General
World’s TOP IT Companies and their names…
Have been looking for this one since long time. Had lost it somewhere in the “Data Chaos”, but I found it just now. Tells you how the names of today’s TOP IT Companies/Projects were chosen…
Adobe – came from name of the river Adobe Creek that ran behind the house of founder John Warnock.
Apache – It got its name because its founders got started by applying patches to code written for NCSA’s httpd daemon. The result was ‘A PAtCHy’ server — thus, the name Apache
Jakarta (project from Apache) – A project constituted by SUN and Apache to create a webserver handling servlets and JSPs. Jakarta was name of the conference room at SUN where most of the meetings between SUN and Apache took place.
Tomcat – The servlet part of the Jakarta project. Tomcat was the code-name for the JSDK 2.1 project inside SUN.
Apple Computers – favourite fruit of founder Steve Jobs. He was three months late in filing a name for the business, and he threatened to call his company Apple Computers if the other colleagues didn’t suggest a better name by 5 o’clock.
C – Dennis Ritchie improved on the B programming language and called it ‘New B’. He later called it C. Earlier B was created by Ken Thompson as a revision of the Bon programming language (named after his wife Bonnie).
C++ – Bjarne Stroustrup called his new language ‘C with Classes’ and C++ then new C’. Because of which the original C began to be called ‘old C’ which was considered insulting to the C community. At this time Rick Mascitti suggested the name C++ as a successor to C.
CISCO – its not an acronymn but the short for San Francisco.
Compaq – using COMp, for computer, and PAQ to denote a small integral object.
Corel – from the founder’s name Dr. Michael Cowpland. It stands for COwpland REsearch Laboratory.
GNU – a species of African antelope. Founder of the GNU project Richard Stallman liked the name because of the humour associated with its pronuniciation and was also influenced by the children’s song ‘The Gnu Song’ which is a song sung by a gnu. Also it fitted into the recursive acronym culture with ‘GNU’s Not Unix’.
Google – the name started as a jokey boast about the amount of information the search-engine would be able to search. It was originally named ‘Googol’, a word for the number represented by 1 followed by 100 zeros. After founders – Stanford grad students Sergey Brin and Larry Page presented their project to an angel investor, they received a cheque made out to ‘Google’!
Hotmail – Founder Jack Smith got the idea of accessing e-mail via the web from a computer anywhere in the world. When Sabeer Bhatia came up with the business plan for the mail service, he tried all kinds of names ending in mail’ and finally settled for hotmail as it included the letters “html” – the programming language used to write web pages. It was initially referred to as HoTMaiL with selective upper casing.
HP – Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard tossed a coin to decide whether the company they founded would be called Hewlett-Packard or Packard-Hewlett.
Intel – Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore wanted to name their new company ‘Moore Noyce’ but that was already trademarked by a hotel chain, so they had to settle for an acronym of INTegrated ELectronics.
Java – Originally called Oak by creator James Gosling, from the tree that stood outside his window, the programming team had to look for a substitute as there was another language with the same name. Java was selected from a list of suggestions. It came from the name of the coffee that the programmers drank.
Linux – Linus Torvalds originally used the Minix OS on his system which he replaced by his OS. Hence the working name was Linux (Linus’ Minix). He thought the name to be too egotistical and planned to name it Freax(free + freak + x). His friend Ari Lemmke encouraged Linus to upload it to a network so it could be easily downloaded. Ari gave Linus a directory called linux on his FTP server, as he did not like the name Freax. (Linus’ parents named him after two-time Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling)
Lotus (Notes) – Mitch Kapor got the name for his company from ‘The Lotus Position’ or ‘Padmasana’. Kapor used to be a teacher of Transcendental Meditation of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
Microsoft – coined by Bill Gates to represent the company that was devoted to MICROcomputer SOFTware. Originally christened Micro-Soft, the ‘-’ was removed later on.
Motorola – Founder Paul Galvin came up with this name when his company started manufacturing radios for cars. The popular radio company at the time was called Victrola.
