A Non-Profit Organization started in Bangalore with just 1500 children around 10 years back, is now the largest NGO in terms of reach. I would definitely call it the most thriving non-profit in India. Liberating thousands from the vicious cycle of poverty year after year, this organization is resolute to remove poverty from India, the immediate mission being to feed 5 million children by 2020.
With an excellent management on board, advanced technology and streamlined processes in operations & distribution and a vision that “No child in India shall be deprived of education because of hunger”, this organization is all set to tackle the most damaging impediments to progress – hunger and poverty. Apart from the mid day meal schemes, Akshaya Patra has also been concentrating on the all round development of children with special emphasis on health, education and extra curricular activities.
I was pretty overwhelmed to see the amazing trends incorporating the increase in attendance, decrease in dropouts, increase in performance, decrease in malnutrition and poverty as a whole and likewise, over a long term. But keeping aside all this figures, children are the beautiful gifts of God and Akshaya Patra helps these children bloom like beautiful flowers. This program encourages the children, who had dropped out of school due to financial problems, rejoin the school, dream to achieve at least a decent employment and achieve their dreams.
Day after day, year after year, more than a billion meals served to the underprivileged children in India, wondering how it happens? Akshaya Patra incurs almost half of the expenditure, other half being sponsored by the government, the total expenditure of more 12 lakh meals summing up to over 60 lakhs per day. How does Akshaya Patra manage to incur even half of this huge expense, although it does not collect tax from the people? All it asks us is to come forward and take the responsibility to feed a child. Akshaya Patra is a people’s organization and it is we who are feeding the children through Akshaya Patra. So why don’t we ask more and more people to come forward and join hands with this organization to be a part in the fulfillment of the virtuous mission of this organization?
I would call upon all my readers and followers to check the Akshaya Patra website and help this program in whatever possible way. Feeding 1 child for an entire year costs much less than a buffet in a fine dine restaurant. And believe me it makes you feel much better than that mega lunch or dinner.
Do Vote for my post in Indiblogger if you think I was successful in doing my bit for Akshaya Patra. Do promote this post to your network as well to create more awareness.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Monday, November 15, 2010
Personal 24/7 medical consultant.
Technology is fast changing for the better. This upgrade has improved the standard of living of the people and affected their lives in several ways. The impossible becomes possible with changing technology, so why not this wish of mine? Although it will help people live their lives with more ease and spend less money, it may also suck up the jobs of many professionals and practitioners.
The Wish or Idea - My wish is a tool which will act as my personal medical consultant and give me free medical advice whenever I need it. It will a device which will be connected to my home computer or laptop with a blood tester, XRay device, eye scanner, bp checker, temperature check and other tools along with an application which will collate the results of all the tests and provide you the exact health condition or ailment that I am going through along with the prescribed medication. It will also have an inbuilt ordering system connected to the internet using which I can compare the prices of the medicines prescribed and order them online for a home delivery.
Possible? - By now before I may explain any more features of the device in my mind, many of the readers may be thinking that this is impossible, just like how 10000 years ago a man said there will be something like computer and phone using which we can interact with people sitting far away and his listeners thought it was impossible. He did not utter it again because he might have got executed by the king for spreading rumors and wrong information, I am not that unlucky and I can repost this article again and again.
The path – Building this tool would not be easy by any chance and will require several years of research and testing. A huge database of ailments, diseases, symptoms, characteristics of the human body and lot of medical knowledge has to be created. This database should be equivalent to the medical knowledge of 10 best doctors in the world combined. A database of all the available medicines has to be created which would not be a difficult task. The most difficult task will be to manufacture a compact and low cost testing device which will have all the diagnostic features required in it. A lot of electronic engineers, mechanical engineers, VLSI and embedded system specialists, programmers, doctors, chemists and other technicians will be required in this research and development. However it may take several years.
The cost – It may initially be so expensive that only the successors of Bill Gates or likewise can purchase it. But gradually, China and Taiwan based manufacturers will start manufacturing it and it will be a product sold in every home.
The consequences – This device may render hundreds of medical practitioners jobless and reduce the demand for medical study. May people may be amazed of the results whereas some may get a wrong medicine prescribed due to wrong diagnosis. A huge number of lawsuits may be filed against the corporation who invents this product initially and it may have to pay billions of money as compensation.
However with time technology will become as intelligent as men and this wonder may be achieved some day.
The Wish or Idea - My wish is a tool which will act as my personal medical consultant and give me free medical advice whenever I need it. It will a device which will be connected to my home computer or laptop with a blood tester, XRay device, eye scanner, bp checker, temperature check and other tools along with an application which will collate the results of all the tests and provide you the exact health condition or ailment that I am going through along with the prescribed medication. It will also have an inbuilt ordering system connected to the internet using which I can compare the prices of the medicines prescribed and order them online for a home delivery.
The path – Building this tool would not be easy by any chance and will require several years of research and testing. A huge database of ailments, diseases, symptoms, characteristics of the human body and lot of medical knowledge has to be created. This database should be equivalent to the medical knowledge of 10 best doctors in the world combined. A database of all the available medicines has to be created which would not be a difficult task. The most difficult task will be to manufacture a compact and low cost testing device which will have all the diagnostic features required in it. A lot of electronic engineers, mechanical engineers, VLSI and embedded system specialists, programmers, doctors, chemists and other technicians will be required in this research and development. However it may take several years.
The cost – It may initially be so expensive that only the successors of Bill Gates or likewise can purchase it. But gradually, China and Taiwan based manufacturers will start manufacturing it and it will be a product sold in every home.
The consequences – This device may render hundreds of medical practitioners jobless and reduce the demand for medical study. May people may be amazed of the results whereas some may get a wrong medicine prescribed due to wrong diagnosis. A huge number of lawsuits may be filed against the corporation who invents this product initially and it may have to pay billions of money as compensation.
However with time technology will become as intelligent as men and this wonder may be achieved some day.
3G – The Third Generation Lifestyle
A brief introduction to 3G would be it’s a mobile telecommunication service which is all set to make your mobile devices much more than a phone. 3G services in India which were first offered by public sector players like BSNL and MTNL are now provided by a private player Tata Docomo and others like Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance and others are expected to follow soon.
Post the 3G era, if you opt for it, you can have a multipurpose device in you pocket, using which you can also make calls! This service essentially includes faster than broadband, mobile internet, video calls, mobile TV and much more. Let’s explore the 3G life.
The 3G life is your life on a hand held, wireless device and on the go. It combines the features of several other devices in it and makes your life just the next generation life.
Social on Mobile – The web had become social some time back and now has the mobile. It’s no more a one to one contact using your phone. Take a snap and share it with all your friends across your networks, get their comments on it and reply back. Chat with your friends, update statuses and track your network, on the go.
Welcome to the 3G life, are you not enjoying it?
Of course, if you like this post dont feel shy to express yourself by voting for me at:- http://www.indiblogger.in/indipost.php?post=38978 .
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Ayodhya Verdict Live News, Ayodhya verdict Latest Updates and Ayodhya Verdict Decision.
In this article you will get to know Ayodhya Verdict Live News, Ayodhya verdict Latest Updates and Ayodhya Verdict Decision given by the Allahabad High Court. Just to brief you about the situation, Ayodhya is a burning issue from past 60 years and post the Babri Masjid demolition it has become even more critical. The disputed land is claimed as Ram Janma Bhoomi or the birth place of Shri Ram(A Hindu God) by the Hindus whereas the Muslims claim it as their land where they have seen Babri Masjid from several years. Legends in and around Ayodhya which have spread across India say that, a Ram Temple had been destroyed by the Mughals to build the Mosque. This and several arguements are into the surface from both sides and this historical case is being fought by both parties since ages.
