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111 free plugins for Photoshop
2006-10-30 12:15:01
The Plugin site has got a fabulous collection of free Photo shop add-ons and plugins. Many of them are really useful and make life far more convenient especially when you are a designer from scratch kinda guy or a guy who just wants to tweak your photographs. It lists plugins for: Image Effects (37), Photo Enhancement (26), Web Design (6), Patterns / Textures (5), Painting & Drawing (3), 3D (3), Various (14), Image Format / Importing (14). To list a few from the huge list that I found interesting: Harry’s Filters … contains 55 filter effects. They include filters for changing the image color or mood, for creating artistic effects, producing colorful gradients or impressive patterns, warping images, adding special noise effects to images, encrypting and decrypting images with 64 bit keys and producing various other effects like zoom, mirror or paint effects. Ulead Free Plugins Ulead started offering their commercial Art Texture plugin for free some time ago. N...
More About: Photos , Photoshop

Top 11 reasons Students should become Entrepreneurs
2006-10-30 12:15:01
Zero Cafe has got a good round up on why students should go for entrepreneurship.It is a must read for any student who remotely has an idea of start ups and doesn’t feel ms/mba or a job at Infy is his future. Some of the points there drive the nail thro’ the head. It is amazing that students can be good entrepreneurs basically cauze they have nothing to lose. You suck at it, you just give it up and go on to do an MS or MBA or take a day job at some software company. 4. Only you get screwed When you are a fresh graduate and your venture or ventures fail, its you who gets screwed and no one else. But if you fail in the same fashion 10 years later your spouse, your children?s trust funds and all your dependents will feel the impact. As you can see most people have a very small window of opurtunity to fail, from their mid 20?s to their early 30?s beyond which people around them start to bare the brunt of the failure. This is the reason why there are so little first time ent...
More About: Student , Entrepreneur , Students , Reason , Reasons

CloneDVD Mobile - Play DVDs on your Mobile
2006-10-30 12:15:01
There are so many wonderful movies and tv series that one might want to view in his/her mobile phone. So here is a software which exactly lets you do that: Clone DVD mobile converts your DVD movies quickly and easily into a format that your portable device (Sony PSP, Apple iPod Video, iAudio X5, Creative Labs ZEN Vision, etc) can play. You can also convert your DVDs to other file formats, such as DivX, XviD, AVI, MP4, etc. The software has a user friendly interface and is quick and easy to use. Copying a DVD to your mobile video machine is achieved in a few mouse clicks and without the need to rip it to your hard-disk. Features Convert movie DVDs to play on mobile video equipment like the Sony PSP, Apple iPod Video, iAudio X5, Creative Labs Z, EN Vision, etc Convert movie DVDs to other file formats like DivX, XviD, AVI, MP4, etc. Utilises a high quality picture conversion engine Supports multi-angle movie DVDs Video Preview shows an overview of all selectable DVD titles Target size...
More About: Mobile , Play , Your , Dvd

USB batteries
2006-10-30 12:15:01
This is a pretty cool idea. Simply because rechargeable batteries are very common today and laptops are more common than battery recharger.  This USB battery has a flip top which lets you flip the anode to expose an inbuilt usb port which you can plug into any USB port and get the battery recharged. This saves time and also is good since you wouldn’t have to lug the battery charger any more. Maybe this isn’t as great as it sounds, but it definitely is a great idea. Man! These people know how to combine technologies for the better These batteries are available in various sizes (AA, AAA etc.) and voltage ratings (1.5V, 9V etc.). USB Cell
More About: Usb , Batteries , Teri , Erie

Genesis - Business Plan Competition
2006-10-25 01:06:02
The business plan competition, which is about “initiating innovations” that can combine enterprise with social responsibility is being organized by IIT Madras. Genesis is a platform for you to develop your idea and learn about the various things involved in entrepreneurship. Genesis plans to encourage budding entrepreneurs by providing them the required guidance and financial incentive. Genesis is a social entrepreneurship competition that aims to bring together students, NGOs, innovators, entrepreneurs, incubators, corporations and financiers and encourage them to come up with innovative ideas which are feasible and hold social relevance. The competition is open to all students and working professionals (including NGOs) who have ideas that are innovative, feasible and can benefit society. The competition is also meant to be a means of developing an eco-system that brings together students, NGOs, incubators, entrepreneurs, venture-capitalists and corporations. The focus...
More About: Business , Competition , Business Plan , Comp , Petition

