SearcH MY Website

Google

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Translation from English to English is not supported --- Google Free Proxy Server via Language Translation Is Gone Forever

google language proxy server

When you translate a website from one language to another using Google Translate, the URL is something like google.com/translate?langpair=en|ar where en|ko is the language pair indicated the site will be converted from English to Arabic.

Now if you make both the languages in the pair same (i.e., en|en for English to English), the translation is effectively skipped but the requested web content is still served from Google servers. Thus, lot of people use Google Translate as a proxy server to access blocked websites.

However, the honeymoon is almost over because Google has stopped accepting website translation requests that have the same language on both sides of the pair (en|en, it|it, etc). Google uses their own language translation software and they have probably done this to prevent misuse of their translation service.

The only consoling part is that this "free proxy" trick still works perfect with other translation tools like Yahoo! and AltaVista Babelfish that are powered by Systran. See example.

ORKUT took Rest atleast for some time.... Read it completely

Half an hour back I opened the orkut but it is displying the following messeage.

Oops! You caught us in the midst of temporary site maintenance. Please check back shortly. Sorry for the inconvenience.

I thing orkut site is now under maintence. Nowadays everybody is busy by doing orkut scrapes. we can say people especially freshers who completed the graduation are getting orkut fever.

Now I can say onething atleast few hours orkut may sleep sometime. and these people also get some busy with their work istead of doing scrap things.

Actual reason for this is

Orkut was down for maintenance: Orkut development team has taken orkut.com offline as we implement some improvements and upgrades suggested by users. Since orkut is in the very early stages of development, it's likely to be up and down quite a bit during the coming months. ...

orkut1

orkut2

Some introduction to orkut for beginers who wants to get this fever

orkut is an online community that connects people through a network of trusted friends. We are committed to providing an online meeting place where people can socialize, make new acquaintances and find others who share their interests. Join orkut to expand the circumference of your social circle.

Monday, January 28, 2008

Firefox Extensions Used Extremely

Download FirefoxAfter playing around with dozens of Firefox extensions in the last few years, here I share ten extremely useful extensions that will definitely improve your browsing experience:

1. Aardvark - If you regularly print web pages, this is a must-have Firefox add-on. With a simple shortcut key, Aardvark lets you remove elements from a web page that you don’t want in the print version. This could include advertising banners, HTML tables, graphics, etc.

To use Aardvark in Firefox, hover your mouse cursor over areas of the web page that you don’t want to print and press E (erase). That’s it. See "Reduce Printing Costs"

2. blogrovr BlogRovR - As you browse the web, this extension will quickly show you what your favorite bloggers have said about the web page that is currently open in your browser.

You just have to pass a list of your favorite blogs to BlogRovR and it will automatically fetch articles/commentary that link to whatever web page you’re viewing.

3. Morning Coffee - With Firefox, it is possible to set multiple homepages (separated by | ‘pipe’) so all your favorite sites will open in different tabs each time you launch Firefox.

But imagine a scenario where you want a different set of website to launch depending on the day. For instance, one of your favorite website may not be updated on weekends while another one (like PostSecret) posts new content only on Sunday. With Morning Coffee, you can organize websites by day and open them up simultaneously in tabs.

4. LinkAlert - - When you click an hyperlink on a web page, you normally expect it to point to another web page but that may not be the case always as links can point to PDFs, Office Documents, MP3 files, zips, email addresses, etc.

You know the frustration when you click a PDF and it starts to load Adobe Reader causing your browser to freeze for some time. Or you click an email address accidentally and Outlook opens up. With LinkAlert, such accidents may become a thing of the past as it appends a small visual icon next to links on web pages that are not HTML documents.

5. HyperWords - When you select any word or phrase on a web page, HyperWords lets you explore the web without leaving the current web page.

For instance, you view pictures on Flickr related to that selected word, read the Wikipedia entry (if there’s one), convert currency, translate text, view dictionary meanings and so much more right from the Firefox menu without having to click anything. Read "HyperWords Review"

6. IE Tab - Firefox is popular but we routinely encounter so many websites are designed for Internet Explorer only. A good example is the Microsoft Windows Update update.

IE Tab brings the Internet Explorer rendering engine inside Firefox so you don’t have to leave Firefox in order to view those IE only websites.

7. Scrapbook - This is like OneNote for Firefox as you can save clippings, images or even entire web pages to the local disk with a simple right click or a drag-n-drop. Scrapbook lets you search through the clippings and it also saves the original links incase you need to cite or revisit the original source.

read-wall-street

8. FireBug - While this is primarily for web designers and developers, what I like about Firebug is inline image editing that lets you modify web pages while it is still loaded in the browser.

That means you can modify the HTML or even Javascript of the web page while maintaining all the links and CSS layouts. And with Firebug installed, you can also read Wall Street Journal online for free.

9. CustomizeGoogle - Google is the best search engine out there but it is not the only one. With CustomizeGoogle, you get to repeat the same search on other popular search engines from the Google website itself. I use this all the time.

firefox photo viewer 10. PicLens - If you spend time on Flickr, Picasa or Facebook photo albums, PicLens will completely change the way your browse pictures on the web.

It adds a small icon near the pictures, you click it and the browser transforms into a full screen slideshow viewer. PicLens Also works with image search engines of Google, Yahoo!, etc.

Read about other Firefox Extensions that we have reviewed in the past.

