Good news is that Flickr mates celebrating their 4th birthday of their site on 15th of this March. As a part of their celebration they are hosting an event called Pin-up, a photo exhibit in which 5000 photos of Flickr users will be pinned up on walls and exhibited publically to their visitors.

How to get your photo submitted?

Join the Flickr Turns 4 group and add any single best shot of your collection to their pool. Based on the community guidelines, with deep review your photo might get selected to be one of 5000 prints on that event. Flickr is allocating a temporary space to display all this 5000 selected photos which are printed in 5×7 inch size. The exhibit will take place in San Francisco, California on March 15, 2008 and the last date for submission of your photo is March 12th. It also invites members visiting in person as an opportunity of exercising their curatorial skills.

Hope your photo is listed one out of 5000 prints! I submitted my Taj mahal shot for this event.

Last month Microsoft made a release candidate of Win XP Service pack 3 available for download. So I downloaded the 336 Mb patch and installed it successfully. This patch actually contains security updates and hotfixes issued by Microsoft Corp. up to April 2nd, 2006 excluding Internet Explorer 7 (Thanks MS for it:-)).

Seriously no updates or changes in Windows interface but just a bundle of hot fixes which doesn’t make it special. I like to stay updated always which made me to install it even though it’s a release candidate, but within few days of installing my internet explorer began crashing all the time. On opening Internet Explorer it crashes within a fraction of second from loading a site and pops a message saying “Internet explorer has encountered an error and needs to close”.

After searching Microsoft Technet forums for resolution, I came to know that this is all due the Urlmon.dll thing which was discussed under KB946627. After discussing with a team member working for SP3, I came up with a resolution for this problem.

Resolution:
Warning: This procedure involves editing of registry which would result in serious damage and corruption of date if followed improperly so my kind advice is not to try unless you have clear cut knowledge of what you are doing.

Step 1: Go to Run and type ‘notepad’ without quotes.

Step 2: After the Notepad is invoked, copy and paste the codes given below:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FeatureControl\FEATURE_PROTECT_DECOMPRESSION_FILTER_FROM_ABORT_KB942367]
“*”=dword:00000001

Step 3: Save the notepad as somefile.reg (note the extension .reg)

Step 4: Double click the saved notepad file to add the information to the Registry.

Step 5: A dialog box pops saying “Do you want to add the information to the Registry?” Click Ok and there you go.

Step 6: Restart the Computer, now I believe Internet Explorer would not crash again.

Note:If the problem still persists please feel free to post your comments or queries.

Now you don’t require an e-commerce designer to establish your own shop online since Zlio makes it possible in 5 minutes. Ok before going ahead let me tell you what Zlio is all about?

What is Zlio?
Zlio (aff) is a French company which provides platform and service for establishing your own e-commerce site. It lets you sell products from their list of trusted merchants. You can choose from a large database of products in different categories and virtually add them to your shop.

Currently you can sell products and services to France, US and United Kingdom but never mind you can be an active seller in their site irrespective of your country. The catch is all about using your marketing strategies and promotions. Don’t believe me huh? Ok have a look at Techno Shoppe (check the screenshot below) which I created a while ago in Zlio. It took me not more than 10 minutes to customize and create a brand new virtual shopping site.

How do you earn out of shop?
Zlio provides various deals over the commission and referral levels rather than the products…lol. And the best thing is Adsense. If you haven’t observed my sample shop that I created a while ago, I have linked my adsense account with Zlio and so I can display ads in my site. Usually the commission varies based on the merchants but Zlio works on a Cost per action basis so in order to earn a commission one has to purchase a product from your shop.

What makes this site great?

Frankly it’s the FEATURES that makes this site great. Yeah to highlight some of its features I would say an easy to use interface, various customization options for templates, SEO, RSS and also add-on facility like Google analytics etc. You can use a custom domain name and integrate this shop on your website or maybe your blog.

Other Features includes:
• Multiple shops management under single account
• Widget for adding to blog and website
• Community support
• Reviews and feedback from customers
• Price comparision

So my final verdict would be to start your own shop and experience the results instead of just reading this post. Zlio is really a new experience for me and I would appreciate it as a good start for sellers especially Indians who wanted to sell products internationally. SEO tab has been given an importance which lets you add sitemaps of your shop easily and makes its friendly to search engines.

Links: Create your own shop now | Zlio.

The .info domain which is known to be a generic top level domain are basically suited for informative websites. Although .info domain has been successful with over 3 million registrants the value of this domain is very low when compared with prestigious domains like .com, .net, .org etc

This is one of a type of unrestricted domain which anyone can obtain and use as a second level domain like .com, .net etc. Many sites have been using .info domain but the domain price of this level is unpredictable that it goes on decreasing.

Good news is that now you can buy .info domains for just dollar $0.99 which is not more than 40 rupees in Indian currency. Go-daddy has put up a sale on .info and .biz domains. So if you every thought of buying own domain then this is the best time to catch up as your expense will end up only for 40 rupees (0.99$).

I can provide more information about setting up your free website or blog by using your own domain for startups and no vice users.

Links: Buy .info Domains | GoDaddy.

