the gsm orbital

Saturday, December 30, 2006

In the year 2006, ‘YOU’ have been rated as the Time Magazine’s Person of the Year. ‘You’ are the people having a great passion for the World Wide Web. ‘You’ have been searching for an identity on the internet. ‘You’ try to make an impression on the internet. ‘You’ try to leave your mark on the internet. ‘You’ are the people who speak out their hearts on their blogs, post movies for others to watch, try to elaborate the intellectual resources on the internet, or just collaborate with others for social networking.

‘You’ are trying to make yourself heard. The numerous blogs hosted by Blog*Spot, Wordpress or MSN Spaces depict your views and feelings. The YouTube videos you post surpass all cultural divides and give an opportunity to divulge yourself. These technologies give you a new medium to convey your thoughts and make it heard to others.

‘You’ are the people volunteering to create large intellectual wealth on the internet. ‘You’ are the people who write open-source softwares, contribute to the compendium of knowledge Wikipedia, share your bookmarked links with others on del.icio.us; thus, making internet an easy to locate information hub.

‘You’ are narrowing the geographical distances and making a new global community of people. You interact with people with similar interests, find activity partners, make new business contacts or find a date, all on the World Wide Web. The year 2006 saw a huge expansion of the popular social networking sites like MySpace or Orkut. These sites have given a new approach for the people to socialize with others.

Lev Grossman of the Time Magazine states, “This is an opportunity to build a new kind of international understanding, not politician to politician, great man to great man, but citizen to citizen, person to person.” This all has been facilitated with the evolution the World Wide Web, particularly Web2.0.

Web2.0 is the new generation of the internet. It is focused on adding another dimension to the internet by giving it a ‘human’ edge. It has given rise to some really powerful applications that are user-friendly and allow a common human being to introduce himself on the internet. The Web2.0 revolution has transformed websites from being isolated information silos to becoming sources of content and functionality, thus creating a more organized network of websites on the internet.

To read Time Magzine’s complete story, click here.

Saturday, December 23, 2006

Ms. Dewey: A beautiful young girl welcoming you to a search site asking you to just tell her what she can do for you. A rather impatient girl asking about your presence whenever you sit ideal. She takes some time to think and then finds the answers for your query.

Ms. Dewey is a really entertaining search engine. The site loads with an intro which will vary each time you load it. You put the search term in the regular search box. She would start thinking about your query and makes you wait. Results would be returned in a small popup with Ms. Dewey explaining about it. She changes her mood often. She looks mischievous, happy, sad, bored and sometimes embarrassed, adding to all the fun.

Ms. Dewey is developed by a San Francisco based design firm, Evolution Bureau for Microsoft. It is a flash-based search engine, which uses the Windows Live search results. An actress helps you out with finding search results adding a "human face" to the online search. It depicts the capabilities of the search engines today. It is another great application of the elite Web 2.0 club. Its a fabulous campaign by Microsoft to promote its Windows Live services.

Click here to visit Ms. Dewey.

Click here to view a SlideShow of images featuring Ms. Dewey.

Friday, November 24, 2006

Wikimapia is a Web 2.0 project to describe the whole planet Earth. It was created by Alexandre Koriakine and Evgeniy Saveliev, inspired by Google maps and Wikipedia.

Its a great place where you can tag the world map as easily as you can edit the Wikipedia. You can also view Wikimapia places on Google Earth.

So, try out this service and "Let's describe the whole Earth!".

Saturday, October 21, 2006

This Diwali, Orkut had a special way to wish it visitors a Happy Diwali with this special logo. Ofcourse, Indians are 3rd largest users of Orkut in the world after Brazil and USA.

P.S.: You can view Orkut demographics here.

Saturday, October 07, 2006

The internet started with a bunch of small, nice looking, clean websites. Then some more nicer websites were evolved. A few user services like e-mails were added. Websites primarily consisted of static content with some graphics and animations. The dot com boom of the late 1990s gave birth to many internet services, such as eShopping, eCommunities etc. Many new organizations came up and grew in this dot com revolution.

Then, with the advance in time, came the need to do more, do better and grow on the web. It was this motivation that lead to the development of Web 2.0. This phrase was coined by O'Reilly Media in 2004 and refers to the second generation of web-based services. The technologies in Web 2.0 add a new dimension to the Internet. Internet, no longer, is just an isolated silo of mere content, but has evolved into a highly efficient tool which provides incredible functionality to end users.

Web 2.0 applications include blogs, wikis, podcasts, RSS feeds, web APIs, web standards, online web services among others. This is the latest buzzword among various technological communities. Currently, the Web 2.0 standard is not clearly defined and it is difficult make a distinction of a Web 2.0 service. A Web 2.0 website typically involves the use of technologies such as AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML), CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), XHTML (eXtensible Hyper Text Markup Language), RSS (Really Simple Syndication), Webservice APIs (Application Programming Interface) etc. The key elements of Web 2.0 are supported on the Web Communication protocols such as SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol), which enable information exchange between different applications.

The web industry is in a race to take full advantage of these new technologies. The major players include Google, Yahoo and Microsoft. There is a heated competition between these companies to come up with the best web-based services. Many other companies such as eBay, FeedBurner, Wikipedia etc are also using the Web 2.0 platform.

Google, the leading search engine, is using the Web 2.0 technologies extensively for creating new services for the users. It offers a horde of services based on the Web 2.0 platform including its popular eMail service GMail. Google also offers services such as Froogle (online shopping cart), Analytics (Website Statistics), Page Creator (WebPage builder), Personalized Home, Maps, Groups, Orkut, Blogger etc which are some of the elite members of the Web 2.0 club.

Google earns most of its revenue from its advertisement program, AdSense. It uses Web 2.0 technologies to display advertisements relevant to the content of the website. It provided Google with a business model, which helped website owners to earn money inturn boosting its own revenue. Google AdSense is one of the most trusted advertisement program on the internet. Advertisers can display their ads using the Google AdWords service.

This is not the end of Google services. Google Labs, which develops most of the Google services recently came up with an online Spreadsheet package similar to MS-Excel. The advantage of this package is that a spreadsheet can be edited in real-time by multiple users. Google has recently acquired an online WordProcessor, Writely. Writely also supports multi-user, real-time editing. Additionally, it also allows you to transfer documents from your desktop and post your documents directly to your blog. Its a great upgrade from the good old MS-Word. Though, it may not include all the fancies of the MS-Word package but remember most of these services are currently in their beta phase.

Google is a company which is exploring the Web 2.0 technology the fullest. There may be a time when Google comes up with its own Operating System based on the Web 2.0 platform. We are living in the era where our lives have been 'Googleized' and 'Googlegiri' would certainly prevail.

P.S.: This document has been typed on Writely, the online word processor by Google, built on Web 2.0 platform. It was a great experience to type and publish this post directly to my blog.

Friday, October 06, 2006

So you have browsed the web for a while. Seen what is available on the internet and what you can do with it. Now you want to make your own website or want to improve an existing one. This article features the various tips and tricks for development and maintenance of a fully featured website.

Planning

Before building a website you should know the purpose of the website. Start by planning about the content and features of your site. Depending upon it, choose a language to program it. If you just need a simple content based site programming in HTML/DHTML would serve the purpose but for a site which require user to input information and to save it you need to use server-side programming languages like PHP, ASP, CGI, SSI, JSP and database support like MySQL, MS-SQL, MS-Access.

Domain Name & Hosting

Once you have planned the website, its time to choose a domain name and a web hosting service. A domain name should be easy to remember and should depict the topic of the website. There are many websites which register a domain name for a fee. If you want a domain name which is already registered you can use the Whois Lookup service to find out the owner of the domain.

After registering the domain name you should register with a web server which would host your site. To choose a web hosting service keep in mind the features you require and the programming languages you would use. Also, estimate the amount of space you would require. Usually, there is a fee depending on the features and the space you need. But there are many servers who provide you free hosting, generally placing advertisements on your website.
You can check some hosting providers here.

Organizing Information

Before actually designing the website you should organize the contents of your website. See what content comes where, what should be the sections and sub-sections, where should the user enter the site. The page through which the user enters the website is known as homepage and is generally named as 'index.htm' or 'index.html'.

Designing

Once you have organized your content start with the designing of the website. First, design the navigation system of your website. A good navigation system should contain all relevant links on all pages of the website. A navigation system could be made using CSS or JavaScript.

Now, start designing the pages of your website. While designing the pages keep in mind the consistency in design of all the pages. All pages should have the same colour scheme and a similar layout. Also, they should contain links to all major sections of your website.