Free of cost Information on Ur Mobiles.....Take a look

It promises to bring the world at your finger-tips. iMobizo, a mobile value-added service application, offers customised information on any of your GPRS-enabled mobile handset (and it need not be a Blackberry), ranging from applications like cricket, movies, astrology and lifestyle.

A co-branded initiative of Indiatimes and US-based software company Mobio, the new platform would enable users to get information of their choice right on their mobile phones — free of cost. Ramneek Bhasin, founder and chief executive officer of Mobio, said the platform is designed to mobilise web services and not websites.

"We take a platform-based approach, that allows us to create mobile content and applications that are incredibly powerful but also less filling on the mobile phone," he said, adding that users of the service would also get to view a web version of the Times of India newspaper on their mobile phones.

Dinesh Wadhwan, MD and CEO of Times Internet Ltd (TIL), said special care has been taken to tune the information for web-based applications. The market for value-added services was on the rise in India, he said, pointing out that it provided a new opportunity for such applications as people wanted immediate access to information. "We would provide up-to-date information to our users and it would be real-time, considering that it would be updated every five minutes," he said.

The application would also have its own set of advertisements, some of which would also be useful for the users like providing access to top-up cards for pre-paid mobile users. "However, we would ensure that the mobile screens are not cluttered," Dinesh Wadhwan said.

Of the 40 million GPRS-capable handsets in India, it is estimated that only about 3 million use it to browse the internet. "This number is going to go up substantially in the coming time," Wadhwan added.

Bhasin said in countries like India, where broadband penetration was very low, the mobile phone was gradually becoming the preferred mode for getting access to information. "The mobile phone has become the de-facto device for getting information from the web," he said, emphasising that iMobizo would provide "only the tastiest bits of the web and deliver personalised mobile applications that consumers can use in three clicks or less with minimal to no data entry."

He said the application were as easy to download as a game or a ringtone. "You can have the application on your GPRS phone by sending TOI to 58888 or Enjoy to 58888," he said, adding that the applications run on GPRS on the GSM networks of Airtel, Vodafone, BSNL, IDEA Cellular, MTNL Mumbai, MTNL Delhi, BPL Mobile and Spice Karnataka.

Scan, copy and fax with your camera phone or digital camera using ScanR

Finding scanner won’t be ever a problem again? ScanR is a service that helps you easily capture information from paper documents or whiteboards and quickly digitalize it.

How does it work?

  • Step 1: Use your mobile phone or digital camera to photograph documents, whiteboards and even business cards.
  • Step 2: Send all images to scanR (send to doc@scanR.com for documents and to wb@scanR.com for whiteboards)
  • Step 3: scanr will send you back nicely formatted PDF versions of documents.
  • If it’s you first time with Scanr you will need to register for an account. Registration process is rather simple and requires not more then 2 minutes. All you need to do is to provide your email and verify it by entering activation code. Afterwards you can start using service by emailing it whatever images you want to get converted to PDF. You can also use your moblie phone to send images and get back PDF versions.

    Ooh, I almost forgot to mention that Scanr works on your image to make it look muuuuch better. That’s to say, not only it will convert your file but also make them look better. Check out snapshots below, showing scanr in action

    Important thing to remember is that the camera you plan to use should have at least 1 mega pixel lens.

    Some more things you can do with Scanr

    • Get properly formatted PDF versions for captured files
    • Save all documents, whiteboards and even business cards in your account
    • Easily search through documents, whiteboards and business cards
    • Download data to your computer if needed
    • Transfer data from the business cards (that you have created from taking snapshots of paper business cards) to preferred contact management application (i.e., Jigsaw, Plaxo, Salesforce.com)

    I was impressed by the performance of this service. It actually does what it shows and much more. It is not completely free to use but whatever comes with basic service is more then an enough for an amateur Joe. Anyways, with basic service you get following:

    • Option to scan business cards and convert them into searchable PDF files
    • Convert photos of whiteboards or documents into legible PDF files for use in the future

    Scanr promises more features, but my guess it will be mainly available for premium members. There you go, here we had another web based service that offers free features and does not require any installation. Try it out and add it to your bookmarks, I am sure one day you will need it.

    Friday, January 25, 2008

    World's Youngest CEO..... at the age of 20






    Mr. Suhas Gopinath, now aged 20, a resident of Bangalore had a passion for information. A passion so energetic, that it drove Suhas to setup a multi national company christened Globals Incorporated. He hails from a middle class family, where his father Mr. M R Gopinath was a defence scientist.



    At the age of 14 he was recognized as the world's youngest web-developer through his project coolhindustan.com. A fortune 500 company, being amazed at the talent, offered him a job which included a $2000 paycheck per week, a chauffer driven car and an executive apartment.

    All this did not lure Mr. Gopinath as he was mentally strong of what he wanted in his life. To encourage the youth, he setup Globals Inc, in the year 2000 at San Jose, California as the laws in India did not allow him to setup a company in the country as he was still minor.

    From then Globals Inc has drastically grown as a Multinational company with offices in more than 11 countries which includes USA, UK, Germany, Russia, Italy, Spain, Australia, India, Bangladesh, etc which

    offers tailor made solutions in the fields of web, mobile, networking, e-commerce and software solutions. Mr. Suhas Gopinath at the age of 16 was recognized as the world's youngest entrepreneur in by CNBC and e-Business, Canada.