The Allahabad High Court Bench decides its verdict today, on 30th of September, 2010 on the 60-year-old Ram Janambhoomi-Babri masjid dispute at 3:30 pm. The verdict is not definitely be a one liner decision and has to be understood in its entirity before summarizing.
It is widely believed that the judges will not declare winners or losers which may affect the communal harmony and result in tensions across the country. The verdict is 8300 pages verdict which states different facts, research findings, statements of witnesses and different aspects of the verdict.
The parties involved in the verdict are Nirmohi Akhara, Hindu Mahasabha and Sunni Waqf Board. To understand the entire verdict it becomes important to understand the parties involved in this.
Nirmohi Akhara is a Hindu religious denomination following its own religious faith and customs. It is one of the 14 akharas recognized by the Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad, and belonging to the Vaishnava sampradaya. It is headed by Mahant Bhaskar Das.
The group has been in light in connection with the Ayodhya debate since 1959 when it filed a suit to take over the disputed site of Babri Mosque.
The Akhil Bhārat Hindū Mahāsabhā (All-Indian Hindu Assembly) is a Hindu nationalist political party in India. It was founded in 1915, as an alternative for Hindus who were not attracted to the secular Indian National Congress and sought to oppose the Muslim separatism of the Muslim League.
The Uttar Pradesh Sunni Waqf Boards is like any other Waqf boards which is entrusted the responsibility of looking after the Mosque Property amongst others.
The Court has come out with the formula that the disputed land will be divided into three parts- one third given to Nirmohi Akhara, one third to Sunni Waqf Board, and the remaining and most important part will be for construction of temple of Lord Ram.
The bench rejected the claim of Sunni Waqf Board over the propriety of disputed land in Ayodhya. The verdict went against Waqf board by 2-1. The bench also dismissed the claim of Babri Action Committee.
The Court affirmed in majority that the place where Ramlala is kept and worshipped at the moment and claimed by Hindus as birth place of Lord Ram- will be allotted to Hindus for construction of the temple.
The three-judge bench that delivered the verdict comprised of Justice S U Khan, Justice Sudhir Agarwal and Justice D V Sharma. The bench started the proceedings around 3:30 pm after the litigants reached Court No. 21 of the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court. Verdict has been delivered in all the cases pertaining to the title suit, which has been depicted in eight to ten thousand pages.
A specified time of three months has been provided for the parties to appeal the verdict in the Supreme Court.
As soon as the verdict was out, the lawyers came out of the premises of the court, and spoke with the media persons. Renowned lawyer and BJP leader who was counsel of Raghubar Das informed about the proceedings to the media.
Barricades had been erected about 100 metres from the court room and no one other than those connected with the case were allowed anywhere near the court room.
Hundreds of journalists from across the country converged at the District Magistrate's office in Qaiserbagh area to report on the verdict in the Ayodhya title suit. Elaborate arrangements were in place with pandal erected to accommodate 500 journalists and camerapersons opposite the Allahabad High Court premises.
Ravi Shankar Prasad claimed the court had ruled that the place where the idol of Ram was kept was the birthplace of the deity and the idols should not removed.
The dispute was first taken to court 60 years ago. Hindus state the site of the Babri Masjid is the birthplace of their God, Ram, and want to make a temple there. India has made up security across the country for a court verdict that could generate religious violence. Ban on bulk SMSes continues. The Prime Minister himself appealed to the citizens of India to handle the decision with respect and control their emotion.
The Uttar Pradesh Sunni Waqf Board on Thursday said it will move the Supreme Court against the Allahabad High Court order.
The Allahabad High Court Bench decides its verdict today, on 30th of September, 2010 on the 60-year-old Ram Janambhoomi-Babri masjid dispute at 3:30 pm. The verdict is not definitely be a one liner decision and has to be understood in its entirity before summarizing.
It is widely believed that the judges will not declare winners or losers which may affect the communal harmony and result in tensions across the country. The verdict is 8300 pages verdict which states different facts, research findings, statements of witnesses and different aspects of the verdict.
The parties involved in the verdict are Nirmohi Akhara, Hindu Mahasabha and Sunni Waqf Board. To understand the entire verdict it becomes important to understand the parties involved in this.
Nirmohi Akhara is a Hindu religious denomination following its own religious faith and customs. It is one of the 14 akharas recognized by the Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad, and belonging to the Vaishnava sampradaya. It is headed by Mahant Bhaskar Das.
The group has been in light in connection with the Ayodhya debate since 1959 when it filed a suit to take over the disputed site of Babri Mosque.
The Akhil Bhārat Hindū Mahāsabhā (All-Indian Hindu Assembly) is a Hindu nationalist political party in India. It was founded in 1915, as an alternative for Hindus who were not attracted to the secular Indian National Congress and sought to oppose the Muslim separatism of the Muslim League.
The Uttar Pradesh Sunni Waqf Boards is like any other Waqf boards which is entrusted the responsibility of looking after the Mosque Property amongst others.
The Court has come out with the formula that the disputed land will be divided into three parts- one third given to Nirmohi Akhara, one third to Sunni Waqf Board, and the remaining and most important part will be for construction of temple of Lord Ram.
The bench rejected the claim of Sunni Waqf Board over the propriety of disputed land in Ayodhya. The verdict went against Waqf board by 2-1. The bench also dismissed the claim of Babri Action Committee.
The Court affirmed in majority that the place where Ramlala is kept and worshipped at the moment and claimed by Hindus as birth place of Lord Ram- will be allotted to Hindus for construction of the temple.
The three-judge bench that delivered the verdict comprised of Justice S U Khan, Justice Sudhir Agarwal and Justice D V Sharma. The bench started the proceedings around 3:30 pm after the litigants reached Court No. 21 of the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court. Verdict has been delivered in all the cases pertaining to the title suit, which has been depicted in eight to ten thousand pages.
A specified time of three months has been provided for the parties to appeal the verdict in the Supreme Court.
As soon as the verdict was out, the lawyers came out of the premises of the court, and spoke with the media persons. Renowned lawyer and BJP leader who was counsel of Raghubar Das informed about the proceedings to the media.
Barricades had been erected about 100 metres from the court room and no one other than those connected with the case were allowed anywhere near the court room.
Hundreds of journalists from across the country converged at the District Magistrate's office in Qaiserbagh area to report on the verdict in the Ayodhya title suit. Elaborate arrangements were in place with pandal erected to accommodate 500 journalists and camerapersons opposite the Allahabad High Court premises.
Ravi Shankar Prasad claimed the court had ruled that the place where the idol of Ram was kept was the birthplace of the deity and the idols should not removed.
The dispute was first taken to court 60 years ago. Hindus state the site of the Babri Masjid is the birthplace of their God, Ram, and want to make a temple there. India has made up security across the country for a court verdict that could generate religious violence. Ban on bulk SMSes continues. The Prime Minister himself appealed to the citizens of India to handle the decision with respect and control their emotion.
The Uttar Pradesh Sunni Waqf Board on Thursday said it will move the Supreme Court against the Allahabad High Court order.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
How to start using Torrent?
Using Torrent is easy - believe it or not. This article is for absolute beginners. I will write about the advanced tips and trick in my later articles.
The requirements are you should have a good internet connection preferably an unlimited one with an average download speed of at least 50 kbps, good storage space and a Torrent Client. Installing a Torrent client is as easy as installing any other piece of software. Just go to your favorite search engine and type download torrent client. You will find a lot of websites which provide you free downloads of torrent clients. Just download one, click on the installation/ executable(.exe) file and follow the instructions to install it. My best torrent client is bit torrent. I recommend you to use bit torrent which provides a lot of features which are not available in many other torrent clients.
