Zuckerberg admits: If I wasn’t the CEO of Facebook, I’d be at Microsoft

STANFORD UNIVERSITY, Palo Alto, Calif. — Entrepreneurs flocked to Stanford today to hear Mark Zuckerberg, the T-shirt wearing chief executive of Facebook, open up about the company’s early days.

Since the social networking giant’s initial public offering in May, this is one of only a handful of public appearances he’s made. It proved to be a rare window into the mind of Facebook’s young CEO, who spoke for 45 minutes before rushing off to the wedding of a close friend and fellow Facebook employee.

Zuck was interviewed on stage at Startup School, an annual conference, by the outspoken founder of Y Combinator, Paul Graham.

Advice to entrepreneurs: Take your time, “bake the product”

Don’t believe everything you hear in the hit flick, The Social Network. Zuck told the audience that he was in favor of online ads in the early days, and gave Eduardo Savarin (one of Facebook’s cofounders) full control. He said that the ads provided sufficient revenue for the team to purchase servers. This was the revenue that supported the startup’s protracted growth.

“Whenever we had money, we got another $85 server,” said Zuckerberg. “We never spent money.”

None of the founders had any startup experience, but they were highly strategic. Zuck specifically chose to bring Facebook to colleges that were already using social networks, such as Friendster or a university-owned service. It was evidence that the community was ready to share and connect online.

From the beginning, the founders were convinced that there had to be more than a simple profile page. They were always willing to devote time and resources to building out sharing features like integrating course catalogs, even if it proved to be an obstacle to growth.

“Facebook did grow quickly but it took a year for us to get a million users,” he said. “It wasn’t as quick as a lot of things grow today. Having that time to bake was valuable for us.”

In that first year, Facebook was just a hobby

It was a shock to hear that if Facebook hadn’t worked out, Zuckerberg would have joined a tech giant, rather than a startup. “I probably would have taken an engineering job…[and] always had a lot of respect for Microsoft,” he said. “A lot of people from Harvard went to work there.”

He admitted that a huge part of Facebook’s success was in its timing. People were already beginning to embrace sharing online through sites like Wikipedia. In addition, Friendster had a scaling problem, but had experienced skyrocketing growth. Graham wondered whether, if Zuckerberg had been a few years younger and Harvard’s own social network had taken off, Facebook would exist today.

Zuckerberg is convinced that going forward, we will continue to voraciously share their photos, ideas, and status updates. That’s how Facebook will remain relevant. “Ten years from now, people are going to be sharing a thousand times more a day,” he said. “Our continual mission is to build the next big thing — that’s what we live for at Facebook.”

He never intended to drop out of Harvard

“My life is a long history of people thinking I would drop out of school long before I did,” Zuck told the audience.

He recalled his decision to spend a summer in Palo Alto. After flying into San Francisco Airport, he rented a car to drive down the Highway 101. Aside from being impressed by the perpetually sunny weather, he was awed by the technology companies he spotted along the way.

At that time, Zuck said he was not convinced that Facebook would be a legitimate company.

“I thought it would be neat to be around some of these great companies,” he said. “One day we will find something [an idea] but surely this isn’t it.” Zuck said that he was honest with investor, Peter Thiel, that he did not intend to drop out of Harvard. Thiel called bullshit, and cut Facebook’s founders their first big check.

Zuck’s parents always knew he would drop out of college. He had the audience chuckling when he described a bet with his younger sister Donna on who would finish college first.

Still, the Facebook founder recommended that young entrepreneurs use their time in college to explore and develop new interests. He criticized Harvard for not encouraging innovation (this off-hand remark was met with boo’s from the audience), but admitted that this is slowly changing.

He was a psych major with a passion for Latin and Greek

Zuckerberg was fascinated by the intricacies of the human mind, and the study of classical languages. However, he admitted that he was a keen programmer at college, and rarely studied or went to class.

The hacker-filled audience was in hysterics when Zuck told the story of how he aced an art history final. He coded a quick and dirty website with about 200 images, and emailed “the study tool” to the class asking for their thoughts on the significance of each image, which was filled with information in a matter of hours. “So you crowdsourced studying,” joked Graham.

This zeal for psychology has carried over into his work at Facebook. Zuck argued that Facebook is responsible for augmenting human relationships, and is not keeping us from developing friendships in the real world.

“Humans have the capacity to maintain empathetic relationships with about 150 people,” he said. “Facebook extends that.”