Mozilla – When Marc Andreesen, founder of Netscape, created a broswer to replace Mosaic (also developed by him), it was named Mozilla (Mosaic-Killer, Godzilla). The marketing guys didn’t like the name however and it was re-christened Netscape Navigator.
ORACLE – Larry Ellison and Bob Oats were working on a consulting project for the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency). The code name for the project was called Oracle(the CIA saw this as the system to give answers to all questions or something such). The project was designed to help use the newly written SQL code by IBM. The project eventually was terminated but Larry and Bob decided to finish what they started and bring it to the world. They kept the name Oracle and created the RDBMS engine. Later they kept the same name for the company.
Red Hat – Company founder Marc Ewing was given the Cornell lacrosse team cap (with red and white stripes) while at college by his grandfather. He lost it and had to search for it desperately. The manual of the beta version of Red Hat Linux had an appeal to readers to return his Red Hat if found by anyone!
SAP - “Systems, Applications, Products in Data Processing”, formed by 4 ex-IBM employees who used to work in the ‘Systems/Applications/Projects’ group of IBM.
SCO (UNIX) – from Santa Cruz Operation. The company’s office was in Santa Cruz.
Sony – from the Latin word ’sonus’ meaning sound, and ’sonny’ a slang used by Americans to refer to a bright youngster.
SUN – founded by 4 Stanford University buddies, SUN is the acronym for Stanford University Network. Andreas Bechtolsheim built a microcomputer; Vinod Khosla recruited him and Scott McNealy to manufacture computers based on it, and Bill Joy to develop a UNIX-based OS for the computer.
UNIX – When Bell Labs pulled out of MULTICS (MULTiplexed Information and Computing System), which was originally a joint Bell/GE/MIT project, Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie of Bell Labs wrote a simpler version of the OS. They needed the OS to run the game Space War which was compiled under MULTICS. It was called UNICS – UNIplexed operating and Computing System by Brian Kernighan. It was later shortened to UNIX.
Xerox – The inventor, Chestor Carlson, named his product trying to say dry’ (as it was dry copying, markedly different from the then prevailing wet copying). The Greek root `xer’ means dry.
Yahoo! – the word was invented by Jonathan Swift and used in his book Gulliver’s Travels’. It represents a person who is repulsive in appearance and action and is barely human. Yahoo! founders Jerry Yang and David Filo selected the name because they considered themselves yahoos.
3M - Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company started off by mining the material corundum used to make sandpaper.
Ready for Vista?
Are you ready for Vista? Rather your Computer is ready for Vista or not? Well, our Home Computer is pretty much ready. By the time Vista Ultimate gets on shelves here, it will be having 1 – 2 GB of RAM. Not going to get a High end 3D card now because DirectX 10 is just around the corner. NVidia has already released two of their 8800 series cards supporting DX 10 but their prices are far far far more than I can afford (even if I could afford, I would not buy it, don’t want to pay 400$ for a card!!!) so I will stick to the NVidia 6200 right now…
My dear laptop is not ready for Vista, it’s no way near ready for Vista. LoL. I have to refresh Windows XP after a few months due to slowing down what will happen with Vista? I am used to it being slow though, whatever. No plans to buy a new laptop for at least a few years (well if you want to gift one then I’ll take it :p).
Back on topic, Vista ready or not? Microsoft is offering a tool of their own called, “Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor RC”. Following is a direct download link for it. Download and run it, see what you need. It will check both your computer’s hardware and softwares for compatibility with Vista and recommend too I think.
Direct Download Link for Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor – 6.5 MB approx
Downloading it right now. Will run on my laptop as well as the home computer and show the results here. Oh & I have been looking for a new theme since a week. Not able to find the one I want so I will choose a theme, edit it to my choice and have it here. Working on it right now.
Peace.
Apple’s Mecca – Non sense!
Aapa sent the following SMS to me around a week ago. She asks me things like this so asked me about this too, if it is true or not.
NewYork main Americans ne KABA k Design ka Sharab Khana banaya hai,jiska Naam Apeal Kaba hai Daily Express 17-10-06 Kindly spread this SMS 2 inform every Muslim,i request u 2 condemn this SHAMEFULL ACT Strongly thru all Means & Media. Like Internet & on Tv & on News Papers.
