Shankee.com

Make google do amazing things

noreply@blogger.com (Shashank Agarwal) — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 10:13:00 +0000

Google Barrel! Just go to Google.com and type "Do a barrel roll", see what happens.

Its pretty amazing thing google did, wonder why they even did this. And it makes me wonder more what else google can do and is hidden from all us.

Other amazing things google does-

tilt
askew
ascii art ( the logo changes)

Search for - " answer to life, the universe, and everything " , you will get an amazing answer.

Search for "recursion" and you get->
"did you mean "recursion""... and click on the new link . I think you get it now.

Seach for "Where is Chuck Norris" and click on the first result. Its hillarious. And for who actually don't know Chuck Norris is Rajnikant of hollywood.

Also try these and hit the first result or "I am feeling lucky" button on search

"Google Goth"
"Google Gravity"
"Google Klingon"
"Google Pirate"
"Who's the Cutest?"
"Ewmew fudd"
"Google Piglatin"

Top 10 Android application for webmaster & developers

noreply@blogger.com (Shashank Agarwal) — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 15:07:00 +0000

There are whole bunch of webmasters who do not use their android smartphone up to its capacity. Generally people use it for posting comments on social networking sites, photos, videos, or to write some tweets. Android is so powerful that if we use it up to the capacity than we can complete most of the daily tasks without any hassle. So, here are the ten best Android apps for webmasters which can help in increasing productivity & creativity. Most of these apps are absolutely free to use, so have fun time blogging with android.

WordPress
This free app is very useful if you want to start writing the posts quickly. It is very simple to set up and you simply require the blog URL, username and password. The app is useful if you want to do some general important things quickly. It is correct that you would not be able to use all the features of WordPress here but if you are able to write and edit the posts, checking all the comments, and examining analytical data than the option is not bad.

Blogger
You can blog on the go with this official free blogger android app. Publish or update posts remotely at your convenience.

GAnalyticz
This app is very handy for webmasters. If they use this app along with WordPress app then they can get beneficial results. It allows checking the stats on the newest posts which can be advantageous. There are a number of GA apps available in the marketplace. One of the examples is ‘GAnalyticz’. The app is free and you can collect almost all the information which you require except blue graph. There are paid apps for it to get the information.

Droidsense
‘DroidSense’ is the app which can give you all the latest information related to Adsense. It has a free version and a paid version. Free version gives the information for last three days and the paid version of $0.99 which is a complete version gives all the latest information.

AndFTP
You can stay connected with the remote server through this app with the protocol. It is SFTP, FTP, SCP, and FTPS user for Android gadgets. You can upload and download through resume support. DSA private key validation support is available along with different languages support. It is a free app.

Adobe Photoshop Express
It is an excellent tool if you want to manage the photos effectively so that you can use it whenever you require. You can adjust the color and apply the affects. Furthermore you can pick and rotate the image according to the necessity. The app is available for free.

Magic Color Picker
You can get a number of color options with this app. You will see that these colors are available in HEX and decimal. The selection of good color combination is required to give an excellent look so you can use this app to get the desired results. It is a free app.

Dolphin Browser
You may have a default web browser on your Android device. However you also know that this browser is not a good option. It does not mean that you cannot complete the task with it. However it is not good in comparison to other available options. The substitute of this default web browser is Dolphin Browser. This option is especially very good for those people who generally use tabbed web browser. You might feel that it is working like Firefox while using it. Navigation is trouble-free here.

PdaNet
This app has two versions. The first version is free while the second is a paid version. Your phone works like a USB tether with this app. It is an excellent option in case you are in a place where you may not find Wi-Fi. Simply connect the phone with laptop and you can enjoy 3G speed while surfing the web. Paid version has more benefits. You can access http protocols easily with it.

View Web Source
Web designers generally require the source code for the web page. Isn’t it? So do not check for anything and use this app to know the exact details. This app is very valuable as you can get the information of source code of whichever web page in a text editor. The analysis of the code is easy. You can change it according to the necessity and prepare notes. Furthermore you can send it through email so that you can check it later on when you need.

Webrank SEO
This app has been developed by ProbCOMB and it is an excellent example to check your site’s SEO stats. It is quick and simple tool for competitive website analysis.

Listen to latest bollywood songs for free " ganeshane.com "

noreply@blogger.com (Shashank Agarwal) — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 18:40:00 +0000

While browsing I just landed on an amazing site , ganeshane.com. This site lets its users listen to latest bollywood songs for free and too for free at no charge at all.

Ganeshane has a huge database of the latest songs and great oldies as well. The interface is nicely designed and lets users browse the site while listening to songs.

The best thing we like about the site is that it has exclusive applications on all three leading smart phones - iPhone, Android and blackberry. So you can create playlists online and then listen them on your phone.

The android and iPhone application for ganeshane are paid. Do tell us if you like the app.

The service has a great potential as they deliver the latest songs and have well managed mobile applications which could definitely cover a huge consumer market.

noreply@blogger.com (Shashank Agarwal) — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 07:54:00 +0000

What are the vedas and what id the origin of vedas ? | What Why How & more... http://ping.fm/CkJeK

Building your own linux with Slax

noreply@blogger.com (Shashank Agarwal) — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 05:42:00 +0000

Linux gives it users the power no other operaring system could, now Slax takes it to the next level by giving you more power to build up your linux from the very basic.

Slax is a linux which is built by the user. Additional software can be added and removed, using Slackware packages and Slax modules. A traditional package manager such as Debian's APT is not required to load additional software.

Slax modules are completely self-contained. Users can also modify the default CD image or USB drive installation to customize the packages available in the distribution on boot. Slax also allows Slackware packages to be converted to Slax modules with the tgz2lzm command.

Like if you want to build a Slax linux which is used for wireless hacking you can make one includig all hacking tools like - Aircrack, Airsnort, madiwifi, wireshart, Kismet etc. Go here to know more.

This makes the whole size of the OS very small as only those modules are included that the user actually wants. The best part os the linux is that you can always add more to it.

