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.

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.

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.

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 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.

Well, 24 hours of flickr is one of a global flickr community in which the members of flickr including me would share the world with our photographs taken on 05.05.2007.

This 24 thing is about a day long project of taking photographs on 5th may. You can take as much photos as possible on and within stated day i.e. on 5^th may. The next step is about sorting the best photographs of yours and uploading it to this flickr group. Once you finish uploading your best shots, the flickr team will select the best among them and it will be featured at Flickr events. The best shots are also selected for publication in the 24 Hours of Flickr commemorative book and/or displayed at a Flickr-sponsored event this summer.

So I should probably be making up my camera ready this Saturday for the shot treat. Let me try my skill in photography although I am not a professional photographer but jus trying to put my inner piece in it.

Anyways I am IN, what about you? Are you ready? Ok then go ahead and join the Flickr 24 hours of flickr.

*This photo contest is open only for Flickr members.

The usage of internet is evolving greatly with people switching to latest technological advancements like broadband, ADSL, Wi-Fi etc. But there are some exceptional who still use the Dial-up connection via modem or GRPS. One of a good folk from ThinkDigit forum has found a trick for GRPS Internet users.

Basically GPRS dial-up connections are mostly used by mobile personals, whereas this trick does not apply for them but for those who temporarily use GRPS dial-up internet in their home. By increasing the Signal Reception in your mobile, you can optimize the internet speed gradually.

Here is a concise info about the trick:

All u need is:
- A lengthy old Antenna for TV or Radio (2 Antenna of abt 1Meter is Recommended)
- A Standard Speaker Wire of about 1 Meter (Transperant with red lines)
- A Spring of 5 to 10 mm
- Two Mousqito Coil Stands
- Blade
- Tape
- Scissor
- A Small Cardboard Box to fix the Antenna (CPU box Size is Ideal)
- A Metal Stip of ur Mobile Phone size.

After gathering all these stuff follow the procedure listed here.
Source: ThinkDigit Forum.

The current M10 has the following updates like change in branding from windows live mail to hotmail, including faster performance with enhanced spell checker, enhanced checkboxes, safety bars etc. By the time you are reading this post I hope you are get upgraded by this new branding if not wait a bit and you will surely.

But today Liveside reports that we need to set again for another expectation for the brand launch of final version of Windows Live Hotmail which will happen in the early weeks of April. I expect the new launch hopes to give even more cool features that are not currently in beta m10. Also Windows live hotmail plus members should be proud about their whopping 4 GB storage space increase.

Currently I think Windows live hotmail allows to send and receive mails from other email accounts like in gmail which seem to be a new feature for me or maybe that I am not updated.

To send mail from different email address:

• In the upper-right corner of the Windows Live Hotmail home page, click Options, and then click More options.
• Under Manage your account, click Send and receive mail from other e-mail accounts.
• Click Add an address to send mail from.

To add a pop 3 account in Windows live mail:

• In the upper-right corner of the Windows Live Hotmail home page, click Options, and then click More options.
• Under Manage your account, click Send and receive mail from other e-mail accounts.
• Click Add a POP3 account. Enter the settings for the POP3 account, and then click Save.

To overcome this problem, one research team found a technique called SET (Similarity-Enhanced Transfer) that claims to speed up P2P downloads by anywhere from 30 to 70 percent by increasing the potential sources of files being downloaded.

How SET Works?

Their idea is simply superb and embedded in their tag itself! Yeah I am talking about “SIMILARITY”. Actually what similarity has to do with boosting up the transfer speed? My answer is that it has many. Consider this example that while you are searching for music data in p2p you come across many sources of the same file. So we had the option to download from the list of sources available.

When you compare the sources, the data you want to download is absolutely similar but only thing that differs is their tags, titles or sometimes the versions. By identifying the identical data, SET searches for similar files by “handprinting,” method that is similar to the pattern matching techniques which after identifying are scanned for any individual chunks that are identical to pieces of the file being downloaded.

After identifying them, SET expands the available sources of any given file. By this process “SET helps us to download a 30MB movie trailer in only a third of the time whereas the rate of an MP3 download is increased by 70 percent” says Arstechnica.

Future Applications:

Seem like all Future peer 2 peer will implement this technique in their system. You can know more about how this system works by visiting here.

When you compare sites like HI5, Bebo, LinkedIn, Friendster with Orkut the main bit Orkut lacking was a Custom URL for your profile page.

                                  A Custom URL is a small and easy to remember web URL by which one can access a profile page in a site. Basically one cannot remember the long URL provided by Orkut for your profile, so instead its easy to create a custom url which re-directs to the URL provided by Orkut.

Creating a Custom Url in Google Pages (Free):

• Login to Google Page Creator with Your Google accounts username and password
• Either create a new site or choose the Create Another site from the drop down box available at the top right corner of the page
• The next step is about choosing an address which is going to be the URL of your Orkut profile, so enter the profile name you want for your url basically it should be like this http://yourdesiredname.googlepages.com which will re-direct you to the Orkut profile.
• Say for example you want to use “XXXX” as your profile url then you should enter xxxx in the box provided for choosing an address and click Check Availability to see if the entered name is available or not.
• Select any layout and a starting look because because it has nothing to do with your url.
• Making sure you have entered the desired URL and check if its available or not, then click the Create Site Button.
• Now you have successfully created a site, click the [no title] link in the page name column to make it open.
• There you go, you are ready to edit the page where Google pages allows you to add title and other bla bla things. But you don’t have to touch them just click the [edit html] link at bottom right corner of the page.
• Type the following javascript code in any part of the blank page.

