Manikandan

Have a Space Ride in a "Balloon"

2011-08-24T05:09:00.000-07:00

Here is a chance for the people who like to have a ride on space.

A new helium balloon of 129 meter diameter is designed which could fly 36kms above the soil. It could reach the stratosphere of Earth.

The five hours trip includes three hours of cruise in between the black sky and the human planet(Earth). A separate cabin is provided which could accommodate four passengers and two pilots. The cost for the ride is 90,000 pounds per individual. Its cheaper compared to travel in a rocket to space.

Get more about the ride......

Most Creative Bar Code Designs

2011-06-27T06:12:00.000-07:00

Most of the commercial products we buy now a days consists of bar codes. These bar codes hold the details about the product in which it is stuck.
Here are some of the creative bar codes designed by some experts.

BEER POURING

The numbers flowing out of the bottle looks great.

PIANO

The codes form the strings of the piano.

NOODLES

Bar code looks like the noodles in a chopstick.

CAMERA

This looks cool when attached for a photography product.

SURFER

The designers have created these bar codes with no limits.

These are really Stunning!!!!

A New Day - A New Born

2011-06-25T12:35:00.000-07:00

Today is an unforgettable day for me and my friends too. The day started fantastically. We planned for a visit to Kodiveri dam.

KODIVERI DAM

A total of 13 members (Gopal, MariappaRaja, Naveen, BalaGuru, Siva, Prabhu, Chilambarasan, BalaMurugan, Aberam, Madhu, Dhinakar, KumaraVel and me) reached there at 11a.m.
We enjoyed a lot by playing in water for more than an hour. Had lots of fun over there.

Later we had a photographic session, after which we had spent a small time on the water falls. We played by throwing a tied towel in water. The game went fine. It was a long throw by Prabhu and I was supposed to go and pick it from the water. Unfortunately I entered into a higher water mark region. When I asked Madhu to help he out of there, he too get into trouble. Naveen was staring at us for a while. He couldn't identify the situation. None of our friends found that we are in trouble until Madhu gave a signal by smashing his hands in the water. I was pulled into and pushed out of water twice before our friends come to help us. After going close to our death we were pulled out of the high water mark by MariappaRaja and others. Finally every one is safe and the towel too!!! It was a rebirth to me and Madhu.

MADHU (right) & ME (left)

I never believed in God, but my friends. So its better to

"Thank Friends instead of Thank God".

Help Blogging Alive

2011-05-17T20:00:00.000-07:00

I was new for blogging before 6 months when I posted my first blog without any prior knowledge about it. Since it is my 33^rd blog, I should have known something about blogging for which I’m here to share.

Blogging is the traditional method for sharing information. During 1992, all the internet users used to blog their ideas. Some of the blogging sites such as WordPress and Blogger provided the platform to blog. It is a place where you could share your ideas with no limitations.

As the clock moves on, number of internet users increased rapidly. When the social networks like Facebook and Twitter are introduced, people were attracted by them rather than blogging. The percentage of bloggers among the internet users get reduced. Though the number of people blogging didn’t reduced yet. It is because the limited characters provided by Facebook and Twitter are enough to express their thoughts clearly. And the readers also feel comfortable on reading them instead of reading long passages in blogs.

But still some internet users have passion on their blogging. A statistical report shows that there were about 500 blogs approved per month and 700 were to be spammed during 2008. The blogs to be approved raised to 600 and spammed about 500 blogs. This shows that the people show more interest on blogging posts more as they progress and the uninterested persons stopped posting their blogs.

Even now there are a number of users who create their blogs and hadn’t yet posted their first blog on it. The idea of blogging increases only when we work on it. There are also some people who blog for revenue purpose. They earn more on blogging than going to a 9-5 job. Some people marry blogs to social media to increase the traffic to their blogs just by posting the links of their blogs on social networks. Creating more traffic to your blogs brings it on the first page of web search in google, yahoo and other similar search engines. They do it just to become a familiar person.

Whatever may be your reason to blog. Just do it vice and have your own passion on it.