Dynamic vs. Static Web Sites

Roughly speaking, there are two kinds of Web sites: those with static content and those with dynamically generated content. These are also called static Web sites and dynamic Web sites, or Web sites with static pages versus Web sites with dynamic pages.

What is Web content? Content is everything that can appear on a Web page: text, graphics, form fields, hyperlinks to other pages, navigation buttons, menus, etc.

What are static and dynamic websites?

There are many static websites on the Internet, you won’t be able to tell immediately if it is static, but the chances are, if the site looks basic and is for a smaller company, and simply delivers information without any bells and whistles, it could be a static website. Static websites can only really be updated by someone with a knowledge of website development. Static websites are the cheapest to develop and host, and many smaller companies still use these to get a web presence.

Advantages of static websites

• Quick to develop
• Cheap to develop
• Cheap to host

Disadvantages of static websites

• Requires web development expertise to update site
• Site not as useful for the user
• Content can get stagnant

Dynamic sites on the other hand can be more expensive to develop initially, but the advantages are numerous. At a basic level, a dynamic website can give the website owner the ability to simply update and add new content to the site. For example, news and events could be posted to the site through a simple browser interface. Dynamic features of a site are only limited by imagination. Some examples of dynamic website features could be: content management system, e-commerce system, bulletin / discussion boards, intranet or extranet facilities, ability for clients or users to upload documents, ability for administrators or users to create content or add information to a site (dynamic publishing).

Advantages of dynamic websites

• Much more functional website
• Much easier to update
• New content brings people back to the site and helps in the search engines
• Can work as a system to allow staff or users to collaborate

Disadvantages of dynamic websites

• Slower / more expensive to develop
• Hosting costs a little more

 Please note that static and dynamic content has nothing to do with page animation.

Computer Shutdown after Restart (system failure)

Like all other pieces of technology, a computer also suffers from various issues from time to time which are very hard to attribute to one single cause. There are so many components embedded inside a machine that it is very hard to predict what can go wrong at any given time, and even when something does go wrong, it is very difficult to find the exact cause. People who are clued up about the workings of a computer and people who are professional computer repairmen follow a fixed and orderly method of checking problems, since this is the only way to ascertain the actual issue.   

One of the most annoying things that can happen to a computer is that it simply refuses to shut down. This is a problem that Windows XP users, more than anyone else, have faced over the years and this ultimately leads to simply turning the power source off which can result in loss of data and other issues. If you find that your computer restarts after shutdown then you need to take the situation very seriously, since the underlying cause of the problem can inevitably lead to more serious problems as well. People who do not know much about the workings of a computer may not be able to do much about this problem, but the causes mentioned here can be investigated by someone who is not completely ignorant about such things.

Causes of Automatic Restart 

Common causes of computers restarting by themselves are computer viruses, computer overheating, computer hardware defects, computer hardware incompatibility and computer driver problems. All of these issues have their own specific solutions that must be applied in order to fix the problem. You should install an antivirus software or update the existing one, you should use the computer in a cool rool and avoid keeping it on for days at a stretch, fix or replace any defective hardware peripherals and reinstall device drivers respectively. Hopefully, each of these solutions will solve your problem, but if you still see that your computer keeps rebooting itself, then you need to visit a computer technician immediately.

Solutions to Automatic Restart          

In some computers, the settings make the computer restart automatically when it is shutdown. These settings can be altered in the following manner.  

    Right click on My Computer and then click on Properties.     
    Click on the tab that says Advanced and then click on the Settings button under the Startup and             Recovery option.          
    Under System Failure uncheck the box next to Automatically Restart.

After doing this, your computer will not restart automatically upon shutdown unless there is some serious defect inside. All Windows based machines have this option checked by default, so that the computer restarts and does not lose any data in case there is some kind of 'Stop Error' while it is functioning. You may also like to learn what to do when the computer restarts during startup.     

Some more possible solutions to try out in case your computer restarts after shutdown are as follows. Please note that none of these solutions are guaranteed to work for you, but there is no harm in trying them out, since there is no way to determine the exact nature of the problem without physically inspecting the machine.       

    You should visit the BIOS of the machine when it is booting up, and then look for programs or devices that cause the machine to startup automatically. In order to reach the BIOS you will have to press one of F1, F2, F10, DELETE or ESC when the machine is starting up, and it will specify which key you need to press. You should look for an option called Wake up on shutdown in the BIOS and then disable it.
    You should attempt cleaning up your Windows registry. In order to achieve this you need to go the Start menu, then click on Run, then type regedit and press Enter, then delete entries from the various options that open. These options are HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, HKEY_CURRENT_USER and HKEY_USERS and HKEY_CURRENT CONFIG. Doing so will also speeden your machine up, and hopefully it will also solve your problem of 'computer restarts when shutdown'.