Google Launches Custom Search Engine
2006-10-25 01:06:02
A Custom Search Engine (CSE) is a tailored search experience, built using Google ’s core search technology, which prioritizes or restricts search results based on websites and pages that you specify, and which can be tailored to reflect your point of view or area of expertise. The Google CSE allows anyone with a valid google account to form a search engine specific to their needs in a few minutes. Harness the power of Google search to create a free Custom Search Engine that reflects your knowledge and interests. Specify the websites that you want searched - and integrate the search box and results into your own website. Once you get done with the quick registration process, all you need to do it provide a suitable name for your very one search engine, a description and may be a logo too :). Thats not it, you can personalize the results too. Provide the sites to be searched from, or if you still want the whole world wide web then there is an option for laying emphasis on your s...
More About: Launch

Google Talk Desperate for users
2006-10-23 13:00:03
Google Talk blog is encouraging its users to come out with interesting stories on how they use the gTalk messenger. Tell us how you Talk We want to hear how you’re using Google Talk — and we’re looking for everything from the practical to the wacky. As in: did Google Talk help you get a date? Has it it reduced the cost of your small business communications? Is it easier to keep in touch with folks outside the country? Or maybe you used Google Talk to sing karaoke along with your friends in Korea … You get the idea. So please, send us your story. If you’re especially cutting-edge, try shooting your story on video, upload it to Google Video, and send us the Google Video URL via the same form. We’ll post some of the most interesting stories on the Google Talk site. Watch for those soon. Lewis Lin Product Marketing Manager, Google Talk This I take as their PR stunt. But these days all gmail users who don’t use gTalk get a box stating R...
More About: Google , Google Talk , User , Users

Little Autonomous Robot using PIC Micro controller
2006-10-23 13:00:03
Here is a neat tutorial on how to build a small autonomous robot using PIC 18F4620. There are a lot of pictures and circuit schematics to help you get it done easily. The robot description isn’t uploaded completely yet. Work is still in progress, but then the important parts and circuits are put up. This I guess should be more than enough for any robotics enthusiast. This page described my new robotic project. One year ago, I built a very simple little robot with a Comfile PICBASIC 3B microcontroler and a Cybot chassis. This new project is based on a very much more powerfull Microchip PIC 18F4620 (or PIC18F4520) Microcontroler programmed in C language with the same chassis and new sensors.. Makes good for a perfect holiday/weekend project. Little Auto nomous Robot using PIC Micro controller
More About: Roll , Sing

A few Google Updates
2006-10-23 13:00:03
Treo users can now rejoice Googl e ’s new service - Google Maps in Treo. Well not exactly anew service, but this one, google claims: “We think this is the fastest, slickest version yet, with draggable maps and translucent pop-up balloons that don’t hide the map.” There are two ways for Treo users to download Google Maps: visit google.com/gmm on your Treo’s web browser, or you if you prefer, download and HotSync® here. ————- Google has got into a partnership with two of the major companies in the Music world - Sony BMG and Warner Music group. This implies a lot of new music videos in the Google Video via free, ad-supported on-demand streams. ————- Google for Educators is a new portal, where google has a set of its services available and tells teachers how they can benifit from them. The idea is sleek and I guess should be of a great help for a teacher. Google recognizes the central role that teachers play in ...
More About: Dates , Updates , Update

Google Gdrive client ?Platypus? Leaked
2006-10-23 13:00:03
Philipp Lenssen of Google Blogoscoped sneak peaks into Google’s internal Gdrive client - Plat ypus. He says “Please note that Gdrive, from what it looks like, is not a product for general release, but a way for Google employees to store and share files” Interested??? Get the scoop here. Technorati Tags: google, gdrive
More About: Drive , Leak , Platypus

DesiPundit is going to shut down
2006-10-23 13:00:03
Patrix, the guy behind Desi Pundit (A popular Indian Blogs Showcasing directory), hints in one of his latest post that DesiPundit will shut down by next month. He says We are shutting down DesiPundit. Although it has been a great experience, it requires time and dedication that I can no longer afford to give. Other personal and professional commitments must take precedence. Other DesiPundit contributors have understood and supported my decision to do so. I?ll post the tip-offs that we have received before this post and keep the site up until this month end. Now this is sad as well as interesting. A few of the commenters at that perticular post argued saying shutting it all down isn’t a good idea cauze it takes more to build than to destroy. Point taken, but I wouldn’t want to trust a booming blog like DesiPundit in the hands of few enthusiasts who don’t have a clue about the vision you had while you came up with the blog. All good things must come to an end and this...
More About: Down , Shut , Going , Goin

Yahoo Time Capsule
2006-10-23 13:00:03
  Yahoo time capsule is a nice concept to preserve our time and place… in the virtual world of course. Most of us would have seen period films. A film say Amadeus revolving around the 18th century and a film revolving in the 15th century both have casts wearing similar costumes, speaking similar language and using similar tools. Why? Because we don’t have enough knowledge/details about their time. We generalize everything before the 19th centure with same kinda language/dress/tools/art/culture. 100 years down the line, the future generations will generalize us, for the lack of details about our culture and tradition and our TIME. Yahoo Time Capsule lets you record anything and everything that descirbes the year 2006: word, video, voice, message, photo etc. Within the next 21 days anyone with a valid yahoo id can upload their content into the time capsule. Like everything Yahoo! does, it?s about you ? our amazing users. We think there?s no one better suited to teach futur...
More About: Time Capsule

