Jules Verne wrote about a story in which men travel millions of miles to the center of the Earth. The professor and his nephew start their journey from a Volcano in Iceland and travel across to the Earth to Italy. They overcome several hurdles such as prehistoric animals, natural hazards etc. From Scientific standpoint the story doesn't hold good. Now we know that if anyone ventured to the centre of the world, they would get burnt like toast, not a very nice way to die. But here is another Nonsensical Brilliance post which shows us where we will surface if we started at a point and went straight down into the depths of the earth. STRAIGHT is the key word here.

I tried to start at Southern Italy and tried to follow Jules' path, but landed up in the middle of Pacific ocean. I must've lost my way. Try the map, see where it leads you.....

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How old do you think the web is? 50 years? 30 years? 20? No its Sweet Sixteen. Happy belated Birthday W3.

In November 1945 when Tim Berners Lee started a project based on hypertext while he was a contractor at CERN. The aim of this project was to communicate within the CERN between various scientists.

In 1989, he proposed a global hypertext project, to be known as the World Wide Web. Based on the earlier "Enquire" work, it was designed to allow people to work together by combining their knowledge in a web of hypertext documents. He wrote the first World Wide Web server, "httpd", and the first client, "WorldWideWeb" a what-you-see-is-what-you-get hypertext browser/editor which ran in the NeXTStep environment.

To read more try the following links:
History of the Web
Tim Berners Lee
Times 100

And here is the cake................ Lets celebrate the reason why you and I are online today.

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I've got the whole world on my Blog
I've got the whole world on my Blog

This tool will help you see how many people visited your site and from where. Clustrmaps.com gives you a variety of options. The map below is an example of how the map looks. You will see clusters in various regions around the world from where your site has been visited.

This is free. It is a great tool if you'd like to know where your visitors come from. For those who like to play around with colours and like the customization, its not that great.

I personally think this is a great tool for your blog, simply because it allows you to see where most of your traffic is coming from. This will also help you to upload useful information.






Moo Score MOO/MOOOOO (2/5)

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I work for a company that brings technology and the world of advertising to a new level. And here is an ad from NVidia, this hardware giant that brings technology to a new level. I learnt something new from a friends blog today :

3DMark is a benchmarking software that gives the overall performance of your system and is an industry standard to tool to determine system performance. I don't know exactly what that means, but my feminine brain says its a benchmark for Video cards.

This is specially for the Men. Please control the drooling. The ad below is for the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 and nForce 600.




Here is a quote from Dell computers as in Futuremark.com that explains more what 3DMark is and how it helps Hardware manufacturers.

"Dell uses many tools to evaluate system and graphics subsystem performance. We believe 3DMark is a solid synthetic graphics benchmark that covers a wide range of usage models and complements application-specific testing. Synthetic benchmarks like 3DMark help to differentiate graphics subsystem performance characteristics of both high end and lower end cards by utilizing sets of tests with varying degrees of graphics complexity. Entry level cards will be able to run at least one simple test to be used in comparisons for those interested in basic 3D functionality. Additionally, those interested in leading edge technology with be able to make graphics hardware comparisons with a range of tests using the new APIs, shaders, rendering techniques, etc. Dell believes 3DMark is a versatile tool that allows a fair comparison of today's wide range of 3D graphics solutions."

- Dell

What does this mean? Well it will increase the graphic quality of games, making it more life-like. Yippeeee!! For a recently converted Games Junky this is nothing but a boon.

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I came across this interesting forward today. I never paid close attention to what these logos are trying to tell the customers. Here we have the logos revealing the true meaning. Some of them are just Brilliant.

Thanks Vish for this forward. It's an eye opener.

I am not sure how many of you have noticed a hidden symbol in the Federal Express logo:

Yeah, I am talking about the 'arrow' that you can see between the E and the x in this logo. The arrow was introduced to underscore speed and precision, which are part of the positioning of the company.