I just thought of sharing this beautiful website which makes those special moments of your wedding not private anymore. With E-wedding you have the opportunity of creating a personalized free website just to share your wedding with everyone. While analyzing my friend’s wedding site I was wondering how beautiful the design was but then came to know that he used this e-wedding site to generate his own free wedding moments.

Actually E-wedding offer some new features specifically designed for wedding type of sites like beautiful themes in the genre of wedding, custom page name, domains, photo album including ability to share your stories, creating or posting events, multimedia enhancements like background music, audio and video embedding etc.

Visitors can even leave their messages in guest book to share their wishes for the couples. E-wedding says that they have developed sites not for only the weddings that happened but also have categorized to have multiple wedding options like the weddings which are goanna happen.

Links: Create your website | E-wedding.

Developer knowledge Drive is a Microsoft resource program along with Monster.com for your development in IT career. This program aims in delivering resources like Newsletter, downloads and Gifts too. Being a regular reader of MSDN flash newsletter, it has valued information which is worthwhile to read and sort of.

For every student and IT professionals who are focusing their career towards Information Technology field should opt-in to this drive program. Registration for this program is 100% free and you can join by clicking here.  The extra bit about the program is that Microsoft wants to promote it by giving referral points which you can easily redeem for gifts like cool Xbox 360, USB Music Players, Microsoft Leather Key Chains and Microsoft T-shirts. There are many reasons to join this program one of them is that it makes you stay abreast of the latest information and technical know-how thing. You will also be notified about latest events and other programs as a privileged member.

Still waiting for the free program to join?

Links:  Microsoft DKD | Join here.

Its time to celebrate again and luck pours for BSNL broadband customers as the company shortly planned to release a new scheme called Three-in-one `Broadband Multiplay’ which includes a single package of voice, video and Internet protocol television (IPTV) services.

You all might have already experiencing the new whooping 2 mbps speed now which they have announced shortly but to again surprise you their new technology will enable  the connectivity speed of up to goddamn “8 mbps” (Please believe me).  When comparing developed countries, this speed doesn’t count but when it happens in India, its good news to share up.

The new package is all about ON-DEMAND service by which the provider will install a set-box in your place. The Hindu reports that this new services will be launched in 789 cities shortly. Great news is that your ADSL copper wire connectivity will soon be replaced by new futuristic technology, `Fiber to the home,’ which was in the final stage of technical valuation. Seem like my post about the Free Internet for everyone likely to be hinted.

Who said you need blocks of investment for starting your mobile company? No investments, no risks, just a few clicks can make you start your very own Virtual mobile company. Still don’t believe me chill out your snooping and read carefully.

Sonopia a website dedicated in new kind of mobile marketing allows a user to create his own mobile company by choosing a Sonopia profile which allows to customize your company name, logo, plans you want to sell including mobile content and webpage (just like a reseller) with high end themes.

“Our mission is to provide every organization, group or club with the opportunity to create branded mobile service and build a unique mobile and web community of supporters and members. “- Sonopia

You can either host the page in their server or create your own and start marketing so you get a percentage amount of the telephone bill paid by your customers. You tend to get commissions for selling plans and mobile phones. The drawback is that Sonopia allows only US residents to create a profile where International users still have to wait for to include mobile plans for your country.

Still waiting for a good time? Start creating your own mobile now!

Links: Sonopia | Create your own Company |

Microsoft again took another step to compete Google’s Page Creator, with its new Popfly which is still in alpha stage. According to Ms, Popfly is the fun, easy way to build and share mashups, gadgets, Web pages, and applications.

Ok let’s pop in what this pop fly contains…..

Popfly is classified into two parts as a online webpage and mash up creator tool and an online community for hosting, sharing, rating etc. At present it gives a storage limit of 25mb per user (Microsoft is always limited and lacking in storage space).

You want to know more then watch the 15 min screen cast or visit their official site. For buddies who are waiting eagerly for tryout just request an invite.

*Microsoft and Popfly is the registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation.

The news just hit the road about Yahoo shutting down its default online photo storage site called Yahoo photos soon. Washington posts reports that Yahoo took the decision forward for forcing and promoting Flickr a Yahoo owned Web 2.0 photo service.

The service turn around will took place in the month of June forcing millions of yahoo photos customers to either use its Flickr service or any other alternative option. I have been expecting this from Yahoo some months ago but the decision took place right now thus promoting Flickr.

Flickr is a great web 2.0 photo sharing site with a simple interface and power features that cannot be even be compared with any photo sharing site. I am very much impressed by Flickr’s service and quality. Although Zooomr (Another photo sharing site) gives free unlimited storage to all customers, no one thought about sticking to since the best prefers the best.

The features available in flickr had not only inspired me but it has made me to buy a pro account that allows unlimited uploading of photos for just $24 a year. Some weeks back there were rumors regarding yahoo photos acquiring web 2.0 interfaces but they realized the catch and decided to concentrate on single photo site.

Flickr is not only a family photo sharing site but when you explore; tend to see a group of amateur and photographers. The same stage is now on Google side over its Youtube acquisition which still lack back to merge Google videos with Youtube. Anyways seem like Flickr will come out of Gamma soon.

For newbies who still don’t even tried exploring Flickr, just check in. Also feel free to check my photostream in Flickr.