HackersRepublic

I have just finished and delivered a project called as Virtual Desktop and Backup Utility which is a web based system which allows users to upload and download files as well as to share their files with other users in the system as well as by giving email links. The project is done entirely in PHP as the backend and Javascript and CSS for the GUI. The project uses MySQL as the backend database. (more…)

I just logged in to orkut yesterday and saw a lot of new changes being introduced in Orkut. Orkut has introduced a new tagline feature which was much needed. The tagline feature enables its users to have a tagline for themselves which they did previously by editing their name or having their tagline instead of the name! Now with new changes lets hope this phenomenon reduces and the users put their real names and thus provide some sort of authenticity to the user base of Orkut. So, thats a good improvement that Orkut has introduced; however, the tagline currently can be added from the Profile page and if you add Orkut applications then the profile page takes forever to load and sometimes even makes the browser unresponsive. I think Orkut needs to take of that or it is going to piss off a lot of users.

Orkut also late yesterday night(Indian time) introduced Orkut applications based on the openSocial APIs in which big names like MySpace and Yahoo are participants. The arrival of orkut in the social apps market was obvious keeping in mind the overwhelming response to Facebook applications. However, I think orkut needed to sort out their infrastructure( thats surprising since Orkut is owned by Google). That is because since yesterday I have had too many of those annoying “No donut for you” messages that I havent been able to login to orkut since yesterday. The only reason that I see for this denial of service is due to extra load on infrastructure due to orkut applications.

I will be testing a few of Orkut applications and how these applications are responsive and will write more on it. So, do check back for updates and as usual comments will be appreciated.

Microsoft is out with a great range of products; right from various developer tools to new operating systems which they claim to be breathtaking! So, I have launched a special Microsoft Category in which I will write about various Microsoft products as I review them day in and day out and if possible also have tutorials about them.

One good this is that they have ample trial versions of the new products that they have launched and hence I will have ample scope to test them.

So, all I could say is stay tuned because I will have lots more to write in the days to come!

There has been sometime since this blog is up and hence I thought maybe its time that I should know all those big blog networks know that I have a blog about Internet and Technology tip at http://hackersrepublic.com. Thats why i registered at two of the most popular blogging networks Technorati and MyBlogLog and the best way that they offer me to support my claim of ownership of a blog; hence this post!

You can add me or Subscribe to me on My Technorati Profile.

Technorati Profile

You can also add me or join my MyBlogLog community below.

Its been a while since NetBeans 6.0 is out and it is the best IDE for Java and Java based developement. The good thing about it is although it is so good; it is still open source, free and supported by Sun. The netbeans.org provides free DVD of the latest netbeans release.

I must admit that when i filled up the form i was initially skeptical and less hopeful. I knew thousands of people would order a free netbeans DVD but i still filled up the form and to my amazement I today received the netbeans DVD and that too with in 10 days. I was pleasantly surprised that inspite of thousands of requests( thats my guess) they managed to send the DVD in 10 days.

So, all of you who don’t have the bandwidth to download all the netbeans packages, you can also order your free netbeans DVD by just filling out this form. And some of you who are new to Java or do not know the entire capacity of Netbeans, you can read the entire features of Netbeans here.

So, go ahead and Do your Java; i definitely am going to!!

Facebook applications according to estimates have reached more than 65 million; that is 2.3 applications per person. That is an enormous amount of applications created in relatively short time. This new piece of statistics made me think the amount of code involved in writing these applications as well as the fact that facebook might have started a new industry in itself.

A web based service or a website being so famous so that it gives rise to a new industry in itself is not we have witnessed for the first time. Google did it by giving rise to the Search Engine optimization industry as well as giving a nitrobooster to the Online Advertising industry where Google currently is a market leader with more than 60% share.

There are several new businesses who’s business models are based on Facebook applications and there are several of them who have reworked their business model to suit Facebook applications. However, one this that is really hurting the Facebook platform is the fact that there are very few serious applications out there on Facebook. Most of them are either games, or sending crazy animations and illusions to your friends and even more of them are blatant SPAM operating under facebook platform.

Therefore, I would conclude that although number of applications as well as the number of users and the growth rate is on facebook side, it still has a long way to go with respect to applications and with respect to creating an industry in itself.

Lets hope it does and I have some more freelance work to do on Facebook applications.

        Gone are the days when all we used to have about a TV show is a feedback address or at the most a website the TV channel and off-late the website of the TV show. As the web has advanced so has the interaction between the television and the world wide web. These days there are communities and groups on social networking sites of almost all popular TV shows; where in apart from information about a show or characters of a show you will be able to post comments and discuss with other group members.

The best example of this phenomenon is the MTV Roadies TV show shown on MTV on Saturdays between 7 PM and 8:30 PM. The show is so popular that there is an official community of the show which is administered by MTV on Orkut; a very popular social networking site in India.

