Indian software developers prefer Orkut

Orkut, Google's social networking site, used by twice as many software developers in India, over Facebook or MySpace

Orkut, the social networking site from Google, is used by twice as many software developers in India than either MySpace or Facebook according to an Evans Data survey of over 300 software developers in India.

Indian developers showed much more interest in social networking sites in general than do developers in other parts of the world, and 73 percent of them said they had used Orkut, as compared to 35 percent for Facebook and 32 percent for MySpace.

"While Facebook has been heavily promoting its platform to developers, Google's Orkut has quietly taken the largest share of developers in India," said John Andrews, President and CEO of Evans Data Corp. "Capturing mindshare with developers in fast growing emerging development markets like India and Brazil gives them a strategic advantage going forward in further cultivating this very important community."

Google's Orkut has become so popular with developers in both Brazil and India that they have recently released new domains specific to those countries.

Other highlights from this in-depth tactical marketing survey of over 300 software developers in India include:

* Technology or platform vendors are considered the most credible source of information on emerging technologies by Indian developers.
* Almost half of all Indian developers, 47 percent, get involved with coding ontests.
* Over half of Indian software developers are single, and are much younger than their counterparts in North America or Europe.

Source: CIOL

Helvetica: The Movie

Designers everywhere rejoice! If you haven't heard, there is a film out (now available on DVD) called Helvetica: A Documentary Film by Gary Hustwit. If you can't figure out by the aptly named title, it is a documentary about, you guessed it, the typeface Helvetica. The movie was released in 2007, celebrating Helvetica's 50th birthday, and no other typeface is more deserving of such a film than good ol' big H. (Bonus points for counting how many times I can use the word "typeface" in a movie review.)

As the fallback typeface for every modern designer it gets a lot of flack from some as being a bit of a copout, but others insist that there is no need for any other typeface because Helvetica is, well, perfect. I, being a fan of the latter viewpoint, have to say that I loved this movie (especially since Helvetica Neue UltraLight is the best font ever). It gives a great background to the history of the typeface and has interviews with many world renowned graphic designers about their thoughts on its use. A lot of big name designer-rockstars are in it such as: Massimo Vignelli, David Carson, Michael Bierut, Paula Scher, Stefan Sagmeister, Eric Spiekerman, Neville Brody, and many more. The views expressed range from Helvetica being the embodiment of the modern corporation, to it being a simple and elegant solution for any design communication problem.

The film has a great soundtrack and very nice cinematography that incorporates an example of the typeface in nearly every shot.

Type nerds will salivate over this film although I doubt it's one to have your non-artsy friends come over and watch. But it is a nice, palatable introduction into what us crazy designers think about for the better part of our day, while watching movie credits, looking at food labels, reading magazines, browsing book titles or anything else with legible type printed on it. A good designer can never shut off that part of their brain so try to get your non-designer friends to start noticing things like where Helvetica is used and WHY its important and you will no longer be the annoying friend who is talking about critiquing the motion type during cheesy TV commercials. Helvetica is really THE typeface of the modern era; it's everywhere you look and I challenge you to walk down a city street without seeing it used somewhere.

If you want to check it out for yourself search for it on Amazon.com or pop over to the film's main site at www.helveticafilm.com

And some clips:

Ball Balance - Play Game Online

Description: Fill the tray with balls - and don't tip it! Spread the balls out; three in a row will zap away. Go to it!
Instructions: Mouse to select a slot. Mouseclick to drop your ball.

Yahoo, MSN, ICQ, GTalk - Chat without the messenger

http://www.meebo.com/ - Another site for office users.

Has your office banned chats like Yahoo, MSN, AIM or ICQ, Jabber or GTalk? Of course since they have banned then the system engineers have even not installed these chat clients on your machine right? No problem. Just visit ‘Meebo’ and you have all these chat clients opening inside the same browser. Just type your user name and password like you would do under the chat client you wish to chat with.

Once logged in, the page refreshes and inside the internet window itself, you will be able to see your chat client and chat. Chat windows open inside the browser itself so you have complete privacy and what’s more it can’t be tracked by the office cyber software.. yipeeeee.

