A lazy Sunday afternoon

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

Sundays are no more fun days for me. Ever since I have stepped out of college, weekends are as busy as weekdays, thought the play field does vary! Although today happens to be a lazy afternoon. I woke up at 11 and have not done anything beyond gulping an awesome brunch! I am letting it loose today and loving it. There needs to be a day in a week when you can see life sitting on the back seat.

We keep our office closed on Sunday. Media Redefined is expected to keep us far more busy than we were. We’re coming up with a few campaigns as a part of our internal S&M efforts.

support The support work of the last client is taking a heavy toil off us. Not in terms of labor but in terms of resources that have been locked. I am planning to fix it up by the end of this month. Few functional changes I implemented for this work last week are proving to be good for us. Let’s see how it goes.

Yesterday we had a friend of ours in office. He’s a blogger, based out of Delhi and writes for various top blogs of the world. We had some good discussion around blogging and social media market, best practices and how has digg and related networks changed with time. I was surprised with some of his insights.

Two major updates last week were – booking of a flat in NOIDA and a decision to finalize a car purchase next month. No clues on how shall I pay back the loan!

Semester exam results are out and I have clear passed the subjects of final year!

Photo credits: Tripp-e and Jaevus

Shopcorn: A social shopping community

I wonder which one is the next social networking website that a friend of mine shall send me an invitation to!

Yes, you would perhaps say – not again! Abundance of social networking websites without a cause have resulted in a heavy amount of spam emails. Most websites like Yarri.com, minglebox.com, ibibo.com and more just wanted to be the next facebook, orkut or myspace. Sadly though, they never realized they’re heading no where.

sophiaHowever, a similar website, Linkedin has had an immense growth. The reason being, it had a reason added to it. It solved a problem of uniting people professionally using the internet cloud. There are times when people are not interested in knowing what you like to eat and watch but how proficient have you been at work.

Today, online shopping portal is a growing niche. A lot of websites have come up to sell stuff online, just as ebay started it off. All these have a dedicated shopping cart and a several hundred merchants listed which guarantee a product cheaper than the market. May be just because it happens to be a grey market product and gets shipped without a warranty from the manufacturer.

Uniting social networks and the concept of online shopping, ShopCorn has come up with an exciting platform for internet savvy customers to browse, select, discuss, debate and decide on a product before ordering it via the same window sitting at home!

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Shopcorn is a social community based website which intends to provide user generated content in context with a product that’s available for sale on the portal. The idea is to allow a visitor to interact, review, comment and discuss a product with fellow members and friends in the network before finalizing on a product.

The idea is worth a praise. Many a times we remain confused while buying a product online and finally give it away by opting in for the conventional method of purchase. Adding a social angle to online shopping experience would make it convenient for an online shopper to get reviews and direct messages from people who would have bought and used the same product!

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The website has a community tab which allows members to create their blogs, get answers to a question they may have for the audience, upload and watch videos, look out for other members, etc. Live T.V. is an interesting feature to check out major T.V. channels.

You may have a genuine question or something as weird as asking the best hotel in Moscow, just get to the Q & A section.

 

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The Deals box showcases some of the best deals running across various sellers. One may keep a tab on this to know what’s hot and what’s cheap! One may check out the challenges which run on the website from time to time. What more? You can create an account and submit a deal as well.

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The website also offers an interface to get your railway reservations done and hotel rooms booked. The news section features major news entries from various segments apart from gadgets and technology. All this and more under the hood of a social shopping community! Check out the offerings Shopcorn has before you plan to visit your nearest mall!

Now to Shopcorn, I would recommend verifying the products they display on their portal. A lot of fraudulent sellers display a different product than what they actually deliver. Shall that be a case, it would hamper the portal’s reputation. Most e-shopping websites do not stress on this and provide a disclaimer that they’re not responsible for the items displayed on the portal. Now this is some silly excuse for fake publicity. I would recommend Shopcorn to review the items before displaying them on the portal. This shall ensure the satisfaction of a prospective buyer.