Just after you have installed this small piece of software you are ready to get going with your search. Just go to any torrent website and start searching what you want. It can be literally anything. I have found and downloaded movies of 1950s and 1960s from Torrent. My best torrent website is www.kickasstorrents.com. The reason why I like this website is that it is a 100% non profit. These guys do not show a single misleading ads and show a lot of information beside the torrent you want to download. They show the health of the Torrent file, the number of peers and seeds connected to the torrent file, whether the torrent is verified or not and also the comments of the users after the download. This helps you take a decision on whether to download a particular torrent or not. If the health of the file is high, the torrent is verified and there are a lot of positive comments on it, you do not need to worry about the quality of the file. It will work after the download.
The speed of the torrent download depends on the number of seeds. If there is a huge number of seeds then the download will be faster. Now you should understand how torrent works in comparison to a normal download. In a normal download you download the file directly from a server connected to the internet. But in Torrent you are downloaded bits and pieces of a file from your peers' systems who are connected to the internet. The Torrent software makes it possible.
I will tell you in brief how this entire process takes place.
1. The person who wants to share a file creates a torrent file of his particular file. The torrent file is very small(a few kbs) in size. The Torrent File contains information about the IP of the person and the folder in which he has saved the file.
2. He then goes to the various Torrent Websites and posts announcements about the Torrent he has created. This will create a link of the Torrent file which he has to upload and brief name and description of his torrent file.
3. Once his peers get interested in his torrent, they click on the announcement link and open the torrent file with their torrent client. The Torrent client connects itself to other clients who are downloading and uploading the particular file.
4. It is a rule for Torrent users that if you are downloading a particular file you should also upload the same amount/ or more data so that this process never stops. The upload happens automatically while you are downloading. The upload speed does not hamper your download speed and thus it can go on simultaneously. Although you can stop/ regulate the upload/ download speed, you should not do it unless you have any particular reason. Let the upload and download speed be maximum so that you help others while you take help.
5. Once the Torrent File is downloaded completely you can view and share it. Some players like VLC player also let you view/ listen to some file types even if they are not completely download. Another speciality of Torrent unlike normal browser downloading is that, if you get disconnected from internet in between the download, the next time you connect you can resume the download.
So this is how a torrent works. Welcome to the world of Torrents. Do let me know if you have any questions through comments below.
The requirements are you should have a good internet connection preferably an unlimited one with an average download speed of at least 50 kbps, good storage space and a Torrent Client. Installing a Torrent client is as easy as installing any other piece of software. Just go to your favorite search engine and type download torrent client. You will find a lot of websites which provide you free downloads of torrent clients. Just download one, click on the installation/ executable(.exe) file and follow the instructions to install it. My best torrent client is bit torrent. I recommend you to use bit torrent which provides a lot of features which are not available in many other torrent clients.
Just after you have installed this small piece of software you are ready to get going with your search. Just go to any torrent website and start searching what you want. It can be literally anything. I have found and downloaded movies of 1950s and 1960s from Torrent. My best torrent website is www.kickasstorrents.com. The reason why I like this website is that it is a 100% non profit. These guys do not show a single misleading ads and show a lot of information beside the torrent you want to download. They show the health of the Torrent file, the number of peers and seeds connected to the torrent file, whether the torrent is verified or not and also the comments of the users after the download. This helps you take a decision on whether to download a particular torrent or not. If the health of the file is high, the torrent is verified and there are a lot of positive comments on it, you do not need to worry about the quality of the file. It will work after the download.
The speed of the torrent download depends on the number of seeds. If there is a huge number of seeds then the download will be faster. Now you should understand how torrent works in comparison to a normal download. In a normal download you download the file directly from a server connected to the internet. But in Torrent you are downloaded bits and pieces of a file from your peers' systems who are connected to the internet. The Torrent software makes it possible.
I will tell you in brief how this entire process takes place.
1. The person who wants to share a file creates a torrent file of his particular file. The torrent file is very small(a few kbs) in size. The Torrent File contains information about the IP of the person and the folder in which he has saved the file.
2. He then goes to the various Torrent Websites and posts announcements about the Torrent he has created. This will create a link of the Torrent file which he has to upload and brief name and description of his torrent file.
3. Once his peers get interested in his torrent, they click on the announcement link and open the torrent file with their torrent client. The Torrent client connects itself to other clients who are downloading and uploading the particular file.
4. It is a rule for Torrent users that if you are downloading a particular file you should also upload the same amount/ or more data so that this process never stops. The upload happens automatically while you are downloading. The upload speed does not hamper your download speed and thus it can go on simultaneously. Although you can stop/ regulate the upload/ download speed, you should not do it unless you have any particular reason. Let the upload and download speed be maximum so that you help others while you take help.
5. Once the Torrent File is downloaded completely you can view and share it. Some players like VLC player also let you view/ listen to some file types even if they are not completely download. Another speciality of Torrent unlike normal browser downloading is that, if you get disconnected from internet in between the download, the next time you connect you can resume the download.
So this is how a torrent works. Welcome to the world of Torrents. Do let me know if you have any questions through comments below.
Download Unlimited free of Cost? Why Torrent? Is it unethical to use it?
Torrent, almost everyone using the internet might have heard of it. Almost 1% of the internet users are advanced Torrent Users, 20% of people using the internet are active users and another 20% know about it or have used it occasionally. More than 50% of the internet users do not know about it or have never used it. So what is Torrent? Is it as bad as some copyright protectors say? Or is it as good as thousands of pro-piracy advocates claim? Or is it just controversial? Lets find the answer. This is not a web page, but a blog and therefore comments and discussions are most welcome. It will benefit us all.
Torrent is actually a peer-to-peer(P2P) sharing tool to share huge amounts of data among peers through the internet. The unique features of Torrent are:-
1. It is free.
2. It is for the people and by the people.
3. It requires a good internet connection.
4. It is really easy to use.
Now lets go back to our initial question, why is Torrent controversial? My answer is that because it screws up the profits of big software giants, movie and music production houses, game production companies and virtually any digital product in the world. Torrent is a tool which helps people to share movies, music, software, games, photos etc. through the internet. The idea of building Torrent was not to promote piracy but to help people to share data with their online peers across geographical barriers. Over time Torrent has evolved as a tool wherein people have started sharing pirated digital products with the entire world.
If Torrent had been illegal, The Pirate Bay which is one of the largest Torrent Websites would not have survived the Legal Proceedings against it. After some production houses of Hollywood filed a copyright infringement case against The Pirate Bay, the servers and all equipments of the owners of Pirate Bay were confiscated following a subsequent raid on their premises. But it was only a matter of 3 days and Pirate Bay was back on Track again. This sparked huge pro-piracy protests against the government and the Hollywood and finally Pirate Bay got a huge fan following. Their logo at that time depicted a pirate ship firing canons at the HOLLYWOOD.
So we know that Torrent is not illegal, but what about the morality and ethics. What about the huge losses which people suffer due to Torrent. Yes I agree that it is immoral and unethical to share pirated versions of software through Torrent and we should refrain from it as far as possible. Only opensource software should be shared through Torrent. Only software, games, movies and music whose shelf life is over should be shared over Torrent.
Unfortunately some people use Torrent to share the latest movies, music and cracked versions of software and games. Movies and Music get shared almost on the day of release on Torrent. Software and games get shared as soon as some hacker finds the crack to it. But this is not good and people with good ethics should not download these. Even if you download a new movie from Torrent and like it, do consider paying a visit to a theatre so that the Theatre owner and the movie producer also gets his due.
The best way to use Torrent is to share your wedding video with the world, share your new music video shot in your college with all your online peers across the world or to share the new piece of Java Application you have developed with your Techie Friends.
Stay Tuned, I will soon write a post on how to Use Torrent and also about my best Torrent Sites and Clients so that you can get going - Coming up within a week.