For those of you who cannot read Roman Urdu, here is the translation.
Americans have built a pub (where Alcoholic beverages are sold) in New York with design of the Holy Kaaba. It has been named, “Apple Kaaba”. Daily Express 17-10-2006. Rest is readable in English.
I was like WHAA! I do get forwards on SMS from my friends. Even things like Allah’s names and the person asks you to send it to this much people or I will have bad luck. I never forward them. It’s a jammer for the Cellular company. Now I know that is might benefit the person who reads those things or the person who sends it to them BUT why can’t the person just sit and finish one part of Qu’ran everyday and try to understand it with translation too instead of sending out those much messages? So anyways. Above was one of the message which was apparently being forwarded by people through out Pakistan & I am sure all of them believed it.
So I told aapa that is I am sure is only mis information and nothing else (which I will prove below). Next day, father brings the weekly local magazine which is like 3rd class journalism but what can you say. Something is better than nothing. It is one of 3 magazines/newspapers printed locally in our city. They had the same message which was forwarded to me by Aapa for verification, it was on their Editorial page which comes 2nd… THIRD class journalism as I said above, they did not care to confirm it, furthermore, the message above if you noticed has “APEAL KAABA” which the person actually meant “APPLE KAABA” but due to mistype it became “APEAL KAABA”. The magazine which had it on their Editorial contained exact same word “APEAL KAABA” instead of the correct “APPLA KAABA”! It also contained text below to provoke all muslims, to protest against the shameful act, cursed the hell out of Americans and compared it to the insulting cartoons published about our beloved Prophet Mohammad (SAWW).
So what is this Apple’s Mecca thing about? I am no big fan of Apple but supporting what is true. Apple is very well known Company and it’s also known for their creative designing whether it comes to their computer products, the pods or even their packaging! They decide to own a shop of their own, they get a unique design as always and the outcome is Apple’s Fifth Avenue store in New York which when is cuboid in shape and is all made of glass. It was all covered black while being built (to surprise their fans perhaps or perhaps the glass company asked them to) and it looked like this in the beginning.
I think now you are getting the whole thing. Osama Bin Ladin (or his type of thinkers) were passing by the said site when they saw this and the next thing which flashed in their mind was. This resembles our Holy Kaaba!!! (NON SENSE!) and saying guys these filthy Americans are not planning to do something again to insult us Muslims (EVEN MORE NON SENSE!) They started all the fuss on Internet too which you can feel by GOOGLING Apple’s Mecca. Then some of them had to make it yummy for all the Muslims so they had a little chilly, salt and pepper on it by claiming that it’s a pub and Alcohols are sold and served in it!!! Final cheese was spread on all this by Tech. news sites too as they called the said shop and the shops project too as “Apple’s Mecca”. The first search result you get from Google for it is CNET’s website too saying Apple “Mecca” rising. So those Osama like thinkers added this too with it and claimed Apple has called it self Mecca and is making their own Kaaba (which Apple’s fans will bow down to or something?) and this is big insult to Islam.
I read on The Register UK website too that there is no Alcohol selling in the 5th Avenue shop of Apple. Apple has also denied it in Media and they also said they never called it Mecca or Kaaba. Check THIS LINK for complete story about the said issue. Also see Apple’s Official Website for their 5th Avenue Store and see the pictures after it was completed. It looks pretty different than all other stores.
There was no need to make a fuss out of nothing. The Tech. sites without any doubt called this as Apple’s Mecca, I as a Muslim was not offended by this. They did not mean to insult Muslims or Islam or Mecca or Kaaba. Mecca and Kaaba, how important it is for us Muslims? They were just telling a point of how important this site is for Apple and ofcourse for it’s fans. Another reason for it being called Apple’s Mecca can ofcourse be the cuboid structure but I don’t think they meant to hurt feelings of Muslims. They just wanted to tell a point by calling it Apple’s Mecca. It is very irresponsible of the newspapers and magazines which printed the said thing and also very irresponsible of the people who spread this message through SMS, e-mails or websites. I am glad this did not provoke a same reaction to what we saw for the insulting cartoons few months ago, that was just shameful! Apple just had their foots in Pakistan by having a reseller shop in Karachi, I am sure I would have heard news of it being burnt by Osama thinkers if this thing had gone a little more ahead. There are a hell lot of people present among us who just wait for such a “GOLDEN” chance. . .
