Priyanka Writing

Firefox Birthday Time

2009-11-09T17:21:00.005+05:30

Mozilla Firefox was first launched today in 2004, since then it has really changed the way we browse the internet. If you are using Internet Explorer, maybe you should check Firefox out! Download for free here.

Interestingly a large number of net users do know what a browser is! Check this you tube video where 50 people in Times Square are asked what a browser is....

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Karmic Koala... its all Karma

2009-11-08T09:21:00.005+05:30

Just upgraded my Ubuntu to Karmic Koala. Upgrade is different from install where I erase everything from the disc and reinstall the new Ubuntu version. In upgrading, the new update system notifier, downloads the necessary files to rehaul the old version to the new Koala version.
The process took around 4+ hours.

I have used Hardy Heron, then Jaunty and now the new Koala. They all have been a pleasant surprise with visible betterments. The invisible betterments I will not know about since, I donot do much below the surface activities (I mean coding and stuff :p).

Some new features with this version of Ubuntu:
- Login screen gives the option to choose the computers language, keyboard style and session. The colours are also different, I like this new Black look!

- Browsing speed of the computer is faster than with the previous versions including windows I think. I can easily get used to this :)

- Hard drive notifications. I am getting a 'hard drive is failing' notification. This is good cause anyway the drive was failing but previous OS's did not give me a notification.

- Wall papers are many and vivid, making it a whole lot more user friendly!

- Music feature:
I don't know whether this was or was not there in the previous version I never noticed it. If I take my cursor next to a mp3 music file a little bubble appears. If I keep my cursor on the bubble, the music starts playing! This playing happens only until the cursor is on the bubble.
Cool!

All in all very happy with the Karma :)

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Twitter brings in more features

2009-11-08T07:08:00.006+05:30

In the last few days Twitter rolled out a bunch of new features. They are not yet available to all. They are being given out slowly to a small number of people and then a few more and so on..

Twitter Lists:
People can now make lists of other tweeple on twitter. It is pretty similar to blog rolls, except here the list is of microblogs. By following a list, you follow all the twitter fellows listed in that particular list.

Twitter List API's are already out. You can display tweets of a list on your website/blog. This is cool. Some examples of blogs that can use this:
-Company blogs could display the list of all company employees who blog.
-A political news blog displaying a list of all politician tweeple

It may seem that for example, a social media blog like mine could feature a social media twitter list. I do not think that would be helpful unless those tweeple tweeted only about social media. Most often a social media list would have personal tweets by those people, so there would be no usefulness in that.

I think the twitter list feature is really useful and is a good addition to the Twitter as a tool, BUT it needs to be used with some deliberation. One clear sign which shows the list is not useful is if nobody wants to 'follow' the list!

Some articles on twitter lists:
5 ways to use twitter list feature (Rohit Bhargava)
10 uses of Twitter lists (Mashable)

Retweet:
Retweeting is now an official Twitter feature rolled out to only a few. There is a retweet feature next to the reply button. Photo and news source is from Mashable.

There is also an option to select whose retweets you want to follow, which is really good! So tweeple, keep a check on the quality of your RT's!

Semi-Auto Refresh:
This feature will show the user how many new tweets have been tweeted since he last refreshed the Twitter web page. So you can take your time and wait for may be 20 tweets and then refresh (cause twitter web page shows 20 twenty tweets at a time). Photo and news source is Mashable who got the pic from @stephromanski.

Slowly Twitter web is becoming usable without help from another API like Twhirl, Tweetdeck, Hootsuite etc...

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Movie: The Fountain

2009-11-06T23:19:00.004+05:30

Just watched The Fountain. Got this CD without knowing any reviews. I thought it might be good since starring in it were Hugh Jackman (Wolverine fame) and Rachel Weisz (The Mummy fame). It turned out to be quite unexpected, I thought it was a time travel or immortal life kind of movie.

There were three different lifetimes of the actors, everytime Hugh is trying to get something done, many questions of Life are raised in a mythical way involving the Tree of Life.

It was very abstract! The narration was quite melodramatic at times, the different life times kept over lapping and influencing each other, making one question whether they are different events occuring at different times or is only one story real and rest are psychological imprints in someones mind or maybe time does overlap.
Maybe what we do (or what we are going to do?) in the future affects us right now.