As a part of its launch, Shopcorn is running a bloggers’ contest and as a part of the same, they’re giving away a few wrist watches, a Tata Indicom Photon+ datacard and a 21” LCD T.V.

If you’re still wondering what a Tata Indicom Photon + is, I would give a description of the same. India now has wireless broadband service. Photon + is the very same service from one of India’ leading CDMA operators, TATA Indicom. it provides a revolutionary 3.1 mbps download speed on a wireless connection, on the move. Now downloading audio-video files and streaming them while travelling in a metro train would be a cake walk! With an easy to install option, this device proves to be a must have for bloggers, office goers and travel freaks!

Weird but true

Pledge – short and firm as it sounds. Difficult but rewarding it is.

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Image Credit: Walkingphotolife

Life for me was always a roller coaster. It hasn’t changed yet. The only change is the color of the lenses I see it through. I know getting up early is no more a necessity but something I love to do. Not to get ready and push off with a book but to have a cup of tea while I check my mail box.

There is a huge to-do list I carry on most times along with me but it just misses the most important task to be accomplished at that hour. Office is now as cozy as I always wanted my living room to be. Productivity seems to have enhanced, though I am still waiting to see the product!

My car consumes fuel worth a few grands a month and I still continue to drive it shamelessly without bothering to help it to a mechanic. There were days when I used to quarrel with a mechanic  for a slump in the mileage of my bike. Times!

Admist all the tantrums I see and show, day long, I keep touch with my classmates who are now a free bird. While some of them have been blessed by sound sleeping habits, there are many trying to find ways to survive. Pledge is what they have taken to do something – even if that is calling all night at a call centre. That reminds me of a saying – No work is bad. So true!

Yesterday, I got a call from a friend for helping her to get a job, or may be join my office. She knew I couldn’t say a Yes. Just because she was not having a relevant profile. I still didn’t say a NO. I know she needs help. It would be a pleasure indeed if she could take up the work I have explained her on the email. An engineer she is and yes, so am I!

Life is weird, difficult and yes, rewarding!

Compare laptops for price and features

There are two kinds of people in the world. One, who love to buy things on the go and the second, who love to do a considerable amount of research before buying a product. I belong to the second clan!

Internet has been a boon for the market researches and gadget lovers. One can find almost any information related to a product over the Internet today. Websites which showcase comparative reviews and price list prove to be an added advantage in this case. One can find reviews of almost  any gadget over the web. Laptops are no different. ConsumerMate.com from the house of 9.9 Media group does the needful for a novice who is confused about which notebook to decide on.

If you’re looking forward to buy (or just research, for that matter) a laptop, check out this website which compares laptops on various verticals. The website has a neat User Interface that allows you to select your upper limits for price, weight and screen size with a sliding bar and you get to see the qualifying models from leading brands like Apple, HP, Compaq, Acer and more. You shall get to see some of the latest and up to date price list.

Various sections of the website include Compare Laptops, Hot Deals, Laptop Guru, Ask us and Test centre Expert ratings by Digit.

The Hot deals section has some of the best offers up for grab at any time. Laptop Guru offers personalized help to help choose a notebook.

Moribund languages

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The question under consideration today is whether English as a language is so very inevitable today? In most cases the answer would be yes. English language is one of the most important languages as far as global communication is concerned. The rise in the use of internet and globalization has raised its bar to an unprecedented level. But the United Nations educational, scientific and cultural organization (UNESCO) has registered about 6000 languages. English is one of them, what about the rest?

According to UNESCO the world is at the verge of losing more than 3000 languages if the language heritage and its culture are not conserved. About more than half of the languages are now endangered. In the Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger of Disappearing, about 50 European languages are under the threat. France alone has 14 of them. Even Siberia has around 40 languages in danger.

However, the condition is much better in Asia and the pacific. Thanks to our multilingual governments. Papua New Guinea, the country of 800 languages, the most diverse in the world, has only 88 endangered dialects. But the rise of globalization in the region is now becoming a threat to these multilingual states. India tops in chart by 196 endangered languages. Second is US close to 192. In the past 3 generations almost 200+ languages have become extinct and about 178 languages have its speaker count in between 10 to 150. UNESCO has rated 538 languages as critically endangered, 502 severely endangered, 632 definitely endangered and 607 unsafe.

