File Uploads

The more the skill you have for creating things, the more productive you will be and the more space you will need to put up your content online. For a free hosting service like Blogger you
cannot upload all that you wish. Blogger, Flickr etc allows upload of photos, but then if you are a video photographer or a programmer and you insist on using Blogger to upload your creations, I am afraid that you first have to invent ways to convert them to images. So, lets better be a little adaptable to the atmosphere and make use of free upload services that a good number of sites provide. Here is a good review of sites that allow uploads, most of them are direct which means that you do not have to register. In most of them you can upload any type of file including executables. After uploading you can share the link provided. I checked out some of them, such as Zupload and Mega-File, and got instant results.

Picture Downloader

Not less than often we spot a guy who opens each picture on the net and decides whether to download it or not. Even if he wanted to download all the pictures from the site, he has to open all the pictures individually , and the wait between the page loads cause some to think about the ways of committing suicide.

I was one of them until recently when I came across a lot of "Picture Downloaders" (see how) across the net. I picked up one called Abacre Photo Downloader from Abacre [download] , while a lot more were available here (nice collection).

These tools provide filters like what type of image to download (jpeg, gif, png etc), file size of image (in kb), size/dimension of image (in px). Download the whole album and delete the ones that doesn't suit your taste.

Just Married -- Orkut and GTalk

Today Orkut and GTalk were integrated, which means that you can see the online status of you friends and invite them for chat or give 'em a call. Now you can import your Orkut friend's list to GTalk. All that is needed is to go to the settings page on Orkut and check a simple radio button. Its even easier to send scraps from GTalk. Here is the help by Google and download GTalk here.

Download of the Day

Ook? Video Ook! -- This firefox extension lets you to download embedded videos from sites like YouTube, Google Video, Metacafe etc (of course when opened in Firefox browser).

[Download]

A Wonderful game based on Theory of Gravity

Remember good old days of school, bragging about gravity, now its time to rejuvenate those "horror moments" with this addictive game. The aim of the game is to let the comet burn completely without colliding with any of the planets. See how the comet bends/curves when it comes in the vicinity of a planet.

SpringerWidgets -- Same widget for my Web and my Desktop

SpringerWidgets is integrating the widgets what we commonly differentiated as "widget for web" and "widget for desktop". The widget will work with same look and feel whether its embedded on the web or put up on your desktop. They have developed some samples for this. One of the sample widget to read RSS feed is shown here. Remember although this widget is embedded on this blog you do not have to come to this page everytime to view it (unless you are a die hard fan of this blog :-) ), instead you can download the desktop version of the same from here.

Get this widget!

Writing Hindi with Hindi Kalam

Writing in Hindi was never this easy. HindiKalam has a very good interface that allows to write Hindi online with the very much acronyms that Indians use while chatting on IMs (such as kaise ho for कैसे हो) etc. It also lets one embed English into the Hindi Writing as I am doining now.

हींदी is fun. हींदी िलखना अब काफ़ी आसान हो गया है

Cross Site Chatting

Geesee launched its cross site chat facility a few days back. As reported by Techcrunch : "Geesee is an embedded chat service that lets users communicate across any number of web sites in common chat rooms organized by tags". While this service was continuing to gather applauds from the web community, ChatCreator stepped in to steal the thunder. It provides much similar interface like Geesee but with a better look and feel with its sleek design.

Heres an example:

Download of the Day

Google Earth 4 (beta) -- The latest version of Google earth is doing round the corners. It comes bundled with some extra features which were earlier provided as paid service. This includes 3D, polygon and path drawings. [Download]

If and only if -- Passion==Drawing && Creativity+=1

Creativity, a very abstract term for even most creative people, manifests itself through as many acts in the world as possible. The act of doing something gives a vent to the creativity nurturing inside a living being. The act could be anything from a highly applauded painting on canvas to a mere act of thinking, its just that the way of expression doesn't matter.It could even be Online Drawing if you are not biased towards those conventional paintings painted by some bearded weird looking creature.

Cumulatelabs displays a fully featured drawing canvas to get your hands dirty, provides a drawing experience much like a drawing software only with a little slower speed.Earlier it was compatible with IE only but Firefox support is also included.

