Blogger Wonkette Joins MSM

Time has hired Former political blogger Ana Marie Cox, of the Wonkette fame. She said she thought it'd be nice to work soemwhere where her would not be embarrassed to tell her bridge club about.

Cox will coordinate Time.com's political coverage and write features and essays for print and Web versions of the magazine owned by the world's largest media conglomerate, Time Warner Inc.

I will watch OMKARA Again!

OMKARA was an amazing treat. I caught the first day, not the first show though!
Having seen quite a number of mediocre movies of late, (my mediocre is lousy by any critics' standards, I just keep my thinking hat when I got to the heare that's all), I half expected it to be just another time pass Central India stereotype Movie.

They did a good job when they shove Saif Ali, with his foul mouth on all counts, in the first scene. The "Pichhwaare mein Guda nahin" dialogue struck the interest cord in me, and I enjoyed the movie right from thereon.

He is such a fine actor, what the hell was he doing in his early years, so many years wasted... Ajay Devgan, looked his part to the nail. Tough act, soft act, every act, his mixed emotions of love and jealousy, of hate, of not wanting to believe.

Bipasha was a treat, despite some opinions otherwise. Only she should stop flexing her facial muscles to get that dimple, however much you flex, John will have a deeper cleft. But she was hot, but then I find most women hot :-) .

Now who got Kareena there. I mean just because she is a Kapoor?? Does the Kapoor khandaan still have clout in Bolywood. I am slightly biased here because, I somehow don't like Kareena. I don't know why, ever since she pouted that I am Poooo, in some movie. She has many things missing. Perhaps, it is because she thinks she is too pretty, which she is not. I would have preferred someone else for Dolly's role, but then I just remembered, Bollywood is seriously sort of fillim stars. All the guys are in their 40's, there are few actresses. How many movies can Rani Mukherjee and Priety Zinta do?

Now surprisingly, Viviek Oberoi could hold his stead. He acted like his namesake, but he hasn't done many movies and I won't say he is the most promising actor, but again... I don't know who will be the next wave of actors. I guess, bollywood will be going through a Glut like the early 80's of the discos and yellow shirts and all that. At, least after the liberalisation, the dress sense have improved imensely. Thanks to Manmohanjee, other wise, even at the start of the 90's when movies started to be interesting, remember Amir Khan's Navy cap, Salman Khans buttoned to the neck Black shirt and all that.... But they are catching up for all those mis-dressings in their burahpe...

Oh, I meant to say, OMKARA was good.
Will be one of the last good movies before every Khans get old.
Catch it when you can, it wil be a long time before we see good movies again.

Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna is there, but, even though the theme might be different, the promos are too much similar to some past movies. Anyway I will catch it firstday!!


Oh! Did I mention Konkona Sen Sharma?
Holy cow! She is a surprise, and never fails to surprise me each time!!
To be frank, she is not at all pretty, in a conventional sense. I mean, I wouldn't fall in love with her at first sight. But she is one women who gives me the hots, everytime she speaks. Man, she is such a fine actress, and she does the central UP accent so naturally. Would like to see more of her...

Microsoft's Photosynth creates 3D out of 2D Photos

Photosynth, a project from the collaboration of Microsoft Research and the University of Washington will let you creat a 3D walkthrough from a bunch of Photographs. And with photos abound on the internet, and tags having simplified photo search, you could create a 3D walkthough of anything from a flickr result. Amazing, no? Read more.

Photo Tourism is a system for browsing large collections of photographs in 3D. Our approach takes as input large collections of images from either personal photo collections or Internet photo sharing sites, and automatically computes each photo's viewpoint and a sparse 3D model of the scene. Our photo explorer interface enables the viewer to interactively move about the 3D space by seamlessly transitioning between photographs, based on user control.

600,000 Dollars Solar Farm

Have you heard about the guy who converted his pig farm into a Sun Farm, harvesting solar evergy from the solar farm, which proved to be more profitable than the pork his family have been farming for 150 years. Meet Herr Heiner Gärtner who makes about 600000 dollars from his mini power plant made of solar panels.

Google generates a Billion From Adsense

A summary of Google's results for the second quarter of 2006:

Google reported revenues of $2.46 billion for the quarter ended June 30, 2006, an increase of 77% compared to the second quarter of 2005 and an increase of 9% compared to the first quarter of 2006. Google reports its revenues, consistent with GAAP, on a gross basis without deducting traffic acquisition costs, or TAC. In the second quarter of 2006, TAC totaled $785 million, or 32% of advertising revenues.

One interesting fact is from the highlights below,

Google Sites Revenues - Google-owned sites generated revenues of $1.43 billion, or 58% of total revenues. This represents a 94% increase over second quarter 2005 revenues of $737 million and a 10% increase over first quarter 2006 revenues of $1.30 billion.

Google Network Revenues - Google's partner sites generated revenues, through AdSense programs, of $997 million, or 41% of total revenues. This is a 58% increase over network revenues of $630 million generated in the second quarter of 2005 and a 7% increase over first quarter 2006 revenues of $928 million.