Lets combine together to help the tradition live long!!!

EMOTIONS Rule the World

2011-05-08T11:14:00.000-07:00

I feel great to speak about emotions. Because there is no life in this universe without emotions. Emotions are when we cry, smile, laugh, shout, fight, etc. The life of a human begins with a cry. Emotions look good when we smile, laugh and even cry for our loved ones. In those beautiful moments we are being controlled by our emotions. But there are some other emotions that lead to problems.

We used to get anger soon for no reasons. These anger just invents more problems and sad moments. Anger is the reason to lose our loved ones. Even sometimes leading to murders and suicides. These are the situations in which we have to control our emotions. Why can't our mind think for a second, "What could our anger give back?". If we do think, then our problems will reduces to half.

When I speak about emotions, the thing that comes to my mind is the emotions of death. It is a known fact that "All the souls that are born in Earth will rest one fine day". But we don't accept a death happily. Just as a sentence has no meaning without an end, human life is not full filled without a dead end. So we should be ready to accept death in the same way as birth.

Its my view on EMOTIONS.. Share your ideas as comments.

Control your emotions and don't let it control you!!!

Illiteracy-The Cause for Poverty

2011-05-04T05:57:00.000-07:00

A family in INDIA is said to be below the poverty line when their family income is around Rs.365/month in a rural area & Rs.583/month in an urban area. There are around 20crore families who live below the poverty line. When I discussed about this in my class, my friends told that the reasons for poverty are over population, unemployment, corruption, black money, irresponsible politicians, illiteracy, etc…
The reason which I thought as the major cause for poverty is ILLITERACY. Because, when a person is educated he could gain the ability to deal with other reasons indicated above.
According to the census report of 2011, the literacy rate in INDIA is 74.06%. It is considerably less in West Bengal, Orissa & Jharkhand. The poverty level in INDIA is 27% during the year 2009. It is considerably high in the above states where the literacy rate is high. Thus we could get a clear idea that poverty depends upon the literacy rate.

How to overcome this problem?
We people used to blame others and our Government for such problems. We always used to see in a view that “What the country have done for me?” We failed to remember that “we all together form our country”. It’s the responsibility of all the educated INDIAN to take care of our people’s welfare.
We, the educated INDIANS should spread awareness about the importance of education to the illiterate people. We could also do some financial support for the education of poor people. We could teach them, educate them and make THE POVERTY-LESS EDUCATED INDIA.

Share your ideas as comment. Let the educated Indians get aware of it!!!

India in World cup 2011

2011-04-03T05:01:00.000-07:00

It was a great tournament this year. It started with 14 teams. The top 8 teams entered into the Quarter-finals. The Former world champions Australia lost against India in Quarter-finals.

India beat the former champions

India,Pakistan,Srilanka and Newzealand are the 4 teams qualified for Semi-finals in which Srilanka beat Newzealand to reach finals.

India had a tough Match against Pakistan and won it in excitement and reached finals.

Though the Srilankans were the better side than India in the tournament, India made it with the tremendous batting performance of Gambhir and Dhoni...


Thats the winning Shot

Here is the man of the tournament......

Trophy for his tremendous performance

The dream come true for the Master Blaster...

Dream for 21 years!!!

Her are our Champions with the trophy.....

The real CHAMPIONS

INDIA ROCKZZZZZZ!!!!

IPL 2011

2011-03-22T07:16:00.000-07:00

   The 4th session of Indian Premier League is going to start on APRIL 8. Ten teams including Pune and Cochin are participating in this session. A player should not play more than 14 matches is a new rule added in it.
   The tournament includes 70 league matches and a total of 74 matches.

VIEW SCHEDULE

Save Your Online Data From Bugs

2011-03-01T09:46:00.000-08:00

            We're increasingly using cloud-based tools for work and communication such as Twitter, Facebook, Google Docs, Microsoft Office Live, Tumblr, Wordpress, Blogger, Posterous, Flickr, Picasa, and on and on.
The data from those online tools could be erased by some software bugs. So you should save those data from these bugs.
            But that doesn't mean you should forego a solid back-up plan for all your online data. If the worst ever does happen, and a free Web service dumps your stuff permanently, the only response you can reasonably expect from these companies is: "oops, sorry."
            With that in mind here are a few suggestions on how to add an extra layer of security in case the cloud lets you down one day.

