eWebBuddy - Your Online buddy - Tech Talk for Non-Techies

Zenni Optical – Economical Option for getting Quality Glasses

Piyush Agarwal — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 19:27:50 +0000

This post will come as a little surprise to all the ewebbuddy readers as there is hardly anything technical here. But again, I have always believed that useful information should always be shared and also that’s why we are friends, to help each other. This post will be more directed to my Brooklyn friends.

Online optical business is growing everyday with online stores providing you the ease of meeting your optical requirements. One of them is Zenni Optical which is known to supply quality eyeglasses at very economical prices.

More about Zenni

Zenni Opticals is a name that I came across while reading a blog post on examiner.com – Cheap eyeglasses are a reality. Though I don’t wear glasses, most in my family do and the topic also seemed to be of interest business wise.

Through the post I came to know that Zenni provides exceptional and quality glasses/lenses at down-the-earth prices. Where other major stores sell their glasses at $100+, Zenni glasses start from a mere $8 and that too of the same quality! Your question now would be, “But how?”, well read on..

How does Zenni provide glasses at such low cost?

Well, ya even I was wondering the same. How can they provide the same quality glasses at a price so low. The secret(not anymore) behind this is that they get the glasses manufactured in their labs in China making sure the quality is maintained. This also leads to disadvantage though that the glasses generally take around 15-20days to reach you.

eWebBuddy Review

Though I have not tried the service, I did my own research on the net and I was impressed by reading reviews of so many satisfied clients who have been using these glasses for years now. Though they did point out some disadvantages which include:

no choice of designer eye-frames
required to know ones PD (pupilary distance) number

So going by these reviews, it seems Online optical biz is gaining momentum as there are many other players who are joining in and Zenni Opticals strives to one which is both economically and quality wise best!

If you are user of Zenni Opticals, do leave your review below..

Google’s Commercial for Superbowl 2010

Piyush Agarwal — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 09:07:51 +0000

Well most would be aware that SuperBowl day is one of the most important day for Americans. All of america goes crazy and gets glued to the TV. I am not a big sports fan and never have been able to catch a Superbowl broadcast but what interests me are the numbers that run behind this day specially in the ad-world.

The Advertisement spots for this day reach a new peak in prices every year. Companies spend millions on making and broadcasting ads on this day as this sport garners the maximum reach and you can be sure that your product registers to all those so many eye-balls glued to the screen…

This year, among the many brands whose commercial went on air was GOOGLE. Yup, surprising coz they do not seem like a company who actually need to advertise. But that’s what they did! A 30 second slot costs around $3Million on this day and this commercial is around 52seconds. That quite a chunk of money.. Though Google would not have had to spend anything in making the ad itself coz anyone with a little video editing training can do this…but the advert is pretty interesting..

Check out the advert below and keep in mind…..well leave it, you will figure it out yourself!

R.I.P IE6 – Funeral Pictures

Piyush Agarwal — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 09:29:33 +0000

[SOB]

Well, hope you guys remember that recently a IE6 funeral was organized by Aten Design Group. Oh! And what a grand affair it was… The old man’s soul would have loved it thoroughly…

Here are some pictures from the event:

Do write your last words to the great browser here…May its should rest in piece.

For more pics please check out Aten Design Flickr group

If you are reading this via RSS feed, you may not be able to view the picture. To view, click here.

iPad or iFail? Is Apple iPad really worth the wait?

Piyush Agarwal — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 06:37:38 +0000

Okay, this post may come as a surprise to many of those apple devotees, but its something even they cannot deny completely. Since the iPad was unveiled by Steve Jobs, many have had mixed reviews about the product. We have read and seen what it is all about, how different iPad is or rather how cool it is! But is iPad really a success story?

There are so many short-comings to the iPad, following are a few to name:

No multi-tasking option. C’mon guys its the 21st Century!!
No support for Flash! Still trying to play the monopoly game??
No camera/webcam. Duh!!!
Like Kindle even this will have a Store and they will try to make it stuck to only special format pdfs. Monopoly game again..
Looks sleek but just a stretched version for iPhone. Do you really bank it to be innovative?
No hand-writing recognition or option to take print-outs!