Torrent is actually a peer-to-peer(P2P) sharing tool to share huge amounts of data among peers through the internet. The unique features of Torrent are:-
1. It is free.
2. It is for the people and by the people.
3. It requires a good internet connection.
4. It is really easy to use.
Now lets go back to our initial question, why is Torrent controversial? My answer is that because it screws up the profits of big software giants, movie and music production houses, game production companies and virtually any digital product in the world. Torrent is a tool which helps people to share movies, music, software, games, photos etc. through the internet. The idea of building Torrent was not to promote piracy but to help people to share data with their online peers across geographical barriers. Over time Torrent has evolved as a tool wherein people have started sharing pirated digital products with the entire world.
If Torrent had been illegal, The Pirate Bay which is one of the largest Torrent Websites would not have survived the Legal Proceedings against it. After some production houses of Hollywood filed a copyright infringement case against The Pirate Bay, the servers and all equipments of the owners of Pirate Bay were confiscated following a subsequent raid on their premises. But it was only a matter of 3 days and Pirate Bay was back on Track again. This sparked huge pro-piracy protests against the government and the Hollywood and finally Pirate Bay got a huge fan following. Their logo at that time depicted a pirate ship firing canons at the HOLLYWOOD.
So we know that Torrent is not illegal, but what about the morality and ethics. What about the huge losses which people suffer due to Torrent. Yes I agree that it is immoral and unethical to share pirated versions of software through Torrent and we should refrain from it as far as possible. Only opensource software should be shared through Torrent. Only software, games, movies and music whose shelf life is over should be shared over Torrent.
Unfortunately some people use Torrent to share the latest movies, music and cracked versions of software and games. Movies and Music get shared almost on the day of release on Torrent. Software and games get shared as soon as some hacker finds the crack to it. But this is not good and people with good ethics should not download these. Even if you download a new movie from Torrent and like it, do consider paying a visit to a theatre so that the Theatre owner and the movie producer also gets his due.
The best way to use Torrent is to share your wedding video with the world, share your new music video shot in your college with all your online peers across the world or to share the new piece of Java Application you have developed with your Techie Friends.
Stay Tuned, I will soon write a post on how to Use Torrent and also about my best Torrent Sites and Clients so that you can get going - Coming up within a week.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
How to install XAMPP and troubleshoot for problems?
These articles written by me are meant for absolute beginners in web development and if you are an expert, you may benefit as well if you read on. In this article I will explain about how to set up a web server in your desktop to create and test a website locally.
The open source web services software bundles are LAMP, WAMP, SAMP, MAMP and XAMPP. Sorry if I have missed out some. I will write about XAMPP in detail because it can be used universally across all operating systems.
In the other software packages keeping AMP(Apache, MySql and PHP) the same L stands for Linux which is for Linux Operating System, WAMP stands for Windows Operating System, S stands for Sun Solaris OPerating System and M stands for Macintosh Operating System.
XAMPP is an abbreviation. It denotes an assembly of services which help you build dynamic web pages and run them on a server.
X-Universal or Cross Platform i.e. it runs across all operating systems.
A-Apache is a Linux based web server
M-MySql is a database technology
P-PHP is an extensible language which supports dynamic web development
P-Perl is a high level language
XAMPP is an Open Source software bundle with a GPL(General Public License) developed and distributed by the Apache Friends.
Now how do you install XAMPP and get started with it?
1. Go to the apache friends website and download it. This is the link as on today but someday it may change so its always better to search for the keyword download XAMPP in Google before to go to the link in case you dont find it here - http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html
2. Now go ahead and download the .exe(executable) file of XAMPP by selecting the operating system in which you are working with. The current version of XAMPP for Windows, Mac and Linux is 1.7.3. XAMPP is always updated by a group of active and experienced developers and therefore to be abreast with the latest technology download the latest stable version. Do not download a beta version if you are not an experienced developer to ensure hassle free development.
3. On downloading the executable file just double click to install it just like you do for any other software. Follow the simple instructions on screen to complete the installation. At the end of the installation a window will open up in command prompt(CMD) if you are in windows. There will be certain options which you need to select. Let the default options be selected and just press the return/ enter key for a few times to end the installation process.
4. At the end of the installation process you will find around 7 options and x for exit. Choose X to exit or 1 to open the control panel. If you have chosen all the default options a shortcut to the control panel would also be installed in your desktop. You can also find the control panel inside the XAMPP folder in the directory/ drive in which you have installed XAMPP.
5. Once the Control Panel is opened Click on Port-Check button to check whether the ports which are necessary for Apache, MySql and other services are free or not. The ports 80, 81 and 443 are required for Apache to work properly whereas the port 3306 is required for MySql to work properly. If any of these ports are occupied by another program you gotto do the trouble shooting.
6. The common culprits which interfere with XAMPP are other web servers like IIS(Internet Information Services) Server etc or some applications like Skype. In case any other web server is interfering please go to the control panel of the particular web server and stop all the services. If Skype is interfering Select Tools Menu - Click on Options Sub Menu - Select
Advanced Tab and Connections Tab thereon. In the connection tab you will find a checkbox saying Use port 80 and 443 as alternatives for incoming connections. Uncheck this checkbox and log out of skype. Now if you check the ports again you will see they are free and you are ready to go ahead with your real time development.
7. Start the services Apache and MySql by clicking on the start buttons and you will see the text running when they start. This denotes that the services are up an running. Now you can start off your development in the htdocs folder which is inside your XAMPP directory.
In my future blogs you will also learn how to build a real website/ web application in your XAMPP folder which you can later launch in a live web server.
The open source web services software bundles are LAMP, WAMP, SAMP, MAMP and XAMPP. Sorry if I have missed out some. I will write about XAMPP in detail because it can be used universally across all operating systems.
In the other software packages keeping AMP(Apache, MySql and PHP) the same L stands for Linux which is for Linux Operating System, WAMP stands for Windows Operating System, S stands for Sun Solaris OPerating System and M stands for Macintosh Operating System.
XAMPP is an abbreviation. It denotes an assembly of services which help you build dynamic web pages and run them on a server.
X-Universal or Cross Platform i.e. it runs across all operating systems.
A-Apache is a Linux based web server
M-MySql is a database technology
P-PHP is an extensible language which supports dynamic web development
P-Perl is a high level language
XAMPP is an Open Source software bundle with a GPL(General Public License) developed and distributed by the Apache Friends.
Now how do you install XAMPP and get started with it?
1. Go to the apache friends website and download it. This is the link as on today but someday it may change so its always better to search for the keyword download XAMPP in Google before to go to the link in case you dont find it here - http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html
2. Now go ahead and download the .exe(executable) file of XAMPP by selecting the operating system in which you are working with. The current version of XAMPP for Windows, Mac and Linux is 1.7.3. XAMPP is always updated by a group of active and experienced developers and therefore to be abreast with the latest technology download the latest stable version. Do not download a beta version if you are not an experienced developer to ensure hassle free development.
3. On downloading the executable file just double click to install it just like you do for any other software. Follow the simple instructions on screen to complete the installation. At the end of the installation a window will open up in command prompt(CMD) if you are in windows. There will be certain options which you need to select. Let the default options be selected and just press the return/ enter key for a few times to end the installation process.
4. At the end of the installation process you will find around 7 options and x for exit. Choose X to exit or 1 to open the control panel. If you have chosen all the default options a shortcut to the control panel would also be installed in your desktop. You can also find the control panel inside the XAMPP folder in the directory/ drive in which you have installed XAMPP.
5. Once the Control Panel is opened Click on Port-Check button to check whether the ports which are necessary for Apache, MySql and other services are free or not. The ports 80, 81 and 443 are required for Apache to work properly whereas the port 3306 is required for MySql to work properly. If any of these ports are occupied by another program you gotto do the trouble shooting.