Gmail and Friends

The easiest way to create a local back up of your e-mail is to use a basic POP3/IMAP e-mail client such as Mozilla Thunderbird, Apple's Mail app, or Windows Live Mail. If you don't like using an e-mail client for daily use and prefer to use the Web interface instead, just fire up your desktop program on a regular schedule. Even if you launch your desktop client once a month, you will at least have the bulk of your mail stored offline.

Facebook

Facebook recently launched a handy feature that lets you export almost all of your Facebook data into a handy ZIP file. All you have to do is visit Facebook's export tool and click the download button. Then you'll get an e-mail when your file is ready to download to your desktop. This is an ideal task to do once a month or even once every season. You don't want to lose all those mobile uploads should the worst happen, and it makes it much easier to move your data around should you wish to leave Facebook one day.

Blogging

The best way to save all the hard work you put into your blog posts is to save them on your hard drive before posting them to the cloud. Many blog writing programs are compatible with the most popular blogging platforms such as Blogger, Wordpress, or Tumblr. Mac users can use a blog writing program such as MarsEdit ($39.95), which saves a back-up of every blog post you write using the app. For Windows users, Microsoft's free Windows Live Writer will save your posts written using the program to a file in your Documents folder called "My Weblog Posts." Most blog services also have an export feature to download all the posts you've already written.

Twitter

You could subscribe to your own Twitter feed using a desktop RSS reader such as NetNewsWire for Mac or FeedDemon for Windows. But most desktop programs limit how many items you can download via RSS. Another option is to try a free service such as TweetBackup and Tweet Scan Backup, which let you grab your past tweets and export them to your desktop. Keep in mind these services can only grab a chunk of your most recent tweets (Tweet Scan Backup only grabs 1000). If you tweet more than that or are coming close to that limit, make sure you back it up before all your 140-character witticisms are inaccessible.

Backing-up your data may be a pain, but if you want to maintain control while still enjoying Web-based services you owe it to yourself to back up your stuff locally.

OSCAR AWARD WINNERS

2011-02-28T03:52:00.000-08:00

Major Categories:

Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale (The Fighter)

Best Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo (The Fighter)

Best Actor: Colin Firth (The King's Speech)

Best Actress: Natalie Portman (Black Swan)

Best Director: Tom Hooper (The King's Speech)

Best Picture: The King's Speech

Best Animated Feature Film: Toy Story 3

Best Cinematography: Wally Pfister (Inception)

Best Documentary Feature: Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs (Inside Job)

Best Adapted Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network)

Best Original Screenplay: David Seidler (The King's Speech)

VIEW MORE!!!

TEDxTirupur - Tickets Under Sale

2011-02-25T04:43:00.000-08:00

        TEDxTirupur is an event that is concentrated on Ideas worth Spreading with a theme "The Big Questions of the NEXT Generation".
         The event is on 27th March, 2011 !!!
         Registration for TEDxTirupur is opened. There are only limited tickets available.Wanna be a part of the event??? Get your tickets now!!!!

HURRY UP !!!

VNC for Remote Access

2011-01-28T07:01:00.000-08:00

Virtual Network Computing(VNC) is the virtual desktop access system using RFB protocol. It transfers the keyboard and mouse actions between server and viewer. Multiple viewers could connect with the same server.