The problem of 'computer restarts after shutdown' is not a very uncommon one, and there are many people who regularly complain about the same. Following some fixed solutions should fix the issue in most cases, but if the trouble persists, then it is probably best to take the machine to a computer repair store and show it to a certified technician. This may take more time and money, but ultimately it will be worth it.

Windows Phone 8

Windows Phone 8 will make a <big>DIFFERENCE</big>

At windows Phone Summit, Microsoft took a giant leap in its mobile platform. Windows Phone 7.5 Mango was awesome with its attractive UI and metro experience. But reviewers and  users always had something to complain about the OS like limited customization, no dual or multi core devices, less number of apps in the marketplace and apps like Draw Something, Pandora etc. missing, multitasking issues blah blah blah. With Windows 8, Microsoft gets it all right leaving nothing to complain about.  The announcements made at the Summit were not feature complete. There are many things to get excited in the near future. 

Here are the new features that will make a difference:

New Start Screen

The start screen is the best home screen in any mobile device out there providing live notifications and updates about people and things you care about most. It remains heart and soul of Windows.  People wanted more customization.  Microsoft listens and delivers new start screen that is full screen (removing the black spaces), resizable tiles to three sizes  (still providing live notifications) and mufti colors.  With new start screen, you can see even more contents than iPhone or android at a time that is especially useful for power users. Unlike android that takes seriously long time to manage 5-7 home screens with grid of icons and mix of resizable and non resizable widgets and could end up looking like a mesh, you can customize new start screen with ease to match your best needs.

New Hardware Capabilities and New Kernel

Windows Phone Mango was based  on Windows CE kernel and due to its limitation, OS supported only single core devices. Now, Windows phone 8 is getting a new kernel that is same as Windows PCs and slates that is going to provide endless possibilities of hardware, cross-platform app development via shared codes and many more. Now, windows phone 8 supports dual and multi core and theoretically up to 64.  It also supports three resolutions 640 x 480, WXGA (1280 x 768) and 720p (1280x720). All of these offer 15:9 or 16:9 widescreen aspect ratios. With shared codes and APIs, developers can port apps between windows 8 and windows phone 8 devices with little modifications in screen resolutions. New Direct X capacities make the gaming experience in windows phone just like in PCs with high end 3D games and visual effects.

Internet Explorer 10

Windows Phone 8 is getting new internet explorer 10 and shares codes with IE from desktop providing security and performance like the PC browser in the phone which make it most advanced mobile browser.

Micro SD App Support

Windows 8 supports memory cards to store data take makes it easy to transfer, and store data with ease. And you will never run out of space in the phone. Users will also be able to install apps to the memory card instead of to internal storage.

Nokia Maps

Nokia maps were always a plus point for Lumia phones. Now, it is coming to all windows phone 8 devices. It will feature global NAVTEQ map data, offline support, turn by turn navigation, and a maps control for developers. It will also work in the background and in concert with Windows Phone’s voice control technologies, so you can keep navigating while doing other things.  Background location functionality will let Maps and other location-based apps run in the background.

NFC and Wallet

Windows phone supports new NFC tap and send option to share data with supported devices. And what’s cool is, you can play a multiplayer game between a tablet and phone with just a tap for supported apps. Microsoft is also introducing a complete wallet experience to compete with apple’s passbook and Google wallet.

VoIP Integration

Windows Phone 8 provides integrated VoIP calling (not just for Skype) but other VoIP app makers too and supports to run in background.

Software Updates over the air

Windows 8 will deliver software updates over the air bypassing carriers. Users will be able to use latest and fresh contents on the phone.

100,000 plus Apps and Voice Controlled Apps

There are now more than 100,000 apps in the marketplace with additions of popular apps like draw something and audible.  Users could launch apps with voice (which Siri is learning now)  in Mango and in windows phone 8, developers can provide voice control navigations in their apps with new voice based APIs.

Native Code and in App Payments

The availability of native C and C++ code development using DirectX/Direct3D is a huge development for Windows Phone 8, one that will ease the creation of cross platform (Windows 8/iOS/Android) apps and games and is bringing many useful game engines (like Havoc) to Windows Phone.

And support of payment options within the apps is huge advantage for developers.

Enterprise Ready

Microsoft is promoting BYOD (Bring your Own Device) strategy to enterprises with its world class and trusted bit locker encryption and secure boot technology to windows phone 8.  Companies can deploy their apps the way they want bypassing marketplace. Microsoft also shows the new Company Hub that lets companies and workers to interact with its each other.

