If you were thinking twitter is just for sharing one liners, think again. It can actually be used to save a life. Thej has developed tweet4blood to help people in need of blood. Read more here- http://www.deccanchronicle.com/tabloids/how-save-life-021.
Over the weekend a friend discussed his idea of creating a web portal for some specific services with me. The failed entrepreneur in me liked his idea and encouraged him to go ahead (anyone, who is trying, should be encouraged). He shared some wireframes for his portal, but he was not sure how will it actually look on the web. So after returning home, I decided to get some basic version of the website up on the internet to help him. Resulting in the journey mentioned below.
Step 1: I knew I will have to share my email address with service providers (hosting space/ domain name etc.). And as I am looking for free stuff, it would be more than possible that I come across some fake websites. So I thought of creating a dummy email id which could be used to register to all these websites.
Step 2: Now I needed a domain name. I could buy, but as this was just a dummy site, why waste money. Next option is using subdomain from web hosting provider. Here I had to look for a free web hosting provider, and my past experience with free hosting providers is ‘don’t trust them’. The site can go down anytime without notice (its for free. What were you expecting?). So I thought of getting a free domain name, yes, a co.cc domain. I registered a domain with http://www.co.cc/, which I could use with any service provider.
Step 3: Now I needed web hosting. I googled around some free web hosting sites, zeroed upon one (checked features and reviews), registered, and bam, it is not working. Moved to second one, registered, and this time it worked. It was awardspace.com. I got Linux hosting with Apache, PHP, MYSQL. Basically all I needed, for free. I set up the nameservers for the domain and all is good. (Ofcourse I tried a hello world example, I am still the same old fashioned developer at heart).
Step 4: Now we have all set to host our web pages. I had the wireframe with me, and I had frontpage, I could easily create the HTML pages. BUT, from my past experience, I knew designing web pages is a sin for a developer (”Are you colorblind! Why are all the pages grey?”). So instead I pinged a designer friend and asked for some templates. Who suggested checking http://projectw.org for free html/ php templates (you will find more interesting stuff on the forum, but handle with care :D). Ok so I had a template with me, now I needed to customize it for my pages. Actually this was the part which took most of the time. Once done! I just had to upload the pages to my website using ftp. And we are done.
Wasn’t it simple. If instead of a website you are trying to create a blog, you can simply upload the blogging software. Infact most of control panels come with blogging softwares, so that is actually simpler.
If you don’t have your website yet, what are you waiting for? Go ahead! Get your hands dirty.
Today is the festival of Rakshabandhan (haan wahi! jab behne bhai ki kalai pe pyaar, i mean rakhi bandhti hai aur unki jeb dhili karti hain). Almost on every year this day, the words of a 7 year old kid comes back to me. Even I was 7 at that time. Yes, some things you just can’t forget (20 saal ho gaye!). So that was the age when you talk to girls only if there is no other option (hoo jee! ladki se baat kar raha tha), and Rakshabandhan was one of those days. Anyways, girls were tying Rakhi to all the boys, and this dude, my friend at that time, was hiding in a corner. I asked him “Kyu be! tu kyu nahi bandhwa raha rakhi” and the reply was “Abey! rakhi bandhwaonga to ye meri behan ho jayegi. aur agar bade ho ke inme se kisi se meri shadi ho gayi to?”
Dude! that is some serious future planning. I am pretty sure this Guy has made big in his life.
A Good Car+ Good smooth long Road+ Good Scenic View+ Some Good Quality Music= Life
I have been using the FF browser for like last 5 years, but this is the first time I observed this feature, that too accidentally. If you double click on the empty space on the bar next to your browser tabs, a new tab opens up.
There is no indication anywhere that a double click will open up a new blank tab. That is one kool thing I found in IE browser, that small box next to your last browser tab, which very clearly tells you “click me! I will open up a new tab”.
I guess that is what we call usability.
Country’s election results are out today, and obviously all news channels were full of reports on the same. Every other news channel coming up with its own breaking news every second minute. “Sabse pehle humare channel par”.. you know that stuff
And ofcourse they would add some spice on their own. The most funny and amusing stuff was the songs they came up with for different politicians. For BJP leader Advani one channel played, “Chan se toote koi sapna, jag soona soona lage”, for Rahul Gandhi we had songs like “main hoon yuvraaj” and “yaha ke hum hai raajkumar”, and ofcourse for Manmohan Singh we had “singh is king”. These news channels do have a sense of humor.
But amidst all this drama, one important thing that came out was victory of democracy. Predictions of all the channels for a hung assembly were proved wrong (well almost), and the country is hopefully heading towards a stable government.
I work for an MNC in Rajiv Gandhi Chandigarh IT Park. And this is a true incident. On a weekend a couple of months back, I was coming to office to catch up with some work. Now as I was nearing the office, there were 4-5 ladies standing, most probably from some nearby rural area, along with kids. As I reached near, one of them asked
Lady (looked like their leader): “Bhai Jee! Ye IT Park kaha hai” (Bro! Where is this IT park)
Me (as matter of factly) :”Yahi hai IT Park” (This is IT Park)
She ( a bit surprised): “Lekin Park kaha hai yaha?” (but then where is the park?)
Now it was my turn to be surprised: “Park nahi hai. Ye jo buildings dikh rahi hain, isi area ko IT park kehte hai” (There is no park as such. You see all these buildings around you. This whole area is called IT Park)
Another lady to the first one (a bit angry) “yeh hai tumhara IT Park. Tum hi layi thi na IT Park Dikhane. Lo Dekh lo ye buildings” (So this is your IT Park. You brought us here to visit the park. Now see all these buildings)
It took me a few seconds to realize that these ladies must have heard the name IT park somewhere and thought that this is some kind of public amusement park or something. so they along with their kids came to have some good time over the weekend.
Check this link out - http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/03/earth_hour_2009.html
It shows how the lights went off during the earth hour 2009. Magical moments.