Uploading the Files

All set with your website, its time to upload the file on the internet for others to view. There are many ways to upload the files which vary according to your webhost. An FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is the best and the easiest way to upload your files. Just copy and paste your files on the webserver. Most hosting providers provide you with an easy to use Control Panel to upload files and manage your website. Helm (for Windows) and cPanel (for Linux) are some of the good ones.

Testing

Before spreading the word about your website you should test the performance of your website. Check all links on your website. Check the appearance of your site under different browsers, internet connections and monitor resolutions. If your website uses databases and server-side scripting, check the performance of your script thoroughly to provide a good user experience.

Spreading the Word

Once your website is ready to use its time to spread the word. There are many ways to do so. You must submit your websites to popular search engines or use services to do so. Try to exchange links of your website with other webmasters. It would help you increase your rankings. Also, post a link to your website in common interest newsgroups, forums, directories etc. You can also try some PPC (Pay-Per-Click) ad programs in which you pay for the number of hits you get. Also other conventional advertising methods like newpapers, television, banner ads etc. may be used.

Maintenance

This is the most important part for running a successful website. You must check that your content and design is upto date. Update your website regularly. See what your competitors are offering and try to stay ahead of them. Survey your visitors about their experience on your website and always try to improve.

Monetizing Your Website

You would have worked hard to design and develop your website. So, why not make some bucks from it. Many commercial establishments would pay you for linking to their website. You may register with ad programs like Google Adsense, which display ads relevant to the content of your website. Also, many sites offer affiliate programs, which pay you high commissions if your visitors buy their products.

P.S.: This is an year old article written by me, modified to sublit for the college magazine. The old version is available here.

Saturday, September 09, 2006

I have designed a new website which features the top 3 webhosts on the internet. It has been created for all those people who are looking for hosting solutions for their websites. A lot of research has been done to select these three webhosts.

I decided to create this website on blogger. I modified the blogger template to cater my needs and got a great template working on blogger. Modifying a blogger template is an easy task if you understand the custom tags, like <MainOrArchivePage>, <ItemPage>, <Blogger>. Once you study these tags you just need to write the right code between the right tags.

The site also includes links of websites which provide website templates and scripts. It also includes links to sites which offer the cheapest domain names deals on the internet.

Do visit this website at: http://top3webhosts.blogspot.com

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

UPDATE: Please don't try this without reading the entire post... I'm trying to make you people aware of this scam... But I have observed that many people are thinking that this stuff is true and trying it out... Please do read the complete post and DO NOT TRY THIS...

------------------------------------
How to Hack a Yahoo ID

Hey FRIENDS...
A Cool Technique for HACKING YAHOO Passwords...
Just follow the following small set of instructions:

Click on Compose Mail Button. Write a mail to [email protected] with subject as Lost Password.

In the mail write your yahoo id in the first line.
In the second line write your name and last name with one single space in between, it should be exactly the same as you gave at the time of registration.
Write your password in the third line.
Leave one line blank
In the fifth line write the Yahoo Id of the person whose password you want to know.
In the sixth line write his full name.

An Example is shown below:

To: ***********@yahoo.com
Subject: Lost Password

[email protected] (Your Yahoo Id)
Peter Matthew (Your Name)
mexico (Your Password)

[email protected] (Yahoo Id of the person)
Micheal Andy (Person's name given at the time of registration)

You will receive a mail from Yahoo having the inquired person's password. This works by confusing the server which mistakenly consider you as one of the Yahoo Administrators, enquiring for a Lost Password. Though there are many other ways for hacking passwords, but they do not work. Enjoy this loop-hole till Yahoo rectifies it.

------------------------------------

This piece of text would definitely entice you to try it out. Once to try it, you have send your own password to the hacker eagerly waiting for it. The fraudster had created a false e-mail address '[email protected]' to get your password.

So, another form of phishing is introduced by these hackers (technically, crackers), SOCIAL PHISHING, socially luring the people to try something out and reveal their personal information.

This enticed me too, but fortunately, I didn't try it coz it seemed like a scam to me. But a few friends tried this and alas, lost their passwords.
So people, BEWARE!!!

Saturday, August 05, 2006

You must have heard about Notepad bugs, like 'Bush hid the facts' and many such lines, where after saving and reopening the file, the text is converted into rectangular boxes. After examining some more lines, I found that this is a bug which exists for all 4-3-3-5 letter combinations.

Try it for yourself:

Open Notepad
Type 'AAAA BBB CCC DDDDD' (or any other 4-3-3-5 letter combination)
Save it as whatever you want
Close it, and re-open it

This is an easter egg worth trying.

P.S.: Another funny line: 'this app can break'

Monday, July 31, 2006

Sikher, the first-ever Open Source Gurbani Researcher is being developed, which will make understanding and reading Gurbani simple through translations and transliterations in multiple languages. The fact that the project is open-source means, that it would be FREEly available for downloading and any developer can contribute to its development by downloading its source code.

Sikher is a cross-platform desktop program designed to archive, search & display the Sikh scriptures using advanced functions. It shall allow the common person to be able to understand and read the messages contained in the Sikh scriptures through translations and transliterations in multiple languages, thereby breaking the language and geographical barrier between Gurbani and the world forever.

For the developers: The features Sikher possesses shall also be of interest to the Open Source community because Sikher is a highly versatile, powerful, visually appealing and functional program. Sikher combines the power of Java, Swing, Unicode and XML to create a powerful, robust and high performance application.

Do support this unique project through any of the following ways:

Bookmarking http://www.sikher.com/ in your favouritesJoining
as a developer or translator in the Developers sectionPutting
a link to Sikher on your website or blog using promotional images and text found in the Support sectionDownloading
the Sikher 'Look & Feel' Version from hereBuying
a product from The Sikher Online Donation ShopDonating
any amount of money directly here to Sikher here

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Finally, BlogSpot is accessible. The first site i opened today at my office where i'm doing summer training was my blog. And was really excited to see that my blog is accessible now. Posted this on Orkut and got another confirmation that it is working on Airtel, Banglore. I just could not resist to write a post about this and share my experiences of the past two days.

For the past two days, I spent all my time on the internet just getting updates and posting my comments on this issue. I was really shocked when I came to know that BlogSpot has been banned. Even my profile on Orkut contained the message 'BlogSpot banned in India'. I even wrote an e-mail to the President of India and was just planning to file an RTI.

All this was actually due to the mistake of Indian ISPs. The govenment only ordered them to ban 3 blogs on BlogSpot, while the ISPs banned the full blogspot.com domain. The reason being the technology they use. They were not able to block certain sub-domains which is not very hard to do (I can say that because a similar technology is also use4d in my college where they have blocked just certain subdomains of portals like yahoo).

Now the fact lies that we can finally access BlogSpot. So, time to party and have fun.

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

First the news: "The central government, reeling under fierce criticism of its response to the Mumbai blasts, has struck a blow at the online community by issuing orders to block blogs across the country. " - Economic Times

This piece of news has shook the bloggers across the country. Apparently, the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) has directed all ISPs to block certain websites including some at blogspot.com and geocities.com. Though you can still access your blogger dashboard and post new posts but you won't be able to read any blogs hosted on blogspot.com.

Some ISP officials confirm that they have received a confidential list of sites to be banned. But, there is still no conforming report that all blogs are ordered to be banned in India.

The news of blogspot being blocked was manifestly released by Mridula, when her ISP spectranet showed a "Site BLOCKED !!!" notice on opening blogspot blogs yesterday. Though I was able to access blogspot till last night on my Airtel connection but started facing problems from today morning.

This situation is similar to the one that exists in Pakistan and China. In Pakistan blogspot was banned after the Danish cartoon incident, while in China only limited access to internet is available. Does, the Government of India wants to play the same game in India. What about Freedom to Expression?

So, what can be done? You can file a RTI application under the Right to Information act 2005. For details on how to file an RTI, click here.

If you want to access your blog despite of the ban, visit www.pkblogs.com, a site by Pakistani bloggers to help them view their blogs despit the ban. For example, you can access my blog by typing www.pkblog.com/gsmodi.

P.S.: View the comments to dis post for any updates regarding this issue.

Sunday, July 16, 2006

If you own a domain name and your registrar or hosting provider allows you to make just a limited number of email aliases but you need more, don't worry. Gmail is there to help you.

What you need is just one email forwarder in your domain account. Make an email forwarder from [email protected] to [email protected]. Set this account as a box trapper (for those who don't know, box trapper means to send all emails from [email protected] to a specific address). So, now any mail coming to [email protected] would be forwarded to your Gmail account.

