Firefox - Internet connectivity problem due to zonealarm

For the last 24 hours, I had been fighting to get internet connectivity on firefox. It just would not get connected and royally frustrated me.

It so happened that Firefox had auto-updated itself to version 2.0.0.9 yesterday and this issue started right then. Internet connection was fine on Internet Explorer, so I resorted to the loyal Google Search Box and started scouring through numerous entries for search terms such as "internet connectivity issues on firefox", "firefox internet connection problem" and others.

After years of searching and sifting through the net, I am convinced that "Search" is an art. By no means is it an average Joe's cup of tea. You need to understand its nuances and be well acquainted with the little known smart searching techniques. And, if you thought it sounds geeky, well, it is and unfortunately I'm not the kinds. So, as usual I had a tough time reaching the holy-grail for my Firefox net connectivity issue. However a series of posts on googlegroups clearly identified a connection between firefox and zone alarm firewall. It seems, when an update happens to an application, sometimes the firewall doesn't recognize it and ends up blocking the application for internet access. Firefox, running with zonealarm firewall had such instances reported. Now, I used to use zonealarm earlier but had recently shifted to AVG. I had supressed zonealarm by deactivating it, however had not uninstalled it completely. There wasn't any reason for zonealarm to be in action, however just to verify I ctrl-alt-deleted to "Windows Task Manager". A cursory glance through the processes showed me that "vsmon.exe" was in action. I knew this was the zonealarm instance and promptly terminated the process. With trepidation, I returned to firefox tab and refreshed the page. Voila! firefox loaded the page. It was a great relief.

This, however, clearly establishes a connection between zonealarm and firefox's internet connectivity. Hence, for the sake of lesser mortals like myself I am writing this post so that if you face a similar issue, you know its your firewall playing the villain.

Please leave a comment, if you've had a similar experience.

Competition amongst State Governments.

Indian Express has this story pitting Hyderabad against Bangalore, with the IT Secretary, AP Mr. Shetty, showcasing the affirmative steps taken by the AP Govt. to transform Hyderabad and surrounding areas into a true Tech region.

Mr. Shetty smartly positions Hyderabad with its infrastructural advantage and upcoming plans to develop second-tier cities and create facilities to setup Hardware manufacturing units alongwith policy initiatives to lure the IT Conglomerates. Compare this with the infrastructural woes of Bangalore and recent controversy over the BMIC project.

On the other hand, note the positive developments in Haryana and West Bengal with Mukesh Ambani led Reliance faction all set to invest heavily creating a SEZ , agro-retail and natural gas resources. Undoubtedly these are commendable examples in Public-Private Partnership but they are also examples of a subtle competition thats developing within the Governments to woo investments in their states. There is a realisation that prosperity of a geography is directly related to the economy of the region, the more business friendly the better. Wooing investments is becoming an indicator of the progressive attitude of Governments. Think of the image Bhattacharjee of WB has created for himself. With time, the competition will intensify, what with other states joining the foray. We will see a slew of measures taken by Governments to lure companies and investors. Sops wil be offered, policy reforms will be initiated, curbs will be relaxed and in general India will be sprinting towards a free and market friendly economy.

All in all, its going to be hay day for the average Indian. I am glad, the states have started to compete!

Edit your blog template : The longer but simpler way.

This post is specifically for the non-techie blogger. Geeks, alpha geeks ALT+F4 please!

Now, I have started my blog and I want to edit the template the way I want. Just a simple pre-condition I DON'T want to care about html or css gibberish. For heaven's sake I m blogging and not doing web designing. All I want is a clean simple interface which will let me customize my template to my heart's content.

Try doing that with blogger's template settings and you are in for a surprise. All that is presented is the template itself with the gibberish you neither care about nor do you know what to do with it. Where's that WYSIWYG editing facility?? Should you resign to the fate that there is no such utility for you to customize your blog without learning about html? Atleast I won't. Here's what I did.

I googled googled and googled more until I discovered fckeditor which is a cool open source app that lets you generate instant html content. I am sure there are many "online html editors" but somehow this one appealed to me, simply because it let me use the application just like that! So, since I wanted to modify the template, I needed the application to work backwards from the html source to plain-text. Pretty simple, I fed in dummy text and generated its html version, then replaced that with the code of my blog template and there you go! the dummy text was replaced by the blog template just ready for editing. I can change whatever I want in my template now and that too without worrying about linking intricacies. I love this!

