Bill Monk is an online tool for those forgetful people. Billmonk allows you to easily keep track of your bills and books and any other thing you may owe someone or someone may owe you.

For example, you have an extensive library of Marvel Comic Books and you don't generally lend it out to people but a few friends who you trust. You can keep a track of who has your favorite comics and get it back.

The interface is easy to use. No frills, just sign up and you can invite friends. You have 2 main options Money and Library. You can use the money options to report a bill, shuffle debts and settle with Obopay.

I really like the Library section. For a collector, this is ideal. You can choose to show your library to everyone by making it public or choose friends can browse your collection. This also allows you to track the items you've lent out or borrowed. While you upload your library, it allows you to search by name using Amazon.com, or you can bulk add using ISBN or UPC.

I really like this tool, it really fills that everyday need we have. It reminds you to return things that you borrow and it minimizes awkwardness.

Here is a video about Billmonk and its co-founders. It's a very interesting talk by Newbie entrepreneurs and how they created this cool tool.



If you like this article you could also see one of our previous article about expense planning here.

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TopicBean had the pleasure of interviewing Mr. Amarjit Batra, Country Manager of OLX.in. Is OLX.in India’s answer to Craigslist? Read on to find out.

1. How did OLX come into being? What difficulties did you face in getting it going?

OLX was co-founded in March 2006 by Internet entrepreneurs Fabrice Grinda and Alec Oxenford. Fabrice previously founded Zingy, a mobile ringtones company that sold to For-Side for $80 million in May 2004. Alec previously founded DeRemate, a leading online auction website in Latin America. DeRemate sold to MercadoLibre.com, an eBay affiliate, in November 2005. OLX was formed with the purpose of creating the world’s largest free classifieds marketplace where users can buy, sell, trade or exchange products and services within their city across multiple categories.

The difficulties were typical of what’s in web startup – getting the right team in place, getting a bug free product off the ground; expand in the right markets etc. OLX, being an ambitious project of creating the largest classifieds site in the world also had to go through a lot of skepticism. Since then, we have expanded to 90 countries and 39 languages and are a leading classifieds site in about 7 to 8 markets.

2. How big is the company can you share some numbers with our audience?

OLX has over 70 million unique visitors per month and 500 million page views per month.
Almost 2 million new ads are posted monthly on OLX. OLX has raised $28.5 million in funding since March, 2006. OLX has offices spread over the globe with 125 employees working out of New York, Buenos Aires, Beijing, Moscow and India

3. How do you monetize OLX?

We are having text ads (currently provided by Google) as the only monetization option. These ads are displayed on our listings result pages and the individual classified ad pages. OLX core site will always be 100% free. However we have launched ‘Featured Listings’ in few countries that allows users to get prominent placement on the site.Our mobile site (http://m.OLX.in) is also completely free for users. The mobile site has a banner or text ad on top and bottom of each page and is monetized through ad networks.

4. What software and hardware drive the website?

OLX is on LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) running on Linux boxes

5. What content in OLX.in is specific to India compared to OLX.com?

OLX is a city based classifieds site. OLX.in is the India site and all the content on www.OLX.in pertains to India. Within OLX.in, there are individual city sites and a user can search within a city or nationwide. OLX.in is present in all key cities in India and includes the Tier I, Tier II and Tier III cities. We have localization of OLX.in in Hindi language and have a ‘matrimonial’ category that is unique to India. OLX.com is our site specific for USA and all the content on this site is localized for the US market.

6. What differentiates OLX from other similar products on the internet?

First of all, we are a free site. Yes 100% free! And we want to keep our core site free forever. Our major difference with vertical category sites are that we are present in many categories- Jobs, Real Estate, Vehicles, Matrimonial (only in India), For Sale, Services, Classes, and Community. Being a local site, we are today present in all major cities in India, whereas the rest of the sites are focusing on few cities only. The other key differentiating factor is a user friendly mobile version of the site http://m.OLX.in on which one can do everything that can be done on the web version. We are also present in other languages like Hindi ( http://www.OLX.in/hi/ ) that gives us a wider reach.

Being a Web2.0 product, users can Easily design rich colorful listings with pictures and videos and display their listings on their social networking profile (Facebook, Myspace, etc.). Unlike others, we are a global classifieds site network with a local presence in India. Being present in 89 countries and 39 languages gives us an international reach and we do continuous improvements on our product and features.