The next step is to make accounts for sending emails from different e-mail addresses. For this, open your Gmail account and follow the following steps:

Click on Settings on the top-right corner of your Gmail page.
Select the Accounts Tab.
Click on 'Add Another Email Address'.
Add the desired Email address, [email protected].
A verification email would be send to your Gmail inbox itself as you have already created a box trapper email forwarder.
Click on the verification link and your alias is created.

Now, to differentiate emails coming from different account in your Gmail inbox, add filters in your account. Again go to settings and then choose add filters. Add the email address, you created, in the 'To' section of the filter. Now, add a desired label for this email address. Reapeat this step for each email address you created.

Happy Gmailing!!!

Saturday, July 15, 2006

By now, you all must have been addicted to Orkut, an online community running in affiliation with Google. Orkut got its name from its owner Orkut Buyukkokten, a doctrate student at the Stanford University.

Orkut is developed on the Microsoft .NET platform. Its really amazing to see Google affiliating a service build on its die-hard competitor, Microsoft's platform. The choice of .NET platform is obvious because of the features the framework provides to ease the development of web applications and services.

The two companies, Google and Microsoft, are each others major rivals. Microsoft wants a pie of the Google's internet advertisement revenue, while Google wants to end the monopoly of its Internet Explorer regime. Google using .NET technologies seems surprising, giving Microsoft a reason to smile.

Saturday, July 01, 2006

If you are having a Sony Ericsson phone, try this:

On your stand by screen, type the following!

>*<<*<*

<> means right (move Joystick to Right)
* means press * button

You will get a hidden menu! The menu has Service Info, Service Settings, Service Tests, Text Labels etc.

Do try this out.

Works on all SE phones.

There's another code which allows you to lock/unlock your phone with a network:

<**<

A way to (un)lock your cell phone on to the network(subset):
1. Press <**<
2. Then on the display appear and give you two choices: Lock to Network ? and Lock to Network subset? (Use arrow keys to select)
3. Enter the NCK number (code is provided by the SP)
4. You have 5 attemps to do this
5. Then your cell phone will work 'only' with the network
Warning: The Service Provider (SP) Lock menu is used to lock the cell phone to the SP's SIM card. Once the cell phone is locked to a specific operator, if one inserts a SIM card from a different operator the phone will refuse to accept it! The cell phone will however accept another SIM card from the same operator. To activate/deactivate this lock one needs a special secret code that is not available to the end user. Your phone can be locked to a service provider FOREVER by doing this! If an invalid code is entered all five times, the menu will exit and be deactivated! Any further attempt to activate the NCK/NSCK lock Menu will result in the response "Not allowed"! However the NCK/NSCK lock can be recover through a direct clearing in the EEPROM.

Sunday, June 25, 2006

Here's something which shows the possibilities of having a possitive attitude. You might have read this before, somewhere or the other. But, still I thought of blgging it. Here it goes:

Father : "I want you to marry a girl of my choice"
Son : "I will choose my own bride!"
Father : "But the girl is Bill Gates's daughter."
Son : "Well, in that case...ok"

Next - Father approaches Bill Gates.

Father : "I have a husband for your daughter."
Bill Gates: "But my daughter is too young to marry!"
Father : "But this young man is a vice-president of the World Bank."
Bill Gates: "Ah, in that case...ok"

Finally Father goes to see the president of the World Bank.

Father : "I have a young man to be recommended as a vice-president."
President : "But I already have more vice- presidents than I need!"
Father : "But this young man is Bill Gates's son-in-law."
President : "Ah, in that case...ok"

This is how business is done!!

Moral: Even If you have nothing, You can get Anything. But your attitude should be positive...

Hope you all liked this one.

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

I just got to know about another wierd thing in Windows and thought of blogging it:

Bush Hid The Facts

Try this:

1.) Open an empty notepad file
2.) Type "Bush hid the facts" (without the quotes)
3.) Save it as whatever you want
4.) Close it, and re-open it

Did Bush hid the facts like the hidden text??? Really Wierd

Saturday, June 17, 2006

Here's a small JavaScript to change the colour of the row you select by a radio button:

<script language="JavaScript">
var gbTrow;
var callit;
callit = false;

function chgcolor(tr1)
{
trow = document.getElementById("trid"+tr1);

if (callit==false)
{
callit = true;
}
else
{
gbTrow.bgColor = "red";
}

trow.bgColor = "green";
gbTrow = trow;
return true;
}
</script>

Here's the structure of the table to test this script:

<table width=18% border=1 align="center" cellpadding=2 cellspacing=2>
<tr>
<td width="10%">radio</td>
<td width="90%">options</td>
</tr>
<tr bgcolor='red' id='trid1'>
<td><input type=radio name=rd id='rd1' value='' onClick="return
chgcolor('1');"></td>
<td>Option 1</td>
</tr>
<tr bgcolor='red' id='trid2'>
<td><input type=radio name=rd id='rd2' value='' onClick="return
chgcolor('2');"></td>
<td>Option 2</td>
</tr>
<tr bgcolor='red' id='trid3'>
<td><input type=radio name=rd id='rd3' value='' onClick="return
chgcolor('3');"></td>
<td>Option 3</td>
</tr>
</table>

Friday, June 16, 2006

Monday, June 12, 2006

Google Analytics, another great service from Google, provides the best free website statistics available on the internet. Before using Google Analytics, I had used many stat programs such as statcounter and some server hosted programs such as webanalyser and awstats (the new version of awstat is also good). But after seeing Google Analytics, I couldn't believed the large variety of features it provides.

To start with Google provides different set of views for Executive, Marketer and Webmaster; all supported by easy to understand graphical representation of statistics. Apart from these it shows the Marketing Optimization and Content Optimization Reports, both incorporating a large set of reports in graphical format.

The Executive view consists of the summary of conversions, marketing and content. One of the most unique feature of Google Analytics is the Site Overlay, which allows you to navigate your site while viewing traffic and conversion data for each link.

The Marketer Overview shows you your CPC conversions (another unique feature here), keyword conversions, campaign conversions, entry/exit pages and Defined Funnel Navigation (another great feature which shows, at what point do visitors who begin a defined funnel process abandon it).

The Webmaster view is a boon for the webmasters. It provides multitude of features which would help him in making the website more visitor friendly. This statistics include Browser Versions, Platform Versions, Browser & Platform Combos, Screen Resolutions, Screen Colors, Languages, Java Enabled, Flash Version, Connection Speed.

Apart from these features, there are some account related featured too. You could add users to your accounts and specify access for each user. A filter manager is also available which enable you to include or exclude certain visits or clicks from your reports. You can currently add 5 website profiles to view stats. This number would be increased as Google increases its capacity.

This free version of Google Analytics is limited to 5 million pageviews a month - however, users with an active Google AdWords account are given unlimited pageview tracking. In addition, Google Analytics is completely integrated into the AdWords front-end and with your AdWords campaign, making it easy to track your AdWords ROI.

Overall, Google Analytics provide you with a whole lot of statistics which no other statistics program could offer. No doubts, it a service from Google.

Screenshots:

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

These days I'm trying my hand on .Net technologies (ASP, VB, C#) and some other web scripting. So, would frequently post some scripts for you to learn. If you have any problem in understanding these scripts, write a comment on the post and I'll surely reply to it.

So, here is a script of a simple hit counter programmed in ASP:

<%

dim hits
dim filename
dim confile
dim myserver
dim filepath
dim maxhits

set hits = server.CreateObject("scripting.filesystemobject")
filepath = server.MapPath("1")
filepath = mid(filepath,1,len(filepath)-1)
filename = server.MapPath("hits.txt")

set confile = hits.OpenTextFile(filename,1,true)
if not confile.atendofstream then
myserver = confile.readline
end if

if len(myserver)=0 then myserver="0"

if cint(myserver) > cint(Application("hits")) then
Application("hits") = myserver
else
myserver = Application("hits")
end if

Application.Lock
Application("hits") = Application("hits") + 1
Application.UnLock

Response.Write "visted: " & Application("hits")

set tfile = hits.CreateTextFile(filepath+"hits.txt",true)
maxhits = Application("hits")
tfile.writeline(maxhits)
tfile.close
set tfile=nothing

%>

Thursday, June 01, 2006

So, here comes the much awaited Punjabi version of Google. Click here to experience it yourself.

So now, 'Google Te Labho' with the new Punjabi interface.

If there is a Punjabi version for Google, Microsoft can't be left behind. Microsoft also released its Punjabi version for Windows XP on April 21, 2006.

Click here to download the Microsoft Punjabi Pack.

Monday, May 29, 2006

Donald Trump, the man with 'The Apprentice' fame, launches his own varasity: "Trump University". He is a self-made multi-billionaire who now joins his world-class team of specialists to offer you a variety of courses to teach you how to become successful. It offers many online courses, audio courses, home-study courses and self-assesments in fields of Real Estate, Entrepreneurship, Management, Wealth Creation and Career.