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eWaste Management: 4 Funky Ways to Reuse CDs

2009-11-06T15:11:00.005+05:30

When CD's came out in the market, they were the new dazzling discs everyone had to have. Many years since they are still one of the most popular ways of watching movies, listening to music and storing data.

Most households have loads of useless CD's lying around. These CD's qualify as eWaste. If you are coming across this term for the first time please read this. Its always a better option to reuse eWaste or give it to an authorized center for recycling. Moreover please do not buy unnecessary CD's cause they are made of plastic and are one of the worst bio hazards.

Some ways you can reuse CD's in your house and make some really funky and unique utility stuff with it!

A Candle Holder: Take some CD's and glue them together as shown in the snap. Make a tray kind of thing out of them. Attach it on top of a wine bottle or any other bottle for that matter. Paint over it with some cool color. You will probably have to use some acrylic paint for it to stay on the CD's and bottle. Read more.

CD Coasters: This is a cool tutorial about how to make CD coasters. It is really simple and I think the results should be good. Take any CD and paste some big, personalized stickers in the middle. In fact I think we can even cover the CD with a colorful paper or cloth! Then put a sticker in the middle... should make a snazzy coaster!
Read more.

CD light catcher: An interesting thing if your room is dull with little outside light coming in. Cut the CD into small bits and string them up with shiny sides facing the light. They will reflect the light thus increasing the brightness of your room.
Read more.

CD clocks: This seems a little kiddish, and hence a very fun thing for kids to work at! It can be a fun activity at their school or a lazy Sunday. Re-useful! Read more.

Let me know anymore ideas or modifications you can come up with. I have been wanting to work on some of these ideas for CD's but have not found the time... maybe soon after the ongoing renovation in my house ends I will be able to do it.

I find eWaste a very serious matter. These electronic discards lie in the dump oozing toxic chemicals and releasing poisonous gases when heated. They are a threat to the health of any people who come across them. Please take interest about what is happening with eWaste in your area!

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Knee-Jerk reaction to handle a verbal attack

2009-11-05T16:34:00.003+05:30

Have not been able to write too many blog posts on #communication due to work, brothers marriage and some other responsibilities! its actually a lot easier to jot something down about social media. Communication blog posts need me to take time out and really think.

I recently read an article I thought I should share with you all. This article is from Harvard Business Blogs, which by the way are a place for some good and thought provoking articles! It talks about being at the end of a verbal attack and how to make the best of it.

http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/bregman/2009/10/the-martial-art-of-difficult-c.html

What do you think? Do you have any ways you deal with such situations?

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TED India

2009-11-04T16:10:00.003+05:30

TED - As its website puts it "Riveting talks given by Remarkable people". TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design.

TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design.

The first such conference in South Asia is happening from today at the Infosys campus in Mysore. Check out the speakers (Many impressive names, some are a surprise)!

To follow this event on;
Webcast:
Live Webcast, sponsored by the TOI group is available at http://www.ted.indiatimes.com (Really waiting for it to begin!)

Twitter
Follow @TedIndia @TEDnews and there should be lot of live tweeting by the tweeters at the conference so listen to the #TEDIndia tweets. You can subscribe to it here.

Facebook : Become a Fan of the TED page!

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Making the Horse drink the Water

2009-11-03T20:01:00.004+05:30

Some time back, maybe a month ago one of our volunteers at our street school had an unpleasant incident with some of the parents. They called her under a false pretext that one of the kids had, had an accident. When she did reach there, they surrounded her and verbally abused, threatened her for many long minutes. Their mannerisms were one step away from physical abuse. It was shocking, because she is one of the people who is most involved with these parents lives. She visits them in hospitals, arranges doctor meetings, listens to their grievances and of course helps out with the kids a lot!

One of the street guys died from AIDS, despite all our attempts at getting him to take some medicines and get hospitalized. Unbelievably his wife keeps muttering that we did nothing for him!

Due to all such incidents often volunteers working with these people become cynical cause these people do not have the necessary mentality or discipline needed to bring CHANGE in their lives.

The horse can be taken to the water, but how can it be made to drink?

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Social media for Startups: Metrics and Measurability

2009-11-01T20:05:00.003+05:30

Had a small talk in office, last Friday about web security including XSS and MySQL injections. Later we watched a video by Dave McClure on startups. It included a fair bit of ideas and tips for social media usage. What I really liked and agreed with was that social media usage for businesses does not end at marketing, generating content etc.. it includes metrics and measurabilities.