<script>
window.location = “your link here”;
</script>

• Replace your link here with your orkut profile url which will basically look like this http://www.orkut.com/Profile.aspx?uid=8454709067165079466
• You can find your profile url by login into Orkut and clicking the Profile link in your homepage, then copy the profile link which appears in the address bar.
• After making changes in the javascript code click the Save Changes button
• Now click Publish button to publish your webpage. Cool you are ready to launch your custom url.
• Just navigate to your address bar and type http://xxx.googlepages.com (example) and click ok ……..zooooooooooooo you will be re-directed to your orkut profile page.

Advantages of using this technique:

• You can easily share your profile URL with your friends, family or post this URL in your weblog or website.
• Now they no longer need to remember those long URL to add you as friend.

Also you can create a custom url in your domain name (if you own a domain address) by using the .htaccess technique. You can also use re-direction service sites like SnipUrl, Co.nr, shorturls.co.uk and other sites but it depends on own risk whereas by using this technique you have a google domain url.

Please comment if you have any queries and help related to this technique. Your suggestions are most expected.

Thanks Haochi for the JavaScript code.

The following are the revised plan for BSNL Dataone broadband customers:

And for the Business Plans:

Unlimited Home 900 customers doesn’t have this up gradation of bandwidth. So there will be another revised plani for 900 plan customers. This new year i am expecting valuable comments from BSNL Customers on their experience, speed etc trying the bandwidth speed.

Update: My friend Shankar Ganesh has written a guide on how to check BSNL Broadband Usage. Check it out to know how you can monitor your bandwidth consumption

The great news for all the BSNL BroadBand Customers is that its going to offer high speed internet broadband connectivity to its subscribers. According to The Hindu Report, BSNL Telecom Service which is offering a maximum of 256 kbps internet connectivity to its subscribers will offer upto 2mbps connectivity.

Mr.Maran has announced this at the India Telecom 2006 conference. The main bit is that BSNL would offer high speed broadband at the existing price.

Transforming the telecom connectivity into a network to provide seamless access between the knowledge creators/converters and knowledge consumers.
 - A. P. J Abdul Kalam at India Telecom 2006 Conference.

I personally feel that this great upgrade is silently impacting the Vision 2020 of India. Maybe people who are using 256kbps connection already enjoyed downloading movies, games and other stuffs although they have some download limit but using the no count timings.

This upgrade will surely influence other Internet Service providers in India and hurray i think my service provider will do something to compete BSNL. But recently a French telecom and internet service provider decided to provide 2GB per second connectivity to all its customers.

Anyways this was just a great news for users like us,now the chance of exploring Internet has widenup and surely webmasters like me love to see traffic in our site.

Thinkglish Beta is a free English learning and improving site that is designed for everyone without any age difference. This site helps you to learn a perfect English and improve your verbal communication skills, as well as your listening comprehension.

They provide interactive sessions,preparing interviews, presentations or if you simply want to have a conversation, you can by thier One-on-One training sessions.

The basic account is free and anyone can register whereas if you feel and satisfied with their guidance and coaching you can then order for premium accounts which adds additional practice sessions.

Speaking English fluently has become essential in today’s global
community. At Thinkglish! you’ll find the best learning content
available. Our mission is to accelerate your English faster than ever
before. We want everyone to start talking. Access our interactive
sessions for FREE and communicate your ideas globally.-  Thinkglish

I improve my English by blogging and let me try this site… For registering a free account in Thinkglish click here. [via cypherhackz]

After using AVAST Anti-virus for the past 3 years i have experienced not even a single problem becoz AVAST Anti-Virus uses very less resource and works effectively. But it was two days before my system totally got messed-up and i had no other way then to format my entire drive so i proceeded to do that so. After re-installing all the softwares i once again thought of installing the Avast AV but my friend Srinivasan recommended me to try Kaspersky Internet Security, so on taking his recommendation i installed the Kaspersky to my surprise i have never experienced such a good anti-virus software in my life. This AV is built with all the features a system requires and the main bit is that it uses very very less resource of ram.

You can download Kaspersky Internet Security :

I recommend the following Anti-Virus for your OS.
Only Anti-Virus:
If you prefer to use only anti-virus software and already have another firewall installed for your internet security then download Kaspersky Internet Security and while installing select only the Anti-virus to install.

Only Firewall:
If you prefer to use only Firewall then download the Mcafee Desktop Firewall which doesn’t even needs a 10 mb of ram. It works like a gate system and has no extra features.

Both Anti-Virus and Firewall:
Well the ultimate answer from me is simply install the complete Kaspersky Internet Security.

What is Disclaimer ?
It is a statement that states that entity is not responsible for something in some manner. There are many types of Disclaimers. E-mail Disclaimers alerts the readers to risks involved. These disclaimers are appended to email either as signature or attachment. I cannot assure you that email disclaimers will protect against actual libelous but it will certainly help you in some situations from liability.

Example of a standard email disclaimer which i use

This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager. Please note that any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the company. Finally, the recipient should check this email and any attachments for the presence of viruses. Sankar Anand or Gmail™ of Google® accepts no liability for any damage caused by any virus transmitted by this email.

Adding Disclaimers as Signature in your mail:
Gmail or Googlemail:
*Click Settings.
*Enter your new signature text in the box at the bottom of the page next to the Signature option. As you type, the radio button will shift from No Signature to the text box.
*Click Save Changes.

Yahoo Mail :
* Select Mail Options from the Yahoo! Mail navigation bar
* Follow the Signature link (under Personalization).
* Enter the desired signature in the text field.
* Click Save.
Other Mail Service users can contact their local mail providers for instruction on adding signature to their outgoing mails.

You can get more samples of email disclaimers here.