Skype 5 RAM usage

Most of you perhaps have Skype installed and leave it running in background. Well, did you know that in the idle state, it eats more than 100 MB of your precious RAM?

Yeah, thats just for waiting an chat or call!

eBuddy, Nimbuzz or Trillian are all-in-one programs which allows you to connect to multiple services like Google talk, Facebook Chat, Yahoo at the same time. They once used to work with Skype too. But Skype changed its policy on 2010. You must obligatorily have the stupid Skype app installed and running so that such third party apps can use Skype services. You can read more on Nimbuzz’s blog post:  http://blog.nimbuzz.com/2010/10/25/what-the-skypenimbuzz-breakup-means-to-you/

Anyways, i am downgrading my skype to version 3.8 which is much lighter and smoother. You can get it here

Do you think Ben Laden was killed by USA on May 2011?

Lots of people since thought Ben Laden was already dead years ago. But the recent announcement of the USA president My Barack Obama proved them all wrong. Since we are talking about proofs, here are the proofs that this incident really took place:-

1. We love Barack Obama!!!

2. Barack Obama cannot be wrong.

3. If ever it happens that Barack is wrong, see proof 2.

4. Mr Barack Obama officially announced that his team killed Ben Laden. This is the greatest proof.

5. USA teams have confirmed the death through DNA tests too.

6. Why don’t we have the dead body. Because Barack’s team do not want at any cost to hurt the feelings of people. They thought it is best to throw him in the sea as they consider it a custom. This proof further strengthens proof number 3 which in turns strengthens proof number 2 which in turns confirms proof number 4.

7. USA are considered as God by some. If USA couldn’t capture his biggest ‘enemy’, it would be really an embarrassing fact. It is better to believe USA killed Ben Laden. Give benefit of doubts wherever you can for the benefit of the world

I guess i put some irrefutable arguments that indeed USA killed Ben Laden. Counter my arguments if you can!?

Anyone wanna watch "Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi" with me on my new 42" TV? I miss that serial soooo much. Please bring some snacks and drinks along 😛

Our Strength

If someone wants to claim prophethood after Hadhrat Muhammad SAW has been anounced as Khataman Nabiyyin, he would say things like this:

Is Revelation a blessing or a curse? Then how can God stop sending it? Revelations must continue.

Has God become dumb (nauzubillah) by stopping to send revelations?

Sending Revelations is a Sunnah of God? How can it stop in the latter days?

Let me tell you a short story to illustrate my point. I don’t know the original author’s name. Anyways, he was a genius.

There was a sick fox in a jungle who was in a very weak state. He could barely move. A man saw the fox and wondered how does the fox manage to get his food. After some time, he saw a lion hunt an animal and eat it. After the lion satisfied his hunger and went away, the weak fox ate of the remnants of the hunted animal. The man then said to himself: “God is great for he creates life and then makes provision to sustain it.”

The man decided to lay down in a corner and see if God sends his provision to him there. He became thinner and thinner each day. No one even came to inquire about him. He became very weak. He then heard a voice inside him.

“O stupid, what are you doing? Didn’t God give you hands and the strength to fetch your sustenance for yourself? Why don’t you try to become the strong lion instead and let others benefit of your strength rather than be the weak fox who is dependent on others.”

Allah has sent down The Holy Quran which is a perfect guidance for humanity. He has taken the responsibility of safeguarding the Holy Quran upon himself. “Verily We: It is We Who have sent down this exhortation (Qur’an) and surely, We verily are its Guardian [Al-Hijr, 15:10/9].” Isn’t this verse enough to refute the argument that the blessings of Revelations are not available in 2011?

Will you still deny the favours of Allah and say “What thou hast sent down is not enough, We need more!” Isn’t Hidayat (guidance) already here? What you want more? Allah has taken the responsibility of explaining the Quran too.