A basic Slax linux image is just 200 mb. There are many already customised version available amde by various communities.

You can also go online and add modules to your selection and when done download the OS image. Isnt that just great. So go and create a linux that suits your needs coz 200MB isnt much for an amazing linux.

Download slax here- http://www.slax.org/

Boot from a USB Flash Drive in VirtualBox

noreply@blogger.com (Shashank Agarwal) — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 18:23:00 +0000

Storing the whole OS in a USB pendrive is very easy and saves us from creating and managing cd images. And we can carry our Linux OS with us in a USB pendrive very easily.

So if you want to boot from a USB pendrive from virtualbox or VMware on a windows machine, you can do that by the following tutorial.

1. Download and Install VirtualBox (Install to the default path).

2. Click Start > Run Type diskmgmt.msc and click Ok (In Vista/Win7 use the Start > Search Box)
(1) Locate your USB Disk #
Diskmgmt.msc

3. Open a command prompt
cmd.exe (run as admin in Vista/Win7)

4. Type cd %programfiles%\sun\virtualbox

5. Type the following (replace # with your USB Disk number from step 2)
VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename "%USERPROFILE%"\.VirtualBox\usb.vmdk -rawdisk \\.\PhysicalDrive# -register

6. Start VirtualBox (run as admin in Vista/Win7) and create a New Virtual Machine Create a New Virtual Machine

7. When prompted for a Virtual Hard Disk, tick use existing hard disk and select usb.vmdk Select Existing Virtual Disk usb.vmdk

8. Once you have finished creating your New Virtual Machine, click StartStart VirtualBox

If all goes well, VirtualBox should now be running the Linux version installed on your USB device emulated from within Windows.

Jolicloud - the cloud based Linux

noreply@blogger.com (Shashank Agarwal) — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 11:52:00 +0000

Cloud is the most talked about term in the tech world nowadays, so the opensource guys have released a new cloud-based Linux operating system called as JoliCloud.

It was pretty fun using the OS and it looked quite familiar to Google's Chrome OS. Jolicloud has chrome as default browser and had a lot of cloud based features.

To use Joli you need to have an account or you can even use you facebook and other accounts to login. The inerface was neat and didn't had much applications.

The first screen when you boot from the jolicloud LiveCd.

The start screen looks like this, you can directly boot from the liveCD without having to install anything.

The Login screen, you can also connect using your facebook account.

The login to JoliCloud screen when you use "Connect using facebook option".

The liat of applications already installed in the LiveCd it has Chrome browser, Google Docs but a media player is missing . You can download VLC from the appstore.

The above screen shows the AppStore for JoliCloud. As the Operating System is just launched so it has very few applications for download but we hope the Joli team would add them pretty soon or would implement some opensouce application store to be used by the Jolicloud.

The filemanager of JoliCloud, you can aslo use Box.net and other services to store your documents on the Internet.

The progile on a JoliCloud, the pics and bio were pulled from my facebook account.

The shutdown screen.

Cloud-computing has been hyped a lot but I personally don't like the concept of a cloud-based OS as if there's some problem with the internet i won't be able to access my own system even though if i just want to listen to some music or something else as all my data would be store on cloud and to access that i would need internet.
I am in favor of cloud services such as cloud gaming and other services, but lets see what cloud computing becomes. The real fate of cloub based OS would be determined when Google's deeloped Chrom Operating System is released next year.

Links- JoliCloud.com

search using image

noreply@blogger.com (Shashank Agarwal) — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 10:32:00 +0000

We have always used text to search for content even though when we needed to search an image. we at shankee just wanted to find if their is any way to find if we can do the exact opposite and surprisingly we landed on TinEye that lets users seach using an image.

TinEye is an awesome site that lets you search for a specific image. The homepage asks you to either upload an image or provide the link for the image.

56 million new images have been added to TinEye, bringing thier image database count up to
1,719,139,600.

What can you use the application for?

Tineye is a search engine like no other, rather than searching for words it is an image search engine. Although the concept is nothing new and Google has offered image search for a long time, this one works completely differently. It’s a unique image search engine that searches for images rather than their descriptions. It’s simple to use, you can upload or link to an image on the internet and then search and this will then scour the internet to find the same image. It works very well and will even locate images that have been rotated, altered or cropped. It will even pick up images which have been heavily edited which is a very impressive feat. Tineye is a unique search engine that isn’t just useful but it’s also great fun to play around with.

What is the history and popularity of the application?

TinEye was produced by Idée and launched in May 2008. Idée are also well known for making Idée PixID, and Piximilar both of which are similar ideas to tineye. Most image search engines work by searching for keywords or metadata, this is the first search engine released that searches using image recognition technology.

What are the differences to other applications?

This application is unique because instead of searching for keywords and Meta description information it works by comparing the images using sophisticated image recognition software. This is revolutionary and very impressive.

How does the application look and feel to use?

The application looks very similar to most search engines, however instead of typing in search terms you can either enter a URL of an image or upload one. This doesn’t take long to do; the maximum image size for an upload is 1MB. Once you have either pasted in the URL or uploaded the image then clicking the search button will almost instantly load your results, it’s amazing how quick it really is.

How does the registration process work?

You can use tineye without registering and it can be used exactly like any other search engine, just for images. However if you want to register then it’s free and offers a number of benefits. You will be allowed to try out new and exciting features before everyone else, you will be able to bookmark your search results, you can save searches in your history, and you can also sign up to the newsletter. To register you need to visit the registration page and fill out the form. You will then be sent an email that you need to confirm by clicking on the link.

What does it cost to use the application?

TinEye is currently free to use, adverts appear on the homepage. Bearing in mind the site is still in beta it’s very likely that they will start charging or implement more advertising in the near future. This would be a useful tool to find out if people are using your images without permission, and people would probably pay for it. There is currently a link for advertisers wanting to advertise on the site.

Who would you recommend the application to?