7. Free classified sites have a tough time with Spam ads and junk listings on the website and hence sometimes end up with unwanted content. What security measures does OLX have in place to prevent this?

We have certain tools and filters to check for Spams and Scams. Our multilingual dedicated customer support team manually screens listings and deletes those with suspect content. We also have automated tools to detect Spams and Scams. We blacklist keywords, IP addresses, countries etc. and our customer team is vigilant 24/7 to tackle such issues. Over all 60% to 70% of postings on OLX are deleted in the process to keep the site clean and free from spam. In addition, we urge our users to flag a prohibitive listing and this messaging is provided at key user touch points.

8. Classified sections in India are filled with real estate agents whom not everyone is interested in dealing with. How do you propose to segregate the content?

On OLX, you will find many individuals posting ads for products and services that they are offering. In real estate, you will find many home owners posting their properties for lease or sale. There are similar cases in ‘Vehicles’ as well as ‘For Sale’ category. So we provide both the choice of content from brokers as well as content from individuals.

9. How can a user effectively use this classified, do you have any tips to make the best use of OLX.com?

OLX classifieds can be effectively used for both buying and selling activity. As a buyer, I can decide if I am looking for a seller within my city or I am fine with an intercity transaction. I can then zero in on my search efforts - citywide or nationwide. If I am not able to find an item of my choice, I can create a ‘Wanted’ Ad and list the details of the item I am looking for. Or I can create an ‘ Alert’ for specific keywords. As a seller, I can merchandise my listings with multiple photographs or a video of the products being offered. I would definitely provide my mobile number in addition to the email contacts, as the OLX mobile application allows a One –Click-Call on the mobile listed in the Ad.

10. How do "you" like OLX.com and how do "you" use it? Have you purchased anything online from OLX.com? ( Can this be changed to OLX.in, the India site).

Like many OLX users, I like the clutter free experience on OLX and I find browsing on OLX a lot of fun. I particularly like OLX search functionality and the ability to post ads in English as well as Hindi. I had once posted an ad in Hindi for a piece of furniture I wanted to dispose and got some genuine responses within few days. I am also a regular user of the Mobile application http://m.OLX.in and often search for deals. The best part is that I can use the mobile classifieds even I am on the move. One can do everything on the mobile that can be done on the Web. I am on the lookout for car deals and have set some ‘Alerts’ for a particular car model, so that I do not have to go to the site daily. I get an update on my email if that model is listed by somebody.

11. What goes on in the background when someone tries to buy or sell something? Is there any rating system in place for buyers and sellers?

When a seller lists the item on the OLX site, they have the flexibility to let people contact through email only or through phone. The listings appear on the search results for that particular city and category. When a buyer enters the site, he can browse through the categories or city or use specific keywords to search through a search box on the site. A lot of buyers find the listings and the seller through search engines and directly come onto the individual classifieds page. The buyer can send an email to the seller through the site messaging system or contact on phone directly if the seller has listed his numbers on the listing.
Once the buyer and seller get in touch with each other, the negotiation and transaction usually completes offline.

A rating system would not work on a classifieds site as the transaction does not complete online. However, a buyer can comment on the listing of the seller about their experience.

12. What is the next big plan for OLX? What features are you looking to implement to improve the product?

We have now expanded to 90 countries and 39 languages and you will see OLX expanding further to some more countries and new languages. Besides this, we keep on making improvements on the site making it friendlier for our users. We often take feedback from our users on features that they would like to see on OLX. OLX already has many cobrand partners (like Friendster in Philippines and Hindustan Times in India) and this list of partners has been growing every year.

We have also launched “Featured Listings” whereby users can put their ads in an exceptional place for a specific period of time giving increased visibility. This has been launched in select countries including US and will be introducing this tool to other countries. We also launch new categories that have relevance to the local markets and what users ask for.

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All of us have rights. Our very existance is cause enough for us to have these rights and some of the things that go against these basic rights are violence and discrimination.

We have an online voice that will help us tackle both in India. Fight-back.net is an online petition to bring about a "Radical Change in Indian Rape Laws"

The site allows you to sign up a petition. The excerpt below gives you a few of the things the site stands for:

* The Definition of Rape. Merely because a woman does not put up a fight, it does not mean that the act was consensual.

* The Punishment. Ten years to do time is hardly punishment for rape, considering the heinous nature of the offence.