Blogger Label Manager
2006-10-23 13:00:03
Good news to Blog ger Beta users: Label s Mana gement a tool now offered with you blogger beta, lets you add labels to your older posts in batches. It saves a lot of time, considering the previous best option available was “go to edit post and change labels one by one”. Want to add labels to all your old posts? There’s a new labels management feature to make this easy. On the Edit Posts page, you can select batches of posts and add or remove labels to all the posts at once. This is by far, one of the unique features offered by Blogger. I would be really happy, if WordPress could follow suite. (Via) Technorati Tags: google, blogger beta, label, manager
More About: Manager

Orkut celebrates Diwali
2006-10-23 13:00:03
Diwali an imporant and grand Indian fesitval is showcased with lights at the Orkut Homepage for today. However, I was expecting Google Iindia to have a doodle for Diwali. Which didn’t happen
More About: Celeb , Celebrate , Rates , Brat

Google Website Optimizer
2006-10-23 13:00:03
Google has launched its latest webmaster service “Webs ite Opti mizer”. Basically, you can just do about anything in your webiste and monitor whether it was for the good or the bad. On top of it, it would also forecast the reach of the users to land on a perticular page by clicking within your site. You want your ads to be successful. To measure that success, you use click and conversion tracking to gain insight into user behavior on your pages. If users are reaching your pages, but you aren’t getting the conversion results you want, what do you do? It’s time to make improvements to your site. Website Optimizer can help. The Website Optimizer allows you to test changes in the website content of your pages in order to determine what will be most effective in getting conversions. You choose what parts of a page you’d like to test — headline, image, promo text ? and we’ll run an experiment on a portion of your site traffic to determine which con...
More About: Site

Youtube Kings on whats google-tube
2006-10-23 13:00:03
Chad and Steve, founders of youtube, give a breifing on what will happen in the future after Google acquired youtube day before. A must see for all Googlers and Youtube addicts One thing is made clear,  google video search results will involve youtube videos too
More About: Tube , What , Hat

Free Vintage Handyman Magazines
2006-10-23 13:00:03
JavaMoose has put up an interesting collection of 1945 Pop Mech ‘Useful Ideas’. Its all in the form of jpgs and at the moment they number 105 pages. He also promises to upload new content every monday. I found Pop’s collection of vintage Handyman Magazine s and oh how glorious they are. So, I decided to share! Every Monday I will post a ‘new’ magazine, in its entirety, here for all to enjoy! These old Pop Mech magazines gives me a high. They have some amazing ideas and construction details, which you generally don’t find online. 1945 Popular Mechanics - Useful Ideas to Save you Money Also don’t forget to check out the previous free Handyman Books featured at BotHack Technorati Tags: diy, free books, popular mechanics
More About: Magazines , Free , Vintage , Andy

Blogrolling.com goes free!!!
2006-10-23 13:00:03
Blogrolling.com a service which lets you manage your blogrolls/links in an effecient manner has gone all free. This means you don’t have to pay for the extra goodies like the: Multiple blogrolls for the same id, appending pics next to links, url to image translation, private blogrolls, local timezone, optional line breaks, recipe roll, feel lucky punk and best part “no credit link”. Blogrolling users all over are rejoicing this cool move by blogrolling.com. I like the recipe rolls, which let you display your back links, very much. But alas! I can’t use them in Wordpress. (Tipped  by Kausik!)
More About: Blogroll , Free , Blog , Roll , Rolling

Best of Blogs Contest
2006-10-23 13:00:03
Best of the Blog s contest (www.thebobs.com) involves putting together a catalog of blogs on a variety of topics that are actually worth reading. Here is your chance to add your favorite blogs and podcasts to the list, so that the whole world can also know your tastes and benifit from it. Only three more days left, after which the registrations will be closed. So hurry. Submission Form Technorati Tags: extras, contests, blogs
More About: Contest , Best , Test

IIT - Online Teaching Initiative
2006-10-23 13:00:03
The IITs have taken up an initiative of starting online teaching and thus have started offering course materials online for every engineering stream. Many professors from all the IITs have provided course materials for each chapter and each subject. Though some of them are not yet available, I am sure in the following months they should be there. One has to register at the link provided below and can access the course material. Every Chapter has been described with diagrams and charts. This is just a trial period going on and hence  make use of it in total. 1] Go to http://nptel.iitm.ac.in 2] Click on Courses 3] Sign up as a NEW USER 4] And one can access any course material.  I checked out a few courses in Electrical and Electronics stream and they were pretty good. Especially the Integrated Circuits course. Technorati Tags: iit, online course, elearning, tutorials, subjects, course, engineering, demos, online courses, education
More About: Teaching , Online , Line , Initiative , Teac