I have been hearing many ideas around the web that social media is something that any kid in college can pick up. Many people think its not a REAL job. This is not really true, because using social media for businesses includes not just using the platforms to push your content. I should mention that generating good content is not as easy as it might seem! Moreover it includes measurability, analysis, tracking and then strategizing. These things are fairly technical making this job like any other!

Start-up Metrics that Matter by Dave McClure from Carsonified on Vimeo.

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Wave: A comprehensive tool for online communications

2009-11-01T10:37:00.000+05:30

Recently I used Google Wave for something kinda useful other than chatting, playing sudoku and hangman. We along with other wavers made a wave for a tweetup! If you see the snapshots below...

First we put a poll for those that are coming for the Kalaghoda Festival and Rs 9/- Gelato tweetup. Then added the Location via Google map...

Then we had some chat conversations about the time, itinerary of the festival etc...

The wave was started by a friend @mehulved, he added me and a few others to it. Then I added lot of my contacts who might come for this tweetup to it. A few others also added people.. so very possible to make things go VIRAL on wave!

Again the setback was that as yet not too many people are on Google Wave, hence we also made a twtvite, which was more popular. This wave was made using very basic apps of maps and poll. As more and more apps get developed I think we should be able to do a lot more interesting stuff with this tool!

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Kalaghoda Festival Again!

2009-10-31T16:59:00.000+05:30

Kalaghoda festival is happening again in Mumbai! In my previous post I have mentioned how much I enjoy these events. Currently the mini festival is going on which is only for couple of days. The area is all festive and bubbly again. I took some videos, when it was just beginning and the stalls were getting set up, do take a look.

I really enjoy this way of recording some of my visual experiences and also sometimes thoughts on them and sharing them with you!

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Google Wave Invites #giving

2009-10-29T17:08:00.000+05:30

I have a few Google Wave invites, whoever wants it can leave their email id as a comment to this post. If there are more comments than invites, then I will choose some of the emails Randomly.

Some things people don't know about Google Wave invites:

-Its not instantaneous like email. When I send out an invite, the email goes to Google and gets lined up there. After a few days Google will send you the invite on my behalf.

-I can send the invite to an email from any domain, but in order to sign up for wave you will have to have a gmail email id.

-Your wave id is the same as your gmail id. So if you want a different wave id, better procure that email id.

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Hilarious Blog (ROTFLMAO): The Onion

2009-10-29T16:04:00.000+05:30

I came across The Onion some time back. I am kinda slow to pick up on different kinds of humor, so it took me a while to actually start appreciating the satire and hilarity of this blog. Here are some of the best articles I could dig up:

Every day of local dad's life an endless attempt to hold on to a good pen
Son you will always remember your first time, cause I am going to film it
Pack of chimps in tuxedos crashes Nobel prize dinner (audio bulletin)

I am amazed how content rich the site is. I can imagine, writing this kind of satirically humorous articles And remaining funny And providing something new would be very difficult!

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Online Marketing Basics #4: Building Relationships

2009-10-28T19:23:00.000+05:30

Once you have your message, product, service out there for people to come across (Online Marketing Tip #1) and you are LISTENING (Online Marketing Tip #2) to other people talking about your brand, industry, cause etc.. Its time to start building relationships.

This is what social media is mostly about - Building Relationships!

- Respond when people talk about your brand. Reply to their blog posts, tweets, mentions etc.. Whether the review is good or bad. If it is bad you can say 'good to get feedback', and surely you can improve your company with the feedback!

- Contact people who are anyway into the kind of stuff you are promoting. Though if you are selling cars, I don't mean anyone who has a car! I do mean people who are tweet-searching for cars, or people who review lot of cars on their blog etc..

- Be a part of various groups on Facebook and LinkedIn. Participate in the group activities. These conversations on relevant groups can often lead to many tangible business opportunities and help you understand the market! Once the members see you as a genuine member, they would be more interested in your service and business too!

- Have an open channel where people can connect with you as a person. Either an open to all Twitter account, or Facebook or blog. This way people can interact with you as a person...

Initially while doing this things may feel slow, nothing much happening.. but keep at it.. soon contacts, opportunities, sales should start trickling in. (Then you don't need to read the 'basic' tips :p).