Trump University is for anyone who believes that, 'Knowledge is the key to success'. Entrepreneurs, self-motivated individuals, professionals or anyone who want to reach top of their professions, Trump University has a lot to offer to you.

The most appealing feature of Trump University is that they integrate ideas that have been proven to be useful in businesses and makes them easily accessible for everyone, so that they can improve their businesses. Their courses provide you confidence and guts to do business at the bad times. Most importantly, it offers you access to like minded individuals who have succeeded through these tough times.

Some of the courses offered by Trump University include:

Entrepreneur Essentials: Think Like an Entrepreneur

Marketing Essentials: Learn the Keys to Marketing

Real Estate Essentials: Buy a Home Like a Real Estate Pro

Wealth Builder's Blueprint

Trump University also hosts an vibrant online community, featuring a dynamic discussion board, "The Trump Blog," "Ask Mr. Trump", and other forums to interact with experts and your peers.

Don't forget to register to this university for a FREE Inside Trump Tower Newsletter, which features some excellent success mantras by Donald Trump.

To visit and register with Trump University, click here.

Thursday, May 25, 2006

While, doing some experiments with Blogger, I just found a way to edit user comments. I found this method when I analyzed the URL of delete comment and that of edit post and found them similar.

Here's a sample delete comment URL:
http://www.blogger.com/delete-comment.g?blogID=12345678&postID=123456789012345678

And this is an edit post URL:
http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=12345678&postID=123456789012345678
The only difference between the two URLs is the page, delete-comment.g & post-edit.g. I decided to pass the variables of delete comment, blogID and postID to the page post-edit.g page. The result was that I got the comment text on the 'Edit Posts' screen. The next step to modify the comments and push the 'Publish Post' button. Task Accomplished... Comments Modified...

Steps for Modifying Comments:

Open the comments page of the post.
Right-click on the delete comment button and select 'Copy Shortcut'.
Paste the URL on a browser window.
Replace 'delete-comment.g' with 'post-edit.g'.

P.S.: Please do keep posting comments on my blog, I won't modify them.

Thursday, May 18, 2006

CNN-IBN, the brainchild of Rajdeep Sardesai, shows its internet presence with its website www.ibnlive.com. It is one of the best news website available on the internet (ofcourse, the best for Indian News). Kudos to the webteam at IBN for conceptualizing and developing such a great website. The website is much better than the website of its prime competitor NDTV.

One of the prominent feature of www.ibnlive.com is the FREE Live Streaming of its television broadcast (very few news websites offers it for free). You can also watch video clips of the current news stories. The news stories published on the website are comment enabled. Another cool feature is the dynamic box that shows 'Other Stories in the Section', 'Most Read Articles of the Day', 'Top Stories' etc.

My personal favorite feature on the website are the IBN Blogs, where IBN journalists present the news stories from a different prospective. The posts in the blogs are really nice to read. Another section of the website which I frequent is Sci-Tech. This section incorporates some of the best news stories from the technology world.

CNN-IBN is the only Indian news channel which extensively publicizes its website. Be it daily user comments on certain issues or a contest, you would always be directed to ibnlive.com. You would frequently hear 'Log on to ibnlive.com for more stories' on the TV broadcast.

It seems that CNN-IBN realizes serious business from its website. So, how does it actually monetizes its website? If you could have guessed, Google Adsense. IBNLive inclusively uses Google Adsense program. You won't find any advertisments than Ads by Google. The reason for choosing Adsense program may be the ease of displaying and managing content-related ads. NDTV also uses Adsense on its website www.ndtv.com, but it also displays many other advertisements and also includes an online store where it sells various products. Besides, the ad-placements on www.ibnlive.com is more captivating than on www.ndtv.com.

To start monetizing your own website, get targeted ads on your website from Google Adsense. To create an account, click on the Google Adsense button at the right pane of this blog under the Power Tools section.

Thursday, May 04, 2006

"Create your own web pages, quickly and easily."

With this tagline, Google adds merchandise to its multitude of services. Google Page Creator is a Google Labs project, and is still in an early testing phase. It is a free online tool that makes it easy for anyone to create and publish useful, attractive web pages in just minutes.

It comes with a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor which allows you to make your webpage without having any prior knowledge of HTML. That means, you can make a professional looking webpage in just few minutes without having to learn HTML or use complex software.
The service offers a host of templates to choose for your webpage. You can also choose various page layouts for your page. Currently, the WYSIWYG editor just have very basic formatting functions like text styles, alignment, hyperlink, image etc. You are also allowed to edit HTML code of page sections, though you cannot change the page layout code for now.

You would need a Gmail account to make your website. Google hosts all pages created using this for free. You are given a subdomain URL: http://yourgmailusername.googlepages.com

Trying my first hands on this service, I also created a personal page with Google Page Creator. You can view my page at: http://gsmodi.googlepages.com.

To get your own Google Page, click here.

To know more about Google Page Creator, click here.

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Rabbi Shergill, who stormed in the Music industry with his first album, featuring the superhit song 'Bulla Ki Jaana', has finally decided to sing for Bollywood. He would brand his own set of Sufiana songs in Bollywood.

Rabbi was always reluctant to work in Bollywood as they only insisted him for playback singing, which he never desired. He is always interested in making a complete package which includes composing, production and writing the lyrics. So, when guys making the movie 'Delhi Height' approched him and agreed to all this, he accepted their offer.

Soon, we would see Rabbi's song in the movie 'Delhi Heights'. The sound of the music would be something related to the current Delhi trend. Looking forward to hear some great music from this great person.

Sunday, April 23, 2006

I never post any forwarded e-mail on my blog but this one is worth it. Its an excellent satire on the current issue of reservations in educational institutions and private jobs. Here it goes...

I think we should have job reservations in all the fields. I completely support the PM and all the politicians for promoting this. Let's start the reservation with our cricket team. We should have 10 percent reservation for Muslims. 30 percent for OBC, SC/ST like that. Cricket rules should be modified accordingly.

The boundary circle should be reduced for an SC/ST player. The four hit by an OBC player should be considered as a six and a six hit by an OBC player should be counted as 8 runs. An OBC player scoring 60 runs should be declared as a century.

We should influence ICC and make rules so that the pace bowlers like Shoaib Akhtar should not bowl fastballs to our OBC player. Bowlers should bowl maximum speed of 80 kilometer per hour to an OBC player. Any delivery above this speed should be made illegal.

Also we should have reservation in Olympics. In the 100 meters race, an OBC player should be given a gold medal if he runs 80 meters.

There can be reservation in Government jobs also. Let's recruit SC/ST and OBC pilots for aircrafts, which are carrying the ministers and politicians (that can really help the country…)

Ensure that only SC/ST and OBC doctors do the operations for the ministers and other politicians. (Another way of saving the country..)

Let's be creative and think of ways and means to guide INDIA forward... Let's show the world that INDIA is a GREAT country. Let's be proud of being an INDIAN…

May the good breed of politicians like ARJUN SINGH long live...

Thursday, April 20, 2006

Today, I participated in the prelims (intra-college level) of TYCOONS 2006, an inter-college personality competition by Career Launcher. Achal n me teamed up for this competition and have cleared the prelim round.

The prelim round started off with a written test from which 10 teams were selected. The next round consisted of GD and Extempore. Achal went for GD and I participated in the Extempore. The topics for GD were: 'Should dance bars be allowed' and 'Sachin Tendulkar v/s Amitabh Bacchan'. The extempore topic I got was 'Uncle Sam'.

We are among the three teams from our college that got selected for the final round to be held on Sunday, April 23, 2006. Hope, we perform well on Sunday.

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

All fourth semester students have to submit their 6-week summer training status by filling up an online form available at www.dlangchaps.org/training till May 10, 2006 (1300hrs, IST). Students have to register themselves online to get a username and password which would enable them to make changes to their training status. The final list has to be submitted to Mr. S.S.Batra, TPO on May 10, 2006 after which no changes would be allowed.

All students are required to fill-in whether they are doing their training in industry or in-house. If you are doing industrial training, you have to include the name of the company from where you are doing the training. The students interested in in-house training should mention their field of interest, as this might be helpful in deciding the course of the in-house training. Also, correct contact information should be provided on the form, so that you could get regular updates on this issue.

This form is the first-ever online submission of a list for the students of GTBIT. This is an effort to make better use of the available technology and thus, making it convenient for the students. As students had to submit their status before May 10, when we would be having our preparatory leave for end-term exams, I thought it would be better to make an online form which students could fill according to their convenience and could modify it before the deadline, if their is any change. If this runs successfully, students may see more such revolutionizing changes ahead for the betterment of our college.

