HAPPY HOLIDAYS...

AND

A

WWW.PASSIONVAIBHAV.COM

WISHES ALL ITS READERS

A

VERY 

 

This is Er. Vaibhav gera signing off for this year... Catch you all next year...

HAVE  A  BLAST!!!

Telecom Operators to Disconnect 25mn Phones

DoT has instructed operators to disconnect all handsets which do not have an IMEI number from January 6th 2009 - this decision has been taken following Mumbai terror attack.

IMEI number is a unique 15-digit code that can identify a handset to a GSM network (prevents stolen handsets from being used and allows lawful interception) - every time a call is made, the IMEI number shows on the operator’s network. DoT has asked service providers to equip networks with Equipment Identity Register (EIR) to check if calls are being made from genuine handsets -

Operators in order to achieve the same will have to invest more in equipments

What the DoT is trying to do is to block all calls with zeroes as IMEI numbers or from blacklisted numbers. That adds extra load on networks. There are so many combinations of non-genuine IMEI numbers that it is extremely difficult to block them. Network upgradation is required to block all such calls and not all of our multiple equipment vendors are equipped to do it, [ET]

In toto, close to 25 million phones in India do not have IMEI number and are expected to be thrown out of the network by Jan 6, 2009.

[Source]

Hunt for clip art and line drawings via Google image search

Many of us use Google Image Search to find imagery of people, clip art for presentations, diagrams for reports, and of course symbols and patterns for artistic inspiration. Unfortunately, searching for the perfect image can be challenging if the search results match the meaning of your query but aren't in a style that's useful to you. So some time ago we launched face search, which lets you limit your search results to only images containing faces (see a searchwithout and with this option). More recently we also rolled out photo search, which limits results to images that contain photographic elements, ignoring many cartoons and drawings which may not be useful to you (see a search without and with this option).

Today we're pleased to extend this capability to clip art and line drawings. To see the effect of these new options, let's take a look at the first few results for "Christmas," one of our most popular queries on Image Search right now.

Photo content



Clip art



Line drawing


All of these options can be selected from the "Any content" drop down in the blue title bar on any search results page, or by selecting one of the "Content types" on the Advanced Image Search page.

[SOURCE]

iPhone 3G finally unlocked by the Dev-Team!

Well this has been a long time coming. It seems that the iPhone Dev-Team has finally done the impossible -- they've gone and unlocked the iPhone 3G. The hack isn't out yet (the team says they're shooting for a December 31st release), and it requires that you've got a baseband of 2.11.07 or earlier, but when it drops, the crew seems fairly confident it will result in freedom from carrier oppression. The team is packaging the app -- formerly codenamed "yellowsn0w" -- into a user-friendly app a la PwnageTool and QuickPwn. Of course, you know how this cat and mouse game goes by now, so don't be surprised when Jobs and company come calling with an update that adds toast making to the official menu, but breaks your breaks all over again.

[Source]

Google just gave me a heart attack!!!

I just saw the biggest nightmare of my life with my open eyes....

it was when i tried to log in to my igoogle page like i normally do every time i go online, i logged in n it returned a error like the one you get when you put some wrong password the captcha verification n all i filled my user name, password and word verification n what i got back was the biggest shock...

"Your account has been disabled"

it was unbelievable so i tried to log in again and OMG it showed me my accounts page that was a big relief, i choose Gmail and 1-2-3 my Gmail account opened and then i see this EMAIL...

Hi Vaibhav Gera >वैभव गेरा< >> HCLite,

Your orkut profile has been deleted as it violated our Terms of Use and/or image upload guidelines.

We encourage you to read our policies and usage guidelines before you create a new profile. For further information regarding our policies on orkut, please refer to links below.

Terms of Service: http://www.orkut.com/Terms.aspx

Community Standards: http://help.orkut.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=16198&hl=en-US

If you believe your account was removed in error, please contact us here http://help.orkut.com/bin/static.py?page=troubleshooter.cs&problem=cant_login&contact_type=cant_login&contact_type=login.

I even checked the mail details everything was ok, i immediately opened www.orkut.com and was so happy to see my orange colored homepage with everything like the last time....

i checked picasaweb and some other services everything is working fine but i am still in shock thinking about what it was...

Was it some kind of Google's joke to play with my life or a big mistake or some bug... i don't know anything about that but i surely missed a heart beat... :P

P.S :- i just wish my account stays working...

Google integrates PDF viewer in Gmail

Google today integrated another very useful feature in Gmail.. from now when you recieve a pdf file as an attachment you can now view it online instead of downloading...

Here's what Gmail blog reported :-

When I get sent a PDF, sometimes I just want to view it -- I don't always need to download and save it right then. So starting today, you'll see a new "View" link next to PDF attachments you get in Gmail:


Clicking "View" quickly opens the PDF inside your browser, complete with the graphics and formatting you expect to see in a PDF. You may have seen this feature before, in Google Docs. It's the way that we did uploading and viewing of PDFs online. Here's a screen shot:



If you want, you can still view in plain HTML from a link at the top of the new viewer. And if you want to download, save, and view your PDFs later while offline using client software, you can still do that by hitting the "Download" link.

Google Chrome comes out of BETA,Isn't it too soon!

"We've heard a lot of feedback about product bugs and feature requests and have worked hard to prioritize work on them. We're excited to announce that with today's fifteenth release we are taking off the "beta" label," explains a post from Google Chrome Help Announcement blog. Ironically, the post doesn't look very well in Chrome.

There aren't many differences between the first release of Google Chrome and the version released today: besides fixing bugs and improving the support for plug-ins, Chrome added a bookmarks manager. The browser still lacks many basic features and customization options: previewing feeds, print preview, customizable "new tab" page, form autocomplete (this feature will be added soon) and there are many issues that should have been fixed before even considering to remove the "beta" label.

Google Chrome is not out of beta because it's ready, but because Google wants to sign some deals with computer manufacturers like Dell that will preinstall the browser. " The Google's open source browser has a number of eager customers, including OEMs who can't offer the browser until it is in full release," mentions TechCrunch. Even German's Federal Office for Information Security said that Google's browser is not for general use because it's still in beta. If that's price to increase the adoption, then Google didn't have to do much: just pretend that Chrome is ready for prime-time.