Life imprisonment at the minimum, and death penalty at the maximum should be the plausible punishments.

To read the rest of the petition click here.

You may wonder why we are putting this up on a mostly tech site? We are in an era where social activism is now online, and what you say and think reflects in the nature of your online activities.

There have been heinous crimes against women in the past in India and we really need the online community to be more sensitive about what is happening in the current social scenario. Just recently I came across the following video. Not only did it make my blood boil, it makes me unhappy that I live in a world where people think it is their right to do ill to others.

It's time we changed, and along with us our society. The pink chaddi campaign has slowly mellowed down and disappeared in the background, I hope this campaign continues and brings out some change to the world we live in.

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I love the movies. I remember the time when we had to stand in long queues to get tickets to watch them. Now, we have the net, yeah! Online booking changed my life, no queues no worries, just amazing movie watching experience.

Direct booking on cinema sites is pretty neat. I've never had issues with booking online for IMAX, INOX and Funcinemas. We now have a new player in the market for your ticketing solutions Kyazoonga.com. Their tag line "puts u before the q". I currently book my tickets on Bookmyshow.com

I'll be meeting my co-author over the weekend and we are definitely going for a movie together. So I put these two sites to the test.

Time to load

Kyazoonga : Took a lot of time to load, must be all the new traffic post their tv campaign.

Bookmyshow : Took no time to appear. About 8 seconds (Yes I timed it).

Design

Kyazoonga : New site, it took me some time to get used to it. I can't say its confusing but the layout could've been a lot better. The zig-zags and the arrows are a little passe. The bright yellow arrow in the background, the arrows pointing in all direction is quite jarring. Logo's of people running towards the arrow reminds me of a movie booking rat race, and online booking is no longer a rat race, so where are these guys running? The homepage is like a portal to go to the event of your choice. With the load time being an issue (atleast on my system) this step was uneccessary. They really should take you directly to the site versus having you go through an extra page.

Small things matter and the drop downs have a hotch potch of English, Hindi and other regional language movies. The good thing about this site is the social networking aspect which Bookmyshow doesn't have. I personally am not into social networking but I can see a large fan following where we are bringing together two very fun activities - social networking and movies.

Bookmyshow : Slightly more bias towards this design for the ease of use. You type the url in the browser and bam you are on the page where you can directly transact or view the result you've been looking for. The designer clearly knew what the majority of his traffic would do on his site. The design is non-intrusive yet fun. The drop down is well organized into movies by language.

Money

Kyazoonga : For watching Wolverine at the Cinemax here it will cost me Rs233.09, Rs.3.09 more than Bookmyshow. Seriously? OMG I can't believe that I will be paying more. Rs30.90 more for 10 tickets. So the conveyance charge here is greater. Why? Moreover you can't view the seats you'll be getting unless you want to change it. What was really funny was my default seats were the worst seats in the house. Front row seats - dude this isn't the play-offs.

Bookmyshow: For watching Wolverine at the movies for 2 cost me Rs.230.00, Rs30 being the conveyance charges and plus you get to book your seat.

Moo score.

Kyazoonga : Long way to go you guys MOO/MOOOOO

Bookmyshow: You've got a loyal follower MOOOO/MOOOOO

A video to end it all, Kyazoonga ad with ad moghul Prahlad Kakkar and the highest ranking woman in the Indian Police Service Kiran Bedi.

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So from what I heard, there are a total of 23 candidates in my city, out of which 5 of them have criminal records, 1 is illiterate, 1 is 5th pass, 4 are 8th pass, 5 are 10th pass, 4 Graduates, 2 post Graduates and 2 Graduate professional, other no info.

Some of them have assets above 9 crore, and some as little as 25K.



I am not certain about the site but is accredited by Association for Democratic Reforms. It also has the following disclaimer

Disclaimer: The primary source for the data used for these reports is the sworn affidavits provided by the candidates themselves. Sheer volume of data that has to be read from the affidavits that are often poorly scanned and the lightening speed at which these reports have to be brought out makes it quite difficult to ensure accuracy of every bit of data. In case of any discrepancy in our reports vis a vis the original affidavit of any candidate, the original affidavit should be considered accurate. If you notice any discrepancies between affidavit and our report kindly let us know and we will fix them on our end as soon as possible.

Here is a site that can answer your questions about your Neta.