6. The common culprits which interfere with XAMPP are other web servers like IIS(Internet Information Services) Server etc or some applications like Skype. In case any other web server is interfering please go to the control panel of the particular web server and stop all the services. If Skype is interfering Select Tools Menu - Click on Options Sub Menu - Select
Advanced Tab and Connections Tab thereon. In the connection tab you will find a checkbox saying Use port 80 and 443 as alternatives for incoming connections. Uncheck this checkbox and log out of skype. Now if you check the ports again you will see they are free and you are ready to go ahead with your real time development.
7. Start the services Apache and MySql by clicking on the start buttons and you will see the text running when they start. This denotes that the services are up an running. Now you can start off your development in the htdocs folder which is inside your XAMPP directory.
In my future blogs you will also learn how to build a real website/ web application in your XAMPP folder which you can later launch in a live web server.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Speed up your System. Performance Matters!!
Speed and performance matters a lot, specifically when you are into software development using IDEs and also using other big software(in simple words). The most important factors influencing the speed of your system are:-
1. Random Access Memory - This is the most important factor which determines the speed of your applications or software. In very simple words RAM is the temporary memory of a computer which is utilized by an application in runtime. An application while running has to save some data in the memory temporarily which it has to access more frequently. Higher the RAM, the faster will be the speed of the application. When multiple applications run together the RAM is put into test and a RAM with higher space in it sails you easily through this test of speed. At times when your computer might hang, one of the reasons behind it may be the exhausting of the RAM by the different applications you open at the same time. A system with a higher configuration of RAM hangs less frequently.
2. Processor - The fundamental operation of most CPUs, regardless of the physical form they take, is to execute a sequence of stored instructions called a program. The program is represented by a series of numbers that are kept in some kind of computer memory. There are four steps that nearly all CPUs use in their operation: fetch, decode, execute, and writeback. The operating system is a GUI which interacts with the processor. The processor fetches the instruction sent by the operating system, decodes it, executes and tells the operating system what to do. The operating system decodes the user's instruction into machine level language which the processor understands and thus works the computer. The performance or speed of a processor depends on the clock rate and the Instructions Per Clock (IPC), which together are the factors for the Instructions Per Second (IPS) that the CPU can perform. Lets not get into these technicalities and understand that a multi core processor will perform much better than a single core processor. For example a dual core processor should ideally perform almost twice as better as a single core processor. Processor is hardware device and its speed depends predominantly on the ability of the chips to understand and execute the instructions. The speed of a processor is calculated in Hertz. The common unit to measure speed is Ghz or Giga Hertz because processors are now becoming faster and faster. It is common to have a 2.0 to 3.0 Ghz processor. The higher the speed of your processor the better is the speed of your computer.
3. Hard Disk - The hard disk also plays an important role in determining the speed of your computer. The hard disk is where your operating system, all your programs and applications and also your data is being stored. The speed also depends a lot on how your maintain your hard disk. You should leave some space in your hard disk for temporary files to be created in case certain applications need it to speed up your operations. You should also clean up your disk regularly, defragment your hard disk once in a while and also check for disk errors and correct them to improve the access to the data in your hard disk and thus improving the performance to a great extent. If you have too many applications running at start up, your computer will take a long time to start up. Have minimal and important applications running in the backend. End all programs which are not vital for the system to run to improve the spped.
4. ReadyBoost - Programs like ready boost which work only on Windows 7 or Vista speed up your computer to certain extent. A new concept in adding memory to a system, it allows you to use non-volatile flash memory—like a USB flash drive or a memory card—to improve performance without having to add additional memory. Do not go for any software which claims to improve your processor speed as you never know it may be a spyware. Purchase programs which are legitimate and proven. I generally do not go for any free or paid programs unless they are released by a credible corporation or organization. Like anything you find in the Microsoft, Sun or Linux site is the safest to be used. Use your deligence before you install any program into your system.
1. Random Access Memory - This is the most important factor which determines the speed of your applications or software. In very simple words RAM is the temporary memory of a computer which is utilized by an application in runtime. An application while running has to save some data in the memory temporarily which it has to access more frequently. Higher the RAM, the faster will be the speed of the application. When multiple applications run together the RAM is put into test and a RAM with higher space in it sails you easily through this test of speed. At times when your computer might hang, one of the reasons behind it may be the exhausting of the RAM by the different applications you open at the same time. A system with a higher configuration of RAM hangs less frequently.
2. Processor - The fundamental operation of most CPUs, regardless of the physical form they take, is to execute a sequence of stored instructions called a program. The program is represented by a series of numbers that are kept in some kind of computer memory. There are four steps that nearly all CPUs use in their operation: fetch, decode, execute, and writeback. The operating system is a GUI which interacts with the processor. The processor fetches the instruction sent by the operating system, decodes it, executes and tells the operating system what to do. The operating system decodes the user's instruction into machine level language which the processor understands and thus works the computer. The performance or speed of a processor depends on the clock rate and the Instructions Per Clock (IPC), which together are the factors for the Instructions Per Second (IPS) that the CPU can perform. Lets not get into these technicalities and understand that a multi core processor will perform much better than a single core processor. For example a dual core processor should ideally perform almost twice as better as a single core processor. Processor is hardware device and its speed depends predominantly on the ability of the chips to understand and execute the instructions. The speed of a processor is calculated in Hertz. The common unit to measure speed is Ghz or Giga Hertz because processors are now becoming faster and faster. It is common to have a 2.0 to 3.0 Ghz processor. The higher the speed of your processor the better is the speed of your computer.
3. Hard Disk - The hard disk also plays an important role in determining the speed of your computer. The hard disk is where your operating system, all your programs and applications and also your data is being stored. The speed also depends a lot on how your maintain your hard disk. You should leave some space in your hard disk for temporary files to be created in case certain applications need it to speed up your operations. You should also clean up your disk regularly, defragment your hard disk once in a while and also check for disk errors and correct them to improve the access to the data in your hard disk and thus improving the performance to a great extent. If you have too many applications running at start up, your computer will take a long time to start up. Have minimal and important applications running in the backend. End all programs which are not vital for the system to run to improve the spped.
4. ReadyBoost - Programs like ready boost which work only on Windows 7 or Vista speed up your computer to certain extent. A new concept in adding memory to a system, it allows you to use non-volatile flash memory—like a USB flash drive or a memory card—to improve performance without having to add additional memory. Do not go for any software which claims to improve your processor speed as you never know it may be a spyware. Purchase programs which are legitimate and proven. I generally do not go for any free or paid programs unless they are released by a credible corporation or organization. Like anything you find in the Microsoft, Sun or Linux site is the safest to be used. Use your deligence before you install any program into your system.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Wanna Watch FIFA World Cup 2010 in my Website?
Wish I could fulfill your dream!
If you have landed in my website to view a live or highlighted match of the FIFA World Cup 2010 then you have landed in the wrong place. I mean my website is not the wrong place but internet itself is the wrong place. There is no place in the internet as of now which broadcasts World Cup matches live. So better go and switch on your TV if you are a Football Fan.
You may get several tweets, e-mails, messages etc inviting you to watch world cup matches live. Please do not go to these websites as all of them are frauds. They will invite you to the website and to watch live matches whereas there are most chances that you end up with something like this:-
1. A website asking for a subscription to watch the matches. I am sure that you wont even be able to watch the match online even after subscribing for amounts ranging from $20 to $200. So beware before you pay. Most of the times you cannot recover your money back once you pay it.
2. A website full of advertisements, which does this type of stunts to get traffic.
3. A website with embedded clips of the match with advertisements with some advertisements in it.
4. A website which asks your personal information to view matches. This is one way for spammers to build huge lists and then monitize them. Therefore do not give your contact details for watching a match.
5. Some website like me which wants to inform people about the fraudsters who are trying to fool the innocent internet surfers.
Do not be innocent and wake up! Suspect before every action you take. Any unknown click may even bring virus/ malware or spyware into your system which even the best antivirus in the world cannot delete or quarantine.
I will keep you updated. Thanks for reading.