Devices

Nokia, Huawei, Samsung and HTC will all deliver new Windows Phone 8 handsets in late 2012, and each will be based on a new Qualcomm chipset. Windows Phone 8 devices will be available in over 180 countries at launch, with support for 50 languages.

New devices from HP coming to windows phone 8 were revealed in press release.

“HTC is committed to Windows Phone more than ever and we are excited to be bringing new Windows Phone 8-enabled smartphones to customers later this year. With the introduction of Windows Phone in 2010, Microsoft initiated a new powerful mobile ecosystem with a consumer experience that was both unique and user friendly.”

 The Verge managed to obtain information indicating that there will in fact be three HTC Windows Phone 8 devices during launch.

HTC “Zenith”	Display: 4.7” 720p Super LCD2 Camera: 8 megapixels (1080p capture) Processor: Quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon Memory: ? GB RAM Network: 42Mbps HSPA+ (International Variant) Release: 4Q 2012
HTC “Accord”	Display: 4.3” 720p Super LCD2 Camera: 8 megapixels (1080p capture) Processor: Dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon (MSM8260A) Memory: 1 GB RAM Network: 42Mbps HSPA+ (International Variant) Release: October 2012
HTC “Rio”	Display: 4” WVGA Camera: 5 megapixels (720p capture) Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon (MSM8227) Memory: 512 MB RAM Network: 14.4Mbps HSPA (International Variant) Release: October 2012

No upgrade to windows phone 8 for current devices

It is going to hurt current windows phone users that they are not getting windows phone 8 even latest lumia phones. But the new specifications like higher resolution, multitasking, NFC, voice technology etc. require high end hardware and current generation phones can not support next upgrade. But Microsoft want to keep its loyal users happy by providing 7.8 upgrade with new start screen. Nokia is also committed to current lumia users by providing new camera app with group shot, panorama mode, action mode and smart mode. Anyway, Microsoft is not trying to fool users like apples that let users to upgrade to iOS 6 ( but without new maps, siri and other critical features). And you can still see device makers releasing outdated android froyo and gingerbread like Galaxy Ace and Galaxy Young in the market. (And people jump to these year old devices. I wonder why?)

Unified PC and Mobile Experience

Microsoft is unifying its mobile and desktop experience with new metro environment which provides consistent and seamless experience whether on a pc, tablet or smartphone.  Windows phone 7.5 devices were specially targeted to smart phone market and new smartphone users. But Windows phone 8 is targeting to 1.3+ billion Windows users.

What’s Coming

Microsoft is also working to cut the costs for users in other ways. For example, a new feature called Data Smart, which is based on the metered broadband connection capabilities in Windows 8, will help ensure that users get the most out of their data plans. A variety of techniques help achieve this. First, Windows Phone 8 reduces the amount of data it transmits, by handing off to Wi-Fi whenever possible and by using a new cloud-based browser proxy service that limits the amount of data used by Internet Explorer 10 and apps by compressing web traffic. 

Microsoft is adding a new feature to Local Scout that will help you find nearby Wi-Fi hotspots. And in many countries, Windows Phone 8 can be configured to automatically offload from cellular data to mobile operator-owned Wi-Fi networks, without any user action required.

You’ll be able to use SkyDrive not just for documents and pictures, but also for music and videos, and access them directly from new Xbox Music and Xbox Video apps. You will also be able to navigate into your phone’s storage using the SkyDrive devices a functionality, just as you can with Windows PCs, and copy content (like camera-taken photos) back and forth seamlessly.

he Games hub is being replaced by an Xbox LIVE Games app modeled after the same app in Windows 8. It will provide the same marketplace browsing capabilities as its Windows 8-based brother, and also all of the avatar editing and stats browsing.

Windows Phone 8, Microsoft has partnered with Nokia to offer a dramatically better Camera, one that offers a “world class” experience. Windows Phone includes a basic Camera with great new features that provide most of what users are looking for. But it is also extensible via a new class of so-called Lens apps, which lets third party apps plug into the Camera experience and appear—rather than the Camera app—when the user presses the camera button. Later, when you browse through your taken pictures, you can see which were taken with particular lens apps, and you can then edit it within that app.

Windows Phone apps are already smarter than apps on other platforms, thanks to integrated capabilities like tile notifications, deep linking, integration with Bing, and so on. But in Windows Phone 8, this is getting even better. Microsoft is adding app-to-app communication using the same contracts functionality found in Windows 8. It supporting apps written in native code for the first time, another side effect of based the system on Windows 8, providing better performance (especially for DirectX-based games) and simpler porting of apps between Windows Phone and iOS, Android, and even Windows 8.

