TECH TOLA

I Googled for Google Logos Anigot Alofem !!

2008-05-16T14:39:00.003+05:30

Well, before going to the post if you were wondering what the last two words on the title meant, here is your answer. Anigot Alofem = 'And I got all of them'.

"Okay, Okay I get it, Stop biting your teeth. I'll promise to keep such things down in the future" :P

After reading this post by Amitji about today's Google Homepage logo and this post by Rahul on DW where I found the link to this page showing RSS feeds for Google homepage, I was curious if I could find an archive of all Google Homepage Logos somewhere on the net.

I landed on this page hosted on google itself, and found a huge archive of all the google holiday logos (That is how they call it) that appeared on their homepage since 1999. BTW, did someone tell you that Google project was initially named "BackRub" ??

Here are few of the logos I liked

The logo above represents "Leap Year".... cool isn't it ?

Here is the link - http://www.google.com/holidaylogos.html

Login to Zoho using Yahoo or Google Accounts

2008-05-14T17:34:00.001+05:30

Now you can login to Zoho using Yahoo and Google accounts. This is a superb move by people at Zoho in response to this Lifehacker Post with a poll.

I had previously made a post about detailed comparison of Zoho and Google online application suites. Click here to check my previous post about it.

If you don't know what Zoho is about, then read my post which gives an introduction to online applications.

Read more about it here at Official Zoho blogs

New definition of PORN

2008-05-10T10:24:00.001+05:30

I read somewhere on the web some time ago that, in order to make your blog more interesting you need to do the following.

What ever topic your blog may be on, mix SEX, HUMOR and ANIMALS with it. People will just love it. That's true !

Now this post is going to have everything of the above to the maximum. Yes, it actually about a page I found yesterday. Please don't ask me how I found it :P

Its is about the PORN collection of a french techie programmer named Sam. Check out what is soooo interesting about a techie's porn collection.

Nuff said, just check the link below and give me your comments !
http://sam.zoy.org/porn/

Remember the Matrix ??

2008-05-09T10:56:00.002+05:30

I found this page on IMDB site with all the dialogues from the movie 'THE MATRIX'

Here is one of the peculiar conversations between the Spoon boy and Neo

Spoon boy: Do not try and bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead... only try to realize the truth.
Neo: What truth?
Spoon boy: There is no spoon.
Neo: There is no spoon?
Spoon boy: Then you'll see, that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself.

It is up to you to decide whether they are cool or whether we are the fools ! :)

Check out the page

Orkut adds photo comments !

2008-05-09T09:17:00.001+05:30

Orkut has added a new feature by which users can comment on your photos. I love this feature and was expecting it for a long time. Check the links to read more.

And I'm back on Orkut :)

Thanks:- Devil's Workshop via Orkut Blog

How to get current computer hardware prices online (India)

2008-05-08T20:27:00.003+05:30

Being a techie is fun, but sometimes it can get very very annoying too.

Fun, because of the fame, respect, satisfaction and the eyebrows that get raised when you increase the font size of the selected text using Ctrl+Shift+> instead of clicking the font size box in MS Word. Annoying, when people ask - "I recently installed Firefox 3.0 and suddenly sparks came out from my CPU. Does the latest Firefox come with a virus that burns the SMPS ?"

Coming back to the topic of this post, why am I writing this is because most of the times, I get queries from people regarding current prices of mobile phones and accessories, computer hardware, laptops, MP3 Players and other gadgets though, Neither do I own any of these (except a second hand MOTOROKR E6) Nor do I own or have befriended the owner of a gadget shop.

Here are the ways I get the latest prices easily on the net

Computer Warehouse

First I always go to www.computerwarehousepricelist.com
Its well designed, well categorized and fast but I hate the java applet that they have on the main page to scroll text. They could have FLASH instead.
Univercell

The ultimate site for mobile phones with great search features that allow you to specify price ranges, brands and features.
site: www.univercell.in
E-Bay India

Though the price ranges are slightly higher than normal at Ebay for most of the things, EBay is a great time killer too due to the variety of products available on the site. www.ebay.in
Delta Page

This is another site with computer hardware prices.
http://www.deltapage.com
Thanks TechCruser for the link.

Who are the Webware 100 - 2008 Winners ?

2008-04-22T15:58:00.005+05:30

Webware 100 - 2008 winners have been selected from over 1.9 million votes from netizens all over the world.

Under the Browsing section we have Firefox, Google Reader mentioned on the top with......err...... IE7 mentioned in the FOURTH PLACE ??

Bebo was mentioned on the top of the Social Networking list. We also have FaceBook, Friendster and My Space in the list. But where is Orkut ? I recently read somewhere that Orkut has more page views than FaceBook. Most probably because, the majority of Orkut users still being Indians and Brazilians who are not active on other web activities like Reading Blogs, using RSS etc.