Now, some out of the box creation with ImaginationCubed which has very sleek user interface with great speed and feel of elasticity. Its greatest feature is that the "piece of art" can be created online with two or more artists participating simultaneously in the same drawing. You can send invitation to your friend (or your love) to take part in the creation. Wow, now unlike good old days we will have paintings patented to a bunch of people rather that bearded single guy. After the completion of the grand act, the art can be viewed in an animated fashion -- the pencil moves the same way as you did while drawing, to recreate your piece.

Now in order to add something that people called "professional look" Drawspace can serve as a wonderful mentor online.

Netvibes - Unifying Web

The very first page that I got after entering the url http://www.netvibes.com/ to my surprise contained all my favorites. It was like whole of internet before you, and you are confused but amazed. The site boasts of providing everything and all customizable, it provides a tabbed interface where feeds, news,web searches , webmails, bookmarks , photo organizers, social networking, API search etc can be customized according to your taste. These all occurs in real time.

Download Of the Day

Express Talk -- A voip soft-phone by NCH which provides dial up facilities to VoIP numbers and ids. It can be used directly for audio blogging at Gabcast (see more detail). [Download]

Online File Conversion

Zamzar provides a cool service when it comes to converting your image, document, audio, video from one format to another as per your taste or necessity. The interface is simple and sleek, and you get your converted file through email. Now atleast you do not have to download different readers for different formats or conversion tools to your desktop.

Really the world is moving towards better web solutions second by second. Kudos to the realm of Web Services.

Downloads of the Day

Firefox 2.0 for Windows -- Firefox 2.o is the latest version of browser from Mozilla.
[Download]

Internet Explorer 7 -- Internet Explorer 7.0 is the latest version of web browser from Micorsoft.
[Download]

Absolute Color Picker 3.0 -- A wonderful tool for web-designers to pick colors from a wide range and convert it to hexadecimal representation. [Download]

Instant Web Calculator

Welcome to hassle free calculation. InstaCalc is an online calculator which provides calculation facility in real time, that means results are displayed as you type. It claims to be faster that windows and easier than excel, which seems true looking at its speed and rich features.

The most interesting part is its graph and chart calculations, it instanly draws charts on your screen as you vary the parameters.

It does'nt take much to explore all its features. A comprehensive reference section is provided.

It also provides codes which can be embedded onto your geeky page to enable on the fly calculations.

A Three Column Sample Blogger Beta Template

Here is a sample three column template for Blogger beta. As it is very difficult to find templates for Blogger beta I have altered one of the two column Blogger templates and made it three column. Three column templates are very convenient for blogs with a large content required to be arranged in categories.

