IT and Business talk

FIFA World cup and scores updates from Google

2010-07-02T23:23:00.000-07:00

The FIFA world cup 2010 is almost in its semi final stage now.

This blog is regarding the football scores updated on Google. It has already been more than 12 hours since the last two quarter-finals between Netherlands vs Brazil and Uruguay vs Ghana and still the scores has not been updated in Google.

I just did not believe what I saw. You can check it for yourself. Just type "world cup scores" in Google.

IE 6 must die

2010-01-14T10:38:00.000-08:00

Well, I'd read articles regarding how designer have faced problem in IE6 and I'd not taken notice of this until today. Today I'd used the whole day so that one of the website that I'd designed and coded would look great also in IE and more importantly in IE6. But even after the day ended, I've to admit that it still does not look the way that I wanted it to be.

Writing CSS for different browser was kinda ok for me. But writing the CSS file for the same browser but different versions, oh my gosh, it was quite a pain in my behind. It does not feel good when your design does not look good in all of the major browsers.

We as developers use the latest of browsers and the latest of technologies. But we have to think what the normal people think and use what the normal people in general use. Still the majority of the share for the browser goes to IE and out of that a significant number of web users still use the IE6 browsers. They must have quite an ease to go through the content in their browser (IE6). But as a designer, I can feel the pain the development team had to go through for the development of that website for IE6 compatibility.

I'm not saying that I'm backing off of designing my web page for IE6 compatibility, but the time consumed for the development for the particular browser is just too much. Too much unnecessary time is wasted of developers all around the globe for this. So I too support the cause, The cause of saying IE6 must die.

Here are some of the links which I support for this cause: ()

IE6 Must Die for the Web to Move On - Mashable
6 Reasons Why IE6 Must Die - davidwalsh.name
Why IE Sucks: IE6 Must Die moves to Twitter petition - whyiesucks.blogspot.com
IE6 Must Die - Support now! - Twibbon.com

Realtime website analytics: Footprint

2010-01-07T09:46:00.000-08:00

Google analytic is one of the best tool you can use to monitor the visitor activity in your website. But one thing that was lacking in this tool was the real-time visitor statistics. Google has been the biggest market player in the web and it has been dominant factor in this field. But still the live web visitor stats was not there.

There had been quite a few service providers who had been trying to match up with this. A Netherlands-based company called Footprint Live Analytics has come up with this service.

This is a 'free' service and allows users to view data on pages others are checking out in real-time by using Javascript code on the pages you want to track. If you were to hover your mouse over a Footprint's 'green' icon figure, it will zZoom in with drill-down click path analysis the system will provide you with the complete user profile including the referrer, browser, IP Address, contact/address data, company/organization, ISP, number of pages viewed, number of visits, search engine, search term, and the first and last measurement.

To get this service, you will need to register. The registration process is very simple and you will start viewing real-time stats for your website. You can also add multiple website in your single account. You will need need an email address for it is where your tracking code will be sent which you need to add in your website.

The service looks really cool. I highly recommend this website for real-time visitor stats. Go check it out.

Footprint Live Analytics

A special Message

2009-12-30T08:46:00.000-08:00

Copy the below content and Paste it to notepad.

Use replace all (Ctrl + H)

And click on 'replace all' 6 with _ (Under score), (Try font size as 6)

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Facebook agreed to third party advertisers

2009-07-25T11:17:00.000-07:00

FACEBOOK has agreed to let third party advertisers use your posted pictures WITHOUT your permission. (also known as "opt-out")
To remove yourself from this advertisement follow the following steps:

1) Click on SETTINGS up at the top where you see the Log out link.
2) Select Privacy.
3) Then select NEWSFEEDS and WALL.
4) Next, select the tab that reads FACEBOOK ADS.
5) There is a drop down box, select NO ONE.
6) Then SAVE your changes.

To tell your friends also. REPOST to let your friends know!

Bing: The New Search Engine from Microsoft

2009-05-28T10:54:00.000-07:00

Following speculation last week that Microsoft was planning to rebrand its search engine, the company has announced that it will be launching Bing on June 3rd.

You can watch the promotional video here http://www.decisionengine.com/Default.html

The video seem to challenge big search engine market share holders like google and other too. But only time will tell where Bing will stand.

Few months back I news was had floated in the internet that microsoft had also purchased Kumo.com for search engine re-branding. Lets see how they re-brands the "search".

Yahoo Briefcase is closing down

2009-02-26T07:05:00.000-08:00

Today I got an email from Yahoo stating that they are closing down the Yahoo Briefcase services. If you also have a Yahoo Briefcase account, then the chances are that you also must this very email too. The excerpt of the email is as follows:

We will be officially closing Yahoo! Briefcase on March 30, 2009. Until then, we are offering you the opportunity to download your files back to your computer. You will need to take action before we close, after which any files remaining on Yahoo! Briefcase will be deleted and no longer accessible.

So people if you also have anything in your Yahoo Briefcase then better back it up. Else you might just loose you data. Oh yes, the hard part, downloading the data. You have to do it all manually. You've to download each and every of the files one by one. There is no function to download it all at once or to download the whole folder itself. So better start downloading.

I have learnt my lesson the hard way when Yahoo had previously closed its services Yahoo Photos. I'd been a lazy guy by not backing up my data, and so all was lost. Not this time ;)

Ciao.

Worldwide recession and its effect on Logo Designers

2009-02-22T06:05:00.000-08:00

The global effect on recession has shown some effect on Logo designers as well. This would be a great post to share… what logo designs could look like after the recession.