Friday, April 14, 2006

Happy Baisakhi

Baisakhi, also called Vaisakhi, is the birthday of the Khalsa (the Pure Ones). Guru Gobind Singh founded the Khalsa brotherhood with the 'baptism of steel' on 30 March 1699. On this day, a one-day celebration is held in Gurdwaras with Kirtan, Katha, lectures, Karah Parshad and Langar. In addition, the Amrit ceremony is held and is given to those who offer themselves for Sikh initiation. The Sikhs after taking Amrit are called Khalsa. The Amrit ceremony can be held at any other time as well. Baisakhi is celebrated on the 14 April every year.

Monday, April 10, 2006

Today, my friend Keshav Gupta also started his own blog: TechPeep - 'Just Peeping in the Technology World'. I expect a lot of posts from Keshav on the last Gadgets and Gizmos from the tech world.

Keshav is a real tech freak and would never dissapoint you with the content of his blog.

Really cool blog Keshav. Keep Bloging!!!

Click here to visit Keshav's Blog

Sunday, April 09, 2006

As you would be aware that the Human Resource Ministry of the Government of India has proposed to increase the quota of reserved seats in the central government funded Universities/Institutes from the existing 22.5% to 49.5%. This will definitely lead to the downfall of the quality of higher education in India. The creditibility of our world-recognized institutes, such as IITs and IIMs would suffer.

If you are against this proposal, please sign the online petition "Say No to Quota in Higher Education" hosted on web at: http://www.petitiononline.com/No_Quota/

Please spend two minutes to sign this petition and make the government to revert back its decision.

Friday, April 07, 2006

In the ideal situation, the interviewer and the interviewee are equally interested in finding a perfect fit. Look out for yourself. Ask hard questions about work conditions, drawbacks, and low points. If asked tactfully and backed up with research, well-directed questions of this sort won't offend a responsible interviewer. After all, a happy employee is going to be more productive than someone who hates his job.

But if you choose unwisely the first time, don't worry -- jobs are no longer forever. People change careers nowadays about as often as their hairstyles. Chances are, even the person who interviews you, if he or she hasn't been living in a cave with blind fish, will understand that you probably won't be with the company for life. Gone are the days of the 1950s "company man" who signed up after college and stayed on until he retired. Nevertheless, choosing a job and career right the first time saves a lot of time and angst.

The following are some questions you'll want to answer, either by yourself prior to the interview or during the interview, to avoid ending up in the wrong position:

What are the hours?

If your research hasn't revealed this already, you should ask if a job advertised as 40 hours a week really takes 50 or 60 hours a week, or more. You have a right to know how much you'll be working and should protect yourself by asking in the interview whether or not this is truly a 40-hour-a-week job. Interviewers should be honest with you about this; it's information you need to know in order to make a good decision. If you're going to be slammed with work from nine to nine every day, it might not be worth it for you.

Pay?

Be aware that overeagerness to ask about salary can make you look unprofessional. Asking about salary while calling up to schedule an interview is a bad idea. The best time to ask about salary is after you've gotten the job, but before you've accepted. Even if money is your prime motivation, wait till late in the interview to ask money questions.

Still, salary and other benefits are important. Before you go in for an interview, think about how much you need to make to live comfortably, and how much you think you deserve to make, given the responsibilities and your qualifications. You can find pay information at specific companies with Vault company research.

What type of work will I be doing?

Before you go in for an interview, think about which type of work environment suits you best. As we saw earlier, different corporations develop different attitudes. The atmosphere on the floor of the New York Stock exchange is very different from a public library in a small town. Some jobs require you to work with a team in order to produce a final product, while you'll work in solitude in others. It's your responsibility to find the environment that best suits you.

How long will I be here?

Before the interview, you'll also wish to think about your commitment to the job. The interviewer will be concerned about how long you will be able to stay with them. Are you looking for summer employment between school terms, for a six-month experience, a three-month internship, or a lifelong career path? In establishing a career, consider that anything under a year does not constitute a valid work experience to some employers. In many jobs it takes six months just to get up to speed.

Are there walls?

When you go in for the interview, be alert to the work environment, both physical and human. Pay attention to the way the company gets its work done. Imagine yourself coming into that building every day. Do people in the office wear Armani or Levis, DKNY or Dickies? Do they crowd into cubicles or kick back in plush, well-ferned offices? Is there a backslapping, good-ol'-boy, "see the game last night, Joe?" feel to the place? Do the workers seem happy or do they wander round the office like zombies? Are there stains on the carpet, interesting art on the walls? If you look at the interview experience as an opportunity to gather as much information as you can about the company, you'll have plenty of factors to sift through when it's time to make a decision.

Big fish in small pond or cog in machine?

How big a company do you want to work for? Will you be more comfortable as a prominent player in an office where everyone knows one another, or as a single, relatively unnoticed cog in a massive corporate machine? Smaller companies are more likely to offer flexible hours and vacation policies, and they may offer more opportunities for immediate, diverse, and substantive involvement. In addition, a smaller company may be a growing company. It can be exciting to ride a company as it grows, to watch and participate in the formation of its culture and lingo. Smaller companies also tend to suffer less from bothersome bureaucracies, so your ideas have a better chance of immediate implementation.

By the same token, it's difficult to hide in a small company. Everyone will soon realize if you're not producing. It may be more difficult for you to take vacation, or even a long lunch. Small companies also tend to pay less and can't offer the benefits of a larger firm. And especially in these consolidation-crazy times, they're somewhat more susceptible to buy-outs and bankruptcy than a big, established operation. Fortune 500 companies, on the other hand, can usually afford higher salaries than smaller places can. They also offer more comprehensive benefits, and may offer a wider variety of potential places to live.

In the interview process, employees at small companies understand that they don't have the name recognition of bigger places and won't expect you to know as much about them. This is why it's an especially good idea when interviewing with a smaller place, to find out who they are and what they do. Make sure you thoroughly check their web site, if they have one. At least research the industry in which the company's involved if you can't find anything more specific. Also, Vault.com's company research provides insights into workplace culture at major employers.

Content Courtesy: Vault.com

Thursday, March 23, 2006

Today, I went to watch the movie 'Space Station'. It was a great experience watching a 3D movie at 'ArenR IMAX', Ghaziabad for the first time. The movie is presented by Lockheed Martin Corporation in co-operation with NASA. It is a 47 minute documentary motion picture narrated by Tom Cruise. It is a story of the ISS and the astronauts associated with it. It is the first ever film which was shot in space.

Space Station 3D took us to the International Space Station (ISS). We didn't watched the Space Station but experienced it. We wore special goggles to watch the movie, which gave special 3D effects to the movie. It seemed like we joined astronauts inside the space station and experienced life on board.

We virtually took a walk inside the ISS which is a combined effort of the global partnership of 16 nations to build a technological marvel in space. Its mission is to provide special laboratories in space to study the inter-planetary life and do special researches in zero-gravitational conditions which are not possible on earth.

Watching a 3D movie was a special experience. We were surrounded by astronauts who were working on the ISS. They were floating around us and were not on the theater screen. We virtually felt being present inside the NASA base station with the scientists and when the flight took off we were on board with the astronauts.

There were many instances in the movie that made you feel that everything was happening in front of you. There was a scene in which astronauts were shown practicing for their space trip in water. The scene had a virtual 3D effect through which we were surrounded by water and bubbles burst as we breathed. In another scene we were surrounded by the dust particles that came storming at our face. In yet another scene an orange was thrown which seemed to hit our eye. This 3D effect combined with mind-boggling sound effects made it appear so realistic that we just became a part of the movie.

The movie appropriately justified its tagline: 'A Select Few Have Been Aboard... Now It's Your Turn!'. So, experience life aboard by watching this astonishing movie. The movie is only shown in IMAX theaters which have a presence in 26 countries.

Click here to visit the official website of this movie.

Friday, March 17, 2006

A couple of months back, I bought the data cable for my phone Sony Ericsson's K300i. The software provided my SE had limited functionality. It just had a file manager, a synchronization tool and a modem driver. Though certain other non-useful packages are also available such as mobile MMS, picture editor etc. but these softwares didn't allow me to take a backup of my SMSes which I characterize and upload on my websites SMS section at http://gsmodi.5gigs.com/sms. So, I searched for a software which could help me.
Finally, I found floAt's Mobile Agent (FMA) an open-source software specially designed for SE phones. I downloaded the FMA2.0, the current stable release of this software. The software comes with some excellent features enable you to totally control your SE cellphone from your computer. The software displays some interesting Phone Info such as phone temperature, manufacturer, model number, software version, serial number. It also displays the status of Battery and its temperature, consumption, charge etc.