Microsoft is further integrating Bing into the Marketplace, bolstering the current search capabilities with automatic lists of known good apps that are matched to the user’s buying and downloading habits. 

Got any feature or idea that you would like to see in Windows Phone 8, suggest here:

 http://windowsphone.uservoice.com/forums/101801-feature-suggestions

 Watch full windows phone summit event here:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=royJee1SQlY

 Source: www.winsupersite.com & Windows Phone Summit

How Do I Know if I’m Running 32-bit or 64-bit Linux?

If you’ve bought a new computer recently, you probably have a 64-bit processor and installed the 64-bit version of your Linux distribution. What if your computer is a bit older and you don’t remember?
There is a nice and simple command line program called uname that will tell us exactly that.

Open a terminal window (Applications > Accessories > Terminal).
 

 

In the terminal window, type in

uname –m

and hit enter.

• If the response is i686, you have a 32-bit version of Linux.
• If the response is x86_64, you have a 64-bit version of Linux. 

Note: if you get some other value like i386, you almost certainly have a 32-bit version of Linux.
You can find out more detail about your particular installation of Linux, like your kernel version, by entering

uname –a

Enjoy!!!

How to Hide Zip file inside a picture

Since images are read from the header down, and zip files are read from the footer up, you can easily merge them as one single file , and no one will ever know. Read on to find out how.

Embedding Zip Files Inside GIF Files

Note: During tests GIF images were the only image type to give consistent results, therefore we recommend you use them as well.
The first thing you will need to do is drill down into the directory that’s holding both your GIF image as well as your zip file, so press the Win + R keyboard combination, type cmd into the run box and hit enter. When the command prompt opens you can use the cd command to change directories.

All it takes to merge the files is one simple copy command, the trick is to use the /B switch like so:

copy /B picture.gif+YourMenu.zip newfile.gif

This assumes:

• The original image is named picture.gif
• The zip file you want to hide in your image is called YourMenu.zip
• The combined file will be called newfile.gif

 

The result is a file that can be opened with both an archiving program such as 7-Zip or WinRAR as well as with an image editor.

 

 That’s all there is to it.

Remove Linux and Grub - Restore Windows 7

                                                                                                                                                                (Solving with Start up problems)
You are dual booting with a Linux OS, using the Grub boot loader menu, and now you want to remove Linux and Grub and restore your Windows 7 boot manager.

Here's how:

This screen shot shows Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, and my Ubuntu 9.10 installed on logical partitions (volumes) in an extended partition. The two partitions on the end are for Ubuntu and its swap partition. Windows does not recognize the file system used by Ubuntu, so you see no data.

This is the same hard drive viewed from Ubuntu using GParted. Ubuntu does recognize the Windows NTFS file system and correctly labels the partitions. Again for verification, the last two partitions (volumes) are for Ubuntu and its swap partition.

 

 

From Windows 7 Disk Management, remove (delete) the last two partitions or, if your installation is different, the Ubuntu partitions.

Boot to your Windows 7 install DVD (or the System Repair CD) and navigate to the Command Prompt option.



   

 

Type: diskpart
and press enter.

Type: select disk 0 (zero)
and press enter

Type: list volume
and press enter

and identify the drive letter of your CD/DVD drive.

Code:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7100]

Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

X:\Windows\system32> diskpart

Microsoft DiskPart version 6.1.7100

Copyright (C) 1999-2008 Microsoft Corporation.

On computer: VIRTUAL-7

DISKPART> select disk 0

Disk 0 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> list volume

  Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info

  ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------

  Volume 0     D                       CD-ROM          0 B  No Media

  Volume 1     S   System Rese  NTFS   Partition    100 MB  Healthy

  Volume 2     E   Virtual-XP   NTFS   Partition     11 GB  Healthy    System

  Volume 3     C   Virtual-7    NTFS   Partition     20 GB  Healthy    Boot

DISKPART> exit

Type: exit
to close Diskpart.

Using the drive letter you identified, type: D:
and press enter.

Type: cd \boot
and enter

Type: bootsect /nt60 SYS /mbr
and press enter

 

 

This command should find the "Active" partition with the System files and boot code and restore your Windows 7 Boot Manager.

Type: exit
to close the Command Prompt
then restart.

If Windows 7 is the only OS, you should boot directly to it and not see any Boot Menu.