definition me, karthik's blog

Im back and its time for change

2006-05-22T11:06:00.000-07:00

I finally found some time to host my own blog.
It is almost ready
www.karthiksetty.com/blog

My homepage is still in pre alpha.
www.karthiksetty.com

See you there!

Got Hitched!

2006-03-12T11:38:00.000-08:00

DSC_0281
Originally uploaded by s_siddharth_reddy.

Sorry, have been really busy! :), Next post April 1st (no kidding!)

The mother of all lists

2006-02-18T12:21:00.000-08:00

Listible
www.listible.com
This site is a welcome break! One of the sites where you would say "now why didn't I think of that?". Listible does one thing and does it well... maintaining *lists*. Users can create lists of anything, but thats not all. What makes the site great is that lists can be tagged so that searching will be easier, users can vote for the items on the list for better relevance, vote for the list so that it goes closer to the homepage and the best part add items to already created list so that you have a complete set!
Now get relevant resources quickly!

technorati tags: listible, lists

Now for some BS!

2006-02-17T21:56:00.000-08:00

Web 2.0 Bullshit Generator
emptybottle.org/bullshit/
Everyone is creating a web 2.0 site, why don't you give it a shot? If you need VC funding, well you need to ... bullshit! I have created mine. This site helps you with your business plan and everything else!

Company name: Yahkohub
Product description: social bookmarks via bittorrent
and the usual BS: "share rich-client APIs", "remix standards-compliant networking", "reinvent peer-to-peer value", "share undefined network effects", "share AJAX-enabled value", "incentivize citizen-media communities"

ok, ok ... im done!
haha! this site is hilarious!

technorati tags: funny, web2.0

Now where do I get the best deal?

2006-02-17T10:37:00.000-08:00

Clipfire
www.clipfire.com
If iNods is the place to get the best reviews, Clipfire is the place to get the best deals on the net. Clipfire is a shopping search engine and community. Clipfire works just like digg. Users can submit websites or individual products which other users can search and *clip*. Highly clipped products will show higher up in the search results. So lets start digging, oops clipping!

technorati tags: shopping, clipfire

what are you shopping for today?

2006-02-10T12:46:00.000-08:00

iNods
www.inods.com
Choosing the right product can be so difficult … sometimes you dont know where to start. Always wonder which site gives the best reviews? Dont worry, its not that difficult anymore. Take a look at iNods.

"iNods is a pre-shopping research engine for you to find reviews and advice about the products, services, and other things you are looking to buy".

and a more geeky version ...
"iNods is a search engine and aggregator of decentalized review content on the Internet allowing you to quickly find review-centric pages for the products or services or things you are looking to buy".

iNods search index targets review content sites and it also has an algorithm to exclude shopping related pages. Get great reviews from every part of the web! iNods will soon support the hReview microformat.

technorati tags: reviews, inods

Get that perfect drink recipe!

2006-01-30T10:13:00.000-08:00

extratasty
www.extratasty.com
"extratasty is here to make relaxation a lot less stressful!"
If you are in the mood of trying out a new drink extratasty is the place to be. ET is not just a great looking site and it is also feature packed!
You can submit your own drink recipes to the site. Submitting a recipe is simple, first give the drink a name, add the ingredients and give directions. After you have submitted your recipe the users can rate it and also comment on it. Your recipe book contains all the recipes you have submitted. You can even load your recipe book onto your ipod. The my bar feature is the best, you add the ingredients you like and ET suggest recipes that match them. It is a great way to discover a new drink.

technorati tags: extratasty, recipes

whatsup?

2006-01-24T10:32:00.000-08:00

TailRank
www.tailrank.com
"TailRank finds the best content from thousands of blogs so you don't have to!".
TailRank monitors weblogs to find highly linked and discussed links and citations. Once TailRank discovers something important it promotes it to the mainpage. It observes 35,000 blogs and soon it would do 50,000.

how does it work?
"TailRank takes into consideration linking behavior, the text off the post, links in common with other users, search relevance, and various other factors for recommendations."

If you want to know whats happening on the world wide web this is a great way to do it!

technorati tags: tailrank

bookmarks on steroids

2006-01-24T03:02:00.000-08:00

mystickies
www.mystickies.com
Mystickies lets you place yellow post-its in any page of the world wide web. You can write anything you want in it and come back and refer to it later. Mystickies has a neat firefox extension making creation of notes really easy. Mystickies offers lets you browse, search, sort and edit sticky notes. You can also organize your notes better by tagging them. Mystickies is still in beta, some of the upcoming features are coloured notes, sharing notes with friends and public notes.
You can definitely give this site a try!

technorati tags: mystickies, bookmarking

how much do I owe you?

2006-01-19T02:46:00.000-08:00

iOWEYOU
www.ioweyou.co.uk
ioweyou is an online calculator for expense sharing. It works very well for roomates, clubs or families where you would have to share expenses and keep a note of it. To start off you have to create a group and then invite the members. After this you can start logging in the expenses. When you log an expense you enter details like who paid for it, the amount paid and the number of members in the group the expense applies for. You can also log settlements where you enter the amount one member pays to another. ioweyou creates reports to tell you how much each member owes the other. Simple? yes it is! You can create groups of upto 5 people and for groups of more than 5 they have a paid version. The only drawback of the site is that the amount is always shown in pounds, dont think it would take the creators much time to have a multi curreny option!
give it a shot! it makes expense calculations easy!