In the normal method of operation a viewer connects to a port on the server (default port 5900). Alternatively a browser can connect to the server (default port 5800). And a server can connect to a viewer in "listening mode" on port 5500. One advantage of listening mode is that the server site does not have to configure its firewall to allow access on port 5900 (or 5800); the onus is on the viewer, which is useful if the server site has no computer expertise, while the viewer user would be expected to be more knowledgeable.......READ MORE

DOWNLOAD RealVNC

DOWNLOAD Team Viewer

DOWNLOAD UltraVNC

A.R.Rahman-"The Man of Oscars"

2011-01-27T09:24:00.000-08:00

A.R.Rahman proved for one more time that "he was born for awards...!!!"
Rahman once again nominated for two OSCAR awards for this year...No doubt he holds two Oscars this year as well...
Let his hunt for awards continue.........

VIEW MORE DETAILS...

TEDxTirupur 2011

2011-01-23T06:56:00.000-08:00

TEDx event s going to be organised n Tirupur at March2011. I'm proud to be one of its organisers..
Don't miss the event..

View website for more detals...

Team India for Worldcup 2011

2011-01-19T03:57:00.000-08:00

The team for world cup 2011 starting at Feb19th was announced by BCCI. The team is strong enough to defend for the world cup. The team includes 4 phase bowlers, 3 spinners, 1 all rounder , 1 keeper and 6 batsmen.
It was surprising to hear the middle order batsman Rohit Sharma, form at the time was out of the squad. The young leg spinner Chawla is given a chance to prove himself.

We hope INDIA will win the World cup

Squad: MS Dhoni (capt & wk), Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Praveen Kumar, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Munaf Patel, Piyush Chawla, R Ashwin

Challenge for Bloggers!!!

2011-01-05T03:19:00.000-08:00

Over the New Year holiday, WordPress issued a challenge to its blogger-users: Write and publish one post a day (or a week) throughout 2011.For non-professional and personal bloggers, writing and posting every day can be a tall order, so the good folks at WordPress have launched The Daily Post, a guide with daily tidbits of “inspiration, encouragement and advice about blogging.”
Any user who wants to participate in the challenge simply needs to state his intentions then tag posts with “postaday2011″ or “postaweek2011″ throughout the year.
Blogging more is a fairly common resolution among the digerati; in fact, it recently came up in a poll we conducted about tech-related goals for 2011. Quite a few users said they plan to consume less social media and create more content of their own in the coming year.
WordPress’ Daily Post seems like a good enough place to start. Its suggestions for evocative post topics are great springboards for thoughtful writing.
WordPress users also have the “Press This” bookmarklet for quick, Tumblr-like posting and a slew of mobile apps for on-the-go blogging, especially great for posting images.
Have you set a blogging goal for 2011? Will you be participating in the WordPress daily or weekly challenges?

Sachin's 50th ton!!!

2010-12-21T23:44:00.000-08:00

The master blaster proved himself again...!!!
One more record added in the history of cricket by "The LITTEL MONSTER".
Sachin Tendulkar, the first ever crickter to score 50 centuries in the history of test cricket.

To silence those who say Sachin plays for records, the master himself trashed those talks on Sunday. "I never think about records. I love to focus on preparation and trying to give more than 100 per cent on the field. I love to play, try and keep improving. If I would have been chasing records, I would not have opted out of few ODIs," said Tendulkar.

However, one can't run away from the fact that Sachin, in fact, is the 'Record Man' of cricket with almost every run-making record having his name inscribed on it. To add to that series, here is a list of some interesting records related to Sachin's Test tons.

- Most 100s against an opponent: 11 v Australia.

- Most 100s in a calendar year: 7 in 2010.

- Most 100s on a ground: 5 at Chepauk (Chennai).

- Most 100s in a country: 22 in India (the most he has scored outside India is 6 in Australia).

- Most 100s on a particular position: 43 at number 4 (he has hit 5 at No. 5 and 2 at No. 6).

- Most 100s under a captain: 15 under Mohammad Azharuddin (in 47 matches).

- Result-wise summary of 100s: 20 in matches won, 19 in matches drawn and 10 in matches lost.

- Break-up of 100s at home and abroad : 22 at home, 28 abroad.

- Innings-wise break-up of Tendulkar's 100s: 20 in first innings of match, 17 in second innings of match, 10 in third innings of match and 3 in fourth innings of match.