Another example being the love or hate communities of various characters of a TV show. The best example is a TV show called Dil mil gaye which is another popular tv show among teens has about 214 communities on Orkut about the show. These communities are about the lead pair on the show, about the lead male actor, about the lead female actor and hate communities relating to the villain of the show as well.

I am very happy about this phenomenon. I am happy to see that so many people in India have access to cable Television as well as the internet; although the internet penetration in India is less that 10%. But that is understandable keeping in mind the large population of the country.

So lets hope that this trend continues and let the be more interaction of the internet and the television media.

Cheers!!

It is a ever-lasting debate. Weather its Orkut or Facebook. I know as of now the current leader is MySpace with more users that both Orkut and Facebook which has 67 million users each. However, with in contest of this article we will keep MySpace out of the league because it is not very popular in the country that I come from which is India and hence I havent used myspace to the extend of blogging about it. So, in this article we will concentrate on Orkut or Facebook– Which one is better today and which one will be more beneficial in the future?

I know this question is like predicting the future but listed below are a few things which i think will make a big difference on how these two social networking giants shape up.

1. Financial Backing: Orkut has the great “Google” by its side and is completely owned by Google. Facebook on the other hand has got a lot of trust from technology biggies including Microsoft which recently evaluated the Facebook to around $15 Billion. This is an estimate based on what Microsoft paid for a percentage at Facebook. So, in terms of financial backing both the companies are on par with each other.
2. Social Networking Structure: Orkut is more open in nature and for many years anyone could read anyones scraps and had several security and privacy features missing. But these flaws have been repaired to somewhat extend but as far as i am concerned Facebook has a better social networking environment. It is closed in nature with ample amount of control given to the user on what can be viewed from his profile. Facebook has an excellent feature called as “Limited Profile” which gets facebook brownie points on the social networking structure.
3. Platform: Orkut is still working on an application platform where as the application platform for facebook is quite advanced and extremely popular. In fact the facebook application platform has given rise to a new breed of programmers who are efficient on programming API’s and frameworks like that of Facebook. Google has still not completely released the openSocial API but when it comes to API’s Google is really good. So, right now Facebook is ahead when it comes to user made applications which drive most of its traffic but Orkut will definitely follow suit.
4. Ad serving: This is one thing in which Facebook fails miserably despite having an advantage. The major advantage that Facebook posses is the closed platform; hence the ads can be specifically and more accurately targeted. However, I don’t know why facebook has failed and I hope they rectify it. On the other hand Google uses its “legendary” Ad serving platform to serve ads on Orkut. Google’s Ad serving platform(Google Adsense and Google Adwords) is ofcourse tried and tested and are way ahead of Facebook in this regard. So, Orkut scores ahead of facebook in the adserving platform.
5. SPAM: New type of websites like Social networking brings in new type of SPAM. Orkut is a clutter with SPAM messages in Orkut Communities and “Send a message to all” messages that get appended to scraps. Facebook on the other hand is a clutter of application invitations and application requests. Almost all applications on Facebook ask their users to invite other members to the application. So, when it comes to SPAM, both facebook and orkut are evenly placed. Thank god that Facebook now introduced a “ignore all” feature otherwise it was a big trouble ignoring every single invitation.

So, listed above is the difference between Orkut and Facebook and i think both of thema re evenly poised for a competition of sorts. I am sure it will be a great story to follow and see how these social networking giants evolve.

       ibibo.com has a lot of advertising these days coming on TV with some of the advertisements being very innovative ones. I for all these years have been on Orkut and Facebook recently that too because of Facebook applications and was quite contented with my social networking activities. However, after all these advertisements  on TV  i must say i was tempted to visit ibibo and  have an account there.  So, I finally registered myself for ibibo and will be there for sometime. Lets see if the system turns out what it claims to be or is the system itself a “baldi” as it has branded itself as “Dont be a baldi” touchline.

Lets see how ibibo turns out for me and hence there will be a ibibo review coming soon!

Microsoft recently has cut Vista prices for the home and the ultimate edition and the price cuts for different countries will be different based on their economies. The price cuts in the united states for the home edition will bring the price of the Vista home edition down to US $ 129 and that of the Vista Ultimate edition to US $ 299.

There is also a Service Pack of Vista coming up in the mid week of march; so all of you who havent bought vista until now due to the excessive price can do it now because i think $129 is a value for money price. However, it is still very important to check for the compatibility of your hardware with Vista before you buy the Operating system because Vista is know to have compatibility issues.

Nothingbutsoftware.com/bargainstation.com offers excellent offers on Software products. They have got excellent offers on Microsoft Vista as well.

Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate Full Version Windows Vista Ultimate offers all of the features found in Windows Vista Home Premium, including Windows Media Center, Windows Movie Maker with high-definition support, and Windows DVD Maker. It also offers all of the features found in Windows Vista Business, including business networking, centralized management tools, and advanced system backup features. And Windows Vista Ultimate has all of the new security and data protection features that help take Windows Vista to a whole new level of dependability.