And the worst reason, what is so great about iPad? Why so much hype, so much brouhaha..?? What have iPad come up with so good that people can’t stop talking about it..? I would say nothing! Here is an image I found on the net, creator unknown but it says it all:

Here are some posts on other blogs about why iPad is actually iFail:

A 16-year-old’s view of Apple’s iPad: iFail

Netizens dub the Apple iPad as ‘iFail’

So, what do you think??

Buy the tee above. Image source – here

Apple iPad Unveiled by Steve Jobs

Sony Move Shocased – PlayStation’s answer to Wii

Piyush Agarwal — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:03:00 +0000

This is in, hot news and latest. Taking a leap into the motion gaming segment which till now has been pre-dominantly owned(in a way) by Nintendo’s Wii, Sony announced its next PlayStation addition, Sony Move!! This will be exactly what Apple iPad’s launch did to Amazon Kindle.

Initially it was rumored to be named as Arc, Sony Move, the motion game controller was showcased today at GDC 2010. Though some may say, its a copy of Nintendo’s concept, I think this is for good. But before what I think, more about Move…

What is Sony Move?

Sony Move, is a PlayStation 3 add-on which will enable gamers to play motion controller games on PS3. This is something that has been missing till now. Many were looking forward to waiting for Project Natal from Xbox.

How does it work?

PlayStation Move will work through the Playstation Eye – a camera device. This device is already available in the market. It will detect the precise movement, angle and position of the motion controller. It has been told that the camera will map accurate movements and the sensors are super-sensitive which includes gyroscope, accelerometer and magnetic field sensor. The sphere head of the controller changes colors.

There is also a sub controller with keys and analog controller similar to Wii to control directions, etc. These controllers connect to the Playstation via Bluetooth-wireless technology and will have rechargeable batteries.

Games?

There are a long and promising list of games lined up for Sony Move from many gaming companies. Resident Evil 5, Sports games, Eye Pet and lot more under development. Nintendo has not been able to offer a lot of games for the gamers till now. Guess that will change with Sony Move.

What would be the price?

Sony’s Move will be released later in the year and will be priced at around $100. UK price not confirmed yet and have no clue, when it will hit India.

Info and Picture Courtesy: Newshopper

Check out the Advert below:

Bloombox by KR Sridhar – Answer to Green Clean Power?

Free Plastic Surgery at Pasam Hospital from March 23rd

Piyush Agarwal — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 07:26:04 +0000

Pasam Hospital, Kodaikanal is having a Free Plastic Surgery camp from March 23rd to 4th April’2010. A team of german doctors would be coming down to treat the patients.

Who is eligible?

Anyone who is affected by any kind of burn injuries could register for treatment at the camp. In addition to that, those with ailments in eyes, ears, nose and lips by birth may register for treatment at the camp.

There will not be any sort of cost involved for the patients. So do let all your friends, family members or anyone you feel would find this information useful know about the camp. Please share this information via facebook, twitter, email, etc and spread the awareness. Who knows, you may end up making someone’s life beautiful.

To Register

Please contact in person or make a phone call or drop an e-mail

Address: Pasam Hospital, M.M. Street, Kodaikanal
Phone: (04542) 240778 and 240668
e-mail: pasam.vision@gmail.com

Do share this information with as many people as possible. You can check the Hindu article about pasam free surgery.

Domain For Sale – www.IPLKrazy.com – Valid for 1 year

Piyush Agarwal — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 06:43:20 +0000

DLF IPL Season 3 is here and the cricket fever is catching up. Here is the match schedule. People have started buying tickets to the show and all set! What about you? Have you been thinking about having a blog, share your cricket fever, make friends and cash on the IPL rush?! Then why start from scratch?

I am not a big cricket fan, but I could see the blogging value to IPL and that’s what led me to setup IPLKrazy.com last year. I had already experimented IPL Blogging during season 1 through a free domain iplupdates.co.cc. So when IPL Season 2 came, I was pretty confident in pulling off a self hosted site with a .com domain. After a lot of searching and thinking, IPLKrazy.com was bought and it did pretty well.