Update: Looks like the creators have solved the issue of multiple currency! Now you can choose any currency. Thanks epsilon for pointing that out!

technorati tags: ioweyou

no more attachment headaches

2006-01-15T04:12:00.000-08:00

Pando
www.pando.com
“thanks for sharing”
Pando is a really tiny app that lets you email attachments to anyone for free. With Pando you can send attachments of upto 1GB! Thats 100 times the size which is allowed on gmail or yahoo! mail. First you download the Pando app, then you choose the file or folder you want to send and then add the address and a message. Pando creates a .pando link for this attachement and sends a mail out to the receiver and also adds a link to download Pando. Its that simple! The only hitch is that the attachments have to be downloaded within 14 days of uploading. Right now it is in closed beta. Should be beta soon coz it works great!

technorati tags: pando, p2p

what’s this song?

2006-01-10T03:53:00.000-08:00

Tunatic
www.wildbits.com/tunatic/
Tunatic is a free music identification software. It will hear your song and give you the title and and the artist almost instantaniously. Tunatic is the first and only(?) song search engine which gives you results by listening to the query. The input can be a radio or any other music source, all you need is a mic. It can also identify music right from the computer. Does it work? Very well! I tried 25 songs and it identified 24! Tunatic is really tiny … you have to try it out!

technorati tags: tunatic,music, search, mp3

share creativity

2006-01-03T10:25:00.000-08:00

Imagination Cubed
www.imaginationcubed.com/LaunchPage
Imagination Cubed is a whiteboard on the net. It is a stripped down version of MS Paint. It is created by GE using flash. You have various tools like the marker tool, different shape tools, stamper tools, text and more. The best part is you can invite friends, work on it together and share ideas. It lets you save the whiteboard (sends the link of the whiteboard by email) and also has a replay option. You can even print your whiteboard. This is cool!

technorati tags:
whiteboard, ge, collaboration

ebay with a twist!

2005-12-30T11:52:00.000-08:00

Etsy
etsy.com
Every once in a while you come across a website that will blow you away, Well etsy will do just that! Etsy is an online marketplace for buying and selling all things handmade. What makes Etsy great is that it lets you shop by colour, location, place or material all from the comfort of your ... well ... desk! The site makes ample use of flash to make the site absolutely beautiful. Let me explain some of the cool stuff ... as you move your mouse over a colour a bubble pops up and when you click on any colour all the items with that colour are displayed. You also have the sampler module which displays all the items for sale and the geolocator module which lists items by location. But the feature is the time machine, here the items are advancing towards you sorted on the time they were added to the site. You can throw the items around if you want or check out the price. I bet you would be tempted to pickup something from here.
"Best darn place to shop on the net!" - iospace creators of Etsy

technorati tags: etsy, ebay, shopping

sharing photos just got simpler!

2005-12-27T10:23:00.000-08:00

BubbleShare
www.bubbleshare.com
BubbleShare is a simple and free photo sharing service. With BubbleShare you can create as many ablums as you want without the hassle of registration. You can create an album right from the homepage. First you upload the photos you want in the album (It also has a batch upload option). While you wait for the photos to finish uploading you enter your name and email id. In the end it creates a neat slideshow. BubbleShare will send you two links. One link to your slideshow so that you can pass it to your friends and the other admin link which is only for you!
BubbleShare has come cool features. My favourate is adding audio to your photos. You can view your photos as thumbnails, you can increase or decrease the size of your thumbnails. You can reorder your photos by dragging and dropping . The add ablum to blog option is really cool!
BubbleShare is still in beta so expect a lot more features.
The term "no pain no gain" is now passé!

check out my 'trip to japan' album

This album is powered by
BubbleShare - Add to my blog

technorati tags: bubbleshare, flickr, photo

stop typing start yacking!

2005-12-26T00:19:00.000-08:00

yackpack.com
www.yackpack.com
yahoo groups and google groups are now ‘old school’ thanks to yackpack. Why? YackPack is a simple web-based voice messaging for groups. The entire concept is very simple. First you need to register, then create a group (pack) and invite your family/friends/colleagues. After that you can start sending voice messages either to the entire pack, a select few or just an individual. You can create multiple packs for different groups. You get notified if you get a new voice message. The site is well designed, even an amateur can use it. This is great fun! Happy Yacking!

update: check out the yackpack demo

technorati tags: yackpack, voice, groups

great flash!

2005-12-22T03:16:00.000-08:00

gtalkr
www.gtalkr.com
Some of the most amazing websites are created using flash. Even though AJAX has gained a lot of attention, flash still hasnt lost it popularity. Two great flash sites are yahoo! maps and goowy. Goowy provides a nice interface to manage web mail, contacts, calendar and more. One site which caught my eye is gtalkr, it has a neat flash interface. It is primarily a web-based IM client for google talk. It also indexes your conversations so that you can search. gtalkr is not all google! it also has other webservices like yahoo maps! (why not google maps? because yahoo! has a flash interface). It has also exposed some APIs to help flash developers add extensions. Some extensions include gmail and todo lists. It also has a notifier which alerts you if you get new mail or when your contacts come online!. An RSS feed reader was included recently. It is still in beta so expect many more features.

technorati tags: gtalkr, im

get rolling!

2005-12-17T09:50:00.000-08:00

rollyo
www.rollyo.com
are you tired of the irrelevant searches which appear on search engines? ... is it hard to find the exact information you are looking for? well maybe you should try personalised search! with rollyo you can create custom search engines and narrow down your search to the sites you know or trust.
all you need to do is pick the sites you want to search and rollyo would create a customised search engine for you. you can share these search engines (searchrolls) with other users and explore and save searchrolls created by other users. you can create any number of searchrolls. there are a number of tools available as well, you can add the searchrolls in your firefox toolbar. you can add it to your website, like i have and a rollyo widget is coming soon. rollyo is powered by yahoo! search.

indian newspapers searchroll
software downloads searchroll
mac addict searchroll
cricket searchroll

technorati tags: rollyo, search

expert ... you?