NO ONE THERE TO STOP HIM.........

The Diamond Mobile!!!

2010-12-13T00:53:00.000-08:00

This is the first ever mobile phone designed with diamonds. It consists of 500 diamonds including 2 home buttons.

The cost of this mobile is 5 million pounds.Stuart Hudges (38), lives in Liverpool, in England, designed this gorgeous mobile phone on the order of a businessman known as an Australian billionaire.

Go and get more details on it..........

Chrome OS - Releases Today...

2010-12-08T23:33:00.000-08:00

Chromium OS is an open-source project that aims to build an operating system that provides a fast, simple, and more secure computing experience for people who spend most of their time on the web. Google releases its beta version today.
Click here for more info....

Wikileaks on Trouble...!!!

2010-12-08T23:18:00.000-08:00

Wikileaks is near to its end.. Wikileaks founder "Julian Assange" was arrested on 7th Dec for a suspected rape on Sweden. This is due to the release of the secrets of US. But other officials of Wikileaks stated that his arrest won't affect their release of US secrets.
But Wikileaks need some halp as their website being blocked . For more details go to Wikileaks.

Better Blogging Via Mobile phones...!!!

2010-12-02T21:33:00.000-08:00

The statistics indicate that small businesses with corporate blogs receive 55% more web traffic than small businesses that don’t blog. That’s why it is so important for companies to explore the possibility of adding blogs to their marketing and social strategies.
Blogging isn’t just writing posts. You have to choose images for your posts, monitor your blogging platform and analytics, market your blog and constantly think about new post ideas.
To keep your blogging activities flexible, there are several iPhone apps that you can use. This allows you to keep up with your blog no matter where you are.
These 16 apps will help you do just that. Add your favorite apps for blogging in the comments below.

Blogging Platforms

BlogPress ($2.99) provides complete mobile blogging, including text, images and video. It supports multiple platforms such as Blogger, WordPress, TypePad and many more.
If you don’t need to have multiple platforms at your disposal, there are some apps for specific blogging platforms available. And many are free.
WordPress for iOS (free) allows you to moderate comments, create or edit posts and add images or videos. You can use this app with both a WordPress.com or self-hosted WordPress.org site.
And if you have a Squarespace site, there’s an iPhone app (free) to create and manage your Squarespace site entirely from your iPhone. It also offers “seamless importing” from WordPress, Blogger, TypePad or Movable Type sites.

Images and Video

Strong images or videos increase reader interest and engagement, so they’re an important part of every blog post. And there are several apps that can help you find, format and insert them on the go.
Photobucket Mobile (free) allows you to upload photos and videos to your blog, Facebook or Twitter. The app also provides access to a searchable media library, with uploading capability and album management.
Adobe Photoshop Express (free) provides one-finger photo editing. You can crop, adjust, filter and add effects or borders on the go.
CellSpin ($1.99) offers the ability to capture video, photo, audio or text and upload it simultaneously on all of your social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc. This could be an easy way to send out photos of the team at a company event to your entire network (at one time!).

Marketing Your Blog

Once you have your blog up and running, you have to start marketing it. Some of the best ways to market your blog are via other social media sites.
Twitter (free) provides you with the same real-time search and trending topics you enjoy on your desktop.
If you are looking for more organization, Tweetdeck (free) provides the ability to create groups, manage multiple accounts as well as sync to your existing desktop Tweetdeck account.
Facebook (free) gives you access to not only your personal Facebook account but any company Pages to which you’re assigned administrator access, as well. So you can check your Pages and respond to comments.

Analytics

After spending time marketing your blog, it’s only natural to want to see the traffic numbers. Analytics App ($6.99) provides complete mobile access to Google Analytics.
Analytics Pro ($6.99) also provides access to Google Analytics, along with features to export data into reports, as well as grouping and sorting of accounts. In addition, it provides an intuitive date picker for setting the date range.
For a quick check on numbers like subscribers, Twitter followers and page views, Ego ($4.99) offers a single dashboard to check the statistics that matter to you.