Tineye is a revolutionary search engine that can be used to find images on the internet, rather than searching for descriptions or keywords this compares images using sophisticated technology. It’s ideal for anyone wanting to find out where an image originally comes from, or to make sure that nobody copies images without your permission.

Features

Search for images similar to the one you upload
Revolutionary image recognition software
Quick search results
Finds images that have been cropped edited or rotated.

Link- Tineye.com

Unofficial Google Chrome OS's LiveCd out now

noreply@blogger.com (Shashank Agarwal) — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 15:40:00 +0000

Google and Canonical has been developing a new operating system, previously you needed to build it upon an Ubuntu machine and it was hectic. Recently we spotted the UNOFFICIAL Google Chrome OS. Its not developed by Google but by some other independent developers.

With the Google Chrome OS getting delayed we have another Chrome OS which can be given a tried. It is said to be build on the same rules and framework.

Featured software in Chrome OS:

* GNOME 2.24 desktop environment
* Google Chrome 7.0.517 web browser Updated!
* Google Picasa 2.7 photo manager
* OpenOffice.org 3.0 office suite
* GIMP 2.6 image editor
* Flash Player 10.1 plugin Updated!
* Wine Windows emulator 1.1.9
* and much more!

System requirements of Chrome OS:

* Processor: Intel Pentium, Xeon or newer; AMD Duron, Athlon, Sempron, Opteron or newer
* RAM: min. 256 MB
* Hard disk: min. 1 GB
* Graphics card: supports most modern graphics cards

Download Chrome OS Live CD and give it a try!

Their are options of downloading the OS with a torrent client or just downloading it directly.

Screenshots-

NEW apple ipod nano with multitouch and added features

noreply@blogger.com (Shashank Agarwal) — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 08:30:00 +0000

Apple has been famous with inventing thing other never dreamed about. This time they have done it again with the new iPod nano taking the generation of portable music players to new levels. Apple presents the iPod nano with just a screen but with added features.

The iPod nano is now smaller but cuter. The whole body is just a multitouch screen on one side and the clipper on the other. The nano looks quite promising and is set to rock the world.

Apple says

The Multi-Touch display lets you experience your music in a new way. You Tap to play anything you want to hear. Swipe the Home screen to browse your music by songs, albums, artists, playlists, genres, or composers. You can even rearrange the icons on your Home screen so your music is organized just how you like.Clip on some tunes.

The battery is stated to give an unbelievable 24 hours of nonstop playback.

The music gadget is priced $149 for 8GB memory and $179 for 16GB.

Please comment on the post, suggestions are always welcomed.

Source- http://www.apple.com/ipodnano/

E-learning powered via W3School.com

noreply@blogger.com (Shashank Agarwal) — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 17:33:00 +0000

Are you a tech freak and want an easy and fast way to learn new programming languages. Then w3School.com is the place for you. The site is made exclusively to provide free tutorials and lessons on many different programming languages. The whole website has been constructed to ease the whole tech learning process.

The site is widely used by tech enthusiasts and geeks to add new computer languages to their domain. The website also hosts various quizzes to check your skills and also provides certification against a fee of $95.

The site's content is divided into different categories namely-

HTML & CSS TUTORIALS

* HTML Tutorial
* HTML5 Tutorial
* XHTML Tutorial
* CSS Tutorial
* TCP/IP Tutorial

XML Languages TUTORIALS

* XML Tutorial
* DTD Tutorial
* XML DOM Tutorial
* XSL Tutorial
* XSLT Tutorial
* XSL-FO Tutorial
* XPath Tutorial
* XQuery Tutorial
* XLink Tutorial
* XPointer Tutorial
* Schema Tutorial
* XForms Tutorial

Web Services TUTORIALS

* Web Services Tutorial
* WSDL Tutorial
* SOAP Tutorial
* RSS Tutorial
* RDF Tutorial

Browser Scripting TUTORIALS

* JavaScript Tutorial
* HTML DOM Tutorial
* DHTML Tutorial
* VBScript Tutorial
* AJAX Tutorial
* jQuery Tutorial
* E4X Tutorial

Server Scripting TUTORIALS

* SQL Tutorial
* ASP Tutorial
* ADO Tutorial
* PHP Tutorial
* ASP.NET Tutorial
* .NET Mobile Tutorial

Multimedia TUTORIALS

* Media Tutorial
* SMIL Tutorial
* SVG Tutorial
* Flash Tutorial
* WAP Tutorial
* WMLScript Tutorial

Source- http://www.w3schools.com/

Google will drive your car in future

noreply@blogger.com (Shashank Agarwal) — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 18:08:00 +0000

Google is famous for doing things others never dreamed about. The latest technology that is the outcome of Google's research is the automatic car driving software. This technology emphasizes upon car safety and efficiency.

Larry and Sergey founded Google because they wanted to help solve really big problems using technology.The goal is to help prevent traffic accidents, free up people’s time and reduce carbon emissions by fundamentally changing car use.

So Google developed technology for cars that can drive themselves.Google has made automatic cars that drove well on real world roads. As reported the self-driving cars have logged over 140,000 miles.

The automatic cars use video cameras, radar sensors and a laser range finder to “see” other traffic, as well as detailed maps (which we collect using manually driven vehicles) to navigate the road ahead. This is all made possible by Google’s data centers, which can process the enormous amounts of information gathered by our cars when mapping their terrain.

Google hired engineers from DARPA Challenges, a series of autonomous vehicle races organized by the U.S. Government. Chris Urmson was the technical team leader of the CMU team that won the 2007 Urban Challenge. Mike Montemerlo was the software lead for the Stanford team that won the 2005 Grand Challenge. Also on the team is Anthony Levandowski, who built the world’s first autonomous motorcycle that participated in a DARPA Grand Challenge, and who also built a modified Prius that delivered pizza without a person inside. The work of these and other engineers on the team is on display in the National Museum of American History.