For the time being I have just added "Blogs I read" on the sidebar. Over time you'll see a more mature blogroll and many more changes in the blog's presentation. So if you are the "non-techie" wanting to control your blog page, this was your simple lesson in html editing, with zilch investment in html. Have fun!

Your "Freedom" from blocked instant messengers!

Just came across this wonderful site meebo, which is a web-based IM environment and lets you seamlessly login to your dearest IMs like Yahoo!, MSN, jabber, GTalk, ICQ and AIM. This shall be your freedom from blocked IMs at your organisations !!

Meebo is definitely cool because it lets u login to your favourite messenger without any registration. But is it the only known app in the web-based IM environment? Well, I thought of doing a round-up of the various known web-based IMs but Google saved me the herculian effort with a single result. Tipmonkies already has an article exploring the various sites in this domain.
Enjoy reading!

The Economist : Survey on New Media

The Economist has conducted a detailed survey on New Media, exploring its components and their effects on the changing media landscape of the internet. It argues that the era of mass media is giving way to one of personal and participatory media that will profoundly change both the media industry and society as a whole.

The survey is essentially a collection of articles which go on to describe in detail the participatory models of blogs, wikis, citizen journalism and podcast media. Strewn in throughout are views, opinions and insights from renowned thinkers and practitioners from the new and the traditional media enterprises.

Though the ultimate outcome of this revolutionary change cannot be predicted right now, it is amply clear that this change is going to have long lasting effects on the entire media landscape right from production to consumption.

Internet Riddle

If u get bored of your work, your manager, your books or just about nething and you are game to test ur wits to the limit .. well this could surely be your fodder !

First time in the driver's seat !!!

Dear reader,
Welcome to my blog !! If you were wondering where the heck was I for these many days !! Well, just take it for now that I had an "intellectual slumber" .. Now what does that mean? I dunno, just that it looks a very "heavy" word and hence is good enough inspiration for me to put it here :-)
So, which driver seat am I talking about? Simply and "literally" the driver's seat that hardly even qualifies to be an "experience" in our daily lives ... except .. when we learn!!!

Precisely, what I experienced today. Thanks to my colleague Shradha I got to lay my hands on the steering wheel first time in my life (Not that I've never touched the steering wheel but this time the car was moving and thats a first) . So what's unique about this experience? A lot many on the driving front coz this is the first time I ever pressed the clutch or the accelerator or even changed the gears, but isn't that what you all went through or will go through while learning to drive? So here's my different and unique version of the "first experience" ;-)

For starters, this is the first time in my life I have successfully battled the "noon-nap"( the drowsy feelin after lunch when u just wish ur chair were a bed) by driving a car !! Well, isn't that something new? Normally in a sedentry job we fight the "noon nap" syndrome by listening to songs, chatting, talking or going for a small walk, but driving a car was nothing I could have ever imagined would ever be a weapon against my arch-rival sleep.

Then again, let me tell u that I am really very fussy bout sweating. I know no one likes to sweat, but it really puts me off! A very common experience for poor Mumbaikars! They invariably start their day with a bucketful of sweat with clothes huggin their torso when they get off the trains huffing and panting out-of-breath. (This may give you a hint why Mumbaikars don't always indulge in exercising. They are blessed with free massage, weight lifting, anti-tug of war( they push) and the likes of various other exercising methods employed by the unlucky millions out of Mumbai.) Well, sweat therefore is a strict no-no for me, but hey u know what? Even in the boiling heat here with surpassed only by the heated interiors of the car, I was enjoying the new found joy! Yes, it made me think is this what you call "getting immersed" in work? when u loose track of time, hardship, sweat and all other inconveniences we just can't live with? To put it in a broader context, I enjoyed what I was doing and forgot about the inconvenience it cost me. If it were some work I just enjoyed doing I am sure I wouldn't have cared for the inconveneiences it would cost me. Its just that I like it no-matter-what. To put it astutely, I guess I am talking about "passion", though I never really thought of the word to be anything but another "heavy" word, I am sure it carries a lot of meaning a little-bit of which I have started to realise.

Last but not the least, I guess there's fun in doing something off-the-track. I don't know but there's some inexplicable satisfaction I got after having driven "a day's worth of training in any driving school" without actually joining any driving school. What fun would it be if I learnt it just the normal way, sitting with atleast three other wannabes, wanting to be just the "perfect driver". Thats normal and thats boring. Deep within I feel I dearly need this quality. The quality to be different from the herd. The ability to package myself differently, to do things that are just "not routine". I guess thats what we call "uniqueness" which we all yearn for all our lives! No doubt we all are unique its just a matter of finding that uniqueness within us.