Idea Gathering

Bloggers are constantly looking for their next post idea. To make sure you don’t forget your best ideas, consider a note-taking app.Evernote (free) allows you to create text, photo and audio notes that will sync with your PC, Mac or Web. A nice feature is Evernote’s search capability, so you can store and catalog a lot of thoughts without losing them.
If you’re already using Microsoft OneNote, MobileNoter (free) can be used as a standalone app or synced with OneNote. It allows you to create notebooks and share your information. This could be very handy if you have a multi-contributor blog and want to exchange ideas among several people.
As the name implies, Simplenote (free) offers a straightforward, easy note-taking app that syncs with your computer. It’s a great place to jot down a list to reference later.
And while we’re talking about ideas, don’t forget to set up Google Reader on your iPhone so you can read your favorite blogs when you’re out of the office. Other blogs are a great source of inspiration.
Writing a blog is hard work. But it doesn’t have to be a burden. Finding a few apps that can make managing your blog a bit easier makes all the difference. What apps are you using to manage your blog? Leave a note in the comments.

New Stylish Mice for your computer!!!

2010-12-02T20:37:00.000-08:00

As the technology grows on, we prefer compact and stylish devices for our use. Here are some compact and stylish mice for your computers.

1. Microsoft Arc Mouse

The wireless Arc mouse is designed for portability — it folds down to 60% of its full size — without losing any functionality of a desktop mouse. Aesthetically, it’s gorgeously sleek and curvy and there are some decent features too. The ambidextrous Arc boasts six month’s battery life, four programmable buttons and a tidy snap-in transceiver.
Cost: $49.95

2. Hippus Handshoe Mouse

The Handshoe mouse is said to fit your hand “like a glove,” with ergonomics the reason behind that curvaceous design. Available in small, medium and large, wireless and wired, and in different colors, the mouse’s hand-friendliness is the cherry on top, as far as desirability goes.
Cost: From $99

3. Apple Magic Mouse

Apple’s Magic Mouse brings multi-touch goodness in a seamless, low-profile shell. The input device’s touch controls include the ability to move in any direction with the swipe of a finger and to scroll with two, while the entire mouse is one clickable button. It’s said to be much more intuitive (once you get the hang of it!) than being restricted to buttons and a scroll wheel.
Cost: $69

4. Intelligent Design Titanium Mouse

This is about as high-end as computer peripherals come. With a price tag that could cover the cost of a computer itself, you’ve got to really value design to shell out out on this pricey peripheral. If you do, you’ll be getting a mouse made of grade one titanium with a neodymium scroll wheel. It is a thing of beauty — if you can stand to look at it after forking over that much cash.
Cost: 399 Euros (approx $527)

5. Eclipse Touchmouse

With a brushed aluminum finish, the industrial looking Eclipse Touchmouse adds an element of touch with a rectangular module on top that boasts four-way on-screen scrolling. In addition, the “quicktouch” tech lets you use shortcut commands (a combination of mouse button and movements) to carry out certain actions.
Cost: $47.99

BONUS: Logitech MX Air Mouse

This mouse offers 3D features in its operation with its dual purpose functionality as a remote control, or as Logitech phrases it, “in-air cursor control.” In addition to laser tracking for ordinary mouse movement, the MX Air Mouse offers motion control of your media and scroll touch functionality that is said to be “hyper-fast.”
Cost: $149.99

Who builds linux?

2010-12-02T00:10:00.000-08:00

Linux has just released its annual report, Who Is Writing Linux, a rundown of the companies and individual developers making significant contributions to the Linux kernel.One factor that stands out to the Linux Foundation is the growing number of large mobile tech companies supporting Linux development by employing developers who work on the FOSS software.
Typically — and understandably — many Linux committers have come from enterprise-focused IT companies. And those companies, including Oracle, Intel and IBM, still rank high on the list of Linux supporters.
However, this year, the Linux kernel is also seeing a lot of support from companies (and developers embedded at companies) in the mobile page, including TI, Analog Devices, Qualcomm, Nokia and others.
What we’re still missing, however, is a strong showing from companies in the web space. Google shows up as the 14th greatest corporate Linux development supporter, but other large web-focused companies, such as Microsoft and Yahoo, are not present in the ranks of companies that support Linux.
Overall, since 2005, around 6,100 individual developers and 600 companies have contributed to the Linux kernel. Here’s the breakdown (by kernel version number):

More About: developers, development, foss, Linux, linux kernel

Google Earth 6

2010-12-02T00:05:00.000-08:00

Google has announced the release of Google Earth 6. The latest version is available today for Windows, OS X and Linux.