    With this at the age of 17 he was recognized as the "World's Youngest CEO" by leading Medias across the globe including BBC, CBS News, Washington Times, IndianExpress, Streats-Singapore, Times of India, NDTV, The Age – Australia, etc.

    Though his age sounds exciting for a humungous title like CEO, it was also against him. In the year 2003, a Singapore based company approached Globals Inc to outsource their projects worth $38,000. The law stated that an executive signatory must be above 18. This cost him the deal. Nevertheless, he steered Globals Inc further, with sheer determination. His team has grown from a mere 4 members to a staggering 600.

    Under his leadership the team has served more than 400 clients including fortune 500 companies. At the 2005 International Business Awards held at New York, he was awarded as the "Best International Business Executive". He was also awarded Karnataka State's "Rajyotsava" Award on November 1, 2005 and was the youngest in the state's history to bag this prestigious award.

    Suhas' foremost motive was to establish a platform for youth which encourages them in their chosen IT career and also to build their entrepreneurial skills. Currently, Suhas is perusing his bachelor's degree in Information Science Engineering at M.S.Ramaiah Institute of Technology, Bangalore.

    Suhas Gopinath is also designated as the Indian Representative for UN Youth Federation and Action Program, and Coordinator for Indo-Pak Youth programs. Suhas Gopinath is currently the visiting faculty at IIM Ahmedabad for Start-Up Finance and Entrepreneurship, and is also the Brand ambassador at PETA along with other Hollywood and bollywood celebrities.

    Globals Inc is a multi national company founded in the year 2000 by Mr. Suhas Gopinath at the age of 14 years at California, USA. Globals offers cost effective world class quality solutions in web, software, mobile and multimedia. Globals has established offices in more than 11 countries. Till date Globals has served more than 200 clients worldwide.

    Just spare few minutes in visiting their website and know what a dynasty the young guy has created. He could be a real inspiration for a lot of us.

    Click the Following Links to Know more about Suhas.....

    Globals Inc. Website
    About Suhas Gopinath - Wikipedia
    Indian teen at gates of success - BBC News

    Wants to know who reads your E-mail message or who doesn't -- Get A Read Receipt When Friends Open Your Email Message

    gmail read receipt If you are using Microsoft Outlook with Exchange Server, you can easily request read receipts and get notified when your email is opened by the recipient(s).

    As such a tracking feature in not available in web email like Gmail, Yahoo! Mail or the new Windows Live Hotmail, here’s an extremely effective and free solution that works with every email program.

    The service is called SpyPig and it will instantly send you a notification when your email is read by the recipient. The read receipt will also have other details like the IP address of the recipient and the exactly number of times he or she read your email.

    Using SpyPig is simple - type your email address (where you wish to receive the notification) and they’ll give you a small tracking graphic that you have to embed in your outgoing Gmail message via a simple drag-n-drop (just like the Gmail Smileys). That’s it.

    Now if you are worried about sharing your email address , read our previous email read receipt hack that shows you how to construct your own SpyPig kind of solution using Google Analytics or Statcounter.

    The SpyPig trick however works only with Rich Text or HTML email, not plain text.

    Thursday, January 24, 2008

    Boss is watching yourGoogle Queries.... Prevent Boss From Snooping On Your Google Search Queries

    employee boss snooping google There are chances that someone is secretly spying on your Google search tracks for various reasons. For example, the employer may monitor your Google search habits to know if you are looking for jobs elsewhere while the local ISP may be collecting your Google queries with the purpose of selling that data to large analytics companies.

    You cannot prevent these people from watching you because Google appends the search queries to the URL without encryption. So when you type "Jobs New York" in the Google search box, it returns a search page with the URL google.com/search?q=jobs+new+york and that makes data collection fairly simple.

    There’s however a workaround - just use Google with a mask that comes indirectly from Google itself.

    The following 10 websites are all hosted on the same server as Google.com and they are exact replicas of the main Google website - you cannot find a single difference unless you look at your browser address bar.

    And the URL names of these websites ("ABN Amro Bank Group", "I Love Your Robin", "United American Fund", etc) sound fairly ambiguous so your boss (or local ISP) will never feel that they you are doing a search on Google.com.

    1. www.americanlandmarkfence.com
    2. www.unitedamericanfund.com
    3. www.earningspace.com
    4. www.jeanoffer.com
    5. www.factualearn.com
    6. www.abnamrobankgroup.net
    7. www.glisteningwhitesmile.com
    8. www.iloveyourobin.com
    9. www.nuzrinmira.com
    10. msm.byu.edu

    They also let you search all Google sites like Google Images, Finances, News, Google Groups, etc.

    Make any one of these sites as the default search provider in your web browser and toolbars and your Google searches will be secure again from voyeurs.

    Related: Google also records your search queries for genuine reasons but if you are not convinced, here’s how to prevent Google from recording search habits

    When Some Specific Websites Do Not Open On Your Computer

    website unreachableYour computer is connected to the Internet and you can reach most websites just fine but there’s a problem when you try to open some particular website(s).

    Though that website is unreachable from your computer, it is definitely not down because you are able to access the same website from another computer at home.