Google Webmasters Challenge Concludes
2006-10-23 13:00:03
The previously mentioned google webmasters challenge ended yesterday. Conducted across 9 cities (including Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi, Hydrabad) and seeing over 300 participants in every city, I would say it was a success. Like I already noted, the good thing about the event was that, it didn’t restrict creativity with an age limit bar. The Chennai edition saw 60 year olds to 17 year olds battling it out for the awards. I was quite dissapointed to not find any school going kid there. But hey, the school kids get enough opportunities, for creative writing is a part of every culturals in Chennai. At first I wasn’t sure about the competition. Not much publicity had been given, at least not in Chennai. Most of the publicizing was done thro’ blogs, this would have meant most participants would essentially be bloggers. But thank god, this was not the case. Only a handful of prominent bloggers turned up. Many in the auditorium had no clue about the competition. Only during ...
More About: Google , Webmaster , Webmasters , Challenge , Hall

Google Search/Label Hack
2006-10-23 13:00:03
The image you see above is not photoshoped. Follow this link to verify. Using the special characters, number of such words can be formed. The URL looks something like: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr =&safe=off&q=%E2%96%84%E2%96%84%E 2%96%88%E2%96%80%E2%96%80+%E2%96%88%E2%96 %AC%E2%96%88+%E2%96%88+%E2%96%80%E2%96%88 %E2%96%80&btnG=Search A close look at the searh term, you will notice terms like “%E2%96%84″ The last number of the three component term, decides the position of the blocks. %E2%96%84- bottom horizontal dash %E2%96%88 - straight line %E2%96%80 - upper horizontal bar %E2%96%AC - middle bar %E2%96%BC - Down arrow Many other such symbols are possible. You can always do the trial and error to find them. But with the above 5 codes, you can symbolize: H, I, J, L, M, S, T, U, W and Z. A combination of %E2%96%84,%E2%96%84,%E2%96%88,%E2%96%80,% E2%96%80 will give you the letter S. To separate letters, use the ‘+’ operator in the search t...
More About: Google , Google Search , Hack , Label

Wordpress Features
2006-10-23 13:00:03
Here is a list of features offered by Word press .com. Not complete but hey, its got all the important ones. It Takes Seconds and is Free! You can get a blog started in less time than it takes you to read this sentence. All you need is an email address and a name. You can blog as much as you want for free, our paid upgrades are completely optional. Check out what our signup process looks like. Dozens of Gorgeous Themes You can change the look of your blog with dozens of attractive themes ranging from professional to fun to crazy, and you can switch themes instantly with just a click of a button. Each theme allows you to rearrange and customize your sidebar using widgets, and several themes let you upload your own photo or image for the header bar. We add themes regularly based on user requests. If you?re a CSS pro, you can also customize your CSS code. Categorize and Tag Your Posts WordPress .com includes an easy system which allows you to categorize and tag your posts while you wri...
More About: Features , Feature

Shaastra Begins
2006-10-23 13:00:03
Previously mentioned IIT Madras techfest - Shaastra, began today. This five day event is sure gonna be exciting. So catch up with you folks there.
More About: Stra , Astra

YouTube + Google = GoogleTube
2006-10-23 13:00:03
Googl e bought Youtube (The popular Video sharing/broadcasting platform) for $1.65 billion in stock. The good news is that, Youtube will still run independently to preserve its successful brand and passionate community. I am only hoping the “Flickr” and “Orkut” episod is not repeated - such that the new restrants will have to have a gmail account to log on to their account. I like YouTube the way it is. Also this leads to speculations of the future of google videos. Catch all the action at Nathan Weinberg’s Inside Google.

Google merges Writely and Spreadsheet
2006-10-23 13:00:03
Google released their new service Docs and Spreads heet. In simple words - writely + spreadsheet = docs and spreadsheet. But that is not all. A few good mods have been done, which makes life a lot more easier. Firstly, both the docs and spreadsheets are at the same place thought there is no virtual interaction between them. But I guess this helps people to make effective use of both. Secondly, you have a common file list and more importantly the chat feature which writely didn’t have is now available in docs (Spreadsheet always had it). Also docs now looks more like your gmail’s “compose new mail”. Write ly is now redirecting to docs.google.com. Google Docs and Spreadsheet requires you to run IE6 or Firefox. It is not supported by Opera or Safari Two things which I liked about the new service are: 1) One click import of all your writely files. 2) You can email documents to your google ID and they will automatically appear in your D&S account. You can sav...
More About: Google , Read , Sheet