The SUN Microsystems logo is a wonderful example of symmetry and order. It was a brilliant observation that the letters u and n while arranged adjacent to each other look a lot like the letter S in a perpendicular direction. Spectacular.

The above logo is for an editing studio. I like the way the logo attempts to convey what they do.

The above are two magazines from the Readers Digest stable. Again, the attempt to communicate what it is about quite figuratively through the logo catches my attention.

I liked this logo of a hair stylist for the cheeky humour it brings to the (dressing) table.

This was a logo created for a puzzle game called Cluenatic. This game involves unravelling four clues. The logo has the letters C, L, U and E arranged as a maze. and from a distance, the logo looks like a key.

This logo is too good. For the name Eight, they have used a font in which each letter is a minor adaptation of the number 8.

Eighty-20 is a small consulting company which does sophisticated financial modeling, as well as some solid database work. All their work is highly quantitative and relies on some serious computational power, and the logo is meant to convey it.

People first guess that 20% of the squares are darkened, but that turns out to be false after counting them. The trick is to view the dark squares as 1's and the light squares as 0's. Then the top line reads 1010000 and the bottom line reads 0010100, which represent 80 and 20 in binary.

Kinda like the surreal green screen of The Matrix, they want us to read stuff in binary

This was a logo designed in-house for some internal event at IBM. I like that they are quite relaxed about the logo, unlike certain other companies who do not like the logo to be tampered with in any way even for internal promotions.

You might think the arrow does nothing here. But it says that Amazon has everything from a to z and it also represents the smile brought to the customer's face. Wow, that is quite deep.

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Phoebe Buffay is my ray of hope on a dull day. I love her songs. Her "blonde - ness", her innocence and her bravery bring a smile to my face. All in all she is just loaded with Entertainment. Here are a few of her songs.

You must be wondering why I am adding this to my site today? Remember the poem about Jack??

No - Well let me remind you-

All work and no play;
Makes Jack a dull boy.

This blog needs a little quirkiness once in a while. Prepare thyself for it.

____________________________________________________________________

Love

"Love is sweet as summer showers,
Love is a wondrous work of art,
But your love, your love, your love,
Is like a giant pigeon
Crapping on my heart.
La la la la la la...."

____________________________________________________________________


The Snowman Song

"I made a man with eyes of coal
And a smile so bewitchin'
How was I supposed to know
That my mom was dead in the kitchen?"

____________________________________________________________________

The Blackout Song

"New York City has no power,
And the milk is getting sour,
But to me it is not scary,
'Cause I stay away from dairy."

____________________________________________________________________

The Coma Guy Song

"You don't have to be awake to be my man,
As long as you have brainwaves
I'll be there to hold your hand.
Though we just met the other day
There's something I have got to say..."

____________________________________________________________________

The Baby Song

"They're tiny and chubby and so sweet to touch,
But soon they'll grow up and resent you so much.
Now they're yelling at you and you don't know why,
You cry and you cry and you cry."

____________________________________________________________________

They Found...

"They found their bodies the very next day
And they found their bodies the very next...."

"La la la la la la la la la la..."

____________________________________________________________________


Smelly Cat

(Phoebe & Stephanie)

"Smelly cat, smel-ly cat,
What are they feeding you?
Smelly cat, smel-ly cat,
It's not your fault..."

"They won't take you to the vet,
You're obviously not their favorite pet.
You may not be a bed of roses,
And you're no friend to those with noses..."

"Smelly cat, smel-ly cat,
What are they feeding you?
Smelly cat, smel-ly cat,
It's not your fault!"

____________________________________________________________________


The Shower Song

"I'm in the shower and I'm writing a song,
Stop me if you've heard it.
My skin is soapy and my hair is wet
And Tegrin spelled backward is Nergit."

"Lather, rinse, repeat,
And lather, rinse, repeat,
And lather, rinse, repeat,
As needed."

____________________________________________________________________

The Protest Song

"Terry's a Jerk!
And he won't let me work!
And I hate Central Perk!
[...]
And you're all invited to bite me!"