"We have removed the beta label as our goals for stability and performance have been met but our work is far from done. We are working to add some common browser features such as form autofill and RSS support in the near future. We are also developing an extensions platform along with support for Mac and Linux," reminds us Google's blog.

[Source]

Nokia unveils flagship N97 phone

Details are in, Nokia has a new flagship phone. The N97 packs a 3.5-inch, 640 x 360 pixel (that's a 16:9 aspect ratio) resistive touchscreen display with tactile feedback and QWERTY keyboard into this sliding communicator with an "always open" window to favorite internet or social networking sites. Nokia calls it the "world's most advanced mobile computer." To back up the claim they've dropped in HSDPA, WiFi, and Bluetooth radios, A-GPS, a 3.5-mm headjack, 32GB of onboard memory with microSD expansion (for up to 48GB total capacity), and a battery capable of up to 1.5 days of continuous audio playback or 4.5-hours video. 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss glass and "DVD quality" video capture at 30fps, too. The specs are certainly impressive, let's see if the S60 5th Edition OS can support it. The N97 will launch with a retail price set at around €550 ($693) excluding subsidies and taxes, phone to ship in H1 2009.

[Source]

Photo albums on orkut-share with particular friend or non orkut users

How many times you wanted to share photos with some of your orkut friends but couldn't do so thinking about your other contacts on orkut. :-(
Well now you have much more control on the privacy settings of your orkut photo albums.
Orkut has added control for sharing your albums with some particular friends and also for sharing your album with non orkut users... :-)

This is what orkut blog reports:-

If you want to customize the privacy settings on a new photo album you're creating, choose the "selected friends" option from the "share with:" drop down menu. Enter the beginnings of the names of your orkut friends, and the system will automatically complete the names for you.

To make sure that your friends know that you've uploaded pictures for them to check out, you can send them a customizable email invitation (look for the checkbox) that links directly to the album. No matter what, your friends will receive an update from you on their home page when you share an album specifically with them.

If you change your mind about who can view any of your existing albums, or think of more friends to add, you can go to any existing album and click on the blue "Share" button. In the box that pops up, you can see who the album is currently shared with and easily grant or take away access.

Here are some of the screen shots :-





HAPPY ORKUTING!!! :-)

ONGC website defaced by pakistani hackers

A pakistani hacking group "pakistan cyber army {PCA} hacked ONGC website and a few other indian sites and as per the message on the hacked pages this is in response to defacement of pakistan's OGRA's website by an indian group called "HMG". The message left by the hackers reads:

 

This is a message from PCA for HMG(script_kiddies) in return to the ogra defacement.

Backoff , go read some course books else you will loose both , your name and this game.
We will literally SMOKE YOUR DOORS OFF like other groups did before.

This is just a warning to Indian authorities either to launch inquiry against HMG or get ready for more action.

We were sleeping but not Dead. Now Face the consequences

 

Here are the screenshots of ONGC website after the hack...



And here's a screen shot of the defacement that the indian group did on OGRA's website on 17th nov,2008 :



While Indian group H M G is run by a guy called Sneak and they call themselves Guards of Hindustan and some define this group Hindu Militant Group, They share the ideology of extremist Hindu organizations like Shiv Sena. This group HMG is very active in Orkut and they have hacked a number of Pakistani communities and after taking ownership, turned those communities into anti-Pakistan ones , Not much information is available about the pakistani group Pakistan cyber army except that the deface page is hosted on yahoo geocities under the username doser_dalnet here the link.

The other indian sites hacked by PCA are:- 

http://www.syscontech.in/
http://www.iirs.gov.in/
http://www.ctram.indianrail.gov.in/
http://www.kvrtm.org.in/

Here's an article that gives insight about this cyber war between the two countries.

This is a serious matter of concern for both ONGC and indian goverment and some serious steps will have to be taken to deal with the ongoing INDIA-PAKISTAN cyber war.

Ack:- Amol Gupta

Fully integrated chat in orkut

On the lines of Facebook chat,orkut today fully integrated chat feature... here's what original orkut blog has posted about it... 

As so many of our friends are constantly on orkut, sending scraps, commenting on photos, and bumping hips on BuddyPoke, we figured it was time to make it easy for you to chat directly with your orkut friends whenever they come online. That's why we are excited to announce a fully integrated version of Google Talk that works seamlessly from within orkut, with no install or separate window required.



I'm sure many of you (especially you social butterflies with hundreds of orkut friends), are concerned about being bombarded with chat requests every time you go online. Not to worry! To get you started, we've come up with a formula that automatically predicts which of your orkut friends you probably want to chat with, and only tells those people that you're signed into Google Talk. Our formula takes a bunch of things into consideration, giving preference to people who you've labeled as 'best friends' or written scraps to recently, and people who have friends in common with you.

We realize that no one knows who you'd like to talk to better than you do, so we've also made it easy for you to add and remove people from your list of orkut chat friends. To make changes to the list, just go to the revamped Google Talk settings page. Don't worry, only you can see your list of chat friends, so there's no need to worry about any hurt feelings when you make changes. :-)

If you already use Google Talk, either on its own or as part of Gmail, then your friends signed into Google Talk in other applications will also be able to chat with you when you come online.

To sum up, the new Google Talk in orkut lets you:

• chat with your orkut friends in real time from directly within orkut


• control which of your orkut friends can chat with you


• chat with your Google Talk and Gmail chat contacts


• visit different orkut pages while keeping your chatboxes open

[Source]

Nokia adds support for Lotus Notes in Symbian S60

There's hardly anything more embarrassing that admitting that your company still uses Lotus Notes, but for the millions upon millions (140 million, in fact) of licensed users who'd love the opportunity to check in via their S60-based handset, this one's for you. Starting next month, Lotus Notes support will be granted for Symbian S60 3rd Edition, meaning that anyone with a fresh S60 device can soon tap into Lotus Notes Traveler and access real-time email, calendar, address book, journal and to-do list data. On second thought, maybe you shouldn't be so enthusiastic -- leaving work at work is a blessing too many take for granted.