You can check more logos (after recession) here:

Interesting Website find, Mount Everest

2009-02-22T05:48:00.000-08:00

Today I'm writing this post as a move to include open source article in this blog too. I was going through an online article and fortunately found quite an interesting site. You will also like it, I'm sure.

The website is and its details are as follows.

Datasync http://www.datasyncsuite.com – open-source application that links up other open-source software, such as Joomla and Zimbra; enables you to access them all with a single sign on. Cost – Free to download, available also at about $40 a month per user for a hosted version that comes with tech support.

Also, an interesting part is that, one of the part of the software that it unites, Sugar CRM uses the image of Mount Everest. I found it quite interesting, so I thought I should share it with you people as well. ;)

Top Hit Website and still gaining

2009-02-17T18:49:00.001-08:00

I've been going though the alexa ranking of Nepalese site for quite some time. If you don't have an idea about the website then you can go to this website www.alexa.com. You can check the recent traffic activities of your site as well as compare it with other websites as well.

Nevertheless, I've been noticing one of the nepali website has been making it to the top 100 and today I saw it in #33. You can also check the alexa ranking for Nepalese website http://www.alexa.com/site/ds/top_sites?cc=NP&ts_mode=country&lang=none.

Just try to make a quite and sensible guess about this site. If you cannot here is a simple suggestion, even one of you might have recently visited it to check your time table schedule as well. Yes, it is the site of Nepal Electricity Authority. If you are also one of the lucky people staying in Nepal, then every now and then you might have just visited their website for a quick look at the time schedule of the load shedding of your home, your office or any other place as well. People who have access to the internet view this website to check the load shedding schedule in their area.

Enjoy visiting their website and be cautious. The loadshedding at your place might be in a few minutes ;)

2009-02-17T18:49:00.000-08:00

Hello say hi to 2009

2009-01-29T08:52:00.000-08:00

This one I've been thinking about writing for quite some time. Actually it was about a year ago. Myself being a designer, I don't just browse the net; I browse it thoroughly. I look at almost every part of a web page, i.e., from top to bottom. That is right, I do look at the bottom part too, the footer to be exact.

Today I'm going to list some sites here who have not updated their footer, the copyright date to be exact. Today is January 30, 2009 and sites listed here have not uploaded them.

Following are the list of some of the top global sites who have not updated their date:

http://www.altavista.com/

http://www.alltheweb.com/

http://www.ebay.com/

http://www.craigslist.org

Following are the list of the top Nepali sites who have not updated their date:

http://myrepublica.com/

http://dainikee.com/

http://www.ekantipur.com/

http://www.thehimalayantimes.com/

http://www.ntc.net.np/

http://www.khattam.com/

http://www.cybersansar.com/

http://www.thikthak.com/

Note: This page was created so as to show some small errors in in photos. We have uploaded few of them. We are not trying to tell them about his but, if corrected will definitely enhance your site.

Note: The sites selected here were randomly and handpicked with the help of Alexa.com.

Nasty worm wriggles into millions of computers

2009-01-21T09:14:00.000-08:00

A nasty worm has wriggled into millions of computers and continues to spread, leaving security experts wondering whether the attack is a harbinger of evil deeds to come.

US software protection firm F-Secure says a computer worm known as "Conficker" or "Downadup" had infected more than nine million computers by Tuesday and was spreading at a rate of one million machines daily.

The malicious software had yet to do any noticeable damage, prompting debate as to whether it is impotent, waiting to detonate, or a test run by cyber-criminals intent on profiting from the weakness in the future.

Read the article in full here.

The technology behind Google's great results

2009-01-21T08:17:00.000-08:00

Recently, I happened to read this article on Google regarding Google's system for great results. We all have been using Google to search may be once or more and have always been amazed by the search results it has provided us.

As a Google user, you're familiar with the speed and accuracy of a Google search. How exactly does Google manage to find the right results for every query as quickly as it does? The heart of Google's search technology is PigeonRank™, a system for ranking web pages developed by Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin at Stanford University.

Building upon the breakthrough work of B. F. Skinner, Page and Brin reasoned that low cost pigeon clusters (PCs) could be used to compute the relative value of web pages faster than human editors or machine-based algorithms. And while Google has dozens of engineers working to improve every aspect of our service on a daily basis, PigeonRank continues to provide the basis for all of our web search tools.

You can get to read the full article here.

IP Address and Host Name

2009-01-14T06:45:00.000-08:00

Gosh, man I'd been trying to display the IP address of any computer and had been looking like hell all over the net for this.

At last I found a good one. This script captures the IP address of the person filling in your form and submits it to you as part of the form. The script works The client IP address is stored in variable "VIH_HostIP". The client host name, if available, is stored in variable "VIH_HostName".

Thanks for the script. You can check out the link here too.

Major flaw revealed in Internet Explorer

2008-12-21T10:01:00.000-08:00

This might be a shocking news for hardcore IE (Internet Explorer) fan but there has been a recent new that's been circulating in the world wide web and emails all over. Security experts have found out a major flaw in Internet Explorer. This is a loop hole that affects browsers from IE5 to the latest beta of IE8. In fact, the flaw is already in wide use as a tool to steal online game passwords, with some 10,000 websites infected with the code needed to take advantage of the hole in IE.