Below is the code for the type of template shown in the figure. A word of caution before you edit your template (in html mode), back up the whole template on a notepad. You can copy the code below and paste into your template editing area while working in html mode.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?><br /><!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"><br /><html xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml' xmlns:b='http://www.google.com/2005/gml/b' xmlns:data='http://www.google.com/2005/gml/data' xmlns:expr='http://www.google.com/2005/gml/expr'><br /> <head><br /> <b:include data='blog' name='all-head-content'/><br /> <title><data:blog.pageTitle/></title><br /> <b:skin><![CDATA[<br /><br />/* Variable definitions<br /> ====================<br /><br /> <Variable name="textcolor" description="Text Color"<br /> type="color" default="#333" value="#333333"><br /><br /> <Variable name="pagetitlecolor" description="Page Header Color"<br /> type="color" default="#FFF" value="#FFFFFF"><br /><br /> <Variable name="datecolor" description="Date Header Color"<br /> type="color" default="#f93" value="#ff9933"><br /><br /> <Variable name="titlecolor" description="Post Title Color"<br /> type="color" default="#f63" value="#ff6633"><br /><br /> <Variable name="footercolor" description="Post Footer Color"<br /> type="color" default="#999" value="#999999"><br /><br /> <Variable name="sidebartextcolor" description="sidebar Text Color"<br /> type="color" default="#999" value="#999999"><br /><br /> <Variable name="sidebarcolor" description="Sidebar Title Color"<br /> type="color" default="#666" value="#666666"><br /><br /> <Variable name="linkcolor" description="Link Color"<br /> type="color" default="#69c" value="#6699cc"><br /><br /> <Variable name="visitedlinkcolor" description="Visited Link Color"<br /> type="color" default="#666699" value="#666699"><br /><br /> <Variable name="bodyfont" description="Text Font"<br /> type="font"<br /> default="normal normal 100% Verdana, sans-serif" value="normal normal 100% Verdana, sans-serif"><br /><br /> <Variable name="pagetitlefont" description="Page Header Font"<br /> type="font" default="normal normal 100% 'Lucida Grande','Trebuchet MS'" value="normal normal 100% 'Lucida Grande','Trebuchet MS'"><br /><br /> <Variable name="titlefont" description="Post Title Font"<br /> type="font" default="normal bold 130% 'Lucida Grande','Trebuchet MS'" value="normal bold 130% 'Lucida Grande','Trebuchet MS'"><br /><br /> <Variable name="sidebarheaderfont" description="sidebar Title Font"<br /> type="font" default="normal bold 130% 'Lucida Grande','Trebuchet MS'" value="normal bold 130% 'Lucida Grande','Trebuchet MS'"><br /><br /> <br />*/<br /><br />/* ---( page defaults )--- */<br /><br />body {<br /> margin: 0;<br /> padding: 0;<br /> font-size: small;<br /> text-align: center;<br /> color: $textcolor;<br /> background: #e0e0e0;<br /> }<br /><br />blockquote {<br /> margin: 0 0 0 30px;<br /> padding: 10px 0 0 20px;<br /> font-size: 88%;<br /> line-height: 1.5em;<br /> color: #666;<br /> background: url(http://www.blogblog.com/tictac/quotes.gif) no-repeat top left;<br /> }<br /><br />blockquote p {<br /> margin-top: 0;<br /> }<br /><br />abbr, acronym {<br /> cursor: help;<br /> font-style: normal;<br /> border-bottom: 1px dotted;<br /> }<br /><br />code {<br /> color: #f63;<br /> }<br /><br />hr {<br /> display: none;<br /> }<br /><br />img {<br /> border: none;<br /> }<br /><br />/* unordered list style */<br /><br />ul {<br /> list-style: none;<br /> margin-left: 10px;<br /> padding: 0;<br /> }<br /><br />li {<br /> list-style: none;<br /> padding-left: 14px;<br /> margin-bottom: 3px;<br /> background: url(http://www.blogblog.com/tictac/tictac_orange.gif) no-repeat 0 6px;<br /> }<br /><br />/* links */<br /><br />a:link {<br /> color: $linkcolor;<br /> }<br /><br />a:visited {<br /> color: $visitedlinkcolor;<br /> }<br /><br />a:hover {<br /> color: #693;<br /> }<br /><br />a:active {<br /> color: #cc3333;<br /> text-decoration: none;<br /> }<br /><br />/* ---( layout structure )---*/<br /><br />#outer-wrapper {<br /> width: 847px;<br /> margin: 0px auto 0;<br /> text-align: left;<br /> font: $bodyfont;<br /> background: url(http://prashant.nit.googlepages.com/tile.gif) repeat-y;<br /> }<br /><br />#content-wrapper {<br /> margin-left: 42px; /* to avoid the border image */<br /> width: 763px;<br /> }<br /><br />#main {<br /> width: 450px;<br /> float:left;<br /> padding: 20px 0 20px 1em;<br /> line-height: 1.5em;<br /> word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking rightbar float in IE */<br /> overflow: hidden; /* fix for long non-text content breaking IE rightbar float */<br /> }<br /><br />#rightbar {<br /> float: right;<br /> width: 150px;<br /> padding: 0 0px 0 0;<br /> font-size: 85%;<br /> line-height: 1.4em;<br /> color: $sidebartextcolor;<br /> background: e0e0e0;<br /> word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking rightbar float in IE */<br /> overflow: hidden; /* fix for long non-text content breaking IE rightbar float */<br /> }<br />#leftbar {<br /> float: left;<br /> width: 150px;<br /> padding: 0 0px 0 0;<br /> font-size: 85%;<br /> line-height: 1.4em;<br /> color: $sidebartextcolor;<br /> background: e0e0e0;<br /> word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking rightbar float in IE */<br /> overflow: hidden; /* fix for long non-text content breaking IE rightbar float */<br /> }<br /><br /><br />/* ---( header and site name )--- */<br /><br />#header-wrapper {<br /> margin: 0;<br /> padding: 0;<br /> font: $pagetitlefont;<br /> background: #e0e0e0 url(http://www.blogblog.com/tictac/top_div.gif) no-repeat 0px 0px;<br /> }<br /><br />#header {<br /> margin: 0;<br /> padding: 25px 60px 35px 160px;<br /> color: $pagetitlecolor;<br /> background: url(http://www.blogblog.com/tictac/top_h1.gif) no-repeat bottom left;<br /> }<br /><br />#header h1 { <br /> font-size: 200%;<br /> text-shadow: #81A75B 2px 2px 2px;<br /> }<br /><br />#header h1 a {<br /> text-decoration: none;<br /> color: $pagetitlecolor;<br /> }<br /><br />#header h1 a:hover {<br /> color: #eee;<br /> }<br /><br />/* ---( main column )--- */<br /><br />h2.date-header {<br /> margin-top: 0;<br /> padding-left: 14px;<br /> font-size: 90%;<br /> color: $datecolor;<br /> background: url(http://www.blogblog.com/tictac/date_icon.gif) no-repeat 0 50%;<br /> }<br /><br />.post h3 {<br /> margin-top: 0;<br /> font: $titlefont;<br /> letter-spacing: -1px;<br /> color: $titlecolor;<br /> }<br /><br />.post {<br /> margin: 0 0 1.5em 0;<br /> padding: 0 0 1.5em 14px;<br /> border-bottom: 1px solid #ddd;<br /> }<br /><br />.post h3 a,<br />.post h3 a:visited { <br /> color: $titlecolor;<br /> text-decoration: none;<br /> }<br /><br />.post-footer {<br /> margin: 0;<br /> padding: 0 0 0 14px;<br /> font-size: 88%;<br /> color: $footercolor;<br /> background: url(http://www.blogblog.com/tictac/tictac_grey.gif) no-repeat 0 8px;<br /> }<br /><br />.post img {<br /> padding: 6px;<br /> border-top: 1px solid #ddd;<br /> border-left: 1px solid #ddd;<br /> border-bottom: 1px solid #c0c0c0;<br /> border-right: 1px solid #c0c0c0;<br /> }<br /><br />.feed-links {<br /> clear: both;<br /> line-height: 2.5em;<br />}<br /><br />#blog-pager-newer-link {<br /> float: left;<br /> }<br /><br />#blog-pager-older-link { <br /> float: right;<br /> }<br /> <br />#blog-pager { <br /> text-align: center; <br /> }<br /><br />/* comment styles */<br /><br />#comments {<br /> padding-top: 10px;<br /> font-size: 85%;<br /> line-height: 1.5em;<br /> color: #666;<br /> background: #eee url(http://www.blogblog.com/tictac/comments_curve.gif) no-repeat top left;<br /> }<br /><br />#comments h4 {<br /> margin: 20px 0 15px 0;<br /> padding: 8px 0 0 40px;<br /> font-family: "Lucida Grande", "Trebuchet MS";<br /> font-size: 130%;<br /> color: #666;<br /> background: url(http://www.blogblog.com/tictac/bubbles.gif) no-repeat 10px 0;<br /> height: 29px !important; /* for most browsers */<br /> height /**/:37px; /* for IE5/Win */<br /> }<br /> <br />#comments ul {<br /> margin-left: 0;<br /> }<br /><br />#comments li {<br /> background: none;<br /> padding-left: 0;<br /> }<br /> <br />.comment-body {<br /> padding: 0 10px 0 25px;<br /> background: url(http://www.blogblog.com/tictac/tictac_orange.gif) no-repeat 10px 5px;<br /> }<br /><br />.comment-body p {<br /> margin-bottom: 0;<br /> }<br /><br />.comment-author {<br /> margin: 4px 0 0 0;<br /> padding: 0 10px 0 60px;<br /> color: #999;<br /> background: url(http://www.blogblog.com/tictac/comment_arrow.gif) no-repeat 44px 2px;<br /> }<br /><br />.comment-footer {<br /> border-bottom: 1px solid #ddd;<br /> padding-bottom: 1em;<br />}<br /><br /><br />.deleted-comment {<br /> font-style:italic;<br /> color:gray;<br /> }<br /><br />/* ---( rightbar )--- */<br /><br />.rightbar h2 { <br /> margin: 0 0 0 0;<br /> padding: 25px 0 0 