According to experts a language is rated endangered when 30% of its children stop learning it. It then passes on to the next generation and hence reaches on the verge of extinction. There are many factors which result in a language to become endangered. The rise of globalization and the use of internet especially in the developing countries is a major factor. Now days even the educational factor plays a big role in a language to be in danger. To study we all need a common platform of language. The same happens at work. A student going abroad is almost ready to make his mother tongue a secondary language for him.

In India, from the very beginning a child is asked (at times forced!) by his parents to converse in English. I know they have a reason for it that may be valid. The new syllabus of many educational boards, have a choice between Sanskrit and French and an elective.

To learn French is absolutely fine but at the cost of indigenous languages of India like Sanskrit must be prevented. In many disputed regions military and government policies also play a major role in disappearance of a language.

The Enduring Voices Project by national geographic channel and HRELP are some of the initiatives to save these endangered languages. The deputy chief of UNESCO said “we should feel proud to speak our own languages “ and we really must do so.

Data Source: UNESCO Annual reports; Image Credit: Shawn Econo

This articles is a guest post by Pranay, a friend of mine.

Back from hibernation

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Getting into the hibernation has become a usual phenomenon for me, much before I started to glue myself to the twitter application I am in love with. I wonder how powerful those 140 characters are that they have challenged my (as well as several others’) ability to blog as frequently I used to!

However, just as main stream media shall have its own fragrance, blogging would have it’s own taste. Getting into someone’s shoes doesn’t always mean you walk his walk.

Other, more relevant reason for me being off the grid was the schedules I have been following off late. Yes, ever since I have started my own firm. May be, I would write another post someday to blabber more about it – not just in a mood to talk any business stuff today! I would ,however want to blog more, blog frequently and blog sense ( I know this one is contradiction :p)

I am waiting for the 23rd of this month to change gears. I would be giving away my last exam for my 4 year undergraduate course in computer science. ( Huh, did I phrase it well enough?) But yes, I would want to breathe some fresh air now. Be a free bird – think, plan, research, execute my plans. No matter what! A lot of thoughts already bristling in my mind – in an order which lies not beyond my head. Oh, the bird reminds me of the new header on this blog. :)

I would like to enlist a few plans of mine which shall probably be executed after 23rd of this month;

  1. A regular 10-6 office schedule.
  2. Regular blog posts for all my clients.
  3. Setting up a new blog. (Yay!)
  4. Running a new service as a part of my primary firm, under a new domain (Watch out!)
  5. Seeing gym and the swimming pool atleast twice a week, each.
  6. Reading a book every fortnight.

I hope that’s a decent enough list.

I realized that I a using this laptop of mine to write emails more than anything else. How lame! But things would me more different in the times to come. I wan them to be. :)

That’s all from the base for tonight. More tomorrow.

Photo Credit: Vinay Deep.

Samsung LED TV’s launched in India

Television  has been a great platform for the leverage of media coverage in India. Even after the immense success of the dot com boom and then the widespread social media paradigm that include blogs and social networks, television has always had its own charm and a wider audience. Who doesn’t love watching that favorite movie flick on a widescreen over the DVD player!

Various new technologies have hit the display devices over the years -from the days of CRT’s, TFT’s, LCD T.V.’s, Plasma’s to now LED T.V.  by Samsung.

Samsung has recently launched two new series  6 and 7 in the LED T.V. segment. The prime models include;

  • 7 series 46” – UA46B7000 40” – UA40B7000
  • 6 Series 46” – UA46B6000 40” – UA40B6000

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Samsung has been at the forefront of TV technology and is known for its award winning innovations, the latest of which is: the LED TV.

