rahulsince1983

Escape from the digital world

2011-12-16T14:25:00.000+05:30

http://laughingsquid.com/escape-from-the-digital-world/

'Instant' Ramayana!

2011-12-12T21:29:00.000+05:30

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rajkamalaich/5754206031/sizes/o/in/photostream/ This infographic is brilliant - ramayana condensed into 25852px × 533px !!

Population is not the problem

2011-12-09T21:54:00.001+05:30

Population policies have little impact on the way a minority of humans use the Earth's resources. The population "problem" for the environment is more accurately described as two rectangles, each representing the number of people on the vertical and their lifestyles on the horizontal: one tall skinny quadrant encompasses billions of people who use very little of Earth's resources; the

Berg Little Printer

2011-12-06T22:32:00.001+05:30

I am definitely going to buy this someday :) Little Printer lives in your home, bringing you news, puzzles and gossip from friends. Use your smartphone to set up subscriptions and Little Printer will gather them together to create a timely, beautiful mini-newspaper. http://bergcloud.com/littleprinter/

Typeradio - the radio channel on type & design

2011-12-06T22:29:00.001+05:30

http://www.typeradio.org Typeradio is a Micro FM broadcast, a MP3 internet radio stream and a podcast station. Broadcasting questions, answers, performances, events and talks online and onstage.

Celebrity 'Speakers'

2011-12-02T14:20:00.001+05:30

Red Dot design award winning Speakers (made in Germany) http://www.hohrizontal-51.de/ Wireless Speakers which fit in light bulb holder (made in India) http://violet3d.com/

Kickstarter - Funding Platform for Creative Projects

2011-11-27T20:37:00.001+05:30

Recently came across this product - A Hidden Radio & BlueTooth Speaker on Kickstarter. Kickstarter, a funding platform, has an interesting business model to offer. And ofcourse the Radio is awesome :) How Kickstarter basically works is the creator can put his project on this funding platform and interested people can pledge an amount. Once the amount is reached, the project starts off. (read

How about eating ONLY RAW food!

2011-11-16T19:18:00.001+05:30

Recently read this article in the Hindu on how one can live (and relish) only eating uncooked vegetarian food. Some excerpts Myth 1: Eating raw food means living off salad. Only salad - False Myth 2: If you're vegan, leave alone vegetarian, your choices of food at a restaurant wiggle down to two - False Myth 3: You can't live an entire day off food that is uncooked - False Meet Lisa Pitman

Future of Interaction Design - Bret Vector

2011-11-16T19:09:00.001+05:30

Here is an excellent article on future of interaction design which pushes you to think beyond 'touch' and 'glass'. This article reminded me of the multi-sensory course we did while studying design at N.I.D. I would like to include the last part of the article here Look down at your hands. Are they attached to anything? Yes — you've got arms! And shoulders, and a torso, and legs, and feet!

Now India has 10 crore Internet users!

2011-11-15T22:31:00.001+05:30

According to the I-Cube report by Internet and Mobile Association of India, India is set to have 12 crore users by Dec 2011 out of which 9.7 crore will be active users accessing net atleast once a month. Around 9 crore will be from cities and the rest from rural areas.

Can someone bring him back?

2011-10-09T17:03:00.005+05:30

2011-10-09T16:43:00.001+05:30

"Some cause happiness wherever they go, Others, whenever they go" Oscar Wilde

Angry Birds!

2011-05-16T16:42:00.004+05:30

Oh, what a game it is! ...and now they have an online version too!http://chrome.angrybirds.comAlso, it's interesting to see how Rovio (the company that made Angry Birds) is expanding to build a diversified entertainment franchise spanning all media.Some estimates put its total usage at 200 million minutes per day. It is this staying power and loyalty that convinced Hed that Angry Birds can

Nice Concept - Nest Rest: Huge Hanging Birdhouse

2010-12-24T13:31:00.002+05:30

Tree house meets bird house, with a dash of hammock thrown into the mix. While it is not large enough to house the amenities of a true tree home, it is certainly a step up from a simple outdoor couch or recliner – and can be hung at a variety of heights.

Eco Warriors

2010-11-07T15:34:00.002+05:30

Today's Times of India has an interesting article on people who try to do their bit to preserve the environment in innovative ways. Excerpts.Happiness in InnerwearQuite hooked to the idea of ayur vastra, former journalist Rajiv Rai Sachdev launched his organic range of clothes that contain extracts of neem, basil leaves and flecks of silver to keep the wearer safe from bacterial infections.

