We all knew that every technology has it's own comparison  with its competitors as jQuery is closely compared with Flash.Flash was the technology used by many web designers a while ago, but now its the turn of jQuery to add the special effects or interactivity to a website. jQuery makes it easier to create sophisticated custom effects and animations compared to Flash and also jQuery takes a lead when it comes to SEO.

1.Apple like retina effect

2.Aviaslider

3.Beautiful Background Image Navigation

4.Bg image slideshow

5.Bubble Navigation

6.Advanced login panel

7.Carrot creative

8.Cloud zoom

9.Photo shoot

10.zoomer gallery

External hard drives are great way to back up your favourite photos, videos, music and work documents – especially as they can be stored separately, ensuring your important files remain safe should anything happen to your laptop or computer. If you’ve never bought an external hard drive before then there’s a few pointers here that may help to have on your shopping list before you go and make that final purchase.

1. Buy A Brand
Do yourself a huge favor and buy a brand name that you easily recognize. Sure these may cost a little more than brand but with computer accessories like this you really do get what you pay for. If a Western Digital 1TB external hard drive costs $90 and another brand ITB hard drive costs $70 why do you think that is? Because the company likes you? Because they like making smaller profits? No it’s because it’s a cheaper drive made with inferior parts that’s going to break a lot sooner than you might expect.

The other aspect of sticking with a brand is your warranty. For example Maxtor, Western Digital and Iomega are all reliable companies and well known for their external hard disks. If something goes wrong with your drive you can have it fixed. With brand you’ll probably not even be able to find an email address that you can contact the parent company on. Is saving a few dollars worth that risk?

2. Google It
Whatever brand or model you decide on make sure you do some research before purchasing. Always, always Google the exact brand and model of the drive you’re considering buying. Look for reviews and especially any feedback on how reliable a drive is. You’ll be very surprised to find that some companies have particularly bad reputations in terms of equipment reliability and what’s known as the "click of death" in the external hard drive industry. Spend time in Google checking out your prospective purchase. You’ll be glad that you did.

3. Connectivity
When it comes to external hard drives you’ll need to choose carefully when selecting your connection types. Your external hard drive will support either USB or Firewire. Firewire is the fastest option available at the moment but your computer may not support this. The vast majority of modern computers will, however, feature a USB port.

The next question now is what type of USB port do you have – USB 1.0 or 2.0? If your computer only has a USB 1.0 port then your external hard drive is going to transfer data VERY slowly. USB 2.0 is the minimum you should consider as connection options for both your computer and your external hard drive. If you don’t have a USB 2.0 port (also called HiSpeed USB) on your computer you may need to get a USB 2.0 card fitted.

4. Speed
Now of course we need to talk about speed. The faster your hard drive operates the faster data will get transferred to your computer and vice versa. Without boggling you with computer jargon there’s a couple of technical things you need to include on your shopping list.

Seek time – this needs to be 10ms (milliseconds) or less.
Buffer size – more is better. Get a drive with at least a 4MB buffer.
RPM – higher is better. 5400 RPM as a minimum. 7200 RPM being preferred.
Stick to the above basic pointers and you’ll do just fine.

5. Capacity
This is the simple part of the whole "buying an external hard drive" equation. Buy as much as you can afford. If you can afford 100GB then get it. However if you can afford 200GB then get it. Then again if you scraped together a few dollars more you could afford 300GB then do it.

This isn’t a sales pitch. Far from it. There is simply no such thing as having too much data storage space. The 160GB drive that I have here was filled up in a little under a month. Currently 1TB external hard drive sounds good for my future needs.

Always add 50% to your data storage requirements. Honestly. You’ll thanks yourself within the first 90 days of buying your external drive.

Hopefully now you’ll be better prepared for purchasing your new external hard drive. It’s one of the best purchases you’ll ever make.

PHP 5.3.3 Released!
The PHP development team would like to announce the immediate availability of PHP 5.3.3. This release focuses on improving the stability and security of the PHP 5.3.x branch with over 100 bug fixes, some of which are security related. All users are encouraged to upgrade to this release....
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Wave open source next steps: "Wave in a Box"

Since the announcement that we will discontinue development of Google Wave as a standalone product, many people have asked us about the future of the open source code and Wave federation protocol. After spending some time on figuring out our next steps, we'd like to share the plan for our contributions over the coming months.
We will expand upon the 200K lines of code we've already open sourced (detailed at waveprotocol.org) to flesh out the existing example Wave server and web client into a more complete application or "Wave in a Box."
This project will include:
an application bundle including a server and web client supporting real-time collaboration using the same structured conversations as the Google Wave system
a fast and fully-featured wave panel in the web client with complete support for threaded conversations
a persistent wave store and search implementation for the server (building on contributed patches to implement a MongoDB store)
refinements to the client-server protocols
gadget, robot and data API support
support for importing wave data from wave.google.com
the ability to federate across other Wave in a Box instances, with some additional configuration
This project will not have the full functionality of Google Wave as you know it today. However, we intend to give developers and enterprising users an opportunity to run wave servers and host waves on their own hardware.
Since the beginning, it has been our vision that the Google Wave protocols could support a new generation of communication and collaboration tools. The response from the developer community to date has been amazing and rewarding. Even more so now, we believe that developers and other projects are a critical part of this story.
While Wave in a Box will be a functional application, the future of Wave will be defined by your contributions. We hope this project will help the Wave developer community continue to grow and evolve. We'll discuss more technical details of our plan on the Wave Protocol Forum, which is the best place to keep up with the latest progress on the open source project and learn how you can contribute.
Wave on
by Alex North, Software Engineer, Google Wave team