Virtually all security experts (as well as myself) are counseling users to switch to any other web browser -- none of the others are affected, including Firefox, Chrome, and Opera -- at least for the time being, though Microsoft has stubbornly said it "cannot recommend people switch due to this one flaw." Microsoft adds that it is working on a fix but has offered no ETA on when that might happen. Meanwhile it offers some suggestions for a temporary patch, including setting your Internet security zone settings to "high" and offering some complicated workarounds. (Some reports state, however, that the fixes do not actually work.)

Expedient patching or switching are essential. Security pros fear that the attack will soon spread beyond the theft of gaming passwords and into more criminal arenas, as the malicious code can be placed on any website and can be adapted to steal any password stored or entered using the browser. It's now down to the issue of time: Will Microsoft repair the problem and distribute a patch quickly enough to head off the tsunami of fraud that's about to hit or will it come too late to do any good?

Meanwhile, I'll reiterate my recommendation: Switch from Internet Explorer as soon as you can. You can always switch back once the threat is eliminated. (To clarify: You don't need to uninstall IE, just don't use it for the time being.)

Well, people there are many good browsers. You just need to go out and reach for it. Some good options are as follows:

Source: Yahoo

Win $6000 with John Chow and Xr.com

2008-12-11T10:14:00.000-08:00

John Chow and XR.com are giving away $6,000 in a new blog contest. A total of $5,000 will be donated to a charity of the winner's choosing and $1,000 will be awarded directly to the winner. In my case if I win this contest, then I would like to donate the five thousand to streetchildrenofnepal in Kathmandu, Nepal. With the other one thousand, I think I'm going to save it for my family, because my family needs that money rather than me.

All people must have heard of John Chow, if not you can visit his website. And so, what is XR.com? XR.com is a new application that provides services for URL shortening.

The contest is being sponsored by XR.com. XR.com is a tiny url service that will shorten long URLs, essential for sending links out on Twitter which limits the number of characters you can post per tweet. Sign up for an account and check it out!

I'm hoping to win this content and donate the better part of the contest prize to the charity and keep the rest for my family. You people and also go ahead and get yourself an account at XR.com.

Open Web Awards - Bloggers’ Choice

2008-12-11T06:02:00.000-08:00

The Blogger’s Choice Awards for this this year has been great with many good nominations. Mashable has announced this year’s Blogger’s Choice Award Winners.

Also, do not forget that your votes for the People’s Choice Awards ends this Sunday. So, if want to make sure that you choice gets the award then make sure you too vote. You still have a chance to change the People’s Choice Award winners.

Mainstream & Large Scale Social Networks
Winner: Twitter
Runner-up: Facebook

Embeddable Widgets
Winner: Clearspring
Runner-up: Sprout
Blog Plugins
Winner: ShareThis
Runner-up: AddThis
Social News
Winner: Digg
Runner-up: Mixx
Social Networking Applications
Winner: Ping.fm
Runner-up: Twitterfeed
Social Bookmarking
Winner: Delicious
Runner-up: StumbleUpon
Search & Social Search
Winner: Google
Runner-up: Scour
Sports & Fitness
Winner: Gyminee
Runner-up: Oneseason
Photo Sharing
Winner: Flickr
Runner-up: Picasa
Video Sharing
Winner: YouTube
Runner-up: Vimeo
Start Pages
Winner: iGoogle
Runner-up: Netvibes
Places & Events
Winner: Doodle
Runner-up: Eventbrite
Travel
Winner: TripIt
Runner-up: GeckoGo
Music
Winner: Last.fm
Runner-up: Pandora
Social Shoppin
Winner: Wishpot
Runner-up(s): Tigerbow/Pikaba
Fashion
Winner: Coolspotters
Runner-up: Gift Girl
Celebrity & Gossip
Winner: Perez Hilton
Runner-up: Popvine
Mobile Applications
Winner: Evernote
Runner-up: Qik
Dating & Romance
Winner: SpeedDate
Runner-up: OKCupid
Wiki
Winner: Wikipedia
Runner-up: PBWiki
Politics
Winner: Huffington Post
Runner-up: CreateDebate
How-to
Winner: eHow
Runner-up: Howcast
Environmental
Winner: ThinkGreen
Runner-up: SocialVibe
Non-Profit Causes
Winner: SocialVibe
Runner-up: Kiva
Online Games
Winner: Playfish
Runner-up: Kongregate
Niche Social Networks
Winner: Wadja
Runner-up: Lifeblob

We would like to congratulate all.

The first and final voting rounds will be held from November 19th till December 15th.

http://mashable.com/2008/12/10/announcing-bloggers-choice-open-web-awards-winners/

Useful links to enhance your jquery experience

2008-12-10T08:47:00.000-08:00

Write less, Do more. This is the slogan of jQuery. It is a fast, concise, library that simplifies how to traverse HTML documents, handle events, perform animations, and add AJAX. It is a lightweight JavaScript library that emphasizes interaction between JavaScript and HTML. JQuery is a flexible, query-based source code browser, developed as an Eclipse plug-in.

There are many things you could do with jQuery. Few of them to help to make you work much more easier are listed below:

Home of jQuery - Link

Link - jQuery lightBox plugin

Link - Preload images from CSS

Link - jquery selectors

Link - Use jQuery and quickSearch to interactively search any data

Link - very interesting

Link - jQuery File Tree

Link - jQuery Plugin: Preload Images

Link - for jquery corners

Link - jQuery Calendar

Link - Jcrop: the jQuery Image Cropping Plugin

Link - jQuery plugin: Tablesorter 2.0

Link - Start/Stop Slider

Link - 3 reasons why you should let Google host jQuery for you | Encosia

Link - 37 Phenomenal jQuery Plugins and Demos for Developers : Speckyboy - Web Design, Web Development and Graphic Design Resources

Please note: This is a start of posts in which I will be adding useful link for web designers and developers regarding different aspects of web development.

