BStir now supports Unicode

Today, I added support for Unicode characters in BStir. Its a good news for Non-English bloggers... Enjoy blogging!

Techtribe - The way to go!

Techtribe is a social network for Tech enthusiasts, entrepreneurs, and innovators. It is well fine-tuned for serving its tech audience to connect & develop. This site makes it easy for developers to collaborate on some idea, create a startup, or make a combined effort to develop a product.

Its so much fun to meet many techies, and discuss what can be developed on the technical front. On this site, I met several entrepreneurs and felt very motivated on learning about their ventures.

Since several weeks, I've been asking my friends to collaborate with me on a web project and lay the foundation for a startup... But none showed enough interest in entrepreneurship. When I first read about Techtribe and its mission, I knew it was god-sent for people like me. I quickly registered, and actively participated in a few tribes to appreciate the full potential of the site. I found many new friends, and met like-minded aspired youngsters with the same zest & zeal as mine. Thanks to Techtribe!

Reservation - A political game in India

Reservation has become this decade's best foxy political game played in India, and the timing could not get any worse. The Reservation bill is passed at a time when India has to prove its quality and workmanship in the international market, as it is about to touch unreachable heights in the service industry. Getting to such higher grounds is an accomplishment... However, retaining the position by maintaining quality of service complements the previously made accomplishment. It is possible only by creating an undivided merit-rewarding society.

But the current politicians who support reservation are leading India towards a shallow slope. As this blogger (Krishna Chaitanya) has said, all the protests by the educated class are now in vain. An ideal alternative to help the SC/ST classes is at the base level by training them to be competent.

Hmmm... what a true social injustice. Its a shame that India has taken the path to create a class-based society. I still wonder how India can claim to be a true democracy when most of its learned class is against the govt policies.

Check out my earlier blog post on Reservation in India.

An overview of Stuff-a-Blog

Just emphasizing on what Stuff-a-Blog currently has to offer... Its a quick & easy way to enrich your blog. Stuff-a-Blog's BMash and BStir are simple, useful and yet fun for bloggers to please their reader community.

BMash
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.

BStir
Any blog can make use of this service to surprise its readers with a random post from the archives. Give a new life to all the excellent posts you've written in the past...

All this is FREE! and No Login required.

Launching 'BStir' - Surprise your blog readers

Today, I launched a new service called BStir as a part of Stuff-a-Blog series. This is simple, useful and yet fun for bloggers to please their reader community. Any blog can make use of this service to surprise its readers with a random post from the archives. Give a new life to all the excellent posts you've written in the past...

Its easy to customize the look and feel of the random post to include just the title, or wrap it with a border. You can further set keyword criteria to control the selection of random posts, and limit the number of posts to display.



Here is all that you have to do... Goto BStir, and enter your blog-site in the form. Get the code, and Paste it in your blog. This service is based on the results from Google Blog-search.

You can find samples of BStir on this page (Its titled 'Musings in the past'). Hope you all like it! Enjoy blogging~

India should make ends meet

India has abundance of resources; be it money, population, or knowledge... but they are unevenly distributed. You can find illiterates & masterminds, super-rich & beggers, industrialists & unemployed ones... all living in the same society. The demand of the hour is a middle-man who can connect the extremes, and create a balanced society. Lets discuss how internet can serve as a middle man.

There are many generous people (including NRIs) willing to donate money for a good cause to India. But they are finding it hard to discover the right channel for directing their funds. There are 2 subjects of concern for the charity:

1. Discovering a genuine organization that does the good works as they claim.
2. A way to channelize funds (money) to that organization.

To overcome the above concerns, we can create a wiki-style directory of all organizations in the country, and classify them based on location, purpose, and size. It should include all charity organizations, history research centers, old-age homes, orphanages, etc... This is a group effort, and not a one-person job.

This wiki-style site should also empower the readers to channelize funds to a particular organization electronically. We can in-turn create a community of donors and recipients. The launch of 'Sanskrit Voice' is my first attempt to serve the Indian heritage via internet. You can expect more such experiments to come...

Google's reference to Failure

Google's results are very interesting sometimes... Try this one out.
1. Go to Google ( http://www.google.com )
2. Type in the word "Failure"
3. Instead of clicking "Google Search," click "I'm Feeling Lucky."
4. See search results.

You might have seen such things before... This one adds to the list.

Stuff-a-Blog looks new again

Today, I revamped my webapp 'Stuff-a-Blog', and gave it a refreshing look & feel. The front-page display elements are re-arranged, icons replaced, and the site is now prepared to compile many more blog tools. A formal name 'BMash' is given to whatever its been doing so far... i.e. mashing up content for a blog-post. Hmm... Its a clear indication that new blog tools are coming soon to Stuff-a-Blog. Enjoy Blogging~

Make sense of your wrist watch

When I came to US, one of the first things I observed was that not many people carry wrist-watches with them. Initially it seemed strange, but made lot more sense when I gave it a thought. Most people cling on to their cell phones always, and these are good for time-lookups. Then, why have wrist watches? Here is the answer from 'Computer World'

The only remaining reasons to wear a wristwatch are habit and status. Though obsolete, a wristwatch still conveys an old-school reliability. Businesspeople wear them for the same reason they still wear ties. and for the same reason banks still have big steel vaults even though money is now just digital information. It's iconic theater.

Well... yeah! To me, its just a habit. I also get a feel of being time-conscious, and utilizing most of my time. Just a psychological aspect of life. Being a computer professional, I seldom use my wrist-watch for time lookups. Anyways, for those who want to make more sense of their wrist watch, check out these ultra-cool gadgets in the place of your plain old wrist watch. Of course, you need a heavy wallet to own these...

• Thanko FMP3 Watch
• MP4 Watch
• Bluetooth MBW-100 Watch
• Laks Baby Boom Wristwatch
• Seawatch UV
• GammaWatch

Of all the above, only the first two interest me... The first one plays music, and the second one plays music & video. Thats after-all what you need (among the ones you don't need).

Promoting Sanskrit in Himachal Pradesh

Himachal Pradesh is taking efforts to elevate Sanskrit to new levels. Its a very thoughtful action by the state officials in the right direction. Several thousand Sanskrit manuscripts yet to be translated are found in India. Its also the need of the hour to digitize these ancient manuscripts, and protect the valuables. Way to go Himachal Pradesh...

Himachal Pradesh will promote Sanskrit and explore possibilities to computerise the language to modernise the learning process, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh said here Sunday.

Source:Telugu Portal

Launch of 'Sanskrit Voice'

Today at 8:55 am, I launched a non-profit project called 'Sanskrit Voice'...

Recently, I felt the urge to create a project that serves one of the earliest of ancient languages. After working on it for a couple of weeks, 'Sanskrit Voice' is launched today to mark the occasion of my 25th birthday. Check out this article to learn why we should care about Sanskrit!



If you are wondering what this site is all about, here you go~
1. Learn Sanskrit glossary at your leisure using RSS
2. Read & Share articles or resources related to Sanskrit
3. Campaign the learning of Sanskrit

Purpose!
1. Learn, and spread awareness about Sanskrit
2. Create a community of Sanskrit lovers

P.S.
Please support the 'campaign to spread Sanskrit' by adding a Campaign-button to your site. Lets all join hands and revive Sanskrit for the modern world.