A Software Engineer's Diary...

Do you feel the 25MB limit for attachments in Gmail is not enough? Well Google seems to have heard your prayers. The search giant has integrated Google Drive-based attachments in its email service so that users can now send files up to 10GB in size. Google Driveis the company's cloud storage service, similar to Microsoft SkyDrive and DropBox.  On the official Gmail blog, Phil Sharp, Gmail product manager, posted: "you can insert files from Drive directly into an email without leaving your Gmail." He added, "...with Drive, you can insert files up to 10GB -- 400 times larger than what you can send as a traditional attachment. Also, because you're sending a file stored in the cloud, all your recipients will have access to the same, most-up-to-date version."  In case all the recipients of the mail do not have access to the file in Google Drive, Gmail will prompt the user so the requisite settings can be altered from the open message box itself. Moreove...

 Datawind, the maker of Aakash tablet PC, has said it will clear all backlog of paid orders for the commercial version of tablet within next six weeks.  "All the paid orders (for tablets with) resistive and capacitative (screens) without SIM will be cleared in next 10 days. But the ones that want tablet with SIM they will be cleared in the next 4 to 6 weeks," DataWind CEO Suneet Singh Tuli told PTI.  The company is offering new models of Aakash, dubbed as the cheapest computer, with two kind of touchscreens -- resistive and capacitative. Capacitative touchscreens responds better than resistive touchscreens when touched by finger to operate the tablet PC.  The company has received around 40 lakh orders for its Ubislate tablet PC, which has similar specifications to the first version of Aakash tablet, he said.  The first version of tablet had processor with 366 Megahertz, 256 MB RAM and 2GB flash memory. It has WiFi based Internet connecti...

A Cray supercomputer at the US government's Oak Ridge National Laboratory was named the world's fastest, overtaking an IBM supercomputer at another American research center. The ranking released by researchers from the United States and Germany found that Titan, a Cray XK7 system installed at Oak Ridge in Tennessee, achieved 17.59 petaflops, or quadrillions of calculations per second. Titan, which gets funding from the US Department of Energy, is used for research in energy, climate change, efficient engines, materials and other scientific research. Titan knocked the IBM Sequoia at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California into second place. It could only manage 16.32 petaflops. Rounding out the top five were Fujitsu's K computer at the Riken Advanced Institute for Computational Science in Kobe, Japan; an IBM BlueGene/Q system named Mira at the Argonne National Laboratoryin Chicago, and another IBM BlueGene/Q system named...

Google India  has announced that Arun Kumar Yadav, a class 9 student of Kendriya Vidyalaya, Chandigarh, is the winner of this year's the fourth  edition  of Doodle4Google (D4G) contest. Chosen out of 13 finalists, the resident of Chandigarh was felicitated by Rajan Anandan, managing director, Google, India, in New Delhi today. The Doodle4Google competition, an annual competition hosted by Google India, was launched in 2009 and is open to students from grades 1 to 10, who are invited to design the Google Doodle to celebrate Children's Day in the country. The theme for this year's competition was 'Unity in Diversity,' and over two lakh entries were received from more than 1000 schools across 60 cities. On the jury were famed actor Boman Irani and political cartoonist Ajit Ninan, who went through the entries to decide the final 13 Doodles, which were then exhibited for online voting to choose the final winner. "Doodle4Google is a great platform for youngs...

As the festival of Diwali is around the corner, many of us are likely to go on a shopping spree to give the perfect gift to our near and dear ones. When it comes to gadgets as gifts, most of us tend to look towards tablets, smartphones and laptops. Well, that's cliched. This festive season why not go for something different and offbeat that does not burn a hole in your pocket and pleases your loved ones. Here is our pick of 8 offbeat gadget gifts for this Diwali. USB paper shredder The USB Paper Shredder and Letter Opener combo is simple plug-and-play device compatible with all operating systems. Not only is it perfect for use when plugged into a computer, but can be operated by AA batteries as well, making it suitable for emergencies. Available in the market for Rs 995, it has a 1.6L plastic container to collect all shredded paper, along with a forward/reverse button. Sony CP-ELSB powerbank for smartphones Charging your smartphone anytime, anywhere becomes easy with the ...

Google launched a service on Thursday it hopes will push millions of people in the developing world to access the Internet - and Google's ads - via basic mobile phones.  Google is launching the service, called Free Zone, first in the Philippines via local carrier Globe Telecom. The service allows phones with an Internet connection but limited functionality to access basic Google products like search, email and its social networking service Google+ for free.  Users could access websites that show up in Google's search results for free, but any website outside those results would prompt an invitation to subscribe to the mobile operator's data plan.  "It's aimed at the next billion users of the Internet, many of whom will be in emerging markets and encounter the Internet first on a mobile phone, without ever owning a PC," AbdelKarim Mardini, product manager for Google, told Reuters.  Google and Globe hope that by offering a free layer of services they wi...

Apple's iPad mini, which was launched last week, has been ripped apart by an online site to determine the real cost of the gadget.  The site, IH, said that the Wi-Fi 16GB base model costs roughly 117 pounds ($187) for Apple to build, and it sells them for 269 dollars each.  The 32GB and 64GB models cost an additional 19 pounds and 39 pounds to build, respectively.  In its report, IHS further looked at the components that are being used to build the iPad mini, the Daily Mail reports.  It was found that LG Display and AU Optronics are supplying roughly 80 dollars in display components for the 7.9-inch tablet.  Gadget-repair specialist company iFixit's teardown released on Friday found that Samsung is also making display components, too.  Samsung was also found to be supplying the A5 chip in the iPad mini in IHS' report.  However, IHS wasn't the first site to rip apart Apple's new mini.  In the first dismantling of th...

Google is consistently chosen as the best workplace in the world and engineers all around the world would simply love to be a part of this amazing and innovative organization.  Rushabh Agrawal, a Computer Science graduate from BITS Pilani, recently got recruited by this dream organization in Mountain View, California Office and we, at  TopTalent.in  got an opportunity to talk to him. He speaks about his personal reactions (read jubilation), the recruitment process and gives out useful tips & suggestions for all aspirants. First question that anybody would ask – How did it all happen? The campus placement season at BITS Pilani kicked off with the Google written test on 10th August. He had almost forgotten about it because nobody heard from them for quite some time. But on August 28th, five of the numerous applicants got calls for interviews at the Bengaluru office of Google. And by 6th September they were in India’s silicon city for their interviews. I’m su...