[source]

Google Plans to Shut Down Lively 3D World

Google announced that on December 31st they will shut downLively, which was their 3D chat world, and somewhat of a potential competitor to Second Life. Room widgets embedded in other sites are then supposed to show an image but no more interaction, which would add Lively to the list of Google’s canceled products. Google’s post on this decision does not really give a detailed reasoning for this shut-down of a product which was just released this year, except that they’re saying “we want to ensure that we prioritize our resources and focus more on our core search, ads and apps business.” In particular, this leaves some questions unanswered as a company could theoretically embed ads in this 3D world app.

Lively was a great-looking Google product. On the other hand from the beginning on it was riddled with regular program crashes for some users, though the situation improved over time. There were other oddities as well, like a flood of sex rooms almost kidnapping the Lively rooms directory, or custom images never quite fitting the object you’d put them on (and then being disabled altogether for a while). It was still a fun experience, with a fresh and intuitive interface that I found more beginner-friendly than Second Life. Building rooms was entertaining and casual, with features like integrating YouTube videos by pasting the video URL, leading to quickly shareable results.

[MORE]

Gmail Themes

Following the footsteps of Google's personalized homepage, Gmail added themes. Once the new option is enabled in your account (as usually, Gmail's new features are slowly rolled out), you'll find a tab named "Themes" in the settings page and you'll be able to choose from 30 themes. "We wanted to go beyond simple color customization, so out of the 30 odd themes we're launching today, there's a shiny theme with chrome styling, another one that turns your inbox into a retro notepad, nature themes that change scenery over time, weather driven themes that can rain on your mailbox, and fun characters to keep you in good company," mentions Gmail's blog.

Unlike other webmail services, Gmail has never provided too many customization options and users had to rely on themes created for third-party extensions like Stylish, which usually slowed down Gmail and weren't resilient to code changes.


Gmail's help center provides an interesting tidbit about the new themes: "In some cases, you can also customize by location. Some themes change during the day, and we use the location information you provide to correctly time these changes with your local sunrise, sunset, and/or weather. If you select one of these themes, you'll see a Country/Region drop-down menu appear."


Gmail also adjusted the default theme, but you can always go back to the previous theme by selecting "Classic" in the settings page.

[Source]

Hacked...

A website owner's biggest nightmare is getting hacked... well last night was no less than a nightmare, it was around 2AM when i thought about checking out one of my blog that i don't use much and i was busy surfing on other tabs there was this loud unknown language song that got started it took me a min to figure out which tab it is,i switched to that tab and there was this word "hacked" written on it, i immediately closed that tab thinking that some damm website i opened got hacked but then i thought lets check it out and when i checked the recently closed tabs i was surprised to see that it was my movies blog only.It took me a min to digest this fact but then it was my movies blog which i was planning to shut down so i was a bit ok but it didn't took me much time to find out that it was not just one blog but my entire domain that got hacked...

OMG!!! even my itsmylife blog whose link was everywhere,my facebook status,gtalk status,twitter,orkut everywhere because of my Goodbye JUIT article... and then for a moment i thought oh my God everything is gone!!! All those articles,those beautiful comments,my technical blog which has more than 500 entries...
Luckily i still had FTP access to my main site and i changed the index page back to original by taking the code from GOOGLE Cache. 

Then i checked out the hackers page again it was in Turkish,i found that from the emotional video that was there on that pagea and that sound was making me even more crazy... i tried to translate that page but for the first time Google was of no help as it doesn't have turkish to english translation yet!

Finally i got the link to hacker's website and OMG it was on on turkish and its look was enough to drive me crazy i somehow managed to find a contact link and requested him to leave my site...

Then i called up My host in USA but damm.. it went on voicemail and i wasted Rs. 6.40/-  then i sent him a mail and thank god after around 10 mins he came online and i told him everything... he said he's working on it and i don't need to worry about it as he has backup of everything. after reading these lines i came back to senses but still stayed awake till 4 but then i went off to sleep but still quite tensed...

As soon as i woke up i got a sms from Google sms channel which sends me updates of my blog... i was happy to see that msg coz i thought everything is back to normal but it wasn't it was still "Ownz! by Cyber Operations Team[Turkish Hackers] - CyberGrup.Org" but one thing was good Lakshman kumar was still online and that means he was still working on it, he told me he's working on it and repeted those golden words that "he has backup of everything"... Finally i got completely relaxed around 2:30PM when i saw all my blogs up and running smoothly...  especially my Goodbye JUIT post and all the comments....

Here's that deadly page that i had to see all night yesterday...

 

[caption id="attachment_1059" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="HACKED"][/caption]

I just wrote to my host saying thanks and also that he need to take more security steps...

May God save you from HACKERS!!!

Google Launches Video and Voice Chat for Gmail

Google today launched the much awaited voice and video chat option in Gmail chat here's what Gmail blog posted...



I'm a big user of Gmail chat. Being able to switch from email to chat as needed, all within the same app, is really great for productivity. But people can only type so fast, and even with ournew emoticons, there are still some things that just can't be expressed in a chat message. 

That's why today we're launching voice and video chat -- right inside Gmail. We've tried to make this an easy-to-use, seamless experience, with high-quality audio and video -- all for free. All you have to do is download and install the voice and video plugin and we take care of the rest. And in the spirit of open communications, we designed this feature using Internet standards such as XMPP, RTP, and H.264, which means that third-party applications and networks can choose to interoperate with Gmail voice and video chat.

Once you install the plugin, to start a video chat, just click on the "Video & more" menu at the bottom of your Gmail chat window, and choose "Start video chat." You'll have a few seconds to make sure you look presentable while it's ringing, and then you'll see and hear your friend live, right from within Gmail. You can click the "pop-out" iconto make the video larger, or click the fullscreen iconin the upper left-hand corner for a fully immersive experience. See this all in action in the video below:

[vid]JFGJRfoK9xQ[/vid]

Our team is spread between Google offices in the US and Sweden, and video has really changed the way we work. Collaborating across continents and timezones is a fact of life for us, and it sure is easier (and greener) to click "Start video chat" than to get on a plane! And when I do have to visit another Google office, I can use Gmail voice and video chat to check in with my family.

We've just started to roll out Gmail voice and video chat for both PCs and Macs, so if you don't see it right away, don't worry -- it could take a day or so for this feature to be available in all Gmail and Google Apps accounts. If you want to download the plugin right away, visithttp://gmail.com/videochat. And if you need a webcam, there are a few models with special discounts through November 30th.