    Facing a similar problem ? Here’s how to diagnose and fix the issue:

    Fix 1: Check your Windows HOSTS file - Make sure there’s no entry in the hosts file that maps the website’s address to localhost or an incorrect IP address like 127.0.0.1 - it is a possibility if you have imported some third-party hosts file.

    cmd /k notepad c:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts



    Fix 2: Find Faults in the Pipeline - Paypal website may be up and running but it is possible that the real problem lies with a router that is between you and the computer hosting the Paypal website. Do a traceroute and check for messages like “Request Timed Out” - they will help you find the location of the breakdown.

    Type the following command in the Run Window:

    cmd /k tracert www.paypal.com - remember to replace Paypal with address of the website that is unreachable.

    Fix 3: Clear DNS Cache - The DNS cache keeps a record of sites that you have recently visited on your computer. If that gets corrupted, you may have issues opening sites that were previously accessible without problems.

    Type cmd /k ipconfig /displaydns in the Run window to see the cache entries. If that unreachable website is listed in the cache, type cmd /k ipconfig /flushdns to clear the cache.

    Fix 4: Website May Be Blocked - The chances are rare but it is possible that access to some particular website may be have been restricted by the Office firewall. To test this, send an email to www@web2mail.com with the problematic website URL in the subject field. If the website is up, you will get a text copy of the web page in an email message.

    Fix 5: Suspend the Anti-Virus and Firewall - If you are running an external software firewall or anti-virus program (like Norton, ZoneAlarm, etc), exit and restart the web browser. Is the problem solved now ?

    When nothing works, open 192.168.1.1 and reboot the modem. If that fails, restart your computer and as a final step, call your ISP support.

    Jan 23rd Is the Most Depressing Day of the Year, Google Says No

    feeling-depressed Are you depressed or unhappy today ?

    Maybe you are feeling just fine but Cardiff researchers say that the third Monday of January is the unhappiest or most depressing day of the entire year because of factors like bad weather, unpaid Christmas holiday bills and failed New Year resolutions.

    Kate Redway said: ‘Sadly, one in five people in the UK experience depression and this time of year can be particularly difficult, with people in debt after Christmas and finding it hard to settle back into a work routine during dark days.’

    However Bill Tancer of Hitwise is not convinced and he intelligently uses search traffic to prove his point. According to Bill, if the world is really feeling depressed and low, they will probably Google the causes and treatment of depression. And that’s not happening.

    There are absolutely no spikes for searches related to “depression” and non of the anti-depressant websites have seen any remarkable jump in web traffic.

    On the contrary, traffic to sites was highest in November around Thanksgiving which is the start of the holiday season. So people start to feel the blues before the launch of holidays and not afterwards.

    It’s an interesting case because search traffic is being used to challenge an “emotional” theory which is otherwise so tough to prove. I’m feeling lucky.

    antidepressants

    Stop Wasting Time Checking All Your Social Profiles, Get 8hands

    twitter-flickr-youtube-manager

    If you maintain accounts on multiple social sites (say Flickr, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, MySpace), consider using 8hands - a small Windows software that monitors your social circle and will bring some peace to your otherwise chaotic online life.

    With 8hands, you’ll instantly know (via desktop alerts) when friends upload new pictures on Flickr, or there’s a new comment on your Flickr photos, or when you have private messages on Facebook or new tweets on Twitter - no need to manually check profiles on all the different websites.

    Now Flock too offers similar features but 8hands, a standalone app, has two main advantages:

    1. 8hands will automatically guess your top friends with whom you communicate most frequently across all social networks - so it becomes all the more simple to reach them again.

    2. 8hands maintains a complete history or log of all your friend’s activity. Very useful when you are looking for Facebook messages, Flickr photos and Twitter tweets ever published by a close friend.

    8hands is in alpha but worth giving a try. It’s been running in my system tray for a few hours now and am loving the notifications.

    The Best Twitter Client for Windows Desktop

    best twitter client

    Snitter, Spaz and Twhirl are pretty good desktop clients for Twitter - all of them use the Adobe AIR platform and can therefore run on Mac and Windows.

    twitter-replies They are all very similar in features but if I were to pick one of the three, I would probably go with Twhirl - it sports the most elegant interface of them all and you can add multiple Twitter accounts.

    Hover the mouse over the avatars of your Twitter friends and you get access to various options like direct messages, replies, etc.

    And Twhirl is probably the only Twitter client that lets me change the font of tweets. Thanks Tamar.

    Ignore All Facebook Apps Requests in One Click

    facebook-applications One of the major complaints about Facebook is the Application Request Queue that keeps getting longer and longer unless your religiously hit the "Ignore" button each time there’s a request from a friend to add a new Facebook application.

    At the time of writing, there were some 570 invitations in my Facebook Inbox for various Facebook Applications and clearing this queue would have taken days as I would press the Ignore button exactly 570 times.

    Fortunately, there’s a very elegant solution available now in the form of a bookmarklet for IE and Firefox that will completely erase all Facebook application requests in one click.

    Go to www.ignoreall.com, bookmark the bookmarklet and click on it on your Facebook request page. It works like magic.

    This simple Javascript removes only the Facebook Apps requests - if you have any pending friend requests or group invitations, they’ll stay unaffected.

    Create Your Own Passport Size Photos At Home

    Create Your Own Passport Size Photos At Home

    print passport size photo If you have a photo printer at home, you can easily convert any of your digital picture into a valid passport size photograph using ePassportPhoto.

    The dimensions of a legal passport photograph often vary according to the country and this tool takes care of the size requirement very easily.