I must say this is the greatest website. Above all no need to download and install the particular messengers. What do you say. Isn’t it a noble idea. Terriffic. I just can’t explain in words. Now chatting for all.

Source: ZeroIn

How To Protect Your Kids from Internet Dangers

Learn how to protect your kids online. The Internet can be a dangerous place for children, but armed with information and parental control tools, you can protect your children from these internet dangers. There are tools available to help parents control spam in their email as well as pop-ups while surfing on the Internet. Chat rooms, instant messaging and email are places your children have the opportunity to see objectionable content. Internet safety and safe surfing are important aspects of protecting your children. Please go through this to learn how to keep your kids safe from porn, spam, popups and more.

Kids Top 10 RulesFor Staying Safe
1. Never give out identifying information such as your address, phone number, school name, town, etc. in chat rooms, forums, forms or questionnaires.
2. Never agree to meet anyone in person that you have met online.
3. Never reply to any email, chat messages, or forum items that make you feel uncomfortable.
4. Never send information or pictures to anyone over the Internet that you do not know.
5. Never give your password to anyone except your parents, no matter who they say they are.
6. Be aware that people may not be who they say they are. Someone who says she is a 10-year old girl may really be an older man.
7. Never click on links in emails from people you don't know.
8. Don't order anything or give anyone credit card information without your parent's permission.
9. Always tell your parents if someone upsets you or makes you uncomfortable.
10. Always follow your parents' rules regarding computer use.

Internet Dangers
Most parents assume that pornography and sexual predators are the only dangers their children face on the internet. While these are certainly a huge concern, there are other dangers lurking in the dark corners of the net. These include the following: areas that foster hate crimes, sites that teach children how to make bombs and other weapons, forums to discuss the best ways to commit suicide, sites that encourage the use of drugs, and even areas where children watch others take drugs via webcams. The John Walsh Show recently aired an episode where teenagers watched as a young man died from an overdose of drugs. As parents, you need to know the dangers that exist on the internet, and arm yourself with the tools and rules to prevent your child from becoming a victim.

How Prevalent Are These Dangers?
Statistics show that 20 percent of children have been solicited online and 25 percent have received unwanted pornography online. Of the 3 million unique users under seventeen that visited adult sites in September of 2000, 21.2% of them were under the age of 14. More than half of teenagers have visited Internet sites containing pornography, offensive music lyrics, gambling or messages of violence or hate. Federal online child pornography cases jumped from 127 in 1995 to 510 in 1999. In 1998 the FBI opened up 700 cases dealing with online pedophilia, most for posting child pornography. By 2000 that figure quadrupled to 2,856 cases. One third of parents in households with Internet access said they used filtering or blocking software.

Warning SignsTo Watch For
* Your child quickly changes what is on the screen when you walk in the room.
* Your child stays up late at night talking to friends online.
* You notice links to sexually-explicit or inappropriate sites in the history section of the browser.

Tools To Help You Protect Your Kids
Common sense and parental guidance are the leading tools for protecting your children from online dangers. However, it is unreasonable to expect that parents can know what their children are doing at all times. There are many Internet safety tools available to help you monitor your children's pc activities. Explore the links on this page to see what products are available that will help you protect your child from danger.

Which Tools Do I Need?
The links to Internet Safety Tools on this site perform different kinds of functions to help you keep your children safe. Blocking or Filtering software prevents children from accessing inappropriate content. Filtered ISPs are internet service providers that offer protection against objectionable Internet web sites as well as unsolicited and inappropriate emails. PC Time Monitors regulate the times of day and length of time your kids have access to the pc. Activity or Keystroke Loggers keep a log of all communications between your child and others, so that you can later monitor what they have been doing. PopUp Blockers prevent unwanted windows popping up as many of these are porn related. Spam Blockers prevent your children from receiving spam email, which often advertise X-rated sites. Kid Friendly Portals are a safe place for your children to be when searching the internet. It is often best to use a combination of these types of tools to ensure safe internet usage.