We believe this is a great step at automating our daily chores doing which we waste our time which could be used elsewhere. The tech fulfills the basic criteria for any innovation and that is easing human life.

Source- Googleblog

Happy Indpendence day, Is India Happy really?

noreply@blogger.com (Shashank Agarwal) — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 07:44:00 +0000

15th August 1947 was the day India got its independence from the Britishers. The whole India is celebrating the independence they got years ago. But are we really happy and content with what India is. Here i (Shashank Agarwal) dedicate a post to the country i was born in - "INDIA".

India was the world's most rich and diverse country once. We got the most amazing palaces, food, musicians, painters, jewelery and much more. Banaras (Varanasi) is the oldest (3500 yrs old) city still alive in the world. The biggest one stone structure Rock Cut Temples. The list of Indian wonders is endless.

Some great facts from - a blog about India
Lagadha wrote the first astronomical text in 1300 BC. Baudhayana (800 BC) gave the 'Pythagoras theorem' centuries before the Greek. Panini (400 century BC) has been called the greatest genius who ever lived: his grammar of the Sanskrit language is exhaustive and yet it uses only 4,000 computer program-like rules. Pingala (400 BC) invented the binary number system (counting by 0s and 1s) that, 2,500 years later, turned out to be basic to computer operations.

The astronomers Aryabhata and Bhaskara may be familiar to some from the eponymous spacecrafts of the Indian Space Organization. Aryabhata (500 AD) took the earth to spin on its axis and he described the planet periods with reference to the sun. He also took the solar system to be several hundred million miles across. In all of these things he was ahead of the rest of the world by more than a thousand years. Bhaskara (12th century) was a brilliant mathematician.

The last two names belong to the amazing Kerala school of mathematics and astronomy. Mâdhava (c 1340-1425) and Nîlakantha (c 1444-1545), who made fundamental contributions to power series, calculus and astronomy, are amongst the greatest scientists who have ever lived. Their invention of calculus came two hundred years before Newton and Leibnitz.

Three British historians have recently suggested that Kerala mathematics may have provided key ideas for the scientific revolution in Europe. The need for clocks to keep accurate time on ships became of critical importance after the colonisation of America. There were significant financial rewards for new navigation techniques. These historians argue that information was sought from India due to the prestige of the eleventh century Arabic translations of Indian navigational methods. They suggest that Jesuit missionaries were the intermediaries in the diffusion of Kerala mathematical ideas into Europe.

The main problem with India is we are forgetting our roots, our thousands of years of tradition. China is much more prosperous because they understood that foreigners can bring no good to anyone. China never allowed any trading with not these Britishers until recently.

Here is a small list of India’s stats and figures compared to the rest of the world. Source- Socyberty

The following figures and facts are what I would term as India’s contributions towards the modern world. Many of these facts were attained from various websites such as Nation master, Wikipedia, Encyclopedia, India’s Tourism Ministry and other major sources. See the below figures as what India has compared to the rest of the world in Ranking. The facts are ordered by ranks for your viewing pleasure. All credits go towards their respective sources and towards me and my websites apmastersite.com and 4awindow.com Thank You

The World’s youngest population (under 25) resides in India (1 out of 10 people in India are under 25).

Largest Banana Production in the world.

The largest amount of Acquitted in the world.

Largest police force in the world.

Largest rate of murders per 1000 persons in the world.

The Largest Democracy in the world.

The largest Voter Registration numbers in the world.

The largest share of all the poor people in the world (41%)

Largest number of films produced and the largest Cinema attendance.

The largest number of independent newspaper in circulation and the most read newspapers in the world.

The largest army with regards to the number of Army Personnel.

The country with largest population in 2015.

The Largest non-Islamic and non-Arabic nation with the most amount of Muslim population

Largest contributor of United Nations peacekeepers (55,000 Indian personnel serving in thirty-five nations for peacekeeping)

The Largest percentage of victories in wars (83% victory rate).

The largest film and movie ticket sales

The largest rate of films produced per year

The largest Railroad system in the world

The Most busiest rail system networks in the world transporting 16 Million passengers and over 2 million tons of cargo daily.

The Largest Consumer and Producer of Sugar

The Largest Peninsula in the world

The most effective herbal and traditional medicinal treatment in the world (Ayurvedic, Soukya, Rajah, Homio, and other herbal treatments).

The most populous Democracy in the world.

The only nation that is a “Sub-Continent”

The only nation with the most amount of religions being founded (Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism).

The home to four major religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism).

The country with the most official languages (more than 22 official languages).

The only nation to be called the “Crown Jewel” of the British Empire.

The only semi-independent founding member nation of the Non-Aligned Movement and the United Nations (as part of British India).

The only nation, despite sanctions and criticism, that consistently refused to sign the CTBT and the NPT

In July 2008 The Washington Post reported that nearly a fourth of the 540 Indian Parliament members faced criminal charges, "including human trafficking, immigration rackets, embezzlement, rape and even murder". At state level, things are often worse. In Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections 2002, candidates with criminal records won the majority of seats.

A 2005 study done by Transparency International (TI) in India found that more than 50% of the people had firsthand experience of paying bribe or peddling influence to get a job done in a public office.Taxes and bribes are common between state borders; Transparency International estimates that truckers pay annually $5 billion in bribes.

Officials often steal state property. In Bihar, more than 80% of the subsidized food aid to poor is stolen.