2005-12-14T07:16:00.000-08:00

squidoo
www.squidoo.com
everyone’s an expert on something ... right? atleast passionate? well you should share it with the world. squidoo has built an online platform to do just that. squidoo will help you create a webpage called lens of any topic of your choice. squidoo lets you create a neat website by letting you add modules. there are different kinds of modules ... linked list modules, rss modules, text modules … you can add your flickr photos and amazon links. as a lensmaster you can play around with the page to fit your needs. thats not all, squidoo lets you earn money from advertising on the lens. you can choose how much of it would come to you and how much would go to charity. all in all it is one great tool.
there are some great lens which have been created. you can check out the top 100 or just explore

my personal favourates
intro to web 2.0
torrents
css design
startups
longtail
colors of the web
squidoo

i was a private beta tester of squidoo, my page is still in the works http://www.squidoo.com/karthiksetty/

technorati tags: squidoo

do you still bookmark?

2005-12-09T11:49:00.000-08:00

one of the most overcrowded spaces in the web today are bookmarking sites. it all started with del.icio.us , then came along myweb, furl, spurl, simpy ... i can go on and on. i tried them all out and then came back right to del.icio.us , the problem with all the sites were they do exactly the same thing.
well now it has changed! why bookmark an entire page when you can just clip an image, a para or a link??
there are two great sites ...

clipmarks

looklater

i dont want to compare the two sites coz looklater is still in beta and still introducing new features everyday. but you cant use both now can you?
first check out the demos on how they work clipmarks demo looklater demo

feature showdown
bookmark tools
clipmarks: have to install an extension and is browser dependant
looklater: works with just a bookmarklet and is browser independant

privacy settings
c: you can have public or private bookmarks
l: all bookmarks are private

importing
c: no importing of bookmarks
l: can import bookmarks from del.icio.us or any browser

levels
c: you can clip on different levels and there is a cool slider that can change the amount to be clipped
l: single level

rss feeds
c: has rss feeds by tag or user and also provides commenting on bookmarks
l: has only private rss feeds

ads
c: no ads
l: coming soon (?)

blogs
c: can have a cliproll in your blog
l: no such feature

technorati tags: bookmarking, looklater, clipmarks

update yahoo acquires del.icio.us! i missed it by 10 min! (del.icio.us blog)

homepage with a difference

2005-12-08T22:26:00.000-08:00

protopage
www.protopage.com

protopage is a great startpage for any browser. it is a mixure of personalized news, sticky notes and bookmarks. you can choose between a number of news articles or enter your own rss feed. sticky notes are easy to create and it has rich text so you can do a lot of formatting. v2 just released with a lot more features. you can create any number of pages. you can share parts of your page or the entire page. each user gets his own page www.protopage.com/user. you can dock panels and print sticky notes. u can just about customize anything!
protopage was created with AJAX
you can see a protopage button at the top of this blog to add my blog to your protopage. i have also created a blummy bookmarklet!
make your startpage now!

technorati tags: startpage, protopage

day dreaming ... well u should be!

2005-12-02T06:49:00.000-08:00

dreamlines
www.solaas.com.ar/dreamlines/index.htm

"Dreamlines is a non-linear, interactive visual experience. The user enters one or more words that define the subject of a dream he would like to dream. The system looks in the Web for images related to those words, and takes them as input to generate an ambiguous painting, in perpetual change, where elements fuse into one another, in a process analogous to memory and free association.
The system has been developed in Java and PHP. First, a PHP script makes a Google image search of the words entered by the user. Then, the Java applet retrieves the images one by one, and uses them as input to generate an ever-changing drawing. The pictures are never actually shown. The drawing itself is produced by 1500 autonomous particles in perpetual movement. The last image loaded serves as a sort of virtual terrain for them. The direction and speed of each particle is given, at each step, by the color values of the pixel they are stepping on. Different sets of formulas translate the hue, saturation and brightness of the pixel in angle and velocity values for the particle. The path of each particle is traced to the screen, and this forms the output seen by the user."
- Leonardo Solaas

check this site out, it is truly amazing!

techonati tags: websites dreams

command line surfing

2005-11-30T21:56:00.000-08:00

yubnub.org
www.yubnub.org
if you are bored of using the mouse for everything or you are a linux enthusiast or just want to surf the web in a new way, yubnub is the thing for you. what does it do? suppose you want to know the meaning of 'quidnunc', you would normally go to dictionary.com and search for it or if you use firefox you would use the dictionary search. well ... all this requires a lot of steps. with yubnub all you have to do is type 'y dic quidnunc' in the address bar and u get the same result. thats not all, there are a lot of other ways to use it. you have a yubnub toolbar, yubnub search engine, yubnub website and you can also have a small frame at the bottom of your browser to execute commands. yubnub has a 'buhzillion' commands. g, does a google search and gim, does a google image search. check out the golden eggs. you can also add your own commands. i created one 'setty'. it opens up my blog. yubnub was created by Jonathan Aquino using ruby on rails

check out the different ways of using yubnub
yubnub blog

well it makes my surfing waaay faster!

technorati tags:browsing yubnub

want to know what I am upto?

2005-11-24T11:48:00.000-08:00

suprglu

so you have a blog? bookmark with del.icio.us? upload pics in flickr? digg a story? do something? want to visit a place? consuming a book? listen to music? wont you want to glue everything together in one page so that people know what you are upto? suprglu can do exactly that for you. so everytime you add a bookmark or a pic or digg something it would automatically appear in your suprglu page. you can also choose css templates or create your own. you can also throw in some additional html. check out my suprglu page ... karthiksetty.suprglu.com

what you reading?