Source:protectyourkids

Open Source Image Manipulation Program: GIMP

I couldn't forget The GIMP if I'm listing open-source software. For those who don't know, that stands for The GNU Image Manipulation Program.

It's basically Photoshop, but for free. There have even been some people who switched from Photoshop to GIMP because they like it more. I use it for almost all of my image editing. I occasionally still use MSPaint for things like pasting screens, but otherwise, it's the GIMP.

So, what can it do? Even if you don't want to take the time to learn to use it, you can still do a few awesome things as soon as you open it. Even without creating a new image, you can open up some awesome effects. It's got some presets for creating buttons, (like for a website,) it's got about 25-30 presets for creating logos, (for example, I used the neon logo creator to create the logo for "The Blog",) and it's got some other things like pattern generators (like camouflage) and web page themes.

But, of course, GIMP's strength is not in it logo generators, but in it's editing options. As of right now (version 2.4.1) there are 33 different tools for editing images, and far more options available in the menus. Some of my favorite tools:

*Fuzzy Select/Select by Color:
These both let you select parts of the images with similar colors. They each do something slightly different though, and I use both about the same amount.

*Foreground Select:
Using this tool, you can select an item separate from the background. It's a lot like keying in videos, but you don't have to be in front of a green screen or anything (although something like that would help). I've used this for a few things, one being removing my head. :p

*Crop Tool:
You may think "Bah. Every image editor has crop!", but in GIMP, the way they do it is REALLY easy to use.

*Bucket Fill:
Yeah yeah. Everything has bucket fill, also. But I do use it a lot. Also, the colors don't have to be EXACTLY the same, (like in MSPaint,) but you can set the threshold for similar colors.

*Airbrush:
This is really helpful for creating textures that I use in Blender. Unfortunately, I can't make anything good since I'm not using a tablet. :p

*Clone:
Yay for the clone tool! VERY helpful. I use it for removing dates from photos (and stuff like that).

*Smudge:
After fixing some things, it helps to get rid of the sharp edges with the smudge tool. :)

And those are just some of them.
Some of the other awesome things that the GIMP can do? Layers, for one. I LOVE layers. I use to have to do all my editing in MSPaint, and I would have to save a new image for practically every change I made, or to edit in "layers".
Another awesome thing: practically infinite undos. It always annoyed me how MSPaint only had 3 undos, so now I can know that whatever changes I want to make can be reversed.
There's also a ton of different filters and changes you can make to an image, so... yeah.

The only downside I know of: long loading time. It takes like 2 minutes to start up. Other than that, it's amazing!!!

Website
Download
Features

NOTE: I just found this out: Apparently, someone has created a hacked version of GIMP that looks and behaves more like Photoshop, called Gimpshop. So, if you use Photoshop and you want to see what GIMP is like, you might want to consider using Gimpshop.

How to write or type in Malayalam?

These days lots of Malayalam blogs are coming up. For a new comer it’s not easy to type in malayalam. So im listing out some sources here on where you can type in english and get the words converted to malayalam.

English to Malayalam Convertors

• Google Indic - “When it’s from google its good” if you are one such person, this is a pretty nice convertor. You can type in English and accordingly Malayalam will be shown on the screen. Eg: Namaskaram will be shown in Malayalam.
• Malayalam ONline - Similar to Google Indic. Some people find it the best! Give it a try and let me know your view.
• Ilamozhi - Another English to Malayalam Convertor Online.
• Download Varamozhi Offline - Writing your Malayalam Blog might become easy if you have it downloaded.It’s the offline version of Malayalam Online.
  
• Varamozhi
• Mozhi Keymap - How to Guide
• Vishalon Malayalam Type Pad
• Deepika Malayalam

If you have more resources please do drop a comment out here.

Source: justascrap

How to Blog

What is a Blog?

A blog is a web site where you write brief articles about your selected topic on a consistent basis. New articles appear at the top, so your visitors can easily read what's new. Some will comment on your articles or link to them or email you. Blog software makes it easy to frequently add new articles to your blog. Blogs publish information in different formats, including audio, photographs, cartoons, or even video. However, many are simply text pages.