My request to all Muslims, even non-Muslims. Please for the love of GOD, do not believe each and everything you are told or which you hear. Confirm it from a reliable source before you believe it and tell it to your friends and spread it across because the consequences sometimes can hurt someone in the end and you will be the one to blame. You will not be held accountable for it in this world, you can easily get away here but not in the world here after. As for OSAMA, man… You suck!
The Headlines
Don’t have time to talk about anything. Will be posting soon about the lame mullahs and their sighting of the moon in Pakistan when there is MINUS 100 chance of sighting the moon… *sigh* and some of the people just blindly follow them!
Father questions Madonna adoption
I wonder why she…
Israel admits phosphorus bombing
So what? It’s always allowed for Israel & the US and its allies to do any thing they can in WAR. Who questions them? Even if some do, it has no effect…Why? I am sure you already know the answer.
Iran warns of revenge over Israel
Seriously, they should just start an attack on Israel or close their mouths for good.
Pakistan and India in spying row
So they got another reason and started the bashing each other thing again. Indian Police blames it all on ISI and Pakistan, the Mumbai blasts this year I mean. Then just yesterday, an Indian Official told a news agency that India does not have proof of ISI/Pakistan’s involvement in the blasts!!! & the same day… You see this SPYING thing coming up. Get done with it both of you!
Kashmir protest over youth death
Oh well…No comments! Incidents like these have been happening since years. Only now it is, getting International coverage.
Here it comes – Internet Explorer 7
True, it’s final version has been officially released by Microsoft. You can read a review about it at Paul Thurrott’s SuperSite for Windows
It looks very good indeed. I have not downloaded it yet, will take me 2-3 hours perhaps to get the download done with my dear stupid dial-up. I plan a few additions on my website very soon insha’Allah, but I have to complete other things before making final those additions. Pray I am able to spend equal time with everything that requires my attention. To all those friends and users who are using Internet Explorer 6 as their default browser. Please upgrade to Internet Explorer 7 as soon as possible.
It has many new features and functions esp. Security wise, it’s far better than the old Internet Explorer, the version 6. To those users (like me) who moved to Firefox, or Opera. I don’t think they’ll make themselves come back permanently to IE7 because both Firefox & Opera offer complete customization of the browser to user’s requirements. Firefox being more customizable than Opera here. Well, it will be the G33KS who like to see everything customized to their brain who won’t come back to IE7. As for other usual users, IE7 is good enough to use and esp. for the one’s who are still stuck with using IE6. IE7’s user interface might be a little confusing for the usual IE6 users, but just upgrade to it n play around with it, get used to the new UI.
Users with pirated versions of Windows will not be able to install IE7 without bypassing WGA check. Well, good luck with that! If you are able to by pass it that is. Here are the links…
Official Internet Explorer 7 Website
Direct Download Link to IE7 for Windows XP SP2- 14 MB
For other Windows, use the official website and guide yourself to the download page.
How hi-tech Hizbullah called the shots
Read a very interesting article on Hizbollah’s Website! If this is even slightly true, tells you what can an Army with EEMAAN and Hi-Tech do!
Beirut – Hizbullah`s ability to repel the “Israeli†Army during the recent conflict was largely due to its use of intelligence techniques (believed to be) gleaned from allies Iran and Syria that allowed it to monitor encoded “Israeli†communications relating to battlefield actions, according to “Israeli†officials, whose claims have been independently corroborated by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
“`Israeli` EW [electronic warfare] systems were unable to jam the systems at the Iranian Embassy in Beirut, they proved unable to jam Hizbullah`s command and control links from Lebanon to Iranian facilities in Syria, they blocked the Barak ship anti-missile systems, and they hacked into “Israeli†operations communications in the field,” Richard Sale, the longtime intelligence editor for United Press International, who was alerted to this intelligence failure by current and former CIA officials, told Asia Times Online.