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"Ask not what the country can do for you but what you can do for your country." - JFK. I'm 26 years old and I've never voted. My grandma on the other hand never missed going for an election and casting her vote. What changed over the generation?

I am going crazy looking at the lkadvani.in ad all over my site. I'm not a BJP supporter but got me thinking, in 2009 I should vote. I went to jaagore.com and registered myself to be a part of the 1 Billion who will change from . The information on this site is phenomenal. From how to get registered to information about whom to vote for. First time voters have a page just for themselves which answers some of the following questions :

* I am registering for the first time. Where do I begin?

* What documents do I need to register for the first time?

* I am a college student. What documents do I need to register?

* I am a college student studying outside my native city. Should I register from my place of study or from my native place?

* I've just turned 18. Can I register to vote?

However I'm still unable to find the comparative manifestos of the various parties on this site. I visited a few party sites below which have pretty decent information:

Bharatiya Janta Party

Indian National Congress

Professionals Party of India

Bahujan Samaj Party

Rashtriya Janata Dal

Its time for people to wake up and take the future in your hand. Yes we can make a difference. If you don't believe the power of one watch this.

I couldn't resist adding this to the article. I love the new Idea ad, power to the common man being the central theme. You must check out their site with interesting issues raised by the people and with votes and forums to discuss these issues. 

And here is my favorite Idea ad.

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I don't want to come across as an Obama fan or anything, but what the hell, this dude rocks. And so does facebook. What do you get when you get Obama on facebook? Change - online history in the making.

Facebook and CNN will jointly bring you live Obama's inaugaration. This might be one of the biggest events online. So far 507,123 have confirmed attendance, 75,619 are tentative. 

I'm one of the 507K people. I am fascinated by the fact that we are now making history online. I remember historic events like this finding me glued to the idiot box filled with the intermittent commercials. So this might be another change we should start getting used to. 

More and more people are going online, more and more people in India are finding a quicker way to communicate through email and chatting. More and more of us are booking our movie tickets online, we go through the latest news. I read about the Mumbai blasts online before I went to the TV. Its difficult to move away from my virtual presence. With being online turning from an addiction to a state of being, many of us are going to possibly miss out on the real world, wouldn't you say?

All said, if you want to be a part of the change, join : http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=56799103571

Here is something to get you into the mood for change. 

President-Elect Barack Obama on Election Night

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1. Emoticons upgrade - I liked the new emoticon options in gmail, they really pep up my email conversations with friends.

2. Custom keyboard shortcuts - makes my navigation in my mail box mouse free and fast.

3. I can go invisible in chat if I have work to do, abracadabra and I disappear and whoosh, appear again when I have some time to spare. Allows me to manage my time at work well.

4. Google calendar gadget reminds me of all the things that are upcoming and I need to keep organized to meet my day to day demands.

5. I can use the video chat that is embedded in gmail itself! Yay! www.gmail.com/videochat.



6. Google Docs widget, allows me to keep my travel plans, my restaurant number list, my personal diary at my fingertips.

7. Superstars allows me to tag my email the way I want to, e.g. Mums mail gets a blue star, pay-the-bill mails get an exclamation mark.

8. Remember the milk gmail widget lets me keep my to-do list up to date

Here's how you set it up -

• In Gmail, go to Settings then the Labs tab. Find "Add any gadget by URL" and make sure it's enabled, then press Save Changes.

• Still in Settings in Gmail, go to the Gadgets tab. Copy and paste the following URL(http://www.rememberthemilk.com/services/modules/gmail/rtm.xml) into the "Add a gadget by its URL" field. Press Add.

9. Mail Goggles helps me from sending the mean mails (Yes I do that and I hardly regret it). Its the mail version of breathing deeply and counting till 10 to reconsider what you're about to do.

10. It's non cluttered look is really really nice after the junk I get to see online all the time.

Thank you gmail don't know what I would've done without you.

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I miss sitting in the lab waiting for my lecturers to get samples so that we can learn new parts of the body or how an organ functions. I don't know when I'll go back to school again and learn more. But, what I can do is explore the wonders of the human anatomy for free online through Visible Body demo.

I spent about 2 hours on this cool tool and was awed by the amount I could learn by just exploring this tool. I think this is an awesome tool for teachers and students who want to learn more about the human anatomy. There is search option to isolate the organ, nerve, bone that you are looking for.