Top 10 political disgraces Source-IndiaToday

1. The Emergency, June 1975-March 1977: It effectively bestowed on Indira Gandhi the power to rule by decree, suspending elections as well as civil liberties, such as the right to free press.
2. Operation Bluestar, June 1984: It was a political disaster and an unprecedented act in Indian history. Its aftermath and the increased tensions led to assaults on the Sikh community in India.
3 The Bofors scandal, 1987-1996: One of the biggest political scams in the country till date, involving Rs 64 crore. It was responsible for Rajiv Gandhi’s defeat in the November 1989 general elections.
4. Demolition of Babri Masjid, December 1992: The date has remained etched as a blot in Indian history.The mosque was destroyed by 15,000 strong Hindu extremists as BJP leaders watched.
5. The JMM Bribery Case, July 1993: The democratic values of the country were put to shame when the then PM P.V. Narasimha Rao was accused of bribing members of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha to vote in his favour in the confidence motion.
6. Fodder Scam, January 1996: The scam involved millions of dollars in alleged fraudulent reimbursements from the treasury of Bihar for fodder, medicines and husbandry supplies for non-existent livestock. It forced Lalu Prasad Yadav, the then CM of the state, to resign.
7. The IC-814 Hijacking, December 1999: IC-814 was hijacked by terrorists and taken to Kandahar. The government was forced to release dreaded terrorists for the passengers.
8. The Arms Bribery Scandal, March 2001: India’s coalition government began to fall apart when video tapes of highly-placed officials taking bribes in arms deals were released in 2001, forcing the then BJP president Bangaru Laxman to resign.
9. Gujarat riots, February-March 2002: The riots were horrific blotches of communal hatred in the country’s secular history.Despite the killings of 254 Hindus and 790 Muslims, the state government chose to sit in a cushy corner, doing nothing to stop the wave of hatred.
10. The vote of no confidence, July 2008: Parliament was adjourned after BJPmembers waved around wads of money, claiming they were offered cash in return for their support.

Initiatives to Fight Corruption

Computerization

Bhoomi is a project jointly funded by the Government of India and the Government of Karnataka to digitize the paper land records and create a software mechanism to control changes to the land registry in Karnataka. The project was designed to eliminate the long-standing problem of inefficiency and corruption.
Introduction of smart cards for vehicle registration and drivers licenses by Karnataka Regional Transport Organization.
Enforcement automation of traffic violations by Bangalore Traffic Police .

Whistleblowers

Whistleblowers play a major role in the fight against corruption. India currently does not have a law to protect whistleblowers, which was highlighted by the assassination of Satyendra Dubey.

Creation of Anti-Corruption lopice and Courts

The India corruption police worked in bribes. Some have called for the Central Government to create an anti-theft law enforcement agency that investigates and prosecutes corruption at all levels of government, including state and local level. Special courts that are more efficient than the traditional Indian courts with traveling judges and law enforcement agents are being proposed. The proposal has not yet been acted upon by the Indian government. Certain states such as Andhra Pradesh (Andhra Pradesh Anti-corruption bureau) and Karnataka (Lokayukta have similar agencies and courts . The creation of a central agency with specialized courts with broad powers, however, is likely to have greater impact in curbing corruption at all levels^[opinion]^{[citation needed]}.

Private sector initiatives

Several new initiatives have come up in the private sector to raise awareness about Corruption related issues and to build anti-corruption platforms. http://5thpillar.org is one such organization that is promoting the use of Zero Rupee Notes to fight corruption by shaming the officials who ask for bribe. Another popular initiative Jaago Re!One Billion Votes from Tata Tea has now changed its focus from voter registration to fighting corruption . nobribe.org is another platform for corruption free India and advocates the use of direct and regular measurement of corruption to force the hands of the leadership into dealing with corruption related issues.

Right To Information Act

The Right to Information Act (2005) and equivalent acts in the states, that require government officials to furnish information requested by citizens or face punitive action, computerization of services and various central and state government acts that established vigilance commissions have considerably reduced corruption or at least have opened up avenues to redress grievances. The 2006 report by Transparency International puts India at the 70th place and states that significant improvements were made by India in reducing corruption.

India is free Indians have their freedom-

Kalmadi uses CWG money wherever he want coz he is free,
Naxalites kill innocent poeple coz they are also free,
Politicians wasting precious house time in useless issues because they are also free,
Police free to receive bribes coz they are free,
Yellow Brigade (VHP) killing people in Gujrat coz they are free,
Doctors free to ask any fee in the name of treatment coz they are also free,
UP CM Mayawati free to spend crores on useless parks and stutues of herself coz she is also free,
......................................the list goes on and on.................
Coz everyone's free to do whatever they want to......

We need to act................
Please leave comments.................

Stephen Hawking- The personality of the week

noreply@blogger.com (Shashank Agarwal) — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 04:22:00 +0000

Stephen William Hawking was born on 8 January 1942 (300 years after the death of Galileo) in Oxford, England. His parents' house was in north London, but during the second world war, Oxford was considered a safer place to have babies. When he was eight, his family moved to St. Albans, a town about 20 miles north of London. At the age of eleven, Stephen went to St. Albans School and then on to University College, Oxford; his father's old college. Stephen wanted to study Mathematics, although his father would have preferred medicine. Mathematics was not available at University College, so he pursued Physics instead. After three years and not very much work, he was awarded a first class honours degree in Natural Science.

Stephen then went on to Cambridge to do research in Cosmology, there being no one working in that area in Oxford at the time. His supervisor was Denis Sciama, although he had hoped to get Fred Hoyle who was working in Cambridge. After gaining his Ph.D. he became first a Research Fellow and later on a Professorial Fellow at Gonville and Caius College. After leaving the Institute of Astronomy in 1973, Stephen came to the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics and since 1979, has held the post of Lucasian Professor of Mathematics. The chair was founded in 1663 with money left in the will of the Reverend Henry Lucas who had been the Member of Parliament for the University. It was first held by Isaac Barrow and then in 1669 by Isaac Newton.

Stephen Hawking has worked on the basic laws which govern the universe. With Roger Penrose he showed that Einstein's General Theory of Relativity implied space and time would have a beginning in the Big Bang and an end in black holes. These results indicated that it was necessary to unify General Relativity with Quantum Theory, the other great Scientific development of the first half of the 20th Century. One consequence of such a unification that he discovered was that black holes should not be completely black, but rather should emit radiation and eventually evaporate and disappear. Another conjecture is that the universe has no edge or boundary in imaginary time. This would imply that the way the universe began was completely determined by the laws of science.

