Dropbox Beta. In case you are wondering what Dropbox is;

Dropbox is a desktop application (for Windows and Mac OS X) and storage service that just works. It’s the easiest way to share and store files online and keep files in sync across your computers.

Here is a video demo which explains everything about Dropbox. It’s still in beta stage and invitation only. Beta users get 2GB free space. Setup is pretty simple. Create an account, download the client software and you are ready to go. Just drag and drop the files in your Dropbox folder you want to sync. Soon they will release Linux version too along with bunch of new features.

Since it is in early beta stage, expect some glitches such as uploading speed. Also you cannot select custom Dropbox location which is a major shortcoming. Overall, I’m pretty impressed with the concept and how its taking shape. I can see it is going to be a huge success provided basic service remains free.

Oh one more thing, I get to invite 10 more people for beta testing. So, if you want to try it out, just let me know.

Anyway, I was looking for some good themes for Foobar2000. After some googling, I did find some but none of them managed to give me expected result without crashing Foobar. Finally I found one at Deviantart which is pretty cool and easy to install. Here is how it looks:

The theme is called fooAvA by dawxxx666. Get it from here. You will get installation instructions over there and it’s pretty easy to install. The theme has plenty of features and settings to play with. If you are a Foobar user; I’m sure you will love it.

• System config (Laptop) : Intel Core solo 1.8 GHz, 1GB DDR2 RAM, Intel 945GM.
• Hackintosh: Leopard 10.5.2 iAtkos.
• Windows: XP Pro SP3 with all the drivers installed.
• Arch Linux: Kernel 2.6.25 Arch with Gnome 2.22.3

And here are the numbers:

Screenshots: at Flickr

Final thoughts

Memory uses of Arch is pretty impressive even with Compiz but the CPU uses is really odd. In idle mode it is using 10% and with compiz enabled, CPU uses jumped to 21%! This is not Arch specific. All the Linux distros I tried had similar CPU use pattern. Fresh installed XP is breezing fast but start up and shutdown time is pretty high. It can be attributed to the fact that it loads couple of extra services that came along with drivers such as bluetooth, synaptic touch pad, wireless, and Intel graphics. I should have disabled them before testing. Hackintosh’s performance can not be compared with an Apple Mac but still it turned out to be fastest in terms of start up and shutdown time. I can’t say anything about memory uses. Initially it was using 290MB RAM but as soon as I pressed screenshot shortcut buttons memory use jumped to 340MB. Only if I had a real Mac to test actual performance.

And btw, this post has been made from Arch.

Finally I’ve installed Leopard on my crappy Compaq laptop. Yep, a hackintosh. Now, I know its illegal to use OS X on a non Apple computer but I wanted to try it out. Apple can consider it as trial version. Because I have a MacBook Pro (MBP) on top of my wishlist.. :p

My laptop is pretty old and configuration is not that great: Intel core solo 1.8GHz, 945GM, and 1GB RAM. Initially I thought Leopard won’t run on this config, but I thought of taking a chance. Previously I tried Tiger on this same laptop which worked as expected. So far Leopard is running great. It takes about 15 seconds to boot up and 5 seconds to shut down.. :O Speed is amazing. It takes less than 500MB RAM with all those eye candies and runs pretty smooth and very responsive. Applications open up in within a second. It is hard to believe considering the fact that its a non Apple computer. I have Arch Linux installed which takes about 300 MB RAM with default Gnome installation without any eye candy and windows XP which takes about 500MB RAM with many startup programs. Overall I’m very impressed with speed, simplicity and of course look!

Now the bad news. As usual, Intel 3945ABG wireless card is the culprit; my wireless is not working. Not a problem. I’m ordering a USB wireless card which is mac compatible. And headphone jack is not working. So I have to stick to boring laptop speakers till I get a USB sound card (not anytime soon).

I’m planning to transfer all my works from Windows to Leopard once I get that wireless card. Let me try out leopard for sometime. Specialy I want to see how web development goes on Mac. If I like it then a MBP is locked on my wishlist.

Even since I started learning PHP, AJAX etc., I wanted to develop some kinda Web 2.0 application: something like social-networking site (not traditional social-networking site). Now that I’m learning CodeIgniter (and enjoying every bit of it); that wish (or ‘dream’!) of mine has been ignited once again by CodeIgniter. It’s really hard to explain how much fun it is to build applications using CodeIgniter. You just have to try it once.

Anyway, coming back to my wish. You must be wondering why don’t I just build once if that’s what I want? Well, that’s the problem. What shall I build? Honestly, when comes to generating ideas, my right brain is so dead! I never managed to come up with any kind of creative ideas. I suck at creative thinking .

Whenever I think about building some kinda web application; only thing that comes to my mind is ‘blog’ or ‘CMS’ (can you believe that!). I seriously need some help. So, if you have some ideas please let me know. We can work on it together. Who knows; it might turn into the next big thing on Internet! What say you?