They have not released any vote count for each of the winners. So it doesn't make sense to rank the winners in each categories. Best example for this fact is YouTube, which has been mentioned last in its category.

And well, I need to mention that my favorite ZOHO suite is also one of the 10 winners in the online productivity applications category.

Check out the full list here

Offices of Digg, Flickr, FaceBook and Twitter - Pictures

2008-04-22T10:05:00.001+05:30

A Quick study about interior designing will reveal that Workplaces and their elements like color, lighting, sound, placement, designs etc have been proved to have a great impact on the performance and mood of the people who work there.

They almost directly affect the growth of any company. Is it not making you think about how offices of world famous web companies will look ?

I recently landed up on this page which has pictures of Offices of 4 major web companies which are rocking the web now - DIGG, FLICKR, FACEBOOK and TWITTER !

I liked the Office of Twitter most ! What about you ?

Click here to see the pictures

Free CDs - Preorder your Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Hardy Heron Now !

2008-04-19T09:54:00.005+05:30

With more and more users recommending not to use Windows Vista, one Mr.Ubuntu, a descendant of the Linux family is growing at the pace of lightning by its massive community of users, testers and developers. Its like the Gol Gumbaz here in India - "You ask anything, anywhere and you get your answers right away". That is exactly how you can describe the help you get regarding Ubuntu. It currently the most documented Linux Distro on earth, with the maximum number of users active on the Forums and Newsgroups.

Ubuntu Hardy Heron, version 8.04 is expected to be the best release of all, making it an ample choice for Desktop users. Though its final stable version is not yet released, you can preorder your FREE Ubuntu CD so that it will be shipped once it is released.

When folks claims it to be FREE, fast, stable (It actually is !) What are you waiting for ? Book your Free CDs today and get them delivered at your door step as soon as its ready.

Click here for preordering your free CDs

Orkut Mobile and Apps released, My Space India launched !

2008-04-18T09:16:00.001+05:30

India's largest social network Orkut has officially launched its mobile version. They claim its optimized for the mobile web and its bandwidth. To access Orkut Mobile just type http://m.orkut.com from your Mobile Browser. [via Orkut Blog]

Orkut yesterday released the Applications feature (Orkut Apps) similar to what FaceBook had, for India. Applications were the ones that made FaceBook shoot to the sky and the ones which drove most users out when they became really annoying. [via Orkut Blog]

MySpace - the Emperor of Social Networking, has launched a localized version just for India. To access please visit http://in.myspace.com [More Info]

Extra Info:- Yesterday, I tried to access Google Music Trends which is still in Google Labs at http://www.google.com/music/trends and found the link to be dead. The Guys at Google Blogoscoped Forum have already been discussing about it here. I hope and wish they don't permanently discontinue the service.

Helicopter Malfunction near Microsoft building !

2008-04-14T11:42:00.001+05:30

This blog is completely about Computers, Internet and Gadgets, but who doesn't like it with a pinch of humor. How about the joke below

A helicopter was flying around above Seattle when an electrical malfunction disabled all of the aircraft's electronic navigation and communications equipment.
Due to the clouds and haze, the pilot could not determine the helicopter's position. The pilot saw a tall building, flew toward it, circled, and held up a handwritten sign that said "WHERE AM I?" in large letters. People in the tall building quickly responded to the aircraft, drew a large sign, and held it in a building window. Their sign said "YOU ARE IN A HELICOPTER."
The pilot smiled, waved, looked at his map, determined the course to steer to SEATAC airport, and landed safely. After they were on the ground, the copilot asked the pilot how he had done it.
"I knew it had to be the Microsoft Building, because they gave me a technically correct but completely useless answer."

Source: http://jokes.comedycentral.com/random_joke.aspx?joke_id=5915

Convert, Split and Host any Audio/Video File online for FREE

2008-04-09T18:30:00.001+05:30

Scenario:- I had an AMR audio file which is a funny recorded conversation of my friend. I needed to put it on the web and share it among my friends' circle, but I was sure many won't have a media player compatible with AMR format. I needed to convert it and host it. I searched, I found !

Welcome to Media Convert. I found an impressive list of a huge number of formats that were supported. I needed AMR to MP3. I clicked on it, then it asked me for MP3 settings too ! I was able to select any bit rate (CBR/VBR)

Here are some cool extra features that the site gives:-

You need not always upload media, you can also Convert From URL
Gives you option to host the converted media for 120 days FREE !
Gives you a WAP link for the converted media apart from normal link.
Allows you to take screen shot of any web page in virtually any image format in the world.

