Category Archives: Reviews

Slices.me is now open for public, while still in beta

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Slices.me for Web Now Open to the Public

Slices.me for Web Now Open to the Public

Slices.me, a web-based application for the new Slices for Twitter application on Android open for public (while still in beta) today. The web interface is an attempt to give the same look and feel as the popular android application on the web.

I gave it a few minutes and I must admit they have done a splendid job although there are still bugs in it like, I was not able to pull anyone’s twitter profile even after multiple click using Firefox browser. Hopefully it will improve in near future.

How did you find Slices for Android? if its not your favorite twitter application, which one is it and why? I’d love to know about it in the comments below

Routing a root domain / zone apex / naked domain to Amazon S3

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Even though the sound of hosting a static website entirely out of Amazon s3, it has a catch. You can only host subdomains there (including www.example.com, cdn.example.com, images.example.com etc assuming your primary domain name is example.com) but not “apex domain” like example.com

I had an idea of redirecting the example.com traffic to one of my VPSes and then redirecting via .htaccess or PHP to www.example.com at which point www is already hosted on s3

Just to double check, I posted the question online and got a reply from D. Svanlund who pointed me out to an awesome time-saver service still in beta called ARecord.net. They are right when they say Zone Apex issue on Cloud.

Angry Imran game for Android (inspired by the popular Angry Birds)

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Angry Imran Android app

Angry Imran Android app

Angry Imran (Android Game) is a copy of the popular game Angry Birds

The description reads

Imran’s Tsunami in the Android Store!

Angry Imran is a game whose main theme is inspired from Angry Birds. This v1.0 (beta) is the result of a request from a group of friends. It is a tribute to the emerging leader of Pakistan, Mr. Imran Khan.
So take on the driving seat and help him in his TSUNAMI of Revolution.

*Brain freeze does not have any political affiliations with any party*

I gave the game a test drive and while its no where near as good as Angry Birds game, we should not underestimate the potential of this game. I am pretty sure that this “10+ downloads” so far, will reach to 10 million within weeks. Also the game is in beta right now so give it some time, install on Android and leave it, it will auto update when new version comes (which I hope will be in near future and will have stunning UI and graphics)

Angry Imran Android app

Angry Imran Android app

Angry Imran Android app

Angry Imran Android app

Update: I finished the game. Loved listening to ‘Tabdeeli agayi hai’ (the change has come) when I finish a round and the evil laughter by other politicians if I fail a round. I was actually expecting some kind of video/audio message at the end but there was none. Here is the image that tells you the game is over

... and I finished the game in a couple of minutes

... and I finished the game in a couple of minutes

Further reading:

Review: The Avengers Live Wallpapers for Android

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So, I installed the The Avengers Live Wallpapers for my Android Phone since it was on Google Play’s (previously known as Google Market) feature list

The Avengers Live Wallpaper as featured on Google Play

The Avengers Live Wallpaper as featured on Google Play

Almost immediately after installing it, I could see annoying little nag screens on every screen unlock, like the one you can see in the screenshot below.

The Avengers Live Wallpaper nag screens

The Avengers Live Wallpaper nag screens

Which is pretty nasty way to convince me to buy the pro version. I uninstalled it right away. I highly recommend everyone not to install it on their cell else you’ll have to uninstall it later.

Update: I have posted a review on Google Play, you can read it here

TechieVPS Review

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So, I was tempted by one posting on WHT a few months ago but it was Rus Foster’s who posted about this new web outlet. The specs and the price was great. I opted for quarterly and it dropped to $2.5/mo with the following specs

  • 250MB memory
  • 10GB storage
  • 1TB of data transfer
  • 1 x IPv4
  • No IPv6 at the moment
  • XEN-HVM / SolusVM

Yes, its the same UK2 Group which also owns VPS.NET, ThurstVPS.com etc. At first the test results were very good and tempting but I wanted to see how well it goes before putting something serious on it.

Support is decent, replies within 15-20minutes. After using it (idling) for the last 4 months, I must say that the server’s performance has degraded a lot and this is the latest test result

root@redmine ~# dd if=/dev/zero of=iotest bs=64k count=16k conv=fdatasync
16384+0 records in
16384+0 records out
1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB) copied, 115.089 s, 9.3 MB/s

 

root@redmine ~# wget cachefly.cachefly.net/100mb.test
--2012-04-17 10:00:38--  http://cachefly.cachefly.net/100mb.test
Resolving cachefly.cachefly.net... 205.234.175.175
Connecting to cachefly.cachefly.net|205.234.175.175|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 104857600 (100M) [application/octet-stream]
Saving to: `100mb.test'

100%[======================================>] 104,857,600 2.42M/s   in 28s

2012-04-17 10:01:06 (3.55 MB/s) - `100mb.test' saved [104857600/104857600]

 

root@redmine ~# cat /proc/cpuinfo | head -8
processor       : 0
vendor_id       : GenuineIntel
cpu family      : 6
model           : 30
model name      : Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU         750  @ 2.67GHz
stepping        : 5
cpu MHz         : 2666.263
cache size      : 8192 KB

Contacted support and got this in return so … this may not get fixed anytime soon. I was hoping to be suggested to transfer to another node or something.

techieVPS.com Support Ticket #223280

techieVPS.com Support Ticket #223280

View the complete image by clicking here

Yes, I have cancelled my VPS effective immediately because I just cannot drag a VPS that I may not use. Rus Foster was nice enough to handle the request for me to refund the future invoice that I already paid in advance (due 24th April, paid 10th April).

Overcommitting with KVM

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KVM logo Someone pointed out a shocking fact in LET that KVM, the new popular virtualization type, can be over-committed even more then the infamous OpenVZ

The KVM hypervisor supports overcommitting CPUs and overcommitting memory. Overcommitting is allocating more virtualized CPUs or memory than there are physical resources on the system. With CPU overcommit, under-utilized virtualized servers or desktops can run on fewer servers which saves power and money.

Read it all at docs.redhat.com
also read the complete thread at LET Is KVM the next oversold VPS? for more enlightenment