On the downside, it requires you sign up for the tool and it takes quite some time to load. You need to have a good connection to make the most of this tool. Once this is up and running its very easy to use. The site says "The first time you launch the application, your browser will automatically download our highly detailed anatomical models. This download can take several minutes to complete, depending on the speed of your internet connection. As long as these models remain in your browser cache, you won't need to download them again on future visits. " which I didn't agree with cause it took longer for me the second time around, but it was well worth the wait.

You can zoom in and zoom out, you can make parts of the body invisible. You learn the various parts of the body. It is very detailed so if you are interested in the nerve that connects eyeball to the brain you can isolate it and find out its name.

You can explore:
- Circulatory System
- Digestive System
- Endocrine System
- Integumentary System
- Lymphatic System
- Muscular System
- Nervous System
- Reproductive System
- Respiratory System
- Skeletal System
- Urinary System

I thoroughly enjoyed using this tool and would recommend this to anyone who is curious to learn more about themselves. Happy exploring.

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5 minutes Life Videopedia is a website where you can find short video solutions for practical questions and a place for people to share their knowledge. Categorized into Arts, Business, Extreme, Fashion, Fitness, Food, Games, Health, Home, Music, Parenting, People, Pets, Spiritual, Sports, Tech, Travel, Wheels, Life, Tips and Knowledge, 5 minutes is the perfect website to gain knowledge on a specific subject in less than 5 minutes without having to read through a lot of content that you would otherwise do to get your information. 

This video from 5 mins explains itself:

Here are a few interesting 5 mins videos worth checking out:

Guitar Lesson: Introduction to Bar Chords

How to Do the 90 Degree Turn with a Car

How Can I Get Over My Shyness And Ask A Girl Out?

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All right, now you have a bootable USB pendrive as well as some of the best data recovery & drive partitioning utilities on your pendrive. How about adding some of the best applications for your day-to-day usage, like browsers, office apps, e-mail, etc. Let's get on with it then.

Just launch your favorite browser and go to PortableApps.com which provides a truly open platform that works with any hardware you like (USB flash drive, iPod, portable hard drive, etc). It's open source built around an open format that any hardware vendor or software developer can use. It's convenient. Now you can carry your favorite computer programs along with all of your bookmarks, settings, email and more with you. Use them on any Windows computer. All without leaving any personal data behind. The PortableApps.com Suite and Platform is free. It contains no spyware. There are no advertisements. It isn't a limited or trial version. There is no additional hardware or software to buy. You don't even have to give out your email address. It's 100% free to use, free to copy and free to share. Hey! it's also available in lots of languages.

What is a Portable app? Here are some answers to your questions directly from their website. There are a lot of applications for you on PortableApps.com. In fact, they have divided the download into 3 types. You can download the package of your choice depending on the amount of space you want to allocate on your pen drive or you can just download the "Main Platform" for portable applications and then customise to your whims and fancies. Given below are the options from their website:
Platform Only: which is basically the "Launcher" for Portable applications. It looks and works like the the Windows Start Menu.
Light Suite: This one is a 35MB download and takes up approx. 100MB of space after installation. This, according to them, is meant for pendrives with 256MB+ free space.
Standard Suite: This is a 113MB download and will eat up around 350MB. If you have a pen drive with 512MB+ capacity, this is a must have. It contains OpenOffice.org suite of office applications which are compatible with Microsoft Office and have almost all the features of Microsoft Office.

Hmmm, I have a feeling you want to customise this. oh! well. Let's start. If you want to, you can also download and install the Light Suite or the Standard Suite and then customise it according to your liking.

1) Download the Portable Apps "Platform". Click on the Download link under Platform Only. Please do not Right Click and try to download. It does not work.
2) Once the download is complete, I recommend that you install this directly to your pendrive. Insert the pendrive into a free USB port, launch the installer & follow the instructions. You will be asked to select the destination. Just hit Browse and select your pendrive from the list the pops up.
3) After the install completes, you will have an option to Launch the PortableApps Menu. Click Finish to see the Menu. You can also access this Menu by clicking on the Taskbar Icon which just got added to your taskbar. You should also know that this Menu will be launched automatically when you insert this pendrive into any USB Port. Absolutely brilliant.
4) I'll give you an example of adding one of the applications. Then you can add how many ever you want using the same steps that we follow here. Please note that there may be some changes depending on the application. Just read the notes section for that application for instructions.
5) Click on this Applications Link and under the Internet section, click on Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition. Please read the entire page regarding features and other important notes and then click on the download link to download the file.
6) Please close the PortableApps Menu now. When the download is done, double-click the file and follow the instructions to install it. Please install it to the same pendrive where you installed the Menu earlier. These files are known as "Portable Application Format" files or PAF, in short. After the installation is over, launch the PortableApps Menu by browsing to your pendrive and double-clicking on StartPortableApps. You should now see Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition listed in the menu.
7) Phew! That's it for now. You can go ahead, download and install the applications of your choice.