____________________________________________________________________

The Two of Them Kissed Last Night

"There was a girl we'll call her Betty
And a guy let's call him Neil
Now, I can't stress this point too strongly:
This story isn't real"

"Now our Neil must decide,
Who will be the girl that he casts aside
Will Betty be the one who he loves truly
Or will it be the one who we'll call...Lulie"

"He MUST decide, he MUST decide,
Even though I made him up he MUST decide..."

____________________________________________________________________

The Grandma Song

"Now Grandma's a person who everyone likes
She bought you a train and a bright shiny bike,
But lately she hasn't been coming to dinner
And last time you saw her she looked so much thinner"

"Now your mom and your dad said she moved to Peru
But the truth is she died and someday you will too
La-la-la-la la la-la-la-la-la...."

____________________________________________________________________


Another Thing You Don't Wanna Do

Sometimes when you get older
You will want to sleep with people
Just to make them like you
But don't
Cause that's another thing that you don't wanna do
Everybody
That's another thing that you don't wanna do

____________________________________________________________________

Barnyard Animals

"Oh the cow in the meadow goes 'Moo!'
Oh, the cow in the meadow goes 'Moo!'
Then the farmer hits him on the head and grinds him up
And that's how we get hamburgers!"

"Nooooooooooowwww Chickens!"

____________________________________________________________________

Sometimes Men Love...

"Sometimes men love women
And sometimes men love men
And then there are bisexuals
Though some just say they're kidding themselves"

"La la la la la la..."

____________________________________________________________________

The Crusty Old Man

"...And a crusty old man said 'I'll do what I can'
And the rest of the rats played maracas!"

____________________________________________________________________


First time I met Chandler
I thought he was gay,
But here I am singing
on his wedding day.

____________________________________________________________________

Jingle Bitch screwed me over!
Go to hell Jingle Whore!
Go to hell, go to hell,
go to hell hell helllll

____________________________________________________________________


The Classics.

Holiday Song

Went to the store, sat on Santa's lap
Asked him to bring my friends all kinds of crap
Said all you need is to write them a song
Now you haven't heard it yet so don't try to sing along
No don't sing along
Monica, Monica, have a happy Hanukkah
Saw Santa Claus, he said hello to Ross
And please tell Joey, Christmas will be snowwwwwy
And Rachel and Chandler, (mumbles something) handler!

____________________________________________________________________

Sticky Shoes

My favourite shoes so good to me
I wear them everyday
Down at the heel, holes in the toe
Don't care what people say

My feet's best friend, pals to the end
With them I'm one hot chicky
Though late one night
Not much light
I stepped in something icky

(Chorus)
Sticky shoes, sticky shoes
always makes me smile
Sticky shoes, sticky shoes
Next time I'll avoid the pile

____________________________________________________________________

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Imagine, free, unlimited Music that you can add to your playlist. The Music Genome Project does just that. All you need is an email and a good taste and knowledge in Music. You can start your own radio station.

The name Pandora means "all gifted" in Greek. In ancient Greek mythology, Pandora received many gifts from the Gods, including the gift of music, from Apollo. She was also, as we all know, very curious.

Aptly their mission is "our mission to reward the musically curious among us with a never-ending experience of music discovery." They were previously called formerly "Savage Beast Technologies". Good Call on the name I would say.

I feel that its one of the most comprehensive analysis of music online. You just drop the name of one of your favorite songs or artists into Pandora and let the Genome Project will search its database for relevant songs or similar songs based on the analysis.

So how does Pandora work? They say, "Together our team of fifty musician-analysts have been listening to music, one song at a time, studying and collecting literally hundreds of musical details on every song. It takes 20-30 minutes per song to capture all of the little details that give each recording its magical sound - melody, harmony, instrumentation, rhythm, vocals, lyrics ... and more - close to 400 attributes! We continue this work every day to keep up with the incredible flow of great new music coming from studios, stadiums and garages around the country."