2005-11-17T04:06:00.000-08:00

if you have tons of books, music cds or dvds and it is all over the place, maybe you should take some time to do inventory! these two wonderful sites would do a great job!

listal
www.listal.com
this site has a neat design and some great features. you can organize your book, dvd or cd collections by tagging them. you can also create and share custom lists and ofcourse the site will not be complete without reviews and ratings, picking your next book or movie is now easier! checkout my listal page -> karthiksetty.listal.com

allconsuming
43.allconsuming.net
allconsuming does almost the same thing, joined the robot co-op. the same company which has created 43 places and 43 things! so what has changed? well now it has the same unique 43 look and feel, and integration with 43 places and 43 things! check out my allconsuming page ->
43.allconsuming.net/person/karthiksetty/

if you are still undecided on what book to pick up next ...
www.whatshouldireadnext.com should help you out

back to basics

2005-11-11T03:28:00.000-08:00

the pocketmod
the free disposible personal organizer
www.pocketmod.com

who said the coolest stuff requires the latest technology? pocketmod doesnt think so! it is a great way to keep yourself organised. it lets you convert one sheet of paper into a small book(by a unique folding style ofcourse!). you can customize the pages in your book with a number of templates from lines to check lists to daily planners. it opens up like a book and you also have a small pouch to keep business cards! pocketmod uses flash to create all of this and it also provides an offline version. a great way to carry notes or your todo lists. it took me all of one minute to put mine in my pocket! great stuff!

Shopping? Make the right choice!

2005-11-08T01:26:00.000-08:00

kaboodle
www.kaboodle.com

do you always end up buying the wrong product? have your friends opinions come too late? you dont know where to get opinions from people who have used the product? ... you have no one to blame other than yourself! use kaboodle!
it is the easiest way to get all your choices in one page. starting off is simple, just added the bookmarklet, ( i suggest you use blummy to manage your bookmarklets). create a page of the product you want to buy and start surfing the web. and if you find something interesting just click on the bookmarklet, learn how to use kaboodle by clicking this link.
i need to buy a monitor, check out my page.
you can change the privacy setting of the page and you can also email it to all your friends. they can vote and leave comments!
neat!

bookmarklet management bookmarklet

2005-11-04T13:26:00.000-08:00

blummy

http://blummy.com

my firefox bookmarks toolbar was really getting cluttered will all the different bookmarklets. the ones i use the most are the 'post to del.icio.us' and the 'add to my yahoo' bookmarklets. then came blummy, the bookmarklet management bookmarklet. (now why didnt i think of that?) it condenses all your bookmarklets into one bookmarklet. so in only click you get access to all your bookmarklet and keeps your toolbar clean. configuring your blummy bookmarklet is simple, it has a cool drag and drop interface, if you dont find a blummlet ( a blummy bookmarklet ) not to worry, you can make your own. i did , i created the 'protopage it' blummlet. they gaurantee it would work for any page!
neat stuff ... try it already!

ssshhhhh!!

2005-11-04T00:59:00.000-08:00

hidemyass!

you bet it would! :)
This site lets you surf the the web anonymously. A lot of other sites provide the same service, why this? its is clean, simple with no ads or extra options and it really works!
it will bypass your college or office filter with ease!

and it has got a 'kick ass' name!! you will never forget it!

2005-11-04T00:48:00.000-08:00

musicbrainz tagger!

http://musicbrainz.org/

I have a moderate sized music collection and spend crazy amount of time tagging the songs so that my ipod can get all the right data. Annoying!! … but then i came across this nifty software … made things so much more easier, musicbrainz is a community music metadatabase. It automatically tries to figure out the meta information of the songs. All the data is user contributed. The software reads your music files and matches the songs with the songs in its database and tags your songs. It also gives you the ability to choose the tags manually if the match is not accurate enough and sends this data to its database, sure it will still take ages to have a clean music collection, but you can finally see light at the end of the tunnel!

oh by the way, if your songs are already added in itunes it doesnt recognise this change. select all your songs and right click ->get info , and the tags will change.

got milk?

2005-10-20T23:58:00.000-07:00

rememberthemilk.com
http://www.rememberthemilk.com/

with so many todo lists out there, it is difficult to choose which one to use. well, the choice has became a little simpler. remember the milk is the best way to manage your todo lists. it has a neat, clean and simple interface with some amazing features. let me list out a few. you can have a number of todo lists (work, personal ...). you can prioritize tasks with colour and add any number of notes to a task. it has a real nice undo feature and also a option of postponing of tasks. you can also make your tasks recursive. one of the coolest features is how you add the due date ( it can be anything like friday, 2pm, 5th of Nov). it has keyboard shortcuts and you can share your lists or publish it for everyone.

this site would not be complete without the reminders.there are 3 kinds - email , instant message: msn,google talk, aim or ICQ ( yahoo! is coming soon ) and the most exciting ... the sms reminder. it works anywhere in the world, all you need to know is your phones email id ( mine for instance would be 91xxxxxxxxxx@airtelkk.com ).
it has atom feeds and the print option rock!
this is a must see for anyone who wants to increase their productivity!
it is still in beta, cant wait for the final release! the team consists of just 2 people (oops! 3 ... forgot the monkey). great site!

whats cooking doc?

2005-10-11T12:30:00.000-07:00

halfbakery
www.halfbakery.com

do you have a idea that you think is kick ass? or maybe the insight to the next big thing! well it all has to begin somewhere. how can this site help you? this site is an invention incubator. you can post your idea, other users will comment on your idea and they can also vote with a +1, -1 or neutral. based on the votes your idea can have a nice croissant or a fish bone attached to it. the ideas are sorted neatly on categories ranging from business, cars to sports. some of the ideas here are really interesting reads while others are just hilarious, check it out ... 'eureka' might not be too far away!

oh by the way! i am not interested in cheap web hosting, please do not spam my blog!

throw procrastination out of the window!