CNN's holograms not really holograms

CNN made waves on Tuesday night by incorporating three-dimensional holograms into its coverage of the U.S. election. The only problem was, they weren't really holograms.
National Post graphic artist Andrew Barr lays out CNN's trickery:



So if it wasn't a hologram, what was it, then? Over on the Ceeb site, a Dalhousie theoretical physics professor (fancy!) explains that what we were actually seeing was something called a "tomogram":

he CNN anchors were not really speaking to three-dimensional projected images, but rather empty space, Kreuzer said. The images were simply added to what viewers saw on their screens at home, in much the same way computer-generated special effects are added to movies.

Kreuzer said the images were tomograms, which are images that are captured from all sides, reconstructed by computers, then displayed on screen.

Holograms, on the other hand, are projected into space.

Tomograms, you say? That's a new one to us. Wikipedia, ho!

Tomography is imaging by sections or sectioning. A device used in tomography is called a tomograph, while the image produced is a tomogram. The method is used in medicine, archaeology, biology, geophysics, oceanography, materials science, astrophysics and other sciences. In most cases it is based on the mathematical procedure called tomographic reconstruction. The word was derived from the Greek word tomos which means "a section", "a slice" or "a cutting". A tomography of several sections of the body is known as a polytomography.

[...]

More modern variations of tomography involve gathering projection data from multiple directions and feeding the data into a tomographic reconstruction software algorithm processed by a computer. Different types of signal acquisition can be used in similar calculation algorithms in order to create a tomographic image.

And that, dear readers, is how CNN managed to spend untold thousands of dollars having Will.i.am appear on their Manhattan soundstage — without him actually being there! Even though he very easily could have been. At far less expense.

Source :- CBC News & National Post 

WPA cracked in 15 minutes or less, or your next router's free

They always knew it could be done; that a hacker with enough time and processing power could watch your WPA-protected wireless network and, eventually, decrypt your precious datas. In under 15 minutes, though? "Inconceivable!" those hypothetical security experts would say -- but they're about to get a lesson from WiFi wizard Erik Tews. He'll be giving a presentation next week at the PacSec Conference in Tokyo, describing the "mathematical breakthrough" that, he says, enables him to crack WPA-TKIP in 12 to 15 minutes. There are some limitations, as the data sent from a connected device to the compromised router is apparently still safe, but anything headed t'other way is wide open, and could even be supplanted by bogus bits sent from a Cheetos-munching hacker slouching in a rusty Ford Taurus in the parking lot. Don't believe us? Tews was the guy able to crack WEP in under a minute last year, ironically advising people to switch to WPA ASAP at the time. We can only assume WPA2 is next.

[Source]

CNN debuts hologram technology to beam people in 3-D

Among the wackiest technologies that I've seen during this election night is CNN's hologram technology -- something that was predicted back in the Star Wars era.

There's not much info as to exactly how this stuff works, other than what USA Today has reported:

CNN will have 44 cameras and 20 computers in each remote location to capture 360-degree imaging data of the person being interviewed. Images are processed and projected by computers and cameras in New York. There'll also be plasma TVs in Chicago and Phoenix that will let the people being interviewed see Blitzer and other CNN correspondents. Bohrman says the network can project two different views from each city so Blitzer can appear to be in the studio with two holograms.

Jessica Yellin was the first CNN reporter to be "beamed" to the New York newsroom, where Wolf Blitzer interviewed her -- and she reported that there were only 35 cameras pointed at her, and that "talk to the cameras in New York." Apparently representatives in the Obama campaign in Chicago and the McCain campaign in Phoenix will be interviewed as holograms later in the evening.

It's still unclear who makes this hologram technology, nor how much it costs, nor how exactly it works.

[vid]js6b31_p5cc[/vid]

[Source]

Google Profile Search

You can now search Google profiles to find people who entered some information about themselves in their public pages. Google shows a thumbnail and a snippet from the profile, but you can't restrict the results to a certain location or to people who worked for a certain company.

To make your profile more findable, Google recommends to "add information about yourself on your profile so people can find you when they search by keywords associated with your profile. For example, include details such as the name of your hometown, your job title, where you work or go to school". In addition to this specialized search engine, profiles can be indexed by any search engine and Google makes this easier.

MORE...

AOL mail team's attempt to mock Gmail backfires..

The AOL mail blog published this sarcastic letter suggesting that Gmail copied various features from them.

Happy Halloween Gmail! We knew you would have the best costume at the party, and who can blame you? We think it's great that you're using this holiday to pay homage to the one who started it all, who got 35 million people online at once, gave them all email, great content and messaging capabilities, and even created a forum that encouraged them to speak in emoticons.

That costume is fabulous...clearly, the devil is in the details... and what's that you've got there? An "experimental" instant-messaging feature built right into your mail service so people can use it to send text messages to their contacts' phones? We love it – that was such a hit when we first introduced it so many years ago. We tried to make it easy: telling users to simply open the AIM panel in their email type "+1 and the 10-digit cell phone number" into the To: Screen Name box. It's kind of fun, too – good choice!

And those sidebar options – talk about getting it right... Adding gadgets to email that allow people to manage their calendars, access their favorite content and best Websites? Nice work. The idea of adding a side panel like that was one of our best. Giving people the ability to get to their favorite places on the Web, manage their schedules and IM right from their email home page tripled the convenience of our service. We're sure you'll get lots of compliments.

Finally, is that an "attachment warning" popping up on your back? Nice touch. We know nothing is more embarrassing than having to send an email twice because you forgot the attachment. Our users love this little reminder, and they have been praising it since we first implemented it back in 2007.

They say imitation is the best form of flattery, so Gmail, we thank you and we are indeed very flattered. Putting together a costume that is so dead-on could not have been easy, and you've got it down pat. Trying to convince all the other kids at the party that the only thing to use is Gmail and putting out a press release every time you add a new button to the service is just so 1998. We're telling you – this outfit brings back memories!

Here's a tip though... the Web's getting more personal, and people are really savvy at customizing their own services. When you don this same costume next year, make sure you check outwww.tunome.com first and add some third party services (see our new Yahoo! plug-in) – you can't be all Gmail all the time any more – it won't be such a big hit next year!

Happy Halloween!

