TECH TOLA

Donate Wikipedia.

• Its one of world's 5 most popular web properties
• Has 11+ million articles
  
• In 265 languages
• Serves 275+ million every month

"Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge." - Jimmy Wales, founder of this wonderful site.

We have been using it throughout our life, almost like google, but we fail to notice that there are no ads on their site. Its a purely non-profit site run for well being of the whole humanity. Today on all the pages, appeared a header which linked to this page where the founder has voluntarily asked us to donate. It's a site run for us, and we have to help them sustain the site which needs around 6 million dollars per year and they run it with 23 workers only.

It can be anything as less as 1 dollar. But we have to understand that it will be the most useful one dollar you have spent in life for ourselves.

Click on the banner below to donate now. I request all bloggers to spread the word to support them. Just putting up a banner on our blog's sidebar can help them. You can get the code for different banners from this page.

Want to make your XP mouse cursor look like Vista's ?

1. Download this file
2. Extract it
3. Right the file called install.inf and click 'install'
4. Go to Control panel
5. Double click Mouse
6. Select Pointer tab on top
7. Select 'Aero cursors (Alphablended)'
8. Go crazy watching these glossy glassy mouse cursors !

If you are like me, still liking XP's Speed and Stability, you will love this. Don't forget to leave your comment to keep my sugar rush up and high for blogging more :)

Thanks - Alan Le.

[E-mail readers who can't view the video above can watch it on the page or on Youtube here]
Site link - http://www.storyofstuff.com/index.html
Or click here to download the entire video in .mov format

I mean every word of the title. Its the most useful video, I have seen in my lifetime. I am adding a new category to Tech tola from now for such posts. That is the least I can do to support this. I have quoted below the reply I sent to my group as soon as I saw this video.

My reply to a mail group after watching this - This is the best video I have seen in years.. An eye opener...

I guess its high time we realized the system and start supporting the points she mentioned in the end rather than just moving with the crowd like goats following their predecessors..

Especially I liked the happiness point. Its very true. Ever been in a true villager's life and realized how happy and contented he is in spite of television, iPod's, Camera Mobile's.. We have been talking, even me, I guess its time to act. Its the second thing to inspire about standing up for a social cause, long back we had a debate about how our country and system is corrupted and what WE can do to change it ?

I'm spreading this right away... Things may not change overnight, at least its the first tiny step to create awareness to stop wasting resources, start spending time for yourself, save nature like switching off TVs, Monitors, Fan and etc when not using it. Remember she said its a linear system.

We can also start buying stuff more carefully, than just buying something as its cool. Lets look for Re-cycle symbols when comparing products. Lets start using bicycles whenever possible, its fun, a great exercise in this lifestyle and an amazing energy saver. These are all little things we can afford and easy to follow, if we have the guts to discard what others might think of us..

Who do you want to be - one among the crowd to forget/make fun of this or the one who will stand by the change. Decide yourself. I welcome more simple powerful ideas too.

New year is around the corner and its time for gifts. Arun, my friend at his tech blog Million Clues has announced an amazing contest with fabulous prizes. They are very valuable especially if you are a blogger.

There is a huge lot of entrecard cash to be won along with a free PSD to XHTML template conversion, a Professional Joomla template and some ad slots.

Prizes are sponsored by FeCoding.com, BuyTemplates.net, Beauty MakeUp Divas & Windows For Beginners

Head over to the contest page here.

Orkut scrap notification improved

If you have not been using Orkut scrap notification until now, then here are some reasons to activate it.

• Orkut has eradicated the stupid "scrap to all" scripts completely almost now. It was one of the most annoying times when I almost quit using orkut. Its amazing to know how our own friends are the world's caring spammers, especially when you see "Good morning friends" sent to almost 300 people exactly @ 2'o clock afternoon.
  
  I had another selfish usage for that script which I wrote about in my personal blog.
  
  
• You might have been busy without logging into orkut and so its good to know if any old friends have scrapped you recently.
  
  
• Moreover, now you get the entire scrap delivered as mails unlike before when it was just a notification that your friend has scribbled something in your scrapbook. I was happy to see this feature as it saves time.

Orkut Applications - some cool ones I discovered

I have not been a fan for social networking apps, as they were mostly a nuisance especially on facebook. When orkut introduced apps I was happy as were only few, but now again it looks almost like facebook, but its better as they don't force you to invite friends.

I was happy to see the vampire biting application missing on Orkut. Really innovate creator and super innovative users too, Long live the world !

I spent some time and discovered some cool apps were indeed good and different. Here are they.

Type Racer
Its one of the best typing game/tutor I have seen till date. It power lies in its simplicity and networking. You can race with friends, 4 or more members simulataneously at real time. Its an app by www.typeracer.com.
-Highly recommended

Truth Box
Its the same as Facebook's honesty box where your friends can leave anonymous messages. Though not original Its still a lot of fun to get comments from friends.
-Good

Idea Box
A very good idea implemented in a crappy fashion. Its almost like a blog inside orkut, where you can actually type in or ask for an idea from friends and your friends can reply to you, vote on how good your idea is. I wish the developer made the interface, friends activity timeline and the overall application better.
-Can improve

iFan
One of the most loved apps out there. A great real survey for stars and celebrities. It presents a huge list of Indian, Brazilian and Worldwide celebrities and you can choose if you are a fan of them or not. What makes it interesting is that, the data is collected is put together to rank the celebrities too. So right now AR Rahman is on the top of the list, as its mostly indians using this app. We have him followed by Sachin Tendulkar, Hrithik Roshan and a lot of other Indian celebrities with Angelina Jolie at 15th place being the first and most fanned international star.
- very cool and original

Happy Orkutting.. You can join me on Orkut here. Do let me know your comments after trying the apps and share your favorite apps too.