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The most difficult thing I've had to do after moving out of home is managing expense. I don't have good ol' dad to fall back on. I've got to pay my bills, manage my menial salary and still have some savings. I've been trying hard to get my finances in order and as always I found my answers to my trouble online. I'll be reviewing 3 amazing online expense planners.

1. www.walletproof.com - Again a very quick sign up. I love their piggy bank logo and their tag line - Start budgeting today. The interface is also very easy. The tabs are divided into Income and Expense and further categorized into recurring and this month. You just put your expense and the amount and voila you are done.

The only difference is that it doesn't have the option of remotely updating the information. It will need you to login every time you want to update.

2. www.plan2spend.com - This site asked for a lot of details before sign up. After sign up however I was impressed by the way the site was organized. You can update your account information by updating the deposits, bills and usual expenses and then your daily expenses.

I really liked the budget tab on the site, it does a comparative analysis of where most of your money is being spent. Its simple and easy to use. The one thing I don't like about it is that it takes far to long to load and that is painful.

3. www.xpenser.com - This was the quickest sign up. It took me so little time to get into the system to start updating my spend. The interface is clean and doesn't have too many distractions. I was able to update my October expenses online within 15mins.

It has the option of updating your day to day expense via email, instant messaging or twitter. (US citizens have the option to use sms as well as JOTT calls).

All in all, this was my favorite product of the lot.

There were a couple more online expense planners that I didn't review cause they catered mostly for the American citizens as they will need your Bank account information and more details. I'm still not very comfortable with sharing personal information online with sites. Here are the two sites if you are visiting from the US - www.mint.com and www.rudder.com

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Shelfari is a social networking website for book lovers. With Shelfari you can build a virtual bookshelf to share with other people, discuss books in forums, review them and use it as a platform for book exchange. There are reader groups based on authors, titles, content and geographics locations. This is an ideal platform to find new books to read based on your tastes by meeting like minded readers. If you have a blog, you can even put up a virtual bookshelf on your website like the one below:



Click on the image to see my bookshelf.

Enjoy!

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When I think about surviving in the wild, movies like Rambo and Predator first pop in to mind (If you really want to watch a good movie about surviving in the the wild check out: Into the wild) . The whole idea of living in the wild and being able to stay alive sounds like the kind of thing that can make one feel at the heights of living-the-moment. But a Rambo knife just won't cut it. Survival in the wild is a skill and requires good planning and knowledge. Even then, there are no guarantees.

Survival topics is an interesting website I came across that has information on the various aspects of surviving outside your comfort zone.

The website is split into various sections like FireSteel, Blades And Knives, Blog Books, Bushcraft, Clothing, Compass, Fire, Food, Health, Heat, Hunting, Fishing, Trapping, Improvised Gear, Jobs, Knots, Lost, Music, Myth, Navigation, News, People, Pets, Plants, Preparedness, Psychology, Safety, Shelter, Signaling, Stoves, Survival, Gear, Survival Kits, Survival Skills, Survival Supplies, Survivalist, Blogs, Water, Wilderness Medicine, Wildlife and Winter.

There is lot of good information about surival skills. Some of the interesting ones are:

1. How to choose a survival knife

2. The 5 basic surival skills

3. How long can you live without food

4. Using Time as a compass

5. Find the temperature using Crickets (insect)

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I have a lovely dress that I want to wear this New Years Eve, without feeling too conscious about my flab. So I have tried Aerobics, Yoga and Gym. It has helped but now I have an aim, and am motivated to reach that 65kg before the clock strikes 2009. So yes I continue to work hard on the treadmill and sweat off those calories but that doesn't help me, what about my food intake, what about working out the pain areas? What about a consistent regimen. I travel and hopefully I will find a gym wherever I am traveling but how do I continue to track my progress? It's simple - join Gyminee.