Although AOL mail team tried it level best to mock Gmail with this but they forgot the fact that they were the past and Google is the present and hopefully the future...

here are some of the comments of their own readers:-

Hey, you might have some good ideas, but if you don't implement them well, they mean nothing. It's like having good intentions... Oh, I *meant* to get you a great present for your birthday, but... 

Seriously, AOL will always have a place in Internet history, but the present, and likely the future, belong to Google.

Gmail was free first, more intuitive, more customizable, and better at communicating new features than AOL mail.

This is ridiculous. You're soooo behind the curve, all the time. If it was in your control, none of the web would have even been possible, but just small networks a la Compuserve or the first MSN shit. What a shame. Go cry somewhere else, kid.

I don't know any serious internet users who have @aol.com as their email. The overwhelming majority are people who are Internet neophytes.

The time you spent crying to the public to "Look at me..look at me," would have been better spent studying Google and learning a thing or two about service, reliable products, and ease of use.

SMS in Gmail Chat

Gmail is about to introduce a new feature that will let you send SMS messages to your contacts from the US, announces InformationWeek. Google explains how it works:

You can send SMS messages to your contacts' mobile phones using Gmail Chat. To do so from Gmail:

1. Enter your contact's name in the 'Search or invite friends' box in Chat, and select Send SMS from the box of options that appears to the right of your contact's name. Or, if you already have a Chat window open for this contact, just click Video & more, and select Send SMS.
2. In the dialog box, enter a phone number in the 'Send SMS messages to this number' field. For now, this feature works only on United States phone numbers. If you're outside the US, you can still use it, but you won't see the SMS option in Chat until you enable it manually in the Chat settings page. 
3. Click Save.
4. A Chat window appears. Just type your message as you would normally. When you hit Enter, the message will be sent to the phone number you entered.

If your contact replies, the text message response will appear as a reply in Chat. These conversations are stored in your Chat history just like regular chats (but keep in mind that you can’t go off the record while communicating via SMS).

The nice thing about Gmail SMS is that each user gets a virtual phone number that facilitates replying to messages. "To write back, reply to the message as you would any other text message, and your message appears as a Chat message in your friend's Gmail account. If you don't want to receive any SMS messages from Gmail, reply with the command STOP. If you'd like to block the person who sent you the message, but still be able to get Gmail SMS messages from other contacts, reply with the command BLOCK," informs Gmail's help center.

Source

Smileys for your Gmail...

The black and white days of text-based emails have had their day. Following the evolutionary path blazed by colored labels, we present, in all their technicolor glory, emoticons in your mail.


No more will you have to settle for a ;) when you can have a. Out with the "XOXO" and in with the. And of course, when the bad news smells really bad, transcends all words.

So raise yourand welcome in the colorful new world of Gmail

P.S. For those of you who love our chat smileys, 
Google also added a whole new set for your enjoyment.



Source

Firefox Minefield browser to blow you out with speed

Mozilla has come out with what may be the future of firefox, the speed is quite fast and is visible. It’s a pre-release/alpha version of the Firefox browser. If you would spend some time with Minefield it is clear firefox is comming out with a faster and better browser.

 
Of course the question that pop’s up on everyone mind is how fast is it? I read claims that it is Most Fastest Browser in the World ever. So I decided to try it, Yes! it was quite fast.

You can get more information about the browser from Mozilla Page. You can also download the latest version from ftp of mozilla.org latest-trunk. Well if you have the time and the guts to try out a browser which is in ” NOT A FINAL OR PRE-RELEASE VERSION” yes this cup of tea is for you.

Minefield a separate install, your existing Firefox stays alive.

If you have a mac PC, Set your default browser as MineField, you will notice something. How many web browsers do you have on your system.

To Do:

1. Download and install the latest nightly build.


2. Start tracemonkey javascript engine by going to about:config and enabling the option javascript.options.jit.content.


3. Browse websites blazingly fast

Source

Chandrayaan Lifts-off!

SRIHARIKOTA: Chandrayaan-1, India's maiden moon spacecraft, was on Wednesday put into Transfer Orbit around the earth by the Polar Launch Vehicle 

PSLV-C11 takes off carrying Chandrayaan-1 at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. (AFP Photo)

PSLV-C11 about 19 minutes after it blasted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre here. ( Watch ) 

The 1,380 kg Chandrayaan-1, carrying 11 payloads, was released into a Tansfer Orbit at a perigee (nearest point to earth) of about 250 km and apogee (farthest point from the earth) of about 23,000 km, 18.2 minutes after the PSLV-C11 blasted off as the scientists broke into jubilation at the mission control centre. 

After a series of procedures over the next two weeks, the spacecraft would reach its desired Lunar orbit and placed at a height of 100 km from the Lunar surface, marking the operational phase of the mission which would put India in the elite lunar club. 

Earlier, at the end of the 49-hour countdown, the 44.4 meter tall four-stage PSLV-11 lifted off from the second launch pad into a cloudy sky. 

This is the 14th flight of ISRO's workhorse PSLV, which had launched 29 satellites into a variety of orbits since 1993, and 13th successive one in a row. 

The Chandrayaan will take approximately 15 days to reach its intended lunar orbit where it will remain -- continuously mapping the lunar surface and sending back valuable data.It is also carrying 11 payloads, five entirely designed and developed in India, three from European Space Agency, one from Bulgaria and two from US, which would explore the Moon over the next two years. 

Along with the scientifc instruments, the Chandrayaan also carries a symbolic Indian flag which is expected to detach from the craft and land on the moon. 

Along with the scientifc instruments, the Chandrayaan also carries a symbolic Indian flag which is expected to detach from the craft and land on the moon. 

Chandrayaan-1's path to the moon: 

 

Source:- techtree & TOI

Improved contact manager features in Gmail

Gmail now automatically adds people that you corresponded with to 'Suggested Contacts'. You can move people you correspond with regularly to 'My Contacts'. Gmail's address auto-complete feature works for all of your contacts, whether they're in 'My Contacts' or 'Suggested Contacts'.

Furthermore, to ensure that only the right contacts are synced with your mobile device in the future, Gmail is moving previously auto-added contacts in 'My Contacts' back into 'Suggested Contacts'. Only contacts that you've moved to 'My Contacts', edited, imported or added to a group will remain in 'My Contacts' for syncing.