2005-10-07T12:05:00.000-07:00

or should i say ... get to work!

temptation blocker
get it here
have you been slacking off lately? never seem to get work done? i knooow ... you are addicted to the internet? you spend hours on google earth ? maybe age of empires? .... well this nifty program is just for you! it has one simple goal, it will block a particular program for a set amount of time. you can block any program from outlook to firefox (it is such a turn off to browse on ie). if you try to open the blocked program the software would give you a message indicating how much time the program would be blocked. the author has put this software out for free and promises no updates. so if you have a problem with the software dont bug him! ... dont worry... i have used it for some time now and i have had no problems ... the only way to disable the software is to type a random 32 character string. why 32? so that you think long and hard at what you are doing! (ctrl+alt+del does'nt work)
the only downside i see in this is, it cant block just the sites instead of firefox as a whole. well lets keep our fingers crossed. theres are other productivity apps by the same author ...

so what are you waiting for 'get work done!'

hats off to apple!

2005-09-08T02:56:00.000-07:00

nano extremely small

Introducing the new ipod nano
http://www.apple.com/ipodnano

this product raises the bar on mp3 players!
the more you see it the more you feel like getting your hands on one.

so what has changed? well... STO it is small, sleek and sizzling!
it has a colour screen! available in two colours white and black and
has almost all the features of the ipod.

nano is a replacement for the mini!
mini which was touted as the industry’s top-selling music device is going to be discontinued.
why? well according to steve jobs "since everyone was trying to copy the iPod mini, the company replaced it" ... sweet!

check out this awesome super first look of the ipod nano at ilounge
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/super-first-look-apple-computer-ipod-nano/

Takai desu ne

2005-08-31T03:45:00.000-07:00

I am in tokyo, japan for a month.

check out my flickr photos at
http://flickr.com/photos/karthiksetty

or maybe just the japan set
http://flickr.com/photos/karthiksetty/sets/816917/

sayounara

digging for gold?

2005-08-05T11:53:00.000-07:00

well ... you hit jackpot!
digg.com
www.digg.com

this site has taken the internet by storm. it just had a major overhaul and digg 2.0 is just awesome!
digg.com is definite candidate for the next gen webpage (web 2.0). the entire site is user driven. the users are incharge of everything. so what can you do in digg? digg is a technology news website where users submit latest news stories for review. the other users can 'digg for stories' and if they find anything interesting they can 'digg' it. when the stories have enough diggs it reaches the homepage... so the best stories hit the homepage! it is like a social bookmarking thingie and of course it has rss. they have categories in the old fashioned way .... no tags!!! strange ... the only problem is that sometimes the comments on the stories get a little nasty. you can also add the digg stories to your website ... scroll down and you can see mine!! this site is totally addictive and if you are a tech news freak you will go totally crazy!
check out my digg profile.

diggnation
revision3.com/diggnation
this is the best thing that happened to digg. its very own podcast highlighting the best news stores of the week. the postcast is hilarious, Kevin Rose & Alex Albrecht do a great job hosting the show. i am hooked onto this podcast. they have done just 5 episodes and the podcast is already ranked 4th in odeo, 7th in itunes and 5th in podcastalley.
subscribe in

my rating: * * * * *

y! acquistions

2005-07-29T12:31:00.000-07:00

i stumbled upon this during my last post, i suddenly realised that yahoo! has bought a lot more companies than my previous list.

here is the entire list (i think)

konfabulator (pixoria) - widgets
flickr (ludicorp) - tagging for 'my web 2'
musicmatch - yahoo! music engine
oddpost - mail enhancements
dialpad - messenger pc 2 pc calling
broadcast - launchcast
farechase - travel
stata labs - desktop search (?) spam (?)
kelkoo - shopping enhancements
games domain - yahoo! games
geocities - web hosting
hotjobs - job portal
egroups - groups
overture - search marketing
inktomi - search when it split from google
rocketmail - mail! (way back!)

simple strategy!

aesthetics at its best!

2005-07-29T11:30:00.000-07:00

widgets.yahoo.com
widgets.yahoo.com

the best thing about mas os x is the way it looks! but you can get your windows to look pretty similar using objectdock for the launchbar and desktopx for widgets. wikipedia's definition of a widget "a widget is a small specialised desktop application that provides easy access to frequently used functions or provides some visual information". well widgets got a little more exciting recently. thats because yahoo bought a small company called pixoria the creators of konfabulator, a runtime engine for javascript applications or in plain english widgets! whats different? well ... now the application is free! and it has yahoo! integration. there are tons of widgets to choose from like clocks, stock tickers, weather updates, rss readers and traffic cams.
check out the gallery. each of these widgets look stunning! and lot of them are really convenient. soon your pc cant live without them! check them out!

yahoo acquisitions
pixoria -> for widgets
flickr (ludicorp) -> for tagging (my web 2)
musicmatch -> for yahoo! music engine
oddpost -> for mail
overture -> for search marketing
inktomi -> for seach (way back in 2002)

where do u want to go?

2005-07-23T11:59:00.000-07:00

43 Places
www.43places.com

if you are the travel junkie ... this is the place to be! what can you do here? you can share stories about the places you have visited or read stories about places you would like to see. they have this whole community thing going! you can zero in on a location with the wonderful flash application. there you can see photos of a place... you can see other users who want to go to the same place... you can read user comments and you can also ask questions about the place. thats not all, if you dont find a place in here you can add it. the site allows you to tag locations! this makes searches a whole lot more relavant and accurate. the site also has photos from flickr (photos which have a tag of the location and have a commercial creative commons licence is added to the site, which is pretty cool!). an awesome site! it has the right recipe for success ... community driven, tagging and sharing. so go see it already!

take it away
my rating: * * * * *

10 years and counting ...