“Had We sent down this Qur’an. on a mountain, you would surely have seen it humbling itself and rending asunder by the fear of Allah. Such are the parables which We put forward to mankind that they may reflect.” [Al-Hashr, 59:22/21]

During the time of Hadhrat Adam (as), the human race was in a very primitive state. They didn’t have the physical and mental capacity so as The Final Complete Book to descend upon them. So Prophets came to guide them on the path of Allah each time introducing new laws as they became more mature with time.

‘…This day have I perfected your religion for you and completed My favour upon you and have chosen for you Islam as religion…’ [Al-Ma’idah, 5:4/3]

Once man became at the top of its physical and mental capacity, the Final and most Complete book was sent down through prophet Muhammad SAW. Now man has everything he needs. He can stand on his feet and go hunting and feed himself and and let others benefit of it.

The era of spoon-feeding has ended. Allah’s attribute of ‘The Provider’ and ‘The Sustainer’ is still unchanged since the creation of times. Allah still talks as he did before. It is just us who can’t hear it.

“O People! No Prophet or Apostle Will Come after Me and No New Faith Will Be Born. Reason well, therefore, O People! and understand words which I convey to you. I leave behind me two things, the QUR’AN and my SUNNAH and if you follow these you will never go astray. (from Farewell sermon of prophet SAW)

From the hadith above, we get to know that prophets won’t come now. If we stop following the Holy Quran and Sunnah, we would be left dying spiritually!

Look at the Muslims nowadays. Very few really read the Holy Quran with love and try to understand it. We are just waiting for someone (Al Mehdi)  to come and spoon-feed us. In the meanwhile, we do whatever we want. Why do we want to be fed instead of feeding the others? Laziness would mean suicide now! You will have to answer before God for this.

Hidayat comes from Allah and him only. Blindly believing some mawlana no matter how sincere he is will avail you naught. You need to understand Islam with your heart. Discuss faith with your brothers. Have mutual love and respect for each other. Don’t form sects just because you have different opinions. Instead, learn to live together. remember ‘Islam’ means ‘Peace’.

Indeed, the sunnah of Allah doesn’t change. Allah had a greater plan for us. We are supposed to be the ones who would be able to attain faith even if it went on the Pleiades and still attain the status of companions of the Holy Prophet SAW despite him not being with us physically.

It is He who has sent among the unlettered a Messenger from themselves reciting to them His verses and purifying them and teaching them the Book and wisdom – although they were before in clear error [Quran 62:3/2]

And others of them who have not yet joined them. And He is the Exalted in Might, the Wise.[Quran 62:4/3]

Flash-Aid

I am using Ubuntu 10.10 as my main OS on my recently bought laptop. The experience is really great. However, there was one thing bothering me.

YouTube videos would play fine in embedded boxes. The video would freeze while i would switch to full screen mode even at 360p resolutions. My CPU usage would be around 40% which is a bit high. I had to switch multiple times from full screen mode to embed until the video would finally play on full screen. This was quite annoying. I thought i would enjoy HD videos on my laptop without any hassle. YouTube was playing much better on Windows 7.

Thanks to the Firefox plugin Flash-Aid. Everything was fixed. My flash videos play better than in Windows 7 now. I would recommend everyone who runs Ubuntu to make it a must to install this plugin.

This plugin downloads the correct Adobe plugin for Firefox according to your CPU architecture. It fine tunes your flash settings so as to make the maximum use of your hardware in the most efficient manner.

Visit the plugin page and download it here.

My New Laptop: Dell Inspiron N5010

I finally got a new laptop using a 450MHz Pentium 2 computer for about 10 years now. The computer still working. It is very solid. Let me introduce you to my new best friend.

Laptop Model: Dell Inspiron N5010


CPU: Intel Core i5 480M

It has a dual core CPU clocked 2.67 GHz (max 2.93 GHz). It has Hyper Threading Technology which allows each core to handle 2 threads. So, it’s as if it has virtually 4 cores.

The salesman was advising me to take an i3 version as it would cost Rs 3000 less and the clock difference would be of only 0.14 GHz with the Core i5. However, i decided to go for the Core i5 because it has Turbo Boost Technology which can automatically over-clock the CPU to a maximum of 2.93 GHz when the need arises and the conditions such as temperature and RAM are available.