There was a legitimate amount of traffic, back-links and it got listed in major Search Engines in record time. Google Adsense and Adbrite where used as advertising mediums and they gave good returns. But as its true with any business, there should be passion to drive it. And that was what was lacking in IPLKrazy. I had the drive to market the blog, also had another author to pen articles but not being too inclined towards cricket, lacked the passion the sport deserves.

So, in order to see IPLKrazy become a great platform for cricket enthusiasts to share their love for the game, I am planning to sell the domain this year. I own more than 25 domains but this is the 1st time I am selling one of my domains and there is no business motive behind it! Its just that I want the domain to be bought by someone who can do justice to it! I will be giving away the database for all the articles added to the site till date. So you will not loose on any of the google indexed pages.

Coming back to stats:

DomainName: www.iplkrazy.com
Indexed: Yes, with Google, Alexa, Yahoo, Bing, ASK, etc
Backlinks: From some blogs/websites
Article Database: 48 Posts
Valid upto: Feb 2011

If interested, please mail me your bids to destinyspride@gmail.com. Bidding starts for as low as $9.99. Paypal required to enable money transfer.

IIM Ranchi website domain taken over – LOL

Piyush Agarwal — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 10:09:58 +0000

This is something I caught when going through my tweets and found it quite amusing. Someone has been really hurt and sad about IIMs…and IIM Ranchi’s domain has been taken over. What? How? Why? is not known but this sure did gave me a good laugh.

Psst - Follow me on twitter @onlyyourspiyu for more interesting stuff.

Following is what you get when you access www.iimranchi.in – Someone is obviously quite pissed off. Hope someday, people do not start taking over domains of Government services and parties!

Note - This does not mean that IIM Ranchi website has been Hacked. Its simply a case of a domain being bought by someone which most likely could have been the domain for IIM Ranchi following in the footsteps of IIM Shillong. Since there is no restriction on buying domains. Its simply a case of first-come-first-serve basis and also shows how ignorant Indian officials can be when it comes to getting education out there online!

Have fun with SketchPad – Online Free Drawing Tool

Piyush Agarwal — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 13:22:37 +0000

The past few posts have been a little towards the serious note with Indian Paypal Issues and Paypal Resolving it with Purpose Code, so I thought that its time to have some fun. And I was more than happy to have stumbled upon SketchPad.

What is SketchPad?

With a sleek and cool interface, it is exactly what is seems from its name. Its like a drawing board with controls similar to that of Photshop/Gimp. You can just access the site and paint your imagination out. Its quite funky with a lot of features and surprising super fast. That is because it is not flash based at all.

The Technical Side

Sketchpad is based on Canvas which was developed by Apple for their platforms. Its a HTML5 product and current works with only on the modern browsers. IE users will have to wait a little longer, as the IE version is still under development.

The application has been designed by a team ColorJack and it seems they are currently also working on a cool photosharing tool, MugTug.

Gooooo Paint

So, what are you waiting for. Simply go and paint your heart out. You can save and share your creations. Do share your designs here. Don’t feel shy!

Also, take this post as a late Holi treat from eWebBuddy….after all whats life without colors!

New Paypal withdrawal Instructions – Using Purpose Code

Piyush Agarwal — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 19:00:52 +0000

Here’s the latest update over the Paypal India Issue Resolution. Couple of days back, it was told that Paypal has cleared everything with RBI and will now be implementing new withdrawal policies to mean Indian Regulations.

Though I did provide some Paypal alternatives, who wouldn’t like all Paypal issues to be resolved and start using the account as usual. Currently, all withdrawals from Paypal for Indians have been suspended. Paypal is in the process of implementing withdrawal policy changes, and this service will be available again from March 3rd.

In a latest post on the Paypal Blog, it has been put how Indians can withdraw money from their accounts. The details are mentioned here:

What is the new Paypal Withdrawal policy for Indians?