For more information:
http://mail.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=12867

Fennec - Firefox Mobile Browser Alpha Released

Mozilla released the Firefox for Mobile Alpha (codename Fennec) for users of the Nokia N810 and N800. Firefox is working on making it available to other mobiles in a few months.

You may download and install Fennec. If you do not have an N810, you can still experiment with Fennec by downloading Fennec for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

Firefox Mobile Alpha Features

• Full-screen mode display with auto-hiding controls and URL bar


• The Firefox bar combining history, bookmarks, and search


• Integrated Web search in the Smart URL bar


• Capability for add-ons


• Tabbed browsing with thumbnail images


• Easy access to multiple search engines

MORE...

Whose turn is it to reply? Check out conversation view for scraps

Do you have so many scraps from your friends that it's sometimes tough to know which scraps go with which conversation? To help you keep track of your scraps, orkut now lets you follow any of the scraps in your or your friends' scrapbooks in a conversation view. Just click on the "view this conversation" link below any scrap that has been replied to, and you will see the back and forth scraping that you and your friends have shared. All replies are connected to the original scrap, so you can view them in sequence.

Source

Fix broken links with google webmaster tools

Have you ever clicked on a link only to have it unveil an unfriendly "file not found" message? We know it's a bummer, so now Webmaster Tools offers site owners a way to help all of us click seamlessly through the web.

For years webmasters have been able to view the URLs on their site that are linked from various websites but actually don't exist. Today webmasters can fix these broken links throughWebmaster Tools Crawl error sources. Crawl error sources displays the source URL containing the broken link to their site -- no matter where it exists on the web.

What about any "file not found" URLs that haven't yet been fixed? Let's improve that, too: Webmaster Tools provides site owners with the "file not found" widget, (aka the 404 widget). It's a small snippet of code that can change the message from this unfriendly one:

MORE...

Cheap Chinese phones may soon be banned

If you are considering buying a cheap Chinese phone, well it is advisable to reconsider your plan. Department of Telecom (DoT) is planning to block cell phones which do not bear the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number. (Cheap Chinese phones do not have an IMEI number)

There are approximately 1.5 crore China-made and locally-assembled handsets in use that don’t have IMEI numbers. Even mobile phones that have all zeroes or no zero in their IMEI code will be barred. DoT decided to make this move after security agencies found that the mobile phones used by terrorists in the recent blasts did not have IMEI numbers.

Sales of Chinese handsets constitute about 13 per cent (or Rs 4,000 crore) of the Rs 30,000-crore annual mobile handset market in the country. IMEI numbers can be checked by dialing “*#06#” in any keypad.

Source

New & improved Picasa Web Albums,Now Face tag your friends...

For the very first time i have seen a google update in progress... i was just uploading my albums from my pc to picasa webalbums through picasa2 software... and it was a matter of just one refresh and Magic!!! picasa web album just changed its looks... i was surprised my first thought was maybe because i have used much of the storage space its some kindof upgradation to increase space but no i was totally wrong...

It was a Picasa web album update... So what's new:-

• New and more clean looks...


• new tab bar for my photos, Favorites and Explore


• Face tag feature, yes Picasa now identifies faces and allows you to tag them and also offers lots of settings in case you want to hide tags in public album or in certain specific albums.{Quite effective but a bit slow}


• Linked Galleries now displayed on the sidebar.


• Discover photos from around the world on the Explore page.


• Upload photos by email.


• Add Creative Commons licensing to your photos


• Increase or decrease the size of thumbnails when you open an album.

But unfortunately now change in storage space, You still have to purchase additional space.

If you find any more changes do comment...

DoT plans separate 3G policy for CDMA players

The Department of Telecom is planning to formulate a separate policy for third generation services by CDMA operators.

The move comes as a relief to CDMA players including Reliance Communication and Tata Teleservices which had expressed concern that the proposed 3G policy had no mention of spectrum allocation for CDMA operators. Until now DoT’s draft policy guidelines had specified plans to auction spectrum only for GSM-based cellular services providers.

However, DoT has put up a new note for approval by the Ministry of Communication which mentions auctioning spectrum for CDMA players in the 450 Mhz and 800 Mhz frequency band.

This means that seventy one million CDMA mobile subscribers can also look forward to availing third generation mobile services.

The 800 Mhz and 450 Mhz bands are frequencies used by CDMA operators globally for 3G services. Third generation mobile services promises to bring high speed data connectivity on handsets apart from improving the quality of voice calls.

Consumers will be able to get services like streaming video, mobile TV and community specific value added services.

While GSM based operators will evolve to using the WCDMA technology for offering this service, CDMA players will use the EVDO technology.

Each of these technologies operates best in a specific frequency band.

“Spectrum shall be auctioned in the 450 Mhz band and in 800 Mhz band for EVDO services when it becomes available, for which guidelines shall be issued separately,” said the DoT note.

Reliance Communications, Tata Teleservices, Sistema backed Shyam Telelink and State owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd are the major CDMA operators in the country.

[source]

Consumers to get 10-12 3G players per circle

DoT identifies more spectrum, to expand auctions from earlier estimate of five in each service area.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has identified between 51 and 60 MHz of spectrum, the radio frequencies that enable wireless communications, in several service areas that will allow it to offer between 10 and 12 licences to operators to introduce third-generation (3G) services.

This marks a significant increase from the 3G policy that DoT had finalised — and is awaiting government clearance — of auctioning only five licences per circle on the basis of an availability of 25MHz of spectrum. 3G services enable high-speed download of data like movies and music on the mobile.

The 3G auction will now be undertaken based on the fresh availability of spectrum in various circles.

Based on the higher spectrum availability, DoT will now be able to offer licences to 12 operators each in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu (including Chennai), Haryana, Karnataka, Orissa and Kerala; and 10 licences each in Kolkata and Madhya Pradesh.

SPECTRUM ON CALL
Service area	3G spectrum available*	No. of operators that can be accommodated
Andhra Pradesh	60	12
Tamil Nadu with Chennai	60	12
Haryana	60	12
Karnataka	60	12
Kerala	60	12
Kolkata	54	10
MP	51	10
Orissa	60	12
Maharashtra	48	9
Mumbai	42	8
Punjab	40	8
West Bengal	30	6
Delhi	21	4
Gujarat	23	4
* in MHz

DoT, however, has limited spectrum in Delhi (21 MHz), Gujarat (23 MHz) and Himachal Pradesh (21 MHz), which is enough to permit only four operators.