His many publications include The Large Scale Structure of Spacetime with G F R Ellis, General Relativity: An Einstein Centenary Survey, with W Israel, and 300 Years of Gravity, with W Israel. Stephen Hawking has three popular books published; his best seller A Brief History of Time, Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays, and most recently in 2001, The Universe in a Nutshell. There are .pdf and .ps versions of his full publication list.

Professor Hawking has twelve honorary degrees. He was awarded the CBE in 1982, and was made a Companion of Honour in 1989. He is the recipient of many awards, medals and prizes, is a Fellow of The Royal Society and a Member of the US National Academy of Sciences.

Stephen Hawking continues to combine family life (he has three children and one grandchild), and his research into theoretical physics together with an extensive programme of travel and public lectures.

Read more about him at here.

Twitter launching new Tweet Button

noreply@blogger.com (Shashank Agarwal) — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 15:04:00 +0000

According to Mashable Twitter is launching a new type of Tweet Button. The one which would show the no of tweets the link would have been tweeted. There are many similar twitter buttons on the internet, it would be interesting to learn what's new in this one.

There are three versions of the button (110×20, 55×20, 55×63) with five different settings for customization.

Twitter could be directly competing with Tweetmeme, but Mashable think it’s unlikely that Twitter would just spring this product on the world without talking to Tweetmeme first. We believe it’s likely the two companies have a deal, but don’t know what it would look like as of yet.

We have reached out to Twitter for comment. In the meantime though, we have included the documents and the code for embedding Tweet Buttons below. We’ll update this post with more details as the story develops.
Source- http://mashable.com/2010/08/10/twitter-official-share-buttons/

Google to reveal new Android feature tomorrow

noreply@blogger.com (Shashank Agarwal) — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 14:56:00 +0000

Google confirmed that the company will announce a new Android feature tomorrow, August 12, at an event at its company headquarters in Mountain View, Calif.

This is a "small event" that will result in a Google blog post, according to a Google spokesperson, so it's unlikely to be a major announcement like Android 3.0 "Gingerbread." We're more likely to see a new Android feature or application, such as Google Maps Navigation or Google Goggles.

As Android 2.2 is currently rolling out to phones such as the Sprint EVO and Motorola Droid, we may get an update on that progress. Google may also take time to explain their controversial net-neutrality pact with Verizon, where the company abandoned the idea of net neutrality over wireless networks.

PCMag.com will be on the scene and provide a full report.

Paypal's online bank withdrawl live again....

noreply@blogger.com (Shashank Agarwal) — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 08:31:00 +0000

Few days ago Paypal informed that it is closing the option for Online Bank Withdrawl in India. But now that option is turned back on. Please read more for full info.

This is the mail we got from Paypal-

Dear,
We've received good news. You can continue to enjoy electronic withdrawals just as you did before.

While we have received your appreciation for the advanced notice and the refund of the cheque processing fee, we also have heard loud and clear that you highly value the ease-of-use of our electronic withdrawal service. Our customers are our number one priority and we are working tirelessly to improve our service.

Thank you for your patience and in appreciation for your continued support, we will still provide the $5 USD processing fee refund for any cheque withdrawals made from July 29, 2010 until further notice.

For any inquiries, please contact PayPal customer support by logging into your PayPal account and clicking on ‘contact us' at the bottom of the page.
Thank you,
The PayPal Asia Team

This had relieved not just me but thousands of bloggers who earn their living from the Internet. And this also made me realize how important paypal if for all of us. I would sure search for some other alternatives to Paypal in case this thing happens in future as well.

Add Facebook chat to Pidgin

noreply@blogger.com (Shashank Agarwal) — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 10:14:00 +0000

Want to keep in touch with your Facebook friends throughout the day? Here we’ll show you how to easily add Facebook chat to the popular multi-protocol chat client Pidgin.

Facebook has recently added support for XMPP chat, which means you can easily add it to popular chat clients such as Pidgin. Previously you could only add Facebook chat to Pidgin through a plug-in that didn’t always work correctly. Here we’ll walk you through setting up your Facebook account in Pidgin.

Getting Started

First, make sure you have a username for your Facebook account (link below). This is a relatively new feature for Facebook, so if you’ve had your account for a while you may need to choose one.

If you already have one, you should see it listed instead.

Now, open Pidgin, and click Manage Accounts.

Click Add…

Then select XMPP from the Protocol list.

Now, enter your Facebook username without the facebook.com part (e.gyour.facebook.username, not http://www.facebook.com/your.user.name). Then, enter chat.facebook.com for the Domain, and enter your standard Facebook password. You can check the “Remember password” box if you’d like Pidgin to automatically sign in to Facebook chat.

Now, click on the Advanced tab, and uncheck the “Require SSL/TLS” box. Also, make sure the Connect port is 5222. Click Add, and your Facebook account is added to Pidgin.

Now Facebook will show up in your list of accounts, with the usernameyour.facebook.username@chat.facebook.com.

Your Facebook friends will show up directly in your Buddy list, complete with their full name and Facebook profile picture. Any users that are not in a group will show under your standard list, while ones in a Facebook group will be shown in a separate group. You can move which groups your Facebook friends show up in, just like you can with other chat contacts.

And no matter if your friend is logged in on the standard Facebook website or through another chat application, it will work the same as always.

This is a great way to keep in touch with your Facebook friends throughout the day. If you like Facebook chat and already use Pidgin, now you can keep from switching between programs and just chat with all your friends from a central location.

Links:

Download Pidgin

Set your Facebook username

No more online bank withdrwal Paypal in India

noreply@blogger.com (Shashank Agarwal) — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 09:36:00 +0000

Paypal has removed the option to withdraw your funds directly from paypal to your online back account. The only other option is to request for a payment cheque from the online money transaction giant.

Paypal has been landing into a lot of troubles with its operation in India lately. The government of India seem not to like the operation and services provided by Paypal. With Paypal it became very easy for anyone to earn a nice share of money from a personal blog or site and get that sum into their bank account.