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Web Working - The Healthy Way

2009-10-26T16:20:00.000+05:30

Presented this at Mumbai Barcamp 6, some simple tips for people who spend long hours on the computer to maintain health.

Laugh
There are people who replace actual laughter with LOL, ROFL etc.. please don't do that! For more refer to my blog post Virtual LOL is not the same as REAL laughter!

Healthy Snacks
Many web workers tend to skip lunch or just 'grab a bite' out of some junk food product. Maintaining some healthy snacks with you at your work table can really help get in some nutritious stuff in your diet!
Some examples:
- Fruits like apples, oranges, bananas
-Dry Fruits
-Nutri bars
-Homemade snacks

Water
Often drinking water gets postponed if the water cooler or fridge is too far from computer. So keep a bottle of water with you at your computer so you don't get dehydrated!

RSI ailments
RSI = Repetitive Strain Injury, Using your wrists a lot every day, all the time, can and is leading to wrist ailments in a large number of web working (also percussionists, typists etc) populace.

A 2008 study showed that 68% of UK workers suffered from some sort of RSI. Read More. (Wikipedia)

One of the common RSI ailments is Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. It does not have any cures so some ways of preventing it from happening.

Eye Exercises
Headaches related to insomnia, eye strain are common for people spending long hours on the web. One simple exercise to relieve eye strain and to exercise its focusing ability is:

Look at far away object for a few seconds then rapidly change the focus to a nearby object and gaze for a few seconds. Do this for objects at different distance and elevation from the eye.
Roll eyeballs in clockwise direction about 10 times and then anti clockwise 10 times.
Keeping face still move the eye ball to the right then to the left, again to the right and then to the left. Do this a number of times.

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Facebook: New Homepage

2009-10-24T12:54:00.000+05:30

Facebook just unleashed some changes to the homepage. I better mention now that I don't like it, cause otherwise my post would get peppered with snide remarks :p

- News feed v/s Live Feed

As the Facebook blog tells the difference between the two:

News Feed
When you log into Facebook, you'll see the most interesting things that happened in the last day in the "News Feed" view. News Feed picks stories that we think you'll enjoy based on a variety of factors including how many friends have liked and commented on it and how likely you are to interact with that story.

Live Feed
Once you've caught up on what you missed, you can click through to "Live Feed" to see what's happening right now. As long as you remain logged into Facebook, you'll continue to see posts and activity from your friends in real-time. You can edit what appears in this view by clicking "Edit Options" at the bottom of the home page.

Basically the Highlights section which used to be on the right hand bar is now majorly the news feed. The live feed on the other hand is EVERYTHING, who friended who, who tagged who, who RSVPed to what event.... phew.. its too much!

-Suggestions
A new section has been added to 'suggestions' tab that is on the upper right hand bar. It suggests 'helping out' your facebook contacts who are not too active on Facebook! I confess I did not like the 'add a friend' suggestion already, now add this feature to it and its just too distracting, with information with little utility.

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Good Ideas come from outside the Group

2009-10-23T10:06:00.000+05:30

A recent NY times article looks deeper into creativity! A research shows that mingling with different groups helps foster innovation and ideas.

"People who live in the intersection of social worlds, are at higher risk of having good ideas." says Ronald S. Burt, a sociologist at the University of Chicago

Read another analysis of Burt's study: Collaborative networks produce better ideas.

The ability to ideate seems directly related to:

- how diverse and heterogeneous your connections are
- how adept you are at transferring info and practices from one group to other
- drawing analogies between the groups different aspects
- combining the similarity of the groups

Such info exchange and socializing would require good communication skills!

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Movie: Making Mr. Right

2009-10-22T22:24:00.000+05:30

Just saw a very funny movie today. A scientist geek, nerd etc called Jeff (John Malkovich).. made an android of himself called Ulysses. This android would be going into space exploration for years. Except that fate brought Dr. Stone who fell in love with Ulysses and vice versa! You might think that this love affair was doomed but think again!

Apparently Ulysses was as human as he could be. Meaning he needed oxygen, food and all other human amenities. Moreover he had sexual abilities and apparently really good ones!