The ability to hack into “Israel’s†military communications gave Hizbullah a decisive battlefield advantage, aside from allowing it to dominate the media war by repeatedly intercepting reports of the casualties it had inflicted and announcing them through its television station, Al-Manar. Al-Manar`s general director, Abdallah Kassir, would not comment on the information-gathering methods that had allowed it to preempt “Israel’s†casualty announcements, but he admitted he was in constant contact with Hizbullah`s military wing.
When “Israeli†troops invaded southern Lebanon, they found themselves bogged down in stronger-than-expected Hizbullah resistance. The story of the handful of Hizbullah militants who single-handedly defended the border village of Aita Shaab has already become legend. Ultimately, “Israel†decided that the only way to neutralise them was to carpet-bomb the village, reducing it to rubble in the process.
Part of the reason for Hizbullah`s decisive battlefield performance was that it was gleaning valuable information by monitoring telephone conversations in Hebrew between “Israeli†reservists and their families on their personal mobile phones.
“If an enemy sets up a small group of EW people familiar with the terrain and reasonably aware of the current tactical situation, a stream of in-the-clear calls could have been a gold mine of information mentioned inadvertently,” said Sale, quoting a CIA official.
A London Sunday Times article titled “Humbling of the super-troops shatters `Israeli` army morale” reported the story last week. It stated that Hizbullah was “able to crack the codes and follow the fast-changing frequencies of `Israeli` radio communications, intercepting reports of the casualties they had inflicted again and again”.
The development marks a potential turning point in the region`s strategic balance. Hizbullah`s ability to repel “Israel’s†elite troops marked the first time that an Arab force had frustrated a concerted invasion scenario by “Israelâ€Â. This has led to a concerted rethink on the part of the “Israeli†leadership, in which it is being assisted by American experts, according to “Israeli†intelligence website DEBKAfile.
It adds that the American experts are particularly focused on how (so-called) Iranian EW installed in Lebanese army coastal radar stations blocked the Barak anti-missile missiles aboard “Israeli†warships, allowing Hizbullah to hit at least one “Israeli†corvette, the Hanith.
“Assuming that these capabilities came from Syria and Iran, most probably by way of Russia and China, one would have to believe that both the US and “Israel†have learned from the experience, and that leaning process will be applied in future conflicts,” said Robert Freedman, Peggy Meyerhoff Pearlstone professor of political science at the Baltimore Hebrew University.
The Debka article also claims that Hizbullah secretary General Hassan Nasrallah was hosted throughout the war in an underground war-room beneath the Iranian Embassy in Beirut.(!?) Iranian involvement was suspected throughout the conflict, and a captured Hizbullah guerrilla confessed on “Israeli†television to have visited Iran for training. The most able and committed Hizbullah guerrillas usually visit Iran for religious indoctrination and training in the firing of non-Katyusha rocketry.
“It [the technological breakthrough] may mean that the US and `Israel` no longer have the ability to operate at lower levels of violence on a supreme basis,” said a Middle East analyst. “The playing field is more leveled. This may mean more diplomacy or it may mean more, and more concentrated, violence.”
Iran and Syria advanced their SIGINT (SIGnals INTelligence – intelligence-gathering by interception of signals) cooperation last November, as part of a joint strategic defense cooperation accord aimed at consolidating the strategic aspect of their long-term alliance. Aside from being an invaluable help to Hizbullah, the ability to read “Israeli†and US codes could aid Iran in monitoring US movements in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“It goes to the heart of one of the factors … routinely regarded as one of the clear advantages for all First World versus Third World nations or forces – electronic warfare and secure communications,” said Gary Sick, who was national security adviser under US president Jimmy Carter. “We are supposed to be able to read and interfere with their communications, not vice versa. A lot of calculations are based on that premise.”