Another new feature is called the Backstage, here you can search Pandora's vast collection for songs, artists etc and hear samples of the work.

On the downside, some time the site is down or can be extremely slow. There is no replay, so if you miss it you just have to wait for it to come back. But trust me its worth the wait to listen to continous streaming of your favorite music. Vote for or against the song and that will never be played in that play list.

This is my work companion, its switched on all the time, I love it. You should definitely try it.

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The 5 word title will be trivial to you if you have not played Counter Strike. Counter Strike is a PC Game (for those who are still seing stars). Counter-Strike is a team-based tactical shooter that pits terrorists versus counterterrorists in round-based match.




WARNING! - This game is addictive. I have friends who used to go to gaming centres and spend hours playing on computers, and I used to tell myself what a bunch of HooHaa's. Spending precious time and Money to play a stupid kids computer game.

After feeling left out for a long time, I decided it would be great to go and mock them while they play. When I reached the dingy, badly illuminated game parlour I was even more turned off. Eventhough it wasn't clearly mentioned but I could understand that I was about to enter "Testosterone Central". The smell of the place was overwhelming. I could imagine, these men belching and farting over their victory on the network. Yikes!

I ignored all the disgusting ideas that ran through my very imaginitive mind and decided to get a machine gun and vent out my "feminine" frustration. And Lo! I was there, in between a room full of men killing enemies, planting bombs and celebrating the teams victory. Who says women can't kick ass?

For my feminine counterparts - Please use this method to release frustration. Better than a spa or foot rub anyday. Take the love of your life (who you just faught with) and blow his brains out! Trust me nothing can be more satisfying.

Review

There are two game types - bombing and hostage rescue. Bombing maps require the terrorist team to plant and detonate a time bomb in one of two bombing areas while the counterterrorists guard these sites. Hostage rescue involves having the terrorists guard computer-controlled civilians while the counterterrorists try to rescue them. In practice, both game types often result in one team or the other being eliminated in bloody, fast shoot-outs.

Players earn money based on their performances in the previous rounds, and with this money, they can buy weapons at the beginning of following rounds (and those who survive the last round keep their guns - Woohooo!!)

The challenges vary with the difficulty level, as does the rate at which the terrorist team ramps up in skill and number.

Please find a place(gaming parlour) or play it online at Game Planet.


GO! GO! GO!

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This easy to install online clock can be added to your side bar to tell you and your visitors the time. This clock has an HTML script that can be easily installed in your blog. You can modify the size of the clock by changing the height and the width numbers. You can add this to your site from clicking on

Here is the script you can use to add an Online clock to your blog.

New Delhi

The advantage of this software is that it can be customized as per your blog. The give you an option to enter the Hex value so that it blends in with your site. You can also have a world clock on your site with variation in time. One clock can show India time while the other site can show the US. Each clock is labeled with its respective city name.

Although a useful tool, due to its default size it looks quite ugly especially if its not placed correctly on the site. The key locations on the blog where you can place this tool is in your sidebar or at the bottom left corner of the site. Don't put this right on the top of your content, it can look quite tacky. Please don't use extremely bright colours. It can get quite annoying watching a Pink or Orange or Yellow clock ticking away while you are trying to browse through the content.

You can try the following links to get clocks you desire.

www.clocklink.com - I love the one with the mad cow.

www.ricocheting.com/js/digiclock.html - For those who like Digital clocks.
www.worldtimeserver.com/clocks/wtsclock001.aspx - This is where I got my clock.

Worldtimeserver.com also offers weather forecasts. Know how hot your blog is by adding the weather forecast. I am not a big fan of this as a method of making your blog more snazzy, but I have seen that this is a popular tool.

Moo Score : M.O out of MOOOOO (0.5/5)

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Google has benchmarked the Search Engine industry. It has crowned itself as the King of Search without any competition. Indexing billions of sites and providing excellent user experience with a clean format which we have all come to love. It is now synonymous with the word search - Oxford dictionary has gone a step ahead and converted this Multi-Billion Dollar company into a verb. "Hey I googled your question on the web".