Paypal is now shutting down the option to withdraw funds directly to your bank account from your online account. So now to have the funds into your account you can only ask them to issue a cheque to your name which would be charged at an additional fee of US$5.
This is what they mailed us -

Dear Shashank Agarwal,
In accordance with regulatory instructions, we would like to notify you about a change in our withdrawal functionality in India starting on August 1, 2010. At present you can request for either an electronic or cheque withdrawal of funds from your PayPal account if you are an India user.
From July 29, 2010 onwards, you will only be able to request for a cheque withdrawal of funds from your PayPal account.
While we are working hard to restore the electronic withdrawal service, in the meantime, we are bringing this matter to your attention so that you can plan your future withdrawal activities accordingly.
To request for a cheque withdrawal:
Log into your PayPal account, click on 'Withdraw'.
Click on the 'Request a cheque from PayPal' link.
Enter the withdrawal amount and select your mailing address, then click 'Continue'.
Click 'Submit' to confirm your request.
In order to help you with this change and until further notice, we will refund the $5 USD cheque withdrawal fee to you for cheque withdrawals made on July 29, 2010 onwards.
For any questions, please log into your PayPal account and click 'Contact Us' at the bottom of the page.
We apologise for any inconvenience caused from this change in our withdrawal functionality. We will provide ongoing updates to you here. We thank you for your attention and patience as we work tirelessly to resolve this situation as quickly as possible.

Thank you,
The PayPal Asia Team

The worst thing about is that, the minimum amount to request for a cheque is $150 and that's way high for most bloggers. So we hope they fix this soon.

Square turns your phone into a card swipe machine

noreply@blogger.com (Shashank Agarwal) — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 18:55:00 +0000

Square is one the devices that sure is going to ease us all in online shopping. Square promises to make you shop anywhere, anytime on your phone using your credit card.

Square is a small gadget that can be connected to any iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad. The tech gadget lets you swipe your credit/debit card as if you are shopping on a retail store, and lets you pay instantly for the service in the site.

Square works today on the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, Nexus One, and Droid. The might just add support to other tech devices soon.

Square is a great concept that might just revolutionize the way we shop on the internet. But the simpler the technology becomes the easier it becomes for hackers to abuse it. But the software developers at Square are much concerned with this and hence they have further delayed the release of square device.

The different plans for the Square device are shown below-

Features	Square	Others
Merchant account required	None	Yes
Contract required	None	1-2 years
Mobile card reader	Free	$150-$900
Setup	Free	$0-$50
Monthly fee	None	$15-$25
Monthly minimum	None	$25
Card-present (swiped) rate	2.75% + 15¢	2.9% + 30¢
Card-not-present (keyed-in) rate	3.5% + 15¢	2.9% + 30¢

See the video-

Installing Google Android on laptop via LiveCD or USB

noreply@blogger.com (Shashank Agarwal) — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 16:51:00 +0000

Android is the new buzzword geeks are chanting these days. We have seen gadgets ranging from TVs, mobiles, refrigerators, etc based on Android. So i wanted to find and install Google Android on my laptop. Here is what i have found.

First of all let me tell you , google is developing two Operating Systems at the same time one being Android while other is Google Chrome OS. We still don't know why. Microsoft has already said once that it is the biggest mistake that google is doing, But when we saw these two OS except for being based on Linux kernel they were completely different.

I have already written about Google Chrome OS. Please see here-
"Chrome OS" Google's own operating system

So I wanted to install Google Android for it. We came across two ways to use and install Linux. One was using a LiveAndroid while the other was Android x86 Project.

LiveAndroid CD

LiveAndroid is a live CD for Android running on x86 platforms. When you use this live cd you are using Android without making any change or installing anything on your system. The LiveAndroid is hosted on the Google Code site.

Follow the procedure to install LiveAndroid.

You can get LiveAndroid here.

You can also download LiveAndroid using any torrent client here.

The files are split into two. You need to join them using HJSplit.

Now burn these files to a CD that can be used as the Live CD to run the OS.

You can also run the image from a USB, for that use W32DiskImager to copy the image to a USB drive.

On running the image you would see the Android window.

We suggest you to do this using a virtualizaton software. With virtualization software like VMware , VirtualBox or Microsoft Virtual PC, you can run or install LiveAndroid inside windows.

Android x86 Project

Some programmers alternatively made Android-x86 Project. These programmers have built a full android with full applications support.

They have made great easy to use installations, and simplified tutorials for the non-programmers to understand easily. They have wonderful interface, with a huge back-up of android applications. We just loved the interface and look, as we never expected this as such an early stage.

The Android x86 can be downloaded here.
Android x86 project

Here is great tutorial at the project site on how to install the OS.
See the tutorial here- http://www.android-x86.org/documents/installhowto

Android is surely a promising platform for tablet PCs and netbook computers. We find it super touch screen compatible as it is made for laptops and netbooks and have a completely different interface than a desktop computer.

Please do comment on the post, and do tell us how was your experience with installing Android.
For more info see the official Android SDK here - http://www.android.com/

Geeks put flash on iPhone

noreply@blogger.com (Shashank Agarwal) — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 18:32:00 +0000

Despite Steve Jobs's ethical reservations, it's clear that people want Flash on their iPads (or at the very least, developers want to find ways put it there). Recently we saw Smokescreen, a browser plug-in that pulls apart SWF binaries and reassembles them into something Apple-friendly.

Taking a slightly different tack, the kids at the Artefact Group have been working on a service called Flash In A Pinch. Right now, it's but a proof-of-concept, but it's a pretty sweet concept at that: Flash is rendered on Artefact's servers, which streams the images to the user's Safari browser. By placing a Javascript layer on top of the content, the user's touch interactions can be sent back to the server, making the whole megillah fully interactive. At present, the whole affair is a little too slow to use, and as of yet there is no sound, but all in all it's a great start. Video after the break. Hit the source link for more technical details (and yet more videos).

