TWIL - Week #26

This Week I Learned:

Browsers
  • Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition (formerly known as Portable Firefox and commonly known as Firefox Portable) is a repackaged version of Mozilla Firefox that can run from a USB flash drive, CD-ROM, or other portable device on any Windows computer or Linux/UNIX computer running Wine. The program does not require Firefox to be installed on the computer, nor does it leave personal information on the computer or interfere with any installed versions of Firefox, though installation on a hard drive is possible. Personal settings, bookmarks, and any installed extensions and themes are stored on the flash drive along with Firefox Portable. This allows the user to move from computer to computer without losing application settings.

Web Development

India
  • Lawmakers turned lawbreakers  - Lalu Prasad (aged 65), Member of Parliament for multiple terms, Cabinet Minister and former Chief Minister of Bihar, has been convicted in the fodder scam that he took part in 17 years ago along with another former Chief Minister of Bihar. "Those involved (in the scam) were amply rewarded: Animal husbandry officer R K Rana, who purchased pigs from Ludhiana before falsely claiming half of them died near Varanasi, rose to become RJD MLA and then an MP." Rajya Sabha member Rasheed Masood (aged 67) has been convicted for fraudulently nominating undeserving candidates  including his own nephew to MBBS seats in 1990-91. (Source: Times of India)

Everything else
  • Wolfram Alpha provides Personal Analytics for Facebook 
  • Difference between GPS, GSM, GPRS with respect to location
    • GPS is global position system, which uses timings from satellites to determine location. It has no relation to GSM or GPRS, except in the case of A-GPS (assisted GPS) which might use mobile data provided via GSM/GPRS to get a better starting point for your location which enables the GPS to have a better idea of which satellites are overhead where you are.
    • GSM is a standard for mobile telephone and describes how the phone should communicate with the phone network to make and receive calls. It does not provide any location services in itself, but as GSM will communicate with mobile phone radio towers that are known and have a fixed location, you can get an approximate location by knowing which towers your phone can talk to and where they are.
    • GPRS is an extension to GSM which allows packet switched data - mobile data, which can be used to access the internet. This does not provide any location services, other than that which can be obtained using GSM tower locations.


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