Here is the site link
http://www.media-convert.com

Time.com's First Annual Blog Index

2008-04-08T10:08:00.001+05:30

The Time.com has released it first annual blog index and listed the top 25 blogs of the entire blogosphere which is composed of over a 112.8 million blogs approx. .

What makes the article more interesting is the list of most overrated blogs - Blogs which are popular for no reason. Please Note - Slashdot has made the top of this list.

Check it out

My thoughts on the list

I seriously think, this is just like the Oscar. I mean to say its for blogs which are liked by the Western World, more precisely the US. I agree the Lifehacker, TechCrunch, Engadget which are on the top 25 are my most favorites too, but still there are millions of blogs which might be in Chinese and other native languages and being loved by a lot more people than the top 25.

Yes, English is the universal language. If you notice the posts from the top 25 blogs, especially about politics, current affairs and others, its written in way targeting only the readers from the US.

BUT DOOD, India and China form 2/6th of the World Population. I request the readers to kindly comment about what they think my opinion.

Twitter, Twitter, Twitter... What is it all about ??

2008-04-08T09:28:00.001+05:30

Twitter - one of the flamboyant buzz words of today's Internet is still a maze of menace to many. I know about people who have signed up, tried it out for a day or two, then completely quit using it.

On the other hand, there are million who are twitter addicts. Here is a video whose link was taken from one of the top 25 blogs in the world - Web 2.Oh Really (as mentioned by The Time)

READ THE FULL POST FOR THE VIDEO

Courtesy: http://2ohreally.wordpress.com/2008/03/27/finally-twitter-explained/

Get Indian cricket score updates on Google talk/Twitter

2008-04-05T17:22:00.004+05:30

Today I created my first, fastest developed useful (PHP) application - a twitter bot for tweeting Indian Cricket scores every 5 minutes. I know this is not the only bot available, but all the bots which I got by searching were down.

Okay now, don't get furious @ me if you don't understand anything in this above sentence. It is going to be just a bunch of jargons for many. Read more for the actual article..

Update

People who twitter, just follow IndiaCricket on Twitter.
People who don't use twitter follow the steps below to get score updates for every 5 minutes on your Google Talk.

Login to Google talk
Add twitter@twitter.com as friend.
Once it is added, send the following messages without the quotes

'track'
'follow IndiaCricket'

Congratulations, now you get cricket scores every 5 minutes.

P.S. If you need the full detailed score card with ball to ball description, just click the link at the end of each message you receive.

Please do leave your comments and let me know if this is useful or totally useless.
Please recommend Techtola to your friends if you like the articles you receive here.

If you have more ideas for various twitter robots / Google talk alerts, please send them to me. I will develop them in my free time.

Update:- I have fixed a bug. Now no more duplicate score tweets.

Create tables in Word/Outlook without Mouse and Menus !

2008-03-31T09:49:00.002+05:30

Did you know ? You can actually create tables in Microsoft Word and Outlook without using the mouse and menus.

Though many blog posts have been written already about this, I wasn't aware until today morning, when I checked the mail sent by Sheril to CrusaderZ group with the Subject Line - "Technical Tip"

Just try this "+=====+==========+========+"
without the double quotes in Word or Outlook.

It is very very handy, gives you control over the column sizes exactly and faster than creating tables the traditional way.

To add more rows just use the TAB key at the last column.

Adobe Photoshop Online - now inside your browser !

2008-03-28T09:47:00.003+05:30

Adobe Photoshop gets a new webware avatar. Yes, adding to the suite of web applications like Zoho, Google Docs, Windows Office Live and others, now Adobe has launched a web version of their Photoshop completely made in Flash.

Though its not the complete version of Photoshop, its definitely worth a try and looks very sleek with its jazzy interface.

You can rotate, tweak, twirl the photos. Also has some fun tools to deform your face in funny ways.
Whats more ? They give 2GB of online storage for your photos absolutely FREE !

Check out the Adobe Photoshop Express

Create animated mobile screen savers online !

2008-03-28T09:17:00.006+05:30

Its actually a online animated GIF generator. Another site to be mentioned in Techtola's Image Generators. They had some really tempting options, that made me to download them. Check out

Read the full post for the link

Check out all the options at Red Dodo

Concept Laptops from the future

2008-03-28T08:30:00.003+05:30

Computer World today had a very interesting news about concept laptops of the future. Some technology designers designed these great looking futuristic laptops.

You must have seen slider phones, but here is a slider laptop, the one in the bottom is not a normal keyboard, that also is a touch screen.

Here is one which is also completely touchscreen and can be used as a newspaper. Who told newspapers can never be replaced ??

Man touch screen here again !!!