MySQL is the world's most popular open source database software, with
over 100 million copies of its software downloaded or distributed
throughout it's history. With its superior speed, reliability, and ease
of use, MySQL has become the preferred choice for Web, Web 2.0, SaaS,
ISV, Telecom companies

The MX Air combines laser optics for millimeter point accuracy, touch controls for parts of its interface, and Freespace’s innovative motion sensing technology to track hand gestures.

If you’re a little confused by that last bit, just like the box says, the MX Air works both on the desk and air. Similar to the way people use a remote to control a television, when holding the MX Air mouse, you can now lean back and relax while navigating the computer and enjoying media content. If you’ve played with Nintendo’s Wii, the technology is near identical.

Aesthetically the MX Air is sleek and unlike any other Logitech mice. It’s devoid of intricate curves for thumb rests and the like. Instead, it follows the “less is more” mantra. The aerodynamic slope makes the MX Air appear to fly, which is the point since it contains gyroscopes to work in the air. The top surface is made of shiny plastic; the belly is plated in metal. There’s an on/off switch just above the optical sensor to conserve power and the whole thing is wireless.

In use, the MX Air performs like most other Logitech mice. It’s accurate and smooth. It comes with Logitech’s SetPoint software to program a myriad of buttons. It can navigate web pages, launch applications, and control your music player with dedicated play/pause and volume buttons. The left and right mouse buttons are tactile and the scroll bar is touch based. Perhaps the coolest part is the ability to pick up the mouse and use it like a pointer or remote. It’s not the first gyroscopic mouse on the market but Logitech is hedging its bet on design and multimedia users. My favorite feature are the volume controls. Hold the mouse like a remote, press the volume button and flick your wrist to the right and left to raise or lower the volume.

I didn’t like the scroller at all. The simulated clicking sounds are a nice touch but I found it to be hyper sensitive. By moving the finger up or down, the user is actually scrolling the document up or down at a speed proportional to the finger movement speed, while a very quick finger movement will “spin the wheel” and scroll the document abruptly in the desired direction. It does work but usually wildly. I couldn’t get the right customized settings to make it comfortable. In the end I would have much preferred a traditional scroll wheel or perhaps a 360º nipple found on the Apple Mighty Mouse.

My only other experience with gyroscopic mice is with Gyration’s Go Air Mouse. Both are comparable in features but the Logitech MX Air gets more winks and stares for its glossy looks. The Gyration mouse is also significantly heavier which is subjective by taste. At $149 the MX Air is expensive so this really is a case of form over function. After a week using the MX Air, I’m pretty happy. Aside from the few complaints I had, the MX Air is more than capable of controlling the multimedia centers of my life.

What we liked

Sleek modern design.
Definitely stands out as a show piece.

Innovative Freespace controls allow the mouse to work off a surface flawlessly.
Gyroscopes help the mouse work held sideways.
Pointer cursor is bigger than usual to make using from a distance easy.
The dedicated music controls make it perfect as a remote for your computer.
Decent battery life.
Atleast 3 days worth before recharge. Comes with an equally sleek base.
Included SetPoint software is powerful.
Easy to customize mouse functions.
Fully Windows XP/Vista compatible.

What could be improved

The scroll bar is terrible.
It’s jumpy and hyper sensitive, even with customized settings.
Scroll bar only navigates up and down, no left and right.
USB dongle is as big as a flash memory stick.
Needs to be miniaturized.
SetPoint software not included for Mac OS X.
Need to download drivers from Logitech site.
$149 is expensive.

Dvd
Perhaps the most common form of digital video today is DVD video. A lot of us have DVD players at home, or DVD-ROM or DVD-RW drives that we use to watch DVD movies with. All home theatre systems are based on DVD video quality, and newer technologies such as High Definition Television (HDTV) will allow us to watch movies in even better quality.
The DVD is as good as it gets for personal entertainment currently, and it’s necessary that we understand what all that jargon means when talking about DVDs.
Given below is a jargon buster that will demystify a lot of terms and specifications that you will come across, and also help you understand how DVD video works.