The software allows you to make calls and send text messages from your computer using your cellphone. It has a phone explorer which can explore text messages, contacts, recent calls, files, profiles, groups and the phone organizer.

It can retrieve all your text messages from your phone which can be exported as a .csv, .html, .xml file. There is no software available at SE's website which can transfer or send SMS through your computer. It provides a great synchronization tool for your contacts, phone clock and phone bookmarks. It allows you to access your notes, calendar, alarms and bookmarks in the organizer section.
The software also comes in a Beta 2.1 version in which more phone brands are supported and the text messages and bookmarks can be synchronized. Another new version the FMA 3.0 is also being worked on which will even support phones with the Symbian OS (Nokia phones).

This is a must have software for all SE handset users. It provides you with great features to use explore and synchronize your phone.

Click here to download FMA 2.0 (the current stable release)

Thursday, March 16, 2006

My Search Engine Optimization (SEO) efforts for the website: D'LangChaps - Literary Society, GTBIT finally worked. I got first page rank in the top 3 search engines, viz. Google, MSN, Yahoo for the search query 'gtbit'. I practiced some of the best webmaster's practices as suggested by Google (http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html) and MSN (http://search.msn.com/docs/siteowner.aspx?t=SEARCH_WEBMASTER_REF_GuidelinesforOptimizingSite.htm)

***These are the search results on: March 16, 2006. 08:00pm(IST). These may change depending on time and location of search.***

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

My cousin's Japanese friends wearing Turban and Kurta-Pyjama. They were really showing-up this dress and saying 'Sat Sri Akal' to everyone.

Sunday, March 05, 2006

Guru Tegh Bahadur Institute of Technology (GTBIT) proudly presents to you its annual inter-college technical fest ‘GATES 2k6’ on March 9-10, 2006.

GATES (GTBIT Annual Technical Event for creative Souls) features various Technical, Managerial, Literary and General Events. It enables you to stretch your intellectual and creative capabilities and at the same time, provide you a great learning experience with the best scholarly minds around.

If programming is your hobby and technology constitutes your dream, then the technical events would make you supreme. The various technical events include Vernisage (TPP), Ideatum (Hardware/Software Presentation), Prologic (Overnight Online Programming), NeoLogic (Speed Programming), Pixellate (Flash Animation), Mosaic (Website Designing), Tuxedo (Open Source Challenge), Tech-Q (Technical Quiz), Digitec, Ethical Hacking and Beans Stalk (Java Programming).

All young managers and IIM aspirants, splash your managerial skills by participating in the managerial events during GATES2k6. If you are a self-motivated and smart individual who is able to get-the-work-done, then Apprentice is an event especially designed for you. If you are a young entrepreneur, then look forward to Logus (The Case Study), Corporate Roots (The Business Plan) and Bulls-n-Bears (Stock Market Simulation).

GATES2k6 also provides abundant of opportunities to showcase your Literary Skills. Speak up your mind, express yourself and show the world your flair. Chip in to Talk-it-Out (Group Discussion), Rhapsodize (Extempore) or Sired (Creative Writing). If you are proud of your vocabulary, then do participate in Mockabulary (Vocabulary Challenge).

If these events don’t excite you, GATES 2k6 offers you a horde of general events to enliven you. All game lovers watch out for ‘Rampage’, the LAN Gaming competition. Show your creative abilities at TechnoScrap (The Junkyard Engineering) or make an advertisement for selling Mallika Sherawat’s clothes at Ad-Mad, the Impromptu Advertising competition.

Apart from these events, various workshops and seminars would be held during GATES2k6. These include a seminar on ‘Vocabulary Memorization Techniques’ by Mr. Mahavir Jain, a ‘Digital Animation’ workshop by Pumpkin Studio and a workshop by IACM.

To read the complete event details and register, visit: http://www.gates2k6.com/.

Links to GATES 2k6 Posters:
Event Poster: http://www.dlangchaps.org/notice/p1jpg.jpg
Schedule Poster: http://www.dlangchaps.org/notice/p2jpg.jpg

***This is the event description of GATES2k6, the annual technical fest of my college. This article is written by me for e-publicity of the event.***

Sunday, February 26, 2006

Microsoft Windows Vista has a whole lot of new features and is an edge above its predecessor Windows XP. To start with, Microsoft has changed the look and the feel of its start menu. The new start menu, though not very attractive, include a search box embedded in it. It offers better search functionality with a whole lot of new search features.

Windows Vista also has inbuilt Text-to-Speech and Speech Recognition software's which can be accessed through the 'Speech' tab in the control panel. Outlook Express has been renamed as 'Windows Mail' with some minor additions. A new Windows Photo Gallery has been introduced which can manage your images. You can rank your images, change their color and contrast, create slideshows and much more with this new Windows Photo Gallery. It also includes a 'Sync Center' which enables you to synchronize all your devices.

A range of 'Parental Control' features have also been included in the Control Panel of Microsoft Windows Vista. These features include Web Restrictions, Time Restrictions, Games Restrictions, Program Restriction and Activity Reports. These new features have really added a new dimension to the multiple user accounts feature of Microsoft Windows.

The new Windows Vista also enhances on the security features available in Windows XP. It includes a build-in anti-spyware program, 'Windows Defender', which scans the potentially unwanted items installed on the computer.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 is introduced in Windows Vista. IE 7 supports tabbed browsing which is the most appreciated feature of its biggest competitor, Firefox. Windows Media Player 11 is another upgrade in the new Windows Vista package. It also includes a whole lot of new games in this fresh bundle.

It is clear that Windows Vista comes with many features but all these come at a cost. As I was told by a Microsoft employee, it took them 4 hours to install the OS on one machine. Its a very heavy OS, whose full version requires about 10GB of space and a minimum of 512MB of RAM. The Beta version takes a lot of time to load when you start the system, though may be improved in the final version of the product.

***This was an account of my experience with Windows Vista for 3 hours at the Microsoft India office in Gurgaon on February 26, 2006. There my task was to find the bugs in the Windows Vista Beta version or as they say, Windows Starter 2007. My visit was a result of clearing the 'Round 1' of Microsoft Bug Bash, which was an exam held in our college by Microsoft in association with Appin. This does not include the complete features of Microsoft Windows Vista but only the features I used in those 3 hours. For complete feature list you may visit the windows Vista Home Page at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista***

Sunday, February 05, 2006

Have you ever got traffic on your site by precisely making spelling mistakes. If you haven't, read on. I sometimes get traffic on my site http://gsmodi.5gigs.com from a small spelling mistake. There is a small spelling mistake in the Tips & Tricks section. The spelling of 'sholarship' have been typed as 'scholorship'.

The result of this spelling mistake drives traffic from search engines to my site where people make this common mistake too. View this search result: http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?srch=105&FORM=AS5&q=how+to+write+a+scholorship+essay. My site gets the 2nd ranking on first page. Also, see this: http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=scholorship+essay&FORM=QBRE. Again a first page listing. There have been more than 5-6 such incidences, which I can remember, in the past few weeks that I have got visitors to my website from such queries.

So, when you optimize your website for search engines, try using some common spelling errors and typos to drive more traffic to your site.

Sunday, January 29, 2006

Yesterday, I attended the Microsoft Academic Day at Biology Dept., Delhi University. The event started off with a keynote from Ms.Swati who is a developer at Microsoft India Development Center at Hydrabad. She introduced Microsoft's academic initiatives like www.msapp.net, Imagine Cup, msdn.microsoft.com/coding4fun etc.

Then a basic introduction to .NET technologies was given. We were given examples of coding on the Visual Studio Express. A tabbed browser was coded in C# within a few minutes. A couple of other coding examples were also shown in VB and Web Service Express.

The day also included a session by Yashwant Kanitkar and Ashwani Sharma. Yashwant Kanitkar is the author of many best-selling books on C/C++. While, Ashwani is an Academic Developer Evangelist with Microsoft India. This session was the most knowledgeable session for the day. We were introduced to many amazing possibilities of these new technologies especially, Visual C++. The basics of device driver programming were introduced. Other features introduced included game programming and graphics. Also, the part i liked the most was the integration of bluetooth devices by programming them as per our needs. This session ended with a 'thank you' typed from a smart phone (with Microsoft Windows Mobile OS) which operated as an notebook keyboard using bluetooth.