Few features which are of  interest include the actual width of the Samsung LED TV which happens to be just 2.99 cm. Superior picture quality, stylish design, sharper images and bright colors are salient traits of this display device. It encompasses a crystal design, instead of “Touch of color” that is used in the United States. Another noticeable feature of the LED T.V. include,  Samsung WS1* Sound Bar Surround System which is a masterpiece in surround sound systems.

samsung-lcd The interactive connection panel is a breeze for media connectivity and digital video and music buffs.  Check out the flash video on the product homepage.

This digital device for sure is a marvel – for the ones who’re crazy about the picture quality and sound clarity. With LCD T.V.’s almost into fashion, the LED T.V.’s certainly are a step ahead – for those hybrid ones who love to hang on with the latest technology – the first in India.

Watch out the stores for a live demo. Who knows you may fall in love with one!

Undo sent: I wish life had that button as well!

Recently, Gmail labs came up with this funny-but-good thing called ‘Undo sent’. In life, there are times when you wish you could hit that ’back’ button. It may not be possible to hit that while you’ve puked at a pub but you can now do that to the emails you send using your Gmail account.

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The fact however is, this Gmail lab feature delays the sending process for a few seconds, giving you that threshold time to react and hit the UNDO button!

The feature may prove to be worth giving out a try. Meanwhile, if’ you’re looking for more details, OnlyGizmos has a complete description of the feature.

Check out more more lab features at googlelabs.com (Yeah, google now has this new domain name dedicated for Google labs!)

This post is a submission for an awesome contest running at OnlyGizmos. Check out for more details.

Happy Gmailing!

The status of women

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Photo Credit: John Mueller

The status of women over the world has been an issue for long time and still tries to find its way.

Be it India or the Middle East, the status of women is still very exemplary. A country like Dubai which is blessed by oil fields, sheikhs, world’s greatest construction fields has got its first women judge only on 27th march 2009. This depicts the respect of women in the world or any other country.

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In the race of disrespecting women India is also not much behind. States like Delhi and Mumbai where women are presumed to become financially self independent, the recent Mangalore pub incident tells a different story. There are incalculable goddesses in India people worship, but the problem lies in our thought process or what is often termed in this part of the world a “mentality”. Ironically, in a country like India where people devote time and high respect to different goddesses, donate millions in temples, the respect for the women in their day-to-day life remains absent. People still consider a girl as a burden on the family and in some states the act of child infanticide has deep roots. The sex ratio census is a sheer evidence especially for some states like Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan.

Women not only suffer in gaining a status and respect in society, they suffer in all spheres of life.

In the so called “unsafe” cities like Delhi and Mumbai, eve teasing and incestuous behavior have been hitting the dailies. The section 375 of IPC which defines rapes made some amendments in it and introduces sexual assault against any women in any custody (like police custody) or cases of sexual assault in hospital to be considered as rape offence. But they just missed to introduce parents and relative to put away the cases of incest.

Based on my findings, Sweden is the only country in Europe which allows marriage between siblings who share one parent. France and Belgium also don’t treat incest as crime for more than 200 yrs ago. Also in other parts of the world the case is treated accordingly as in Germany has some serious violating penalties in incest cases.

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This is the actual status of women in our modern societies and so called “developing countries”. Still we fight for their equal rights, we deliver rhetoric speeches in their favor at the time of elections or to show the whole world how much concerned actually we are.

The fight shall still prevail because the women we worship is still different in our eyes than what we see in person. Of course, there are reasons to it which I might talk about sometime again.

This is a guest post by Pranay Kumar, a friend of mine.

Themes for gmail on hosted domains

Yeah, it’s the April fool’s day and I have already been a victim to the the same!

Google has also come up with a lot of “April fool” initiatives. Google romance being one of them :p

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Now, something which came up as a surprise was the Gmail themes. They existed in the Gmail accounts, but today they’re made available for the Google hosted domains as well. We knew it was coming but I didn’t expect it today!

Here is what I saw when I logged on to my Google hosted email -

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I went on to select my favorite theme, that is “Desk” and the new inbox is something more lively!

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You may go ahead and choose your favorite theme from a list of several themes.

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Gmail rocks!