The identification of so much extra spectrum is significant as there are few other countries that offer consumers so many 3G service providers to choose from.

Globally, the number of operators per country ranges from two to a maximum of five. The UK has five 3G players, Australia and Brazil four each and most European states have between two and three. Singapore has only two players and the Philippines three.

Overall, there are 228 operators in 94 countries that offer 3G services.

With the government already issuing 11 to 13 licences for 2G services (second generation, or the current level of services) in every circle Indian consumers might get to choose from 15 to 16 operators in each circle for their mobile services (2G and 3G), which is unparalleled anywhere in the world.

But many experts said this might put pressure on the viability of the business for new players.

“The valuation of our licence has virtually halved or become a third of what we had estimated in January. We were looking at $4 billion; currently investors are chary about paying even $1-2 billion. That is because the market, despite the growth, cannot accommodate so many players,” said the chairman of a company that recently received an all-India licence.

[Source]

Share Your Expertise in Google's Knol

Knol is a new Google service created for sharing knowledge. The service has been announced in December 2007 and it's now publicly available.

Knol has much more in common with Squidoo and HubPages than with Wikipedia. The service is centered around authors: each Knol article displays the name of its author and links to a small biography. Google even lets you verify your identity, but this only works if you live on the US.


Knol doesn't intend to become an encyclopedia, so there's no single article about a topic. An author can write about almost any topic, but it's recommended to write authoritative content.

There are three levels of collaboration in Knol:

* open collaboration (any Knol user can edit the article)
* moderate collaboration (any Knol user can suggest changes to the article - enabled by default)
* closed collaboration (only the co-authors can edit the article)

Google uses a rich-text editor borrowed from Page Creator, so it's much easier to edit knols than Wikipedia articles. Users can rate the articles, add comments and write reviews, much like for scholarly works.

[source]

iPhone 3G coming this August?

Some anonymous source for TechTree have spilled the beans regarding the launch date and pricing for iPhone 3G in India. It may come as a shock for many people but the source reckons the phone to be priced around Rs. 12,000 range but only 8GB variant will be available. Vodafone will be the first player to get the phone here because of its global presence and has a 15 days advantage than Airtel.

> Model: Initially, the 8GB version only
> Price: Rs. 11,500 to Rs. 12,000 (note: U.S. price of the 8GB iPhone 3G is $199)
> Applications: App Store will be available
> App prices: Application prices may see a revision to suit Indian market
> 3G: No fixed date for 3G availability; expected sometime later this year
> GPS: Present on the Indian version as well

The news has definitely opened up a new discussion for everyone waiting for the mighty iPhone to come over here but we cannot trust it until we hear it from the horse’s mouth.

[source]

Y360 to Wordpress - mission accomplished

Finally i managed to transfer one of my blog from Y360 to wordpress... As you all know i transferred all my blogger blogs to my self-hosted word press blog and this was the last blog left but unfortunately it was on yahoo 360 and since their's no export-import mechanism in y360 i couldn't do so but because y360 is taking its last breath it was very important for me to transfer this blog and after a lot of hard work i found this great tool called "Y360 to word press" but after using it i realized i was expecting too much,it was not an easy task as it didn't worked the way it promised firstly i had to remove all videos and polls even after that it was giving error while converting so i had to start from the last entry and by taking 5 or 10 entries at a time i had to convert them in xml format and then upload it to wordpress then the most difficult task delete the entries thaat have been successfully transfered you might be thinking what's the difficulty in that well friends its y360 and not wordpress-- 1 you can not select multiple entries and delete them you have to delete 1 at a time, 2 big time cache problem so when you delete entries and return to last page you might actually end up at an enty that you have allready deleted just refresh the page 2-3 times...

And after 2-3 days of hardwork i finally managed to transfer and delete all the entries... and am really happy because wordpress rocks!!! and now i can express myself in a much better way.

PS:- 1 major drawback of this tool is the image at the bottom of title and before the content doesn't gets transferred.

Gmail to No Longer Auto Add Contacts

Google has finally realized that it's a bad idea to automatically add to the list of Gmail contacts all the people you've sent an email. An updated version of Gmail's contact manager has a separate section for the people you've emailed: "suggested contacts".

"My Contacts is a place to import, store and view all of the contact information that's important to you. You can also create your own groups of contacts to easily email many people at once. We add people you've emailed to Suggested Contacts. You can move contacts from Suggested Contacts into My Contacts at any time."

There's an option to automatically move suggested contacts into My Contacts if you frequently email them, but the previous behavior doesn't seem to be an option.

I don't have this new version of the contact manager, so if you notice other changes, post them in the comments.

[source]

Apple iphone 3g is a hell in india than any!

i just read this really intresting post about iphone 3G and India... Didn't got the chance to verify anything written in this post as i was eagerly waiting for 11th july - the release of iphone 3G and was really planning to buy one but after reading this post i think i really need to think again go through this,its quite intresting :-

I just got a gmail on apple iphone3g worst features in india and i just stunned with it and looked at them then i released that iphone is worst than any.

So here is the mail:

Those of you in India planning for iPhone…Think Twice Before Making a decision…The short commings of iphone are endless..

No video calling, no AD2P on the Bluetooth, can’t share any(mp3, images, videos…) files via bluetooth, can’t use as a wireless modem, (you pay ridiculous data charges to activate internet on your phone, but cannot connect it to your PC and browse when you are at home)

All even the smallest copy and paste,(cannot copy a part of a.. say… email & send it..have to type it out yourself)

No 3.2 or 5 megapixel camera,(the 2MP camera it carries is worst camera i’ve ever seen.. photos look like they have come out of a VGA camera)

No video recording with camera, no front camera, no flash.