It's an online resource to meet a targeted need in the health and fitness market. There are some amazing Workout programs, food listings, physical challenges, exercise library, forums, blogs and groups. Your one stop shop to meet your fitness goals!

It's easy to use, start by following the few steps listed below:

1. Register and finish the formalities
2. Set up your Profile with as much information as possible
3. Choose a workout program that suits you the best in the huge list of programs available.
4. Setup Calorie goals, this is easy, just tell the system your current weight and desired weight the system does the rest. It also tells you realistically how long you'll have to wait till you see yourself at that weight.
5. Get some Gymbuddies (your online motivators)

After you finish the initial registration the cool part is checking out the various workouts and you can find something that suits you. Here are some advantages to having pre-set exercises, you just need to finish the regimen once you hit the gym and come out, no waiting for a gym partner or instructor. You're responsible for your progress and your weight. I've signed up for Killer abs. I had to add what I did today in the gym and I knew how much I worked out (estimate).















I also added what I ate today, surprisingly I didn't expect them to have Indian foods but was surprised to find Rasam as an option in their food list and samosas of course (Yes I ate a Samosa (gulp)). It also adds your glass of water in a day.

I am excited about this and I intend to follow. So little black dress on New Years Eve, here I come! (For those who are curious a glimpse at what my dress is going to look like)

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Sumo paint is a web based image editor which at first glance looks exactly like photoshop. A quick glance at the drop down menus seems to indicate support for most things that photoshop is capable of. For this reason Sumo Paint can boldly claim to be the most advanced web based image editor. For the price tag of free comapared to the $700+ you pay for photoshop, Sumo paint is fantastic tool for your image editing needs.

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Bangalore is one of the most overcrowded cities in India. Its infrastructure is under severe stress with narrow bad roads, one ways, bridges under construction, lack of proper public transport and many other things that can possibly go wrong with a city's infrastructure. The city has one of the highest density of cars per sq. km in the country and most of these 4 wheelers carry just 1 person while it could carry 4. All this put together, makes Bangalore one of the worst cities for commuting.

Bangalore Traffic Information system is a website providing some services that can greatly benefit commuters in the city:

1) Live Traffic: 

Get video feed from key locations in the city to judge crowd

2) Directions:

Find your way around town, avoid jams.

3) Car Pool:

Share the road. Save money. Make friends.

4) BUS:

Find Bus routes, stops, and transit points.

5) Safety:

Accident zones, road signs, and more.

BTIS also has a mobile version for its services that you can download from here.

The coolest part of BTIS is definitely the live traffic feed from various spots in the city that is marked to the city map.

Traffic Information Systems have been created for other cities as well. Check them out for Hyderabad, Chennai, Delhi and Pune.

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Ever wanted a software to quickly edit that image you captured with your camera phone? Don't want to go through the pain of installing an image editing software on the hard drive? Want to quickly optimize the quality of an image you shot and upload it? Picnik is what you are looking for and it does a lot more than the basics.

Here are some key features:

1) You do not have to register to use it

2) One-touch autofix colors, red-eye and exposure issues

3) Rotate, crop, resize and sharpen your images

4) Pull your photos straight from flickr, facebook, photobucket, myspace, webshots and picasa web album, edit and upload them

5) Undo your image editing mistakes

6) All this for free

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I just installed a nice little tool on Topic Bean called Snap Shots that enhances links with visual previews of the destination site, interactive excerpts of Wikipedia articles, MySpace profiles, IMDb profiles and Amazon products, display inline videos, RSS, MP3s, photos, stock charts and more.

Sometimes Snap Shots bring you the information you need, without your having to leave the site, while other times it lets you "look ahead," before deciding if you want to follow a link or not.

Should you decide this is not for you, just click the Options icon in the upper right corner of the Snap Shot and opt-out.

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Are you the sort who likes building things for a hobby? Want to spend your idle time in the weekend building a bookshelf instead of buying one? As a kid, did you spend your time dismantling your toy car to get to the motor and do cool stuff with it? If so, instructables is the website to help you get back on track to Doing It Yourself (DIY).



Instructables is split into various sections like Art, Craft, Food, Games, Green, Home, Kids, Life, Music, Offbeat, Outdoors, Pets, Ride, Science, Sports and Tech. Instructables features user created DIY content presented as step by step procedures for clear building instructions.

Some interesting instructables I came across:

1) Building a Solar Powered R/C car



2) How I built an electricity producing wind turbine



3) Chess table

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