10 years of life aboard International Space Station -The Hindu

2010-11-07T10:41:00.002+05:30

Next week, Nasa will commemorate 10 years of life on the space station (the first residents arrived on 2 November 2000), but fewer than 200 people have first-hand knowledge of life on board. The longer the stint, the closer these veterans come to perfecting the art of life in freefall.There is a subtle art to moving around without crashing into anything — or, more annoyingly, others — knocking

Tim Brown on creativity and play

2010-11-06T22:33:00.000+05:30

Future Indian Internet Users

2010-11-01T17:05:00.004+05:30

Even though right now only 1% of mobile phone users are using the Internet. India is going to be different than what we’ve seen in mature markets but also in emerging markets. It’s going to be predominantly a mobile experience since the PC penetration is low compared to mobile.The report also talks about the language and literacy barriers -Global sites that want to keep the edge they

Must Watch Film - Udaan

2010-10-15T13:55:00.004+05:30

Udaan is one of the best films I have relished in recent times. One of the few films which leaves a lasting impression... The film absorbed me completely thanks to its sensitive and gripping storyline, impressive performances and music that just gels too well with the film.And this is one of my first 'original' post :p

Design without Designers by Don Norman

2010-10-12T18:54:00.002+05:30

Two Types of Innovation: Incremental Improvements and New ConceptsIn design - and almost all innovation, for that matter—there are at least two distinct forms. One is incremental improvement. The manufacturing of products, companies assume that unit costs will continually decrease through continual, incremental improvements. This is what companies call "their cash cow": a product line that

Transitions, Wow moments & Endings

2010-08-16T12:21:00.001+05:30

Ever read a great book? What do you remember about it? Maybe a few dramatic moments, some wild story twists, and most definitely the ending. Your product is just like a book. You’re telling a story to your customers and they’ll remember only a select few moments from what you tell them. What are these moments? TransitionsYou know how when you type a city into Google Earth and watch the globe

Apple's problem: Too much cash

2010-08-06T09:17:00.003+05:30

Apple Inc Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer faces a dilemma that perhaps every finance chief wishes to have: obscene amounts of cash and nowhere to put it.The iPhone, iPad, iPod and Mac computer maker has accumulated a cash pile that totals nearly $46 billion, the biggest cash hoard among U.S. tech companies and equivalent to one-fifth of Apple's market capitalization.And yet, due to an

The Perils of 3rd Party APIs -ReadWriteWeb

2009-12-30T11:17:00.003+05:30

In 2006, Flickr co-founder Caterina Fake coined the term "BizDev 2.0" when looking at the phenomenon of supplying commercial API keys to startup partners. Said Fake, traditional business development meant "trying to get hopelessly overbooked people to return your email. And then after the deal was done, squabbling over who dealt with the customer service. [It's] much, much better this way!" Three

You can't innovate like Apple!

2009-08-27T13:40:00.002+05:30

Really insightful article. Some excerpts below. Full article here. When what you teach and develop every day has the title “Innovation” attached to it, you reach a point where you tire of hearing about Apple. Without question, nearly everyone believes the equation Apple = Innovation is a fundamental truth. Discover what makes them different. By Alain Breillatt. Apple “wraps

8 months and not a single post...

2009-04-02T13:32:00.000+05:30

...is this what Corporate life does to you?

Nitendo Wii becomes top-selling video game

2008-07-20T13:11:00.002+05:30

Nintendo Wii became the highest selling game console in USA. Now this is a proof of how innovation has made it so popular. And technologically, the console uses simple motion sensors and group-oriented games!

Oil cost fuels boom in online classes -Economic Times

2008-07-12T18:46:00.002+05:30

I never imagined rising fuel costs could lead to students enrolling in online classes instead of attending classroom!

Sketching in Code: Magic of Prototyping -A List Apart

2008-06-21T15:29:00.000+05:30

One of the obvious developments in the web application world that has made prototyping approaches more attractive has been the rise of Ajax and rich internet applications (RIAs).With the rise of Ajax however, wireframes started to come up short. When we leave the world of page-based interactions, how do you document all but the simplest interaction? Even with a single interactive element on a web

GTA 4 is the most expensive game: 429 crores!

2008-06-19T23:00:00.002+05:30

Rockstar's GTA 4 is the most expensive game made at a whooping cost of 429 crores and by a team of 1000 people. "It's like making a theatre production, a few movies and an album all to fit into one package," said Benzies, Rockstar president.