    You pick a country and then select whether you need the photo for a visa, passport or applying for a citizenship. Then upload the digital photo, crop and you immediately get a printable strip of 6-8 photographs for free.

    Even you have no plans to print photos at home, bookmark this for reference because your local photo booth will have no idea about photo dimensions of other countries.

    www.epassportphoto.com - Online Passport Photo Printing Booth

    Thursday, January 17, 2008

    Make Free Conference Calls in India

    conference-call-india The next venture of Hotmail co-founder Sabeer Bhatia is SabeseBolo - an Audio Conferencing service that lets you make conference calls through regular landline or mobile phones within India.

    The service is completely free and all you need is an email address to get a unique conference number and pin. All the participants will then dial that number to set up a conference call.

    You can have at most 10 people per teleconference session. There’s probably no direct way to record conference calls though you can refer to previous hacks.

    Sounds simple and there’re no fees for using the conference service but the meeting participants may have to pay national calling charges (if some of them are outside Mumbai) because they are not dialing a toll-free number.

    SabseBolo.com - *SabseBolo means “Talk to Everyone”

    How to Create a Time-Lapse Video of any Web Page

    Remember the time-lapse movie that helped you visualize the movement of tech stories on Techmeme? It did attract lot of eye-balls and as promised, here’s the secret recipe on how to make such a time lapse video with (almost) free software.

    The process is simple and has two main parts - 1) Capturing screenshots and 2) Stitching all these images together so they appear as an animated movie or a flipbook.

    Time Lapse Video Tutorial

    Techmeme saves a snapshot of its homepage every 5 minutes and each snapshot has a unique URL with the timestamp. For instance, the snapshot of Techmeme at 1:50 PM ET, January 15, 2008 is available at www.techmeme.com/080115/h1350.

    To capture those hundreds of screenshots, I created a simple macro (snippet below) using AutoHotKey that would automatically generate URLs, type them in the web browser, press the print screen key and then save the screenshot as an image - this ran in a loop 600 times capturing 50 hours of changes.

    techmeme=http://www.techmeme.com/08010
    url=%techmeme%%Date%/h%Hours%%Minutes% <- Create URL
    Send, {CTRLDOWN}l{CTRLUP} <- Reach the Browser Address Bar
    Send, %url% {ENTER} <- Paste the URL and Hit Enter
    Sleep, 5000 <- Wait 5 seconds for the web page to load
    Send, {PRINTSCREEN} <- Capture a screenshot

    You may be wondering how the Print Screen key will save the screenshot to an image file when all it does is capture the current screen content to the clipboard ? That’s possible through SnagIt (available for a 30-day trial at techsmith.com) - You just mark the region that you wish to capture and SnagIt will do everything else.

    Once you have all the screenshots, import all of them as a sequence inside Windows Movie Maker, Adobe Premiere Pro, Camtasia, QuickTime Pro or any other video editor - just bring down the image transition time to 0.1 second (or less) and export the animation as a GIF or any video format. The results are always pretty amazing.

    You can extend the trick to make time lapse movies of Google Maps, your road trips, construction sites, etc.

    Related: How to Make a Stop Motion Animation Movie

    Will Apple Now Force Wired Magazine To Close Shop ?

    steve jobs with macbook air

    Yesterday Steve Jobs unveiled Macbook Air - definitely the world’s thinnest laptop computer.

    The announcement did generate lot of excitement but all this was old news for Wired readers because they had seen the “Macbook Air” exactly a day before the crowd at Macworld.

    Wired said - “Steve Jobs is widely expected to reveal a new MacBook at Macworld on Tuesday morning, and with the rumored name being MacBook Air .. a super-thin, lightweight laptop that ships without an optical CD/DVD drive.”

    So they almost got it right. But compare this case with Think Secret, a site that was recently shut down by Apple for publishing rumors about Mac Mini that Steve was supposed to announce at the upcoming Macworld Expo.

    Wired did something similar and their rumors proved even more accurate. So would Apple adopt a similar stance here and ask Wired to reveal the name of that “insider source” or shut them down. Thoughts ?

    Tuesday, January 15, 2008

    What works in the workplace ?


    A new survey conducted by consulting firm Mercer has shown that Asian employees, especially those in India and China, regard respect from their employers so highly that even pay does not motivate them as much.

    This is a most interesting finding, if true. It means that companies probably do not have to spend all that time and money on trying to woo their employees through mere incentives, if they are otherwise missing the point and losing the confidence of their employees.
    But is this feeling actually universal in Asia, and even in India? Can we claim to be absolutely free of the lure of lucre? True, a boss's respect would mean the world. But does this mean that money does not play a part at all? What if one got kudos all around from his immediate boss all the way up, but when the pay packet or incentive comes around, it seems like all that 'hard work' went in vain? That popular television ad for a job site comes to mind. The feeling could well be like a mighty deflation in the chest.

    So how much then does money play a role in modern India? Does the finding of the survey mean that money may be important but just not as much as respect from an employer? Or is the study all wrong in the first place?

    Phone to follow your spouse

    London, January 14 : Want to know where your spouse is at all times? Well, if you're living in Hong Kong then you can solve this problem by signing up for a service called 'Follow Me, Follow You'.

    The only hitch is that your partner will have to agree to be part of the service too.

    According to the South China Morning Post, the service, which comes for 3.5 dollars a month, helps subscribers keep a check on their spouse by identifying the location of their mobile phone signal.

