ida shows it had opposable thumbs like humans and fingernails instead of claws.

Scientists say the cat-sized animal’s hind legs offer evidence of evolutionary changes that led to primates standing upright – a breakthrough that could finally confirm Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.

“This specimen is like finding the Lost Ark for archeologists,” lead scientist Jorn Hurum said at a ceremony at the American Museum of Natural History.

“It is the scientific equivalent of the Holy Grail. This fossil will probably be the one that will be pictured in all textbooks for the next 100 years.”

A team of amateur fossil hunters discovered the near-perfect remains inside a mile-wide crater outside of Frankfurt in 1983.

Experts believe the pit was a volcanic caldera where scores of animals from the Eocene epoch were killed and their remains were kept remarkably well-preserved.

Though the pit has been a bountiful source of other fossils, the inexperienced archeologists didn’t realize the value of their find.

Years later, the University of Oslo bought the 95%-intact fossil, and Hurum studied it in secret for two years.

His colleague, Jens Franzen, hailed the discovery as “the eighth wonder of the world.”

“We’re not dealing with our grand, grand, grandmother, but perhaps with our grand, grand, grand aunt,” Franzen said.

The unveiling of the fossil came as part of a carefully-orchestrated publicity campaign unusual for scientific discoveries.

A History Channel film on the discovery will air next week.

A book release and a slew of other documentaries will follow.

Disclaimer: Content taken from web

Fact: First google computerized logo was designed by Sergey Brin in 1988 using GIMP. GIMP is an image editor software used in most of Linux distributions. I do not know about this much but GIMP interface is perfect, just like Adobe Photoshop offers. Personally, I am using the same in Ubuntu.

For all enthutiasts of Linux, here is a post for dual booting from Linux –> Linux + Windows XP.

Personally, I have been using Ubuntu Intrepid from past month and I’m quite enjoying it too. All those work which I considered as loopholes or ‘the things I wanted’ in Windows XP are available to serve on Ubuntu. Many of you must be thinking that I should have post another way around, that is ‘Windows –> Windows + Linxu’ but why I’m doing it’s reciprocal. Well the answer is simple, I wish to have Ubuntu as my primary OS then Windows as secondary (that too for work of my sisters). So I feel that I should install XP as secondary OS in my HDD (will tweak whenever I will get time).

So here the step goes:

Step 1:
Scenario: You want to install XP on your machine alongside your existing Linux installation on the same physical drive which already has Ubuntu 8.04 installed.
Tutorial Summary: We’ll create space on the Linux partition to install Windows XP. XP bootloader is fairly clumsy when it comes to dualbooting and will overwrite GRUB completely. We’ll reinstall GRUB to the MBR and configure it to dualboot both Ubuntu and XP.
Disclaimer: Do at your own risk, I will not be responsible for any kind of data loss or for the fate of your system

Step 2:
Back up the GRUB boot menu
Regardless of which bootloader you end up using, it’s a very good move to first back up the GRUB bootloader. It’s easy to lose it and unless you know how to re-write it from scratch then you’re generally facing a full reinstallation of Ubuntu.

Firstly, boot into Ubuntu and go to Applications –> Accessories –> Terminal. Then, type in sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst.

This text file contains all the information GRUB uses to configure various boot options. Scroll down and the entries between “## ## End Default Options ##” and “### END DEBIAN AUTOMATIC KERNELS LIST” are the Linux boot options.

Make a backup of the file by going to File, Save As and selecting a different location. Or take a full copy of the contents and place it into a new text file. If you can, create the backup on a removable disk or networked location.
Step 3:
Make space for XP
Now we need to create space on the hard drive for XP, so this will involve resizing the main Ubuntu partition. Restart the system using the Ubuntu Live CD as this gives you access to GNOME Partition Editor. When the CD loads, select “Try Ubuntu without any change to your computer”.

Once the CD loads, go to System, Administration, Partition Editor.

Right-click on the main data partition which has been formatted with ext3 – it should be /dev/sda1 – and select “Resize/Move”

Move the slider from the right to shrink the ext3 partition and create free space on the hard drive, which will take the NTFS XP partition. Make sure that the free space is sufficient to hold XP (at least 2GB – preferably 5GB). Then click “Resize/Move” to confirm the selection, and “Apply” back in the main screen to carry out the pending change.

Step 5:

Thta’s it! Now you have been upgraded from Linux (Ubuntu) to Ubuntu + Windows XP..

Do comment.
Cheers.