Ads in Mobile Games get an eye-popping 10.1% CTR -OmMalik

2008-06-06T21:09:00.001+05:30

There’s a lot of VC money going into web-based, advertising-driven casual games, so here’s a wake-up call to investors: They may get better ROI with mobile phone-based gaming.In 2006, mobile game platform Greystripe launched GameJump.com, a distribution site for free, ad-supported cellphone games; since then, consumers have downloaded over 65 million copies of Greystripe’s hundreds of titles. I’m

Can Microsoft win the Search Wars with Charity? - ReadWriteWeb

2008-06-06T20:46:00.001+05:30

The Microsoft Live Search team announced today that it had expanded the company's Search and Give charitable searching program to more than 1 million eligible organizations. The program donates 1 cent for each search conducted by users to the school or charity of their choice up to 500 searches per month (or $60/year per person).Can Microsoft possibly make a dent in Google's strangehold on the

Importance of Short URLs in Newspapers -Labnol

2008-06-02T12:14:00.002+05:30

It is interesting to see how newspaper sare trying to connect stories published in their print edition with online content. See this clip from Business Standard newspaper.They add a short URL after the story that print subscriber can type in their browser and read related content on the web. And this approach may actually be helping companies drive traffic to their web properties. They work at

Graphic Processors grow up -GigaOm

2008-05-17T20:26:00.002+05:30

Remember when CPU processor speeds were the driving force behind new computers? Going from a 500 MHz to 1 GHz then 2 GHz machine meant noticeable improvements. Then chip vendors started adding more cores. But for the style of computing consumers use today, it’s not about the CPU anymore.It’s all about graphics processors. Thanks to today’s visually intensive style of computing, a good GPU can

Adobe Fireworks - an ideal tool for building website mockups

2008-03-19T12:52:00.002+05:30

There is a lot of confusion about what exactly Adobe Fireworks is, what it is good for and why one should actually use it instead of Adobe Photoshop or Adobe ImageReady. The answer is simple: Fireworks isn’t a replacement for both tools, but rather a more effective, integrated environment for designing site layouts and quick mockups. Read on.

Convert text to mp3 online -Labnol

2008-03-18T12:25:00.001+05:30

Read The Words converts any text document to mp3 files. Useful for visually impaired people.

AdSense Click Fraud Highest in India -Labnol

2008-02-28T10:54:00.003+05:30

A recent report on Click Fraud suggests that the maximum number of invalid clicks on Pay Per Click ads originate from India. And this is not the first time - its widely believed there there exists a large “work from home” crowd in India who want to generate “quick cash” by clicking Google AdSense ads.Pick any issue of Deccan Chronicle newspaper (the English Daily of Hyderabad) and open the

You’re Better Off Working at Starbucks Than Running a Social Network -Om Malik

2008-02-20T19:10:00.002+05:30

Peanut Labs, a company that couldn’t find a business as an also-ran social network, says "The CPMs (cost per thousand advertisements) are so low it’s really hard to build a real business unless you have several billion page views and your own sales team. Social networks get 5 to 10 cent CPMs, and less outside the U.S. At one point we were averaging 3 cent CPMs. We figured out if we all got up and

Cartoon -Hindu

2008-02-17T10:46:00.000+05:30

“Could you call up later when none of us is at home? We have just bought an answering machine!”

6% of People Online Contribute 50% of Display Ad Clicks -Read Write Web

2008-02-13T15:41:00.002+05:30

Only 6% of people online are contributing 50% of the clicks to display advertisements- Those people who click heavily have a number of other characteristics of note. Heavy clickers skew towards Internet users between the ages of 25-44 and households with an income under $40,000 and they are also relatively more likely to visit auctions, gambling, and career services sites – a markedly different

Who Owns What ? -Labnol

2008-02-11T11:32:00.000+05:30

Amy Webb is tracking all the acquisitions made by Internet giants like Yahoo!, Google, Microsoft and AOL. No wonder, the red block corresponding to Google occupies the maximum estate.