No more windows XP on new laptops after 22nd October

noreply@blogger.com (Shashank Agarwal) — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 18:30:00 +0000

It's easy to lose track of the number of times that Windows XP has been proclaimed dead, but it looks like this particular cut-off date is indeed the real thing -- Microsoft is now reminding OEMs that they'll no longer be able to install Windows XP Home on new netbooks after October 22nd of this year.

The venerable operating system could all but disappear from new netbooks well before then, however, considering that Microsoft itself notes that a full 81% of netbooks sold as of April of this year shipped with some form of Windows 7 pre-installed. There are still some Windows XP-based netbooks floating around out there though, so snap one up while you can if you don't feel like reverting back to the OS yourself.

Adobe's starts new ad campaign - promoting "I love flash"

noreply@blogger.com (Shashank Agarwal) — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 17:21:00 +0000

Adobe has started rolling "I love Flash" Ads on google. I just came across a few of these while surfing the net. On clicking them i cam to a page dedicated to promoting flash. They portrayed flash a choice for creative freedom as against said to bounding developers by Apple.

There has been much fuss created over Flash after Apple officially announced of not using any version of Flash on any of its electronic devices which comprises of the latest iPhone. iPod Touch and iPad.

Apple's CEO Steve Jobs has already done a lot to defame the flash created by Adobe. Blaming it to curbing the creative freedom and productivity of developers. Also they blamed Adobe Flash that it is power hungry and made devices to discharge very early. Also it was blamed of heating up devices.

In return Adobe has started a "we love choice" campaign. This is what they have to say-

At Adobe, we believe that the open flow of creativity, ideas, and information should be limited only by the imagination. Innovation thrives when people are free to choose the technologies that enable them to openly express themselves and access information where and when they want.

Instead of being abandoned by apple, flash is supported by Google. And Google Nexus One was said to support Flash version 10.

The Flash war in on, lets hope Flash gains public support. Well i personally hate Flash being controlled by Adobe. It should be open-sourced, but still love what we can do from flash.

See the adobe campaign here.

Commonwealth Games Delhi 2010 Volunteership programme at Amity university

noreply@blogger.com (Shashank Agarwal) — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 17:06:00 +0000

It appears like Delhi government is doing its best to ensure a successful Commonwealth (CWG) games to be held in October. The training for volunteers has been started from June 9th and today was the second day of which i was a part of. Lets check what the games committee has in store with you.

The training sessions

The training was scheduled to start at 8.30. Those who are using the public transport can use the bus (yellow AMITY university bus). The bus would ferry volunteers from 8 am t0 9 am. Try being a bit early as the first session starts at 9am. The extra time is given you to prepare yourself for the first session. You would be provided with a tea and snacks (mine was potato patties may differ for you).

And also you would be given a CWG notebook and a pencil for making notes. I personally felt the notebook was of no use, and was a pure wastage of paper and money. As no one ever used it for except a few words and in some group exercises. It could have been easily done with a paper.

According to the protocol the volunteers manuals should be provided to you before the commencement of the games but it was handed to us at the end of the session. The manual contains all the information about the sessions and general training.

The first session- The Commomwealth Games

In this session you would be made aware about the history of the games. Also about the history of games and events hosted in India. The volunteers would also be made aware about the sporting events in CWG , organizing committee and other important thing you need to know.

The second session- Delhi United

The session focuses on the Delhi's volunteer group called as Delhi United. The session makes emphasis on "U" meaning the volunteers. It mentions the various jobs of the volunteers , the accreditation card, uniform, transportation and other important aspects.

The above two sessions are meant for all the volunteers all along. After these you would be devided into five sections. And would be allotted your respected session or rooms, where the next session would take place.
The sessions are named according to the "UNITED". With "U" being the session 2 and "NITED" making sessions 3 to 7 respectively.

These sessions were processes in cycles. The first batch goes to the session 3 (N), the second to session 4 (I) and so on.. with fifth batch going to the session 8 (D). Each class comprises of a lot of interactive visual/audio information presented by the presenter.

The presenter/lecturers are from Amity University itself and are really very good. The teachers should be applauded for as I myself enjoyed in almost all the sessions. Each session would also have some group exercises as well. If you really want to enjoy the training feel free to interact and be an active part of all the exercises you can be. They are really full of fun.

The other sessions were-

Session 3 - NAMASTE
Session 4 - IN Spirit..In Action
Session 5 - T Talent + Training= Triumph
Session 6 - E Energy! Enthusiasm! Enjoyment
Session 7 - D Dedicated to Delivering
Session 8 - You are important to the games

You would be asked to have your picture clicked at the venue itself for your ID cards. This is only the general training. The next training would be role-specific training which would be your function specific training. The last would be venue training which would be the final training at the venue itself.

On querying with the CWG staff we came to know that role are specified automatically. The computers have already allotted the roles to the volunteers according to the information in the forms and the interview.

The meal they provided was good it had the following things-

Chhole/chana
raita
aloo ki sabzi
rice
chapati
salad

Although they provided us with a lot of 4 rounds of tea, but i wonder how can anyone drink 4 cups of tea in such a hot weather. Well everything else was f9.
......................................................................................................................................................................
Update (12th June 2010)

Their have been many queries regarding the next call for scheduled training. So here is the info we got from the officials.

Role-Specific Training
The officials told us that the next call would be for role-specific training. They have already selected and set volunteers to their specific roles and other volunteers having the same credentials in the application form would be trained all together. He hinted as well that people doing Btech or realted to computers would be put in Technology while those in MBA would be put in management and so on. The role-specific training are set not before July The dates are not set yet.

Venue Specific Training
The venue specific training would only be done a few days before the CWG games, ( in last week of september). The venue be so decided so that you have to travel the least from your home to the venue.

Also the uniforms would be handed over to you after the role-specific training. The uniform distributing center for CWG is set as Pragati Maidan . The officials have assigned dates to avoid over-crowded venue. Please be on time or you might have to wait for long.