Poverty removal from the Earth

2008-12-10T08:16:00.000-08:00

We all bloggers stand hand to hand to remove poverty from the earth.

This post is part of Blog Action Day 08 - Poverty

It is not difficult to remove poverty from the world. The only thing that is required is the will to do so. What you me and we have to do is help someone who is seeking help in case of surviving or doing something better for the betterment of life. Everybody knows that different conditions create poverty in family, society and then in the country.

Education is the source of light for anyone. So let us educate at least one child who is in need. Let us give proper treatment to at least one needy community. Let us be responsible for our family, our community and the whole world.

The previous year Blogaction Day made a huge difference in saving environment and this year too we walk together to clean poverty from the earth. Lets help to create a smile on one more face and that this be a continuous process, and that everyone on this earth is happy and hence poverty removed from this earth.

We can all contribute in different ways. Some effort might be small others might be quite big. But, let us all unite so that we can be a giant force and help to remove poverty from this earth and for ever.

Note: Very sorry for posting late and more for posting late for this article.

Search Engine Results Pages : Ranking

2008-10-05T20:32:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wanted to know where your website displayed in any particular search engine. Ever wanted to know where your site displayed in sites like Google or Yahoo. Well this was exactly what I too felt to check where I ranked in the search engines. And yes, I also used to go through page by page to look where my page ranked.

This process is all manual and tedious too, don't you agree with me. Well today all by chance I was browsing through delicious and on top of all the results was one familiar site shoemoney. I had recently visited this site. But I was specially interested to this site this time because it offered a link that said "Shoemoney Serps Script". You may also be interested to check out their affiliate program too.

To my surprise, this was the exact page that I was looking for. Just go the this link. You can search where your website ranks in top search engines. Like for example, I did the following query.

As you can in the figure above, I search for the keywords "nepal, voices, issues" in the website "http://www.hamroawaaz.com".

The results are also shown in the above figure.

Just amazing. I can't believe it. It was just too quick. I will be cross-checking for this results though. I hope you will also check it out. Do send me your feedback regarding this website.

Blog Action Day 2008 - Poverty

2008-10-03T11:26:00.000-07:00

After the huge success of last year’s Blog Action Day about the subject “Environment” this year again the whole bloggers’ community from all around the world are supporting and fighting against Poverty. As a blogger, I too am making an appealing about “Poverty” through this blog.

Just saying, "remove poverty" does not do any good. But if people unite together then we can achieve something. I always believe in TEAM effort. By uniting we certainly can achieve much more objective. As a blogger, I would help to spread this information so that much more people get aware of this noble cause.

If anyone of you who are blogger and hadn’t knew about this please support the whole blogger community to fight against the poverty and spread the positive message to the whole world, as you are a blogger too. Just because of your one post about supporting “Blog Action Day 2008 – Poverty” can make a lots of change. Please click here to know more about the Blog Action Day 2008 - Poverty.

Attacks on my Blog

2008-10-02T11:52:00.000-07:00

This is the second time that one of my sites has been hacked. This time too it was not a serious hack. Just a random hack I guess. I use wordpress software on one of my blogs. The following file had been changed.

Filename: (root)\index.php

The normal contents of the file is as follows:
But I could see the changes that'd been made. The changed contents looked like this:

‹?php
/* Short and sweet */
define('WP_USE_THEMES', true);
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I believe this is a javascript code used to some sort of unwanted activities. If anyone knows what this exact script does, then please do drop in some lines regarding this and the possible readiness for me to prevent such incidents.

Thanks in advance.

HUGE ENTRECARD CONTEST - 70000 Credits and Lots of Other Prizes to be won

2008-09-28T10:30:00.000-07:00

There's Huge Entrecard Contest which is waiting for you to win. FreebieReporter.com is having its celebrating of the blog new looked. There will be more than 70,000EC giveaway.

Check out these awesome Prizes

1st Prize:

30,000EC from Freebie Reporter
125×125 ad for a month from The Asian Economist
125×125 ad for a month from Free Famous Quotes
1 VIP membership to CreateBanner.com
1 Entrecard banner design from A Phone Sex Life

2nd Prize:

20,000EC from Freebie Reporter
1 VIP membership to CreateBanner.com
125×125 banner ad for a month from Journal Of Journey
125×125 banner ad for a month from Charcotrip.com
1 month blogroll link from A Phone Sex Life

3rd Prize

2000EC from SimpleBrowser
2000EC from Debit vs Credit
1500EC from Positive Thinking
2000EC from Realm of Prosperity
1500EC from NickThrolson
1000EC from Fantasy Baseball
125×125 ad for 3 months from Cash Advance Blog
1 VIP membership to CreateBanner.com

Other Prizes:

EC Credits:

11 Lucky winners will get 1000 credits from one of our fabulous sponsors:

1000EC from Michael Aulia

1000EC from Øblog

1000EC from Better Inspirational Communication

1000EC from Random Detox

1000EC from Multiply Themes

1000EC from Momawannabe

1000EC from Singaporean In London

1000EC from WhoisAbhi

1000EC from SEMscoop.com

1000EC from A Second Cup

1000EC from Kutsara at Tinidor

Advertising:

4 Lucky winners will get premium advertising spots from the following bloggers:

125×125 ad for a month from Positive Thinking

125×125 ad for a month from Gift Reviews

1 month blogroll link from Freebie Reporter

125×125 ad for a month from Freebie Reporter

That’s a total of 17 prizes that will be distributed between the people who participate in the contest.All the winners will be picked by using the random list generator at random.org .