    And, Hutchinson Telecom, the company behind the service insists that of the tens of thousands who signed up for it, not all are suspicious husbands and wives.

    Apple's Jobs unveils wireless backup device

    San Francisco, January 15: Apple Inc chief Steve Jobs unveiled Tuesday a wireless backup device for Macintosh computers called 'Time Capsule', with models costing $299 and $499.

    Jobs unveiled the product at the annual Macworld convention in San Francisco, where he showed off the highly anticipated iPhone for the first time last year.

    Reliance Power IPO raises $3 bn in a minute

    Mumbai, January 15: Billionaire Anil Ambani's Reliance Power raised $3 billion within a minute Tuesday when India's biggest initial public offering was fully subscribed as investors flock to new issues in the booming economy.

    The issue was covered 10.5 times at the end of the first day of the issue, which closes Friday, National Stock Exchange data showed, and the strong demand means the 10.1 per cent stake in Reliance Power should be sold at Rs.450 ($11.5) per share, the top end of the IPO's price band.

    The founders have bought 32 million shares at Rs.450, while 228 million shares have been offered to the public, with a stock market debut pencilled in for early February.

    "We haven't seen such oversubscription for a long time. There are expectations of big listing gains. That's why there is a frenzy," said Mehul Mukati, an analyst at Emkay Research.

    Reliance Power plans to build power plants across India using funds raised by selling the stake in the firm, which is 50 per cent owned by utility Reliance Energy Ltd.

    Reliance Energy shares closed 4.4 per cent lower, lagging a Mumbai market that fell 2.3 per cent. Shares in the firm, a component of the benchmark index, are still up 10.8 per cent in January after more than quadrupling in value last year.

    Amid the market frenzy for the IPO, some analysts cautioned it was hard to value Reliance Power, which currently does not have any power plants, faces risks of land disputes and is not likely to report strong profits for four to five years.

    "We are unable to accord any definite valuation to the company since it has no operational power assets," Emkay Research said in a note to its clients, recommending them to subscribe to the issue and then book listing gains.

    Brokers and analysts say the demand for the stock means it could list at nearly double the offer price, which would value Reliance Power at more than NTPC Ltd., which has 28,000 megawatts of operating plants and another 50,000 megawatts planned in the next 10 years.

    Ambani Name

    Reliance Power has been helped by investors' faith in the family name as a result of the group of companies set up by Ambani's father, tycoon Dhirubhai Ambani.

    Founded in 1958 to trade in synthetic yarn, the group expanded to include interests ranging from petrochemicals and refining to exploration and production of oil and gas, textiles, financial services, power, biotechnology and telecommunications

    It was split in 2005 between Anil Ambani, who has interests in telecoms, financials, media and power sectors, and his elder brother Mukesh, who controls India's top listed firm, oil and petrochemicals giant Reliance Industries.

    The Reliance Power issue is being managed by Kotak Mahindra Capital Co., UBS ABN AMRO, Deutsche Equities, India Private Limited, Enam Securities, ICICI Securities, JM Financial and JPMorgan.

    The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark index rose 47.1 per cent in 2007. It rose nearly 73 per cent in 2003, 13 per cent in 2004, 42 per cent in 2005 and 46.7 per cent in 2006.

    In comparison, South Korea's Composite Stock Price Index gained 32 per cent in 2007, China's Shanghai Composite Index soared 97 per cent and Japan's Nikkei fell 11 per cent.

    Download YouTube Videos Directly to Your iPod via iTunes & Tooble

    youtube videos ipodTooble is a free software that lets you watch YouTube videos on your iPod. Such a thing has always been possible but Tooble makes the whole process extremely simple even for novice users.

    Tooble will automatically download your favorite videos from YouTube and converts them to MP4 format.

    The converted YouTube videos are then imported into iTunes library so the next time you plug-in the iPod, the YouTube videos are automatically transferred from the computer to the iPod.

    And not just the iPod, you can also consider using Tooble for watching YouTube videos on your computer using any media player that supports MP4 (like VLC, QuickTime).

    Tooble is currently available only for Mac but a Windows version is coming

    Sunday, January 13, 2008

    Tata New Car Rs 1-lakh car 'Nano' .....ItZ a HiT


    Tata Motors, the country's largest automobile manufacturer on Thursday launched the eagerly awaited Rs one lakh car and christened it Tata Nano. The Rs one lakh car is touted as the world's cheapest mass-produced car from the stables of Tata Motors, the automotive arm of the over Rs three-trillion market value group. Rival car makers have, however, not been convinced about the safety and emission standards of the car, coming as it is at that price level.

    The launch marks the realisation of a dream for Tata Sons Chairman Ratan Tata, who is looking forward to silencing critics of the project. The car is expected to fill the big gap between the cost of the average two-wheeler and entry-level cars such as the Maruti 800, which retails for about $5,000.

    Dubbed till now as the 'people's car', Tata's faced numerous problems like a rising input cost, environmental concerns and stiff political opposition for setting up its manufacturing plant at Singur in West Bengal.











    Experts, man on street give Nano 10 on 10

    New Delhi: Nobody wanted to buy Ratan Tata's concept of a Rs 1-lakh-worth People's Car when he first talked of it. Some five years later, when Tata Motors finally unveiled the 'Nano', Tata's friends and foes are lapping up this tiny four-wheeler like their own.