Your blog is whatever you want it to be and there are no formal rules about what you write about on your blog. Some blogs are personal diaries, while others are a daily pulpit. Still others can be collaborative spaces, political soapboxs, breaking-news outlets or a collection of links. Click here to see some examples of blogs.

How is a blog different from a traditional Website?

A blog is more interactive than a traditional website because it constantly updates information, may allow comments and is part of a larger blog community (sometimes called "Blogosphere" - where bloggers (people who have blogs) link and/or talk to each other.

Should I consider starting my own blog?

Anyone with access to an internet connection and something to say can blog. You should definitely consider starting your own blog if you want to communicate with others on a public platform, and the thought of engaging in a dynamic and ever-changing discourse excites you. The best part about blogging is that it is your blog, and it often is a reflection of your interests. So if you like music, your blog could be music based. If you are worried about the changing nature of politics in your country, your blog could write about it.

Publishing a blog takes time and patience. If you don't have the time, energy or can't commit, don't get scared or put off. Stick to it for a while, and see how it works. It gets easier after a while once you're comfortable with the basics and feels less and less like work. By the time you've published your first five posts, it'll be a breeze.

What makes a blog successful?

• A Clear Message
• An Obvious Need
• A Clear Goal
• A Strong Commitment
• An Audience

What are the different parts of a blog?

Most blogs have these elements:

1. Posts: Each blog is broken into a series of posts or articles. Think of them as pages in a book. Each post has it own unique web address.

2. Title: Each post has a title.

3. Category: Some blogs include categories so that articles on similiar topics can be grouped together. Think of it like index in a book.

4. Comments: Most blogs have a form at the end the post where readers can write a comment or engage in a dialogue with you, as the author, about the post.

5. Lists of Links: Some blogs includes a list of links to other blogs on the right or left side of the page, sometimes organized in different categories. This is a called a "Blogroll." Typically these blogs have some connection in terms of the content.

6. Syndication: Many blogs have the ability to easily distribute their content. This makes it easy for readers to read new content without having to visit the blog to check for updates.

7. Trackback: A trackback is a way to notify a website when you publish any entry that references it. When you send it a trackback, a link with a short excerpt of your entry will appear on the referenced website.

I'm ready to start my blog, what do I need to think about before set up the software?

Here are some questions you need to think about:

• What do I want to write about?
• What topics will my blog cover?
• Who am I writing for?
• What should I name my blog?

What if my country does not have a good environment for freedom of expression? Is there a safe way for me to blog my opinions?

You should definitely read this post then.

Is the stuff that I write or put up on my blog - mine? Isn't it possible that someone can copy it and claim it to be theirs?

There are various ways of owning the material that you publish on your blog. One way is to set up a license, and depending on the kind of persmission you wish a user to seek - you can set up various filters in the license. See: Creative Commons.

Where can I get myself a Blog?

There are quite a few free services available for blogging. There are two services that fairly easy to use: blogger.com and wordpress.com.

How do I set it up?

Will think in terms of examples - and provide a running commentary to the screenshots..

Wordpress: How to set it your blog How to post

Blogger How to set up your blog How to post

What are some good resources for me to read after I master the basics?

This post titledEverything you wanted to know about Blogging but were afraid to ask has a good list of guides and specific how-tos that you can look for online. A brief list here

1. Some basics of blogging explained at the Education section of the Guardian. Brief article followed by some links. Brief and easy to understand for beginners.
2. An excellent short article on How to set up and run your nonprofit's own digital soapbox at Techsoup. Topics covered: Starting a blog, naming it, turning comments on, personalizing, interacting with other blogs and archives.
3. Diego's Weblog has an excellent step-by-step guide to blogs in two parts. Part 1 includes basic on blogs, how to get one, blogging on a free platform, blogging on one's own server, comments, linking etc. Part 2 deals mostly with syndication.
4. How to build an audience for your blog.
5. A Blogging 101 in Q

Source: Global Voices