If you have landed in my website to view a live or highlighted match of the FIFA World Cup 2010 then you have landed in the wrong place. I mean my website is not the wrong place but internet itself is the wrong place. There is no place in the internet as of now which broadcasts World Cup matches live. So better go and switch on your TV if you are a Football Fan.
You may get several tweets, e-mails, messages etc inviting you to watch world cup matches live. Please do not go to these websites as all of them are frauds. They will invite you to the website and to watch live matches whereas there are most chances that you end up with something like this:-
1. A website asking for a subscription to watch the matches. I am sure that you wont even be able to watch the match online even after subscribing for amounts ranging from $20 to $200. So beware before you pay. Most of the times you cannot recover your money back once you pay it.
2. A website full of advertisements, which does this type of stunts to get traffic.
3. A website with embedded clips of the match with advertisements with some advertisements in it.
4. A website which asks your personal information to view matches. This is one way for spammers to build huge lists and then monitize them. Therefore do not give your contact details for watching a match.
5. Some website like me which wants to inform people about the fraudsters who are trying to fool the innocent internet surfers.
Do not be innocent and wake up! Suspect before every action you take. Any unknown click may even bring virus/ malware or spyware into your system which even the best antivirus in the world cannot delete or quarantine.
I will keep you updated. Thanks for reading.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
How to write the best killer Tweets?
Writing a killer tweet within a real estate of 140 characters is no less than copyrighting an advertisement for a newsletter. The only difference is that the newsletter is read only once, on a particular day while the tweet remains in the web almost for ever if not deleted otherwise. Another major difference is that you do not pay for your tweet and you can do it again and again and also delete your tweet at any time. So with this great amount of flexibility and this great tool in your hand, you have a chance to reach many people without even paying. But how your tweet pays off depends hugely on its content.
These 140 characters if used properly can become a killer marketing copy and create a havoc in the form of traffic to your website. To write a short sweet and really effective tweet we need to keep a few small things in mind. I will explain some of these things which will make your tweet an effective marketing message.
1. Decide what you want to communicate:- Just find out what you want to communicate to your followers and be sure about the marketing message you want to convey to your followers. Write down in brief the essense of your marketing message somewhere. For example the message you want to spread across is that you are giving a 20% discount on all your products to any of your followers who re-tweets and also shares the link of your site in his/her blog.
2. Write the tweet in around 80-100 characters and leave the remaining for the URL. Say for the above example I would write the Tweet in this way:- Hot Limited Period Offer - 20% Discount on products to all followers who tweet. To avail click here.
3 Use a URL shortening service to shorten the url size and use the twitter real estate to the fullest. Some of the examples of URL shortening service is http://bit.ly/ etc.
If you start writing tweets do not get too excited and tweet more than what is required. No one is a full time twitter and does not want too many tweets on their phone or account. If you are an individual, you should stick to one or two tweets a day to a maximum of 5 at different intervals. If you are an organization the maximum number of tweets you should not exceed in a day is 10. And remember these 10 tweets should not be all the same, or people will stop following you. If you want to tweet more, make sure you have the topics and things to tweet on. These limitations do not apply on organizations which are expected to send more frequent information to their followers like news broadcasters, sports broadcasters, etc.
So go ahead and write your first tweet which really makes an impact on your followers and makes them to take an action which you want them to.
These 140 characters if used properly can become a killer marketing copy and create a havoc in the form of traffic to your website. To write a short sweet and really effective tweet we need to keep a few small things in mind. I will explain some of these things which will make your tweet an effective marketing message.
1. Decide what you want to communicate:- Just find out what you want to communicate to your followers and be sure about the marketing message you want to convey to your followers. Write down in brief the essense of your marketing message somewhere. For example the message you want to spread across is that you are giving a 20% discount on all your products to any of your followers who re-tweets and also shares the link of your site in his/her blog.
2. Write the tweet in around 80-100 characters and leave the remaining for the URL. Say for the above example I would write the Tweet in this way:- Hot Limited Period Offer - 20% Discount on products to all followers who tweet. To avail click here.
3 Use a URL shortening service to shorten the url size and use the twitter real estate to the fullest. Some of the examples of URL shortening service is http://bit.ly/ etc.
If you start writing tweets do not get too excited and tweet more than what is required. No one is a full time twitter and does not want too many tweets on their phone or account. If you are an individual, you should stick to one or two tweets a day to a maximum of 5 at different intervals. If you are an organization the maximum number of tweets you should not exceed in a day is 10. And remember these 10 tweets should not be all the same, or people will stop following you. If you want to tweet more, make sure you have the topics and things to tweet on. These limitations do not apply on organizations which are expected to send more frequent information to their followers like news broadcasters, sports broadcasters, etc.
So go ahead and write your first tweet which really makes an impact on your followers and makes them to take an action which you want them to.
Monday, June 14, 2010
How to create a great background in Twitter?
It is not required but recommended to have a custom background in your Twitter profile which helps you in the following ways:-
1. It gives you a little bit of real estate to market yourself, your logo, photos, products etc.
2. You makes your followers feel at your home when they come to your profile. It makes you different from all others.
3. In the mind of the users, a custom background creates a credibility for you, if done properly. A good custom background is sure to increase your followers by at least 10%.
In this post I will show you in a step by step way about how to create a beautiful customized background in Twitter.
First you need to think of what you like to have as your background or rather what background would suit you the most. Do not copy other backgrounds because that does not make you unique but rather a copycat. Try to be original and think something creative. Suppose you are a doctor, you may like an operation theatre to be your background or may be a human anatomy. Say you are an electronic engineer, you may like a background with a lot of chipsets and circuits. If you are a software engineer, you may like to have lot of codes in the background. Now this is not the only line to think. If you like bikes or cars, you may put your favorite bike or car in the background. You may even put your photo in background or even a collage of your photos. You may put your best scenery or your best flowers in the background. Literally you may put anything which you like, anything related to you, anything which represents you or anything which you think others will like to see as your twitter background.
Once you are done deciding what you want to put in your background, just create your piece of art in Photoshop. Use your camera to get your original pics to use. If this is not possible search google images for the right one and try not to take any copyrighted images. Do understand that even if you take a copyrighted image, if you change the image to such an extend that it is not at all identical with the original image, this does not amount to a copyright violation.
Once you get the right image you gotto start your editing in photoshop keeping in mind the limitations of Twitter backgrounds. The following are the important factors you need to keep in mind while designing a background for twitter:-
1. The background image is not stretched or shrinked when the screen resolution changes, it gets cropped and a part of the image is not visible.
2. Twitter background is aligned to the left. So the real estate available towards the left is visible in most of the resolutions.
3. Twitter background may look perfect in a particular resolution and really wild in some other resolution. Therefore you need to refer to what percentage of users use which screen resolution. Below are the ways to find this out:-
1. Use your Google Analytics account to find out what most of your users are using. Always try that your background looks proper in at least 70-80% of your user's systems.
2. If you do not use Google Analytics or any such Analytical tool, you may find this data from other reliable sources and surveys. But I can assure you that this data will vary across surveys because people use the data from their own web analytics. Below is a chart of Screen Resolutions from a reliable source:-
Screen Resolutions
1 1024x768 24.44%
2 1280x800 18.94%
3 1280x1024 10.32%
4 1440x900 8.13%
5 1366x768 5.98%
6 1680x1050 5.14%
7 800x600 4.12%
8 1024x1024 2.47%
9 1152x864 2.18%
10 1920x1080 2.06%
The above chart shoes that almost 70% of the users are using the screen resolutions of the first 5 resolutions. So try to make sure that your background is visible properly in these 5 resolutions. If you ensure this, you will find that another 10-20% automatically falls in place.
So always try to optimize your twitter background for 1024x768, 1280x800, 1280x1024, 1440x900, 1366x768.