Brushup

2007-10-01T06:21:00.000+05:30

Long time, no post! I was a little too busy with work. I just received an email which had these computer terms, some of which i had completely forgotten.OEMShort for original equipment manufacturer, which is a misleading term for a company that has a special relationship with computer producers. OEMs are manufacturers who resell another company's product under their own name and branding. While

Joost gets $45 mil from pals, partners -Om Malik

2007-05-16T10:47:00.000+05:30

Joost, the P2P TV creation of Janus Friis and Niklas Zennström, the co-founders of Kazaa and Skype. The company, just raised a whopping $45 million in funding from five investors.“This funding represents a tremendous vote of confidence in Joost’s platform,” said Janus Friis, co-founder of Joost. “We’ve carefully selected these investors from a variety of interested parties”Selected! Interesting

Small is The New Big: Moo.com -Om Malik

2007-05-11T11:57:00.000+05:30

Richard Moross, a twenty-something Londoner, was bored with the business cards most people were exchanging. He decided to do something about it. He started Moo Prints, a 10-person start-up that takes images from popular websites, like Flickr and Bebo, and prints them on cards that are exactly half the height (28mm x 70mm) of a regular business card.Size alone makes Moo cards memorable. Moross

5 Future Innovations -IBM

2007-05-11T11:34:00.000+05:30

IBM writes about five innovations that will change our lives over the next five years:# We will be able to access healthcare remotely, from just about anywhere in the world# Real-time speech translation-once a vision only in science fiction-will become the norm# There will be a 3-D Internet# Technologies the size of a few atoms will address areas of environmental importance# Our mobile phones

Learning Life's Simple Lessons -Speaking Tree

2007-05-11T10:58:00.000+05:30

We spent a tension-filled week in the office recently with many of us awaiting news of promotions and increments. As rumours snowballed, hurried meetings took place in corridors. Some people were ashen-faced, others were jumping with joy. Some criticised the 'system', others consulted experts. I decided to escape to Haridwar and experience a peaceful meditative week. The ashram was serene

Taking on Google! -The Hindu

2007-05-09T15:20:00.000+05:30

It's the classic David versus Goliath battle being played out in the 21st century. We are talking of the great race between Web behemoth Google and Zoho, the Chennai-based underdog, to launch a suite of online office applications.However, Sridhar Vembu, CEO of AdventNet, the company behind Zoho services, doesn't see it as an all-out battle. ``That would imply that there can be only one winner,

Google buys DoubleClick for $3.1 billion -Om Malik

2007-05-09T14:31:00.000+05:30

Google bought Double Click for $3.1 billion which is almost twice what Google paid for YouTube! Google really wants to get into the display advertising business in a big way, and they don’t have the relationships they need to make it happen, but DoubleClick does. It gives them immediate access to those relationships.One thing is becoming clear - Google wants to dominate the online advertising

Google's Personalization Push: iGoogle, Localization, Gadget Maker -Read Write Web

2007-05-07T11:02:00.000+05:30

Google has been experimenting with personalization a lot this year. In regards to its personalized homepage, Google has always had far more gadgets available on its platform than live.com, Netvibes or Pageflakes. Currently there are over 25,000 different Google gadgets that you can put on your iGoogle page.Here is some useful background to Google's personalization efforts. Google wants to compute

10 Things They Never Taught Me in Design School -Michael McDonough

2007-04-09T20:12:00.000+05:30

1. Talent is one-third of the success equation.Talent is important in any profession, but it is no guarantee of success. Hard work and luck are equally important. Hard work means self-discipline and sacrifice. Luck means, among other things, access to power, whether it is social contacts or money or timing. In fact, if you are not very talented, you can still succeed by emphasizing the other two.

Mr. Picasso Head

2007-03-15T11:48:00.000+05:30

You can go wild with this thing. Try it out for yourself and don't forget to visit the gallery [www.mrpicassohead.com]

Sony Play Station & Web 2.0 -Om Malik

2007-03-08T14:07:00.000+05:30

If one console manufacturer is fully on board the social games movement, it appears to be Sony. The company just announced a slew of new features to its PlayStation Home community that aims to be the PS3’s user-generated epicenter. PlayStation Home will attempt to recreate the Second Life experience for PS3 owners, complete with customized avatars and outside advertisers. Sony also disclosed

The Human Factor in Gadget / Web Design -cNet

2007-02-19T12:35:00.000+05:30

"Design is starting to change who succeeds and who fails. A few years ago that wasn't true. If I had a better algorithm, I would win."-Alonso Vera, senior research scientist at NASA Ames Research CenterNASA, which has faced cutbacks in recent years, has a human-computer interaction group that's grown to 10 people since it was started in 2002. It recently worked with Google and the Firefox