2005-07-09T12:32:00.000-07:00

while google keeps talking about 'doing no evil!', yahoo! lets its work do the talking. yahoo! turned 10 this year! check out their cool 10X10 potraying 100 moments of the web. yahoo! has been busy lately coming out with a host of goodies!

these are the 10 things I dig about yahoo!

my web 2.0 beta
my web 1.0 was really disappointing, it was no different from yahoo! bookmarks , but then came my web 2.0 a 'social search engine', it lets you tag bookmarked pages and share it with your friends and uses yahoo!'s 'myrank' search technology to search webpages instead of the traditional seach algorithms. it also lets you save webpages. it is del.icio.us + furl . a total killer!

my.yahoo.com
once you get hooked on to my yahoo! there is no turning back. it is the one stop shop for personalized content. yahoo! has integrated all of yahoo services in my yahoo! you can choose what you want to see ... email, weather, sports scores, stock quotes and best of all you can subscribe for any rss or news feed! the best google could come up with is this -> ( click here ) .... hehe!

360.yahoo.com
360 is yahoo!'s very own social networking site! ... even though yahoo! was a little late on social networking and blogging 360 is really well done combining both of these. you can also share recommendations and reviews. i like it way better than orkut

yahoo! desktop search
finding stuff on your computer is now so easy! before you could say 'where the hell is it!' you have the file right in front of you. yahoo desktop search indexes your word excel documents, pdfs, music, images, emails, im's, contacts and much more. i got more relevant results in yahoo! than google.

yahoo! music engine beta
yahoo! has added a really neat music player to its kitty! it can rip, burn and create playlists. you can buy music online and also listen to 30 second demos. you can transfer music to your mp3 player and ofcourse you can listen to launchcast radio yahoo's streaming music service where you can create your own customized stations.

yahoo! mindset beta
yahoo! is doing crazy things with search. mindset is an intent driven search where the search results get sorted based on whether the site is commerical or informational. you could choose your preference 'shopping' or 'seeking information' ... awesome!!!

yahoo! messenger beta
yahoo! messenger is the best IM out there and it just got better! you can now make pc to pc calls worldwide! yup a skype killer ... and then you have the avatars, emoticons, audibles and the imvironments ... just the complete package!

yahoo! movie recomendations
this is something which had made my life much easier! i always go the the video rentals and get stuck with the choice of movie ... now yahoo! does it for me ... all you have to do is rate movies you have watched and it recommends movies of similar taste ... the more movies you rate the better the end result. you can also write movie reviews and make movie lists.

yahoo! shopping gift finder
yahoo! gift finder is kick ass! it works in 4 easy steps, first choose the occasion, second choose if its a guy, girl ..., third define the relationship ... mom ,friend ... and finally what kind of a person he/she is and 'wolla' u have gift recomendations ... works great!

y!q beta
search in context ... it is simple ... it searches related content from the page you are reading, extremely convenient! check it out ... i am adding it to my blog soon

you know why?

2005-05-30T12:43:00.000-07:00

India will be the next economic superpower!

rediff has posted a presentation by Dr William T Wilson, Chief Economist of Keystone India.

now you know!

doE, thanks for the link!

news like you have never seen before

2005-04-16T13:00:00.000-07:00

10 X 10
www.tenbyten.org/10x10.html

news in the form of postcards.
what this site does is simple, it scans rss feeds of a number of news sources and does a weighted linguistic analysis of the text contained in the top news stories. the top 100 words are chosen and the corresponding images are taken and displayed in a grid of 10 x 10. the final output is a real neat flash image. clicking on any of the 100 images will open the headline and clicking further you can read the entire article. the site updates every hour and the entire process is done without any human input. checks out sources like bbc, reuters and new york times

+: visually appealing, innovation, hourly update, international news, huge archive - you can specify any hour and day from nov '04
-: some of the images are the same for different stories

my rating: * * *

so ... you want something?

2005-04-14T11:15:00.000-07:00

pubsub
www.pubsub.com

like they say it .... search the future!

whats really neat about this site? it matches your keywords with new info that appears at real time. since there are a 'gazillion' blogs out there, there is no way you can keep track of news and happenings. this sites keeps track of weblogs, newsgroups, press releases, airport delays and even earthquakes
whats different? traditional searches store data and allows a user to find matches in this data, but pubsub first stores the subscription query and then alerts you when it matches the query with new information that appears in its matching engine. it reads over 8 million weblogs and 50k news groups
how does one begin? simple, just type in your keyword and click on the button and it creates a feed for you, it also provides buttons for subscriptions in bloglines, newsgator and my yahoo!
what else? it has a firefox extension (what doesnt?) which is very convenient. all your subscriptions are in the sidebar with the topics

try it out! you'll dig it!

check this sample out, india cricket

is this the future of encyclopedia search? ... sure hope so!

2005-03-08T00:26:00.000-08:00

answers.com
www.answers.com

the best definitions and explanations for over 1 million topics

so you are doing some research? want to know more about howard hughes? or maybe you want to know when ibm started? ok ... maybe the definition of rss ? convert the dollar to the indian rupee? maybe bangalore's current temperature? translate hello to a zillion languages? maybe the low-down on aviator the movie .... words? meanings?
fine ... ill stop!
this amazing site powered by gurunet is the place to be.

it has a huge collection of data. it has handpicked references from places like wikipedia, merriam webster, computer desktop encyclopedia,investopedia and who2 and packages it into one page, so that you can get all the relevant information at once.
if it cant find the word you searched for it does a google search . it also has a 'did you mean' section for related information

+: neat, loads of information, well presented

my rating: * * * 1/2

so you read news the old fashioned way?