I am telling you that it is really difficult and almost impossible to make your background look almost the same in different resolutions. But atleast try to achieve the goal of making the main parts of your background visible.
If your background is a repitive one then you are relieved from all this tough job. But if you have specific/ particular images/ text in your background you will need to put some time into it.
Now you might be wondering after reading all this that how do I know whether my background is working or not without uploading!!! There are ways but I would suggest you to upload it into twitter directly using the following steps:-
Log in to your twitter account and go to the settings Tab. Go to the designs sub tab and select a design if you like. But your intention is to be different and therefore I would not recommend you to do so. Just scroll down below and click on change background image. Click the browse button and upload the file which you have designed keeping the above guidelines in mind. The file should be in jpg, png or GIF and smaller than 800KB.
Check whether it is comeing properly in your resolution or not. If it is, you are lucky. Go to your desktop, right click and change your resolution(method depends on operating systems). Check your twitter background with each of the above widely used reolutions and make the necessary changes. Once your background is working with almost all of the widely used resolutions, you are a successful Twitter Background Designer.
In my next posts I will post a live demo of creating a twitter background.
1. It gives you a little bit of real estate to market yourself, your logo, photos, products etc.
2. You makes your followers feel at your home when they come to your profile. It makes you different from all others.
3. In the mind of the users, a custom background creates a credibility for you, if done properly. A good custom background is sure to increase your followers by at least 10%.
In this post I will show you in a step by step way about how to create a beautiful customized background in Twitter.
First you need to think of what you like to have as your background or rather what background would suit you the most. Do not copy other backgrounds because that does not make you unique but rather a copycat. Try to be original and think something creative. Suppose you are a doctor, you may like an operation theatre to be your background or may be a human anatomy. Say you are an electronic engineer, you may like a background with a lot of chipsets and circuits. If you are a software engineer, you may like to have lot of codes in the background. Now this is not the only line to think. If you like bikes or cars, you may put your favorite bike or car in the background. You may even put your photo in background or even a collage of your photos. You may put your best scenery or your best flowers in the background. Literally you may put anything which you like, anything related to you, anything which represents you or anything which you think others will like to see as your twitter background.
Once you are done deciding what you want to put in your background, just create your piece of art in Photoshop. Use your camera to get your original pics to use. If this is not possible search google images for the right one and try not to take any copyrighted images. Do understand that even if you take a copyrighted image, if you change the image to such an extend that it is not at all identical with the original image, this does not amount to a copyright violation.
Once you get the right image you gotto start your editing in photoshop keeping in mind the limitations of Twitter backgrounds. The following are the important factors you need to keep in mind while designing a background for twitter:-
1. The background image is not stretched or shrinked when the screen resolution changes, it gets cropped and a part of the image is not visible.
2. Twitter background is aligned to the left. So the real estate available towards the left is visible in most of the resolutions.
3. Twitter background may look perfect in a particular resolution and really wild in some other resolution. Therefore you need to refer to what percentage of users use which screen resolution. Below are the ways to find this out:-
1. Use your Google Analytics account to find out what most of your users are using. Always try that your background looks proper in at least 70-80% of your user's systems.
2. If you do not use Google Analytics or any such Analytical tool, you may find this data from other reliable sources and surveys. But I can assure you that this data will vary across surveys because people use the data from their own web analytics. Below is a chart of Screen Resolutions from a reliable source:-
Screen Resolutions
1 1024x768 24.44%
2 1280x800 18.94%
3 1280x1024 10.32%
4 1440x900 8.13%
5 1366x768 5.98%
6 1680x1050 5.14%
7 800x600 4.12%
8 1024x1024 2.47%
9 1152x864 2.18%
10 1920x1080 2.06%
The above chart shoes that almost 70% of the users are using the screen resolutions of the first 5 resolutions. So try to make sure that your background is visible properly in these 5 resolutions. If you ensure this, you will find that another 10-20% automatically falls in place.
So always try to optimize your twitter background for 1024x768, 1280x800, 1280x1024, 1440x900, 1366x768.
I am telling you that it is really difficult and almost impossible to make your background look almost the same in different resolutions. But atleast try to achieve the goal of making the main parts of your background visible.
If your background is a repitive one then you are relieved from all this tough job. But if you have specific/ particular images/ text in your background you will need to put some time into it.
Now you might be wondering after reading all this that how do I know whether my background is working or not without uploading!!! There are ways but I would suggest you to upload it into twitter directly using the following steps:-
Log in to your twitter account and go to the settings Tab. Go to the designs sub tab and select a design if you like. But your intention is to be different and therefore I would not recommend you to do so. Just scroll down below and click on change background image. Click the browse button and upload the file which you have designed keeping the above guidelines in mind. The file should be in jpg, png or GIF and smaller than 800KB.
Check whether it is comeing properly in your resolution or not. If it is, you are lucky. Go to your desktop, right click and change your resolution(method depends on operating systems). Check your twitter background with each of the above widely used reolutions and make the necessary changes. Once your background is working with almost all of the widely used resolutions, you are a successful Twitter Background Designer.
In my next posts I will post a live demo of creating a twitter background.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Twitter for organizations.
Twitter has of late evolved as an indespensible tool and a serious part of the internet marketing strategy of any organization or company seeking an online presence. There are several ways various companies are using Twitter to achieve their goals and to keep in touch with their clients or customers.
Many companies has used Twitter in the best possible way. Dell, Pepsi and CoffeeGrounds are some of my favorite cases.
Dell Outlet is one of the division of Dell which rolls out refurbished and custom made products which need to be sold quickly. They found Twitter to be the quickest way to spread the word. Not only could they roll out information about the products, the coupons and the special offers, they started getting reply from their customers. Their customers gave feedback and complaints about their products which helped them improve their service. Nelson, of Dell in an interview with Twitter says that they have booked more than $3 million of sales only with the help of Twitter.
Another Classic Example is of Pepsi who used Twitter to collect feedback from their consumers. They found this consumer feedback very useful and used the data gathered from Twitter to build on their campaigns. Pepsi uses Twitter as one of their customer service tools and also resolves the complaints. Whenever a customer gets offensive they continue the conversation in DM or through E-mail. Twitter has helped Pepsi to create a strong brand loyalty in the form of their huge group of Followers in Twitter.
Coffee Grounds is a coffee shop which is not as big as Dell or Pepsi, but has used Twitter as well as they have done. J.R. cohen the General Manager of Twitter built a list of Followers, but he never thought that his followers will soon start ordering online through direct messeging(DM). He used to send a personal invite to his followers to his coffee shop and then personally met them. This is how twiter helped J.R. get realtime customers and orders.
These are just a few examples of how Twitter can be used by different companies for different purposes.
It does not matter whether you are a decision maker or not of your company, if your company/ organization does not still have a twitter account just go ahead and open one. And then think on how to use it to get in touch with your target group and consumers. Think of ways on how to exploit twitter. And if this clicks you are sure to get a double hike next appraisals.
The first step you need to take before opening the account is just search the name of your company in Twitter without logging in and find out what people are talking about you. Make a report of the important matters that you find from those tweets of people. Start following some of those people who talk frequently about you and appreciate them for it. If they have complaints resolve them.
Now once you are active on Twitter you need to find out ways to bring in more people to follow you in Twitter. The first thing you need to do is put an eminent link in your website saying Follow us on Twitter. Give special offers/ small goodies to customers who start following you in Twitter which will encourage more people to join. Go ahead and give some great offers in Twitter so that they get retweeted. Every time a person re tweets your tweets it gets spread to more people and increases the chances of more people following you.
The next step after you start putting the link of your Twitter account all across your websites, blogs, e-mail signatures, posts, stationery, T-shirts, business cards, product packaging etc and start getting a lot of followers on Twitter, you need to take one step ahead and start integrating the Twitter API in your website. I will write more about Twitter API integration, Background Design and advanced reporting for Twitter business users.