But is there Search beyond Google - of course there is. Here are five alternatives to the Search Sultan. I am not talking about already established brands such as Yahoo! and MSN but other search engine yet to make a mark in the web world.

1. www.vivismo.com - "Search done right" is their motto. They cluster the results into various sub topic making it easier for the user to search. Also a brilliant feature about this search engine is that it allows you to preview the site before you click in. Incase the site is not what you are looking for you can continue searching in vivismo. It also allows you to frame the website inside the page, thus making users stick to the site longer.



















2. www.grokker.com - This again works on cluster formation. It diagramatically represents the groups with the largest results. This is quite interesting.



















3. www.dogpile.com - I just think the dog wagging his tail while the page refreshes is unbelievably cute. Instead of "Go" or "Search" they have a "Go Fetch" another clever feature. Watch out for sponsored links incorporated in the Search results.

















4. www.Rollyo.com - This is interesting for bloggers, it gives first the blog results followed by the news results and then the custom search. The search page also allows you a large number of options from where you can search.



















5. www.topix.net - It allows you to search between a specific time. So if you were looking for something on a particular date you could narrow it down using keywords and time line.



















You have seen below in an earlier post what a user desires from a Search engine, why Google does well in this industry. One of the key reasons it does well is user base. Healthy competition never killed anyone. So try these sites out and let me know what you think.

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I love my country, this post is not to hurt any sentiments, its to bring out the fact that our talent is not visible online. This is a disclaimer.

India has one of the largest online users, web designers, Internet savvy users. Its a little disappointing to see how the Indian Government sites appear. With such large avenue of talent we have some of the most "ugly" non user friendly sites.

Here is a list:
1) http://goidirectory.nic.in/ The main directory of other Indian government website. Pay attention to the yellow exclamation next to the disclaimer. I am sure its important but really. The grass green disclaimer says something - Is it saying disclaimer - YES but what the hell.

2) http://india.gov.in/ The national portal of India. The Weather and the Hindi option is really cool. The content is well organized. However, the layout says something else. Everything looks really cluttered and the colours add to the confusion.

3) http://lawmin.nic.in/Just.htm Ministry of Law and justice. I like the clean layout of the home page, but once you click in its colour chaos. Its not much of a surprise considering the current state of law and justice in the country - everything is right there beneath the surface, you just have to search for it.

4) http://yas.nic.in/ Ministry of youth affairs and sports. This is one of the better websites in organization and colors. Hats off NIC. Well done!

5) http://presidentofindia.nic.in/ The better among the rest. I wouldn't be surprised if Abdul actually coded the site with a classical feel and gave credits to NIC. The interesting thing about the site is the link to write directly to the president of india. http://presidentofindia.nic.in/scripts/writetopresident.jsp .

6) http://mod.nic.in/ The website of the defence department! After visiting this website and seeing its quality I am really worried about my security of being in this country. Its been a long time since I saw such a cheap website. Notice the spinning yellow on blue "New"on the far right side corner of the website. Also they have tiny tiny lettering, I think this is a preventive measure, strategic action, blind the enemies.




















All in all, the sites are quite informational, but common, from the country which is one of the top most in animation and graphic designing, we should have something better to represent our country on the web. I guess the graphic designers and web developers have flown over the seven seas to the US. Check out the US government Official website. http://www.firstgov.gov/ No wonder.

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There are several sites that talk about the BIG FIGHT Microsoft vs Google. Here is a compilation from the various different sites and a few of my own views. I am going to talk about the search engines today, I'll take up the companies some other time. Both the Google and Msn engines have their good and bad points, but the major plus for Google is that they already have a huge user base searching regularly on their engine and the majority of those searchers are happy with the results.