RAM: 3GB DDR3

The amount of RAM is very sufficient for everyday life tasks. I managed to use nearly 2.8 GB of it when i ran Windows 7 in Virtual Box while being on Ubuntu. Yet, the computer was very stable and fast. Multi-tasking is handled amazingly well by this machine.

Hard-Disk: 320 GB

Graphics: Intel HD Graphics (up to 1270 MB shared memory)

So, there is no dedicated graphics in this laptop. Only old games will be able to run on it despite such a powerful CPU. Modern games are more dependent on the GPU rather than the CPU. If you want a gaming machine, i would recommend you to save money on CPU and buy a decent graphics card.

Anyways, the main reason why i chose the Core i5 CPU over the i3 is that the i3 CPU can only have up to 760 MB of shared memory. Moreover, the integrated GPU of the Core i5 can reach 766 MHz whereas the Core i3 can only reach 667 MHz. So, the Core i5 should handle games a little better. If the laptop would have a dedicated graphics, i would have taken without hesitation the Core i3.

Screen: 15.4″ HD WLED Back-light, Res 1366 x 768

The screen is simply great. Watching a 720p HD video is a real pleasure. However, i am quite disappointed with the viewing angle. It’s a bit too limited. Only one person can enjoy the screen fully at a time (some might like this feature though :P).

There was a Toshiba laptop which had an ATI Radeon with 1 GB dedicated graphic memory (up to 1768 MB shared) which i could buy. However, the screen was about 14″ or maybe less. It was displayed next to the one i bought. So i could directly compare them. The Toshiba seemed rather like a net-book. The screen really appeared very small. I couldn’t decide whether to take a laptop which a dedicated graphics or take a larger screen. The Toshiba was priced Rs 3000 more but money was not the matter here. It tough to decide,

I finally chose the Dell as i thought whats the point in having a powerful graphics without be able to enjoy it? My dad too preferred this one too. My sister and mother wanted the Toshiba though.

Operating System: None

I was offered the option of whether to take Windows 7 or not. I didn’t take it. It saved me 3000 bucks 😀

I installed Ubuntu 10.10 on it. It was superb. However i upgraded it to Ubuntu 11.04. It’s new GUI sucks f***king hard. I will post something about it later.

Ports: 3x USB 2.0, 1x eSATA,1x HDMI,1x VGA out 1x ethernet(network), 1x 3.5mm audio out/headset, 1x audio in/microphone, 7 in 1 card reader, 1x DC in


Wireless: Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth

I connected the laptop to my Orange Livebox w/o any hassle on Ubuntu using Wi-Fi. All i had to do is to enter the WEP key and it connected. I get 100% connection in my room with the doors closed. I downloaded @ nearly 300KB/s there. Such speeds are available only on youtube or adobe etc (i.e. on local servers). Else, my downloads are @ 110-120KB/s

When i installed Windows 7, it didn’t detect my wireless devices. I had to download a 80 MB driver so as for it to work. On Ubuntu 11.04, i was able to connect even at the time of installation. Ubuntu FTW!!!!

Input Devices:

  • UK keyboard with multimedia shortcuts

The keyboard is slightly different from the ones i’ve been using since my childhood. It’s still a qwerty keyboard but the places of other symbols have been changed. e.g. the ‘@’ symbol is not in the key 2. The multi-media keys are really crucial nowadays. If you want to use the function keys(F1-F12), you have to press the Fn key.

  • Multi-Touch Pad

When i first installed Ubuntu 10.10. The multi-touch feature was not working. On Windows 7, i had to download a 80 MB driver for it to work. It didn’t work too well though. However, on Ubuntu 11.04, this feature was already available by default. Now, i can pinch to zoom or scroll with 2 fingers. It is really nice to use. 🙂

  • 1.3 MP Webcam, 640 x 480 video @ 30 fps

I now end this blog post. I will post more later. Stay tuned!