cool

MOHA Geo, Geo-IP web service

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I started a geo-ip web service, MOHA Geo because I was disappointed with inaccuracies in HostIp, and the time they took to correct them after submitting corrections.

I’m using MaxMind geo-ip data for my service. Currently there is only a JSON API and a HTML widget making use of the JSON API. The service is in a public beta right now. I want to see whether the geo-ip data is accurate and how much stress the server could take. Everyone is invited to use the web service and report any issues.

However there are plans to implement a XML API and also making more information available through the service. Best part is all this comes free of charge and without advertisements, forever. Only thing I would request is a link back; Not compulsory. You can see the HTML widget in action right here in the blog as well, see the right column block “You are from…”.

All the code behind the web service is also available under the open source license GNU GPL v3. You could also start your own web service with the code, ;).

Right now all the hosting expense is from my own account, I would hope I will receive some donations when I have to move to better hosting plan because I’m getting a lot of traffic.

Cool parodies, White and Nerdy, eBay

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Couple of days back I was just browsing around searching for funny videos; I stumble upon doogtoons.com. There I got to watch couple of animated interviews and music videos of Weird Al Yankovic (Then at doogtoons they used YouTube, I probably was able to watch related videos as well). Most interesting of them all was White and Nerdy.

Then I thought I would dig it more and did a google to see whether there are any Wikipedia articles, to my surprise Weird Al was a real person, writing and performing parodies. I started to search and watch more and more videos of songs he had created. I thought of sharing the songs I found it interesting.

  1. White and Nerdy [2006] (parody of Ridin’ by Chamillionaire) – Video
  2. eBay [2003] (parody of I Want It That Way by The Backstreet Boys) – Video
  3. Like a Surgeon [1984] (parody of Like a Virgin by Madonna) – Video

While you are there at YouTube don’t forget to checkout other cool Weird Al videos as well, I just listed the coolest three out of the many. Also remember to check Wikipedia to see whether a particular song is really Weird Al’s because some of the videos are wrongly atributed to Weird Al.

Weid Al’s parodies are so cool, I was immediately converted to a fan. He knows how to make a mark in pop culture.

Beryl – Eye candy for linux desktops

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If you think Linux is boring, lacks eye candy you find in Windows (esp. Vista); you haven’t seen a Linux desktop running Beryl.

Beryl has added all the eye candy that Linux desktops lacked, now definitely it looks better than Windows XP and in my opinion better than Windows Vista as well.

Here are some screen shots to prove it. 😉 (it is not faked)
Running: Fedora Core 6, GNOME
Desktop cube:


Rain effect (Purely eye candy):

GNOME Sensors Applet

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That’s a cool desktop applet to show the systme temperature, fan speed, voltage, etc.

After I got lm_sensors running I wanted to get the sensor information on my desktop running GNOME. I installed GNOME Sensors Applet using yum (yum install gnome-applet-sensors).

It showed three temperatures(Only two successfully, other with an error), and I removed one. Two temperatures must be mother board and cpu temperature.

You should give a try to GNOME Sensors Applet, if you miss the Windows applets that are usually provided by the mother board manufacturers or just curious.

Cool applet, thumbs up Alex Murray and lm_sensors project