Google's Positives

* Powers a huge amount of searches
* Average Joe who is searching for something on the web is happy with results
* Incredibly fast searches
* Good organic to paid result ratio is great (Organic results are at most times relevant).
* Clean layout
* 'Do No Evil' motto which is strictly followed.
* Their own PPC (pay per click advertising) program
* Additional services pioneering free service for all on the web via Gmail, Google News, Google maps, Google sketch up etc.
* Breaking new grounds in technology and ideas to search and the Internet as a whole


Msn's Positives

* So much money to spend advertising it's scary and they will spend it
* Got users by the OS, can implement the search engine to the desktop via Longhorn
* Faster indexing compared to Google
* Already has a large'ish user base from Msn.com but not many search
* Quite a sleek design on search page (search.msn.com)
* Promises to bring a new era in search with new technology coming soon

Google's Negatives

* Time taken for Google to rank a new site increased exponentially (sandbox)
* Affiliate sites taking over the rankings for even highly competitive terms
* Directories flooding the results are getting a HUGE problem
* The word beta, I estimate 70% of Google has beta plastered over it (some even had it for years)

Msn's Negatives

* They have one of the worst reputations on the net
* Manipulating the rankings to your gain can be easily achieved by doing a little research
* Search.msn.com is not as catchy as Google.com
* Bad organic to paid result ratio
* PPC results above organic results
* Nothing really new compared to other engines

As you can probably see I currently prefer Google to the Msn search engine. I see a huge battle on our hands but I got one bit of advice for MSN.... Don't advertise your engine until it's 100% ready, if visitors don't like your results the first time they go there most of them wont come again even if you have improved your algorithm.

Competition is always good it keeps the developers on their toes to improve what they already have. In this case however, the competition is not about building just the best search engine but an industry, which both the the mighty 30year old Microsoft and a young 8year old Google are thriving to achieve. Both of them are huge with regards to their Brand image. Some other time I will try to write about experience vs innovation and how they serve these two companies. Keep a look out for that post.

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Something unusual but interesting. I have spent sometime blowing bubbles, its the most relaxing thing one can do after a long hard day at work. Looking at the bubbles float away in the air and then with a "pop" disappear into nothingness.

I came across this amazing site about Professor Bubbles who does this for a living. Imagine doing something you love, something which engulfs you serve you as a profession.

Check out this site for more bubble blowing information http://www.bubbles.org/

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Two things I relish, the world of the web and Art. When art.com combined the two into an ingenious tool called Art Pad. art.com has this ingenious tool which allows you to unleash your inner artist. I can't imagine getting my hands dirty with paint and charcoal anymore. Digital art appeals to me; here is how they promote their product.

Let your imagination be your inspiration. The possibilities are infinite. If you’ve never painted before, now’s your chance. Plus, there’s no messy cleanup!

Another advantage to online art is Mistakes are no problem with a simple undo functionality perfection is just a click away!


Here is the way you can get started. Click on the following link.

http://www.art.com/asp/artpad/default-asp/_/search_String--art%20pad/_/posters.htm?ui=69D46314FEC44C4990DD314F735AEB28

Another interesting feature on this website is the online gallery, where you can hang your paintings once you finish. The gallery is filled with amazing pieces of work. However, I would like to warn you about the lovelorn individuals whose sole purpose is to draw, hearts and "I love you"s on the art site.

Here is my Master piece.

Here are some master pieces from other artists.

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Do you want to know who visits your blog on this planet? Do you want to know how long they spend on your blog? Which page is keeping people interested in your site? Which page is killing their desire to stay with you?

A one stop answer to all your question. Google analytics. The master Search Engine has brought out this brilliant tool to keep you informed about your website. It can be used by Senior Executives to Advertising professionals. They can identify and tackle low conversion rate, exit points and wrong targeting.

Its a boon to site developers ever convincing them to better their site by providing information, the tweaks are left to the developers obviously. You can moderate traffic on your website and also locate your best customers.

You might think this tool is complex and need some sort of formal training to navigate; but that is not true, its one of the most easy to use online tool which has easily navigable links. You can also generate reports which are visually enhanced.