40px;<br /> font: $sidebarheaderfont;<br /> color: $sidebarcolor;<br /> height: 32px;<br /> background: url(http://www.blogblog.com/tictac/sidebar_icon.gif) no-repeat 10px 15px;<br /> height: 32px !important; /* for most browsers */<br /> height /**/:57px; /* for IE5/Win */<br /> }<br /><br />.rightbar .widget {<br /> margin: 0;<br /> padding: 0 0 10px 10px;<br /> border-bottom: 1px solid #ddd;<br />}<br /><br />.rightbar li {<br /> background: url(http://www.blogblog.com/tictac/tictac_green.gif) no-repeat 0 5px;<br /> }<br /><br />.profile-textblock { <br /> clear: both;<br /> margin-left: 0;<br />}<br /><br />.profile-img { <br /> float: left;<br /> margin: 0 5px 5px 0;<br /> border: 1px solid #ddd;<br /> padding: 4px;<br />}<br />/* ---( leftbar )--- */<br />.leftbar h2 { <br /> margin: 0 0 0 0;<br /> padding: 25px 0 0 40px;<br /> font: $sidebarheaderfont;<br /> color: $sidebarcolor;<br /> height: 32px;<br /> background: url(http://www.blogblog.com/tictac/sidebar_icon.gif) no-repeat 10px 15px;<br /> height: 32px !important; /* for most browsers */<br /> height /**/:57px; /* for IE5/Win */<br /> }<br /><br />.leftbar .widget {<br /> margin: 0;<br /> padding: 0 0 10px 10px;<br /> border-bottom: 1px solid #ddd;<br />}<br /><br />.leftbar li {<br /> background: url(http://www.blogblog.com/tictac/tictac_green.gif) no-repeat 0 5px;<br /> }<br /><br />/* ---( footer )--- */<br /><br />.clear { /* to fix IE6 padding-top issue */<br /> clear: both;<br /> }<br /><br />#footer-wrapper {<br /> margin: 0;<br /> padding: 0 0 9px 0;<br /> font-size: 85%;<br /> color: #ddd;<br /> background: url(http://www.blogblog.com/tictac/bottom_sill.gif) no-repeat bottom left;<br /> }<br /><br />#footer {<br /> <br /> margin: 0;<br /> padding: 20px 320px 20px 95px;<br /> background: url(http://www.blogblog.com/tictac/bottom_sash.gif) no-repeat top left;<br /> }<br /><br /><br />/** Page structure tweaks for layout editor wireframe */<br />body#layout #outer-wrapper,<br />body#layout #main,<br />body#layout #rightbar { <br /> padding-top: 0;<br /> margin-top: 0;<br />}<br />body#layout #leftbar { <br /> padding-top: 0;<br /> margin-top: 0;<br />}<br /><br />body#layout #outer-wrapper,<br />body#layout #content-wrapper { <br /> width: 740px;<br />}<br /><br />body#layout #rightbar { <br /> margin-right: 0;<br /> margin-bottom: 1em;<br /> }<br />body#layout #leftbar { <br /> margin-right: 0;<br /> margin-bottom: 1em;<br /> }<br /><br />body#layout #header,<br />body#layout #footer,<br />body#layout #main {<br /> padding: 0;<br /> }<br /><br />body#layout #content-wrapper { <br /> margin: 0px;<br /> }<br />]]></b:skin><br /> </head><br /><br /> <body><br /> <div id='outer-wrapper'><div id='wrap2'><br /><br /> <!-- skip links for text browsers --><br /> <span id='skiplinks' style='display:none;'><br /> <a href='#main'>skip to main </a> <br /> <a href='#rightbar'>skip to rightbar</a><br /> <a href='#leftbar'>skip to leftbar</a><br /> </span><br /><br /> <div id='header-wrapper'><br /> <b:section class='header' id='header' maxwidgets='1' showaddelement='no'><br /><b:widget id='Header1' locked='true' title='In the testing Phase (Header)' type='Header'/><br /></b:section><br /> </div><br /> <br /> <div id='content-wrapper'><br /><br /> <br /><br /> <br /><div id='leftbar-wrapper'><br /> <b:section class='leftbar' id='leftbar' preferred='yes'><br /><b:widget id='Profile1' locked='false' title='About Me' type='Profile'/><br /><b:widget id='TextList1' locked='false' title='dsfdsf' type='TextList'/><br /><b:widget id='Image1' locked='false' title='Age is not a factor' type='Image'/><br /></b:section><br /><div id='main-wrapper'><br /> <b:section class='main' id='main' showaddelement='no'><br /><b:widget id='Blog1' locked='true' title='Blog Posts' type='Blog'/><br /></b:section><br /><div id='rightbar-wrapper'><br /> <b:section class='rightbar' id='rightbar' preferred='yes'><br /><b:widget id='TextList2' locked='false' title='list 1' type='TextList'/><br /><b:widget id='BlogArchive1' locked='false' title='Blog Archive' type='BlogArchive'/><br /></b:section><br /> </div><br /> </div><br /><br /> </div><br /><br /> <!-- spacer for skins that want rightbar and main to be the same height--><br /> <div class='clear'> </div><br /><br /> </div> <!-- end content-wrapper --><br /><br /> <div id='footer-wrapper'><br /> <b:section class='footer' id='footer'/><br /> </div><br /><br /> </div></div> <!-- end outer-wrapper --><br /></body><br /></html>