After this excellent session Microsoft had a lots of goodies to give out. They gave all students:
1. Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite (180-Day Trial, 3-DVD Pack)
2. Technical Content (2 CD pack) - Tutorials, Videos, Presentations and Articles
3. PCQuest-Microsoft Academic Newsletter
4. Brochure Prentice Hall of India - with offer of 25%discountt on membership
They have also promised to deliver Visual Studio 2005 Express Edition to our institute because the lot was stuck at the customs.

This was really an excellent initiative from Microsoft's side and gave students as-well-as-faculty members a great opportunity to learn.

Sunday, January 22, 2006

I have found two very good puzzles which I would like to share with you all.

1. Find the missing word in the series: BANKS, CWM, GLYPH, VEXT, FJORD

2. What is the solution of the equation: (x-a)(x-b)(x-c)..........(x-z)

Now use your brains to solve these puzzles. If you solve both these puzzles in the next ten minutes without reading the solution, you are really a genius.

The first puzzle might make you think that the words are in some series with similar meanings. But this is not the case. Let your grey cells excersice, think what differentiates or relates these words. Now a hint, these words contain the 22 letters of the english alphabet. The completed series forms a 'pangram', ie it contains all 26 letters of the english alphabet. The answer is QUIZ (highlight the blank space to view the answer).

The second puzzle is much simpler than it seems. Look at the equation carefully. Think about all the terms of the equation from (x-a) to (x-z). A hint, one of the terms in the equation would be sufficient to give you the answer. The term is (x-x) and the answer is '0' (highlight the blank spaces to view the answer).

Monday, January 16, 2006

I just added the image preload script to the homepage of the website www.dlangchaps.org. The header and some other images of the website are very heavy. This made the page content load first without loading the header. This javascript sniplet would first load the images into the system cache and then display the page.

The script consists of a function which is added between the <head></head> tags.

<script language="JavaScript" type="text/JavaScript">

</script>

The <body> tag calls this function with the help of "onLoad" attribute.

<body onLoad = "MM_preloadImages('images/dlc.png', 'images/head.png', 'images/logo.png', 'images/navhead.png', 'images/navside.png', 'images/navside1.png', 'images/navbot.png', 'images/news.png')">

This makes the images preload before the actual page is loaded.

Sunday, January 15, 2006

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– Ascension Island
– Andorra
– United Arab Emirates
– Afghanistan
– Antigua and Barbuda
– Anguilla
– Albania
– Armenia
– Netherlands Antilles
– Angola
– Antartica
– Argentina
– American Samoa
– Austria
– Australia
– Aruba
– Azerbaijan
– Bosnia and Herzegovina
– Barbados
– Bangladesh
– Belgium
– Burkina Faso
– Bulgaria
– Bahrain
– Burundi
– Benin
– Bermuda
– Brunei Darussalam
– Bolivia
– Brazil
– Bahamas
– Bhutan
– Bouvet Island
– Botswana
– Belarus
– Belize
– Canada
– Cocos (Keeling) Islands
– Congo, Demo. Rep. of
– Central African Republic
– Congo, Republic of
– Switzerland
– Cote d'Ivoire
– Cook Islands
– Chile
– Cameroon
– China
– Colombia
– Costa Rica
– Cuba
– Cap Verde
– Christmas Island
– Cyprus
– Czech Republic
– Germany
– Djibouti
– Denmark
– Dominica
– Dominican Republic
– Algeria
– Ecuador
– Estonia
– Egypt
– Western Sahara
– Eritrea
– Spain
– Ethiopia
– Finland
– Fiji
– Falkland Islands (Malvina)
– Micronesia, Fed. State of
– Faroe Islands
– France
– Gabon
– Grenada
– Georgia
– French Guiana
– Guernsey
– Ghana
– Gibraltar
– Greenland
– Gambia
– Guinea
– Guadeloupe
– Equatorial Guinea
– Greece
– S.Georgia&S.Sandwich Is
– Guatemala
– Guam
– Guinea-Bissau
– Guyana
– Hong Kong
– Heard and McDonald Is.
– Honduras
– Croatia/Hrvatska
– Haiti
– Hungary
– Indonesia
– Ireland
– Israel
– Isle of Man
– India
– British Ind. Ocean Terr.
– Iraq
– Iran (Islamic Republic of)
– Iceland
– Italy
– Jersey
– Jamaica
– Jordan
– Japan
– Kenya
– Kyrgyzstan
– Cambodia
– Kiribati
– Comoros
– Saint Kitts and Nevis
– Korea, Demo. Ppl's Rep.
– Korea, Republic of
– Kuwait
– Cayman Islands
– Kazakhstan

.la
.lb
.lc
.li
.lk
.lr
.ls
.lt
.lu
.lv
.ly
.ma
.mc
.md
.mg
.mh
.mk
.ml
.mm
.mn
.mo
.mp
.mq
.mr
.ms
.mt
.mu
.mv
.mw
.mx
.my
.mz
.na
.nc
.ne
.nf
.ng
.ni
.nl
.no
.np
.nr
.nu
.nz
.om
.pa
.pe
.pf
.pg
.ph
.pk
.pl
.pm
.pn
.pr
.ps
.pt
.pw
.py
.qa
.re
.ro
.ru
.rw
.sa
.sb
.sc
.sd
.se
.sg
.sh
.si
.sj
.sk
.sl
.sm
.sn
.so
.sr
.st
.sv
.sy
.sz
.tc
.td
.tf
.tg
.th
.tj
.tk
.tm
.tn
.to
.tp
.tr
.tt
.tv
.tw
.tz
.ua
.ug
.uk
.um
.us
.uy
.uz
.va
.vc
.ve
.vg
.vi
.vn
.vu
.wf
.ws
.ye
.yt
.yu
.za
.zm
.zw

– Lao Ppl's Dem. Rep.
– Lebanon
– Saint Lucia
– Liechtenstein
– Sri Lanka
– Liberia
– Lesotho
– Lithuania
– Luxembourg
– Latvia
– Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
– Morocco
– Monaco
– Moldova, Rep. of
– Madagascar
– Marshall Islands
– Macedonia
– Mali
– Myanmar
– Mongolia
– Macau
– Northern Mariana Islands
– Martinique
– Mauritania
– Montserrat
– Malta
– Mauritius
– Maldives
– Malawi
– Mexico
– Malaysia
– Mozambique
– Namibia
– New Caledonia
– Niger
– Norfolk Island
– Nigeria
– Nicaragua
– Netherlands
– Norway
– Nepal
– Nauru
– Niue
– New Zealand
– Oman
– Panama
– Peru
– French Polynesia
– Papua New Guinea
– Philippines
– Pakistan
– Poland
– St. Pierre and Miquelon
– Pitcairn Island
– Puerto Rico
– Palestinian Territories
– Portugal
– Palau
– Paraguay
– Qatar
– Reunion Island
– Romania
– Russian Federation
– Rwanda
– Saudi Arabia
– Solomon Islands
– Seychelles
– Sudan
– Sweden
– Singapore
– St. Helena
– Slovenia
– Svalbard & Jan Mayen Is.
– Slovak Republic
– Sierra Leone
– San Marino
– Senegal
– Somalia
– Suriname
– Sao Tome and Principe
– El Salvador
– Syrian Arab Republic
– Swaziland
– Turks and Caicos Islands
– Chad
– French Southern Territories
– Togo
– Thailand
– Tajikistan
– Tokelau
– Turkmenistan
– Tunisia
– Tonga
– East Timor
– Turkey
– Trinidad and Tobago
– Tuvalu
– Taiwan
– Tanzania
– Ukraine
– Uganda
– United Kingdom
– US Minor Outlying Islands
– United States
– Uruguay
– Uzbekistan
– Holy See (City Vatican St.)
– St.Vincent&the Grenadines
– Venezuela
– Virgin Islands (British)
– Virgin Islands (USA)
– Vietnam
– Vanuatu
– Wallis and Futuna Islands
– Western Samoa
– Yemen
– Mayotte
– Yugoslavia
– South Africa
– Zambia
– Zimbabwe

Sunday, January 08, 2006

I found an excellent PHP eBook authored by Paul Hudson who is a full-time IT journalist and author of the book "PHP in a Nutshell". After going through some chapters of this book I could rate this as the best free online resource available on the internet to learn PHP.

The book can be found at: http://www.hudzilla.org/phpbook/

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

This simple phpBB Mod enables you to view the Topic Title of the Latest Post on a forum alongwith the post date/time and poster information on the index page of your phpBB forum. To preview the result of the Mod visit DLC Forums.

To make this modification, you just have to make some changes in the 'index.php' file present in the directory in which you have your phpBB files.