Take a tour with Google Analytics and it will explain how to use the tool to best suite your needs. It also show you how to add the script to your website or blog. there are several case studies you can breeze through to understand how this tool has served the web.

I personally use it to check from where all my blog is being used. The geo targetting option is where I am at most times, hoping that the world of the web has heard of the "word from the web".

All in all an amazing tool to use to understand easily the complexities of the web!!

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Keep an eye open for these posts. These posts are here to discuss various tools you can add to your blog. Today I will review a tool called Photobucket.

It describes itself as:

Photobucket provides free video and photo sharing. Easily host and link your images and videos to social networks, auction sites, blogs, and message boards. Photobucket is reliable and very easy to use. Give it a try!

You can upload up to 20 pictures at once. Photos larger than 1 MB are automatically scaled down. Their BucketStamp is a dynamic imaging tool for you to share multiple images in a single link combined with some interesting animation, a form of photo gallery for your pictures. The uploader converts bmp and tif to jpg. You can view the most recently uploaded pictures.

Photobucket has partnered with FilmLoop to make it easy for users to instantly create their own photo "loops" from existing image albums by simply clicking on the "Loop It!" button/icon in their photoalbum. FilmLoop is a free photo broadcasting ("photocasting") network/application that lets you broadcast photo "loops" to all your friends and family, displaying the photos in a "loop" on your computer.

Photobucket is not restricted to Photographs, I have seen many video streaming online. A good tool to add to your blog if you like images. You can customize it as per your needs. There is also a cool mouse-over option to label your images/photographs.

Here is an example. Some of my favorite images and artwork.

Moo Score : MOOOO out of MOOOOO

Please visit www.photobucket.com to open your own account.

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There are now more than 100 million web sites on the Internet, which gained 3.5 million sites last month to continue the dynamic growth seen throughout 2006. In the November 2006 survey Netcraft received responses from 101,435,253 sites, up from 97.9 million sites last month.

The 100 million site milestone caps an extraordinary year in which the Internet has already added 27.4 million sites, easily topping the previous full-year growth record of 17 million from 2005. The Internet has doubled in size since May 2004, when the survey hit 50 million.

Blogs and small business web sites have driven the explosive growth this year, with huge increases at free blogging services at Google and Microsoft. Domain industry juggernauts Go Daddy (U.S.) and 1&1 Internet (Germany) have also seen strong demand for low-priced domain names and shared hosting accounts.

With this online surge online advertising such as Overture, Amazon, Adwords is going to see a mighty surge in business. It up up and away!

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Microsoft Corp. and Zend, a key supplier of tools used to design open-source software that competes with Microsoft Windows programs, said on Tuesday the two companies have struck a long-term partnership.

Zend deal, a multiyear partnership, will ensure PHP programs run on past and future versions of Microsoft Web server software. The pact covers both the established Windows Server 2003 and the upcoming version, code-named Longhorn.

Zend Technologies is an Israeli-American company formed to commercialize PHP, the most popular scripting language used by software programmers to build open source Web applications that pose a growing challenge to Microsoft's Windows franchise. PHP runs some of the world's most popular blogs and the Wikipedia.

Twelve-year-old PHP runs on more than 22 million Web sites and is used inside 15,000 companies.

Technical improvements by Zend and Microsoft to make it easier to run PHP on Windows computers will be available to PHP's active base of contributors for further enhancement, starting in the first quarter of 2007.

Rather than marking a sudden change of course, Microsoft is openly engaging in a dialogue with Zend, a key open source promoter, and millions of PHP developers, analysts said.

So what will this mean for Computer users? Well the contract marriage between Microsoft and Zend may lead to more and more online publishing. Allowing amatuer publishers to post online with possible tool inbuilt in word or excel or any of the windows application.

This will impact online tools such as blogger, livejournal, myspace etc in several different ways. What if Microsoft is working with Zend to allow Word, Excel, Powerpoint pages with PHP scripts allowing them to publish them online? With this I am sure we will see more and more web pages online.

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