Downloads Of the Day

Starting this post a new segment will be included daily on Mere eXperiences under the heading Downloads of the Day.

Todays downloads

Eprompter --Checking Email at one place was never this easier. [download link]

Windows Media Player 11 --Latest version of Media Player from Microsoft.[download link]

Drupal 5.0 beta 1 --Drupal is a very popular free opensource content management system. Drupal 5.0 beta 1 comes with many new features, including a web-based install system, improved administration tools, and a shiny new theme.

[download drupal 5.0 beta1] [download latest stable version]

Xcelsius - A Class product from Business Objects

In the world of Business Intelligence, reporting and interactivity of reports are crucial to a report's effectiveness and hence of business. And the need of the day is to integrate the vendor specific reports (or dashboards) to the product of users choice ( thats what I call people ready business). This is when Xcelsius comes handy.

For all those who still ponder what a Business Intelligence is, here's the shot - Business Intelligence is a marriage of Business Effectiveness to Technology. It calls for analytical processing of historical data to design strategies, making forecast and investment decisions. Business Intelligence, or simply, “BI,” is the act of capturing raw data, then transforming and combining that data into information that can be proactively used to improve business (link).

Crystal Xcelsius a product from Business Objects lets one to import data directly from Excel sheets to create reports comprising of different types of charts, dials,sliders etc. and then export it to pdf, ms word, powerpoint or web besides its very own dashboard. It provides a slider option to be embedded on the dashboard, which causes instant visual variation in the charts or dials upon sliding (i.e. changing the parameter representing the slide). What is exciting is that the reports can be exported to above mentioned formats without comprising on the level of interactivity. Watch the screencast describing these features.

Gabbly - Chatting on your Web Page

Enabling a chat application on any web page was never this easy. Gabbly allows us to embed chat application to our webpages which allows all the concurrent visitors to share their viewpoints instantly. In addition you can just Gabbly on any webpage - just precede the site's name with Gabbly.com/, eg gabbly.com/yoursite.com. To start chatting on this page try this.

Checking Emails from different accounts at One Place

EPrompter is a free software that allows you to check, reply, forward, delete and all other common email functionalities through a single interface. It also offers spam protection. Eprompter can be downloaded from here.