The update includes:

Integrated Street View - The Google Maps Street View experience is now fully integrated into Google Earth. Pegman (the little guy that represents your Street View position) is now docked alongside the Google Earth navigation controls, where he launches Street View just like he does in Google Maps. The difference here is that you can go from orbiting the earth to standing in front of your childhood home. It may be a little disorienting.
3D Trees - While Google Earth has supported 3D buildings for some time, trees were only recently added to liven up the environments. The addition allows those using walking navigations to take direct paths and — as the video illustrates — not walk into trees. It also keeps the landscape from looking like a desolate wasteland.
Better Historical Imagery - Historical imagery allows users to look at map views of times like Warsaw in 1935, London in 1945 and Port-au-Prince Haiti before and after the January earthquake. The feature was first added in Google Earth 5, but it wasn’t always clear when and where it was available. In Google Earth 6, the date of the oldest imagery will appear in the status bar at the bottom of the screen.

"PLAYBOY PARTY" on Facebook

2010-12-02T00:00:00.000-08:00

GameStop’s social games publisher Jolt Online has just released its latest Facebook game, Playboy Party. Yes, it’s exactly what it sounds like.

In a world where it seems perfectly natural to tend to a virtual farm or manage a village of Smurfs, perhaps we shouldn’t have been surprised that a game where you get to throw your own Playboy-tastic party exists, yet we are.
After getting over the initial shock and realizing that, “yes Virginia, there really is a Playboy Facebook game,” we did the only logical thing: We played the game for 45 minutes.

Combining the social elements of FarmVille and some of the mechanics of a game like The Sims, Playboy Party can best be described as what would happen if Darren Star (creator of such television classics as Melrose Place and Beverly Hills, 90210) had a Facebook game. It’s over-the-top, trashy and a lot more entertaining than it should be.
You begin the game by choosing and customizing your avatar and then going through a solo mode that shows you how to play the game. The goal is to basically create a kick ass party, making sure that the music is lively, the alcohol is flowing and that guests are taken care of. You can invite celebrities and Playmates to the party, which will help increase your popularity.
If people get too wasted, you need to ask them to leave so they don’t bring down the vibe. Likewise, if the paparazzi, out of control frat boys or the creepy guy from across the street crash the party, it’s your job to bounce them.
As you greet guests and get rid of unwanted people, you earn coins and fame points. Fame points propel you to the next level. When you move on to the next level, you are rewarded with extra items and collectible photos (that are basically bikini shots) and classic Playboy magazine covers. I ask you, in what other game is a 200 pixel copy of the March 1986 issue of Playboy (featuring Sally Field!) a reward?
As far as the “social” elements of the game — you can invite friends to your party and you can visit the party of other friends. You can also send gifts or prank your friends. Pranks mean you send frat boys, creeps or paparazzi to their shindigs.
The game is ridiculous and clearly more than a little sexist, but we have to say, we’re still a little bit impressed. It’s not that the game is fun or addictive to play; to be honest it really isn’t and it certainly is not addictive in the same way as other social games like FarmVille or Smurf’s Village. No, what makes the game work is that it recognizes how utterly inane and stupefying the concept of having a Playboy Party Facebook game actually is. It’s that sort of self-acceptance of its kitschiness, of the campy nature of the game that makes it succeed.
Plus, think about how much grief you can give your friends who do wind up playing the game. That’s a party right there.
More About: facebook, facebook games, playboy, playboy party, social games