Online Video Industry Index -ReadWrite Web

2007-02-14T15:18:00.000+05:30

There are now so many companies vying to be the next YouTube, it's easy to lose track of them all. So let's take a look at the entire online video industry and categorize the major players.In this post we've summarized the latest video industry innovations under the following categories:Video SharingIntermediariesVideo SearchVideo eCommerceVideo Editing & CreationRich Media AdvertisingP2P (Peer

New Web safety institute unveiled -ReadWrite Web

2007-02-14T12:57:00.000+05:30

The people behind the 7-year-old Internet Content Rating Association, a nonprofit aimed at labeling adult Web sites, have launched a new institute to promote kids safety on the Web.Called the Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI), the group said that it will broaden its work from the ICRA rating system to include the development and support of other kid-safe technologies, educational programs and

Web Apps going Offline in 2007 -ReadWrite Web

2007-02-13T13:20:00.000+05:30

Firefox 3 will offer support for running web applications offline. Though it’s not yet clear on which level this might happen, this is major news for SaaS providers (Software as a Service). Of course, Firefox isn’t alone in trying to move web apps offline - Adobe’s Apollo framework promotes offline-services on top of their successful Flash platform.Besides Adobe, several open source projects are

Long Time... No Post!

2007-01-04T20:01:00.000+05:30

I hardly updated my blog after I joined NID... which is from past 1 and half years! Hope I will get back to blogging soon... btw, u can check NID team blog at http://nidg.blogspot.com

Search Companies Team Up Against Click Fraud -Slashdot

2006-08-03T00:51:00.000+05:30

The top three search companies, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo, have teamed up to create an alliance to combat click fraud. The fact that these three bitter rivals can team up shows just how serious the industry has become about preserving the current online advertising boom that is currently underway. Click fraud has attracted an increasing amount of attention amid class-action lawsuits and

Link to specific points inside a Video and Audio file -Amit Agarwal

2006-07-30T18:49:00.000+05:30

Audio Markers make it possible for users to link to a specific point in the mp3 file so it begins to play only from that particular location, skipping all the content before that time.Same can be done with video files. You can bookmark position(start marker) in google video so if you want the user to watch only a part of the video clip, starting from say 2min 32sec in a 10min video.Here's an

Hide your email address on websites from spam -Amit Agarwal

2006-07-30T18:40:00.000+05:30

E-mail addresses in your blog or webpage are no secret to spam robots. Here's a guide that should help you protect your email addresses from these spam spiders. Techniques mentioned use text manipulation, Masking, HTML, Flash, CSS, Javascript, etc to hide email.Sooner or later you will have to do this. So bookmark the page ;)http://labnol.blogspot.com/2006/03/

Google Alphabet & Number Wheel

2006-07-30T18:29:00.000+05:30

The alphabet 'a' and number 23 has the highest results in Google.

IT firms stock up on non-engineers -Economic Times

2006-05-29T18:31:00.000+05:30

Who says IT is not for non-engineers? Move over IITians, here come the BSc and MSc grads who are developing software for the global market. Technology firms are now hiring non-engineers as well to meet their manpower requirements. While it costs companies anywhere between Rs 80,000 and a few lakhs to train non-engineers to bring them on par with IIT and regional engineering colleges, the bonus

Top 10 Strangest Gadgets of the Future -via Slashdot

2006-05-27T23:30:00.000+05:30

Would you like to start your day by playing games in the urinal or would you like to see the bread changing its color from off-white to golden brown while its being toasted? Gaming consoles are passe, get up and kick your enemy's ass! Checkout the top 10 strangest gadgets of the future... some of the products/concepts are a must see for those who are into interaction design and new media and the

Why we all sell code with bugs -Guardian

2006-05-27T23:24:00.000+05:30

Why would a company release a product with known bugs? There are several reasons:. We care about quality so deeply that we know how to decide which bugs are acceptable and which ones are not.· It is better to ship a product with a known quality level than to ship a product full of surprises.· The alternative is to fix them and risk introducing worse bugs.All the reasons are

People pay for girls, gambling, games & God -Economic Times

2006-02-19T14:05:00.000+05:30

Digital divide? What digital divide? The 4Gs of content sell the world over and there is no reason why it should not be the same in India.There’s no future for radio or TV acting in isolation. Just like there would be no electric bulb and no photography without disruptive thinking, you need disruptive thinking for Broadcasting too. For instance there are already 10,000 podcasts happening around