The funniest twist was when it was Jeff that went as Ulysses up into space and Ulysses stayed back with Dr. Stone as Jeff! Ha-Ha... So for the women out there who cannot find the Right guy.. well maybe its machines they need to be looking at! ;p

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Twitterfeed for Facebook

2009-10-21T18:12:00.000+05:30

Twitterfeed has a new feature, publishing to Facebook! This is really good cause I was looking for some such service. Some people suggested using the RSS applications of Facebook, but I never found them to work.

Now it is actually quite easy to feed in your RSS into twitterfeed and let it publish your newest blog posts to Facebook. You can select whether you want the update to go to your profile wall or to a fan page you are admin of.

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Zen Habits - An Amazing Blog

2009-10-21T17:15:00.001+05:30

I have been reading this blog for quite some time and the last few posts have been brilliant! The blogger Leo Babauta calls it a productivity blog. I think its a mix of inspirational, thought provoking and motivational stuff! A good read once in a while to get those priorities right!

Last few posts:
The Breath of God Inspiration Method
Life is Poetry
How to defeat Burnout and stay Motivated

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Aftermaths of my Isha Ashram blog post

2009-10-20T17:04:00.000+05:30

Some thoughts and aftermaths of my blog post about the really harrowing time I had at Isha Yoga Center.

- A day after my blog post, I got a call from Swami Suyagna (the HR monk). This was a surprise! Until now I have gotten absolutely NO communications from their side, despite the fact that I have told many prominent monks that I was very disturbed by their organization. Most told me to forget about it or they insulted me.
(Should we call this power of blogging?)

- The conversation was a disappointment, cause he tried to justify whatever he had done with 'procedure' except that this 'procedure' was not implemented for any other volunteers from cities.
(The only bright side was that I was now able to tell him how nonsensical what he was saying sounded! :p)

- It has also made me think about all the other people with whom I know such stuff has happened in this organization. If they did go public with their experiences maybe the admin would pay more attention (albeit for the wrong reasons), and there may not be another person who is so utterly neglected!

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As Google Wave becomes Usable

2009-10-20T16:09:00.000+05:30

Initially on Google Wave, things felt really bland with barely any friends on it. Moreover it was tough to find a friend who chats with you real time so you can test the features. Now however after the nth rounds of invites having been sent and received it feels a whole lot more populated.

A new useful feature added just a day ago is a green dot next to the profile pics when the people are online. This is good cause now I can have prolonged wave chats with online friends. In case they are offline I can still wave them! (no need for email or a social network)

I also downloaded a plugin for Firefox that lets me know when I have new pending waves. Suddenly Wave seems more usable! I can just keep this plugin on and now I have another more futuristic and modern email box with basic functionalities!

Why Wave cannot be a primary platform as yet!
Still very few people on wave. The ones that are there are mostly techie... what about my non-techie friends?

Nascent stage of many apps like Twitter, Facebook, Blogger etc.. so I still have to use those platforms separately.

In the long run however I think G Wave can become the main platform from where all this happens.

A list of keyboard shortcuts and its extensions and apps for G Wave users.

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Wi-fi in the Air

2009-10-19T22:11:00.000+05:30

Recently I have been coming across many articles about wi-fi access on airplanes.

Right now, Virgin America, United, Delta, American and Southwest are just some of the airlines offering in-flight Wi-Fi as an extra perk (a perk that usually costs about $12 or $13 per flight). (via Mashable)

How abt some free wi-fi in air?

Ad support: One of the ideas is an inflight wi-fi service that is supported via ads!

Mobile media company JiWire and satellite broadband provider Row 44 are teaming up to deliver an in-flight Wi-Fi system that will come to you via advertising support. Read More.

Sponsored: Google and Virgin Atlantic are coming together for the holidays to provide free wi-fi in the latter's flights. This is another good way of enabling some free wi-fi. Surely the sponsor will get some love from the net addicts :p

When will we see wi-fi in Indian flights?

With wi-fi becoming more and more available, the world gets more and more connected! The world is getting flatter...... :)

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Happy Diwali and New Year

2009-10-17T14:42:00.000+05:30

The festival of lights is here in India. Wishing you all very happy diwali days! Monday is the Jain and Hindu new year.. A very happy new year filled with love, joy and happiness!

My rangoli:

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Improv Everywhere

2009-10-16T16:32:00.000+05:30

This a really awesome concept! The company makes hilarious stuff happen in random places! Also in places where they are invited... they have some sort of business concept... but totally froody stuff!

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