Keep tweeting frequently and dont let the buzz about you go away. But be sure that you do not spam and send in useless or unusual tweets which may annoy your followers. Tweeting a few times a day would be for very active members such as a news channel or a weather forecast company. Other tweeting a few times a week or once in a couple of days is good enough. But if you become too idle and do not tweet even once in a week that may take you out of the minds of your followers.
All you need to do is to create killer tweets by utilizing the real estate of those 140 characters which Twitter has given you. Even though it is less lets be happy and try our best. In my future posts I will also write on how to write killer tweets.
Many companies has used Twitter in the best possible way. Dell, Pepsi and CoffeeGrounds are some of my favorite cases.
Dell Outlet is one of the division of Dell which rolls out refurbished and custom made products which need to be sold quickly. They found Twitter to be the quickest way to spread the word. Not only could they roll out information about the products, the coupons and the special offers, they started getting reply from their customers. Their customers gave feedback and complaints about their products which helped them improve their service. Nelson, of Dell in an interview with Twitter says that they have booked more than $3 million of sales only with the help of Twitter.
Another Classic Example is of Pepsi who used Twitter to collect feedback from their consumers. They found this consumer feedback very useful and used the data gathered from Twitter to build on their campaigns. Pepsi uses Twitter as one of their customer service tools and also resolves the complaints. Whenever a customer gets offensive they continue the conversation in DM or through E-mail. Twitter has helped Pepsi to create a strong brand loyalty in the form of their huge group of Followers in Twitter.
Coffee Grounds is a coffee shop which is not as big as Dell or Pepsi, but has used Twitter as well as they have done. J.R. cohen the General Manager of Twitter built a list of Followers, but he never thought that his followers will soon start ordering online through direct messeging(DM). He used to send a personal invite to his followers to his coffee shop and then personally met them. This is how twiter helped J.R. get realtime customers and orders.
These are just a few examples of how Twitter can be used by different companies for different purposes.
It does not matter whether you are a decision maker or not of your company, if your company/ organization does not still have a twitter account just go ahead and open one. And then think on how to use it to get in touch with your target group and consumers. Think of ways on how to exploit twitter. And if this clicks you are sure to get a double hike next appraisals.
The first step you need to take before opening the account is just search the name of your company in Twitter without logging in and find out what people are talking about you. Make a report of the important matters that you find from those tweets of people. Start following some of those people who talk frequently about you and appreciate them for it. If they have complaints resolve them.
Now once you are active on Twitter you need to find out ways to bring in more people to follow you in Twitter. The first thing you need to do is put an eminent link in your website saying Follow us on Twitter. Give special offers/ small goodies to customers who start following you in Twitter which will encourage more people to join. Go ahead and give some great offers in Twitter so that they get retweeted. Every time a person re tweets your tweets it gets spread to more people and increases the chances of more people following you.
The next step after you start putting the link of your Twitter account all across your websites, blogs, e-mail signatures, posts, stationery, T-shirts, business cards, product packaging etc and start getting a lot of followers on Twitter, you need to take one step ahead and start integrating the Twitter API in your website. I will write more about Twitter API integration, Background Design and advanced reporting for Twitter business users.
Keep tweeting frequently and dont let the buzz about you go away. But be sure that you do not spam and send in useless or unusual tweets which may annoy your followers. Tweeting a few times a day would be for very active members such as a news channel or a weather forecast company. Other tweeting a few times a week or once in a couple of days is good enough. But if you become too idle and do not tweet even once in a week that may take you out of the minds of your followers.
All you need to do is to create killer tweets by utilizing the real estate of those 140 characters which Twitter has given you. Even though it is less lets be happy and try our best. In my future posts I will also write on how to write killer tweets.
How to use Twitter in the best way?
Twitter is a very popular concept in in US and many people tweet regularly. Almost 90% of US population is available online and almost 70% of the online population uses either facebook or twitter or both. This data is not authenticated and is based on a sample survey carried out on over 100 people in the States by some of my Internet Marketing peers. One more interesting fact is that almost 60% of the people who are on Twitter in the US have connected Twitter to their phones. So they get updates from their friends even when they are in the disco, restroom, watching a baseball match or dating in a cafe.
UK is fast catching up US when it comes to social networking. Lot of other countries are also using twitter a lot. But Indians are far behind in Tweeting. Almost 9% of India's population has access to internet which will soon increase to a whopping 15-20%. In that case India will be the biggest market in the Internet Arena and many Online Ventures will soon come up concentrating solely on the Indian Markets.
Ok, all that was just a background and now lets start off with our first post about tweeting. Many of us do not tweet because we do not know how to and why to? Twitter was invented for friends to keep in touch with friends. Dont worry if you do not have hundreds of followers, it is quite natural as nobody else other than your friends and people who know you would be interested in your tweets if you do not tweet on something which is very meaningful to them. If you a celebrity, you are a lucky one, you should go ahead and create a verified twitter account and your fans will start following you almost immediately. In my later posts I will talk about verified account in details. An individual who is not a celebrity or an organization need not have a verified account.
A group of friends may use twitter productively to post updates to all the friends about a particular thing. If 5 friends are working on a project, they may post tweets on the latest updates about the project so that all the others are updated about it.
But then, some use twitter to say that I am yawning, I am sleeping, I am eating etc. which do not make any sense to anyone. Tweeting needs to be done on important events, updates and interesting things that we think others will be interested at. Say I came across a very good website, I may want to share it with my friends, Twitter is a great way to do it. Maybe I got promoted in my job and I want to inform this to my friends, I send a tweet. Or I have uploaded new photos on Flicker, I can send a tweet along with the link. This is how general people can be in touch and utilize Twitter in the best way.
In case you want to be updated round the clock about your group you can also use Twitter on Mobile which is now only available on Airtel Mobiles. Stay tuned on my next posts on how to add your phone to your twitter account and also about how corporates/NGOs and Businesses can use Twitter in the Best Possible way. I will also write an article on the best twitters and how they became the best.
UK is fast catching up US when it comes to social networking. Lot of other countries are also using twitter a lot. But Indians are far behind in Tweeting. Almost 9% of India's population has access to internet which will soon increase to a whopping 15-20%. In that case India will be the biggest market in the Internet Arena and many Online Ventures will soon come up concentrating solely on the Indian Markets.
Ok, all that was just a background and now lets start off with our first post about tweeting. Many of us do not tweet because we do not know how to and why to? Twitter was invented for friends to keep in touch with friends. Dont worry if you do not have hundreds of followers, it is quite natural as nobody else other than your friends and people who know you would be interested in your tweets if you do not tweet on something which is very meaningful to them. If you a celebrity, you are a lucky one, you should go ahead and create a verified twitter account and your fans will start following you almost immediately. In my later posts I will talk about verified account in details. An individual who is not a celebrity or an organization need not have a verified account.
A group of friends may use twitter productively to post updates to all the friends about a particular thing. If 5 friends are working on a project, they may post tweets on the latest updates about the project so that all the others are updated about it.
But then, some use twitter to say that I am yawning, I am sleeping, I am eating etc. which do not make any sense to anyone. Tweeting needs to be done on important events, updates and interesting things that we think others will be interested at. Say I came across a very good website, I may want to share it with my friends, Twitter is a great way to do it. Maybe I got promoted in my job and I want to inform this to my friends, I send a tweet. Or I have uploaded new photos on Flicker, I can send a tweet along with the link. This is how general people can be in touch and utilize Twitter in the best way.
In case you want to be updated round the clock about your group you can also use Twitter on Mobile which is now only available on Airtel Mobiles. Stay tuned on my next posts on how to add your phone to your twitter account and also about how corporates/NGOs and Businesses can use Twitter in the Best Possible way. I will also write an article on the best twitters and how they became the best.
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