Open muliple webpage tabs on Firefox start-up -Amit Agarwal

2006-02-12T15:35:00.000+05:30

1. From the Firefox Tools menu, choose Options2. Click on the text box under Homepage - Location(s) group (see screenshot)3. Type the address of the webpage that you want to load when Firefox loads. Now insert a vertical bar (pipe) | (generally located beside the backspace key on Qwerty keyboards). Next, type the web address of another webpage that you want to load. You can insert any number of

'Micro' wind turbines -News.com

2006-02-12T15:29:00.000+05:30

Rather than build farms of towering wind turbines in rural areas, some companies are designing "micro," or small-scale, turbines that fit on top of buildings. The idea is to generate electricity from wind in urban or suburban settings. The turbines look like large fans in square housings. They are specifically designed for placement on the top of steel-reinforced, flat-roofed commercial buildings

Share your WiFi and the world shares back !

2006-02-06T20:19:00.000+05:30

FON is a Global Community of people who share WiFi. Just share your connection and the rest of the Community shares back with you. Join FON and enjoy connecting from anywhere within the WiFi World. Ofcourse at a small cost.

Smart Clothing -Catii.com

2006-01-21T20:26:00.000+05:30

Wearables aren't just geeky fantasies, they are serious business, and there are several commercial projects already up and running. Nike has started a tech lab aiming to integrate digital equipment like MP3 players into sports clothes.Philips’ and Levi Strauss’ ICD+ jackets are equipped with a personal area network, or PAN: an electronic circuit woven into the jacket that serves as the backbone

Motorola adds Google to mobiles -BBC News

2006-01-07T01:27:00.000+05:30

Motorola said it would introduce Google's software technology to many of its new handsets. Google chief executive Eric Schmidt said he believed most people would in the future access the internet using their mobile phones. "People are going to spend all their time on it eventually," he said.

Blog Plagiarism -OmMalik

2005-12-28T00:16:00.000+05:30

This had to happen. Some people simply lift articles from other blogs, make slight changes and post it as their own writing. These blogs ONLY exist because they can make money from Google AdSense. The issue is important enough for Google to step in, and do something.Even I do it, but I post only excerpts, give full credits and link to the original site, and ya there ain't any google ads on my

Same Language Subtitling - Google's Philanthropic Efforts

2005-12-25T13:03:00.000+05:30

PlanetRead, an organization seeking to improve literacy in India is using an extremely simple concept: same-language subtitling. By adding subtitles to Bollywood films and popular TV shows, people who have low literacy skills are able to get regular reading practice based on songs and shows they know by associating the words on the screen with their meanings. Results have been very positive, and

Sell CPU Cycles to CPU Share -Om Malik

2005-12-21T23:07:00.000+05:30

CPUShare has been founded with the goal of connecting together the computers of the Internet in order to create a general purpose Low Cost and World Wide Supercomputer available to everybody to use in a matter of minutes, controlled by a market for the CPU resources that chooses the price of the CPU resources using the supply and demand law in real time.The likely buyers of these CPU cycles can

2005: Year of the Balance of Power -Emergic

2005-12-10T21:01:00.000+05:30

This year has been a year that has underscored several...balance of power developments.In Politics and in Economics, the US dominance has been partially normalized by China and India, both emerging superpowers.Close to home, in high tech, Google�s absurd rise has stopped Microsoft in its track, posing an alternate power block that challenges many existing assumptions.In Silicon Valley, Google and

2005-12-10T20:14:00.000+05:30

Now Phirangs can’t Work in Desi BPOs -Economic TimesIn a written reply to a query raised in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday, minister of state for information technology, Shakeel Ahmed, said requests from foreign nationals for employment visa for jobs, for which a large number of qualified Indians is available, will not be considered. He said that only such foreigners who are skilled and qualified

2005-11-23T22:28:00.000+05:30

Stain Free Colored Bubbles -PopSciChemical burns, ruined clothes, 11 years, half a million dollars—it's not easy to improve the world's most popular toy. Yet the success of one inventor's quest to dye a simple soap bubble may change the way the world uses color.Unlike the soap bubble, it is a single colored bubble which doesn't even leave stains if it bursts on clothes !