Contest ends on 10 Oct 2008! Click on the link to find out more info on how to participate.

Google celebrates it 10 glorious years and more to come

2008-09-27T21:17:00.000-07:00

If Google’s logo today is any indication, those birthday celebrations had by the blog world earlier this month (as well as the confusion had the year before) may have been a tad premature.

Or maybe the guys in Mountain View, namely Sergey and Larry, simply thought they’d bring out the pomp and the circumstance somewhat belatedly to cap the last 30 days with its own grand look back in Google time. Whatever the case, the party hats are now officially out. The cake’s been lit, a small stack of servers have been wrapped in homage, and hey, the exclamation point is back.

This has been a busy September for the company. It has put forth a Web browser that pundits have spent weeks looking up and down and all around. It has sparred with ideas that its so-called non-exclusive deal with Yahoo would wreak havoc on the semi-competitive nature of the current online search advertising environment. Along with T-Mobile it has officially taken the cover off the first Android-based smartphone to come to market in the US. And there are several million other pieces of miscellany for the press to continuously pore over. And Google of course still has quite a way to go before it gets that “all the world’s knowledge” thing down pat.

In addition to the festive front page greeting it’s presented visitors with today, the company has produced a timeline of what has been done under its purview over the last decade. In a word, it’s comprehensive.

Read more here.

This is an extract from mashable.com, do visit their website. They've got a great content.

10 Killer Firefox Extensions That You Probably Don’t Know About

2008-09-03T11:35:00.000-07:00

The best Firefox Extensions out there, right here.

This isn't the usual list of extensions that everyone is used to using, but 10 add-ons that many may not know about, but can be very useful for everyday web browsing.

1. PicLens

PicLens instantly transforms your browser into a full-screen 3D experience for viewing images across the web. Makes browsing through pictures a wonderful experience. The interactive 3D Wall and built-in search function, lets you effortlessly drag, click, zoom, and zip your way around a wall of pictures for an amazing viewing experience.

Google Chrome released!

2008-09-03T11:01:00.000-07:00

Google Chrome is an open source web browser developed by Google. The name is derived from the graphical user interface frame, or "chrome", of web browsers. The open source project behind Google Chrome is known as Chromium.

A beta version for Microsoft Windows was released on 2 September 2008 in 43 languages. Mac OS X and Linux versions are under development and are scheduled to be released sometime in the future.

The browser is designed to be fast, and to cope with the next generation of web applications that rely on graphics and multimedia.

Called Chrome, it will launch as a beta for Windows machines in 100 countries, with Mac and Linux versions to come.

"We realised... we needed to completely rethink the browser," said Google's Sundar Pichai in a blog post.

The new browser will help Google take advantage of developments it is pushing online in rich web applications that are challenging traditional desktop programs.

Google has a suite of web apps, such as Documents, Picasa and Maps which offer functionality that is beginning to replace offline software.

"What we really needed was not just a browser, but also a modern platform for web pages and applications, and that's what we set out to build," Mr Pichai, VP Product Management, wrote.

Click here to read more details about Google Chrome.

Updates: According to StatCounter in the blog here, a research conducted by them at StatCounter, Google’s new browser, Chrome, had taken 1% of the global browser market within a day of launch.

Google’s unusual step of publicising the Chrome browser on its notoriously clutter-free homepage is an indication of the plans that Google has for this browser. Read details.

10 Things Millionaires Won't Tell You

2008-08-27T23:31:00.000-07:00

Recently I went though an article @ yahoo which goes by the heading "10 Things Millionaires Won't Tell You". I found it quite interesting so

1. "You may think I'm rich, but I don't."

A million dollars may sound like a fortune to most people, and folks with that much cash can't complain — they're richer than 90 percent of U.S. households and earn $366,000 a year, on average, putting them in the top 1 percent of taxpayers. But the club isn't so exclusive anymore. Some 10 million households have a net worth above $1 million, excluding home equity, almost double the number in 2002. Moreover, a recent survey by Fidelity found just 8 percent of millionaires think they're "very" or "extremely" wealthy, while 19 percent don't feel rich at all. "They're worried about health care, retirement and how they'll sustain their lifestyle," says Gail Graham, a wealth-management executive at Fidelity.

Indeed, many millionaires still don't have enough for exclusive luxuries, like membership at an elite golf club, which can top $300,000 a year. While $1 million was a tidy sum three decades ago, you'd need $3.6 million for the same purchasing power today. And half of all millionaires have a net worth of $2.5 million or less, according to research firm TNS. So what does it take to feel truly rich? The magic number is $23 million, according to Fidelity.

2. "I shop at Wal-Mart..."

They may not buy the 99-cent paper towels, but millionaires know what it is to be frugal. About 80 percent say they spend with a middle-class mind-set, according to a 2007 survey of high-net-worth individuals, published by American Express and the Harrison Group. That means buying luxury items on sale, hunting for bargains — even clipping coupons.