International Revenues - Revenues from outside of the United States contributed 42% of total revenues, compared to 42% in the first quarter of 2006 and 39% in the second quarter of 2005. Had foreign exchange rates remained constant from the first quarter through the second quarter of 2006, our revenues would have been $26 million lower. Had foreign exchange rates remained constant from the second quarter of 2005 through the second quarter of 2006, our revenues would have been $18 million higher.

Adsense revenues accounted for 41 percent of total revenues at about a Billion Dollars, $997 Million. And note that the total acquisition cost is $785 Millions, (TAC is the portion of revenue shared with google's partners and or the adsense publishers) whicj means that Google is sharing major chunk of adsense revenues with its partners now, unlike everybody believed, and harped about how Google keeps major chunk of the adsense revenues, and google unwillingness to be transparent in sharing of the revenues. The TAC is almost 79% of revenues. Which means partners are getting more than google for each Click on the adsense, and keeping 20% for getting the advertisers is a very fair share, I'd say. Google fan that I am, I keep telling that Google is not evil after all.

VC Funding and Social networking and job sites

Social networking site are getting extremely crowded, and with some doomsayers warning about a an impending loom in the web 2.0 universe, even though I think, in the web 2.0 where small is big, there is room for every body. I guess venture capital firms think so too. Multiply, another social networking site like orkut, friendster, and facebook just recieved a venture funding of more than 6 Millions. Multiply recieved such funding on the strength of its number of members, surprisingly though Multiply doesn't promote you to add any random number of friends unlike other networking sites like orkut, and it builds a genuine network of real friend.

On the web 2.0 Jobsites front, Jobster, a social networking site that connects future co-workers gets 18 million dollars of funding. These web 2.0 job sites are also getting hot in the VC market, after simplyhired's 3 million VC funding , Indeed has also raised 5 millions from The New York Times Company, Union Square Ventures and Allen & Company, LLC.

After Jobster's recent acquisition of a start-up Jobbie, Jobster has already filling up its webpage with Tag clouds...

Hardest Riddle On the Internet

Click more to try..

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Yahoo Offers Unrestricted MP3 Download

Found at Digg atht Yahoo is trying to beat iTunes by selling MP3s with no DRM. They're charging more than $99 cents for it currently, which raises the question Yahoo asks in a survay: "Would you consider paying $1.09 for a single, unrestricted MP3 download that would have absolutely no limitations on its use and could be transferred to any portable audio player?"

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How much longer before the blockade is lifted?

Luckily, I have been able to access the blogger dashboard.. But blogs still have to be routed through pkblogs or google cache.. Blogger dashboard coincidentally was blocked for a couple of days in office also, and though I hardly get the time to post from the office these days, I found it very funny and primitive for a progessive thinking IT company to have blogger blocked in office. So, I shot a mail to the information security division on the reason, why...? Because recently there was a circulation in the intranet, from another division, that we want to promote the culture of blogging in the company, and to share the URL if any of us do blog. Well, the ban has at least been lifted from office, and I could check blogspot blogs from office , which I still can't from my Sify connection at home. But I am accessing the Blogger dashboard...

Apple gives up fight againts Blogger

Apple have been fighting or rather trying hard to find the mole who have been leaking secrets to... yes, bloggers.... Now Apple has ended its legal fight to make bloggers reveal who leaked secret information about its new products.[more]

USB Telescope..

Now, with this, MMS will never be the same again..

IT Skills you will need in 2010

You are working on the latest technology. You tweak with AJAX scripts, you are working on BPEL and SOA architecture, but Are you IT ready for 2010? It is just 4 years away?

Computerworld writes about what will be hot and what won't be in year 2010:

The most sought-after corporate IT workers in 2010 may be those with no deep-seated technical skills at all. The nuts-and-bolts programming and easy-to-document support jobs will have all gone to third-party providers in the U.S. or abroad. Instead, IT departments will be populated with "versatilists" -- those with a technology background who also know the business sector inside and out, can architect and carry out IT plans that will add business value, and can cultivate relationships both inside and outside the company.

This is not the gyaan of some self styled guru.

That's the general consensus of three research groups that have studied the IT workforce landscape for 2010 -- the year that marks the culmination of the decade of the versatile workforce. What's driving these changes? Several culprits include changes in consumer behavior, an increase in corporate mergers and acquisitions, outsourcing, the proliferation of mobile devices and growth in stored data.

What's more, the skills required to land these future technical roles will be honed outside of IT. Some of these skills will come from artistic talents, math excellence or even a knack for public speaking -- producing a combination of skills not commonly seen in the IT realm.

On the edges of this new world, expertise in areas such as financial engineering, technology and mathematics will come together to form the next round of imaginative tools and technologies. Google Inc., eBay Inc. and Yahoo Inc. are already hiring math, financial analysis, engineering and technology gurus who will devise imaginative algorithms to fulfill users' online needs. And the National Academy of Sciences has identified a budding area of expertise that combines technology capabilities with artistic and creative skills, such as those found in computer gaming.