Learn to Disconnect -Deepak Chopra

2005-11-15T16:09:00.000+05:30

In order to acquire anything in the physical universe, you have to relinquish your attachment to it. This doesn’t mean you give up the intention to create your desire. You don’t give up the intention and you don’t give up the desire. You give up your attachment to the result. This is a very powerful thing to do. The moment you relinquish your attachment to the result, combining intention

2005-11-15T15:33:00.000+05:30

Parikrama Rock BandCheckout the song 'But It Rained' by Parikrama. Thousands are reported missing each year... the song is about those who are left behind. This is what they have to say about the song.."Amid reports of illness, injury and threats of death, was the uncertainty of not knowing what to believe ... she did not even get to say goodbye" said the wife of one of the hostages. More appeals

2005-11-15T11:13:00.000+05:30

From Warren Buffet's Speech...When the scientist Max Planck was touring Europe giving speeches about his theories, he gave the same lecture so many times that eventually his chauffer memorized the speech. For fun one day Max and his driver swapped clothes, and the driver delivered the speech flawlessly while Max looked on from the side of the stage in a chauffer's uniform.To open the Q&A the

The Pillars of Self-Mastery -Robin Sharma

2005-11-15T10:04:00.000+05:30

The Pillars of Self-Mastery -Robin Sharma Few tips from a mail that had some inputs from Robin Sharma's book.. Robin Sharma is the author of the best-seller 'The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari' Sleep less: This is one of the best investment you can make to make your life more productive and rewarding. Laugh for five minutes in the mirror each morning. Laughter activates many beneficial

2005-11-14T18:20:00.000+05:30

The Human Genome & the Theory of Karma -Dharanidhar Sahu (TOI)Time for some spiritual stuff. This is the first non-technical article on the blog, and I will be putting up more soon..Scientists decoding the human genome may persuade us to re-examine our belief in fate, predestination, free will and the law of karma. Some genes, we are told, determine our mood swings, some predispose us to diseases

2005-11-13T22:10:00.000+05:30

Capture still images from Windows Media Player Screen -Amit AgarwalWhy you cannot capture?When the video plays, it is actually displayed on a different surface/layer called overlay that is produced by hardware acceleration. When you take a normal screen capture, you're taking it of the normal surface where the video isn't displayed. That's why it comes out black as it is invisible to the screen

2005-11-11T13:04:00.000+05:30

STD calls at Local Rates !! -Deccan HeraldIn a move aimed at giving a major push to telecom and Internet penetration in the country, the government on Thursday ushered in Internet telephony and also massively reduced the National Long Distance (NLD) and International Long Distance (ILD) entry fees from Rs 100 crore and Rs 25 crore respectively to an uniform rate of just Rs 2.5 crore. Also, the

2005-11-06T22:51:00.000+05:30

Jobs galore for 60,000 Usability Pros -Economic TimesWith a shortfall of almost 60,000 usability professionals, Indian IT and ITES companies presently face a real threat of missing the current boom in this sector. "Our usability staff represent the increased value offered by an offshore alternative. The Indian operations are more systematic than any other group in the world and our personnel are

2005-11-04T15:12:00.000+05:30

The Everywhere Displays Project -IBM ResearchThe Everywhere Displays project aims to develop systems that allow the transformation of every surface in a space into a projected "touch screen". You can actually use the projected surface as a touch screen!

2005-11-04T15:06:00.000+05:30

Cybercrime Gangs -ZdNetSuperzondaSuperzonda have been known to be a threat for at least the last two years. The BBC reported in July 2003 that Superzonda operated 24 hours a day, seven days a week, all over the world. Until recently they were sending 50 million spams a day, but recent anti-spam legislation has reined them in.The BBC also reported that Superzonda used British Airways without its

2005-11-02T00:33:00.000+05:30

Google: Thinking about the future of TV ads -ZdNetIt is very possible that Google is creating their own branded digital television DVR / satellite service.A DVR that lets you "Log In" with your Google Account before you begin your television watching would allow Google to serve up relevant ads based on: the program you are watching, your search history, the type of emails you have received in

2005-10-13T12:47:00.000+05:30

New Media Brands -ForbesForbes lists the fastest growing brands. This is a FAR more interesting list than the usual Coke and Mc Donalds. It's also indicative of the power of new media .. 7 out of 10 are new media brands!1. Apple Over 400 million songs have been purchased at the iTunes store.2. BlackBerry Users average a 53-minute-a-day productivity gain, says Research in Motion.3. Google World's

2005-10-13T12:26:00.000+05:30

Microformats -EmergicInformation is often the most useful in bite-sized pieces. Storing information in convenient, tidy bundles sometimes called microcontent is still uncommon but this is changing quickly. Indeed, Web 2.0 trends will only increase the popularity of microformats that support discrete bits of lightly formatted information. This is one reason why Web 2.0 concepts strongly encourage