Here is something very very different. This is a Braille style computer, with a sci-fi surface as a screen. The surface is like a china clay, which can raise and lower itself automatically !

And this one a built in solar power laptop with cool features.

So what's the moral of the story? Touch screens rule the gadgets of the future.
Ha! Good that I own a Motorokr E6 (touch screen linux phone) ;-)

What I have given here is just a drop of the great concept explained @ Computer World.

Check out the article at Computer World

Hotmail - Yes it is Cool now...

2008-03-18T11:49:00.002+05:30

How about getting email ids like these

ashwin@drunkfunk.in
prajish@koolmail.in
raj@ilovebasketball.in
rohit@clickass.in
rakesh@mogambokhushhua.in
chris@clubsachin.com

Thats not the only cool names available, there are nearly 150 cool domain names like these in which you can get your Email-IDs, all provided by hotmail.com.

Under who I like section I found that there is clubasin.in, clubsurya.in, clubvikram.in. But where is Vijay and Ajith, even there is no Mohan Lal, Mamooty or Chiranjeevi while there is Kamal and Rajni.

Check the options below in which you can get your email Id.

Where I Live	Who I Like

Who I am	What I Like

I Don't Fit

Excited huh ?? What are you waiting for visit www.coolhotmail.com

P.S.- While checking the page HTML source code to copy all the above links, I found many domains where commented and absolutely funny. E.g. iloveoldmonk.in in What I like !!!

Technorati tags: Hotmail, Microsoft, Free Email

Fun with Firefox. Browser inside the Browser !

2008-03-18T11:13:00.003+05:30

Type chrome://browser/content/browser.xul in your firefox address bar.

You can create browser inside browser inside browser or even more levels. It is somewhat useful when you have lot of tabs open and need to maintain them as 2-3 groups of tabs when browsing.

Check the screen shot. Its not photoshop edited.
Source:- http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Building_an_Extension#Chrome_URIs (found it while trying to learn creating extensions)

Technorati tags: Firefox

ORBIT Downloader, 100% guaranteed

2008-03-15T11:12:00.004+05:30

While RAPGET is little known and is not fully reliable, I found link to another download manager which is recognized on the cyberspace, with awards from Softpedia as adware, spyware free, and has got noticed by mashable.com even.

Orbit Downloader can download even streaming content of various protocols and also files from Rapidshare. Its very fast, faster than most download managers, consumes very less CPU and memory. It can smoothly download videos from Youtube and it has a cool plugin called GRAB++ which can grab almost any content (flash movies, videos, streaming music) from any site.

All I can say is, Go get it !!

Link to Orbit Downloader

RAPGET - A Download manager for Rapidshare

2008-03-15T10:50:00.003+05:30

Russian Developers strike again. Here is a cool little app (just 200KB as it says on their site) which claims to be a download manager for files hosted on

rapidshare.com
rapidshare.de
megaupload.com
sendspace.com
turboupload.com
speedshare.org
webfile.ru

and 68 other services !! They also claim to provide simultaneous multiple downloads, auto downloads etc. The best part is its absolutely free.

I am trying it now. Will soon update this post with my personal review.
Link to RAPGET

Vote for 2008's best internet tools on Webware awards

2008-03-15T10:08:00.006+05:30

What is Webware? A Short Intro from the Webware Site.

"There's a shift underway in how people use computers and the Internet. Every day more utility is being delivered over the Web. Full applications can now be run in a browser, accessible from any computer. Software? It's no longer required. Software is becoming Webware."

Webware.com is a partner site of the world famous CNET group.

Webware Awards 2008 They choose the best internet applications purely based visitors votes. They have a wide range of categories which are listed below.

And here are my selections (Click to enlarge)

I personally recommend Zoho applications, it has a lot of better features compared to Google Docs, (read my previous comparision post) and definitely worth a try.

I quit Orkut and stopped watching videos a long time ago, so did not vote for that section.

Free online website server monitoring

2008-03-05T10:10:00.005+05:30

Have you ever needed the following things?

Want to find out how good your web hosting company is?
Have your own web server and need to monitor performance?
Do you want to monitor the server status continuously?
Do you need E-mail alerts when your server is down?
Need to generate graphs and monthly reports about server uptime and downtime?

You get all of this absolutely free now !! Here is a website which monitors your web server performance statistics every 15 minutes and sends you a comprehensive report daily.

It can monitor and generate reports for problems regarding SSL Certificates, DNS Records, Server Overload, Network Problems. Keep reading to get the link to this useful site.

BasicState.com gives you all of this for free. Link to site

P.S. I wonder why they don't have a logo for their site, heading is just in plain text
Source:msnbc Check out for more MSNBC websites of the week