Under the new policy, users will be asked to enter a new field, “Purpose Code”. This information is required under the laws of India in order to identify the nature of cross-border merchant transactions.

How can customers pay?

Now personal payments and transfers have been barred for Indians. So payments can be accepted only via the following methods:

Using the Pay for Purchases (Goods or Services) tab
Completing PayPal checkout at your website
Responding to PayPal “Request Money” instructions (invoices)
When you instruct PayPal to withdraw your PayPal balance to your bank account in India, you will be required to provide a purpose code for the transaction.

What is a purpose code?

So, a purpose code defines your purpose behind enabling the cross-border transaction. The code will depend on the nature of your business or services provided. Note: This code is different from Importer Exporter Code (IEC) issued by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. You can find out which Purpose Code is for you via the following table:

Code	Category	Description	Who should be using it
P0101 / P0104	Export of Goods	Value of export bills negotiated / purchased/discounted etc. (covered under GR/PP/SOFTEX/EC copy of shipping bills etc.)	eBay merchants, jewelers, sellers of collectibles and other such products through eBay and your own websites / catalogues globally.Please note: Cross border shipment of goods and services for which you file GR / PP / SOFTEX / EC forms only should be processed with this code. Use P101 if Deutsche Bank is your banker and P0104 if you bank with any other bank If you have any questions, please check with your bank to help you with the same.
P0301	Travel , Hospitality and Tours	Purchases towards travel (Includes purchases of foreign TCs, currency notes etc over the counter, by hotels, hospitals, Emporiums, Educational institutions etc. as well as amount received by TT/SWIFT transfers or debit to Non-Resident account).	Online Travel Agents, Airlines, Railways, Buses, Taxicab Services, Hotels, B&Bs and other travel / tourism related sales through PayPal
P0801P0802 P0803	Information Technology	Computer Information Services. Hardware / Software / Data Processing consultancy/implementation	If you are an independent / freelance coder / hardware consultant or data processing service provider, or a small business providing such services for websites globally, please use these codes.For all IT related consulting services where you know you do not need to file a SOFTEX form, please use the appropriate code. 801 for hardware consulting, 802 for software consulting and 803 for data management and processing consulting services
P0805P0806	Content and Journalism	News Agency and Subscription services	If you are a freelance journalist / blogger / news aggregator please use this purpose code for withdrawals.If you are a newspaper or an online news aggregator for websites overseas, please use the appropriate code from these two. 805 if you a freelance journalist, and 806 if you are a newspaper / aggregator
P0902	Licensing of creative works	Receipts for use, through licensing arrangements, of produced originals or prototypes (such as manuscripts and films)	Artists, designers, other creative service providers where the principal revenue mode is license fees, please use this code.If you produce creative works which you license out for entities overseas, licensing revenues may be classified under this purpose code
P1004	Other services	Legal Services	If you are providing outsourced law related services
P1005		Accounting, auditing, book keeping and tax consulting services	For accounting consulting and accounting services
P1006		Business and management consultancy and public relations services	Management / brand consulting and management services can be exported with this purpose code
P1007		Advertising, trade fair, market research and public opinion polling services	Marketing/ brand consulting / logo design / event management services can be exported with this purpose code
P1008		Research & Development services	If you are an outsourced research and development services provider based in India, receipts can be inwarded through this purpose code
P1009		Architectural, engineering and other technical services	Any other technical services such as eTutoring, education and other services you render over the internet via web conferencing tools or similar channels, please use this code for your withdrawals

If you are not sure about your code from the table above, you can contact the Paypal customer care, by logging in to the site.

Also, Paypal cannot be used for Charity and Donations. It has to be used for Goods and Services.

Hope, this will resolve most of the issues and everyone will be able to withdraw money. Based on the purpose code, banks may tend to ask for Invoice details. Withdrawal resumes from 3rd March’10.

People who were using Paypal for personal remittances, cannot use it so further. They can get back their money deposited via Cheque withdrawal. Hope you found this information useful, do leave your queries below.