2005-10-13T12:24:00.000+05:30

MS, Yahoo to link message services -Economic TimesMicrosoft and Yahoo are preparing to link together their free instant messaging services as they take on entrenched messaging leader AOL and market newcomer Google. The deal, the first major alliance between two of the Web's main providers of instant messaging, will allow users of Microsoft's MSN Messenger service and Yahoo Messenger to swap

2005-10-09T16:41:00.000+05:30

Google Playing Mind Games -EmergicGoogle wants to provide the means of getting to the information and create its own kind of lock-in over time, just as IBM and Microsoft did in their day. As Google releases more technologies for creating, storing and accessing information, the company's products and services grow stickier. How sticky they will eventually become will depend on a number of factors,

2005-10-04T18:19:00.000+05:30

Coming soon: Mobiles for the masses (Rs.1000 only) -Times of India The mobile industry today is excited not just by the fact that over 2 million new mobile users are being added to the network, but more so because the entire network today covers only 20% of India. The 63 million plus mobile subscribers are a minuscule group when compared to what will happen when networks span out. Out of 6000

2005-10-03T20:17:00.000+05:30

Beware of fake Google, MSN & Yahoo websites and toolbars ! -Economic Times People with infected machines who try to visit those popular search sites are redirected to spoof versions. The spoof sites serve up bogus search results intended to generate traffic and revenue for other sites that are presumed to be in on the scheme. This is a business, this is organized crime. People are making money

2005-09-26T10:47:00.000+05:30

Armed and dangerous: Flipper the firing dolphin let loose by Katrina -Guardian: It may be the oddest tale to emerge from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Armed dolphins, trained by the US military to shoot terrorists and pinpoint spies underwater, may be missing in the Gulf of Mexico. Experts who have studied the US navy's cetacean training exercises claim the 36 mammals could be carrying '

2005-09-26T10:17:00.000+05:30

Your keyboard's clatter can reveal your e-mail's content! - Newindpress.com: Next time when you are typing something secret on your computer keyboard, make sure no one is snooping around, as even if the person is not in sight, the very sound of your typing can reveal all the secrets of your confidential text, with researchers in America now claiming that eavesdroppers can decipher your messages

2005-09-21T13:53:00.000+05:30

Speakers till 10 ..Earphones after then ! -MiddayThis happens only in Mumbai. Members of the Naidu Club Navratri Mandal in Kora Kendra, Borivli, have found a unique way to play garba till the next morning, without violating the Supreme Court order of the 10 pm loudspeaker deadline. All the dancers will be given wireless earphones and the music will be relayed through a radio frequency. Says the

2005-09-16T21:04:00.000+05:30

Price fears for next gen games -BBC The games for the new consoles, such as the PS3, Xbox 360 and the Revolution, are set to wow players with heightened realism and cinematic graphics. Some of the next-generation games showcased at the E3 games expo have already drawn gasps of amazement from the audience. But there is a price to pay for getting to play something that is years ahead of current

2005-09-16T20:59:00.000+05:30

Nintendo plans one-handed joypad -BBC In a demonstration at the Tokyo Game Show, Nintendo boss Satoru Iwata showed off a wireless controller that closely resembled a TV remote control. Motion sensors on the controller translate its movements into game action, allowing it to be used as a virtual sword, baseball bat or racket.

2005-09-09T17:38:00.000+05:30

Oh my God, Google hires Vinton Cerf !! -OmMalik Google just announced that Vinton (Vint) Cerf, the longtime technologist who is widely known as a “founding father” of the Internet, as Chief Internet Evangelist. This is their continuing bid to acquire the best brains in the world. Cerf, one of the founding fathers of the Internet clearly qualifies. The kind of stuff that forces Steve Ballmer to

2005-09-03T23:08:00.000+05:30

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer: 'I'm going to f***ing kill Google'Dunno how much of this is true, but this is what the article says.Probably due to the Microsoft suit against Google over human resources, some very heated exchanges have turned up in some court documents. Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer has apparently vowed to kill Internet search leader Google, according to documents filed in the

2005-09-01T16:45:00.000+05:30

Fake Yahoo site phishes for identities -ZdNet The fake site, which was still live on Wednesday afternoon, is being hosted on a Yahoo Geocities account and asks users to log in with their Yahoo user ID and password. Victims are being lured to the Web site by spam sent over Yahoo's instant messenger service. This means a user will receive a message often from someone on their friends list telling