OpenID - Moving On....

Finally Google took the first step towards OpenID. Now, bloggers can post their authenticated comments using any OpenID enabled service. Its been a long wait to see Google enter the OpenID field. What we still have to see is Google acting as an OpenID provider. As Google has a large number of users and they have the same id for most of their own applications, shifting to OpenID will presumably be the most convenient to internet users. And now, we see the first step towards it - Support of OpenID for bloggers.....

Fedora Core 7 on Dell Inspiron 1520

Last night when I was trying to install Fedora Core 7 on a Dell Inspiron 1520, annoyingly I was stuck up at the Linux installation startup. The installation procedure had not even reached running anaconda. Instead it stuck up saying it did not recognized the DVD/CD drive and needs a device driver for the same. Here's the quick solution I adopted to resolve this. It might be helpful in for some other models of Dell too.

Create an iso of the FC7 Linux DVD. Copy the iso in a FAT32 partition on your hard disk. This needs to be done as it does not picks up the iso from ntfs drives. Now, when you start installing Fedora Core 7, it will again ask for the DVD/CD device driver. Instead select the source of your Linux as the partition having the iso image of the DVD. And it moves on to anaconda. :-)

Although after installation Linux was still not able to recognize DVD drive, the device driver can be downloaded and installed now as you have a working Linux ready. :-)

Google Knol

Finally an official report came for Udi Manber, VP Engineering of Google of the Google Knol. The definition and overview of Knol clearly reveals that it will be a major competitor of Wikipedia. So Google is now on a clear cut war with Wikipedia.

Google's statement about a knol is
"A knol on a particular topic is meant to be the first thing someone who searches for this topic for the first time will want to read. The goal is for knols to cover all topics, from scientific concepts, to medical information, from geographical and historical, to entertainment, from product information, to how-to-fix-it instructions."

This is in no way different from a Wikipedia article. A Wikipedia article on a particular topic is the first thing someone who searches for this topic for the first time will want to read.

Even if Google does really want to come in this field, it should provide something which is different from wikipedia. There is simply no need of creating a parallel of Wikipedia with users getting confused where to look for the correct information.

But Google thinks it in a different way. As always, they have indicated it even in the official report.
"Competition of ideas is a good thing"
And sure it is... ;)