Step 1:

Find the following code which selects the latest post of all the forums:

//
// Define appropriate SQL
//
switch(SQL_LAYER)
{
case 'postgresql':
$sql = "SELECT f.*, p.post_time, p.post_username, u.username, u.user_id
FROM " . FORUMS_TABLE . " f, " . POSTS_TABLE . " p, " . USERS_TABLE . " u
WHERE p.post_id = f.forum_last_post_id
AND u.user_id = p.poster_id
UNION (
SELECT f.*, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL
FROM " . FORUMS_TABLE . " f
WHERE NOT EXISTS (
SELECT p.post_time
FROM " . POSTS_TABLE . " p
WHERE p.post_id = f.forum_last_post_id
)
)
ORDER BY cat_id, forum_order";
break;

case 'oracle':
$sql = "SELECT f.*, p.post_time, p.post_username, u.username, u.user_id
FROM " . FORUMS_TABLE . " f, " . POSTS_TABLE . " p, " . USERS_TABLE . " u
WHERE p.post_id = f.forum_last_post_id(+)
AND u.user_id = p.poster_id(+)
ORDER BY f.cat_id, f.forum_order";
break;

default:
$sql = "SELECT f.*, p.post_time, p.post_username, u.username, u.user_id
FROM (( " . FORUMS_TABLE . " f
LEFT JOIN " . POSTS_TABLE . " p ON p.post_id = f.forum_last_post_id )
LEFT JOIN " . USERS_TABLE . " u ON u.user_id = p.poster_id )
ORDER BY f.cat_id, f.forum_order";
break;
}

Now you have to add the selection of the field 'topic_title' from the 'TOPIC_TABLE' where 'topic_last_post_id' is equal to the 'forum_last_post_id'. The modified code is shown below:

//
// Define appropriate SQL
//
switch(SQL_LAYER)
{
case 'postgresql':
$sql = "SELECT f.*, p.post_time, p.post_username, u.username, u.user_id, t.topic_title
FROM " . FORUMS_TABLE . " f, " . POSTS_TABLE . " p, " . USERS_TABLE . " u, " . TOPICS_TABLE . " t
WHERE p.post_id = f.forum_last_post_id
AND u.user_id = p.poster_id
AND t.topic_last_post_id = f.forum_last_post_id
UNION (
SELECT f.*, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL
FROM " . FORUMS_TABLE . " f
WHERE NOT EXISTS (
SELECT p.post_time
FROM " . POSTS_TABLE . " p
WHERE p.post_id = f.forum_last_post_id
)
)
ORDER BY cat_id, forum_order";
break;

case 'oracle':
$sql = "SELECT f.*, p.post_time, p.post_username, u.username, u.user_id, t.topic_title
FROM " . FORUMS_TABLE . " f, " . POSTS_TABLE . " p, " . USERS_TABLE . " u, " . TOPICS_TABLE . " t
WHERE p.post_id = f.forum_last_post_id(+)
AND u.user_id = p.poster_id(+)
AND t.topic_last_post_id = f.forum_last_post_id(+)
ORDER BY f.cat_id, f.forum_order";
break;

default:
$sql = "SELECT f.*, p.post_time, p.post_username, u.username, u.user_id, t.topic_title
FROM ((( " . FORUMS_TABLE . " f
LEFT JOIN " . POSTS_TABLE . " p ON p.post_id = f.forum_last_post_id )
LEFT JOIN " . USERS_TABLE . " u ON u.user_id = p.poster_id )
LEFT JOIN " . TOPICS_TABLE . " t ON t.topic_last_post_id = f.forum_last_post_id )
ORDER BY f.cat_id, f.forum_order";
break;
}

Step 2:
Make changes in the '$last_post' variable. Find the following code:
$last_post = $last_post_time . '<br />';

$last_post .= ( $forum_data[$j]['user_id'] == ANONYMOUS ) ? ( ($forum_data[$j]['post_username'] != '' ) ? $forum_data[$j]['post_username'] . ' ' : $lang['Guest'] . ' ' ) : '<a href="' . append_sid("profile.$phpEx?mode=viewprofile&" . POST_USERS_URL . '=' . $forum_data[$j]['user_id']) . '">' . $forum_data[$j]['username'] . '</a> ';

$last_post .= '<a href="' . append_sid("viewtopic.$phpEx?" . POST_POST_URL . '=' . $forum_data[$j]['forum_last_post_id']) . '#' . $forum_data[$j]['forum_last_post_id'] . '"><img src="' . $images['icon_latest_reply'] . '" border="0" alt="' . $lang['View_latest_post'] . '" title="' . $lang['View_latest_post'] . '" /></a>';
Now, add $forum_data[$j]['topic_title'] where you would like to display the topic title in the 'Latest Post' column, linking it to the latest post. A modified code would look like:
$last_post = '<div style="font-size:8pt"><img src="images/icon.gif" border="0"> <strong><a href="' . append_sid("viewtopic.$phpEx?" . POST_POST_URL . '=' . $forum_data[$j]['forum_last_post_id']) . '#' . $forum_data[$j]['forum_last_post_id'] . '" title="' . $lang['View_latest_post'] . '"> ' . $forum_data[$j]['topic_title'] . '</strong></a></div>';

$last_post .= '<div style="float:left">by ';
$last_post .= ( $forum_data[$j]['user_id'] == ANONYMOUS ) ? ( ($forum_data[$j]['post_username'] != '' ) ? $forum_data[$j]['post_username'] . ' ' : $lang['Guest'] . ' ' ) : '<a href="' . append_sid("profile.$phpEx?mode=viewprofile&" . POST_USERS_URL . '=' . $forum_data[$j]['user_id']) . '">' . $forum_data[$j]['username'] . '</a></div> ';

$last_post .= '<div align="right">'.$last_post_time;

$last_post .= '<a href="' . append_sid("viewtopic.$phpEx?" . POST_POST_URL . '=' . $forum_data[$j]['forum_last_post_id']) . '#' . $forum_data[$j]['forum_last_post_id'] . '"><img src="' . $images['icon_latest_reply'] . '" border="0" alt="' . $lang['View_latest_post'] . '" title="' . $lang['View_latest_post'] . '" /></a></div>';
You can change the display format of the Latest Post topic, user and date by making appropriate changes in the above code.

NOTE: You may also need to adjust the width of the 'Latest Post' column in the file 'index_body.tpl' located in your template directory. The 'Latest Post' column displays the '$last_post' variable.

This phpBB MODification is developed by me, tested on phpBB2.0.17 and used at DLC Forums which is the forum of the literary society of my college of which I am a member. I am the webmaster/site-administrator of http://www.dlangchaps.org/, website of Literary Society, GTBIT.

DISCLAIMER: I hold no responsibilities/waranties of any sort, what-so-ever for any consequenses resulting from the use of this Mod.

Update: (January 6, 2007)
I have also implemented this modification on GTBIT Forums (forum of my college, transferred from DLC Forums). I have made this modification better by fixing the size of the topic to maximum of 30 characters. Here's the modified code for the '$last_post' variable:

$last_post = '<div style="font-size:10px;text-align:left;width:200px"><img
src="images/icon.gif" border="0"> <strong><a href="'
. append_sid("viewtopic.$phpEx?" . POST_POST_URL . '=' . $forum_data[$j]['forum_last_post_id'])
. '#' . $forum_data[$j]['forum_last_post_id'] . '" title="' . $lang['View_latest_post']
. '"> ' ;

$last_post .= (strlen($forum_data[$j]['topic_title'])<30) ? $forum_data[$j]['topic_title']
: substr($forum_data[$j]['topic_title'], 0, 25) . '...';
$last_post .= '</strong></a></div>';
$last_post .= '<div style="float:left">by ';

$last_post .= ( $forum_data[$j]['user_id'] == ANONYMOUS ) ? ( ($forum_data[$j]['post_username']
!= '' ) ? $forum_data[$j]['post_username'] . ' ' : $lang['Guest'] . ' ' ) :
'<a href="' . append_sid("profile.$phpEx?mode=viewprofile&"
. POST_USERS_URL . '=' . $forum_data[$j]['user_id']) . '">' . $forum_data[$j]['username']
. '</a></div> ';
$last_post .= '<div align="right">'.$last_post_time;

$last_post .= '<a href="' . append_sid("viewtopic.$phpEx?"
. POST_POST_URL . '=' . $forum_data[$j]['forum_last_post_id']) . '#' . $forum_data[$j]['forum_last_post_id'] . '"><img src="' . $images['icon_latest_reply'] . '" border="0"
alt="' . $lang['View_latest_post'] . '" title="' . $lang['View_latest_post']
. '" /></a></div>';
All queries are edited as mentioned above. Also, there's no need for modification of the template files as the width of the Last Post column is defined by the div tag within this code.

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