Don Crane, a small-business owner in Santa Rosa, Calif., certainly sees the value of everyday saving. "We can afford just about anything," he says, adding that his net worth is over $1 million. But he and his wife both grew up on farms in the Midwest — where nothing was wasted — and his wife clips coupons to this day. In fact, most millionaires come from middle-class households, and roughly 70 percent have been wealthy for less than 15 years, according to the AmEx/Harrison survey. That said, there are plenty of millionaires who never check a price tag. "I've always wanted to live above my means because it inspired me to work harder," says Robert Kiyosaki, author of the 1997 best seller Rich Dad, Poor Dad. An entrepreneur worth millions, Kiyosaki says he doesn't even know what his house would go for today.

3. "...but I didn't get rich by skimping on lattes."

So how do you join the millionaires' club? You could buy stocks or real estate, play the slots in Vegas — or take the most common path: running your own business. That's how half of all millionaires made their money, according to the AmEx/Harrison survey. About a third had a professional practice or worked in the corporate world; only 3 percent inherited their wealth.

Regardless of how they built their nest egg, virtually all millionaires "make judicious use of debt," says Russ Alan Prince, coauthor of "The Middle-Class Millionaire." They'll take out loans to build their business, avoid high-interest credit card debt and leverage their home equity to finance purchases if their cash flow doesn't cut it. Nor is their wealth tied up in their homes. Home equity represents just 11 percent of millionaires' total assets, according to TNS. "People who are serious about building wealth always want to have a mortgage," says Jim Bell, president of Bell Investment Advisors. His home is probably worth $1.5 million, he adds, but he owes $900,000 on it. "I'm in no hurry to pay it off," he says. "It's one of the few tax deductions I get."

4. "I have a concierge for everything."

That hot restaurant may be booked for months — at least when Joe Nobody calls to make reservations. But many top eateries set aside tables for celebrities and A-list clientele, and that's where the personal concierge comes in. Working for retainers that range anywhere from $25 an hour to six figures a year, these modern-day butlers have the inside track on chic restaurants, spa reservations, even an early tee time at the golf club. And good concierges will scour the planet for whatever their clients want — whether it's holy water blessed personally by the Pope, rare Mexican tequila or artisanal sausages found only in northern Spain. "For some people, the cost doesn't matter," says Yamileth Delgado, who runs Marquise Concierge and who once found those sausages for a client — 40 pounds of chorizo that went for $1,000.

Concierge services now extend to medical attention as well. At the high end: For roughly $2,000 to $4,000 a month, clients can get 24-hour access to a primary-care physician who makes house calls and can facilitate admission to a hospital "without long waits in the emergency room," as one New York City service puts it.

5. "You don't get rich by being nice."

John D. Rockefeller threatened rivals with bankruptcy if they didn't sell out to his company, Standard Oil. Bill Gates was ruthless in building Microsoft into the world's largest software firm (remember Netscape?). Indeed, many millionaires privately admit they're "bastards in business," says Prince. "They aren't nice guys." Of course, the wealthy don't exactly look in the mirror and see Gordon Gekko either. Most millionaires share the values of their moderate-income parents, says Lewis Schiff, a private wealth consultant and Prince's coauthor: "Spending time with family really matters to them." Just 12 percent say that what they want most to be remembered for is their legacy in business, according to the AmEx/Harrison study.

Millionaires are also seemingly undaunted by failure. Crane, for example, now runs a successful company that screens tenants for landlords. But his first business venture, a real estate partnership, went bankrupt, costing him $20,000 — more than his house was worth at the time. "It was the most depressing time in my life, but it was the best lesson I ever learned," he says.

6. "Taxes are for little people."

Most millionaires do pay taxes. In fact, the top 1 percent of earners paid nearly 40 percent of federal income taxes in 2005 — a whopping $368 billion — according to the Internal Revenue Service. That said, the wealthy tend to derive a higher portion of their income from dividends and capital gains, which are taxed at lower rates than wages (15 percent for long-term capital gains versus 25 percent for middle-class wages). Also, high-income earners pay Social Security tax only on their first $97,500 of income.

But the big savings come from owning a business and deducting everything related to it. Landlords can also depreciate their commercial properties and expenses like mortgage interest. And that's without doing any creative accounting. Then there are the tax shelters, trusts and other mechanisms the superrich use to shield their wealth. An estimated 2 million Americans have unreported accounts offshore, and income from foreign tax shelters costs the U.S. $20 billion to $40 billion a year, according to the IRS. Indeed, "an increasing number of people want to establish an offshore fund," says Vernon Jacobs, a certified public accountant in Kansas who specializes in legal foreign accounts.

7. "I was a B student."

Mom was right when she said good grades were the key to success — just not necessarily a big bank account. According to the book "The Millionaire Mind," the median college grade point average for millionaires is 2.9, and the average SAT score is 1190 — hardly Harvard material. In fact, 59 percent of millionaires attended a state college or university, according to AmEx/Harrison.

When asked to list the keys to their success, millionaires rank hard work first, followed by education, determination and "treating others with respect." They also say that what they absorbed in class was less important than learning how to study and stay disciplined, says Jim Taylor, vice chairman of the Harrison Group. Granted, 48 percent of millionaires hold an advanced degree, and elite colleges do open doors to careers on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley (not to mention social connections that grease the wheels). But for every Ph.D. millionaire, there are many more who squeaked through school. Kiyosaki, for one, says the only way he survived college calculus was by "sitting near" the smart kids in class — "we cheated like crazy," he says.

You can read the rest of the article here.

20 Small Business Tips for Success

2008-08-25T19:08:00.000-07:00

Image by michaeldurant01
These are just some general tips to keep in mind as you design/operate your small business:

1. Take the time out to explore and understand whether or not you are compatible with running our own business. Some people are just plain happier and better off financially on the other end of the paycheck.

