Free Ajax Online Course

I was recommended by a friend to check out the 10-week online Ajax workshop by Sang Shin. All the content is in the form of slides that can be downloaded from his website. I find it very useful, and comprehensive. He starts off teaching Ajax from scratch, and proceeds to touch upon every aspect of web development that is associated with Ajax. The tutorial includes theory slides, hands-on code, homework, and a certificate that will be issued on successful completion of the course. Thanks to Sang Shin for all his hardwork.

In the place of Amazing

I'm sick of hearing this word again and again for almost every silly thing. You guessed it right... Its the word "AMAZING". Hey, I am no exception and I use it often too. However, I always love to differ from the rest in every (little) way possible. The choice of words can make a person unique indeed.

I'm sure there are better alternatives to the word "Amazing". Lets start having a peek into the dictionary. Here are some...

• Exquisite
• astounding
• bewildering
• breathtaking
• extraordinary
• impressive
• marvelous
• spectacular
• staggering
• startling
• striking
• stupefying
• stupendous
• ...
  

Flexlists

While browsing thru the web2.0 directory, I happened to visit Flexlists. After getting acquainted with it for a minute, I started to appreciate its use of AJAX, sorting capability, and the export/import feature. I believe there are many possible uses of this. Infact, I've been looking for such a webapp to maintain my 'List of Good Words'. Lucky that I ran into this site!

Some bad English to make you laugh

Its a forwarded article in my inbox. Good for a read, and a hearty laughter

An employee applied for leave as follows:
Since I have to go to my village to sell my land along with my wife. Please sanction me one-week leave.

Another employee applied for half day leave as follows:
"Since I've to go to the cremation ground and I may not return, Please grant me half day casual leave"

A candidate's application:
"This has reference to your advertisement calling for a 'typist and an accountant - Male or Female'... As I am both for the past several years and I can handle both, I am applying for the post.

Another leave letter written to Administration dept:
"As my mother-in-law has expired and I am responsible for it, please grant me 10 days leave.

A friend of mine had written a leave letter to the headmaster:
"As I am studying in this school I am suffering from headache. I
request you to leave me today"

A family friend of ours told an incident of his friend's letter:
"I am suffering from fever, please declare holiday to the school"

Another leave letter written to the headmaster:
"As my headache is paining, please grant me leave for the day".

A covering note:
"I am enclosed herewith..."

Actual letter written for application of leave:
"My wife is suffering from sickness and as I am her only husband at home I may be granted leave".

Letter writing:
"I am in well here and hope you are also in the same well."

Mystic India

Y'day, I watched the movie 'Mystic India' in the nearby IMAX theatre. For the first time, I watched an Indian movie on an IMAX screen, and I just loved it. The IMAX quality is indeed the best, making me feel my presence in Ancient India.

The movie depicts the splendid journey of a 11 yr old kid (Neelkanth) who walked bare-foot across the length & breadth of India in search of TRUTH. It emphasizes the culture, unity, and beauty of India, and its people.

Here is an exerpt from Wikipedia:

Mystic India is a 2004 large format film (commonly known as IMAX format) about India's unique culture, diverse people, and moving traditions. Using the story of the 12,000 km barefoot journey throughout 18th century India undertaken by Hindu priest Swaminarayan (then known as Neelkanth) from the ages 11 to 18, Mystic India is a film dedicated to the universally inspiring message of unity in diversity. As Peter O'Toole states in the film "we walk the same earth, breath the same air...we are a single human family."

The movie is simply superb! and I cannot stop thinking about the determination Neelkanth had at a very young age. One of the enlightening scenes of the movie that caught my attention is when Neelkanth decides to climb the Himalayas, and says "It is FAITH that will show me the way".

Unique strategy to display Ads on websites

I borrowed the basic idea from 'The Logo Homepage' and tweaked it slightly to fit my purpose. The result is a unique Advertising scheme. I would stay in the lines of Zhen Sun, and call it "Logovertising"

LogoVertising is Logo + Advertising. Pay attention, please, it is a term coined by me, Zhen Sun! Honestly, it'd be so cool if the term goes popular and it is associated with me!.

I've put Logovertising into action in my webapp ('Stuff a Blog'). The Logos will be a part of the slideshow on my front-page, and will also be displayed in the 'Logo Surf' page. This way, my webapp can support many advertisers with a bare minimum pricing scheme. This infact preserves the good looks of my website, and does not annoy the users. Its a total win-win situation!

Check it out yourself... Here are some screenshots.

The Logo Homepage

I came across the site 'The Logo Homepage', and was pleasantly surprised by how the creator of the website marketed his idea. Its a plain and simple idea... We pay him, and he puts our logo on his site's frontpage.

On reading its FAQ page, I learnt that its been created by a college student, who wants to make it BIG in life. He mentions that he was inspired by the UK million dollar student Alex Tew, and explains how he came up with this idea.

In spite of his reasoning, I still wonder why would anybody pay him to get their logo on his site. There are many other sites that will do it for free such as Web2logo, 'BuzzShout LogoSurf', ...etc. Anyways! whatever be the reason, I appreciate the kid for putting his idea into action, and making it work. Infact, I could find nearly 200 logos on his frontpage.

Launching my mashup 'Stuff a Blog'

Today at approx 8:30 am, I launched my mashup web-application titled 'Stuff a Blog'. My parents, and my sis were the first ones to use it. Infact, they were online at the time of my launch. I posted the release notes (blog post) in my blog to mark the occasion. My timing could'nt be better as today is my father's birthday. Everyone congratulated me, and felt very happy.

Later today, I sent an email to all my collegues, friends & relatives asking them to check out the webapp. I hope this will be my first step towards the creation of a full-fledged web2.0 application. Wait and see...

Stuff a Blog

A little while ago, I wanted to create a webapp using Ajax and mashup APIs... just to catch-up with the buzz. Having worked on it for more than a month, its now time to disclose it.

I introduce to you, 'STUFF A BLOG' - Enrich and extend your blog post.

Often, I felt the need to enrich my plain vanilla blog-post with relevant content available in the net. I created this webapp that can do exactly that. Just type in your keywords, select your content, and get the HTML in a snap.

In simple words, it makes it easy for a blogger to create content-rich blog posts. It works by using several mashup APIs to generate high quality content relevant to the keywords.

Here are a few things that we could do with my webapp...

1. Yahoo Map Image - After a vacation, embed a Yahoo Map
   
2. Flickr Pics - Decorate with Flickr Images of the vacation spot
3. Yahoo News - Append the latest news related to the subject in hand
4. Yahoo Answers - Support discussions with Yahoo answers (questions)
5. Amazon Product Details - To help write a review of a recent purchase, include the pic & details of the product from Amazon
6. Opinion Icons - Express our standpoint in the form of icons
7. Site Search - Add a List of previous related blog posts, as a footnote to the current post
8. Tags - Extract the tags / keywords automatically from the blog-post

All this is FREE! and No Login required...

Just drop by for a quick glance, or try-it out yourself.
View Samples - one two three