    The critics initially derided the concept mainly on the basis of the price target, more so as oil and steel prices rocketed. But Ratan Tata still kept his promise and delivered the Nano almost at his target price, forcing global car makers to take note. In fact, many top atomobile giants are now scurrying for their own versions to meet growing environmental and cost concerns.


    The 'People's Car', which got critics and well-wishers all awestruck at Pragati Maidan on Thursday morning, is now not only being talked about as the 'future car'. Expert say it will also determine India's place in the global automotive arena and possibly give a leap to India's dream of becoming a global hub of small cars. The car, feel experts, is more than value for money with its 20 kmpl average and the smart price. Here are the first reactions of some of the most prominent industry experts as they told to CNN-IBN and various news agencies.

    'Nano's launch is a proud moment for the country'

    India must protect the interests of its auto industry from the impact of free trade pacts with other countries that allow imports at zero or reduced tariff, Heavy Industry Minister Sontosh Mohan Dev said on Thursday. "We have to see that a lot of free trade agreements that are being signed by India should not stand in the growth path of our automobile industry, as it is only 15-year-old," Dev told the inaugural event of Auto Expo 2008 here.

    "If we do not do it, we will end up becoming net importers," the minister told the eight-day event, that was opened by his cabinet colleague and Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath, which oversees the free trade pacts. "We also have to be globally competitive. If we were to be globally competitive, we need to achieve economies of scale. I want the industry to bear in mind this aspect so that when investment is made global competitiveness is first priority," he said.

    "We are certainly much more economic in terms of infrastructure costs compared to Europe and North America, but we need to be more competitive with regard to the emerging economies by achieving higher productivity." The government, he said, has the stated objective of making the Indian auto sector a $145-billion industry by 2016 that will also see the creation of 25 million additional jobs. Kamal Nath assured those present at the occasion that the United Progressive Alliance government was, indeed, cautious in protecting the interests of its industry whenever required.

    Blog's Eye View





    Presentation to Digitas employees regarding my blog (Logic + Emotio) and the Social Media Newtwork as seen from my perspective.




    Money Making Through Blogging





    A 40min cradle-to-grave presentation on how to pick a topic for a blog, fill it with good content, and monetize it.




    Thursday, January 10, 2008

    Make Your Firefox Run Faster than before

    getfirefoxEarlier we suggested improving the speed of Firefox by using a brand new profile. The trick is effective because it creates an almost virgin copy of Firefox sans any problematic add-ons or user settings that were probably causing Firefox to slow down.

    James Meyer has written an alternate trick where you can make Firefox run faster even without losing any of the cookies, bookmarks or extensions.

    He says: In my experience, what slows down Firefox is usually some preference for some installed add-on.

    To fix the problem, make a copy of the pref.js file in your profile, and then edit it. The prefs.js file can be edited using notepad and it is available in your Firefox profile folder:

    C:\Documents and Settings\[user]\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\[xxx].default

    Firefox Profiles Try removing lines that are related to various add-ons, and you will at some stage remove the line/lines that are causing the problem.

    A method I have tried before is simply remove half of the lines, and try running Firefox with several tabs of pages with a lot of content. When you have identified the bad half, restore the original prefs.js file and remove half of that bad half and try again.

    In this way, you can identify the lines that are causing the problem and won’t lose all your saved preferences.

    Thank you James. As he suggested, make a backup of your Firefox Preferences file before deleting any lines.

    Run Firefox 3 And Firefox 2 Together

    Know When Facebook Friends Secretly Delete You As a Contact

    remove facebook friends “X and Y are now friends on Facebook” - That’s the message displayed in your Facebook profile each time you add a new friend on Facebook or someone else confirms your pending request.

    But the reverse is not true - you will never know when existing friends remove you from their Facebook friends list. The count of your friends will decrease but Facebook won’t reveal the name of the person who just unfriended you.

    You can however play detective using a Facebook app called Unfriender - this will let you know when friends quietly remove as a connection on Facebook. They are extending the alerts to email and SMS as well.

    The only downside is that Unfriender works only with friends that you have added after installing the Facebook application. Thanks Josh.

    Apple Safari Browser for Windows - Is It a Failure ?

    Steve Jobs Launch Windows Safari Apple introduced Safari for Windows around six months ago calling it the fastest web browser that is almost twice as fast as IE 7 or Firefox 2.

    Since then, Apple has released couple of minor upgrades for Safari 3 that are mainly bug fixes and the browser is still in beta stage.

    We never heard of any third-party browser plugins being released specifically for Windows Safari and there’s practically little or no talk among the blogging community about Safari browser on Windows.

    So did Safari manage to win any browser market share during the six month stint ?

    I referred to the Google Analytics report (OS / Browser) and out the last 6 million visitors, only 8500 (0.15%) were using Safari on Windows.

    web browser market share

    The sample data may not be very big but it at least gives a reasonable idea about the possible market share of Safari 3 browser on the Windows platform.

    Wednesday, January 9, 2008

    Finally Tata's Indiva is ready to ROCK

    Launching in 2nd week of January 2008

    Only 1 Lac Rs


    This is Another Car From the Same Company But not the One lakh Car



    2007 Tata Indiva

    Year 2008
    Make TATA
    Model Indiva
    Engine LocationFront
    Drive TypeFront Wheel
    Weight2161 lbs|980.2kgs
    Seating Capacity 4
    Gears 5
    TransmissionManual

    Vehicles with similar dimensions











    Sunday, January 6, 2008

    Listen To Bollywood Songs Online......U can Rock

    If you love Bollywood songs, look no further than Dhingana - this lovely site features an extensive collection of hindi movie songs that you can listen online for free.