DVD: Digital Video Disk / Digital Versatile Disk. This is a media format that can hold between 4.7 GB and 17 GB of data. Physically, it is the same size as a Compact Disc (CD)
DVD-ROM: The first DVD format, or a DVD drive that can read, but cannot write to a DVD disc
DVD-5: Single-layered, single-sided DVDs with a capacity of just under 5 GB (4.7 GB approximately)
DVD-9: Dual-Layered, single-sided DVDs with a capacity of 8.5 GB
DVD-10: Double-sided, single-layered DVDs with a capacity of 9.4 GB
DVD-18: Dual-layered, double-sided DVDs with a capacity of about 18 GB
DVD-R and DVD+R: A DVD disc that can be written to once, the + and - stand for the different formats supported by different DVD
manufacturing conglomerates
DVD-RW, DVD+RW: A re-writable disc similar to CD-RWs, where data can be written and then erased and rewritten
DVD-RAM: A now outdated re-writable disc that needs a special hardware recorder. DVD-RAM discs generally come enclosed in plastic cassettes with a sliding opening that gives access to the disc-much like a floppy
Single-layer: A DVD disc that has only one writeable layer per writeable side. Data is “burnt” onto this layer using a laser when storing data
Dual-layer: A DVD disc that has two writeable layers per writeable side, effectively doubling the capacity of the disc as compared to normal single-layer DVDs
DVD-Video: This is the most common usage of DVDs today, and is almost always what people relate the word DVD with. A DVD movie disc is an example of a DVD-Video disc
DVD-Audio: A relatively new form of audio discs that can contain 5.1 channel sound, instead of the normal stereo sound of CDs.These discs contain high definition, high bit-rate audio that has been recorded in true surround (5.1 channel). Though still rare,
this format is likely to grow more popular as more audio is recorded for DVD-Audio distribution.
DVD Region Code: Every DVD disc can be coded specifically for use only in a particular geographical region. In order to assist this,DVDs can be region coded.DVD players have a fixed region code that can only be changed a maximum of five times. This region coding is especially used in DVD movies to prevent people from viewing a movie on DVD before it is released in theatres.
For example, say a movie is released on DVD in the US, but has still not even been shown in theatres in India, then without region coding, people would import discs from the US to India and distribute them freely here. This would affect box office sales, and
directly hurt the pockets of the movie’s producers. There are six regions in total, read on…
DVD Region 1 USA, Canada
DVD Region 2 Greenland, Europe, the Middle East, Egypt, South Africa, Japan
DVD Region 3 Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan, Philippines, Indonesia
DVD Region 4 South America, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Islands, Caribbean
DVD Region 5 India, Russia, Eastern Europe, Most of Africa, North Korea,Mongolia
DVD Region 6 China
Region Free DVD In addition to the six regions, there is another symbol you might
see on your DVD which symbolises that the DVD does not have region coding, and can be played on a DVD in any zone

Slim is in, regardless of the device type that you’re dealing with, and hard drives are certainly a whole lot more sexy these days compared to days of yore. Hitachi knows this and aims to usher in a brand new world with their latest Z-Series Family of hard drives, which boast the title of being the industry’s highest capacity and fastest 7mm ultra thin and light hard drives. This is clearly the future of 2.5″ drives, which will comprise of the Z-series family of Travelstar and CinemaStar drives, offering the most cost effective, space efficient storage solutions for next generation portable devices.


The whole Hitachi Z-series family of drives will come in varying capacities, maxing out at 320GB, which in the process makes them the industry’s highest capacity 7mm 2.5″ drive in a one-disk design. For the Travelstar Z7K320 drive, this is touted to be the first 7200 RPM, 7mm 2.5″ drive for high-performance compact systems and devices in the world. It has been specially optimized for audio/video (A/V) devices including personal video recorders (PVR) and set-top-boxes (STB). For those who have a penchant for security, there is also an optional self encrypting drive (SED) model that helps protect your precious data within, while an enhanced-availability (EA) model will target applications that require around-the-clock data access in lower-transaction environments.

When you think about it, the cost per gigabyte and gigabyte per cubic millimeter (GB/mm3) factor makes Hitachi’s 7mm drives the most cost-effective and space-efficient storage solutions when placed alongside solid state drives (SSD), 2.5″ 9.5 mm and 1.8″ hard drives, making them a suitable candidate that offers a compelling value proposition for OEMs and system integrators. You will be able to pick up the new Hitachi Z-series family in 160GB, 250GB and 320GB capacities with volume shipments ready to rock the market later this year. Guess we can look forward to newer devices, especially portable media players that are slimmer than ever.

My source seems to insist that this AirSwing from Toshiba is Minority Report technology, which always makes me want to write about it, honestly. I think I’ve probably referenced this film in more posts than any other science fiction film, and this includes Blade Runner.


There are no special gloves like the ones that Tom Cruise wore at the beginning of Minority Report, but the AirSwing does use webcams to make this technology work.

I have a video of this after the jump so you can see it in action. You can see how the user’s reflection is on the screen, super-imposed with a menu of selections. I’m not certain if the reflection is a result of the screen being reflective or some part of the Airswing program.

Either way, the user can wave his or her hand or some other gesture, and can scroll through mall maps, flight plans, or other type of selections.

Best of all, this particular program does not take much processing. So it won’t freeze up on you while in action.

Of course, this is still concept tech, and is not in any particular place at this time. However, I can think of many places where I would use it. I can just see an interface like this being used for customer service in any store in the future