By 2010, six out of 10 people affiliated with IT will assume business-facing roles, according to Gartner. What's more, IT organizations in midsize and large companies will be at least 30% smaller than they were in 2005. Gartner also predicts that by 2010, 10% to 15% of IT professionals will leave their IT occupations as a result of the automation of tasks or because of a lack of interest in the sector....

Use Windows Media Player To Get Free Music Downloads

Short article explains how to use a WMP to get free music downloads.

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Google Spreadsheets updated

The version number for Google Spreadsheet has been updated from 1.1.4b to 1.1.4d. You can now right click in a cell to perform actions like cut/copy/paste and add borders to cells and load time has also improved.

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146 death 8 blast, in horrible Mumbai serial blast

146 deaths, 240 injured as of now... there have been 8 high powered blasts in Mumbai, in the local trains running on western lines, starting 6 pm today. This is the second worse such tragedy to have hit Mumbai after the 1993 blast that claimed 250 lives. the number of death coould increase as it has been for the past few hours. When I started typing this post, it was 137.


All the phone networks are jammed and I haven't been able to call home, to tell them I am fine. As I see the TV, the scale of the blast seemed pretty powerfull. Plastics explosives and RDX and not improvised device have been used. The blasts occured between 6 pm and 6.30 pm at Matunga, Mahim (central Mumbai), Bandra, Khar (in north-west Mumbai), Borivili, Jogeshwari and Mira Road railway stations (in north Mumbai).

There have been lots of comments from leaders, including railway minister Laloo. All mostly condolences and promise of better security, and compensation for the victims..

But in the wrong time, in the wrong time, as would only a politician, Advani blamed the UPA govt's central policy for the same. He might be right, he might be wrong, but with the bloods still warm on the railway platforms, it was not quite the time Advani jee..

Gen. Musharraf condemned the acts of the terrorist, but Dear general, Sir, do you mean to say that you will domesticate the terrorists but will condemn when they bite?

The way the blasts have been planned and targets chosen, the terrorists who whoever are behind the blast meant to KILL and kill a lot of innocents..... And I don't know who to look up to...

Review of O2 Xda Atom Exec

Cnet reviews O2 Xda Atom Exec... "On its own, the Exec is a highly impressive, push e-mail enabled smart phone, but if you already own the first Atom, its upgrade worthiness is questionable."

Features
The Exec runs on the familiar Windows Mobile 5.0 operating system, upgraded with the Messaging and Security Feature Pack. Among various security improvements, this provides push e-mail capabilities which, provided you've enabled a data service through your carrier, sends new e-mail messages directly to the device without forcing you to continuously login. This is identical to the service provided by the HP iPAQ rw6828 and similar to the BlackBerry's push e-mail system.

Performance
One of our biggest concerns surrounding the Exec was that the faster processor would have a detrimental effect on battery life. However, O2 rates the Exec as having the same battery life as the original Atom: up to 5.5 hours of talk time and 150 hours standby time.

In our Spb Benchmark battery test, which runs the device through constant general usage tasks with the backlight always enabled, the Exec lasted for six hours and twenty minutes. This is a pleasing score; the HP iPAQ rw6828 scored seven hours and three minutes, but this is expected due to its slower 416MHz processor. Under regular, intermittent usage, we went almost four days without needing to reach for the charger.

Logitech G3 laser Mice

Extremetech reviews the new Logitech G3 laser mouse, "The G3 has six buttons, including one that can toggle between two DPI settings on the fly. At a maximum of 2000 DPI, the G3 has enough horsepower to satisfy extreme gamers, and it is much slicker and compact than other Logitech mice. Its symmetrical design pits both lefties and righties in the same boat, a good thing for our southpaw readers. On top of this, Logitech's SetPoint software complements the G3 with a variety of choices to customize buttons, cursor effects, and even its DPI. "

Opera Generates Huge Profits from Free software

Opera Software has launched version 9 of its browser, available simultaneously in 25 languages and for the three main platforms - Windows, OS X and Linux - plus other platforms. Despite the fact that it is free, the company is hugely profitable. New features includes widgets described as "fun, small and useful Web programs," similar to the widgets in OS X, and support for BitTorrent, the popular file distribution technology.

Opera started out as a research project in Norway's largest telecom company, Telenor, in 1994, and branched out into an independent development company named Opera Software ASA in 1995.

At one time it charged for its PC browser but with just about every other browser on the market available free, abandoned that approach. However despite the fact that its most popular product is free, the company in extremely profitable. For 2004 (the last year for which results have been posted to its web site, in generated a gross profit of around $US14 million on revenues of $US30 million.

The company has several main revenue sources. It licenses the browser to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), such as Motorola, to operating system owners, such as Symbian and user Interface (UI)/middleware owners, such as Canal+. Since 2003 it has focussed on offering the browser directly to other players that are placed higher in the value chain such as mobile operators.


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AJAX Rapid Domain Search Tool

Squurl is a free tool that allows you to rapidly search domain name availability in real-time.

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