No JAVA support

No physical keyboard (BELIEVE me! this alone is a dealbreaker…touch keyboard as good as it looks…once you use it then only you come to know about the importance of having a hard keypad)

No 3G network yet in India..so why pay for expensive 3G phone if you cant use its 3G services … so, for India, iPhone 2.0 is no better than its first version

No removable battery. (You cannot change battery. Have to send it to apple outlet.. Come on now!!!!…This is not an iPod. Its a bloody phone. You cannot live without phone for 2-3 days)

No haptic feedback and cannot send MMS, an’t use as external storage device (16 GB of utter waste..next time you go to your friend’s house & find some interesting songs, movies, etc…sorry you cannot connect your ‘16 GB’ phone and share it!!!! Apple apparently has a solution.. ” BUY MUSIC & MOVIES FROM iTUNES STORE “….. Give me a break will you APPLE!!!)

no FM radio, can’t use your mp3 files as ringtones,(This is heights man!!!)

cannot insert any other SIM card….

completely tied to iTunes… Connect to your friend’s iTunes & you risk erasing everything on your phone.

list goes on & on & on….

[source]

Google Releases 3D World Lively

Google just released Lively, a 3D world where you can chat with others and create your own rooms. Traces of this program appeared back in 2007 under the name of My World (this project also received the rumor nickname Google metaverse; TomHTML, Tony and I also lately saw traces of something called Google Rooms, though we aren’t 100% sure it’s related). After installing the desktop setup for Windows – yes, this is one of the rare Google products which isn’t completely browser-based – you’ll be forwarded to lively.com again. There, you can pick from a number of available rooms, and sign-in with your Google account.

I experienced a couple of problems with this service right now; from odd user name restrictions (I ended up re-selecting my Google ID name, even though they asked me to pick a new name at first), to very slow loading (I mostly saw skeletons at first), to finally, a program crash (the message “Lively has encountered a problem and an error report has been sent” appeared and the program closed). These may be launch problems, though, and nothing permanent... we’ll see.

Once you logged into a room, you can start customizing your avatar. First you can pick from a base type – like male, female or animal – and then you can fine-tune your hair, skin color, eyes and more. You’ll then see yourself surrounded by other avatars, and there’s background music and lots of laughing, grunting and other noises. The graphic has a lighthearted cartoon touch, reminiscent of something like a Lucasarts 3D game. When you talk by using the chat box at the bottom, your words appear as speech bubble above your character.

You can then move around by kind of dragging your avatar (clicking your avatar switches to self-navigation mode, and clicking outside it switches to camera navigation). This may be an unusual mode of navigation at first, but after some seconds it works very well.

Selecting a room from the Lively site

No 3G spectrum for CDMA operators

Department of Telecom has scrapped its plans to auction 3G spectrum for CDMA operators even as it is close to finalizing the policy for 3G services for GSM operators.

Reliance Communications, Tata Teleservices, Shyam Telelink and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd are the major CDMA operators in the country which were supposed to auction for 3G services. But DoT has blocked this option on the grounds that it will clash with the spectrum of GSM players, thus leaving 71 million CDMA subscribers face an undecided future with regard to the availability of third generation mobile services.

[source]

Find Who Has Access to Your Gmail Account

After years of testing, Gmail has finally added a very useful security feature: tracking open sessions. If you log in to Gmail from more than one computer and you forget to sign out, you'll be able to see the list of locations where your account can still be accessed.


Until now, the only solution when you forgot to log out from Gmail after using a public computer was to change your password. Otherwise, anyone could access your account without knowing the password. Now you can sign out remotely from all the locations where your Gmail account is still open.

If you click on "Details" in Gmail's footer, you'll find a lot of interesting information about your sessions. "The top table, under Concurrent session information, indicates all open sessions, along with IP address and access type -- which refers to how email was retrieved, for example, through iGoogle, POP3 or a mobile phone. The bottom table, under Recent activity, contains my most recent history along with times of access. I can also view my current IP address at the very bottom of this window, where it says This computer is using IP address...".


This could be useful if you want to find whether someone else has access to your account: you'll be able to find the IP address and the date of the most recent activity in your account.

Gmail's blog mentions that this feature is currently being rolled out in the new version of Gmail, so you may not see it right now. Google AdSense, PayPal and orkut are three other services that show the time of your last login so you can protect against abuse, but Gmail's new feature is much more advanced.

Among the things you can do to protect your Gmail account, it's a good idea to sign out after reading your email, not to select "remember me" when you log in from a public computer and to choose a good password that should remain secret.

[source]

How to Make FREE International Calls to Any Phone from Google Talk!

Exciting News!

Google Talk users can now make free international phone calls!

 

Always Free No Credit Cards No Registration No Conditions Unlimited

No Sign-up Call to any phone, landline or mobile More than 30 countries supported

How it Works

       

Adding phone numbers to your Google Talk contact list

       

1)     To start, launch Google Talk on your desktop

       

2)     Add contacts the same way you usually do: click on the Add button to add a friend

 

       

3)     Type in the phone number of the person you want to call in the following format.

Use full phone number, including country code and area code:

       

phonenumber@talkster.gtalk2voip.com

       

Example: for UK, use 442071234567@talkster.gtalk2voip.com or for USA , use 12125551212@talkster.gtalk2voip.com

 

(Note: be sure to check the list of Talkster's supported countries to check if the friend you want to call is in one of the available countries)

       

4)     You'll get a confirmation from Talkster with instructions.

We assign a local Talkster number for your friend in their country. Your friends will use Talkster phone numbers to call-in to be connected with you.

 

       

5)     If you are calling your friend on a mobile phone, he will receive an SMS with his Talkster call-in number for you. Otherwise, let him know the Talkster number by IM or email.

       

       

Make calls from your Google Talk

       

1)     Click on your friend's number in your Google Talk Contact List

     

2)     Click on the Call button to start the call with your friend

 

3)     Talkster will dial out to your friend from Google Talk

       

4)     When your friend answers, you will have 10 seconds to check to see if he's available to talk. Tell him to hang up and call right back, using his local Talkster phone number for you.

       

5)     You wait while your friend hangs up and calls back using his local number for you. (If he doesn't know his number, send it to him by email or IM.)

       

6)     As soon as your friend calls in, we connect you and you can talk as long as you want for FREE.

       

7)     When you're done, you just end the call!

       

8)     Tell your friend to save his Talkster call-in number in his phone so he can use it whenever you want to call him from Google Talk.

       

You can call as often as you like and talk as long as you like. There are no catches, no limits, and no conditions!