    And there’s music for everyone - you will find songs of latest movies, old classic, ghazals, remixes and even devotional bhajans.

    Other than streaming music, Dhingana also provides a social environment where music fans can rate music, create song playlists and share them with other members.

    The best part - you need not register for listening to music and the player is in Flash so you do not require external players like Windows Media Player or Real Audio.

    And if you have a blog or website, grab the widget and readers can enjoy your favorite songs without leaving your site.

    Listen Bollywood Songs

    Dhingana is invite-only but you can grab one here.

    Not sure if you can legally download these songs in MP3 but it is possible to do so with some simple hacks.

    Making Money By Writing Firefox Extensions

    There’s money in writing Firefox Extensions, the free add-ons that add new functions and features to the already powerful Firefox Browser. PDF Download is one such example.

    Download PDF in Firefox

    When you click some link on a web page that points to a PDF document, the default behavior is that the browser starts to download the PDF file and loads it inside the embedded Adobe Reader. This can sometimes freeze Firefox especially when the PDF is large.

    PDF Download extension solved the problem by letting users decide the next action if they accidentally clicked a .pdf link. The extension also offered PDF to HTML conversion very similar to Gmail.

    Nitro PDF, who develop a PDF writer similar to Adobe Acrobat, got interested and acquired this Firefox extension because it allowed them reach a very targeted audience who have already expressed their interest in PDFs by downloading the “PDF Download” extension.

    The extension remains free and is a recommended download by Mozilla. It has so far been downloaded more than 5.5 million times and is providing more than half a million free PDF-to-HTML conversions per month.

    A win-win situation both for end users and Nitro. We may see such a trend catching up in 2008 where product companies grab the popular extensions from respective Firefox developers to make their presence felt in the community.

    Listen Music on your iPod Together with Multiple Friends

    If you are traveling or sitting in a coffee shop with friends but have only one iPod, all of you can enjoy the same music simultaneously using this new iPod accessory called Belkin Rockstar.

    share-ipod-music

    This is essentially a $20 splitter that divides music from one iPod into multiple headphones.

    While it is slightly tough to imagine people carrying spare headphones in their pockets, this iPod accessory may be useful at homes where children have to share one iPod.

    Interesting Uses of Camera Mobile Phones To Stay Productive

    Some creative and productive uses of camera mobile phones (and digital cameras):

    blue-screen-error Computer Screen Capture - You can use the Mobile Phone cameras for capturing screenshots of error messages that popup while you are reinstalling a copy of Windows or modifying some BIOS settings. In situations like the dreaded Blue Screen, Print-Screen key is useless but any phone-cam will get the job done.

    Remember Dates - Some time back, I had gone to a nursery school for submitting the admission form of my son. I don’t remember the exact date now but luckily, I had snapped a picture of the school and so that date is automatically stored with the image.

    remember-computer-cables Cable Connections - Before removing the cables from your home theatre system, gaming console or the computer, it is a good idea to capture the connections with your phone camera. Then you won’t have problems plugging the cables again in the right ports as the pictures will show you “what goes where”.

    Use Mobile Phone as a Web Camera - There are some free utilities that will convert your mobile phone camera into a web cam for your computer. You can use the web camera via a USB cable or wirelessly through Bluetooth.

    car-parking Car Parking - Most shopping malls here have huge underground parking but there aren’t any signboards so it gets tough to locate the car. So when you park the car, just look towards the escalator (or the exit door) and take a picture or record some video. This will save lot of effort (and time) when you return with all those heavy shopping bags.

    Scan Printed Documents - Mobile phone camera can work as scanners for capturing clippings of text from newspapers, library books and printed magazines. Just photograph the page and use a service like Qipit or ScanR that extract the text out of pictures taken with a mobile phone. (See “Use Mobile Phone as a Scanner“)

    Replace Paper and Pen - Your wife has prepared a long list of items that you are supposed to pick from the grocery story. Why tear down that paper from the diary or put extra pressure on your memory - just click. You can also use the camera phone for capturing information written on whiteboards, subway maps and notice boards.

    Google Maps and Directions - You are traveling and need the driving directions from Google Maps onto your mobile phone. If your phone has no Internet or you are not too sure how to transfer data from computer to the phone, just open Google Maps, press F11 for full screen and click with your phone.

    Rent A Car - If you are taking a car on rent, capture all the areas with dents and scratches so that you don’t run into a dispute when returning the car to the agent. Thanks CraftyGirl.

    taxi-cabs Security Weapon - Before you board a taxi in some unknown place, take a picture of the license plate and driver details that are generally written near the passenger seat. Email the picture to your spouse or friend as a security measure.

    Shopping Alone - If you are in a store shopping without your spouse, get his/her opinion on the stuff you are about to purchase by emailing pictures though your phone. A word of caution here - some shop owners may consider your action as “digital shoplifting” and this may lead to an embarrassing situation.

    As a Mirror - When you are about to reach the party, take a self-picture with your mobile phone to make sure that that makeup and hair style is in perfect condition.