2005-02-23T02:47:00.000-08:00

the feed aggregator showdown
bloglines vs newsgator vs pluck

everyone is talking about RSS,
thats because it is a really amazing technology!
read more about it ... here

i have heard for sometime now .... RSS is for geeks ... NOT!
you dont have to know anything about xml or stylesheets,
you just have to add it in your reader/aggregator.

so u want to get high on news?
rumours, updates, breaking events are so easy to get!
there are a lot of cool options

the criteria for the showdown were
free, web-based, easy to read aggregators with tons of features.
since i use sage i also wanted to export and import my feeds easily

these 3 sites rock!

bloglines
www.bloglines.com

bloglines was recently acquired by askjeeves.
this is a really neat aggregator with a lot of features. you can search for any news feed or blog based on a keyword. it also lets you publish your own blog and share your news feeds and blogs with everyone

first the pluses
+: it has a windows notifier and a firefox notifier
+: easy to add blogs from blogger, live journal, yahoo or google groups
+: blogroll! you can share your entire list!
+: it recommends feeds based on your subscriptions
+: has a bookmarklet to easily subscribe to feeds
+: can create a 'subscribe with bloglines' button for your blog
+: good UI
+: can publish your own blog
+: clippings ... you can save interesting articles
+: you can create email subscriptions

then the minuses
-: i wasnt able to import an OPML file, didnt find an option anywhere. bummer!

check out my blogroll!

my rating: * * * 1/2

newsgator
www.newsgator.com
now your talking!
this is a cool aggregator with definety the most pleasing UI of the 3, packed with a lot of features

first the pluses
+: best UI
+: has recommendations
+: gives you a lot of options when adding a feed
+: it has a 'gator rating' for each article which can be rated by everyone
+: has the clipping option!
+: bookmarklet to add feeds
+: you can create a 'add to newsgator' button for your website
+: you can create email subscriptions

then the minuses
-: the importing of OPML never works!!!
-: says it has a blogroll! where?!?

my rating: * * * *

*UPDATE*
got the blogroll to work! it is in newsgator manager -> edit locations ! check out the headlines option too !

pluck
www.pluck.com

the site excited me the most but it was a big disappointment!

first the pluses
+: only place to import my OPML
+: it can store your bookmarks too
+: Pluck it! bookmarklet

then the minuses
-: very slow!
-: my folders disappeared for sometime!
-: no clippings!
-: no recommendations

my ratings: * * 1/2

the final word
all the 3 are very alike!
they all participated in the demo@15 seminar

it was neck and neck between bloglines and newsgator, but i finally chose newsgator for its easy of use, UI and the amazing features!

if you dont want to use a webedition you could try other downloadable aggregators
i heard these are really amazing!
www.feeddemon.com
www.onfolio.com

Xtensions

2005-02-01T04:25:00.000-08:00

firefox extensions
https://addons.update.mozilla.org/?application=firefox

this is the official extension page
firefox is pretty boring without the extensions.
extensions come as xpi files and are extremely small!

the official site is neat! they have come up with a new ui, but they havent got any new extensions in weeks! oh dont forget they have an rss feed too.

but this site -> the extensions mirror, this rocks!
it has a huge number of extensions

the extensions i dig!

mouse gestures
[get it here]
this is definitely my favourate, you can open a new tab, switch between tabs, open links in new tabs and all sorts of things just with your mouse! definite must have.

gmail notifier
[get it here]
if you have gmail ... you got to have this. simple extension which notifies you when you get a mail.

foxy tunes
[get it here]
listen to music? do you have to switch between your browser and player to use the controls? not any more ... this neat extension has a control panel embedded in the browser ... supports a lot of players ... wimamp,wmp,foobar, u name it!

super dragAndGo
[get it here]
real handy extension ... drag any link and it opens in a new tab, but thats not all, when you drag a word it searches the same in your default search engine (you can switch between google, amazon, dictionary.com before you drag)

google suggest
[get it here]
google suggest in the search box! awesome!
still in the 0.1 version :(

google preview
[get it here]
simple ... it adds the thumbnail of webpages in google or yahoo search results. you can toggle it on/off

weatherfox/forecastfox
[get it here]
get international weather forecasts on the status bar ... loads of customisations

sage
[get it here]
i cant live without this one! lightweight RSS feed aggregator. must have if you have a hunger for news

add bookmark here
[get it here]
convenient if you have tons of bookmarks in a number of folders. just go to the folder in the menu and you will have an option of bookmarking the current webpage.

link preview
[get it here]
it shows you a thumbnail image of the link ... nice!

lookahead
[get it here]
when a word is searched, it opens the first n result pages. you can set n to any number. bandwidth hungry though

bugmenot
[get it here]
this is a neat extension ... any site which requires a username and password can be bypassed!
sites like nytimes.com and indiatimes.com work just fine!

tabbrowser preferences
[get it here]
tons of tab browsing preferences ... must check out

fast dic
[get it here]
searches the meaning of the word in dictionary.com

auto marks
[get it here]
usually when you type a url it only autocompletes from the history, this nifty thing gets urls from your bookmarks also!

*UPDATE*
feedview
[get it here]
when you click on an RSS link you usually get the xml stylesheet, this extension changes that and gives you the content instead! it supports both RSS and ATOM feeds

infoRSS
[get it here]
RSS feed ticker! amazing! you have a lot of options to choose from!

move over IE!