2.Get your personal finances in order. Before you jump into the entrepreneurship world, get your own money matters squared away.

3. Pick your niche. Many small business owners succeed in businesses that are hardly unique or innovative. Take stock of your skills, interests, and employment history to select the business that is best suited for you.

4. Benefit from your business plan. The exercise of creating a business plan is what pays the dividends. Answer the tough questions now before the meter starts running.

5. Do not think you need bankers and investors at the outset of your business. The vast majority of small businesses are bootstrapped.

6. Acquire the proper background. In the early months and years of your business, you will have to acquire many skills. Gain the background you need to oversee all facets of your business well, but determine what tasks you should outsource or hire employees.

7. Remember that nothing happens until a sale is made – How many good products go nowhere because they do not reach the shelves? Sales drive your business. You will need a good marketing plan to sell your product or service.

8. You have to see a customer to know one. N o matter how busy you are, spend at least 25% of your time with customers. You cannot make the proper business decision without understanding their viewpoint.

9. Solve your customers’ problems. The best way to satisfy your customers is not by selling them products but by giving solutions to their problems. There is a big difference.

10.Quality takes minutes to lose but years to regain. Quality is not a destination, it is a never ending journey. After you have strayed from quality’s path, your journey maybe sidetracked forever.

11. Put profitability first, rewards seconds. In small businesses, profitability must come first. Find out how to measure your cash flow and understand key financial ratios.

12. Hire supporters. If you intend to create a growing business, your number one duty is to assemble a great team of employees.

13. Do not do it alone. Find such help from small business peers, a mentor, even trade associations. They can help take some of the trial and error of beginning your business.
14. Vendors are partners too! Treat your vendors like customers and watch your partnership grow.

15. Make use of benefits. Understand how to provide insurance and other benefits for your employees and cut your tax bill at the same time.

16. Ignore regulatory issues at your peril. Federal, state, and local governments require licenses, registrations, and permits. Obey them or face losing your business.

17. Know the tax laws. Invest in understanding tax issues that affect your small business.

18. It’s the people! Whatever happens to a small business happens at the hands of the people who work for it. The evolution of the business is a result of their efforts.

19. Fast, good, cheap. Pick any two. Serious trouble awaits those who attempt to be all three in the market place. Stick with what you do best.

20. Develop a passion for learning. As your business grows, you need to change and grow along with it. One common denominator can be found in all successful business owners and that is a passion for learning.

Linux popularity across the globe & Nepal

2008-08-23T05:22:00.000-07:00

Recently, I came across this article about the growing Linux popularity around the globe and I was a bit surprised to see Nepal's name also being included in that list. According to their study, there are a significant number of Red Hat and Fedora users in Nepal. This may have also due to growing number of training centers for Red Hat and Fedora, and also for their global certification which is valid all over the world as well.

This is something to be proud of. Since Linux is one of the stable operating systems that you get in the market. It is even better than the market giant Microsoft. But due less training centers and popularity than Microsoft, it has less popularity in the general public.

You can read the whole article in here.

Business Development: The Expanding Role of the Project Manager

2008-08-23T01:12:00.000-07:00

This is one of the best project management blogs I've found over the internet. It overs a wide range of subjects regarding project management. You can read the blog here or visit this site for more information.

Over the years, the term project manager has been defined in many ways that does not give a single description of the roles and responsibilities. Organizations have, without consideration for a standard definition, labeled individuals with the title of project manager whether they were responsible for a schedule, schedule and cost, or schedule, cost and product, or service performance.

Rightfully so, organizations tailored the roles and responsibilities to meet their business needs. This does, however, cause some confusion as to what are the full roles and responsibilities of a project manager. The USA National Competence Baseline (NCB) lists 49 elements (Editor’s note: there will be 49 with the addition of Business Development) of competence that are suggested areas of competence that a project manager should possess to fully meet the qualifications for managing a large, complex project. A person managing smaller and less complex projects would perhaps need less competence
in some of the areas, but more detailed depth in some of the technical competences. Organizations may selectively use the 49 competence elements to tailor the required qualifications of their project managers.

Competence Growth for Project Managers
The evolution of modern project management as a discipline, and the various roles for project managers have expanded. Where formerly the focus was relatively technical aspects for guiding projects through their life cycle to a realization, increasingly the context in which projects are implemented and the behavioral aspects of the project staff are also important for success. The three categories of project management elements, Technical, Contextual, and Behavioral, continue to evolve through better definitions and added competence elements.

2008-08-23T01:09:00.000-07:00

Joshua Blankenship writes in his blog “why design” is the single most important part of our businesses. By the way, “Design” is broad and if you think it is skin deep, and pretty looks, please please read this in depth. here is how he defines it.

But most of the web developing companies does not focus on design and have very less or limited people looking after the design part. Which is not very good. This may lead to loosing the client.

I tend to define design as “the intentional ordering of components” or “logically solving problems.

So you see, design is a whole lot than what most people (and most clients) seem to think.

Here is the article in depth.

kevin boss writes: 5 Mistakes That Made Me A Better Freelancer

2008-08-23T01:07:00.000-07:00

Kevin boss writes this and it is an insightful experience which our small firm itself has gone through and learnt in the process.