P.S. I saw a guy wearing that T-Shirt in Bangalore somewhere, cool isn't it.

"Geek gone wild" - that's how I would mention the moment I held my Sony PSP-3004 the first time. I had never seen it before except for in pictures online. I had read a lot about it and as I did not want to miss the offer by eBay India, I ordered it. It costed me 9500 INR (approx USD 200) for a PSP 3004 with a free iPod Shuffle 1GB which I have been notified to receive in 45 days time by eBay.

The Playstation portable is sometimes looked at as a device which is a total waste of money which is a entirely false insane statement. My friend had a colleague who was annoyed by his purchase of his new PSP, as the latter had recommended to go with an iPod Touch. With many silly articles floating around the web advicing you why not to buy a PSP, here I am to support the party which says - 'Why you should really own a Sony PSP ?'

#1 - Looks - "If looks could kill I would have been dead by now"

Lets have two guys taking out their gadgets out at the same time amidst a crowd. One with iPhone/iPod Touch/Any other sleek mobile phone and the another with the latest PSP Slim. Guess who is going to win the longest stares from the audience ? Its the PSP Guy. Definitely. I am the living witness as I know what it is to take out your PSP in a local Volvo City Bus in Bangalore. Its absolutely glossy, sleek and sekzy !

#2 - Screen - "Haven't seen any other screen which can make even ordinary pics extraordinary"
Its big, bright and colorful. I know you have been reading a lot about the interlacing issues, but let me tell you seriously, it never mattered to me when playing the game. I could barely notice it. With a resolution of 480 x 272 pixels, the PSP 3000 screen is bright and superb colors. Be it games, pictures or movies, the PSP screen still rocks.

#3 - Performance - "If you show me any other portable gaming device which has such graphics, I quit."

Its the graphics which kicks ass. Particle effects are stunning and games have made good use of it. Its definitely like a PS2 in your hands. For those who think PS2 is an outdated machine with outdated graphics, go try God of War 2 soon after to read the last line of this post. Don't you ever even bother to compare the PSP Graphics with any other portable device.

#4 - Homebrew - "Only people who can really take over the world are hackers and gamers - Oracle in disguise of some human"

You can hack your PSP to install CFW (Custom Firmware) and run homebrew (independently unofficially developed) applications and game. Its legal and you have to do it. Though the PSP 3000 series is not yet hacked, I strongly believe homebrew will come into picture because even Sony made a statement that homebrew application were impressive and they will look into releasing an SDK very soon. Lets keep our fingers crossed.

#5 Connectivity - "Wi-Fi, Multiplayer gaming, Skype, RSS Readers, Tabbed browsing.. phew!"

You can play multiplayer games without the need for access point with Ad-Hoc mode. You can share a single game source with another one too ! Its just like a notebook/laptop with WiFi. Plus you have got RSS Reader, Online Radio, Skype, Go Messenger, Tabbed browsing capabilities, Flash plugin all built into this device. Need more, homebrew is your answer! Did I say you have a TV out port to play movies, games on your TV ?

#6 Games - "Learn from Japanese, make it cheaper !"

Let me be honest. Games are expensive, atleast for Indian market. American game companies have to learn from Japanese to make the game UMDs available at cheaper price and ripe more profit with volume. But still why did I mention this as a reason to buy, Its the quality of the gameplay. I did not regret a bit after completing my first game - Daxter, after just within a week after purchase for 999 INR only (approx USD 22). Moreover you can make a network and exchange games instead of buying them all over again. I am sure thats not illegal too. For people who need to try, you have got demos released for famous games that you can download for FREE !

#7 Playstation Store - "So smooth, so easy, so much fun. Thank you Sony."

You have something called Playstation Store. Its a software that can be installed on your PC and its available on your PSP with latest firmware update. Connect to internet and you can download demos, themes, videos, wallpapers at the click of the mouse. Also you can download PS1 hit titles for just 5.99$. Now thats really cool isn't it ?

Cons - only problem I find is with the speakers. Just wish they could be louder. I recommend the earphones for a full gaming experience.

My Wishlist
- Do more with the built in mic - A sound recorder atleast ?!
- SDK pleeeeez !
- A universal IM client ?
- JAVA support
- Flash performance increase (Can lead to more games)
- Netfront browser is good, Opera can be better. (Firefox first priority !)

Now go get a free demo from your nearest Sony store. Let me know what you think about this article.

We all know that Google.com was the only home page that existed first, but later google was available on local domains for each country like co.in, co.uk etc. Also Google is now available in many many local languages around the world, even in Tamil - my mother tongue.

Ever wondered how many such google local domains are there ? Ever wanted to know how many languages is the Google homepage available in ?

Right now google is available in 119 languages out of which atleast approx. 10+ are from one country - none other than INDIA :) Also there are 167 google homepages available on local domains! - Hats off to you Google.

Need links to all the language pages and local domains? Its available right there on google itself through the languages link on the home page - Check out the page by clicking here