2004-12-14T05:53:00.000-08:00

mozilla firefox 1.0
http://www.firefox.com

amazing!
u havent heard of this? shame on you!
the gen-next browser just came up with version 1.0

why am i so excited about this browser?
a lot of things ...

really small install ... just 4.7 mb,
popup blocker ... no popups whatsoever!
tabbed browsing ... a definite plus,
increased security ... ?!?,
integrated searches ... you can search google,yahoo!,amazon and tons of other sites right from the toolbar. there are more than 100 sites you can configure.i like the dictonary.com search the best!
open source ... you might ask what the big deal is ... let me tell you ...since it is open source, there is a huge number of extensions and themes from third parties which make this browser great! it is also compliant to internet standards.
live rss feeds... this is my favourite! ... rss technology is definitely catching on! it has live bookmarks which get updated when the site's rss feed changes keeping you updated on the latest news
extensions and themes ... umpteen number of them, the extensions just rock! my next blog would be about my favourite extensions!

what they are other browsers like this?
maybe ... opera, but it is not ad free!
(thanks siddy for clarifying this!)
and maxthon( formerly myie2) uses the ie engine.

not convinced, try it for yourself ... you have nothing to lose.
the setup is quick and it even imports your ie favourates and saved passwords!

microsoft better wake up!

+: live bookmarks,tabbed browsing, extensions, themes,fast find's
-: no activeX support (who needs it anyway!)

take it away!
my rating: a definite *****

shopping?

2004-12-07T06:39:00.000-08:00

woot!
http://www.woot.com/

i read an article sent by my friend 'psycho'. it was about a company called woot!
woot i believe is slang for 'wonderful loot'
i was just wondering how this site could make so much money?
my first impression was, god damn luck! had to be ...
this is the one in a million company which got a break!
but i thought i would give it a second look ...
woot ... the name sounds stupid ... but so does google.

all the site does is sell one product a day .... thats it!
well if it is a product why do i have to come to woot ?
i could use yahoo! shopping right, or maybe froogle ...
and then get the best deal ...

todays product in woot was nachus 256mb pendant mp3 player,
one of the smallest mp3's around ...
in yahoo! shopping it gave me no results
in froogle it give me zilch too!

i realised nachus is just a 'make', so i just did a pendant mp3 player
search, i found a number of 'makes' in both the sites.
so why the hell woot?

woot's USP is being dirt cheap, the player was 10% cheaper here,
i compared prices of the previous products they were more than
50% cheaper ...

so woot sells products for a lot cheaper and they work with
volumes ...
it did a 'firefox' in spreading the word around,
but my favourate is its rss feed.

a very neat concept indeed!
spread the word, sell for minimum profit, make money on volumes ...
but most importantly INNOVATION ... people love something new!
u'd get hooked soon!

+: any gadget freak's dream, insane prices, cool products,clean and simple interface, rss
-: i live in india!!!

my rating: * * * 1/2

duh!

2004-10-05T07:11:00.000-07:00

Rum and Monkey
http://rumandmonkey.com/widgets/

personality tests and web toys
in one word -> hilarious!
find out who you really are! .... mmmm!

let me give you a sneak peak ... first the name generators :)

my crappy little elf name is brookbank granitebottom ,
my iraqi leadership name al-tikriti hikmat abd al-sattar ,
ah .. my nomina romana is marius praesentius betto
and my japanese name is 中村健太 ( pronounced as nakamura kenta )

ok ill stop before you kill me ... there are a million more useless name generators out there!

lets move on ... the grunty caveman test tell you what kind of animal you would be
hauugghhh grhhhhrg zhjee eeeeeh aaarrrgghh no arrhghghh (hehe!)

you have to try the office moron test ... like i said find out who you really are.
fineeee! we know you are stupid ... this would just prove it : the how dumb are you? test!
there are so many things to check out... the amazing beer-o-matic ... the flag rater!

hahaha!

+: ludicrous, amusing
-: totally useless, crazy, i might get shot for this blog

my rating: * * *

words can be ... fun?

2004-09-26T14:30:00.000-07:00

visual thesaurus
http://www.visualthesaurus.com

a thesaurus with a difference and you dont have to take my word for it!
check it out!
the site is very well done.
it is an animated display of words and its meanings, a visual display of the english language.
when you search for a word the java applet creates a visualisation with your word in the center of the display connected to other words and meanings, you can click on these words to explore further!

+ : neat concept, really cool, easy learning
- : they recently made it shareware, now you can search only limited times :(

my rating: * * * *

déjà vu!

2004-09-25T17:30:00.000-07:00

wayback machine - internet archive
http://web.archive.org/

30 billion websites archived!
this site is the place to visit if want to know how a site looked, like they say it 'wayback'
try any site! google ... yahoo ... indiatimes

the site generates a list of links on how a site looked since 1996,
it also indicates a site updation with a '*'

how they do it?
they use a few hundred servers to save 1 petabyte of data
(i have no idea how much that is :D). the site relies on donations of
web crawls of Alexa

+ : sites,sites and more sites, data more than any library in the world
- : the archives are atleast 6 to 12 months old so you wont have the latest updates

my rating: * * *

travel freak?

2004-09-07T19:01:00.000-07:00

rhymer dot net
http://www.rhymer.net

travelogue of Rhymer Rigby, freelance journalist

this is a wonderful site, where you can spend hours surfing.
a travellers dream.
the most striking feature is the way the site is designed.

check out the travel diary. the places logged are south east asia,
australia, new zealand, south america and india.

it has a huge array of high quality pics, check this out first!

varun thanks for the link!

+ : pics , website design
- : rhymer has a huge attitude problem, shows in his writings!

my rating: * * * 1/2

What's this?

2004-09-06T23:39:00.000-07:00

This is what i am going to do in this space ...
i am going to write about websites i like or find interesting ...
it might be anything under the sun!

this is my first attempt to blog