5 Mistakes That Made Me A Better Freelancer - June 9th, 2008

Doing Business, The Internet, Web Design

A few years ago I started offering web design services to those in need of a web site. Ever since, It’s been a constant learning experience. When I advanced from website coding to directly interacting with clients, I was taking a pretty big step. It was hard enough trying to understand this crazy markup language, and now I had to learn how to interact with clients? Sheesh. Thanks to trial and error, I’ve come to understand a few things about establishing and maintaining the best possible relationship with my clients.

My clients shared the same technical background: they had no idea how the Internet works, how websites work and what exactly it is I did. As far as they were concerned I waved my magical wand and poof, a site is born. Wouldn’t that be nice? Unfortunately that isn’t how it’s done (well for me at least). Because of my inexperience, I set myself up for a few nasty headaches. But I also learned a lot of valuable lessons.

The Never-Ending Design
“Hi Kevin, you know i see where that link is and well, can you make it blue instead of black?” Sounds innocent enough right? When you have a backseat designer who is continually revising the design, it can be a little frustrating. Especially when they liked your markups, then had a change of heart after you already coded everything. Getting calls a dozen times a day is also pretty tiring. You’d think your client would have the common sense to not call this often. Think again. When you don’t set guidelines and establish a clear work-flow, you’re just asking for trouble. Have your client sign off on the final mockup before moving to the next step. Define how you want to go back and forth regarding revisions.

The Midnight Caller
“How’s development going on the site? What? Of course I’m awake why wouldn’t I be? You were sleeping?” We don’t all keep the same schedule, and this is especially true if you’re dealing with someone that lives in another part of the world. Then again even when my clients lived 10 minutes away I was still getting calls at the strangest hours. Your client is paying you to get something done, and if you don’t state otherwise, expect them to need to talk to you at the most inconvenient times. If you give out your contact info, make sure you explicitly state how to contact you, and what time(s) are acceptable.

The Chatty Sally
“Hi Kevin, how are you doing? How’s the weather? Are you wearing shorts? I called to ask a quick question about the site and I’ll keep you on the phone for a while talking about general stuff not relating to the project at all” Having a good relationship with your client is important, but remember to keep it professional. Your working on their website, not becoming their new best friend. Socializing with a client isn’t bad, but it can become an issue if you don’t set clear ground rules. When you’re socializing, you’re either not working or at the least, distracted. If you have a time-sensitive project this can become a major issue. Make sure you clearly establish the purpose of your communications, and keep them on track. I’m not suggesting that clients and developers should avoid a social and professional relationship. I’m saying if you don’t set some ground rules it can get out of hand.

The Project that Doesn’t End
“The site looks great, but can you add an image gallery to it? I forgot that I wanted that before” Clients are notorious for wanting more work done than originally anticipated. I can’t remember a single project where the client didn’t want something new added as the project came to a conclusion. It’s natural - if something rattles around in your brain it’ll eventually spit out some new ideas. Since I agreed to make the client a website, I guess I agreed to add whatever they wanted right? Wrong. I failed to outline a specific scope, and as a result got stuck in a loop of additional work. Clearly define the scope of the project and what requirements need to be satisfied to complete the project. If they want to add more work after the fact, simply tell them that it’s not in the contract. Offer them the option of revising the project with added labor and a later completion date.

Hosting Woes
“Help the site is down!!! You suck at hosting!!!” I used to host my clients and charge them a few bucks for it. I figured hey why drive business elsewhere when I can offer a complete solution? Well that worked out well until my host started flaking. The site would be down once every week or so, and the people who I hosted weren’t too happy with it. I couldn’t blame them. I was angry at my host too. I’d constantly get calls about the site being down, call my host, and either get a machine or no answer at all. Now the obvious problem here is that my host sucked, but for a few dollars a month I was also being held responsible for something not in my control. I decided the profit wasn’t worth my reputation. I did explain that the hosting problems were beyond my control, but that didn’t make their site magically work. If you host your clients make sure you’re ready to accept the responsibility when something goes wrong. I do think hosts, for the most part, are more reliable now than 3 years ago. They are also cheaper now too. I refer my clients to the web host I use. I think it’s mutually beneficial that my clients deal with their host directly.

I never completed a project for a client without doing everything I could to completely satisfy them, but I sure did have some tough situations. Most of my work comes from word of mouth, so I place a lot of value on each individual client I have. These aren’t all my adverse situations, but they are my most memorable. Do you have any of your own? I’d love to read about them.

Oh, and not every single client can be satisfied - some people are just unhappy. There are other ways of dealing with them.

Big brother Blogs and their hosts

2008-08-22T22:07:00.000-07:00

You've got any plans for your blog. But before you sign up for any hosts it would be insightful, savvy posts, there are practical considerations - like where to host it.

Who is Hosting This has put together a great little study into the blog hosts of the top 100 bloggers.

Check out what the top big brother's of blog host their site on. Sites like boing boing, lifehacker, readwriteweb, mashable, problogger, smashingmagazine, seth's blog and others.

On top of the list is Media Temple, Datagram, BlogSpot and Six Apart.

Yes you heard it, 8 of the top 100 blogs use Blogspot, (like me too, maybe some day you will find in the top blog spots) and 4 use Six Apart to host their blogs. It goes to show that while most would advise you set up your blog on your own hosting and with a platform like WordPress (which rocks the world) that you can actually grow a successful blog on a hosted platform like Blogspot.

Of course do keep in mind that many of the blogs in the top 100 are in networks so they just go with who everyone else is with in their network and some of the services that the bigger blogs use are probably out of the range of what most bloggers can afford.